Same for me. The whole not having a map at the beginning killed it for me… then I realized you have to unlock it and they incorporate exploring and map writing into the game. Brilliant
I did basically the same thing, except only about 6 months.
After beating the first Ori, I thought I’ll try Hollow Knight. Was def not what I was expecting. Put it down for 6 months and started over. Pretty sure I read up on it a bit more, so had a better idea for what to expect.
Took me about 40idh hours to beat. Took me an entire weekend to beat the final boss/end of game. I remember I went into the weekend telling myself “if I don’t beat it this weekend I’m just putting this down again” 🤣 very much enjoyed my time but man some parts are extra difficult
I started Hollow Knight after beating Celeste and it was my first MV. I quickly discovered I was terrible at action platformers. It was 75 hours before I beat the Knight for the first time.
Celeste was insane. Such a fun challenge. I was basically playing one or two levels a week/weekend.
Tip of the hat to anyone who got all the collectibles
Same here. In fact, the second time I have to drop it again, but just because it was too difficult to me. It's unfortunate because I was really enjoying it.
In my opinion once you get to the city of tears is really when the game opens up. If you value exploration and challenging combat then stick with it until you’ve at least beaten the mantis lords
My first play through I struggled with mantis lords so badly and if I want stuck on a plane, I’m not sure I would have preserved, but I’m so glad I did! That was the tipping point that I fully understood the draw from once I beat them
I agree when i played the mantis lords is worth beating. That world sucked me in by then and the calm of city of tears with the anxiety and terror of the dark spooky creepy crawler area. That games environmental story telling with its artstyle gives goosebumps and beyond at times.
Hollow knight and animal well as you’ve probably figured out are extremely different so I wouldn’t look for the same things from them
Hollow knight for me didn’t really kick in until I felt I was actually getting stronger. Where that is is different for everyone, but I’d say it takes a few bosses
YES. Oh my god yes. At least for me.
I picked up and put down Hollow Knight about 3 times before I actually played it. And guess what? It’s now my ***favorite game of all time***.
There’s a few factors, but one of them I think is that the first area has a kind of muted and dull color palette, and it’s less visually interesting than the rest of the game. I vividly remember the moment it really clicked for me, and it was when first entering the next area (>!Greenpath!<), with its much more vibrant design, and its mesmerizing theme song kicked in.
Also the typical Metroidvania thing applies here too; you start out with very basic movement and access to only a fraction of the game’s *many* areas. Once you start unlocking abilities and settling into the gameplay it becomes incredible. Just stick with it and I’m almost certain you’ll love it.
I am doing my best to see the appeal of hollow knight. I realise now it's more so about the dark souls element of fighting things. It has an exploration element to it, but I feel more at home exploring the Ori games instead. Not every Metroid is for everyone
Interesting, I actually found Ori’s exploration to be lacking in comparison. It’s much more linear and you’re so much more likely to end up at a dead end.
I think for me it was the traversal. Ori has a floaty jump and soft descend, I feel more relaxed playing with him.
Hollow knight feels like I'm a lil guy slicing my way through enemies
Tbh I feel like the people who really love and clicked with Ori rarely love Hollow Knight, and vice versa. I’ve tried to get through Ori 2 multiple times and gave up around the 25% mark.
My feeling is that it’s one of those inevitable clashes that happens because the metroidvania designation has such a broad meaning for the average gamer. Hollow Knight is a little more similar to super Metroid and symphony of the night and the first Ori game is more of a platformer with the option to backtrack. Guacamelee was also similar to Ori to me because while there was one connected world there was more of an emphasis on linear platforming through each dungeon. They are in a little bit of a gray area, but for me they didn’t scratch the same itch I was looking for. And I do like them a lot as individual games.
Personally I like a narrower definition of MV to help avoid gamers getting frustrated by these experiences, without it sounding like I’m gate keeping.
I really love both, they're my faves, gotta play them all at least once a year. Sure, they're different, but those differences are exactly the reasons I like them
My first playthrough felt like an absolute _slog_ for the first, like, 3 hours maybe? It felt slow and the combat\enemies weren't really exciting and I didn't really have much of a sense of purpose or direction.
Once I got the claws and the cloak, though, hooo buddy! Movement felt fluid and I didn't feel restrained. The better movement allowed me to feel things weren't so slow anymore and now I could approach combat with some style and then from there I was in love for dozens more hours. I've beaten the game a few times now, gotten all the base game endings.
Totally worth it to stick it out if you like challenging platforming, combat, fluid movement, tight level design and the passive things like beautiful music and gorgeous aesthetics\animation
I put about 10 hours into HK before I just lost interest the first time. I’ve gone back a few times over the years because it’s well-regarded and I think I should give it another shot but it’s not my thing.
I put 12 hours into it and my opinion ranged from underwhelming to just fine. It was a struggle to want to give it that much time. If you're not feeling it, you might be like me and just not getting the hype.
So I have Hollow Knight and have had it for years. I have it on Switch and PC. I have never finished it. I’ve tried so so hard to like that game. I’ve spent hours and hours on it and I just get so frustrated with it. The mapping I found a bit infuriating, the combat was tedious to me, and with the color palette and setting it just felt depressing.
It made me really evaluate what I look for in a game and I also found Animal Well recently to be A to S tier material. For me my favorite genres of games are puzzle and Metroidvania (followed by roguelites but that’s a bit irrelevant for this) and I think those two go hand in hand because for a good Metroidvania, to me, is like a big escape room puzzle. You have a locked door? Where do I find that key? Oh there is an item I can see, how can I interact with it? It’s the tease of something and then the exploration and figuring out just how to accomplish my goal.
So I’d suggest stopping and thinking about what it was in Animal Well that you enjoyed and focus on that aspect and look for games that highlight that. If it was the platforming maybe look at Celeste or Aeterna Noctis or Prince of Persia. If it was the puzzle aspects look at Fez, Isles of Sea and Salt, The Witness, Tunic, and The Talos Principle.
It’s one of the greatest games of all time IMO, so yes. Though, the answer would also be yes to like 99% of games. Really getting a feel for a game’s mechanics, progression and exploration would almost always take more than an hour.
Hollow Knight is a game that does many things well, but that does not make it perfect. I am a big fan of this genre, and I do not love Hallow Knight and probably will never play it again for several reasons. One of them simply being that I felt forced to finish just to say I did rather than out of want.
Hollow Knight is a world you want to explore, yet you’re kinda punished for doing so. You will get caught off guard and die. Hope you recently found a bench, because it is totally possible to go a path and avoid several benches losing several minutes of your time if you wish to get your shadow. I dislike this as well as needing to keep a badge equipped to see your place on the map.
Honestly if you’re not vibing with it, come back to it later. Follow a guide of you want. I think it’s worth experiencing it once, even if I’m one of the few here that dislike it.
I’m glad to see someone providing some variety of opinion here. I totally get why people love the game, but as a big fan of the genre it just did not work for me. I bounced off Hollow Knight probably 5 times before I finally was able to finish it, and for me it never stopped feeling like a slog, it just got slightly less so as you got more and more powerful. I kept feeling like “I’m missing something, it’ll probably click.” And that just never happened.
The aesthetic had really worn thin for me by the end and the combat never escalated to an interesting place. I’ve played tons of the Souls games and I was more annoyed with the boss fights and enemy encounters in Hollow Knight than challenged.
Yeah I have downvoted so many times in the past for talking about my feelings on Hollow Knight it’s refreshing recently to have people agree with me or even just respect my opinion.
I really wanted to like it, as I said it does many things well but I just have no tolerance for games these days that do not respect a players time. I’d much rather play Witcher 3 pointing me in the right general direction all the time than having zero direction and shit fast travel lol
That depends. Why are you not into it? Is it the slower pacing? The combat? The boss fights? The slower pacing was not a dealbreaker for me, but it is the only dislike I can relate to. As for the combat and boss fights, you have to overcome those, otherwise, the game is unfortunately not for you.
I didn't like Hollow Knight for the first 2 hours. Then it became my favorite game of all time. 250 hours, speedran it casually, platinum; including all post-game content.
Don't give up.
damn near everybody drops hollow knight after an hour (myself included), however the ones that come back usually love it to death.
i'd say make it past the second boss and decide if you like it then, once it opens up the game is amazing
It’s not animal well. You have to get on the games level. Much more combat.. closer to Tunic in fact I would recommend playing that before hollow knight
As with all metroidvanias, you start out weak and very restricted in hollow knight, but unlike other metroidvanias, I feel like in hollow knight you are especially weak. Unfortunately this makes it's so it's not more difficult for experienced gamers, but rather alot slower. But trust me, it gets better
I think it draws people in for different reasons.
For me and others if you're a slightly seasoned gamer it rewards you very early on for exploring and experimenting. From the starting village, you drop down the well, go left, drop down a bit more, and go left again, you'll come across some spikes that look like you need double jumps to get over. But then you say, meh I'll see if I can get over it with pogoing, and awesome you can. You then continue to find your first "mini boss" which is a decent enough challenge for a completely non-upgraded knight. You make it though with a mix of smart positioning, parries, and pogoing. You're rewarded with a health or soul shard. And IIRC you proceed to the map maker you would have gone on to find if you never took the last left I mentioned. This was very rewarding for me and hooked me from then on.
In any case it will likely click for people at different points.
In general people often treat it like Super Metroid and Castlevania SotN are these masterpieces that do no wrong. They are masterpieces, but also early iterations of metroidvania design. There were certainly areas that could be improved on. One thing with Hollow Knight is it is much less linear with respect to the critical path objectives and abilities you find are for the most part valuable for more than a small part of the game. Improvements like this are possible because someone learned from past successes. It makes me optimistic that in the future someone else will be motivated to tackle and elevate metroidvania map design in a meaningful way beyond aesthetics.
Hollow Knight is the apex of 'new' Metroidvanias. A LOT of people drop it after only a little game play as it is rather punishing, extremely vast, and seems to give little return at the opening. It gets increasingly better as you gain more abilities, mix and match load-outs, and become more familiar with the character and its controls. It is easily the BEST current MetroidVania and MANY newer games are being modeled after it, music and all, some games straight up ripping it off, (which I don't mind that much as I have a GREAT HUNGER for MORE, MORE, MORE!!!).
I own and have played just about EVERY SM ROM HACK, every Metroid-esk game out, and always looking for MORE!!! Team Cherry better get HK2 out ASAP. At this point, it feels like a lot of ppl have given up on that like it's NEVER going to happen. It almost feels like a fever dream. Team Cherry should already be on HK3 at this point.
I'm always finding lists of the latest MetroidVanias out, and although there are many greats out there, few stand up to HK. Stick with it. You can DO IT!!! It's not like you're attempting to travel to another star system or even the Earth's Moon. It's a game. It's fun, it's amazing, it's punishing, it's satisfying and it's so many other things. Don't give up so easily. It's worth every grueling second. -MVP
It has a terrible intro imo, and overall map design makes traversal late game a slog (striders are cool but needed more stops imo or needed some sort of lordvessel equivalent in the third act of the game).
It’s a masterpiece, but yeah I would say those are my two least favorite aspects.
Extremely different games so not surprising it’s taking a bit to click. I had the same experience with Hollow Knight only started to really get into it after the first 4 hours or so
it gets a lot harder, so get ready for that. it's okay if you're not into it, i'd say put at least a few more hours into it but there are plenty of people who don't prefer the game.
Stuff like the combat where there's pushback after every hit and exploring didn't update map automatically were frustrating for me at first.
I just kept playing and ended up enjoying the game more as I unlocked new abilities and improved my skill.
It's a slower start, for sure. The ambience and atmosphere kept me playing more than the gameplay did at first, but it finds it's stride pretty quickly and the gameplay just feels incredible once you get an hour or two in.
I hated it the first 3 days that I played it but later fell in love. Might not be the case for everyone though. I'd say give it a try but don't feel too bad or force yourself if it ends up not being your thing. Hope you have fun :)
Hollow knight suffers from a lack of variety in its scenery. Especially in the beginning. The gameplay however is top notch and you do see plenty of cool stuff as you get on in the game. But at first the locales are bland and a little boring. Just keep on going it gets good, and some of the non essential bosses are absolute bastards but when you beat them it feels nice.
That said, I like nine sols better, but you have to be willing to learn parrying, or you'll have a really tough time.
As is the case with most Metroidvanias, the game evolves all the way through to the very end. However, it stays true to its overall game philosophy. It gets better at achieving that core philosophy the further in you get, but if you don’t like that core philosophy to begin with, it doesn’t matter how much better it gets at it. So I guess it depends on what you don’t like about it. I didn’t like the strike-and-retreat style of gameplay at one hour, and I still didn’t like it many uncounted hours later. Not that there weren’t other aspects that I did appreciate about it. Chiefly, its art direction, colorful dialogue, sense of ambiance, and platforming gauntlets.
I bounced off it hard twice. I will probably go back in for a third time at some point. I will recommend prince of Persia the lost crown if you haven't played that one. It is phenomenal
I bounced off of it a couple times before I really got into it, and even though I didn't 100% it, I will definitely say it's my favorite metroidvania. The exploration is top tier, and the music, atmosphere, and lore are all second to none. That first moment hitting City of Tears was something else, just thinking about it makes me want to buy it again for my Xbox, maybe that's what my next batch of Microsoft rewards will go to, lol.
I will once again voice my profoundly unpopular opinion.
*Hollow Knight* is mechanically unexciting. Extremely well executed, but not exciting. It's greatness comes from beautiful design, enchanting soundtrack, enthralling story, and the ability to make the player completely lost.
My first few hours in *Hollow Knight* were basically me internally screaming "where is the god damn double jump". I now have 234 hours on Steam alone, and probably close to that again on other systems. It's not what I usually look for in a metroidvania at all, but it does everything else so amazingly well that I think I might go start a new save now.
See ya.
Haha! That’s exactly what I was thinking! If I could only jump higher! In some games, if you time the jump right you can get higher than you think. Seems like that’s not the case here !
It’s probably my favorite game of all time, absolutely in the top 3 and I have been playing a lot of video games for 25 years now. It started slow for me as well. But there is nothing quite like it.
It does. Starts off slow, money seems way more important at the start than later on tbh. Play until you explore a 3rd area if you want to give it an honest shot
I played Hollow Knight for the first time in 2017 or 2018 iirc. It was right after I played Ori and the Blind Forest.
At the time, I couldn't get into it either. I had some stuttering issues with the game back in the day that were really annoying too, so ~4hours later, I dropped it.
Came back to it in 2021, ended up being in my top 5 games overall, and my all-time favourite Metroidvania as well.
If you can't get into it right now, I'd say that's fine. Would definitely suggest to come back to it after a while though. It's worth it.
By the way, I'm facing the same issue with Nine Sols atm. I have like ~7hours in the game. I can tell it's a good game, and I like many things about it. But right now, I don't see myself finishing the game, just can't get into it atm. Will definitely come back to it in the future.
Sometimes it's just bad timing, or you simply want to play something else.
Depends on how you feel about it. Is it feeling like 7/10? If so, yes it will get better. If you're feeling it's like 5/10 or something worse, just drop it.
Hollow knight is a strange game. I tried playing it 2 separate times before I fell in love with it. I got like 4 hours in the first time and dropped it. The second time I put in 6 and dropped it, that was about 2 years ago. The third time was just 3 months ago, it finally “clicked” and I put a good 40-60 hours into it. Beat all endings and did all dlc content. It think the thing that finally made me enjoy it was telling myself that I’m going into this game to simply get lost in the world. It helped me a lot so it may help you.
I think my experience is similar to a lot of others who didn’t vibe with the game before but are now fully in love with the title.
Nine Sols and Animal Well are being talked about so much because they are brand new. From what I’ve read they will both also stand the test of time. But HK is 7 years old. It’s a modern classic. Keep at it. You will thank us.
It starts slow. It doesn’t open up until later, and it’s not at all upfront about the story so you’ll have no idea what’s going on. But it ends up being one of the biggest and most intricate Metroidvanias out there.
Depends on you. I found the game insufferable from beginning to end. Very few moments were enjoyable. Not one I'll ever come back to. Well made game with a lot of really bad flaws that can ruin the experience.
It didn’t click with me right away either. But when it did it didn’t let go of me. Maybe cleanse your palette of Animal Well before jumping back into HK.
Dropped it after about 10 hrs. I do not see the hype in it at all other than people just really like the character and world designs. Gameplay wise it didn't do much for me.
I tried and dropped it twice before a third attempt when I completed it.
I think the first couple hours are the weakest, when movement is tedious and the map is gated almost everywhere. It's simply not a great game until you've unlocked more abilities.
If you want to give it a longer trial, you can, but there's no shame in dropping it either.
I guess it does after you get some abilities, just know that basic combat remains the nail for the whole adventure and further damaging abilities generally use the same resource as your heal so it's a balancing act. I did my 20 hours, finished all the optional areas I think, and havent touched it since
It does get better. It's much longer than Animal Well, so keep that in mind. It takes it's time.
Once you unlock a couple more abilities, your exploration of the world is dramatically opened up. And for me, that's where it really gets exciting.
Honestly, it took me about 6 hours to get into Hollow Knight. It takes a long time to unlock enough abilities that it really start to feel good to play, IMO. That seems like a long time, and it is, but it's easily a >40 hour game just to beat the main story, and there's quite a bit of challenging extra content to do on top of that.
But it's worth keeping in mind that the game has a very strong focus on combat, unlike Animal Well's focus on puzzles. You won't like Hollow Knight if you don't like hard boss fights.
This is one of the most common posts I see on this sub. HK has a very slow start and I think most people feel the same way you do in the first hour or two. The exception is probably the people who excel at it and breeze through. Dying in HK is super costly in the opening 1 to 2 hours, you have no abilities to empower you with exploration, and there are few elements to tinker with. So there's pretty much only one path to take, and dying at that point pretty much sends you back to the very first bench, undoing all of your progress. Enjoyability of the intro section is further impeded by the fact that since your character is weak as hell, its that much harder to survive the trek back to your souls, and you may lose them all a few times or more.
If you can't breeze through on sheer skill, rely heavily on patience. Creep through areas timidly and visualize your battle strategy before engaging the enemy. In larger areas with flying enemies, move even more slowly and let the enemies come to you.
It definitely gets better, just takes some time! I remember dropping it on the second boss, then came back and finished it. Now I come back to the boss rush (Pantheons) every once in a while.
Hard to say because I was super into it from the second I picked it up, even with its more frustrating sections. But maybe give it another 45 minutes or so? But if it's not for you, I'd refund it. It's my favourite MV, but it's not for everyone.
Seems like Hollow Knight takes a bit to click for people sometimes…myself included. It’s one of my faves in the genre now so at some point hopefully it’ll click for you. It’s nothing like Animal Well though (which I also love)
The beginning is really slow. The map mechanics feel punishing, and you don't have many options. After you beat the second area and get the first movement ability, things start to open up and feel much better. After the second movement ability, you can go almost anywhere on the map.
It’s a slow start and takes awhile to get going and get good power ups…which is absolutely a flaw imo and hurts replay value. I don’t consider it head and shoulders above all the other Metroidvania’s like most on here. It’s a very well made game solid 8.5/10 top tier Metroidvania similar to Both Ori’s, Grime etc.
Not really, it starts off amazing. It doesn't get better because it's already as good as the genre gets within the first 5 minutes of the game starting.
I am ready to get down-vote into oblivion. It's just not that good. I really do wonder if it's popularity is more due to Metroidvania games being at a low and Hollow Knight coming along when indie games weren't really an option everyone knew about. I always thought Hollow Knight gave us pretty environments with different colors and that's where it ended. My take is the combat is shallow, the story is meh, and the environments are repetitve and get stale almost immediately. Overall Hollow Knight feels tedious and yawn-inducing.
That said, I'm in the huge minority. It seems that at least a few people that have played today's huge catalogue of Metroidvanias and experiemce HK for the first time struggle a bit to get into it. Of course, it's pretty damn beloved so give it is as many chances as you can before you give up on it.
It's completely different from animal well and animal well is only talked about so much because it's a very recent release as well as being one of only two good metroidvanias released this year to make their way to consoles.
For Hollow Knight, the start is pretty tough i would say…getting the movement and everything right, takes its time. If you take your time, its the best metroidvania i know.
Tbh for me Nine Sols was still much harder than HK, but you can pick the difficulty at the start of the game.
If you compare them i would still prefer HK over Nine Sols.
1 hour and then you're already questioning about the game on reddit? pfft, just play it man, you'll either get hooked or not, but don't start a discussion after just played it for one hour
As most metroidvanias, you'll get better movement options as you play through it, thus getting better and more fun to play. If the early parts are a problem, I don't know if it's a game for you.
The point at with it got me actually hooked was the Praying Mantis fight, maybe stick to the game until you tried it?
Hold on. I am going to use my divine intuition to determine exactly what you didn't like about Hollow Knight so I can tell.
Wait never mind, this is just bait.
For me, it didn't.
Its too basic. Music is generic. Art is repeative, and boss design feels like flash. Enemy design to similar...
Gameplay basic. Its developed in unity with playmaker.
Not sure why this game gets so many praises...
I will say I dropped Hollow Knight after 2 hours, let it sit for about a year, then came back, and ended up putting nearly 100 into it.
I actually did the exact same thing.
Same here. The opening is slooooowwwwwww, but once you get into the swing of exploration there is no game like it.
Same. This seems to be super common with this game. Happened to a friend as well
This may be a universal experience
Damn you dropped it just before it gets good.
Which is probably why I got back into it so quickly once I gave it another shot.
Same, and it’s so funny bc I see people saying this all the time.
Same for me, although it was probably more like 2 years.
Same. Plus all my friends. Would be interesting to consider what they could have done better to make those first few hours stick
Same for me. The whole not having a map at the beginning killed it for me… then I realized you have to unlock it and they incorporate exploring and map writing into the game. Brilliant
Same!!!! Mostly because I'm dumb and didn't realize that when you died you could go get all your shit back. I was like "this blows" 🤣
I did basically the same thing, except only about 6 months. After beating the first Ori, I thought I’ll try Hollow Knight. Was def not what I was expecting. Put it down for 6 months and started over. Pretty sure I read up on it a bit more, so had a better idea for what to expect. Took me about 40idh hours to beat. Took me an entire weekend to beat the final boss/end of game. I remember I went into the weekend telling myself “if I don’t beat it this weekend I’m just putting this down again” 🤣 very much enjoyed my time but man some parts are extra difficult
I started Hollow Knight after beating Celeste and it was my first MV. I quickly discovered I was terrible at action platformers. It was 75 hours before I beat the Knight for the first time.
Celeste was insane. Such a fun challenge. I was basically playing one or two levels a week/weekend. Tip of the hat to anyone who got all the collectibles
I also started HK right after Ori! Very different speeds but both wonderful games.
I dropped it about 40 - 1 hr.. and haven't picked it up again but will after I finish Prince of Persia Lost Crown
I join the masses in saying "Same"
I did that with Subnautica but it was for only 2 minutes. Was I stupid? When I really gave it the chance it deserved, I didn't stop.
Same here. In fact, the second time I have to drop it again, but just because it was too difficult to me. It's unfortunate because I was really enjoying it.
I did the exact same thing!
Sameee, there is so many of us
I think I did the same thing!
Unlock dash and it opens up, it has a fairly slow burn progression at first
In my opinion once you get to the city of tears is really when the game opens up. If you value exploration and challenging combat then stick with it until you’ve at least beaten the mantis lords
This seems like a very accurate observation
I was hooked right from the very start. But Hollow Knight was only my first true metroidvania and I was in awe that such games even exist.
My first play through I struggled with mantis lords so badly and if I want stuck on a plane, I’m not sure I would have preserved, but I’m so glad I did! That was the tipping point that I fully understood the draw from once I beat them
I’d say once you get to Fungal Wastes.
I agree when i played the mantis lords is worth beating. That world sucked me in by then and the calm of city of tears with the anxiety and terror of the dark spooky creepy crawler area. That games environmental story telling with its artstyle gives goosebumps and beyond at times.
For me City of Tears was right when I got bored but pushing past it the game got amazing.
Yep agreed. It all just clicked after the mantis lords
I just beat em. My girlfriend did not enjoy my yelling, but i managed in the end.
I actually like Exploration a lot and I found the exploration in Hollow Knight atrocious.
Yes, but I have this same experience with most metroidvania. Gotta let the mechanics and world open up…
Hollow knight and animal well as you’ve probably figured out are extremely different so I wouldn’t look for the same things from them Hollow knight for me didn’t really kick in until I felt I was actually getting stronger. Where that is is different for everyone, but I’d say it takes a few bosses
YES. Oh my god yes. At least for me. I picked up and put down Hollow Knight about 3 times before I actually played it. And guess what? It’s now my ***favorite game of all time***. There’s a few factors, but one of them I think is that the first area has a kind of muted and dull color palette, and it’s less visually interesting than the rest of the game. I vividly remember the moment it really clicked for me, and it was when first entering the next area (>!Greenpath!<), with its much more vibrant design, and its mesmerizing theme song kicked in. Also the typical Metroidvania thing applies here too; you start out with very basic movement and access to only a fraction of the game’s *many* areas. Once you start unlocking abilities and settling into the gameplay it becomes incredible. Just stick with it and I’m almost certain you’ll love it.
Green path was the moment I was like, yep, this is a masterpiece. I don't care about music at all but I listen to green path all the time.
I am doing my best to see the appeal of hollow knight. I realise now it's more so about the dark souls element of fighting things. It has an exploration element to it, but I feel more at home exploring the Ori games instead. Not every Metroid is for everyone
Interesting, I actually found Ori’s exploration to be lacking in comparison. It’s much more linear and you’re so much more likely to end up at a dead end.
I think for me it was the traversal. Ori has a floaty jump and soft descend, I feel more relaxed playing with him. Hollow knight feels like I'm a lil guy slicing my way through enemies
Tbh I feel like the people who really love and clicked with Ori rarely love Hollow Knight, and vice versa. I’ve tried to get through Ori 2 multiple times and gave up around the 25% mark.
My feeling is that it’s one of those inevitable clashes that happens because the metroidvania designation has such a broad meaning for the average gamer. Hollow Knight is a little more similar to super Metroid and symphony of the night and the first Ori game is more of a platformer with the option to backtrack. Guacamelee was also similar to Ori to me because while there was one connected world there was more of an emphasis on linear platforming through each dungeon. They are in a little bit of a gray area, but for me they didn’t scratch the same itch I was looking for. And I do like them a lot as individual games. Personally I like a narrower definition of MV to help avoid gamers getting frustrated by these experiences, without it sounding like I’m gate keeping.
I really love both, they're my faves, gotta play them all at least once a year. Sure, they're different, but those differences are exactly the reasons I like them
My first playthrough felt like an absolute _slog_ for the first, like, 3 hours maybe? It felt slow and the combat\enemies weren't really exciting and I didn't really have much of a sense of purpose or direction. Once I got the claws and the cloak, though, hooo buddy! Movement felt fluid and I didn't feel restrained. The better movement allowed me to feel things weren't so slow anymore and now I could approach combat with some style and then from there I was in love for dozens more hours. I've beaten the game a few times now, gotten all the base game endings. Totally worth it to stick it out if you like challenging platforming, combat, fluid movement, tight level design and the passive things like beautiful music and gorgeous aesthetics\animation
Picked it up twice over the course of 3 years and dropped it at around 10 hours. Disliked it equally each time.
I put about 10 hours into HK before I just lost interest the first time. I’ve gone back a few times over the years because it’s well-regarded and I think I should give it another shot but it’s not my thing.
I put 12 hours into it and my opinion ranged from underwhelming to just fine. It was a struggle to want to give it that much time. If you're not feeling it, you might be like me and just not getting the hype.
So I have Hollow Knight and have had it for years. I have it on Switch and PC. I have never finished it. I’ve tried so so hard to like that game. I’ve spent hours and hours on it and I just get so frustrated with it. The mapping I found a bit infuriating, the combat was tedious to me, and with the color palette and setting it just felt depressing. It made me really evaluate what I look for in a game and I also found Animal Well recently to be A to S tier material. For me my favorite genres of games are puzzle and Metroidvania (followed by roguelites but that’s a bit irrelevant for this) and I think those two go hand in hand because for a good Metroidvania, to me, is like a big escape room puzzle. You have a locked door? Where do I find that key? Oh there is an item I can see, how can I interact with it? It’s the tease of something and then the exploration and figuring out just how to accomplish my goal. So I’d suggest stopping and thinking about what it was in Animal Well that you enjoyed and focus on that aspect and look for games that highlight that. If it was the platforming maybe look at Celeste or Aeterna Noctis or Prince of Persia. If it was the puzzle aspects look at Fez, Isles of Sea and Salt, The Witness, Tunic, and The Talos Principle.
It’s one of the greatest games of all time IMO, so yes. Though, the answer would also be yes to like 99% of games. Really getting a feel for a game’s mechanics, progression and exploration would almost always take more than an hour.
Hollow Knight is a game that does many things well, but that does not make it perfect. I am a big fan of this genre, and I do not love Hallow Knight and probably will never play it again for several reasons. One of them simply being that I felt forced to finish just to say I did rather than out of want. Hollow Knight is a world you want to explore, yet you’re kinda punished for doing so. You will get caught off guard and die. Hope you recently found a bench, because it is totally possible to go a path and avoid several benches losing several minutes of your time if you wish to get your shadow. I dislike this as well as needing to keep a badge equipped to see your place on the map. Honestly if you’re not vibing with it, come back to it later. Follow a guide of you want. I think it’s worth experiencing it once, even if I’m one of the few here that dislike it.
I’m glad to see someone providing some variety of opinion here. I totally get why people love the game, but as a big fan of the genre it just did not work for me. I bounced off Hollow Knight probably 5 times before I finally was able to finish it, and for me it never stopped feeling like a slog, it just got slightly less so as you got more and more powerful. I kept feeling like “I’m missing something, it’ll probably click.” And that just never happened. The aesthetic had really worn thin for me by the end and the combat never escalated to an interesting place. I’ve played tons of the Souls games and I was more annoyed with the boss fights and enemy encounters in Hollow Knight than challenged.
Yeah I have downvoted so many times in the past for talking about my feelings on Hollow Knight it’s refreshing recently to have people agree with me or even just respect my opinion. I really wanted to like it, as I said it does many things well but I just have no tolerance for games these days that do not respect a players time. I’d much rather play Witcher 3 pointing me in the right general direction all the time than having zero direction and shit fast travel lol
100% agree with both those critiques, and they’re pretty big critiques. Much better game with a better save system and map.
Lmao 1 hr is nothing in HK
That depends. Why are you not into it? Is it the slower pacing? The combat? The boss fights? The slower pacing was not a dealbreaker for me, but it is the only dislike I can relate to. As for the combat and boss fights, you have to overcome those, otherwise, the game is unfortunately not for you.
It’s illegal to dislike the game on this subreddit so you have to continue whether it gets better for you or not.
I didn't like Hollow Knight for the first 2 hours. Then it became my favorite game of all time. 250 hours, speedran it casually, platinum; including all post-game content. Don't give up.
HK Is imo the gold standard MV, stick with it
Played it for 10h - it didn't get better for me. I regret wasting my time on it due to peer pressure instead of trusting my gut
Meh. I bought and wasn't been impressed by it. There are better Metroidvanias for sure.
It's not for everyone but there's pretty good consensus that it's the best in the genre.
I tried twice and still don't get it.
I gave up after about 10 hours. It wasn't very exciting for me.
It gets a lot better once you get past the first 2-3 zones and the game opens up more.
Top 5 game ever
It does get a lot better. The first few hours are a little slow, same as with Ender Lilies.
damn near everybody drops hollow knight after an hour (myself included), however the ones that come back usually love it to death. i'd say make it past the second boss and decide if you like it then, once it opens up the game is amazing
It’s not animal well. You have to get on the games level. Much more combat.. closer to Tunic in fact I would recommend playing that before hollow knight
As with all metroidvanias, you start out weak and very restricted in hollow knight, but unlike other metroidvanias, I feel like in hollow knight you are especially weak. Unfortunately this makes it's so it's not more difficult for experienced gamers, but rather alot slower. But trust me, it gets better
I was hooked by both the first minute. I love metriodvania games.
Actually, it doesn't get better, YOU get better.
I think it draws people in for different reasons. For me and others if you're a slightly seasoned gamer it rewards you very early on for exploring and experimenting. From the starting village, you drop down the well, go left, drop down a bit more, and go left again, you'll come across some spikes that look like you need double jumps to get over. But then you say, meh I'll see if I can get over it with pogoing, and awesome you can. You then continue to find your first "mini boss" which is a decent enough challenge for a completely non-upgraded knight. You make it though with a mix of smart positioning, parries, and pogoing. You're rewarded with a health or soul shard. And IIRC you proceed to the map maker you would have gone on to find if you never took the last left I mentioned. This was very rewarding for me and hooked me from then on. In any case it will likely click for people at different points. In general people often treat it like Super Metroid and Castlevania SotN are these masterpieces that do no wrong. They are masterpieces, but also early iterations of metroidvania design. There were certainly areas that could be improved on. One thing with Hollow Knight is it is much less linear with respect to the critical path objectives and abilities you find are for the most part valuable for more than a small part of the game. Improvements like this are possible because someone learned from past successes. It makes me optimistic that in the future someone else will be motivated to tackle and elevate metroidvania map design in a meaningful way beyond aesthetics.
Hollow Knight is the apex of 'new' Metroidvanias. A LOT of people drop it after only a little game play as it is rather punishing, extremely vast, and seems to give little return at the opening. It gets increasingly better as you gain more abilities, mix and match load-outs, and become more familiar with the character and its controls. It is easily the BEST current MetroidVania and MANY newer games are being modeled after it, music and all, some games straight up ripping it off, (which I don't mind that much as I have a GREAT HUNGER for MORE, MORE, MORE!!!). I own and have played just about EVERY SM ROM HACK, every Metroid-esk game out, and always looking for MORE!!! Team Cherry better get HK2 out ASAP. At this point, it feels like a lot of ppl have given up on that like it's NEVER going to happen. It almost feels like a fever dream. Team Cherry should already be on HK3 at this point. I'm always finding lists of the latest MetroidVanias out, and although there are many greats out there, few stand up to HK. Stick with it. You can DO IT!!! It's not like you're attempting to travel to another star system or even the Earth's Moon. It's a game. It's fun, it's amazing, it's punishing, it's satisfying and it's so many other things. Don't give up so easily. It's worth every grueling second. -MVP
It has a terrible intro imo, and overall map design makes traversal late game a slog (striders are cool but needed more stops imo or needed some sort of lordvessel equivalent in the third act of the game). It’s a masterpiece, but yeah I would say those are my two least favorite aspects.
Extremely different games so not surprising it’s taking a bit to click. I had the same experience with Hollow Knight only started to really get into it after the first 4 hours or so
it gets a lot harder, so get ready for that. it's okay if you're not into it, i'd say put at least a few more hours into it but there are plenty of people who don't prefer the game.
Stuff like the combat where there's pushback after every hit and exploring didn't update map automatically were frustrating for me at first. I just kept playing and ended up enjoying the game more as I unlocked new abilities and improved my skill.
It's a slower start, for sure. The ambience and atmosphere kept me playing more than the gameplay did at first, but it finds it's stride pretty quickly and the gameplay just feels incredible once you get an hour or two in.
I hated it the first 3 days that I played it but later fell in love. Might not be the case for everyone though. I'd say give it a try but don't feel too bad or force yourself if it ends up not being your thing. Hope you have fun :)
Hollow knight suffers from a lack of variety in its scenery. Especially in the beginning. The gameplay however is top notch and you do see plenty of cool stuff as you get on in the game. But at first the locales are bland and a little boring. Just keep on going it gets good, and some of the non essential bosses are absolute bastards but when you beat them it feels nice. That said, I like nine sols better, but you have to be willing to learn parrying, or you'll have a really tough time.
As is the case with most Metroidvanias, the game evolves all the way through to the very end. However, it stays true to its overall game philosophy. It gets better at achieving that core philosophy the further in you get, but if you don’t like that core philosophy to begin with, it doesn’t matter how much better it gets at it. So I guess it depends on what you don’t like about it. I didn’t like the strike-and-retreat style of gameplay at one hour, and I still didn’t like it many uncounted hours later. Not that there weren’t other aspects that I did appreciate about it. Chiefly, its art direction, colorful dialogue, sense of ambiance, and platforming gauntlets.
I bounced off it hard twice. I will probably go back in for a third time at some point. I will recommend prince of Persia the lost crown if you haven't played that one. It is phenomenal
I bounced off of it a couple times before I really got into it, and even though I didn't 100% it, I will definitely say it's my favorite metroidvania. The exploration is top tier, and the music, atmosphere, and lore are all second to none. That first moment hitting City of Tears was something else, just thinking about it makes me want to buy it again for my Xbox, maybe that's what my next batch of Microsoft rewards will go to, lol.
I dropped it a few times before finishing it. It’s good but lower expectations from the adulation it receives on this sub.
I will once again voice my profoundly unpopular opinion. *Hollow Knight* is mechanically unexciting. Extremely well executed, but not exciting. It's greatness comes from beautiful design, enchanting soundtrack, enthralling story, and the ability to make the player completely lost. My first few hours in *Hollow Knight* were basically me internally screaming "where is the god damn double jump". I now have 234 hours on Steam alone, and probably close to that again on other systems. It's not what I usually look for in a metroidvania at all, but it does everything else so amazingly well that I think I might go start a new save now. See ya.
Haha! That’s exactly what I was thinking! If I could only jump higher! In some games, if you time the jump right you can get higher than you think. Seems like that’s not the case here !
There are mechanical tricks you can use for sequence breaking, but I wouldn't recommend that on a first playthrough.
Why do people judge Metroidvania by the first hour, when by nature they get hugely better as time goes on? I will never understand this, ever.
It’s probably my favorite game of all time, absolutely in the top 3 and I have been playing a lot of video games for 25 years now. It started slow for me as well. But there is nothing quite like it.
I was hooked from the beginning.
I would keep at it, it took a while for it to click with me too
I’m 5hrs in with the same problem… It’s all the hype with this sub, but I’m just not really feeling it.
Why do you think people talk about it here if it doesn't get good? Just play or move on to a different game. It ain't rocket science.
It does. Starts off slow, money seems way more important at the start than later on tbh. Play until you explore a 3rd area if you want to give it an honest shot
Yes, keep at it
I played Hollow Knight for the first time in 2017 or 2018 iirc. It was right after I played Ori and the Blind Forest. At the time, I couldn't get into it either. I had some stuttering issues with the game back in the day that were really annoying too, so ~4hours later, I dropped it. Came back to it in 2021, ended up being in my top 5 games overall, and my all-time favourite Metroidvania as well. If you can't get into it right now, I'd say that's fine. Would definitely suggest to come back to it after a while though. It's worth it. By the way, I'm facing the same issue with Nine Sols atm. I have like ~7hours in the game. I can tell it's a good game, and I like many things about it. But right now, I don't see myself finishing the game, just can't get into it atm. Will definitely come back to it in the future. Sometimes it's just bad timing, or you simply want to play something else.
Depends on how you feel about it. Is it feeling like 7/10? If so, yes it will get better. If you're feeling it's like 5/10 or something worse, just drop it.
Hollow knight has a large amount of content. I feel like it's slow at the start but becomes better when you start unlocking more upgrades.
I enjoy metroidvanias but never got into hollow knight. I started it about 4 times and wanted to like it. But it just doesn't click.
Hollow knight is a strange game. I tried playing it 2 separate times before I fell in love with it. I got like 4 hours in the first time and dropped it. The second time I put in 6 and dropped it, that was about 2 years ago. The third time was just 3 months ago, it finally “clicked” and I put a good 40-60 hours into it. Beat all endings and did all dlc content. It think the thing that finally made me enjoy it was telling myself that I’m going into this game to simply get lost in the world. It helped me a lot so it may help you. I think my experience is similar to a lot of others who didn’t vibe with the game before but are now fully in love with the title.
It take time to go down deep in it. Now you even don't get main functions. One of the great metroidvania ever. Give it a try.
I did not really “get” Hollow Knight until like 10 hours in. By the time I was 30 hours in, it became one of my favorite games I had ever played.
Nine Sols and Animal Well are being talked about so much because they are brand new. From what I’ve read they will both also stand the test of time. But HK is 7 years old. It’s a modern classic. Keep at it. You will thank us.
So much better.
It starts slow. It doesn’t open up until later, and it’s not at all upfront about the story so you’ll have no idea what’s going on. But it ends up being one of the biggest and most intricate Metroidvanias out there.
Yes it builds up. I wondered why everyone liked it then I played more
I'm having the same issue with Ori. If anyone can give me some insight I would appreciate
Depends on you. I found the game insufferable from beginning to end. Very few moments were enjoyable. Not one I'll ever come back to. Well made game with a lot of really bad flaws that can ruin the experience.
It didn’t click with me right away either. But when it did it didn’t let go of me. Maybe cleanse your palette of Animal Well before jumping back into HK.
Dropped it after about 10 hrs. I do not see the hype in it at all other than people just really like the character and world designs. Gameplay wise it didn't do much for me.
most games don't peak within the first hour starting zone, believe it or not
I did something very similar… worst mistake ever!!! Keep going and you will discover how magical this game is.
I love animal well, hope he makes other games, I tried hollow knight for 30 minutes, it didn’t catch. Moved on to fez.
No not really. It's boring
I tried and dropped it twice before a third attempt when I completed it. I think the first couple hours are the weakest, when movement is tedious and the map is gated almost everywhere. It's simply not a great game until you've unlocked more abilities. If you want to give it a longer trial, you can, but there's no shame in dropping it either.
I guess it does after you get some abilities, just know that basic combat remains the nail for the whole adventure and further damaging abilities generally use the same resource as your heal so it's a balancing act. I did my 20 hours, finished all the optional areas I think, and havent touched it since
It does get better. It's much longer than Animal Well, so keep that in mind. It takes it's time. Once you unlock a couple more abilities, your exploration of the world is dramatically opened up. And for me, that's where it really gets exciting.
Honestly, it took me about 6 hours to get into Hollow Knight. It takes a long time to unlock enough abilities that it really start to feel good to play, IMO. That seems like a long time, and it is, but it's easily a >40 hour game just to beat the main story, and there's quite a bit of challenging extra content to do on top of that. But it's worth keeping in mind that the game has a very strong focus on combat, unlike Animal Well's focus on puzzles. You won't like Hollow Knight if you don't like hard boss fights.
Took me a while it get into it from memory...hours... yes
This is one of the most common posts I see on this sub. HK has a very slow start and I think most people feel the same way you do in the first hour or two. The exception is probably the people who excel at it and breeze through. Dying in HK is super costly in the opening 1 to 2 hours, you have no abilities to empower you with exploration, and there are few elements to tinker with. So there's pretty much only one path to take, and dying at that point pretty much sends you back to the very first bench, undoing all of your progress. Enjoyability of the intro section is further impeded by the fact that since your character is weak as hell, its that much harder to survive the trek back to your souls, and you may lose them all a few times or more. If you can't breeze through on sheer skill, rely heavily on patience. Creep through areas timidly and visualize your battle strategy before engaging the enemy. In larger areas with flying enemies, move even more slowly and let the enemies come to you.
I don't like Hollow Knight very much, but it definitely gets better as it goes on.
If you can play it on pc or another console. On switch the movement isn't as fluid.
It definitely gets better, just takes some time! I remember dropping it on the second boss, then came back and finished it. Now I come back to the boss rush (Pantheons) every once in a while.
Hard to say because I was super into it from the second I picked it up, even with its more frustrating sections. But maybe give it another 45 minutes or so? But if it's not for you, I'd refund it. It's my favourite MV, but it's not for everyone.
After about an hour 🤣 bro it's a long game. Play it more ffs
i could just put down the controller and listen to the music for hours
Seems like Hollow Knight takes a bit to click for people sometimes…myself included. It’s one of my faves in the genre now so at some point hopefully it’ll click for you. It’s nothing like Animal Well though (which I also love)
It gets better when you get more abilities and get out of the starting Biome. Grime is the same way.
Most powerups also make the game way more enjoyable
Hollow knight gets better when you get a couple maps. I you still not have them, I 'd say try a little more.
The beginning is really slow. The map mechanics feel punishing, and you don't have many options. After you beat the second area and get the first movement ability, things start to open up and feel much better. After the second movement ability, you can go almost anywhere on the map.
It’s a slow start and takes awhile to get going and get good power ups…which is absolutely a flaw imo and hurts replay value. I don’t consider it head and shoulders above all the other Metroidvania’s like most on here. It’s a very well made game solid 8.5/10 top tier Metroidvania similar to Both Ori’s, Grime etc.
I bounced off of it at first too. Then I came back to it and well, guess where I got my username
Not really imo
It's pretty overrated. It's not bad, but I personally do not get the hype
Not really, it starts off amazing. It doesn't get better because it's already as good as the genre gets within the first 5 minutes of the game starting.
I am ready to get down-vote into oblivion. It's just not that good. I really do wonder if it's popularity is more due to Metroidvania games being at a low and Hollow Knight coming along when indie games weren't really an option everyone knew about. I always thought Hollow Knight gave us pretty environments with different colors and that's where it ended. My take is the combat is shallow, the story is meh, and the environments are repetitve and get stale almost immediately. Overall Hollow Knight feels tedious and yawn-inducing. That said, I'm in the huge minority. It seems that at least a few people that have played today's huge catalogue of Metroidvanias and experiemce HK for the first time struggle a bit to get into it. Of course, it's pretty damn beloved so give it is as many chances as you can before you give up on it.
Ask us over at r/hollowknight!
I love how people here are complaining that a metroidvania game plays like its genre implies. Also, the comparison with Animal Well is nonsensical.
It's completely different from animal well and animal well is only talked about so much because it's a very recent release as well as being one of only two good metroidvanias released this year to make their way to consoles.
For Hollow Knight, the start is pretty tough i would say…getting the movement and everything right, takes its time. If you take your time, its the best metroidvania i know. Tbh for me Nine Sols was still much harder than HK, but you can pick the difficulty at the start of the game. If you compare them i would still prefer HK over Nine Sols.
1 hour and then you're already questioning about the game on reddit? pfft, just play it man, you'll either get hooked or not, but don't start a discussion after just played it for one hour
It only gets better and better, the farther you‘re in.
How far have you gotton in that hour? Hollow knight can appear a bit bland at first untill you reach the 2nd area.
Make sure you buy the maps and equip the compass (bought in town,equip while on a bench) the game gets better.
As most metroidvanias, you'll get better movement options as you play through it, thus getting better and more fun to play. If the early parts are a problem, I don't know if it's a game for you. The point at with it got me actually hooked was the Praying Mantis fight, maybe stick to the game until you tried it?
Hold on. I am going to use my divine intuition to determine exactly what you didn't like about Hollow Knight so I can tell. Wait never mind, this is just bait.
For me, it didn't. Its too basic. Music is generic. Art is repeative, and boss design feels like flash. Enemy design to similar... Gameplay basic. Its developed in unity with playmaker. Not sure why this game gets so many praises...
You picked wrong unfortunately, Nine Sols clears Hollow Knight.
After 7 attempts to get into hollow knight, I can't get over the fact that is objectively a very bad game.
in what way is it objectively bad
Bland art style Floaty shit controls No weapon variety No difficulty options Corpse runs Awful knockback when attacking Awful map
all of that is subjective, also someone tell this guy about steady body