I'm still surprised whenever I finally get around to playing a game that has been sitting in my backlog for so long that I still have short notes from back when I was writing them for every game I added to my backlog before playing it. And indeed, Hollow Knight was one of the older games I still hadn't played, at almost 9 years old. I wrote "Another metroidvania. I like how it looks. As for the gameplay side, seems pretty standard, but well polished?" Having finished it, honestly, that's a pretty spot on assessment.
While each next metroidvania I play seems to tell me that I'm not actually that interested in the genre as I think I am, I still like to think I've played many games from this genre. And Hollow Knight is very, very standard. There is a slightly larger focus on combat than platforming, but if you just think of the most basic metroidvania features - jumping, dashing, double jumping, directional attacks, then this is the core here as well. There's no unique mechanic that sets this apart from other games. You have the ability to "pogo", which is a mini-jump by hitting an enemy or hazard below you with a melee attack, which is used for some platforming. The most special thing it has is an energy system that is used both for casting spells, which are attacks with higher range, as well as healing yourself, possibly even mid-combat if you have the time. You regain this energy by landing melee attacks. All these powers are incrementally unlocked from various parts of the map. You also get passive powerups you get to slot in and out up to your maximum capacity that also increases throughout the game. But this feature list is not a good reason to play this game.
I found the game to have too much traveling for my liking. There is a lot of backtracking, which is expected of a metroidvania, but fast travel options are limited, and most of the regular map traversal is a trivial affair because you generally get enough energy from combat to heal any damage you take. Maybe this is a good thing, because checkpoints are also somewhat far apart, and having to make multiple attempts just to get anywhere over and over again is no better. Still, I would have liked a way to engage less with the trivial content I had already beaten, and more with just the new content. This also ties into the problem I often see, where difficult content, such as boss fights (or most notably in this game, the Colosseum of Fools), require you to go through an easy but lengthy journey (or simple early phases of the fight) to get to them, only to be wiped out immediately at the hard part. I have no problem with trying something difficult and failing 10, 20, maybe even 50 times, but only if you don't force me to do something menial to earn every individual attempt.
There were some other minor problems I had. Such as that there was too much hidden content. The developers were seemingly fine with me not experiencing whole parts of the game just because I overlooked the starting point of these parts. It didn't really make the rest of the game worse, but it just puzzles me why they wouldn't make such major blocks of content (The Grimm Troupe in my case, though I feel I almost missed a couple more) more easily discoverable. This isn't talking about various little secrets or fun interactions that could be found, because hiding those is also a staple of metroidvanias, and makes it more fun when you do discover them.
And, finally the difficulty. I think the overall difficulty of the game was fine. At its hardest during most of the game, it wasn't too hard, and it wasn't too easy. I never got stuck, but I also never went more than a couple hours without really having to put in effort to succeed. But beyond the first ending, the so-to-say "true" or "better" endings require a lot more work. I found the difficulty spike to be quite egergious. I would not have minded slightly more difficult bonus content at the end of the game, but the difficulty spike from the (first) last boss to the first optional boss was crazy. There was no point for me to slowly get better over time. It was either "beat your head against a wall for 10 hours until you get better" or "quit". And I did quit, which is fine because I had beaten the game, but I can still wish I had some intermediately difficult content to do.
Writing this, I went into a lot of things I disliked, and not a lot of things I liked. But there isn't a lot to talk about on the positives of this game. And by that I mean that it didn't do anything remarkable. I was never wowed by Hollow Knight, but I have to admit that the developers took the standard metroidvania formula, and made a really, really solid game out of it. If I had to praise something, it would be the length of the game at 40-60 hours. I was consistently amazed at how there was always yet another region to explore. While I really would have liked to see some new unique and exciting gameplay mechanic that could sell this game, I still have to concede that this is the best metroidvania I have ever played. It took me a long time to get through it because I was never hooked, but I'm amazed I kept wanting to come back for a whole 50 hours, and I really can't think of another metroidvania that would come close to the level of quality, polish, and amount of content that Hollow Knight has.
I can both want something better, and admit that I think it deserves the spot of the highest rated metroidvania on Steam, as well as a slot in the top 50 highest rated games overall. I would without a doubt recommend it to anyone intersted in metroidvanias.
