A lot of Hollow Knight's atmosphere is dark but melancholy. Some areas are more explicitly dark and creepy, but for the most part it nails the feel of walking through a wonderful world where something terrible happened a long time ago and nobody is left to remember it.
It is my first legit metroidvania, unless we’re counting Strider on the PS4 which I personally don’t think it counts. Honestly it wasn’t just a game to me, it was a one life time experience like Subnautica. And now I’m waiting for Silksong like every other Hollow Knight fan.
The Grimm Troupe travels through dead kingdoms so Grimm can, in his own words, “consume the flames of a kingdom’s fall.” One of the Grimm Troupe’s poems says “dance and die and live forever,” which is something Grimm is doing, not the Nightmare Heart. This implies that Grimm isn’t dying, just switching bodies, and devouring his old ones; “burn the father, feed the child.”
hollow knight is the first game of its "series" and the 2nd game has been announced for YEARS. we're all waiting on "silksong" and basically anytime nintendo, xbox or an indie conference comes up its always on our minds Its 100% worth playing. Theres really not a lot to dislike about it, its just a well made game in pretty much every aspect. Maybe its a little tough and a little cryptic? I never had much issue Nightmare king i think is a track people remember because they spent a lot of time stuck on the boss :p
_Shadows dream of endless fire,_ _Flames devour and embers swoop,_ _One will light the Nightmare Lantern,_ _Call and serve in Grimm's dread Troupe._ - 'The Grimm Troupe'
1:38 Well right away you got it. Nightmare King Grimm's attack pattern is very overtly a homage to classic Castlevania battles with Dracula but then he whips out the bullet hell and takes you ballroom dancing. Very suave.
I’m always down to hype up Hollow Knight, both the soundtrack and the game. It’s one of my favorites in both camps for a reason. I hope you do play it someday, it really is great.
Hollow Knight is a masterpiece of a game that I highly recommend experiencing for yourself. It's one of those worlds that just feels good to walk around and get lost in.
The Nightmare King, without spoiling anything, isn't really "evil" per se despite how his theme sounds. He's just in theme to his job as the King of Nightmares and Master of the Troupe. And you should absolutely play the game! It's really good, very metroidvania. His battle, as a hint to anyone struggling, is much more of a dance than a fight ;)
If Undertale is THE game to play as a retrogame/story fan, the Persona series are THE games to play as a JRPG fan and Hades is THE game for any Roguelike/Greek mythology nerd, then Hollow Knight is THE game to play for any fans of Metroidvanias, 'Dark Souls like' difficulty/melancholy atmosphere and/or classical music. Has great art (visual and musical), the combat and movement are finely tuned, the difficulty is high but designed in such a way that it's usually quite easy/fun to keep learning and improving your skills, and the lore is both background enough that you can easily skip most of it if you want and genuinely fascinating enough that most fans of the game are absolutely gaga about it and will take any excuse to gush and babble about whatever specific aspect of the story they found most entrancing~ XD So yeah. Definitely one of my number 1 picks for the 'best videogames I've ever played period' list and I'd very seriously recommend giving it a try. Just do be warned it can get quite long, especially if you try for 112% completion (the extra 12% is the free DLC stuff which, there's a LOT but it also includes the Grimm Troop stuff which so expect to lose at least a week at bare minimum to this game if you play it I guess XD).
Oh, one of my favorites here, nice. You really nailed about what kind of boss this theme is for. While not being the Final Boss, Nightmare King was the most dramaric boss among the DLC and it's also huge homenage to Castlevania. Even the start of the fight. In Hollow Knight all boss fights starts with the name of the boss smoothly appearing on the screen except for two exceptions: the Final Boss and the Nightmare King. For both of them, the game just stops with only their name being shown on the screen before the start of the battle, so Nightmare King would be like those Extra Bosses that are even harder than the Final One
I just realised that about the boss name flashing up on the screen. Both radiance and NKG are “dreamrealm” bosses, but the difference between those two and the rest of the dream bosses is that in Steal Soul mode, dying to them is permanent. This makes the both of them stand above the rest as the pinnacle of the most powerful beings the character meets in hollow knight (which most people already know lol) and the other cool thing is that their style is almost polar opposites. When “RADIANCE” flashes on the screen, the background is white with black characters giving a more heavenly and bright theme. NGK’s is black with red characters, obviously representing darkness, fear and evil. A battle between them, even in the dreamrealm would send ripples throughout hallownest
By far my favorite pair of tracks in the game!! Grimm/Nightmare Grimm is an incredible boss fight, and has been understandably described as the Megalovania of Hollow Knight ! He's so fun to fight though, even if he's SUPER hard to beat. His themes are very fitting, super epic and intense and really makes you feel like you're fighting for your life
First song iirc is from the regular version of the boss fight against Grimm? He's a boss in the (free) Grimm Troupe DLC. The 2nd one is from the harder version of the fight that's optional but VERY fun. Favorite boss in the game personally, I refought him a good amount of times even after beating him. Thanks for the reaction! ❤
Hollow Knight is an Indie game, and you can buy it for like 10-15 bucks if I remember correctly. Don't let that fool you into thinking this is a tiny game. Hollow Knight has the content and production value to match any Triple A game. And yes, it is spooky. It's about as dark as a non horror game can really get.
This guy may not be the final boss, but he's on that level difficulty-wise. I'd really love it if you played Hollow Knight, it's got the perfect kind of vibes for spooky season without being a horror game. There's also a ton of content and knowing you I'm sure you'd really enjoy it. Then you can join us in the eternal wait for Silksong, lol.
Finally a great one. xD This whole OST is FIRE ! Major reason of why this game is amazing btw. Great guess btw, this is indeed Dracula at its finest. You can say the first song is Dracula, and the 2nd song is Dracula on steroids, the upgraded form. The Purest form of evil. Literally.
"I wonder who they got for that" let's just say they know a guy... Christopher Larkin did the majority of the soundtrack in software with a keyboard and instrument synth samples. Actual legend tbh
This is late, but “The Grimm Troupe” is notable in that when it actually plays in the game for the first fight with Grimm the soundtrack is dynamic. The section where the background percussion and guitar kick in actually work by having the added instrumentation only be present when Grimm uses his desperation attack. Notably, Grimm takes a bow at the start of the fight and if you try to attack him he gets pissed and immediately launches into his desperation move early.
i think it's hard to convey what that music does to the fight without playing it, but the music is so integral to the fight that, in an alternate version of the fight where a different music plays the fight becomes *noticeably harder* because of how integral the rythm is to that fight. It's like trying to perform a dance with the wrong music playing for you. Hollow knight music is generally amazing but in most cases it mostly sets the tone of a moment. Nightmare king is integral to the gameplay moment beyond the emotional resonance and that makes it very unique and elevate this boss fight as one of my favorite in all games I played.
This is a DLC, I won't spoil when and where the music plays cause you should play the game. Hollow Knight is one of those genre-defining games, and is definitely worth a playthrough. But you should have the chat to give you general directions cause it's so easy to miss content in this game, including this DLC.
a tiny bit of not so spoilery context, this track came from the Grimm Troupe DLC which was one of the free additions the game got after its full release. Basically you help out a theatre troupe led by the main bug Grimm (personally my favorite character int he game). He's very much a showman and a good sport and funny enough the first track is basically a sparring theme. The second however is a sort of "oh fuck" moment for the player and to many the first few seconds are burned into their brain. The last bit and could be a slight spoiler, but nothing really confirms it and its more of a fan theory, is that Grimm might be this worlds version of bug satan basically hence the heavy guitar....however nothing confirms it there's only hints to it.
If Grimm (or the nightmare heart in general) is the higher being of nightmares, and once existed in the realm of dreams, then he is the Radiance's counterpart, which also makes sense from a design point since he's clearly based on a bat while she is based on a moth.
I definitely recommend playing Hollow Knight (and it WOULD be pretty in theme for spooky season, it has a very dark and melancholic atmosphere, with some scary stuff here and there). It's definitely one of my favourite games of all time, it just does everything right! Soundtrack, atmosphere, combat, exploration, lore... Everything is not only well made but also strongly meshed together and every aspect of the game enhances the others! AND it's only 15dollars for what I think would be about a 50hours experience. At least.
Hollow knight is a masterpiece! You should definitely play it. It starts slow the bosses aren't really that hard (initially) it has an amazing progression and you really feel like you are lost in that bug world. The music, the art, and the gameplay fit so well together. It's amazing.
Oh, great. This one... ...no, no, look, I'm excited, for sure! It's just, uh... well, any HK player will recognize Nightmare King as "That goddamn song you keep hearing the opener to far too many times". It's great, but fuck, this boss is do-or-die. Either you know know what you're doing and it goes by clean, or the boss clocks you out ASAP. So it's both a beloved banger, and a groan-worthy song.
"I wonder who they got to do the drums" now im not TOTALLY sure of it, but im fairly certian Christopher Larkin didnt get ANY help with the OST. I think he also both used real instruments AND a music program? Kinda like how Toby Fox can play the piano, but the majority of his songs (in Undertale and Deltarune at least) dont include it and he goes for using FL Studio a lot of the time
I didn't really appreciate the Hollow Knight soundtrack on my initial playthrough, but it's grown on me and it is a great soundtrack. I still prefer more melodic and less orchestral/ambient VGM though.
have you done any runescape/old school runescape reactions? you should do a reaction video for both osrs and rs3 and compare the two. that would be epic!!!!!!
I think the only thing thats bothering me about this video is the use of the term "talent". Tbf. It's a personal thing and there is nothing wrong with using it generally. To me it feels like a lot of people take the word talent as this magical substance that artists are born with, starting to make master pieces at any age and mostly ignoreing the years and decades of practice and hard work that was going into the craft. Outstanding video otherwise. 👍
Nah, that's not what that's saying at all. Nowhere in that statement does that imply that. Telling someone that they're talented at what they do is 100% a pure compliment and doesn't mean in any way shape or form that they can't also be hard working.
A lot of Hollow Knight's atmosphere is dark but melancholy. Some areas are more explicitly dark and creepy, but for the most part it nails the feel of walking through a wonderful world where something terrible happened a long time ago and nobody is left to remember it.
It is my first legit metroidvania, unless we’re counting Strider on the PS4 which I personally don’t think it counts.
Honestly it wasn’t just a game to me, it was a one life time experience like Subnautica. And now I’m waiting for Silksong like every other Hollow Knight fan.
"im going to assume this is a pretty significant ordeal here" oh you have no idea how hard you hit this nail on the head lmao
The Grimm Troupe travels through dead kingdoms so Grimm can, in his own words, “consume the flames of a kingdom’s fall.” One of the Grimm Troupe’s poems says “dance and die and live forever,” which is something Grimm is doing, not the Nightmare Heart. This implies that Grimm isn’t dying, just switching bodies, and devouring his old ones; “burn the father, feed the child.”
"Dance with me, my friend. The crowd awaits. Show them you are worthy of a starring role!"
@@ysgramornorris2452 yes
hollow knight is the first game of its "series" and the 2nd game has been announced for YEARS. we're all waiting on "silksong" and basically anytime nintendo, xbox or an indie conference comes up its always on our minds
Its 100% worth playing. Theres really not a lot to dislike about it, its just a well made game in pretty much every aspect. Maybe its a little tough and a little cryptic? I never had much issue
Nightmare king i think is a track people remember because they spent a lot of time stuck on the boss :p
The music of Hollow Knight is as strong a narrative device as anything else you encounter in the game, it just doesn't miss.
_Shadows dream of endless fire,_
_Flames devour and embers swoop,_
_One will light the Nightmare Lantern,_
_Call and serve in Grimm's dread Troupe._
- 'The Grimm Troupe'
*Burn The Father,
Feed The Child!*
Let’s dance
1:38 Well right away you got it. Nightmare King Grimm's attack pattern is very overtly a homage to classic Castlevania battles with Dracula but then he whips out the bullet hell and takes you ballroom dancing. Very suave.
I’m always down to hype up Hollow Knight, both the soundtrack and the game. It’s one of my favorites in both camps for a reason. I hope you do play it someday, it really is great.
Since you were wondering, Hollow Knight is a standalone indie game, but there is a sequel in development.
Also a very good fit for Halloween.
Pretty sure the DLC itself was also released around Halloween
The fact that Hollow Knight's music is mostly Strings and Vocal makes these 2 hit differently.
And the way it intertwined with the lore is cherry on top of it
@@roma540 *Team* Cherry on top? ;P
@@Kayta-Linda hehe, got me there :D
YES
DEFINITELY
ABSOLUTELY!!!
love the combination of choir to represent godliness and metal to show dark nightmare.
These tracks really helped with learning this absolute ballbuster of a boss, so extremely satisfying
Hollow Knight is a masterpiece of a game that I highly recommend experiencing for yourself. It's one of those worlds that just feels good to walk around and get lost in.
The Nightmare King, without spoiling anything, isn't really "evil" per se despite how his theme sounds. He's just in theme to his job as the King of Nightmares and Master of the Troupe. And you should absolutely play the game! It's really good, very metroidvania. His battle, as a hint to anyone struggling, is much more of a dance than a fight ;)
Yeah.. I wouldn't really even call the music evil. More just.. really epic and over-the-top. We all know Grimm is a total drama queen))
If Undertale is THE game to play as a retrogame/story fan, the Persona series are THE games to play as a JRPG fan and Hades is THE game for any Roguelike/Greek mythology nerd, then Hollow Knight is THE game to play for any fans of Metroidvanias, 'Dark Souls like' difficulty/melancholy atmosphere and/or classical music.
Has great art (visual and musical), the combat and movement are finely tuned, the difficulty is high but designed in such a way that it's usually quite easy/fun to keep learning and improving your skills, and the lore is both background enough that you can easily skip most of it if you want and genuinely fascinating enough that most fans of the game are absolutely gaga about it and will take any excuse to gush and babble about whatever specific aspect of the story they found most entrancing~ XD
So yeah. Definitely one of my number 1 picks for the 'best videogames I've ever played period' list and I'd very seriously recommend giving it a try. Just do be warned it can get quite long, especially if you try for 112% completion (the extra 12% is the free DLC stuff which, there's a LOT but it also includes the Grimm Troop stuff which so expect to lose at least a week at bare minimum to this game if you play it I guess XD).
“Well, this is it” is a great way to describe Nightmare King Grimm 😂
Oh, one of my favorites here, nice.
You really nailed about what kind of boss this theme is for.
While not being the Final Boss, Nightmare King was the most dramaric boss among the DLC and it's also huge homenage to Castlevania.
Even the start of the fight. In Hollow Knight all boss fights starts with the name of the boss smoothly appearing on the screen except for two exceptions: the Final Boss and the Nightmare King.
For both of them, the game just stops with only their name being shown on the screen before the start of the battle, so Nightmare King would be like those Extra Bosses that are even harder than the Final One
I just realised that about the boss name flashing up on the screen. Both radiance and NKG are “dreamrealm” bosses, but the difference between those two and the rest of the dream bosses is that in Steal Soul mode, dying to them is permanent. This makes the both of them stand above the rest as the pinnacle of the most powerful beings the character meets in hollow knight (which most people already know lol) and the other cool thing is that their style is almost polar opposites. When “RADIANCE” flashes on the screen, the background is white with black characters giving a more heavenly and bright theme. NGK’s is black with red characters, obviously representing darkness, fear and evil. A battle between them, even in the dreamrealm would send ripples throughout hallownest
By far my favorite pair of tracks in the game!! Grimm/Nightmare Grimm is an incredible boss fight, and has been understandably described as the Megalovania of Hollow Knight !
He's so fun to fight though, even if he's SUPER hard to beat. His themes are very fitting, super epic and intense and really makes you feel like you're fighting for your life
First song iirc is from the regular version of the boss fight against Grimm? He's a boss in the (free) Grimm Troupe DLC. The 2nd one is from the harder version of the fight that's optional but VERY fun. Favorite boss in the game personally, I refought him a good amount of times even after beating him. Thanks for the reaction! ❤
Hollow Knight is an Indie game, and you can buy it for like 10-15 bucks if I remember correctly. Don't let that fool you into thinking this is a tiny game. Hollow Knight has the content and production value to match any Triple A game.
And yes, it is spooky. It's about as dark as a non horror game can really get.
It's also Australian, they did a bonsa job with that.
Seriously
The amount of content is insane
A good game developed by a small team I'd always better than a AAA dev. I love them.
This guy may not be the final boss, but he's on that level difficulty-wise. I'd really love it if you played Hollow Knight, it's got the perfect kind of vibes for spooky season without being a horror game. There's also a ton of content and knowing you I'm sure you'd really enjoy it. Then you can join us in the eternal wait for Silksong, lol.
Finally a great one. xD This whole OST is FIRE ! Major reason of why this game is amazing btw.
Great guess btw, this is indeed Dracula at its finest.
You can say the first song is Dracula, and the 2nd song is Dracula on steroids, the upgraded form. The Purest form of evil. Literally.
"I wonder who they got for that"
let's just say they know a guy... Christopher Larkin did the majority of the soundtrack in software with a keyboard and instrument synth samples. Actual legend tbh
This is late, but “The Grimm Troupe” is notable in that when it actually plays in the game for the first fight with Grimm the soundtrack is dynamic. The section where the background percussion and guitar kick in actually work by having the added instrumentation only be present when Grimm uses his desperation attack.
Notably, Grimm takes a bow at the start of the fight and if you try to attack him he gets pissed and immediately launches into his desperation move early.
i think it's hard to convey what that music does to the fight without playing it, but the music is so integral to the fight that, in an alternate version of the fight where a different music plays the fight becomes *noticeably harder* because of how integral the rythm is to that fight. It's like trying to perform a dance with the wrong music playing for you.
Hollow knight music is generally amazing but in most cases it mostly sets the tone of a moment. Nightmare king is integral to the gameplay moment beyond the emotional resonance and that makes it very unique and elevate this boss fight as one of my favorite in all games I played.
Ive been waiting for this! Woo! Amazing!
When youre sick of dying to the boss but the music keeps pushing you to fight it:
This is a DLC, I won't spoil when and where the music plays cause you should play the game. Hollow Knight is one of those genre-defining games, and is definitely worth a playthrough. But you should have the chat to give you general directions cause it's so easy to miss content in this game, including this DLC.
Oooh I would really love it as a spooky season game yes!
a tiny bit of not so spoilery context, this track came from the Grimm Troupe DLC which was one of the free additions the game got after its full release. Basically you help out a theatre troupe led by the main bug Grimm (personally my favorite character int he game). He's very much a showman and a good sport and funny enough the first track is basically a sparring theme. The second however is a sort of "oh fuck" moment for the player and to many the first few seconds are burned into their brain. The last bit and could be a slight spoiler, but nothing really confirms it and its more of a fan theory, is that Grimm might be this worlds version of bug satan basically hence the heavy guitar....however nothing confirms it there's only hints to it.
If Grimm (or the nightmare heart in general) is the higher being of nightmares, and once existed in the realm of dreams, then he is the Radiance's counterpart, which also makes sense from a design point since he's clearly based on a bat while she is based on a moth.
I definitely recommend playing Hollow Knight (and it WOULD be pretty in theme for spooky season, it has a very dark and melancholic atmosphere, with some scary stuff here and there). It's definitely one of my favourite games of all time, it just does everything right! Soundtrack, atmosphere, combat, exploration, lore... Everything is not only well made but also strongly meshed together and every aspect of the game enhances the others! AND it's only 15dollars for what I think would be about a 50hours experience. At least.
Hollow knight is a masterpiece! You should definitely play it. It starts slow the bosses aren't really that hard (initially) it has an amazing progression and you really feel like you are lost in that bug world. The music, the art, and the gameplay fit so well together. It's amazing.
Bro, it took me like a week to beat 1st form Grimm. But for the life of me, I could never defeat his super Dream King version.
I cant listen to this song without picturing the crowd erupting into clapping.
I love these two so much lol. So good
THEME OF BABY DADDY
o_O
@@JessesAuditorium I think he's calling Grimm baby daddy because he gives you his child for you to raise.
@@JessesAuditorium literally baby daddy hahaha you get his child to raise, as a part of a ritual to prolong his tribe.
Technically he's actually the baby as well, but you're right
ZADDY
Ayyyy Hollow Knight!
Oh, great. This one...
...no, no, look, I'm excited, for sure! It's just, uh... well, any HK player will recognize Nightmare King as "That goddamn song you keep hearing the opener to far too many times". It's great, but fuck, this boss is do-or-die. Either you know know what you're doing and it goes by clean, or the boss clocks you out ASAP. So it's both a beloved banger, and a groan-worthy song.
6:19 oh i really hope you do
"I wonder who they got to do the drums" now im not TOTALLY sure of it, but im fairly certian Christopher Larkin didnt get ANY help with the OST. I think he also both used real instruments AND a music program? Kinda like how Toby Fox can play the piano, but the majority of his songs (in Undertale and Deltarune at least) dont include it and he goes for using FL Studio a lot of the time
Hollow Knight is absolutely worth playing. I don't feel that it's Halloween themed in any way, so I wouldn't limit trying it to any one season.
Grimm Troupe in particular is Halloween themed, He has this whole Dracula vibe with all these bats and fire, and his theme is like that too
You should try Hollow Knight, hands down one of the best games i've ever experienced in my life, OST obviously included.
I wholeheartedly recommend Hollow Knight. It is probably my favourite game. Would love to see you play it.
Yes Jesse, it is a stupid question to ask if it is worth playing
I didn't really appreciate the Hollow Knight soundtrack on my initial playthrough, but it's grown on me and it is a great soundtrack. I still prefer more melodic and less orchestral/ambient VGM though.
have you done any runescape/old school runescape reactions? you should do a reaction video for both osrs and rs3 and compare the two. that would be epic!!!!!!
All the songs sound better in game while playing. So if you wanna enjoy them the most... you should play.
I think the only thing thats bothering me about this video is the use of the term "talent".
Tbf. It's a personal thing and there is nothing wrong with using it generally.
To me it feels like a lot of people take the word talent as this magical substance that artists are born with, starting to make master pieces at any age and mostly ignoreing the years and decades of practice and hard work that was going into the craft.
Outstanding video otherwise. 👍
Nah, that's not what that's saying at all. Nowhere in that statement does that imply that. Telling someone that they're talented at what they do is 100% a pure compliment and doesn't mean in any way shape or form that they can't also be hard working.
I checked out the mk3 temple since you said something and yeah I can hear it. Also, love _Your Contract Has Expired_ good taste.