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also mention the music of hollow knight

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Wouter Groeneveld 2021-06-02 08:10:38 +02:00
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content/articles/reviews/hollow-knight.md
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@ -52,7 +52,9 @@ Have I talked about the punishing boss battles yet? Yes, everything is punishing
![](/img/games/HollowKnight/boss.jpg "Taking down this optional 'easy' boss took me 12 tries... I was too angry to press the screenshot button on the harder ones!")
For those who like to enjoy the game's immersiveness without having to go into a heart rate overdrive, you're out of luck. Yoshi's Crafted World includes a _"Mellow"_ difficulty option my wife likes to use to just wander around and enjoy the game. Yoshi's given wings; if you manage to fall off a cliff, no big deal. I'm not advocating for something like that to be enabled by default---it can be hidden away in a few submenu options---but at least give casual players a chance to explore your game. I don't even consider myself a casual player and had to really push myself to take on a boss for the nth time in order to progress. The Traitor Lord in Queen's Gardens (the one that got buffed up with the patch) was the reason I quit: simply reaching him from the nearest bench is a pain, and the two damage is ridiculous.
For those who like to enjoy the game's immersiveness without having to go into a heart rate overdrive, you're out of luck. Yoshi's Crafted World includes a _"Mellow"_ difficulty option my wife likes to use to just wander around and enjoy the game. Yoshi's given wings; if you manage to fall off a cliff, no big deal. I'm not advocating for something like that to be enabled by default---it can be hidden away in a few submenu options---but at least give casual players a chance to explore your game. I don't even consider myself a casual player and had to really push myself to take on a boss for the nth time in order to progress. The Traitor Lord in Queen's Gardens (the one that got buffed up with the patch) was the reason I quit: simply reaching him from the nearest bench is a pain, and the two damage is ridiculous[^1].
[^1]: Addendum, 2nd June: Great, I just [beat the Traitor Lord](https://brainbaking.com/notes/2021/06/01h20m17s58/) in "one last try". Now I have to press on...
## The atmosphere
@ -66,6 +68,8 @@ That being said, sometimes the game does drag on a little bit. The map design is
![](/img/games/HollowKnight/map.jpg "Prepare for a deep dive: the world is huge.")
Another reason to me the game does not _quite_ stack up to classic [GBA](/tags/gba) Metroidvania's is the musical score. It is excellent and very fitting, perfectly accompanying the atmosphere of each part of Hallownest. But it is not as memorable: when I turn my Switch off, I don't whistle Vampire Killer-esque notes all day.
## The best of all time?
That is up for debate, although a lot of fanboys at [ResetERA](https://www.resetera.com/threads/what-are-the-absolute-top-tier-metroidvania-games.124260/) would love to see Hollow Knight as the best metroidvania of all time. To me, that's quite a stretch: it is pretending that Super Metroid, Castlevania Aria and Dawn of Sorrow, and Symphony of the Night do not exist. It is certainly one of the best _indie_ metroidvania's out there, and I would love to see its successor, Hollow Knight Silk Song, to include an adjustable difficulty setting (and benches next to boss battles, please). Is it better than [Bloodstained](/articles/reviews/bloodstained-ritual-of-the-night/)? Absolutely. Is it better than the classics? No.

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data/webmentions.json
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@ -1,4 +1,18 @@
[
{
"author": {
"name": "Wouter Groeneveld",
"picture": "/pictures/brainbaking.com"
},
"name": "",
"content": "Well isn’t that typical. Just as I post my tirade on giving up Hollow Knight @https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/reviews/hollow-knight/ because of the Traitor Lord, I beat the sucker in “one last try”. Now I have to press on… Great.\n\n\n\nEnclos...",
"published": "2021-06-01T20:17:00+00:00",
"url": "https://brainbaking.com/notes/2021/06/01h20m17s58/",
"type": "mention",
"source": "https://brainbaking.com/notes/2021/06/01h20m17s58/",
"target": "https://jefklakscodex.com/articles/reviews/hollow-knight/",
"relativeTarget": "/articles/reviews/hollow-knight/"
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"author": {
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