{"id":1257242,"date":"2026-03-02T11:09:22","date_gmt":"2026-03-02T11:09:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/?p=614123"},"modified":"2026-03-02T11:09:22","modified_gmt":"2026-03-02T11:09:22","slug":"its-always-a-good-time-to-replay-hollow-knight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arcader.org\/news\/its-always-a-good-time-to-replay-hollow-knight\/","title":{"rendered":"It\u2019s always a good time to (re)play Hollow Knight"},"content":{"rendered":"
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After waking up early and standing in line with dozens of people to buy a Switch 2, the first game I downloaded and played wasn\u2019t Mario Kart World<\/em>. I didn\u2019t bother with any other Nintendo games that got boosted for the new console, either. You see, rumors had been floating around that perhaps we\u2019d finally get a glimpse at Hollow Knight: Silksong<\/a><\/em>, the sequel to the 2017 indie Metroidvania where you explore a dilapidated kingdom of insects. Whispers of this sort happened every so often, as long-suffering fans of the franchise know. But this time felt different.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, a couple of days later, hope was renewed during the Xbox Game Showcase as Microsoft displayed a few seconds of Silksong<\/em> gameplay footage<\/a> to promote their hunker of a portable, the ROG Xbox Ally. The game, which is slated to release sometime in 2025, will bless all major platforms and be available from day one on Xbox Game Pass. That\u2019s all well and good, except I never finished the original Hollow Knight<\/em> to begin with.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve tried. I\u2019ve bought the melancholy exploration game multiple times. There\u2019s at least one save file with over a dozen hours out there, lost amid multiple generations of upgrades, data transfers, and redownloads. But while I was immediately captivated when I first tried the game out in 2017, the reality was that I couldn\u2019t a handle a game like that just yet.<\/p>\n

By 2017, we\u2019d gotten three major Dark Souls games and a variety of other brutal \u201cSoulslike\u201d experiences, many of which I would try only to end up quitting<\/a>. I\u2019d played and beaten Bloodborne<\/em>,<\/a> but despite its immediate recognition as a classic, it\u2019s also an objectively a more accessible entry point for the genre. The game and its life-stealing mechanics reward aggressive play in a way that most Soulslikes of the time didn\u2019t. A Soulslike that required a more measured approach was a different proposition altogether.<\/p>\n

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