32:16 There are containers of soul in the lighthouse, maybe his task was to keep it fueled so it doesn't turn off. His task wasn't to "not turn it off", it was to "not let it turn off" Would make a lot more sense
Technically, we have no reference as to when he died. Could also be that it was around the birth of vessels. The king, faced with either looking at his graveyard or sacrificing another retainer, decided not to do either.
My only issue with hollow knight is the crystal peak. We see them mine these crystals like they’re really useful but we never see them see them used for anything anywhere else. This only sticks out to me because just about everything else has a reason to be there.
I think this is intentional. After unlocking Crystal Peak Elderbug says that he once had one of the purple crystals. He said you cant eat them and they dont make for good pillows so he doesnt care about them. I think this is supposed to show how the only reason people care about the crystals is because they are rare and worth a lot of money, just like real world diamonds. Also the crystal heart, deep focus, and quick focus are all items you get that are made of crystals that actually do have special powers so yeah they actually are magical in a way
@@garysingh3523But if that’s the case, I would have liked to see them present as some sort of jewelry or general wealth-hoarding in the City. That is already a theme present, with characters like Emilitia. But as it stands, the crystals are mined from the Peaks and then go…(?)
@@SweetsIsOnline The crystals do actually serve a purpose! If you speak with Quirrel, he mentions "The crystal ore is said to contain a sort of energy, not as powerful as the soul the city dwellers harnessed but far less lethal." - the wanderer's journal also states that they contain heat at a searing point within. Despite this, the crystals are never shown to have their energy harnessed; no tools or mechanisms (such as the corpse heap in the Soul Sanctuary) are ever shown which I find a little disappointing.
Mossbag has a REALLY good explanation for the Fog Canyon jellies - to put it simply the jellyfish were an experiment made by Monomon as a way to keep the infection in that somehow didnt work so she just used one to protect herself
For the White Palace having buzzsaws, I have an explanation (speculation). Basically, that is the White Palace, in the form of the Pale King's mind. At the end of the Path of Pain, there is the most regretful memory of the Pale King. The "Pain" is the Pale King's. The Buzzsaws, thorns and spikes, are the Pale King's regret physical manifestation, because the whole thing happens in the dream realm.
Yeah, i agree that the white palace is definitely in some kind of dream realm, like the places where you fight the dream bosses, godhome, or where the dreamers trap you, and that's why it's so disjointed an ethereal. Not entirely sure it's in the pale kings mind though, but he probably made it. Maybe with his own dreams, but PoP snuck through unbidden. What i do wonder is how the actual palace has disappeared, or how it's tied to the singular knight at its gates. 🤔 Is it the actual palace in the dream? Just fragmented and disjointed by the rules of the dream realm? or is it just a memory, an echo laden with mental defenses in the form of buzzaws and hostile terrain? If so, did the king actually move the palace like the grim troupe does their tent? Is that the actual king on the throne, or just a faded memory of him by the kingsmould in the place he locked away half of the charm? Did the king ever visit the dream or would he construct it all from outside then left hallowsnest? And if so would he have returned once the radiance was dealt with? So many questions, so few answers... Hopefully silksong will have some answers, even if as a off-hand comment by hornet.
@@fallatiuso I like the idea that the entire White Palace is simply a manifestation of how the people *around* the Pale King saw him and his court. They saw a bug obsessed, a bug driven mad by his own regrets, and they visualized being in his presence as walking between thorns and spikes. They knew that he'd drag them all down in the endless emotional void he carried with him from the sacrifices he made. To me his final thoughts seem like a plea, a rationalization that his subjects project onto him, that *surely* everything he did was for the greater good.
@@stump3139 yes she even if we dont count her design herrah is the mother of hornet WHO IS CANONICALLY A SPIDER and her father isnt a spider so if Herrah isnt a spider idk how TF Hornet is
A game that takes your unimportance to an extreme is rainworld. Literally enemies will hunt other enemies, and they will move even when in a different part of the map. You literally have to integrate yourself into the ecosystem of the game. Very difficult, but you learn and grow to be able to survive. One of the best games I have played recently.
Yes! It also has a similar idea of every single area having a good reason to be there and a great atmosphere that matches the gameplay, which gets *somehow even better* with the downpour areas There's also the idea that your abilities stay relatively simple and all you have is your knowledge taken to the absolute extreme
Even though they're similar games, I don't think every hollow knight fan would enjoy rain world, and neither would every rain world fan enjoy hollow knight. They might both be platformers and unique indie games, but I personally found myself more in touch with rain world because of how simple, yet extensive it's movement and combat can get.
I especially love Nosk’s disguise. He is supposed to show what you love most, but since our knight is hollow, he just mirrors himself. This makes sense from a gameplay perspective too, as if it was some character, some people would naturally be drawn more too then more and some people less, but as someone who is unique*, it draws us in more
@@thealeks1 GodHome gives beings their full potential, puts them at their strongest, and in doing so, changes the appearance of some, like Sly, and the Pure Vessel, Nosk in P5 gains flight and looks like Hornet instead.
Did I just find a hyper-niche commentary youtuber with views not matching their quality and humour to match? Christ, I'm feeling blessed. This was great.
i kind of like that the map doesn’t line up 1 for 1 with the actual areas, but are close enough canonically, its the knight that’s completing cornifer’s map, and they aren’t a cartographer
@@SuperDestroyerFox plus it's a 3d world being represented in a 2d plane, the pieces tha overlap could easilly be explained by the fact that if they were lined up one of them would be closer to the camera than the other.
Originally Queen Vespa used to be the one that trained Hornet to be a warrior with the 3 queens narrative (Birthed by Herrahp, raised by White Lady, and trained by Vespa) Also my theory is that being "hollow" means being complete instinct, no feelings or mind, and that's why when bugs get infected they just go back to their base instincts
I read it as a kind of like how Dragon Ball uses "pure of heart". Doesn't exactly work with the connotations that come with the word, but fits the dictionary definition. Hollow and having no will or mind doesn't mean it can't think, it means it doesn't have the personal distractions inherent to being alive. A normal bug might've gotten invested in the hobbies of the many NPCs, or tried to befriend or oppose them based on personality or manner of speaking. The Knight just fights through the world to find stuff to do its job: defeat or otherwise stall the Radiance. The Knight's reactions never waver based on fear or morals, it's a very one track mind that says an opponent is a threat or not, sparing things that stop being a threat and killing things that remain hostile until death. The Hollow Knight lost its Hollowness when it gained the goal of "making dad smile at me again" and ultimately gave a crack in the armor for the Radiance to get in and take control. It's why I think the Knight becoming Lord of Shades works so well: the secondary strength Hornet says it gained from leaving Hollownest gave its focus an unbreakable tenacity that allowed the Knight to focus all of the void for a singular goal, despite its thrashing and chaotic nature.
I always saw it as working like a machine, having a goal and being capable of thought and reaction, but not emotion. It is simply a thing doing other things towards a goal. I do think the knight becomes non hollow in dream no more ending, because it found out a truth about itself and gained more conscience, but by that point it didn’t matter because it now became a vessel to become the lord of shades to kill the radiance, instead of a vessel to contain the radience
i like to think that quirrel simply laid down his nail, and then walked into the lake without emerging again, giving himself to his kingdom without going mad
I actually like fog canyon’s weird bubbly jellyfish style. It actually seems to have also been part of green path (same grass and even music) and the jellyfish seem to be experiments of monomons. Making it seem like a sort of distorted wasteland with the archive at its center
@@derpfluidvariant0916 Not really, all that’s in it is the archive and shriek really, everything else is non important, and only the shriek is useful early game. Other than that it’s basically just a straight path to queens station with enemies you can just move around
I’ll never understand why ur videos don’t do numbers or why ur channel isn’t bigger, you’re one of my favorite talk in front of green screen about something they are passionate abt TH-camrs out there
@@RadioCraftZthis answer explains a lot more than uraynuke actually did. A lot of the focus is on TH-cam shorts, which is pretty bad when considering that TH-cam shorts give less money due to lower watchtime, as well as the fact that they are pretty hard to promote yourself on
Dude, there is so much I want to say and I don't even know where to begin. I guess firstly, I almost NEVER click on "lower view" content, especially if it's someone I've never heard of before. I haven't even been watching hollow knight content as of late but this got pushed to me and I had to check it out. This might be the first time in I don't know how long that I have sat down and WATCHED a long form video like this, and it was amazing! Thank you for pouring your effort and passion into this conent. I particularly love the section on Quirrel as he's one of my favorite video game characters of all time. In my frist play through, I actually missed the blue lake scene. The second time I played through though, which was about 60 hours in total of playtime, I crystal dashed past him trying to get some task done for completion sake. I paused and ran back, noticed it gave me an option to sit, sat down briefly, and then stood up almost instantly to continue on my way. Then, I paused and realized how unbelievably quiet the Blue Lake was. It was just some white noise, no music, no enemies, no chittering. I walked back to Quirrel, sat down, and simply reflected on this journey I had been through. I sat there for maybe two or three minutes and for the first time in a video game, I cried. It just felt so magical. So emotional. Eventually, I decided to move on and left the frame but my curiosity got the best of me. I went back to see if Quirrel was still there and found only his nail. I never connected "The dead shouldn't be burdened with such things" and it feels like I officially have closure with Quirrel and know where he is now. Thank you. Also, you've won me over with not just your passion, but your humor, and your music choice too. Including stardew valley and super mario galaxy music is a sure way to make me like you lol.
Great video! The Hive was definently rushed, sadly. They needed an entire DLC for a revamp. Queen Station being connected to Fog Canyon might actually make sense; Canyon has a lot of grasses and vines resembling Greenpath And the Gardens, and some points of it have proper architecture (like that one room with the dead big husks), maybe there actually was a connection between the Gardens and The Station because part of the Canyon was originally part of the Gardens.
Sidenote about Hallownest's Crown: you can actually get to it without the double jump using nail pogos off of "background" objects. It's fairly tight, but exiting and reentering the room respawns the otherwise destructable objects, giving you as many attemps as you have persistience.
Previously my favorite video was the art of depressing atmospheres in video games but this takes that title for me now. Hollow Knight is my favorite overall game. I have played it countless times on 3 different platforms. It never fails to excite me and you capsulated so much of what I love about it while highlighting why I struggle to explain to people why it's my favorite of all time. Excellent video, Sweets, please keep up the great work! I look forward to your next upload and to catch up on your backlog since I got to AIT!
I really appreciate this comment. This is my favorite game too and I made this video because I wished that someone had made a video like this on the game, and then I realized I could. It feels great to see that other people enjoyed it!
Hollow Knight is probably the cleanest looking game I've ever seen. So beautiful, even in 2d. I wonder what a 3d game from Silksong would look like. Excellent video
I think the watcher knights also have that flow state, it's just a lot harder to find. It's a really hard fight to find that rhythm, but it's so satisfying once you're locked in. The watcher knights went from my least favorite fight by far to my absolute favorite fight in the game because of that.
Yeah. Fights like NKG are amazing the first few times but once you know and can execute all the counter manoeuvres they become boring. Whereas the watcher knights suck on a first playthrough but once you reach a certain level of competence that little bit of RNG keeps you on your toes and forces you to make split second decisions. Instead of just reacting to a tell the same way every time. So they don't get stale in quite the same way.
@@Sir.Alonne You get it. Almost every good player will eventually come to dislike NKG because it has so much dead time. The attacks are easy enough to avoid, but there's no room for creativity and NKG spends *way* too much time of screen, where you just have to sit and wait for the next attack. It's the same for Soul Tyrant, because you spend so much time just waiting for Soul Tyrant to get into your range while the fights themselves stop being challenging after a while. Watcher Knights are absolutely amazing. The way you can weave between them with pogos, dashes and DDarks makes it one of the best fights in the game. There's so much tech too. You can dreamnail, or cyclone slash them as they wake up. You can shriek them during their jump attack. You can try to get double hits on them with Shade Soul. it's just an extremely well-crafted fight.
I think it's a bit of a waste to dislike NKG because you've worked in the winning formula or something. It's still a thrilling fight with great music and atmosphere every time. As much as I love fights like the watcher knights, I never skip NKG in my playthroughs despite beating him in 1 or 2 tries. They're all great bosses @@MrPatrickbuit
Really great video! Personally I don't think that a lack of a sense of rhythm makes a boss worse, its just a very different type of boss fight. A lack of rhythm makes a fight more about quick adaptation to unique situations rather than just memorization.
I think it fluctuates depending on how good the boss' attacks actually are, whereas a choreographed fight in Hollow Knight is almost always going to be great. For example, compare Marmu and Absolute Radiance. Both of them make you forced to adapt to the situation but one of them is simple and has bs attacks and honestly rather boring whereas every moment in an AbsRad fight feels intense and exciting and it's probably the most fun boss to Radiant because each attempt feels different but you still feel really cool for dodging all that
@@plebisMaximus When I was grinding the Oblobbles in Godhome, I eventually got familiar enough with their projectile patterns (which are always the same) that i could consistently run back and forth under them and attack without getting hit. It's is obviously not reasonable to expect most players to be able to do something like this (I could only do it after at least an hour of only fighting Oblobbles, and it's been long enough that I can't do it anymore), but it is possible, and felt amazing to pull off, so there is at least potential for it to be a cool fight, even if most players will never reach that point.
My theory is that the lighthouse keeper is there to maintain and protect the lighthouse from the shades. Also, I love hollow knight, and think your video gushing about how much you love hollow knight is great.
when people ask what my 3 wishes from a genie are, all of them are being able to forget about hollow knight and play it again from scratch completely blind
Honestly you just have to not play or watch anything about hollow knight for some years. I played it for the first time 3 years ago and I’m now playing it again. I gotta say I still got surprised while playing it and it still managed to bring out the same emotions when I played it the first time
This is one of the few video essay’s that truly covered everything about what is quite easily my favourite game of all time. Genuinely this is such a good video, I’m really surprised that you don’t have well over 500k subs considering how high quality this is.
13:57 I’m a hollow knight player with 40 hrs on the game, and your right, there is rhythm with fights, and I first realized this with troupe leader Grimm and nightmare king Grimm, both the fights are like a dance (NKG is just a metric F**k ton harder than TLG) and my winning runs had me taking very little damage so that I stayed in rhythm
I love how with the hollow knight lore, since everything is so vague and self discovered, anyone who explores it can end up with just a slightly different view of the lore it's such a cool side effect because it perfectly reflects how we all enjoy art
Something that always stood out to me personally was the pure vessel, the fact that it wanting to fufill its purpose was the only thing that prevented it from doing so is very tragic for such a simple concept. Hearing the calmer section of the pure vessel theme while thinking about that is crazy, all for a character that doesn't say anything and is only shown like 4 seperate times. also that is an excellent pfp
@@torpid5092 also when we did see him in The Knights mind he was as small as the knight so the pale king musta fed him something because the pure vessel towers over the knight
@@epicnightmare5600 my theory is that the hollow knight being unhollow is why it was able to grow so much meanwhile the protagonist is truly hollow and therefore is unable to grow
@@epicnightmare5600 the journal entry says it was "trained to prime form". maybe that means that the void was trained, and thus could use & benefit from a larger vessel, so the pale gave it a bigger shell as it got stronger.
Every single word that come out of this man’s mouth is literally what I have been saying for so long. I started playing hollow knight when I was Fourteen and would give anything to replay it again with no prior knowledge. For being a pretty small channel this is incredibly insane how much effort and skill was put into this video and it really does show. You are funny with your jokes and the editing and script is well planned and thought out (I feel like a middle school English teacher rn😅). Hollow knight is a 10/10 and you are going to go on to become an amazing content creator
19:56 tell me you didn't spend 5 hours getting up there without using double jump without telling me you didn't spend 5 hours getting up there without using double jump
I love your comparison between the boss fights and sheet music! I play cello myself, so now I’m wondering if maybe those years of literally reading sheet music contribute to why I find NKG and Sisters of Battle fairly easy, but bosses like GPZ and Watcher Knights so rough. “I have the worst sense of direction on the planet” Me: Finally, a worthy opponent. No joke though, I have about the same amount of struggle with directions as you described. Took me many a playthrough just to be able to feel my way around a given area in less than an hour. It’s kind of ironic in a way that if the Pale King were just a little more heartless, Hallownest may well have lasted eternal. By the way, if the infection balloons in the Broken Vessel and Lost Kin fights are giving you that much trouble, Defender’s Crest is a pretty effective counter.
I’ve played violin, viola, and guitar… and wasn’t particularly great at any of them! The bubble guys don’t give me that much trouble, they’re really just more annoying than anything. Like I said, they’re a distraction from the main boss that I don’t like.
Some thoughts, not in any order 1:My favorite idea for why a bug was left in the lighthouse "only not to turn it off" is a matter of control: The pale king wanted CONTROL, and whilst it may have been 'easier' to make it so that the lighthouse could *never* be turned off, making it so it COULD but he CHOSE not to gave a method of control. It mattered less if it was practical or not. 2:About the white palace, we must understand that we are in a dream-variant of it. It may be in some way connected to 'reality' due to being connected to a higher being, however, it IS still a 'dream'. So all the spikes, Buzzsaws, ect, are likely representative of how unwelcoming and hostile the palace felt. It's fully likely that whenever it was standing it had large, majestic hallways that wrre perfectly safe to traverse, but the white sterile colors and the fact the place wasn't made for 'lesser' bugs likely left it still feeling hostile- a feeling that was made 'literal' in the dream. 3:About the 'but you couldn't be truly hollow- I think that, in a way, is the point. The EASIEST choice, the choice that the pale king made, is a choice that by it's very nature could never work. It only delays. And in people's hope for something better, they disregard the fact that the solution isn't a real solution, just wanting SOMETHING to get better, anything. So it's easier to look at a vessel and know they aren't hollow- but hoping they are just close enough that perhaps, just perhaps, it'll work. Or, at the very least, leave you enough time to live your life without having to confront that fear again. You are merely continuing the cycle. And i think it is for this reason that ONLY when you kill the radiance do you see the shades in the void at last go to rest. Simply put, one day, you too would fail under the pressure of the radiance, and another like you would rise from the void.
I just want to say This is the most short, beautiful, accurate and funny explanation of the lore i’ve seen Seriously, how you explained how pale king dealt with every race and every place is perfect!
I really like how there are still contradictions and mysteries like the hollowness of the knight and the buzzsaws becuase it allows for discussion and theory crafting even now, 7 years after the game came out. They really allow a game's lore community to thrive imo
31:54 Thats the lore the whole point of the story was that the king failed to create a hollow being, the vessel who was hollow, was instilled with the idea of hollowness, and then blinded by the love given by his father, broke him, making him not truly hollow, imo, the whole lore of the pale king is that he thought he could create something that cant be created, even us, the player, the vessel who is "truly hollow" makes choices, we made the choice to either take on the role of the former hollow knight, or destroy the light, we made the choice of saving bretta, we made the choice to let the nailsmith live, or not, we made the choice, to call Zote the mighty, truly the mightiest of em all In the end, no one can be hollow, thats how I interpreted it
I think the reason the hive is so underdeveloped was just because one it’s a dlc that was added later I’m pretty sure but also it went through some changes Originally the hive was meant to be down in deep nest and their queen was actually supposed to be the one who gave hornet her name. It’s likely they had lots of lore that was connected to deep nests lore somehow but because they changed it they just didn’t have time to come up new stuff that would make sense
It wasn't actually added later on, but the Hive Knight boss fight was. It definitely feels underdeveloped though, and it felt much more so when hive knight wasn't even there. Originally there were plans to make Vespa Hornet's trainer (probably where the name comes from) and connect it more to the rest of the world but right now even with Hive knight it's fundamentally flawed in that it's not connected to the rest of the world so it's just not as interesting even though I think they were trying for an isolated area. The gameplay too feels isolated because you just go there once and never again, and it's got such a different atmosphere from the areas around it
I always find it so hilarious when people pretend that America is the worstest country to have ever countryed when there are places in the world that you would get shot for being that critical of the government.
not only is the kingdom's edge ash a cool and creative effect, it's also insane in what it represents. you can just tell, from the moment you see it, that the cast-off shell is decomposing and leaving this ash. insane world building
1. Great video, it's really surprising you don't have a lot more subscribers 2. Play Rain World if you haven't yet! It's an awesome game, where you aren't a chosen one, but a part of an ecosystem, near the bottom of the food chain. The lore is pretty hard to find, but it's definitely worth it. Uncovering the secrets of ancient civilizations as a little slug boi is super fun. The world of the game feels alive, all the creatures have their wants and needs, and will do their thing even if you aren't there (seriously, enemies often fight each other, and not only the player). If Hallownest is an almost empty world, an echo of a collapsed civilization, preserved in the ground like a beautiful fossil, Rain world is a place where nature reclaimed the ruins of ancient cities and factories, where lizards made ancient structures their home, and weird-looking monkey tribes use pieces of rebar as spears. It's a super fun game if you have the patience to learn how it works and reach the lore areas
ok this editing is kinda crazy, reminds me of a mix of albinovevo and nakeyjakey i tried hollow knight for like half an hour a few years ago but i couldn't get into it. might give it another go thanks to this video
I think the point about the knight being hollow is that our knights is not in fact hollow at all. We have emotions etc because of all we’ve seen on the journey so the normal ending is a tragedy because we’ll fail too. That means that the true ending is the only good one. At least that was my interpretation
I disagree about BV and WK being badly designed. The challenge is a different style, keeps you on your toes, and you can't just autopilot them as easily as ML or NKG due to the more reflex/reaction-based patterns. This diversity is a very important aspect to keep the game fresh and make bosses more memorable and unique.
I LOOOVE the sheet music analogy. New to your content, quality stuff. Keep it up my guy. Thank you for teaching me how to appreciate this game. I played through it and had a great time, but when I got to the Hollow Knight fight I didn't finish it. I kind of didn't see the point. I loved the atmosphere and kept waiting for the game to tell me its story when, as you said, it really does not care whether you learn the story or not. And that's the part that I missed is that the story was around me all along, I just wasn't paying attention. I think I'll probably go back to it soon and really take my time and immerse myself in the world and lore.
I was admittedly hesitant when clicking on this video when it popped up on my recommended. The title threw me off, but I've been starved for Hollow Knight content enough (god if Silksong doesn't come out soon I think we'll all go insane) to want to hear you out. And fuck am I glad you did. Your editing style is incredible, your humor is right up my ally, and you perfectly articulated most of my thoughts on this amazing game. I really just wanted to add my "oh shit, this game is amazing" moment, which was basically at the last possible second. Throughout my playthrough, I had 100% been vibing with it. All the stuff you pointed out really; the art style is immaculate, the combat is so god-damned satisfying when you master it, and the music is incredible. I had loved the game so far, but wasn’t fully invested in the story. This all came to a head with the Hollow Knight fight. The build up to that fight is some of the most impressive story telling in a game I've seen. The way that you are the one that breaks the chains binding the Hollow Knight. The way that the Hollow Knight immediately falls to its knees, only starting the fight when the Radiance screams through it. It's such a tragic fight, and it's not even really a fight. A figure that so many bugs looked up to and found comfort in (I would argue that the Hollow Knight is the perceived 'chosen one' of the game), brought so low, just by existing. It's such a horrifying scene, worse (or better, I guess?) than Nosk's reveal, when the music crescendos, the Hollow Knight staggers once more, and the Radiance screams again. The brutality with which the Hollow Knight stabs itself took me aback. The Hollow Knight knows that it can’t fulfill its duty, it’s probably known that for its whole existence, and all it can do is passively watch as the land it tried to save is ravaged by the threat it was supposed to contain. But now, with our help, maybe the Hollow Knight can finally put an end to this. And so it tries to kill itself. But even that choice is taken away from it as the Radiance puppets its body around. This is not a willing fight, and the music conveys this. It starts out slow and somber, and slowly builds in volume. Not bombastic and fast like the Grim fight, or sharp and eerie like Nosk's, but like a king's last stand. What was a cacophony of noise now fades to just a violin. It grows in volume until it's joined by a choir, crescendoing into a triumphant anthem... as the Hollow Knight finally gives out. It's so profoundly sad, and I fucking love that the main theme (Hollow Knight, the menu music) plays throughout. It’s all the more impactful now that it’s connected to the Path of Pain scene in the White Palace. The Hollow Knight is such a tragic character, and it’s really hard for me to coherently talk about my feelings on the fight and the character overall, but needless to say, it’s impactful. Impactful enough that I was crying by the end of it. The fact that really, in the grand scheme of things, the Hollow Knight’s sacrifice didn’t amount to much devastates me. We know so little about its life and yet can infer so much about its character from one fight. Anyway, all this to say that the Hollow Knight is my favorite character, Sealed Vessel is the best track in the ost, and this video is amazing. All hail our Lord and Savior, Team Cherry, and may Silksong news bless us soon.
Awsome video, never in the video it seemed like you were talking about a negative aspect, thanks to your well structured commentary, and in the end it makes you appreciate this game even more. Plus the editing was really great and you are also great!
At around 3:50 you mention that we don’t know what makes higher beings, but Gorb is so obsessed with ascending that I believe you can ascend in order to become a higher being and that is what gorb is after Edit: not trying to hate on the video or the creator, loved the video just noticed this and it made me think, keep up the great content
About the story: I am one of the guys that didn't get any of it. Don't get me wrong. I felt the history throughout my playthrough, but I wasn't even close to piecing it all together. I felt like Cornifer. I just loved to explore it all and got several bits of the places history, but never a true understanding. But that's exactly what made this place so magical to me. I beat the Hollow Knight, didn't understand what happened, and then that was it. I left the game, knowing there was so much more to discover, even though I literally tried to discover everything. I never knew of the mutiple endings and the white palace until I was done with the game. Heck, I never even had an understanding of the lore until this video. But all this just confirmes my love for this game. It confirmes that after all this time I played Hollow Knight, I still didn't even scratch the surface of what lies beneath. The exact feeling that kept me going while playing the game in 2020. *4 years ago... oh god, where is time going?
I actually intentionally tried to advance as far as possible in my first playthrough without using the compass, it was confusing but somehow very enjoyable, but only because i had the time to get lost, I managed to get as far as trying to find the path to Monomon the Teacher I think, which was the last step I had left to find in order to fight The Hollow Knight. I kept getting lost (which honestly was 90% of the playthrough, but even if i was lost before I kept finding new things) and at this point of the playthrough I was on "find very specific progression path" and not "carefree world exploration with general to vague objectives", so it was more of a significant burden at that point instead of a fun handicap, anyways, I enjoyed the ride!! That being said, as of now I still haven't beaten Path of Pain
31:37 I've been enjoying this video so far, but I did want to mention that this point is with directly addressed or hinted at in game. Throughout the game, the Knight is proven to not be "hollow." By choosing to seal the Radiance regardless, it isn't solving the problem, only delaying it. The base game is technically a bad ending. The broken vessel also wasn't hollow, as it was effected by the Radiance. It may not be addressed in game directly, but I believe the implication is that none of the vessels are truly hollow, and that the Radiance will never be sealed permanently.
I'm at that point where I want to experience the entire game again with all the knowledge I have now. But there have been few games that have traumatized me. And Hollow Knight is one of them. There are things in Hollow Knight I never want to experience and go through again, like path of pain, fighting Hornet for the second time, all of godhome and the pantheons
@@MRbug_423i had a lot of trouble during my first playtrough too, but I decided to play it a second time and it was so much better since I somewhat knew what I was doing. Definitly worth replaying if you found it hard. The rythm reslly stays with you. The watcher knights took me like hours on my first playtrough, but got it second try on my second playtrough.
The comedy and serious aspects of this video is phenomenally done. Every section, gameplay, lore, exploration, base story, etc. I had a ball watching this, thank you.
One issue that I have is the whole blue lake and city of tears like for how long has the blue lake been causing the so called "tears" in the city? Will it ever end? Is the blue lake an infinite lake? Just doesn't really make sense to me, especially when you think about how long its been since the city was actually alive and when you arrive. Also If I'm remembering correctly the bees were added in later patches so that plus team cherry just wanting to add them in could be the reasons as to why they weren't developed as well as the other places. Finally wanted to say really great video thoroughly enjoyed it like I did hollow knight!
To me it’s always made sense that the blue lake should be part of a larger underground water current. I mean if the blue lake is connected to an underground water current it could go on for centuries, similar to a waterfall.
@@letendreelliott8778 yeah that makes sense I just didn't really think of that and along with that I wish it was told but I guess they may have wanted it to be left up to speculation and or they simply forget about it.
Anything with time in this game is an entire unknown, but it feels like there's enough wiggle room that Blue Lake isn't too big of a deal. We know the rain started after the Hollow Knight was sealed and pretty soon before the infection came back in full force. With the infection, the kingdom was in some sort of "stasis" that could only be ended byu defeating the Radiance. Does that pertain to the physical structure of the Kingdom's tunnels, too? If not, I do think the rain has been getting worse, collapse is imminent, and Quirrel's optimism about it is unfounded -- that is a LOT of water coming down, after all. (A really silly explanation is that the Menderbugs are keeping the lake bed from collapsing. I'm not arguing for this, but it's not the worst thing I've heard people speculate about, so I'm gonna share it in case anyone gets a chuckle out of it.) Hive Knight was added in one of the DLC patches (Lifeblood?), but the bees and the Hive are there in the original release patch. I don't remember if all the bees were there, but the little worker bees were present, except they were about half the size, which was adorable. There's some indications that the original intention for Hornet was that she was raised by Queen Vespa after Herrah became a dreamer, but it's completely unknown if that was indeed the initial idea let alone is still what Team Cherry has in mind. Her name is the most prominent piece of that early draft that has stuck around.
Don’t ask me to explain how the water tables work 🤷♂️. What I can say is that the bees weren’t added in an update but they were expanded upon by adding the Hive Knight.
As a British person I can confirm most of Buckingham Palace is just saws and blades popping out all over the place, how do you think the queen really died? Too old to pogo off the 60thousand death traps to get into bed
Ironically, the knight character (our character) is a chosen one of sorts. The knight was the only one that was able to defeat the Radiance when nearly all of Hallownest fell to her madness, even when the Hollow Knight itself failed to seal her. The knight even becomes a god, the lord of shades, if you defeat the pantheon of Hallownest. Most stories have a "chosen one" character, and that is because even though a lot of people complain about it being a cliche, it is a cliche for a reason. Humans like "chosen one" type narratives and there's no escaping that. The player character, the knight, was just one of countless children of the pale king who were discarded, and he wasn't "chosen" by the pale king...but still, out of all of the people of Hallownest, living and dead, only the knight was able to defeat the Radiance. As well as other feats no one else was able to accomplish -- defeat Hornet twice even though Hornet made it a habit to kill any vessel she came across, be the only vessel to unify the void, and become a god of the void as the Shade Lord. There's even a -- very small -- argument to be made that the pale king did chose the knight to defeat the Radiance. There's some small piece of lore that hints that the pale king had the gift of foresight, and the only words he speaks in game is "No cost too great." Perhaps the pale king chose the Hollow Knight knowing that it would fail, but had the foresight to see that the chain of events would lead to the unchosen vessel eventually defeating the Radiance. It's all about the execution. You can have a chosen one character that doesn't necessarily feel like a chosen one character, and Hollow Knight does this well, I think.
I feel like, although watcher knights are less "fun" than mantis lords, the fight has its place in the game. It teaches you to multitask and pay attention to multiple independent actors on screen at once. It also teaches you to focus down threats. The best example of where this training comes into play is the colosseum, particularly Colo 3
Honestly fantastic video all throughout, with great humor not repeating itself too much, actual explanations and a lot of good points. And even if I do think there are some hefty spoilers in the video, it's halfway because most of the game deserves to be experienced blindly and a simple mention blows it (Radiance, Nosk, most of the lore stuff really)... And halfway because this video was probably made for the people who already finished the game. Even though there's a lot of explanations for those who didn't. In short : This video be like Hollow Knight frfr, not entirely perfect but close to it.
As an aging gamer whos first metroidvania was Symphony of the night, I Just had to come here and tell you how impressed I am with watching this next generation live in and understand Hallownest in the same way I got lost in draculas castle. The conent creation is so on point too. It actually took me a while to see Hollow Knight for the true breadth of its nuances and quite frankly the longer I spend in hallownest, the more I am so appreciative I didnt write it off immediately. Good job on this video keep it up
The way he said about "simple story + complex characters" and I immediately thought about ATLA. My favourite cartoon and my favourite video game in the same video being praised... Perfect. Lol, I have the same problem with Dark Souls 1
I like the idea that our character is truly hollow because it's us players doing decisions for him. So it's not him that decides to become a vessel or kill Radiance, it's us.
I found that being kinda bad in some games makes you enjoy them more. For starters I was terrible in hollow knight, I got lost all the time, died to bosses over and over, was genuenly scared of some areas and it took me like 50 hours to beat the game on the hollow knight ending. But I kept playing. The game was just so memorable and I loved the atmosphere. Eventually I have beaten the game on true ending and pantheon of hallownest. It felt so good to get better in the game. Nowdays I can easily do p5, I have memorised the entire map and can beat the game under 1 hour, but it came with a cost, The game kinda lost the atmosphere and the sense of wonder for me, I can now see the cracks in the game, I can see that the world really revolves around me and I feel like a god traversing the world killing everything in its path with a nail 0. I still remember my first playtrough as I launched the game every day and played while talking to my friends on discord. Your first playtrough will always be the most memorable one. ( Just play the game its awesome )
I quite enjoy the start to this video, I don't think people focus on the Elegy for Hallownest enough when starting to cover this game and to that I commend you. Very nicely done! Now I have a recommendation on the off chance you haven't played these games: In these two games you don't feel like the chosen at all whatsoever and they are: Fear and Hunger / Fear and Hunger 2: Termina. The main characters in those games while doing some amazing feats are by far not the chosen ones and DO NOT have plot armour. And it is for that reason along with many others that I cannot recommend these games enough, the story telling is well done and hidden but expressed similar to Hollow Knight, lots of books to find with the lore throughout. Trust me when I say these games are stellar, but you'll basically be experiencing path of pain right from the beginning and it takes a lot of game sense for it to feel some what fair.
this is one of the best videos ive ever seen in my life, almost like its... "Faking Perfection" but yeah im obsessed with this video essay, every single aspect that makes a good essay and good video is amazing in this and now its my staple for amazing videos
31:30 i feel like its more like a machine. A machine makes decisions but doesnt have a will so the knight isnt making these decisions but just following what the other bugs tell them to do (Not a literal machine but more like the void turns living beings into a soulless robots who do whatever they are told).
streets saying this guy eats grass
What?! Pshhhh! I would never! 🥸
suuure
@@SweetsIsOnlinebut I would
Holy shit bebo
"Ranking every type of grass in hollow knight"
32:16
There are containers of soul in the lighthouse, maybe his task was to keep it fueled so it doesn't turn off.
His task wasn't to "not turn it off", it was to "not let it turn off"
Would make a lot more sense
Lighthouse keeper was a real job for a long long time after all.
Oh this makes so much sense. He was there to maintain the lighthouse, not just to "not turn it off"
Technically, we have no reference as to when he died. Could also be that it was around the birth of vessels. The king, faced with either looking at his graveyard or sacrificing another retainer, decided not to do either.
Maybe also to make sure it doesnt break
I love the fact that the mantis tribe litterally said "Nuh huh" to the radiance and quite litterally punched her in their dreams
explain this to me
@@THEOPDESTROYER777 the mantis tribe litterally said "Nuh huh" to the radiance and quite litterally punched her in their dreams
@@Ralzonehow tho? like they went to sleep, saw radiance and just threw hands before he could say a word?
@@THEOPDESTROYER777 they simply declined the radiance's effect
@@craz2580 but how tho
My only issue with hollow knight is the crystal peak. We see them mine these crystals like they’re really useful but we never see them see them used for anything anywhere else. This only sticks out to me because just about everything else has a reason to be there.
Oooh! That’s also a really good criticism for the working! I’ve thought about that before, I just forgot to bring it up in the video!
I think this is intentional. After unlocking Crystal Peak Elderbug says that he once had one of the purple crystals. He said you cant eat them and they dont make for good pillows so he doesnt care about them. I think this is supposed to show how the only reason people care about the crystals is because they are rare and worth a lot of money, just like real world diamonds. Also the crystal heart, deep focus, and quick focus are all items you get that are made of crystals that actually do have special powers so yeah they actually are magical in a way
@@garysingh3523But if that’s the case, I would have liked to see them present as some sort of jewelry or general wealth-hoarding in the City. That is already a theme present, with characters like Emilitia. But as it stands, the crystals are mined from the Peaks and then go…(?)
@@leightonpetty4817 maybe there's no-one else who really gives a shit about the crystal market enough to start it back up after the infection
@@SweetsIsOnline The crystals do actually serve a purpose! If you speak with Quirrel, he mentions "The crystal ore is said to contain a sort of energy, not as powerful as the soul the city dwellers harnessed but far less lethal." - the wanderer's journal also states that they contain heat at a searing point within.
Despite this, the crystals are never shown to have their energy harnessed; no tools or mechanisms (such as the corpse heap in the Soul Sanctuary) are ever shown which I find a little disappointing.
Mossbag has a REALLY good explanation for the Fog Canyon jellies - to put it simply the jellyfish were an experiment made by Monomon as a way to keep the infection in that somehow didnt work so she just used one to protect herself
Jellyfish created to protect from the X- I mean an infection? Sounds familiar
@@iamlordapollo?
I believe in rosy maple moth supremacy
For the White Palace having buzzsaws, I have an explanation (speculation).
Basically, that is the White Palace, in the form of the Pale King's mind.
At the end of the Path of Pain, there is the most regretful memory of the Pale King. The "Pain" is the Pale King's. The Buzzsaws, thorns and spikes, are the Pale King's regret physical manifestation, because the whole thing happens in the dream realm.
Yeah, i agree that the white palace is definitely in some kind of dream realm, like the places where you fight the dream bosses, godhome, or where the dreamers trap you, and that's why it's so disjointed an ethereal. Not entirely sure it's in the pale kings mind though, but he probably made it. Maybe with his own dreams, but PoP snuck through unbidden.
What i do wonder is how the actual palace has disappeared, or how it's tied to the singular knight at its gates. 🤔
Is it the actual palace in the dream? Just fragmented and disjointed by the rules of the dream realm? or is it just a memory, an echo laden with mental defenses in the form of buzzaws and hostile terrain? If so, did the king actually move the palace like the grim troupe does their tent? Is that the actual king on the throne, or just a faded memory of him by the kingsmould in the place he locked away half of the charm? Did the king ever visit the dream or would he construct it all from outside then left hallowsnest? And if so would he have returned once the radiance was dealt with?
So many questions, so few answers... Hopefully silksong will have some answers, even if as a off-hand comment by hornet.
For me it’s just that he decided to put a shit ton of buzz saws where he lives so the radiance wouldn’t get him
@@menacingrock750 bro forgor she can teleport and fly...
@@fallatiuso I like the idea that the entire White Palace is simply a manifestation of how the people *around* the Pale King saw him and his court. They saw a bug obsessed, a bug driven mad by his own regrets, and they visualized being in his presence as walking between thorns and spikes. They knew that he'd drag them all down in the endless emotional void he carried with him from the sacrifices he made. To me his final thoughts seem like a plea, a rationalization that his subjects project onto him, that *surely* everything he did was for the greater good.
That’s honestly really dark. His most regretful memory, of all things, is loving his child.
'The spiders did NOT want to f*** with the Pale King.'
... except for the one spider that did.
No it's different, she didn't want to f*ck with him, she wanted to f*ck *him*
No no no Herrah still dint want to fuck with the pale king, she wanted to fuck the pale king
Hera isn’t a spider
@@stump3139 Well, I mean, you are right. The Queen of Olympus isn't a spider.
Plus, yeah, Herrah only has six limbs.
@@stump3139 yes she even if we dont count her design herrah is the mother of hornet WHO IS CANONICALLY A SPIDER and her father isnt a spider so if Herrah isnt a spider idk how TF Hornet is
A game that takes your unimportance to an extreme is rainworld. Literally enemies will hunt other enemies, and they will move even when in a different part of the map. You literally have to integrate yourself into the ecosystem of the game. Very difficult, but you learn and grow to be able to survive. One of the best games I have played recently.
Every Hollow Knight fan needs to try rainworld at some point
Yes! It also has a similar idea of every single area having a good reason to be there and a great atmosphere that matches the gameplay, which gets *somehow even better* with the downpour areas
There's also the idea that your abilities stay relatively simple and all you have is your knowledge taken to the absolute extreme
I love both RW and HK.
As a fellow hk to rw enjoyer, I wholeheartedly agree
Even though they're similar games, I don't think every hollow knight fan would enjoy rain world, and neither would every rain world fan enjoy hollow knight. They might both be platformers and unique indie games, but I personally found myself more in touch with rain world because of how simple, yet extensive it's movement and combat can get.
I especially love Nosk’s disguise. He is supposed to show what you love most, but since our knight is hollow, he just mirrors himself. This makes sense from a gameplay perspective too, as if it was some character, some people would naturally be drawn more too then more and some people less, but as someone who is unique*, it draws us in more
What about flying Nosk? Doesn't it mimic Hornet instead of the knight?
@@justice0952 I think godhome shows them as they want to be in their dreams, explaining why nosk can fly, but I’m not an expert
@@thealeks1 GodHome gives beings their full potential, puts them at their strongest, and in doing so, changes the appearance of some, like Sly, and the Pure Vessel, Nosk in P5 gains flight and looks like Hornet instead.
@@justice0952 Maybe at that point, the Knight has more of a bond with his sister?
@@davidbjacobs3598 yep and that is why he as well isn't true pure vessel
"The spiders did not fuck with the Pale king"
Herrah's honest reaction:🗿
in her defense. it was only to birth a daughter
which makes hornet half spider half worm. and her best friend is a maggot and a bee
incredible
Did I just find a hyper-niche commentary youtuber with views not matching their quality and humour to match? Christ, I'm feeling blessed. This was great.
Reiterating. I just watched the full video. Subbed, Liked, I have no damn idea why you aren't famous.
God is good 🙏
These things take time
just found him too and thinkin the exact same thing
Same
i kind of like that the map doesn’t line up 1 for 1 with the actual areas, but are close enough
canonically, its the knight that’s completing cornifer’s map, and they aren’t a cartographer
and Cornifer is trying to mass produce these maps for adventurers so of course he wouldn't have them be super detailed.
@@SuperDestroyerFox plus it's a 3d world being represented in a 2d plane, the pieces tha overlap could easilly be explained by the fact that if they were lined up one of them would be closer to the camera than the other.
@@gustavodasilvaprobst890I never thought about that, but it makes sense. Now it doesn't bug me anymore that some pieces overlap
Doesn't BUG you, eh@@Mikelaxo
Originally Queen Vespa used to be the one that trained Hornet to be a warrior with the 3 queens narrative
(Birthed by Herrahp, raised by White Lady, and trained by Vespa)
Also my theory is that being "hollow" means being complete instinct, no feelings or mind, and that's why when bugs get infected they just go back to their base instincts
I read it as a kind of like how Dragon Ball uses "pure of heart". Doesn't exactly work with the connotations that come with the word, but fits the dictionary definition. Hollow and having no will or mind doesn't mean it can't think, it means it doesn't have the personal distractions inherent to being alive. A normal bug might've gotten invested in the hobbies of the many NPCs, or tried to befriend or oppose them based on personality or manner of speaking. The Knight just fights through the world to find stuff to do its job: defeat or otherwise stall the Radiance. The Knight's reactions never waver based on fear or morals, it's a very one track mind that says an opponent is a threat or not, sparing things that stop being a threat and killing things that remain hostile until death. The Hollow Knight lost its Hollowness when it gained the goal of "making dad smile at me again" and ultimately gave a crack in the armor for the Radiance to get in and take control. It's why I think the Knight becoming Lord of Shades works so well: the secondary strength Hornet says it gained from leaving Hollownest gave its focus an unbreakable tenacity that allowed the Knight to focus all of the void for a singular goal, despite its thrashing and chaotic nature.
@@derpfluidvariant0916 I ain't readin all that
@@STNDD okay
@@STNDDdumbest comment saying in existence
I always saw it as working like a machine, having a goal and being capable of thought and reaction, but not emotion. It is simply a thing doing other things towards a goal. I do think the knight becomes non hollow in dream no more ending, because it found out a truth about itself and gained more conscience, but by that point it didn’t matter because it now became a vessel to become the lord of shades to kill the radiance, instead of a vessel to contain the radience
i like to think that quirrel simply laid down his nail, and then walked into the lake without emerging again, giving himself to his kingdom without going mad
he is just hiding in the blue...
I actually like fog canyon’s weird bubbly jellyfish style. It actually seems to have also been part of green path (same grass and even music) and the jellyfish seem to be experiments of monomons. Making it seem like a sort of distorted wasteland with the archive at its center
i think that was true in development! if i remember correctly, fog canyon, queens gardens, and greenpath were all originally one area
I just don't like it much because you aren't able to map it out until the mid-late game, but it's almost required progression for the very early game.
@@derpfluidvariant0916 Not really, all that’s in it is the archive and shriek really, everything else is non important, and only the shriek is useful early game. Other than that it’s basically just a straight path to queens station with enemies you can just move around
@@jwilker94he means no map till shade cloak
It's always the niche smaller content creators that make the most jawdropping video essays. Keep it up!!
I’ll never understand why ur videos don’t do numbers or why ur channel isn’t bigger, you’re one of my favorite talk in front of green screen about something they are passionate abt TH-camrs out there
People dont watch quality. They watch skibidi toilet
@@RadioCraftZ that's... children's content. you sound like a boomer
Thank you! The race is long, and in the end it’s only with yourself.
@@RadioCraftZthis answer explains a lot more than uraynuke actually did.
A lot of the focus is on TH-cam shorts, which is pretty bad when considering that TH-cam shorts give less money due to lower watchtime, as well as the fact that they are pretty hard to promote yourself on
@@uraynuke that was just an example. People just watch stupid shit generally. Even on other platforms, like streaming services.
Dude, there is so much I want to say and I don't even know where to begin. I guess firstly, I almost NEVER click on "lower view" content, especially if it's someone I've never heard of before. I haven't even been watching hollow knight content as of late but this got pushed to me and I had to check it out.
This might be the first time in I don't know how long that I have sat down and WATCHED a long form video like this, and it was amazing! Thank you for pouring your effort and passion into this conent.
I particularly love the section on Quirrel as he's one of my favorite video game characters of all time. In my frist play through, I actually missed the blue lake scene. The second time I played through though, which was about 60 hours in total of playtime, I crystal dashed past him trying to get some task done for completion sake. I paused and ran back, noticed it gave me an option to sit, sat down briefly, and then stood up almost instantly to continue on my way. Then, I paused and realized how unbelievably quiet the Blue Lake was. It was just some white noise, no music, no enemies, no chittering.
I walked back to Quirrel, sat down, and simply reflected on this journey I had been through. I sat there for maybe two or three minutes and for the first time in a video game, I cried. It just felt so magical. So emotional.
Eventually, I decided to move on and left the frame but my curiosity got the best of me. I went back to see if Quirrel was still there and found only his nail. I never connected "The dead shouldn't be burdened with such things" and it feels like I officially have closure with Quirrel and know where he is now. Thank you.
Also, you've won me over with not just your passion, but your humor, and your music choice too. Including stardew valley and super mario galaxy music is a sure way to make me like you lol.
Great video!
The Hive was definently rushed, sadly. They needed an entire DLC for a revamp.
Queen Station being connected to Fog Canyon might actually make sense; Canyon has a lot of grasses and vines resembling Greenpath And the Gardens, and some points of it have proper architecture (like that one room with the dead big husks), maybe there actually was a connection between the Gardens and The Station because part of the Canyon was originally part of the Gardens.
Sidenote about Hallownest's Crown: you can actually get to it without the double jump using nail pogos off of "background" objects. It's fairly tight, but exiting and reentering the room respawns the otherwise destructable objects, giving you as many attemps as you have persistience.
Previously my favorite video was the art of depressing atmospheres in video games but this takes that title for me now. Hollow Knight is my favorite overall game. I have played it countless times on 3 different platforms. It never fails to excite me and you capsulated so much of what I love about it while highlighting why I struggle to explain to people why it's my favorite of all time. Excellent video, Sweets, please keep up the great work! I look forward to your next upload and to catch up on your backlog since I got to AIT!
I really appreciate this comment. This is my favorite game too and I made this video because I wished that someone had made a video like this on the game, and then I realized I could. It feels great to see that other people enjoyed it!
i love the fact that the mantis tribes will is so powerful, they just said no to the radiance.
Edit: oh damn this comment is getting numbers...
They’re balling out
@@SweetsIsOnlinebtw the reason sone of them took the infection was because it is like steriods, and they want to be stronk
Getting infected by the plague of mind? Just say no! The Radiance legally cannot infect you without your consent.
Mantis for the win
Tired of getting infected by the Radiance? Just say no! The Radiance cannot legally infect you without your consent.
Hollow Knight is probably the cleanest looking game I've ever seen. So beautiful, even in 2d. I wonder what a 3d game from Silksong would look like. Excellent video
I think the watcher knights also have that flow state, it's just a lot harder to find. It's a really hard fight to find that rhythm, but it's so satisfying once you're locked in. The watcher knights went from my least favorite fight by far to my absolute favorite fight in the game because of that.
Agreed
Yeah. Fights like NKG are amazing the first few times but once you know and can execute all the counter manoeuvres they become boring. Whereas the watcher knights suck on a first playthrough but once you reach a certain level of competence that little bit of RNG keeps you on your toes and forces you to make split second decisions. Instead of just reacting to a tell the same way every time. So they don't get stale in quite the same way.
@@Sir.Alonne You get it. Almost every good player will eventually come to dislike NKG because it has so much dead time. The attacks are easy enough to avoid, but there's no room for creativity and NKG spends *way* too much time of screen, where you just have to sit and wait for the next attack. It's the same for Soul Tyrant, because you spend so much time just waiting for Soul Tyrant to get into your range while the fights themselves stop being challenging after a while.
Watcher Knights are absolutely amazing. The way you can weave between them with pogos, dashes and DDarks makes it one of the best fights in the game. There's so much tech too. You can dreamnail, or cyclone slash them as they wake up. You can shriek them during their jump attack. You can try to get double hits on them with Shade Soul. it's just an extremely well-crafted fight.
I think it's a bit of a waste to dislike NKG because you've worked in the winning formula or something. It's still a thrilling fight with great music and atmosphere every time. As much as I love fights like the watcher knights, I never skip NKG in my playthroughs despite beating him in 1 or 2 tries. They're all great bosses @@MrPatrickbuit
Semi agreement.
Really great video!
Personally I don't think that a lack of a sense of rhythm makes a boss worse, its just a very different type of boss fight. A lack of rhythm makes a fight more about quick adaptation to unique situations rather than just memorization.
Sisters of Battle is my favorite boss, why?
I can agree with that, but I’ll still say that I enjoy those types of fights significantly less. I like the feeling of almost dancing with the bosses.
I'm sorry, but standing in a corner waiting for a chance to slap an Oblobble once isn't fun adaptation to danger, it's just silly.
I think it fluctuates depending on how good the boss' attacks actually are, whereas a choreographed fight in Hollow Knight is almost always going to be great. For example, compare Marmu and Absolute Radiance. Both of them make you forced to adapt to the situation but one of them is simple and has bs attacks and honestly rather boring whereas every moment in an AbsRad fight feels intense and exciting and it's probably the most fun boss to Radiant because each attempt feels different but you still feel really cool for dodging all that
@@plebisMaximus When I was grinding the Oblobbles in Godhome, I eventually got familiar enough with their projectile patterns (which are always the same) that i could consistently run back and forth under them and attack without getting hit. It's is obviously not reasonable to expect most players to be able to do something like this (I could only do it after at least an hour of only fighting Oblobbles, and it's been long enough that I can't do it anymore), but it is possible, and felt amazing to pull off, so there is at least potential for it to be a cool fight, even if most players will never reach that point.
My theory is that the lighthouse keeper is there to maintain and protect the lighthouse from the shades.
Also, I love hollow knight, and think your video gushing about how much you love hollow knight is great.
when people ask what my 3 wishes from a genie are, all of them are being able to forget about hollow knight and play it again from scratch completely blind
same here.
Honestly you just have to not play or watch anything about hollow knight for some years. I played it for the first time 3 years ago and I’m now playing it again. I gotta say I still got surprised while playing it and it still managed to bring out the same emotions when I played it the first time
This is one of the few video essay’s that truly covered everything about what is quite easily my favourite game of all time. Genuinely this is such a good video, I’m really surprised that you don’t have well over 500k subs considering how high quality this is.
"because again, I'm still in my driveway >:("
Felt. Felt, so hard
13:57 I’m a hollow knight player with 40 hrs on the game, and your right, there is rhythm with fights, and I first realized this with troupe leader Grimm and nightmare king Grimm, both the fights are like a dance (NKG is just a metric F**k ton harder than TLG) and my winning runs had me taking very little damage so that I stayed in rhythm
I love how with the hollow knight lore, since everything is so vague and self discovered, anyone who explores it can end up with just a slightly different view of the lore it's such a cool side effect because it perfectly reflects how we all enjoy art
Something that always stood out to me personally was the pure vessel, the fact that it wanting to fufill its purpose was the only thing that prevented it from doing so is very tragic for such a simple concept. Hearing the calmer section of the pure vessel theme while thinking about that is crazy, all for a character that doesn't say anything and is only shown like 4 seperate times.
also that is an excellent pfp
@@torpid5092 also when we did see him in The Knights mind he was as small as the knight so the pale king musta fed him something because the pure vessel towers over the knight
@@torpid5092 thanks I made it myself
@@epicnightmare5600 my theory is that the hollow knight being unhollow is why it was able to grow so much meanwhile the protagonist is truly hollow and therefore is unable to grow
@@epicnightmare5600 the journal entry says it was "trained to prime form". maybe that means that the void was trained, and thus could use & benefit from a larger vessel, so the pale gave it a bigger shell as it got stronger.
36:34 not a piano but a harp for both greenpath and city of tears
Every single word that come out of this man’s mouth is literally what I have been saying for so long. I started playing hollow knight when I was Fourteen and would give anything to replay it again with no prior knowledge. For being a pretty small channel this is incredibly insane how much effort and skill was put into this video and it really does show. You are funny with your jokes and the editing and script is well planned and thought out (I feel like a middle school English teacher rn😅). Hollow knight is a 10/10 and you are going to go on to become an amazing content creator
19:56 tell me you didn't spend 5 hours getting up there without using double jump without telling me you didn't spend 5 hours getting up there without using double jump
I love your comparison between the boss fights and sheet music! I play cello myself, so now I’m wondering if maybe those years of literally reading sheet music contribute to why I find NKG and Sisters of Battle fairly easy, but bosses like GPZ and Watcher Knights so rough.
“I have the worst sense of direction on the planet”
Me: Finally, a worthy opponent.
No joke though, I have about the same amount of struggle with directions as you described. Took me many a playthrough just to be able to feel my way around a given area in less than an hour.
It’s kind of ironic in a way that if the Pale King were just a little more heartless, Hallownest may well have lasted eternal.
By the way, if the infection balloons in the Broken Vessel and Lost Kin fights are giving you that much trouble, Defender’s Crest is a pretty effective counter.
I’ve played violin, viola, and guitar… and wasn’t particularly great at any of them! The bubble guys don’t give me that much trouble, they’re really just more annoying than anything. Like I said, they’re a distraction from the main boss that I don’t like.
Some thoughts, not in any order
1:My favorite idea for why a bug was left in the lighthouse "only not to turn it off" is a matter of control: The pale king wanted CONTROL, and whilst it may have been 'easier' to make it so that the lighthouse could *never* be turned off, making it so it COULD but he CHOSE not to gave a method of control. It mattered less if it was practical or not.
2:About the white palace, we must understand that we are in a dream-variant of it. It may be in some way connected to 'reality' due to being connected to a higher being, however, it IS still a 'dream'. So all the spikes, Buzzsaws, ect, are likely representative of how unwelcoming and hostile the palace felt. It's fully likely that whenever it was standing it had large, majestic hallways that wrre perfectly safe to traverse, but the white sterile colors and the fact the place wasn't made for 'lesser' bugs likely left it still feeling hostile- a feeling that was made 'literal' in the dream.
3:About the 'but you couldn't be truly hollow- I think that, in a way, is the point. The EASIEST choice, the choice that the pale king made, is a choice that by it's very nature could never work. It only delays. And in people's hope for something better, they disregard the fact that the solution isn't a real solution, just wanting SOMETHING to get better, anything. So it's easier to look at a vessel and know they aren't hollow- but hoping they are just close enough that perhaps, just perhaps, it'll work. Or, at the very least, leave you enough time to live your life without having to confront that fear again. You are merely continuing the cycle. And i think it is for this reason that ONLY when you kill the radiance do you see the shades in the void at last go to rest.
Simply put, one day, you too would fail under the pressure of the radiance, and another like you would rise from the void.
I just want to say
This is the most short, beautiful, accurate and funny explanation of the lore i’ve seen
Seriously, how you explained how pale king dealt with every race and every place is perfect!
"dead dead dead gay and sad scat fetish"
listening to that was a revelation
I really like how there are still contradictions and mysteries like the hollowness of the knight and the buzzsaws becuase it allows for discussion and theory crafting even now, 7 years after the game came out. They really allow a game's lore community to thrive imo
I love your editing and humor, and even better to be talking about my favorite game of all time. Absolutely amazing video.
Thx for putting the Songs in the Description! Really helped :P
That was a labor of love my friend. I’m glad it helped someone because that took me a WHILE.
Probably one of if not the best reviews of hollow knight I've ever seen. You've even got the whole budget mossbag summary!
An extremely underated channel. I hope your channel grows, this was very entertaining
31:54
Thats the lore
the whole point of the story was that the king failed to create a hollow being, the vessel who was hollow, was instilled with the idea of hollowness, and then blinded by the love given by his father, broke him, making him not truly hollow, imo, the whole lore of the pale king is that he thought he could create something that cant be created, even us, the player, the vessel who is "truly hollow" makes choices, we made the choice to either take on the role of the former hollow knight, or destroy the light, we made the choice of saving bretta, we made the choice to let the nailsmith live, or not, we made the choice, to call Zote the mighty, truly the mightiest of em all
In the end, no one can be hollow, thats how I interpreted it
I think the reason the hive is so underdeveloped was just because one it’s a dlc that was added later I’m pretty sure but also it went through some changes
Originally the hive was meant to be down in deep nest and their queen was actually supposed to be the one who gave hornet her name.
It’s likely they had lots of lore that was connected to deep nests lore somehow but because they changed it they just didn’t have time to come up new stuff that would make sense
It wasn't actually added later on, but the Hive Knight boss fight was. It definitely feels underdeveloped though, and it felt much more so when hive knight wasn't even there. Originally there were plans to make Vespa Hornet's trainer (probably where the name comes from) and connect it more to the rest of the world but right now even with Hive knight it's fundamentally flawed in that it's not connected to the rest of the world so it's just not as interesting even though I think they were trying for an isolated area. The gameplay too feels isolated because you just go there once and never again, and it's got such a different atmosphere from the areas around it
That final "The dead shouldn't be burdened with such things." (29:58) is said amazingly.
6:02 As someone who lives in a part of the world where actual fucked up authoritarian shit happens, not relatable
I always find it so hilarious when people pretend that America is the worstest country to have ever countryed when there are places in the world that you would get shot for being that critical of the government.
not only is the kingdom's edge ash a cool and creative effect, it's also insane in what it represents. you can just tell, from the moment you see it, that the cast-off shell is decomposing and leaving this ash. insane world building
1. Great video, it's really surprising you don't have a lot more subscribers
2. Play Rain World if you haven't yet! It's an awesome game, where you aren't a chosen one, but a part of an ecosystem, near the bottom of the food chain. The lore is pretty hard to find, but it's definitely worth it. Uncovering the secrets of ancient civilizations as a little slug boi is super fun. The world of the game feels alive, all the creatures have their wants and needs, and will do their thing even if you aren't there (seriously, enemies often fight each other, and not only the player).
If Hallownest is an almost empty world, an echo of a collapsed civilization, preserved in the ground like a beautiful fossil, Rain world is a place where nature reclaimed the ruins of ancient cities and factories, where lizards made ancient structures their home, and weird-looking monkey tribes use pieces of rebar as spears. It's a super fun game if you have the patience to learn how it works and reach the lore areas
he has (there's a video on his channel)
ok this editing is kinda crazy, reminds me of a mix of albinovevo and nakeyjakey
i tried hollow knight for like half an hour a few years ago but i couldn't get into it. might give it another go thanks to this video
Finally. He finally returned with daily uploads for a week to make up for the weeks of silence
I always come back. If there is prolonged silence from me, then I am busy COOKING.
@@SweetsIsOnlineblud think he william afton 💀
I think the point about the knight being hollow is that our knights is not in fact hollow at all. We have emotions etc because of all we’ve seen on the journey so the normal ending is a tragedy because we’ll fail too. That means that the true ending is the only good one. At least that was my interpretation
I disagree about BV and WK being badly designed. The challenge is a different style, keeps you on your toes, and you can't just autopilot them as easily as ML or NKG due to the more reflex/reaction-based patterns. This diversity is a very important aspect to keep the game fresh and make bosses more memorable and unique.
Lost Kin and Watcher Knights are actually better fights than ML and NKG imo. NKG is a waiting simulator. Sisters of Battle is very good tho
I LOOOVE the sheet music analogy. New to your content, quality stuff. Keep it up my guy.
Thank you for teaching me how to appreciate this game. I played through it and had a great time, but when I got to the Hollow Knight fight I didn't finish it. I kind of didn't see the point. I loved the atmosphere and kept waiting for the game to tell me its story when, as you said, it really does not care whether you learn the story or not. And that's the part that I missed is that the story was around me all along, I just wasn't paying attention. I think I'll probably go back to it soon and really take my time and immerse myself in the world and lore.
I was admittedly hesitant when clicking on this video when it popped up on my recommended. The title threw me off, but I've been starved for Hollow Knight content enough (god if Silksong doesn't come out soon I think we'll all go insane) to want to hear you out. And fuck am I glad you did. Your editing style is incredible, your humor is right up my ally, and you perfectly articulated most of my thoughts on this amazing game.
I really just wanted to add my "oh shit, this game is amazing" moment, which was basically at the last possible second. Throughout my playthrough, I had 100% been vibing with it. All the stuff you pointed out really; the art style is immaculate, the combat is so god-damned satisfying when you master it, and the music is incredible. I had loved the game so far, but wasn’t fully invested in the story. This all came to a head with the Hollow Knight fight. The build up to that fight is some of the most impressive story telling in a game I've seen. The way that you are the one that breaks the chains binding the Hollow Knight. The way that the Hollow Knight immediately falls to its knees, only starting the fight when the Radiance screams through it.
It's such a tragic fight, and it's not even really a fight. A figure that so many bugs looked up to and found comfort in (I would argue that the Hollow Knight is the perceived 'chosen one' of the game), brought so low, just by existing. It's such a horrifying scene, worse (or better, I guess?) than Nosk's reveal, when the music crescendos, the Hollow Knight staggers once more, and the Radiance screams again. The brutality with which the Hollow Knight stabs itself took me aback. The Hollow Knight knows that it can’t fulfill its duty, it’s probably known that for its whole existence, and all it can do is passively watch as the land it tried to save is ravaged by the threat it was supposed to contain. But now, with our help, maybe the Hollow Knight can finally put an end to this. And so it tries to kill itself. But even that choice is taken away from it as the Radiance puppets its body around. This is not a willing fight, and the music conveys this. It starts out slow and somber, and slowly builds in volume. Not bombastic and fast like the Grim fight, or sharp and eerie like Nosk's, but like a king's last stand. What was a cacophony of noise now fades to just a violin. It grows in volume until it's joined by a choir, crescendoing into a triumphant anthem... as the Hollow Knight finally gives out. It's so profoundly sad, and I fucking love that the main theme (Hollow Knight, the menu music) plays throughout. It’s all the more impactful now that it’s connected to the Path of Pain scene in the White Palace.
The Hollow Knight is such a tragic character, and it’s really hard for me to coherently talk about my feelings on the fight and the character overall, but needless to say, it’s impactful. Impactful enough that I was crying by the end of it. The fact that really, in the grand scheme of things, the Hollow Knight’s sacrifice didn’t amount to much devastates me. We know so little about its life and yet can infer so much about its character from one fight.
Anyway, all this to say that the Hollow Knight is my favorite character, Sealed Vessel is the best track in the ost, and this video is amazing. All hail our Lord and Savior, Team Cherry, and may Silksong news bless us soon.
Awsome video, never in the video it seemed like you were talking about a negative aspect, thanks to your well structured commentary, and in the end it makes you appreciate this game even more. Plus the editing was really great and you are also great!
At around 3:50 you mention that we don’t know what makes higher beings, but Gorb is so obsessed with ascending that I believe you can ascend in order to become a higher being and that is what gorb is after
Edit: not trying to hate on the video or the creator, loved the video just noticed this and it made me think, keep up the great content
This is possible! But it’s not SAID anywhere in game, so the best we can do is guess at the ramblings of a less than sane worm thing
This is some of the greatest video production I've ever seen and I've never played hollow knight. Keep it up bro
I LOVE HK! The main problem I have with it though…. Pale Lurker isn’t in Godhome! Why?! It literally has every boss quality WHY ISNT IT THERE?!
Why would you genuinely want to fight pale lurker
id rather fight soul warrior than that fucker
Nmk Grimm is my favourite boss in gaming history, I play a LOT of games so the fact that nmk stuck with me so much says a lot
About the story:
I am one of the guys that didn't get any of it. Don't get me wrong. I felt the history throughout my playthrough, but I wasn't even close to piecing it all together.
I felt like Cornifer. I just loved to explore it all and got several bits of the places history, but never a true understanding. But that's exactly what made this place so magical to me. I beat the Hollow Knight, didn't understand what happened, and then that was it. I left the game, knowing there was so much more to discover, even though I literally tried to discover everything. I never knew of the mutiple endings and the white palace until I was done with the game. Heck, I never even had an understanding of the lore until this video.
But all this just confirmes my love for this game. It confirmes that after all this time I played Hollow Knight, I still didn't even scratch the surface of what lies beneath. The exact feeling that kept me going while playing the game in 2020.
*4 years ago... oh god, where is time going?
The bug was in the void as Lighthouse Maintenance
I actually intentionally tried to advance as far as possible in my first playthrough without using the compass, it was confusing but somehow very enjoyable, but only because i had the time to get lost, I managed to get as far as trying to find the path to Monomon the Teacher I think, which was the last step I had left to find in order to fight The Hollow Knight.
I kept getting lost (which honestly was 90% of the playthrough, but even if i was lost before I kept finding new things) and at this point of the playthrough I was on "find very specific progression path" and not "carefree world exploration with general to vague objectives", so it was more of a significant burden at that point instead of a fun handicap, anyways, I enjoyed the ride!!
That being said, as of now I still haven't beaten Path of Pain
31:37 I've been enjoying this video so far, but I did want to mention that this point is with directly addressed or hinted at in game. Throughout the game, the Knight is proven to not be "hollow." By choosing to seal the Radiance regardless, it isn't solving the problem, only delaying it. The base game is technically a bad ending. The broken vessel also wasn't hollow, as it was effected by the Radiance. It may not be addressed in game directly, but I believe the implication is that none of the vessels are truly hollow, and that the Radiance will never be sealed permanently.
I'm at that point where I want to experience the entire game again with all the knowledge I have now.
But there have been few games that have traumatized me. And Hollow Knight is one of them. There are things in Hollow Knight I never want to experience and go through again, like path of pain, fighting Hornet for the second time, all of godhome and the pantheons
Ok, one of those things is not like the others. The second Hornet fight is not THAT hard. Especially when compared to Path of Pain and Godhome!
@@SweetsIsOnline yeah but these aren't my type of games. So the most mild of bosses are super difficult for me
@@MRbug_423i had a lot of trouble during my first playtrough too, but I decided to play it a second time and it was so much better since I somewhat knew what I was doing. Definitly worth replaying if you found it hard. The rythm reslly stays with you. The watcher knights took me like hours on my first playtrough, but got it second try on my second playtrough.
23:02 Waldo on the left
34:36 Funny thing to note, this game actually simulates the background in a 3d environment as further away, hence why the effect is 100% accurate
25:12 THE POGGY THORAX!!
I was getting tired of hollow knight video essays until i watched this, what an amazing video
I’m glad I could satisfy your mental appetite
@@SweetsIsOnlinequite
I've watched this like 5 times and its just as great and entertaining every time. Keep up the amazing work!
So basically if you don’t have a will to live, you live? Wow Radiance I think you need to work on your scheming.
The comedy and serious aspects of this video is phenomenally done. Every section, gameplay, lore, exploration, base story, etc. I had a ball watching this, thank you.
One issue that I have is the whole blue lake and city of tears like for how long has the blue lake been causing the so called "tears" in the city? Will it ever end? Is the blue lake an infinite lake? Just doesn't really make sense to me, especially when you think about how long its been since the city was actually alive and when you arrive. Also If I'm remembering correctly the bees were added in later patches so that plus team cherry just wanting to add them in could be the reasons as to why they weren't developed as well as the other places. Finally wanted to say really great video thoroughly enjoyed it like I did hollow knight!
To me it’s always made sense that the blue lake should be part of a larger underground water current. I mean if the blue lake is connected to an underground water current it could go on for centuries, similar to a waterfall.
@@letendreelliott8778 yeah that makes sense I just didn't really think of that and along with that I wish it was told but I guess they may have wanted it to be left up to speculation and or they simply forget about it.
Anything with time in this game is an entire unknown, but it feels like there's enough wiggle room that Blue Lake isn't too big of a deal. We know the rain started after the Hollow Knight was sealed and pretty soon before the infection came back in full force. With the infection, the kingdom was in some sort of "stasis" that could only be ended byu defeating the Radiance. Does that pertain to the physical structure of the Kingdom's tunnels, too? If not, I do think the rain has been getting worse, collapse is imminent, and Quirrel's optimism about it is unfounded -- that is a LOT of water coming down, after all.
(A really silly explanation is that the Menderbugs are keeping the lake bed from collapsing. I'm not arguing for this, but it's not the worst thing I've heard people speculate about, so I'm gonna share it in case anyone gets a chuckle out of it.)
Hive Knight was added in one of the DLC patches (Lifeblood?), but the bees and the Hive are there in the original release patch. I don't remember if all the bees were there, but the little worker bees were present, except they were about half the size, which was adorable. There's some indications that the original intention for Hornet was that she was raised by Queen Vespa after Herrah became a dreamer, but it's completely unknown if that was indeed the initial idea let alone is still what Team Cherry has in mind. Her name is the most prominent piece of that early draft that has stuck around.
Don’t ask me to explain how the water tables work 🤷♂️. What I can say is that the bees weren’t added in an update but they were expanded upon by adding the Hive Knight.
Dude, this video is awesome! Glad to see it's getting the attention it deserves.
As a British person I can confirm most of Buckingham Palace is just saws and blades popping out all over the place, how do you think the queen really died? Too old to pogo off the 60thousand death traps to get into bed
And Lifeblood is such a weird thing. Like we know too little about it
Hollow knight 👍
He rather is, isn’t he?
You killed it on this video. I’m subbing
in the same vein as worlds that dont exist for you, you may really enjoy Rain World
wrym are basically limbless dragons it isnt just a cool way to spell worm the pale king was once a dragon noodle
Your rapid-fire Hollow Knight lore summary was so funny it caused me to subscribe, congrats
Ironically, the knight character (our character) is a chosen one of sorts. The knight was the only one that was able to defeat the Radiance when nearly all of Hallownest fell to her madness, even when the Hollow Knight itself failed to seal her. The knight even becomes a god, the lord of shades, if you defeat the pantheon of Hallownest.
Most stories have a "chosen one" character, and that is because even though a lot of people complain about it being a cliche, it is a cliche for a reason. Humans like "chosen one" type narratives and there's no escaping that.
The player character, the knight, was just one of countless children of the pale king who were discarded, and he wasn't "chosen" by the pale king...but still, out of all of the people of Hallownest, living and dead, only the knight was able to defeat the Radiance. As well as other feats no one else was able to accomplish -- defeat Hornet twice even though Hornet made it a habit to kill any vessel she came across, be the only vessel to unify the void, and become a god of the void as the Shade Lord.
There's even a -- very small -- argument to be made that the pale king did chose the knight to defeat the Radiance. There's some small piece of lore that hints that the pale king had the gift of foresight, and the only words he speaks in game is "No cost too great." Perhaps the pale king chose the Hollow Knight knowing that it would fail, but had the foresight to see that the chain of events would lead to the unchosen vessel eventually defeating the Radiance.
It's all about the execution. You can have a chosen one character that doesn't necessarily feel like a chosen one character, and Hollow Knight does this well, I think.
I feel like, although watcher knights are less "fun" than mantis lords, the fight has its place in the game. It teaches you to multitask and pay attention to multiple independent actors on screen at once. It also teaches you to focus down threats. The best example of where this training comes into play is the colosseum, particularly Colo 3
Honestly fantastic video all throughout, with great humor not repeating itself too much, actual explanations and a lot of good points. And even if I do think there are some hefty spoilers in the video, it's halfway because most of the game deserves to be experienced blindly and a simple mention blows it (Radiance, Nosk, most of the lore stuff really)... And halfway because this video was probably made for the people who already finished the game. Even though there's a lot of explanations for those who didn't.
In short : This video be like Hollow Knight frfr, not entirely perfect but close to it.
Grimm is supposed to be a vampire moth apparently
this might be the best video essay i've ever seen in my life about a video game. well done dude
You’re finally getting seen, that makes me very happy
Damn you are underrated, this is the best review of the game ive ever seen congrats man. Loved the video.
As an aging gamer whos first metroidvania was Symphony of the night, I Just had to come here and tell you how impressed I am with watching this next generation live in and understand Hallownest in the same way I got lost in draculas castle. The conent creation is so on point too. It actually took me a while to see Hollow Knight for the true breadth of its nuances and quite frankly the longer I spend in hallownest, the more I am so appreciative I didnt write it off immediately. Good job on this video keep it up
The way he said about "simple story + complex characters" and I immediately thought about ATLA. My favourite cartoon and my favourite video game in the same video being praised... Perfect.
Lol, I have the same problem with Dark Souls 1
correction: The spiders definitely fucked with the pale king, specifically herrah.
With what you said about boss fights being rhythmic, you would LOVE Sekiro if you haven't played it already.
I like the idea that our character is truly hollow because it's us players doing decisions for him. So it's not him that decides to become a vessel or kill Radiance, it's us.
You are *very brave* to make this statement.
No way you only have 4k subscribers, I scrolled down expecting 500k+ Keep up the good work man.
I found that being kinda bad in some games makes you enjoy them more.
For starters I was terrible in hollow knight, I got lost all the time, died to bosses over and over, was genuenly scared of some areas and it took me like 50 hours to beat the game on the hollow knight ending.
But I kept playing. The game was just so memorable and I loved the atmosphere. Eventually I have beaten the game on true ending and pantheon of hallownest. It felt so good to get better in the game.
Nowdays I can easily do p5, I have memorised the entire map and can beat the game under 1 hour, but it came with a cost, The game kinda lost the atmosphere and the sense of wonder for me, I can now see the cracks in the game, I can see that the world really revolves around me and I feel like a god traversing the world killing everything in its path with a nail 0.
I still remember my first playtrough as I launched the game every day and played while talking to my friends on discord.
Your first playtrough will always be the most memorable one. ( Just play the game its awesome )
I quite enjoy the start to this video, I don't think people focus on the Elegy for Hallownest enough when starting to cover this game and to that I commend you. Very nicely done!
Now I have a recommendation on the off chance you haven't played these games:
In these two games you don't feel like the chosen at all whatsoever and they are: Fear and Hunger / Fear and Hunger 2: Termina. The main characters in those games while doing some amazing feats are by far not the chosen ones and DO NOT have plot armour. And it is for that reason along with many others that I cannot recommend these games enough, the story telling is well done and hidden but expressed similar to Hollow Knight, lots of books to find with the lore throughout. Trust me when I say these games are stellar, but you'll basically be experiencing path of pain right from the beginning and it takes a lot of game sense for it to feel some what fair.
this is one of the best videos ive ever seen in my life, almost like its... "Faking Perfection"
but yeah im obsessed with this video essay, every single aspect that makes a good essay and good video is amazing in this and now its my staple for amazing videos
31:30 i feel like its more like a machine. A machine makes decisions but doesnt have a will so the knight isnt making these decisions but just following what the other bugs tell them to do
(Not a literal machine but more like the void turns living beings into a soulless robots who do whatever they are told).
This is something Hatred did extremely well by naming the protagonist Not Important.