Recent reviews by Lord Pawel

If you are a Star Wars fan, this game is obligatory.

Prologue: We do not deserve to heed the lantern's call to consume the flames of a kingdom's fall.
I bought this game over 2 years ago, so this review is probably a little bit late, but screw that.
In fact, I feel obligated to tell you how much I love this game. If there is a chance that somebody will actually buy it after reading this review, then hell yes let's do this.

BUY THIS GAME


1. We do not deserve Metroidvanias.

As you probably already know, Hollow Knight is a Metroidvania, aka a game where you can progress to new areas only by obtaining new abilities, that allow you to reach previously unaccessible places. It's a very interesting and fun-to-play genre, so if you are willing to give it a try, you won't be disappointed.
If you have previously enjoyed other metroidvania games, buy Hollow Knight.
If you haven't played any metroidvania games, also buy Hollow Knight - you'll love it.
If you have played other metroidvania games, but didn't enjoy them... you were probably playing the wrong games, BUY HOLLOW KNIGHT.

Some of you might not share my enthusiasm:
"But if we need to explore places that were unaccessible before, that means we have to backtrack! Why would anyone want to go back to places that they have already explored?"
Well because of reasons! Reasons that I will elaborate on in the next few segments...

2. We do not deserve the precious mind this Kingdom grants.

Have you ever played a game so breathtakingly beautiful that you find yourself sitting on a in-game bench and watching the raindrops? No? Well it's high time you did.
And yes, I know you won't buy the game just to chill on a bench or by the lake. I myself am not that kind of "sightseeing-lover" guy. Heck, remember when i said this game was "breathtakingly beautiful"? I don't tink I have ever before used those words unironically. (Except maybie for all those english essays that had like a 100000 word requirement.)

If you hovewer like to appreciate the atmosphere in a game, you will love every single second of it.
Artwork, background sounds, character animation... - everything is perfect about Hollow Knight. And don't even get me started on the OST! Music (composed by Christopher Larkin) is probably one of my favourite aspects of the game. Honestly, never before have I been so amazed by the soundtrack, that I could just listen to it on YT for 6 hour straight. Well, maybie once, when Undertale was so popular, but you can't deny that the OST was good.

I heavily recommend googling some of Larkin's pieces and listening to them for yourself.

3. We do not deserve to ascend, ascend, ASCEND with Gorb.

Hollow Knight is - as someone has accurately stated - 2D Dark Souls. While that statement mostly describes the atmosphere of the game, one can not deny that Hollow Knight is kind of difficult. If you like challenges you can pat yourself on the back and move to the next segment. Or even better, just go buy the bloody game and don't waste your time on this barely readable review!
If you however fell like you might not be able to overcome the challenges that you will have to face in this game, allow me to comfort you.
First of all: I am not a very good gamer. I am in fact, a pretty casual player.
I am that one guy who never set minecraft on Hard mode, because he just wanted to chill while punching the ever-loving crap out of a tree. So yeah, I am no pro.
When I started Hollow Knight, I died like five times before even getting to the first boss. It was difficult to me to adapt to a rather slow-paced early game, so I suspected I'll be ♥♥♥♥♥♥ the moment I start to encounter stronger foes.
I was wrong.

Hollow Knight has one of the best learning curves i have ever seen in any skill-ish game. Even the worst player can quickly get the hang of it after few moments. You got owned by a boss? In 3 more tries you will learn his attack patterns, in 5 tries you will know how to effectively avoid getting hit.
I am a medicore gamer at most, and yet i have completed every single challenge this game posed. I speedrunned it, I beat every boss without taking any damage, I completed the game without dying a single time etc.
So don't worry about a thing, you'll be fine. And every single time you manage to kill a boss that seemed impossible, you will feet this godly amount of satisfaction I have felt on my first playthrough. And second. Probably the third as well.

4. We do not deserve Team Cherry

Let's talk about the developers.
Have you ever heard about Electronic Farts? That one company every single gamer wants to see burn? That one company who makes an unfinished game, cuts it into even more unfinished pieces and sells you this crap calling it a DLC?
Have you? Good.

Then let's talk about Team Cherry.
The guys who make a huge-ass-lovely game, and charge 15 USD for it? I mean COME ON, this game is worth 4 times more. BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
Team Cherry made a fantastic game, and instead of drowning it in ♥♥♥♥♥♥ DLC's that cost half a fortune, they made a FREE massive expension called "The Hidden Dreams". Some game developers don't even know that it's possible to add something free to a game!
BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE!
After the free expansion, they made (dramatic pause) A SECOND FREE EXPANSION! The so called "Grimm Troupe DLC" features my favourite boss of all time, so I can assure you it's good. BUT WAIT-ok you got the drill.
Team Cherry released a huge update to the game, reworking most bosses and even adding a new one, along with a brand new mechanic in the game - The Lifeblood. All of that just for those pesky little 15 USD you had to pay.

A funny story:
Someone once asked Team Cherry why are they making so much free stuff, when they knew that people would buy those DLC if they had to. You know what those magnificent people replied?
"We wan't to learn how to make a good DLC before we force people to pay for them."
Absolute legends, I tell ya.
After that they released "The Godmaster DLC" (Yep, you guessed it. It's free.), that I still can't get enough of after nearly 200 hours of gameplay.

All those DLC's were supposed to lead to the only paid expansion, "The Hornet DLC". It however turns out that Team Cherry didn't learn how to make a good enough DLC, because "The Hornet" one is going to be A HUGE SEPARATE GAME.

Oh boy am I excited.

5. We do not deserve the "We do not deserve" comments.

I know this is probably the least important of all arguments I could give, but this game has a reallt decent fanbase. Honestly, 66% of fan made stuff you will find online is either top quality memes or top quality artwork. Don't dive too deep tho, cause you need to avoid the remaining 34% at all costs. You know, "If it exists..."

6. We do not deserve the bug waifu.

Just so you know, there are romance options in this game.
But for that you need to be able to take care of flowers. And that's not easy, trust me.

Epilogue: We do not deserve to dance and die and live forever.

To sum it up:
- Buy this game.
- You'll love it.
- If you won't you have no soul.

I sincerely hope that his review will help you make up your mind whether or not to buy Hollow Knight, and that you will have a lot of fun playing this game.
We all deserve to have fun.

This game is the best spent 10€ of my whole life.
Papyrus/Papyrus