Hollow Knight - A Bugger of a Metroidvania

Oh I was never pushing myself to play it, I was just more focused on other games first, I liked it from the start.

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I think most games have that "claws are sunk in" moment where that's all you play for the next few evenings. Hollow Knight definitely takes a wee bit to warm up.

I suppose you could say as soon as you get new abilities it always ramps up a bit in this genre.

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Aye, I think once you've got a few different abilities, your mind starts racing and thinking about where you can now access with your new toys.

Or like me you pick one up and totally miss the purpose of the ability until you feel totally lost for a good hour or so & then feel like an idiot when you use it the right way accidentally.

So has anyone tried the new DLC? Wondering if that's worth going back to. (Obviously I've got other things to clean up as well.)

I've only just started playing it, having downloaded it the other day after seeing it's on sale. I echo the sentiments of folk saying that it's pretty, feels good, and intriguing, though I can't help but echo Matthew Castle's recent Twitter sentiments that it isn't particularly fun yet. Forcing you to collect Geo to buy a map and then collect even more of it to buy something that tells you where you actually are on the map seems and then to collect more of it to allow you to actually map new areas seems... unnecessary. Why bulk it out like that?

Not to mention I ended up dying because I pressed the wrong button (I know, git gud) and lost over 100 Geo so have to wander around to collect it again so I can buy one of the aforementioned upgrades.

I think I'll like it. But it's a slow start.

I think it's to help you feel like more of an explorer? To be fair I never felt particularly short of Geo, although dying (and losing your Shade) doesn't help, natch.

I got those items bought pretty quickly so it never bothered me, it's also nice that they are the only essential items you need to buy & everything else is personal preference so that initial frustration should disappear after the first area.

Buy and equip the magnetic geo charm, never think about grinding money again until you hit the optional endgame content (and by then you have a much better and worthwhile way of grinding it).

In answer to Balla's original question - not yet! I'm keen to check out the new bosses though.

As for Rum's points, it's definitely a bit of a slow burner and it doesn't sink its claws in during that first area. I suppose the same could be said of most Metroidvanias, though.

I don't think I ever felt like it was a slow starter, I just cracked straight on with it and worried about where I was going later.

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Somebody on GRcade pointed out that Knighty feels really slow and unmanoeuvrable initially, and they're not wrong. OR pointed out that this improves drastically later on, and he's not wrong either!

Definitely agree on the movement/controls side of things and that's usually by design in this genre but overall I actually think that opening area is nicely paced.

Just a classic frustrated gamer rant:

Beat Hornet. Wandered around. Got to new Fog area. Killed by jellyfish. Went back. Shade hit jellyfish. Bomb fired towards me. Died.

LOST OVER 900 GEO.

Cut my losses. Figured I'd get that money back. Discover bank. This would have been useful 3 minutes prior. Them's the breaks.

DON'T EVEN HAVE ENOUGH [redacted] GEO TO OPEN ACCOUNT.

Fine. Whatever. Go and find some enemies to farm geo. Discover stag station.

CAN'T ACTIVATE STATION BECAUSE I HAVE NO [redacted] GEO.

For [redacted]'s sake! AAARRRRGGHHHHH.

Yup, that sure does sound like Hollow Knight! I lost 4k Geo at one stroke, and not even to a boss.

Eventually you'll have more Geo than you know what to do with, so dont get too hung up

It certainly is annoying when it happens but best thing to do is just continue to play the game as normal rather than farm, then if you think the geo is getting too high go spend it before you go into new areas.

At least now you've found it you can use the bank, it is super useful

Definitely. I recommend chucking a few thousand in there whenever you get a chance as it helps to have a safe nest egg of Geo for the late-game upgrades.

That fog area gave me trouble too. I think that's the first time you run into enemies that do lots of damage to you as opposed to one or two hits, right?

The fog area was one of the last ones I properly explored because my first visit was so incredibly fatal. Its actually not that hard, though, as you mostly just avoid enemies instead of getting stuck in.

Well I inadvertently fell into Deepnest slightly earlier than I think I was supposed to, so I'm going to leave my Shade chilling out down there and go about my business elsewhere...

If you have any Rotten Eggs and a Simple Key, I recommend having a poke about up in Dirtmouth to help with that problem.

JayMoyles wrote:

If you have any Rotten Eggs and a Simple Key, I recommend having a poke about up in Dirtmouth to help with that problem.

Ah yes, I have read as such on the internet. I have a rancid egg, but I haven't found a simple key yet and the only one available to buy is 950 geo, and obviously geo is a thing I do not currently have because death. Such is the way of Hollow Knight.

To be fair, if you didn't have a lot of Geo on you I'd abandon that Shade. Deepnest is a tricky area, even later on in the game.