Hollow Knight

I am disappointed that there is no topic on this game yet.

Basically take Dark Souls, a Creepy Cute yet beautiful 2D made aesthetic, a rather nice background of lore, and near Super Meat Boy levels of platforming (mostly later on in the game) and you got this game. Here's the launch trailer if you're interested

Something also worth noting is that DLC has been officially confirmed to be in the making, with Hornet as the protagonist. This game is only 15$ on Steam.

edited 8th Apr '17 3:01:20 AM by Wispy

Absolutely love the game. I'm awful at Metroidvanias but almost every single time I die in Hollow Knight feels fair. One time I Crystal Dashed into my Shade after botching a platforming bit but other than that, all my deaths have been on me.

Love the music, the artstyle, the general atmosphere. I just wish I wasn't garbo at real time games.

"Evii is right though" -Saturn "I didn't know you were a bitch Evii." -Lior Val

You get used to the hard parts of the game as well. I never thought I'd beat the White Palace and The Radiance but I somehow managed too after countless tries and studying the patterns.

Hell Hornet gave me a fight for my life both times I fought her. Very memorable boss along with Soul Tyrant, Hollow Knight, and Broken Vessel.

I agree with what you said about the music. It's very memorable and I kind of regret not getting it extra.

I recently started this game, and I managed to beat Hornet on my first try. Had to do a lot of healing though.

Whether you beat certain bosses or not on your first try depends on how you do your charms I find. Some players can find charm combinations that can easily tear through certain bosses.

edited 11th Apr '17 5:04:58 PM by Wispy

Why is this game so good?

I repeat:

Why is this game sooo good? It's too polished/cute/adorable/scary/atmospheric/engrossing/hard/refined/meaty/charming for its own good, coming from a Kickstarted game, and not to mention only $15. It's crazy! The game rivals Momodora in terms of polish, except it is way lengthier, and rather than go for the usual pixel art aesthetic choice, they went with this hand-drawn Tim Burton-inspired cute critters in a gloomy state... It entices a feeling of nostalgia without being nostalgic, like the image of the cute beetle hammering away at the mines singing about burying her family. It's creepy/scary/adprable at the same time and not to mention the Metroidvania aspect itself is very very polished, and doesn't feel like the other dime-a-dozen Metroidvanias like Guacamelee.

I've put more hours into my Switch with this game that I could ever imagine.

Edited by s5555 on Jul 5th 2018 at 11:17:23 AM

It's especially impressive considering that Team Cherry is, like, three people plus the composer.

And while I still like other indie games in the same Metroidvania mold (Guacamelee, Steamworld Dig 2, Axiom Verge, Environmental Station Alpha, etc.), Hollow Knight blows them out of the water. It's only real competitor in that regard is La-Mulana, itself another small team passion project (and its sequel is finally coming out later this summer).

noooo, la mulana-2's finally being released ? fuck yeah !

"when you stare too long into the abyss, Xehanort takes advantage of the distraction to break into your house and steal all your shit."

Wonder when we're gonna see the promised Playable Hornet DLC.

Hope it adds a better ending than the best one. God damn, I hate depressing endings. I want my games to make me feel like my struggles and shit actually earned a happy ending.

Qui odoratus est qui fecit.

Literally the best game I've played in years.

The best ending is more Bittersweet Ending than anything. The little Hollow Knight served his purpose, the Radiance is dead, and now he and the rest of the void energy that makes up the Vessels returns to where it came from.

That is the face of a man who just ate a kitten. Raw.

If there is ever a new ending added, I want it to be beating up the King. All the knights taking down the Radiance was very satisfying, but a King boss fight would be even more so.

Yeah I wasn't sure whether to answer or not because spoilers but since someone did it for me what's depressing about the best ending ? I mean sure the protag is dead is but they fullfilled their task and killed an evil god and, y'know, saved the firggin world. Sure that's bittersweet, but depressing is pushing it.

Edited by Yumil on Jul 10th 2018 at 4:56:29 PM

"when you stare too long into the abyss, Xehanort takes advantage of the distraction to break into your house and steal all your shit."

Hollownest still lies in ruins and most everyone is dead.

Fair enough, but what were you expecting, bringing back the deads en masse ? Rebuild an entire city with your own two hands ?

I mean sure that's sad but that's part of the background setting, it's like saying, (godwin point ahead but i'd rather take that than try to use a nowadays one that could end up somewhere I'm not interested going) world war 2's ending was depressing because the holocaust still happened. it's not the ending that's depressing, it's what comes before.

Edited by Yumil on Jul 10th 2018 at 5:06:18 PM

"when you stare too long into the abyss, Xehanort takes advantage of the distraction to break into your house and steal all your shit."

From my understanding its a bittersweet victory as countless Vessels, or Hollow Knights have died up until to the PC Hollow Knight destroys the Radiance. You can find many other Hollow Knight corpses througout the game, and the Broken Vessel/Lost Kin is definitely another Hollow Knight and of course the second to last boss is an adult vessel/Hollow Knight. You can even find some dead vessels in Hornet's very first boss room which pretty much means she has killed little ghosts before.

On top of that the Pale King and almost the entire kingdom which likely had many innocents has died off for good. The Pale King was heavily implied to be kind of a dick to the vessels whom were pretty much his children but he did not die gloriously.

The only royals left is Emilta whom is crazy as hell and the Pale Lady whom is definitely the missing Queen of Hallownest if you read all her dialogue. She obviously can't take over the kingdom though being blind, a tree, and strapped in place because shes...apparently very horny? She says that she has a very strong need to breed when you talk to her and that's why she is tied up. You can also technically qualify Hornet as a royal as its implied she is a gendered vessel that was a gift from the Pale King to Herrah the Beast whom was the leader of the Weavers (I think?).

Also, the bugs outside of Hallownest are all reverted to their primal instincts judging by what little lore you can find on it. This means the only living sapient bugs in Hallownest may be the only ones left for whom knows how long unless they somehow reproduce. There is also the Weaver/Spider Kingdom and the Bee Kingdom but they fell into anarchy pretty much as most of the spiders and bees lost their minds to the Radiance or reverted to their primal instincts.

The Mantis Tribes might be able to takeover whats left of Hallownest but they were known for being an very isolationist group of bugs to the point that have definitely killed a few travelers and they hated how the Grey Mourner was dating a Mantis as she was considered an outsider.

So yeah, I think the only chance Hallownest has to live on is through Hornet. Also, The Grimm Troupe from my understanding only shows up when civilizations fall so that likely means Hallownest is likely gone for good.

Edited by Wispy on Jul 10th 2018 at 9:19:24 AM

I assumed that was just propaganda from the Pale King. The Hallownest lore blocks really gave me that "extremely arrogant, we're the only ones that matter, totally brought this on ourselves" vibe.

Its possible. The King is kind of a dick. He sacrificed countless vessels to the Radiance and judging by the Hollow Knight the vessels are capable of emotions. There was also a few civilians that were killed by his void experiments. Also, the vessel your playing as, the dead ones you find, and the Broken Vessel are all children.

Only The Hollow Knight is an adult vessel and he is literally trying to kill himself during the fight. The King claimed that the vessels had no emotions nor thoughts but that doesn't seem to be the case considering The Hollow Knight is clearly aware and is not trying to hurt you on his own accord, and is instead trying to get you to take his place or end the Radiance judging by his boss fight.

Edited by Wispy on Jul 10th 2018 at 9:38:39 AM

The way I read it was that leaving Hollownest would give you Laser-Guided Amnesia but there was a society outside of it, Cornifer mentions just arriving at Hollownest and moving in to map it, and Iselda is apparently a retired soldier from somewhere other than Hallownest, granted you could easily say that they gave themselves fake backstories, but that's going too far into pure guessing, not to mention Quirrel just arriving but was already an inhabitant of Hollownest and willingly lost his memories as part of Monomon's gambit to lead to his own death.

The game is kind of confusing about lore so its an possibility. Grimm's lore specifies that the Grimm Troupe targets failed civilizations for whatever reason (presumably to feed the Nightmare or whatever?) so their is likely other civilizations out there.

The king could of just said that going out Hallownest would revert you to primal instincts as propaganda or maybe going out the Kingdom made you an easier target for the infection the Radiance caused. Whom knows. The spiders and bees in-game seem to be infected by the Radiance themselves.

Quirrel did leave Hallownest and appears to have no memories of it, though. So perhaps leaving Hallownest only removes your memories of Hallownest itself, not outside society.

Qui odoratus est qui fecit.

Gods and Glory out August 23rd.

Apparently there's a romance option now? The Godseeker's supposed to do something with that.

I swear, if it isn't Hornet...

Qui odoratus est qui fecit.

Since this thread is dead most of the time I decided to showcase some fanmade stuff I found. This song does an wonderful job of showing the relationship between the Radiance and the Moth Tribe, the Moth tribe or the Moth species as an whole is implied very heavily to be her children pretty much after all.

Also it took an while but The Grey Mourner/Ze'mer◊ is finally◊ getting◊ some art.

I always really loved her design, the hard side quest she has aside. Although I still have no clue what kind of bug she is. Perhaps she is an large moth? The Old Knights of Hallownest need more art. They have such interesting designs. It's kind of sad you never got to fight any of them besides Dung Defender. Everyone but Dung Defender/Ogrim and Grey Mourner/Ze'mer is dead and Ze'mer dies right after you complete her quest.

Edited by Wispy on Jul 31st 2018 at 4:00:21 AM

Her quest ain't hard. Just clear the path, and then all you need to worry about is the platforming, which isn't that hard (especially not compared to the White Palace).

Qui odoratus est qui fecit.