Topic: Hollow Knight

@NEStalgia Dark Souls is actually extremely simple, which curbs a lot of the supposed difficulty. The beauty in its difficulty is that it just does the simple combat extremely effectively. You manage your stamina, you counterattack enemies, and you beat them. No complicated combos like in Bayonetta or Devil May Cry, just a few attacks.

Dark Souls is also fairly slow-paced. Enemies have a ton of wind-up to attack, so once you dodge their attacks they're very easy pickings. Some guys can attack quickly, especially bosses, but being methodical is more beneficial to your health. Compared to Hollow Knight where I find being aggressive while dodging everything is best, due to the faster attacks and movement, Dark Souls is MUCH slower.

Honestly, Dark Souls is probably the best "3D Castlevania" game to ever be made. It may be a spiritual successor to Demon's Souls, but Dark Souls just feels way more like a logical evolution of Castlevania. The weighty attacks, the commitment to actions, punishing yet fair difficulty, the works.

Hollow Knight, taking cues from Dark Souls, also has that, though due to being 2D I find it also invokes a lot of Zelda II combat, which makes me happy because I love Zelda II a lot.

@FaeKnight I disagree a bit about Blighttown. There's two bonfires in it, and one of them is right before the main boss of the area. It is hell, but only due to bad framerate (original release) and the swamp area that poisons you imo.

In general bonfires are nicely placed around the world. There are a few exceptions like Sen's Fortress (I know of that hidden bonfire, thank you player messages), but it's fine most of the time.

@NEStalgia Yeah I understand the feeling of wanting for the benches to be closer! Should be an option somewhere in the settings so we have easy time to just redo it as long as we don't turn off the game or something, but I understand why they didn't T_T/

In the end, don't force yourself to play something you don't enjoy anymore o.o)

@EvilLucario I tend to think of Bayonetta and DMC as fighting games that happen to have linear levels. They have more in common with Tekken than they do with most other games.

I figured by now I'd have played DS I'm both intrigued and frightened. Nioh is fast and DS-ish. DS seems slower and that's not a bad thing.

@darkfenrir Yeah, plus in my post-Cat-Quest calming session I started up Dust.....interest in Hollow Knight is definitely harder to maintain now That game is incredible but less punishing. Reminds me of Ori.

@NEStalgia Ah Dust... has been wanting that game for years but never really plunged to buy it. Really should pick it up these days when I have some time though lol

(And isn't Ori quite hard too? I remember stopping a lot because some things are too hard... Although for Ori I at least managed to finish it haha...)

@NEStalgia Bayonetta and Devil May Cry are actually just beat-em-ups like Final Fight and Streets of Rage, perfectly translated into 3D with added modern polish. Not really a fighter, in the same way Final Fight and Streets of Rage aren't fighting games.

But Dark Souls really is a great game. I hesitate to really call it "hard" at times though. Yeah, you'll die a lot and easily. But enemy attacks are fairly easy to read. Yeah, there's no map. But areas are very linear and easy to note in your head due to well-designed landmarks. The hardest part of the game is actually the second 'real' boss of the game, the Bell Gargoyles. After that, it's smooth sailing until the end. Even Orestein and Smough (the "hardest" boss in the game) is no problem because by then you should be familiar with how Dark Souls works.

I don't remember a lot of TERRIBLY difficult bosses in either Hollow Knight or Dark Souls, but they can certainly pack a challenge if not careful enough.

@darkfenrir I'm not done Ori yet, but at least comparatively to Hollow Knight it's not difficult, or at least not the same kind of difficult. It's more of a pure Metroidvania, at least to me. Though it also resolves checkpointing by allowing you to save anywhere if you've built up the meter for it rather than having to go back to the well. So far Dust seems reallly good...I only played briefly at the end of the Knight (pun intended) but what I saw so far it's really slick. It feels like a full price retail game! (So does HK, to be fair.)

@EvilLucario Bayo and DMC I feel borrow a lot from fighters in terms of the deep combo lists versus the old brawlers. I mean I wouldn't want to play it with a fight stick since the lateral movement isn't there, but the fact that each battle feels like a boss arena more than random trash mobs and you really need your timed combos and such feels a lot more "fighter" than mashy brawlers.

I've always heard how hard DS is. And going by Nioh yeah it's hard. But if it can hook me like Nioh I'm golden. Especially on Switch (Nioh much as I love it is hard to really put dedication into with it being chained to the TV. That kind of game NEEDS to be on handheld.) I can't really piece what it is that addicts me to Nioh and doing batter despite dying and backtracking, versus Hollow Knight that just turns me off. I think because in Nioh I feel like I have to figure out a better approach and then I'll get it for sure. In Hollow Knight I already know the only approach and it's just pattern memorization and reaction times in a trapped room.

Edit: And freaking rocks falling from invisible ceilings randomly like it's an NES....eff that.

@darkfenrir Haha, yeah. Personally the platforming itself and platform precision I'm pretty ok with. It's the 2D combat that I'm really out of shape though. I've had enough Mario over the years to keep my actual platforming in shape

So far there's not much heavy platforming in Dust. So far, anyway. Unlike Ori it doesn't seem to have intricate steps or trap laiden tiny platforms like HK, it seems to emphasize the "trash mob combat" over the platforming. I'll probably spend more time with it later so I'll have to follow up on that

love the game but its to hard for me, I get lost easy, dont remember when I die how I get back there from the bench you wake up on

You don't use the compass charm do you?

@NEStalgia Those sounds like something I'll enjoy a ton! Definitely need to look more into this game then at minimum

I don't mind some nice combats, but platform precision wears me down very fast- although combat itself can end up wearing me down a ton as well.

The world in this game is massive. I keep finding new locations all the time. This is pretty impressive for an indie game. Of course, it does make it even more annoying to get around to other places though.

@darkfenrir I couldn't get myself to try HK again yesterday in part because i was hooked on Dust (ok that sounds wrong.)

I'm really loving dust. It's not really platforming at all. There's some platforms, to go up or down but it's mostly flat areas and and more of a brawler than anything else. Despite all that the game says, 2 and a half hours in, that I'm 19% completed. Which makes no sense to me because I've skipped half the treasures, only fought one miniboss, just got to the town and haven't even entered the objective of the main quest there yet. So it may be a really short game? Or the completion gauge is really messed up. The game is arguably too easy so far (from the extreme of HK to the extreme of Dust makes for a confusing ride.) I'm not a fan of difficulty for difficulty, but Dust feels almost Skylanders level of "just keep plowing through." At least so far. it's a lot of fun, though, in the way a Kirby game is a lot of fun despite offering little to no challenge.

Edit I guess 20% in 2.5 hours would make it 12+ hours which is the same as Steamworld Dig 2 so I guess that's par.

@NEStalgia Gotcha, this sounds far more my alley then I guess I'm picking this up when I have some sort of break time in between releases (and I have finished all of my backlog... which looks unlikely)

I finally beat this game tonight. It took me 27.5 hours and I finished with 73%. It was pretty fun, although I still have absolutely no idea what happened in the game story-wise.

I beat the endboss yesterday. He was a tricky boss, but I did beat him after a couple of tries. I feel like in the beginning there are some very painful bosses, because you are weak and have to adapt. But by the end of the game you are strong and you know what you have to do. You know that you have to be fast.

Anyway, great game. And a massive game, brimming with secrets. It took me 41 hours, 90% completion. So there's still bosses and stuff. If you thought indies where small, buy this one. Its big and a lot of fun, with great boss battles. Great difficulty. But you do get depressed sometimes, it is a dark and moody game after all. Also, there is no clear objective in the game. Still, money very well spend (and I even had it at a discount)!

Started this a few days ago, absolute bargain so far & glad to hear it holds up till the end. So far I feel it follows the 'Dark Souls rollercoaster' emotions wise, ranging from 'this is impossible, I'll never get past this' to 'holy cack, I did it' in the space of an hour or two.

Have noticed I absolutely need to be on my A game to get anywhere seriously, half-assing in this just leads to misery so it's in no way a casual title for me at least - it demands every ounce of concentration and then some!

No doubt i'll be back here shortly explaining how terrible the game is and why it's absolutely not because I'm terrible at it. Or something like that.

Today I learned that there is also a "true" endboss. So that may be the real pain, when I finally experience it!

Does anyone have tips for defeating Nightmare King Grimm? I’ve been trying to get his patterns down, but he gets me every time when he shoots the projectiles.

Gets me too. I’ve been away for too long and started playing this again. Going down memory lane with the Switch two year anniversary.

I'm knee deep in Hallownest just now and absolutely loving it. Incredible game that just keeps getting better the more I progress. I played it for a few hours when it first came out but it never gripped me as much as it is now for some reason. I started again with a new save file and I'm just under 21 hours into my adventure. I've just acquired the Dream Nail and feel I'm pretty far along but I know I've still got a long way to go.

My experience with it so far puts it up there with the best on Switch. Incredible game.