Hollow Knight

Hollow Knight
Studio	Team Cherry
Publisher	Team Cherry
composer	Christopher Larkin
Erstveröffent- lichung	February 24, 2017
platform	Microsoft Windows , macOS , Linux , Nintendo Switch , PlayStation 4 , Xbox One
Game engine	Unity
genre	Metroidvania
Game mode	Single player
control	Computer keyboard , gamepad
language	including German, English
Age rating	USK PEGI

Hollow Knight is a computer game from the Metroidvania - genre that developed by Team Cherry and 2017 for Microsoft Windows , Linux and macOS and 2018 for Xbox One , PlayStation 4 and Nintendo switch has been released. The development was mainly funded by the crowdfunding platform Kickstarter.com .

content

Main storyline

The world of Hollow Knight is populated by speaking, intelligent and sometimes upright insects (mainly beetles from the Schröter family ), bees , spiders and snails of all kinds. Different genres live next door to each other in societies and clans with sometimes complex hierarchies . Friendships and enmities exist between these peoples. The residents all live in caves or underground and there is eternal twilight.

Hollow Knight basically tells the classic story of the struggle between light and dark. The setting is a fallen kingdom called Heilandsnest , which was struck long ago by a plague in the form of a parasitic slime mold and almost completely wiped out. The plague makes the infected physically much stronger, but at the same time robs them of their minds and lets those affected be brutalized and dumbfounded, so that most of the residents of Heilandsnest are now only wandering around like mindless dolls and attacking the uninfected. The Pale King, a divine being, and his sages tried in vain to develop a cure for the plague, but nothing seemed to help. Soon the desperation was so great that one resorted to immoral and unethical methods: One experimented with the soul energy of dying individuals, but the soul master commissioned with it became mad about his power and was not spared from the epidemic either.

So the king and the White Lady fathered several eggs which were laid in the "abyss" under the palace. The brood was hollowed out with a dark substance called a "void". So it was hoped that the plague would not take hold of it. The new creatures were called “vessels”. One vessel, the Hollow Knight , seemed “pure”, or rather weak-willed enough to be able to absorb the plague and keep it captive. The rest of the jars were left in the abyss as failed experiments. The king had a lighthouse built in the abyss to keep the void under control. Then the entrance to the abyss was sealed. The King and the White Lady were ashamed of what they had done, but saw no other way out. The Hollow Knight has been trained in handling the nail so that he can defend himself in an emergency. Meanwhile, however, the Hollow Knight also developed a relationship with his "father". Eventually the Hollow Knight sacrificed himself, absorbed the plague, and allowed himself to be sealed in a large, magical black egg to fulfill his father's wishes. Three beings voluntarily let themselves be put into eternal sleep to protect the Hollow Knight. Herrah the beast demanded a child from the king in return and gave birth to Hornet. With that the plague was banned for a while, but it turned out that the Hollow Knight wasn't as pure a vessel as assumed. So the epidemic slowly spread. The king fled with his palace into a dream world and died, the kingdom soon fell apart and has been in ruins ever since . Hornet was left to watch over the ruins.

This is where the game starts. The player slips into the role of a vessel with a gray robe that returns to Heilandsnest with its memory extinguished, called by the Black Egg, in which the plague threatens to break out completely. The cause of the disease is a moth queen named Radiance (in the German edition called Das vergierter Licht ), who lives in the dream world and literally tried to blind the inhabitants with her rays. Before the king's arrival, Radiance had been worshiped like a goddess by the moth trunk she created from her light. When the king gained the upper hand and civilized the residents of Heilandsnest, Radiance apparently decided to regain control of the Heilandsnestler.

The protagonist piques the interest of Hornet, who sees him first as a threat and later, when he has demonstrated his strength, as a possible replacement for the Hollow Knight. With the protagonist fighting Hornet a second time, it is possible to obtain the "Heart of the Void" talisman. This allows the wearer to unite the void and unlocks additional ends. From then on, Hornet will accompany the protagonist in the fight against the Hollow Knight and enable him to challenge the Radiance trapped in the vessel himself.

end up

Hollow Knight offers three different endings. The first ending, simply called "Hollow Knight", tells how the hero frees the Hollow Knight, defeats him, absorbs the plague and is then sealed in the black egg himself. The second ending, called "Sealed Siblings," is similar, except that the hero and Hornet are locked in the egg together. The third ending, called "The End of a Dream" and commonly perceived as the "Good End", can only be unlocked once Radiance has been defeated. Together with the Hollow Knight, the hero defeats the moth queen, who is then consumed by the darkness and merges with it. The plague is averted and the souls of the fallen "vessels" find their peace.

Characters

• The Knight: is the protagonist of the game. He is short, stocky and has a white face with large, black, and empty eyes. He is wrapped in an ash gray coat and carries a large nail as a weapon. The Knight is the child of the White Lady and the Pale King and therefore strictly speaking a prince. He is a shell that has been filled with emptiness. How he and the other vessels were able to leave the sealed abyss is uncertain.

• Hornet: is a non-playable beetle. She is slim, rather petite and significantly taller than the hero. She wears a purple coat and uses a needle and thread as a weapon. Hornet is the illegitimate daughter of the king and Herrah the beast . First she opposes the hero, but is defeated and later intervenes in the final battle in favor of the hero. She wanted to protect Heilandsnest by driving away anyone who tries to open the black egg. She only realizes later who the hero really is and that the Hollow Knight must be defeated.

• Cornifer: is an important, non- playable character and a weevil . He wears glasses and hums incessantly to himself. Cornifer lives with his wife Iselda in the village of Mistmund and is a cartographer by profession . You can purchase maps of certain regions from him - if you can find him in the underground labyrinth of Heilandsnest. Cornifer travels around all the time, while Iselda runs a small shop.

• Myla: is a non-playable character and a female carpet beetle . Like her fellow species, she is a miner and always wears a mine helmet. You meet her inside a crystal mine near the entrance. While it has no direct influence on the course of the game itself, its role is crucial in monitoring the effects of the disease. When she first met, she was very healthy and happily sings a song while she works. Later in the game, the player can regularly address them again. At the same time, Myla's behavior changes dramatically: At first, her ability to speak clearly decreases and she sounds confused. Then her eyes glow strangely orange (in Hollow Knight the distinguishing feature of infected people) and she no longer speaks a word. In the last encounter, she attacks the protagonist with her pickaxe and the player is forced to slay poor Myla.

• Hollow Knight: is the involuntary antagonist and boss of the game. His role is actually rather neutral, but he must be defeated if the game is to be completed successfully. The Hollow Knight is a vessel like the Knight and was felt by the King to be particularly "hollow". He has no heart, no soul and hardly a will of his own. His only will to be a good son to the king will doom the kingdom. His task and raison d'etre was to absorb radiance and the plague and then be sealed in the black egg. When the Hollow Knight is freed, he injures himself later in the fight. This is either to help the Knight or is a pitiful attempt to drive the plague out of his body.

• Radiance: is the real antagonist of the game. Her appearance resembles that of an Artace moth. Many, many years ago she had ruled over Heilandsnest by literally blinding the inhabitants and robbing them of their willpower. Her own people, the moth people, as well as some Heilandsnestler worshiped her and her hypnotic rays like a goddess. The king of Heilandsnest woke up the inhabitants and civilized them. Under his rule, a new empire was born full of wonder, technology and magic. Radiance watched the residents turn away from her and forget her more and more. Even her own people began to question and break away from her methods. Offended and filled with envy, Radiance first decided to get the residents back on their side by sneaking into their dreams, confusing and manipulating them. Those who tried to resist only made it worse: They have clearly visible blisters of a parasitic slime mold on their bodies instead of just orange eyes. The fact that the residents would die from the epidemic and kill each other did not seem to have been planned.

Game mechanics

Hollow Knight is played in single player mode. The graphics are two-dimensional and stand out thanks to their atmospheric colors. The protagonist can be controlled by controller and keyboard.

The game offers an extremely extensive world map, which is composed of different regions. Each region has its own dungeons with often exotic landscapes. The individual dungeons are almost without exception caves and chambers, which are connected to one another by a huge and complex labyrinth of tunnels and corridors. Because there are many dead ends and crossings, the player can quickly lose track and orientation. Many dungeons have secret passages that are mostly hidden behind fragile cave walls. Other dungeons are characterized by particularly tricky climbing and jumping passages. Some areas are so dark that the player will need a lantern to navigate the terrain. All dungeons are teeming with opposing insects that reappear ("respawn") when the player has used a bench. Some enemies will also respawn after leaving and re-entering the area in question. However, means of transport such as a stag beetle and a gondola can be used, and later in the game the player can use a teleportation spell.

Cast iron benches are distributed in each region where the protagonist can rest and relax. At the same time, the benches can be used to update the map of Heilandsnest and to insert and exchange certain talismans . The character's life energy is represented by small, white mask symbols. In the course of the game there is the possibility of collecting or buying mask fragments to receive additional masks and thus to increase the number of life points. If the figure suffers an enemy hit, a mask breaks, all masks are broken, the game figure dies and is revived on the bench that was last used. But you can also lose life if the character gets stuck on thorns or sharp crystals (or falls into them). In some dungeons the player must therefore maneuver the hero particularly carefully through the corridors and chambers. Certain jumps from lead to lead often require a lot of patience and great skill.

Furthermore, the main character has a spherical soul vessel. In a healthy state, this is filled to the brim with white soul substance. With this the hero can heal himself at any time until the vessel is empty. There are three possibilities how the player can refill the soul vessel: the first possibility is to attack opposing insects with the weapon. A bit of soul energy is captured with each hit. The second option is to track down so-called soul statues that you hit with a weapon. And the third option is to visit hot spas . The protagonist can also use his soul energy to attack opponents with a sudden burst of energy. Of course, this also empties the soul vessel.

If the character dies, a crack forms in the soul vessel and the blackish spirit of the hero remains at the place of death. The player should definitely catch this again by fighting briefly, otherwise the soul vessel cannot be completely refilled and the money collected so far is lost. The currency in Hollow Knight is called "Geo" and the coins look like little brooches . The player can collect money in three ways: by defeating opponents, harvesting geo-mines or by selling certain artifacts . A certain sidequest offers money as a reward.

In Hollow Knight , the character can be equipped with magical talismans. Each talisman has its own special property that gives the wearer special powers or abilities. There are talismans that offer the wearer special special forms of life energy, make them faster or allow higher and further jumps. Other talismans increase attack power and range, while others give special protection against enemy attacks. And then there are talismans that can be used to conjure up small creatures like spiders and bees.

reception

Hollow Knight was largely received positively by the trade press . On the Metacritic website , which aggregates ratings, the PC version has a Metascore of 87 and the Nintendo Switch version a Metascore of 90 out of a total of 100 possible points.

Awards

year	Award	category	result	receipt
2017	SXSW Gamer's Voice Awards 2017	Gamer's Voice (Single Player)	nominated
	The Game Awards 2017	Best Debut Indie Game	nominated
2018	Game Developers Choice Awards	Best Debut (Team Cherry)	nominated
	14th British Academy Games Awards	Debut game	nominated
	Golden Joystick Awards	Nintendo Game of the Year	nominated
	Australian Games Awards	Independent Game of the Year	won
		Australian Developed Game of the Year	won
2019	National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers Awards	Art direction, fantasy	nominated
		Character design	nominated
		Design, New IP	won
		Game, original action	nominated

Web links

• Official website (English)

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Hollow Knight Mac Debut Delay | Team Cherry. Retrieved December 26, 2019 . 
2. ↑ Hollow Knight. In: Kickstarter. Retrieved December 26, 2019 . 
3. ↑ Hollow Knight. In: Metacritic. Retrieved December 26, 2019 . 
4. ↑ Hollow Knight. In: Metacritic. Retrieved December 26, 2019 . 
5. ↑ Estevan Aviles: Gamer's Voice Nominees Revealed for SXSW Gaming 2017 . SXSW . January 31, 2017. Accessed March 16, 2018.
6. ↑ Eddie Makuch: The Game Awards 2017 Winners Headlined By Zelda: Breath Of The Wild's Game Of The Year . December 8, 2017. Accessed December 31.
7. ↑ Gamasutra staff: Breath of the Wild & Horizon Zero Dawn lead GDC 2018 Choice Awards nominees! . January 5, 2018. Retrieved January 8, 2018.
8. ↑ Eddie Makuch: Legend Of Zelda: Breath Of The Wild Wins Another Game Of The Year Award . March 22, 2018. Retrieved March 22, 2018.
9. ↑ Marie deAlessandri: Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice at forefront of BAFTA Games Awards nominations . March 15, 2018. Retrieved March 16, 2018.
10. ↑ Brett Makedonski: BAFTA names What Remains of Edith Finch its best game of 2017 . April 12, 2018. Retrieved April 13, 2018.
11. ↑ Tom Hoggins: Golden Joysticks 2018 nominees announced, voting open now . In: The Daily Telegraph , September 24, 2018. Retrieved October 7, 2018. 
12. ↑ Connor Sheridan: Golden Joystick Awards 2018 winners: God of War wins big but Fortnite gets Victory Royale . November 16, 2018. Retrieved November 18, 2018.
13. ↑ Shannon Grixti: All the winners from the Australian Games Awards . Press start. December 20, 2018. Accessed December 20, 2018.
14. ↑ Nominee List for 2018 . National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers . February 11, 2019. Retrieved February 13, 2019.
15. ↑ Winner list for 2018: God of War breaks record . National Academy of Video Game Trade Reviewers. March 13, 2019. Retrieved March 13, 2019.