Video Game Reviews

Hollow Knight Review

Hollow Knight is basically what a 2D Soulsborne game would have been, and I absolutely love it.

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Premise:

Hollow Knight, like most other Soulslike, takes place in a dark fantasy world where this time its a Bug Kingdom called Hallownest, that has fallen apart due to an infection caused by a goddess called: The Radiance. In the past, the king of Hallownest: The Pale King, attempted to contain the Radiance by creating Vessels made from the Siblings of the Void, to keep the Radiance locked away from messing with the world. The Vessel that sealed away the Radiance would be called The Hollow Knight. This, however, fails and the Radiance is able to spread the Infection throughout all of Hallownest corrupting the world and turning the bugs into monsters or corrupted there bodies. 

Eventually, our character The Knight is able to escape the Abyss, the land where the Vessels were made to contain the Radiance. The Knight wanderers away from Hallownest but eventually returns, our memories lost, and we believe that this is where we will find our purpose again. As we explore the land of Hallownest, we find the secrets of the fallen Kingdom, namely that the Pale King is a godlike entity similar to the Radiance, and that the Pale King had appointed three dreamers to keep the path to the Hollow Knight sealed. These dreamers are Monomon the Teacher, Lurien the Watcher, and Herrah the Beast, once they are defeated the Knight is able to challenge the Hollow Knight, and if the Knight was able to create the Void Heart, then we would be able to challenge the Radiance, and bring the Godlike Entity down into the Void. 

There is, however, an alternate path by challenging the Gods in the Godhome, and defeating the Absolute Radiance, defeating the godlike entity and freeing the Hollow Knight from his duty. 

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Gameplay:

The gameplay of Hollow Knight is like I said, it's 2D Soulsborne. Most of the game you will have only one weapon, a nail that you can upgrade over time making it stronger to take on against your enemies, and as you play you unlock three other spells to aid you in your journey, while also mastering powerful Nail Arts to aid you as well. The three spells you can use are Vengeful Spirit/Shade Soul which allows you to send out a powerful burst, Desolate Dive/Descending Dark that allows you to slam down onto the ground, and Howling Wraith/Abyssal Shriek which allows you to let out a bunch of spirits above you forcing your enemies back. The Nail Arts however are techniques that can be found throughout the map which are a Cyclone Slash, Dash Slash, and Great Slash which I don't think I need to explain how they work. 

Besides the combat the game will allow you to collect a variety of tools to make your way through the world of Hallownest. These include wings to double jump, a mantis claw for jumping on walls, an Tear to allow you to swim through acid, and a powerful jump allowing you to zoom across an area. 

And the bosses are surprisingly good. Most having a mix of very difficult and enjoyable or very annoying and I want to talk about some of them.

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Bosses:

Given the 2D world that Hollow Knight has it makes sense that making the boss fights enjoyable would be difficult compared to the 3D world that the Soulsborne games have when doing there bosses, but Hollow Knight has some really good bosses.