Hollow Knight

Gameplay screenshot in which the player fights the first boss enemy, the False Knight.

Hollow Knight is a 2D side-scrolling Metroidvania game that takes place in Hallownest, a fictional underground kingdom. The player controls an insect-like, silent, nameless knight while exploring the underground world. The Knight wields a Nail, which is a type of sword, that is used in both combat and environmental interaction.[1]

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 also learn spells, allowing for long-range attacks.[2] Defeated enemies drop currency called Geo.[3] The Knight starts with a limited number of hit points, which are represented by masks.[4] "Mask Shards" can be collected throughout the game to increase the player's maximum number of masks. 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 enemy appears where they died. The player loses all Geo and can hold a reduced amount of Soul. Players need to defeat the Shade enemy to recover the lost currency and to carry the normal amount of Soul.[4] 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.[5] Additional Soul Vessels, used to hold more Soul, can be acquired throughout the game.[4]

Many areas feature more challenging enemies and bosses which the player may need to defeat in order to progress further.[3] Defeating some bosses grants the player access to new abilities.[1] Later in the game, players acquire the Dream Nail, a special sword that can access the minds of Hallownest's creatures. It also enables the player to face more challenging versions of a few bosses and to break the seal to the final boss.[4] If the player defeats the final boss of the game, they are given access to a mode called "Steel Soul". In this mode, dying is permanent, and if the Knight loses all of their masks, the save slot will be reset.[6]

During the game, the player encounters bug-themed non-player characters (NPCs) with whom they can interact. These characters provide information about the game's plot and lore, offer aid, and sell items or services.[4] 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, granting more masks without regeneration, greater mobility, easier collecting of Geo or Soul, and other transformations to the Knight.[1][4] Equipping a charm takes up a certain number of limited slots, called notches.

Hallownest consists of several large, inter-connected areas with unique themes.[1] 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 various areas. The player may need to progress in the story of the game, or acquire a specific movement ability, skill, or item to progress further.[4] To fast travel through the game's world, the player can use Stag Stations, terminals connected to network of tunnels; players can only travel to previously visited and unlocked stations. Other fast travel methods, such as trams, lifts, and the "Dreamgate", are encountered later in the game.[3][7]

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.[2][3]

At the outset of the game, the Knight arrives in Dirtmouth, a quiet town that sits just above the remains of the kingdom of Hallownest. As the Knight ventures through the ruins, they learn that Hallownest was once a flourishing kingdom which fell to ruin after becoming overrun with "The Infection", a supernatural disease that drove the kingdom's citizens to madness and undeath. The ruler of Hallownest, the Pale King, attempted to lock away the Infection in the Temple of the Black Egg. The Infection still managed to escape the temple and Hallownest fell into ruin. The Knight's mission is to find and kill the three Dreamers who act as living seals on the temple door, allowing the Knight to confront the source of the Infection. This quest brings the Knight into conflict with Hornet, a warrior who tests their combat prowess in several battles.

Through dialogue with non-player characters and environmental imagery, the Knight receives insight into the origins of the Infection.[8] In ancient times, many of the creatures of Hallownest worshipped the Radiance, a primordial, moth-like being who could control the minds of other bugs. The Pale King arrived at Hallownest and used his power to give sapience to the creatures of the realm. The sentient bugs of Hallownest revered and worshipped the Pale King, draining the power of the Radiance as it fell into obscurity. Beneath the notice of the Pale King, some worship of the Radiance continued in secret, allowing it to remain alive in the Dream Realm.[9]

Hallownest prospered until the Radiance began appearing in the dreams of its people, poisoning their minds with the Infection. In an attempt to contain the menace, the Pale King used an ancient power called Void to create the Vessels; creatures that could trap the Infection within their own bodies. Most of the Vessels were unable to properly contain the Infection, and were subsequently abandoned in the Abyss beneath Hallownest. A few Vessels are shown to have escaped the Abyss, one being the Knight. Eventually, The Pale King chose the most suitable Vessel, deemed the "Hollow Knight", and used it to contain both the Infection and the Radiance. The Hollow Knight was sealed within the Temple of the Black Egg, but Radiance persisted within the Vessel, weakening the temple's seals and causing a resurgence of the Infection.

The Knight gradually defeats the Dreamers and their guardians, removing the seals and allowing access to the Hollow Knight, who has become almost completely taken over by the Infection. Depending on the player's actions, multiple endings can then be achieved. These endings include the Knight defeating the infected Hollow Knight and taking its place containing the Radiance, defeating the Hollow Knight with Hornet's assistance, or using the Void Heart item to become the Lord of Shades, allowing the Radiance to be directly fought and defeated inside the Dream Realm.[8][10]

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.[12] The game, considered "not very good", used to hold a 1/5 star rating on Newgrounds, but has since increased to 4/5.[12][13] 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.[12][14]

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."[15][16]

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.[12] This was meant to make the player feel that any hit they took could have been avoided right up until the last second.[12]

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.[12] 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.[12] 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.[12]

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.[12] 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.[17]

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 website Metacritic.[30][31][33] Jed Whitaker of Destructoid praised it as a "masterpiece of gaming"[3] and, on PC Gamer, Tom Marks called it a "new classic".[1] 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[34][35] and nuanced;[38] they praised its responsiveness, or "tightness", similarly to the movement system.[lower-alpha 1] On IGN, Marks stated: "The combat in Hollow Knight is relatively straightforward, but starts out tricky ... It rewards patience and skill massively".[35] 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."[1] Adam Abou-Nasr from NintendoWorldReport stated: "Charms offer a huge variety of upgrades ... removing them felt like trading a part of myself for a better chance at an upcoming battle."[37]

The difficulty of Hollow Knight received attention from reviewers and was described as challenging;[35][36][38] Vikki Blake of Eurogamer called the game "ruthlessly tough, even occasionally unfair".[34] 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".[37] Whitaker "never found any of the bosses to be unfair".[3] Destructoid and Nintendo World Report reviewers felt a sense of accomplishment after difficult fights.[3][37] Critics also made comparisons to Dark Souls, noting the mechanic of losing currency on death and having to defeat a Shade to regain it.[3][36][38] 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".[3]

A sequel to Hollow Knight titled Hollow Knight: Silksong, is in development by Team Cherry as of February 2019, and is set to be released on Microsoft Windows, Mac, Linux, Nintendo Switch, Playstation 4, Playstation 5,[60] Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.[61] The sequel will revolve around the character Hornet exploring the kingdom of Pharloom.[62] Game demos of Hollow Knight : Silksong demonstrate similar combat styles to the original game, but with several gameplay differences. The player character Hornet is more mobile than the Knight, and uses tools instead of Charms.[63] The game was announced in February 2019 but has not yet received a release date. Team Cherry had previously planned this game as a piece of downloadable content for its predecessor, but decided to market it an individual title as its content grew too large.[64]

• Official website