The World Design of Hollow Knight | Boss Keys

There is still a lot of game ahead if you want to get the real, good ending. Here's the basic rundown: You need to jump here in Kingdom's Edge, fight Hornet a second time, and enter the Cast-Off Shell. Inside is the King's Mark, which can be used in the Ancient Basin to open a large door and grant access to the Abyss. Inside is the Shadow Cloak, which finally allows you to bypass a recurring obstacle in the game: these black geysers of toxic substance. By the way, you can use the shadow cloak to reach the professor's archive from a different direction and wake Monomon without fighting the Dung Defender or getting the Tear of Isma.

Cool! Anyway, a black geyser blocks a new

boss

fight: the Traitor Lord. And the prize for defeating him is the White Fragment. Now, there is a character called the Seer in the Resting Grounds who will give you gifts in exchange for Essence, which is obtained by defeating the Warrior Dream

boss

es, the dream variant bosses, using the dream nail on the ghosts and collecting the essence generated by whispers 根. If you collect 1800 of these things, Seer will upgrade your Dream Nail to the Daydream Nail. Now, if you use this on a corpse in Ancient Basin, you'll be able to go to the White Palace: a nightmarish hellscape without misery that's as difficult as anything in Super Meat Boy or Celeste, but without the super-sharp platforming controls of either. two. game.

Damn, this part is pretty annoying. However, at the end there is another white fragment. Glue them together and you have Kingsoul. And then return to the Abyss and you will turn it into the Heart of the Void. Finally, return to the Hollow Knight and use Dream Nail on that guy to enter his brain and fight the last real boss: Radiance. Which is very hard and makes me want to cry. But I did it. Then it goes like a million. I'm quite surprised at how much content there is in this secret ending to the game. It took me about 20 hours to get to the credits the first time and then another 10 to get to the proper ending.

I guess it's a testament to how Team Cherry is happy to let players miss out on massive amounts of content. Now, personally, this part didn't quite work. I felt finished and satisfied with the game after shipping Hollow Knight for the first time. And when I found out there was so much more to do, I didn't really have the drive to keep going and look for even more secrets. Especially since I had no idea where to go. And the game doesn't maintain that tradition of offering two routes to key locations, so if you miss this jump in Kingdom's Edge, you won't get very far.

I basically just followed a walkthrough to get to the true final ending. A little disappointing. So that's Hollow Knight. The game helps draw you into the

world

of Hallownest with cryptic clues and the guidance of linear level

design

, but then opens the gates to the kingdom and lets you explore as you wish. And by allowing you to access so much content simultaneously and providing multiple routes and methods of progressing through the game, Hollow Knight rarely falls into the trap that Metroidvanias can find themselves in: having to traverse the map in search of that one place. I have to leave to make any progress.

Instead, Hollow Knight simply lets you keep exploring, with the promise that there will be something worth finding around every corner. A fascinating new area, a strange and unique enemy, a bit of cryptic

world

building, a really useful item, a game-changing upgrade or a terrifying boss monster. This is quite different from other Metroidvanias, of course: you lose that puzzle aspect of slowly unraveling a knot that binds the world together, one lock at a time. But the feeling this game offers is perhaps even better: pure wonder and immersion in a world that never ceases to surprise. Team Cherry told me that "we try to let the player loose in a wild world, not explicitly push them in one direction and reward them for choosing their own path." “That approach is based on mutual trust and respect between us and the player.

We know that these are intelligent and dedicated people and we are confident that, through observation, tenacity and skill, they will meet the challenges that the world presents and ultimately achieve mastery. “It’s that mastery of exploration, combat, and understanding the history of the world that we hope creates a memorable experience.” It certainly did for me, and to say I'm excited for the game's sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong, would be an understatement. And that's all about Boss Keys. In the last 20 episodes, I've seen every major Zelda game, almost every Metroid game, Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Dark Souls, and now Hollow Knight.

Of course, the series isn't gone forever; I'll be back when big new games like Metroid Prime 4, Hollow Knight Silksong, and Breath of the Wild 2 are released. And yes, I still plan to do that recap episode on Zelda dungeon

design

. One day, promise. But I always planned for Hollow Knight to be the final destination of this series. It's one of my favorite games and I think it might be the best Metroidvania ever made. So it's nice to come out so high. Thank you so much for watching and shout out to my sponsors for supporting this show. See you on the next mission.