Why do we lose all the hollows on subsequent playthroughs?

[Stompystorm]

Unlocking all hollows over and over again every playthrough when it's designed to be done endlessly makes little sense. Armageddon mode is cool, but the coolness is completely lost after the second or third time of losing everything. I would suggest that the first Armageddon reset takes the hollows, but every one after that lets you keep them.

It's quite a bit more fun to be able to immediately access places when you start, instead of spending a ton of time backtracking.

[karasielvenlied]

Well, technically you're still having all installed enchantments' passive bonuses except salvation's one.

[Stompystorm]

Sure, but those aren't super important. Replaying the game a time or two can be fun, but an endlessly harder replay mode simply gets tedious when you have to re-unlock the important things over and over again. The game sorta boils down to just rushing through to unlock the hollows and then actually playing.

[Viscera]

Re-gaining the Hollows feels like it's going to siphon all the joy out of going back to area 1 and up to the end and exploring the map from one side to the other with access to the area's that you might have missed on other playthrough.
I don't mind the idea of regaining things like weapons progressively through it but it feels like a stick in a mud stopping us from going forward in a more less jumped around way.

[Viscera]

Good example: Lego games, unlock characters, play through again, access the new areas you missed the first time.

[Urazz]

They probably did it that way so you can't skip ahead on some parts. I.E. you could skip past meeting Ulthane and such if you had access to all Hollows.

[Meta-Mark]

The reason is very simple. The game is still a story-driven one, with cutscenes and all. Acquiring the Hollows is heavily tied to the plot and its cutscenes, so having them already unlocked would make the story in NG+ lose all its logical sense resulting in a low-quality experience, even though some could argue that they don't care about the story anymore in NG+ and all...

This is not even counting the fact that some of the actual progress in the game is influenced by the lack/acquisition of specific Hollows, so having them from the start could potentially break gameplay too.

[Urazz]

Originally posted by Meta-Mark:

The reason is very simple. The game is still a story-driven one, with cutscenes and all. Acquiring the Hollows is heavily tied to the plot and its cutscenes, so having them already unlocked would make the story in NG+ lose all its logical sense resulting in a low-quality experience, even though some could argue that they don't care about the story anymore in NG+ and all...

This is not even counting the fact that some of the actual progress in the game is influenced by the lack/acquisition of specific Hollows, so having them from the start could potentially break gameplay too.

Pretty much what I was trying to say in simpler terms. Either way, I don't have an issue with having to get all the hollows again in each playthrough. I mainly use the whip most of the time with the flame hollow when needed. Otherwise, I don't use the other Hollows.

[Viscera]

At this point then I'd say like the dodging between default and classic it'd be good to at least have the option to not grind for Hollows. I wouldn't mind having invisible walls that say nope to going to find a boss early and them just not being there until it's time.

[Urazz]

Originally posted by Viscera Bot:

At this point then I'd say like the dodging between default and classic it'd be good to at least have the option to not grind for Hollows. I wouldn't mind having invisible walls that say nope to going to find a boss early and them just not being there until it's time.

Big thing though is that they are locked behind the story and not side quests so it's not like you are going out of your way to get them. Unless you hate the whip and most of the other hollows and only use one of the later ones as your main weapon, then it shouldn't be an issue.

[Viscera]

I personally loved the hammer, it was good fun. :)