Hollow Knight: Silksong

⭐ 10/10

The sequel to one of my favourite games of all time, there was no doubt in my mind this game would be a masterpiece. It actually reminded me of Tears of the Kingdom in some ways, building on top of an incredible foundation, introducing more mechanics but holding true to the core gameplay and style. And I actually think both were originally conceived of as DLCs, so that makes sense. It has been many many years in the making, with basically zero news on it until release, and I love that these developers can pull that off.

Always worth mentioning how incredible it is that such a small team can make something so polished, clearly so much attention to detail and love. Every room you go in feels thought through, either with its level design of little lore nuggets that make this world feel completely alive. For a game based on exploration that is relatively light on story (although not as light as the original), I love how I can feel my brain firing on all cylinders as it soaks up this universe. Not that I am making theories or trying to understand what is going to happen, just that I can feel this world imprinting itself in my mind. Very special, only a handful of games feel this way.

Lots has been made about difficulty, which I think is ridiculous. This game was the perfect level of challenging. Sure, I like hard games and have a lot of experience with them, but I think the difficulty was overblown. There were two times when something was too difficult, so did I spend multiple hours banging my head against it? No! I went and explored everything else the game had to offer, came back later and made mincemeat of Hunter's March and the High Halls rush. I was better for the failures, and victory tasted even sweeter because of then. This game is designed to encourage exploration when you hit a wall, and I think if people are angry they are just playing wrong.

I will say the currency is a bit broken, or at least not what it is in the other games. I lost so many beads early in my Hunter's March attempts, and was so frustrated that I basically had no beads to buy maps and stuff when I would get to them. Maybe a slight scaling issue, but once I got over that hump it was never a problem again. Also probably a skill issue, and maybe I should have turned back earlier and played it a bit safer. But the pain was not there very long, and I kind of wish I could have been stretched this way later in the game. I remember in Red Dead feeling so poor, on the run with no money to pay what I owed with no way to break the loop, and that desperation made me intentional with every action, and then eventually I had too much money with nothing to buy. This is something I like in Last Of Us too, never feeling flush with resources makes the game feel more real.

That's another part of the difficulty thing - its baked into the world! Everything is dead and broken and spent, and you are too! Celeste nails this the best, a difficult game whose story is blatantly about overcoming adversity, but this game certainly gets points for integrating the idea of challenge through every character. There are complaints about runbacks, but none of them were annoying to me. You mean I get to traverse this beautiful path with this smooth movement, getting faster at it every time as I think about how I'm going to crush the boss this time? Being in this game is most of the fun, so I was not in a rush to beat every boss the second I found it.

That's enough about difficulty. This game looks and sounds amazing, with some incredibly memorable boss fights and escape sequences. The music is a huge part of this, just a beautiful game to soak in. Hornet has some character, which is a nice change, and the NPCs are all unique and memorable.  I couldn't help but compare this game to Donkey Kong, which I stopped playing early to play this, and how polar opposite they feel. That game is feel good platforming with a dopamine hit every 30 seconds in a world full of things to pick up. I enjoy that sometimes, but the satisfaction of having a perfect run against a boss that killed you in 2 seconds that first time you encountered it is where my true enjoyment comes from. There is a late game "path of pain" style platforming section that I cleared pretty cleanly, and it felt so good to have mastered the mechanics and keep my anger in check when I died.

I could talk about this game forever, with both Hollow Knights being everything I look for in video games. A must play, a complete masterpiece, a game that makes me jealous of the minds and talents of the people who made it.