Hollow Knight is pure art
On the vast discrepancy between watching Hollow Knight and the tactile reality of playing it.
That games are an art form was never a question to me. There are many games I would already call art, from Journey to Bloodborne. From that point of view, Hollow Knight is just another example.
The reason I bring it up and call it art is because I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a discrepancy between watching a game and playing it.
Obviously, I knew about Hollow Knight. I knew about the love players have for it. I knew about the critical and commercial success. I read about it, watched the trailers, watched some gameplay videos, learned about some of its mechanics -- but nothing prepared me for the feeling I had when I actually decided to play it.
You spend 5-10 minutes with this game and you already know it’s going to be something special. As with the best art, my soul felt elevated.
That feeling never faded. On the contrary: when the credits rolled and I sat with the game for a bit, and realized what the metaphor really is, my appreciation only grew stronger.
It’s really strange that I never got even a glimpse of the greatness of Hollow Knight by watching someone else play it. You could say that’s expected because, well, the difference between playing a game and watching a game is like the difference between reading a book and watching somebody read a book. But I’m an experienced game designer. I’ve played literally thousands of games. And yet somehow this never happened to me before.
Now, I’m not saying this is my perfect game. For example, I don’t care for its gameplay. That’s not Hollow Knight’s fault, though -- I’m just not into hardcore platformers. In general, I don’t enjoy games that require me to memorize patterns so I can execute them perfectly for minutes at a time. But of course, the fact that this gameplay isn’t something that appeals to me doesn’t mean it isn’t executed extremely well.
I do have some doubts -- for example, I miss a coyote time feature -- but overall the core gameplay loop is executed perfectly.
Everything else appeals to me:
The visuals (especially in person) are just amazing.
There are lots of little things that are very hard to notice in video, but make a huge impression when you play the game yourself.
The sound design and the music are out of this world.
The story is fantastic, and the metaphor is great.
And most of all, the entire thing is extremely coherent.
Hollow Knight is clearly a product of love, but also of experience -- and of not rushing things. For designers, this is something you absolutely must play. If you know what to look for, you’ll see it’s basically a template for an incredible game.
And the first thing you’ll learn -- or reinforce, if you already knew it -- is how important the opening minutes are. In the case of Hollow Knight, they literally changed my entire opinion about the game for the better.
Next, Silksong.