Hollow Knight
Hollow Knight starts by dropping you on the very edge of its world, controlling a little bug warrior known only as "the knight." Like any good search action game, this beginning sequence teaches you the basic mechanics needed for traversal and combat, despite your character's woeful lack of preparation for the obstacles they are about to encounter. Upon your introduction to the knight, all he has at his disposal is a pitiful little jump and a weak weapon, known as a nail. Shortly thereafter, you meet one of the last residents of the decrepit surface town of Dirtmouth. He explains to you the melancholy tale of the underground kingdom of Hallownest, then warns you of the dangers that still lurk there. The real adventure begins when, despite the warnings and your complete nescience to the goals or motivations of the knight, you jump down the well and enter the sprawling failed state of Hallownest.
Without any express goals at the start, the most you can do is explore. As you venture deeper, you'll encounter a wide variety of bugs, most of which want you dead. Some are clearly just hostile, but patterns begin to emerge amongst others that point to something more sinister, introducing you to the great mystery of Hallownest. Along with a drive to explore every inch of the map, I became invested in my quest to uncover this world's story and the knight's place in it. Answers are drip-fed to you as you progress, and often produce even more questions, creating a gripping narrative that pushed me to play more and more. However, I don't think I would have been very motivated to continue if the knight didn't get a chance to grow beyond his wimpy jump and short attack range. Thankfully, there are multiple ways in which to strengthen your little bug avatar, and each of them feels very rewarding.
Starting with the search action staple, Hollow Knight's world is stuffed with unlockable abilities that improve the knight's combat and maneuverability. Falling into three general categories, these upgrades can be new techniques for the nail, spells that can attack at a distance, or exciting movement skills like a wall jump and a dash. They're not hiding in the open though, and will often require you to defeat a challenging boss or solve a puzzle using context clues to unlock them. While not true for all of them, there were a few bosses that took over a dozen attempts for me to beat, but the promise of an exciting new power encouraged me to persevere. I always savored the triumphant euphoria of testing out my new skill after finally crushing my foes.
Permanent upgrades aren't the only way to gain an edge in this unforgiving labyrinth, though. Littered throughout the world (and occasionally for sale from a couple bug friends) are dozens of different charms. Each has an effect, and they can all be extremely useful in different situations, but they don't apply automatically like regular upgrades do. Instead, you'll need to sit on a bench, this game's save points, to adjust which ones you have applied. Each charm has a cost associated, and if you exceed your limit, you'll suffer double damage from every hit. I never played overcharmed because of the penalty, but I found a great set that really complemented my play style. I particularly enjoyed the ones that lengthened the reach of my nail or gave me a little posse of spider buddies, and I couldn't fathom exploring without the compass charm that showed my location on the map. Even without the permanency of a full upgrade, charms were a lot of fun to experiment with, and finding a new one always gave me a sense of accomplishment. In fact, the whole game does an excellent job of rewarding your efforts.
From start to finish, Hollow Knight was constantly pushing me forward, and I could hardly put the game down. Tears of the Kingdom and Xenoblade 3 are the only games in recent memory that kept my attention as much as Hollow Knight did. It's difficult to fathom that this is just a $15 indie game, and it absolutely deserves all of the hype and praise I've seen it receive since its release. There are plenty of people I know who would hate playing this game purely because of its difficulty, so I can't give a blanket endorsement. However, if you know you like Metroidvanias and you're not afraid of overcoming difficult challenges, I can't think of a game I'd recommend higher than this.
The game is available for Steam here (as of 3/30/24): https://store.steampowered.com/app/367520/Hollow_Knight/
The game is available for Switch here (as of 3/30/24): https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/hollow-knight-switch/
The game is available for Switch here (as of 3/30/24): https://www.nintendo.com/us/store/products/hollow-knight-switch/
The game is available for Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S here (as of 3/30/24): https://www.xbox.com/en-US/games/store/hollow-knight-voidheart-edition/9mw9469v91lm
The game is available for PS4 and PS5 here (as of 3/30/24): https://store.playstation.com/en-us/product/UP1822-CUSA13632_00-HOLLOWKNIGHT18US
