Hollow Knight

The Switch is vastly becoming the go to system for all of your favorite old and newly developed indie games. While there are tons of hidden gems out there to be played on the new system, there is one game that stands out among them all. For just fifteen dollars in the Eshop and ranking as the most downloaded and best seller among switch gamers, not only in just physical copies, but as well as digital, Hollow Knight is one you will definitely want to get your hands on. Hollow Knight is an immersive side-scrolling 2-D action adventure game which sucks you in right from the very beginning.

Hollow Knight is an intriguing single-player game with tons of content, immersive game play, simple yet strategic combat system, as well as beautiful graphical display and level design. With all of these positive features I have mentioned, there are a few cons that will make you want to snap your Switch in half when playing this game.

From the beginning, there is not much direction or helpful hints to guide you throughout the game, or much of a true back story to understand the purpose. This may turn a lot of gamers off from the beginning, but if you push through it, this game has everything you could ask for in a side-scrolling action adventure game. Credit to the developers, Team Cherry, for their great work on this title.

Let’s dive in and give you an idea of what Hollow Knight is all about. You are playing as a Knight setting out on a quest to discover the secrets of the long forgotten insect kingdom of Hallownest. This mysterious Knight which you will be controlling, wields a nail which will be used for not only combat, but as well as interactions with the environment.

You will face off against a multitude of different types of bosses and enemies. The bosses you will face will have their very own distinct way of trying to kill you, which you will have to overcome and find your own strategic way of taking them down.

This game is very difficult and you will die dozens, scratch that hundreds of times. But the challenge is what makes this game fun. Your progress is saved by reaching and sitting on benches which are scattered throughout the areas of the game. Once you are killed, you will be spawned back to these benches but you will lose all “geo” (currency) that you received from fighting previous bosses/enemies. To retrieve the geo you lost from dying, you must go back to the area that you died and fight your shade (ghost). Once your shade is defeated you will get back all geo collected previously. The kicker is, if you die before reaching your shade and defeating him you lose all geo previously collected and have to start collecting from scratch.

You will encounter NPC’s along the way that will help you in building your map, along with providing you with other abilities and skills that will help you throughout the game. There will also be some stores you can enter that you can use your geo to purchase certain items, such as markers to help pinpoint where benches are located.

There are fifteen diverse areas in Hallownest that you will have to navigate your way through. I was very impressed with how the developers designed these areas and gave them their own individual, and distinct, setting and sound. They were able to really give you that sense of accomplishment when you finally worked your way out of a previous area and progressed to a new region. The differences in the design of not only the area, but the different type of enemies are what really stuck out to me.

I easily dumped about forty hours into completing this game. At first the game is a trial and error period where you’re just trying to figure out how to play the game and what exactly you need to be doing. Although this may turn some players off, I advise you to push through it, because this game is brilliant and tons of fun. It will test your patience at times, but for only fifteen dollars in the Eshop you will be definitely getting your money’s worth.