I'm not seeing much talk on GB other than the Quick Look. Alex did fine (okay, he missed some important stuff he should've seen/got), but this game is far more than that Quick Look might've made it seem.

This game is massive, absolutely overflowing with secrets and juicy bites of lore, stuffed full of varying collectibles ranging from huge gameplay tweaks to awarding the player a shower of gifts, and painted over with sweet strokes of gameplay ingenuity that add hours of replayability to areas already visited.

And I haven't even beaten it yet (no spoilers please).

Put simply, this is a lengthy, full, juicy, immensely satisfying experience. I'd only warn not to be thrown by the drab color palette; it's going to be mostly shades of blue, but it serves the greater purpose of world cohesiveness, and even then there's still plenty of variety in each of the many different hand-drawn environments. Buy this game.

I'm dying to play it, but I committed to waiting for the Switch version. I'm damn close to caving and getting it on Steam though. It looks like precisely my shit.

Yeah this game is great. I'm only a couple hours in, but liked it, need to make time to get back to it. It's got a very deliberate style of combat.

I'm about 12 hours in, and it is definitely becoming one of my favourite this year. It really does feel like Dark Souls, but 2D (I am not calling it the Dark Souls of platformers, I mean it is as if Dark Souls was a platformer). I also heartily recommend it.

Bonus tip: If you're using the XBox 1 controller on PC, go into Big Picture mode in steam, go into the settings, and make sure your controller is set to XBox 1, not to "Generic Gamepad". This fixed a pretty bad lag issue I was having, and now it plays and feels like butter!

I finished it (like, finished-finished. Done. 100%). I felt like its appeal ground to a halt halfway to three-quarters of the way through the critical path. And the backtracking gets a little interminable.

That, and I still barely understand what that game was about.

I just finished it myself. I really liked it. I am not big on 2d platformers but I really liked the look and sound of this game. It also has a very hands-off feel, where the game in the beginning doesn't tell you much and you just got to explore and figure things out on your own. And I thought that was interesting.

I also don't think it is as hard or punishing as some other 2d platformers. There are no instant death scenarios and you have alot of survivability with your healing ability and different charms.

Yep, it's easily my favorite game of the past few years. I don't understand how game sites have ignored it.

@pkmnfrk: Thanks for the tip. So far that's been one of my complaints. A few too many instances where the controls don't feel very precise. I'll give this a try.

Otherwise a great game. The art has to be the highlight for me. The first time I saw one of the Stags and the loading screen as they take you across the map it reminded me of something from a Studio Ghibli film.

This is my only real complaint, I honestly don't understand how anyone has divined what the story is about from the cryptic dialog that is actually in the game. I spent 25ish hours in the game and even got the "true ending" and still ended up understanding practically nothing about was going on.

Thankfully though it really didn't hamper my enjoyment all that much. Hard to really dislike a story you don't understand.

@nordom: @neocalypso: welcome to Dark Souls-level lore analysis. I kinda have a handle on it, I think, but then I'm still working towards the true ending.

Dude yes the one thing I will definitely give this game over games that are also meant to be "punishing" is that it NEVER felt cheap to me. Every time I've been hit and every time I died it was my own fault. A joy to play coming off the last Dark Souls 3 DLC (not a knock against that DLC, just the nature of Souls games mechanics in general).

I want to bump this up. Just getting around to it and it's incredible. Give it some time, it keeps surprising me in some interesting ways.

Yeah just picked this up on the sale and played for a few hours. I understand how Alex felt about the beginning, think it starts a bit slow but now it is opening out I am really enjoying myself. Some of the platforming feels a bit iffy at points, though may just be me not being used to the wall jump + dash combo. However the style and the sound is incredible, really love the ambient sound in the game.

I also bought it, Prey, and Hyper Light Drifter. I want to finish my current playthrough of Wolfenstein before I start another game, but I'm having a hard time deciding between this and Prey. Hyper Light Drifter can wait, though it will get played.

Just finished up my playthrough last night, the game only got better as it went further for me. Loved the atmosphere, I think that is where the Souls comparison is coming from (though there are little nuggets of hope about the world through certain optional questlines). I kind of wish one of the abilities came a little earlier to make the fighting side a bit better, but overall this and Nier Automata are the best games I have played this year. Going to hop back and try get the grubs and optional bosses too. Also, the soundtrack is a marvel, listening to it a lot whilst working at the moment.

I like it so far, not really sure why so many people are meh about it?

Just finished up 100% completion, jumped to Google for a few bits after 90%. This game hit me in all the right spots, it's really amazing. Describing it as a metroidvania with Dark Souls touches is pretty much on point. The world is surprisingly large with shortcuts interconnecting different areas and secrets abound. Combat is incredibly rewarding with the charm system allowing for several variations on distinct traversal and combat "modes".

$15 is a steal for everything Hollow Knight has to offer. I'll be watching Team Cherry for sure.

I'm having a hard time getting over the jumping in this game. It feels a bit too floaty, as in, the velocity curve I think needs to change to get a more natural feel to it. Also the amount of time that you need to hold the button to reach a full jump or even a high jump seems kinda off. Normal presses seem to result in a relatively short jump.

Writing these out they sound a bit nitpicky but they do hamper my enjoyment of the game. It's been hard for me to keep wanting to play because I notice the controls every time.

I just started it this week, maybe 2-3 hours in. I'm really digging it so far, though I'm also someone who really enjoys games that go that all-in on exploration. I think it's something that maybe doesn't appeal to a wider crowd, but I'm really into it, and like that it just goes for it. (Also, coming out in what, March(?) 2017 didn't help it.)

Is there a release date for the Switch version yet?

@villainy: Metroidvania mixed with Dark Souls? Isn't that Dead Cells? Man I can't keep up with all these things.

@luchalma: no dead cells is more castlevania meets rougue legacy.

I just got to the second area and i like the game but it needs a dodge roll badly, or a block.

Further play i can see why people are meh on it, way too much back tracking and the map is almost useless. Its like dark souls with no way to actually cash in your souls.

24 hours in I still can't stop being amazed at the size and marvel of the world of this game.

Mapping system might be kinda weird at first, but after understanding it it makes sense - after all who would update the map on the go. Also it's interesting how you can trade the ability to see yourself on the map for another open charm slot to give yourself additional advantage. Now that I think of it there's so many memorable benches in this game - not that unlike some of the campfires\lamps from Souls games.

Also it's useful to know for new players that quitting to menu [and thus saving] resumes your progress from the last bench used which can be very useful [especially before getting Dream Gate]

GOTY 2017 contender for me for sure, and one of the best metroidvanias ever.

It's ok. I bought it finally a week ago after reading all the praise it gets.

It's no Dead Cells, that's for certain.

Can anyone who finished this game or got real far tell me if they ever found the key to operate the trains
I'm curious because I finished the game with I want to say like 86% map completion or something and I never got it.

I'm considering replaying it later this year to try and find it along with some other secrets/sidequests I never completed.

@boonsong: Got it. It's in the Deepnest, around the part where there is broken trains.

I actually love that you can finish the game missing major mobility upgrades.

The idea that a mediocre roguelike like Dead Cells can be compared to the care and detailed work this game has on it is kind of amazing.

Just "finished" the game on the standard ending. This game is amazing.

I too agree, that this game is really amazing and great choice to play.

Probably my favorite game of one of my favorite years in gaming. So much of the game grasps the thrills and tensions of exploration. I love the map system. Every new region requires an expedition specifically to find the cartographer - or for you to draw your own map in real life.

Finally picked this up and as I'm closing in towards the end of it I'm finding myself baffled at how much praise this game got. Don't get me wrong, I've had an enjoyable time with it, but I'm not really seeing how it supposedly stands out from the crowd. It's a fairly baseline metroidvania with some pacing issues, clunky features and a unique artstyle. My whole time playing it the game has felt one step behind becoming something great and it just never took that interesting or surprising next step.

To be honest, the game wasn't my jam, but at least I was able to get a refund on it. The nail weapon's recoil when striking enemies combined with single block platform jumping over spike pits was cheap game design.

Just wanted to comment inside this blessed thread to say that this game is freaking fantastic and is amongst the top of my GOTY list. I've never seen a game that turns itself so much in favor for what I like seeing in video games. I thought it was just a cute looking Metroidvania that would just be as good as SOTN but this one is just so much better (unsuprisingly since they're 20 years apart which sort of nails the feeling that Hollow Knight is more like a evolution towards the whole thing rather than just another game of the same type). It really feels like this one marks a new style of Metroidvania, something that games like SOTN defined and later semi-metroidvania like Demon Souls never really dared to step into. It sure is a truely grand game.

Anyway, I felt like the strongest point of Hollow Knight was the way it rewards exploration and experimentation, which really makes this an excellent experience. The way it offers the player to approach things differently via the perk system while also being large enough to keep being interesting encurages discovery greatly. Theres Lots of secret places and stuff you just find while exploring aimlessly such as The Abyss and the atmospheric and good secrets inside it. And for those who don't like the kinda stuff, Iselda, which is the map lady later in the game sells you markers so you can see at least see some more obvious secret places on the map.

Its also amazing that the game gets updated with really huge patches fairly frequently, basically adding add-on sized DLC as free stuff, which also means that the game is not yet fully realized. The whole game basically opens up once you got your dash and walljump and it was after that that every second in my 16 hour turned into a blast. I'm already excited to visit the game again once it is fully finished like I did revisit The Witcher 3 when patch 1.31 came out and the game was basically done.

You can already spend 25 to 30+ hours while not seeing everything the game has to offer, which is gigantic since Metroidvanias aren't usually this big. What a game indeed.

Adored this game. Combat got a little old by the end of it and backtracking was more of a pain than I'd like in this kind of game but overall a fantastic experience.

This will probably end up being my GotY choice. It's too bad the Giant Bomb members didn't bother digging remotely anywhere into this because the well is deep.

By the end of my 51 hour run and only one instance of using a guide (the well is deeeep), I managed to end the story in a way I found satisfying. There are apparently 3 endings? As a fan of the 2D Metroid style of games and platformers in general I adored this gem.