Hollow Knight

[Ross Scott]

Genre: Platformer

Year released: 2017

Ross's Notes: Good game, but didn't finish.  Music felt like a mismatch, gets really hard towards end.

Ross's rating: Good/Great

Link to game:

https://af.gog.com/game/hollow_knight

Free to play: No

GaaS: No

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[Barmem]

Can be pretty slow at start but gets better

[MDMaster]

Music felt like a mismatch? Oh no Ross, come on! You're the only guy I know that actually bothers to review games' soundtracks and Christopher Larkin did a great job on this! It sure does get pretty hard towards the end and the DLC are crazy hard. (as a side note, Ross listen to the "Nightmare King" boss fight music, it's awesome)

[cursedfarmer]

Game picks up speed after getting one of the first upgrades, which lets you dash. Incredible environments and the game nails the dark atmosphere part.

[JohnRDVSMarston]

On 7/30/2019 at 5:03 AM, MDMaster said:

Music felt like a mismatch? Oh no Ross, come on! You're the only guy I know that actually bothers to review games' soundtracks and Christopher Larkin did a great job on this! It sure does get pretty hard towards the end and the DLC are crazy hard. (as a side note, Ross listen to the "Nightmare King" boss fight music, it's awesome)

I kind of agree with Ross. The music is fine, if you listen to it alone; but while you're battling and almost ripping your hair off on hard battles (because you don't equipped things well or because the game starts to get hard), the music doesn't fit much. It's like hearing Alice: Madness Returns's Vale of Tears music while fighting a dragon (music's good, but not for this exact time).

[Xan]

Damn good game. I like it a lot. The learning curve is INSANE but once you get the hang of it, it feels really rewarding and I love it.

[Hippocampus]

Ross, I feel like we need a little clarification. What kind of music do you think would fit better?

 

[Arseniy Yavorśkyi]

this game has no mouse support. wait, I think that didn't came out right. what I meant to say is that THIS PC GAME FROM 2017 HAS NO MOUSE SUPPORT. to put this into perspective: even the original, legendarily horrible Dark Souls port had basic mouse support (it felt awful to use, but it was functional enough for me to beat the game). no such luxury here — because having support for the primary input device of this platform is a luxury, apparently.

[Arseniy Yavorśkyi]

On 10/24/2019 at 1:11 AM, RaTcHeT302 said:

wait, you can't use the mouse buttons? that's odd but i don't think that's a deal breaker, this is the type of game i would play with a controller anyway, i mean this game style was born on consoles after all

so? other games of this genre don't have this restriction.

[blabberblah]

How would one even use a mouse in a game like this?  There's no manual aiming for any of your abilities.  The only thing the mouse would be useful for is menus, and it's not as if the menus are all that cumbersome.

[Arseniy Yavorśkyi]

On 11/25/2019 at 3:32 AM, blabberblah said:

How would one even use a mouse in a game like this?  There's no manual aiming for any of your abilities.  The only thing the mouse would be useful for is menus, and it's not as if the menus are all that cumbersome.

how? the same way I used the mouse in every Souls and Souls-like game.

[Mira]

42 minutes ago, Arseniy Yavorśkyi said:

how? the same way I used the mouse in every Souls and Souls-like game.

How is this a Souls-like game? It's a 2D platformer. I hate gamepads and even I think a mouse really isn't necessary for this.

[Arseniy Yavorśkyi]

2 minutes ago, Mira said:

How is this a Souls-like game? It's a 2D platformer. I hate gamepads and even I think a mouse really isn't necessary for this.

the number of dimensions is irrelevant. this game's design and structure are similar to Souls, and that's all that matters. it's even circulated heavily throughout the Souls community, you think this would've happened to just any random game? come on.

in regards to mouse support. every game that involves quick and *precise* actions, especially combat, needs to have mouse support, because it's faster to click a mouse button than to press a keyboard key. I always knew this, but the knowledge became explicit when I played Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. if I left the parry action bound to Left Alt, like I normally do in Souls, I would've never beaten that game. in general, I'm very used to using the mouse for primary combat actions, so if the game doesn't allow that, I feel uncomfortable with the controls, which is unacceptable for a game of this kind. besides, it's not like there's a legitimate reason for not programming three bloody mouse buttons, it's just pure laziness in the middle of an otherwise decent product.

[blabberblah]

On 2/14/2020 at 3:13 PM, Arseniy Yavorśkyi said:

the number of dimensions is irrelevant.

Except it absolutely is relevant.  You're out of your mind, there's nothing inherently faster or even different about hitting a mouse button vs hitting a keyboard button, the only rational reason to want mouse support in a game is if the MOVEMENT of the mouse could be bound to something useful in the gameplay.  Is it that much of a struggle for you to spend ten minutes adjusting to a different control scheme than what you're used to?

 

The idea that "it has tangential influence from souls games, therefore this 2D platformer should control exactly like a 3D over the shoulder action game" is idiotic.

[Arseniy Yavorśkyi]

On 3/2/2020 at 3:12 AM, blabberblah said:

Except it absolutely is relevant.  You're out of your mind, there's nothing inherently faster or even different about hitting a mouse button vs hitting a keyboard button, the only rational reason to want mouse support in a game is if the MOVEMENT of the mouse could be bound to something useful in the gameplay.  Is it that much of a struggle for you to spend ten minutes adjusting to a different control scheme than what you're used to?

 

The idea that "it has tangential influence from souls games, therefore this 2D platformer should control exactly like a 3D over the shoulder action game" is idiotic.

I've played every Souls game on PC, as well as a good number of Souls-likes, including the ones that are two-dimensional (Salf & Sanctuary, DarkMaus, Blasphemous, Dark Devotion, etc), and all of them had support for mouse buttons. so tell me: why does Hollow Knight need to be an exception? would it kill the devs to write two additional lines of code? sure, I could adapt (or use an AHK script to remap the input), but why am I being put into position where I have to do that? what makes it worth not having mouse support? there's no good reason, just like there was no good reason for From Software to leave Dark Souls resolution-locked. the only reason is lack of concern.

 

don't go telling me there's no difference between clicking a mouse button and pressing a keyboard key — there is a difference, and, in the context of a Souls-like game, it's significant. I'll never forget the pain in my left wrist that I got after beating Lady Butterfly in Sekiro. I admit, it only got so extreme because I relied on dodging too much, but the fact remains: it's more straining to use keyboard keys than mouse buttons.

 

maybe I have some sort of condition that I'm not aware of, and normal people feel no difference. maybe, but then we hit the accessibility issue… except… it's about the most basic input option that is expected to be supported on this platform, for this type of game. it's idiotic to defend its absence.

Edited March 25, 2020 by Arseniy Yavorśkyi (see edit history)

[Danyyl]

As much as i respect your opinion, Ross, i have to disagree with you on the music, i feel like it fits the game perfectly. I can't imagine it being any other way, not as its own thing nor in the game and its context.

[Surname117]

Love/Hate: Played for about 10 hrs, stopped playing, never picked it back up.

[HUBERTfromAUSTRIA]

On 8/4/2019 at 10:01 PM, Xan said:

Damn good game. I like it a lot. The learning curve is INSANE but once you get the hang of it, it feels really rewarding and I love it.

Hear, hear!

[ScumCoder]

I'm amazed that Ross played (and loved) this game, while Ori and the Blind Forest (as well as Ori and the Will of the Wisps, for that matter) aren't even on the list. I played Ori first, and Hollow Knight felt painfully mediocre in comparison.

Edited June 21, 2021 by ScumCoder (see edit history)

[biosynth8]

On 6/21/2021 at 11:04 PM, ScumCoder said:

I'm amazed that Ross played (and loved) this game, while Ori and the Blind Forest (as well as Ori and the Will of the Wisps, for that matter) aren't even on the list. I played Ori first, and Hollow Knight felt painfully mediocre in comparison.

 

I can't agree. The first Ori was a deep and beautiful challange but Hollow Knight is defenitely on another level in style, gameplay and mood. The creators of Ori obviously thought so too and lifted every possible gameplay element from Hollow Knight they could get away with. Sadly this made the game worse, it didn't feel original anymore.