Exploring the Hollow Knight Beta

A beta of Hollow Knight just showed up online
recently.

Now I’m sure you’re wondering how this
happened.

Does somebody’s uncle work at Team Cherry?

Did a hacker break into their servers?

Well no, one of Team Cherry’s playtesters,
a prolific and mysterious figure simply known

as Graig, posted the beta on a few discord
servers, with Team Cherry’s permission.

So Team Cherry just decided to let anyone
access this beta, which honestly is pretty

cool.

This beta in particular was provided to Kickstarter
backers in 2015.

And it was also available in a Humble Bundle
sale that took place a few weeks before the

game officially launched, basically acting
as a sort of demo.

So this isn’t the biggest discovery in the
world.

No, there aren’t any unused bosses here.

And no, your long lost father isn’t here
either.

But I think it would be fun to run through
the beta and discuss what it’s like to play,

and what little differences there are between
this and the final game.

The beta doesn’t have the Hallownest poem
or the cutscene in the Black Egg.

Instead we just get this simple introduction
cutscene of the Knight arriving in Hallownest.

This cutscene has always stood out to me due
to how the Knight’s eyes are stylized.

It would make sense that this cutscene was
created very early in the game’s development.

You can see how Ari Gibson’s art style for
Hollow Knight has slightly changed over the

years.

The first major difference you can see in
the beta is that the Knight has four masks

instead of five.

Considering how difficult Hollow Knight can
be for new players, adding more health was

probably a good idea.

We can see from some of the earliest footage
that there were originally got to be three

masks, which would have just been ridiculous.

Another notable difference is that the Knight’s
nail is much shorter, which makes it pretty

difficult to fight enemies, but at the same
time, the swing speed seems a bit faster.

I can’t put my finger on it, but I think
the controls at this point lack a tolerance

or grace period, which can make timing your
nail swings a bit awkward.

Also it takes way more hits to get enough
soul to focus in the beta.

But don’t worry.

Team Cherry gave the Knight another ability
to help make up for the extra difficulty.

From the start of the game, the Knight has
a back dash ability.

I wouldn’t call it the most elegant move.

It’s kind of awkward to use and I never
felt like using it while playing.

Even against False Knight it really didn’t
feel very reliable.

If you dash twice in succession, you can see
that the knight does this weird spin maneuver

like it’s a fucking anime character.

At first I thought this was just a pointless
visual effect, but if you back dash three

times in a row successfully, the third dash
actually goes back a bit further than the

other two.

I guess this could be useful for speedrunning,
sort of like what they do in Symphony of the

Night, but the timing is really tricky so
honestly it’s just better to walk like a

fucking normie.

King’s Pass is pretty much identical to
what it is in the final game right down to

the dialogue on the lore tablets.

There is a spike pit in the first hallway,
as opposed to just being a weird, empty pit.

Also the Fury of the Fallen charm is not there.

Instead it’s just a chest full of Geo.

In fact, there are no charms at all in this
build, or any sort of inventory menu either.

There is a map for the Forgotten Crossroads
however, except it’s just a static image

with no interactable elements.

There’s just some cool attention to detail
that I really like here.

However, the functionally of the map in the
final game probably wouldn’t have been possible

if Team Cherry made the other maps like this
one.

Dirtmouth is pretty similar to what we see
in the final game as well.

Jiji’s cave is gone though.

And there is a different sign in front of
Cornifer’s shop.

The biggest change here is related to Elderbug’s
dialogue.

Out of all the character dialogue in the beta,
Elderbug’s is probably the most varied.

A lot of it is slight rewordings of different
things, like he says “heh heh” sometimes

which is just kinda odd.

But Elderbug also has additional dialogue
in the beta that doesn’t appear in the final

game.

He mentions that Dirtmouth was actually founded
as a result of more and more bugs wanting

to sneak back into Hallownest after it was
sealed up.

Now this doesn’t make any goddamn sense.

Why would there be a stag station if the town
was built after the kingdom was sealed up.

Even the Last Stag talks about this.

I guess Elderbug is getting senile in his
old age.

Elderbug also has some additional dialogue
about a girl who left Dirtmouth to explore

Hallownest.

Apparently she had lost both her mother and
her brother to the ruins, so Elderbug asked

her why she was going.

She mentioned that she was dreaming of a stone
egg, and that she could hear a familiar voice

singing inside of it.

This is obviously referring to the Black Egg
where the Radiance was imprisoned.

But what’s the deal with the singing?

In the Quirrel comic, he sort of dreams about
the Black Egg, but it’s more about the Hollow

Knight specifically.

And there’s no singing.

In the final game, singing is mentioned a
lot in the Crystal Peak.

And you could maybe argue that the Radiance
has some kind of influence there.

A prime example would be how Myla mentions
the crystals singing and then she gets infected.

But the Radiance’s infection is more about
dreams and light than about singing.

So I’m not surprised this dialogue wasn’t
in the final game.

In fact, this dialogue doesn’t even trigger
in the beta.

It appears in the game files of the beta,
but I can’t get it to show up in the beta

itself.

But that’s enough Elder Bug discussion for
one lifetime.

Let’s dive down into the Forgotten Crossroads.

There are a few differences here at the Black
Egg Temple.

Notably, all three Dreamer masks are identical.

Does this mean there are three Monomon’s
trapped in there?

Well no.

This is because the Dreamers were originally
designed to look identical.

In fact, you can see a spot in the final game
where the original mask designs are still

used.

Quirrel is also here, and he sports almost
identical dialogue as the final game.

Although he has one additional line of dialogue
here that ultimately gets used in Greenpath.

Heading back to the left and down, we can
see that the layout of Forgotten Crossroads

in the beta is pretty similar to the final
game.

We’ve got the Grufather, the Balder blocking
the road to Greenpath, the Brooding Mawlek

area: not much here is different, the biggest
exception being the path to the Mawlek is

slightly different.

Cornifer is in the same spot, but he lacks
the papers laying about everywhere, and his

familiar hum.

He also sounds a little less confident in
the beta dialogue, and he doesn’t mention

Iselda at all.

Going left from here we can see what acid
used to look like in the beta.

I have to say it looks kind of cool.

Going back right, we can see that the Vengefly
King encounter with Zote was originally located

in the Crossroads.

That would explain why Greenpath suddenly
looks like the Crossroads again when we find

Zote there.

Team Cherry just grabbed all the stuff in
this room and moved it over there thinking

no one would notice.

Zote’s dialogue is pretty much the same.

Still blathering on about his backstory like
a fucking anime character.

Going through the rest of the Crossroads is
pretty much the same at this point.

Gruz Mother is still there, although she has
a ribcage for some reason.

A similar ribcage can be found in Mato’s
hut.

Salubra’s hut is there but you can’t enter
it.

You can rescue Sly.

Although he doesn’t offer you anything to
purchase at his shop.

Myla is the same, although there is no elevator
shaft here like there is in the final game.

And the crystals are a more dull grey color.

There are some hoppers in the beta Crossroads.

Looking at even older builds we can see that
there was even a giant hopper fight in the

location where you originally fight the False
Knight.

False Knight is here in this beta, although
I think his attacks are a bit faster.

The first encounter with the Snail Shaman
is pretty similar, although the Ancestral

Mound is called the Shrine of Souls.

Also Vengeful Spirit costs half your soul
meter as opposed to just a third, which is

just awful.

Did I mention the beta is a bit more difficult?

Because it is.

Speaking of which, the shade in the beta looks
quite a bit different than the final game.

It is just a dark blue tone of the Knight,
as opposed to some kind of void creature.

And when you defeat it, instead of void being
absorbed back into the Knight, it’s Geo.

I think it’s better that the final game
removes the geo effect, since it kinda just

raises questions about where this Geo is stored
exactly.

I mean, we all know it’s in the Knight’s
ass, but it’s best not to raise attention

to it, you know?

You know what else is dumb?

These weird husk statues.

What even are these things?

Ellina mentions them in the Wanderer’s Journal,
but her dialogue can easily be summed up as

“What the fuck am I a looking at?”.

I feel like Team Cherry justed added them
as decoration but in reality they don’t

serve any purpose.

Anyway, in the demo, we see a lot of this
particular statue.

I thought this guy was removed from the final
game, but you can still see him in the background

of a few rooms.

Another tiny change Team Cherry made was to
the crawlid enemy.

Its spikes are less defined in this version
versus the final release.

We can also see that there were actually 3
designs of this bug, each one getting progressively

more horny.

Team Cherry mentioned in a blog post that
people would try to jump on the crawlid, thinking

it could be killed like a Goomba.

Watching people play their game helped them
realize that the enemy needed to be more spiky

in order to teach players not to jump on them.

With the Vengeful Spirit spell, you can make
your way to Greenpath, however the game just

turns you around and tells you the demo is
over.

But of course, that is not enough for me to
be satisfied.

As I’m sure you’ve guessed, dataminers
have already started pulling this beta apart

for additional nuggets of info.

If you’ve watched my videos before, you
know that I use mods to get footage of Hollow

Knight that is either zoomed out or has the
HUD removed or has the Knight removed.

I can do this using a debug mod created by
SeanPR, KDT and 56.

And 56 even created a mod for this beta so
we can access new areas.

So I just wanted to give a huge thanks to
them and everyone who has contributed to the

Hollow Knight modding community.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much new stuff
to find this way.

The beta itself doesn’t contain any rooms
from Greenpath, or the Wastes or anything

like that.

We can see this entrance to the Fog Canyon,
as well as the first room of the Crystal Peak

but not much else.

Also, we can find Iselda.

There’s no animation for her though.

She just stands there like a fucking person
who stands a lot.

It turns out the forward dash is also in the
beta’s code, although it can’t be acquired

naturally.

There are some parts of the beta that require
the dash and double jump, but can be completed

just by fly pogoing.

Utilizing this technique actually makes it
possible to collect four mask shards and get

the coveted fifth mask!

Moving on, there is one unused music file
in the game’s code.

It appears to be an old track from the Forgotten
Crossroads.

In the beta, Larkin’s music has already
been implemented.

I don’t know who composed this old music
for the Crossroads, but it sounds like stock

music of some kind.

In an even earlier build of the game that
William and Ari played during the Kickstarter,

you can hear some different stock music.

We’ve actually been able to identify this
song.

It’s called Our Story Begins by Kevin MacLeod.

Now if you spend a good deal of time on YouTube,
you have probably heard of Kevin MacLeod.

He makes royalty free music.

Like if you’ve watched any DIY or vlogger
video ever, you’ve probably heard him.

Some of my favorite tracks by him include
Scheming Weasel,

Sneaky Snitch,

and of course, my personal favorite, Monkeys Spinning Monkeys.

I can hardly think of another person who has
such a reach on this platform as Kevin MacLeod.

Truly Kevin MacLeod is an unsung hero of YouTube,
and as it turns out, an unsung hero of Hollow

Knight.

Thank you for everything Kevin.

You truly are an inspiration to us all.

Some of the sound effects are different.

The whispering of the lore tablets in the
King’s Pass are a bit different.

The Knight also makes this annoying glass
breaking sound when it gets hit.

There are also some additional Quirrel voice
lines in the game files.

Sly has a completely different voice actor
and it almost makes the beta unplayable.

In terms of art, there are some really early
drawings of the buildings found in the City

of Tears.

I love how randomly all these windows are
placed.

It’s quite the architectural statement.

There also appears to be sprites for an unused
sleeping animation for the Last Stag.

Two users known as Mebi and Nes were able
to translate these images into an actual animation.

This is really cool to see, and I wonder how
Team Cherry was planning on using these sprites.

Maybe the stag would be asleep if you came
back to the same station you left him at.

It really is a shame this animation didn’t
make it into the final game.

Although this sprite was reused and modified
to be a stag corpse in the Stag Nest.

So that’s nice.

The map shown when talking to the Last Stag
is different as well.

This random section at the bottom left corner
of the map is blacked out in the beta.

Kinda random but okay.

If we look at the ingame files, we can actually
see all the different parts of the map are

already in the game.

A big thanks to Mola for stitching these together
so we can see the full map, as well as creating

a color coated version to make out each section
of the map more clearly.

I never noticed before that some of the symbols
on the map actually sort of resemble the areas

themselves.

Like Greenpath has with these pillars, that
sort of look like these things.

The City of Tears also has these tall buildings
on display, and what might be the Hollow Knight

fountain.

The Fungal Wastes also have mushrooms depicted
on the map.

We can see that the final map is a bit wider.

Also the Stag Nest and City Storeroom stations
were added.

While the Forest of Bones was replaced with
Deepnest, it still keeps the same symbols.

And the Palace Grounds station was changed
to be less descript in the final version,

whereas the beta version clearly invokes the
Pale King.

Perhaps because Team Cherry wanted the hidden
station to be more secretive.

And that’s pretty much everything unique
about this demo.

There might be a few other details we could
discuss, but frankly I think I’ve covered

most everything remotely interesting.

Honestly, I’m just happy that Team Cherry
was willing to release this demo to the public.

It’s great to be able to preserve this chunk
of Hollow Knight history.

Now if only we could convince them to release
the builds they made before they switched

to Unity.

You know the builds with the snail village
and the giant spiders and the swimming.

But that’s probably never going to happen.

For now, I should just set my hopes way lower.

Like maybe hoping that Team Cherry will actually
release a high quality version of this image.

It appears to be album art for the Pale Court
piece that Christopher Larkin wrote.

That song was ultimately released on the Gods
and Nightmares album, so I guess the album

this art was made for never released.

We have high quality versions of this art
already, but none where the Pale King’s

crown is this visible.

Honestly it drives me up a wall that we don’t
have this image in high quality.

I can barely sleep at night.

I’ve even tried recreating the image myself.

I can’t put my finger on it, but it just
doesn’t look right.

Honestly, I think I’ll have to take a break
from video production until I can figure this out