Following the Story of Hallownest, a Dying Kingdom of Bugs, Through a Hollow Knight Playthrough

The opening shows an eerie light spilling out from something bound by chains, as if the seal is about to break. As though in answer to that omen, a single small bug appears on the road leading to the kingdom. This is the game's protagonist.

The first thing the narrator did was explore the area behind the starting point. The narrator says checking there first is a staple of 2D action games, and is pleased to find money hidden there in this game too. Following the path leads to a settlement, which was presumably bustling back when the kingdom flourished. But an ancient sickness spread, the bugs lost their minds one after another, and the kingdom was destroyed. Now, the narrator says, the only visitors here are adventurers.

Descending into the ruins of the kingdom, the protagonist is attacked by infected bugs. Treating the first boss, the False Knight, as essentially a tutorial opponent, the narrator explains the kingdom's history during the fight.

According to the narrator, the king of this land was an exceptionally capable bug who united bugs of little wisdom and built a kingdom. To make that prosperity last forever, the king turned his attention to a god of light's power to grant immortality and tried to obtain immortality through research. But the research failed, and the bugs bathed in the god's light lost their will. Worse, the condition spread from one to the next, eventually becoming a sickness that threatened the entire nation.

The narrator further says that the god's power seems not only to strip away will but also to interfere with the mind through dreams. In other words, the view is that the bugs are not simply rampaging, but seem to be attacking the protagonist under some kind of divine intent. The battle progresses with the boss thrashing around until the floor collapses, and ends with the False Knight's defeat.

In a lush green area, the protagonist meets a bug named Hornet. Unlike the other bugs, she is not infected, but for a certain reason she ends up fighting the protagonist. As the narrator explains, the protagonist is a being who appeared in response to the weakening seal. If they are a vessel capable of resolving the situation, all is well, but if someone without power acts carelessly, they could make things even worse. So Hornet, concerned for the kingdom's future, stands in the way.

The protagonist drives her off, proves their strength, and learns the dash. This opens up places that were previously unreachable, greatly expanding the range of exploration. Afterward, the protagonist is affected by someone's interference and collapses on the spot. The narrator sees this as a warning from those guarding the seal, but presses on regardless.

In the City of Tears, the kingdom's capital, the protagonist meets a wanderer sitting on a bench. Precisely because the world is like this, the narrator says, meeting a bug who has kept their sanity warms the heart.

In the City of Tears, a battle with the Soul Master begins. According to the narrator, the king pursued two lines of research to seal the god away completely. One was research into a power called "Void," and the other was research into a power called "Soul." The Soul Master was the one in charge of the Soul research. It is said that a vast number of bugs were sacrificed in that research, and the narrator says they actually saw a horrifying device for extracting Soul from bugs in the research facility. But the Soul research bore no fruit, the Soul Master's own mind was eaten away by the infection, and the research came to a standstill. The narrator speculates that the bugs appearing as enemies are probably what became of the research's victims. From then on, the narrator says, research into the power of Void seems to have become the main means of sealing the god.

After the victory, the protagonist inherits the Soul Master's technique and gains the ability to break through fragile floors.

As exploration continues, the protagonist finds a stone tablet of the Dreamers and once again receives that warning. The narrator concludes that the warnings were coming from the three Dreamers.

According to the narrator, as a result of the Void research, the kingdom succeeded in sealing the god. The Dreamers were the ones who gave themselves up to make that seal even stronger. With the appearance of an anomalous being like the protagonist, they grew wary that the seal would be broken and tried to banish the protagonist to the dream world.

In the dream world, something like a white light guides the protagonist, and following it, they receive the Dream Nail, a weapon that cuts through the boundary between dream and reality. The one who rescued the protagonist from the Dreamers' attack was a bug called the Seer. The Dreamers continue to sleep, using dream arts to hold the seal in place, and their physical bodies are invulnerable and normally cannot be touched. But with the Dream Nail, the narrator explains, the protagonist has gained a means of entering their dreams and interfering with their minds.

During the search for the Dreamers, the protagonist fights the Dung Defender. According to the narrator, this knight was one of the well-known knights within the kingdom and kept guarding this path to protect a fellow knight further along it. He bears no ill will toward the protagonist and has no real reason to be hostile, but it seems he mistook the protagonist for an intruder, and they ended up fighting.

The narrator describes this battle as having an unusually cheerful atmosphere, thanks to the knight rolling dung into balls and juggling them, the upbeat BGM, and the knight's energetic shouts. Since the mood had been dark the whole way, the narrator says it's nice to have an opponent like this once in a while. In the second phase, the already noisy boss becomes even noisier.

The narrator says that although there isn't room to show them in the video, exploration features plenty of lovable bugs, such as a mapmaker who hums to himself, a grub who loves to sing, and a female adventurer. It's a game where the path is often oppressive, but the narrator feels that it's precisely because of encounters with bugs like these that they can keep adventuring without feeling too gloomy. After the victory, heading to the familiar forest, the narrator finds that a certain bug has already wasted away, leaving only a tear behind.

Further on, the protagonist fights the Broken Vessel, a boss that closely resembles them. The narrator says that this name hints at the protagonist's origins and purpose.

According to the narrator, the Void research confirmed that the power of Void was effective against the god's light. To seal the god inside it, the king prepared beings to serve as "vessels," their insides filled with Void. One of the beings created in that research is this Broken Vessel, and so is the protagonist. As a result of the research, the god was sealed inside a vessel, but creating a perfect vessel immune to contamination proved difficult. Like this enemy, the vessel too was afflicted by the sickness, and that, the narrator says, is the current situation, with the seal being undone even now.

The narrator explains that the reason for taking detours rather than hurrying to the Dreamers was to learn the double jump. The moment when the range of exploration suddenly expands, the narrator says, is the real joy of 2D exploration action games.

On the way to the Dreamers, the protagonist reunites with Hornet for the first time in a while in front of a certain monument. The narrator explains that she is strangely knowledgeable about this land and the protagonist because she is the king's daughter and is watching over the seal with full knowledge of the king's plan. Hornet leaves some meaningful words and departs. This place is called the Hollow Knight Monument, and it enshrines statues of the Hollow Knight, who gave themself up as the vessel for the seal, and of the Dreamers who continue to protect it.

In the Watcher's Spire, where the first Dreamer sleeps, the protagonist must defeat knights in front of the Dreamer's chamber. A single knight shouldn't be much trouble, but in practice several attack at once, making it quite a tough fight, the narrator says. There is a gimmick where sneaking into the attic beforehand lets you drop a chandelier and take out one knight, and while the narrator appreciates such touches, they decided to beat them on their own this time, calling the gimmick "against the code of chivalry."

According to the narrator, the protagonist isn't actually fighting the knights themselves. Rather, it seems that swarms of bee-like bugs, turned into living corpses by the sickness, have crawled inside the discarded husks of the knights and are moving them to fight. Looking closely, contaminated bugs can also be seen flying near the ceiling. The narrator praises the game, saying that although there is little text in the main story, details like these are truly meticulous.

After defeating the Watcher Knights, the protagonist finds the Dreamer Lurien. Since the dream arts make the physical body untouchable, the protagonist uses the Dream Nail to enter the dream and defeat Lurien's true self. The narrator explains that this is to undo the crumbling seal once.

At the location of the second Dreamer, the protagonist reunites with the wanderer Quirrel. He seems to have lost his memory, but appears to have some connection to this place.

Entering the lake where the Dreamer sleeps, a jellyfish-like creature called Uumuu appears. It's covered in a squishy outer shell, and the protagonist's attacks don't get through directly, so all the protagonist can do is run around. Then Quirrel appears and joins the fight. As the narrator explains, this boss has simple attack patterns, but damage only lands right after Quirrel attacks, making it a cooperative boss that you fight together with him. Repeating this whittles down its HP, and finally, timed with an off-screen attack from Quirrel, the protagonist finishes it off with a Soul technique.

At the back of the lake is a large container, and inside it is the Dreamer Monomon. According to the narrator, the Dreamers are not of one mind, and Monomon seems instead to be in the position of wanting the protagonist to break the seal. In that case, the narrator says, and defeats her as is.

Near the land where the last Dreamer sleeps there is a village, and when the narrator sits on a bench to rest, they get caught in spider silk. But while struggling, the bindings come loose. This is the Beast's Den, where the last Dreamer, Herrah, sleeps, and while wandering aimlessly, the Dreamer turns up surprisingly quickly.

Considering how loose the bindings were and where they were caught, the narrator speculates that perhaps one of the villagers wanted this to happen. With Herrah defeated as well, all three Dreamers have been taken down.

After defeating all the Dreamers, the protagonist reaches the temple where the god is sealed. The contamination had spread even to the outside of the temple, and it was clear that the power could no longer be contained, the narrator says. The door the Dreamers had been guarding opens, and the protagonist comes face to face with the vessel that sealed the god: the Hollow Knight.

The narrator explains that the Hollow Knight, who also gives the game its title, is the knight who became the vessel for sealing the ancient god. However, the narrator adds that this too is merely speculation, an outline that only barely came into view by piecing together fragments of information from the adventure.

In the narrator's interpretation, at enormous cost the Void research succeeded and the Hollow Knight was completed as a pure vessel, but in the end that vessel too was infected by the god's power. The narrator raises the questions of why even the power of Void couldn't stop the infection, whether the vessel's capabilities were insufficient, or whether this method was doomed from the start, but offers no answer.

During the battle, the Hollow Knight suddenly begins driving its nail into its own body as if gone mad. Contaminated flesh stretches out from around its belly, and the god's power is about to burst forth. It seems to be trying to suppress this by stabbing itself, but the narrator calls it an all too painful sight and fights to put it out of its misery as the next bearer of the seal.

After the victory, the protagonist becomes the new vessel, taking on the infection that had been leaking throughout the kingdom, and the ancient god is sealed once more. The narrator says that the seal probably won't be broken for a while and a brief peace will come, but since this would only repeat history and isn't a true solution, they decided to start over from before challenging the Hollow Knight and look for another way.

After starting over, the narrator first fights Hornet again. After a powerful foe like the Hollow Knight, even her fighting starts to look unimpressive, the narrator says. Her reason for challenging the protagonist is presumably the same as before, to size them up. The narrator interprets that, knowing that simply replacing the vessel of the seal won't end the cycle, she is trying to confirm whether the protagonist is worthy of bringing about a true solution. After Hornet leaves, the protagonist obtains the King's Brand.

In a place called the Abyss, deep beneath the kingdom, countless sacrificed vessels lie discarded, and it has also become a gathering place for the shades of the dead. Here the protagonist acquires the Shade Cloak, further expanding their range of movement. On the way back, Hornet was waiting.

Using the Shade Cloak to visit the depths of the forest, the protagonist can speak with the kingdom's queen, who had been waiting for someone like the protagonist to appear, and she entrusts them with a white fragment. Then, visiting the palace where the king lived, the protagonist obtains the other fragment from the king, now nothing but remains. Obtaining the King's Soul opens the way even further beyond the bottom of the Abyss, where something like an eggshell, the protagonist's own roots, has been placed. Through this event, the King's Soul turns into the Void Heart, and the protagonist gains the power to command the shades. With this power, the protagonist sets out to defeat the ancient god.

Heading back to the Hollow Knight, the narrator says that since the protagonist has been powered up, it looks like they can beat it more quickly than before. Last time, they had to wait for openings to attack, but since the Shade Cloak makes the dash invincible, they can now go for charged attacks at any time. These charged attacks are called "Arts" in the game and were taught by bugs called Masters throughout the kingdom. The narrator praises it as a rather clever design that lets you feel your growth by having you rematch a boss you previously struggled against.

During the battle, Hornet appears and restrains the Hollow Knight. By striking it with the Dream Nail during that time, the protagonist can fight the ancient god sealed inside the Hollow Knight, and the battle with the true final boss, the Radiance, begins.

Since the Radiance is always floating in the air, the Soul technique "Abyss Shriek," which can attack upward, proves its worth. The narrator says that attacking airborne enemies is difficult, so landing this technique is key, and spends all the Soul saved up during the Hollow Knight fight to chip away a large chunk at once.

The second phase is a fight against an opponent that moves around randomly, with very poor footing. The enemy fires orbs of light and lasers, while the back-and-forth of hitting with the nail to build Soul and then shrieking relentlessly stays the same. The narrator cites the ability to change your combat style by combining charms found along the way as one of the game's strengths, explaining that this time they equipped charms that abandon defense entirely in favor of shrieking as much as possible.

In the final stage, the Radiance disappears, and the protagonist climbs little by little toward the god while dodging light pouring down from the heavens. Having gained the power to command the shades through the Void Heart, the shades from the Abyss also gather, and by uniting their power, the protagonist settles the fight.

Working together with the Hollow Knight and the shades of the Abyss, the protagonist defeats the ancient god, the Radiance. The narrator says the game's meticulously crafted world is outstanding, and that it was a game to enjoy in every respect, whether music, visuals or text. Beyond its great atmosphere, the narrator praises it for being exhilarating just to control and for having a mysterious charm that makes you want to pick it up again and again, and closes by saying that a sequel seems to be in development and they're looking forward to it.