0:00:02.250,0:00:04.710 This is a map of Hallownest. 0:00:04.710,0:00:06.670 And so is this. 0:00:06.670,0:00:07.670 And this. 0:00:07.670,0:00:10.220 And, technically, this. 0:00:10.220,0:00:15.280 These images are the primary way Hollow Knight[br]informs us of the shape and size of its world. 0:00:15.280,0:00:20.420 And as nice looking as these various maps[br]are, they aren’t actually Hallownest itself. 0:00:20.420,0:00:25.100 They’re abstract shapes and drawings that[br]imply what Hallownest is supposed to look 0:00:25.100,0:00:26.100 like. 0:00:26.100,0:00:29.380 I want a map that looks exactly like what[br]we see ingame. 0:00:29.380,0:00:35.290 I want to push the camera out and see a fully[br]detailed version of Hallownest in its entirety. 0:00:35.290,0:00:39.790 I want something like what Team Cherry showed[br]off in the 2014 Kickstarter trailer for Hollow 0:00:39.790,0:00:44.500 Knight, where they zoomed out on the Forgotten[br]Crossroads and revealed almost the entire 0:00:44.500,0:00:46.649 area in one image. 0:00:46.649,0:00:51.440 Of course, this shot wasn’t made by just[br]zooming out the camera ingame. 0:00:51.440,0:00:55.930 Hollow Knight only has one room loaded in[br]at a time, so even if you did unlock the camera 0:00:55.930,0:01:00.649 and zoom it out, you’re never going to see[br]more than one room on screen at a time. 0:01:00.649,0:01:06.180 This is sort of like real life, where objects[br]outside your field of view cease to exist. 0:01:06.180,0:01:10.200 Team Cherry actually constructed this footage[br]by combining a bunch of screenshots of Hollow 0:01:10.200,0:01:14.930 Knight’s rooms together in some kind of[br]video or image editing software. 0:01:14.930,0:01:18.860 We can actually tell that that’s what they[br]did because if you zoom in on this part of 0:01:18.860,0:01:22.799 the map, you can actually see the Knight just[br]kinda hanging out. 0:01:22.799,0:01:25.290 You can even see it again near the entrance[br]to Greenpath. 0:01:25.290,0:01:31.799 Now, you could theoretically do this exact[br]same process but for all of Hallownest, screenshotting 0:01:31.799,0:01:37.180 every single room and combining them together[br]to create one continuous map of the entire 0:01:37.180,0:01:38.180 game world. 0:01:38.180,0:01:42.850 But would anyone ever actually take on such[br]an insane challenge and actually do this? 0:01:42.850,0:01:48.240 Are there any brave soldiers in the Hollow[br]Knight community willing to step up? 0:01:48.240,0:01:49.770 That was a rhetorical question. 0:01:49.770,0:01:52.750 And the answer is yes. 0:01:52.750,0:01:57.460 Back in the ancient times of August 2017,[br]a member of the Hollow Knight community known 0:01:57.460,0:02:03.140 as Nook, or The Embraced One, began chipping[br]away at mapping out the entirety of Hollow 0:02:03.140,0:02:04.329 Knight’s world. 0:02:04.329,0:02:08.690 She’d continue to work on this project in[br]her free time, juggling it between work and 0:02:08.690,0:02:10.509 developing her own game. 0:02:10.509,0:02:16.040 And in February of 2023, she finally released[br]a complete map of Hallownest. 0:02:16.040,0:02:25.020 The final work is a massive image, 72,622[br]pixels wide by 48,128 pixels tall. 0:02:25.020,0:02:32.470 For reference, the Knight, as it appears in[br]this map, is 23 pixels wide by 50 pixels tall. 0:02:32.470,0:02:39.020 The map contains a total of 307 rooms, compiled[br]from over 6000 screenshots, each of which 0:02:39.020,0:02:43.269 had to be cleaned up and connected to each[br]other in one giant image. 0:02:43.269,0:02:47.550 The entire image can be viewed on Nook’s[br]website, Hallownest.net, where she set up 0:02:47.550,0:02:51.790 an interactive version that loads up right[br]in your browser, that way you don’t have 0:02:51.790,0:02:56.020 to open the massive 800 megabyte file on your[br]own machine. 0:02:56.020,0:03:00.750 Nook was inspired to do this after finding[br]a complete map of Castlevania: Symphony of 0:03:00.750,0:03:04.019 the Knight, which is basically Hollow Knight[br]for boomers. 0:03:04.019,0:03:10.549 In fact, you can find quite a few full detail[br]maps online, painstakingly created by fans 0:03:10.549,0:03:14.239 to capture the sheer scale of various Metroidvania[br]maps. 0:03:14.239,0:03:18.740 This practice goes back well over a decade,[br]with maps like these being created for games 0:03:18.740,0:03:21.690 like the original Metroid for the NES. 0:03:21.690,0:03:25.740 As far as I know, these maps don’t have[br]any widely recognized name. 0:03:25.740,0:03:30.440 But for this video, I’m just going to call[br]them “composite” maps, since they are 0:03:30.440,0:03:36.659 usually created by compositing a bunch of[br]images together to create one big picture. 0:03:36.659,0:03:40.860 Creating a map like this presents two technical[br]challenges that I’d like to discuss in this 0:03:40.860,0:03:41.860 video. 0:03:41.860,0:03:46.510 The first challenge is creating complete images[br]of individual rooms. 0:03:46.510,0:03:51.659 This can be difficult because a lot of 2D[br]games, Hollow Knight included, feature something 0:03:51.659,0:03:53.780 called parallax scrolling. 0:03:53.780,0:03:58.940 This is where objects in the far background[br]move across the screen at a slower rate than 0:03:58.940,0:04:02.610 ones in the near background, creating an illusion[br]of depth. 0:04:02.610,0:04:07.110 It’s a bit tricky to spot if you aren’t[br]looking for it, but you can see it clearly 0:04:07.110,0:04:11.550 in certain objects like this chain found in[br]the Crystal Peak. 0:04:11.550,0:04:16.550 Some modern 2D games achieve this parallax[br]scrolling effect by not actually being 2D 0:04:16.550,0:04:22.639 at all, instead using a 3D camera and just[br]locking it from tilting or rotating. 0:04:22.639,0:04:28.180 This is done because, paradoxically, 3D game[br]engines can actually be quite useful for building 0:04:28.180,0:04:34.449 and debugging 2D games, as well as seeing[br]wider support on a greater variety of systems. 0:04:34.449,0:04:38.630 Hollow Knight also utilizes this method for[br]its rooms. 0:04:38.630,0:04:44.380 Using the program HKWorldEdit2 we can actually[br]open up Hollow Knight rooms and move the camera 0:04:44.380,0:04:46.020 around freely. 0:04:46.020,0:04:50.389 From here, you can see that the 2D assets[br]that dress up a room are actually placed in 0:04:50.389,0:04:52.170 3D space. 0:04:52.170,0:04:56.949 So when the camera tracks the player moving[br]around, these objects pan across the screen 0:04:56.949,0:04:58.830 at different speeds. 0:04:58.830,0:05:04.470 This is all very cool, but it makes creating[br]a full sized image of the room a lot more 0:05:04.470,0:05:05.920 complicated. 0:05:05.920,0:05:10.580 If you take individual screenshots and stitch[br]them together, background objects will end 0:05:10.580,0:05:15.550 up appearing multiple times since they don’t[br]pan across the screen as quickly as foreground 0:05:15.550,0:05:17.020 objects. 0:05:17.020,0:05:22.169 To combat this, Nook had to manually edit[br]almost every room to make sure the background 0:05:22.169,0:05:24.400 was free of duplicates. 0:05:24.400,0:05:29.120 This means pulling sprites from sprite sheets[br]and manually adding them back into the image, 0:05:29.120,0:05:33.800 as well as finding clever ways to hide seams[br]between screenshots, such as placing them 0:05:33.800,0:05:36.009 behind pipes and pillars. 0:05:36.009,0:05:40.410 Nook uploaded timelapses of this process on[br]her YouTube channel and it shows just how 0:05:40.410,0:05:42.889 much work went into reconstructing these rooms. 0:05:42.889,0:05:48.080 The end result of all this is that rooms on[br]the composite map don’t quite reflect their 0:05:48.080,0:05:51.199 ingame counterparts 100%. 0:05:51.199,0:05:55.150 Some artistic liberties had to be taken to[br]make these images even possible. 0:05:55.150,0:06:01.161 And this isn’t the only aspect of the map[br]that required some creative workarounds, which 0:06:01.161,0:06:05.880 brings us to the other technical challenge[br]involved with creating this map; actually 0:06:05.880,0:06:08.800 lining up all the rooms with each other. 0:06:08.800,0:06:14.080 In an interview with PC Gamer back in 2017,[br]Ari Gibson described Hollow Knight’s map 0:06:14.080,0:06:15.889 as “98% pure”. 0:06:15.889,0:06:22.790 There are just a few cheats...like a tiny[br]room goes down like, 20 tiles too low, that 0:06:22.790,0:06:24.090 kind of thing. 0:06:24.090,0:06:28.949 There's never a case where an entire room[br]is a paradox, that kind of thing. 0:06:28.949,0:06:30.169 And… 0:06:30.169,0:06:31.389 well… 0:06:31.389,0:06:36.570 In reality, Hollow Knight’s map cheats quite[br]a bit, especially when compared to games like 0:06:36.570,0:06:39.510 Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night. 0:06:39.510,0:06:44.120 Of course, these older games used rigid grid[br]maps, and while Hollow Knight’s rooms were 0:06:44.120,0:06:50.090 conceptualized as boxes as well, in practice,[br]the rooms come in various shapes and sizes 0:06:50.090,0:06:53.540 and are much more freely placed on the game’s[br]minimap. 0:06:53.540,0:06:55.699 This means a variety of things. 0:06:55.699,0:07:01.370 Some room exits don’t line up, multiple[br]rooms sometimes occupy the same space, and 0:07:01.370,0:07:04.990 some areas are much further apart than expected. 0:07:04.990,0:07:10.340 This means Nook was basically constructing[br]a puzzle with misshapen pieces. 0:07:10.340,0:07:14.289 So to make sense of all this, we’re going[br]to be going through each area in Nook’s 0:07:14.289,0:07:18.990 map and examining how well Team Cherry constructed[br]them from a cartographer’s perspective. 0:07:18.990,0:07:25.800 I’ll be pointing out things such as misalignments[br]between rooms, significant gaps between rooms, 0:07:25.800,0:07:29.210 and rooms overlapping with one another. 0:07:29.210,0:07:32.360 So which area in Hallownest do you think will[br]turn out the best? 0:07:32.360,0:07:35.940 Which ones will have the most nonsensical[br]room layouts? 0:07:35.940,0:07:40.050 Be sure to leave a comment down below that[br]has nothing to do with what I just asked. 0:07:40.050,0:07:45.680 Also, before I dive in proper, I did just[br]want to mention that Nook is also a game developer 0:07:45.680,0:07:49.520 working on her own game called Where Birds[br]Go to Sleep. 0:07:49.520,0:07:54.370 It’s a narrative adventure game that looks[br]super weird and super cool and you can find 0:07:54.370,0:08:00.470 a link to the steam page in the description[br]if you’re interested in wishlisting the 0:08:00.470,0:08:02.840 game. 0:08:02.840,0:08:07.530 I have randomly decided to begin our journey[br]in the Forgotten Crossroads. 0:08:07.530,0:08:13.070 Despite being the simple starting area, Crossroads[br]actually boasts the largest number of external 0:08:13.070,0:08:19.180 rooms of any section in Hallownest, comprising[br]a total of 40 rooms. 0:08:19.180,0:08:24.580 When I say external rooms, I am excluding[br]rooms like the Snail Shaman mounds, shopkeeper 0:08:24.580,0:08:29.349 rooms, and other interior rooms that aren’t[br]included on the game’s minimap. 0:08:29.349,0:08:33.289 So pretty much any room that is entered using[br]a doorway. 0:08:33.289,0:08:37.840 If we look at the long vertical room on the[br]left that connects to Greenpath, we can see 0:08:37.840,0:08:41.890 two horizontal paths that cut across the top[br]of the Crossroads. 0:08:41.890,0:08:46.190 These two paths then connect to a room on[br]the right, the room that leads to Myla and 0:08:46.190,0:08:47.800 the Crystal Peak. 0:08:47.800,0:08:50.089 But the lower path is too far down here. 0:08:50.089,0:08:55.090 So we’ll be adding the first of many hallways[br]here to line these rooms up correctly. 0:08:55.090,0:09:00.580 This lower hallway also isn’t long enough[br]to span the entire width of the Crossroads, 0:09:00.580,0:09:04.360 so an extra hallway needs to be added somewhere[br]in here to make it reach. 0:09:04.360,0:09:09.700 Switching back over to the long vertical room[br]on the left, we can see that the drop into 0:09:09.700,0:09:13.850 Cornifer’s room also needs to be a bit longer[br]than you might think. 0:09:13.850,0:09:18.269 Otherwise the False Knight room would crash[br]up into the room above it. 0:09:18.269,0:09:24.250 Looking at the bottom of the Crossroads, some[br]rooms are, unfortunately, just too cramped. 0:09:24.250,0:09:29.360 The Crossroad hot spring room, arguably one[br]of the best rooms in the entire game, thanks 0:09:29.360,0:09:34.040 to the inclusion of these two bugs who I can[br]only describe as “really good friends”, 0:09:34.040,0:09:36.740 literally cannot exist where it is. 0:09:36.740,0:09:40.750 The minimap straight up lies about how tall[br]the room below it is. 0:09:40.750,0:09:46.670 This room is literally as tall as the room[br]to the left, leaving no space for this supposed 0:09:46.670,0:09:48.470 hot spring room. 0:09:48.470,0:09:53.060 To compensate for this, Nook shortened the[br]spa room as much as she could, and placed 0:09:53.060,0:09:55.220 a hallway underneath it. 0:09:55.220,0:09:58.720 And the exact same thing happens over to the[br]left as well. 0:09:58.720,0:10:03.960 The room heading down into the Fungal Wastes[br]is too tall to fit underneath Cornifer’s 0:10:03.960,0:10:04.960 room. 0:10:04.960,0:10:09.430 Nook had to insert another hallway here to[br]make everything fit. 0:10:09.430,0:10:13.530 Another room that just won’t fit where it[br]needs to is the Stag Station. 0:10:13.530,0:10:17.300 The ceiling of this room crashes into the[br]room above it. 0:10:17.300,0:10:25.100 To fix this, Nook applied a bit of shrinkage[br]to the room, making it about 25% smaller. 0:10:25.100,0:10:30.180 At the very, very bottom of Crossroads we[br]have the elevator that leads down into the 0:10:30.180,0:10:31.690 City of Tears. 0:10:31.690,0:10:36.209 This room can be accessed from the right by[br]walking straight across, but we can see that 0:10:36.209,0:10:41.170 if that were the case, the Soul Vessel room[br]to the left of the elevator would be overlapping 0:10:41.170,0:10:44.000 with this Goam Mask Shard room. 0:10:44.000,0:10:48.450 So a vertical hallway needs to be added here[br]to space things out a bit. 0:10:48.450,0:10:53.330 This added hallway also pushes the elevator[br]further to the left for reasons we’ll see 0:10:53.330,0:10:54.330 later. 0:10:54.330,0:10:58.529 There’s another pretty bad overlap at the[br]entrance to Greenpath. 0:10:58.529,0:11:04.600 The ceiling of the room leading to the Brooding[br]Mawlek is crashing into the Elder Baldur room. 0:11:04.600,0:11:09.480 Adding a thin hallway with a slight vertical[br]rise makes this slightly better, and it also 0:11:09.480,0:11:14.210 keeps lower parts of Greenpath from overlapping[br]with Crossroads. 0:11:14.210,0:11:20.600 Overall, I think these numerous room misalignments,[br]combined with the sheer number of rooms in 0:11:20.600,0:11:25.870 Crossroads, make this first area somewhat[br]confusing to navigate at times. 0:11:25.870,0:11:29.829 I have accidentally walked into this damn[br]elevator room when I thought I was higher 0:11:29.829,0:11:32.399 up more than once while playing this game. 0:11:32.399,0:11:36.170 And while I am bad at Hollow Knight, I’m[br]not THAT bad. 0:11:36.170,0:11:42.010 Now, you could argue that these misalignments[br]add to the design of Crossroads. 0:11:42.010,0:11:46.050 Perhaps Team Cherry wants you to get a little[br]lost and turned around in this area, so the 0:11:46.050,0:11:48.760 misalignments aren’t that big of a deal. 0:11:48.760,0:11:51.640 It’s a reasonable argument to make on the[br]internet. 0:11:51.640,0:11:55.920 But if you tried to make this argument to[br]my face, I would probably punch you. 0:11:55.920,0:12:01.420 I will say that Crossroads does have to contend[br]with being surrounded on all sides by other 0:12:01.420,0:12:03.350 areas that it has to line up with. 0:12:03.350,0:12:08.589 But I can safely say that the Forgotten Crossroads[br]is easily the worst offender in the entire 0:12:08.589,0:12:13.800 game when it comes to rooms overlapping or[br]just not lining up at all. 0:12:13.800,0:12:18.560 If I had to guess, I’d say that Team Cherry[br]made the Crossroads first, and weren’t as 0:12:18.560,0:12:21.779 experienced with making sure rooms lined up[br]correctly. 0:12:21.779,0:12:26.279 Because I do think every other area in the[br]game does a better job than the Forgotten 0:12:26.279,0:12:32.010 Crossroads. 0:12:32.010,0:12:37.400 Greenpath does a much better job of keeping[br]its rooms lined up fairly consistently. 0:12:37.400,0:12:42.760 While Greenpath’s rooms are on average larger,[br]we’re only dealing with 31 rooms this time 0:12:42.760,0:12:44.079 instead of 40. 0:12:44.079,0:12:49.829 But that’s still a big number, only surpassed[br]by the three largest areas in the game. 0:12:49.829,0:12:55.459 Greenpath has two large corridors that run[br]across the area, and they connect back to 0:12:55.459,0:13:01.730 each other across three branching paths, all[br]of which line up relatively nicely. 0:13:01.730,0:13:07.510 The top section of Greenpath, where the player[br]first finds Zote, also lines up well. 0:13:07.510,0:13:11.839 In the bottom section of Greenpath, where[br]the area connects to Fog Canyon and Queen’s 0:13:11.839,0:13:16.610 Garden, Nook did add a vertical hallway near[br]the Stone Sanctuary bench. 0:13:16.610,0:13:22.120 This keeps a portion of Queen’s Garden from[br]overlapping with the path to Sheo’s hut. 0:13:22.120,0:13:25.949 But outside of that, Greenpath is in really[br]good shape. 0:13:25.949,0:13:30.760 I think it really benefits from having the[br]space to move as far out as it wants. 0:13:30.760,0:13:35.380 As you can see, Unn’s room at the very bottom[br]of the lake is the leftmost room on the entire 0:13:35.380,0:13:36.380 map. 0:13:36.380,0:13:43.360 Either way, Team Cherry did a good job on[br]this one. 0:13:43.360,0:13:46.019 Our next stop is in Crystal Peak. 0:13:46.019,0:13:52.610 Peak has a total of 26 rooms, and takes the[br]general shape of a tall rectangle with horizontal 0:13:52.610,0:13:53.980 offshoots. 0:13:53.980,0:13:57.710 There are two entrances into Crystal Peak[br]from the Forgotten Crossroads, and both of 0:13:57.710,0:13:59.519 them have some issues. 0:13:59.519,0:14:03.620 The lower entrance is not quite long enough[br]to make it across the gap created from the 0:14:03.620,0:14:05.620 width of the higher entrance. 0:14:05.620,0:14:08.519 So a hallway has to be added to make up the[br]difference. 0:14:08.519,0:14:14.120 This is the first of many border hallways[br]which connect two separate areas together. 0:14:14.120,0:14:18.310 And let’s just say that these hallways aren’t[br]going to be staying very straight, if you 0:14:18.310,0:14:19.839 know what I mean. 0:14:19.839,0:14:23.970 As for the higher entrance, it actually doesn’t[br]drop down far enough to line up with the lower 0:14:23.970,0:14:25.399 entrance. 0:14:25.399,0:14:30.760 This is in part due to that vertical hallway[br]added in Crossroads that we looked at earlier. 0:14:30.760,0:14:35.300 But this problem actually compounds more as[br]we look deeper into Crystal Peak. 0:14:35.300,0:14:40.779 Two additional vertical shafts are needed[br]to connect upper Peak to lower Peak. 0:14:40.779,0:14:45.170 Nook actually had to extend the well drop[br]at the top of Crossroads to keep these rooms 0:14:45.170,0:14:47.040 from overlapping. 0:14:47.040,0:14:51.920 This extended hallway on the left also pushes[br]the Crystal Crawler room up so it can line 0:14:51.920,0:14:54.930 up with the Grub challenge room on the right. 0:14:54.930,0:14:59.120 So while some of Crystal Peak’s weirdness[br]is due to things happening in Crossroads, 0:14:59.120,0:15:03.410 there are still some internal misalignments[br]within it as well. 0:15:03.410,0:15:07.820 Another issue pops up at the Crystal Dash[br]challenge rooms that connect Dirtmouth to 0:15:07.820,0:15:08.870 Peak. 0:15:08.870,0:15:14.110 The path is simply too short, and two hallways[br]were added to make the section long enough. 0:15:14.110,0:15:19.830 I should mention that Crystal Peak was one[br]of the earlier maps that Nook recreated, as 0:15:19.830,0:15:24.710 she was going area by area at first, and her[br]methodology for dealing with misalignments 0:15:24.710,0:15:26.900 wasn’t fully set in stone yet. 0:15:26.900,0:15:32.529 At first, Nook wanted to avoid making these[br]extra hallways as much as possible. 0:15:32.529,0:15:37.529 But as she got further into the project, she[br]began to realize that it was going to be impossible 0:15:37.529,0:15:43.300 to line up all of Hallownest’s rooms without[br]more liberal use of these hallways. 0:15:43.300,0:15:47.660 Before coming to this realization, she employed[br]a different trick to fix some of the misalignments 0:15:47.660,0:15:49.950 in Crystal Peak, scaling. 0:15:49.950,0:15:55.819 A good example of this is the vertical room[br]right of the lower bench room. 0:15:55.819,0:15:59.470 This room has three exits on the left side[br]of the screen. 0:15:59.470,0:16:04.050 But these exits are too close together, and[br]don’t match up with the exits they connect 0:16:04.050,0:16:05.050 to. 0:16:05.050,0:16:09.529 Nook chose to scale up the entire room itself[br]so that it aligned with these three adjacent 0:16:09.529,0:16:10.529 exits. 0:16:10.529,0:16:16.080 However, outside of Peak and a few rooms in[br]the Soul Sanctum, Nook rarely used this method 0:16:16.080,0:16:18.029 to line up rooms. 0:16:18.029,0:16:22.090 Crystal Peak is home to a very unique set[br]of room connections. 0:16:22.090,0:16:26.350 When you drop off the cliff at Hallownest’s[br]Crown, you will go to one of two separate 0:16:26.350,0:16:31.530 rooms depending on if you exited by going[br]down or by going out. 0:16:31.530,0:16:36.490 The downward path actually does link up pretty[br]closely to where we would expect. 0:16:36.490,0:16:42.350 Nook opted to show the further path on her[br]map, and it’s fairly reasonable all things 0:16:42.350,0:16:43.420 considered. 0:16:43.420,0:16:48.259 The only other spot in the game that acts[br]like this is the drop off in Howling Cliffs. 0:16:48.259,0:16:53.910 You can either drop into King’s Pass or[br]Dirtmouth depending on how you exit the room. 0:16:53.910,0:16:58.000 Speaking of Dirtmouth, let’s check out this[br]little observation deck where Quirrel can 0:16:58.000,0:16:59.350 be found. 0:16:59.350,0:17:03.940 In his dialogue, Quirrel mentions that he[br]can just make out the light from Dirtmouth 0:17:03.940,0:17:05.730 all the way off in the distance. 0:17:05.730,0:17:08.569 Now, is this possible? 0:17:08.569,0:17:13.650 Realistically, Quirrel probably would not[br]be able to see Dirtmouth itself. 0:17:13.650,0:17:17.990 This is true when looking at both Nook’s[br]map and the ingame minimap. 0:17:17.990,0:17:21.679 The shape of the cliffs would block his view. 0:17:21.679,0:17:25.720 But from the game’s opening cutscene, we[br]can see that the surface world of Hollow Knight 0:17:25.720,0:17:29.490 appears to have a lot of fog and clouds. 0:17:29.490,0:17:33.720 So it’s possible that light being emitted[br]from Dirtmouth might be reflected off the 0:17:33.720,0:17:38.330 clouds above it and that might be visible[br]to Quirrel in the Crystal Peak. 0:17:38.330,0:17:40.330 So I’m calling this one plausible. 0:17:40.330,0:17:46.160 While not as solid as Greenpath, Crystal Peak[br]is reasonably connected together, all things 0:17:46.160,0:17:47.200 considered. 0:17:47.200,0:17:52.280 Things are a bit spaced out, but nothing overlaps,[br]so that’s a plus in my book. 0:17:52.280,0:17:59.610 But unfortunately, Crystal Peak is not quite[br]“peak”. 0:17:59.610,0:18:03.730 Fog Canyon is a small, humble area with only[br]13 rooms. 0:18:03.730,0:18:07.530 And it doesn’t cheat much to achieve this. 0:18:07.530,0:18:12.570 The biggest offender in this area is the explosive[br]bubble room, which overlaps somewhat with 0:18:12.570,0:18:14.260 the room below it. 0:18:14.260,0:18:17.559 So it has to be moved back and up to fit properly. 0:18:17.559,0:18:22.880 While Fog Canyon might fit nicely internally,[br]its connections to other parts of Hallownest 0:18:22.880,0:18:25.020 are pretty egregious. 0:18:25.020,0:18:29.050 The whole area is just too small for the space[br]it’s supposed to take up. 0:18:29.050,0:18:33.640 Nook decided to line the area up with its[br]connection to Queen’s Station, which is 0:18:33.640,0:18:36.190 the lowest section of Fog Canyon. 0:18:36.190,0:18:42.000 This results in very long, winding hallways[br]between Crossroads, Greenpath, and the upper 0:18:42.000,0:18:44.730 portion of the Fungal Wastes. 0:18:44.730,0:18:49.440 Even the connections to Queen’s Garden aren’t[br]quite long enough to make it on their own. 0:18:49.440,0:18:54.640 So internally, Fog Canyon looks great, but[br]its border hallways are just silly. 0:18:54.640,0:18:59.320 You’d really need the Mantis Claw to get[br]anywhere in this version of Hallownest. 0:18:59.320,0:19:08.390 Which I guess is already kinda true, but it[br]would be even more true than it already is. 0:19:08.390,0:19:14.679 Fungal Wastes is next with a total of 30 rooms,[br]some of which are packed together quite tightly. 0:19:14.679,0:19:17.140 And for the most part, things don’t overlap[br]much. 0:19:17.140,0:19:23.970 However, Nook did have to smush the Shrumal[br]Ogre arena room into the room to its right. 0:19:23.970,0:19:28.320 Vertical hallways had to be added near Mantis[br]Village in a couple of spots, mainly so that 0:19:28.320,0:19:32.950 the bottom of Fungal Wastes was low enough[br]to connect to both Deepnest and the Royal 0:19:32.950,0:19:34.080 Waterways. 0:19:34.080,0:19:39.419 However, the most blatant flaw in Fungal Waste’s[br]layout is the room leading up to the Fungal 0:19:39.419,0:19:41.000 Core. 0:19:41.000,0:19:46.580 You probably remember seeing an entrance to[br]this room when first exploring Fungal Wastes. 0:19:46.580,0:19:50.799 You likely hadn’t found the Mantis Claw[br]by this point, so this room entrance taunts 0:19:50.799,0:19:53.539 you by being too high up to reach. 0:19:53.539,0:19:57.539 But with the placement of these rooms, the[br]Fungal Core would be overlapping with the 0:19:57.539,0:19:59.770 room directly above it. 0:19:59.770,0:20:04.750 The only way this path works is if this entrance[br]is lower than the wall you have to scale to 0:20:04.750,0:20:06.600 access it. 0:20:06.600,0:20:10.809 Right beside the Fungal Core, another vertical[br]hallway has to be added to line up the cross 0:20:10.809,0:20:15.490 section between Fungal Wastes, Deepnest and[br]Queen’s Garden. 0:20:15.490,0:20:19.950 So, remember back when we were talking about[br]all the extra hallways that had to be added 0:20:19.950,0:20:21.340 in the Forgotten Crossroads? 0:20:21.340,0:20:26.960 Well, both Fungal Wastes and City of Tears[br]are downstream of that piss storm, and we’re 0:20:26.960,0:20:32.160 now going to see the consequences of shifting[br]things around so drastically up there. 0:20:32.160,0:20:37.410 Fungal Wastes is now really far away from[br]the City of Tears, and by extension, the Royal 0:20:37.410,0:20:39.240 Waterways as well. 0:20:39.240,0:20:44.260 In the top right section of the Wastes, the[br]player can find a large door that is chained 0:20:44.260,0:20:45.450 shut. 0:20:45.450,0:20:50.169 The other side of this same door can be found[br]in the City of Tears elevator room that leads 0:20:50.169,0:20:52.210 back up to the Forgotten Crossroads. 0:20:52.210,0:20:57.280 But these rooms are nowhere near each other[br]on the composite map. 0:20:57.280,0:21:01.690 Because both areas are connected to Crossroads,[br]they are forced apart due to that level’s 0:21:01.690,0:21:02.690 janked up layout. 0:21:02.690,0:21:08.390 And this is even after pushing the Crossroads[br]elevator as far to the left as possible to 0:21:08.390,0:21:10.380 get it closer to Fungal Wastes. 0:21:10.380,0:21:15.159 So, Nook decided to add a few really long[br]hallways to connect the Fungal Wastes to both 0:21:15.159,0:21:23.070 the City of Tears and the Royal Waterways. 0:21:23.070,0:21:27.919 And so we’ve finally arrived in the heart[br]of Hallownest; the City of Tears. 0:21:27.919,0:21:35.400 This area is massive, with 37 external rooms,[br]which is STILL 3 less than the Forgotten Crossroads. 0:21:35.400,0:21:40.820 The City of Tears was a uniquely challenging[br]area for Nook to map out due to the sheer 0:21:40.820,0:21:42.799 openness of the rooms. 0:21:42.799,0:21:47.410 A lot of the rooms in Tears aren’t closed[br]off at the edges, instead implying that there 0:21:47.410,0:21:51.100 is more to see just beyond the edge of the[br]screen. 0:21:51.100,0:21:55.409 Because of this, Nook decided to fill in these[br]gaps with additional background to reveal 0:21:55.409,0:21:58.390 the unseen portions of the city. 0:21:58.390,0:22:02.650 It was an insane amount of effort, but it[br]really helps illustrate just how massive the 0:22:02.650,0:22:04.780 city really is. 0:22:04.780,0:22:10.480 Some of the buildings look a bit strange when[br]seen in their entirety, but let’s be totally 0:22:10.480,0:22:11.960 honest here. 0:22:11.960,0:22:16.240 The buildings in the City of Tears just look[br]weird in general. 0:22:16.240,0:22:18.929 For me, it’s all these windows. 0:22:18.929,0:22:24.059 I think their design was inspired by termite[br]mounds, and these windows are where the holes 0:22:24.059,0:22:27.850 on a termite mound would be, but I’m just[br]not a fan. 0:22:27.850,0:22:33.230 Don’t get me wrong, I really appreciate[br]the smart, walkable, mixed-use urban design 0:22:33.230,0:22:38.300 of the City of Tears, but man, these buildings[br]are weird. 0:22:38.300,0:22:42.549 The opening portion of Tears, starting from[br]where Quirrel is found, heading down into 0:22:42.549,0:22:48.039 the city streets and then back up into Soul[br]Sanctum, lines up fairly well. 0:22:48.039,0:22:53.100 However, the bridge path up top where Zote[br]can be found is a bit longer than the ground 0:22:53.100,0:22:58.210 path near Lemm, so a hallway is needed to[br]space things out a bit. 0:22:58.210,0:23:03.169 In the Soul Sanctum, the most troublesome[br]room is just left of the Soul Master boss 0:23:03.169,0:23:04.190 arena. 0:23:04.190,0:23:08.880 This room drops down low enough that it’s[br]overlapping with the bridge underneath. 0:23:08.880,0:23:13.950 From this bridge, we’d expect a little bit[br]more space, as we can see open air just above 0:23:13.950,0:23:15.770 it in game. 0:23:15.770,0:23:20.200 A bit of hallway was also added before the[br]lift heading up to Crossroads to help push 0:23:20.200,0:23:24.890 the rest of the City further right, so it’d[br]line up better with that side of the world 0:23:24.890,0:23:26.210 map. 0:23:26.210,0:23:28.799 And this hallway isn’t the only one. 0:23:28.799,0:23:32.900 More are added in the top and bottom paths[br]near the Hollow Knight fountain to space the 0:23:32.900,0:23:35.200 city out even more. 0:23:35.200,0:23:39.159 Without all these extended hallways, there[br]would be a pretty big misalignment with the 0:23:39.159,0:23:41.110 Resting Grounds elevator. 0:23:41.110,0:23:45.260 If we look at the Watcher’s Spire, we can[br]see that the lower portion of the tower doesn’t 0:23:45.260,0:23:49.861 go high enough to line up properly with the[br]Soul Sanctum tower, so a vertical hallway 0:23:49.861,0:23:51.320 is needed to help out. 0:23:51.320,0:23:55.940 The Watcher Knight room is also misaligned[br]with the room right below it. 0:23:55.940,0:23:59.169 These two vertical hallways just don’t line[br]up at all. 0:23:59.169,0:24:04.420 Luckily for Nook, fixing this on the composite[br]map was pretty straightforward. 0:24:04.420,0:24:10.270 Yet another hallway is needed after Watcher’s[br]Spire, and we can also see a pretty crazy 0:24:10.270,0:24:15.150 border hallway with the elevator shaft heading[br]down to the Ancient Basin. 0:24:15.150,0:24:18.880 Because we’ve been stretching the city so[br]much to the right, this room actually needs 0:24:18.880,0:24:21.350 to cut back to the left. 0:24:21.350,0:24:26.350 It also needs to be further down to line up[br]properly with the left side of Waterways, 0:24:26.350,0:24:31.299 which itself had to be pushed down due to[br]the infamous Tuk Rancid Egg room. 0:24:31.299,0:24:35.540 On the far right side of the city, King’s[br]Station shares two exits with the room on 0:24:35.540,0:24:39.750 its left, which, unfortunately, do not line[br]up. 0:24:39.750,0:24:45.500 While it’s not on the map, Nook actually[br]did recreate the Pleasure House elevator room, 0:24:45.500,0:24:48.899 and we can see that it’s not quite tall[br]enough to reach the other room on the composite 0:24:48.899,0:24:49.899 map. 0:24:49.899,0:24:53.750 There’s also another vertical hallway added[br]above King’s Station. 0:24:53.750,0:24:57.920 This was all done so that there would be open[br]space beside the window found at the top of 0:24:57.920,0:24:59.400 the Tower of Love. 0:24:59.400,0:25:03.590 Also, this isn’t really a misalignment,[br]so much as an observation that the bugs of 0:25:03.590,0:25:09.360 Hallownest have no idea how to build buildings,[br]but the penthouse of this tower is way wider 0:25:09.360,0:25:11.510 than all the floors below it. 0:25:11.510,0:25:14.220 I blame gentrification. 0:25:14.220,0:25:19.960 Finally, there are the connections to Kingdom’s[br]Edge, all of which are just way off. 0:25:19.960,0:25:25.520 The two exits near the Tower of Love, which[br]aren’t terribly far apart, split way off 0:25:25.520,0:25:27.910 of each other in Kingdom’s Edge. 0:25:27.910,0:25:32.330 These types of misalignments can’t be blamed[br]on changes made elsewhere in the map. 0:25:32.330,0:25:35.179 These rooms just don’t line up right at[br]all. 0:25:35.179,0:25:40.380 You probably also noticed that the horizontal[br]distance here is also quite large. 0:25:40.380,0:25:45.510 That’s due to the top path between City[br]and Kingdom’s Edge, the one that leads to 0:25:45.510,0:25:47.610 the Colosseum of Fools. 0:25:47.610,0:25:52.649 This hallway is so long it pushes Kingdom’s[br]Edge really far to the right. 0:25:52.649,0:25:58.789 This hallway is also higher up than the game[br]implies, so another vertical hallway is needed. 0:25:58.789,0:26:04.380 So none of the connections between Tears and[br]Kingdom’s Edge line up very well. 0:26:04.380,0:26:08.190 All things considered, the City of Tears could[br]have been a lot worse. 0:26:08.190,0:26:11.930 Its internal connections do make sense for[br]the most part, and there really aren’t many 0:26:11.930,0:26:17.409 major overlaps either, which I think are the[br]biggest offenders when it comes to map layouts. 0:26:17.409,0:26:23.679 I can sort of imagine a long hallway existing[br]between rooms in my mind, but two rooms occupying 0:26:23.679,0:26:30.970 the same space simply isn’t possible outside[br]of the U.K. 0:26:30.970,0:26:34.600 I think we need a break from some of these[br]more involved levels. 0:26:34.600,0:26:38.460 Let’s take a look at something more simple[br]for a change. 0:26:38.460,0:26:44.070 Dirtmouth and King’s Pass are only two rooms,[br]so there's not much to keep track of here. 0:26:44.070,0:26:49.250 However, as you can see, there’s a pretty[br]large gap between these two rooms. 0:26:49.250,0:26:54.309 This is because Howling Cliffs drops directly[br]into King’s Pass, and since the cliffs are 0:26:54.309,0:26:59.039 connected to Greenpath, we end up with a pretty[br]large gap that’s completely unaccounted 0:26:59.039,0:27:00.039 for. 0:27:00.039,0:27:03.120 Team Cherry really should have put an extra[br]long, empty hallway here. 0:27:03.120,0:27:10.950 I think it would have tremendously helped[br]the overall game experience. 0:27:10.950,0:27:14.510 The Howling Cliffs only have 6 rooms on the[br]composite map. 0:27:14.510,0:27:16.830 And everything actually lines up pretty well. 0:27:16.830,0:27:21.649 It’s probably the best region on the entire[br]map in terms of rooms fitting together. 0:27:21.649,0:27:25.730 I should mention that the drop down into King’s[br]Pass is a bit strange. 0:27:25.730,0:27:29.419 There’s a very long border hallway that[br]needs to be added. 0:27:29.419,0:27:34.059 Also, the opening cutscene from Hollow Knight[br]shows us what the path from Howling Cliffs 0:27:34.059,0:27:39.080 to Dirtmouth should look like, and it’s[br]not really clear where King’s Pass is supposed 0:27:39.080,0:27:40.080 to be. 0:27:40.080,0:27:43.279 Like it’s just not there? 0:27:43.279,0:27:44.409 Where did it go? 0:27:44.409,0:27:49.480 The more astute of you might have noticed[br]that a certain room was left out of Nook’s 0:27:49.480,0:27:50.500 composite map. 0:27:50.500,0:27:55.470 In the top left hand corner of the area is[br]the entrance to the Stag Nest. 0:27:55.470,0:28:00.180 And the Stag Nest’s room placement is so[br]nonsensical that even Team Cherry left the 0:28:00.180,0:28:02.940 room off the minimap completely. 0:28:02.940,0:28:07.380 If we were to put the actual Stag Nest room[br]on the map, it clearly overlaps with the room 0:28:07.380,0:28:08.659 below it. 0:28:08.659,0:28:12.460 And we can see that the edge of this room[br]extends far beyond the edge of the actual 0:28:12.460,0:28:13.700 cliff itself. 0:28:13.700,0:28:18.330 It’s like Team Cherry wants to treat this[br]room like the various internal rooms found 0:28:18.330,0:28:23.130 in the game, but didn’t actually give the[br]room a door entrance like you’d expect. 0:28:23.130,0:28:31.660 This room is just very weird, and weird things[br]make me angry. 0:28:31.660,0:28:36.390 We caught a glimpse of the Royal Waterways[br]earlier but let’s figuratively dive a bit 0:28:36.390,0:28:38.480 deeper into this area. 0:28:38.480,0:28:44.450 The Waterways consists of about 16 rooms,[br]a fair number of which are quite large, meaning 0:28:44.450,0:28:48.710 the Waterways still takes up quite a bit of[br]space. 0:28:48.710,0:28:52.789 Right off the bat, the whole area is lowered[br]just a bit to prevent the infamous Tuk Rancid 0:28:52.789,0:28:56.659 Egg room from poking up into the city streets. 0:28:56.659,0:29:01.000 Towards the left side of the area, Cornifer’s[br]room is moved slightly down to make it line 0:29:01.000,0:29:03.289 up correctly with Fungal Wastes. 0:29:03.289,0:29:08.850 A couple of vertical hallways are needed to[br]make the left half of Waterways line up correctly 0:29:08.850,0:29:13.029 with the long elevator shaft leading down[br]to the Abyss. 0:29:13.029,0:29:16.909 You can also see that the tight hallway that[br]the player is supposed to Crystal Dash through 0:29:16.909,0:29:20.130 had to be lengthened on both sides. 0:29:20.130,0:29:25.419 The bottom path of the elevator also has an[br]extra hallway that goes down a little bit. 0:29:25.419,0:29:29.679 This was done to make the tram line in Ancient[br]Basin line up vertically with the tram lines 0:29:29.679,0:29:34.970 in Deepnest and Kingdom’s Edge. 0:29:34.970,0:29:38.919 On the right side of the Waterways, things[br]actually line up pretty well. 0:29:38.919,0:29:44.070 However, just like with City, the Waterways[br]are quite a ways away from the Kingdom’s 0:29:44.070,0:29:47.929 Edge, so a pretty big hallway is needed to[br]connect them. 0:29:47.929,0:29:52.100 You might have noticed that this map does[br]not contain the Junk Pit, where the Godseeker 0:29:52.100,0:29:55.470 can be found locked away in her cocoon. 0:29:55.470,0:30:00.269 If you weren’t aware, these rooms, along[br]with the Pale Lurker arena, were added into 0:30:00.269,0:30:04.820 Hollow Knight a year after its release in[br]the Godmaster update, and there are a few 0:30:04.820,0:30:08.130 unique aspects to them likely because of this. 0:30:08.130,0:30:14.279 Two of the new Royal Waterways rooms actually[br]do fit nicely on the map, but this third room 0:30:14.279,0:30:18.940 is special because it very clearly runs straight[br]through another portion of Waterways and connects 0:30:18.940,0:30:22.149 to the room containing the Nailsmith’s hut[br]in City of Tears. 0:30:22.149,0:30:25.429 Well, it almost connects anyways. 0:30:25.429,0:30:30.270 Team Cherry left this third room off the map,[br]which kind of makes sense because the lower 0:30:30.270,0:30:35.130 passage to the room is a doorway, making this[br]an internal room. 0:30:35.130,0:30:39.270 However, the higher passage to this room is[br]an exit hallway. 0:30:39.270,0:30:43.659 It’s a bizarre inconsistency that could[br]have just been avoided by adding a doorway 0:30:43.659,0:30:46.890 in the Nailsmith room instead of a hallway. 0:30:46.890,0:30:48.470 What were they thinking? 0:30:48.470,0:30:51.940 Team Cherry obviously should have used a doorway[br]here. 0:30:51.940,0:30:55.640 And yet this game sold hundreds of copies. 0:30:55.640,0:30:59.030 Another reason Nook left these rooms out of[br]her map is because the parallax in the Junk 0:30:59.030,0:31:04.179 Pit room is way more complex than the vast[br]majority of rooms in the game, perhaps because 0:31:04.179,0:31:08.909 Team Cherry had more time to work on the room,[br]or had a change in design philosophy between 0:31:08.909,0:31:13.059 the release of the base game and the release[br]of Godmaster. 0:31:13.059,0:31:18.220 This was Nook’s attempt at fixing the room,[br]and it just didn’t end up looking right. 0:31:18.220,0:31:23.720 Overall, Royal Waterways is a bit weird, but[br]it does a good job at maintaining internal 0:31:23.720,0:31:26.639 consistency with its level design. 0:31:26.639,0:31:32.940 Unfortunately that’s pretty much the only[br]thing good about this place. 0:31:32.940,0:31:38.169 The Ancient Basin consists of 16 rooms, as[br]long as you include the Birthplace, which 0:31:38.169,0:31:40.940 isn’t actually included on the minimap. 0:31:40.940,0:31:45.430 The Ancient Basin is unique from all the other[br]areas of Hallownest because it only borders 0:31:45.430,0:31:49.600 one other area, the Royal Waterways. 0:31:49.600,0:31:53.809 Because of this, and because of the vast empty[br]space available to the Ancient Basin at the 0:31:53.809,0:31:59.059 bottom of the map, it doesn’t have any major[br]misalignments or overlaps. 0:31:59.059,0:32:03.659 We do have a near-miss over where the breakable[br]ground leads to a Pale Ore. 0:32:03.659,0:32:09.409 But everything else just works, probably because[br]every path leads to a dead end, so nothing 0:32:09.409,0:32:11.210 really has to line back up. 0:32:11.210,0:32:16.049 While we’re down here, let’s take a look[br]at the massive Abyss entrance room. 0:32:16.049,0:32:20.000 This room alone is taller than the entirety[br]of the Soul Sanctum. 0:32:20.000,0:32:25.900 This room was also an absolute nightmare for[br]Nook to clean up due to its insane parallaxing. 0:32:25.900,0:32:31.200 The main component of the background is this[br]strange low resolution wall structure. 0:32:31.200,0:32:36.000 In game, it stretches all the way across the[br]entire room, but to work on the composite 0:32:36.000,0:32:41.130 map, Nook had to mask out the entire background[br]and manually add a thinner version of the 0:32:41.130,0:32:47.010 background back into the image. 0:32:47.010,0:32:52.630 Moving on to Queen’s Garden, this area contains[br]18 rooms in total, and is one of my personal 0:32:52.630,0:32:55.100 favorite areas in Hollow Knight. 0:32:55.100,0:32:57.430 But how well does it hold up to scrutiny? 0:32:57.430,0:33:01.659 Let’s start at the very top, where Garden[br]connects to Greenpath. 0:33:01.659,0:33:06.690 To the left of this room is the White Lady’s[br]cocoon room, which has two sections to it 0:33:06.690,0:33:09.430 that remain isolated from one another. 0:33:09.430,0:33:13.179 This lets the player catch a glimpse of the[br]White Lady’s cocoon without actually being 0:33:13.179,0:33:15.440 able to enter it. 0:33:15.440,0:33:19.360 Because of this, a vertical hallway is needed[br]here on the right to line up the lower path 0:33:19.360,0:33:22.660 to White Lady’s room with the top path. 0:33:22.660,0:33:27.040 From looking at the main loop of Queen’s[br]Garden, we can see that some vertical adjustments 0:33:27.040,0:33:32.899 had to be made to line things up internally[br]as well as correctly connect to Fog Canyon. 0:33:32.899,0:33:38.330 In the bottom portion of the area, a somewhat[br]long horizontal hallway is needed next to 0:33:38.330,0:33:40.919 one of the vine platforming rooms. 0:33:40.919,0:33:46.389 Without this, the rooms above would overlap[br]with each other pretty badly. 0:33:46.389,0:33:51.169 So Queen’s Garden wasn’t quite as tightly[br]constructed as I had hoped. 0:33:51.169,0:33:58.139 But keep in mind that’s my fault for having[br]hope. 0:33:58.139,0:34:02.159 Just below Queen’s Garden is everyone’s[br]favorite pit of death and despair, Deepnest. 0:34:02.159,0:34:08.409 Deepnest is on the bigger side too, with 27[br]rooms. 0:34:08.409,0:34:12.661 Every connection to Deepnest lines up well[br]on Nook’s map, but they all needed to be 0:34:12.661,0:34:15.970 extended a bit to connect together. 0:34:15.970,0:34:20.839 Deepnest itself also had to be extended just[br]a tiny bit so its connection with Queen’s 0:34:20.839,0:34:23.260 Garden lines up correctly. 0:34:23.260,0:34:28.020 We also have some additional hallways off[br]the first Garpede challenge room to line things 0:34:28.020,0:34:30.780 up with Fungal Wastes and the rest of Deepnest. 0:34:30.780,0:34:36.639 But if we look at just Deepnest’s internal[br]connections, we do find a few issues. 0:34:36.639,0:34:41.750 Over in the Distance Village we have a misalignment[br]with the room directly to the right. 0:34:41.750,0:34:45.690 This path leading to Midwife is too high up. 0:34:45.690,0:34:50.129 Right next to the drop from Fungal Wastes,[br]we have another pair of exits that just don’t 0:34:50.129,0:34:54.720 line up at all, requiring a winding hallway[br]to patch things up. 0:34:54.720,0:34:59.280 Another pesky misalignment can be found with[br]the tram room where Cloth appears. 0:34:59.280,0:35:03.520 This room has two bottom exits, but they are[br]too close together to line up with the top 0:35:03.520,0:35:05.920 exits of the room below. 0:35:05.920,0:35:10.521 This room, and the room to the left of it,[br]also had to be moved up, so that the entire 0:35:10.521,0:35:15.119 Failed Tramway portion of Deepnest would align[br]vertically. 0:35:15.119,0:35:19.560 The tall room near Mask Maker is what pushed[br]everything up, and we can see how the path 0:35:19.560,0:35:23.500 right of here had to be lengthened out as[br]a result. 0:35:23.500,0:35:27.470 With how cramped together the right side of[br]Deepnest is, I’m surprised things have lined 0:35:27.470,0:35:28.870 up as well as they have. 0:35:28.870,0:35:32.700 But it’s not quite up to par with some of[br]the other areas in Hallownest. 0:35:32.700,0:35:35.970 Sorry to all my Deepnest stans out there. 0:35:35.970,0:35:42.250 Your life is already so hard. 0:35:42.250,0:35:47.280 Resting Grounds is one of the smaller sections[br]of Hallownest, with only 13 rooms, so there’s 0:35:47.280,0:35:49.820 really not much to get wrong here. 0:35:49.820,0:35:54.109 That said, its connection to Crystal Peak[br]ended up pretty misaligned. 0:35:54.109,0:35:57.790 The Knight takes a bit of a tumble when coming[br]down this hole, it seems. 0:35:57.790,0:36:02.810 Aside from that, an extra hallway is needed[br]to line up the top path of Resting Grounds 0:36:02.810,0:36:05.060 with the lower path. 0:36:05.060,0:36:08.030 And another hallway is added right of the[br]Blue Lake. 0:36:08.030,0:36:11.910 Overall, the Resting Grounds could have been[br]a bit better considering how few rooms it 0:36:11.910,0:36:14.619 has, but it’s not awful by any means. 0:36:14.619,0:36:20.670 Before we go, I should mention the Resting[br]Grounds’ notable landmark, the Blue Lake. 0:36:20.670,0:36:25.339 As we can see, the lake itself is roughly[br]right above the City of Tears. 0:36:25.339,0:36:29.030 We know from the minimap that the lake doesn’t[br]span the whole width of the city. 0:36:29.030,0:36:34.380 But from the composite map we can also see[br]that the lake can’t even be that deep either. 0:36:34.380,0:36:39.070 There’s no way all this rain is coming from[br]one puny lake. 0:36:39.070,0:36:45.640 I’m starting to think this game is unrealistic. 0:36:45.640,0:36:49.940 To finish off our journey through Hallownest,[br]let’s take a look at Kingdom’s Edge. 0:36:49.940,0:36:53.910 We’ve already talked about how none of its[br]connections work very well. 0:36:53.910,0:36:56.990 Some of you may be aware that Kingdom’s[br]Edge used to be a part of Deepnest. 0:36:56.990,0:37:02.970 In fact, the file names for all the rooms[br]in Kingdom’s Edge are called “Deepnest_East”, 0:37:02.970,0:37:07.339 but eventually Team Cherry decided to tear[br]Deepnest apart and make Kingdom’s Edge its 0:37:07.339,0:37:09.180 own area. 0:37:09.180,0:37:12.550 Perhaps this is why Kingdom’s Edge doesn’t[br]really connect to the rest of the world very 0:37:12.550,0:37:13.550 smoothly. 0:37:13.550,0:37:20.430 Kingdom’s Edge has 26 external rooms, however,[br]Nook included an additional 6 rooms not included 0:37:20.430,0:37:22.069 on the minimap. 0:37:22.069,0:37:26.640 The Cast-Off Shell room has been included,[br]as well as the incredibly tall room on the 0:37:26.640,0:37:31.329 far right side of the area that leads to a[br]giant Geo deposit. 0:37:31.329,0:37:36.339 This room is normally reached through a doorway,[br]but Nook decided to include it anyway since 0:37:36.339,0:37:38.800 it doesn’t overlap with anything. 0:37:38.800,0:37:43.290 We can see that this room does reach pretty[br]far down into the Abyss, with it stopping 0:37:43.290,0:37:46.980 somewhere in the middle of the giant Abyss[br]entrance room. 0:37:46.980,0:37:51.870 The other addition Nook made was the internal[br]rooms in the Colosseum of Fools which also 0:37:51.870,0:37:53.660 aren’t shown on the map. 0:37:53.660,0:37:57.770 The Colosseum is home to what is arguably[br]the most blatant spacial deceit in the entire 0:37:57.770,0:37:59.340 game. 0:37:59.340,0:38:04.710 When you enter the colosseum proper, there’s[br]a very long hallway the player has to traverse, 0:38:04.710,0:38:09.310 which really builds up the tension leading[br]to the various trials encountered there. 0:38:09.310,0:38:14.040 But the Warrior’s Pit, just below the Colosseum[br]is both a lot shorter, and yet reaches the 0:38:14.040,0:38:16.940 other side of the colosseum. 0:38:16.940,0:38:21.700 Since this is such a segregated area of the[br]map, it really doesn’t matter, but I would 0:38:21.700,0:38:25.600 say it’s the biggest single cheat the game[br]pulls off. 0:38:25.600,0:38:29.730 Another issue I noticed with the Colosseum[br]is this hole right beneath it. 0:38:29.730,0:38:34.540 This is, presumably, the chute where defeated[br]warriors are dumped out of the Colosseum. 0:38:34.540,0:38:40.020 On the composite map, this chute is directly[br]underneath the Shade Trap room in the Warrior’s 0:38:40.020,0:38:41.020 Pit. 0:38:41.020,0:38:45.500 However, I think it’s supposed to line up[br]with this grate near the Warrior Pit bench, 0:38:45.500,0:38:49.080 where we can see light shining up from below. 0:38:49.080,0:38:54.660 But even if you scooted the Colosseum over[br]as much as you could, it still wouldn’t 0:38:54.660,0:38:55.680 reach. 0:38:55.680,0:39:00.849 As for the rest of Kingdom’s Edge, this[br]long, narrow room isn’t quite wide enough 0:39:00.849,0:39:05.470 to reach the rooms beside it, so some extra[br]length is needed. 0:39:05.470,0:39:09.930 Additionally, the Tram room at the bottom[br]of the area doesn’t line up correctly with 0:39:09.930,0:39:11.650 either of the rooms next to it. 0:39:11.650,0:39:14.780 It’s too low and too short. 0:39:14.780,0:39:20.000 As for the Hive, it fits surprisingly well[br]into the bottom portion of Kingdom’s Edge. 0:39:20.000,0:39:24.380 And while we’re here, let’s take a quick[br]peek at Hive Queen Vespa. 0:39:24.380,0:39:28.070 As you can see, she is one giant woman. 0:39:28.070,0:39:31.580 The section to the right of the Hive is also[br]very well constructed. 0:39:31.580,0:39:36.609 I’d say that Kingdom’s Edge is yet another[br]area that benefits from having plenty of room 0:39:36.609,0:39:41.630 to sprawl and not having many other area connections[br]to handle. 0:39:41.630,0:39:46.170 Speaking of things that are sprawling, looking[br]at Kingdom’s Edge like this helps us examine 0:39:46.170,0:39:48.970 some strange recurring imagery. 0:39:48.970,0:39:53.359 You might have noticed these weird bone-like[br]structures winding in and out of the walls 0:39:53.359,0:39:58.800 in various places, with a huge concentration[br]of them being found right next to the Cast-Off 0:39:58.800,0:40:00.090 Shell. 0:40:00.090,0:40:04.510 It seems likely that these are part of the[br]Wyrm’s decaying carcass, which is coiled 0:40:04.510,0:40:06.980 up all throughout Kingdom’s Edge. 0:40:06.980,0:40:11.920 The portion of the corpse we walk into seems[br]to just be the mouth of the Wyrm, and the 0:40:11.920,0:40:15.970 Wyrm itself is actually much, much longer[br]than this. 0:40:15.970,0:40:20.819 Taking these additional bones scattered across[br]the area into account, here’s a more complete 0:40:20.819,0:40:25.650 view of the Wyrm corpse as it can be seen[br]in Kingdom’s Edge. 0:40:25.650,0:40:30.950 We can also see a lot of these white branches[br]and discarded or dislodged teeth littered 0:40:30.950,0:40:35.390 all over the place, which likely come from[br]the Wyrm corpse as well. 0:40:35.390,0:40:40.080 If we assume that these objects tend to stay[br]close to the carcass, then it might be even 0:40:40.080,0:40:43.010 bigger than what we can actually see. 0:40:43.010,0:40:47.750 Looking at it now, the Wyrm easily dwarfs[br]any other creature in Hallownest. 0:40:47.750,0:40:50.000 It’s way bigger than Bardoon. 0:40:50.000,0:40:52.640 It’s way bigger than the Colosseum carcass. 0:40:52.640,0:40:56.869 It’s even way bigger than the infamous Tuk[br]Rancid Egg room. 0:40:56.869,0:41:01.760 It truly is gargantuan, and can only really[br]be appreciated thanks to looking at things 0:41:01.760,0:41:04.000 from a new point of view. 0:41:04.000,0:41:08.050 If you want to read more speculation about[br]the Wyrm’s anatomy and biology, check out 0:41:08.050,0:41:11.670 this post by fellow Hollow Knight community[br]member, MEBI. 0:41:11.670,0:41:17.070 It’s some really cool stuff and I highly[br]recommend you check it out. 0:41:17.070,0:41:22.960 We’ve reached the end of Nook’s creation[br]of Hallownest, but I wanted to do a bonus 0:41:22.960,0:41:25.119 round for the White Palace. 0:41:25.119,0:41:28.819 Since Nook hasn’t created a map for this[br]area, we’ll be using a different composite 0:41:28.819,0:41:31.690 map created by Raining Chain. 0:41:31.690,0:41:36.410 This map can be viewed on their website and[br]is more focused on showing item locations 0:41:36.410,0:41:39.220 than having realistic room connections. 0:41:39.220,0:41:42.589 But it can still be used for comparing scale. 0:41:42.589,0:41:46.829 Before the White Palace was moved into the[br]Dream Realm, it was originally located in 0:41:46.829,0:41:49.640 the Palace Grounds in the Ancient Basin. 0:41:49.640,0:41:54.760 If we place the palace into the spot it supposedly[br]was before, we can see that it’s absolutely 0:41:54.760,0:41:55.760 massive. 0:41:55.760,0:42:00.850 The White Palace almost reaches up to the[br]top of the City of Tears. 0:42:00.850,0:42:02.920 So how does this make sense? 0:42:02.920,0:42:07.030 You could argue that the Palace as we see[br]it in the Dream Realm doesn’t truly represent 0:42:07.030,0:42:09.690 the Palace as it was in the real world. 0:42:09.690,0:42:14.339 Or you could argue that Team Cherry just wasn’t[br]concerned about this when making the level. 0:42:14.339,0:42:17.940 Either way, it’s very funny to think about[br]the White Palace literally sticking up through 0:42:17.940,0:42:20.460 the city’s sewer system. 0:42:20.460,0:42:25.270 As for the rooms in the White Palace itself,[br]there are a few things worth noting. 0:42:25.270,0:42:29.030 First, the Path of Pain does not fit in with[br]the rest of the map. 0:42:29.030,0:42:33.420 But, it’s not really clear if the Path of[br]Pain is supposed to be a real place at all. 0:42:33.420,0:42:37.609 It seems to just exist to protect the sealed[br]memory found at the end. 0:42:37.609,0:42:40.140 So maybe it shouldn’t count. 0:42:40.140,0:42:43.460 The second weirdness is the Pale King’s[br]workshop. 0:42:43.460,0:42:49.940 This room’s exits are so incredibly misaligned,[br]there’s no possible way that it was a mistake. 0:42:49.940,0:42:53.849 This could imply that the Pale King was trying[br]to hide his workshop and used some kind of 0:42:53.849,0:42:58.910 Pale King magic to make its entrance nonsensical,[br]or it’s just further proof that the White 0:42:58.910,0:43:03.680 Place as it exists in the Dream Realm has[br]somehow become warped from how it existed 0:43:03.680,0:43:05.589 in the real world. 0:43:05.589,0:43:09.730 Or it means some other third thing that I’m[br]too stupid to think of. 0:43:09.730,0:43:15.140 I’ve been quite harsh on Hollow Knight throughout[br]this video, picking it apart and criticizing 0:43:15.140,0:43:17.530 the most minute of details. 0:43:17.530,0:43:21.780 But I should mention that I don’t think[br]these misalignments and overlaps are all that 0:43:21.780,0:43:24.340 noticeable when playing the actual game. 0:43:24.340,0:43:28.440 And I think most people who played Hollow[br]Knight would probably agree. 0:43:28.440,0:43:33.520 The world doesn’t feel broken while playing,[br]which ultimately is what’s actually important 0:43:33.520,0:43:35.680 from a gameplay perspective. 0:43:35.680,0:43:39.480 So I do think Team Cherry pulled it off where[br]it actually counts. 0:43:39.480,0:43:41.579 Except maybe Crossroads. 0:43:41.579,0:43:43.540 Still not sure how I feel about that one. 0:43:43.540,0:43:48.480 Either way, it’s impressive how Nook worked[br]around all these issues to put together a 0:43:48.480,0:43:53.569 complete map like this, and I had such a great[br]time poking around her creation and seeing 0:43:53.569,0:43:57.359 what a spatially accurate Hallownest might[br]look like. 0:43:57.359,0:44:02.900 And like I said before, you can view the whole[br]world map over on Hallownest.net if you’re 0:44:02.900,0:44:03.900 interested. 0:44:03.900,0:44:08.720 Of course, with Silksong on the horizon, the[br]big question on all our minds is, how will 0:44:08.720,0:44:10.819 that game’s world fit together? 0:44:10.819,0:44:15.010 I asked Nook if she was planning on mapping[br]out Silksong like she did for Hollow Knight 0:44:15.010,0:44:19.810 and committing to cleaning up another of Team[br]Cherry’s geographical messes. 0:44:19.810,0:44:20.970 She said “fuck no”.