As a Zelda fan who barely touched the first Hollow Knight, this is probably the first Metroidvania I've actually grinded through... and damn, it's good.

What hooked me:

• The movement is butter smooth. Once you get the hang of it, just moving around feels incredible
  
• Art, music, atmosphere - all top tier. Every area looks stunning
  
• Boss fights are mostly really fun and well designed
  
• So many secrets to find, scratches that Zelda exploration itch perfectly

What drove me nuts:

• Savage Beastfly is straight up unfair. Just annoying design
  
• Groal sucks too (mainly because of those damn maggots in the environment - found out there's a tool to deal with them AFTER beating him since I took a different route, should've been more obvious)
  
• The runbacks are painful - I want to fight bosses, not replay the same platforming section 20 times
  
• Early game is brutal and punishing (played pre-nerf, hopefully better now)
  
• Getting punished for exploring early on is annoying, though you get used to it

BUT there are SO many amazing bosses that more than make up for the bad ones. Some fights literally made me tear up with how beautifully they were delivered. Others are just mechanically brilliant - the type of difficulty I actually want, not artificial BS. I get that balancing this stuff is hard for an indie studio, but when they nail it, they REALLY nail it.

The world is incredibly rich with amazing attention to detail. Finished both normal and cursed endings, about to start Act 3 and still want more after 40 hours.

Yeah it's frustrating at times, but when everything clicks and you're flowing through the world perfectly, it's pure gaming bliss. If you can handle some genuinely unfair moments and don't mind dying a lot, this is worth it.

The good outweighs the bad by so much. Easy 9/10 for me.

Just be ready to suffer through some BS bosses, but also experience some of the most beautiful and mechanically brilliant fights in gaming.