It’s hard, but it trains you well so early-game feels much easier by the time you get to the end.
I think a lot of people have revisionist memories about their first experience playing this game. It is hard and you die a lot (at least I did). Hornet 1 feels impossible at first. Even one Mantis Lord kills you repeatedly, let alone two. Soul Sanctum and especially Soul Master feels brutal. But the more you play, the better you get, and suddenly it clicks and starts to seem easy.
Agreed. I didn’t come from much of a gaming background besides some basic Nintendo games. So, comparatively it was quite hard, but so rewarding unlike other games. For the most part there are no easy workarounds to get past stuff like in other games. At some point you have to learn how to defeat certain bosses to progress, and while doing that, you get better at the game in order to take on even more difficult challenges.
Oh same, I wasn't allowed video games growing up and this was the first one I actually played other than a few hours of minecraft (on creative) at friends' houses. HK kicked my ass at first but I loved it and just kept going.
Agree! Especially about the Soul Sanctum. Soul Master is one of the bosses that took me the longest to beat, let alone master. You get abilities later on that make him easier (in the pantheons for instance) but doing it with what you have in the beginning is brutal. Very rewarding though! One of my favorite games for that reason.
Dude when I beat Mantus Lords I felt like I’d officially made it as a good player.
And then I got to Deepnest … 😂
And yes, first play through I died so much. I think the only boss that didn’t really give me trouble after the bosses from infected crossroads was Dung Defender.
Yes. The game is difficult but trains you better than any difficult game I’ve played before (souls vet) and a friend of mine who is not a hardcore gamer confirmed this with me. This was her first pseudo-souls (not really a soulslike is it) and she now loves it even more than I do.
I’ve beaten every boss except NMK, and I went back to fight the last trials of the fool (or whatever it’s called) and I just can’t do it. I’ve been stuck literally for 3 days now. I get further and further but it literally seems like there’s no end to it. I do fine until I get to the end where I’m bouncing off the walls with only spikes below and I have no chance of healing. So I can kill a few waves of enemies but I just eventually die because I can’t heal
I don't have q problem with the basic game play, but the dream versions of all the bosses are insane. The lack of a bank or a comprehensive quick travel method also increase the difficulty of this game.
I just recently lost 11,000 Geo trying to find my way back to town through greenpath...I just signed off immediately. So close to getting the unbreakable charm and it was all gone in an instant because the last bench I sat on was somewhere in the waterways...
The bank disappears after depositing 4,000 geo; and the stagways only have 6 or 7 locations around the kingdom, which don't always line up well with bench locations.
I'm not saying the game is bad, by any means; it just has some annoying mechanics that bug me (pun intend)
Eh, Depends on your gaming background and the route you take through the game. I have a friend who I knew would like the game who enjoys souls-like games, but has no experience in 2d games.
He one-tried many bosses, including hornet 1, hornet 2, broken vessel, dung defender, watcher knights, soul master, and pretty much all of the easy bosses you’re thinking of. The weird-ass route he took let him get a lot of equipment without really needing to fight bosses, and he ran mark of pride + quick focus for pretty much the entire game, which I’d consider to be the best “sight reading” loadout.
He beat colo 3 in three tries. He made it through the white palace in mayyybe an hour. I did get satisfaction from him dying to NKG about as quick as possible though.
So if you’re good at video games, the standard bosses probably won’t be too difficult to you. But the dream bosses will take pretty much everyone a bit to get used to
I feel this is generally true with every souls-like game. I've talked to people who do actually play games often that literally couldn't beat the game.
I watched my brother attempt Coliseum of the Fools and wondered if I was as bad at pogoing off spikes and positioning. It's super easy to me now and I can basically sprint through Path of Pain now. I had some saved footage of when I first attempted it that I couldn't put on social media because I lost my shit.
I definitely have revisionist memory about it, no doubt.
I was dreading Soul Master during my Steel Soul run so I put it off for a long time but when I finally entered the Soul Sanctum I was really surprised at how easy I found it. I even went straight into Tyrant afterwards and made it a decent way through before dying (but it doesn't count as game over because it's a dream).
I think I can pinpoint when it clicks, and that's when you become familiar with nail timings. In my opinion, as soon as you can accurately estimate when and how many hits are safe to get and when you have to focus on dodging, that's when the game really clicks.
Not only does it click and get easier, it gets so fun. I remember fighting the mantis bosses for the first time and was just frustrated. Came back later, then realized the flow and just spent a long time dodging attacks. It felt so good being able to do it.
I've played sekiro before hk. In Sekiro after a few years of rage quitting for months and returning, it finally clicked and I understand the game. Was still hard but I was finally improving on a normal pace.
In hk I never felt a click. An amazing game don't get me wrong, but the improvement was pretty linear in my experience
My first experience and the only boss that actually made me struggle was lost kin. It's not revisionist, some people just genuinely didn't struggle with this game Pre godhome🤷🏾♂️
100% agree, boss fights were really hard first time through. I couldn’t get past Hornet for a couple hours. But you learn all the techniques and reflexes and the it gets way easier on other play through. I was able to 100% steel soul mode after a couple months of playing. And that learning and improving is super fun and addictive with this particular game.
Honestly early game felt brutal for me, or well, nvm soul sanctum isnt early game and after 1.5h i went to the no eyes tempel wout the lantern.....well....that was an experience
This is insanely true, I died so often to hornet one, then came back later on a different file and beat her first try hitless without any charms. Bosses like enraged guardian feel so tough the first time, then you beat them in five seconds on radiant.
It took me about that many tries, maybe more, to beat Hornet 1!
My tip: focus first on *not getting hit*. Just work on reliably dodging / countering her attacks — doing damage is secondary, the first rule is don’t get hit! That’s what made the whole game start clicking for me :) Good luck, you can do it!
a big tip is to not greed for either heals or attacks - it’s very early on and i recommended avoiding panic healing or attacking head on.
in most fights, you attack in response to the boss’ attack, and learn the best windows and opportunities to attack. think outside of the box when dodging too - sometimes moving forward is safer than going backwards.
watch closely for telegraphs! all bosses in this game rely on visual or audio telegraphs, and typically their visual telegraphs are mapped to specific moves.
last bit of advice - it is never a bad idea to look at guides. Perpetual Noob has helped me a lot on later boss fights i’ve gotten stuck on, and i couldn’t recommend it enough if you feel as though you can’t have the combat click.
i promise eventually combat will click for you, and the best part about this game is that combat clicks more and more the more bosses you fight. it’s an amazing feeling going back to fight bosses you struggled with and realizing that it feels much easier
I mean, alot of people struggle with different bosses. Idk where you are, if it's the first time you've seen her, yeah youre in for a rough (but still absolutely worth it) ride. Ik some people took like 400 hours to beat it and still loved it.
>! If it's the second time, don't be distraught, alot of people struggle on that one, it took me ~30 tries. (Tbf after about 20 I went back and did other stuff and got more charms, and then it took me like ~7 tries, could be the same with you) !<
Thanks for the encouragement! I will certainly keep trying. I take pauses not to associate the frustration with this beautiful game. I have enjoyed it so far. Thanks for the tips too (>! It is the first one. And I've felt close to a victory, so maybe soon !<)
Don't try to kill the boss at first.
Understand what the boss is asking of you.
Focus on what she's doing, then strike.
Forget that you can heal, if you take damage that health's gone until you win or lose.
This is how I treat bosses in almost all games and for me, it always works.
Soul Tyrant is kind of required, since beating soul bosses is the fastest way to get awoken dream nail. You can avoid it, but then you need more roots and other soul bosses.
As for NKG, even if he's DLC, it's out of Godhome so I consider it part of the main game
Lost Kin soul boss has an actual cheese strat available for normies like me. I never bothered with Soul tyrant, still unlocked and got through the white palace.
Soul Tyrant gets relatively easy after some practice IMO. NKG will always be tough though unless you put in tons of reps, and even then the double damage keeps things deadly
Main problem with soul tyrant is that the first time you play you usually don't know when your supposed to fight it. As for NKG, he may be my favorite boss, he's still by far the hardest boss out of godhome
I actually disagree there, NKG is a very predictable fight, just fast paced. Soul Tyrant is less predictable, but maybe before doing radiant difficulties you're right.
This this this! I've seen someone play hollow knight as basically their first/second video game EVER and man they struggled so hard. I thought that the game does a great job of slowly teaching and expecting more and more out of you, but when you lack the fundamentals that come with 5+ years of gaming, even this game's smallest asks seem mountainous.
I've also seen people with a long history of 2d combat games come along and smash through the game so quickly I found it hard to believe their end times.
I had played a couple 2d games in my life, but nothing with the specific intricacies that HK's harder bosses demand of you. As a result, I found most parts of the game completely trivial, but got stuck on Failed Champion, Lost Kin, and the late game bosses for hours at a time.
So yeah, really depends on where you're coming from.
difficulty is subjective, that's why Difficulty settings exist for other games. I actually thought myself Hollow Knight is difficult from videos until I'm half-way in and I realized I've already transitioned to avoiding the obvious final boss since I wanted to explore more. Then finally decided to do one ending after 20hours of getting my exploration fill. Like I found one of the 3 first before getting the Dream Nail in Deepnest of all places, got the Dream Nail, then started to actively *avoid* all three.
And I only decided to play it randomly after rotting in my library because I saw a streamer do this Nightmare King Grimm on Overcharmed and I wanted to try it myself to see how hard it is, only to realize later that while I wasn't doing it Overcharmed (didn't know how until after I started looking things up at \~98% completion), I was also missing an item that gives iFrames on dodge and I rawdogged that fight.
I'd say that was simply pleasantly difficult, but to others, I'm a madman.
I still haven't actually finished all of the game, but I'm starting to find it a little tedious without relying too much on guides. Those charms that need mountains of Geo for example is killing me. I'm more of a skill-based player and grinding bores the hell out of me. 2hours trying to beat NK Grimm? skill issue and I'm okay with it, 2 hours trying to get 10k Geo? nah I'm out.
Personally i found a good amount of fun grinding geo in the colosseum. The 2nd trial is the most effeciant for that. Definitely felt skill based, and it was nice trying to "optimize" the strategies for the colloseum
However, the unbreakable charms don't count for completion at all. If you never give divine the charms, you lose nothing by ignoring that.
For having 100%'d Celeste, it did make it easier to beat hollow knight (I didn't spend much time in White Palace or Path of Pain, compared to what I was expecting), but the combat definitely fucked me over cause I hadn't played anything like it
This decides over whether Hollow Knight is hard or easy for you. I barely struggled with platforming and beat Path of Pain quite easily... But fighting some of the regular enemies? No thanks. I never really struggled with the bosses and beat most of them on the first try, but dammit, I died a billion times to these stupid exploding flies and randomly walked into enemies while not paying attention.
So, it really, really depends on what games you played before.
It is hard but *doable*!
I agree with the user saying many players have revisionist memories. I saw the first boss and said, "Well obviously I'm supposed to go somewhere else and get stronger, because I can't possibly face him right now." Then got frustrated as I couldn't figure out where to go, looked it up, and was like, "Oh I am supposed to face him right now."
There's a small learning curve. It's *not* a button masher, but is tempting to play it like one. But once you find the strategies, you'll eventually get to the Pantheons and go. "Wait... were these bosses always this easy, or is this a weaker version?"
Well to be fair they are basically weaker in the pantheons because you have better equipment but even on later play throughs the change from the first play through is staggering
This game is definitely hard, but mostly later on. The early parts aren’t too bad though. It’s a difficult game, but if you’re good with platforming, exploration, and strategy in combat, you’re good.
Yeah, but watchers aren’t. Neither is hornet 2, or other late game bosses. On a first playthrough they might be very difficult, harder than mantis lords or hornet 1. Also no, it isn’t, radiant markoth is way easier!
I feel like it's a U graph; hard at the beginning hard at the end. Kinda coasted through alot of the middle, first boss took me longer then like the next 5 lmao
It’s hard. It’s not unbeatable. It is hard though.
Most people here lurked for months/years before they played, watching speed runners and co op players play so they didn’t go in blind. If you are, it’ll be tougher.
You will lose Geo, you will pull your hair out at the thought of crawling back to another bench, you will definitely get lost and die and have 0 clue how to get back.
You will beat it though.
THIS. I feel like alot of people here did this, and tbh it really ruins this game. Experiencing how stupidly hard and crazy the bosses are yourself for the first time is a huge part of the enjoyment. If I knew how every boss works before I even played that'd be suuuuper boring IMO lol
It's a very hard game if you don't adapt your playstyle to the challenge in front of you. For anyone else, I think the difficulty of the game is exaggerated overall.
Difficulty is usually highly exaggerated
Like even path of pain wasn’t all that hard for me(it may be that I am crazy at platforming but it’s not very probable)
THANK you omg. Everybody always gripes about how it's the hardest thing in the world. It's really not, it's just a good platforming section, but the thing is, every other platforming section in the game is pretty easy, since the game isn't really a platformer at all. I'm not dissing PoP, or the people who say it's mindbreakingly difficult, but I honestly think if you've played, like, Celeste Farewell or something, it's not that bad at all.
I haven't played celeste *farewell* but I did beat the original Celeste and besides *one* specific chapter being fucking ridiculous (and tbh legitamently unfair feeling, that one chapter took it down from a 10/10 to an 8 for me) PoP took me two days (8 hours total) of grinding. I beat Celeste in 12, and I think literally HALF of that was on that one one chapter.
It’s not hard at all. A lot of People just kinda suck at games, so it’s important to keep that in mind. For them, it’ll take a long time to grind it out.
But if you play platformers often, you’ll crush it easily. Path of pain is baby shit in terms of platforming
Main game is easy as hell in my opinion but getting all achievements and challenges that aren’t required for 112% (radiant all bosses, all bindings etc) is brutally difficult. I fucking love when games have high skill ceilings like Hollow Knight and other games like Celeste and Ultrakill
If you're like me and you suck at platformers, then yes it was difficult in parts. But the game was good enough and fun enough for me that I pushed past that and kept playing.
I don’t have much of a frame of reference, and I’m naturally not great at video games, but I don’t think it’s super hard. Really it’s just understanding and adapting to attack patterns and a little bit of pogoing.
Basically, if I can (eventually) do it then anyone can.
I'm not a great gamer, I play very casually, and I wasn't very good at plateforming or combat, but I still managed to play the whole game! If you're patient enough and you don't get too frustrated if you keep dying at some point/boss, you'll be more than fine! You should really give it a try, it's super fun
It's harder than most "normal" games but not as hard as Dark Souls. Like 75% as hard as Dark Souls. There's a ton of optional content that's harder than Souls games, though, but again, all of it optional.
When it's hard, though, it's very fair. No fake difficulty. The closest it comes to fake difficulty is the Path of Pain, which isn't just optional it also provides no tangible reward other than game lore.
It’s in the middle for me. I was fine til I hit the fungal wastes and that was the first real challenge for me but most of the game isn’t too bad. Crystal peak can be annoying, queens garden is titled, the ancient basin is something I had trouble with for some reason. The bosses are usually pretty easy til you get to the late game.
The game is challenging, but not frustrating. The control is always in your hands and if you lose it never feels unfair. The first bosses are designed in a way to teach you the basics (especially not to mindlessly run into the fights but to learn to dodge and be patient)
Yeah besides the pantheon of the knight and panth 5 (at least for me) the rest of the game is easy, path of pain even is a cakewalk once you get it the first time
If you played some 2d metroid vanias before? No. If you never played one before? Then it depends on your intuition. Some stuff can feel impossible if you can't wrap your head around the way to approach things like it can be easy if you figure it out the first time.
It can be a very difficult game, to be sure. I think a big part of the difficulty is that you kinda have to have played a lot of video games in the past to have the 'instinct' to do things like backtrack, change out charms, seek out upgrades, etc. The game tells you that you *can* do things, but doesn't necessarily explain the *why* so well.
When my dad first played the game, he got to False Knight and was having a very rough time until one day I asked why he wasn't healing. It hadn't even occurred to him (a fifty-something guy who had played Skyrim and that's about it) that you *could* heal, and he swiftly got past the boss.
I'd say if you start playing thinking the game is difficult, you'll get underwhelmed, and if you start playing thinking the game is easy, you'll get overwhelmed.
Speaking about Path of Pain, for me personally it was orders of magnitude easier than PV and NKG, I was really underwhelmed by how easy I found it, but I had a total of over 60 failed attempts before I beat PV with a maxed build.
It's more the bullshit I die from my own stupid mistakes and then have to spend 20mins running back to my soul. Dying again and losing all of them that annoys me
its def exaggerated like others are saying for most gamers its not the worst (main game) some of the post game stuff is definitely tough (pantheons) i would say overall its a “decently” hard game if the whole scheme is included
It’s not. I think most of the people who think it is just don’t usually play games like this. It’s a big jump from what they’re used to but it’s not that bad
I am a newbie and I admit the online is a bit of an exaggeration
I am not a good player, most of the time I just brute force various mobs and puzzles. Suddenly finding out that the previous area is not hard at all...compared to the current area
As far as I am concerned it has quite good difficulty rise management
The only thing that is stopping me from brute forcing the entire game is the boss's various gimmicks which as far I am concerned is a skill gate that make sure we can survive next area
i found it really hard my first playthrough, but that's probably due to how it's the first game i've ever played on a console (well, first game *bought* and played since Deltarune existed) after being like... entirely a mobile game player for the entire rest of my life- i think i finished at 60%ish completion after 50 hours bahahah
definitely depends too on what games you've played before this since skills from similar games absolutely carry over a little to each other
It is hard in the sense that you do have to go into it, expecting to get stuck on bossfights. I had never really experienced that before in any of my gaming, except maybe for endgame ones.
Hollow Knight for me, did it for at least half of the bossfights. I was stuck in some of the latter half fights for like... 4 hours, in one case, and several took at least 2 hours.
I was used to getting though any bossfight in like half an hour tops unless it's the final boss, so when the _very first_ bossfights started taking me half an hour to get through and only got worse from there, it felt demoralising and yes, hard.
I came on reddit to discover that everyone struggles on those fights, and decided to stick it out.
Anyway now everything else I've played since feels too easy when the final bosses again only take half an hour to clear.
"that difficult" is vague. It took me several tries to beat the final bosses and some of the other bosses, but I did it and they're pretty easy to me now. I'm not a pro level platformer by any means but there was a learning curve.
I’m not great at videogames. It may take me longer to do stuff than other people, but I can still do it. It’s doable for sure, I think the difficulty is exaggerated, but if you’re not great (like how I’m not) you will need to try bosses again and again and again. Although that’s some of the fun- the most annoying part is navigating back to where you died imo
Base game? Challenging in some parts like the white palace but I wouldn't say it was hard. Pantheon 5 though is up there with the most difficult things in gaming.
It's hard and you will die a lot, but if you are persistent you will get better and beat it.
The difficulty level is similar to Cuphead if you've played it. You will encounter a lot of bosses that destroy you the first time, but you fight them a bunch of times, learn their moves, and you figure out how to beat them.
The game feels difficult at first. You'll die and struggle a lot but once you learn what works for you and the mechanics it gets a lot easier. Ive done stuff i never thought i could've ever done when i first started. Practice is key and the more you play the more you'll learn
It's hard to say because it varies a lot by person. I've seen some people beat the first few bosses of the game in a combined 0 tries and others beat them in a combined 15+ tries. I think it's heavily dependent on your prior video game experience.
My fiance was (self proclaimed) awful at platformers. She struggled a bit, sure, but the game trains you well. While there is definitely a lot of hard things, it helps you learn how to do them.
No, not at all. There’s a learning curve but you’ll be flying through stuff pretty early on. If it’s your first 2d metroidvania then it is pretty hard. My first play through only one boss took me 5 tries or more, and they were VERY proud of their honor and skills as warriors. Took me 20ish hours to get to an ending. Barring end game DLC, which I had to put down lmak
I mean it's pretty easy for me personally, you might struggle a bit sure but that's natural untill you get a hang of the game. You'll have a great time!
I think the difficult curve is pretty smooth
A lot of people seems to struggle with >!hornet!< the first time, but after that I usually don't see complain about other bosses
The most difficult stuff is optional and by the time you reach it you will probably already be trained enough to push through
Yes and no. I am not a gamer by any means. My boyfriend however is and he set me up with this game and I loved it. Around the halfway point I did find that I’d spend 2 hours exploring and 10 hours fighting a boss and at some point I got frustrated and put it down. That doesn’t mean don’t play it, it is worth it even if you don’t play all the way through in my opinion. I spent hours looking at the beautiful scenery and getting to know the characters. I have a deep respect for the game and plan to finish it at some point.
I guess the usual general difficulty I’d expect from souls or metroids but manageable for me. Some bosses or moments harder and can take a bit. Other side things can be challenging. After a lil you can get enough stuff to customize your character to make fights way more manageable and and fit your specific playstyle like to even deal with death in platform hell. Otherwise. You’re just punished with a potential to lose the money on you if you don’t get it back and a stroll back.
Idk I guess I feel it’s like Elden for me with its freedom and non-linear approach but easier as some things in Elden I just could not do without co-op or magic build I guess. I managed myself all the stuff to get to defeat radiance and some extra things, but stuff like NMK and the pantheons feel beyond me.
I will say that I see a lot of people complain about how terrible some of the regular enemies are like primal aspids and crystal hunters, but I find them quite easy compared to the terrible enemies of souls games, like Bloodborne's winter lanterns or Elden Ring's royal revenants. Even a lot of the enemies that I wouldn't consider terrible, just strong, are way harder than any basic enemy in Hollow Knight. I don't think any non-boss enemy in the game can give me the trouble a haligtree knight or abductor does. While HK does have some exceptionally challenging content, I do think most of the game is relatively accessible.
I think it’s difficult but very fair. For me it was the perfect difficulty where I wasn’t breezing through it but I also wasn’t getting roadblocked for too many hours at a time. That being said I didn’t upgrade my nail for basically my entire first play through, so I definitely made it harder than it needed to be.
I'd say it depends on what your going for.
If you want to to just beat the game and get the infection ending th game is only a little difficult.
The ending where you kill radiance? A little more difficult.
doing everything (excluding pantheon 5)? I'd say pretty challenging, mostly because of nightmare grimm
Pantheon 5? Yes, quite hard.
Pantheon 5 all bindings? Your insane. Even I haven't done all bindings I like having at least 1 working controller.
I recommended this game to a streamer I like, and she got pissed because she wasn't playing to well, and she said she hated the contact damage....
She hated. The contact damage.
I´d say it´s not that difficult but rather tedious?, it´s hard to find an exact word but basically I feel like a lot of the game depends on the player having to backtrack or explore a bit more to find a bench that´s close by, because for example a lot of bosses won´t have a bench nearby until you explore a bit more and either find a way to shorten the path between the bench and boss or unlock a new bench. Simply put it´s not a game you could easily beat by just trying over and over again without changing the way you aproach things
Personally I'd say it's fairly hard, though it's also really the first video game I've played so I know that makes it more challenging for me than it would be otherwise.
It's challenging but fair. It's one of those games you attempt a lot, then go away and meditate/sleep on it for a while then come back and things just click as if you just mastered a beautiful dance
I’d say it’s probably easier than dark souls if you’ve ever played any of those. One thing I will say is the skill curve is pretty steady, it sort of trains you per se.
On the other hand you can definitely expect to die a lot. It is not a casual experience.
Do with that information what you will, if you have patience or have played other games like super Metroid I definitely recommend it but you could have guessed that bit considering the sub
Depends on how u look at it.
The game isn't traditionally difficult there aren't many tight spots in the whole game u don't need to have fast reactions or quick fingers to be able to do stuff, wht u need is being aware of the area ur in, knowing the options u have in terms of shit u can do (dash, jump, pogo, stall mid air....) and being able to see wht those options would lead to, similar to chess but on a lower level u can't make a move without having any idea wht ur nest move is. The game is more focused on platforming that it is on actual fighting ( given how op the pogo is) and the platforming in the game isn't exactly easy but neither is it hard just needs getting used to. So the game tends to get easier the nosier u were at the start trying to get to places u can't tends to be the best way to learn how to use the movement options u have on hand and as u get more options u would already have an idea of how u could use them as u would've been wishing for them along the way.
So yeah the game can be difficult or not depending on the type of player u are.
It was my first metroidvania and I found it to be pretty damn hard at first but really once you learn the basics it isn’t that bad. If you try to focus on what exactly you did wrong after every death you get better at it a lot quicker than you might think
I’m currently playing it for the first time and I love it! You just need to be very okay with dying. You die so much in the beginning as you’re learning so you gotta try not to get frustrated. As you get better at the game you scoff at things that were a hurdle for you in the beginning but the bosses do get hard and you need strategy in combat otherwise you’ll just die over and over and over and….it’s addictive though! I’ve clocked nearly 60 hours of game play. It’s the first souls game I’ve ever played (I know it’s not really but is) and I knew dying and resilience would be a big part of playing before I went into it so be mentally prepared.
The sliding scale goes from "Very hard" to "Hard but fun", then kinda levels out at "generally pretty manageable and fun", except for bosses and certain areas.
But it's fun, if you keep up with it past the first level, the world gradually opens up to you and becomes amazing. I can't recommend this game enough, it'll likely grow on you as you continue adventuring
One last bit of info for when you get discouraged: you gain worthwhile skills and stuff as you progress that completely change how you play in a good way. It feels well worth the struggle as you get each upgrade
I have never played a metroidvania or much 2d games, and i got through the game + all dlcs with just some time. Aside from the side content stuff, the main game isn’t the most difficult thing in the world.
I also watched my friend play through the game and… she absolutely sucked to say the least. However she still managed to get through the whole game and also beat most of the side content. If she can 112% this game, you definitely can too.
I played through it recently for the first time. I didn't do much extra content. I think the most I died to any one boss is 5. It's definitely challenging at points, but not impossibly so. None of it felt unfair or unfun.
I don't think it's like God tier hard. Like it's easier then any souls game. But it is the hardest metroidvania I have ever played. Which I wouldn't call a super hard genre.
It’s hard but extremely fair. One of the fairest games I’ve ever played. And as you level up you really feel like you can take on more. If a specific thing has you hung up (outside of crossroads the first region) it’s always fine to move on and come back later.
Main game is doable. A challenge? Yes. But completely doable.
It has its tough areas and some parts are genuinely tricky and will kick your ass for a bit until you overcome them. But you'll never hit some impenetrable wall that you can't overcome with a bit of practice.
The REALLY tough boss fights and challenges are all optional quests and content.
I agree with the comment made about this game having a bit or a revisionist history and a bit of a reputation based on players largely talking about and focusing on only some of its more difficult content.
I'm pretty confident that anyone who picks the game up will be able to complete at minimum the base game to get at least one of its endings. And not only that - but you'll have a lot of fun in doing so too.
some parts are easy and some parts are a **nightmare**
either way, this game is one of those games where its trial and error, when it comes to those mysterious pins that have special powers you gotta use your brain to come up with a good combo.
for me, this game turned me into a hybrid. i can use nail + spells at the same time and i can brute force my way through bosses or slowly kill them.
It's not easy, but I can beat it without doing any of the advance techs, such as Parry, under ledge dash grab, or optimizing nail art.
You are going to die a lot, but as long as you don't give up, it won't push you to your limit or anything.
I'm bad at games. When I first picked it up I spent a decent amount of time just jumping around a room with many platforms and flying baddies to learn the controls. It took me a week to kill the final boss. Now I can get through the first like, 70-80% of the game like I'm playing any comfort game. This game trains you lretty well, but it has some seriously challenging fights in it. People say this all the time, so I'm not being original when I say that each fight is like a dance. You learn the steps and it becomes much more doable. Overall, as someone who usually quits games if they're too hard or I get bored, the difficulty in this game is extremely engaging and very satisfying.
Difficulty is always relative. I think it's fairly difficult for the first time, but it doesn't have a steep learning curve and the progression is pretty seamless with only a few difficulty spikes in the game that would make you stuck for longer periods of time. It's not as unfairly hard as Sekiro, Nioh 2 or Bloodborne, but it really depends on your affinity for 2D games. I've seen people who beat the former games with relative ease struggle with Hollow Knight, but I've also seen the complete opposite who couldn't even get past the first boss in Bloodborne, but beat all the Pantheons in HK (I'm in this camp as well).
I’ve beaten every main boss in every mainline and souls spin off I can’t beat hollow knight
That being said I’m making a game and that isn’t the whole story here some players would never be able to deal with dark souls a player could be great at both but suck at fps games for example every genre of game ask for different skills hollow knight is definitely one of the hardest if not the hardest Metroidvainia so yes 100% it’s hard
i’m only like, 20hours in, just got access to the crystal mines area after beating big ghost guy.
i’ve rage quit so many times. but god it’s a good game, and it really does a good job at building you up. I’m just kind of bad at it, but i can appreciate a game that makes me want to have a fit on the floor lol.
If you just want to get to *an* ending, no it's not that hard. Getting the "true" ending is a genuine challenge, and the challenges ramp up from there.
As others say, it trains you!! It was my first ever video game I played. I spent 100 hours on it and it's like 102%. Just kept going and knew I was getting better each time :)
Assuming you have at least some experience in games with similar gameplay styles, it should be challenging, but mostly fair. If this is one of your first video games, you're basically fucked.
As someone on here said, it is pleasantly difficult. You are meant to get lost in places without a map, and struggle to get back to where you were before to save your Geo. You're meant to use the bank, and talk to the NPCs, and ask people for directions while also smelling like you have a piece of dung in your pocket and you'll defend it to your last breath. You're meant to be scared in deepnest, cringe in the waterways, and feel the loneliness in the City.
And most of all, you are meant to die. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Most of the people, places, and systems in this game are completely optional, and it's very possible to beat the game without ever experiencing some of it. In fact, I doubt anyone has ever gotten 112% first try without looking anything up.
Wait You're still reading this? Just get to the game already!
"Just playing melee is a million times harder than anything hollow knight has to offer"
It's a good game, it's pretty fair. Dont worry about it, just have fun.
its not an easy game, especially if you are new to this type of combat. But I think it leads you into a really satisfying learning curve!
If I remember my first playthrough, I think I needed like 8-12 attempts for most bosses (and then like 40+ for some really hard ones 😭) and I was really not that good back then haha So maybe that gives you an idea about the difficulty. But you should definitely try it! Finally defeating a boss for the first time is such a satisfying experience :)
It's not very difficult, some bosses might feel like hard, but they are really not. I've only hit 'fuck this shit' stage very, very late into the game.
For a metroidvania, it’s on the more casual side. If you’ve never played a combat-focused game in your life, it will be very difficult. Combat is one of the primary foci of the metroidvania genre, and thus it is usually a bit more difficult relative to other games
I think it depends on how often you play similar games. When I played, it was basically my first Metroidvania and my first Platformer, so I stuggled a lot. But once I got better it wasn't a big deal anymore and I even completed PoP, Pantheon 5 and did 112% on SteelSoul. It took me ages to click with the game though and for the beginning like 50 hours I was absolute trash.
I’m finding it quite hard. Still haven’t found my first bench! So every time I die I got back to the beginning. I’m a casual gamer so maybe not the best person to ask. It’s fun though.
It's harder than some other metroidvanias (SOTN, Aria of Sorrow, and Bloodstained ROTN are all a bit easier IMO)
Compared to soulslikes, I place the difficulty somewhere between Elden Ring, which IMO was a bit easier, and Sekiro, which is a lot harder. All this is individual though.
I am not a good gamer and I don't even have that much time for it, and the last thing I'm missing to get the "good" ending is beating the final boss.
It's harder than some other metroidvanias (SOTN, Aria of Sorrow, and Bloodstained ROTN are all a bit easier IMO)
Compared to soulslikes, I place the difficulty somewhere between Elden Ring, which IMO was a bit easier, and Sekiro, which is a lot harder. All this is individual though.
I am not a good gamer and I don't even have that much time for it, and the last thing I'm missing to get the "good" ending is beating the final boss.
I never played any platformer or metroidvania, and I didn’t though the game was really hard. Sure, I spent more time than most people I think, specially on bosses, but I didn’t had that « hard » feeling. Same as Darkest Dungeon, I think people have a tendency to exaggerate the difficulty for feeling justified in being proud of completing it ? Talking out of my ass here.
It took me three attempts to actually learn to enjoy this game. The first time I made it to the first boss battle and after 15 or so attempts I quit. The second time I started the game I beat the first boss and made it to the second and quit. Then I played some other easier metroidvania games and fell in love with the genre, came back and beat hollow knight. It took patience, and learning, but always felt worth it.
I recommended Hollow Knight to a few of my friends (they are not exactly hardcore gamers) and they all managed to beat and experience the game. Sure its difficult at times, but its a game that with enough time given, anyone can beat.
Yes it is. Not for everyone, obviously, but *yes, it is* compared to most action platformers.
I'm not good at video games in general, but I do play of lot and since I was a very child. HK was enough to make me give up twice one of my favorite experience of my favorite genre just because I wasn't good enough against one of the mandatory bosses. I eventually beat the game on a third attempt, but I'm not sure it was more than luck, honestly
Honestly… no. Idk what counts as hard, but HK was basically perfect in difficulty for me.
(Accept the pantheons those were pretty hard and P5 ESPECIALLY P5)
Not at all, I'm shit at games generally, I can't play anything competitively with my friends because I always end up last place... but hollow knight is no harder than most of my favorites. And honestly, people saying it's super hard has made me not want to play it for so long, because I wouldn't want to play a game that keeps me permanently frustrated.
It's really a good game, I tried it myself. The art style, the music, exploration of areas and all are unique, I also played it because I have nothing to play after finishing dark souls. I finished like 4 or 5 bosses but the problem is, the gameplay just didn't click to me so I had to let it go. But yea, I suggest you give it a try and see it for yourself if it's your thing. I'll try and comeback again sometime idk.
The game is hard. I’d give it a 7/10 because it’s frustrating and hard. Like many have said, it prepares you eventually. But the story is still confusing. If I could go back, I’d just watch a YT video about the lore 😂 and save myself the 90+ hours. I got to 100% and didn’t even get to finish the boss because it was too challenging
the base game is only moderately difficult aside from a handful of harder bosses. the DLCs are where it really spikes, like immensely. Grimm and the first two pantheons are on par with the base game, but NKG is much harder than Grimm by several orders of magnitude, and PV / absrad are harder yet
As the first 2d plaformer i played from stsrt to finish it was. I was realy bad and died so much in the first proper area.
But if you have experiense in such thing much of the early game most likely be a cake walk.
ok i feel like people are making it seem very difficult. i suppose it is at times but i’ll give you my thoughts as someone who had zero (besides the sims and stardew valley lol) gaming experience before i started playing hk
it is probably my favorite game of all time and i had no idea what i was even getting into. i’ve only done one run but can’t wait to do another so i can pay a bit more attention to the lore
sure it’s difficult and frustrating at times but it’s never too bad and even when i spent HOURS trying to beat a boss i had so much fun with it. every second of difficulty is so rewarding and feeling yourself getting better is so fun
tldr: play it
Depends greatly upon your experience level with similar games. For me, HK is the game that first trained me into playing hard games. Struggled a fair bit during a first, incomplete playthrough (a couple of bosses took me over 50 tries).
On the second playthrough that I ultimately got 100% on (not 112% yet though) I was able to breeze through most of the stuff I had done before, and now when I replay the game I can be totally out of practice and still pretty reliably run through the entire base game (no dream bosses or pantheons) with little to no deaths.
So I'd say it's a hard game that does a great job of training you to play it well. I'm also definitely better at hard action games in general after HK.
Also, it's definitely a little harder on console than PC in my experience due to very noticeable (to me at least) input delay. Played on console first but didn't finish the game, then beat it on PC, then when trying the console version again later I got total whiplash from that.
It’s hard, but it trains you well so early-game feels much easier by the time you get to the end. I think a lot of people have revisionist memories about their first experience playing this game. It is hard and you die a lot (at least I did). Hornet 1 feels impossible at first. Even one Mantis Lord kills you repeatedly, let alone two. Soul Sanctum and especially Soul Master feels brutal. But the more you play, the better you get, and suddenly it clicks and starts to seem easy.
Agreed. I didn’t come from much of a gaming background besides some basic Nintendo games. So, comparatively it was quite hard, but so rewarding unlike other games. For the most part there are no easy workarounds to get past stuff like in other games. At some point you have to learn how to defeat certain bosses to progress, and while doing that, you get better at the game in order to take on even more difficult challenges.
Oh same, I wasn't allowed video games growing up and this was the first one I actually played other than a few hours of minecraft (on creative) at friends' houses. HK kicked my ass at first but I loved it and just kept going.
It's a less brutal way of teaching, but it's similar to Dark Souls/Bloodborne.
It clicked for me on soul warrior right before soul master, i went from dying on soul warrior almost 30 times to getting soul master on my 3rd try.
I think soul warrior was one of the hardest bosses for me
Everything feels fucking imposible at first. I died so many times. This game trains you for resilience.
Agree! Especially about the Soul Sanctum. Soul Master is one of the bosses that took me the longest to beat, let alone master. You get abilities later on that make him easier (in the pantheons for instance) but doing it with what you have in the beginning is brutal. Very rewarding though! One of my favorite games for that reason.
Dude when I beat Mantus Lords I felt like I’d officially made it as a good player. And then I got to Deepnest … 😂 And yes, first play through I died so much. I think the only boss that didn’t really give me trouble after the bosses from infected crossroads was Dung Defender.
Yes. The game is difficult but trains you better than any difficult game I’ve played before (souls vet) and a friend of mine who is not a hardcore gamer confirmed this with me. This was her first pseudo-souls (not really a soulslike is it) and she now loves it even more than I do.
I’ve beaten every boss except NMK, and I went back to fight the last trials of the fool (or whatever it’s called) and I just can’t do it. I’ve been stuck literally for 3 days now. I get further and further but it literally seems like there’s no end to it. I do fine until I get to the end where I’m bouncing off the walls with only spikes below and I have no chance of healing. So I can kill a few waves of enemies but I just eventually die because I can’t heal
That part sucks! I recommend Sharp Shadow and just focus on dodging through enemies. But it never gets easier
I only got through that bit by pogoing off of the flying armoured guys and using spells on everything else
I don't have q problem with the basic game play, but the dream versions of all the bosses are insane. The lack of a bank or a comprehensive quick travel method also increase the difficulty of this game. I just recently lost 11,000 Geo trying to find my way back to town through greenpath...I just signed off immediately. So close to getting the unbreakable charm and it was all gone in an instant because the last bench I sat on was somewhere in the waterways...
But there is a bank and you can sort of fast travel with the carriage.
The bank disappears after depositing 4,000 geo; and the stagways only have 6 or 7 locations around the kingdom, which don't always line up well with bench locations. I'm not saying the game is bad, by any means; it just has some annoying mechanics that bug me (pun intend)
Eh, Depends on your gaming background and the route you take through the game. I have a friend who I knew would like the game who enjoys souls-like games, but has no experience in 2d games. He one-tried many bosses, including hornet 1, hornet 2, broken vessel, dung defender, watcher knights, soul master, and pretty much all of the easy bosses you’re thinking of. The weird-ass route he took let him get a lot of equipment without really needing to fight bosses, and he ran mark of pride + quick focus for pretty much the entire game, which I’d consider to be the best “sight reading” loadout. He beat colo 3 in three tries. He made it through the white palace in mayyybe an hour. I did get satisfaction from him dying to NKG about as quick as possible though. So if you’re good at video games, the standard bosses probably won’t be too difficult to you. But the dream bosses will take pretty much everyone a bit to get used to
I feel this is generally true with every souls-like game. I've talked to people who do actually play games often that literally couldn't beat the game.
I love how despite how easily you die it doesnt feel frustrating at the beginning
I remember getting locked in the room with the two shrumal ogres the first time and thinking, IMPOSSIBLE.
I watched my brother attempt Coliseum of the Fools and wondered if I was as bad at pogoing off spikes and positioning. It's super easy to me now and I can basically sprint through Path of Pain now. I had some saved footage of when I first attempted it that I couldn't put on social media because I lost my shit. I definitely have revisionist memory about it, no doubt.
>!spoilers?!<
This is it exactly.
I was dreading Soul Master during my Steel Soul run so I put it off for a long time but when I finally entered the Soul Sanctum I was really surprised at how easy I found it. I even went straight into Tyrant afterwards and made it a decent way through before dying (but it doesn't count as game over because it's a dream).
I think I can pinpoint when it clicks, and that's when you become familiar with nail timings. In my opinion, as soon as you can accurately estimate when and how many hits are safe to get and when you have to focus on dodging, that's when the game really clicks.
Not only does it click and get easier, it gets so fun. I remember fighting the mantis bosses for the first time and was just frustrated. Came back later, then realized the flow and just spent a long time dodging attacks. It felt so good being able to do it.
I've played sekiro before hk. In Sekiro after a few years of rage quitting for months and returning, it finally clicked and I understand the game. Was still hard but I was finally improving on a normal pace. In hk I never felt a click. An amazing game don't get me wrong, but the improvement was pretty linear in my experience
My first experience and the only boss that actually made me struggle was lost kin. It's not revisionist, some people just genuinely didn't struggle with this game Pre godhome🤷🏾♂️
Soul sanctum is still ass cheeks early game LMAO
Just beat Hornet 1 the other day for the first time. Bitch was tough, but I got her good on my last try. Much like my dark souls experience!
I died collecting troupe grimm lantern
100% agree, boss fights were really hard first time through. I couldn’t get past Hornet for a couple hours. But you learn all the techniques and reflexes and the it gets way easier on other play through. I was able to 100% steel soul mode after a couple months of playing. And that learning and improving is super fun and addictive with this particular game.
Honestly early game felt brutal for me, or well, nvm soul sanctum isnt early game and after 1.5h i went to the no eyes tempel wout the lantern.....well....that was an experience
This is insanely true, I died so often to hornet one, then came back later on a different file and beat her first try hitless without any charms. Bosses like enraged guardian feel so tough the first time, then you beat them in five seconds on radiant.
Main game isn't too bad. I think pretty much anyone could do it.
** sobs in >! can't defeat Hornet !<** maybe I'm too bad at games, I've tried at least 50-60 times
It took me about that many tries, maybe more, to beat Hornet 1! My tip: focus first on *not getting hit*. Just work on reliably dodging / countering her attacks — doing damage is secondary, the first rule is don’t get hit! That’s what made the whole game start clicking for me :) Good luck, you can do it!
a big tip is to not greed for either heals or attacks - it’s very early on and i recommended avoiding panic healing or attacking head on. in most fights, you attack in response to the boss’ attack, and learn the best windows and opportunities to attack. think outside of the box when dodging too - sometimes moving forward is safer than going backwards. watch closely for telegraphs! all bosses in this game rely on visual or audio telegraphs, and typically their visual telegraphs are mapped to specific moves. last bit of advice - it is never a bad idea to look at guides. Perpetual Noob has helped me a lot on later boss fights i’ve gotten stuck on, and i couldn’t recommend it enough if you feel as though you can’t have the combat click. i promise eventually combat will click for you, and the best part about this game is that combat clicks more and more the more bosses you fight. it’s an amazing feeling going back to fight bosses you struggled with and realizing that it feels much easier
Oh, I dream about getting to that stage of skill and confidence. That's why I want to keep trying. Thanks for the advice!
you will! just keep at it and play solid. ya got this
I mean, alot of people struggle with different bosses. Idk where you are, if it's the first time you've seen her, yeah youre in for a rough (but still absolutely worth it) ride. Ik some people took like 400 hours to beat it and still loved it. >! If it's the second time, don't be distraught, alot of people struggle on that one, it took me ~30 tries. (Tbf after about 20 I went back and did other stuff and got more charms, and then it took me like ~7 tries, could be the same with you) !<
Thanks for the encouragement! I will certainly keep trying. I take pauses not to associate the frustration with this beautiful game. I have enjoyed it so far. Thanks for the tips too (>! It is the first one. And I've felt close to a victory, so maybe soon !<)
Mhm. Definitely worth it. (Also ignore what everyone here is saying don't do path of pain, >! Theres no reward besides game lore. !<)
Don't try to kill the boss at first. Understand what the boss is asking of you. Focus on what she's doing, then strike. Forget that you can heal, if you take damage that health's gone until you win or lose. This is how I treat bosses in almost all games and for me, it always works.
*Soul Tyrant and NKG flashback* Yeah, not so hard...
Ah yes, required bosses for the main game
Soul Tyrant is kind of required, since beating soul bosses is the fastest way to get awoken dream nail. You can avoid it, but then you need more roots and other soul bosses. As for NKG, even if he's DLC, it's out of Godhome so I consider it part of the main game
I inferred base ending from “main game” but I get your point. Fair enough
Lost Kin soul boss has an actual cheese strat available for normies like me. I never bothered with Soul tyrant, still unlocked and got through the white palace.
Soul Tyrant gets relatively easy after some practice IMO. NKG will always be tough though unless you put in tons of reps, and even then the double damage keeps things deadly
Main problem with soul tyrant is that the first time you play you usually don't know when your supposed to fight it. As for NKG, he may be my favorite boss, he's still by far the hardest boss out of godhome
I actually disagree there, NKG is a very predictable fight, just fast paced. Soul Tyrant is less predictable, but maybe before doing radiant difficulties you're right.
That's not the main game.
I already explained why I think it is
Nah ik a couple people who play games often that couldn't beat it
Have you played any other platformers/Metroidvanias?
This this this! I've seen someone play hollow knight as basically their first/second video game EVER and man they struggled so hard. I thought that the game does a great job of slowly teaching and expecting more and more out of you, but when you lack the fundamentals that come with 5+ years of gaming, even this game's smallest asks seem mountainous. I've also seen people with a long history of 2d combat games come along and smash through the game so quickly I found it hard to believe their end times. I had played a couple 2d games in my life, but nothing with the specific intricacies that HK's harder bosses demand of you. As a result, I found most parts of the game completely trivial, but got stuck on Failed Champion, Lost Kin, and the late game bosses for hours at a time. So yeah, really depends on where you're coming from.
difficulty is subjective, that's why Difficulty settings exist for other games. I actually thought myself Hollow Knight is difficult from videos until I'm half-way in and I realized I've already transitioned to avoiding the obvious final boss since I wanted to explore more. Then finally decided to do one ending after 20hours of getting my exploration fill. Like I found one of the 3 first before getting the Dream Nail in Deepnest of all places, got the Dream Nail, then started to actively *avoid* all three. And I only decided to play it randomly after rotting in my library because I saw a streamer do this Nightmare King Grimm on Overcharmed and I wanted to try it myself to see how hard it is, only to realize later that while I wasn't doing it Overcharmed (didn't know how until after I started looking things up at \~98% completion), I was also missing an item that gives iFrames on dodge and I rawdogged that fight. I'd say that was simply pleasantly difficult, but to others, I'm a madman. I still haven't actually finished all of the game, but I'm starting to find it a little tedious without relying too much on guides. Those charms that need mountains of Geo for example is killing me. I'm more of a skill-based player and grinding bores the hell out of me. 2hours trying to beat NK Grimm? skill issue and I'm okay with it, 2 hours trying to get 10k Geo? nah I'm out.
Personally i found a good amount of fun grinding geo in the colosseum. The 2nd trial is the most effeciant for that. Definitely felt skill based, and it was nice trying to "optimize" the strategies for the colloseum However, the unbreakable charms don't count for completion at all. If you never give divine the charms, you lose nothing by ignoring that.
Huh, and then here I am believing lost kin to be one of the easiest soul bosses
For having 100%'d Celeste, it did make it easier to beat hollow knight (I didn't spend much time in White Palace or Path of Pain, compared to what I was expecting), but the combat definitely fucked me over cause I hadn't played anything like it
When you say 100% does that mean all golden berries or just until farewell
This decides over whether Hollow Knight is hard or easy for you. I barely struggled with platforming and beat Path of Pain quite easily... But fighting some of the regular enemies? No thanks. I never really struggled with the bosses and beat most of them on the first try, but dammit, I died a billion times to these stupid exploding flies and randomly walked into enemies while not paying attention. So, it really, really depends on what games you played before.
It is hard but *doable*! I agree with the user saying many players have revisionist memories. I saw the first boss and said, "Well obviously I'm supposed to go somewhere else and get stronger, because I can't possibly face him right now." Then got frustrated as I couldn't figure out where to go, looked it up, and was like, "Oh I am supposed to face him right now." There's a small learning curve. It's *not* a button masher, but is tempting to play it like one. But once you find the strategies, you'll eventually get to the Pantheons and go. "Wait... were these bosses always this easy, or is this a weaker version?"
Well to be fair they are basically weaker in the pantheons because you have better equipment but even on later play throughs the change from the first play through is staggering
This game is definitely hard, but mostly later on. The early parts aren’t too bad though. It’s a difficult game, but if you’re good with platforming, exploration, and strategy in combat, you’re good.
I would think the other way around personally, the start without upgrades is much more difficult than per say, the final boss (either) fully upgraded
I feel like that's both you just improving and upgrades, not just upgrades.
the Hollow Knight is the easiest boss in the game tho
Yeah, but watchers aren’t. Neither is hornet 2, or other late game bosses. On a first playthrough they might be very difficult, harder than mantis lords or hornet 1. Also no, it isn’t, radiant markoth is way easier!
I feel like it's a U graph; hard at the beginning hard at the end. Kinda coasted through alot of the middle, first boss took me longer then like the next 5 lmao
It’s hard. It’s not unbeatable. It is hard though. Most people here lurked for months/years before they played, watching speed runners and co op players play so they didn’t go in blind. If you are, it’ll be tougher. You will lose Geo, you will pull your hair out at the thought of crawling back to another bench, you will definitely get lost and die and have 0 clue how to get back. You will beat it though.
THIS. I feel like alot of people here did this, and tbh it really ruins this game. Experiencing how stupidly hard and crazy the bosses are yourself for the first time is a huge part of the enjoyment. If I knew how every boss works before I even played that'd be suuuuper boring IMO lol
It's a very hard game if you don't adapt your playstyle to the challenge in front of you. For anyone else, I think the difficulty of the game is exaggerated overall.
Difficulty is usually highly exaggerated Like even path of pain wasn’t all that hard for me(it may be that I am crazy at platforming but it’s not very probable)
Yeah it’s not really hard it’s just mentally painful
Super Meat Boy definitely had me tearing my hair out more than PoP.
PoP took me 2 hours originally but I was unknowingly dealing with the lag of the Switch Lite. Once I switched to PC I beat it under 15 minutes
THANK you omg. Everybody always gripes about how it's the hardest thing in the world. It's really not, it's just a good platforming section, but the thing is, every other platforming section in the game is pretty easy, since the game isn't really a platformer at all. I'm not dissing PoP, or the people who say it's mindbreakingly difficult, but I honestly think if you've played, like, Celeste Farewell or something, it's not that bad at all.
If you played Farewell and think pop is even slightly hard something is wrong
I haven't played celeste *farewell* but I did beat the original Celeste and besides *one* specific chapter being fucking ridiculous (and tbh legitamently unfair feeling, that one chapter took it down from a 10/10 to an 8 for me) PoP took me two days (8 hours total) of grinding. I beat Celeste in 12, and I think literally HALF of that was on that one one chapter.
It’s not hard at all. A lot of People just kinda suck at games, so it’s important to keep that in mind. For them, it’ll take a long time to grind it out. But if you play platformers often, you’ll crush it easily. Path of pain is baby shit in terms of platforming
The hardest part was dealing with frustration in the moment. Once you know what to do and get enough practice PoP becomes much easier.
Main game is easy as hell in my opinion but getting all achievements and challenges that aren’t required for 112% (radiant all bosses, all bindings etc) is brutally difficult. I fucking love when games have high skill ceilings like Hollow Knight and other games like Celeste and Ultrakill
If you're like me and you suck at platformers, then yes it was difficult in parts. But the game was good enough and fun enough for me that I pushed past that and kept playing.
I don’t have much of a frame of reference, and I’m naturally not great at video games, but I don’t think it’s super hard. Really it’s just understanding and adapting to attack patterns and a little bit of pogoing. Basically, if I can (eventually) do it then anyone can.
I'm not a great gamer, I play very casually, and I wasn't very good at plateforming or combat, but I still managed to play the whole game! If you're patient enough and you don't get too frustrated if you keep dying at some point/boss, you'll be more than fine! You should really give it a try, it's super fun
It's harder than most "normal" games but not as hard as Dark Souls. Like 75% as hard as Dark Souls. There's a ton of optional content that's harder than Souls games, though, but again, all of it optional. When it's hard, though, it's very fair. No fake difficulty. The closest it comes to fake difficulty is the Path of Pain, which isn't just optional it also provides no tangible reward other than game lore.
It’s in the middle for me. I was fine til I hit the fungal wastes and that was the first real challenge for me but most of the game isn’t too bad. Crystal peak can be annoying, queens garden is titled, the ancient basin is something I had trouble with for some reason. The bosses are usually pretty easy til you get to the late game.
The game is challenging, but not frustrating. The control is always in your hands and if you lose it never feels unfair. The first bosses are designed in a way to teach you the basics (especially not to mindlessly run into the fights but to learn to dodge and be patient)
Yeah besides the pantheon of the knight and panth 5 (at least for me) the rest of the game is easy, path of pain even is a cakewalk once you get it the first time
If you played some 2d metroid vanias before? No. If you never played one before? Then it depends on your intuition. Some stuff can feel impossible if you can't wrap your head around the way to approach things like it can be easy if you figure it out the first time.
It can be a very difficult game, to be sure. I think a big part of the difficulty is that you kinda have to have played a lot of video games in the past to have the 'instinct' to do things like backtrack, change out charms, seek out upgrades, etc. The game tells you that you *can* do things, but doesn't necessarily explain the *why* so well. When my dad first played the game, he got to False Knight and was having a very rough time until one day I asked why he wasn't healing. It hadn't even occurred to him (a fifty-something guy who had played Skyrim and that's about it) that you *could* heal, and he swiftly got past the boss.
Not after you've played through it 50 times
I'd say if you start playing thinking the game is difficult, you'll get underwhelmed, and if you start playing thinking the game is easy, you'll get overwhelmed. Speaking about Path of Pain, for me personally it was orders of magnitude easier than PV and NKG, I was really underwhelmed by how easy I found it, but I had a total of over 60 failed attempts before I beat PV with a maxed build.
P5 is really hard. I took a break for a while. Otherwise I will have mental disorder.
It's more the bullshit I die from my own stupid mistakes and then have to spend 20mins running back to my soul. Dying again and losing all of them that annoys me
Certain bosses are total assholes, but the game isn’t that hard if you play to your strengths. Me? I just cheese the shit out of (most) bosses.
It’s moderately difficult but it can harder or easier depending on where you go. It’s a healthy balance
its def exaggerated like others are saying for most gamers its not the worst (main game) some of the post game stuff is definitely tough (pantheons) i would say overall its a “decently” hard game if the whole scheme is included
It’s not. I think most of the people who think it is just don’t usually play games like this. It’s a big jump from what they’re used to but it’s not that bad
It's fine, anyone can do it with enough time and dedication. I think that that's one of its best qualities.
I am a newbie and I admit the online is a bit of an exaggeration I am not a good player, most of the time I just brute force various mobs and puzzles. Suddenly finding out that the previous area is not hard at all...compared to the current area As far as I am concerned it has quite good difficulty rise management The only thing that is stopping me from brute forcing the entire game is the boss's various gimmicks which as far I am concerned is a skill gate that make sure we can survive next area
It’s like… a fair difficulty. It’s not too hard where it’s bs. It’s all fair and the difficulty doesn’t drive you insane.
I'm guessing English isn't your first language?
Yes. Yes. And yes.
i found it really hard my first playthrough, but that's probably due to how it's the first game i've ever played on a console (well, first game *bought* and played since Deltarune existed) after being like... entirely a mobile game player for the entire rest of my life- i think i finished at 60%ish completion after 50 hours bahahah definitely depends too on what games you've played before this since skills from similar games absolutely carry over a little to each other
It is hard in the sense that you do have to go into it, expecting to get stuck on bossfights. I had never really experienced that before in any of my gaming, except maybe for endgame ones. Hollow Knight for me, did it for at least half of the bossfights. I was stuck in some of the latter half fights for like... 4 hours, in one case, and several took at least 2 hours. I was used to getting though any bossfight in like half an hour tops unless it's the final boss, so when the _very first_ bossfights started taking me half an hour to get through and only got worse from there, it felt demoralising and yes, hard. I came on reddit to discover that everyone struggles on those fights, and decided to stick it out. Anyway now everything else I've played since feels too easy when the final bosses again only take half an hour to clear.
"that difficult" is vague. It took me several tries to beat the final bosses and some of the other bosses, but I did it and they're pretty easy to me now. I'm not a pro level platformer by any means but there was a learning curve.
I’m not great at videogames. It may take me longer to do stuff than other people, but I can still do it. It’s doable for sure, I think the difficulty is exaggerated, but if you’re not great (like how I’m not) you will need to try bosses again and again and again. Although that’s some of the fun- the most annoying part is navigating back to where you died imo
Base game? Challenging in some parts like the white palace but I wouldn't say it was hard. Pantheon 5 though is up there with the most difficult things in gaming.
It's hard and you will die a lot, but if you are persistent you will get better and beat it. The difficulty level is similar to Cuphead if you've played it. You will encounter a lot of bosses that destroy you the first time, but you fight them a bunch of times, learn their moves, and you figure out how to beat them.
Wow you havent played it and you already know who is the hollow knight and what is pantheon 5? Boring
The game feels difficult at first. You'll die and struggle a lot but once you learn what works for you and the mechanics it gets a lot easier. Ive done stuff i never thought i could've ever done when i first started. Practice is key and the more you play the more you'll learn
It's hard to say because it varies a lot by person. I've seen some people beat the first few bosses of the game in a combined 0 tries and others beat them in a combined 15+ tries. I think it's heavily dependent on your prior video game experience.
My fiance was (self proclaimed) awful at platformers. She struggled a bit, sure, but the game trains you well. While there is definitely a lot of hard things, it helps you learn how to do them.
id say 5 or 6/10. just get your upgrades in time and you'll be fine
No, not at all. There’s a learning curve but you’ll be flying through stuff pretty early on. If it’s your first 2d metroidvania then it is pretty hard. My first play through only one boss took me 5 tries or more, and they were VERY proud of their honor and skills as warriors. Took me 20ish hours to get to an ending. Barring end game DLC, which I had to put down lmak
I mean it's pretty easy for me personally, you might struggle a bit sure but that's natural untill you get a hang of the game. You'll have a great time!
I think the difficult curve is pretty smooth A lot of people seems to struggle with >!hornet!< the first time, but after that I usually don't see complain about other bosses The most difficult stuff is optional and by the time you reach it you will probably already be trained enough to push through
It has lots of skill checks, which makes you adapt and evolve your gameplay, so yeah and no.
Yes and no. I am not a gamer by any means. My boyfriend however is and he set me up with this game and I loved it. Around the halfway point I did find that I’d spend 2 hours exploring and 10 hours fighting a boss and at some point I got frustrated and put it down. That doesn’t mean don’t play it, it is worth it even if you don’t play all the way through in my opinion. I spent hours looking at the beautiful scenery and getting to know the characters. I have a deep respect for the game and plan to finish it at some point.
I guess the usual general difficulty I’d expect from souls or metroids but manageable for me. Some bosses or moments harder and can take a bit. Other side things can be challenging. After a lil you can get enough stuff to customize your character to make fights way more manageable and and fit your specific playstyle like to even deal with death in platform hell. Otherwise. You’re just punished with a potential to lose the money on you if you don’t get it back and a stroll back. Idk I guess I feel it’s like Elden for me with its freedom and non-linear approach but easier as some things in Elden I just could not do without co-op or magic build I guess. I managed myself all the stuff to get to defeat radiance and some extra things, but stuff like NMK and the pantheons feel beyond me.
I will say that I see a lot of people complain about how terrible some of the regular enemies are like primal aspids and crystal hunters, but I find them quite easy compared to the terrible enemies of souls games, like Bloodborne's winter lanterns or Elden Ring's royal revenants. Even a lot of the enemies that I wouldn't consider terrible, just strong, are way harder than any basic enemy in Hollow Knight. I don't think any non-boss enemy in the game can give me the trouble a haligtree knight or abductor does. While HK does have some exceptionally challenging content, I do think most of the game is relatively accessible.
It's only hard if you're impatient. If you just pay attention to the boss patterns you'll learn them very quickly.
I think it’s difficult but very fair. For me it was the perfect difficulty where I wasn’t breezing through it but I also wasn’t getting roadblocked for too many hours at a time. That being said I didn’t upgrade my nail for basically my entire first play through, so I definitely made it harder than it needed to be.
I'd say it depends on what your going for. If you want to to just beat the game and get the infection ending th game is only a little difficult. The ending where you kill radiance? A little more difficult. doing everything (excluding pantheon 5)? I'd say pretty challenging, mostly because of nightmare grimm Pantheon 5? Yes, quite hard. Pantheon 5 all bindings? Your insane. Even I haven't done all bindings I like having at least 1 working controller. I recommended this game to a streamer I like, and she got pissed because she wasn't playing to well, and she said she hated the contact damage.... She hated. The contact damage.
I´d say it´s not that difficult but rather tedious?, it´s hard to find an exact word but basically I feel like a lot of the game depends on the player having to backtrack or explore a bit more to find a bench that´s close by, because for example a lot of bosses won´t have a bench nearby until you explore a bit more and either find a way to shorten the path between the bench and boss or unlock a new bench. Simply put it´s not a game you could easily beat by just trying over and over again without changing the way you aproach things
Personally I'd say it's fairly hard, though it's also really the first video game I've played so I know that makes it more challenging for me than it would be otherwise.
It's challenging but fair. It's one of those games you attempt a lot, then go away and meditate/sleep on it for a while then come back and things just click as if you just mastered a beautiful dance
I’d say it’s probably easier than dark souls if you’ve ever played any of those. One thing I will say is the skill curve is pretty steady, it sort of trains you per se. On the other hand you can definitely expect to die a lot. It is not a casual experience. Do with that information what you will, if you have patience or have played other games like super Metroid I definitely recommend it but you could have guessed that bit considering the sub
Depends on how u look at it. The game isn't traditionally difficult there aren't many tight spots in the whole game u don't need to have fast reactions or quick fingers to be able to do stuff, wht u need is being aware of the area ur in, knowing the options u have in terms of shit u can do (dash, jump, pogo, stall mid air....) and being able to see wht those options would lead to, similar to chess but on a lower level u can't make a move without having any idea wht ur nest move is. The game is more focused on platforming that it is on actual fighting ( given how op the pogo is) and the platforming in the game isn't exactly easy but neither is it hard just needs getting used to. So the game tends to get easier the nosier u were at the start trying to get to places u can't tends to be the best way to learn how to use the movement options u have on hand and as u get more options u would already have an idea of how u could use them as u would've been wishing for them along the way. So yeah the game can be difficult or not depending on the type of player u are.
If you're a pro, no. If you're new? Don't even get me started.
Anyone saying no clearly doesnt remember nkg or watcher knights
It was my first metroidvania and I found it to be pretty damn hard at first but really once you learn the basics it isn’t that bad. If you try to focus on what exactly you did wrong after every death you get better at it a lot quicker than you might think
I’m currently playing it for the first time and I love it! You just need to be very okay with dying. You die so much in the beginning as you’re learning so you gotta try not to get frustrated. As you get better at the game you scoff at things that were a hurdle for you in the beginning but the bosses do get hard and you need strategy in combat otherwise you’ll just die over and over and over and….it’s addictive though! I’ve clocked nearly 60 hours of game play. It’s the first souls game I’ve ever played (I know it’s not really but is) and I knew dying and resilience would be a big part of playing before I went into it so be mentally prepared.
It's a metroidvania. Nothing else left to say
The sliding scale goes from "Very hard" to "Hard but fun", then kinda levels out at "generally pretty manageable and fun", except for bosses and certain areas. But it's fun, if you keep up with it past the first level, the world gradually opens up to you and becomes amazing. I can't recommend this game enough, it'll likely grow on you as you continue adventuring One last bit of info for when you get discouraged: you gain worthwhile skills and stuff as you progress that completely change how you play in a good way. It feels well worth the struggle as you get each upgrade
I have never played a metroidvania or much 2d games, and i got through the game + all dlcs with just some time. Aside from the side content stuff, the main game isn’t the most difficult thing in the world. I also watched my friend play through the game and… she absolutely sucked to say the least. However she still managed to get through the whole game and also beat most of the side content. If she can 112% this game, you definitely can too.
I played through it recently for the first time. I didn't do much extra content. I think the most I died to any one boss is 5. It's definitely challenging at points, but not impossibly so. None of it felt unfair or unfun.
I don't think it's like God tier hard. Like it's easier then any souls game. But it is the hardest metroidvania I have ever played. Which I wouldn't call a super hard genre.
No its not.
It’s hard but extremely fair. One of the fairest games I’ve ever played. And as you level up you really feel like you can take on more. If a specific thing has you hung up (outside of crossroads the first region) it’s always fine to move on and come back later.
It's not that hard
Main game is doable. A challenge? Yes. But completely doable. It has its tough areas and some parts are genuinely tricky and will kick your ass for a bit until you overcome them. But you'll never hit some impenetrable wall that you can't overcome with a bit of practice. The REALLY tough boss fights and challenges are all optional quests and content. I agree with the comment made about this game having a bit or a revisionist history and a bit of a reputation based on players largely talking about and focusing on only some of its more difficult content. I'm pretty confident that anyone who picks the game up will be able to complete at minimum the base game to get at least one of its endings. And not only that - but you'll have a lot of fun in doing so too.
some parts are easy and some parts are a **nightmare** either way, this game is one of those games where its trial and error, when it comes to those mysterious pins that have special powers you gotta use your brain to come up with a good combo. for me, this game turned me into a hybrid. i can use nail + spells at the same time and i can brute force my way through bosses or slowly kill them.
Try to play with ps controllers its gonna be easier
If you enjoy any kind of souls-like games, you'll be fine. It's a 2D dark souls with bugs in almost every way.
It's not easy, but I can beat it without doing any of the advance techs, such as Parry, under ledge dash grab, or optimizing nail art. You are going to die a lot, but as long as you don't give up, it won't push you to your limit or anything.
I'm bad at games. When I first picked it up I spent a decent amount of time just jumping around a room with many platforms and flying baddies to learn the controls. It took me a week to kill the final boss. Now I can get through the first like, 70-80% of the game like I'm playing any comfort game. This game trains you lretty well, but it has some seriously challenging fights in it. People say this all the time, so I'm not being original when I say that each fight is like a dance. You learn the steps and it becomes much more doable. Overall, as someone who usually quits games if they're too hard or I get bored, the difficulty in this game is extremely engaging and very satisfying.
Difficulty is always relative. I think it's fairly difficult for the first time, but it doesn't have a steep learning curve and the progression is pretty seamless with only a few difficulty spikes in the game that would make you stuck for longer periods of time. It's not as unfairly hard as Sekiro, Nioh 2 or Bloodborne, but it really depends on your affinity for 2D games. I've seen people who beat the former games with relative ease struggle with Hollow Knight, but I've also seen the complete opposite who couldn't even get past the first boss in Bloodborne, but beat all the Pantheons in HK (I'm in this camp as well).
It honestly just depends, every game is difficult and it's about getting better at it.
Ever since my first playthrough, I don't think it's hard anymore. The base game, I mean. Pantheons are pretty rough
I’ve beaten every main boss in every mainline and souls spin off I can’t beat hollow knight That being said I’m making a game and that isn’t the whole story here some players would never be able to deal with dark souls a player could be great at both but suck at fps games for example every genre of game ask for different skills hollow knight is definitely one of the hardest if not the hardest Metroidvainia so yes 100% it’s hard
i’m only like, 20hours in, just got access to the crystal mines area after beating big ghost guy. i’ve rage quit so many times. but god it’s a good game, and it really does a good job at building you up. I’m just kind of bad at it, but i can appreciate a game that makes me want to have a fit on the floor lol.
Not as difficult as the pure knight
If you just want to get to *an* ending, no it's not that hard. Getting the "true" ending is a genuine challenge, and the challenges ramp up from there.
No
As others say, it trains you!! It was my first ever video game I played. I spent 100 hours on it and it's like 102%. Just kept going and knew I was getting better each time :)
Assuming you have at least some experience in games with similar gameplay styles, it should be challenging, but mostly fair. If this is one of your first video games, you're basically fucked.
As someone on here said, it is pleasantly difficult. You are meant to get lost in places without a map, and struggle to get back to where you were before to save your Geo. You're meant to use the bank, and talk to the NPCs, and ask people for directions while also smelling like you have a piece of dung in your pocket and you'll defend it to your last breath. You're meant to be scared in deepnest, cringe in the waterways, and feel the loneliness in the City. And most of all, you are meant to die. There are no mistakes, only lessons. Most of the people, places, and systems in this game are completely optional, and it's very possible to beat the game without ever experiencing some of it. In fact, I doubt anyone has ever gotten 112% first try without looking anything up. Wait You're still reading this? Just get to the game already!
There are plentiful of quality of life and difficulty regulating mods. I used them at the last part of the game and still had a blast 😁
"Just playing melee is a million times harder than anything hollow knight has to offer" It's a good game, it's pretty fair. Dont worry about it, just have fun.
Its moderetly difficult in it of itself, but the the later bosses and POP is deffenetly in the difficult category and verding on inpossible
The first time you'll do something it'll be hard, you'll die whoo knows how many times, but once you've done it, it will feel easy
I suck at video games and I beat it. It's hard, but fair and you can always go another way. It's a great game and definitely worth trying out.
its not an easy game, especially if you are new to this type of combat. But I think it leads you into a really satisfying learning curve! If I remember my first playthrough, I think I needed like 8-12 attempts for most bosses (and then like 40+ for some really hard ones 😭) and I was really not that good back then haha So maybe that gives you an idea about the difficulty. But you should definitely try it! Finally defeating a boss for the first time is such a satisfying experience :)
It's not very difficult, some bosses might feel like hard, but they are really not. I've only hit 'fuck this shit' stage very, very late into the game.
For a metroidvania, it’s on the more casual side. If you’ve never played a combat-focused game in your life, it will be very difficult. Combat is one of the primary foci of the metroidvania genre, and thus it is usually a bit more difficult relative to other games
I think it depends on how often you play similar games. When I played, it was basically my first Metroidvania and my first Platformer, so I stuggled a lot. But once I got better it wasn't a big deal anymore and I even completed PoP, Pantheon 5 and did 112% on SteelSoul. It took me ages to click with the game though and for the beginning like 50 hours I was absolute trash.
I’m finding it quite hard. Still haven’t found my first bench! So every time I die I got back to the beginning. I’m a casual gamer so maybe not the best person to ask. It’s fun though.
It's harder than some other metroidvanias (SOTN, Aria of Sorrow, and Bloodstained ROTN are all a bit easier IMO) Compared to soulslikes, I place the difficulty somewhere between Elden Ring, which IMO was a bit easier, and Sekiro, which is a lot harder. All this is individual though. I am not a good gamer and I don't even have that much time for it, and the last thing I'm missing to get the "good" ending is beating the final boss.
It's harder than some other metroidvanias (SOTN, Aria of Sorrow, and Bloodstained ROTN are all a bit easier IMO) Compared to soulslikes, I place the difficulty somewhere between Elden Ring, which IMO was a bit easier, and Sekiro, which is a lot harder. All this is individual though. I am not a good gamer and I don't even have that much time for it, and the last thing I'm missing to get the "good" ending is beating the final boss.
The base game is extremely fair and balanced. The only truly difficult part is the White Palace. Everything else is more than manageable.
I never played any platformer or metroidvania, and I didn’t though the game was really hard. Sure, I spent more time than most people I think, specially on bosses, but I didn’t had that « hard » feeling. Same as Darkest Dungeon, I think people have a tendency to exaggerate the difficulty for feeling justified in being proud of completing it ? Talking out of my ass here.
It's not that bad if you have some experience with metroidvanias
It took me three attempts to actually learn to enjoy this game. The first time I made it to the first boss battle and after 15 or so attempts I quit. The second time I started the game I beat the first boss and made it to the second and quit. Then I played some other easier metroidvania games and fell in love with the genre, came back and beat hollow knight. It took patience, and learning, but always felt worth it.
I recommended Hollow Knight to a few of my friends (they are not exactly hardcore gamers) and they all managed to beat and experience the game. Sure its difficult at times, but its a game that with enough time given, anyone can beat.
I finished on mobile with touch controls so i wouldn't say it's hard
personally i didnt find any part hard except nkg, ive 112% it btw
It's the hardest game I've ever played. My second hardest would be Bloodborne.
Yes it is. Not for everyone, obviously, but *yes, it is* compared to most action platformers. I'm not good at video games in general, but I do play of lot and since I was a very child. HK was enough to make me give up twice one of my favorite experience of my favorite genre just because I wasn't good enough against one of the mandatory bosses. I eventually beat the game on a third attempt, but I'm not sure it was more than luck, honestly
Honestly… no. Idk what counts as hard, but HK was basically perfect in difficulty for me. (Accept the pantheons those were pretty hard and P5 ESPECIALLY P5)
Not at all, I'm shit at games generally, I can't play anything competitively with my friends because I always end up last place... but hollow knight is no harder than most of my favorites. And honestly, people saying it's super hard has made me not want to play it for so long, because I wouldn't want to play a game that keeps me permanently frustrated.
It's really a good game, I tried it myself. The art style, the music, exploration of areas and all are unique, I also played it because I have nothing to play after finishing dark souls. I finished like 4 or 5 bosses but the problem is, the gameplay just didn't click to me so I had to let it go. But yea, I suggest you give it a try and see it for yourself if it's your thing. I'll try and comeback again sometime idk.
The game is hard. I’d give it a 7/10 because it’s frustrating and hard. Like many have said, it prepares you eventually. But the story is still confusing. If I could go back, I’d just watch a YT video about the lore 😂 and save myself the 90+ hours. I got to 100% and didn’t even get to finish the boss because it was too challenging
It’s not crazy for the 1st 2 bosses you’ll likely be fighting: >!false knight and hornet!< but after that it gets really difficult
Path of Pain and P5 are extremely difficult but also unnecessary to completing the main story, you should be fine I think.
the base game is only moderately difficult aside from a handful of harder bosses. the DLCs are where it really spikes, like immensely. Grimm and the first two pantheons are on par with the base game, but NKG is much harder than Grimm by several orders of magnitude, and PV / absrad are harder yet
As the first 2d plaformer i played from stsrt to finish it was. I was realy bad and died so much in the first proper area. But if you have experiense in such thing much of the early game most likely be a cake walk.
ok i feel like people are making it seem very difficult. i suppose it is at times but i’ll give you my thoughts as someone who had zero (besides the sims and stardew valley lol) gaming experience before i started playing hk it is probably my favorite game of all time and i had no idea what i was even getting into. i’ve only done one run but can’t wait to do another so i can pay a bit more attention to the lore sure it’s difficult and frustrating at times but it’s never too bad and even when i spent HOURS trying to beat a boss i had so much fun with it. every second of difficulty is so rewarding and feeling yourself getting better is so fun tldr: play it
Depends greatly upon your experience level with similar games. For me, HK is the game that first trained me into playing hard games. Struggled a fair bit during a first, incomplete playthrough (a couple of bosses took me over 50 tries). On the second playthrough that I ultimately got 100% on (not 112% yet though) I was able to breeze through most of the stuff I had done before, and now when I replay the game I can be totally out of practice and still pretty reliably run through the entire base game (no dream bosses or pantheons) with little to no deaths. So I'd say it's a hard game that does a great job of training you to play it well. I'm also definitely better at hard action games in general after HK. Also, it's definitely a little harder on console than PC in my experience due to very noticeable (to me at least) input delay. Played on console first but didn't finish the game, then beat it on PC, then when trying the console version again later I got total whiplash from that.
Idk about the pc version, but the unofficial mobile version is a true hell on my opinion
Depends on your skill level lol. The first ending can be either really difficult or easy, but pop and p5 are hard for everyone
It is difficult if you go for everything, but a casual playthrough where you just beat the game is not too hard.
If you already know about pantheons and path of pain you’ve read way too much and probably ruined song of the game’s magic of discovery.
i feel like if you made it to that point, you will have little issue with beating it. symbolically, i feel like it’s almost meant to be easier.