Hollow Knight - Metroidvania meets Dark Souls

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Amzin

Lord Nagafen Raider
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No thread on this? For shame! I shall post it then. This came out last week and I've played it every night since. I'm at about ~10 hours and feel like I'm maybe 1/3 of the way through it. The gameplay is very tight, and while there's the usual random ledges/walls/whatever you can't get through without upgrades, exploration feels VERY open. Some places you think you can't get to without the next movement ability you can get to by utilizing precise timing and some other ones.

It's cute and gloomy at the same time. Post-apocalyptic ruins, but with insects. Animations are great, sound is great except for one place I noticed so far (where I had to mute it temporarily), and it's only $15. People are saying it takes 30-40 hours to 100% it the first time through so if you want value I guess it's there.

It is hard in spots though. Like, maybe you come back later with more upgrades hard. Or maybe you just don't kill that boss if it's optional.

Hollow Knight | An atmospheric adventure through a surreal, bug-infested world

Buy Hollow Knight from the Humble Store

 
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Intrinsic

Person of Whiteness
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Does it compare with Salt and Sanctuary? On the road and can't really get the videos.
 

Amzin

Lord Nagafen Raider
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361
I haven't played Salt and Sanctuary myself, I've seen a few people compare it favorably (that is, preferring it to S&S) but those are gonna be biased since they're in HK discussions I imagine. I am enjoying more than Axiom Verge, Ghost 1.0, or Shadow Complex. Probably more than Ori too and I loved Ori, it's way more free-form than any of those so far while still retaining the Metroidvania feel, and it's massive. I also really enjoy the melancholy atmosphere.

There's no XP progression, everything comes from socketing in little enhancers you can find / buy, unlocking new abilities, things like that. I don't want to spoil anything (a lot of my favorite moments have been from discovering things on my own which I normally don't care too much one way or the other for) but there's a lot of surprises and "woah" moments.

If you die you respawn at the nearest rest point you used and sometimes those can be pretty far from the bosses though, so there can be a lot of retracing your steps. It's also not super friendly to the navigationally challenged, the mapping is NOT casual. Some of the platforming is brutal too.
 

Lenas

Trump's Staff
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2,206
Thanks for the heads up, this one is definitely getting put on my list.
 

Amzin

Lord Nagafen Raider
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361
The only negatives I really have so far are the aforementioned rest/save points being kinda far apart sometimes, and there's some kind of optimization issue that is causing most people to have random frame skips (myself included) that can F you randomly pretty hard. They're working on the optimization but I doubt the rest areas will change unless they decide to add SotN style mini side rooms just for that all over the place.
 

Kantern

Silver Knight of the Realm
306
44
I just finished a 100% run and loved every moment. I can not recommend this game enough. It is right up there with SOTN for me and blows Ori out of the water. This game needs more exposure! There is tons of optional side content and small mystery achievements to go for. DLC in future will be adding another character / scenario.

I feel like the game originally had more rest points, but they removed them. If there was too many of them the souls aspect of the game would be nullified quite a bit. Most major encounters have one close by and all major transportation options in the game have a rest point with them.

I loved the initial feeling of going in a new area with no map and no mapping of what you cleared. This was totally new experience for me in this category.

The white castle is amazing pure platforming. I am not a huge fan of super meat boy or games like that, but this was still a blast for me. Especially after spending the entire game using all these movement abilities and then having to make use of every trick to get it done.
 
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Amzin

Lord Nagafen Raider
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361
Not EVERY fast travel point has a rest point, but most do. It's only stood out like, once so far I think, where a walk back was just way too far.

Also, Deepnest is creepy as fuck, Jesus. This world keeps getting more weird and horrifying and less rainy-day melancholy. There's tons of hidden lore/atmosphere that is optional and I don't think ties into achievements either...

Hitting an enemy with the Dream nail (and a lot of random stuff scattered around) gives a little bit of text or emotion or something from that being/thing.

Edit: I played 4 hours tonight and I want to play more already -_- somebody send help
 

Kantern

Silver Knight of the Realm
306
44
It's only stood out like, once so far I think, where a walk back was just way too far.

Nice little trick I found when I started to do a lot of backtracking / hunting for my last %s was using the bench at Kings Station and then when I finished getting my objective save/quitting to menu and reloading game. Free teleport back to kings station.

Also...

When doing the coliseum of fools be ready to alt-f4 after the first two trials if they do not drop the shiny item (Notch for first one, pale ore from second. It is a known issue and being fixed in first patch. I believe picking up the money as fast as possible is key to making sure they spawn.
 

Amzin

Lord Nagafen Raider
2,917
361
Nice little trick I found when I started to do a lot of backtracking / hunting for my last %s was using the bench at Kings Station and then when I finished getting my objective save/quitting to menu and reloading game. Free teleport back to kings station.

Also...

When doing the coliseum of fools be ready to alt-f4 after the first two trials if they do not drop the shiny item (Notch for first one, pale ore from second. It is a known issue and being fixed in first patch. I believe picking up the money as fast as possible is key to making sure they spawn.

Yea not having a "back" ability you can get creative like that, you can do it at any bench too, to be clear.

In regards to your spoiler, according to the devs that should only happen to the Press Release version of the game, the Steam one already had that fixed. GoG too maybe? People were complaining about the GoG one being older though. Also they might have a beta branch on Steam today with some early optimization fixes. Devs seem pretty active on the subreddit (there's spoilers everywhere there though so be warned)
 

Soygen

The Dirty Dozen For the Price of One
<Nazi Janitors>
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This looks great. Reminds me I also still have to beat Salt & Sanctuary.
 

Amzin

Lord Nagafen Raider
2,917
361
I got both endings and 100% completion on this near the end of last week. The real last boss is a horrible horrible thing to experience, but the rest of the game is great :p That was before the first patch hit even so a lot of the random bullshit stutter hits/deaths I ate won't be a problem now.

Massive (ish) spoiler:

The moral of the story is that the Radiance is a jealous "god" and deserved getting shanked in the spirit-face by void essence. Fuck that guy. Abyss powah 4 evah
 
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Intrinsic

Person of Whiteness
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Binge played this pretty much all day straight through the game. Really really fun and very well done. The sound especially was great. Environmental noises, music, flavor sounds.

I wouldn't say it has near as much in common with a Souls type game as say Salt and Sanctuary. This is pretty close to being just a straight up Metroidvania. But a very good one and worth the price.

If the world could somehow release a couple quality of this style each year I'd die a happy gamer.
 

Seananigans

Honorary Shit-PhD
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PC only right now? I have yet to get a steam controller and link or whatever it is that I need for console style steam play.
 

TJT

Mr. Poopybutthole
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Playing through this now. God damn its good and the platforming is really smooth. I am very particular about the controls on my platformers but this one is juuuust right.

Loving it. Its also really beautiful.
 

Amzin

Lord Nagafen Raider
2,917
361
PC only right now? I have yet to get a steam controller and link or whatever it is that I need for console style steam play.
Depending on your layout all you need is an HDMI cable :p If you have a media PC or whatever hooked up to your TV you can also just do streaming play via that, essentially the same as having a Steam Link. Otherwise, I believe Steam Link + Steam Controller is the way to go if that's what you're after. You can supposedly use a variety of controllers / keyboards / mice with the link but I suspect the Steam one is the most versatile by far.

My gaming PC is set up so I can toggle between TV and my desk and personally I just played this at my desk most of the time anyway, lounging in my chair.
 

Kaige

ReRefugee
<WoW Guild Officer>
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This is a really good game. I love the atmosphere and little nuances on top of the core gameplay. The art seems cartoony yet its so dark and dreary at the same time.
 

Hatorade

A nice asshole.
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6,508
Salt and sanctuary is a far superior game, how mapping works combined with level layouts is frustrating to the point of not being fun.
The challenge and just about everything else is great, traversing the same areas over and over for no other reason than you missed that one spot that leads to progress ruins it for me.