Hollow Knight

Gameplay screenshot in which the player fights a large boss enemy.

Hollow Knight is a 2D Metroidvania action-adventure game, that takes place in Hallownest, a fictional ancient kingdom.[4] The player controls an insect-like, silent, and nameless knight while exploring the underground world. The knight wields a nail, which is a type of sword, used both in combat and environmental interaction.[5]

In most areas of the game players encounter hostile bugs and other creatures. Melee combat involves using the nail to strike enemies from a short distance. The player can learn spells, allowing for long-range attacks.[6] Defeated enemies drop currency called Geo.[7] The knight starts with a limited number of masks, which represent the hit points of the character.[8] "Mask shards" can be collected throughout the game to increase the player's maximum health. When the knight takes damage from an enemy or from the environment, a mask is reduced. By striking enemies, the knight gains Soul, which is stored in the Soul Vessel. If all masks are lost, the knight dies and a Shade appears at that place. The player loses all Geo and can hold a reduced amount of Soul. Players need to defeat the Shade to recover the lost currency and to carry the normal amount of Soul.[8] The game continues from the last visited bench they sat on which are scattered throughout the game world and act as save points. Initially the player can only use Soul to "Focus" and regenerate masks, but as the game progresses players unlock several offensive spells, which consume Soul.

Many areas feature more challenging enemies and bosses which the player may need to defeat in order to progress further.[7] Defeating some bosses grants the player new abilities.[5] Later in the game, players acquire a "dream nail", a legendary blade that can "cut through the veil between dreams and waking". It enables the player to face more challenging versions of a few bosses, and to break what is sealing the path to the final boss.[8] If the player defeats the final boss of the game, called "The Hollow Knight", they are given access to a mode called "Steel Soul." In this mode, dying is permanent, and if the knight loses all of its masks, the save slot will be reset.

During the game, the player encounters non-player characters (NPCs) with whom they can interact. These characters provide information about the game's plot or lore, offer aid, and sell items or services.[8] The player can upgrade the knight's nail to deal more damage or find Soul Vessels to carry more Soul. During the course of the game, players acquire items that provide new movement abilities including an additional mid-air jump (Monarch Wings), adhering to walls and jumping off them (Mantis Claw), and a quick dash (Mothwing Cloak). The player can learn other combat abilities, known as nail arts, and the aforementioned spells. To further customize the knight, players can equip various Charms, which can be found or purchased from NPCs. Some of their effects include improved combat abilities or skills, more masks or their regeneration, better movement skills, easier collecting of currency or of Soul, and transformation.[5][8] Equipping a Charm takes up a certain number of limited slots, called notches. Wearing a Charm that requires more than the available number of notches is possible, but it results in being "overcharmed", causing the knight to receive double damage from all sources.

Hallownest consists of several large, inter-connected areas with unique themes.[5] With its nonlinear gameplay design, Hollow Knight does not bind the player to one path through the game nor require them to explore the whole world, though there are obstacles that limit the player's access to an area. The player may need to progress in the story of the game, or acquire a specific movement ability, skill, or item to progress further.[8] To fast travel through the game's world, the player can utilise Stag Stations, terminals of a network of tunnels; players can only travel to previously visited and unlocked stations. Other fast travel methods, such as trams, lifts, and "Dreamgate", are encountered later in the game.[7][9]

As the player enters a new area, they do not have access to the map of their surroundings. They must find Cornifer, the cartographer, in order to buy a rough map. As the player explores an area, the map becomes more accurate and complete, although it is updated only when sitting on a bench. The player will need to buy specific items to complete maps, to see points of interest, and to place markers. The knight's position on the map can only be seen if the player is carrying a specific Charm.[6][7]

At the outset of the game, the Knight (the player character) arrives at the ruins of Hallownest, and makes camp at the small town of Dirtmouth just above its entrance. As the Knight ventures through the ruins, they discover that Hallownest was once a flourishing kingdom which fell to ruin after becoming overrun with "The Infection", which drove its citizens to madness and undeath. The last ruler of Hallownest, the Pale King, attempted to seal away the Infection; however, it becomes increasingly clear that the seal is failing. The Knight is determined to find and kill the three Dreamers who act as living locks to the seal. This quest brings the Knight into conflict with "Hornet", a female warrior who acts as the "protector" of Hallownest and who tests the Knight's resolve in several battles.

Through dialogue with certain characters as well as cutscenes, the Knight receives insight into the origin of the Infection and itself. In ancient times, the bugs of Hallownest worshipped a higher being called the Radiance: a primordial, god-like moth whose mere presence could sway the denizens of Hallownest to mindless obedience. One day, another higher being called The Wyrm arrived at Hallownest, and transformed into the Pale King so that it could establish a grand kingdom. The Pale King "expanded" the minds of the bugs of Hallownest, granting them intelligence and self-awareness, and eliminated The Radiance by destroying all memory of it; devoid of worship, the Radiance faded away. This lasted until an ancient statue of The Radiance was accidentally seen at the edge of Hallownest's Crown by a random bug, reviving her memory: enraged, The Radiance began invading the dreams of Hallownest's citizens and driving them to madness, an affliction known as The Infection.

In an attempt to contain the spreading Infection, the Pale King used the power of Void (a type of living darkness) to create the Vessels: living yet empty beings that would hypothetically lack a will which could be corrupted by The Infection. After many attempts, he created a suitable Vessel (the Hollow Knight) and used it to contain the Infection, then sealed the Hollow Knight within the Black Egg Temple with the aid of the three Dreamers. Yet because the Pale King had bonded with The Hollow Knight as a parent and child, respectively, the Hollow Knight developed a "wish" that was used by The Radiance as a foothold for corruption, compromising the seal.

As the story progresses, the Knight discovers that they are a failed Vessel: one of hundreds who failed to be chosen as the Hollow Knight, yet had the strength to escape The Abyss from which all Void originates. Depending on the player's actions, Hollow Knight has multiple endings. In the first ending, "Hollow Knight", the Knight defeats the Hollow Knight and takes its place, though the Infection still survives. The second ending, "Sealed Siblings", occurs if the player collects the Void Heart charm before fighting the Hollow Knight: this is roughly similar to the first ending, except Hornet arrives to help during the final battle and is sealed with the Knight, becoming the Dreamer that locks the door.

The third ending, "Dream No More", occurs if the player collects the Void Heart and uses the Awakened Dream Nail ability to enter the Hollow Knight's dreams when Hornet arrives to help. This allows the Knight to challenge the Radiance directly. The battle ends when the Knight commands the complete power of the Void and the remaining Vessels to consume the Radiance utterly and thus end the threat of the Infection, though the Knight mysteriously disappears from the chamber thereafter.

The idea that prompted the creation of Hollow Knight originated in a game jam, Ludum Dare 2013, in which two of the game's developers, Ari Gibson and William Pellen, developed a game called Hungry Knight, in which the character that would later become the Knight kills bugs to stave off starvation.[2] The game, considered "not very good", only holds a 1/5 star rating on Newgrounds.[2] The developers decided to work on another game jam with the theme "Beneath the Surface", but missed the deadline. However, the concept gave them the idea to create a game with an underground setting, a "deep, old kingdom", and insect characters.[2]

Influences for the game include Faxanadu, Metroid, Zelda II, and Mega Man X. Team Cherry noted that Hallownest was in some ways the inverse of the world tree setting in Faxanadu. The team also noted that they wanted to replicate the sense of wonder and discovery of games from their childhood from such games, in which "[t]here could be any crazy secret or weird creature."[11] [12]

Believing that control of the character was most important for the player's enjoyment of the game, the developers based the Knight's movement on Mega Man X. They gave the character no acceleration or deceleration when moving horizontally, as well as a large amount of aerial control and the ability to interrupt one's jump with a dash.[2] This was meant to make the player feel that any hit they took could have been avoided right up until the last second.[2]

To create the game's art, Gibson's hand-drawn sketches were scanned directly into the game engine, creating a "vivid sense of place". The developers decided to "keep it simple" in order to prevent the development time from becoming extremely protracted.[2] The complexity of the world was based on Metroid, which allows players to become disoriented and lost, focusing on the enjoyment of finding one's way. Only basic signs are placed throughout the world to direct players to important locations.[2] The largest design challenge for the game was creating the mapping system and finding a balance between not divulging the world's secrets while not being too player-unfriendly.[2]

Hollow Knight was revealed on Kickstarter in November 2014, seeking a "modest" sum of A$35,000. The game passed this goal, raising more than A$57,000 from 2,158 backers, allowing its scope to be expanded and another developer to be hired—technical director David Kazi—as well as composer Christopher Larkin.[2] The game reached a beta state in September 2015 and continued to achieve numerous stretch goals to add in more content after an engine switch from Stencyl to Unity.[13] Some of the stretch goal content, such as The Abyss, still made it into the game despite those goals not having been attained, albeit in heavily truncated form.[14]

Hollow Knight's PC and PlayStation 4 versions received "generally favorable" reviews and the Nintendo Switch and Xbox One versions received "universal acclaim", according to review aggregator Metacritic.[24][25][27] Jed Whitaker of Destructoid praised it as a "masterpiece of gaming ..., and certainly art worthy of being in a museum"[7] and, on PC Gamer, Tom Marks called it a "new classic".[5] Reviewers spoke highly of Hollow Knight's atmosphere, visuals, sound and music, noting the vastness of the game's world.

Critics recognized the combat system as simple,[28][29] unsurprising[5] or nuanced;[32] they praised its responsiveness, or "tightness", similarly to the movement system.[7][30][31][32][33] On IGN, Tom Marks stated: "The combat in Hollow Knight is relatively straightforward, but starts out tricky ... It rewards patience and skill massively".[29] In his review on PC Gamer, Marks praised the "brilliant" charm system: "What's so impressive about these charms is that I could never find a 'right' answer when equipping them. There were no wrong choices."[5] NintendoWorldReport stated: "Charms offer a huge variety of upgrades ... Some charms ... were so essential that removing them felt like trading a part of myself for a better chance at an upcoming battle."[31]

The difficulty of Hollow Knight received attention from reviewers and was described as challenging;[29][30][32] Vikki Blake of Eurogamer called the game "ruthlessly tough, even occasionally unfair".[28] For Nintendo World Report's Adam Abou-Nasr it also seemed unfair—he had "'so frustratingly hard that I cannot recommend this game' angrily scrawled in [his] notes"—but "it eventually clicked".[31] Destructoid "never found any of the bosses to be unfair".[7] Destructoid and Nintendo World Report reviewers felt a sense of accomplishment after difficult fights.[7][31] Critics also made comparisons to Dark Souls, noting the mechanic of losing currency on death and having to defeat a Shade to regain it.[7][30][32] Destructoid praised this feature, as well as the holding down of a button to heal, because "[t]hey circumvent a couple of issues games have always had, namely appropriate punishment for failing, and a risk-reward system".[7]

A sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong, is in development and is set to be released on Microsoft Windows, Mac, Linux, and Nintendo Switch, with Team Cherry stating that "more platforms may happen in the future". Team Cherry had previously planned this game as a piece of downloadable content.[53] Kickstarter backers of Hollow Knight will receive Silksong for free when it is released. This sequel will revolve around Hornet exploring the kingdom of Pharloom.[54]

• Official website