I Love This Game So Much

I love this game so much

In 2013, a small dev team called Team Cherry submitted a game to the Ludum Dare 27 game jam. It was called ‘Hungry Knight’ and the protagonist looked like this:

Your objective was to kill enemies for berries, which you had to eat every 10 seconds in order to survive. There were some cool bug-knight designs, and some hints of a world/lore surrounding the little protagonist, but overall it was pretty simple. Play it on Newgrounds if you’re interested.

About 3.5 years later, Team Cherry released Hollow Knight, which feature this little guy you might recognize:

But wha–

OH FUCK!!! WHAT!!!!

HOLY SHIT LOOK AT THE–

WAIT, WHAT’S THAT I HEAR??

IS THAT AN ORCHESTRA OF ANGELS PLAYING A SOMBER SYMPHONY ABOUT BOTH THE BEAUTY AND THE SUFFERING OF OUR EPHEMERAL EXISTENCE ON THIS PLANE??

NO, IT’S JUST THE GOD DAMN

As for the gameplay, it’s a metroidvania with simple mechanics but a high skill ceiling, excellent enemy variety and design, a big map, and deep and unique lore that you find bits and pieces of throughout the world.

I’d compare it to Ori & The Blind Forest, which is also a very solid metroidvania – but Hollow Knight is different in that it has no explicit dungeons and no skill tree. It’s a bit more “raw.” Whereas I’d recommend Ori to even those who don’t have much experience with the 2D platformers or metroidvanias, I might reserve Hollow Knight for those who have played at least one in the past. It doesn’t spend much time easing you in or holding your hand. If Ori is rum & coke, Hollow Knight is just straight rum.

Overall, it’s been a good year for indie games. We saw the release of games like Night in the Woods, Cuphead, A Hat in Time, West of Loathing, and Doki Doki Literature Club.

Hollow Knight though, is my personal fave, and I’d recommend it to anybody who is willing to give a game a little bit of patience, exploration, and love.