This game is a Metroidvania 2D action adventure genre that a nameless knight explores the underground world and figure out the secrets of the ancient insect kingdom that suffered a disaster.
Hollow Knight is a famous and successful game since its release on PC. So, I just bought it immediately when it was released on Nintendo Switch. I didn’t have to hesitate to buy it because even it contains all DLC.
Personally, I have more fun to play a portable mode than docked mode of switch and, I had thought that it was perfect.
I think that graphic concept can be divided into the likes and dislike according to people. And, personally, I didn’t prefer the graphic style that cute characters appeared in the dark world view. But, What I felt when I played the game was that the world view and characters were designed to match each other exquisitely. And the quality and detail of the background, animation, and effects were excellent. So, I think that Hollow Kinght’s graphics surely immersed me in the world of game and played a very important role in it.
Hollow Knight’s map is very large enough to be called the Matroidvania and, There was surely very fun to explore and find out hidden places and elements.
Because the map is so large, there is a transportation that can move quickly between major key points. By the way, I was very pleased that this transportation was such as "Stag Station" or "Tram" that goes well with the underground world concept.
It was also well designed with features of the action adventure genre. Individually, I remembered with the Zelda series. It was able to release new abilities of the player character through an exploration, and it was able to explore new places through the new ability. Besides, it was able to strengthen the character’s stats by collecting hidden items.
To summarize the combat style, it was important to avoid and hit-once.
The player character is damaged not only by the trap of the map but also by direct contact with the enemy. In other words, because the size and movement of the enemy greatly affected the difficulty, it was necessary to understand enemy movements and attack patterns to reduce damage from enemies and eliminate enemies.
I personally felt the combat system was a little bit stuffy. The reason is that because of I prefer a fast combat style that be able to use various actions. Here, various actions refer to the variety of weapons that player can use, or it refer to have the variety of attack motions even if player has a single weapon.
Of course, Hollow Knight has several spells (similar to skill) instead of a variety of actions. And, If you use the spell, it consume the "Soul" gauge. By the way, there is also a 'Heal' spell among them. In other words, if you use too much the spells in the combat, you will not be able to use the heal spell. So, I personally couldn’t use the spells frequently, and I usually attacked the enemy with a short range weapon during the combat.
Of course, I was able to increase the attack speed of the short range weapon by equipping a "Quick Slash" charm. However, the combat style of Hollow Knight was based on the "to avoid and hit-once". Therefore, no matter how I increase the attack speed, it couldn't completely eliminate the feeling of stuffy.
But, because of this combat style, there are good points. The difficulty is high because the player has to attack the enemy carefully while avoiding all traps and enemies. So, a sense of achievement was high when I cleared those situations because of a tension was high. And, it led to fun. Although the combat style wasn't my tastes, I got to know interesting, and I was very immersive and had fun playing.
In particular, the hidden boss battle in many places has inspired this tension and a sense of achievement, and the difficulty was also much higher than the usual enemies. and yet, each boss has a variety movement and attack patterns, so it was fun to find a strategic attack method. Some bosses were easier than expected, and others much harder than expected.
Some terribly hard bosses were hard to clear if my controls were not good enough even if I grew the character's stats. Thus, the sense of achievement was great when it was clear. However, some bosses couldn't clear up after all.
In fact, the strongest boss that I was most scared and hard was "map level".
Perhaps I remember that the horrible level was a section that I had to pass to watch the true ending. It was designed so that even a single mistake wouldn't be tolerated. Of course, I spent a lot of time clearing it, but it was as hard as I wanted to give up.
I played for a long time without relying on a guidebook. However, there are still a lot of content that can be played (including DLC).
I could not keep playing only the Hollow Knight. So, I watched the ending... After all, it was a normal ending.
Maybe it's impossible for me to clear the boss battle for the true ending with my control ability.
