The Soul That Fought Back: Hollow Knight Review

The truth hides behind witty veils and well-placed secrets. Behind every whisper, every shushed tone, a voice that’s loud enough finds a way to impact how events unfold.  Hollow Knight creates a world that tells a story of self-discovery and a soul on a mission. Hollow Knight is a mixture of intriguing bosses, a beautiful map design, and a stunning score that set the pace for how the game flowed. This Metroidvania is witty, well-constructed, and took me by complete surprise, eliciting a smile on my face at each turn. There are things that this game does beautifully, and things, such as accessibility, that it does poorly.  Hollow Knight displays beauty and wit with what it does flawlessly by taking notes from Dark Souls and games that have a slow burn to them. From NPCs with comical one-liners to a non-vocal protagonist whose goal is to listen, Team Cherry has placed me in what would soon be my favorite metroidvania.

Limited Accessibility: I normally don’t start with the parts of my experience that were lacking, but this is a case where it’s important that the accessibility be mentioned first, before I dive into the rest of the review. Hollow Knight has incredibly limited accessibility. Keep in mind that resources and the cost of adding key accessibility features in indie games aren’t as readily affordable for indie companies as they are for AAA teams. I haven’t played Silksong yet, so I cannot speak about the accessibility in that game. I hope that when I do finally dive into it, I see more features available, like an option to turn the screen shake off. I have terrible motion sickness, and experienced that during the game with a severe screen shake on my way to the Mantis Lord fight. I don’t want to critique the game too harshly for things that may have been out of the devs’ control, but I am hopeful that with the launch of the Switch 2 version, we will see some accessibility improvements. Another accessibility issue I noticed was how the controller maneuvers. There were many moments when the characters would move in ways I didn’t intend. Going into doors that I didn’t tell the Hollow Knight to go into was by far the biggest one. I was playing on the PS5, and the number of doors I walked into accidentally was both annoying and funny.

Don’t You Dare Go Hollow: When it comes to what Hollow Knight did right, the map design was the main thing I loved about this game. It was a beautiful throwback to the design of Dark Souls One’s map in how it all harmoniously comes together in a seamless and, at times, surprising way.  I was shocked by how everything connected back to points on the map visited previously.  Another point that stood out to me was the story and how it is glued to everything in the world, the mechanics, the charms, the bosses, all of it. The concept of the soul through the shade is one of the most interesting parts of the game’s narrative design. The Hollow Knight finds themself again and again through a lost shade/soul. This could be a motif for depression, a detachment from oneself or things that brought you joy, and/or daily activities.  The shade could also be a manifestation of Cotard's syndrome, where the person, in this case, the Hollow Knight, believes they are dead, where they might be experiencing a profound delusion of non-existence, or missing their soul or organs.  When I didn’t grab my shade or couldn’t find it, it felt like I was leaving a piece of the Hollow Knight behind until the next death, where a new soul was born to be saved or forgotten. Hollow Knight's story relies heavily on NPC interaction as well as interacting with the world around our beloved bug. Lore tablets, notes, and even charms have attached lore to them. If you love an intense and albeit vague story where you can draw your own conclusions, then you’re going to love Hollow Knight. Much like Souls-Likes, the power of the story relies on the NPCs you meet and just enough vagueness where you can draw your own conclusions.

Once More With Feeling: A game where difficulty and practicality marry exquisitely, Hollow Knight’s immersive world synced with me and even learned my playstyle when it came to the bosses. Reading my moves, what I was going to do next, and would play a few cruel jokes as well, beating me to my own punchline.  The bosses in this game were a mixture of amazing and lackluster; more of them, unfortunately, lackedluster in approach than others. The only ones that truly stood out regarding their movesets and design were: Broken Vessel, The Mantis Lords,  Hornet Sentinel, and The Hollow Knight. While it did take me a bit to learn the pacing and movesets of the bosses, once I nailed them (pun fully intended), I traversed the world with joy and more ease than not.  This game was an enjoyable rollercoaster of ego checks, and knowing that dying is a lesson, not a punishment.  I also went into the experience of Hollow Knight with some rules for myself to get a better idea and a better baseline for how the bosses and world around me work without help from any charms or extra masks.  When I livestreamed this game, some people were left curious and borderline gobsmacked as to why I would do the equivalent of a level one run in Elden Ring.  My views and methods on playing games for the first time, in addition to reviewing them, have molded over the years and been refined into what I do today. When entering into any title, not just a souls-like or metroidvania, I don't outwardly look for anything to help make the game easier. In the case of Hallow Knight, that’s masks and charms. I only allow myself to use the charms and items I come across naturally with the progression of the story and main game. The only exception I made in terms of buffing my Knight was leveling up the nail, and I didn’t even level it up all the way, just to a level-three channeled nail. The Best Metroidvania I’ve Played: Over the course of my time playing many metroidvanias over the years, Hollow Knight is a perfect balance of exquisite difficulty, a beautiful map design, bosses that are tough but fair, an OST that gave me the brain tingles, and replayability that is both rewarding and satisfying.  This is not only the best Metroidvania ever created, but it's also a gateway to a deeply rooted story in either continuing the cycle or breaking it. I got the base ending for the game, which continued the cycle, and our little void became the replacement to hold the chaos. Much like the Pale King, we instilled love and a blooming thought into our knight, making them imperfectly hollow.  I had the choice to create my own destiny, which gave way to thoughts, thoughts became actions, and actions made our Knight not so Hollow anymore.