Hollow Knight

Yeah I was just mad about the geo last night. I didn’t need it anyway. 98% is a lot better than the 75% I got on my first play through.

Yes there’s some frustration but I don’t play a game for 80 hours if it’s not great. It’s great.

Honestly I think Grimm and Nightmare King Grimm were my 2 favourite boss fights. Everything is telegraphed and there's very little randomness in each attack pattern. You can learn each component and then it is just a challenge of execution. Its very very satisfying when you get it down. I think I only took a single hit when I finally got Grimm down.

It lives!

No release date, but planned within the next 12 months.

Also will launch free on Game Pass for Xbox and PC.

Back for my third play through - I can’t seem to let go of this game, it’s just so well put together.

This time - collected just about everything, I have all the charms (well one is only half a charm). Had a bit of a go at the White Palace, still nope. But compared to how I was doing a year ago:

Redherring wrote:

The second colosseum challenge is ridiculous. The Soul Tyrant is nasty. The Traitor Lord is annoying. The Grimm boss is bewildering.

The second colosseum challenge was beaten on my second try. The Soul Tyrant is gone. The Traitor Lord is toast. The Grimm boss is… a work in progress.

Should get over 100% this time?

June 12, 2022

Still waiting on Silksong

That one's so good, it should go up on Freezing Cold Takes.

Stele wrote:

June 12, 2022

Still waiting on Silksong

They tweeted this out just over a month ago:

Hey gang, just a quick update about Silksong.

We had planned to release in the 1st half of 2023, but development is still continuing. We're excited by how the game is shaping up, and it's gotten quite big, so we want to take the time to make the game as good as we can.

Expect more details from us once we get closer to release.

77 hours

IMAGE(https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2008091208007573545/FC204F1B3EBE35E30A3E64CA61E4D27D55524A4D/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false)

2023 is packed enough already. I'd be fine waiting longer for Silksong, especially if it means improving the game quality.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

77 hours

IMAGE(https://steamuserimages-a.akamaihd.net/ugc/2008091208007573545/FC204F1B3EBE35E30A3E64CA61E4D27D55524A4D/?imw=5000&imh=5000&ima=fit&impolicy=Letterbox&imcolor=%23000000&letterbox=false)

Spoiler:

The Radiance was such a tough final boss, I got through by the skin of my teeth after 3-5 attempts.

The endings in Hollow Knight are amazing, in much the same way as Bloodborne each one really leaves a mark.

How did you enjoy the game overall Quintin?

Congratulations!

Spikeout wrote:
Spoiler:

The Radiance was such a tough final boss, I got through by the skin of my teeth after 3-5 attempts.

The endings in Hollow Knight are amazing, in much the same way as Bloodborne each one really leaves a mark.

How did you enjoy the game overall Quintin?

Hahahahahaha.

Spoiler:

Radiance took me between 30 and 40 tries.

I enjoyed the game but my main criticism is not enough benches, not enough fast travel spots.

I liked them not being plentiful as it felt you were in more danger & had to travel through tough areas at times but I can certainly see why that would be a negative for some people.

I honestly thought it was gonna take me a loooonnng time to beat

Spoiler:

Radiance

but in my successful attempt I must have been at really low health (as in one hit & I was dead) for what felt like over a minute. I was barely dodging the attacks & platforming perfectly after the fact. I don't think I could replicate that again without trial & error x20

I'm old any my reaction time ain't what it used to be.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

I'm old any my reaction time ain't what it used to be.

TF2 days are way in our rearview.

After getting 99.something percent on this, I put it down. By the time I thought about it playing it again, I realised that all my muscle memory would have gone.

Now that I've seen The Radiance in this thread, a tiny part of me wishes that I'd tried to pick it up again, if only for the world and atmosphere.

I've been considering starting this game again. I beat it a few years back and did 100% completion, but the trophy of finding all the health upgrades didn't pop and thus my Platinum run on PS4 was DOA. If I could check a guide and somehow come up with a plan to just get the health upgrades and the trophy to pop, I might dive back into it.

Arise!

As I was wrapping up my 2023 GOTY list, I saw this in my backlog notes and decided you know what, today is finally the day.

As advertised, Hollow Knight is definitely the Dark Souls of Metroidvanias, with everything that entails. That said, I was very happy to find that contrary to how I remember it being discussed I did not find it overwhelmingly difficult. Or rather, the ways in which it approached that level of challenge were fair and manageable with focus and precision — and given that this game feels best in class clean and precise in the control it offers, that challenge is much more often a joy to engage with than it is a frustration.

Or at least, it was up until I started pursuing more than the simplest ending of the game.

So, I DID manage to make my way through the epic length series of precision platforming challenges required to unlock the enhanced final boss. (And, I did all the other stuff required too, including an optional boss that probably gave me more trouble than any other up until that point, requiring me to get perfect with my shadow-dash dodging.)

But man, this enhanced final boss fight is giving me TROUBLE.

I spent several hours and thought I was getting close, finally developing the precision I need for the second phase. Then I get curious and looked it up, and saw that the second phase is not the last one.

Apparently, there are five phases.

THREE more, when I can't quite survive the second.

So yeah, turns out the Dark Souls level of frustrating difficulty IS here -- just, they were kind enough to not really crank it up before the point where the player is pursuing optional content and endings.

You waited until the end of 2023 to jump into Hollow Knight and you're still in time to end up irritated by the wait for Silksong.

But man, this enhanced final boss fight is giving me TROUBLE.

Found the upgrade for "up magic," equipped the magic boosting charm, beat it. (Eventually.)

Very glad I stuck with it until I did, but I don't think I'll be pursuing the DLC ending.

*Legion* wrote:

You waited until the end of 2023 to jump into Hollow Knight and you're still in time to end up irritated by the wait for Silksong.

Heh, I mean, I'd maybe be more irritated if I didn't already have a year's worth of backlog games currently installed on my computer, and probably several more that I could install. But yeah, having just watched the trailer for Silksong, I'm excited.