What Did We Play Yesterday?

I keep meaning to post about this and keep not. Donut and I are still enjoying this one, and I'm glad they've been able to watch me play a fairly challenging game over a long period of time and take breaks/manage frustration without giving up.

I reached a sort of bottle-neck when I reached Hornet Sentinel, which is her second fight. I must have played this battle at least a dozen times and at one point took a break to exhaust every remaining nook and cranny of the map before I resumed it. I can't explain why it took so long, because Hornet's pattern is one of the easier ones and the battle should NOT have been difficult. The best I can say is when a random element is introduced (Hornet leaves random "burrs" in the arena that inflict damage if not destroyed) I would fumble the controls and start making mistakes, there was something about this element my brain simply didn't like.

When I finally beat her I snagged 3 sorely-needed powers in rapid succession: the king's seal, the shade cloak, and Isma's tear. So the map has opened up for me once again to continue exploring and I can clear out all those areas I marked because a shadow gate or acid was blocking the path.

The lore in Hollow Knight is fascinating. It's mysterious and I don't really understand it. After I'm finished I'll probably sit down and pour through a wiki to get a better grasp of things. Characters will be like, "So you're doing this," and I'm like................... yes. Whatever finale I'm edging towards..... yes, I have intent and I am doing that. My goal is wherever the hell the game loop takes me but I'll pretend I know what I'm doing.

Hollow Knight continues to delight. There are many interesting lore and gameplay developments. I am still bad at this game, but I am notably improving. Donut likes the game as well, and will usually plunk a controller into my hand unprompted to signify Hollow Knight time.

Donut is obsessed with the Glowing Womb charm, which passively consumes soul to create little Hollow Knight hatchlings that hover nearby and fight for you. Unfortunately, this can unexpectedly hinder your ability to focus soul to heal, as soul is regularly passively depleted, and if the hatchlings kill an enemy the Hollow Knight doesn't get to harvest soul from the kill either. A neat charm in theory, but not a good fit for Clumsy Buttonsmash McGee over here.

I was diligently stocking my extra geo in the bank, so imagine my surprise when I went to the bank and found the banker ran off with the goods. On the one hand, how clever! On the other hand, FUCK YUO

Somewhere, I think Deepnest, I encountered a old inscription that sounded a lot like our own nuclear waste storage warnings. I was surprised, but also not surprised, when I returned to the Crossroads to find infection spreading there.

The way the game gradually ups the ante, first by taking away banking, and now creating more difficult enemies and blocking certain pathways with infection, keeps things interesting.