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It's a beautiful game with a gigantic world. The enemy variety and detail blows other metroidvania games out of the water! The bosses are more like something out of Mega Man, which is unusual in a genre of poorly balanced, janky bosses. This is a pure action-platform gaming experience, based on the careful timing and spacing of your jump, attack, dash, and other abilities. These characters bring sparks of life to the otherwise dying caves, many of them reappearing at fixed points around the map, and sometimes even during boss fights to provide a few of Hollow Knight’s most thrilling moments. A few of my favorites include a pudgy shopkeeper who can't stop giggling, a kindly wandering swordsman who has lost his memory, and the tiny but boisterous Zote the Mighty-who, later in the game, will explain to you all of his 57 precepts if you care to listen that long. The NPCs I meet are all quirky and cartoonish, but still feel like coherent parts of the world.

The heavy themes have a light-heartedness about them without slipping into parody. The devastation and loss in Hallownest's history is palpable, but the cute art style means the tone never feels overbearing or depressing. While Hollow Knight is set in what is ostensibly a medieval fantasy kingdom, it's got a buggy carapace stretched over everything. Except you're really an adorable little bug-man, fighting and befriending other adorable bug-people. You control an emotionless knight, your purpose not entirely clear at the outset, and delve into that land to ward off the evil within. There's nothing but a desolate and dark landscape on the surface and a winding catacomb filled with the stink of death below. You enter Hollow Knight's world long past its prime-a dying kingdom, its society torn to pieces and its heroes already fallen.