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I like Metroidvanias. I don't like Soulslikes. I love Hollow Knight. While not the first game I've seen that tries to do the 2D Soulslike experience, it happens to be the one I've seen that's gotten the balance right. Aside from a few long runs from save point to boss room, everything feels tightly-designed and appropriate (With one very large and sharp exception). Also it's all cute as hell.
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Mar 18, 2021 16:00
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One of you made oblique mention of how odd it would be for someone specifically seeking out this blind playthrough for their first exposure to the game, and, well, this is my second exposure. Haven't played it myself, just picked up an LP from another channel I was following. And that one was a blind run, too. You're playing better than he was, too. Tea's incredulity at dealing with the giant club-bug with barely any damage was well deserved.
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Mar 20, 2021 05:57
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"Don't throw a tantrum just 'cause I'm hitting you!" Don't tell Mum, you're fine, I didn't hit you that hard. e: "We'll have to think of some pun-based Tube names." Elephant Beetle and Castle. Aphidgate. Earwig's Court. Bromley-by-Bug. Queensbeery. Dareon fucked around with this message at 12:22 on Mar 23, 2021 |
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Mar 23, 2021 12:03
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Salt & Sanctuary is one of the 2D soulslikes I mentioned previously, and since it hews more closely to Souls than Metroidvania, it has fall damage. Yet you're still expected to do platforming, and enemies can and will knock you off platforms to your death. This has the expected effect on player mentality.
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Mar 27, 2021 15:04
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Explopyro posted:Maybe it's just me, but I kept getting distracted during the Hornet fight by her cries, it sounded like she was constantly yelling "SHARK!" and that feels really incongruous in this setting It's real tempting to try and read English meaning into Hornet's callouts.  It's nice to see Nat has apparently been charmed by the cuteness of the designs and wants to be friends with Hornet. The other LP (Spoilers in video titles) I watched was also trying to make bug friends. Transferable skill is always nice to see. The appeal of LPs (at least of games I haven't played) to me is threefold: Experiencing a new story, sharing that story with someone else for the first time and seeing their reaction, and watching displays of skill at the game. Usually I have to settle for two out of three. I've bought games on the premise that the LP I was watching was terrible at the game and I could do better. The fact that Hollow Knight is enough like Megaman that your platforming and fighting skills carry over means it'll at least be a significant while until you start really flailing.
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Mar 30, 2021 18:12
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Zurai posted:A lot. For the same reason that very few games release full-scale modding tools. Yeah, this is kind of the issue with this whole conversation. No one participating is a game developer[citation needed], and we collectively have little to no idea how much effort goes into a given thing. To this end, I feel explicitly allowing modding is the best compromise. If you don't like a given feature, you or someone like you is welcome to change it, you/they just have to put in a significant fraction of the work we did to make that feature in the first place. Accessibility is great, I love that more games are offering colorblind options, descriptive audio subtitling, and other features intended to allow more and more people to experience them. But I think you have to balance effort required with expected return. This may in fact be an untenable position because I am neither a game developer nor significantly disabled in a way that prevents me from playing video games.
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Mar 31, 2021 17:05
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Twelve by Pies posted:I saw a video the other day that Youtube recommended that would have spoiled a pretty major thing and I would be angry about it if I cared about spoilers (or if I thought Nat would do the same thing, which I'm sure he wouldn't). It's kind of irritating that that happens to people who do care about spoilers though. Yeah, there've been a large number of LPs I've been following where someone said "Hey, be mindful of related videos, chances are good it'll spoil the last boss in the thumbnail."
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Apr 7, 2021 06:37
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I think Nat's basic nail and movement skills are sufficient for most challenges. By the time he gets to the really crazy poo poo, he'll be ready. ...I want to talk about an upcoming upgrade, which I am 90% sure he gets in the next video, which is already recorded and merely awaiting upload/release. ...I can wait a couple days to get the thought out. In other news, I just bought the game myself. Figured I've gotten enough fun out of watching other people play that the developers deserve my money. I'm just past Hornet and I've already died three times (Twice to her, once to the giant club-bug just before False Knight).
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Apr 8, 2021 09:45
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...I forgot what I was going to say about the Mantis Claw. Although one thing I should mention, which you might have discovered already by the time you read this, is you can dash straight out of the wall cling, which can give you better control than jumping and dashing.
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Apr 10, 2021 06:17
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There's two areas and like three bosses I'm keeping my eye on as potential killers, but let's not make this thread look like a FOIA request yet.
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Apr 12, 2021 11:16
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It's entirely possible to explore the entire rest of the Waterways before finding Cornifer. It does require that you find the upgrade for breaking through that weakened floor first, then completely forget that there was a left-hand path. 
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Apr 15, 2021 06:49
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pumpinglemma posted:I’m sure there’s nothing wrong with the Deepnest. It’s probably where the Mantis Lords are keeping the really good treasure, and that’s why they were trying to keep you out of it! Think of all the grubs -_-_- that could be there! Mantis Lords is one of my favorite fights, because it has clean, simple patterns and a steady rhythm. The Mantis Village and Lords also have some great story implications. You've got that tablet about the compact holding and the beasts restrained, and the Hallownest Seal in the treasure room showing they acted in accord with the king, and just past the Mantis Lords arena, you have that immense pile of dead bugs. I'd recommend buying Quick Focus from Salubra (Well, I mean prioritizing it, you will/should be buying everything eventually), that makes it much easier to take advantage of the lulls in boss attack patterns.
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Apr 17, 2021 03:13
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Ultimate destination: The giant pool of raspberry jam. Feel free to faff about all you like, but you're gonna be getting sticky eventually.
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Apr 19, 2021 02:51
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Jen X posted:I'm a huge, huge fan of the presentation of the fountain and the title drop alongside it. Same. And that's probably a lot of people's epiphany that "Wait, Hollow Knight isn't the name of the main character?" Usually the fandom refers to him as Ghost (What Hornet calls you), just The Knight, or Antony Beetlesworth III. I think most people also come at it from the left, find the door into the fancy part of town is locked, and then head back left to find the Nailsmith.
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Apr 20, 2021 03:15
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Commander Keene posted:It's not really a blind LP until the player has found something their more experienced co-commentator didn't know about. Hell, I found that treasure, I needed more upgrades to reach it, and I had this "He's never gonna find that treasure- wait-  " reaction.
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Apr 22, 2021 13:03
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Fantastic Foreskin posted:"Remnant Psyches"? Tea has Nat analyze the plot of Hollow Knight, little does Nat know its just a warm-up for Killer 7. Would.
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Apr 24, 2021 08:27
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Ah, the net zero heal. I know it well.
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Apr 27, 2021 01:07
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That fall is how I got to the Resting Grounds the first time. I will say it's worth it to head back up and finish exploring what you can of Crystal Peak.
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Apr 27, 2021 12:04
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Natural 20 posted:Hey just chiming in to say, please be careful when discussing areas I've not been to yet! Without openly spoiling you further, you haven't been quite as spoiled as you think. The nail upgrades are all from heading back to the Nailsmith and handing him increasing amounts of upgrade materials. you find one in Deepnest, but you can find them elsewhere too. Since you only need one for the next upgrade, any of them will do. That said, there are many reasons to go to Deepnest, and probably as many or more to stay far, far away.
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Apr 28, 2021 04:07
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Dead Man's Volley makes sense as a term for that mechanic, even if tennis is a lot easier to use and everyone knows what you're talking about when you say it. A volley, in tennis or other racket sports, is when the players continually whack the ball back and forth. Difference being, in a videogame, one of the players is dead at the end. Thus, Dead Man's Volley.Bifauxnen posted:One interesting thing is that this had to have happened relatively recently, rather than the more common trope of everything being some ancient mystery. Since the stag beetle still has living memory of the city being bustling and busy. quote:But it feels like they're trying to make even those game mechanics still refer to diagetic stuff that's supposed to be actually happening in the story. Is it not normal to be able to suck up soul energy from killing stuff? Is that something fairly unique to our PC? Is that the nature Hornet was talking about when she said "a being like you" or whatever the exact quote was, way back then? But then other creatures have got to use magic, like that early NPC who first taught us the hadouken. So I don't know. That's my biggest question right now, personally.
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Apr 29, 2021 13:47
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Reveilled posted:I think you're thinking of a rally. A volley is a single shot which is returned before it bounces on the ground. Oops, I very much am.
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Apr 29, 2021 14:40
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The Crystal Dash is my absolute favorite movement ability. Mostly because the way the Knight's helmet vibrates makes it seem like they're constantly screaming. I completely missed that downward exit in the shortcut back to Dirtmouth, so thanks, Nat, you've shown me where the last Grub Mimic I need to complete the Hunter's notes is.
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May 1, 2021 06:24
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There's... a lot to unpack here. I realize you're not calling Hollow Knight a metaphor for capitalist struggle, but game difficulty as capitalist struggle is... a discourse, certainly. That aside, because I really don't want to get mired in that before addressing other aspects of your post, this kind of difficulty has always been endemic to video games. The player is expected to fail repeatedly to accumulate the knowledge they need to succeed. Asking if someone could beat this game blind without dying is like asking if someone who's never done carpentry before can build a house without driving a nail wrong. Slightly bad analogy, though, because I do believe that someone could beat at least the critical path without dying. Someone with a substantial amount of transferred skills like Nat, but slightly quicker on the uptake. If Nat had figured out the Mantis Lords' high-low changeup, we'd have only seen our first death now, and possibly not even then. The amount of difficulty a player will accept is always going to be subjective. I enjoy Hollow Knight's level of difficulty, but think every other Soulslike I've seen is full of cheap and stupid deaths from enemies that hit way harder than you ever can. On the opposite end, there are people who play Kaizo Mario hacks ostensibly for fun. Whether developers are obligated to cater to all skill levels is a discussion we've had repeatedly on this forum, I've been a part of at least two. Both your examples are pretty solidly blatantly cheating, you would have a significant amount of players who'd go "gently caress this, I'm not sitting around while a developer plays out his abusive relationship fantasies on me." and a much smaller, but possibly more insufferable number who'd accept it as difficulty and you'd see speedrunners making fifth-hops so their inputs were clear for the next jump or mashing roll during the load screens so they'd dodge the paralyzing monster. In conclusion, SirSamVimes posted:I cannot think of a single boss fight in the entire game that I'd consider a cheap shot tbh. Nosk and Grey Prince Zote are immense dick moves at the time of their introduction, and Zote's fakeouts and change-ups make for a tough fight even when you know what to expect. But otherwise nothing on the order of some of the dick moves I've seen pulled by RPG optional superbosses.
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May 2, 2021 08:37
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You've been foiled by enough crumbly floors that you may want this spoiler: The upgrade to get through them is located in the City of Tears, through that unexplored room visible on your map near the City Storerooms. You may already have that upgrade from this recording session, though. Ironically, you asked about No Eyes' phase two while she was in phase two. Yeah, she just summons more medusa heads.
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May 6, 2021 10:19
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Regarding modding, there are a few videos out there showcasing the Hollow Point mod. It gives the Knight an AK-47 instead of the nail. Spoilers if you go looking, obviously. Gun% speedruns.
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May 10, 2021 23:50
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The dream bosses are a great place to use the Fragile ___ charms from Leg Eater. Since defeat there doesn't count as a death, the charms don't break. So, question for everybody who is not Nat or otherwise blind (Seriously, no one look at this if you're coming in blind): How are we going to make sure he gets the reaction to Millibelle stealing his money on camera?
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May 11, 2021 14:13
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Solitair posted:Same. I rarely feel the need to play games anywhere near their initial release date these days. I still have a few Stellaris 1.0 mechanics in my head. It sucks.
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May 12, 2021 22:02
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pumpinglemma posted:You should use the crystal dash more often on those long hallways - it’s not just a tool for going over pits, it’s really fast at backtracking as well. You can continuously crystal dash from the elevator shaft right into the Colosseum. It's one of my favorite routes to take mostly because all the bats try futilely to explode you.
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May 18, 2021 01:49
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SirPhoebos posted:I can't imagine why Nat would be so suspicious I mean, it can't be the incessant skittering in the background, or the strident violin accompaniment, or the fact that enemies can literally pop out of the ground around you. These are all perfectly normal and expected things in a deepnest. Deepnest is not my favorite area as in a place I enjoy spending time, but it's my favorite for how it's designed. It makes very deliberate departures from the design of every other area, for the clear purpose of altering the player's attitude.
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May 25, 2021 00:31
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Epicmissingno posted:the enemies on the way to Herrah that do two masks of damage. If you've played this, you know the ones. Those are one of the ones I'm looking out for to be one of the things that kills Nat. They're very doable, but he's definitely going to be taking some hits before he figures out their strategy.
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May 25, 2021 05:28
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Cactus posted:Yeah the purpose of that room, and a few others like it is to show you to always check the area around/below/above a boss arena before engaging the fight, if you have the option. Such as the secret room above and to the left of the Mantis Lords with a lifeblood cocoon in it, the only way to reach it is by climbing the closed door before challenging them... or with the crystal dash or double jump.
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May 28, 2021 08:06
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Nat, here are three places you can explore now that you have the double jump, in order of importance (First one isn't that necessary, last one gets you actual story). Each spoilered individually for your convenience. Top of Crystal Peak left of Dirtmouth (This one you could have actually done way earlier with the Mantis Claw) BKingdom's Edge None of these lead to the Dreamers, so they could all technically be classed as faffing about.
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Jun 2, 2021 08:04
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SirSamVimes posted:One of my favourite things is that Team Cherry didn't just account for people angrily swinging their nail at the bank, they were clearly hoping for it because the cardboard facade of a bank falling over is quite possibly the funniest thing in this entire game. The little detail of the sign breaking off the lamppost and falling as you pass it on the way out is just the perfect final cymbal hit on that rimshot.
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Jun 4, 2021 10:22
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pointlessone posted:"Hmm. That seems ominous. Anyway, WHERE'S MY MONEY?" 
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Jun 5, 2021 08:22
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Cactus posted:Ok, unpopular opinion incoming... You're not wrong that the gameplay can stand without its story. I'm personally of the opinion that as long as there is a story fully planned out in the author's mind and/or notes, we don't need to see all of it to enjoy the work. Knowing Hornet is the Knight's half-sister or Flukemarm is a MILF is essentially tangential to the story that's being told, and it's okay not to reveal it explicitly. However, the fact that the hour-long videos explaining the story exist means that the story is literally there to be discovered, you're just benefiting from the people who made the videos spending 12+ hours piecing things together. And that's what happens if you go around dream nailing everything. It's like being mailed a jigsaw puzzle one piece at a time. And some people, myself included, love that. Some of these pieces come from things like Dream Nailing a non-unique enemy, that only appears in one spot and doesn't respawn, and who you usually encounter and beat before getting the Dream Nail. Or equipping a specific charm and sticking your nose literally everywhere. The gameplay might stand on its own, but I think the story getting metered out in dribs and drabs and hidden everywhere does make for a much better fit to this methodical exploration of a kingdom fallen to ruin than a single upfront cutscene that says "The Hollow Knight has been overcome by Radiance. Are you a bad enough bug to take his place?" Even though this is literally what the opening cutscene shows and what Hornet asks you in front of the fountain.
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Jun 5, 2021 12:57
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TheOneAndOnlyT posted:As someone who just played through Hollow Knight for the second time, I can tell you with great confidence that the quote you just posted (which is from the Resting Grounds IIRC?) makes no sense on your first playthrough and perfect sense on the second. Yeah, their dialogue tells you everything--if you already have the context. But on your first playthrough you have no idea what the Seals are, or what the Vessel is, or what "captive light" or "plague" refers to, and it's a bunch of meaningless gibberish. Hell, the first time through, you may not even twig that more than one person is speaking.
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Jun 5, 2021 20:07
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Nosk and the Stalking Devout were two of the enemies I was looking at as being potential killers. The Devouts in particular with their two masks of damage. I was not prepared for Nat to simply start parrying them frame-perfect every time.
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Jun 10, 2021 11:19
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"Please, Hollow Knight was my father, just call me Knight."
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Jun 10, 2021 17:53
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Rappaport posted:"Noooo mister Knight, I expect you to die!" Spiders engulf screen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diOhwvRYlsU
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Jun 10, 2021 18:47
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The only problem with leaving something to do in Deepnest is you have this nagging knowledge in your head, "I need to go back to Deepnest." Every time I get an Essence from a random enemy, I think "Aww, that one had a dream. Maybe it wanted to be a carpenter. Or a cobbler."
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Jun 12, 2021 10:19
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