Hollow Knight

??? (2020-12?)
I'm adding a review for this after I finished playing Ori and the Blind Forest because it reminded me of this a lot when I first started playing it.

Hollow Knight is a great game. I think it's accurate what a lot of people say that it's basically a metroidvania mixed with some Dark Souls elements like the bonfires and the combat difficulty.

It's a very difficult game. Infuriatingly so at times. The vast majority of it is very fair. It forces you to get really good at reading the enemies and timing your moves and platforming very well. Which of course has the great feeling from a Souls game where you finally beat a boss and unlock the next save point and can breathe a sigh of relief.

The big problem I have with it however is there are a handful (a lot? I can't recall) of bosses where the save point is just far enough from the boss to make fighting them repeatedly this tedious, fucking slog where you're forced to platform/fight through some non-trivial enemies before you can fight them again. That shit grates me endlessly.

But beyond that, as I said, great combat. Good music. The level design is cool. It has a nice atmosphere and lore that is slowly trickled out as you play. Copped from Souls. Kingdom that falls into disrepair with some sort of evilness that sweeps throughout. Final boss is the last failed hero IIRC.

And I actually fought the final boss once, got him down to like 33%, failed and was done. I knew I could do it but grinding him repeatedly wasn't worth my time.

So yeah a lot of fun that I was addicted to for a good couple of weeks. Solid 8/10.

Looking forward to the sequel.