Agree with this - I wanted to love Hollow Knight so much, and there was a lot I did love about it, but I really struggle with that specific type of 2d platformer.
It’s not just the platforming, either; the enemies are incredibly well-designed to slay you. I had gotten quite far and took a break for months and then when I returned to it when I was in the difficult, bottom-left region of the map, my skill had deteriorated so much from my pause that I died within 10 min. Then I died again when trying to reclaim my last corpse’s stash, which made me perma-rage-quit the game.
It is just so diabolically difficult that by that point I didn’t find it fun any more. There is just something about melee Metroidvanias that I can’t stand; I’ve tried many. I absolutely love the relentless treacherousness of Noita, which somehow feels so different when you can keep your distance when firing at foes.
Yep, I’ve never had major problems with platforming on HK. I do have some NES platformer background, but the bosses are beating me up countless times. Same happened with Metroid Dread, didn’t have big issues with previous Metroids but Dread bosses had become insanely difficult compared to the former games. I guess there’s nowadays some soulslike crossover trend happening on metroidvanias causing this melee difficulty ramp-up. I haven’t played souls games so it has came as a shock for me.
Anyway, I have found workarounds in HK. Whenever I get stuck on some boss I keep exploring the map further and find powerups which then make the fighting difficulty seem more balanced again. Luckily HK allows really versatile nonlinear progression.
The one man I know who loves video games the most - he loves the history, he knows the names in the industry, he reads critiques, he has an entire room where he keeps his game library (and will talk at length about preservation and physical media) - is not actually good at playing them. He is helplessly enamored with games as art, despite that he can’t really beat anyone at his favourite games. It might be plain distractibility or some form of dyspraxia, but it has not lessened his pleasure. I used to smirk when we were young, but I think he has sense on his side.
Agree with this - I wanted to love Hollow Knight so much, and there was a lot I did love about it, but I really struggle with that specific type of 2d platformer.
It’s not just the platforming, either; the enemies are incredibly well-designed to slay you. I had gotten quite far and took a break for months and then when I returned to it when I was in the difficult, bottom-left region of the map, my skill had deteriorated so much from my pause that I died within 10 min. Then I died again when trying to reclaim my last corpse’s stash, which made me perma-rage-quit the game.
It is just so diabolically difficult that by that point I didn’t find it fun any more. There is just something about melee Metroidvanias that I can’t stand; I’ve tried many. I absolutely love the relentless treacherousness of Noita, which somehow feels so different when you can keep your distance when firing at foes.
Yep, I’ve never had major problems with platforming on HK. I do have some NES platformer background, but the bosses are beating me up countless times. Same happened with Metroid Dread, didn’t have big issues with previous Metroids but Dread bosses had become insanely difficult compared to the former games. I guess there’s nowadays some soulslike crossover trend happening on metroidvanias causing this melee difficulty ramp-up. I haven’t played souls games so it has came as a shock for me.
Anyway, I have found workarounds in HK. Whenever I get stuck on some boss I keep exploring the map further and find powerups which then make the fighting difficulty seem more balanced again. Luckily HK allows really versatile nonlinear progression.
The one man I know who loves video games the most - he loves the history, he knows the names in the industry, he reads critiques, he has an entire room where he keeps his game library (and will talk at length about preservation and physical media) - is not actually good at playing them. He is helplessly enamored with games as art, despite that he can’t really beat anyone at his favourite games. It might be plain distractibility or some form of dyspraxia, but it has not lessened his pleasure. I used to smirk when we were young, but I think he has sense on his side.