The World Design of Hollow Knight | Boss Keys

If you were a fan of Metroidvania games, then
2010 was a very difficult year.

On the one side, we got Metroid: Other M - a
game that paid lip service to exploration

and isolation, but was way more interested
in action-packed fights, cringe-worthy cutscenes,

and excessive handholding.

And on the other side, after six cracking
Castlevania adventures on handhelds, we got

Castlevania: Lords of Shadow - a knockabout
brawler that took most of its inspiration

from God of War, and had only the lightest
hint of exploration.

It looked like the Metroidvania was dead.

Except, it really wasn’t.

Because while Nintendo and Konami were about
to drop off for a decade-long slumber with

their respective franchises, other developers
- especially smaller indie studios - were

starting to try their hand at the Metroidvania
formula.

Cave Story, Aquaria, and Shadow Complex were
early attempts to follow that recipe of locked

doors, new abilities, grid-like map systems,
and secret items.

And since then we’ve seen games as varied
as Strider, Axiom Verge, the Shantae

games, Toki Tori 2, Guacamelee, Headlander,
and Ori and the Blind Forest.

But none of these games would quite prepare
us for one that was released in 2017.

This is a masterpiece, with crunchy combat
against imaginative boss monsters, crushing

Dark Souls-esque difficulty spikes, a deep
well of lore that would launch several YouTube

careers, and - most important of all - an
elegantly designed, interconnected world that

is just a joy to get lost in.

So this is Boss Keys, and today - join me on
a deep dive into the world design of

Hollow Knight.

Hollow Knight takes place in the sprawling
kingdom of Hallownest.

The game begins in Dirtmouth: a fading town
with a few shops and visiting adventurers.

Beneath that lies the Forgotten Crossroads,
which - as the name might suggest - connects

up to many areas in the game, including the
leafy suburbs of Greenpath, the deadly mines

of Crystal Peak, the acidic Fog Canyon, and
the noxious caverns of the Fungal Wastes.

In the very depths of Hallownest you’ll
find the pitch-black labyrinth of Deepnest,

and the mysterious Ancient Basin.

While in the furthest corners you’ll discover
the graveyard, called the Resting Grounds,

the Howling Cliffs, and the lush greenhouse
of the Queen’s Gardens.

And at the kingdom’s edge you’ll find
the, uh, Kingdom’s Edge - which also connects

to The Hive.

All of these areas surround the enormous capital
of Hallownest: the endlessly-drenched City

of Tears, and its Royal Waterways sewer system.

Together, these 15 different zones create
a jigsaw of neatly fitting puzzles pieces.

Now, each area is visibly distinct.

There’s no confusing the pink gems of Crystal
Peak with the leafy green walls of Greenpath,

or the candlelit blue walls of the Forgotten
Crossroads, or the muted greys of the Ancient

Basin.

It’s especially helpful that the colour
of each area matches the colours on the map.

This all makes it easy to keep these areas
separately catalogued in your brain box, enormously

helping with navigation and spatial reasoning.

But you’ll also find gameplay differences
in each zone, which keeps them fresh and varied.

That includes bouncing on trampoline shrooms
in the Fungal Wastes, dodging laser beams

in the Crystal Peak, and peering through the
darkness in Deepnest.

Some areas, like the Kingdom’s Edge, are
vertical in nature - while others, like the

Royal Waterways, are stretched out highways.

And there are also unique enemies in each
zone - like exploding bugs in Greenpath, kamikaze

jellyfish in Fog Canyon, icky spiders in Deepnest,
and cute bee-lets in The Hive - which makes

every zone feel brand new.

When we first drop into Hallownest, we’re
not exactly given any real goal or direction.

This first cutscene shows a lone wanderer
- the mysterious Knight - just kinda rocking

up to the kingdom and jumping on in.

But we are given some vague hints about where
to go.

The Elderbug in Dirtmouth tells us to head
on down.

And this sign in the west end of the Forgotten
Crossroads points towards “the city at this

kingdom’s heart” - a place where “all
wishes shall be granted, all truths revealed”,

apparently.

Sounds like a good place to check out, if
only it wasn’t guarded by an invincible

armour-plated beetle.

Something Hollow Knight does well is to hint
at upcoming areas with one room that shares

that zone’s visual identity - like the rooms
in the Forgotten Crossroads that have leaves

from Greenpath, or gems from Crystal Peak.

This is a great way of teasing future content
- and lodging that place in the player’s

brain as somewhere worth returning to.

In the centre of the Forgotten Crossroads
is a big ol’ boss called the False Knight

- and behind him is our first power-up: the
Vengeful Spirit, which is a sort of Hadouken-style

blast.

In the tutorial for this new ability we use
it to defeat another armour-plated beetle,

reminding us to return to that corridor, and
make progress to Greenpath.

This is a Metroidvania after all - so expect
to find locks and keys.

Here, in Greenpath, we meet Hornet: who keeps dashing
just out of view - and acts like a carrot-on-a-stick

to lure us over to the west side of the area.

There, we’ll summarily dispatch Hornet - hopefully,
she’s pretty tough - and get the second

upgrade: the Mothwing Cloak.

This lets us dash in mid-air, granting access
to the Fungal Wastes.

We’re still being teased by that city - thanks
to literal signposts that point the way down.

And Hornet does her little carrot-on-a-stick
routine once again, as she darts towards the

city’s entrance.

Not that you can follow her, mind you, due
to the bridge being down.

So instead, we enter the Mantis Village, and
find the next power-up: the Mantis Claw.

This allows us to scale up walls and is the
perfect ability to get us past that bridge

and - finally - into the City of Tears.

So, at this point, Hollow Knight seems quite
linear.

We’re following a standard sequence of upgrades
and boss fights, and following a critical

path through Hallownest.

But if the game’s developers were leading
us to the city by the hand - if only quite

subtly, with vague clues and in-world signposts
- then this is the point where they let go.

At the centre of the city, we’ll meet Hornet
once again - and she’ll tell us to visit

"the grave in ash", but there’s no indication
of where that is.

And while the fountain actually puts a marker
on our map for the first time in the game

- it’s for the Black Egg Temple back in
the Forgotten Crossroads, which is somewhere

we’ve already been, and that thing’s locked
up tight.

So the question is - where to next?

Let me back up a bit.

If we look at the map of Hallownest, and reveal
how much of the world we can explore at each

point in the game, we can see that our initial
reach is limited to just Dirtmouth and the

Forgotten Crossroads.

After we get the Vengeful Spirit, we can go
a smidge further, into Greenpath and the Fog Canyon.

And the Mothwing Cloak reveals a tiny bit
more for us to see still,

letting us into the Fungal Wastes.

But as soon as we have the Mantis Claw, the
map is massively unveiled to us - we can go

to the City of Tears, of course, and - provided
we’ve found a Simple Key - the Royal Waterways.

We can pop up to the Howling Cliffs, descend
into Deepnest, or check out the Ancient Basin.

We can even reach the Resting Grounds.

And if we discover the Tram Pass in Deepnest,
we can also visit the Kingdom’s Edge.

And this was definitely a deliberate choice
by the game’s developers.

I spoke to Ari Gibson and William Pellen from
Team Cherry over email, who told me this:

“we started with a basic, linear progression
of item acquirement, with the idea that we

would allow that progression to break apart,
branch out and wind around itself as the world

grew.”

So while our journey has been quite constrained
up until now, there’s suddenly a bunch of

different things we can do all at once.

We can go fight the Dung Defender in the Royal
Waterways, which lets us flip a mysterious switch.

Or we could challenge the Mantis Lords, to
open up access to Deepnest.

Or we could go fight the Soul Master in the
City of Tears, and get his handy Desolate

Dive ability.

That lets us into the Crystal Peak, and allows
us to pick up the Crystal Heart: a sort of

bonkers jet-powered super dash, which opens
up a lot more areas.

That includes a place in the Ancient Basin
where we fight the Broken Vessel and get the

double jumpin’ Monarch Wings.

And also an area in the Royal Waterways, where
- provided we hit that switch earlier - we

can pick up Isma’s Tear, which lets us splash
about in acid water.

So, by opening up the world in such a dramatic
fashion, Team Cherry doesn’t actually need

to lead you by the hand anymore.

Because if there are loads of different things
to find all over the map - the player will

likely stumble upon something important, no
matter which direction they take.

Now, I should say that after entering the
City of Tears, the developers ideally want

you to go fight the Soul Master and get the
Desolate Dive ability.

They even slam the city’s gates shut behind
you - and the only way back through is to

smash through this floor with - you guessed
it - the Desolate Dive.

This is a classic Metroidvania trick of locking
the door behind the player, so they don’t

back out without finding the necessary goodies.

But something you should know about the world
design of Hallownest is that there’s always

more than one way to go.

For example - remember when I said you need
to fight the Mantis Lords to gain access to

Deepnest?

Well, not necessarily - because if you find
this semi-secret path in the Fungal Wastes,

you can get to Deepnest from there and bypass
that boss fight altogether - providing two

routes to the same place.

Also, you can get to east side of the City
of Tears through the Royal Waterways.

Or by taking a lift down from the Resting
Grounds.

Or by taking the tram from Deepnest to the
Ancient Basin, and climbing back up to the

city from there.

Or you could even come in via the Kingdom’s
Edge.

That’s four routes to the same place.

The Crystal Peak is another key area for this.

For starters, there are multiple routes through
this zone when getting to the Crystal Heart,

allowing us to skip this Crystal Guardian
boss fight altogether if we so wish.

And there’s two routes into the mine itself.

Before, I mentioned using the Desolate Dive
to smash through this floor - but there’s

also this pitch-black and seemingly inaccessible
room in the Forgotten Crossroads.

Come back with the Lumafly Lantern from the
shop in Dirtmouth, though, and you’ll be

able to see that there’s actually a gate
in that room.

Once unlocked, you’ll get access to the
Crystal Peak.

And if you’ve got the Mantis Claw, you can
even hop up and get the Crystal Heart, meaning

you can bypass the Soul Master and his Desolate
Dive pick-up altogether, if you so wish.

The explorable area following the Mantis Claw
actually looks like this, then.

In fact, because you can reach this dark room
at the very start of the game, you can theoretically

enter the Crystal Peak before getting the
game’s very first power-up: the Vengeful Spirit.

Though, at 1,800 Geo, the lamp is rather expensive
and will be hard to save up for at this very early

stage in the adventure.

It’s an interesting example of a what we
might call a “soft lock”, though: a route

through a game that isn’t physically inaccessible
to the player, but will turn most adventurers

away at this early stage because they’re
not yet strong enough, don’t have enough

knowledge, or - in this case - don’t have
enough cash.

So while the door to the City of Tears does
shut tight behind you, there’s plenty of creative

ways out of the city that don’t require
the Desolate Dive ability.

Providing multiple routes through the game
certainly allows you to pick your own path

during the adventure - which is perfect for
second playthroughs, speed-runs, low percentage

challenges - and most importantly of all - a
feeling of legitimate agency.

Because - similar to games like Dark Souls
and the very first Metroid and Zelda games

- the route through the game is dictated by
your own curiosity and sense of adventure.

But this is also a wonderful way to stop the
player from getting stuck.

Like: think about the Grapple Hook in Super
Metroid.

It can be used to access loads of places around
Zebes but most of them just lead to inessential

upgrades like the Wave Beam and Energy Tanks
- so let’s call these optional locks.

Only one Grapple Hook point actually allows
further progress through the game, towards

the Wrecked Ship - so we might call that a
critical lock.

And so while you’re certainly going to get
loads of cool goodies to upgrade Samus, it

does mean that if you can’t find that one
single critical lock, you’re going to be

stuck.

In Hollow Knight, though, things are a bit
different.

Like, after getting the Mothwing Cloak from
Hornet in Greenpath, there are loads of places

to use it.

Some lead to handy pick ups.

But also, you can dash up here in the Fog
Canyon’s Queen Station, and dash up here

in the bottom of the Forgotten Crossroads
- and both lead you to the Fungal Wastes,

and continue your adventure towards the Mantis
Village.

Having two critical locks instead of one dramatically
increases your chances of making progress

through the game.

Because whether you remember some past blocked-off
area and decide to backtrack to it with your

new power-up, or you just continue adventuring
onwards and hope to stumble upon the next

part of the game - you’re much more likely
to make progress if there’s more than one

critical lock to find.

This is a technique that’s used to great
effect in the Resting Grounds.

Some players will drop down into the area
from this chasm in the Crystal Peak.

But others might, instead, find the Tram Pass
in Deepnest and ride a train car from the

Forgotten Crossroads over to the Resting Grounds.

They might take a lift up from the east end
of the City of Tears, and reach the Resting

Grounds from underneath.

Or they might get to that same entranceway,
but by using the Crystal Dash to get to the

Blue Lake.

That’s four completely different paths to
the same area - using all sorts of different

abilities and routes.

And it can be accessed from the very start
of the game, if you take that route through

the pitch-black room I discussed earlier.

But this is all for a reason.

The Resting Grounds is actually the “grave
in ash” that Hornet spoke of back in the

City of Tears, and it’s one of the most
important areas in the game because it finally

gives us an actual goal - we need to take
this Dream Nail and use it to wake up three

sleeping sentries: Herrah the Beast, Lurien
the Watcher, and Monomon the Teacher.

So by having all sorts of different ways into
the Resting Grounds, Team Cherry can be sure

that players will almost certainly get there
eventually - but they don’t have to be led

by the hand using signposts, directions, or
map markers.

Instead, you just get that wonderful feeling
of “accidentally” stumbling upon something

really important.

Team Cherry says it tried to avoid using too
much signposting because it would be “to

the detriment of many players who, through
initially being lost, find their own ways

and begin to learn the layout of the kingdom
on a much more personal level”.

There is one exception to that, though: when
you look at this statue in the Resting Ground,

the dreamer’s masks are drawn onto your
map, marking the location of these characters.

And normally, I’d be kind of against this
sort of overt and gamey direction.

However, this turns out to be less of a bunch
of nagging waypoint markers and more of a

gentle reminder of what your overall goal
actually is.

Because, your map is likely so uncharted that these
masks are just floating in an unhelpful sea

of black, and you almost certainly don’t
have all the abilities to actually reach these

dreamers yet.

Herrah, for example, is hidden away in her
den in the furthest corner of Deepnest.

You’ll need the Mantis Claw to get in there,
and the Lumafly Lantern to actually see what

you’re doing.

Lurien is high atop his spire, overlooking
the City of Tears, and can’t be reached

without the Monarch Wings.

And you’ll need to defeat the Watcher Knights
at his door.

And Monomon’s kipping in her archive in
the Fog Canyon, which is blocked off unless

you have Isma’s Tear.

You’re also going to have to dispatch the
rather familiar looking boss, Uumuu.

So while the masks on your map might point
out the final destinations, they don’t tell

you anything about the many stops you’ll
need to make along the way.

There’s one final way that Team Cherry allows
you to dictate your own path through the game,

and that’s by allowing, encouraging, and
even designing in tricks that allow you to

get past obstacles without the necessary upgrades.

Similar to tricks like the wall jump in Super Metroid.

So you can use the kickback blast of the Vengeful
Spirit to propel yourself to areas that would

normally require the Mothwing Cloak.

You can use the Crystal Heart to bypass bits
that need Isma’s Tear.

And most disruptive of all, you can bounce
off background decorations and flying enemies

with the nail to give you an extra lift - and
render the Monarch Wings technically optional.

Now that’s what I call exploiting a bug!

Team Cherry told me that “we knew players
would be able to sequence break using the

nail bounce technique, and we absolutely wanted
them to be able to do so.

Watching players discover new routes is a
huge joy for us and is a really empowering

moment for a player.”

“We even placed certain enemies and objects
to allow some shortcuts” - though, they

admit that “the Hollow Knight community
has uncovered many more skips that we’d

never considered ourselves”.

One spot in the Kingdom’s Edge had to be
fixed in a patch, as it was possible to get

yourself stuck if you managed to access it
before acquiring the Monarch Wings.

With all three dreamers awake, we can now
finally enter the Black Egg Temple in the

Forgotten Crossroads, fight the, ahem, final
boss: Hollow Knight, and ahem, finish the game.

Now while I normally like to use graphs to
explain the structure of Metroidvania games

on Boss Keys, it’s not really possible with
Hollow Knight.

So much stuff can be be skipped, or done in
different ways, or reached from different

directions, that creating a single, monolithic
chart for the game’s structure is just not

possible.

I can show you one route through the game,
though, which at least reveals the general

shape of things.

Essentially, a linear corridor of upgrades
and boss fights, which dramatically fans out

to a wide open matrix of non-linear possibilities.

Including the ability to pick up game-changing
abilities simultaneously - which is something

you don’t usually see in Metroidvanias,
because they often dictate a more set-in-stone

sequence of getting one item after another.

But Team Cherry says “we wanted players
to feel like their journey through the kingdom

was their own, and part of that was removing
barriers or opening paths to allow acquiring

items or powers ‘out of order’.”

Of course, this graph has a million different
permutations.

You can skip the Mantis Lords and the Crystal
Guardian with careful navigation of the map,

get the Dream Nail much earlier in the game,
reach the Crystal Heart without the Desolate

Dive, and so on.

But beyond that, there’s so much more that
this graph doesn’t even begin to cover.

For starters, while I’ve already talked
about the bosses that are standing between

you and the game’s credits - there’s also
bunch of completely hidden bosses that have

no impact on the structure of the game whatsoever.

There’s the Brooding Mawlek, who’s in
a hard-to-reach room in the Forgotten Crossroads.

The Collector, who can’t be found unless
you get the Love Key from the Queen’s Gardens.

The Enraged Guardian, who’s hiding in a
secret room above the other Guardian’s boss area.

The Flukemarm, who can only be found if you
use the Desolate Dive in the Royal Waterways.

And Nosk, in Deepnest, who can only be reached
with either the Crystal Heart or the Monarch

Wings.

There’s also the Hive Knight in, I'll let you guess,
but he’s exclusive to the Lifeblood DLC.

And there are more bosses beyond these.

At the Kingdom’s Edge, you’ll find the
Colosseum of Fools - which is a non-stop combat

gauntlet, with a handful of unique bosses.

And the seven Warrior Dreams, who are ghostly
spirits that are are guarding their gravesites,

and can be challenged to a dual after you
acquire the Dream Nail.

And dream variants of the Broken Vessel, False
Knight, and Soul Master bosses - which are

like super hard remixes of those fights.

Two more come in the Hidden Dreams DLC, as
well.

Ultimately, it is quite incredible to stumble
down some random hallway, and not just uncover

a handy item or whatever: but an entirely
unique boss fight that some players might

never see.

Team Cherry says it doesn’t worry too much
about whether everyone will find the content

it makes.

“Just having it there, out of sight from
most players makes the world more truly alive,”

the developer explains - “much of it exists
to convey a sense that there’s always something

else waiting in the unexplored recesses of
the world - fearsome enemies, strange characters,

new areas, powerful items etc.”

“And [it] creates a very special experience
for those few that do make the discovery.”

So depending on how you categorise things,
and whether or not you include the Lifeblood

and Hidden Dreams DLC, there are more than
30 bosses in the world of Hollow Knight, but

you might only fight about 10 to 15 of them
during your adventure.

It’s crazy.

An absolute butt load of extra bosses and
remixes are added in the other two DLC packs:

The Grimm Troupe and Godmaster, but they’re
not relevant to the normal exploration of

Hallownest, and so I won’t be discussing
them in this video.

What’s the point of going after these non-essential
bosses, then?

Other than the fact that you don’t actually
know which bosses are necessary to beat the

game, of course.

Well, it’s all about 'dem goodies.

The world of Hollow Knight is jam packed with
stuff to find - sometimes hidden behind bosses,

sometimes behind secret walls, sometimes behind
those optional locks, sometimes as expensive

items in shops, sometimes just found off the
beaten track.

You’ve got your usual upgrades: 16 Mask
Shards act like the heart pieces in Zelda:

so find four of them and you’ll be able to
take an extra hit in combat.

The 9 Vessel Fragments are kinda similar:
find three of these and you’ll boost your

available mana for powerful spells and recharging
your health.

There are also special moves, like the Great
Slash, Dash Slash, and Cyclone Slash.

Soul upgrades like the Abyss Shriek and Descending
Dark.

And you can boost the power of your Nail if
you find Pale Ore.

And then there are the charms.

These collectable badges give you all sorts
of handy abilities like quicker recovery on

your spells, no knock-back when fighting enemies,
and so on.

Every one is uniquely interesting to equip
and they even synergise for more abilities

- but are limited to the number of charm notches
you have.

And yes, you can find charm notches as well.

All of these items are well worth finding
because Hollow Knight is definitely not an

easy game.

In fact, it’s brutally difficult at times,
has the same find-your-corpse-when-you-die

mechanic as Dark Souls, and some of the bosses
just do not mess around.

That makes getting more health, or a charm
that can help you in combat, or a boost to

your nail’s strength, or a more powerful
spell a genuinely worthwhile thing to find.

Defeating some hidden boss doesn’t feel
like a waste of time because it didn’t let

you make any progress - the reward is usually
useful (or, at least, interesting) enough

to make your efforts feel worthwhile.

I do want to say one thing about the corpse
run mechanic, though: this is one way that

Hollow Knight sadly discourages exploration
through its design.

When you die in, say, Zelda 1 - it’s easy
to say “you know what?

Screw that area, I’m going to look somewhere
else”.

When you die in Hollow Knight, though, you
drop a shadowy clone of yourself - who hangs

on to all your money and limits your mana
amount to half.

This tempts you to return to the place you
just died - sometimes over and over and over again

- regardless of the many other interesting
places you could explore,

or different routes you could take.

These extra bosses and endless special items
also make you feel like there’s something

to find around every corner.

No matter where you explore, there will be
something to find.

Sometimes it’s not even relevant to the
gameplay at all - it’s just story stuff

that adds to the rich and immersive atmosphere
of the game.

My personal favourite take on this is the way certain
characters seem to be off on their own little

adventures.

Bugs like Cloth, Quirrel, and Tiso, keep popping
up all over the place - each commenting on

their status and location.

It makes the world feel alive, and less like
the game revolves entirely around the player.

These bugs are off doing their own thing,
with our without you.

One bug who definitely does need you, though,
is Zote.

This arrogant dude can be found in the mandibles
of a Vengefly King in Greenpath - and it’s

up to you if you save him.

Same goes for when he’s later found stuck
in spider webs in Deepnest.

If you save him both times, he’ll appear
as a boss - of sorts - in the Colosseum of

Fools, and then in Bretta’s house in Dirtmouth.

But if you miss him in Greenpath or Deepnest, or simply
choose not to save him - well, that’s it.

That whole quest will just not happen - and once
again, proves that Team Cherry doesn’t care

if you see their work, because it makes it
all the sweeter for those who do witness the

full story.

The game is actually packed with little quests
like this, such as a mission to save the Grubfather’s

children, a promise to fill out of a journal
of every enemy in Hallownest, a tricky quest

to carry a delicate flower across the map,
and a personal favourite: the way a secret

stag station opens up when you unlock all
the other stations.

All of these help flesh out Hollow Knight’s
rich narrative, and add memorable character

moments.

The world itself tells stories, too.

My favourite example of this is the Blue Lake,
which is positioned above the City

of Tears, and explains why the city is constantly
raining.

Amazing.

Let’s talk about actually getting around
Hallownest.

So we’ve already discussed the multiple
entry points between areas in the game.

In fact, every single zone, except for The
Hive, is connected to at least two other places

in Hallownest, through lifts, passageways,
tram stations, and secret routes.

Team Cherry says “It was always intentional
to give players different ways to travel to

and through (and sometimes around) areas.”

Some of these were planned ahead of time,
but others were added when the opportunity

presented itself - “For instance, when Deepnest
grew tall enough that the top of it was brushing

against the bottom of the Queen’s Gardens,
we added a connection between them.”

“If we can add a connection between adjacent
areas, and it makes sense in the world, and

it doesn’t cause players to get stuck somewhere,
then we do it”.

But when playing the game, many of these routes
start out as only going one way.

So it’s initially impossible to get from
Dirtmouth to Crystal Peak.

But after getting the Crystal Heart, you can
zoom along here and open up a lift between

the town and the peak.

It’s one of those wonderful “aha” moments
you get in such elegantly designed wrap-around

worlds, like taking that first elevator back
to Firelink Shrine in Dark Souls.

What this means is that Hollow Knight’s
developers can initially restrict your access

to certain places - to create a semblance
of order and sequence to the game’s items.

Like how you need the tram pass to get to
Kingdom’s Edge.

But then by opening up new routes from the
other side, like this path through to a lift

shaft in the City of Tears, the game’s world
becomes far easier to navigate.

Team Cherry does this in micro-form, too.

Take the Forgotten Crossroads, where this
locked gate blocks off easy access to the

boss.

Instead, you’re forced to go all the way
around the zone, taking in every room and

challenge along the way.

However, once you unlock that gate it becomes
permanently open - giving you easy passageway

through the crossroads.

This is a clever way of ensuring that the
first time a player enters a zone, they are

forced to tackle difficult challenges and
set-ups.

Things like tricky platforming sections, or
areas with tough enemies, or brutal gauntlets

against waves of foes.

But once you’ve proven you can do it once,
you’ll be able to skip this stuff during

revisits to the zone - massively reducing
the boring bits of backtracking.

There’s only a few times where Team Cherry
breaks this rule.

At some point in the game, the Forgotten Crossroads
gets taken over by these malicious orange

bubbles and becomes The Infected Crossroads
- complete with new, harder enemy types.

Now, I do love this: it makes the world feel
changeable, like time is not standing still

during your adventure.

And it makes one of the earliest parts of
the game - which has started to become a cakewalk

with your newfound skills and abilities - a
new source of challenge.

But it also blocks off a couple routes through
the zone, making it just slightly more annoying

to navigate. Grr.

I should definitely also mention the Stag
network.

Similar to the fast travel points in Castlevania:
Symphony of the Night, these stag stations

are dotted around Hallownest and provide easy
access between some of the zones.

With a map the size of Hallownest, I think
these fast travel points are a fine addition

- it would be horribly tedious to get about
without them.

And besides, with two stag stations in the
City of Tears, only nine of the fifteen areas

have stations, so there’s not enough to
just let you teleport all over the place.

You’ll still need to know your way around,
and carefully plot your journey out on your map.

Oh, the map!

Gosh, how has it taken this long to talk about
one of Hollow Knight’s most interesting

features: its mapping system.

So, when you first start the game you
won’t have a map of the world at all.

But then you’ll come across this cheeky
chap: Cornifer.

He’s a cartographer who will sell you his
sketchy, incomplete maps of each zone in the

game - these kind of work like the map stations
in Super Metroid, which hint at places you

can explore and interesting areas you should
check out.

The map for the Forgotten Crossroads, for
example, has a drawing of a big scary monster

head, which points you in the direction of
the game’s first boss.

Back up in Dirtmouth, you can buy a quill
which then turns the map into a more traditional

auto-mapping system.

But with a couple twists: one is that the
map only fills in when you sit down on a bench

to rest.

And the other is that in order to see your
position on the map, you need to buy and equip

a compass charm - handy, but maybe it would
be better to use that slot for something else?

A decision you can make.

The way a game chooses to reveal its world
on a map can completely change your experience

with exploring that world.

Classic adventures like Zelda and Metroid
didn’t have maps - likely due to technical

limitations, but it created this real sense
of mystery and unchartedness, and forced you

to make your own map, either in your head
or on paper.

The Souls games would revisit this idea much
later, forcing you to forge a map of places like Lordran

or Yharnham in your bonce.

But a good, clear map is handy, too.

It’s nice to plot out routes you want to
take, it can help you figure out where you

have and have not yet explored, and it’s
great for scooping up items and secrets.

Hollow Knight gives you the best of both worlds.

When you first enter a zone, your map
is completely blank - you’re stumbling in

the dark, and you have no idea about the size
and scope of the place you’re in.

It makes new places feel scary and dangerous.

Then, when you get the sketchy map from Cornifer,
you get a slightly better idea of where to

go - and some hints at places you might want
to check out.

And then once you sit in a bench, you get
the full map.

You can see more clearly how the world is
laid out, plan routes through Hallownest,

and if you’re feeling a bit stuck - scan
the map for paths you’ve yet to venture down.

So, if you thought the final cutscene in Hollow
Knight was a bit anticlimactic - you’d be right.

Like many Metroidvanias before it, Hollow
Knight has a bad ending - and a whole lot

of gameplay to go if you want to get the true,
good ending.

Here’s the basic run down: you need to hop
up here in the Kingdom’s Edge, fight Hornet

for the second time, and enter the Cast-Off
Shell.

Inside is the King’s Brand, which can be
used in the Ancient Basin to open up a big

ol’ door and grant access to The Abyss.

Inside is the Shade Cloak, which finally lets
you bypass a recurring obstacle in the game:

these black geysers of toxic goop.

By the way, you can use the shade cloak to
get to the teacher’s archive from a different

direction and wake Monomon without fighting
the Dung Defender or getting Isma’s Tear.

Cheeky!

Anyway, one black geyser blocks a new boss
fight: the Traitor Lord.

And the prize for beating him is the White
Fragment. Sweet.

Now, there’s a character called Seer in
the Resting Grounds who will give you goodies

in exchange for Essence, which is gained by
defeating the Warrior Dream bosses, the dream

variant bosses, using the dream nail on ghosts,
and collecting Essence spawned from whispering

roots.

If you gather 1800 of this stuff, Seer will
upgrade your Dream Nail to the Awakened Dream Nail.

Now if you use this on a corpse in the Ancient
Basin you get to go to the White Palace: a

nightmare hellscape void of misery that’s
as hard as anything in Super Meat Boy or Celeste

but, like, without the super sharp platforming
controls of either game.

God damn this bit is quite annoying.

At the end though is another White Fragment.

Stick them together and you’ve got the Kingsoul.

And then return to the Abyss and you’ll
turn that into the Void Heart.

Finally, return to Hollow Knight and use the
Dream Nail on that dude to enter his brain

and fight the actual proper last boss: Radiance.

Who is very hard and makes me want to cry.

But I did it. After like a million goes.

I’m quite amazed just how much content there
is in this secretive end game.

It took me about 20 hours to get to the credits
for the first time - and then another 10 to

get to the proper ending.

Testament, I guess, to how Team Cherry is
happy to let players just miss huge swathes

of content.

Now, personally, this bit didn’t quite work
for me.

I felt finished and satisfied with the game
after dispatching Hollow Knight for the first time.

And when I discovered that there was a lot
more to do, I didn’t really have the drive

to carry on and seek out yet more secrets.

Especially because I had no idea where to
go.

And the game doesn’t keep up that tradition
of offering two routes into key places so

if you miss this jump in the Kingdom’s Edge,
you won’t get very far.

Basically, I just followed a walkthrough to
get to the true final ending.

Bit of a let down.

So, that is Hollow Knight.

The game helps lure you into the world of
Hallownest with cryptic clues and the guiding

hand of linear level design - but then throws
open the gates to the kingdom and lets you

explore as you wish.

And by letting you access so much content
simultaneously, and by providing multiple

routes and methods to get through the game,
Hollow Knight almost never falls into the

trap that Metroidvanias can find themselves
in: of having you scour the map for that one

single place you need to go, to make any progress.

Instead, Hollow Knight just lets you get on
with exploring - with the promise that there

will be something worth finding around every
corner.

A fascinating new zone, a bizarre one-off
enemy, a chunk of cryptic world-building,

a genuinely helpful item, a game-changing
upgrade, or a terrifying boss monster.

This is quite different to other Metroidvanias,
mind you - it misses that puzzle-like aspect

of slowly unravelling at a knot that binds
the world together, one lock at a time.

But the feeling this game gives is perhaps even better
- just pure, unadulterated wonder and immersion

in a world that never stops surprising.

Team Cherry told me that “we try to let
the player loose in a wild world, not push

them explicitly one way, and reward them for
choosing their own path.”

“That approach is based on mutual trust
and respect between us and the player.

We know these are smart, dedicated people
and we’re confident that, through observation,

tenacity and skill, they’ll deal with the
challenges the world presents and ultimately

gain mastery over it.

It’s that mastery, in exploration, in combat
and in understanding the story of the world

that we hope creates a memorable experience.”

It certainly did for me, and to say I’m
excited for the game’s sequel, Hollow Knight:

Silksong, would be a massive understatement.

And that is a wrap on Boss Keys.

In the last 20 episodes I’ve looked at every
major Zelda game, almost every Metroid game,

Castlevania Symphony of the Night, Dark Souls,
and now Hollow Knight.

The series is not gone forever, of course
- I’ll be back when huge new games like

Metroid Prime 4, Hollow Knight Silksong, and
Breath of the Wild 2 are released.

And yes, I do still plan to do that wrap-up
episode on Zelda dungeon design.

One day, promise.

But I always planned for Hollow Knight to
be the final destination for this series.

It’s one of my favourite games and I think
it might be the best Metroidvania ever made.

So it’s good to go out on such a high.

Thank you so much for watching, and
cheers to my Patrons for supporting this show.

I’ll see you next mission.