[COLUMN] Do You Ever Forget Just How Good a Game Is? | by Marty Sliva

Do you ever forget just how good a game is? You played something at some point in your life and enjoyed the hell out of it. You might even consider it to be in the upper echelon of its given genre. But then time goes by – first months, then years, and suddenly you blink and it’s been the better part of a decade.

You’ve played countless games since then, some of which were directly inspired by that experience you adored your first time through. You know you love that original game, and you agree with the ongoing chorus of its quality. But it isn’t until you decide to revisit that game with fresh eyes, maybe because it has a sequel looming on the horizon, or maybe for no reason in particular. And on that revisit, you realize that you’ve forgotten just how goddamn good that game actually is.

So yeah, I’ve been replaying Hollow Knight for the first time since the week it released on Switch back in June of 2018 – I had to double check the date on that one, because there’s no possible way it’s been over seven years since then because that would mean that we’re all slowly crawling towards our inevitable death and oh god I’m turning into dust.

I’d been meaning to give Hollow Knight a replay in the lead up to Silksong, and I just so happened to finally pull the trigger on that just a few days prior to Team Cherry announcing that the sequel was finally done, and would be in all of our hands next week on September 4th.

I like reacquainting myself with an original work as a kind of personal preparation for a sequel. From relatively small endeavors like replaying Death Stranding before On the Beach, to larger ones like going through every single mainline Zelda game in the lead up to Tears of the Kingdom. I do the same with movies as well – I’m currently rewatching all of Paul Thomas Anderson’s filmography before the release of One Battle After Another, and let me tell you, that man makes some good motion pictures.

So yeah, in the grand scheme of things, a cheeky little Hollow Knight replay on Switch 2 felt like an easy project to knock out before Silksong. And for my first few hours, things were going smoothly, if not a bit underwhelming. I immediately remembered just how excellent the game’s somber tone and foreboding atmosphere were – perhaps the genre’s most evocative since Super Metroid. The music and visual effects of the various biomes pair perfectly with how they each deliver a different flavor of challenge along your journey.

But in those opening hours, I occasionally found myself thinking that while it was good, it wasn’t quite as good as I had remembered. I was a bit underwhelmed by my little Knight’s movement kit – I felt slow, and unable to fully express myself across the map. Obviously that’s pretty par for the course for the opening of a metroidvania, but I had this lingering worry that time had dulled the edges of a game I loved so much back in 2018.

Turns out that was an incredibly stupid thought to have, because something clicked with me a few hours into my playthrough late last week, and suddenly I remembered just how damn good this game actually is. Once I unlocked the game’s dash (Mothwing Cloak), wall jump (Mantis Claws), and double jump (Monarch Wings), the entire experience opened up for me. The world remained every bit as hostile and alien, but I now had the abilities to traverse and combat any obstacles in my own way.

Each time I attained a new major ability, I was awash with possibilities for where to go next and test out my new skill. I’d done a pretty good job of marking down spots on the map that I couldn’t tackle without a double jump or Shade Cloak, so going back to finally overcome those epitomized the lock-and-key design that the best metroidvania maps offer.

On top of that, Hollow Knight is filled with so many memorable moments, both big and small. I love entering a new area, spotting a bit of scrap paper on the ground, and then listening for the sounds of Cornifer humming somewhere off in the distance. Finding him and having a new section of the map unlocked feels like a major accomplishment, despite how relatively tame the action is.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, finally overcoming a boss that’s been giving you a particularly hard time delivers that potent post-fight endorphin rush that only the best games can offer. My most recent conquests were the second Hornet fight at Kingdom’s Edge, and the Traitor Lord on the far left side of the map. Landing those final blows after half a dozen failed attempts felt great.

Are there some things that still nag at me on this second playthrough? Sure, no game is perfect. I still think having to use one of your Charm slots on the Wayward Compass in order to have your character’s location show up on the map is silly. And by the time I made it to the late game and found myself ping-ponging across the map to clean up loose ends and explore new areas, I started to wish that there were just a few more fast travel points sprinkled across Hallownest.

But Hollow Knight isn’t the only game that I replayed and was reminded of just how good it was. My recent trek through Final Fantasy X (the first since 2001) reminded me of how powerful the story of Tidus and Yuna remains. Fresh eyes on Asura’s Wrath reminded me that we as a society did that game dirty, all because we couldn’t handle a little QTE overload. And jamming through Silent Hill 4: The Room a few Halloweens ago reminded me that it might be one of the most uncomfortable survival horror games to actually play through, which is most certainly a feature and not a bug.

I’m extremely glad I decided to jump back into Hollow Knight in anticipation for Silksong. Yeah, the muscle memory and familiarity with Team Cherry’s systems, philosophy, and characters will all undoubtedly come in handy as I ascend Hornet’s journey next week. But even more than that, this replay helped remind me that Hollow Knight is a damn fine game, and some of the best the metroidvania genre has to offer.