Game Over: Hollow Knight

My wife is the single most influential force in my life: almost everything I consider important to me has come from her and her advice. Hollow Knight is one of those experiences, and I only played it because she so desperately loves it and wanted me to journey through Hallownest. 

This wasn't my first time trying it: I had already picked it up on several other occasions, and there was always something that got in the way: work, other games, health... 

One of my biggest fears was what it could do to my joints, as I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, and it centres a lot around my wrists and thumbs, basically presenting as De Quervain’s. Knowing that made me hesitant and anxious because of how intense the journey might be.

But then Team Cherry announced that Hollow Knight: Silksong was coming out in just two weeks. I was out of time: I either joined the fanbase now or missed out on one of the biggest releases of 2025. So I buckled down.

Before I played the game, I figured that if I loved it, I'd do so because of the achievement of finishing it. That's what happened to me with Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, after all: I felt accomplished and unbeatable when the credits rolled.

While Hollow Knight is definitely a fierce journey, it was also exciting and emotional. The small and talented group over at Team Cherry created something special: they took the concept of bugs being drawn to light and turned it into something so genuinely unique. I knew the narrative would have dark themes (I assume that of every soulslike, honestly), but I didn’t think it would resonate with me so deeply. 

By avoiding the evil king cliche and instead slowly unveiling the sheer amount of sacrifice and loss he endured for the well-being of his kingdom, it made for a heartwrenching story… even if it’s about bugs. That, coupled with the lovable characters, is what stayed with me past the credits.

As my wife helped me get the ending she thought I’d want, I was no longer focused on my joints or the difficulty or the achievement. My eyes were on the abyss, and the unfathomable number of shadows in it. All I could think about was how much I had grown to love Hallownest and its bugs.

Truth be told, it's rare for me to get that immersed in narrative... Doubling down on the honesty: I didn't beat The Radiance. After 50 hours, finding every grub, and even canonically becoming king, I just couldn't bear through the poor Hollow Knight screaming anymore.

Team Cherry did a phenomenal job at making the fight gutwrenching — it can't have just been me who felt that tug when the Path of Pain track played, followed by his desperate stabbing.

The experience had been such an unexpected cathartic journey that I just wanted my wife to take the controller and let me see what would happen out the other side. 

I didn’t regret it. Hollow Knight, as cheesy as it sounds, ended up being much more than a soulslike to conquer in the end. I can’t speak for the entire community, but I have an inkling that it’s one of the reasons why it has such a loyal fanbase.

The culmination of their evident love throughout the game is hard to miss, from the fantastic narrative to the small details, like “The Last Stag” changing to “Old Stag”. I’m grateful to have experienced the game, but I’m even more glad that it exists at all.

Hollow Knightis almost all done with me, but I can't imagine I'll ever be done with it. I've got a few more achievements I want to attempt because I need this game at 100%, and for the first time, it's not out of gamer pride: I just love it that much. It's unheard of that I spend 50 hours on a game, but I want more characters, more bosses, more areas.

For my birthday, my wife bought me a Grub plush to celebrate my love for the game; it now sits on top of my screen alongside her Knight one. The game might as well be the brightest light to our bug brains because I don’t think either of us would choose to live without it. 

It took years, but I did it — I finished the beloved 2D soulslike. If you haven't played Hollow Knight, I sincerely hope you give it a shot. It has been one of the best experiences I've had in gaming, and I can't wait to see what Team Cherry has in store for us.