graveexcitement

bad news: turns out my brother has the flu good news: ...i get to play hollow knight more

my desire for my brother to play more zero escape has been massively outclassed by my need to play more hollow knight. i won't forget though. you will play virtue's last reward! it will happen!

today in HK i fought the Mantis Lords, which was a fun boss fight and has my favorite song that i've heard thus far in the game.

so, after the Mantis Lords (!!!) i explored Deepnest, all the way to the Deep Village or whatever it's called (sometimes the names don't stick in my head :p) where i found the slumbering Beast, one of the Dreamers, and... absorbed her soul? is that what happened there??

then i dipped my toes into Ancient Basin, but my brother said he wanted to go to bed and hinted i should go deposit my 1k money and then stop playing. i managed to get out of the Basin & back to the banker, who... had apparently taken my previously deposited money and left. prick. bro says this happens if you get past a certain threshold in your bank account :p

then i went back to dirtmouth figuring well, maybe i'll spend some of this geo there at the start of my next playsession. but... while messing around there i accidentally fell in the well and

infected crossroads?? D: :0 :0

i went back up right after, but i feel a little bad cause i only fell in there after my brother had already left and i think he would want to see my reaction. maybe i'll invent a desire to go pick up rewards from the Grubfather.

also. while Deepnest did have some spooky critters, like the spiders that come from nowhere (they startled me a few times but are a pretty good source of soul) and the bug that infests corpses, it wound up not being as bad/annoying as i was expecting? i mean i'm sure i would have been a lot more alarmed had i fallen in there from the hidden entrance in the Fungal Wastes, but luckily i managed not to find that entrance despite being in the requisite area for a long time trying to rescue a grub.

meanwhile Crystal Peak pissed me off yesterday (to the point that i didn't play for all that long yesterday) because of THESE FUCKERS:

Crystal Hunter

Crystal Hunters. i hate hate hate hate these guys. as a general rule, i dislike flying enemies in rooms where i also have to do platforming. but these guys... throw projectiles that make platforming worse (because they create temporary spikes wherever the crystal projectile lands.) this would be mostly all right, except. except. there's a sub-area called, Crystal Heart or something? and that area, plus the corridor leading to that area, have both medium-difficulty platforming and the crystal hunter BASTARDS. and trying to fight through those rooms yesterday, while dying repeatedly, was... very frustrating and un-fun yesterday, so i wandered off to do other shit.

i think my brother hinted there's something useful past that area tho, so i'll have to go back at some point /eyeroll. but yeah, between crystal hunters and those guys who crawl around walls and shoot lasers, Crystal Peak might actually win Most Annoying Enemies so far :p

a few other notes:

Cornifer seemed much more frightened in Deepnest than he was in Ancient Basin. but to me, Ancient Basin seems creepier. i mean, i get that Deepnest is very dark and has spiders and corpse critters, so i understand it would feel more dangerous to him, but like... Deepnest just feels dark, but some of the atmosphere in Ancient Basin looks like void. still, excited to explore it more later!
found a fountain in Ancient Basin that invited me to deposit all my geo within the fountain. might do so later once i've spent some of my geo?
wonder if i'll find the banker lady somewhere now that she's run off. when i dream-nailed her, she said something about wanting to find a spa... be funny if i found her in a hot springs or something
looks like apart from Ancient Basin, there's another tram station to the right in a yet unmapped area
and i have a key i can use in the big door at the base of the cliffs at the edge of Dirtmouth, so that's several areas i'll be able to explore at my leisure... plus the newly-infected Crossroads (???)

this game... there's so much to explore, and i love it. also my mom pestered my siblings for wishlists, and i'd already made one last month but i took the opportunity to add some Hollow Knight merch :3