Team Cherry & Hollow Knight: A Love Letter

Hey everyone! After beating Hollow Knight I sat down to the soundtrack to try and capture my experience. I would love for you to view the actual post, with all of its media here: Team Cherry & Hollow Knight: A Love Letter. However, if you would prefer to stay and read it here, I will try to get it close to the original format. Although I do show some in-game content, there isn't anything that will "spoil" the game unless you really don't want to see any place/fight you haven't done yet

Bare with me as formatting on the new Reddit is giving me a hard time

_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Team Cherry, Ari Gibson, William Pellen, and all of the backers from Kickstarter, I want to take a moment of my time to say that I love you. I’m not typically very emotional, but as I sat through the end credits of Hollow Knight, I was filled with strong emotions of gratitude and sadness. Gratitude for what I had the chance to experience, and sadness for a chapter that had come to a close. I am sitting down now, listening to a beautifully crafted soundtrack, to take a look back at the journey Team Cherry took me on in Hollow Knight.

https://i.redd.it/4o4c7t35mxa11.jpg

I bought Hollow Knight immediately after seeing it in Videogamedunkey’s video The Good Year where I was captivated by the art, gameplay, and Jason’s verbalized appreciation for the game. So thank you Dunkey for introducing me to this "mastapiece."

https://i.redd.it/cwcywkrhmxa11.png

The world Team Cherry drops you into finds a balance between mysterious yet calming. A dark world that his filled with light. Lonely, yet filled with surprises at every turn. You are hinted at a world that is in despair and you want to do everything in your power to bring it back to balance. Exploring the world might have been one of the most fun and rewarding worlds I have ever had the pleasure to explore. Each room has a unique feel that can’t be felt anywhere else; rather it’s a new enemy, a challenging platform puzzle, or the cry of a Grub hidden somewhere in the room that you want to free so badly.

Discovering a new area was like unlocking a whole new game. Each area had such a uniquely crafted atmosphere for you to experience. The characters that you encountered throughout the world added such an amazing touch of life to what seemed like such a desolate world. Their personalities could be felt and remembered. They refueled your passion to make the world right. The Elder who always welcomed your company in Dirtmouth, The Last Stag who helped you travel all over the world and never abandoned his duties, Cornifer the Cartographer who helped you navigate the world, and so many more made a lasting impact on me and my experience.

https://i.redd.it/aupl4rzrlxa11.png

The combat - nothing has ever felt so fluid. I felt at one with my nail. Each enemy offered a different challenge and boy, if I didn’t get my butt handed to me by the bosses. Team Cherry really captured something amazing here. I kept relating it to my past experience with Dark Souls. When I died to a boss in Dark Souls, it was discouraging, it was frustrating, it didn’t make me want to try it again. I NEVER encountered this problem in Hollow Knight.

The challenge was perfectly tuned to be clearly obtainable but something that you had to conquer with hard work and perseverance. Every death lit a flame inside me to try something new, to try a new approach. And when you did conquer the challenge, the reward was always worth it. The different ways to approach a fight, the different mechanics you had available to you (dashing above or under enemies, jumping off of walls, using spells, bouncing off an enemies head with your nail) made winning a fight satisfying every single time.

https://i.redd.it/c3p4n23ptxa11.png

The way Team Cherry approached progression in Hollow Knight was beautifully designed. Obtaining new abilities and items through your battles and exploration made them feel like opening a chest in The Legend of Zelda. Having each ability open a whole new way to approach the game and making that one ledge you couldn’t reach accessible made them feel that more valuable. Receiving Charms and Soul Fragments for saving the Grubs, finding a hidden nook in the wall, or completing a difficult platform puzzle, made exploring every inch of the world so enjoyable. The badges created a great way for me to play the game how I wanted to while also adding a fun element of putting together the right set of badges for the particular challenge that I was facing.

https://i.redd.it/0xmo3bqttxa11.jpg

I want what Team Cherry has created here to be a beacon of light that shoots through the entire gaming industry. They have created a masterpiece. They did it with a team so small compared to other games that it would make your head spin. This game didn’t come out as “Early Access.” This game didn’t come out full of holes and bugs. In fact, I didn’t encounter any bugs in my entire 30 hour play through. Team Cherry released this game 106% complete at a cost for us of $15. Soon, Team Cherry will becoming out with Hollow Knight’s port for the Switch along with yet another free DLC for everyone who owns the game.

https://i.redd.it/suvm9elqlxa11.jpg

Team Cherry, I wish had more words to express my love and gratitude for who you are and what you have created. You are my ray of hope that there are still good people in the gaming industry whose main focus is to create beautiful worlds for everyone to experience. I wish you all the best, please continue down this amazing road you are on, let us know how we all can help.

https://i.redd.it/74g10oqlmxa11.png

With love and gratitude - Z

Submitted July 19, 2018 at 08:43PM by Zac417417 https://ift.tt/2JAlcri