Developer: Team Cherry
Publisher: Team Cherry
RRP: £10.99 (Humblebundle and Steam) and £11.59 (Gog.com)
Released: 24th February 2017
Available on: Humblebundle, Steam and Gog.com
Played Using: An Xbox 360 Control Pad
Approximate game length: 15 Hours +
From out of the wastes you wander into a quiet village, an elder tries to warn you of the dangers the lie beneath this sleepy place but you pay no heed.
Clutching your dented and pitted weapon you approach the only way down, a dried up well and dive into the darkness.
2D metroidvania games are a dime a dozen, the trick is in finding the good ones, and I’m quite happy to say that Hollow Knight is definitely a good one. Actually that’s a lie, it’s an excellent one.
I knew I was playing something special the moment I saw that the quality of the animation while playing the game was just as good as it was for the intro. What makes that better is that as wonderful as the animation is it never gets in the way of the actual gameplay itself.
This game seems to take some inspiration from the Soulsbourne genre, particularly with the way it saves the game. I’m pretty sure that at this point we all know about bonfires and what they do in Dark Souls. In Hollow Knight the bonfires are benches when you rest at a bench your game is saved, you get healed up and it allows you to swap out what charms you have equipped (more on that later). It also fills out your map with the areas you’ve explored and finally it respawns all the creatures you’ve killed (except the bosses).
Striking enemies builds up ‘soul’ energy. You can use this energy to heal yourself without using a bench by ‘focusing’ ([B] button) this takes a few seconds and also consumes some of your soul energy which means you have to get the timing right if you plan to do so during a fight. Soul energy is also used in some attacks that you unlock as you play, but if you’re anything like me you’ll mostly use it for healing.
Most enemies drop money when killed which is called ‘geo’. This geo can be spent in shops allowing you to acquire maps, charm notches, charms and other items.
When you die you lose all your geo and soul that you’ve acquired and a shade will appear in approximately the place you died. If you can return and kill the shade (which does fight back) you’ll get all your geo back, however if you die at any point before claiming that shade you’ll permanently lose it all.
During your playthrough you’ll acquire charms that can be equipped while resting on a bench. These charms add or enhance abilities, however you can only equip a few charms at a time. To increase the amount you can have active you need to get more charm notches which are usually either earned as a reward for completing a quest or can be purchased. The charms allow you to customise your playstyle, perhaps you like to have a high defence and life regeneration, or maybe you want to go all out offensive, perhaps a mix of the two with some support from ‘helper’ charms? Either way after a while you’ll find a set up you like and will default to that.
At this point I feel it’s only right to speak on the story, or rather the lore. Again it seems that the developers were taking notes from the Soulsbourne games because much of the lore of the world is left to personal interpretation. I have my own theories as to the story of the world of Hollownest but I’ve equally seen plenty of other theories that while contradictory to my own still are perfectly applicable.
Due to the amount of content updates (all of which are free) there is absolutely loads to do. It also has multiple endings, some of which require far more work than others to attain. A great example of this is in trying to get the ‘best’ ending I have easily clocked in about thirty hours.
I have some hesitation in saying this but I think that Hollow Knight might be as close to a perfect metroidvania as you can get. I wish I could play more of it.
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
Axiom Verge
Blasphemous
Sundered
