So I posted recently about something with Hollow Knight and how I was too fat fingered to do the white palace
Well before I wrote that I got as far as the room that has the secret wall to the Path of Pain. I resigned myself after going at the normal way it for hours and getting stuck there.
After writing , I tried to have a go at it again and reading guides to what to do, I finally got through it after an embarrasing amount of hours... now I know it is a skill issue I have with platformers and I was hating myself the whole way through while using a keyboard.
I hated doing it, felt like the game was going to break me but I carried on cursing the game for every inch of progress I made. I can acknowledge that the White Palace was well made ( although the saws and spear mechanisms will probably give me nightmares) , felt a bit overtuned on the timings, but again what do I know I am horrible with platforming in general.
If the normal white palace gave me this much trouble, then I will probably get aneurysms trying to do the path of pain and give respect to those that have will to do it
I don't wish to discourage anyone from playing the game though, my embarrasing amount of hours I put into completing the White Place is more an effect of me literally brute forcing my brain to get timings right and then playing a section at a time that the many sections on an obstacle becomes one set piece action when I stop thinking and let muscle memory take over
I'm a big believer in straight-up cheating when a single-player game ceases to be fun but you still want to see where it goes. Good on you for throwing yourself at the wall, but I'm not certain you're saying it was very much fun, or worth it.
If it was, hey congrats! But if it wasn't, there's no shame in just turning on god mode when a game's difficulty exceeds what you're interested in grinding. It's a single-player game and you don't need to let other people define how you finish it.
(I personally toggled godmode maybe halfway into the path of pain and again when going for the "true" ending)
It was a very confusing mish mash between loathing and appreciation and trying not to let it beat me. I guess my pride refused to let it get the better of me. I was relatively calm as I was going through it this recent session as I was making a mistake, I see I was making a mistake and then just repeatedly trying to get past a section, and feeling exhausted realized it wasn't finished yet.
It was a very "Are you winning, son?" Moment.
There is one thing I have acknowledged about Hollow Knight is that the controls are on point and the frame rate is smooth, so the mistakes I am making is me not getting that sweet spot on the controls and not understanding the timings. So for me to compensate for my poorer platforming skills I had to almost preload myself with the sequence to get through a section.
Kept repeating to myself this must some kind of bdsm torture ( not going to specify what exactly) and bless the people who make the game but screw the person who did this area.
So I guess I hated it that it was doing this to me but at the same time it was a mentally stimulating experience because I had to actually knuckle down and focus. And when push came to shove I actually have to engage with the game. It is not something I would want to do regularly, but it was a different type of experience
Also considered looking into it on a second playthrough once I complete the current one to see all the stuff I missed for a less stressful experience once I can tell myself I did this the way the developers intended.