September 3, 2025

Sometimes, a piece of art just hits you at the right time. And that was really true for me and Hollow Knight.

As I grew up from a Nintendo obsessed young boy to a more broadly video game obsessed young man, I fell harder and harder in love with metroidvanias. Specifically, the namesake series of Metroid and Castelvania. I’d sink countless hours into games from those franchises, obsessing over their maps and getting excited for future upgrades. As someone who grew up with the very cool SpongeBob GameBoy Advance, I already had a lot of fondness for games of that era, so I found myself playing games like Metroid: Zero Mission and Castlevania: Circle of the Moon frequently (I’m sorry to say, but sometimes I’d even play these games in class).

Something about the gameplay of these GBA metroidvanias just clicked with me. The visuals were awesome and the metroidvania gameplay felt really mastered in these titles. I’m a person that’s really drawn to media with lots of depth. I love long lists of rules, extensive lore, and a lot of mechanics. I also really appreciate when games give you the chance to skip around or express yourself with cool mechanics and some skillful maneuvering.

And, at the pinnacle of this obsession, Hollow Knight released on Switch and rewired my brain. All of those things I mentioned loving about metroidvanias are there in Hollow Knight and then some. It’s a gorgeous game with an ever-evolving moveset, lots of lore, and plenty of room for expression. There are very few games that I’ve cared to 100%, but after a few months I reached full 112% (which includes all the DLC) and took on the challenging Steel Soul mode (and beat)!

I really became obsessed with the game, and truthfully I still am. The game really means a lot to me. The story of a cute little bug taking on horrors beyond our imagination has really stuck with me and still stands as one of my favorite games.

So, with all that being said, I am very excited for Silksong tomorrow! I’m so excited to be immersed back into Team Cherry’s world and (probably) face some extreme challenges. Maybe tomorrow, our world’s will change again.