I have finished the game on 100%(106%), and for the most part i did enjoy the experience but sadly i am not be able to recommend it to any friend with a clear conscious.

Let's get the easy part out of the way.

Pros:
-Outstanding Artstyle and 2D animations.
-Fun and fluid movement and combat.
-Sorta Interesting and yet subtle lore.
-Dialogue between characters although short is very well written.
-Challenging ( In a way this game gives a very Dark soul-y vibe to it).
-An enjoyable soundtrack to listen to.
-Good amount of content for the money you're paying.



These are gonna be long.

Cons:
-SO.MUCH.BACKTRACKING.
I'm the last person that would demand or even like a linear game.
I appreiciate the freedom and the drive of exploreation that some games provide, including here.
The problem however that in Hollow Knight, it feels like you have TOO much freedom, in a world that punishes you for it.

The map is a huge maze-like loop, in where you never trully know which area or zone to go to next, and 90% of the places you visit at first would have a closed or unreachable path as you're missing a specific abillty or item to advance, in which you have to continue the process until miraculously you manage to come across that one abillty( Some are quite missable) you needed to advance previously, and now you need to backtrack to the same old zone and try to rememeber the exact spot the abillty was needed.
Oh and then just 5 minutes into this newly unlocked area, you come across another spot that requires yet another item/abillty you don't have yet. WHAT FUN!

It's all very tasking, frustarting and frankly feels like a waste of time.


-There's never any true guidence or even hints of where you need to be next or what at the very least you're recommended to do, something even Dark souls does at-least somewhat as you are never TRULLY lost playing the souls games.
Sure the NPC's talk to you and provide lore or items that you may need in the future, but no implication at all of what actually needs to be done or where *they* think you need to go next.
As mentioned previously, you're just exploring random locations that you happend to get to or accidently fall to, in the hopes that you find a Key item or abillty that may open future/past paths.

Remember playing the old Zelda games, and how lost some of us always felt during some tasks? At-least there there was always some sort of NPC to let you know "Maybe you should do X, or go to X", making sure you are never *truly* stuck.

On the first playthrough, unless you're planning on spending near hundreds of hours to try and beat the game, it is near unplayable without using the Wiki or/and maps online that provide points of interests.


-The map.
The worst thing about the map is that it doesn't actually update "live".
The map updates only when you sit on a bench(This games "Bonfires") or when you die.

Not only that, they also mark the entire instance as "visited" or "cleared", the moment you step your foot there, so you wouldn't be able to know later on if you have missed something unless you specifically remember you did.

Let me put this into a practical example:
Imagine there's one map instance which is shaped as a cube,and it has two parts to it seperated by a wall at the exact center.
You are able to explore the entire right part of that cube, but the left one is locked due to you missing an item or an abillty.
Once you leave that area, and sit on a bench, the entire cube would be marked as "visited/cleared".
Now you as a player, 10 hours later into the game, found the abillty required to go into that left part of the cube.
But you'll need to remember on your own that there was a specific part you couldn't explore earlier, and where EXACTLY was it, as the map has no indication as such.



-I'm usually quite the achievement hunter in games i do trully enjoy.
Sadly in Hollow Knight you'll be forced to not only finish the game AT LEAST 3 times to get all of the "Regular" achievements (Separted by choices you make), but there's also like 5 speed-run achivements, which i find absurd. Finish the game on 100%, under 20 hours? One of which requires a "No death run" on 100%.
Completely unnecessary and actually quite annoying and disappointing when taken into account how frustrating it is to advance in the game to begin with.

I mean it took me like 70 hours to finish the game with barely any failures and minimal backtracking due to using an online map/wiki.


Remember that i said enjoyed the game? That's mainly because i was using the online map to guide me through my playthrough, had that wasn't an option for me i would of dropped the game quite early as it would be waaay too frustarting for me.



In conclusion:
If you think that you'd be completely fine with the negatives i've mentioned, then i'd urge to get the game as soon as possible.
But if you'd be bothered by these aspects as much as i was, stay away ( Or at the very least play with the online map/wiki open).