REVIEWS / INDIE GAMES / OWNER INSIGHTS
🦉 WE READ 817 OWNER COMMENTS
Hollow Knight: what owners actually say
Owners universally call Hollow Knight a genre masterpiece, but warn it demands patience and isn't for everyone
What owners complain about
- Not accessible to all players SOME
Multiple owners note the game is simply not for everyone despite its quality — one says 'I know Hollow Knight is a masterpiece if you do' but couldn't get into it themselves; another says 'a game for everyone is a game for no one'
- Silksong difficulty spike FEW
Owners who moved on to the sequel report Silksong is 'noticeably more difficult than Hollow Knight was, both in platforming and in combat,' and strongly recommend playing Hollow Knight first to acclimate
- Review score disrespect SOME
Multiple commenters express frustration that Hollow Knight scored lower than Fortnite on IGN, treating it as an absurd injustice to the game's quality
- Genre commitment required FEW
One owner notes they 'don't usually 100% metroidvanias' and will just put the game down and come back later, suggesting completion requires significant persistence
What owners love
- Masterpiece-tier Metroidvania
Owners flatly call it 'a classic' and 'a masterpiece,' with indie studios credited with keeping the Metroidvania genre alive
- Outstanding music and sound
The music and sound effects are specifically highlighted as great, with one owner recommending playing with headphones for the full experience
- Combat compared favorably to FromSoftware
Owners compare Hollow Knight's combat to Dark Souls/Elden Ring — focused on fast movement and dodges — placing it in elite company
- Pulls lapsed gamers back in
One middle-aged owner says Hollow Knight and Elden Ring are the only two games in the last decade they've put more than a few hours into, reviving their interest in gaming
- Incredible value pricing
Team Cherry is praised for keeping the game affordable — 'they could've easily sold it for $40' — with owners seeing the pricing as a deliberate philosophy of accessibility
Surprising patterns
- Hollow Knight functions as a re-entry point for gamers who had largely stopped playing — one owner had written off their gaming dissatisfaction as a function of age until this game broke through
- Owners recommend playing Hollow Knight before Silksong not for story reasons but purely as a difficulty onboarding ramp, suggesting the base game trains skills the sequel demands
- The game's combat is mapped onto the Dark Souls vs. Sekiro split — Hollow Knight is the 'movement and dodge' game while spiritual successor Nine Sols is the 'parry and counter' game, showing how owners use it as a genre reference point
WHO SHOULD SKIP IT
Players who don't enjoy Metroidvania-style exploration and precise platforming combat — owners are unanimous that the game is excellent but repeatedly caution it is genre-specific and not universally appealing
Synthesised from 817 real owner comments across 5 platforms. Every point is grounded in the comments — no marketing, no AI guessing. How we do it →