With Hollow Knight: Silksong coming out in just a few days, I’ve been replaying the original Hollow Knight after 7 years, and I’ve loved every minute of it. What I can’t say the same for, though, is having to deal with the game’s egregious contact damage.
I’ve been playing video games since the early 2000s, and I guess you could call me an old soul, but not that old. I’ve had my fair share of titles with contact damage over the years, Mario especially, and even Castlevania. It’s not something I despise outright, and I can forgive classic titles for using it, but I have a harder time accepting it in a modern game like Hollow Knight.
Coming back to Hollow Knight after 7 years feels surreal, and at the same time, weird. I had completely forgotten how much contact damage factored into the game, and yet I somehow managed to beat its roster of iconic bosses with it back then. Granted, I played and finished Hollow Knight before Team Cherry added all the DLC content. I remember hearing players go crazy over the “Pantheon” challenge, and all I can think now is that contact damage probably made it twice as brutal.
Contact damage as a mechanic has been around since the dawn of video games. It’s clearly meant to prevent cheesing and to save animation work, especially since most of Hollow Knight’s enemies have very few movement actions outside of bosses. I get it, and yes, I need to “git gud,” but it still feels like a silly design choice that made my replay of Hollow Knight unnecessarily frustrating.
It also makes a lot of encounters feel cheap. I’ve died more times on Hornet’s head than to her Needle or her moves. Remember those Winged Sentries in the City of Tears? They’re infuriating, since all they need to do is fly past you to deal heavy damage. And don’t even get me started on the Dirtcarvers in Deepnest, lurking in the dark, then lunging at your face. Creepy and annoying.
Don’t get me wrong, I still love Hollow Knight, and I can tolerate its contact damage just like I did before. But I honestly can’t believe I managed to finish it almost a decade ago without ever complaining about it. In hindsight, it was probably the reason why I found my time with Celeste and Cuphead less frustrating, since my experience with Hollow Knight had already sharpened my tolerance for contact damage. Those games, however, made me truly appreciate how clever and deliberate a well-designed damage system can be.
If Team Cherry were to remove contact damage altogether, the difficulty might lose its edge. Most of Hollow Knight’s enemies only have one or two moves, with many just charging directly at you. Without contact damage, the game might become far too easy. I understand this balance, and I give Team Cherry credit for making it work as part of the design. After all, Hallownest already has enough ways to punish you, from spikes to thorns to collapsing floors.
Part of me worries about Hollow Knight: Silksong, as contact damage will make its return. With how much the game emphasizes movement, the mechanic might frustrate players even more because of how easy it is to get chipped down by stray hits and bodily contact with other enemies in-game.
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