Would I like Hollow Knight if I found Cuphead very frustrating?

[Dr Bazoo]

I have heard many good things about Hollow Knight but I have also heard about how difficult the game can be. As a reference I really did NOT enjoy Cuphead as I found the difficulty to be frustrating and unrewarding since it just forced you to keep repeating the same mechanics until you stop making mistakes.
Is Hollow Knight similar in this regard or is it a less frustrating, more meaningful challenge?

[Noborus]

Hollow Knight is easy compared to Cuphead, with cuphead you're stuck on one boss until you can beat it and that's the only way to progress, but in hollow knight after you beat the boss in forgotten crossroads there's a lot of things to do, if you have trouble with the next boss you can come back to it later after you've gotten more upgrades. The bosses get progressively harder, and hollow knight is very rewarding. Even people who have trouble defeating certain bosses still love this game, and if you have trouble with anything you can always watch a speedrun of someone doing it. Or you could make a discussion and many people will help you get through it.

[🉑 rezno[R].technology]

It really depends on you. If you won't try it, you will never know if you liked it or not! No one can tell you that 🙂 Difficulty is subjective.

I never played Cuphead (it doesn't look particularly interesting to me from what I saw on many gameplays), but for example I played Dark Souls 1 & 3, and I disliked them both. I loved Hollow Knight, though.

Try and see. Who knows, you might like it. Only about ~3% people don't recommend it on Steam. I would really not compare Cuphead and Hollow Knight, though. You have a lot of freedom in the way you approach challenges in Hollow Knight and most of the things are totally optional. The game is mostly focused on adventuring, exploration and the thrill of discovery.

As an example, you can even skip the first boss in the game if you don't want to fight it. And only ~16% of all bosses are required to defeat to see the credits.

[Gabriel]

Personally I think this game is much easier than Cuphead, so only the hardest of the challenges would bother you, most of which are found in a DLC area you access much later in the game. As for frustration, it's a mental state. It will be frustrating if you want it to be.

As for "meaningful challenge", it is a video-game, so yeah, it's probably still meaningless. If you want a "meaningful challenge", get a career or learn how to play an instrument.

[Dr Bazoo]

Originally posted by Coco:

Hollow Knight is easy compared to Cuphead, with cuphead you're stuck on one boss until you can beat it and that's the only way to progress, but in hollow knight after you beat the boss in forgotten crossroads there's a lot of things to do, if you have trouble with the next boss you can come back to it later after you've gotten more upgrades. The bosses get progressively harder, and hollow knight is very rewarding. Even people who have trouble defeating certain bosses still love this game, and if you have trouble with anything you can always watch a speedrun of someone doing it. Or you could make a discussion and many people will help you get through it.

Thanks for your input, this makes me hopeful that I will like the game.

[Dr Bazoo]

Originally posted by 🉑 reznoR:

It really depends on you. If you won't try it, you will never know if you liked it or not! No one can tell you that 🙂 Difficulty is subjective.

I never played Cuphead (it doesn't look particularly interesting to me from what I saw on many gameplays), but for example I played Dark Souls 1 & 3, and I disliked them both. I loved Hollow Knight, though.

Try and see. Who knows, you might like it. Only about ~3% people don't recommend it on Steam. I would really not compare Cuphead and Hollow Knight, though. You have a lot of freedom in the way you approach challenges in Hollow Knight and most of the things are totally optional. The game is mostly focused on adventuring, exploration and the thrill of discovery.

As an example, you can even skip the first boss in the game if you don't want to fight it. And only ~16% of all bosses are required to defeat to see the credits.

The fact that you say it is very different to cuphead makes me hopeful.
I have definitely heard many great things about hollow knight and the reviews are great as you said, but cuphead also has shining reviews yet I didn't like it at all so I tend to not put too much weight on reviews.

[Noborus]

Originally posted by Dr Bazoo :

Thanks for your input, this makes me hopeful that I will like the game.

If you don't like it (which you most definitely will) you can always get a refund as long as you don't play it for over 2 hours. But long before then i'm sure you will have decided whether you want to keep the game or not. If you decide to get it then have fun!

[🉑 rezno[R].technology]

Originally posted by Dr Bazoo :

The fact that you say it is very different to cuphead makes me hopeful.
I have definitely heard many great things about hollow knight and the reviews are great as you said, but cuphead also has shining reviews yet I didn't like it at all so I tend to not put too much weight on reviews.

I understand, and it is quite similar for me with the reviews. Probably what I really meant by mentioning the %, is that you have a rather very, very small chance that you actually won't like it 🙂

In my experience the difficulty of the game doesn't really matter. What matters is if I actually like the game. If I like the game, I tend to stick with it and get used to its mechanics (and eventually get better and more comfortable with it with time). If I don't like a game, there is no reason for me to go further and learn mechanics that I don't like (and therefore to improve to make the game easier for me).

If you buy directly on Steam when there is a -50% Sale on Hollow Knight (happens often), you can actually play much more than 2h (up to 14 days) if you will keep playing the game outside Steam (Hollow Knight is DRM-free on Steam, if you will put a simple .txt file with one number in the main game folder). The reason I mention this is because the game starts very slowly. For me this was very good (I got used to the game and learn it more) but some people don't like the slow start.

[Dr Bazoo]

Originally posted by 🉑 reznoR:

Originally posted by Dr Bazoo :

The fact that you say it is very different to cuphead makes me hopeful.
I have definitely heard many great things about hollow knight and the reviews are great as you said, but cuphead also has shining reviews yet I didn't like it at all so I tend to not put too much weight on reviews.

I understand, and it is quite similar for me with the reviews. Probably what I really meant by mentioning the %, is that you have a rather very, very small chance that you actually won't like it 🙂

In my experience the difficulty of the game doesn't really matter. What matters is if I actually like the game. If I like the game, I tend to stick with it and get used to its mechanics (and eventually get better and more comfortable with it with time). If I don't like a game, there is no reason for me to go further and learn mechanics that I don't like (and therefore to improve to make the game easier for me).

If you buy directly on Steam when there is a -50% Sale on Hollow Knight (happens often), you can actually play much more than 2h (up to 14 days) if you will keep playing the game outside Steam (Hollow Knight is DRM-free on Steam, if you will put a simple .txt file with one number in the main game folder). The reason I mention this is because the game starts very slowly. For me this was very good (I got used to the game and learn it more) but some people don't like the slow start.

Yeah I think you're right, I guess it's worth a shot at least.