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!
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.