Hollow Knight, the game 2017 forgot.

[Worgen]

So I've been going through the best of 2017 lists and one game is constantly absent. Hollow Knight.
Somehow the best metroidsouls game to come out in a very long time is totally absent from everyones list, if you don't think it was great you either didn't play it or you have no taste. I guess maybe they somehow forgot about it since it did release very early in the year but that is still hardly an excuse to ignore the bleakest game to release all year.

 

[Worgen]

Seriously, how the fuck is PC gamer the only site to give Hollow Knight any kind of reward. (best platformer) Polygon had a top 50 of the year and somehow totally ignored it.

 

[Zombie Proof]

I'm with you 100% man. Hollow Knight is my GOTY right behind RE7. Even did up some fan art I love it so much.

Everyone who loves metroidvania's even a little bit needs to get up on this bad boy. It plays like butter, has beautiful music, epic boss fights, and an art style that captures the iconography of shape in some pretty amazing ways.

 

[gigastar]

Seriously, how the fuck is PC gamer the only site to give Hollow Knight any kind of reward. (best platformer) Polygon had a top 50 of the year and somehow totally ignored it.

Maybe cause its part of a saturated genre?

At this point when i see 'inde' and 'platformer' are the top 2 tags i just want to take a shot of oven cleaner before i continue to scour for literally any RTS releases.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Eh the cutsy chibi plushdoll bait art style isn't for me.

I'll stick with the new Metroid: Return of Samus on the 3DS thank you.

 

[Worgen]

Eh the cutsy chibi plushdoll bait art style isn't for me.

I'll stick with the new Metroid: Return of Samus on the 3DS thank you.

Hollow Knight is the baby of Metroid and Darksouls with Miyazaki as the midwife. You need to get past your preconceived notions for the game, it is one of the darkest bleakest worlds in gaming in 2017.

 

[Samtemdo8_v1legacy]

Eh the cutsy chibi plushdoll bait art style isn't for me.

I'll stick with the new Metroid: Return of Samus on the 3DS thank you.

it is one of the darkest bleakest worlds in gaming in 2017.

That makes me dislike it even more than. This silly intentional contrast by portraying dark stories with a tonally inconsistant art style.

Just have your Dark and Grim Stories with a Dark and Grim Art direction thank you. You can't do cutesy and dark at the same time

Ergh damn indie hipsters with their disdain for anything traditional...

 

[Zombie Proof]

Eh the cutsy chibi plushdoll bait art style isn't for me.

I'll stick with the new Metroid: Return of Samus on the 3DS thank you.

Hollow Knight is the baby of Metroid and Darksouls with Miyazaki as the midwife. You need to get past your preconceived notions for the game, it is one of the darkest bleakest worlds in gaming in 2017.

Hollow Knight is a title who's merits are easy to see at a glance. It isn't worth convincing anyone who can be so cavalier in dismissing it otherwise.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

You can't do cutesy and dark at the same time

I super disagree with that notion.

Also, Nier Automata would like to have a word with you.

 

[Worgen]

Eh the cutsy chibi plushdoll bait art style isn't for me.

I'll stick with the new Metroid: Return of Samus on the 3DS thank you.

it is one of the darkest bleakest worlds in gaming in 2017.

That makes me dislike it even more than. This silly intentional contrast by portraying dark stories with a tonally inconsistant art style.

Just have your Dark and Grim Stories with a Dark and Grim Art direction thank you. You can't do cutesy and dark at the same time

Ergh damn indie hipsters with their disdain for anything traditional...

Oh please, you haven't played the game, your just assuming. The bleakness of grimness of the world perfectly fits the art style. You go buy the game, play it, love it, and then you can talk smack about it "not fitting the art" since right now you have no idea.

 

[Zeraki]

I'm waiting for the Switch port to pick it up. Been interested in it for a while but I've been busy with other games.

 

[MiskWisk]

Wait... Hollow Knight was released 2017?

*Google-fu*

Huh. Released 24th of February 2017. I thought it was a 2016 release. Anyway, absolutely great game (I definitely recommend playing with a gamepad though; keyboard controls are frustrating as all hell). It's really satisfying to track your improvement when you have to backtrack through areas that gave you trouble and you simply blast through them with no difficulty.

 

[Hawki]

Looks at trailer...

...is it just me, or does the protagonist not look like a knight at all? If anything, he reminds me of a vampire.

 

[Potjeslatinist]

There's a list out today on Rock Paper Shotgun (which I love) by John Walker (who has a habit of having opinions fundamentally different from mine) of best Metroidvania's. He omits Hollow Knight. Knickers are bunched all over the place. I just mention this because I'd been reading these comments, then decided to check out The Escapist and saw this thread. Funny.

Also, Hollow Knight is fucking great, and everyone should absolutely get it.

And holy crap yeah, it's from 2017. Thus, it bumps Cuphead out of my top 3, pushes The Sexy Brutale one place down. PUBG still on 1 though.

 

[Trunkage]

Looks at trailer...

...is it just me, or does the protagonist not look like a knight at all? If anything, he reminds me of a vampire.

No, the protagonist isn't the Knight

Edit: great game. Was at least spoken of by people here on the forum. Fuck White Palace though

 

[Worgen]

There's a list out today on Rock Paper Shotgun (which I love) by John Walker (who has a habit of having opinions fundamentally different from mine) of best Metroidvania's. He omits Hollow Knight. Knickers are bunched all over the place. I just mention this because I'd been reading these comments, then decided to check out The Escapist and saw this thread. Funny.

Also, Hollow Knight is fucking great, and everyone should absolutely get it.

And holy crap yeah, it's from 2017. Thus, it bumps Cuphead out of my top 3, pushes The Sexy Brutale one place down. PUBG still on 1 though.

I know right. I have no idea how so many gaming sites have forgotten it. Literally the only one that even mentioned it is PCgamer, it doesn't even show up in other sites lists, not just not winning but not mentioned at all.

I also thought it was a 2016 release, this year had a lot of souls inspired games (and actually good ones) as well as tough as nail platformers (Cuphead) so Hollow Knight kinda faded into the backdrop since it was released so early.

Speaking of which, I still haven't finished the final boss, god damnit I hate multi staged bosses and this one has insane damage and doesn't let go for a second.

The last boss is multi-stage? I must have missed something since I only remember one stage and he was a pushover compared to some of the other bosses I faced and the white palace.

 

[Kotaro]

I adored what I played of Hollow Knight. Need to go back and finish it sometime.
I got it via IndieBox, which came with a soundtrack CD and a grub plushie. RIP, IndieBox.

 

[sXeth]

I've seen it pop hither and thither, and it seems to be hang around discussion threads a lot. In the GOTY thread here where people were just spitballing (the one before the current front pager with someones arbitrary poll options) it was running 3rd or 4th.

As to how it dropped off folks radar, well, the end parts do start to wear thin (the Arena and the White Palace specifically), so a decent chunk of folks left with a bad taste. And from what I've heard, the DLC kind of doubled down on that sort of thing, which would be the more recent bubble of interest around it. TV Show that hung on for a season too long syndrome, mayhaps.