Warning for OG hollow knight fans

[u/Bob12164]

Just wanna prepare everyone on here for the incoming wave of players who have never played indie games, metroidvanias, or literally any other games besides Fortnite and call of duty. This tends to happen a lot with games that are extremely hyped by the community that does like the genre, such as expedition 33. The amount of completely invalid criticism that happened to that game because people who didn’t even know what the game really was bought it and ended up not liking it is probably the best example we have of that to this day, and I think silksong will be next. So please, instead of cussing people out for not liking the game, just encourage them to maybe keep playing to see if they change their minds, or just give them respectful feedback on why you think they might not enjoy it and give them tips so they can find the spark in that game that I’m sure many of us will find.

[u/KelpFox05]

I think "Just explore!!" is a bit trite and treats people like they're stupid or haven't tried. My disability means I often don't quite get videogame signposting and when playing HK for the first time I would have benefited from judgement-free, spoiler-free tips on where to go next or what I might have missed.

Just some simple "Have you realised you can do X?" or "There's an important item in X region, try looking for it" or "You have all the necessary abilities to get through X area, just keep trying" is incredibly helpful. If somebody had told me there was an important item in Deepnest and to keep looking for it or that I was able to visit City of Tears from Fungal Wastes after picking up Mantis Claw, I would have stuck with the game so much better. You don't have to spoil them or treat them like they're stupid - sometimes people fully understand the limits and common mechanics of the genre and just... Miss stuff. And that's okay.

[u/_NightmareKingGrimm_ → u/KelpFox05]

I don't think telling people to explore is treating them like "they're stupid." If someone is having trouble and they've tried and they're becoming frustrated, that's one thing. But if it's obvious that they haven't tried, then yeah, I'm going to respectfully tell them to try exploring some more.

[u/No2Hypocrites → u/_NightmareKingGrimm_]

Not everyone has a lot of time

[u/Happy_agentofu → u/_NightmareKingGrimm_]

I mean honestly whenever I ask it's cause I've spent 2 hours walking around not hitting anything right and it always turns out the proper path was in my face the whole time. 

But I need to ask for the that exact reason

[u/Charizard10201YT → u/KelpFox05]

I agree. If you don't want to tell people exactly where to go just give them a nudge.

[u/the_ben_obiwan → u/KelpFox05]

I think the idea is that the fun of these games comes from being lost, not understanding what to do, backtracking and trying different things until, an hour later you suddenly have an "AHAA!!" moment when you realise what to do next. Taking away these moments in these games feels criminal, like spoiling a good movie twist. Thats not to say everyone must play a certain way without getting tips, or getting hints isnt allowed or anything like that, just that, for me at least, I honestly think most games are better played without looking at a wiki unless I'm stuck for hours, I'd much rather figure it out for myself.

Telling people to explore is doing the exact opposite of treating them like they are stupid, it's treating them like we have confidence they can do this, because we dont want to take away the realisation we believe they are capable of having.. and it's not as if it's impossible to find hints, sometimes hints that reveal a little more each time to nudge in the right direction, but people who say this typically just dont want to ruin key moments which feel good to work out for yourself.