Holy flying ♥♥♥♥. What. A. Game. At first glance, I had dismissed it, but all the glowing reviews and comparisons to one of my favorite meterovanias, Hollow Knight, made me decide to buy it.

And ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥. You need to play this game. NEED TO.

This game is not "like Hollow Knight." To me, it surpasses it, and it's the Silksong we're not getting this lifetime apparently for me. Comparing it as simply "like Hollow Knight" does this game a MASSIVE disservice.

The reason for that is that it plays very much like a sekiro-seasoned version of Hollow Knight (as opposed to dark souls-seasoned), but does an infinitely better job creating a enthralling setting and panel of characters. Some of the villains you both hate and love, and far too many will break your heart. This is ultimately a depressing story about a species desperately clinging to life as they face extinction and slowly giving up hope as their final gamble falls apart. Some accept it. Some refuse to. Others pretend as if nothing had happened.

The main character, Yi, is also not a silent vessel. What originally seems to be a quest for revenge slowly becomes much much deeper, and you slowly start to understand the motivation driving him. In a lot of ways, Yi is no different than the people he accuses, and you see that clearly through the final messages sent to him by someone very close to him. This character is never truly present, yet is one of the most impactful emotionally speaking, and it was so well done I literally was left speechless. That kind of thing is not hard to do.

This is 10000000% a show not tell masterpiece with every piece fed to you having a high impact. This alone in my opinion shoots it far above Hollow Knight. You will remember almost every single one of these characters, and even though they're not human, their plight is far more human than that of Hollow Knight's bugs, and you really real feel the desperation.

As a game, it's also nearly perfect. Smooth movements, interesting set of skills, fluid gameplay, fantastic music, and good pacing for enemy upgrades and zones. The game also actually makes you use the tools/abilities you learn, unlike many other games.

This is easily my favorite game of the year at the moment, and it is literally a masterpiece.

My ONE complaint however is VERY significant, and that is that there are a lot of poorly designed enemy types and boss fights. To make matters worse, enemies have really tight homing, so if you're even a milisecond off with the timing, dodging behind them will just have the enemy instant-flip and fly to hit you anyway. This can be infuriating and makes some bosses far harder than they need to be.

This isn't a "git gud" situation, as they ARE beatable, it's just a lot less satisfying and enjoyable, and far more tedious, when the game punishes you arbitrarily. If you're behind an sword swing, it should simply miss, period. This cheapens a lot of fights and forces you to play by the devs' arbitrary rules. To make matters worse, they have some truly tedious enemy types that will waste your time. You will quickly learn to just ignore them unless forced to fight them. Mostly the ninja-types that free-dodge attacks and instantly retaliate and the teleporting samurai. They requite a high degree of precision and timing just for the right to hit them, and they're not even bosses. It's just not worth it while you're exploring and with them respawning after you heal.

This is their first souls/sekiro-like though, so I will give them a pass. Hopefully next time they loosen up on bullshiz like that, it's not fun even if you know how to deal with it and that's a lesson FromSoft learned very quickly too.

Holy flying fuck. What. A. Game. At first glance, I had dismissed it, but all the glowing reviews and comparisons to one of my favorite meterovanias, Hollow Knight, made me decide to buy it. And god. Damn. You need to play this game. NEED TO. This game is not "like Hollow Knight." To me, it surpasses it, and it's the Silksong we're not getting this lifetime apparently for me. Comparing it as simply "like Hollow Knight" does this game a MASSIVE disservice. The reason for that is that it plays very much like a sekiro-seasoned version of Hollow Knight (as opposed to dark souls-seasoned), but does an infinitely better job creating a enthralling setting and panel of characters. Some of the villains you both hate and love, and far too many will break your heart. This is ultimately a depressing story about a species desperately clinging to life as they face extinction and slowly giving up hope as their final gamble falls apart. Some accept it. Some refuse to. Others pretend as if nothing had happened. The main character, Yi, is also not a silent vessel. What originally seems to be a quest for revenge slowly becomes much much deeper, and you slowly start to understand the motivation driving him. In a lot of ways, Yi is no different than the people he accuses, and you see that clearly through the final messages sent to him by someone very close to him. This character is never truly present, yet is one of the most impactful emotionally speaking, and it was so well done I literally was left speechless. That kind of thing is not hard to do. This is 10000000% a show not tell masterpiece with every piece fed to you having a high impact. This alone in my opinion shoots it far above Hollow Knight. You will remember almost every single one of these characters, and even though they're not human, their plight is far more human than that of Hollow Knight's bugs, and you really real feel the desperation. As a game, it's also nearly perfect. Smooth movements, interesting set of skills, fluid gameplay, fantastic music, and good pacing for enemy upgrades and zones. The game also actually makes you use the tools/abilities you learn, unlike many other games. This is easily my favorite game of the year at the moment, and it is literally a masterpiece. My ONE complaint however is VERY significant, and that is that there are a lot of poorly designed enemy types and boss fights. To make matters worse, enemies have really tight homing, so if you're even a milisecond off with the timing, dodging behind them will just have the enemy instant-flip and fly to hit you anyway. This can be infuriating and makes some bosses far harder than they need to be. This isn't a "git gud" situation, as they ARE beatable, it's just a lot less satisfying and enjoyable, and far more tedious, when the game punishes you arbitrarily. If you're behind an sword swing, it should simply miss, period. This cheapens a lot of fights and forces you to play by the devs' arbitrary rules. To make matters worse, they have some truly tedious enemy types that will waste your time. You will quickly learn to just ignore them unless forced to fight them. Mostly the ninja-types that free-dodge attacks and instantly retaliate and the teleporting samurai. They requite a high degree of precision and timing just for the right to hit them, and they're not even bosses. It's just not worth it while you're exploring and with them respawning after you heal. This is their first souls/sekiro-like though, so I will give them a pass. Hopefully next time they loosen up on bullshiz like that, it's not fun even if you know how to deal with it and that's a lesson FromSoft learned very quickly too.