Hollow Knight - convince me to keep playing

Lifeblood is out!

I’m really excited about the Switch version. I’m maybe halfway done with the game on Steam so I stopped playing for now so I can restart on Switch. Will be a great game to play on flights.

Man, I honestly don’t know if I want more content for this game, especially if it’s harder than the rest. Is that dumb?

Not at all.

This isn’t the last major update. It’s like a mini update.

I may not even bother to reinstall. Most DLC feels like an annoyance and can’t recapture the original experience. Hollow Knight definitely falls into this category.

Switch version came out last night. Really well done and I don’t even mind that I’m starting over.

As an aside: I wish games would generate a save password (like old NES days) so I can switch platforms without starting over.

Which platform did you play on first and how does the Switch version compare? I’m thinking hard about getting this…

I played it on PC but didn’t finish. Once I knew a Switch version was imminent I set it aside to wait for it. I can’t comment on how it plays docked as I only spent my 3 hour flight this afternoon playing it. It looks fantastic and just as good as the PC version. Gameplay is a perfect match with no performance problems. Load times are minimal to non existent. Well worth $15 especially if you’ve never played it.

I’ve never played it before and picked it up yesterday. I’m having a blast, so far. My daughters also both are enjoying it. Cutting their teeth on Spelunky finally is paying off. ;)

The NintendoSwitch subreddit seem to love it.

I played 10 hours on the PC and the switch version is just as good, controls are tight as well. Plays great in handheld mode. I would recommend this to everyone!

I am a huge wuss when it comes to difficulty in games most of the time. I have heard this game is v. difficult. Can I handle it? It looks very cool. I can get into difficult games, but I kind of draw the line at punishingly difficult. Where does Hollow Knight sit?

While I don’t find it too difficult (mostly because there are usually save points close to specific encounters that are likely to kill you during your first couple attempts), the currency/souls system and boss fights have been likened to Dark Souls.

I suspect it’s a game most people don’t notice is that difficult, but if you die and lose a lot of souls or fail to find the right power ups then you might be behind the power curve. Then you feel frustrated.

So you’ll probably be okay. But maybe not.

I bought it anyway. Beat the first boss and collected a lot of stuff and haven’t died yet. I am assuming it gets more difficult, but it isn’t too bad at the start though. It can be brutal though. The ability to heal is good, risk/reward vs doing damage.

False Knight was a really cool fight.

Yeah I gotta get back to this, sadly I am sure I’ve lost all muscle memory on how to fight and dodge, lol.

I’m loving this on the Switch, but it IS hard. Probably the hardest Metroidvania I have played, specially in regards to platforming (some sections are brutal and reming me of some hard Super Meatboy levels. They are also probably optional). Bosses are not “hard” per se but they do require heavy memorization and fast reflexes. It feels like a “hardcore” metroidvania. Not quite La-Mulana level, but certainly farther out there and more opaque than even the classics.

The lackluster fast travel (for now, I still have some areas to open and it might improve) and heavy backtracking (the structure is really open) make it slightly of a chore here and there, but overall, the sheer size of it does help making the world feel multilayered.

It’s quite the game, probably the best moetroidvania I have played in a decade or so, if you can manage the difficulty, and a paid for DLC with a new character, new areas and new story is planned, which seems more like a semi-sequel/expansion pack than a regular DLC.

Yeah, that’s what worries me. Maybe I wait for a sale like I did with Gungeon, not because it isn’t worth full price, but I am only likely to progress so far.

Anybody played both this and Dead Cells that can comment on the relative difficulty?

You can’t really compare them.
Dead Cells is non-stop action, Hollow Knight is an adventure but is quite more demanding.