Many of you may be familiar with the “soulslike” genre of video games. This genre was dubbed after the infamous “Dark Souls” because a player’s repeated failure is highly expected. 

Soulslike games rely on making progress bit-by-bit and improving with each mistake and each death. If you ask me, the real reason it’s called soulslike is because the game eats away at your soul until there is nothing left. 

The good news: there is a game that gives you the opportunity to recover your soul after you lost it! That game is called Hollow Knight, one of the masterpieces of our era.

Hollow Knight is a two-dimensional platform-adventure game where the protagonist is a mysterious creature who travels into the deep underground to fight monsters. The entire game takes place in a lost underground kingdom called Hallownest. As you make more progress, you unlock more of the map and discover more secrets. 

Most of the areas seem like they were once occupied by civilians but have been abandoned long ago. The caves and pathways are riddled with creatures, all of which have designs like that of insects and beetles. If that bothers you, don’t worry. The design in this game is hand-drawn and cartoonish, and some of the creatures are rather cute!

Wait? Hand-drawn? That’s right! The game was created by indie developers who poured their heart–and soul–into the design. Each character, object, background and frame animation was done by hand in software such as Photoshop. The voices for all of the creatures are done by the human voice, and the music was developed by Christopher Larkin, a talented composer who primarily works for indie animation. The atmosphere that the team created through Hollow Knight is truly wondrous. Not only did they nail the dark theme of a “hollow” world, but they managed to incorporate aspects of coziness and mystery. It is hard not to appreciate every second of the game.

With the design alone, it’s easier to maintain your soul while playing the game. The reason I mentioned soulslike games is because “Hollow Knight” could actually count as part of the genre. Though it is not a three-dimensional open-world game, it practically fits every other criteria, which is that a player will die multiple times, learn from their mistakes and get to fight really cool bosses. 

The mechanics in “Hollow Knight” are very simple. The character has a sword which can be used to defeat enemies. The sword can strike in any direction, even while the knight is in midair. The basic enemies take about two or three hits before dying, while stronger enemies require a much greater amount of hits. Each enemy defeated drops some amount of currency, called Geo, that can be used to purchase some items. There are stamps and upgrades to the in-game map for navigation and charms that enhance or provide different abilities when equipped.

The special thing about the knight is that he is mysterious and possesses a dark side. The knight only has a certain number of hits he can take before he dies himself. When this happens, he drops all of his Geo and his soul escapes his body. The player respawns at the last location where they rested and has the chance to recover their Geo by finding their wandering dark spirit and defeating it. If you fail to retrieve your darkness and die again on the way, you can say goodbye to the Geo and your spirit will relocate.

This particular mechanic makes the game sound a bit difficult, right? Fortunately, there is another mechanic that is available for players. This is the ability to collect “soul” into a gauge that can be used to perform special attacks or to recover hearts. The soul comes from defeating enemies and its efficiency can be enhanced with charms.

From my experience with the game, the hardest part is keeping track of where you should or shouldn’t be going. Players need to manually find parts of a map and the skill of navigation is necessary in order to succeed. On top of that, the boss fights can be really difficult and losing to them repeatedly, only to get teleported far away, can be frustrating. On the bright side, each of those deaths is a moment for learning.

The sequel to “Hollow Knight” is called “Hollow Knight: Silksong” and has been in development for a while. It is set to release by 2025. It may be a while, but remember that perfection requires time!