the movement, soundtrack and art are all incredible.
the actual combat mechanics and dialogue are some of the most horrendous things ive ever bared witness to in gaming.
the rest of the review has spoilers for the game itself;
the combat in and of it self is not that bad, feels rewarding at times, the Justice bossfight is a fair and satisfying bossfight. i cannot say the same for the others. you can call it a skill issue if you want but that can be said for any game ever, i don't consider pantheon 5 in hollow knight unfair because its difficult, thats understandably an issue of skill (except zote). in this game, so many things feel unfair, inconsistent, or outright horrid. i dont have that much of a problem with the Worm bossfight, but the main issue is the descending platforms, based on the fact that the only way to consistently live in 2/3 attacks is to get above the ground, it just feels atrocious to have them descend slowly the microsecond you interact with them, typically having them too low or non-existent for the tornado manouevre it pulls, especially in the second phase. granted it would be too simple if they stayed put, but surely there's a fair middle ground.
the Firebird bossfight is awful, i dont there's a single actually good mechanic in it. the freight trains seem to made out of cardboard, half the attacks just do not make sense as to how to consistently dodge, and the way to attack it is just obnoxious, why do i have to grab onto a theft box that i cant go up with and launch it at the flying guy who isnt even on me half the time, seems like they just thought of the theft box, and then realized they had to use it somehow. and you have to hit the ship 4 times, 4 times, why. why not even introduce a new concept or attack or any actual difference between the 4 phases, you just do the same bossfight 4 times, fantastic, riveting.
the major song bossfight is likely partially due to a lack of skill, but why make your only way to attack the really fast moving, teleporting boss, have a half a second wind-up, wherein the boss can also just randomly switch the telegraph it's doing to the exclamation mark as you let go to attack, killing you. "but just time it", how can i time something when ive already let go, youre telling me major song was halfway through charging up their sword, and then randomly decided to prepare to counter my only attack, because thats just fantastic. just no telegraphing at all for that really fun and great action. and you have to hit the boss 9 times in a row without taking any damage (in legend). it's just incredible annoying to put up with. and the random fiery-beyblade fire-pillars are incredibly difficult to dodge, why is that even a move, was the beyblade coming at you at mach-speeds just not riveting enough, that attack you just have to hope happens on the edge of the map. if you like this bossfight, fair enough, understandable, but like cmon, it just isnt good.
atleast the platforms don't move. To be clear, I have not beaten this game in legendary mode, I plan to in the future, but it seems just like such an incredibly mentally agonizing experience that I plan to do it in a time during the darkest winter of our generation, so that there is minimal joy for the game to sap from my soul anyway. most of this is explainable via skill issue, but nightmare king grimm is a hard boss and yet it's very fair and consistent once you get a fundamental understanding of the telegraphs.
the dialogue is also just bad. how can dialogue be so incredibly stiff and repetitive, "wow im so cool and incredible mister! mister hey look!" "i dont care mari blah blah", that's like half their conversations, add in some spice, mari has the conversational skills of a baked potato. it just gets so annoying after a while, it's also just weirdly put, which i guess happens in translation, but surely they could hire someone to make it somewhat more bearable.
ost and art is still incredible though, and the movement on its own is great. it's a 5/10 but the 5 on its own is a 5/5, as in, those three aspects are incredible.
in essence, if you're going into this with a perfectly non-competitive non-completionist mindset and are playing specifically the bossfights while in a call, essentially playing absent-mindedly without looking into the minutia of each death, or you have the willpower and mental fortitude to dismiss them, then it's a fantastic game. beating pogostuck, getting over it, chapter 3 A-side golden, all were mentally more enjoyable than major song.
