Hollow Knight is an incredibly competent game on pretty much all fronts. In my opinion, Hollow Knight is a masterpiece and we will discuss all the things that make it so great in detail in this Hollow Knight retrospective. However - the one thing that I find most fascinating about Hollow Knight is an aspect of the game that is seldom discussed. The most fascinating aspect of Hollow Knight is that it exists in the first place - because to put it mildly - Hollow Knight’s existence should not be possible. Hollow Knight was developed by only three people, in roughly three years. Three people managed to produce a game that looks this beautiful, features a combat system with a skill ceiling this high, crafted a beautiful world this big, wrote lore that deep, and crafted gameplay this fluid. Three people did a job that puts most teams of 60 people that work for half a decade on a game to shame. How did three pull this off?

In this Hollow Knight retrospective, we are going to investigate this question. We are going to find out how it is possible that Hollow Knight even exists!

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[–] Grass@geddit.social 15 points 1 year ago

They are making up for the short dev time by taking really long for silksong

[–] NukeminHerttua@sopuli.xyz 6 points 1 year ago (2 children)

This reminds me: I should finish Hollow Knight.

[–] Chronic_AllTheThings@lemmy.ca 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And then you have to ask yourself, once you've defeated the Hollow Knight, are you really finished, or are you only finished once you've re-battled all the bosses in the Pantheons, in sequence, without dying, with your abilities nerfed?

[–] NukeminHerttua@sopuli.xyz 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Nah...I'm perfectly fine just finishing the story.

...

Unless that's part of the story 😅

[–] Chronic_AllTheThings@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 year ago

lol same here. I can't even get through the first pantheon, it's ridiculously hard.

[–] Lord_Logjam@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

Going to have to watch some of this. I played this to death on the Switch, never quite completed it. Despite not finishing it this is definitely one of my favourite games of all time.

[–] Tango@lemmy.ml 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I should really play Hollow Knight. It's been on my radar forever. I don't play a lot of Metroidvanias, but I have played some old Castlevania games and Super Metroid.

[–] Chronic_AllTheThings@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 year ago

Yes, yes you should. The sheer size of the map is mind blowing!

[–] zkfcfbzr@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

This is a really long video - but I found it very worth the watch. Ceave has almost nothing but good takes - and it's a fun retrospective for people who played the game years ago, while giving a lot of interesting information on the history and lore of the game. His insights into game design, mechanics, and development border on psychic at times - the guy has a gift.

[–] bia@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I picked this game up for vacation a couple weeks ago, after having it on my wishlist forever.

I don't like bosses in games, and I'd say I still don't. But this game has been great, the hype is certainly justified. And the bosses are annoying but hard and fun. The world building is fantastic, exploitation is fun and accessible. The kind of game that's easy the learn and hard to master, and just keeps on giving.