My friends can tell you about how strict I am about what should qualify as a metroidvania, probably to the point of being a massive asshole. Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night were actually two very different games, simply using the same foundation. Whereas Metroid gave us a quick-to-traverse, compound map design with a seamless exploration loop, SotN opted for a more expansive world with completely free reign of exploration. I feel like a metroidvania should at least fit one of these descriptions, but seemingly everyone but me is so loose with the term, and games that simply have the foundation without the intricacies of design are being termed as a genre whose name was derived from two games that it is nothing like. This is definitely a me problem, and I’m well aware, but god dammit Dust: An Elysian Tale has a world map for crying out loud. Essentially when I hear a game is a metroidvania, I go in expecting it to have the same foundation, yet failing to produce anything beyond “linear story path but you can backtrack for upgrades”. Then I played Hollow Knight.

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Hollow Knight is a game that’s clearly taken it’s inspiration from various other works, gluing them together to form a cohesive and refreshing gameplay experience. You’re presented with a gigantic world filled with peril and very little to work with. While the game takes you through the motions for a little bit, teaching you it’s simple but creative mechanics, it quickly allows you to veer off into multiple directions. Almost every path you take is doable to an extent, and will lead you to powers that slowly open up the map from the center. You can explore the outskirts of nearly every area without gaining any new abilities, but when you do find those precious abilities, bits and pieces of each area slowly begin to open up further. This makes for an exploration loop that feels limitless, unbound by story progression. Your main objective is to find three guardians, called dreamers, who keep the kingdom’s biggest secret sealed away. They are marked on your map the moment you hit the story sequence, but it gives you no other direction. That’s why the exploration feel so perfect. The dreamers are hidden away and require you to find the necessary powers to reach them, but you will have no idea where to find such powers. Because of the way the main story path stays out of your way, and the way the world opens up ever so slightly at a time, it feels like you’re in a constant state of discovery. The game pushes you to look at each part of the map, as there’s always the possibility of something special tucked away. Hell, when you enter a new area, you don’t even get a map. And when you do, it’s incomplete and difficult to read. This puts even more focus on player exploration, not wanting them to feel tied down by a deliberate path. It makes every new find feel truly organic, and creates this unreal sense of tension as you search for a bench or stag station without a guide. This makes those moments where you see a sign pointing you to the safe space feel extra rewarding.

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That all ties into the game’s brilliant atmosphere. Hollow Knight spends most of it’s time as a quiet, ominous game. There’s this constant grayish hue over the world, giving off this feeling of emptiness. After all, you’re scavenging through a long dead kingdom. The map music ranges from mysterious, to foreboding, to downright sinister. This is all in contrast to some of the more peaceful segments of the game. It isn’t afraid to be humorous at times, or even heartwarming, and these positive interactions mesh well with the more negative atmosphere that crushes the player throughout the majority of the game.

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Honestly, it’s very difficult for me to be driven to 100% a game these days. Very few games are able to draw me back into their world once I know the ending is in sight. But whereas pretty much every metroidvania, even the aforementioned grandparents of the subgenre, only offer you more power, Hollow Knight does something truly unique. Getting 100% in Hollow Knight isn’t about padding your health and firepower. It’s about further understanding the kingdom’s history, and where you come into play in everything. This type of storytelling drove me to find everything I could in order to discover the truth. It never felt like a hassle to collect everything, because I truly wanted to fight the secret boss and see the true ending.

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For literal decades, game developers have been trying and failing to even replicate the winning formula of Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night. Even with the indie boom, where we saw quite an uptick in the amount of games claiming to be metroidvanias, nothing ever came that could truly scratch the itch left by those two masterpieces. Yet here, in one fell swoop, we have a game that not only feels like a true successor to them, but actually surpasses them on every level. Hollow Knight is among the greatest games ever made, and i’m doubtful I’ll ever see anything else like it in my lifetime. It’s as close to flawless as a game can be, and it was all done by three people and priced at $12. If you take anything away from this list, I hope you decide to check out this game if you haven’t already. It truly is a special kind of game.