Games like Hollow Knight (Script)

Since its release in early 2017, Hollow Knight has had a huge influence on the Metroidvania genre. With the genre itself seeing more releases year after year, we’re also seeing an influx of games inspired by Hollow Knight. This inspiration can take many forms. It could look like taking some game mechanics or themes and using them to create something very different. Or it could look like trying to make your game play and feel as much like Hollow Knight as possible, looking to recapture what it is that made that original title such a great game.

So in this video we’re going to be looking at some games that took inspiration from Hollow Knight and see how they stack up to Team Cherry’s debut work. Save for one exception, I’ve decided to only showcase games that I consider good in this video. So don’t expect me to talk about trash games like The Suite Life of Zack & Cody: Circle of Spies for the Nintendo DS. Just want to make that clear now before anyone gets their hopes up.

Haiku, the Robot

Haiku, the Robot is the first game I want to look at today because I think this game comes quite close to matching the overall vibe of Hollow Knight. The game is set in the robot-run world of Arcadia where almost every robot has been infected with a computer virus turning them into mindless killers. As Haiku explores Arcadia, they will encounter unique characters with their own quests and stories from a girl looking for a cassette tape to a prying detective asking too many questions to a toaster. In order to combat this virus, Haiku will have to track down the three Creators, snap them out of the virus’ clutches, and convince them to help break the seals keeping the source of the virus at bay they can go McAfee mode on it.

So yes, this game really is “What if Hollow Knight, but robots”? There’s no denying that. But I think Haiku, the Robot is a good example that a game doesn’t have to be particularly original in order to be enjoyable. I know for some people, it can be a bit of a turn off when a game feels too similar to another in terms of structure. But I think a lot of the concepts and ideas that made Hollow Knight a fun game for me to play also make Haiku a fun game for me to play.

I think what Haiku replicates best from Hollow Knight is the exploration. The game opens up pretty early on, and you have a lot of freedom when charting your course through the world. Each area feels distinct enough with its own color palette and unique platforming challenges. There’s one area in particular where the air is too hot for you to use certain abilities, forcing you to handle combat encounters and platforming challenges without certain movement options you’ve come to rely on. Little things like that help the world feel more varied and interesting both in terms of setting and gameplay.

Combat in Haiku is on the basic side. Your two main combat options are to swing your sword, or, once you unlock it, use a power bomb. It doesn’t have Hollow Knight’s spell system or nail art system. There are a few chips that create balls of electricity or other little knick knacks, but that’s pretty much it. Healing works similar to Hollow Knight, although since this game doesn’t have a soul mechanic, you pay with spare parts, this game’s currency. When you heal, Haiku stands in place, pulls out a wrench and starts… uhh… let’s censor that. It takes Haiku a long time to… finish their business. The initial heal takes three whole seconds, compared to the Knight’s roughly one second initial heal.

Since healing is tied to currency, you could walk into a fight having no way to heal or the ability to heal dozens of times. The extremely long heal time discourages healing too often in combat. But chances are, you won’t really need to heal much in combat anyway. Haiku doesn’t lock you in ambush rooms like Hollow Knight. And the boss fights, while well designed, aren’t particularly challenging either.

Haiku presents its lore in a similar way to Hollow Knight. As I mentioned before, there are various NPCs who travel around the map that you’ll bump into on occasion. And there are lore tablets scattered around the world as well. After my first playthrough I had a pretty good idea of what was going on, but there were a few small details that left me with some questions.

At its core, Haiku is a simple game. It provides a basic and straightforward Metroidvania experience with a heaping portion of Hollow Knight mixed into its DNA. It’s not trying to reinvent the wheel, but instead provide a bite-sized, familiar experience. And what it does, it does well. So if you’re desperate for a game that scratches that Hollow Knight itch, I think Haiku, the Robot would be a fine choice.

And if you’re looking for a challenge, I should mention that Haiku does have a hard mode where you die in one hit. This mode has an alternate storyline, a unique boss and even more fast travel locations. I didn’t end up playing this mode, but for you more daring gamers out there, that is an option after you complete the base game.

Voidwrought

Voidwrought is another game that follows closely in Hollow Knight’s footsteps, taking players to a world of ancient civilizations and cosmic horrors. And I want to start off by saying that I love this game’s presentation. The game starts off with this vaguely Egyptian aesthetic, but you’ll soon find yourself exploring an abandoned submarine, a frozen maze of tunnels, and, of course, Ohio. Each area was a treat to discover simply due to how much I loved the environment art. The sound design for this game is solid too. Everything feels appropriately crunchy as you would want. I’m very happy to report that the sound of hitting a skeleton in this game is exactly how it sounds in real life.

And the music is great too. It’s high energy and utilizes a lot of electric guitar.

As much as I love the setting and presentation, the story itself I didn’t quite latch onto as much. It’s a cool premise. The game is set in an underground kingdom that has been awakened by the arrival of the Red Star. You are a simulacrum born from the sacred ovum and are tasked with killing the false gods of the land. Now, that all sounds cool. I mean, I’ve never played a bad game with a scared ovum in it, but the game doesn’t really ease you into its world very smoothly. The characters you meet in Voidwrought all talk in riddles, laying on the lore a little too thick right from the get go. Hollow Knight gives you plenty of friendly NPCs who aren’t really that interested in the main lore of the game at all. Early on you meet characters like Zote and Myla and Tiso who can organically give you more info on the world without it feeling like they are giving you some kind of lore dump.

While I have complaints with the NPCs, the game clearly put work into its lore. There’s a compendium for not only every enemy, but each lore tablet, map region and NPC as well. There’s plenty to dig into and I really do think there’s a lot of cool ideas here. So I don’t think the game’s lore is bad or anything, I just think Hollow Knight does a better job at getting you, the player, naturally interested in the game’s deeper story. But, at the same time, plenty of people hate how Hollow Knight’s lore is handled too. So your mileage may vary on this.

Outside of presentation, another thing I think Voidwrought handles well is exploration. Much like Hollow Knight and Haiku, Voidwrought’s world opens up fairly early into the game, allowing you to explore its various nooks and crannies at your own discretion. A good chunk of the progression gates in the game are clearable with three or four separate abilities, giving you a lot of possible paths to take through the world.

The game is a little light on platforming challenges. There are spike pits and acid pits here and there, but any actual platforming challenge you find will be sequestered in tiny rooms off the main paths. But even with less platforming challenges, the game keeps traversal interesting with its enemy placement as well as its sizable amount of health upgrades and other goodies to discover as well.

Voidwrought has a charm system, although in this game, they are “souls” which provide passive effects like creating trails of gas similar to Defender’s Crest or giving you more ichor when you kill an enemy, ichor being this game’s currency. Additionally, you can equip unique relics, weapons that you can use by spending “Void Charges” which are replenished by hitting enemies. These souls and relics act as some of the rewards you can find while exploring Voidwrought’s world. There’s a lot to discover in this game, and I actually think Voidwrought might do a better job than Hollow Knight at making each reward feel more meaningful. In Voidwrought, you can collect Shards of Vitae which work almost identically to Mask Shards in Hollow Knight. But you only need three shards to increase your HP, not four. And there are more than twice as many shards hidden across Voidwrought’s smaller map. So even if there are a lot of hidden things to find in Voidwrought you don’t get as many items like Wanderer’s Journals or Rancid Eggs.

As for the combat, Voidwrought is fairly straightforward. You’ll mainly be swinging your sword while activating your relics once they are off cooldown. You can’t use your Void Charges to heal, instead you have a set number of heals that replenish when you reach a save point. So you can’t be too reckless in battle.

Pogoing is here too, of course, although it doesn’t feel quite the same as in Hollow Knight. First of all, it launches you a lot higher. That can be useful for pogoing around the overworld, as well as when fighting big bosses, so I don’t inherently hate this change. What I do have a bit of a problem with is how this game handles momentum. In Hollow Knight, if you are holding left or right while in the air and then let go of the dpad, the Knight cancels all its horizontal speed. In Voidwrought, the character will keep moving forward. This aerial momentum makes controlling your character in the air feel a bit unwieldy. That said, it’s certainly not unmanageable, and after playing for a few hours I felt very comfortable with Voidwrought’s controls,

Similar to Hollow Knight, the enemies you fight are pretty simple, and the game isn’t too shy about locking you into combat encounters. While not as numerous, the boss fights are more flashy and bombastic than those found in Hollow Knight. They really aren’t afraid to put you up against large dudes. Now apparently when the game first launched in October, all the bosses after the first two were way underpowered and you could steamroll them very easily. When I played the game in November, I felt as though the bosses were quite tanky, so I wasn’t able to cheese any of the fights.

Although for half my playthrough I completely missed the attack upgrades. You get stronger by solving slide puzzles in specific rooms. Which, can you blame me for not realizing this is how you power up your sword? So if you find one of these rooms in your travels make sure you do it! Or if you’re worried about the game being too easy, don’t do it until you hit a boss that’s too hard.

Voidwrought is another game that sticks close to the Hollow Knight formula, providing a similar experience with a few changes here and there. And personally, I think it works. Voidwrought’s world was rewarding to explore, and the game’s combat was always engaging enough to keep me excited for the next boss fight. If you’re looking for another Hollow Knight like experience and this looks fun to you, I say check it out.

Crowsworn

For me, Crowsworn feels like the poster child of embracing what made Hollow Knight great and incorporating it into a fresh, but still similar experience. The developers, Mongoose Rodeo, even hired Leth from Team Cherry to handle PR and marketing for this game. Out of these first three games, I think Crowsworn has the greatest chance to be seen as living up to the critical acclaim Hollow Knight has garnered. There’s just one problem. The game isn’t out yet.

For now, you’ll just have to settle for me talking about my experience with the demo that came out exclusively for Kickstarter backers in summer of 2023. I have no idea when the game will come out, but I’m sure the devs are working hard at it.

In Crowsworn you play as a guy. Well, I think it’s a guy anyway. When they die, they explode into a bunch of crows. I’ve never seen a real person die so I don’t know how accurate that is to real life but I don’t think that happens. Anyway this guy/murder of crows shoved into a plague doctor outfit finds themself in the land of Fearanndal, a land trapped in perpetual penance. Sounds like a pretty awful place. Thank god I live in America. The world is dark and dreary, complemented by the fantastic art, music and sound design for the game.

I can’t talk much about the game’s exploration, other than to say the specific areas looked great. The layout used in the demo won’t be in the final game, so playing the demo just made me wonder how the level would look in the final release. I think my favorite thing I found in the demo was this random shack hidden away in this cave. Who lives here, I thought to myself, then I noticed the crescent shaped moon on the door, and I immediately thought of the outhouse from the beginning of Shrek. 

Combat in Crowsworn feels a little bit more 2D soulslike than in Hollow Knight. The demo gives you a roll move which you can only use while on the ground, but lets you move through enemies. While there are simple enemies here, there are also some pretty involved ones. This guy jumps around the room and creates shockwaves. Not the most complex moveset but definitely more involved than a lot of Hollow Knight enemies.

The two boss fights featured in the demo were both a lot of fun. The first fight was against this big nosed fella with a giant lance and shield. The second fight was against my ancient enemy, James Corden. This thing jumps around and spawns lots of annoying little flying enemies. It seems like Crowsworn is going to have a much faster pace than Hollow Knight, and I’m excited to see what the bosses in the final game are going to be like.

Crowsworn also has a charm system, but it's one of the weirdest ones I’ve seen. You start with a human corpse with a head, a torso, two arms and two legs. You can graft body parts you find onto the corpse, but there’s a weight limit that locks away part of your health bar if you go past it. So that’s a bit strange, but you know, who am I to judge? We all have our weird hobbies.

Crowsworn also has special finisher moves. You can gain Malice by damaging enemies to use spells like the Corvial Dive. Your Malice is displayed with this spiral, but if you fill the spiral twice over, you can use a super fancy finishing attack with a special animation where you fire a giant crow at your foes.

So yeah, Crowsworn looks pretty neat. But as of right now, the game plays more like Silksong than Hollow Knight. Mainly because it's not out yet.

Ender Lilies

The next three games on my list don’t play as closely to Hollow Knight, but still claim inspiration from it in one way or another. And I think the overlapping similarities these games have with Hollow Knight make them worth examining.

Over the past few years, a lot of people have told me to check out Ender Lilies for its similar feel to Hollow Knight. Ender Lilies is set in a dilapidated world ravaged by some sort of infection known simply as the Blight. The game has a somber tone to it, which I think is where the majority of the comparisons to Hollow Knight come from.

Out of all the games I’m going to talk about today, I think Ender Lilies most closely captures the brooding atmosphere presented in Hollow Knight. I feel like a broken record saying all these games look really good, but this game does look really good. I also really enjoy the game’s soundtrack. There are a lot of beautiful songs that play through the various levels you’ll explore throughout the game. The music doesn’t necessarily fit each level super well, but the tracks themselves are good.

In Ender Lilies, you play as a little anime girl who can summon spirits that perform attacks for her. Now if you’ve watched this channel for a while, you’ll know I’m a huge anime fan. I’ve even seen the more obscure stuff like Demon Slayer and Jujutsu Kaisen. The girl, named Lily, awakens in a dilapidated church without her memories. She is greeted by the Umbral Knight, a phantom who offers his strength to help her cut through the Blighted enemies that now infest the kingdom. 

As the game progresses, Lily learns more about her past and the history of the world around her. While I mentioned earlier that the brooding atmosphere is similar to Hollow Knight, Ender Lilies doesn’t share Hollow Knight’s moments of levity. Pretty much every character in this story has had something terrible happen to them. Even the name of the kingdom this game takes place in is depressing: “Land's End”. I guess Fearanndal was already taken. If Hollow Knight is Dave & Buster’s, Ender Lilies is just Dave.

Unlike a lot of the other games I’ve mentioned so far, Ender Lilies is a fairly linear game. The different regions feel very isolated from one another. Once you get to an area, you’ll likely be there until you finish off the designated boss so you can get the ability to go to the next region. There’s a little bit of freedom of choice in the middle of the game, but it’s nothing like Hollow Knight.

One thing that’s a bit weird about this game is its map. The rooms are represented on the map as basic rectangles. But the size of the rectangles don’t really match the sizes of the rooms at all. So if you’re trying to find a room you remembered going through earlier in your playthrough, you can’t really rely on the map room shapes as much as you should be able to.

While the map layout itself is nonsense, the map does indicate if there are still items left to find in a room, which made backtracking to 100% everything pretty easy. The game also lets you warp between any rest point, not just designated fast travel rooms. The game also lets you warp back to a rest point from the pause menu. You can also do this in games like Hollow Knight and Voidwrought, but you have to quit out of the game and reload your save file. I kinda appreciate that Ender Lilies just lets you get right to the point with it. So all those little things help make up for the weird map, outside of the fact that it kinda breaks the immersion if the world’s map doesn’t line up correctly with itself at all.

Combat in Ender Lilies is quite a bit different from Hollow Knight. Your base attack is a sword swing that comes from your spirit helper, but as you defeat bosses and certain enemies, you can equip more of these spirit attacks. You can have up to six equipped at a time. While the sword and a few other attacks are infinite, most of them like the ranged fireball attack or the swinging mace attack only have a set number of uses before you have to replenish them at a bench. There are a lot of spirits too, each of which can be upgraded as well, so you have a lot of options when it comes to your playstyle. Some spirits are better than others, and you’ll probably end up just using the ones you like, but the game lets you experiment if you want to.

This concept of getting special moves from enemies is sort of like the Soul Set mechanic from Castlevania Aria of Sorrow, where enemy souls could be equipped to change how attacks work. And this wouldn’t be the only similarity between this game and Castlevania. This game has experience points and levels, like you see in Symphony of the Night. Lily also has this i-frame dodge move where she dives forward. It’s a funny move and I often used it while jumping off cliffs. But even this image of a little girl diving reminded me of Maria from Castlevania Rondo of Blood.

In other words, I think this game might share a little more DNA with Castlevania than Hollow Knight. But, then again, it also has charms, called Relics in this game. So, there’s that.

Overall, I quite enjoyed Ender Lilies. If you’re looking for a game that captures that dark melancholy of Hollow Knight’s world, this might be a good choice for you. If you’re looking for something similar to Hollow Knight combat-wise, or exploration-wise, it’s not quite as good of a fit.

Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus

Probably the most striking difference between Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus and a lot of other Metroidvania games on the market is its aesthetic. Bō: is heavily inspired by Japanese folklore. I’d say pretty much every character is based on some story from Japanese mythology, and there’s a ton of stuff that you can point to in this game and say “Hey I remember that from Spirited Away.” This Japanese influence carries into Bō’s soundtrack, giving it a distinct sound unlike any other game mentioned in this video so far.

Your spells are equipable daruma, which are good luck charms designed to resemble Bodhidharma, the founder of Zen Buddhism. Bō’s charm system uses Omamori, which are good luck charms sold at Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines in Japan. Speaking of shrines, the resting points in Bō: are shrines too. 

And there’s also a little bit of Chinese influence as well. Bō:’s weapon, the Equinox Staff, which they wear as an ear piercing is based on the Ruyi Jingu Bang, the staff used by Sun Wukong from 16th century Chinese novel Black Myth: Wukong for the PS5.

The main character, Bō, is born from the tear of a kami landing on a lotus flower. Bō is referred to as a Tentaihana, or “Celestial Blossom”. Bō is quickly introduced to Asahi, a fellow Tentaihana who’s kind of a dick. Bō also catches a glimpse at a Gashadokuro, a giant skeleton monster that threatens the land.

Despite the giant, evil skeleton walking around, I didn’t really feel any sense of urgency playing Bō. I guess it’s kinda like real life in some sense, kinda just vibing along trying your best to ignore the existential dread. Most of the numerous NPCs you talk to are all very laid back and friendly characters, from the dragon who runs a library, to the alien fast travel girl to the hot spring monkeys. If Ender Lilies got all the depressing, sad aspects of Hollow Knight, Bō got all the silly stuff. But my favorite NPC doesn’t appear in the game until the last area, so I’m going to put up a spoiler warning. If you don’t want to be spoiled for a late game character, skip to this timestamp.

Alright, so there’s this axolotl named Kirei who helps you reach the top of the castle in Sakura City where the final boss is. And Kirei just really loves being an elevator operator. She calls the elevator Elly and tells us that she has literally never left the elevator since childhood. And she’s just chill about it. So yeah, I thought that was pretty funny.

So yeah, there’s a lot of levity throughout all of Bō. But it does get more serious towards the end when we finally learn the truth about what has been really going on in the world. So it’s not like Bō doesn’t take its story seriously at all.

One final note about the setting in Bō. The game shows off a lot of yokai, or Japanese spirits, without really telling us what their deal is. I was honestly probably more interested to learn about this enemy that’s just three green heads rolling around than whatever is going on with Asahi or the game’s capital Sakura City.

Gameplay-wise, Bō felt like a mix between Hollow Knight and the Ori games. We’ve got all the hallmark of Hollow Knight influences like gaining tea when dealing damage that can then be used to heal or cast a spell and the health being indicated by a discrete number of some symbol related to the player character.

Like the Knight, Bō also has a pogo that resets both their jump and their dash. But they also have Ori’s bash ability to fling projectiles back at enemies. The game is also structured more similar to Ori in that the game is both very linear, and mostly platforming focused. In fact, one of the designers for Bō, Milton Guasti, of AM2R fame, was a level designer for Ori 2. Guasti’s experience was a big influence on Bō’s level design. [Source] 

That’s all to say I really enjoyed the platforming challenges in Bō. Platforming is one aspect of Hollow Knight I wish we got more of, and I don’t think any of the other games listed so far really excel beyond Hollow Knight in that regard. So I’m glad Bō focuses on it so much. Moving through a barrage of enemy attacks and hazards while smacking lanterns with my staff to reset my aerial toolkit was always satisfying. 

Combat is much more aerial focused in Bō. Hollow Knight isn’t designed for aerial battles as much, with the game’s camera fixed at a closer zoom and the Knight being less mobile than Bō overall. On top of that, Bō also has a combo system that encourages the player to keep themselves in the air as long as possible. In turn, bosses in Bō are bigger set piece battles more similar to Ori than Hollow Knight.

Overall, I enjoyed Bō. Although, maybe it belongs in a video about games like Ori instead of games like Hollow Knight. Either way, if you’re looking for a good platforming challenge similar to what’s found in the White Palace, you’re better off picking up Bō than any of the other games in this video.

Nine Sols

Nine Sols’ developers describe the game as:

A journey of Asian fantasy inspired by Sekiro, Hollow Knight and Katana Zero. [Source]

The developers also describe the game as “taopunk”, mixing Far Eastern mythology and Taoism with a cyberpunk aesthetic. I really dig this game’s unique style. And I’m not just saying that because it has furries.

In Nine Sols, charms are called jades, jade itself being highly regarded in Chinese and Taoist culture, and was used to create various artifacts and statues. A script heavily derived from Chinese script appears all over the backgrounds and environments [Source]. A lot of the various characters also appear to be based on Chinese mythology as well. The main character, Yi, appears to be based on Hou Yi, an archer tasked by the Jade Emperor to reign in the ten suns who once all came out at the same time, scorching the earth.

While Nine Sols lists Hollow Knight as an influence, it’s a very different game. Outside of the charm system, not much else carries over directly. There isn’t a mechanic like Soul, and you actually have a health bar instead of little discrete hit points indicated by masks or fruits or the state of Nevada. You also only get a set number of heals that replenish at save points. And you also heal by smoking from a big pipe. Which, hey, as long as Yi isn’t pulling out a wrench I’m fine with it.

The most significant difference in my mind is the game’s combat. If you swing your sword with Yi three times, he’ll do a strong attack, whereas the Knight’s swings don’t combo like this. Yi’s attack combos also give him an air stall, but you also can’t pogo off enemies indefinitely. On top of that, Nine Sols’ combat loop focuses much more on parrying. Parrying an enemy at just the right time gives Yi an explosion talisman that he can then place on the enemy to deal massive damage. The parry timing window in Nine Sols is pretty generous, and even if you are early, the game will give you a chance to regain your health over time as long as you don’t get hit. The game really pushes you to master this parrying mechanic in order to succeed.

And you will want to because Nine Sols is tough. I had a pretty hard time with the game’s bosses. Now, part of that is because I suck. But the game also just expects a lot from you in these fights. You have to learn the bosses' attack patterns intimately to successfully parry them and counter attack at the right times. I found this difficulty really fun, and the boss fights were probably my favorite part of the game. There aren’t as many bosses as in Hollow Knight, but Nine Sols doesn’t have bosses like Massive Moss Charger, or Crystal Guardian. You know, very basic enemies that only have a few moves.

There are some platforming challenges here too, but it’s definitely a lower priority compared to games like Ori or Bō or even Hollow Knight. Most of the game is hallways where you fight enemies. But the platforming that is here is still fun.

As Metroidvanias go, Nine Sols is on the more linear side. I felt myself being led pretty heavily as I explored the game's map, rarely going too far off the expected path the game laid out for me. Areas are varied, but they all have a similar cyberpunk vibe to them that keep them from standing out from one another.

Something I found surprising was how Nine Sols gives the player their upgrades. The game just gives you them at certain save points, usually when first entering a new region of the map. The rooms in Nine Sols are quite large, and almost every room has a savepoint somewhere. So it’s pretty difficult to miss a major movement upgrade.

There were a few moments when I could go my own way, but it’s nothing like Hollow Knight in that regard. A good part of this is due to how Nine Sols handles its story. Nine Sols puts its story at the forefront of the game, putting a greater emphasis on it than Hollow Knight. And by that I mean that instead of hiding the story away to be discovered on your own, Nine Sols takes you on a guided experience through the world, introducing you to specific characters and story elements at set points in the game. In other words, it’s very narrative driven. Especially for a Metroidvania. For example, there are way more mandatory dialogue boxes compared to Hollow Knight.

Nine Sols follows Yi, a member of the Ten Sols, a group of Solarians in charge of overseeing New Kunlun. Due to a falling out with the other members, he was sealed away in the Primordial Roots for over 500 years, and now that he’s free, he’s got a bit of a score to settle with the remaining ten minus one Sols.

Unlike Hollow Knight and literally every other game mentioned in this video so far, this protagonist doesn’t just silently stare at NPCs, he talks. He talks quite a bit, actually. I’m a pretty big fan of this. Who says a Metroidvania can’t have actual dialogue from playable characters?

Yi is sorta a loner character who acts tough, but ultimately cares deeply for those close to him. This aspect of him is displayed with his friend Shuanshuan, the young boy who finds Yi after he was trapped in the Primordial Roots. Yi gives Shuanshaun random things found throughout the game like music sheets and extremely dangerous tools. He’s like if I was still a parent. You can even give him a VR headset. It always warms my heart to see a parent screenmaxing their child. I’m glad Nine Sols agrees with me on this matter.

There are also special cutscenes with Yi’s sister, Heng, that appear throughout the game. These scenes take place in the past and help flesh out Yi’s character even more, helping you to get a sense of his values, his goals and his regrets.

The Nine Sols that Yi fights are also fun characters. Some are deeper than others, but ultimately, I enjoyed encountering each of them. Since all of these characters have a history you don’t know about, each conversation teases you with bits of information about what happened to the Solarians and their original home of Penglai. 

By the time you reach the end of Nine Sols, pretty much everything gets explained. It’s not like Hollow Knight, where you have to put in extra work to really piece everything together.

I enjoyed the story in Nine Sols. The cast of characters is fun, and the general plot was interesting to unravel as I played through the game. Some parts of the story are like what we’ve seen in a lot of other Metroidvania games, but Nine Sols explores these ideas from a Taoist perspective, which make things a bit more fresh than they might otherwise be. And similar to Bō, a lot of these characters are based on Chinese history and mythology. So there’s some fun cultural exposure there as well.

It’s not a perfect story, and it is a bit edgier than other games in this video. The gore is borderline creepypasta at certain points, and there’s even swearing in there too. And while I do love a good creepypasta, nothing scares me more as a YouTuber than swearing. But damn it, even if it isn’t perfect, I still appreciated Nine Sols’ effort to have a more driving narrative. 

Overall, I thought Nine Sols was a lot of fun. The parry-focused combat system made boss fights a blast, even if I died a lot. And of course the art style and presentation of this game is great too. If you’re looking for a challenge, I’d recommend checking this one out. If you’re more interested in the story, the game also has a difficulty slider system to make the game easier if you are struggling. 

Out of all the games I’ve talked about here, I think Nine Sols pushes the envelope the most, creating a unique, engaging experience I’d highly recommend checking out.

“Knock-Offs”

Generally, you’d think getting compared to Hollow Knight is a good thing. But there are some games out there that catch a lot of heat for being too much like Hollow Knight and they, sometimes, can end up getting a lot of attention from gamers and news outlets [Source]. So let’s look at a couple of recent examples of Hollow Knight knock-offs.

I want to start with probably the funniest of these, Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse. Way back in the ancient past, January 2024, a company known as PocketPair released a game called Palworld, a 3D survival game featuring catchable monsters that looked an awful lot like Pokemon. And there was a little bit of controversy surrounding all that.

That same company, PocketPair, is also publishing Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse. And with the whole Pokemon rip-off situation happening, some pointed out that this game looked a lot like Hollow Knight [Source]. What’s funny about this situation is that Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse isn’t even a Metroidvania. It’s a roguelike.

Now look. I hate roguelikes as much as the next guy, especially the one I’m showing on screen right now, but I decided to play a little bit of Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse. These signs definitely give off a Hollow Knight vibe. But everything else feels very standard roguelike, particularly Dead Cells. This part where you have to pick between two paths for different rewards also reminds me of Skul.

You play as a hat that possesses an anime girl who can use magic to swing a sword. You can also ditch the girl to possess other creatures as well. I don’t know why, but when the girl isn’t possessed she just kinda lies there like a dead body. “What the fuck!” I thought to myself when I saw this. But eventually I just accepted it as the way things are.

When you’re not in a run, you can build a town which will give you more resources to give you permanent upgrades. I thought this was great. I really hope Team Cherry steals this idea for Silksong. You can also eat tomatoes. I thought this was great. I really hope Team Cherry steals this idea for Silksong.

Apparently the game is also going to have co-op, which if there’s one thing I love, it’s co-op being added to a game that probably shouldn’t have it.

Outside of having a somewhat similar art style, Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse has nothing in common with Hollow Knight. This is nothing like what happened with Palworld. Now if we were talking about Dead Cells, or Super Mario Odyssey, or Dead Anime Girl simulator, you’d maybe have a point. But this video isn’t really about those games, is it?

However, there is another game that caught some attention this year for its similarities to Hollow Knight; Deviator. This game has received a ton of flak for looking too much like Hollow Knight. But is this really deserved or is this just another Never Grave: The Witch and The Curse situation? Let’s start by pointing out what I think are the biggest visual similarities between Deviator and Hollow Knight.

The opening tutorial area looks very similar to the inside of the Black Egg, with platforms that light up as you walk across them, and mysterious lines and shapes appearing in the background as you approach them. The animation sequence for obtaining a power up ability is very similar in terms of timing and animation. The next area you wake up in is reminiscent of the City of Tears. There are a lot of small things like these wing patterns on ledges, and the way background walls are drawn as circles of patterns surrounded by flat colors.

The next area looks a lot like Greenpath. Aside from some wooden planks and mushrooms the environment looks almost identical. The next area after that also looks incredibly similar to the Ancestral Mound. The boss of this area is a bush man, who looks somewhat like The Hunter.

These are all little things where it feels like the developers looked directly at a piece of art in Hollow Knight and tried to recreate it as closely as possible for their own game.

I don’t think the Deviator developers stole any assets directly from Hollow Knight. So I don’t think they did anything illegal. And both William Pellen and Ari Gibson played Deviator at BitSummit back in July 2024 and they didn’t try to shut it down or sue anybody, so it’s not like they have a problem with what the game is doing. And I don't think the existence of this game is going to hurt Team Cherry in any meaningful way. So ultimately, it's going to come down to the individual on whether this game copies Hollow Knight too much visually. Personally, I think if they could do something with the Greenpath area to make it just a bit more different than Hollow Knight’s, that could go a long way. The other stuff, honestly, isn’t that big of a deal in my opinion.

So let’s say the visual similarities to Hollow Knight don’t bother you. The next question we should ask is, is the game any good? Deviator is currently in Early Access on Steam so I decided to check it out. And… It's alright.

The game is by a Chinese developer and all the dialogue is very poorly translated so I didn’t get a terribly good vibe of the characters or the story. There’s some anime girl who can be found at the game’s first save point, save points being jellyfish in this game. She gives off Dark Souls fire keeper vibes if anything. There’s some other characters that vaguely remind me of other Hollow Knight characters, but with the bad translation, I really don’t get a good sense of their personalities.

I could really only explore three or four areas in the Early Access release, but it still felt fairly linear. I could easily see this changing in the final release, so I guess we’ll see. Deviator does that thing Hollow Knight does where your map doesn’t update until you reach a rest point. I honestly found this really annoying. Your character doesn’t even pull out a map and draw in the information like the Knight does. I honestly think this little animation goes a long way making me accept this mechanic in Hollow Knight. I feels a lot more rewarding.

The later areas that aren’t copying Hollow Knight are pretty neat. This City of Machines area has a neat visual style to it that I enjoyed. 

Deviator did not skimp on platforming challenges for these areas either, even early on. I’d even say the platforming challenges ramp up a little too quickly. Personally, I enjoyed these challenges enough, and I hope the final game has plenty more of them.

Combat in Deviator is similar to Hollow Knight, but there are a lot of little changes that mix things up, for better or for worse. First of all, there’s no pogo move. You just can’t swing down at all in this game. Instead, hitting an enemy with your forward slash while in the air will allow you to air stall and continue swinging. 

Hitting enemies gives you Momentum. Once you fill the entire bar with Momentum, three different things happen. First, you become Enhanced. Your entire body becomes blue and your sword’s range increases greatly. You’ll stay enhanced until you take two hits of damage. The second thing that happens when you fill your Momentum bar is you gain Energy. You can then spend this Energy to cast spells. Finally, filling the Momentum bar gives you one pip of Soul Dew which you can spend to regain one health. Once all this is done, the Momentum bar resets and you can refill it again.

So there’s a lot going on here. I think the biggest problem with it is that because filling your Momentum bar is so beneficial, the game made the amount of hits it takes to fill it really high. In practice this system requires you to land 15 to 20 blows on enemies to heal yourself for one damage. Compare that to Hollow Knight’s 3 blows. This makes the game feel a lot more punishing than Hollow Knight, a game already known for its difficulty. And I’m not sure if that’s really what the developers are going for here.

Another big change with Deviator’s combat system is the introduction of a parry mechanic. Parrying enemy attacks is fun, although it doesn’t always feel as weighty as it should be. There’s a lot of good game feel missing here, which is somewhat expected for this game being Early Access. Hopefully parrying in the final game feels as good as it does in games like Nine Sols. Bosses expect you to utilize this mechanic. The last boss of the demo, especially, becomes much more manageable once you learn how to parry their attacks. Some bosses can be completely trivialized by their easily parryable moves though. There’s definitely some polish missing from these fights, but for the most part I enjoyed them. This last boss fight is where I could best see Deviator’s potential shining through the rough.

It’s clear that a lot of work has gone into this game. There are aspects of it that I quite like. I think the levels, when not falling into the Hollow Knight uncanny valley, can look quite great. And I think some of the changes to gameplay could result in an interesting twist on Hollow Knight’s formula. 

So is Deviator good? Well, I think it could be good. If you like what you see so far, and you want to support the developers, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with grabbing an early access copy. But as it is now, it’s not a complete experience, so I wouldn’t recommend this game if you’re wanting to play a game that’s, you know, finished.

Pipsqueak Demo

Since I don’t want to end this video on a sour note, I’d like to finish things off by talking about a few Metroidvania demos I played. 

This first game is called Pipsqueak. In this game you play as a mouse named Tofu armed with a sword exploring a mysterious world. Now I’m a pretty big fan of rats, mice, and just rodents in general, so this game really appeals to me. The demo is short but it’s definitely got some Hollow Knight influence with all the pogoing. There’s a good amount of emphasis on platforming and the boss fight is fun. But I’m not sure what this game’s broader identity is going to be. So I’ll be curious to see how that develops in the future. Pipsqueak has the potential to be a lot of fun, so I’ll definitely be keeping an eye on it.

Constance Demo

Another demo I tried out was for a game called Constance. In this game, you play as a girl with a paintbrush. The developers have said that their goal for the game was to combine Hollow Knight with Celeste and Splatoon. In practice, this means a platform heavy Metroidvania with a really engaging brush mechanic. You basically have to manipulate the platforming around yourself using your brush to make progress through the game. The demo had one segment that took me forever to beat and I was loving every second of it. 

The Constance demo was incredibly well polished and I’m excited to play the full game when it comes out.

Mendacium Demo

The last demo I played was for a game called Mendacium. 

In Mendacium, you play as a little lizard in a cloak. While the backgrounds are 2D art, the characters themselves are 3D models. This, and the art style in general, reminds me of Ori and the Will of the Wisps.

Your character automatically switches between using a spear and a magical bow and arrow during combat, which is a little weird. I like that it forces you to constantly think about positioning, since the arrows deal more damage when you're further away. But it can be annoying when you want to use arrows but you can’t because your character is stuck in spear mode.

The developer of the game, Caecus, has made a few devlogs about developing Mendacium, and in this video he talks all about the process for designing the game, including talking about how he took ideas from Hollow Knight and modified them to better fit his game. [Source] So if you want to see a more direct example of how a game dev takes influence from Hollow Knight, you can find a link to the video in the description.

The demo for Mendacium is very polished, and I really like the look of this game. I look forward to checking it out when it releases. The world needs more lizard themed Metroidvanias.

Conclusion

There are so many Metroidvanias out there, each with their own unique influences and styles. There are great games that stick close to their inspirations and there are great games that aren’t afraid to try something completely new. The developer behind one of the most successful Metroidvanias of the year, Animal Well, went out of his way to avoid using established tropes of the Metroidvania genre [Source].

That is to say, there’s all sorts of different ways to create a video game, and it’s important to celebrate the games that are able to take all their different ideas and inspirations and create something good.

Even if none of these games were able to rival Hollow Knight for me in terms of love and admiration, I still enjoyed them and I want to spread them to people who might also enjoy them. So if you saw a game in this video that interested you, you should pick it up! If nothing in this video interested you, uh, I hope you explode.

Songs used:

Dung Defender

Title/Abandoned Wastes - Haiku, the Robot OST

Traveling Town - Haiku, the Robot OST

Forgotten Ruins - Haiku, the Robot OST

Voidwrought Theme - Voidwrought OST

Old Waters - Voidwrought OST

The Mirrorways - Voidwrought OST

Ambush - Voidwrought OST

Chambers of Reflection - Voidwrought OST

Tears for the Blind - Crowsworn OST

Crowsworn Dynamic Sampler - Crowsworn OST

Main Theme - Ender Lilies OST

Lily - Ender Lilies OST

North - Save Ver. - Ender Lilies OST

Pulsation - Ender Lilies OST

ENDER LILIES - Ender Lilies OST

Moon Blossom - Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus OST

Forest of the Crimson Bamboo - Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus OST

Sakura City - Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus OST

Midori Forest - Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus OST

Main Theme ft. Shuanshuan - Nine Sols OST

A Place for Restless Souls - Nine Sols OST

Beneath the Surface - Nine Sols OST

Inner Voice - Nine Sols OST

Last Man Standing - Nine Sols OST
When Peaches Ripen - Nine Sols OST

Hornet - Hollow Knight OST

Title Theme - Never Grave: The Witch and the Curse OST

Village Theme - Never Grave: The Witch and the Curse OST

Ruins Theme - Never Grave: The Witch and the Curse OST

Dirtmouth - Hollow Knight OST

Greenpath - Hollow Knight OST

White Palace - Hollow Knight OST

Fungal Wastes - Hollow Knight OST

Title Theme - Pipsqueak OST

Title Theme - Constance OST

Miner Town - Mendacium OST

Redwood - Mendacium OST

Enter Hallownest - Hollow Knight OST