Played on PC, streamed over the course of a few months (once a week). I went in blind, but after getting fairly deep into the game, I used the wiki to help me with finding things. I loved this game!!
!!Spoilers below!!
Ok, first off: I am really bad at action games and basically anything that requires me to react fast. Secondly: I also do poorly at games that require battling because I don't have the patience to fight. I think most of my frustrations revolving around these two points were balanced by the fact that practicing made my overall skills better (although I felt guilty about taking up stream time with so many failed attempts)...and also that completing a difficult boss battle/platforming segment gave me A LOT of satisfaction. Honestly I wasn't sure if I COULD complete the game, but...I did it!
That said, it is, in fact, a difficult game. I persevered for the Dream No More ending because I wanted to fight the Radiance, but can't see myself doing the Pantheons.
Controls-wise, it's very responsive and the weightiness of the character feels somewhere on the heavier end of just right, personally speaking. The downslash/pogo mechanic started out feeling very new but became intuitive later, and I now want it in every game that has spikes.
I started watching casual speedrun videos in late game just to see how people beat enemies faster, and it helped a lot. Primarily it changed my strategy from mostly nail/saving soul for healing to a mix of nail and spells, and near endgame I was prioritising spell damage. My build for the Radiance was Void Heart + Grubsong + Weaversong + Grimmchild + Spell Twister + Shaman Stone + Sprintmaster.
My favourite charm is definitely Weaversong, especially combined with Grubsong. ...It's quite on-brand, because across video games I tend to play summoner builds (delegating damage to minions while prioritising mobility for myself).
Most of my enjoyment came from exploring the extremely vast map and platforming challenges (I have not completed the Path of Pain) and I'm really looking forward to exploring again in Silksong.
The story is actually my favourite part of the game - even though it's subtle and I had to read/watch a fair bit of commentary to put it together, some of the themes and tropes used are my favourite:
I think I really enjoyed the exploration of the history of a fallen civilisation and the player Knight's connection to it. It's almost completely over when the game starts - your journey is pretty much the ending to that particular story. Walking through what's left is a sad thing, and I thought it would've been cool to see Hallownest in its prime...but it's not the end of everything, and others have learnt to thrive in the ruins.
The subversion of the Chosen One trope was what pushed this onto my favourite game stories list, though - the Hollow Knight isn't even you. You're playing the character of a vessel who was discarded because you weren't chosen...but will, ultimately, be the one to either replace the chosen one, or defeat the source of the infection once and for all.
And what about the Hollow Knight themself? They were chosen because they were supposedly the ideal pure vessel, but it turns out they weren't. It was probably an entirely arbitrary decision. The Pale King's solution of creating a being without a will and/or emotions to contain the infection was flawed simply because it...wasn't possible. It's not canon, but the cut dream nail content for the Pure Vessel and Hollow Knight is heartbreaking - the Pure Vessel seems to be trying to convince itself to feel nothing, and the Hollow Knight (when not showing the Radiance's dialogue)...thinks the person reading their mind is their dad...
My interpretation of the Hollow Knight's personality is that they face quite a fair bit of anxiety over whether they're fit for their task and put a lot of pressure on themselves. On top of that, they're aware of what their esteemed father (they really do love their dad) would do to them if he discovered they were flawed...and while it's managed to keep those feelings at bay for a long time (as necessary to seal the Radiance in their void), when the Knight appears to fight them, they rapidly deteriorate because they fear being replaced (possibly also the idea of inflicting this suffering on another sibling and/or the idea that the Knight personally hates them for being Dad's Favourite) and the emotion allows the Radiance to take over their body.
The part that I love is that the Knight isn't a more hollow vessel than the Hollow Knight - this is demonstrable by the amount of unnecessary decisions they make while exploring Hallownest. The Knight has a will, can do some spiteful things and sometimes shows a sense of humour. The only edge they have over the Hollow Knight is, well, being better at fighting things I guess. They seem to feel some way about having failed, as seen in them losing hope and falling after the climb sequence in the Abyss after dream nailing the Knight's reflection...this memory is the thing they see upon dream nailing themself, and the recollection is the thing that unites the void.
In the end, both Knights are just children created by their parents (primarily the dad's intentions, though) for a particular purpose. I love the idea that all vessels felt a sense of duty to contain/subdue the Radiance (because void, I suppose), but in failing to be chosen, still wanted to live. And so you see vessels in various parts of Hallownest, having escaped the Abyss. Broken Vessel/Lost Kin in particular, reaches out for a brief moment before collapsing. Also I love that the interaction with Broken Vessel's ghost after defeating Lost Kin is completely wordless, with only "Accept" as the action...Broken Vessel is entrusting something to the Knight. THEY'RE COMMUNICATING
Mostly I love the siblings. I love that the remaining siblings (and also the ones that didn't survive, tbh) get together at the end to deal with what their parents started but couldn't finish. The Knight, a vessel discarded for not being good enough, having proven their strength; the Hollow Knight, a vessel chosen for being good enough but wasn't; Hornet, born from a political exchange, the only non-void sibling, with the strong desire to protect Hallownest but not the ability to fight the infection. (I kind of wish we got to know how the Hollow Knight would interact with Hornet in the Godhome endings.) I LOVE the siblings (including the unnamed vessels in general)...they're just mostly neglected kids...absolute children with the weight of the world on their shoulders...😭
I'll just leave this link here to a short animation that expresses my feelings on the matter...
(Can I also say: I love that the vessels are explicitly genderless, even though the fandom has the tendency to use he/him for the vessels...)
I'd strongly recommend it if you can hold your own in action games! The music is also incredibly good (although hard to pay attention to when chased by murderous bugs). Definitely looking forward to Silksong - I think it will probably not contain the themes that I loved so much in HK, but I trust Team Cherry's writing and worldbuilding.