The World Design of Hollow Knight | Boss Keys

Hey thanks for watching and for all your lovely comments! Just wanted to issue a few corrections and clarifications:

[1] I said that Hornet was referring to the Resting Grounds when she said “seek the Grave in Ash”. She’s actually talking about the Cast-off Shell in the Kingdom’s Edge, where you fight her for the second time.

[2] There’s a few extra routes through the game that I didn’t mention, namely a path to Deepnest through the Fungal Core, and a path to the Kingdom’s Edge through a secret tunnel in the King’s Station.

[3] It’s true that you can get your shade back without travelling to where you last died by giving a rancid egg to Jiji in Dirtmouth. This is useful in some situations, but I don’t think it changes the underlying design of the shade mechanic in a substantial way.

[4] Your soul amount drops by a third, not a half, when you die.

[5] I could have worded the DLC stuff better. Mentioning that bosses are “exclusive” to free, auto-installed DLC packs is a bit weird. My intention was to help out people who played Hollow Knight's base game in 2017 and were confused about missing these bonus bosses.

Every time I watch this video one thought goes through my head many times...
Team Cherry, TAKE AS LONG AS YOU NEED to develop Silksong and make it the best it can be, may it take another year or two from now, I don't care, take your time and do everything you want to do to make this game as good as you can make it be.

Gotta love Bugborne

This is exactly why silksong doesn't have a release date yet, Team Cherry set the bar too high when they made this masterpiece

As an indie-hobby dev creating my own metroidvania (and struggling with the wolrd desing) I have to say: the whole series is awesome, invaluable and inspiring :) thanks

I want to love this game even more, but the tedium and contact damage definitely made me angry. I probably would've hated it even more given the hidden nature of true ending, but my friend helped me through that with just enough hints to make it enjoyable. Hopefully the titular character silk song has good abilities that remove the aforementioned tedium in the follow up game

If there’s a single game I’ve ever owned that’s truly worth $70, it’s Hollow Knight. And I got it for $15.
Biggest steal in gaming

There are two more endings

Although the DLC packs are somewhat separate from the main game's exploration, I found they further improved the sense of discovery by adding new secrets to find. I played the game after these packs were added, so they were seamlessly integrated into my adventure. It was so cool to stumble across the Godmaster after unlocking a key in the Royal Waterways, and it was really funny beating up Zote in the Coliseum of Fools only to return to Dirtmouth and find he had a whole other arc and boss fight waiting for me.

Likewise, the DLC added new goals that encouraged further discovery. I spent several hours exploring the reaches of Hollownest to find the Nightmare Lantern, and the Hall of Gods sent me on a treasure hunt to find all the bosses I was missing. And while the Path of Pain and final Pantheon are punishing, they are incredibly satisfying to overcome and served as the culmination of everything I had experienced in my journey. There was so much content that it took me around 95 hours to accomplish everything the game had to offer. Hollow Knight is one of the greatest games I've played, and the DLC was a core part of that experience for me.

thx for explain the design of HK, double the path to next area is a good idea.
but i still get locked /lost in the game. And the lag (being hit) in battle is very affect the gameplay flow, crazy level platforming before endgame chapters (eg. white palace) is too hard for some players, these make the game feel not smooth as Metroid, Castlevania series.

Grave and ash is referring to kingdoms edge I believe, which makes sense why hornet would send you there for a final fight to prove you are worthy of taking the role of king

“Terrifying monster” with fluke marm on screen XD

you don’t need isma’s tear to go to monomon, i did it without it, but i don’t remember how

just coming to say 'lol' about the "exploiting a bug"

I reached Lurien without the wings. I used one of the small breakable sculptures. It took me quite a few tries but I just had to jump, break them and get there. You know when they get knocked down they propel you up, so that's what I did :D

A hollow knight review actually mentioning diffuculty and not saying fights like hornets are easy just because the radiance and NKG exist! Wow, incredible!

I did not know that there was a route in the Fog Canyon where you can swim across acid to reach Monomon. I thought the only route was through that damn black geyser. So when I beat Hornet for the second time, opened The Abyss, and got the Shade Cloak, I had this sense of “Oh my god finally”

I've waited years to watch this. Finally finished the game (well, got to the credits…) this week, so now it's fair game. What a spectacular adventure.

‘’The bosses mean buissness.’’ Show crystal guardian, somethings not lining up

Can't forget how Cornifer is always humming, so you know if you're close!

Every lock can be picked.

you forgot to mention how good ari gibson and william pellen are at making me cry because the pure vessel hands me my backside every single day

Aquaria was such a brilliant, underrated game 🤩

I've stopped playing Hollow Knight after being addicted to it for weeks because I couldn't figure out how to beat the Mantis Lords and other bosses, so I felt I couldn't progress. This video not only gave me detours and other ways to futher the game, it also made me fall in love again with Hollow Knight.

I like the good ending easy to miss but all the pieces are there and not obtusely hidden (like the area you fight Nameless King in Dark Souls 3) as long as you just look carefully and pay attention.

isnt hollow knight just mmz3 but open world

"mutual trust and respect between us and the player"

The game punishes mistakes by forcing you to repeat content and occasionally lose all your currency when you die, with no forgiving option for people who want to play casually. I really feel like I missed out with this game, there was a lot I enjoyed about it, but I'm neither good at games or masochistic so I had to give up after a few hours.

I think if the developers really respected their players they would have accommodated bad/casual gamers too.

yay

best game i have ever played

It's funny, I actually explored deepnest and crystal peak before getting into the city of tears. I thought you needed the heart to get to the city.

The telescope in Lurien's spire is a cool detail, I just wish you could rarely see something interesting instead of just vengeflies

Mark just casually spoiloring all the game XD

I actually discovered resting grounds before fungal wastes in my first playthorugh

This reminds me of how others have praised BotW and Elden Ring for creating a world worth exploring. Yahtzee Croshaw comes to mind when he said on behalf of Elden Ring: "Here is my world. I don't care where you go in it, because wherever you go, you will find something good."

I kinda found the "secret" ending naturally. The only external bit I had is to gather 1800 Essence to be able to dreamnail that Kingsguard, everything else just happened as I explored.

Oh, I thought a softlock is when a game traps the player in a way they have to reload to the last checkpoint to leave.

My NES Zelda came with a physical, paper map

In my opinion, the only other Metroidvania that I HAVE played that rivals HK is the Ori games.

Here in 2033 and 2 of the games you’re looking forward to are still not out but are both actually close