Hollow Knight is an incredibly competent game on pretty much all fronts. In my opinion, Hollow Knight is a masterpiece and we will discuss all the things that make it so great in detail in this Hollow Knight retrospective. However - the one thing that I find most fascinating about Hollow Knight is an aspect of the game that is seldom discussed. The most fascinating aspect of Hollow Knight is that it exists in the first place - because to put it mildly - Hollow Knight’s existence should not be possible. Hollow Knight was developed by only three people, in roughly three years. Three people managed to produce a game that looks this beautiful, features a combat system with a skill ceiling this high, crafted a beautiful world this big, wrote lore that deep, and crafted gameplay this fluid. Three people did a job that puts most teams of 60 people that work for half a decade on a game to shame. How did three pull this off?
In this Hollow Knight retrospective, we are going to investigate this question. We are going to find out how it is possible that Hollow Knight even exists!
I love both games as well. But even though they’re both considered metroidvanias, they’re fundamentally different games and preference really depends on what you’re looking for.
The death mechanic on Ori is a lot more forgiving as checkpoints are frequent and there’s no tracking back to get your souls back. Hollow Knight is brutal and far more of a challenge. Hollow Knights combat also feels “tighter” and more satisfying than Ori. However, Ori imo has a better story , music, and graphics. The traversal in Ori is a lot more smoother and enjoyable than HN, I find myself mindlessly cruising through the entire world (similar to how I feel swinging through Spiderman).
I love both HK and WotW and would rank them equally, just for different reasons.