Metroidvania Mega-Review pt.1 - Hollow Knight, E.S.A., Ori, and Axiom Verge 

I agree with some of your criticisms of Hollow Knight, but I have a few issues. First of all, if you made every area look like Forgotten Crossroads, it would be at a much bigger detriment to the game than you imply. There’s more to the different areas than just color scheme. City of Tears, Royal Waterways, Greenpath, Queen’s Gardens, Fungal Wastes and the Hive are all quite different due to their unique art assets. Crystal Peak is not Forgotten Crossroads but just purple. It has unique gimmicks, enemies, and set pieces. And even an area like the Kingdom’s Edge (which looks somewhat similar to the Crossroads) has unique things like falling ash to set it apart. I can somewhat agree with the secrets. Rancid eggs are pretty worthless. But you wave off the charm system due to its limitations, but that’s what makes the charm system so good. It gives the player choice. There are strength builds, dexterity builds, health builds, spell builds, and spawn builds. The game can’t give you all of these unique and specific upgrades permanently, so it allows you to choose the way you want to play. Just because they aren’t set upgrades like you see in Super Metroid doesn’t mean they are bad. Also it seems like you missed a lot of things. You missed both Lemm and Salubra during your initial playthrough, which is surprising to me, as Salubra is in the very first area of the game and is designed so that you realize you need a power up to reach her, and Lemm is right in the middle of the City of Tears. I do understand where you are coming from with moments like these (which are just as prevalent in Super Metroid and plenty of other metroidvanias btw, just in smaller maps). But part of this is just you not paying attention. You had no idea what Whispering Roots do despite Seer directly telling you that they give you Essence that you can bring to her for extra items. You say that a game that is more demanding should give better rewards. I have no idea what that means. How exactly do we cross-reference the difficulty/rewards of different games? Should the protagonist of Hollow Knight get a move that’s three times better than the screw attack if Hollow Knight is three times more difficult than Super Metroid. Not every boss can give you an upgrade like the double jump, as it would significantly reduce the number of bosses Team Cherry could put in the game. Instead some bosses give you things like Mask Shards, Pale Ore, charms, and essence, which really aren’t as worthless as you make them out to be. Also, bosses aren’t just obstacles to get through on your way to more powerups. They are supposed to be enjoyable, and it sounds like you just didn’t enjoy boss fights in Hollow Knight due to their difficulty. If a boss is too hard, you can usually just go somewhere else to find a power up or an easier challenge due to the game’s open ended design. Speaking of which, you complain that the world is too open because of your experience with Deepnest, which again, I understand your frustration, but the game gives you the Mantis Claw before the Lords. And before that, Hornet tries to guide you by appearing at the entrance to the City of Tears in the Fungal Wastes. The game also shows you a side room where a mantis stops you from reaching the actual reward from the Mantis Lords, the Mark of Pride charm. You should have thought to go back there. The game also throws Quirrel at you if you die to the Mantis Lords, telling you to go to the city. You also need the lantern to even see well in Deepnest, which should have deterred you. Cornifer also is freaking out in Deepnest, implying that the area is difficult. And the area looks fucking scary. I agree that Hollow Knight lets you fall down that hole in Deepnest, but it does a lot to try and keep you from doing so too early. But that’s your only example of how Hollow Knight is too open. I think you’re missing how the open ended nature of the world gives the player so much freedom to explore. Once you get the Mantis Claw, most of the game becomes open to you. You can enter the City of Tears from 4 separate ways. You can tackle the Dreamers in any order you see fit. You can beat the game without even finding the Queen’s Gardens or Kingdom’s Edge or the Abyss. If you can’t beat the Watcher Knights because you can’t “get gud”, you can run off and find a powerup like the Shade Cloak, or strengthen you nail with pale ore. As for benches and the respawn mechanic, I actually agree. I think Hollow Knight could have gone without the shade mechanic, since it does punish exploration by making you go back to the spot you died. The rancid egg mechanic is supposed to help with this, but putting it up in Dirtmouth when you might not be near a stag station makes it less than ideal. I will say that you shouldn’t sell your idols and journals unless you want to spend the money. They are supposed to help with the punishing death mechanic, so I don’t really agree with you saying that dying makes collecting those pointless. You’re using them wrong. Also, you seemed upset that you couldn’t differentiate the optional content from the critical path. As if just beating the game was the reason you were playing, and not enjoying the game for what it offered. Also you ignored the lore, which I find unforgivable. I think this is a pretty good video, and I understand your reasons for not liking Hollow Knight, but I think the game really shows how varied the metroidvania genre can be. Super Metroid is usually considered the gold standard for metroidvanias, but indie games like Ori and Hollow Knight are willing to experiment by making their games more linear or more open. Does that fact by itself make one a better metroidvania than the other? No. I think is shows that metroidvanias can come in all different shapes and sizes, and we shouldn’t be too hung up on how quickly a game gives you power ups vs Super Metroid or how much it allows you to go off the critical path vs Castlevania. It’s how those games utilize this to craft new and enjoyable experiences.

that intermission section at the end was perfect

eagerly awaiting you to discuss dark souls and give it a 6/10

I can't believe you had the balls to start with that hollow Knight review. As always, I'm impressed

It's interesting how Joseph Anderson was dropped into a similar situation to your Deepnest romp and praised it as one of the highlights of his playthrough.

Ive heard a review of a guy who also dropped into deepnest early on, he sited it as his favorite moment in gaming in years. Funny to see how people can experiencz things differently

The Project AM2R Creator has Designed the Levels For The Ori Developer Moon Studios. I am happy for him, he got his dream job.

nuclear take: you can love hollow knight and enjoy nerrel's review

Hollow Knight stands at a weird but strangely compelling crossroads between a traditional Metroidvania and a Soulslike. On one hand, navigating an interconnected map through platforming by making use of a growing pool of navigation abilities is very Metroidvania-like. On the other hand, you don't feel your character becoming tangibly stronger as you progress. You just get more skilled. Any upgrade that exists only exists to give you additional safety nets, which is why many of them aren't found in the world the same way upgrades in a traditional Metroidvania would be. It is a game built for those hungering for the next challenge, which is why there are so many hidden bosses in the game because the realms they inhabit and the lore they provide is the reward in the place of something that would actually strengthen your character. Which is to say, people going to Hollow Knight expecting a traditional Metroidvania might find themselves frustrated at the lack of character progression and traditional rewards for exploration, while those who seek to just lose themselves in a world that was actually built to be hostile will have a lot to chew on.

"The music [in axiom verge] can be weird to the point of annoying" --- **proceeds to play my favorite song in the game**

Seeing everyone get angry at Nerrel's take on Hollow Knight is fascinating to me because I actually fall on both sides of the argument. Hollow Knight is an excellent game. The art direction is flawless, the game plays near-perfectly, and the game's highs are incredible. That said, Nerrel is dead on in every complaint he has, because he went in looking for a Metroidvania. Nerrel has his own criteria for how he understands the Metroidvania genre, and I agree that Hollow Knight fails to meet many of them. Specifically, I think his opinion on Deep Nest really cements this point. From the perspective of a difficult action-adventure game, it's an ambitious design choice that is built to astound new players and to give veterans an extra challenge. However, from the perspective of a Metroidvania, it's a design decision that punishes exploration and forces players down a hyper-difficult, linear path where they are no longer in control of the experience. Depending on what mindset you walk in with, the decision can be seen as genius or fun-ruining. If you go into Hollow Knight specifically looking for a Metroidvania, you're probably not going to love it. Is it Nerrel's fault to expect the game to be something it isn't? Maybe, but the point of this review was to categorize these games as Metroidvanias based on pre-established criteria. According to that criteria, Hollow Knight fails. I think that's the main takeaway here.

First time I've heard anything negative about HK, and I'm glad someone actually had a different opinion. Was pretty refreshing to listen to.

This is probably the most negative review of Hollow Knight I've seen.

never seen anyone rip into Hollow knight so hard. Weird to see him talk negatively about parts of the game i liked alot (besides running back to bosses).

Nerrel: hollow knight is stinky Everyone: *so you have chosen death*

The whole "no save points before boss fights" thing started with Dark Souls, I believe. I hate it. Difficulty is fine. I grew up in the 8-bit era, after all. But I don't have an unlimited amount of time to cover the same ground over and over and over again, so that's sadly a critical failure in what might otherwise be a magnificent game.

After hearing his opinions on Hollow Knight it would be interesting to see what Nerrel makes of Dark Souls

“This is a game where you can finally beat a boss and die at the same time” *screeches in Pure Vessel*

I love Hollow Knight, but I can't disagree on your criticisms of the game! I love hearing a different opinion well-explained, and this only makes me appreciate your reviews more.

I feel like, in Hollow Knight, the bosses are the reward for exploration.

Honestly, Metroidvania is one of the most interesting genres, and it’s something I never expected to enjoy. But after Super Metroid, I’ve been more open to trying other Metroidvanias, and hell maybe this will motivate me to play more of them

I would like to point out one criticism you have about Hollow Knight, when you're talking about the atmosphere you seem to just note the blue dark tone that remains for a few areas, however, you don't seem to notice any other themes around it. Deepnest is area infested with Araneae typed creatures, by the corner of Deepnest lies the Distant Village where it's covered in webs. Kingdom's edge has this huge pit where failed combatants of the colosseum of fools would then be thrown down landing on platforms, branching off of that pit will lead with a background that consists of white ash falling from above. The Forgotten Crossroads eventually gets infected with an orange color that's shown with the background and new enemies I understand completely of why you didn't like hollow Knight as much with other Metroidvanias and for most of the video Nerrel, I see you being completely valid, I only I made this comment just because of one of your jokes just made fun of Crystal Peak by saying "It's purple now" and I kind of got little bit offended

Surprised why everyone is so pissed about his opinion of hollow knight. He respected the people who loved the game, y’all should give him the same respect.

Can I say as a game that as popular as hollow knight, seeing a pretty polarizing opinion about hollow knight hasn't garnered hate. It's cool to see people posting their opinions on why they disagree with you. It's refreshing to see people articulate them selves and be able to respect other opinions instead of just raging out. You all are a great community.

Hey Nerrel, were you having a good day? You sound much more energetic.

I find it interesting how everything Nerrel criticized Hollow Knight for are the same things every other critic is praising it for.

Had the same opinion about hollow knight

holy crap, another person that didnt enjoy hollow knight? i thought i was the only one

Huh, I'm normally a person who vastly prefers rewards, and having a reason to actually do things, but I just can't agree with your opinion on Hollow Knight at all I guess it's just that HK is so well put together and offers such a refreshing challenge that a lot of the things you shat on for not having that much incentive already feel like their own reward

For me, getting stuck in Deepnest was one of the most memorable and exciting parts of Hollow Knight.

I never finished Hollow Knight and never knew quite why. It just happened. I never understood what I didn't like about it until I heard you say it here. Now I realize that yea, the game was hard, but without any good rewards that made me want to keep up with the challenge. Didn't care for the story, didn't care for the characters, and the world didn't captivate me. The gameplay was insanely fun, but that alone didn't keep me going. It became a chore after a while and I lost my willingness to go back. Games like the soul series are hard in their own way but they manage to keep you interested.

Nerrel is firing in all cylinders and I love every second of it 😂😂

"One female viewer" Finally, recognition.

I see where you're trying to get at with the critique of Hollow Knight's design, but I personally think the developpers were aiming at a Dark-Souls-esque level design where the majority of achievements serve the purpose of expanding the lore. Since the characters and writting is fantastic, I didn't bother much. Though I have to agree that collecting hundreds of dream-whatevers just to see an ending that doesn't suck is quite frustrating. I finished Ori last week and loved most of the time I've spent with it, but after it ended, all I could think about was "yeah, it was fine". Axiom Verge didn't really appeal to me that much, maybe I will give it another chance, after this review.

Woah that Hollow night review/critique made everyone so upset that it overshadowed the other 3 games on the list. Environmental station alpha is such an amazing game, it's been a long time since I played a challenging but rewarding game like this one. My only complaint would be that the power ups don't open as many paths as you'd expect. For example, you see red blocks throughout the game. You then *spoiler* get a power up that allows you to brake them. But only in one direction. Like, there's this section at the beginning of the game I keep coming back to only to find i can only progress for 1 or 2 screens before being hit with another roadblock lol. At least these roadblocks are visually distinct enough to remind me to come back to check them out... Only to find a new roadblock up ahead haha. My metroidvania instinct leads me to check every nook and cranny to use my new power up when the better way to enjoy this game would be to get follow the main story, get every power and then do a power ups/secrets/room completion roundup at the end of it. Solid game, that's for sure. The bosses are definitely some of the more challenging in the genre. The graphics gave me a headache at first, but my 22" monitor definitely helped me with that haha. And yes, the hookshot definitely can get you in places you're not supposed to see yet. Sometimes you get rewarded, sometimes not.

Finally, Environmental Station Alpha's getting the attention it deserves. EDIT: Dammit.

Really I'm most impressed by how many different voices you can pull off in all of your different bits

"all the areas have the same blue-black color scheme" . . . Me: *points at the Hive and White Palace*

That post game commentary gag at the end was perfect. Thank you for making my day.

5:20 it's not like collecting enough essence gives you the true dream nail and lets you unlock the radiance bossfight ending or anything...

There's a lot to love about this video, and it all deserves appreciation, but I just want to say that the football segment at the end was funny as hell 😭

you went IN on hollow knight, but you know what? i finally feel validated. i wanted to like that game so bad (i still haven't uninstalled it), but just can't.

I was happy to see the part 2 in my subscription feed, but had to watch this first. If you make a part 3, I for sure will watch both videos again.

If one game doesn't actually get a 15 I will be very sad.

I get why people love Hollow Knight, I desperately wanted to love Hollow Knight, but it just did not gel with me. I mostly enjoyed my time with it but I'm not going to lose sleep over not finishing it.

Lololol oh boy I wasn’t expecting that outro lolol I almost got in a car accident laughing so hard

I think the reason I love Hollow Knight so much is because it was my first metroidvania, so I went in without any preconceived notions about how it needed to work. (Also, I like how Joseph Anderson and Nerrel described falling into Deepest with opposite quality.)

I hope La-Mulana gets looked at! It's one of my favorite games! I hope he hates it!

THANK YOU for including ESA. Underrated gem.

Such a quality channel. Keep doing what you're doing man. Your analyses are fascinating

I bought hollow Knight I really wanted to enjoy it. And there are aspects of it I do enjoy, it has an amazing aesthetic a beautiful art style and a wonderful soundtrack. But I agree with pretty much everything you said and I will probably never finish the game I just don't care to go back to it

I love that Hollow Knight's tangible rewards are so scarce and so limited. In games that give such a tangible power difference for everything you find, the game just gets easier and easier and easier the more you play it, and as someone who's looking for a challenge, that feels like a punishment, not a reward. Games with level up systems are even worse, where I feel pressured to not explore anything or else get too strong, because the mere act of playing the game at all makes it easier. Hollow Knight is very careful to make sure the stuff you get can never completely invalidate the challenges it throws at you.

The tone in Hollow Knight changes in the architecture and area design for me, rather than just simply the color pallet. There’s such a big difference between the cramped and long passageways of the crossroads compared to the vertical expanse of Kingdom’s Edge. Or the overwhelming darkness and crumbling floors of Deepnest.

"I'm not saying Hollow knight is bad" Few seconds later "Kinda shit experience"

Ori 2 really improves the combat and fixes most of the weird jank of the first game, and has a cool time trial speedrun competition portion where you can race ghosts of other players which I sunk a lot of time into, learning cool platforming tricks and shortcuts from other player's ghosts.

4:43 Salubra's shop is actually an example of 1:20 since you encounter it early on, but can't get up until you get the wall jump.

I had nearly the same impressions for these games. My scores would be completely different though. ESA had some more minor problems like locking you in an area with a somewhat difficult boss, but you couldn't backtrack to prepare for it with more upgrades.

It’s clear we just want very different things from a Metroidvania. With Hollow Knight, I didn’t find it a waste of time if my exploration wasn’t rewarded with a tangible upgrade. My reward was discovering more about that world and feeling like I’d conquered another small part of it. The difficulty and boss fights around every corner made it all the more rewarding when you actually do come across tangible upgrades. I think starting each area without a map is a brilliant way for them to give you time to orient yourself with the new area and start making a mental map before being given one by the game itself. It was far more rewarding for me to remember how to navigate an area without checking the map to see what general direction to head in. I agree with you about the shade mechanic. I’d even be fine with just losing some Geo when you died but capping your Soul led to a nasty feedback loop of struggling in an area making it even harder to succeed. I can understand where you’re coming from with your complaints, I just got so much more out of my time with it. It’s a game that’s stuck with me and one that, like Super Metroid, I’ll be going back to from time to time for years to come.

I think it's funny how people got mad about the Hollow Knight segment when he still gave it a 7/10, which isn't a bad score, and he still found a lot of things he liked before talking about the things he didn't

I found Hollow Knight the perfectly challenging and fun, always pushing me to my limit, while Axiom Verge just frustrated and bored me to no end. Maybe I'm playing it wrong.

That's interesting to see that most of the faults you find in hollow knight are the parts I enjoyed most. Like how you got stuck in Deepnest, I had the same experience and it really made me love the game even more, its a really special experience and games usually shy away at the idea of putting the player in such situations so it was a real breath of fresh air to me. It somehow reminded me of demon's souls when a certain character started to kill all important npc's or dark souls when i decided to keep pushing in the catacombs early on... sure the game show you its a bad idea to keep going that way but at the same time you can't help but keep going thinking it would just be bad game design to punish the player for doing the "good" or "hard" thing so it comes as a real surprise when the game actually punishes you, and it also make the world much more believable and tangible forcing you to be more careful when exploring. Also you are talking about the secrets and upgrades beeing less useful but I almost totally disagre, in metroid a health or missile upgrade sure is a substantial bonus but it's mostly because combat in metroid is complete shit, you will usually stand in one place taking hit while depleting your missile stock so of course having 2x more will be a big help (but they sure do a really good job at encouraging exploration even if they are really weak when it comes to actual mechanics). In hollow knight the combats mechanics are much more tight and evolved so having such bonuses would completely break the game balance but at the same time the upgrades and the differents equipements can totally change your playstyle and the way you approach combat so in my opinion it makes exploration even more interesting, as maybe I will get an useless trinket but I can also get a new badge that will completely change the way I play, when in metroid I will always get some BORING (see what I just did) stat upgrade so I can take more hit or shoot more...(It actually doesn't even make sense to compare them on that aspect as they aim for completely different things) I could go on but I think this is already starting to be a bit long Also its not to criticise you but just that I find interesting to see how the same experiences can lead to such differents feeling about a game. Edit: Reading it again I do find my phrasing sometimes weird so ... sorry ? (I mean english obvioulsy isn't my native language so I can't really do any better than that)

19:05 That head is totally inspired by Junji Itos "Slug girl" comic story.

I personally love almost everything about hollow Knight but it was really interesting seeing other perspectives, you made a lot of valid points I hadn't considered about the game!

"If the game is extremely linear and directly tells the player where to go, it's doing this wrong." *shows footage of Other M and Fusion* THANK YOU

“Apologies to my female viewer” haha 😂

The intermission is gold.

"There are often broken benches that force you to travel to the next area to save" there's literally one in the entire game and it's at a stag station so you can literally just save at another stag station

The end of the vid was hilarious, nerrel😆

You have become one of my favorite youtubers. Amazing work.

When you enter deepnest through the mantis village it doesn’t drop you in. You can leave the same way you came in. The drop is in another section near the moss church

I pretty much defeated the mantis as soon as they become accessible, and I also fell into deepnest unprepared. Here's the difference: for me that was the most engaging gaming experience I had that year. However, I think you're onto something. I've recommended hollow knight to plenty of friends, and many drop it because they can't figure out where to go, or just keep dying and dying. So I'm guessing HK is very close to flawless for people looking for a very specific type of experience.

Being absolutely lost was one of my favorite parts of Hollow Knight, and at the same time it's what caused me to drop it because after 15 hours it did feel like I was aimlessly running around the map. The drop into the deep nest was one of my favorite parts though. After beating the Mantis fights, I expected some huge reward, but instead I just got screwed over and got the shit scared out of me trying to find my way back out.

After all these years of trying to find out exactly why I can't get into Hollow Knight, you explain it in five minutes. Great content, man.

It's helpful for me to see just how differently I can experience the same game from someone else while doing the same things, in hollow knight I also went to the mantis Lord's to early and got whipped, finally beat them and then got trapped in deep nest. And I loved it! It felt so intense and even frightening, I was genuinely, totally lost for the first time and finally digging my way out and getting back to the surface was so incredibly satisfying. Just goes to show that there's really no way to play a game wrong, and more importantly that everyone really does have different tastes, and liking something someone else hates doesn't mean it's actually bad or that they were secretly wrong.

I can't stress enough how much my personal experience with Hollow Knight was different, and how much I disagree when it comes to my perception of it. I really enjoyed the video tho, no matter how much my opinion differs from yours I could understand the points you were making. I don't know if it's your thing, but I would love to see you talking about roguelikes!

I'd love to hear your thoughts on Blasphemous!

I must say that while you ripped hard on my favorite game, hollow knight, i do encourage that because there is always room for improvement. I actually subbed to you bc my brother told me about this video and knows i love hollow knight. Glad you had the guts

I didn't know why I stopped playing Hollow Knight but you kind of summed it up in a way I didn't realize consciously, aside from a lot of areas looking similar.

It's honestly insane to me that some people cannot realize that everyone has different tastes for games and different opinions on what they think a game can do better. Even more so, I believe it's commendable to be able to critically look at criticism of your favorite game, and recognize where there can be shortcomings for that game and subjective arguments for certain aspects of that game. Everything is in your own head too, as even if you strongly disagree with someone who doesn't like your favorite game, complaining about it and outlining every reason why they are wrong won't make them like it any better (shocking).

I'm glad Axiom Verge got the praise it did, because damn is that game awesome. And I agree with the criticisms of it too. I have never felt motivated to get 100% in it, though, and that's partially because 100% maps is extremely stupid in a few areas, and I don't feel motivated to go for 100% items after getting a couple of the hidden guns that are way more powerful than the normal ones you find.

I cannot stress this enough, Axiom Verge is one of the best metroidvanias in the last decade.

I love hollow knight but I agree with alot of what was said about it in this video, I can't imagine being so buthurt about Nerrel's opinion to dislike bomb this video

Hollow Knight is my favourite game of all time and here are the reasons : I'm too lazy to write anything, Watch mossbag

I found hollow knight fun enough to spend like 120 hours over the course of a month in while Axiom Verge i couldn't play for more than 15 minutes without either getting bored, frustrated or having a headache. It's kinda crazy seeing the same things you complain about being praised in another, like the charms, color pallet, optional bosses, etc in Hollow Knight while some of the things you praise in Axiom I despised such as the abundance of red in the sections i played, the bosses and the weapons.

Really good video, mate! This is my favorite RU-vid channel. I'd like to hear what you think of Samus Returns on 3DS.

This is the first Hollow Knight review I've agreed with.

I love your reviews

Oh Nerrel... Hollow Knight is my favorite game and you're one of my very favorite RU-vidrs. Obviously I disagree with a lot that you have to say, but most of what you said is a matter of opinion, and I respect that. However, I do think that your take on the map was misleading to an uninformed viewer. The game is littered with memorable areas and landmarks that you didn't show. Greenpath, Fungal Wastes, Fog Canyon, Royal Waterways, etc... there was a lot that you glossed over in that point that made the game seem worse than it is. Honestly, I could probably write a full essay in response to just the first part of the video. But I respect you as a critic too much to do that. I'm sorry that you had such a bad time with the game. Hopefully you'll be able to give it another chance one day. Edit: After looking through most of the comments, it seems like the two main takes of Hollow Knight can be boiled down to: "It's SO brutal 😦" and "It's SO brutal 😃"

i didnt play many metroidvanias besides the metroid games, but i really liked Momodora - Reverie Under the Moonlight

You know, when I first watched this video, I didn't really agree with your opinion on Hollow Knight, but the more I play it, the more I come to understand your criticisms, and even share a few. The game is great, I like it much more than you do, but I do feel as though it can get really tedious, and I do agree that it doesn't really reward you often enough or substantially enough. I've seen people in this comment section comparing it to the Souls games, but if we where to really compare the two, I think it would only serve to further show the flaws of HK, and how poorly thought out some elements are. It's also weird how people just default to the old "git gud" response, when difficulty isn't the issue, it's the fact that the tedious elements make the difficulty seem worse and the lack of reward makes the challenge feel pointless. I know some people enjoy exploring for the sake of it, or a hard boss for the sake of it, but I only like exploring when there is something to find, and unless I find the combat and/or encounter really engaging (which is not always the case when it comes to HK for me), a hard fight without something to show for it feels like a waste of time. I've put the game down many times despite enjoying it so much, and I could never quite put my finger on why, but after wanting to put the game on hold again today and rewatching this video, I think it's just because the game doesn't motivate me to continue. If it wasn't so well made and have such high highs, I probably would have outright dropped it.

I know I gotta give it a try, but I got a feeling your views on Hollow Knight would resonate with mine when it comes to just looking at the footage. It reminds me of the PS2 Castlevanias where everything is grey. There is even an area called "the garden", but all you get is grass and there are no plants or anything.

I never had any of those issues you mentioned in Ori and the blind forest, I understood the rules pretty clearly and the controls were really precise and enjoyable. Yeah its true, it needs some practice but for me it didn't take too long to master the controls and you should've seen me play it. When you travel the world flawlessly without making any mistakes that alone is really enjoyable and satisfactory. For me Ori is the best game in the Metroid genre.

Wow. All the things you complained about in hollowknight are the things that made the game fun for me. Getting trapped in Deepnest early game, the darksouls-like death system, the fact that the world is not filled with meaningless upgrades that only change the animation or add to a healthpool that’s already too big. Some bosses seem to be too far from a bench, but the developers tackled this in a different way. If you invest enough time exploring you will find the game is riddled with shortcuts. Even when the bench is essentially next to the boss room you go kill some easy npcs to replenish your souls.

While you didn't like Hollow Knight much I do appreciate you mentioning how solid the controls are. For a game that difficult in which I died hundreds of times I don't think I ever died because of controls. I just wasn't good enough, or fast enough, or paying enough attention. For me, that kept the game from becoming frustrating and while I took long breaks from it several times, I never had much trouble picking it back up again. Controls are simple, forgiving, and responsive. Knowing where to go next, on the other hand, was an undeniable pain. As much as I like environmental storytelling and hate quest markers, having a journal of tasks or little mysteries to follow up on would have been priceless. I often didn't know where I was going or what I was doing and stumbled through progressing the story and scenarios until suddenly I was at the end and... okay, I guess. I would have felt more invested if I had a better idea of what was meant to be a plot mystery and what was just set dressing. I honestly have the same problem in Dark Souls and Bloodborne and Sekiro. Beaten most of those games, but it always feels like I just stumble on the ending without knowing why. I think that level of "not gonna tell you where to go or why" worked well in Super Metroid because it is, ultimately, a game that's very beatable in under 10 hours, even if you don't know what the heck you are doing. Whereas Hollow Knight probably took me 50 hours. It's a much bigger game than Super Metroid and there is a lot more to keep straight in my head. Last note: I'm a little sad you didn't mention the quality of the music because man it is the most evocative soundtrack I've heard in years, maybe going back to Super Metroid even.

Boi, thank you for your review of Hollow Knight. I thought I was alone on this. I kept falling asleep while playing and felt no shame in stopping playing it alltogether.

It’s really interesting to see how you feel about Hollow Knight. I’ve seen other reviewers praise it for being a 2D Dark Souls because that’s what they’re looking for, while when viewing it as a Metroidvania it falls short. Both are interesting viewpoints.

based nerrel dunking on hollow knight and praising esa

What a good video, and all valid points! Subbed!

You know, I don’t want to blame it ALL on Nerrel, but absolutely nothing good has happened since he came out against Hollow Knight

As someone who loves the shit out of hollow knight, I am used to an endless stream of affirming opinions and statements. Your review was refreshing, honest, and showed me a perspective I wasn't aware of, especially as someone from a community who loves difficulty and slow paced challenge-games.