I discussed Hollow Knight on this blog a few weeks back and commented on how I really got surprisingly engrossed in that game. Metroidvania has not historically been my favorite genre but Hollow Knight made me really understand what makes games like that good and just how good they can be. It is an intricate and beautiful game with absurdly tight controls. Pretty much everything about it is just top class. It has great art design, lore, customization, bosses, level design, etc. It's definitely one of the best games I've played in awhile, which is why I'm really excited to hear that it's getting a sequel called Hollow Knight: Silksong.
Hollow Knight is already a game that is rich with content. I expected to spend 10 to 15 hours on the game, but I finally shelved it after about 50, with still more tantalizing challenges left to uncover. The Voidheart Edition released for PS4 features all of the game's downloadable content, of which there is a pretty considerable amount. There were four DLC packs that added a variety of new mechanics, enemies, bosses, and storylines to a game that already had a vast kingdom full of secrets and challenges. Silksong was originally conceived as yet more downloadable content for the game featuring antagonist and occasionally ally Hornet but became so much bigger and more ambitious that developer Team Cherry decided to expand it into a full game. Needless to say, I'm pretty excited about this. I hear that it will be initially Switch and PC exclusive, so I'll need to make a decision on whether or not I want to wait to get it when it hits PS4.
Dead Cells (which I also discussed here) also received a pretty big update that hit the PlayStation 4 version yesterday. I've been playing it basically non-stop lately but so most of the changes seemed pretty relevant to me. It's a total rebalancing of the game based largely on community suggestions. I'm a big fan of developers taking player feedback into account so I'm pretty excited to try out the full gamut of changes. I still haven't even had a completely successful run yet, so I'm still playing it pretty steadily.
One of the main changes that has a big impact for me is that timed doors were moved to transitional levels instead of placing them in out-of-the-way areas in the levels themselves. It was always stressful trying to find them in procedurally generated areas when you're already rushing to get through the level in a certain time frame. The fact that these doors also now contain a selection of items to choose from instead of just a stat scroll is a pretty welcome change, too. Another cool change I noticed was that the Mutations (which are essentially just passive skills you can pick when you complete levels) have been rebalanced overall. One important Mutation I used pretty often before offered flat cooldown reduction for skills. It now has a more active component in that it no longer provides a flat bonus but rewards you by reducing your cooldowns whenever you take out your opponents, either in melee or from range depending on the Mutation you chose.
I really do want to buckle down and finish a run of Dead Cells, but this goal might be slightly hampered by the fact that I just purchased a new game for Switch at the behest of my girlfriend. And this game is going to take me some time. That game is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. That's right. I finally caved. I haven't finished a Zelda game since Ocarina of Time so this is going to be interesting. I'm sure I'm going to be talking about this one a lot going forward.
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