‘Metroidvania’ is one of the most interesting, and ubiquitous, genres in the modern games climate. Born of a torrid affair between the 2D exploration of Metroid and the RPG mechanics of Cꦛastlevania, the genre has seen incredible success, particularly in the indie games space, since those two mega-franchises stopped producing the games for which they were known.
Two of the most lauded entries in the genre are 2017’s 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Hollow Knight and 2015’s 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Ori and the Blind Forest. These two titles have a l🅺ot in common: from stellar presentation and tightly-woven structure to devoted fanbases hungry to enjoy the former elements. Today, we’re going to pit these two diminutive protagonists and their surrounding games against one another to determine which is the superior title. Make sure you’ve rested at a save point, folks, because this could get ugly.
Combat - Hollow Knight
Coming out of the gate with a mean nail slash, Hollow Knight clearly claims the combat crown in this contest. This is largely down to the difference in priorities between the two games: Hollow Knight is very much a 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:combat-focused title, whereas Ori includes combat more as an incidental extra rather than a♎ key focus.
Hollow Knight’s protagonist can slash in four directions, using downward slashes to bounce off enemies and string together airborne combos in the vein of Shovel Knight, all the while building up Soul to spend on an arsenal of magic Spells. In contrast, Ori’s combat consists solely of tapping a button to launch homing flame attacks, putting the emphasis on evasion rather than proactive attacking. These systemic differences, as well as Hollow Knight’s might𒀰y menagerie of bosses and enemies on which to employ its combat, clearly mark it as the victor here.
Platforming - Ori And The Blind Forest
While this is a tough category to call due to both games having 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:satisfying platforming gameplay. Ori just clinches it due to its more flexible moveset and genius Bash ability. T꧂his move lets Ori springboard off of enemies, projectiles, and static objects, effectively recontextualizing everything you encounter in the game as a platforming puzzle piece.
Hollow Knight has a lot of great platforming tools, too, including a wall jump, dash, double jump, and more, all of which can be chained into combos that ar✱e impressive to watch. The key difference here is that Ori’s core design makes more use of platforming than Hollow Knight does since the latter is more focused on combat as a central gameplay mechanic.
Exploration - Hollow Knight
As the owner of one of the most majestic maps in modern games, it's no surprise that Hollow Knight is the winner in the exploration category. There’s just so much to see in its expansive world, and so much of it can be approached out of order, or not at all, depending on the player themselves. Even the process of mapping the world itself is satisfying due to the game’s intricate mapmaking mechanics.
Ori, by contrast, is a lot less ambitious in this regard. There are secrets and optional items off the beaten path, as is par for the course in a Metroidvania, but not entire areas or bosses in the same way 🦄as Hollow Knight. Ori’s map is largely linear with a few offshoots, making it seem lackluster compared to the tangled plate of spaghetti that is Hollow Knight’s map.
Skill Progression - Hollow Knight
Both of these games give players a sizable toolbox of abilities and power-ups to play with throughout, which means that the devil is in the detail when it comes to this category. In the end, Hollow Knight claims victory due to its flexibility: you can explore most of the map after a short time with the game, and grab the 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:power-ups you want in the order you want to grab them. This adds an element of personalization that Ori, with ౠits more prescribed progression order, can’t match.
Ori does provide a pacier experience in many cases, however; while Hollow Knight can see you trekking across🎉 the map in search of a big 🌌upgrade and coming up short, Ori’s linear structure ensures that you’ll always be moving forward, with new abilities coming at regular intervals. It’s a matter of personal preference, but Hollow Knight takes the edge due to the greater variety of experiences it can offer to players with its open structure.
Narrative - Ori And The Blind Forest
A tricky category to call, since both games make use of unconventional storytelling methods in the delivery of their respective narratives. Hollow Knight goes for the, for lack of a better term, Dark Souls approach here, providing the player with the bare minimum information to giv🎀e context to their journey, then leaving them to piece the bulk of the story together themselves through tidbits found in character dialogue and menu text.
Ori, on the other hand, uses a more traditional method, delivered in a modern, unintrusive way. As the player moves through the game, they’ll often encounter text that pops up on top of the action, moving the plot along without breaking the flow of gameplay. This, along with wordless narrative techniques like ghostly memories from the past and key background details, makes Ori&🐼rsquo;s story an effective one that manages to happily coexist with the rest of the game.
Visuals - Ori And The Blind Forest
Both Ori and Hollow Knight make strong claims in the Visuals category, but in the end, Ori wins through sheer ♛brute force. Every second of the game is a visual masterpiece; you could take screenshots at random throughout your playthrough, and they’d likely all look intentional, such is the quality of the game’s visuals and composition. Its use of color and lighting is absolutely stunning, which helps soften the blow of repeated deaths during precision platforming sections.
Hollow Knight is a close runner-up, however. It takes a subtler approach, with a more muted palette and a darker tone in general, which helps its bigger moments of visual spectacle stand out nicely. It’s a tough one, as visuals are a strength of both games, but Ori’s are jꦇust that little bit stronger.
Audio - Draw
This is a fairly clear-cut draw, as both games deliver great audio, but in different areas. Hollow Knight excels at sound effects and diegetic background noise; its best areas, the horrifying Deepnest a🍨nd the claustrophobic Royal Waterways, come to life through the scrabbling, slobbering, chittering sounds that dominate their soundscapes. Every area in the game has similar audio elements as well due to excellent sound design on Hallownest’s inhabitants, hostile and otherwise.
Ori, on the other hand, is much stronger in terms of music. With big tracks that ebb and flow with the action of the game, reinforcing the gamepl🌼ay and narrative as needed, it’s a standout soundtrack you could easily listen to by itself if you so wished. They are two great audio selections for two very different reason🥃s.
Verdict - It’s A Draw!
Perhaps unsurprising, given that these are two of the most celebrated Metroidvanias of all time, but our final result is a draw! Both games are incredibly high-quality, performing well across all of the above categories, so ultimately which is better comes down t🧔o what you want from a game.
Want tough combat with open-ended world design and progression? Go for Hollow Knight. Want more of a platforming experience with top-notch story and visuals? Go for Ori and the Blind🐻 Forest. Whichever game you go for, however, you’re guaranteed a great time. At the end of our contest, these two titans of the Metroidvania genre can both hold their heads up high.