I just finished it! Good game. I played with a Steam Controller and it worked pretty well even though the game requires very precise pointing.

In one of the last stages in the ice caves, the stalactites were a bit too hard. However, that part was reasonably short so it didn't ruin the game. Game took less than 5 hours but I haven't tried for all the achievements.

Gameplay was smooth (Nvidia GTX 1050 Ti). Graphics were nice and I liked the storytelling. Good port as far as I can tell.

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Instabought Dishwasher. Salt & Sanctuary is one of my fave games of the last year.

Thank-you Ska Studios and Ethan Lee!

I am not sure that Charlie Murder is quite my style of game, though. Anyone have any comments?

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Quoting: scaineI still get occasional flashbacks to the Mantis Lords fight. And yet... despite taking about 10 attempts, the feeling when you finally do it - that's why you play these games, I think. Just epic.

Haha. Yes, I left that one until I levelled up a bit! The Radiance took me about 50 tries fully specced. The White Palace was intense but previous crazy platforming skills helped a lot. I have put about 4 or 5 evenings into the Trial of Fools and still haven't come close. It is an interesting design to make the really hard stuff completely avoidable.

I have to say, though, going back to play again and everything seems so much easier, even with an under-powered character! That is one of the best things about metroidvania games (if they are well made). It is not just your character that improves, it is the player as well.

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Well, I have gotten to 99% completion on this game and can confirm: It is great. I have put in a lot of hours and the game has been perfect on my Nvidia card. To address Liam's comments:

Yes, save points are far between. However, if you exit the game it saves your state. When you restart you begin at the last bench, but you don't lose any story/character progress.

The game is a mix of modern design with a few things that give old-school difficulty. I don't want to say the game is too hard, since most of it is completely fair. However, a few scattered optional areas are brutal (I can't finish the last 1% after 40+ hours). These things do not affect the main story ending(s), so don't worry that the devs are being unfair. They are completely optional. As with many metroidvanias, you can learn the enemy actions and adapt so battles that seemed hard at first get much easier with practice.

The other difficulty is mapping. You have to explore new areas without a map until you find the map-maker in the section. At first I was annoyed, but then I came to appreciate having to really pay attention to where I was going.

The graphics are great, the gameplay is smooth and the music is awesome. I went to BandCamp and bought the soundtrack:

https://christopherlarkin.bandcamp.com/album/hollow-knight-original-soundtrack [External Link]

Just one warning, steam achievements are still not working on Linux. However, the game itself tracks achievements. I haven't experienced any of the stutter that windows players have mentioned.

The world is intricate and handmade. I won't say it is as massive as Knytt Underground, but it reminded me of that in some ways.

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First: Thank-you to all these great game devs!

Second: Ethan's answer made me laugh...

Great interviews.

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Looking at the steam reviews, there is another one that gives more info on the kerfuffle:

Controvery
So Asura is having a bit of the controversial launch: there's one negative review that is calling out the developers on dishonest practices (leaving fake reviews). The developers, on the other hand, are saying that their Chinese publisher left the reviews and they've already asked him to leave that practice, apologizing for this behavior. Here's the reply from one of the developers:
"We are a two person team from India who have made the game and let me assure you that we would never ask anyone to review or promote the game in a misguided manner.

Now in this particulare case, we have a chinese publishing partner who is handling the chinese version of the game and it was one their members who did this.

We sincerly apologize on behalf of them."

Dispute
Nonetheless, the damage seems to be done: there's suspicion all around and all the positive reviews are looked at with doubt. Essentially, it also affects this review. To address this: I welcome the fact check and critical approach, so if you are wary of this review too - that's totally cool. I just don't think that we need another witch-hunt. That's only one man's impression: I'm going to evaluate the game by its qualities and describe why I think it is good. If you disagree - make sure to leave a comment and let's have a weighted discussion.

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I have put over 30 hours into the linux beta (1.0.2.8 currently). Working very smoothly for me on an Nvidia card. Some windows users have complained about slight lagging. I have seen no Linux problems that way!

The only bug is that achievements still aren't triggering on Steam. It seems to be a common story for Linux ports at first. The game has an internal page that seems to be tracking (most of) the achievements, so hopefully they will catch up eventually.

Really great game. I would say it is right up there with Axiom Verge and Salt & Sanctuary. Huge and well-crafted Metroidvania with a touch of dark-souls style. Very highly recommended!

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Quoting: Geppeto35About Serious sam, why steam doesn't mention it works for linux? Does it ?

While games are still in beta, they don't usually show the Linux icon on Steam. Also, Croteam is doing a slightly different thing where the new Fusion versions will show up as separate games from the old HD versions (although you will own both). Until the dust settles and everything is officially released, don't expect Steam to show anything very sensible.

(edit for spelling)

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These are the earlier games by the people who made Salt & Sanctuary. I enjoyed that game a huge amount so I will definitely check these out as well.

Ethan Lee's ports are always great!

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I like the style and am impressed they released it for free. I don't mind when games try something different so I will give it a try.

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