Hollow Knight is genuinely one of the best games I've ever played, because it has so much for a team with seemingly so little. It's a game that you will probably dedicated over 100 hours of your time into if you find yourself immersed in it's world, and personally speaking, it's very easy to with it's beautiful hand drawn art style, and the precise and tight gameplay that accompanies it.

You don't start out with many abilities, but by the time you reach the fourth area you'll be dashing around tense attacks and shooting off magic spells and performing ground slam attacks that provide a short burst of strong damage, to mix up gameplay, so you won't always just be using your sword, which is called a nail in the game's world. But even still, you might not have the ground slam, because by the time you're done with area 3, your choices and options for where to go next increase dramatically. If you beat a difficult boss called the Mantis Lords without an upgraded nail from area 4, you can explore what is intended to be a late game area early, to give more hardcore players a challenge, and if you have enough Geo, this game's currency, you can buy a lantern from the shopkeeper in the home area, Dirtmouth, and explore a crystal mound, Crystal Peak, which was foreshadowed prior in area 1. If you don't have enough Geo for the lantern, you can also access it by beating the boss of area 4, which gives you the previously mentioned ground slam attack, and break through an area in the ground that is unstable. This to me is the best part of the game. After you "clear" area 3, what path you take in your exploration is completely for you to decide.

Though at first you don't really know your character's purpose for exploring this ruined world, you can piece together what happened through clues in the dialogue of NPC' s you'll encounter, or through backgrounds and implications that build the world and history of the ruined kingdom of bugs, Hallownest. This is one of the best parts about the game, because this is the community's favorite thing to discuss. This game's world is so up to interpretation and speculation that there are no real right or wrong answers, and it allows players who are interested to all pitch together their thoughts and opinions on the story, and come together. Even if you aren't really interested in games for the story, this game gives you the free choice of following its story; it very rarely, if at all, interrupts your experience of the game. There's no set path you need to follow (past area 3 anyway) ,and you're free to do as you please. Because of how much Hollow Knight gives players in terms of gameplay, there are so many topics to discuss in the game's community, like gameplay opinions, music and art, countdowns of areas or charms, memes, and sharing your personal achievements earned and obstacles overcome playing this game.

This brings me to the game's difficulty. This game is not easy, but it's not unfair; many of the most difficult aspects of this game are optional, and while there are some challenges that are requirements to get to the final boss, you'll likely face those challenges late into your adventure, because they are marked on your map when you find a midgame area called the Resting Grounds, and even then you still have to find them for yourself, which is not easy on a first playthrough. So even if players see these marks hinting at an objective, most will probably take priority in finishing up any explorations they were doing or planned to do, because it's very likely that you'll stumble into the Resting Grounds from a drop you find in the Crystal Peak, and on the other side of that drop there's a structure that curious players will try to dash to, but they can't yet, because they haven't explored enough of the peak to get the Super Dash ability that allows you to get to it. Another way they might find it is through the exit of the Royal Waterways that connects to the other side of the fourth area that was previously not accessible, and so when they've explored the Resting Grounds they're likely to go back and explore that part of area 4 first; The game's design encourages the free exploration it provides well, because you want to explore these places yourself, not because the game told you to do so. On my first playthrough, I logged over 100 hours before defeating the final boss, simply because I loved getting lost in this game, and doing everything at my own pace in my own order, because this is what the games wants it's players to do, and in my opinion, it succeeds at its job.

The game's "hard mode," Steel Soul, is unlocked when you defeat the final boss with any ending, and there are several achievements that you can only unlock by doing multiple playthroughs, like an unchangeable choice in a NPC side quest, or beating the game in under 10 hours, it gives players who want to keep going more to do, because people who complete the game 100% probably do want more to do, because they're immersed in the game.The game has a lot of replay value yes, but the first blind alone will probably last you quite a long time.

I would go more into depth in this review, but I want it to be void of any major spoilers, because going into this game on a blind first playthrough is honestly magical. There's something about wandering an empty, dying world and learning it's history for yourself without any knowledge prior that really speaks to me, and it's an experience I want more people to go through and enjoy for themselves. It may present a challenge, or raise questions at points, but that makes you all the more determined to overcome those obstacles, find solutions, and make something of it all for yourself. I can't recommend Hollow Knight enough to platformer fans, indie fans, metroidvania fans, and video game hobbyists and professionals in general. It's amazing.