History VideoGame / HollowKnight

* AnAesop:
** "Nobody's Perfect". It's that simple really, but also a plot point revealed way later in the story. [[spoiler:The Pale King had his own criteria of choosing the Pure Vessel that has "No mind to think. No will to break. No voice to cry out suffering". He picked a vessel from the Abyss out of thousands of sacrifices, thinking that he had chosen a perfect one. But what he did not know was that in raising, maybe even caring for TheChosenOne, it actually developed a flaw or an "idea instilled". This imperfection allowed the Radiance to manipulate and infect the Pure Vessel. The Player Character, despite being far from 'perfect' was able to absorb enough wisdom from the broken world to finally put an end to the great evil.]]
** It is better to solve a problem by stopping it at its source than to just keep it contained, lest you leave the problem for the future to deal with. [[spoiler: The GoldenEnding is achieved by destroying the Radiance altogether rather than just sealing her like last time; because the Knight is a failed Vessel, she'd most likely bust out once more in due time]].

** Sly will sell you several mask shards that start out cheap but ramp up in price ''quickly'' -- the fourth costs 10× as much as the first. He initially thought they were worthless, but since the protagonist keeps buying them, he figures they must be valuable.

** The most expensive thing Sly sells is a humble lantern, made of a glass globe with one of the common glowing flies inside. The thing has the price of several magical trinkets or reforging your weapon a couple of times -- but because it's an item that grants access to new, dark areas and potential shortcuts, you have to pay up.

** Divine from the Grimm Troupe will make you pay out the nose if you want to make your Fragile charms unbreakable -- but since this isn't needed to use them on [[spoiler:dream bosses or in Godhome]], it's not as bad as it could be.
* AdvancingWallOfDoom: Bosses like the Traitor Lord and [[spoiler:the Radiance]] have attacks like this - a wall that slowly moves towards the other side of the screen and can only be bypassed using the Shade Cloak's dash.

* AggressivePlayIncentive: The game encourages the player to get up close and personal, because not only do ranged spells typically inflict less damage than melee, but they also cost Soul -- which can be recovered by making melee attacks. Soul can also be used for healing, further rewarding the player for focusing on nail attacks (since the Soul gain will pay for the inevitable lost health).

** The ''Godmaster'' DLC reveal post confirms that the Godseeker is female.

** Death. The [[PrimalFear concept of dying]] is an impactful yet mysterious thing -- AnyoneCanDie, DeathIsDramatic, Death is inevitable, and the remaining living can only wonder about what happens in the afterlife. While there are a lot of characters here who can die within the story, some of them think of its consequences (The Hunter), some of them [[DeathSeeker actively]] [[DrivenToSuicide seek it]] ([[spoiler:Cloth, the Nailsmith]]), some of them [[AmbiguousSituation die or disappear in strange or mysterious ways]] ([[spoiler:The Grey Mourner, Quirrel, Pale King]]) which make it hard to know where they currently are after their disappearance, some are mourned ([[spoiler:The Traitor's Child, Herrah]]), some are remembered ([[spoiler:the ghosts in the Spirits' Glade, the seven Warrior Dreams]]), some are forgotten ([[spoiler:Vespa]]), some respect the dead as a part of their duty ([[spoiler:the Gravedigger, Revek, Dr. Chagax]]) and some don't mourn the dead because they think it's a waste of time ([[spoiler:Zote]]). Also, the [[OurGhostsAreDifferent ghosts depicted here]] have an ambiguous presence, where some are aware of their deaths, some appear to be at rest or dreaming, and others seem unaware that they've died at all.

* ChekhovsGun: The Grey Mourner's Delicate Flower is part of an out-of-the-way, incredibly infuriating sidequest. Once you finish, you're given the option to collect more flowers to give to other [=NPCs=], but there isn't really anything in the way of rewards. [[spoiler:As of the ''Godmaster'', giving the Godseeker a flower before completing the DLC unlocks a variation of the unique ''Godmaster'' ending.]]

* ControllableHelplessness: Happens in Deepnest. First, when you get stuck on the sticky bench, you can press the jump button, only to see a shaking animation. Later, you'll awake in a spiderweb, where again you can press buttons to shake, but to no avail - until you use the nail.

* DyingToWakeUp: If the Knight "dies" while fighting a boss in a dream, it wakes up near whatever it used the Dream Nail on to access said fight. Mechanically speaking, this doesn't count as a death -- you don't lose Geo, for example.

* EndlessGame: In the ''Godmaster'' DLC area, there's a [[GuideDangIt very well-hidden]] [[BonusDungeon bonus challenge]] appropriately called "The Eternal Ordeal", in which you fight an endless gauntlet of Zotelings of various shapes and sizes. Defeating 57 of them rewards you with a new title screen.

* ExpansionPack: Four expansion packs/[=DLCs=] were added post-launch. But unlike most examples of this trope, these expansions in ''Hollow Knight'' were given out as free, permanent updates tied to the game's version. Thus, they cannot be disabled. The main menu would also have icons on the side of the screen to indicate what expansion packs are tied with the current version.

* FetchQuest: The majority of the ''Grimm Troupe'' content's questline can be summed up into this - In order to evolve the Grimmchild, you are tasked with collecting flames from Grimmkins that spawn in specific locations.

* FinalDungeonPreview: If a player does the most natural action in a side-scroller video game - simply go right - the first thing they'll see after delving into the dungeons is the [[spoiler:Black Egg Temple, which is indeed where the final boss is located.]]

** Once you acquire the Shade Cloak, Hornet will compare herself to you, subtly hinting that she has a similarity with the Knight - [[spoiler:That is, both share a common parent]].

** The existence of The Hive is indicated by a few bees surrounding it from the outside, but the entrance is blocked by a breakable wall. By this point, players will be well-acquainted with breakable walls, but ''this'' particular wall is offset behind a spike pit - the only one in the game placed so. This means the player must know to try sliding down the wall while simultaneously hacking at it with their nail (a difficult maneuver), or try blasting magic at a random section of wall (something players normally never do, as you can only cast two to three spells before needing to recharge).

** Flukemons constantly emit disgusting slurping noises, which crescendo if they notice and start chasing you. When killed, they split into two parts -- one which continues with the slurping, and another which starts screeching loudly.

** It's implied that [[spoiler:the knight and several other failed vessels managed to escape the Abyss even after it was sealed. The knight wandered into the wastes and lost its memory, which is why the game starts where it does -- the knight arriving from the Howling Cliffs.]]

* LastSecondEndingChoice: While most endings are determined by things you do long before the final boss (getting the Void Heart, taking on the Godseeker's challenges), the choice that determines your ending between ''Dream No More'' and ''Sealed Siblings'' happens during the final boss fight- it's whether or not you take advantage of Hornet giving you an opportunity to use the Dream Nail. [[spoiler: If you Dream Nail the Hollow Knight, you face the TrueFinalBoss and then the Dream No More ending. If you don't and kill the Hollow Knight normally, you get ''Sealed Siblings'', which is the same as the normal ending, except Hornet's now sealed with the Knight.]]
* LeakingCanOfEvil: The Black Egg temple contains ''something'' that is causing the Infection, sealed away by the three Dreamers. Even from the start of the game, the amount of infected foes you fight makes it clear that the seal isn't quite working. After hitting a certain trigger (either gaining the double jump skill or killing a Dreamer), the seal will weaken considerably, turning the Forgotten Crossroads into the Infected Crossroads. [[spoiler: The Black Egg Temple actually contains ''another'' leaking can of evil- the Hollow Knight, who served as a [[SealedInsideAPersonShapedCan person-shaped can]] for the source of the Infection, but could not completely contain it and thus had to also be sealed away by the Dreamers.]]

** A giant bug also acts as one huge source of light -- [[spoiler:the Radiance, a huge glowing moth, with the light being depicted as sun rays coming out of its body]].

** The Land of Storms, the home of the Godseeker, is depicted in her memories as an apocalyptic wasteland where enormous insectoid figures loom in the background- these are presumably the Gods of Rain and the Gods of Thunder who abandoned the Godseeker's people.

* {{Nerf}}: Weeks after the release of the ''Godmaster'' DLC and its Radiant mode fights, there was an outcry about how some bosses are still difficult to fight against, so they were nerfed to make the battles doable even in a no-damage run:

** The Collector's minions had their hit points reduced (making it possible to one-shot them with certain Charms)

** All of the bosses of ''Hollow Knight'' become gods (or at least, are treated as gods) in the Godmaster DLC. [[spoiler: The Knight itself is also a god, in fact, it is the avatar of the Void, the [[TopGod God of Gods]].]]

* ProductionForeshadowing: The Weaversong Charm's [[FlavorText item description]] pretty much spoils the sequel's title of ''Silksong'', as well as a build-up of that game's hinted plot -- [[spoiler:There are Weavers outside of Hallownest, and the Kingdom of Pharloom surprisingly contains a lot of references to their race, such as the abundance of silk and sound]].

* SlidingScaleOfParentShamingInFiction: Type 3 variant. [[spoiler:The Pale King and White Lady were King and Queen of Hallownest, with the Pale King ousting the previous ruler of bugkind in Hallownest, the Radiance, by essentially replacing her as the object of worship and physical God of Hallownest. The Radiance, enraged at being forgotten, forced her way into the dreams of the populace, and her rage manifested as a malignant infection that drives the infected mad and aggressive. Seeing this threat to his kingdom, and unable to find a solution, the Pale King became desperate and decided on a "crue"' plan -- killing thousands of his own children to have them reanimated with Void as Vessels, which could then contain and seal the Radiance.]] The exact details of what he did are not known; however, from context clues in the game, it is likely that [[spoiler:the Queen spread her "seeds" or left her eggs in the Abyss. Their spawn then died in the Abyss, and Shades from the Void became infused into their dead shells, taking their shape and purpose and becoming Vessels. These Vessels then competed with each other to crawl out of the Abyss by instinctively going towards the only source of light at the top of the Abyss drop. This light may have been from the Pale King himself, standing at the top of the Abyss and watching as the Vessels struggled towards him. The Vessels that failed to make it to the top fell down to the bottom of the Abyss, their shells cracking on impact and releasing their Shades, but now with no shells to give them purpose]]. This continued until [[spoiler:the entire base of the Abyss is literally covered in thousands of broken bugshells, with aggressive lost Shades occasionally forming and dissipating]]. After [[spoiler:getting the 'perfect' Vessel he wanted, the Pale King sealed the 'refuse and regret' away and refused to return to the Abyss or face those remaining Vessels ever again]]. Both parents were not entirely heartless, the Pale King was more of a WellIntentionedExtremist and [[spoiler:felt remorse but reasoned there "was no cost too great" in sacrificing his spawn for the sake of preserving the Kingdom and his subjects]]. The White Lady felt great shame for [[spoiler:her part in the Vessel's creation, and despite her "voracious desire" to keep breeding, had herself physically bound to prevent herself from ever birthing more spawn as a kind of penance]]. Ironically, however, it is because the King was not entirely heartless and [[spoiler:bonded with the original Hollow Knight and tarnished it with an "[[GrewBeyondTheirProgramming idea instilled]]" that doomed the plan, making all the sacrifices pointless]].

* SplashOfColor: Somewhat [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] -- although the aesthetic of the game is not truly monochrome, about half of the various environments of Hallownest have a heavily-limited, muted color palette of blues and grays, contrasted by the blindingly-bright orange of the Infection. [[spoiler:The contrast is especially jarring after the Crossroads become overrun with the Infection in the back half of the game.]]

** The penultimate boss of the ''Godmaster'' DLC is the Pure Vessel, an uncorrupted and therefore much stronger {{palette swap}} of the eponymous Hollow Knight with a new arsenal of attacks that deal twice the damage.

** Since many places that require the Crystal Heart to traverse appear at first glance like platforming challenges, crystals from Crystal Peak appear in select early-game areas to make it clear to the player where they need to go next instead of letting them throw themselves at an impossible gap over and over.

** Inverted by [[spoiler:the Radiance, [[LightIsNotGood whose light singlehandedly destroyed Hallownest]]].

** It is better to solve a problem by stopping it at its source than to just keep it contained, lest you leave the problem for the future to deal with. [[spoiler: The GoldenEnding is achieved by destroying the Radiance altogether rather than just sealing her like last time; because the Knight is a failed Vessel, she'd bust out once more in due time]].

* AmbiguousGender: Some of the characters have difficult-to-place genders. The use of "it" is fairly common, and certain characters call [[spoiler:Hornet]] the "Gendered Child", since her having a gender is remarkable as opposed to [[spoiler:her genderless siblings, the Vessels.]]

** In the Abyss, only a maximum of 5 siblings can actively chase the Knight. If a sixth is aggro'd, one of the previous 5 will break away from the group and return to being idle.

** Hitting Jiji with the dream nail seems to imply that she (ironically) regrets being asleep for so long, and fears that whatever darkness is present now will destroy her if she somehow falls asleep in such a way again. For added {{irony}}, [[spoiler:while there is a ton of darkness and void that spawns Siblings and Tendrils in The Abyss that do pose a very real threat to her, the more immediate danger that could consume her is a LightIsNotGood plague]].

* ProudHunterRace: It's implied that the species of The Hunter is this. He states that when he was young, he and his siblings hunted each other in the nest, and that he hunts only for his own sake, believing this to be the nature of the hunt.

** Death. The [[PrimalFear concept of dying]] is an impactful yet mysterious thing — AnyoneCanDie, DeathIsDramatic, Death is inevitable, and the remaining living can only wonder about what happens in the afterlife. While there are a lot of characters here who can die within the story, some of them think of its consequences (The Hunter), some of them [[DeathSeeker actively]] [[DrivenToSuicide seek it]] ([[spoiler:Cloth, The Nailsmith]]), some of them [[AmbiguousSituation die or disappear in strange or mysterious ways]] ([[spoiler:The Grey Mourner, Quirrel, Pale King]]) which make it hard to know where they currently are after their disappearance, some are mourned ([[spoiler:The Traitor's Child, Herrah]]), some are remembered ([[spoiler:the ghosts in the Spirits' Glade, the seven Warrior Dreams]]), some are forgotten ([[spoiler:Vespa]]), some respect the dead as a part of their duty ([[spoiler:the Gravedigger, Revek, Dr. Chagax]]) and some don't mourn the dead because they think it's a waste of time ([[spoiler:Zote]]). Also, the [[OurGhostsAreDifferent ghosts depicted here]] have an ambiguous presence, where some are aware of their deaths, some appear to be at rest or dreaming, and others seem unaware that they've died at all.
-->'''The Hunter''': I wonder, what will come flying out of me when I die? Will my hopes and fears drift away into the darkness?
-->'''Mister Mushroom''': ..The dead can't make use of wealth in any case. What would they spend it on?
-->'''Godseeker''': A God so strong... Yet erased so completely. How could it happen?
-->'''Quirrel''': Be on your journey then, and allow me rest a time. With the deed complete, I begin to feel my age.
-->'''Zote''': Precept Seven: 'Mourn Not the Dead'. When we die, do things get better for us or worse? There's no way to tell, so we shouldn't bother mourning. Or celebrating for that matter.
-->'''Zote''': Precept Forty-Two: 'Spend Geo When You Have It'. Some will cling onto their Geo, even taking it into the dirt with them when they die. It is better to spend it when you can, so you can enjoy various things in life.
-->'''Gravedigger''': If you won't spare thought for the dead at least consider all the extra work you force upon those in my profession.
-->'''Dr. Chagax''': I used to help others. They were brought to me sick and dying... What difference did it make? ... Any victory against death will always be temporary... What a gloomy thought.

** The knight can do the same with the Thorns of Agony charm, the Sharp Shadow charm (when dashing), and the super dash given by the Crystal Heart.

-->The infection that passes from creature to creature grants strength and courage, but it also seems to enslave the will. Would you make such a bargain?

* DiegeticSoundtrackUsage: In the tramway and the Queen's Gardens, there are rooms with speakers that play a low-fidelity version of the song that plays when you sit on a bench. You can [[DieChairDie destroy]] the speakers, which abruptly stops the music.
** It can reasonably be assumed that in The Eternal Ordeal, [[CharacterSignatureSong Zote's theme]] is actually being hummed by the [[{{Mooks}} Zotelings]] themselves.

* DownerEnding: The normal ending. [[spoiler:The knight defeats its failed predecessor, but in turn has to become the new vessel to contain the plague.]]

* DyingToWakeUp: if the Knight "dies" while fighting a boss in a dream, it wakes up near whatever it used the Dream Nail on to access said fight. Mechanically speaking, this doesn't count as a death -- you don't lose Geo, for example.

* EarlyGameHell: The start of the game can be particularly harsh for new players. Until you beat Hornet for the first time, you lack any movement beyond a basic jump and the bounce technique, soul is hard to come by, your nail has pathetic range, the first spell isn't obtained until you clear the first area, enemies starting with the mini-boss in Forgotten Crossroads can kill you in three hits tops, early bosses can be damage sponges since your nail isn't upgraded yet, and you'll have to do a lot of grinding for money if you want to buy even the basic supplies.

** It's implied that [[spoiler:the knight and several other failed vessels managed to escape the Abyss even after it was sealed. The knight wandered into the wastes and lost its memory, which is why the game starts where it does - the knight arriving from the Howling Cliffs.]]

** When you are near your own left-over shade, a short, looping track plays, often dubbed as the [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ryd4g2gd0xA "Shade Music Box"]]. A slower version is played like an actual music box tune[[note]]When this track is played at 150% speed, it matches the timing of the shade's tune[[/note]] at the nursery room in the White Palace, which hints that [[spoiler:the Vessels stayed there at a young age. The secret Path of Pain cutscene supports this, as the young Hollow Knight (AKA [[TheChosenOne The Pure Vessel]]) was in the Palace's balcony with the Pale King]].

* SlidingScaleOfParentShamingInFiction: Type 3 variant. [[spoiler:The Pale King and White Lady were King and Queen of Hallownest, with the Pale King ousting the previous ruler of bugkind in Hallownest, the Radiance, by essentially replacing her as the object of worship and physical God of Hallownest. The Radiance, enraged at being forgotten, forced her way into the dreams of the populace, and her rage manifested as a malignant infection that drives the infected mad and aggressive. Seeing this threat to his kingdom, and unable to find a solution, the Pale King became desperate and decided on a 'cruel' plan — killing thousands of his own children to have them reanimated with Void as Vessels, which could then contain and seal the Radiance.]] The exact details of what he did are not known; however, from context clues in the game, it is likely that [[spoiler:the Queen spread her 'seeds' or left her eggs in the Abyss. Their spawn then died in the Abyss, and Shades from the Void became infused into their dead shells, taking their shape and purpose and becoming Vessels. These Vessels then competed with each other to crawl out of the Abyss by instinctively going towards the only source of light at the top of the Abyss drop. This light may have been from the Pale King himself, standing at the top of the Abyss and watching as the Vessels struggled towards him. The Vessels that failed to make it to the top fell down to the bottom of the Abyss, their shells cracking on impact and releasing their Shades, but now with no shells to give them purpose]]. This continued until [[spoiler:the entire base of the Abyss is literally covered in thousands of broken bugshells, with aggressive lost Shades occasionally forming and dissipating]]. After [[spoiler:getting the 'perfect' Vessel he wanted, the Pale King sealed the 'refuse and regret' away and refused to return to the Abyss or face those remaining Vessels ever again]]. Both parents were not entirely heartless, the Pale King was more of a WellIntentionedExtremist and [[spoiler:felt remorse but reasoned there "was no cost too great" in sacrificing his spawn for the sake of preserving the Kingdom and his subjects]]. The White Lady felt great shame for [[spoiler:her part in the Vessel's creation, and despite her "voracious desire" to keep breeding, had herself physically bound to prevent herself from ever birthing more spawn as a kind of penance]]. Ironically, however, it is because the King was not entirely heartless and [[spoiler:bonded with the original Hollow Knight and tarnished it with an "[[GrewBeyondTheirProgramming idea instilled]]" that doomed the plan, making all the sacrifices pointless]].

** The various relics of Hallownest's past which the player can discover during their journey. Their only purpose is to be sold to an antiquity collector for geo. Considering you lose all your geo if you die without killing your shade from your previous death, they can be pretty useful for making up for such a mistake.

* CrypticBackgroundReference: There's a character identified as the "Black Wyrm". But the only information presented regarding it was that the Five Great Knights fought it in a GreatOffscreenWar.

You'd get something like ''Hollow Knight'', a hand-drawn 2D action {{Metroidvania}} created by Australian developer Creator/TeamCherry, after a successful [[https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/11662585/hollow-knight Kickstarter campaign]]. It was released in February 2017 for PC via UsefulNotes/{{Steam}}. A UsefulNotes/NintendoSwitch port was released on June 12, 2018. A version with the subsequent free updates called ''Hollow Knight: Voidheart Edition'' was released for UsefulNotes/PlayStation4 and UsefulNotes/XboxOne on September 25, 2018.