*** Nintendo Switch ***

Man of Honour
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So I’ve been playing through Hollow Knight and have just got to the credits this evening, having been determined to finish the thing without any help / hints or guides. Took 30 hours and 87% completion. It felt like quite an accomplishment - I’m surprised I didn’t throw my controller through the TV at times. It’s become know in my house as “****ing ****!!!” - being my common hyper aggressive screech every time I died :o

I had a love / hate relationship with the game.

Love:

Metroid-vania scrolling gameplay and upgrades
Challenging
Fun secrets to find and explore
Cool stylistic theme and memorable areas
Brilliant / haunting music
You can choose to ignore the “plot”
Funny / bemusing but also strangely moving at times
The mid to late game is very good

Hate / dislike:

The early game is relatively weak because you are at such a disadvantage.

Sometimes the game is overly obtuse with exploring new areas. I almost packed the whole game in because I omitted to go through one door in an area (Crystal Peak) where I didn’t have a map (of course, without the map, you can’t see where you haven’t explored) and naturally assumed I had to go back to this area later since all other routes required a ‘flying abiliity’. Nope, just missing that one fatal door halted my whole progress of the whole game.

^This is compounded by the game being really stingy with the movement abilities early in the game which made the early game a bit too testing.

^ This is further compounded by shunting you way, way back every time you fail if you haven’t managed to find the nearby save bench / transport station because, surprise surprise, you haven’t found the map so don’t know where you haven’t been.

So yes, a frustrating game at times but worth a punt if you haven’t played it.

I’d give it 8/10
 
Man of Honour
Joined
24 Sep 2005
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35,492
It sounds like a typical metroidvania game based on your criticisms :p
Ha I have to say I was really miffed off with Super Metroid for similar reasons when I finally got round to playing it. I did give up on that and, resorting to google, apparently I didn’t do a wall bomb on one perfectly innocent piece of wall so no progress for me. I think that’s pretty lame. I like to be able to figure things out, not spam every single block in every room with weapons looking for a new route! There was a little bit of that in Hollow Knight but it wasn’t so obnoxious.

Actually, have you played Hollow Knight? I know you like the challenge so I think it would be right up your street.
 
Associate
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26 May 2004
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1,126
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Carshalton, Surrey.
Put (finally) a few hours into Dark Souls yesterday and faced off against that demon on the bridge.

Holy fudge that got the blood pumping! And man this game is brutal!!

I can see why so many like it :)

Just encountered my first armoured tusk. Need to plan ones attack :)

Amazing game (series) I've spent 100's of hours with this, great to now be able to play anywhere. Try and stick with it as it's a very rewarding game, good luck.
 
Man of Honour
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Actually, have you played Hollow Knight? I know you like the challenge so I think it would be right up your street.

I own it but I have just completed yoku's island express and axiom verge so I'm going to play another genre before jumping back into a metroidvania. That's if I can stop playing Smash for long enough.
 
Man of Honour
Joined
24 Sep 2005
Posts
35,492
I own it but I have just completed yoku's island express and axiom verge so I'm going to play another genre before jumping back into a metroidvania. That's if I can stop playing Smash for long enough.
Ah fair enough. I was probably a bit ‘harsh’ with 8/10 - I think I enjoyed it more than that but it’s got to be caveated on the basis that average joe would probably get way too frustrated to complete it! There is one optional boss that I’m not sure I can stomach defeating after he raped me over and over... although I didn’t give him much effort after receiving a late game upgrade that makes life generally much easier. I can see you loving the bosses.

Definitely looking forward to the sequel.

There are two enemies in particular that made me want to attack the TV...

Those stupid masked orange flies that shoot three fireballs relatively quickly... basically impossible to dodge early in the game.

Those stupid flies that shoot the crystals that create spikey rock formations. When you are a weakling at the start they miserable if you haven’t found a bench!

Oh and the boss I mentioned was prince zote — man he is merciless.
 
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Soldato
Joined
7 Jan 2004
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Location
North London
Really liking the Switch so far, picked it up a couple of days ago.

I got it with Fire Emblem, Mario Kart, Pokemon Eevee Edition and Zelda.

Just fallen in love with it and when the missus want's to watch tv i just take it out the dock and play it while she watches what she wants so win win.
 
Soldato
Joined
20 Aug 2008
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6,826
Just fallen in love with it and when the missus want's to watch tv i just take it out the dock and play it while she watches what she wants so win win.

Exactly my way of playing too!

Really looking to get Hollow Knight as I've heard nothing but good things about it. Saw that there is a new one due this year, not sure when. Do you think I should wait for a bundle of both games? All about saving where I can :)
 
Man of Honour
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13 Jul 2004
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Did anyone complete Mario Odyssey?

I'm thinking of going back to tidy my save up, some of the hidden secrets are a bit cryptic.

I got every moon but I didn't bother with the grind for the costumes. I cheated on some of those random picture ones though as I really didn't enjoy aimlessly exploring to try and find some of them.

I'd love some proper dlc along the lines of the last few challenges but the costumes and balloon hunt mode didn't interest me.
 
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