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Like most platformers Hollow Knight rewards gamers for remembering where newly gained abilities create accessible routes, so the classic Zelda “Hmm I got a boomerang… maybe I should throw it at that giant glowing ceiling crystal?”. This means you often have to take into account risk vs reward. This is okay in fairly open areas, but when you die in one of the many movement puzzles or spike pits (and you will) it can often be quite challenging to navigate a precarious position and then fight yourself. When you die in-game, the mana bar is halved and if you want to get it back, you have to go back to the area and fight a ghost version of yourself. As you delve the ruins, beating more bosses, you accrue more spells and more health. The cycle that Hollow Knight contextualizes itself as part of, is one of natural life, death and rebirth, and it is all the more beautiful for it.Ī lot of the mechanics in Hollow Knight are fairly typical for a platformer: you have a health bar and a mana bar.
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Dark Souls shows us a cycle, but it’s an unnatural cycle, it is one of pain, of a cursed rebirth. This duality is reflected in the beautifully hand-drawn art style and a muted yet evocative soundtrack. But at others, it’s almost triumphant: when you’re running through the forest area Greenpath, dashing and jumping as a playful soundtrack reminds you that life always finds a way. At some points Hollow Knight feels mournful: when you’re walking through the ghost town Dirtmouth, as a sombre piano melody plays you away. The player is shown a world in ruins, but also the new life sprouting from those ruins, and the strange creatures who call them home. Where Souls’ world is one of decay, Hollow Knight's is rebirth. But there is one significant difference that sets Hollow Knight apart. Is this starting to sound familiar? There are more similarities Hollow Knight also rewards players for perseverance in a very similar way to Souls, offering secrets and special items for completing optional challenges and bosses. In Hollow Knight, you are an adventurer travelling alone through the ruins of an insect world, battling bosses, conversing with a cast of oddball characters and seeking insight into what came before. But as with those others, something about Hollow Knight forced me to make an exception, and after playing it, I realized it was because it reminded me of Dark Souls (and who doesn’t love a bit of entropy and decay?). I’m a strategy man for the most part and except for Inside and Limbo, they rarely make it onto my playlist. I’ll start by saying that I don’t often play platformers.