{"id":22109,"date":"2018-07-22T16:46:26","date_gmt":"2018-07-22T06:46:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=22109"},"modified":"2018-10-22T16:46:34","modified_gmt":"2018-10-22T06:46:34","slug":"hollow-knight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/?p=22109","title":{"rendered":"Hollow Knight"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"hollowknight\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Developer:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Team Cherry
\nPublisher:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Team Cherry
\nPlatform:\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>Nintendo Switch<\/p>\n

O<\/span>ver the\u00a0years, Nintendo has had some decidedly mixed fortunes with the success of their hardware platforms.\u00a0 Some have soared, such as the Wii and the DS, and others have tanked, such as the Wii U.\u00a0 But its been a long time since a Nintendo system sold well *and*<\/em>\u00a0had an ecosystem where third party games thrived.\u00a0 This\u00a0is what has happened with the Nintendo Switch, which has sold like hot cakes since it launched in 2017, and has also seen a slew of games reach a wider audience thanks to Switch owners.<\/p>\n

One such game is Team Cherry’s Hollow Knight<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Hollow Knight<\/em> actually launched last year on PC and although it garnered positive reviews, it only sold a paltry number of copies.\u00a0 It wasn’t until the game popped up on the Nintendo eShop this year that a much broader audience has had a chance to play it.\u00a0 Team Cherry couldn’t have timed their Switch debut more sweetly.\u00a0 They launched during one of the quieter release windows of the year (June) and came out at a sub $20 price point.\u00a0 Given the quality of the game, the inclusion of all the post-launch content from the PC version and the near forty hours of playtime that it offers, it was an embarrassment of riches.<\/p>\n

\"hollowknightgame\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Hollow Knight<\/em> is a very handsomely crafted 2D Metriodvania game.\u00a0 It tells the story of a knight who explores the underground depths of Hallownest, an insect kingdom that has fallen into ruin.\u00a0 The gameplay loop\u00a0involves exploring new areas underground, mining rocks and killing bugs to collect currency, then returning to merchants on the surface to spend that currency on new abilities and armour.<\/p>\n

Initially, the game is rather unforgiving and unfriendly to newcomers.\u00a0 Any new areas that are discovered aren’t permanently recorded unless you find a map-maker to mark it for you.\u00a0 Death results in the loss of all your accrued currency.\u00a0 And there are no checkpoints so its possible to lose significant progress in your travels unless you find benches which act as save points.\u00a0 You also start with a measly three hit points and a dinky little sword that does little damage.<\/p>\n

However, as has been popularized by the infamous Dark Souls<\/em> series, the harsh introduction to\u00a0Hollow Knight<\/em> is all about encouraging the player to ‘git good’ and learn the mechanics of game.\u00a0 Once it begins to open up and you reach various milestones that give you new swords, new powers and greater health,\u00a0Hollow Knight<\/em> really begins to shine.\u00a0 Enemies that once seemed challenging become a cinch to defeat and hard to reach areas of the map become accessible as double-jumps, wall jumps and charged dives become available.\u00a0 In the game you collect various Charms which give you assorted buffs (strength, extra health, resistance to damage etc) but since you can only carry a small number, there’s a degree of strategy when choosing which ones to use to tackle a particular area or boss.<\/p>\n

Speaking of which, Hollow Knight<\/em>\u00a0has some absolutely devious bosses which can take a few rounds to fully understand their attack patterns and then another few rounds more to finally conquer.\u00a0 Some of the most challenging bosses in this game literally took me a couple of hours of sustained play to defeat.\u00a0 It’s tough going but I enjoyed every moment.<\/p>\n

Hollow Knight<\/em> is a big game.\u00a0 There were times when I thought I had uncovered most of the map only to find\u00a0it kept going<\/em>.\u00a0 The sense of discovery in this game really surprised me.\u00a0 It’s also relatively open-ended as to how you explore the world.\u00a0 I played the same time as a friend and when we compared notes, we were having completely different experiences, uncovering different areas and different Charms\/weapons at vastly different times.\u00a0 The eventual size and scale of the game was nothing like what I thought it originally would be.\u00a0 In some ways, it reminds me of\u00a0Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past<\/em> when you first travel to the Dark World and realise the game is twice the size you originally thought it would be.<\/p>\n

As Metroidvania games go,\u00a0Hollow Knight<\/em> isn’t necessarily doing anything particularly new or revolutionary and it has come out in a year where there has been an absolute glut of them (Dead Cells, Guacamelee 2, Death’s Gambit, The Messenger\u00a0<\/em>etc).\u00a0 However, I think its the pick of the bunch and one of the finest games in the genre in years.\u00a0 The world design is distinctive and unique, the difficulty curve is challenging without being unfair and there is an immense sense of satisfaction to be gleamed from the experience once it all begins to click.\u00a0 An incredible achievement from a small studio producing their first game.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A knight embarks on a quest to uncover the secrets of the long-abandoned insect kingdom of Hallownest, whose haunting depths promise treasures and answers to ancient mysteries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":22111,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[2752,2618,2753],"class_list":["post-22109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-gaming","tag-hollow-knight","tag-nintendo-switch","tag-team-cherry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22109"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22129,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22109\/revisions\/22129"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22111"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.thefatwebsite.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}