Recent reviews by junekept

This game is an almost perfect example of what a sequel to a game should be. The game feels different and unique while still feeling like Hollow Knight; if you enjoyed wandering and discovering things in the first game this game lets you experience it all over again, except this time we have a much bigger map, more sidequests, etc. 70%+ of my playtime was probably dedicated solely to getting 100% completion rather than doing the main objective, and despite it not being the main objective I still had FUN doing so rather than feeling like a chore. Team Cherry definitely spent those 7 years productively with how often I felt like the game was quite literally bottomless. There were probably like 7 or 8 different times when I was exploring and stumbled across a new area after thinking I found them all. It is *that* big. Thankfully Hornet's moveset and the fast travel system makes it not a massive pain to get through the areas.

Pharloom feels much more alive with NPCs moving around, changing things up, giving new dialogue or missions even when you would have to go out of your way to get to them (for example, a character you only need to interact with prior to reaching a certain game area will comment on your arrival at said area if you go back to them and interact). Hornet's dialogue is a very refreshing thing after the silent protagonist in the last game, as she has a lot of interesting insight and things to say during certain encounters that make you end up wondering what hornet will comment on along with everything else.

Hornet's movement style still feels like you're playing Hollow Knight while being different enough to make the game unique to it's predecessor. I see a lot of bashing on it, but the game is very clearly designed around the diagonal pogo dash, and once you get a hang of it I find it to be more versatile and more fun to use than a simple down hit. For people who cannot get used to it whatsoever, the game has a crests system that allows you to unlock completely new movesets, of which one almost perfectly imitates the original moveset of the knight. You will have to progress a little bit to unlock it, though (Hint:
go left from the starting area).

This game is difficult and definitely expects you to have a very firm understanding of it's mechanics in order to deal with bosses. I feel like this is intentional, as finishing Hollow Knight will make you better at the genre and thus require a higher bar of difficulty in order to still be engaging. This game would be a lot less fun if I didn't struggle as much as I did, and all of the bosses in this game bar a handful have predictable movesets you can eventually learn, and when learning them it really does feel like you are playing as *Hornet* and not the knight. You're more fragile, but can heal much quicker; you don't have an i-frame dash, but you have much better ways to stay airborne or get across the arena to avoid an attack. This is also when the diagonal pogo really shines as it's quite the versatile tool to both hit enemies and continue moving while doing so. There are a handful of harsh walkbacks to certain boss arenas, but I can count on one hand how many of those I found and most of the time it's not that bad; the outliers could easily be fixed in a patch.

In addition to the general difficulty you will have a REALLY BAD TIME if you do not explore thoroughly. Take your time going through areas and try to find secret rooms and breakable walls, there are a lot of them and you will struggle with a lack of upgrades if you try to simply rush through to the end of the game, as well as miss like half the game. This is a metroidvania, if you see something you can't get then you mark it on the map and come back later. I strongly recommend playing this game blind until the last handful of completion percentages as there are plenty of unexpected surprises you will find. Feeling lost is a normal part of this game and was in the original, if you didn't like that in the first game you won't like this game either.

If you're hopping on this game because of the extreme amount of hype around it's release I encourage you to play the original game first, as it both supplements this one and gives you an understanding of how to deal with the difficulty of this game as well. I feel if you don't you may get easily frustrated as the game *will* throw you into unforgiving environments from the get-go. Otherwise, this game is extremely refreshing and definitely worth picking up, even if it was double the price it is right now.

I played a game for like an hour and literally nothing happened until I ran out of cards and lost

should've made a review sooner but this is one of the most unique games ever, it's hard to truly explain why it's so good without spoiling things but if you're into puzzles and/or meta gameplay mechanics this is basically a must play

it's good what can I say

steel yourself!

I have broken the game, I have been in a run for 2 hours and am at level 4000 and can hear nothing but level up sounds as the map is completely broken due to the sheer carnage of my weapons

10/10 I love dopamine

KINO

this game ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ sucks but it's kind of funny how bad it is so it's up to you I guess

I LOVE PROJECT MOON!

Edit: I STILL LOVE PROJECT MOON!

bloon