My Love of Hollow Knight

By Ivan Budiwski

 

I bought Hollow Knight about two years ago and when I did, I found the game very enjoyable but struggled a lot with it. This was the first time I have ever played a game like it, so I didn’t know what to expect. I beat a few bosses, progressed through the game a bit, and then kind of just, stopped. The game really got me hooked when I revisited it about a year later and practically experienced the game for the first time again. This game drew me in with its cozy and charming art style, and immediately beautiful soundtrack.

What caught my attention the most, was that I had no idea of who I was playing as or why I was there. That doesn’t sound that interesting at first, as I am used to games that have the main character be this destined hero with plot armor, like Harry Potter, so I thought It was interesting when this game strayed away from the chosen one type of protagonist and instead made the protagonist not special at all. Even when you eventually get one of the five endings, the protagonist pretty much dies in all of them, and then the world keeps going without him, most not even knowing what he did.

When you first start the game and beat the tutorial, you will wonder what your character, “The Knight”, is supposed to do to save this kingdom. In fact, you don’t even realize this kingdom needs saving for a while but as you play, the details and dialogue describe the lore more and more.

This kingdom fell almost a hundred years before the events of the game; the king died in his own palace hidden beneath the rest of the kingdom. Most of the occupants of the kingdom have succumbed to some sort of infection. So, what is The Knight supposed to do? Maybe he will go to med school! You must keep playing to find out.

Composed by Christopher Larkin, the Ost (original soundtrack) of this game is gorgeous! I can’t even count how many times I have died in an area or a boss battle because I just stopped to listen to the music. The amazing soundtrack has kept me immersed in the game to the point that I have my in-game music set louder than everything else. Even if you don’t care for the game, I still one hundred percent recommend listening to the soundtrack, at least once.

The NPC’s (non playable character) of this game are so well made that they feel like they are real people living in a real world, and that kind of writing makes the whole game feel more immersive. The amazing writing of the characters in the game caused me to get attached to a good few of them, and I bet I’m not the only one!

My personal favorite NPC is Quirrel. Quirrel is just a beautifully designed character, that you see in all sorts of different places around the game. You first meet him at the start of the game in the first area, and although he doesn’t say anything crazily important here, he does make a nod to a much bigger plot that slowly unravels the farther into the game you get. He also calls you short several times which I find funny.

The first time you talk to Quirrel, he mentions how he felt drawn here for a reason he does not know, and that he has a strong sense of familiarity of this kingdom. You can find Quirrel all over the game, from the top of the Crystal Peak to the spider filled depths of Deepnest, and the more you talk with him, and the more he explores, the more he realizes that he has been to this kingdom before but has no memory of what he was doing here or why he cannot recall it.

Pretty far into the game, you will find him standing outside of an archive built on top of an acid lake. He states how he feels drawn to this building above anywhere else in the kingdom, and if you go inside, you will be forced to find the guardian of the archives, a large jellyfish named, Uumuu. After attempting to fight the guardian for a bit, you will quickly realize that you cannot hurt it at all, but luckily for you Quirrel has come to save the day and weakens the guardian so you can damage it. After a long battle, you and Quirrel are victorious and you go through the rest of the archives to meet someone in stasis. Quirrel suddenly remembers his past at this point of the game and how the person in stasis was his old master. Quirrel tells you that she called him here to break the spell that protects her.

Quirrel then holds his mask up to the stasis chamber. As the mask fades into the stasis chamber, the protection spell breaks and you can then enter her mind and break the seal inside, setting her free from her eternal slumber. You can afterwards find Quirrel resting at a lake, if you choose to sit down with him, you will have spent a final moment with Quirrel because if you leave and re enter the room, he will be gone with nothing but his sword stuck in the stone, he’s not dead, just chose to leave his past life behind and leave this place for good.

Environmental story telling is a way of painting a picture or telling a story about something but without directly telling the story. Environmental story is usually told through subtle hints in the environment, like how if you found a clearing in a forest and you could tell there was a fire by the charred logs in the clearing instead of just saying that there was a fire there, you could leave subtle hints around the area so people can figure it out on their own.

Here is one of my favorite examples. In the Fungal Wastes, lies a proud tribe of Mantises that are lead by four Mantis lords, you only see three the first time you see them, but you can tell there was a fourth one by the broken throne next to them. As far as i know, that is the only way to tell that there was a fourth Mantis lord until late game where the fourth one is a boss.

four Mantis lords ruled over their tribe, but when the infection broke out, one of the Mantis lords willingly embraced the infection along with his followers, turning against his sisters to gain more power. The now named, “Traitor Lord” was banished from the Mantis tribe and he and his followers moved to take over the lush Queens Gardens.

 

Another piece of environmental storytelling involving the Mantis lords, is that when you earn the Mantis lords’ respect, they will grant you passage through a large, armored gate that leads to Deepnest. When you go through that gate you will see a bunch of corpses with spears or lances that look very similar to the preferred weapons of the Mantis lords, witch would give the impression that there was some sort of fight witch its technically correct, but it’s more like the mantises guarded the entrance to Deepnest so the bugs in Deepnest could not leave.

 

Hollow Knight is a wonderful game made by three people who put their heart and souls into it. The game has an amazing soundtrack that can be just as intense as it can be calm. It has some of the best world building I have ever seen; an art style that is gloomy and dark when it needs to be, and vibrant and bright when the time is right.

A video game has never made me cry for a character before, but Hollow Knight? It made me cry, more than once, and you know what? I enjoyed it. I enjoyed every waking moment on this game. My first playthrough was over one hundred hours long and my next was about eleven, but I still had lots of fun playing through the game again. I can safely say that I enjoyed my time in the world of Hollow Knight and I look forward to seeing what’s on the horizon for the developers, Team Cherry.

 

Thank You Team Cherry

 

~ Ivan Budiwski, Age 14