Guessed by @UnderwaterFunktown
What's there to say about Hollow Knight that hasn't been said? This game took the indie world and the metroidvania world by storm, and became a rather mainstream hit. Everyone has gone on and on about how amazing it is, but I feel like in recent years the fanbase has almost dilluted its greatness, made its genius look ordinary just through how casually everyone talks about it. But Hollow Knight is absolutely genius.
I know it has its detractors but honestly I cannot even begin to make sense of how someone could dislike this game. It's just so beautiful, so deeply compelling, so fun to play and so frightening at the same time. It's so ridiculously immersive, and that's not a common trait for a sidescroller, never mind an indie one. It's so challenging, but it remains fun even if you're dying over and over and losing all your geo. And I know because I've been there, my friends have been there, even non-gamer friends I know have been there and everyone kept enjoying the game even after going through that.
And of course, it's the longest metroidvania I've ever played. I used to think games in this genre couldn't be too long, maybe 10 hours at most, before losing their impact. And yeah, by 10 hours in, Hollow Knight was blowing my mind - but then it just kept going, and kept going, and kept going, and everything I kept uncovering just blew me away even more. There's such a ridiculous amount of things to discover in Hallownest, and the deeper you go, the more interesting the worldbuilding gets, and by the end you're completely invested in the story even though there was very little dialogue along the way. That's because Hollow Knight is genius.
I don't know if next year will finally bring us Silksong - people have been meme'ing about that game's inexistence for years, but now it's getting to the point where even I think it's pretty ridiculous. Either way, I'm happy with the game we got. Hollow Knight is timeless, I'll enjoy it and love it forever.
Essay Pro