I like the combat mechanics of Momodora Reverie Under the Moonlight slightly more than those of Hollow Knight, but Hollow Knight makes up for that with some great platforming and being at least eight times as long.
For a lot of genres, length isn't that important, but in a Metroidvania, the best part is always after you have enough mobility to get to various areas, but before you've started completing areas and thus closing off the need to visit them. Hollow Knight, by dint of being so much bigger than anything else in the genre, extends that sweet spot to encompass a far greater portion of the game.
There was a stretch from about two hours in to twenty five hours in where I was considering it the best game I've ever played, rather than "just" the best game in its genre, and a huge part of that is how much choice you have in where to go, and how long it stays that way.
(And yet, it's possible to beat it in under an hour on a glitchless speedrun, because out of over thirty bosses, only five(!) have to be beaten to complete the game, and one of those five you have a choice between two of them.)
The final stretch of the true ending path and some of the barriers to 100% completion are tuned way, way higher than the rest of the game, which is a bit of a bummer.
Still, easily my game of the year so far, and the best of its kind.
The final stretch of the true ending path and some of the barriers to 100% completion are tuned way, way higher than the rest of the game, which is a bit of a bummer.
On a second playthrough, both the White Palace and the things after it are significantly easier, so I don't think they're that badly tuned.
I'm pretty sure the Trial of Fools was designed to be hell for people who need that sweet sweet 100% completion, though. And pray for those aiming for a Steel Heart run.
Anyway some of my personal notes from doing and reading things:
1. Upward slash is slightly faster than normal slash, and covers a small amount of distance in front of you. Somewhat useful to know on some of the bosses where you can hide in a corner.
2. You can slash downwards. This is especially useful if you are jumping, since recoil can keep you in the air indefinitely with well-timed down slashes.
3. There are two types of spikes - hard and soft. Soft spikes tend to look like thorny vines, and are noticeably smaller. Also, they make a dull *thwack* noise when you hit them, rather than a metallic one. You can "pogo" hard spikes with the downward slash. You can do the same with heavily armored enemies, as well.
4. Without upgrades, upward and downward slices can go through ground about as thick as you are if done at the very border of it. Very few enemies can retalliate through a floor or ceiling.
5. Just guestimates, but you can get to maybe 10% of the map initially. Dash gets you to maybe 25%. Wall jump opens up something like 45-50% more of the map, possibly more if you are good with luring enemies and pogo jumps. Acid Immunity adds maybe 10% more (or at least, safe ways for that 10%). Super Dash opens up another 10-15%, and Double-jump the final bit. Shade dash is only required for.... 2 boss fights, 1.5 charms, and some lore?
6. Little enemies reset when you leave the room, but big enemies only reset when you rest on a bench. This is useful if you need to respawn certain enemies for farming. Or, if you are delivering a flower, go to the endpoint, and backtrack to the beginning, and clear out the worst stuff before getting the flower. Just never rest at a bench until done.
7. Go back and talk to people multiple times, dream nail them, and try talking with different charms equipped. Defender's Crest and Spore Shroom can really change dialogue. So can giving them a flower.
8. Most shopkeepers will sell stuff while you stand to the left of them. If you walk over just to their right, you usually get "Listen" instead, and can get non-retail dialogue.
9. Spells are armor-piercing. Don't be afraid to use them to make your life easier, especially on return trips. (Looks at large armored spiders in Deepnest.)
10. Learn your dash distance. I have found a number of places where a precise dash lets me cross a gap faster and more reliably than trying to jump it. And a short hop followed by a dash can get through some particularly tight places.
11. Wall jump lets you cling to walls as well. Not a bad way to carefully descend, and sometimes you need a bit more distance down to get to the right height to get up. Also, you can dash while clinging to the wall directly away from it, often to switch which wall you are clinging to. Just remember to change which direction you are pressing after the dash starts.
12. Don't be afraid of dying. Getting back your shade can be a bit annoying until you unlock the door on the far right of Dirtmouth, but it does not stop you unless you are on a Steel Soul or speed run.
13. Don't be afraid to occasionally ditch your Compass Charm. Sometimes that extra slot lets you add the charm you need to get through a fight or a tough area. Just try to keep track of which room you are in, and if already mapped, which exits you are taking.
14. If you do not neglect him in the tunnels, the Zote boss fight in the Coliseum is one of the most memorable fights in the game. On the other hand, that means you have to help Zote.
Hm, I didn't think so, but I'll admit I did have that when I did the fight, so maybe I just didn't notice a jump that required it. Note that many situations that are too high for a normal jump can be passed without glitches by dying on that screen, kiting your shade to the gap and then executing some parts of a jump-downslash-dash-wall jump-dash combination.
Speaking of which, jump-dash gives you ever so slightly greater height than just jump, which is enough to clip certain climbable walls so you can wall jump.
If you're right, though, it means the second route is definitively the fewest bosses to get any% completion.
I don't know what the hell Hollow Knight is smoking but I want some, because I just smashed a two-notch Charm against a one notch hole so many times it actually let me cram it in and told me I had achieved MAXIMUM OVERCHARM.
I don't know what the hell Hollow Knight is smoking but I want some, because I just smashed a two-notch Charm against a one notch hole so many times it actually let me cram it in and told me I had achieved MAXIMUM OVERCHARM.
Yep. Salubra hints at it, but as long as you have one empty notch, you can add another charm regardless of the normal required notches. However, like Sydonai said, you will take double damage.
Also, other charms can combo. Spore shroom and Shape of Unn and Baldur shell, for example. Or Glowing Womb and Defender's Crest.
This game had a bug with wireless Xbone controllers last time I played that caused permanent leftward movement. Anyone know if that's been fixed or if a modder has found a solution?
Well there was a very dangerous bit there just after I got the dash where I had no idea where to go and was stuck backtracking through Greenpath and the first area whose name escapes me and boy was that getting old. But things picked right back up in the fungus place and the capital in particular has a fantastic mood to it. The background music in not-Byrgenwerth was really good too. Made it more palatable when the boss was such a dick I had to swap to actual anti-boss charms.
Fuck you with that 'pretend to be dead then attack again when I try to get your spell' shit! At least Desolation Dive is radical.
In that case, do yourself a favor, and hold off on hitting his corpse with the Dream Nail.
Oddly enough, that is about where I am in the Trial of Fools - I can reliably get up to the Soul Sanctuary baddies, but take just a few too many hits. Been playing around with Charm loadouts.
All other bosses have been tuned to have at least some opportunity for healing without Quick Focus but the Flukemarm just told me to go fuck myself and my dad too.
And that's the game done, 99% completion because fuck the Trial of Fools.
Controls could do with more precision sometimes. In the first leg and the final cleanup I noticed a lot of dropped jump inputs making me fall off shit and general sloppy aiming when platforming challenges required precision. But even so it only actually became a problem in the fucking White Palace. With the dearth of Stagways in the game there needed to be some kind of dedicated 'return to last bench rested at' tool. Since quitting and reloading performs the same function with no lost progress at all, there's no reason not to officially support it and expedite exploration once Hallownest is mapped. The true-end route needs some tuning too, because having to refight the Hollow Knight every single time you die to the Radiance is a pain in the cock. And as one final note, once the Grey Mourner started dropping passive-aggressive comments about how her faith in me had been 'shaken' I wanted to slap her upside her goddamn mouth. You take your infinitely respawning supply of glass flowers clear across the fucking map and through a thornhole to your girlfriend's grave, then.
All that aside, the game is one of those once-in-a-blue-moon indie titles that makes the whole system worthwhile. It's astounding to read about how much content was cut from the game when it still took me nearly 30 hours to finish up with it. And it always found new ways to impress me in almost every area (Queen's Garden excepted because it really is too much like Greenpath).
{Challenge} best prompt and the grubs are the most adorable little shits in gaming.
Well, a lot of the Trial of Fools felt to me to be memorization. Knowing what to expect and when helps cut things down. A Pure Nail combined with the Nailmaster's Charm means you can oneshot all the flying critters except the obble-thingies and the Flying Fools. Well, with the Great Slash, anyways, not certain on the others. Once you are used to the arrival patterns, you can be at the deploy gate and one-shot a lot of the more annoying things just as they show up. Stuff you do not one shot can usually only take one normal strike more. Only other tips are that you can go higher on the left wall than the right, try to leave Shield Fools for last since they are easy to avoid and heal on, and to mix and match your charms on the bench below until you get a setup that works for you. I think I went Hiveblood (for semi-rare healing, but healing that can be done on walls), Nailmaster's, Grubsong, Stalwart Song, and Long Nail. Been a bit.
I should mention that I have a fairly good rig, so I seldom drop frames, and my game is mostly up-to-date, so I have few issues with the various programming bugs. For example, the Soul Twisters only seldomly left their shields around.
As for your last spoiler bit, you heal completely after the first part, so.... I admit to playing sloppy there. And, yes, the {Challenge} prompt is great.
After you get all the grubs, go and see the Grubfather for a sword-laser charm. And after running around a bit and sitting on benches, visit again!
Well, a lot of the Trial of Fools felt to me to be memorization. Knowing what to expect and when helps cut things down. A Pure Nail combined with the Nailmaster's Charm means you can oneshot all the flying critters except the obble-thingies and the Flying Fools. Well, with the Great Slash, anyways, not certain on the others. Once you are used to the arrival patterns, you can be at the deploy gate and one-shot a lot of the more annoying things just as they show up. Stuff you do not one shot can usually only take one normal strike more. Only other tips are that you can go higher on the left wall than the right, try to leave Shield Fools for last since they are easy to avoid and heal on, and to mix and match your charms on the bench below until you get a setup that works for you. I think I went Hiveblood (for semi-rare healing, but healing that can be done on walls), Nailmaster's, Grubsong, Stalwart Song, and Long Nail. Been a bit.
I know you do, but the busywork of having to beat the Hollow Knight every single time really added up. They should've put a bench in the Hollow Knight's dream or something because the repetition did it no favours.
After you get all the grubs, go and see the Grubfather for a sword-laser charm. And after running around a bit and sitting on benches, visit again!
Got it. It really sucks how bad the Grubberfly's Elegy actually is though. Not much more than a gimmick, especially since the boss it'd be most useful against does two masks of damage per hit so even with a Lifeblood charm slotted you don't get much leeway.
Hrm.... Quick Slash, Stalwart Shell, Health Buff is roughly what I used. I know I dropped the Compass and all since the bench was just downstairs. You do not have to dodge the thin lasers, just dodge before they become big. And.... touch damage is only one point, so I think I just spammed attacks and ran into him rather than dodge the lasers. I did enough damage first.
Melchiorgk's advice is good. Of course, a lot of it depends on when you take CG2 on. It's possible to reach them immediately after CG1 through tricky jumping and at that point they're probably going to be a monster. Beatable, but requiring near-perfect play. It's easy to reach them with a certain movement upgrade and at that point they will still be hella hard. If they're the last boss you take on before the true ending finale and you're rocking all endgame upgrades and gear, they're not so bad.
Specifically, the
dodge roll
makes a big difference.
Also note that both Crystal Guardians are even more optional than most bosses in a game where you only have to fight less than a handful. They don't gate any story content, just a bench (CG1) and
some kind of minor combat upgrade, I don't actually remember what. Mask shard?
