well i have some reccomendations. if you want a game in the style of hollow knight (a metroidvania ) i would say metroid or ori and the will of the wisps, if you want a game that will make you feel like hollow knight while not like hollow knight, it would be outer wilds. i would highly suggest outer wilds as it is just amazing its gives the vibes of hollow knight in not understanding what the hell is going on for the first 4-5 hrs
the nearest experience I had is Blasphemous, I strongly recommend you to play this game if you liked this game, it doesn't have the perfect controls and combat of hollow knight but has its own unique features
The reason Godhome is an ending (and why Grimm bows to Godseeker) is because it’s a dream. With all other bosses they aren’t *really* there. You’re fighting dream versions of these bosses, however, Nightmare Grimm and the Radiance are dream entities. They ARE the dream. So when you fight the Radiance in Godhome, you’re fighting the ACTUAL Radiance. It’s not just a fight you’re doing for fun like all the others, you are fighting the final boss of the game for real, so killing her ends the game, since the goal of the game is to kill her. You basically accidentally stumble upon a different way to go toe to toe against the Radiance by invading her dream realm without having to go through the Hollow Knight.
@@CapoRip I personally believe that Grimm was himself the higher being. We see with the pale king that existence for higher beings can be strange, so my interpretation is that the Grimm we see is a physical manifestation of the nightmare heart. Basically he is its personality, thought, etc all manifested in a way that can interact with the world, one being existing in two parts, essentially. So when this version of Grimm dies, the grimmchild takes the role of new manifestation.
And if you think about it. You notice your character becomes a larger being of darkness to kill the Radiance. That's because you literally kill off the Hollow Knight before in the dream realm which leaves you all alone to channel the void and harness all its power rather than fragment it across all your siblings and the hollow knight.
Unn IS calling to her people, they can't hear her because of the Radiance. And the Hive is not in disarray, but actually working in perfect harmony, and that's also because of the Radiance, the bees were obedient drones before the infection, and after the infection they just carried on as normal, now with a new Queen, and part of a true hivemind.
I mean... I don't call this "perfect harmony". The mindless husks don't carry on maintaining the kingdom, it's full of death and decay. Had the Radiance not been locked away, maybe it'd be more like how you describe. But it isn't. As it stands, the only influence the Radiance holds over the bugs of Hallownest is to turn them into zombies. It's all she can do from her prison. Her presence is still felt, but most of her power remains sealed away. The Radiance is also not the main villain of the game. The Pale King is. It's the nature of kingdoms and rulers to end in this fictional world, but he selfishly refused to give up his reign. Even the bees aren't spared, the hive is in total chaos and falling apart. That's why the Mantis tribe is the only one who seems to be unscathed by the infection. They never swore fealty to the PK, and so maintained their independence.
@@WobblesandBean Some bugs have had a better experience with the infection that most. The bees as I mentioned, the gladiators and the Mantis traitors who welcome the infection to become stronger but still somehow kept their faculties. Some bugs just had a better deal than others.
About Tiso, I think his purpose in the story is to showcase the kinds of travelers that elderbug talks about, to show the mentality that those explorers and adventurers have when they go visit hallownest's ruins
FYI Grimm is the Higher Being. He is the vessel for the nightmare heart and its manifestation. This is why he understands what's happening in Godhome, just like Hornet. Though due to Hornet being only 50% higher being she is hazy about what is happening. NO other boss other than these two and the Radiance herself have new dialogue/show any semblance that they understand that they are within the Godseekers' pantheon. Only higher beings are shown being able to see past this dream.
Sheo sees past the dream, he's no HB. Grimm is controlled by NMH but is not a higher being, in the same way THK isn't a higher being for being controlled by Radiance. Furthermore you can't be "50% Higher being" you can't half exist above all others, that makes no sense.
@@MossMothMyBeloved I don't think sheo actually sees through the dream, he's just musing much the same way oro and mato are. His musings are likely unfuenced by the dream he's in, much like oro and mato's are. For O and M they're in a dream with eachother so their dream thoughts are about... eachother. As for Sheo he's practicing art so his thoughts are artful and philisophical. You *could* interpret it as him seeing past the dream, maybe, but then he'd probably be more confused about it like hornet, right? Also why couldn't she be half above others? If that wording bothers you, maybe "Partly ascended mental state" would make it sound nicer? Also the fact hat her father is likeon of THE higher beings means she has to be at least something
@@exister6652 "What is a god, if not an artist?" Given the context it's laughably ignorant to assume it's a vague musing about art, especially considering he's never mused about gods in the waking world when painting. Existing above all others is by nature binary. You either do or you don't, power itself is a spectrum, like a slider for how bulky you want your character to be in a video game, but existing past the imaginary power threshold of all others is not. Yes being a descendant of Pale King has many perks, but that doesn't mean that you are "half higher being"
Hollow Knight was the first metroidvania i played, and i loved the exploration of hollownest. The experience of the story exponentially unravels before you is masterfully done.
@@davismorgan99try to play blasphemous it filled my desire for exploring an unkown land filled with great lore, just like hollow knight with it's grand world and mysterious lore
@@mauz791 truee nothing can match up to the magic of playing hollow knight the first time, especially when you first seat at the bench in city of tears with the main man QUIRRELL
@@yousefguingab4784 that guy was a war veteran, who braved the kingdom for the first time twice (thanks Monomon) and survived. Legendary man, and he's super chill and helpful. I hope he's enjoying his long swim
path of pain was worth every agonizing moment, all 45 or so tries it took to clear the last room literally had me shaking at one point. This game is a real gem.
It's crazy how I've always been bad at platforming but I enjoyed this game so much and was so invested I grinded through the path of pain. This and elden ring were the two games that made me want to start to challenge myself more. Now sometimes I play games on hard and while the beginning grind can suck its fun to be challenged throughout the whole game. I love completing all the side missions first so I hate when 3/4th through the game you're basically a God. That sure as f never happened in hollow knight.
@WobblesandBean that's why most of the hard challenges in this game are optional. Players can play how they want. If you want a stressful challenge, you can find it. But if you just want to explore and enjoy yourself, you can do that instead.
I didn't have the patience or skill to get through it. I love that little story nugget, especially as a Dad. But I might not have appreciated it if it was my only reward for all that hardship. Edit: replayed the game and got through it with the Honey charm and patience. I did get mad when it took three tries to get past the two Kingsmolds though.
You can actually save Cloth, if you kill the traitor lord without having collected the pale ore piece from ancient basin. If you go to the ancient basin later to find Cloth hiding, after having already defeating the TL, then, instead of going to queens gardens, Cloth will now go to dirtmouth, and take a short rest there, before leaving hallownest very much alive. I see this as the 'good' ending to her story for three reasons. One, because I feel that Cloth's self-loathing and desire for death is tragic, not something to be encouraged or wished for. Better for her to find some new meaning in this life, rather than end things permanently out of present grief and shame. But secondly, and more importantly, the game gatekeeps Cloth's survival behind a 'harder' gameplay task. If you cant get the last pale ore, you then can't face the TL with the pure nail. You have to kill him without the last nail upgrade. Generally speaking, if a game like this makes something more difficult, it is because it wants you to strive to achieve a more worthwhile outcome. Thirdly, the game already has shown form in suggesting that tragic thoughts and feelings in the way of ending one's life, should be treated with caution and patience. I am of course referring to the nailsmith, and his eventual finding of new purpose and happiness with Sheo. This is why I always make a point of saving Cloth after I kill TL, in new playthroughs :) . I like to imagine that she eventually gets past her grief, and finds happiness :) . (I disagree about godhome btw. I think it unlikely anyone would complete p5 without completing the other three main endings first, and I thus see the additional endings as precisely this: an appropriate reward for beating p5. You literally become a god, and transcend the mundane requirements of the main game's critical path, saving absolutely everyone in the process. I could also say more about how I feel the lore rewards from this dlc are sufficient in my eyes, but I'll limit myself to commenting on the flower. I see that as more of a countering and neutralising force, than as a teleportation token. Again, it comes back to the game potentially gatekeeping a more worthwhile resolution behind a harder task: if you got the flower down to the godseeker successfully, then it prevents the somewhat disconcerting consequences of otherwise unleashing the shadelord upon Hallownest outside of the dream world - which is seemingly what happens if you dont give them the flower before triggering the ending. )
funnily enough, i got the pale ore fragment but did not find cloth, and was very very confused where she was. I don't think she even showed up in dirtmouth.
Idk this video felt nit picky about criticisms and only focused on minor ones when their are actual good ones and he clearly didnt misunderstood godhome dlc
@@oneofthembous7359If you have any taste. It definitely lacks in characters, though. Nearly everything is implied and never shown/told and sometimes that really harms the quality of the story imo
Because of Tiso as a fakeout in the Brooding Mawlek fight and Brooding Mawlek actually appearing in the last trial of the colosseum I assume that he was killed by one, which to me implies he almost made it to the end. This is why I believe he was actually pretty strong, perhaps even stronger than a brooding mawlek and he died due to already being exhausted
Few things to mention: the vessels could have had some sort of path to nosk's lair as you can see multiple corpses of them there and both locations are close on the map. Also hornet is your half sister not step sister.
@@Yung.Ert. He threw the eggs he had with the white lady into the void, the children die and rebirth vessels. Ghost is related to the pale king in the game's lore, and hornet also being his daughter, but they both have different mothers so they are half siblings.
one thing I find interesting is that The radiance calls the knight "my old enemy" implying that the relationship between her and the void goes waaay way back. and another thing is what does the Abyss Beast have to do with the void and the radiance and with the shade lord we turn into in the last ending. He resides in the abyss and he is the source of the lifeblood that's why lifeblood is considered forbidden in the kingdom but what exactly does the Abyss Beast has to to do with the void. what's the connection between lifeblood and the void. there's this theory that the abyss creature doesn't have any connection with the abyss but simply he's a higher being just like the wyrms and Unn. he gains followers through lifeblood (for example Jonny) but since the pale king wants to be absolute he declared that the lifeblood was heretical (maybe because he started to convert the followers of the pale king) and drove the abyss beast into the abyss (or he ran to the abyss) and imprisoned him but why doesn't the godseekers attune with him?
Dunno. The beast in the void appears to be long dead. I do agree though, the Pale King is selfish and demanded to be the only god the bugs of Hallownest knew. He had no idea he was nothing compared to the eternal power of the Radiance and the Void. It's like a human king stepping into the middle of the battle between God and Lucifer, and foolishly thinking he could control both.
i think the abyss beast isn't a god, or intentionally avoid's attunment, it seem's to be half in the dream world, so that would explain it's presence in godhome i think the god's of hollow knight's world gain power through worship, the pale king was known and thus was fully physical, the radiance was forgotten and not worshiped and thus is restricted to the dream world, the abyss beast is somewhat worshiped, even if it's second hand through lifeblood so is in this weird spot between being physical and being able to intrude on the physical world, but was still partially bound to just existing in the dream world.
The Abyss Beast *is* present in Godhome, at the Lifeblood Room unlocked when you complete the pantheons with bindings on. it doesn't seem to be a violent creature, more in line with the likes of Unn, the White Lady, and the Pale King.
Personally, I feel that Godhome was pretty sound. Though there was little added, that is because there was little they wanted to add, and the actual experience was the focus. It felt like it was meant to bee a challenge and the tidbits it left were rewards for the strong willed. I don't know, I really liked it.
definitly one of my favourite games of all time. at first the "discover it yourself style of story was an eyebrow raiser but with due time i was genuinely interested in the world and the narrative it provided. Certified masterpiece
36:27 The revelation of Elderbug being one of the few younger character in the game is never not funny to me. Like did his parent named him Elderbug when he was borned? Did he changed his name to Elderbug when he grew up? Was it a nickname that people gave him because he looks old and it just sticked? Or is that simply what the Knight call Elderbug, since Elderbug never really gave us his name. The last of them is the funniest because it would assume that the Knight decide to call Elderbug Elderbug despite being much older than Elderbug simply because Elderbug looks old.
It’s probably the last one we only see the name of what the knight sees them as seeing the name tags only show up when told of the name hence we only find out cornifers name when we interact with him for the second time or zotes when his dialog says he is zote the mighty
Presumably, Hallownest's stasis is a literal stasis, as in time is stopped while the Hollow Knight is sealed within the Black Egg. This seems to be implied with how Quirrel begins to feel his age as soon as he takes off Monomon's mask, it is what kept his sentience outside of Hallownest and drew him back. The surface also never turns to daytime in Dirtmouth, perhaps because of this stasis and because the "sun" (the Radiance) is sealed within the dream realm.
The hive was likely a late addition, as the boss and vespa too were added in an update. And kingdoms edge was where team cherry put everything they wern't sure where to put. If a character name has "By X" that means it's a backer character made by someone who donated to the kickstarter
Strangely enough, even though it seems very last minute, the Hive was one of the first areas Team Cherry thought about as you can see it in some of the early sketches for the map they drew. In fact it was originally going to be in deepnest before they moved it. Which makes it odd that it turned out the way it did.
It's weird because the story of Godhome immediately clicked for me especially after finishing the last gauntlet. In simpler terms, you the Knight are ascending as the God of Gods, who has bested each and every boss in the game both in the current strength and in their prime state. That's why you needed the Voidheart as you keep ascending the Gods Seeker device keeps tuning to it. That's why on the earlier stage the God seeker keeps trash talking you for it thinks that you are not worthy to be there and only tunes in on the other "Gods" of Hollownest. You can also see it happening as you fight the bosses as the Godseeker only follows the movement of the bosses you are fighting. Only when you reach the final pantheon that you finally got the full attention of the Godseeker and they start to tune in on you which also appears in-game where they start watching you instead while doing the gauntlet which culminates when you finally beat Absolute Radiance and the Knight becomes the Void King which immediately destroys, not banish but actually destroys the Radiance putting an actual stop to the infection.
I played the Bee section a long time ago, but I figured the game told about them getting Infected from the gameplay. Every time you hit one of them, they sweat or bleed the Infection. The game does tell you they’re infected and when the Queen thanks you for freeing her powerful Knight, that would mean the lesser subjects almost certainly got infected, too.
To clear things out, you do need to defeat almost all of the game bosses to face them in respective pantheons in which they appear which makes godseeker endings a more of an extension to the original endings which both explains something's but also creates new confusing connections between original and dlc endings Also as always awesome video ❤
i feel like the whole godhome dlc isn’t that much of a problem, it is a boss rush and it doesn’t focus on the story. it has some story elements yes but it’s trying to be a boss rush and if it focused on the story too much it might take away from the gameplay. i dont see much of a problem with its existence, and your whole issue with the ending after p5 seems a bit silly. its a reward for completing an incredibly difficult challenge that many players aren’t going to be able to complete, its not like you can walk into p5 with just the dreamnail and voidheart and get a whole ending without doing anything else, you need a lot of skill to be able to beat p5. you also need to beat all of the bosses in the game to do pantheon 5, including bosses like the watcher knights who you need to defeat to get to dreamers. you make it seem like it’s significantly easier than it is to get the ending as if anyone on their first playthrough will get this ending before doing anything else when you have to beat practically every boss and have enough skill to be able to complete the pantheon in the first place.
The community has learned a lot about the lore through interactions with team cherry (devs), and a sacrifice (mossbag) But yeah, the reddit post is a perfect example of this ongoing lore and world building, but I loved the process, including the community
I have seen theory's about how the Knight and their siblings escaped the abyss, the theory speculates that there are paths in the abyss that we cannot see in game that lead to different places like Deepnest and then from there out to the Edges of the Kingdom if not further out, that would explain why Nosk had so many corpses of the siblings and how the Knight originally got out to roaming the wastelands before the game starts or the boss sibling guarding the monarch wings. Great video cant wait for Silksong.
About the hive part I'd like to mention that thus game was developed by 3 people who went bankrupt in the developing process. It would be fair to assume that the hive's development was halted when the devs ran out of resources and had to release the game. Many things were scrapped due to this reason but it didn't affect the game as much due to team cherry's game design which followed the principle of making the core game first and then adding more content so at any point if development had to stop the game released would be technically complete.
When setting, music, atmosphere, and gameplay are blended so well you get a special game. I can say only a handful of games I've played do this well and hollow knight is one of them.
Enjoying it so far, gonna edit as I go 1. Millibelle doesn’t run after time, she runs after you deposit a certain amount of geo. It’s best to give her the max amount. -2. The Great Wyrm, Was the pale king.- 3. Not seeing any enemy dream-nail dialogue ( I’m at the bees) 4. The point to the “useless npcs” is just to show that they are content. Most have an objective, and those who’s hubris lead them to seek a fight, pretty much always end up dead. 5. If you fight Grey Prince Zote enough, Bretta leaves, and goes past the howling cliffs. 😢 6. Cornifer Yes, But MYLA? Don’t get me wrong I love her, but Quirrel is Very Beloved. 7. If you avoid a specific instance of meeting Cloth before the Traitor Lord fight she goes to Dirtmouth. (and then I think past Howling Cliffs.) 8. Yes, he’s a flesh cocoon. Dream-nail confirmed. 9. I never thought hornet was hunting us, that corpse always looked old to me, idk why. -10. The Pale King And Mom didn’t Use us, they made us, We’re supposed to be literally empty.- 11. The maggot found him dead. When you dream-nail his brothers (for soul) before his Dream fight, they’re telling him to wake up. 13. Ok here’s the dream-nail dialogue part. (Also if you Dive in The Mask Makers room, there’s more Dream-nail dialogue I think) 14. Hornet is our half Sibling, step is if they’re married. Step don’t have to be related by blood, but I think half siblings under marriage probably count as both.
I don't think the criticisms of Godhome hold up. It's additive, not a replacement. You make a point that you only need a couple items to beat the entire game, but that isn't at all true. In order to beat Godhome, you have to find and beat every single boss in Hallownest in order to unlock their pantheons. As to the ending, I love it, it's extremely satisfying. Godseeker is built up as an arrogant and also foolish prick the entire time, and seeing their plan literally bite them in the face is the height of catharsis. The Godseeker and Godhome are also intensely mysterious and strange, and plant the seeds for so many questions. Godhome is a boss rush, and it didn't need a story attached, but I'm glad to have it, especially for its difficulty. It feels like a worthy cap to what will be a player's final challenge in Hollow Knight. The third ending is fantastic as well. I wonder which, if any, endings will be drawn from for Silksong?
God home was great because it gave the abyss so much more value. A certain asshole king fucked around with bugs, soul and abyss like they were nothing. God home is a cosmic horror kind of retribution for all of his crimes. The Shadelord is born, and everything is drowned in abyss that was abused for however long. Screw the white flower.
I think you should. This is a game with timeless artwork, music and gameplay. Plus it's an indie game, so it's well worth the price. Also you don't give any money to any shit bag AAA developers 👍 It is also surprisingly fun. It even allows you to fight bosses as many times as you want to, if you so choose. It even has an incredibly difficult but optional set of boss gauntlets. However, it is arguably the greatest metroidvania ever made so it will ruin the experience of all other metroidvanias.
@mauz791 I never got into the metroidvania style games. I've tried a few but they never grabbed me. But if this is one of if not the best, then I might just give it a shot. Thanks for the insight! 🙏
Hollow Knights story is so good because it isnt told directly. It’s told through the world that you explore. Seeing and learning the history of hallownest and how it came to be the way it is is a gaming experience I will never forget
The ending to godhome isn't necessarily the canon one, the way I understood it is that it's similar to the first in that it's also a bad ending for the game, instead of exploring and learning we simply fight our way to the top, claiming the devotion of the godseekers in the process. Because of this at the end we don't save hollownest, we simply replace the tyranny of the pale king and the radiance with the tyranny of the shadelord, forcing the bugs of the kingdom to endure another rule until it too eventually fades like those that came before, it's a continuation of the cycle, just of a different one than keeping the radiance contained. Although this only works in the regular ending, I have no idea what's going on with the delicate flower other than "the kindness of the knight saves the kingdom from the shadelord".
Good point, however unlike the Hollow knight & Sealed siblings endings both Hornet and the Hollow knight live. (And presumably the Radiance is completely and truly destroyed.)
There is a night chance the delicate flower ending in the “true” ending seeing the radiance is defeated and the shade lord vanished with the god seekers
Hollow Knight is one of those game where the gameplay is fun, lore is dark and interesting but the character designs are adorable despite being insects.
I have been looking forward to this video for so long. I hope that one day we will get the Pathologic 2 video, it is the most underrated game I've ever played.
I actually bought Pathologic 2 a couple weeks ago, and was going to give it a spin some time soon. I've heard equally good things about the game as well so I'll see about making it into a video.
I genuinely can't believe this video was over an hour. Felt like 15 minutes of just pure lore butter. Excellent video and script and delivery and editing and all the usual shit you fkn crush every goddamn time. GOAT.
You should do a dishonored analysis😋 the world is so beautiful and the dynamics between your choices, even though death of the outsider was slightly disappointing
I've played Dishonored more times than I can count, absolutely love the series. Strangely though I have never played Death of the Outsider. One day I would like to talk about the series though, but I'm not sure when.
Tiso wasn't actually made by Team Cherry, in fact the majority of the NPC's weren't made by Team Cherry. They're characters that Kickstarter backers came up with and we're put in the game as a reward for them. So, that's why Tisp exists in the game, because someone paid Team Cherry to put their character in the game, hence why it says Tiso is by someone called Tiso. Also, regarding what you said with the endings. All of the DLC's were originally intended to be features of the game when it released, but due to constraints they had to cut it. Hence why they released the two endings with the DLC, because they needed to wait to get more money to make the game. Also, Team Cherry has confirmed that there is no 'canon' ending. We can decide what ending is canon.
amazing video! i'm definitely going to have to pick up this game again.. i played it on stream a long time ago and never finished it lol thanks for the kind words, i'm so happy you commissioned me and you were so lovely to work with as well :)))
Hey Great video. I just wanted to share a few thoughts on some of the criticisms you mentioned. I actually appreciate the fact that you can't learn anything about the Hive's lore in game. It's realistic to what you would actually experience exploring the Hive as the Knight in that time period. It's how really history is recorded and sometimes you just can't know. I think the external sources are just tidbits for those who want the extra details outside of the game. Also I took Tiso to be a character who symbolizes the tragedy of the world. It's not that he's strong. He exemplifies the experience of the game. Seeing what is this beautiful and powerful world, but never actually being able to witness their full glory due to tragedy.
i legitimately cannot wait for silksong. im a solid 45 playthroughs and maybe 600 hours into the game. absolutely fell in love with thr lore and i need more. amazing video as always man.
Yesterday I stumbled upon your channel randomly and watched your video on the story of Blasphemous, and I told myself that it would be great to have a video on Hollow Knight made by you... Lucky me you've read my thoughts
Someone once noticed in the comment section of a different video that the brooding mawlek only shows up in the third trial of the colosseum. Pretty deep in as well. So if tiso died to the mawlek as is implied, than he must be decently skilled. I believe they cut his fight out due to time constraints.
Gingy with the HOLLOWKNIGHT analysis?? I’m bout to go hike and this is perfect! After hike check in: almost died at the top of the crater but we had dlc to talk about so I survived.
I think the one thing you failed to take into account, at least as much as you should've, was that the dlcs shouldn't be seen as complete on their own. The dlcs don't have their own stories, they add things to and are just apart of the greater story. Also just so you know, the devs stated that they don't really believe in a "true ending" and that all endings are equally cannon. Personally I interpret the dream no more ending to be the most cannon one
I see the criticisms for the Godmaster DLC and honestly pretty much agree for the most part but I don't think it takes away from the game. Its clearly meant to be endgame content and lore wise it makese sense because you are attuning to the gods and basically getting to the radiance a bit differently. Hypotheically you could beat it without ever even getting rid of a dreamer but realistically nobody is going through the effort of 5 pantheons underequipped on their first playthrough. Its just meant to be a boss rush mode that is given an ending, more than likely to give a reward to the masochists who complete it. I agree with the story aspect though, it really adds nothing and the most information given thats new is that these godkeepers just like to look for gods. It barely makes sense what exactly they're doing. Another thing to note is that they were supposed to call the dlc "Gods and Glory" but changed it for whatever reason, so it seems like the godseekers would've acted more as a King watching a fight like in the Colosseum of Fools just from the name alone. Great video nonetheless though! I was kinda suprised you didn't seem to mention the "ending" with Mister Mushroom though, as it really goes to show that the endings are probably not all meant to be taken seriously. Unless Mister Mushroom is really that important
It shocks me that you don't have 1M+ subscribers. This video might be the most impressive of yours. Really like how you led everything up to the first ending, then noting we learned nothing and pivot into the other endings in depth. Keep going, King.
I get so excited when I come across a new video of urs ur voice ur cadence and mannerisms are wonderful and I could hear the smile in ur voice when u described holoknight making u reminiscent of dark soul keep up the FANTASTIC content and I know we all can't wait until u blow up big Gingy
On your comment on the godseeker being the only game that ties story(and more) elements to a Boss rush, theres also Kirby, that becomes something else entirely when It comes to its Boss rush the True Arena (and the Ultimate Choice on Kirby Star Allies that IS the most story heavy Of the séries) and they ALL give extra value to its lore with their pause descriptions In fact the mode in its entirety reminded me a Lot of Kirby game's arenas
I don’t understand you’re criticism of Hollow Knight’s dlcs. First of all, The Embrace the Void endings are NOT true endings. The devs have explicitly stated that there is no one canon ending. Each of the endings are simply possibilities for how the story is resolved. The Godmaster dlc simply adds another possibility. It’s not the true ending. As for the story, you seem to be ignoring much of the story in the dlc. Oro and Mato reconciling, the Knight growing to care for Hornet, learning more about the void and ancient civilization, the vessels standing together against the Radiance. Hell it may be a joke, but the Brooding Mawlek fight explicitly shows us how Tiso died. Yes that story is told as a reward for beating the boss challenges but the dlc IS a boss challenge. There has to be a reward for doing that and for a game like Hollow Knight lore is the best thing to get. And it seems you didn’t quite get the dialogue Godseekers. First, the godseekers do fight the gods themselves, we don’t see them fight because they can’t do that when we’re in Godhome fighting the gods ourselves. They literally tell us this the first time we enter the first pantheon and remind us a few other times as well. What you said about the Godseekers repeating themselves until you get to the pantheon 5 also isn’t entirely true. The Godseekers are at first angry at the Knight for entering the pantheons (which makes sense since we’re, in their eyes, disturbing and desecrating their sacred ritual, but in the fourth pantheon their focus is mainly on attuning to the Hollow Knight in order to find the Radiance, revealing their true motivation. They don’t miss the chance to insult the Knight but we do learn more information. And in the 5th pantheon, we do learn new information. You say that we already knew Unn was weakened but that’s not true. It was only through the Godseeker’s dialogue that it was confirmed. Before that, all we knew was that the mosskin felt that Unn forsook them. They ask how the Pale King was so utterly destroyed which is something that players still don’t have an answer to and you’re wrong that the Pale King transformed because it was dying naturally. It chose to end its first life to take the form as Hallownest’s king. I could keep going but this comment is already getting pretty long.
I haven't played hollow Knight, but i think you kinda missed the mark talking about God home. It's not meant to be a complex ending or anything, the whole point is that the Knight has gone above and beyond and killed everything in its path, and has ascended to being the God of Gods. It's not as mysterious as the main game, it kinda just tells you this.
I disagree with your assessment of Godmaster. I think the fact that there is a completely disconnected way to complete the game actually makes the world feel more alive. Like, sure, there's a critical struggle of Godly entities going on in the city, but here's the cult here to take advantage of all the power going around and their goals, if accomplished, will completely interfere with the ongoing timeline of the world. Whatever goals the knight and the peoples of hollownest may have had can be completely disrupted by the interference of an external force. This is very much a realistic depiction of how factions can interact in a living world. I also feel like what little story is there is specifically a tiny reward for those who want to do the boss rush that is this DLC. It's minimal on purpose, so that those of us who will never play through it aren't left out on important lore, but those who put in the work are rewarded with some amount of lore. Most players engaging with Godhome will be doing it _for_ the gameplay, and probably not expecting any kind of real lore to come from it, so it's sort of just a nicety. It's disconnected enough that skipping it won't prevent you from understanding the world, but succeeding at it will flesh out the world a little bit more.
Hollow knoght was my first Metroidvania. I fell in love with this genre ever since. Hollow knight lore is amazing. I remember when i finished the game sitting thinking about the game for days. Truly master piece of a game.
Literraly i beat the game yesterday!!! I knever went to the bee hive or the white palace a lot of ways to get to the ending it took me 48 hours and after going to the void of videos about the lore, now i want to go for another crack on it, thanks for the video and great work keep it like that 🔥
I Probably knew at least 90% of your dark souls videos and this one. But I enjoyed 100% of my time watching your stuff! Amazing videos and you have reawoken my love for these games. Will be checking out more of your vids! thank you :)
I really, really enjoyed Hollow Knights approach to story-telling. I love exploring the world and finding some pieces of Lore scattered here and there. I hate watching 2h of cutscenes when I want to play an actual game. I remember after beating the game for the first time, I immediately jumped on TH-cam and Reddit to get a good summary of everything. But I did that because I wanted to and because the game hooked me. Not because I had to.
Your comment on Zote on being able to speak and think points to that he is not a vessel made me think that he is actually a vessel. Maybe he is the most failed of all vessels due to him having the abilities to do so
I don't believe this for one second, but it's just...too good to not share. Zote was the first attempt at creating the pure vessel. The Pale King spent five minutes with him after creation and decided "From now on, they can't talk."
Unfortunately, Quirrel definitely dies at the end. He doesn't just leave: his dialogue suggests his death and his nail is left behind, which he would never do.
As always another great amazing video really enjoyed it appropriate all the hard work that was done to make this video. Thank you for making this video. Excited for more upcoming videos
This has officially become my go to AFK channel to listen to. When I'm cleaning, shaving or driving and don't want to listen to music, i pop one of these on and zone out.
One thing I’d like to correct is the implication you don’t have to interact with the game at all to beat god home, you can only challenge a pantheon once you’ve beaten their main body fights except the boss fights. On my current play through I was about halfway through the game when I went into godhome and found the bosses I had beaten were parts of various pantheons and there were still plenty I had to beat to challenge all of them. The intent of godhome is to also be played along the main game as an alternative method to save everyone you could care about as both the knight and as the player at the cost of yourself and the godhome. The radiance is a dream being, when you fight her you are FIGHTING her thus giving you an ending (also see nightmare king Grimm). I imagine the difference between main radiant and absolute radiant is the state of the knight, when you fight the main radiant you’re just a shade but when you fight the absolute radiant you’ve gone through the process of attuning to godhood and thus become a kind of god yourself which is why the seeker wants to worship you. Without the knight the seeker might’ve been able to revive the radiance by attuning with it after the knight is gone but the knight does his duty and removes both problems from the equation to protect his home and his people.
I’m fairly sure that you’ve played it or heard of it, but I’d like to HIGHLY recommend you try “Death’s Gambit”. I’m terms of graphics and gameplay, it’s similar to “Blasphemous”, but focused on a more straightforward plot and with a otherworldly life/death/and beyond vibe to it instead of a religious angle. I think you’d like it.
I think the concept of the godhome ending is that The Radience lives in dreams and so by killing its perfected form in the Godhome dream you have technically killed the Radience
This is for me is easily one of the best indies i ever played and since have become addicted too, however its clear dark souls 1 is a source of inspiration for the game in that not everything has an explanation and leaves it to the players to decide what is fact sometimes and i love this, it means i never forget because im so invested in the games world. I also love how game changing the dream nail is in uncovering alot of what is the game.
This game is one of the best I've ever played, and I'm not a metroidvania super fan. The action, the challenge, the controls, the art, the sound, the lore...all amazing.
You make a big complaint about how you have to go hop around between the game, texts, and the reddit AMA to figure out what the heck is going on with Hollow Knight's lore, but you're wrong. The One True God, Mossbag, answers all our questions and prayers. We are his Mosskin.
The thing about the information about the Hive is that it isn’t essential for the player to understand the game. What knowledge about the Hive is absolutely needed for the player to finish the game? Pretty much nothing. Its an extra area that serves no narrative purpose other than to say “it exists”. Information that isn’t essential for the player to understand the game, is itself useless knowledge to those uninterested in the Hive. Adding those things in alternate media, however its portrayed, should be viewed as a gift from the developer. They’re saying “We have zero reason to give you this information for you to play and understand the game, but because you want it, we will give it to you.” To complain about having it is akin to complaining about any other kind of gift, which I shouldn’t have to say, is a bit distasteful. For example, is it required knowledge for you to know the culture and customs of the people of Alderan from Star Wars for you to understand the plot of Star Wars? No, all the viewer needs to know is that it blew up for you to understand its significance to the plot. Yet I’m sure there is media out there with a description of Alderan and its people, and no one is complaining about how they receive it. I don’t say this to be mean, but to give perspective as to you’re standpoint on superfluous information in a video games setting. I don’t think its very gracious to be complaining about the method the information is portrayed, and you should be thankful for the developer that decided to give it for no other reason than people wanting it. They could have very well never asked the question or the reddit thread may have never been created, in which case you would have no knowledge of the Hive other than what the game gives you. Moving on, I’m willing to bet that Silksong will be Hornets journey to revive the Knight from the void or something similar.
In my headcanon, I separate game mechanics from lore-accurate events. For example, killing Broken Vessel infects the Crossroads. Lorewise, this doesn't make sense. Why would they get infected from killing a random vessel in the Basin? They also get infected after killing a Dreamer. Now that makes sense since the Seals are now weaker. So, Infected Crossroads because you killed BV is just a game mechanic to infect the Crossroads once you've progressed enough. Apply this logic to Godmaster. Perhaps, the Knight is at first only able to fight the bosses up until fighting NKG, but it can't attune further to Pure Vessel and Radiance because the Seals block the Godseekers' attunement. White Lady also has a Seal over her, and she can fly under the Godseekers' radar. Maybe, after fighting NKG lorewise, the VOID starts acting up and the Godseekers notice. They also can sense the presence of the Radiance but can't attune to it yet, so they let the Knight out of Godhome for it to complete its mission(i.e break the Seals). So, after the Knight breaks the Seals and enters Black Egg and fights the HK with Hornet, the Godseekers intervene when striking HK with Dreamnail and take the Knight back to Godhome to attune with PV and AbsRad. However, this sequence isn't shown ingame because TC wants the challenge of fighting all the game's bosses back to back. It would be dull if you fought up until NKG and then had to get the Dreamers and do PV and AbsRad separately. This interpretation fixes some discrepancies. It answers why the HK was freed and why Hornet was in Black Egg. As for Shade Lord, we don't know what kind of crazy powers it has, so maybe it was somehow able to exit Godhome but do it through the Godseekers body instead of the HK's. For after the ending, I like to imagine the HK is now freed from Radiance's influence. Hornet gets ready to fight, but THK collapses from exhaustion and requests help. Hornet nurses THK in the SOUL hotspring so it regains its health. After seeing that Hallownest is finally free from the infection that has plagued it for ages, Hornet thinks to herself it's time to deal with her mother's side of her lineage after dealing with her dad's side. So, Hornet sets out for Pharloom and leaves Hallownest under THK's protection. And like that, we begin our journey in Silksong!
Not my favorite game but is surely one of the best out there (especially with that price). The fight with radiance is just dope, especially when seeing a literally sun turn into the boss
I think it worth saying there is no confirmed ending from what i remember team cherry said this but it's believed that if there was true ending the most believed to be it is ending 3 but some do say 5 could possibly be Canon ending to and god seeker mode is a gaint mystery and honestly doesn't make any sense at all even if ending 4 or 5 is cannon it still doesn't add up to godseeker mode honestly if you want to complain on story this stupid mode is it. Also with the pantheon almost all bosses don't know they are there the ones that do have a connection to higher beings with grimm and horent.
Oh boy tackling Hollow Knights lore and story is a scary task....because now the HK lore nerds are gonna rip your conclusions to shreds. "One does not simply make a hollow knight lore video" I'm late to the party but the top comments are as i expected.
I have never played a game like Hollow Knight, and I am afraid I never might again. This was truly a once in a generation experience.
well i have some reccomendations. if you want a game in the style of hollow knight (a metroidvania ) i would say metroid or ori and the will of the wisps, if you want a game that will make you feel like hollow knight while not like hollow knight, it would be outer wilds. i would highly suggest outer wilds as it is just amazing its gives the vibes of hollow knight in not understanding what the hell is going on for the first 4-5 hrs
considering its getting a sequel, it at least a twice in a generation expearience
outer wilds is getting a sequel?? @@nikotsapaliaris4919
@@nikotsapaliaris4919 We can only hope
the nearest experience I had is Blasphemous, I strongly recommend you to play this game if you liked this game, it doesn't have the perfect controls and combat of hollow knight but has its own unique features
The reason Godhome is an ending (and why Grimm bows to Godseeker) is because it’s a dream. With all other bosses they aren’t *really* there. You’re fighting dream versions of these bosses, however, Nightmare Grimm and the Radiance are dream entities. They ARE the dream. So when you fight the Radiance in Godhome, you’re fighting the ACTUAL Radiance. It’s not just a fight you’re doing for fun like all the others, you are fighting the final boss of the game for real, so killing her ends the game, since the goal of the game is to kill her.
You basically accidentally stumble upon a different way to go toe to toe against the Radiance by invading her dream realm without having to go through the Hollow Knight.
Damn, that's a pretty good explanation that I hadn't considered.
wasnt grimm just a vessel for the nightmare heart? bc killing it grows the grimm child and makes its eyes glow red
@@CapoRip I personally believe that Grimm was himself the higher being. We see with the pale king that existence for higher beings can be strange, so my interpretation is that the Grimm we see is a physical manifestation of the nightmare heart. Basically he is its personality, thought, etc all manifested in a way that can interact with the world, one being existing in two parts, essentially. So when this version of Grimm dies, the grimmchild takes the role of new manifestation.
And if you think about it. You notice your character becomes a larger being of darkness to kill the Radiance. That's because you literally kill off the Hollow Knight before in the dream realm which leaves you all alone to channel the void and harness all its power rather than fragment it across all your siblings and the hollow knight.
Unn IS calling to her people, they can't hear her because of the Radiance.
And the Hive is not in disarray, but actually working in perfect harmony, and that's also because of the Radiance, the bees were obedient drones before the infection, and after the infection they just carried on as normal, now with a new Queen, and part of a true hivemind.
Bees do be bees
@@CosmicTornado1 Bee moment.
I mean... I don't call this "perfect harmony". The mindless husks don't carry on maintaining the kingdom, it's full of death and decay. Had the Radiance not been locked away, maybe it'd be more like how you describe. But it isn't.
As it stands, the only influence the Radiance holds over the bugs of Hallownest is to turn them into zombies. It's all she can do from her prison. Her presence is still felt, but most of her power remains sealed away.
The Radiance is also not the main villain of the game. The Pale King is. It's the nature of kingdoms and rulers to end in this fictional world, but he selfishly refused to give up his reign. Even the bees aren't spared, the hive is in total chaos and falling apart.
That's why the Mantis tribe is the only one who seems to be unscathed by the infection. They never swore fealty to the PK, and so maintained their independence.
@@WobblesandBean Some bugs have had a better experience with the infection that most.
The bees as I mentioned, the gladiators and the Mantis traitors who welcome the infection to become stronger but still somehow kept their faculties.
Some bugs just had a better deal than others.
Is umm even given a gender?
About Tiso, I think his purpose in the story is to showcase the kinds of travelers that elderbug talks about, to show the mentality that those explorers and adventurers have when they go visit hallownest's ruins
It’s also to encourage you to go to the Coliseum, if Ari and William in the first hot spring weren’t enough.
Nice pfp, bro.
I thought this video essay was good, but it seems to have neglected things that are connected to Elderbug’s narrative grounding.
FYI Grimm is the Higher Being. He is the vessel for the nightmare heart and its manifestation. This is why he understands what's happening in Godhome, just like Hornet. Though due to Hornet being only 50% higher being she is hazy about what is happening. NO other boss other than these two and the Radiance herself have new dialogue/show any semblance that they understand that they are within the Godseekers' pantheon. Only higher beings are shown being able to see past this dream.
Sheo sees past the dream, he's no HB. Grimm is controlled by NMH but is not a higher being, in the same way THK isn't a higher being for being controlled by Radiance. Furthermore you can't be "50% Higher being" you can't half exist above all others, that makes no sense.
Grimn n thk are higher beings
@@MossMothMyBeloved I don't think sheo actually sees through the dream, he's just musing much the same way oro and mato are. His musings are likely unfuenced by the dream he's in, much like oro and mato's are. For O and M they're in a dream with eachother so their dream thoughts are about... eachother. As for Sheo he's practicing art so his thoughts are artful and philisophical. You *could* interpret it as him seeing past the dream, maybe, but then he'd probably be more confused about it like hornet, right?
Also why couldn't she be half above others? If that wording bothers you, maybe "Partly ascended mental state" would make it sound nicer? Also the fact hat her father is likeon of THE higher beings means she has to be at least something
@@MossMothMyBelovedhave u ever heard of a demigod before? Thats what half higher being is
@@exister6652
"What is a god, if not an artist?"
Given the context it's laughably ignorant to assume it's a vague musing about art, especially considering he's never mused about gods in the waking world when painting.
Existing above all others is by nature binary. You either do or you don't, power itself is a spectrum, like a slider for how bulky you want your character to be in a video game, but existing past the imaginary power threshold of all others is not. Yes being a descendant of Pale King has many perks, but that doesn't mean that you are "half higher being"
Hollow Knight was the first metroidvania i played, and i loved the exploration of hollownest. The experience of the story exponentially unravels before you is masterfully done.
Playing hollow knight at your first metroidvania is a curse. I did the same thing and nothing has come close.
@@davismorgan99try to play blasphemous it filled my desire for exploring an unkown land filled with great lore, just like hollow knight with it's grand world and mysterious lore
@@yousefguingab4784it's pretty good, but Hollow Knight is the pinnacle of the medium imho
@@mauz791 truee nothing can match up to the magic of playing hollow knight the first time, especially when you first seat at the bench in city of tears with the main man QUIRRELL
@@yousefguingab4784 that guy was a war veteran, who braved the kingdom for the first time twice (thanks Monomon) and survived. Legendary man, and he's super chill and helpful. I hope he's enjoying his long swim
path of pain was worth every agonizing moment, all 45 or so tries it took to clear the last room literally had me shaking at one point. This game is a real gem.
It's crazy how I've always been bad at platforming but I enjoyed this game so much and was so invested I grinded through the path of pain. This and elden ring were the two games that made me want to start to challenge myself more. Now sometimes I play games on hard and while the beginning grind can suck its fun to be challenged throughout the whole game. I love completing all the side missions first so I hate when 3/4th through the game you're basically a God. That sure as f never happened in hollow knight.
Cant wait to suffer in the Path of Pain 2 that will most definitely be in silksong lol
See, I don't understand that. I'm of the mind that video games should be fun and relaxing, not so stressful they have us trembling from anxiety.
@WobblesandBean that's why most of the hard challenges in this game are optional. Players can play how they want. If you want a stressful challenge, you can find it. But if you just want to explore and enjoy yourself, you can do that instead.
I didn't have the patience or skill to get through it. I love that little story nugget, especially as a Dad. But I might not have appreciated it if it was my only reward for all that hardship.
Edit: replayed the game and got through it with the Honey charm and patience. I did get mad when it took three tries to get past the two Kingsmolds though.
You can actually save Cloth, if you kill the traitor lord without having collected the pale ore piece from ancient basin. If you go to the ancient basin later to find Cloth hiding, after having already defeating the TL, then, instead of going to queens gardens, Cloth will now go to dirtmouth, and take a short rest there, before leaving hallownest very much alive. I see this as the 'good' ending to her story for three reasons. One, because I feel that Cloth's self-loathing and desire for death is tragic, not something to be encouraged or wished for. Better for her to find some new meaning in this life, rather than end things permanently out of present grief and shame. But secondly, and more importantly, the game gatekeeps Cloth's survival behind a 'harder' gameplay task. If you cant get the last pale ore, you then can't face the TL with the pure nail. You have to kill him without the last nail upgrade. Generally speaking, if a game like this makes something more difficult, it is because it wants you to strive to achieve a more worthwhile outcome. Thirdly, the game already has shown form in suggesting that tragic thoughts and feelings in the way of ending one's life, should be treated with caution and patience. I am of course referring to the nailsmith, and his eventual finding of new purpose and happiness with Sheo.
This is why I always make a point of saving Cloth after I kill TL, in new playthroughs :) . I like to imagine that she eventually gets past her grief, and finds happiness :) . (I disagree about godhome btw. I think it unlikely anyone would complete p5 without completing the other three main endings first, and I thus see the additional endings as precisely this: an appropriate reward for beating p5. You literally become a god, and transcend the mundane requirements of the main game's critical path, saving absolutely everyone in the process. I could also say more about how I feel the lore rewards from this dlc are sufficient in my eyes, but I'll limit myself to commenting on the flower. I see that as more of a countering and neutralising force, than as a teleportation token. Again, it comes back to the game potentially gatekeeping a more worthwhile resolution behind a harder task: if you got the flower down to the godseeker successfully, then it prevents the somewhat disconcerting consequences of otherwise unleashing the shadelord upon Hallownest outside of the dream world - which is seemingly what happens if you dont give them the flower before triggering the ending. )
funnily enough, i got the pale ore fragment but did not find cloth, and was very very confused where she was. I don't think she even showed up in dirtmouth.
Idk this video felt nit picky about criticisms and only focused on minor ones when their are actual good ones and he clearly didnt misunderstood godhome dlc
A story that keeps on giving. I'll never forget my first playthrough.
bro one of my friends is a completionist with a capital everything. first playthrough was i think 110% something like that
Jesus is it that good?
Well my name ain't Jesus, but it is that good. @@oneofthembous7359
@@oneofthembous7359If you have any taste. It definitely lacks in characters, though. Nearly everything is implied and never shown/told and sometimes that really harms the quality of the story imo
@@oneofthembous7359YES
Because of Tiso as a fakeout in the Brooding Mawlek fight and Brooding Mawlek actually appearing in the last trial of the colosseum I assume that he was killed by one, which to me implies he almost made it to the end. This is why I believe he was actually pretty strong, perhaps even stronger than a brooding mawlek and he died due to already being exhausted
Few things to mention: the vessels could have had some sort of path to nosk's lair as you can see multiple corpses of them there and both locations are close on the map. Also hornet is your half sister not step sister.
Only a half sister if you’re a blood relative of the king. But it seems you’re more of a creation than an offspring.
@@Yung.Ert. He threw the eggs he had with the white lady into the void, the children die and rebirth vessels. Ghost is related to the pale king in the game's lore, and hornet also being his daughter, but they both have different mothers so they are half siblings.
@@tkienjoyer ah I see. Makes more sense, thanks. That’s interesting.
one thing I find interesting is that The radiance calls the knight "my old enemy" implying that the relationship between her and the void goes waaay way back. and another thing is what does the Abyss Beast have to do with the void and the radiance and with the shade lord we turn into in the last ending. He resides in the abyss and he is the source of the lifeblood that's why lifeblood is considered forbidden in the kingdom but what exactly does the Abyss Beast has to to do with the void. what's the connection between lifeblood and the void. there's this theory that the abyss creature doesn't have any connection with the abyss but simply he's a higher being just like the wyrms and Unn. he gains followers through lifeblood (for example Jonny) but since the pale king wants to be absolute he declared that the lifeblood was heretical (maybe because he started to convert the followers of the pale king) and drove the abyss beast into the abyss (or he ran to the abyss) and imprisoned him but why doesn't the godseekers attune with him?
Dunno. The beast in the void appears to be long dead. I do agree though, the Pale King is selfish and demanded to be the only god the bugs of Hallownest knew. He had no idea he was nothing compared to the eternal power of the Radiance and the Void. It's like a human king stepping into the middle of the battle between God and Lucifer, and foolishly thinking he could control both.
i think the abyss beast isn't a god, or intentionally avoid's attunment, it seem's to be half in the dream world, so that would explain it's presence in godhome
i think the god's of hollow knight's world gain power through worship, the pale king was known and thus was fully physical, the radiance was forgotten and not worshiped and thus is restricted to the dream world,
the abyss beast is somewhat worshiped, even if it's second hand through lifeblood so is in this weird spot between being physical and being able to intrude on the physical world, but was still partially bound to just existing in the dream world.
The Abyss Beast *is* present in Godhome, at the Lifeblood Room unlocked when you complete the pantheons with bindings on. it doesn't seem to be a violent creature, more in line with the likes of Unn, the White Lady, and the Pale King.
Personally, I feel that Godhome was pretty sound. Though there was little added, that is because there was little they wanted to add, and the actual experience was the focus. It felt like it was meant to bee a challenge and the tidbits it left were rewards for the strong willed. I don't know, I really liked it.
Yeah it was a great addition and didn't take away anything from the true ending
@@myweirdsecondchannelwithap9070fr like the whole dlc is cool lore a new ending and mainly a really cool challenge mode built into the game
Hollow Knight is one of those rare games I wish I could forget so I could play it all over again.
I know, right?
Go play Outer Wilds. Same same, but different. You can only play it for the first time once.
definitly one of my favourite games of all time. at first the "discover it yourself style of story was an eyebrow raiser but with due time i was genuinely interested in the world and the narrative it provided. Certified masterpiece
36:27 The revelation of Elderbug being one of the few younger character in the game is never not funny to me.
Like did his parent named him Elderbug when he was borned?
Did he changed his name to Elderbug when he grew up?
Was it a nickname that people gave him because he looks old and it just sticked?
Or is that simply what the Knight call Elderbug, since Elderbug never really gave us his name.
The last of them is the funniest because it would assume that the Knight decide to call Elderbug Elderbug despite being much older than Elderbug simply because Elderbug looks old.
It’s probably the last one we only see the name of what the knight sees them as seeing the name tags only show up when told of the name hence we only find out cornifers name when we interact with him for the second time or zotes when his dialog says he is zote the mighty
Hi, zoologist here. It's a bug. Elder bugs are real. It's not just his name, it's literally his species.
He's got that Benjamin Bugton
Presumably, Hallownest's stasis is a literal stasis, as in time is stopped while the Hollow Knight is sealed within the Black Egg. This seems to be implied with how Quirrel begins to feel his age as soon as he takes off Monomon's mask, it is what kept his sentience outside of Hallownest and drew him back. The surface also never turns to daytime in Dirtmouth, perhaps because of this stasis and because the "sun" (the Radiance) is sealed within the dream realm.
The hive was likely a late addition, as the boss and vespa too were added in an update. And kingdoms edge was where team cherry put everything they wern't sure where to put. If a character name has "By X" that means it's a backer character made by someone who donated to the kickstarter
Strangely enough, even though it seems very last minute, the Hive was one of the first areas Team Cherry thought about as you can see it in some of the early sketches for the map they drew. In fact it was originally going to be in deepnest before they moved it. Which makes it odd that it turned out the way it did.
@@sin-jay733 probably because they didn't have the budget to take as much time as needed like with silksong
@@nonymouswisp8176 True. That's probably why thet cut the forest of bones out and later move it to SilkSong
Not to mention, the music is now ICONIC. Nothing captures the spirit of this game and its story more than its soundtrack to me.
I’m so giddy you’ve finally done a video on this absolute gem of a game and it’s super intensive lore that I cherish wholeheartedly
It's weird because the story of Godhome immediately clicked for me especially after finishing the last gauntlet.
In simpler terms, you the Knight are ascending as the God of Gods, who has bested each and every boss in the game both in the current strength and in their prime state.
That's why you needed the Voidheart as you keep ascending the Gods Seeker device keeps tuning to it.
That's why on the earlier stage the God seeker keeps trash talking you for it thinks that you are not worthy to be there and only tunes in on the other "Gods" of Hollownest.
You can also see it happening as you fight the bosses as the Godseeker only follows the movement of the bosses you are fighting.
Only when you reach the final pantheon that you finally got the full attention of the Godseeker and they start to tune in on you which also appears in-game where they start watching you instead while doing the gauntlet which culminates when you finally beat Absolute Radiance and the Knight becomes the Void King which immediately destroys, not banish but actually destroys the Radiance putting an actual stop to the infection.
I played the Bee section a long time ago, but I figured the game told about them getting Infected from the gameplay. Every time you hit one of them, they sweat or bleed the Infection. The game does tell you they’re infected and when the Queen thanks you for freeing her powerful Knight, that would mean the lesser subjects almost certainly got infected, too.
To clear things out, you do need to defeat almost all of the game bosses to face them in respective pantheons in which they appear which makes godseeker endings a more of an extension to the original endings which both explains something's but also creates new confusing connections between original and dlc endings
Also as always awesome video ❤
i feel like the whole godhome dlc isn’t that much of a problem, it is a boss rush and it doesn’t focus on the story. it has some story elements yes but it’s trying to be a boss rush and if it focused on the story too much it might take away from the gameplay. i dont see much of a problem with its existence, and your whole issue with the ending after p5 seems a bit silly. its a reward for completing an incredibly difficult challenge that many players aren’t going to be able to complete, its not like you can walk into p5 with just the dreamnail and voidheart and get a whole ending without doing anything else, you need a lot of skill to be able to beat p5. you also need to beat all of the bosses in the game to do pantheon 5, including bosses like the watcher knights who you need to defeat to get to dreamers. you make it seem like it’s significantly easier than it is to get the ending as if anyone on their first playthrough will get this ending before doing anything else when you have to beat practically every boss and have enough skill to be able to complete the pantheon in the first place.
GINGY, this and mossbags cover are going to be my favorite hollow knight explanations
The community has learned a lot about the lore through interactions with team cherry (devs), and a sacrifice (mossbag)
But yeah, the reddit post is a perfect example of this ongoing lore and world building, but I loved the process, including the community
I have seen theory's about how the Knight and their siblings escaped the abyss, the theory speculates that there are paths in the abyss that we cannot see in game that lead to different places like Deepnest and then from there out to the Edges of the Kingdom if not further out, that would explain why Nosk had so many corpses of the siblings and how the Knight originally got out to roaming the wastelands before the game starts or the boss sibling guarding the monarch wings.
Great video cant wait for Silksong.
Dark Souls Vibes ;_;
About the hive part I'd like to mention that thus game was developed by 3 people who went bankrupt in the developing process. It would be fair to assume that the hive's development was halted when the devs ran out of resources and had to release the game. Many things were scrapped due to this reason but it didn't affect the game as much due to team cherry's game design which followed the principle of making the core game first and then adding more content so at any point if development had to stop the game released would be technically complete.
When setting, music, atmosphere, and gameplay are blended so well you get a special game. I can say only a handful of games I've played do this well and hollow knight is one of them.
Enjoying it so far, gonna edit as I go
1. Millibelle doesn’t run after time, she runs after you deposit a certain amount of geo. It’s best to give her the max amount.
-2. The Great Wyrm, Was the pale king.-
3. Not seeing any enemy dream-nail dialogue ( I’m at the bees)
4. The point to the “useless npcs” is just to show that they are content. Most have an objective, and those who’s hubris lead them to seek a fight, pretty much always end up dead.
5. If you fight Grey Prince Zote enough, Bretta leaves, and goes past the howling cliffs. 😢
6. Cornifer Yes, But MYLA? Don’t get me wrong I love her, but Quirrel is Very Beloved.
7. If you avoid a specific instance of meeting Cloth before the Traitor Lord fight she goes to Dirtmouth. (and then I think past Howling Cliffs.)
8. Yes, he’s a flesh cocoon. Dream-nail confirmed.
9. I never thought hornet was hunting us, that corpse always looked old to me, idk why.
-10. The Pale King And Mom didn’t Use us, they made us, We’re supposed to be literally empty.-
11. The maggot found him dead. When you dream-nail his brothers (for soul) before his Dream fight, they’re telling him to wake up.
13. Ok here’s the dream-nail dialogue part. (Also if you Dive in The Mask Makers room, there’s more Dream-nail dialogue I think)
14. Hornet is our half Sibling, step is if they’re married. Step don’t have to be related by blood, but I think half siblings under marriage probably count as both.
I don't think the criticisms of Godhome hold up. It's additive, not a replacement. You make a point that you only need a couple items to beat the entire game, but that isn't at all true. In order to beat Godhome, you have to find and beat every single boss in Hallownest in order to unlock their pantheons.
As to the ending, I love it, it's extremely satisfying. Godseeker is built up as an arrogant and also foolish prick the entire time, and seeing their plan literally bite them in the face is the height of catharsis. The Godseeker and Godhome are also intensely mysterious and strange, and plant the seeds for so many questions. Godhome is a boss rush, and it didn't need a story attached, but I'm glad to have it, especially for its difficulty. It feels like a worthy cap to what will be a player's final challenge in Hollow Knight.
The third ending is fantastic as well. I wonder which, if any, endings will be drawn from for Silksong?
God home was great because it gave the abyss so much more value. A certain asshole king fucked around with bugs, soul and abyss like they were nothing. God home is a cosmic horror kind of retribution for all of his crimes. The Shadelord is born, and everything is drowned in abyss that was abused for however long. Screw the white flower.
Never been more excited to watch an hour long video on a game I have no intention of playing. Gingy has been my therapy lately 😅
I think you should. This is a game with timeless artwork, music and gameplay. Plus it's an indie game, so it's well worth the price. Also you don't give any money to any shit bag AAA developers 👍
It is also surprisingly fun. It even allows you to fight bosses as many times as you want to, if you so choose. It even has an incredibly difficult but optional set of boss gauntlets.
However, it is arguably the greatest metroidvania ever made so it will ruin the experience of all other metroidvanias.
@mauz791 I never got into the metroidvania style games. I've tried a few but they never grabbed me. But if this is one of if not the best, then I might just give it a shot. Thanks for the insight! 🙏
@@StunnyBruhthis is one of those games you wish you could play again for the first time. Give it a go you wont regret it
Hollow Knights story is so good because it isnt told directly. It’s told through the world that you explore. Seeing and learning the history of hallownest and how it came to be the way it is is a gaming experience I will never forget
The ending to godhome isn't necessarily the canon one, the way I understood it is that it's similar to the first in that it's also a bad ending for the game, instead of exploring and learning we simply fight our way to the top, claiming the devotion of the godseekers in the process. Because of this at the end we don't save hollownest, we simply replace the tyranny of the pale king and the radiance with the tyranny of the shadelord, forcing the bugs of the kingdom to endure another rule until it too eventually fades like those that came before, it's a continuation of the cycle, just of a different one than keeping the radiance contained.
Although this only works in the regular ending, I have no idea what's going on with the delicate flower other than "the kindness of the knight saves the kingdom from the shadelord".
Good point, however unlike the Hollow knight & Sealed siblings endings both Hornet and the Hollow knight live. (And presumably the Radiance is completely and truly destroyed.)
Also there is no true ending
Every ending is canon
There is a night chance the delicate flower ending in the “true” ending seeing the radiance is defeated and the shade lord vanished with the god seekers
Although team cherry said they don’t like the idea of a true ending which makes no sense when they are making a sequel
Hollow Knight is one of those game where the gameplay is fun, lore is dark and interesting but the character designs are adorable despite being insects.
that's a very specific description
That made no sense
I have been looking forward to this video for so long. I hope that one day we will get the Pathologic 2 video, it is the most underrated game I've ever played.
I actually bought Pathologic 2 a couple weeks ago, and was going to give it a spin some time soon. I've heard equally good things about the game as well so I'll see about making it into a video.
@@Gingyplz plz plz
I waited so long for this. Thank you gingy and keep up the good work 💪🏿
I genuinely can't believe this video was over an hour. Felt like 15 minutes of just pure lore butter. Excellent video and script and delivery and editing and all the usual shit you fkn crush every goddamn time. GOAT.
It's a great day when I see Gingy upload. Thank you man!
You should do a dishonored analysis😋 the world is so beautiful and the dynamics between your choices, even though death of the outsider was slightly disappointing
I've played Dishonored more times than I can count, absolutely love the series. Strangely though I have never played Death of the Outsider. One day I would like to talk about the series though, but I'm not sure when.
This game is a masterpiece. Thank you for covering it.
You can't start a pantheon until you encounter all the bosses inside one. Except Zote iirc. So you should still complete most of the game
You don't have to fight God tamer
You also don’t need to defeat Nightmare King Grimm
I’ve never had much issues with the godmaster dlc. Opinions really got strong at that section
Tiso wasn't actually made by Team Cherry, in fact the majority of the NPC's weren't made by Team Cherry. They're characters that Kickstarter backers came up with and we're put in the game as a reward for them. So, that's why Tisp exists in the game, because someone paid Team Cherry to put their character in the game, hence why it says Tiso is by someone called Tiso.
Also, regarding what you said with the endings. All of the DLC's were originally intended to be features of the game when it released, but due to constraints they had to cut it. Hence why they released the two endings with the DLC, because they needed to wait to get more money to make the game.
Also, Team Cherry has confirmed that there is no 'canon' ending. We can decide what ending is canon.
amazing video! i'm definitely going to have to pick up this game again.. i played it on stream a long time ago and never finished it lol
thanks for the kind words, i'm so happy you commissioned me and you were so lovely to work with as well :)))
You're giving me what I wanted without even realizing it. Thanks, keep it up!
So I'm addicted to Long-Form Analysis of games and your channel is like an all you can eat buffet. I binged them all by now.
Hey Great video. I just wanted to share a few thoughts on some of the criticisms you mentioned. I actually appreciate the fact that you can't learn anything about the Hive's lore in game. It's realistic to what you would actually experience exploring the Hive as the Knight in that time period. It's how really history is recorded and sometimes you just can't know. I think the external sources are just tidbits for those who want the extra details outside of the game.
Also I took Tiso to be a character who symbolizes the tragedy of the world. It's not that he's strong. He exemplifies the experience of the game. Seeing what is this beautiful and powerful world, but never actually being able to witness their full glory due to tragedy.
i legitimately cannot wait for silksong. im a solid 45 playthroughs and maybe 600 hours into the game. absolutely fell in love with thr lore and i need more. amazing video as always man.
As a kid, I like story
Now as an adult, I love lore
Yesterday I stumbled upon your channel randomly and watched your video on the story of Blasphemous, and I told myself that it would be great to have a video on Hollow Knight made by you... Lucky me you've read my thoughts
Someone once noticed in the comment section of a different video that the brooding mawlek only shows up in the third trial of the colosseum. Pretty deep in as well. So if tiso died to the mawlek as is implied, than he must be decently skilled. I believe they cut his fight out due to time constraints.
Gingy with the HOLLOWKNIGHT analysis?? I’m bout to go hike and this is perfect!
After hike check in: almost died at the top of the crater but we had dlc to talk about so I survived.
I think the one thing you failed to take into account, at least as much as you should've, was that the dlcs shouldn't be seen as complete on their own. The dlcs don't have their own stories, they add things to and are just apart of the greater story. Also just so you know, the devs stated that they don't really believe in a "true ending" and that all endings are equally cannon. Personally I interpret the dream no more ending to be the most cannon one
I see the criticisms for the Godmaster DLC and honestly pretty much agree for the most part but I don't think it takes away from the game. Its clearly meant to be endgame content and lore wise it makese sense because you are attuning to the gods and basically getting to the radiance a bit differently.
Hypotheically you could beat it without ever even getting rid of a dreamer but realistically nobody is going through the effort of 5 pantheons underequipped on their first playthrough. Its just meant to be a boss rush mode that is given an ending, more than likely to give a reward to the masochists who complete it.
I agree with the story aspect though, it really adds nothing and the most information given thats new is that these godkeepers just like to look for gods. It barely makes sense what exactly they're doing. Another thing to note is that they were supposed to call the dlc "Gods and Glory" but changed it for whatever reason, so it seems like the godseekers would've acted more as a King watching a fight like in the Colosseum of Fools just from the name alone.
Great video nonetheless though! I was kinda suprised you didn't seem to mention the "ending" with Mister Mushroom though, as it really goes to show that the endings are probably not all meant to be taken seriously. Unless Mister Mushroom is really that important
I love how progressively snarky you get through this video. I am dying. Definitely gonna subscribe.
It shocks me that you don't have 1M+ subscribers. This video might be the most impressive of yours. Really like how you led everything up to the first ending, then noting we learned nothing and pivot into the other endings in depth. Keep going, King.
i've watched a lot of videos like this but this games story never gets boring
I freaking Love Hollow Knight and your Videos.
Quirrel's mask isnt just a replica of Monomon's mask, it is her mask as when the mask is broken monomon can be dreamnailed
I get so excited when I come across a new video of urs ur voice ur cadence and mannerisms are wonderful and I could hear the smile in ur voice when u described holoknight making u reminiscent of dark soul keep up the FANTASTIC content and I know we all can't wait until u blow up big Gingy
On your comment on the godseeker being the only game that ties story(and more) elements to a Boss rush, theres also Kirby, that becomes something else entirely when It comes to its Boss rush the True Arena (and the Ultimate Choice on Kirby Star Allies that IS the most story heavy Of the séries) and they ALL give extra value to its lore with their pause descriptions
In fact the mode in its entirety reminded me a Lot of Kirby game's arenas
I don’t understand you’re criticism of Hollow Knight’s dlcs.
First of all, The Embrace the Void endings are NOT true endings. The devs have explicitly stated that there is no one canon ending. Each of the endings are simply possibilities for how the story is resolved. The Godmaster dlc simply adds another possibility. It’s not the true ending.
As for the story, you seem to be ignoring much of the story in the dlc. Oro and Mato reconciling, the Knight growing to care for Hornet, learning more about the void and ancient civilization, the vessels standing together against the Radiance. Hell it may be a joke, but the Brooding Mawlek fight explicitly shows us how Tiso died. Yes that story is told as a reward for beating the boss challenges but the dlc IS a boss challenge. There has to be a reward for doing that and for a game like Hollow Knight lore is the best thing to get.
And it seems you didn’t quite get the dialogue Godseekers. First, the godseekers do fight the gods themselves, we don’t see them fight because they can’t do that when we’re in Godhome fighting the gods ourselves. They literally tell us this the first time we enter the first pantheon and remind us a few other times as well. What you said about the Godseekers repeating themselves until you get to the pantheon 5 also isn’t entirely true. The Godseekers are at first angry at the Knight for entering the pantheons (which makes sense since we’re, in their eyes, disturbing and desecrating their sacred ritual, but in the fourth pantheon their focus is mainly on attuning to the Hollow Knight in order to find the Radiance, revealing their true motivation. They don’t miss the chance to insult the Knight but we do learn more information.
And in the 5th pantheon, we do learn new information. You say that we already knew Unn was weakened but that’s not true. It was only through the Godseeker’s dialogue that it was confirmed. Before that, all we knew was that the mosskin felt that Unn forsook them. They ask how the Pale King was so utterly destroyed which is something that players still don’t have an answer to and you’re wrong that the Pale King transformed because it was dying naturally. It chose to end its first life to take the form as Hallownest’s king.
I could keep going but this comment is already getting pretty long.
It is also not definitive that the pale knight died, as the video stated
@@kostajovanovic3711 you mean the Hollow Knight? I never said it died.
34:58
It’s explained somewhere in game but they’re infected flies and function similarly to the light seeds
allways waiting for you to upload, your game selection is so great. Love it
I haven't played hollow Knight, but i think you kinda missed the mark talking about God home. It's not meant to be a complex ending or anything, the whole point is that the Knight has gone above and beyond and killed everything in its path, and has ascended to being the God of Gods. It's not as mysterious as the main game, it kinda just tells you this.
We’re making it out of Hallownest with this one‼️🗣️🔥🔥
I disagree with your assessment of Godmaster. I think the fact that there is a completely disconnected way to complete the game actually makes the world feel more alive. Like, sure, there's a critical struggle of Godly entities going on in the city, but here's the cult here to take advantage of all the power going around and their goals, if accomplished, will completely interfere with the ongoing timeline of the world. Whatever goals the knight and the peoples of hollownest may have had can be completely disrupted by the interference of an external force. This is very much a realistic depiction of how factions can interact in a living world. I also feel like what little story is there is specifically a tiny reward for those who want to do the boss rush that is this DLC. It's minimal on purpose, so that those of us who will never play through it aren't left out on important lore, but those who put in the work are rewarded with some amount of lore. Most players engaging with Godhome will be doing it _for_ the gameplay, and probably not expecting any kind of real lore to come from it, so it's sort of just a nicety. It's disconnected enough that skipping it won't prevent you from understanding the world, but succeeding at it will flesh out the world a little bit more.
Hollow knoght was my first Metroidvania.
I fell in love with this genre ever since.
Hollow knight lore is amazing. I remember when i finished the game sitting thinking about the game for days.
Truly master piece of a game.
YOOOOOOOO Let’s go! Another fire video to enjoy! Thanks Gingy! Keep up the amazing work!
Literraly i beat the game yesterday!!! I knever went to the bee hive or the white palace a lot of ways to get to the ending it took me 48 hours and after going to the void of videos about the lore, now i want to go for another crack on it, thanks for the video and great work keep it like that 🔥
wish I could play this for the first time again. Very excited for the next one
I am now calling the Vessel for the Radiance "John Hollowknight". That's amazing.
I Probably knew at least 90% of your dark souls videos and this one. But I enjoyed 100% of my time watching your stuff! Amazing videos and you have reawoken my love for these games. Will be checking out more of your vids! thank you :)
I literally fall asleep to your story analysis videos ❤ thank you for your soothing voice 😂🎉
I love these series from you.
I wonder if Deus Ex would be worth it, as one of my favorite series.
I really, really enjoyed Hollow Knights approach to story-telling. I love exploring the world and finding some pieces of Lore scattered here and there. I hate watching 2h of cutscenes when I want to play an actual game.
I remember after beating the game for the first time, I immediately jumped on TH-cam and Reddit to get a good summary of everything. But I did that because I wanted to and because the game hooked me. Not because I had to.
Your comment on Zote on being able to speak and think points to that he is not a vessel made me think that he is actually a vessel. Maybe he is the most failed of all vessels due to him having the abilities to do so
I don't believe this for one second, but it's just...too good to not share.
Zote was the first attempt at creating the pure vessel. The Pale King spent five minutes with him after creation and decided "From now on, they can't talk."
Is it just me or does gingy have such a good voice and does an amazing job of storytelling every game he talks about
I listened to his video of the complete story of Dark Souls like 2 different times this week while at work because the story telling is amazing
@@randychristensen1028 dude same I’m addicted to listening at work
Unfortunately, Quirrel definitely dies at the end. He doesn't just leave: his dialogue suggests his death and his nail is left behind, which he would never do.
idk how many of these I saw already, but I loved every one of em.
As always another great amazing video really enjoyed it appropriate all the hard work that was done to make this video. Thank you for making this video. Excited for more upcoming videos
This has officially become my go to AFK channel to listen to. When I'm cleaning, shaving or driving and don't want to listen to music, i pop one of these on and zone out.
One thing I’d like to correct is the implication you don’t have to interact with the game at all to beat god home, you can only challenge a pantheon once you’ve beaten their main body fights except the boss fights. On my current play through I was about halfway through the game when I went into godhome and found the bosses I had beaten were parts of various pantheons and there were still plenty I had to beat to challenge all of them. The intent of godhome is to also be played along the main game as an alternative method to save everyone you could care about as both the knight and as the player at the cost of yourself and the godhome. The radiance is a dream being, when you fight her you are FIGHTING her thus giving you an ending (also see nightmare king Grimm). I imagine the difference between main radiant and absolute radiant is the state of the knight, when you fight the main radiant you’re just a shade but when you fight the absolute radiant you’ve gone through the process of attuning to godhood and thus become a kind of god yourself which is why the seeker wants to worship you. Without the knight the seeker might’ve been able to revive the radiance by attuning with it after the knight is gone but the knight does his duty and removes both problems from the equation to protect his home and his people.
Hollow knight was the first 'hard' game i played and i could not be more thankful for that
I’m fairly sure that you’ve played it or heard of it, but I’d like to HIGHLY recommend you try “Death’s Gambit”. I’m terms of graphics and gameplay, it’s similar to “Blasphemous”, but focused on a more straightforward plot and with a otherworldly life/death/and beyond vibe to it instead of a religious angle. I think you’d like it.
I enjoyed that game as well, however I only played it after afterlife was released. Really no customization but cool story and bosses
I was just thinking I haven’t seen a gingy video in a while and you posted one about one of my favorite games
I think the concept of the godhome ending is that The Radience lives in dreams and so by killing its perfected form in the Godhome dream you have technically killed the Radience
This is for me is easily one of the best indies i ever played and since have become addicted too, however its clear dark souls 1 is a source of inspiration for the game in that not everything has an explanation and leaves it to the players to decide what is fact sometimes and i love this, it means i never forget because im so invested in the games world. I also love how game changing the dream nail is in uncovering alot of what is the game.
Thank you bro I’ve been searching for a story analysis and you delivered in perfect timing
Commenting for the algorithm. Amazing work as always!
33:43
...
...well. Glad to see you're an optimist, cuz that's not what the rest of the community seems to think happened...
This game is one of the best I've ever played, and I'm not a metroidvania super fan.
The action, the challenge, the controls, the art, the sound, the lore...all amazing.
You make a big complaint about how you have to go hop around between the game, texts, and the reddit AMA to figure out what the heck is going on with Hollow Knight's lore, but you're wrong. The One True God, Mossbag, answers all our questions and prayers. We are his Mosskin.
Ngl i love you for this!!! One of my favorite games full stop!
The thing about the information about the Hive is that it isn’t essential for the player to understand the game. What knowledge about the Hive is absolutely needed for the player to finish the game? Pretty much nothing. Its an extra area that serves no narrative purpose other than to say “it exists”. Information that isn’t essential for the player to understand the game, is itself useless knowledge to those uninterested in the Hive. Adding those things in alternate media, however its portrayed, should be viewed as a gift from the developer. They’re saying “We have zero reason to give you this information for you to play and understand the game, but because you want it, we will give it to you.” To complain about having it is akin to complaining about any other kind of gift, which I shouldn’t have to say, is a bit distasteful. For example, is it required knowledge for you to know the culture and customs of the people of Alderan from Star Wars for you to understand the plot of Star Wars? No, all the viewer needs to know is that it blew up for you to understand its significance to the plot. Yet I’m sure there is media out there with a description of Alderan and its people, and no one is complaining about how they receive it. I don’t say this to be mean, but to give perspective as to you’re standpoint on superfluous information in a video games setting. I don’t think its very gracious to be complaining about the method the information is portrayed, and you should be thankful for the developer that decided to give it for no other reason than people wanting it. They could have very well never asked the question or the reddit thread may have never been created, in which case you would have no knowledge of the Hive other than what the game gives you.
Moving on, I’m willing to bet that Silksong will be Hornets journey to revive the Knight from the void or something similar.
In my headcanon, I separate game mechanics from lore-accurate events.
For example, killing Broken Vessel infects the Crossroads. Lorewise, this doesn't make sense. Why would they get infected from killing a random vessel in the Basin? They also get infected after killing a Dreamer. Now that makes sense since the Seals are now weaker. So, Infected Crossroads because you killed BV is just a game mechanic to infect the Crossroads once you've progressed enough.
Apply this logic to Godmaster. Perhaps, the Knight is at first only able to fight the bosses up until fighting NKG, but it can't attune further to Pure Vessel and Radiance because the Seals block the Godseekers' attunement. White Lady also has a Seal over her, and she can fly under the Godseekers' radar. Maybe, after fighting NKG lorewise, the VOID starts acting up and the Godseekers notice. They also can sense the presence of the Radiance but can't attune to it yet, so they let the Knight out of Godhome for it to complete its mission(i.e break the Seals). So, after the Knight breaks the Seals and enters Black Egg and fights the HK with Hornet, the Godseekers intervene when striking HK with Dreamnail and take the Knight back to Godhome to attune with PV and AbsRad. However, this sequence isn't shown ingame because TC wants the challenge of fighting all the game's bosses back to back. It would be dull if you fought up until NKG and then had to get the Dreamers and do PV and AbsRad separately.
This interpretation fixes some discrepancies. It answers why the HK was freed and why Hornet was in Black Egg. As for Shade Lord, we don't know what kind of crazy powers it has, so maybe it was somehow able to exit Godhome but do it through the Godseekers body instead of the HK's.
For after the ending, I like to imagine the HK is now freed from Radiance's influence. Hornet gets ready to fight, but THK collapses from exhaustion and requests help. Hornet nurses THK in the SOUL hotspring so it regains its health. After seeing that Hallownest is finally free from the infection that has plagued it for ages, Hornet thinks to herself it's time to deal with her mother's side of her lineage after dealing with her dad's side. So, Hornet sets out for Pharloom and leaves Hallownest under THK's protection. And like that, we begin our journey in Silksong!
Not my favorite game but is surely one of the best out there (especially with that price). The fight with radiance is just dope, especially when seeing a literally sun turn into the boss
It’s finally here! So excited for this one
I think it worth saying there is no confirmed ending from what i remember team cherry said this but it's believed that if there was true ending the most believed to be it is ending 3 but some do say 5 could possibly be Canon ending to and god seeker mode is a gaint mystery and honestly doesn't make any sense at all even if ending 4 or 5 is cannon it still doesn't add up to godseeker mode honestly if you want to complain on story this stupid mode is it.
Also with the pantheon almost all bosses don't know they are there the ones that do have a connection to higher beings with grimm and horent.
Oh boy tackling Hollow Knights lore and story is a scary task....because now the HK lore nerds are gonna rip your conclusions to shreds. "One does not simply make a hollow knight lore video"
I'm late to the party but the top comments are as i expected.