i dont like it
there's not enough benches. benches are poorly signposted. i know why, i dont give a shit. i want to stop playing the game, dont make me run around for 5 fucking minutes playing "where the fuck do i get to stop playing when i want???" i played for 3 hours and i spent a lot of that time thinking "im not enjoying this game, i want to stop playing, why arent there any benches???" this is a video game, not manhattan island
i do not like the shitty dark souls spirit bullshit. you only get 2 heals/spells if you dont get your shit back? eat my entire asshole, team cherry. i dont care if i lose out on 1500 bug dollars. but noooooo, i have to go find the spirit or else i won't have full combat capability. spirit's rarely at the spot i died, too; the only time it works out in my favor is when its a boss room, but more often than not i have to go deeper to get my 3rd heal back
the platforming is garbage. the edges of platforms arent where they appear to be, there's no coyote time, and generally jumping just isnt responsive. the combination of shitty wall jumping and air control means i will jump off the edge of a platform and completely over shoot the top of the platform and then i just fall and its like, what the fuck is even going on, those are NOT the inputs i gave!
the game is sooooo fucking sloooooow. it is legitimately boring to play. i am having no fun getting around. it's just long tedious bullshit. its not even hard to get around. there's no challenge. there's no a-ha! puzzles to solve. its just, keep moving forward! here's some assholes in your way. but they die in 2 hits so who gives a shit. and also theyre easy to avoid. like, if there arent a lot of benches around because its supposed to be a gauntlet rush between safe havens, then could the space between benches at least be worth my fucking time????
i dont like that the map only updates when you sit at a bench. i dont like that you only get a map if you find the cartographer and buy his shit. this fucking game expects me to keep track of every dead end while i look for the next bench when every damn room looks the same??? i just want to see where the fuck is forward. but no, i have to do the "find a bench" bullshit. but also, because ive played so many metroid-likes, i have been doing a great job at intuiting which way is forward. so looking for dead ends is more me trying to sate my desire for exploration and seeing something new from all the same-looking rooms. and then what do i find when i get there? a rock with 20 bug dollars in it. what a worthless reward! whats the fucking point of exploring when the reward is so meaningless???
the charms are all crap? whats even the point of having them. like, the scarcity of benches means not being able to change charms on a whim, but also, the charms are all crap. i dont need to change my charms! swapping crap for crap doesnt matter. the only charm i need is dashmaster so i can keep fucking dashing because rooms are too big and the bug is too slow and my god this fucking world is so goddamn tedious to traverse.
the hitboxes for the money is really fucking particular. like my sprite and money sprite have been overlapping and it still wasnt going into my pocket. why? this is the dumbest little thing. why do i have to move 1 pixel further to get +1 money. but i can hit enemies through walls and floors. what the fuck, are the hitboxes precise or not??? why does the worthless money have a tighter hitbox than enemies???
the music in city of tears is nice, though.
note: i wrote the above on the first day i started playing the game. i played for 3 hours. i got to the city of tears and "the hollow knight" title drop. i typed this up after i stopped stream and was going to edit it and add formatting later that day but i either got distracted or took a nap and forgot that it was in my drafts. i returned to the game on another day. everything below was written just now so i can get this post out of my drafts. the title of this post was originally "i started playing today" and changed it to "the other day" because having it be "i started playing it today, but also here are 2 other days of play beneath this ranting" is causally incorrect. you cant have multiple days in a day. im not big time trying to sell you more day
day 2
i played for almost 2 hours. i beat soul master, found the mantis lords. soul master was an easy fight but getting back to the boss after dying sucks because of the teleporting assholes along the way. i had another small issue with the fight but it didnt register with me until the mantis lords
mantis lords are another easy fight, but again i was having an issue with it. i would press the controller joystick in one direction, then press the X button, but the lil bug would not swing the nail in the direction i told it to swing. i would jump to avoid stuff but the landing wouldnt end up where i expected.
i was hungry and the controller issue was making me mad so i rage quit
total playtime: 5:03. still not enjoying it
day 3
i plugged in my ps4 controller. to be continued (this is a threat)