Hollow Knightis filled with so many locations, each giving so much in terms of atmosphere, platforming, combat, and lasting emotions. Each time you reach a new area, you take a moment to ask yourself what sort of enemies and obstacles await you in this new part of the game, and how many tries will it take to overcome them all.
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Some areas are variations of previous ones, wile others are completely unique to one sole part of the game. The game ebbs and flows from very undeveloped cavernous areas that feel wild and feral to a fully developed civilization.
10Royal Waterways
It has a sewer system feel with lots of stonework and development of the terrain having taken place, which helps the game’s build-up to the palace-like areas that will appear later in the game, but overall, it brings little to the table in terms of visual differentiation compared to other locations.
It does add some new enemies, but they don’t feel like a new challenge — just a new obstacle to puzzle out. The Royal Waterways bosses feel very reminiscent of themany other Metroidvania style games, as well as being unique feeling bosses in Hollow Knight itself.
9Crystal Peak
Crystal Peak doesn’t add a lot to making it a new location to explore, but what it does add is charming in its own way. The colors used compliment the colors of the crystals, and the pink sets it apart enough to make it feel like a fresh area to explore.
With a mineshaft aesthetic, you feel you have traveled much deeper in the cavernous world of Hollow Knight, and the enemies are fit to match, with some of them being miner bugs, hacking at the crystals in the walls that contain the currency used throughout the game.
8Greenpath
When you fist make your way to Greenpath, you are met with a large contrast from previous areas. While both are subterranean, previous areas were more cave-like in feel, while Greenpath is this overgrown piece of paradise. Filled with life from the paths, bubbling waters that spray mist into the air, it gives a very refreshing aesthetic early in the game to keep changing environments to feel impactful.
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While not as treacherous as other locations in the game, it grants a nice atmospheric experience each time you make your way through it —except for the one encounter with Hornet.
7Forgotten Crossroads
This location serves as a form of tutorial by fire, giving you your first taste of exploration and what the game has in store. You will face a variety of different enemies, some acting as precursors to much harder enemies that are dealt with in the same way. It gives players unfamiliar with metroidvanias a feel for what kind of game this is going to be by balancing exploration, backtracking, and dealing with a plethora of different enemies along the way.
Later in the game, the infection spreads to this part of the game and changes its aesthetic, making enemies much more challenging, and this maakes returning to it give an encroaching feel of doom to come.
Deepnest is a descent into one of the more creepy locations. The terrifying boss, Nosk, lurks in Deepnest, hanging the bodies of their prey from the ceiling while they hide their true appearance, choosing to look like the player character, creating a sense of confusion and tension to figure out what is going on.
Nosk’s involvement is a big part of what makes this location so memorable, but adding to it the eerie, creepy feeling is what puts it higher up on this list than the other entries.
5Dirtmouth: The Fading Town
When you land up in Dirtmouth, it’s this bleak and empty feeling town. Walking through it is like walking through an empty city sidewalk at night guided only by streetlights with all the nearby buildings closed up. As you progress through the game, you keep returning to Dirtmouth, and it keeps growing more and more with each visit.
Eventually, it is filled with all sorts of memorable characters, and all the buildings that were once closed have purpose and meaning. Returning here as it grows provides a genuine feel of satisfaction and joy, and in a game world as somber as this, that spark of joy in invaluable.
4Fungal Wastes
With its hybrid sewer-meets-swamp feel, the Fungal Wastes are a real treat. Riddled with mushrooms all around the floor, fungi clinging to the walls, and floating spores in the surrounding air, this is easily one of the best locations for its design choices alone.
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However, it also adds some of themost diverse platformingthat the game has to offer. The final part of the Fungal Wastes is where you will encounter one of the most memorable boss fights in the game, The Mantis Lords.
3White Palace
The white palace is home tothe best platforming elementsof the game, as well as the obstacle course that will push your platforming skills to their utter limits. The classical music is very fitting to this location, as it constantly has an air of sophistication and opulence.
While traversing it, it constantly emits this feel of importance, like you have truly made an impact in your journey and travels just to get here. The presence of so many light sources contrasts to places that are so devoid of them throughout the rest of the game.
2The Abyss
The single most ominous and eerie of the locations in Hollow Knight, The Abyss will fill players with dread and put them on their guard throughout their stay. Here, you uncover deeper lore regarding the world, about the vessels, and the fate of what happened to those that came before you.
It is very easy to not understand or pass over a lot of the lore in Hollow Knight, and this location reveals some of the most tragic in the entire game that has moved many players to tears.
1City Of Tears
City of Tears is abreathtaking locationthe first time it is encountered. It earned its name from the droplets of water raining down from a water source above to create an endless moody shower. The enemy guards feel more humanoid, treating you less like prey in an untamed ecosystem and more like an opponent to something greater.
It established the elegance and sophistication of this world. Before the City of Tears, you travel through wild, untamed regions of the world, passing through small, abandoned outposts, if that. The City of Tears shows a once great society, brought low by someone or something.
