More than any other game, I really wish I liked Hollow Knight. I’ve tried so hard to learn to love it. I’ve downloaded it at least a dozen separate times, each time even more hopeful than the last that something will finally click for me. I’ve tried starting fresh. I’ve tried picking up where I left off and working to progress further in the game. Try as I might, I just never find the gameplay engaging or fun.

I’ve watched lets-play videos on YouTube of the later stages to see if perhaps some additional moves or powerups might allow me to connect with it more. No matter what I do, it just doesn’t seem to be a game that piques my interest.

To be sure, there are parts that I like. The atmosphere is superb. The art is lovely and detailed. The music is enchanting. I love the vibes of the game so much, I just don’t like the gameplay. I am not the type of person that loves to explore new (but empty) parts of the world, and I care very little for deep lore. I don’t find walking around slowly and bonking enemies to be exciting or captivating. And I find the boss fights to be enraging (it may very well be a skill issue on my part, I have no shame in admitting).

And then I check out the average time it takes for a playthrough: 27 hours. Yowza!

But I really want to like Hollow Knight because Team Cherry, the developers, are constantly doing everything right and they deserve to be rewarded for it. In recent memory they have:

  1. Taken their time to develop a sequel to their beloved original game, realizing that they earned more than enough in the first iteration to live and work sustainably and comfortably for several years.
  2. Made both the original and the sequel for a wide variety of platforms, including a native build for Linux to give it first-class support.
  3. Gave backers and supporters access to their new game, Silksong, before the press, since they paid for the development and deserve to be the first ones to be able to play it.
  4. Priced their highly anticipated game at a very reasonable $20 to make it accessible to as many players as possible, even though they could have priced it much higher than that and made a metric crap ton of money.

Team Cherry is everything that is right with the video game industry. I really hope they eventually make a short, tightly-polished platformer game. Believe me, I’ll be the first in line for it.