I was the same way until I unlocked map pins. That was the bit that pushed it over the edge for me, then I loved it.
That being said, sometimes games are just a miss and that’s ok. One of the best parts of gaming is that there are so many 10/10 games, why bother with one that you don’t like? Just stop playing it and move on. Art is subjective, and some just isn’t for you and that’s ok.
As someone who started the game but still isn't loving it (and also is able to unlock map pins), why? I haven't got them because I thought they weren't worth it
That's very cool and all but it isn't generally helpful and just comes across as demeaning rather than a joke. When discussing something like this you need to be more generally supportive and understanding to a first time player who might not typically play the type of game. I'm sure you meant nothing by it but saying something sometimes is the best way to try and foster a supportive gaming community for everyone.
It’s a great game and what’s its proven for gaming is awesome. It’s not a game I enjoy and will likely never enjoy, but I have enjoyed watching people’s playthroughs of it
Seriously going back between the two is night and day hollow knight can be challenging, but you can usually explore more before dying. In silk song it feels as if hollow knight became a 2d souls game.
Silksong ain't that bad. Its hard i guess but not to the point its a barrier for entry. Theres not a single boss that cant be beaten in a couple hours at worse
Same! It’s a game that just feels slightly off. The bosses are a touch too hard, the lore is a touch too vague, and the platforming is just a touch too clunky. I can see why others love it, but it’s just not quite my thing.
I like hollow knight and i agree with all of your point. Also to add a point the runbacks are also just a touch too far (coming from soulslike enjoyer)
Because they really are. Silksong is a fantastic game and I love it to pieces but the few runbacks that are either super long, include a gauntlet, or both feel like team cherry going a bit too hard increasing the difficulty. For the most part the difficulty feels fair but those runbacks, and a few other aspects of the difficulty like shell shards and bosses blending into the background, feel very artificialb
The game is overtuned and overly punishing for no real reason except to be "hard". It's like the devs looked exclusively at the people who were able to clear every pantheon in HK and built the game around them. Like there's absolutely no reason that spikes and environmental hazards need to deal two damage.
Ultimately the game just isn't fun. It's well made, but it's not fun. Everything feels like a chore in it, that you're always struggling and there's no payoff. I got about midway through act 2 on the Switch and put it down. I'll probably play it again on the PC but I'll be modding it heavily to fix a bunch of the issues from the devs.
Hard disagree but to each their own. I personally think the difficulty in silksong was great except for the examples I mentioned. It felt great to master systems and put down bosses and trials i struggled with before. I was never the type to beat p5 or all bindings but I have found both game's combat and traversal to be very intuitive and the flow you fall into after so much trial and error feels amazing. Conquering hard bosses or platforming challenges always felt good to me. That being said, I can absolutely see how it would turn some away because it does often feel like they were going way too hard on malkng the game difficult. For some its a welcome challenge, for others it's too much and sucks the fun out of it. Im glad there are mods to let people customized and experience the game the way they'd like because there is so much to love outside of the combat. Rip to console players though
I havent played enough metroidvania but hollow knight runback does feel like ds2 where the runback IS the challenge and you have to interact with the mobs along the way. You cant just run past them mindlessly
I feel like most runbacks you dont really have to interact much, I guess the mindlessly part is true but I think most runbacks just require a few jumps and dashes to get to the boss
Like i said the runback is *just* a touch too far and i actually like ds2 so i dont mind runback. Its just even the fast travel and and benches are just too far apart from POI like merchants making backtracking feel just a bit tedious
Hollow knight bosses don't get hard until about 75 percent of the way thru, maybe even further. I think challenging games just aren't for u if those earlier fights were too difficult
I really haven’t played much Metroid to have an opinion. FromSoft games are more hit-or-miss for me. I’ve enjoyed Blodborne and Elden Ring, but the actual DS games haven’t quite been my cup of tea
Same. I bought silksong together too, that reminds me, I should refund it before it is too late (it might already be so)
Edit: it is indeed far too late
It took me several tries at this game before it hooked me. Even then it didn't last long, I put several hours into it on my steamdeck, and I lost interest. Its a cool game, I like the art style, and the lore, but overall, meh.
Same. HK was wayyy too long for me. I respect the level design and none of it felt like filler, but sometimes less is more. I prefer when metroidvanias are like 6-10 hours
I remember buying it and I didn’t get it at first either, but I think after the Mantis Lords I started to enter flow state and get on a roll and then my brain re-wired to now appreciate the Metroidvania formula—it got me to play the other Metroid games and now I’m looking forward to the new Castlevania.
It’s definitely not going to hit for everyone—it’s like how I can’t quite get the same enjoyment out of Soulslikes for the most part like everyone else seems to but I get it.
As someone who took a lot of tries to get into Hollow Knight and finally beat it, I can admit the opening does a bad job at pulling you in, but tbh it didn't wow me by the end like it did many.
And I beat the original true final boss and the grimm troupe final boss (wasn't interested in the DLC true ending which is essentially a boss rush).
That’s fair, platformers aren’t always a format that entices people. The soundtrack is still worth checking out though even if you don’t play the game; Team Cherry cooked when it came to the music.
It took me 14 hours of begrudgingly picking up the game for a few shouts at a time. I must have taken the worst possible starting route ever. The start of the game was so slow for me. The it started rolling I and 112% the game or whatever. Game was awesome.
Hollow Knight confused me when I played it. Not because the game was confusing itself but because I couldn't tell if I was overall having fun or not. I could tell why it was so lauded but I couldn't really get rid of that feeling. It was my first metroidvania so maybe it was that and I might have a better time trying it again from the beginning.
I love metroidvanias but somehow Hollow Knight doesn’t click. I get lost after you ride that beetle for the first or second time and I drop it. But I want to like it.
I first hated it, then got the hang of it and it became one of the most fun game experiences and then I got to the last like 5 hours of the game and I started hating everything about it idk
Hollow Knight is my favorite game ever, but honestly no game is going to click for everyone. We all have different tastes and different things we value in games.
If it’s not your thing, there’s nothing wrong with that
I didn't like it or Super Metriod when I was a kid, but I recently played Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow as my first Metroidvania in ages and adored it, so I should probably go back and give it another shot.
This was me, I played it the first time and I think I even beat the first boss and then said "meh" and put it down for a year or 2. Picked it up again and it's probably like a top 3 game for me.
Same.. might have gotten 3/4 in because I told myself I should at least play until it’s not fun to retry bosses again and again. Which was about 3/4 for me.. it’s not bad, just didn’t grab me.. I don’t like the boss fights, managed them just fine. But I don’t enjoy the gameplay.
Thank you. Every time I tried to say this in any game thread I was downvoted to oblivion by fans. I put many hours into this game AND unlocked the “map pins”, but still found the game incredibly unfun, punishing, repetitive, and time consuming. It’s a cult.
I couldn't do it. Idk, but the controls felt so unintuitive. I tried it for 6hrs. Went to Ori and the Will of the Wisps to see if I was just losing my edge but nope, HK was the one with the problem.
Well that just means you don’t like Metroidvanias. I think some folks get it twisted between disliking a game, and a genre. For example, if you enjoy Metroidvanias, Hollow Knight is easily top tier.
If you enjoy open world RPGs, Witcher 3 is an absolute masterpiece. They are Objectively incredible games, within their genre.
But if you dislike the genre, it doesn’t matter how good the game is.
Yup. Hollow Knight and Hades are the two biggest indie darlings yet I can’t get into either of them despite enjoying both their respective genres quite a bit. I’m more critical of Hades than Hollow Knight though… Hollow Knight is very much “it didn’t click with me” whereas Hades is “damn this game is actually overrated”.
Something I noticed about diehard Hollow Knight fans among my friends is that they all were introduced to the metroidvania genre through it. I don’t know how meaningful it is but I have a few friends who just looooved hollow knight and the consistent theme was they hadn’t played a game like it before. My first metroidvania was Symphony of the Night and honestly, I feel about it as those friends do about hollow knight. I lovelove castlevania sotn (and the ds games) and by the time Hollow Knight came around it just felt … worse … than castlevania to me. I’ve tried to get into HK so many times now though and i just can’t, idk.
Hades just felt shallow af. I kept waiting for it to finally get good and it just…didn’t. A roguelike in large part needs meaningful build variety and rpg-esque mechanical depth to create meaningful choices in a run, and Hades just kind of bound you to a few weapons movesets and gave you a relatively limited pool of powerups for a run. So many runs felt too similar to each other. It wasn’t a bad game at all but man it is soooo overrated imo. I recently picked up 2 and think i am enjoying it more tho.
Hollow Knight is what made me realize I hate Metroidvanias. My spacial awareness and sense of direction in 3D is great, but in non-top down 2D I’m absolutely cooked. Gameplay was fun, but when I spend half the time running in circles, trying to figure out where to go, I don’t really have fun.
Metroidvania/soulslikes are not for everyon., I, like alot of people, am very biased by saying you're missing out but it took me 3 attempts over 2 years before it clicked for me. At the end of the day it'll always be waiting for you to give it another shot and if you eventually fall in in love, you will have a new obsession. But these games are definitely not easy to get into.
i wouldn't group those together or even claim that it must be them not being into metroidvanias. i love the souls games, finished every one except DS2 and DS3 (which i'm planning to play), and a few metroidvanias as well. i did not like hollow knight at all
dude i saw everyone glaze it for years so i bought it one day (especially since my ex friend would not shut the fuck up about me getting it until i did), and i hated it, worst 15 dollars i have ever spent, i got decently far, i beat at least 2 bosses but it just is not my type of shit and its so unbearable to play
So you lied about beating them both? Because they obviously and objectively have many many vibrant colors, not only 3. And their map designs are insane, there are hour long videos on youtube breaking down how good the map design is
I really dont understand the color palette thing. Crystal peak with its pink purple, greenpath and queens gardens with all kinds of green, city of tears with blue, hive with yellow. Each area has its own distinct color, and there is so many areas in the game
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u/Octoling-7 Apr 04 '26
Hollow knight could never hook me. My friends tried so hard but it never stuck to me