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A
Foreign what's up? And welcome to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Friday, September 19, 2025. Of course. I am your host, Tim Gettys. I am joined today by the sad boy himself, Bear Courtney.
B
What up, Timmy?
A
What's up? And rounding out the group, we have the nitro rifle, Andy Cortez.
C
We're so close, Tim.
A
Yeah, we're. Are we close to Andy?
C
What are we doing over? Close to greatness.
A
I mean, this isn't even an alleged thing. This is, it's not even legit. This is like semi legit.
C
This is a legit thing.
A
So now for people that don't know, we've been talking about the, the different, like handheld devices for a while now. The retro pockets. That's the retro pocket flip.
C
Retroid pocket flip two beautiful audio listeners.
B
It's like a cool little like, looks like a flip Game Boy, but it's gamecube colors. It's sick as hell.
A
It's very, very cool. But there's been a breakthrough in the last couple weeks.
C
There's been a breakthrough where Roger sent me a link and was like, hey, there's this program called Game Hub that allows you to log in legitimately with like your, your Gmail or whatever the hell and then you log into your Steam account and it's like, hey, whatever games you own, you can download and play on your Android device. And we're so close to greatness. Like there's a couple things like it's getting constant updates. It's such a brand new thing, but the updates are fast and furious with how quickly they're working on. And it would be really nice to not have to lug around a device as big as the Steam deck to play some of these smaller games, you know, 80s too.
A
Holy shook song. It's like the perfect time for a device.
C
The, the quality that we have.
B
Oh, that looks so pretty. Is this an oled?
C
Yeah, this is an OLED display on this device.
B
Stupid.
C
Yeah, it looks, it looks freaking amazing and it's running like almost perfectly. It doesn't have my cloud save yet, so I just kind of started a new game and started running it. But it is freaking beautiful.
B
You could also just play it on the switch too.
C
Yeah, screens kind of. Screen's kind of like gray. A lot of grays there, you know.
B
I'm just saying if you don't want something as bulky, you know, know.
C
Oh, sure, sure, sure. No, I just mean like, you know, you, you going to put that thing in your case? I mean, I put this. I Put the retroid pocket in my front pocket of the backpack and it's just like, oh, I thought you meant.
A
You'Re like oh, I mean, here's the like.
B
Or is that a retro pocket?
A
What you take them X Rails, plug it into that thing.
C
Oh my God.
A
Now you're playing with power, baby.
C
Oh my God.
A
Tim. Get the hell out of Remember everybody, this is the Kind of Funny Games Cast. Each and every weekday we get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics in video games live on YouTube, Twitch and podcast services around the globe. And when it reviews, it doesn't get much bigger than this. Hollow Knight Silk Song is finally out and finally being reviewed here at Kind of Funny and I can't wait to talk about it. If you love what we do, please support us with the Kind of Funny membership on Patreon, YouTube, Spotify or Apple podcast to get all of our shows ad free and a daily exclusive show. For a chance to be part of this show though, please YouTube Super Chat your questions, comments and concerns in if you have any thoughts on Hollow Night Silk Song. What's your favorite boss so far? Is it there? Anybody you want to punch in the face, let me know. Super Chat it in. A little housekeeping for you. We're an 11 person business all about live talk shows and today is a big day for that. You already got Games Daily. That is Mike and Roger doing some. Mike and Roger, they got.
B
They're cheating.
A
They had a PowerPoint.
C
They had a PowerPoint and they're send me an. I got an early leak of the.
A
PowerPoint after this Games cast will be the return of Kind of Funny Games Showdown. My favorite show we do here at Kind of Funny. We got Gray, the returning champ, repping Team Blue. Yeah, I hate that. Yeah, we have.
B
You know, he is the returning champ and he is part of Team Blue.
A
Why do you hate a piece of shit?
B
You hate facts too.
A
I really do. At this point in my life. I'm repping Team Orange, which is worse. And Team Purple returns with a mystery captain taking the helm.
C
Who will it be?
B
I will Team Purple be.
A
I do not.
C
Will it be. I do know that we should probably get the front gate like because I know.
B
Yeah. Yeah.
C
They may be arriving soon.
B
Kevin, if we get get somebody on the front gate. Look out for slack when we find out when our guest arrives. I know a lot of food is coming for this guest.
A
A lot of food.
C
They requested a lot of special things.
A
Yeah, that a writer. I love it. Uh, then the stream after that will Be Pico park with a stacked crew. Uh, if you're kind of funny. Member. Today's Greg Way is 15 minutes on Helldivers 2 Ghosts and Home Depot.
B
Just ghosts.
A
Just ghost. Is it Yote? Probably not, no. I think it's just.
B
Or Ghostbusters.
C
Just ghosts.
A
Yeah. Good Lord. Thank you to our Patreon producers, Carl Jacobs, Omega Buster, and Delaney the Psalm Twining. Today we're brought to you by Shady Raisin Factor. But we'll tell you all about that later because we got to get into the topic of the show. Hollow Knight Silk song developed by Team Cherry MSRP of $20, not a penny more. Physical coming out early 2026 on Switch first, but then eventually other consoles as well. There was a physical release of the PC version of Hollow Knight 1, and I think that's nifty.
C
Wow.
A
I didn't know that an actual disc.
C
Good for that, like the fat ass box.
A
I don't know, but that'd be pretty sick.
C
USA back in the day.
A
Yeah. Dude, graphics cards used to go so hard. I miss. I don't want to buy a graphics card unless the dragons on the box.
C
I mean, I'm just talking about PC game boxes. They were chunky boys, man.
A
I need to tell you guys something.
C
What's up?
B
Tell Simmy.
A
Many years ago, many moons ago, a young man with a lot less white in his beard beat a game called Cuphead. All right? And he felt really good about himself.
C
It was a big day for the country.
B
Yeah.
C
Later, we all came together.
A
Years later, that same boy fell in love with a game called Seafu. And he thought he couldn't do it. He thought it was going to beat him. But he eventually beat it. And then he went on to platinum. That motherfucker.
B
And three people beat you in. Beat that boy in a race.
A
That's okay. That's okay.
C
That's all right.
A
You know, no problem. I showed up.
C
It was about like 10 minutes, though.
A
You know what I'm saying? I beat it, though. Even in that race, I beat it again.
B
That platinum is not easy.
A
Yes. And as of last night, that boy has beat Hollow Knight Silk Song Act 2. But I hit credits, baby.
C
Wow.
A
I hit credits. I locked the. In the last three days. Last time I saw Andy, I was just at the end of act one, and I beat it. And I got so infatuated. I'm like, gee, we ain't watching anything tonight. I'm so sorry. It's lock in time, and I must have played 16 hours in the last couple days.
C
Dude, Chat. This is. No, I am not a small feat. I am not exaggerating here when I tell you I was stunned by the amount of stuff I was telling him. And he's like, I have no idea what that is. And I was like, okay, well, maybe you aren't aware of the words that I'm using, but let me show you. And he's like, I don't know what any of this is. Have you fought this boss? He's like, no, No, I haven't. And I was like, dude, you. Whoa. Like, yeah, there is a laundry list of you got to do just to kind of finish act one. And I would. I was like, tim, you should probably just look up shit to do before you finish act one, because right now, like, there's just. You're not going to get there in time.
A
It was crazy because what happened was I had that conversation with Andy and I was like, I just can't believe it. He would show me things, and he's like, oh, yeah, I had that forever. Yeah, I think you were wrong about a couple of the things about when you got them, because I ended up getting them pretty later, even after where I was.
C
Okay.
A
But also, I had, like, a lot of the weird collectible things that get you the next thing that get the stuff you were showing me. I had like four out of five. Three out of five. And then I got them quickly, and all of a sudden I'm like, oh, oh, we're here. And then, yeah, when I beat Act 1, I was like, oh, my God. I just kept playing. And then I was talking to Barrett. I'm like, this is where I'm at in Act 2. Can I get it done by review? And he's like, I don't know, but.
B
Maybe, Maybe if you lock.
C
If you lock.
A
I locked in yesterday, and I can't believe it. And I have so many questions. I'm not going to. Well, you know, don't want to get into spoilers at all, but I, I, I need to know what happens next, because I'm confused as hell. But anyway, I can't wait to talk.
C
All about that stuff, Tim. And just as a reminder, we will not say a single spoiler until after the ads.
A
Yeah.
C
And it's not even a spoiler cast. It's just like, we want to talk about specific bosses and stuff and specific things where we will name the character Marmaduke the Grand. And you'll be like, oh, I didn't know they were making a return from part one. So, like, we will be name Dropping some stuff. Yeah. After the ads. But like, just for reference, I have yet to fully, fully beat the video game. Barrett's like right there.
B
I've been stuck on the final boss for the last couple of days.
C
And so we're like, you know, before the ads, not a single mention of stuff. We're just going to talk about things you all want to talk about, questions about, you know, is this a good one to start off with? What do you reckon? All that. All those little general, general generalized questions.
A
All of that stuff. So with all of that out of the way, I do want to get to our actual thoughts about this video game. I feel like it's only right to start with Andy Cortez, who wasn't on Hollow Knight from day one, but was the first to kind of funny to really get into it, first to beat it and first to kind of make it your entire personality and lifestyle.
C
I was late at late adopter Tim 2021. Don't remember a whole lot about the video game aside from a couple of boss fights and immediately saw the light and saw why all the hype is there. And saw why. Oh, thank God I got into this thing late because Silksong will drop any day now with how long. You know, it's 2021 already. You know, people demoed it two years ago in 2019. Any day now. I'm glad I got in late. That way I don't. That way I don't have a long wait for it, you know.
A
Exactly. Exactly. And here we are many years later. The wait is over. You have beat the game.
C
No. Well, yeah.
A
Up to the credits. You don't even. There's more. There's always.
B
You saw credits. Yeah.
A
What would you give Hollow Knight Silks are on the kind of funny scale.
C
I would give Hollow Knight Silksong. Dang. I wasn't even really prepared to give a score. I don't know why. Why wasn't I prepared to give a score?
A
Because it feels bigger than other games.
C
It does.
A
There's something lofty about putting a number on Hollow Knight Silk song. I'm right there with you.
C
It. It's putting a score on. On this style of art, you know, still gamified in a whole bunch of ways. Obviously it's, you know, it's boss fights and patterns and abilities and equipment and stuff that you would expect from action packed video games. But there was just something so much larger than life about this title. And I. I think for me it's really hard to not say that this is a masterpiece. I would say, as of right now, when I give stuff a masterpiece, it's not because it's a perfect game. It's because whatever nitpicks I have are so vastly overshadowed by all of the greatness there. I didn't. I wasn't 100% in love with the combat and tears of the kingdom, but everything else surrounding it just made me look at my nitpicks and go, but in the grand scheme of things, I don't even give a about these little problems that I have because everything else is so masterful. Yeah, I would. I'd give this a 10 out of 10 so far.
A
Hell, and it's.
C
Again, it's a so far thing. I'm about 70 hours in, give or take. I've played the. The game a lot. I. You know, the other day some people were watching me stream and were like, damn, 65 hours. Like, yeah, but like, I let this idle a lot. I'm drawing a lot of the characters. I also left my Steam deck running way too long one time without. Without remembering that I left it running. So it's not that it's not like around there, but I would remove several hours from it. It's. Yeah, it's hard to look at this game and not go, holy shit. First off, how did Team Cherry follow up on one of the greatest Metroidvanias of all time and kind of outdo themselves in a lot of different ways? I think this game could have only disappointed. And the fact that it still stood up to all of those expectations and blew them out of the fucking water and blows you away with amazing cinematic moments and story beats and NPC interactions, all while having the. The challenge and the amazing boss fights that we would expect. I mean, it's. It's crazy that they were able to do this game's amazing.
A
Barrett, you did not play Hollow Knight 1.
B
I did not.
A
You jump straight into the sequel Silk Song.
B
I did. Before I give my review, an important question from the chat from Jeff Grubb. Are you the one drawing all the hornets with huge asses?
C
I usually go. I usually go for the. For the hangers. Yeah. Yeah.
B
Jesus Christ.
C
That cloak is not hiding much. Jeff Grab. I'll tell you what.
B
Yeah, I. I did not play Hollow Knight, much to many people's chagrin, before jump into Hollow Knight Silksong. And that's because, you know, I still have a love and passion for 2D metroidvania games. You know, I love Guacamelee and just other 2D games in general. We have A shared love with Cuphead. And recently in. In the last few years, I've also given myself to fromsoftware games Souls, like games, right? Really fell in love with Elden Ring beat Dark Souls 1 for the first time this year. And so with all of those kind of interests outside of Hollow Knight kind of, I was feeling the hype for this one and really wanted to check it out. Especially like even just in the trailer seeing like the. The moveset that comes with Hornet, I was like, oh, this, this is popping off nice little fireworks in my head, right? And so with all of that going into this game, I've just been loving every moment with it. Even when I'm banging my head against a wall with like a gauntlet fight that took me eight to nine hours, right? Banging my head against the wall against the final boss. But I'm loving every moment of it. And not just with the fights, but just the exploration of what you would expect of a Metroidvania and with inspirations from, you know, souls, like games, right? Like, even though this does have a lot of, you know, the Metroidvania design in getting lost and then realizing how certain things connect after you get an item, I think there's a flow in the world and how the world unveils itself to you that feels much more on that like, soul side than it does a Metroidvania. Even though at the end of the day it is on paper just that, right? The world is so fascinating and cool. Love all the critters, love the art design and style. The combat, I think is really superb in terms of just all of the systems that come with it. All, all the different builds. Even though it's not technically an rpg, right? With like different builds that you can do in like an Elden Ring, but so many different tools and items where I've seen bosses be taken down in such different ways than I did, I think is really fascinating. I love the character and, and the over the characters and overall story and the kind of message that has come with this game that I find fascinating, which we can talk a little bit about later just to not give spoilers. But yeah, I think even with some of my gripes, right, like, I think some of the economy system is a little whack. I. I think personally for me, this is something I felt with Bloodborne and this is like just a personal thing is like, I don't love the kind of tool shard system I don't love. Like, you know, all right, I'm locked into a fight and you know, I'm gonna just try to focus on this boss now. I've run out of shards, so now I got to go back into the world and, and grind out. I, I think little stuff like that can be annoying. But I think overall the, the vision that Team Cherry had for this game, and this is someone who came into this game with no expectation from Hollow Knight. I also think this is a 10 out of 10 masterpiece. So.
A
Yeah.
C
Timothy Gettys, how about you?
A
This game is so special. I, I feel like we're just so privileged to have so many amazing video games of different sizes and scopes in the last year come out that are just so mind blowingly awesome and different and like I keep saying special, but that's really what this is. Like, every single frame of this game I put on my wall. Like, there's so much love and care put into the art of the game. And it's not just the visuals. Although this might be the most attractive game I've ever seen. Like, this is just so up my alley when it comes to visual design and seeing each of the NPCs, I'm just like, I want to meet them all because they're all just so weird. And they're weird looking, they sound weird, and everything about it just feels like, designed. And it's just unbelievable that a team of people can have such a shared vision to create something like this that around every corner you're, you're meeting something fantastic and you don't know if it's going to fight you or hug you and either way it's interesting or both. You know what I mean? Exactly. And I, I feel like there's such a, a compelling world that feels like it's living and makes all of the movement and combat worth it for how difficult so much of it is from the jump and it's relentless. Like it never stops. Like, I feel like there is not any sense of a difficulty curve in this game. It's just all out of 10 the entire time. And that's very cool. And I think it makes every single moment feel scary. Like when you, when you think about Metroids, right? Like, it's the sense of isolation and, and, and being alone. And we always talk about like the atmosphere, but can't spell atmosphere without fear. Just came up with that right now.
C
Oh, nice.
A
It is scary. You know, I mean, I think that so much of the, the vibes of Metroid are when you feel like you're in total control of an area because you've been here a million times, but when you go to a new area for the first time, you don't know what's coming up against you. You don't know what weird effect they might have or, or the patterns of the way these enemies move. And this game just has that, but with such a distinct visual style that it just adds so much more where in addition to wanting to progress the game, I'm also like, I don't want, as scared as I am to go to this next room. I have to because I need to see what it looks like, you know, I need to see what this next biome looks like. The, the loop there is just so satisfying and the combat just feels good. I like how simple the game is like in terms of your, your move sets, but you have enough abilities to kind of add on top of it and choose between that. Change up the gameplay way more dramatically than I would have ever expected from a fairly simple 2D character that has one attack button really, you know, but just being able to change the speed or range of the swipes like that little thing makes such a big difference when the boss fights are this well designed and are designed for that pinpoint accuracy. So so much of that is, is incredible. As a huge Metroidvania fan, like, this is one of the, the goats. Like this is up there for all the reasons that make Metroidvania special. The sense of progression of abilities, the moments of seeing somewhere knowing you're going to be able to come back and, and get through it. The, the next time you get a upgrade and then you get an upgrade and it's not that one. And you're like, fuck, I'm going to have to remember that for later. This game makes that stuff lore in a way that I find really interesting. And I felt like I was constantly drawn back to wanting to do every single thing before I moved on. And that's always the sign that I love a game. Right. It's like wanting to 100. And that's why when I was talking to Andy and he's like, how do you not know any of these things? I'm like, I don't know, I'm doing everything. But I, I think it's crazy that I was convinced that I had the map fully open. Yeah, like four times in this game. And I'm not saying like, oh, then there's a story beat. And no, there's this whole other area. I'm saying like the map that I have that I feel like I have full access to, there was a little nook that I Missed. And a cranny over there that turns into three more biomes and it's like, wow. There is no lack of content in this game, whether it's areas, bosses, all of that. I gave Hollow Knight multiple shots in the the first hour or so over the years because of how much I loved the look of this game. Like, I remember the first time even seeing this in indie worlds Nintendo Direct thing. And I was like that. This game looks like everything I could ever want. But playing it, it wasn't. It was way too brutally difficult and way too just vague and open. This game, I think from the jump doesn't solve all of that, but it is way more of a Metroidvania immediately. And you're way more nimble and powerful immediately as opposed to the first game. And just the fact that she talks, you know, and like she has more of a character. I didn't play Hollow Knight. I don't know what that all turns into from the get go. In this game. I felt more like, okay, this is what I was looking for from.
B
There's more of a connection there.
A
Yeah. And I love it. I love Hornet's character, love the, the look, love the vibe of the voice and just everything she says, like, it feels epic in scale for this little bug world. I want to know everything about the world. And that's cool because months ago I was saying Jake Baldino and I were having a conversation about Expedition 33 and it's been so long, like decades maybe since I found a new world, that I'm like, I want to read the novels, I want to see the TV show. I want more of this world. And with Hollow Knight, I'm like the same thing. I can't wait to go back and play Hollow Knight 1 now. I can't wait to watch Lore videos that you recommend. Like, I am so in. And I just, I want to know more about all of that. I'm going really long here, but to get to my score, I do think that it's very difficult to score this game because I think that at the end of the day, this is going to be one of my favorite games of all time. How high up the list? I'm not so sure. The biggest thing for me though is that this game has so many 10 out of 10 masterpiece qualities probably. I mean, definitely more than anything else. But I do think that the pacing of how the economy works, the amount of just grinding you have to do to keep up, the longer you play this game, the better it gets. That's how games work. Some Metroidvanias get you get more powerful. Makes things easier. I understand all of that. I feel like I was wasting a lot of time in this game where I wasn't having fun facing a boss. I wasn't having fun doing the run back. And I think that getting rid of those things would not detract from the game whatsoever and would have just made my experience from the 9 out of 10amazing. That I'm going to give Hollow Knight to be the 10 out of 10 because I, I understand developer intent. I understand all of it. And the people that, that love it and they're like, I beat it. I did it. And I'm so proud of myself. Good for you. I beat it. I'm very, very proud of myself. At the same time, I feel like I would have been happier if every single boss just did. Took half as much damage to take out. Like, I, I think that this could have been a hard mode in the game. I grew up playing Devil May Cry. There was Dante Must Die mode, but there was also just a mode I could play and not hate myself. But the people that did that, they're so proud of themselves and they deserve it, and that's great. I really just think that if this game had more options, I think it would help the game flow. It would help a lot of the problems I have with it. I know I'm not alone, but I also know that I'm not who this game was designed for exactly. And I was up to the challenge to do it anyways. And I plan to see this through to the end. Like, I really, I mean, if I can. I. So far I've been lucky with a couple of the fights, but I definitely want to see after the end if it. And I think I will be able to because so far it doesn't seem like it's getting harder.
C
So.
B
Yeah, yeah, I think, yeah, the, the. With all the criticisms, it definitely feels at times like not in a bad way, as we say with Bethesda, but in some ways in terms of the souls Metroidvania type of stuff that this was developed kind of in a silo and you know, they talked a little bit about that of like them this kind of like keeping their head down and working on this game with their vision. But I do think that comes with some of the like, you know, I think Remap Radio were the ones that talk about like, it would be cool to have like a Stake of America type of thing here where it's like after you die, you either choose to reload at the boss or go back to your last bench or something like that. Little things here and there that I think would have helped this feel even more like, you know, something that is learned not just from Hollow Knight, but other Metroidvanias and other really tough games that have come out in, like, the last decade.
C
It's. It's. It's. The other day I was thinking about, like, how basic of a take this is about to be and how like, SEO this sounds, but this really does feel like the Elden Ring of Metroidvanias. Yes. And like it's. It's the most, like, basic ass. I feel embarrassed even saying it. You know what I mean? Like, it's one of those things where you just see like some account that's just trying to. To farm engagement, saying something like, elden Ring of Metroidvanias. Question mark. Hollow Knight Silk Song is the elder ring of Metroidvanias. Because the other day, what was that? Oh, my gosh. There was a fantastic IGN tweet that Tamora Hussein responded to with like, a what? Where it was like, what Elden Ring did to Bloodborne Hollow Knight does to Silks. I forgot what it was. Tomorrow was just like, what the fuck does that mean? But that. I mean, it's legitimately how I feel with how the game just keeps on opening up, keeps on mesmerizing me, keeps on shocking me with a new area and going, how far does this area go? Then there's a map piece. Oh, shit. This is a whole new zone. I would have never expected that to have been here in this spot. It just. It continues to give and give and it. Like I was telling Tim, it's the game that the more you give it, the more it'll give back with. If you do the game the service of exploring as much as you can, you will be rewarded for it. You will fight a boss that'll give you six beads or some bullshit, but that boss will lead you to a zone that you'll have a new item that you can then unlock. And that item might be really crucial for whatever next challenges you want to take on. That's super staggering.
A
I. I do just want to say in response to the. Is this the Elden Ring of Metroidvanias that, like, I am a little surprised at how much at the end of the day, like, this is. It's a Metroidvania like Silksong. It's like, have we played Ori in the will of the wisps? Like Prince of Persia Lost crown? It's like so much of like just it being fucking hard to me is like really where the Elden Ring part of it comes into it. And like, because all the looping around of the areas and stuff, it's like, yeah, like the two games I just named like do that I think just as well as this. And that's again compliments to games that I absolutely love and are some all.
B
Timers, but I think more so, less so of like the Metroidvania design that makes it like, is it the Elden Ring? And more so just like, you know, you're. You're set up with like a very clear goal. Like there is a very Elden ring fromsoft moment in this game where you think you're building up to this one goal the entire time and you are presented it as like, oh, this is the end game. You know, this is the pretty area that you think is going to be the final kind of run of the game. And then the game goes, you silly bitch. No, like this isn't the end game. What are you talking about? And I think they're the way that like the kind of almost like the. The story and world kind of unveils itself to you in certain ways, I think is more so of like the comparison to maybe not just the eldering, but like just more so of like almost story design and story pacing. Very fromsoft in that respect. That's how I see it.
C
At least I saw it as just like, I'm still unlocking a new zone this late and this zone is still this expansive and this zone still has this many secrets in it. That's where I was. I kept on being kind of amazed of like, man, how much larger will this continue to go? And you know, seeing some comparisons to the old Hollow knight map and going, oh my gosh, like this is. This really is a very, very large video game. And the way that it keeps opening up in really interesting ways and the amount of secrets inside quests that there are that you will not even get, you know, these are not things that you're going to get on your task board, on your mission board. These are not gonna be side quests that pop up for you that are pretty deliberate and pointed in saying, here's what you need to do for this. Collect five of those things, collect ten of these things. There are so many things to do outside of that that do not pop up as a video game mission. And that's the stuff that I really, really love.
A
I mean that stuff is just so fucking cool. I know so many people got my mad at some clips that were going around without spoiling things. Things that are negative against you. It's like surprise negative stuff, you know, like you think you're safe, you're not safe and. Right. And I love, I love those moments. It's like, that's so frustrating. But like, I feel like this game peppers them in, in the right amount and doesn't overdo that type of sheer fucking stuff.
B
Where we can talk about the Bench Trap. Right?
A
That's what I was alluding to. Yeah. But otherwise there's so many just joyful moments of just like characters popping up and you're like, oh. And then it was like, oh, they're on my side. Like so many fun little things where it does feel like every character you talk to has a reason for happening. It's there that everything they say is going to come back and have consequence at some point.
B
And not just with you in the world, but with them themselves. Like the, the, the journeys that they'll go on and you'll run into them in areas you wouldn't have expected them to, you know, and like in a lot of other games that you would meet them in their location and that's where they're at for the rest of the game and you know, like, maybe they're doing stuff and have little character moments where you meet them but you know, running into, you know, Sherma and Chakra in different points and kind of checking in with them on, on their journey and even more characters that have way more vague kind of quest stuff going on with them, I think is really special and helps make the world feel, I think, way more alive and feels like it exists even without you. Right?
C
That.
B
Yeah.
A
Yeah.
B
Really cool.
A
I want to keep talking about Hollow Knight Silk Song after a quick word.
D
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A
And we're back. Before getting into full spoiler mode though.
B
Barrett yeah I wanted to talk a little bit about the shard system and that being kind of a big frustrating thing for me. That's something I didn't love in Bloodborne as well. Right. Whereas like you're was your healing item and your shotgun shell or your gun shells. Like you need to kind of go out and farm if like if you're going up against a boss and then you run out of those after a certain amount of temps. I think like that flow can be really frustrating and but it's also I know a personal thing because then I'll just get hard headed and you know this it's like maybe I should go out and explore the world and go grind a little bit and go collect shards or beads to buy the shard bundles or whatever. But I'm just fully giving into just no tooling this final boss and I'm a few hours in of just like all right. I've run out of my cool little useful guys that fly around.
C
Little drone guys.
A
Yeah the cog flies are game changer.
B
Man, I've ran out of those. I've run out of other things that I usually use and something that I want to bring up. This is really what my point is here of Lord Jonas in the chat saying they create a design that teaches you as you play in subtle ways you don't even notice because that's how good the design is. And I love that. Like, yeah, the world kind of teaches you how to deal with bosses in very subtle ways in terms of attacks from normal enemies that you might see in similar ways with the boss. And that's why I get so hard headed in some of these boss fights where I'm like, no, I've learned this and I can figure this out without needing the reliance on tools, which is why I was stuck in that gauntlet fight in the high halls for hours and hours and hours because I was like, I know I can get this. And that's where I'm at with the final boss, where I'm going in with no tools, just my wit and just learning this boss over and over again. Where I think I've seen, I think the final phase, like I can get there pretty consistently, but maybe there's another phase after that. I don't, I like, I'm not even convinced that this is the final final boss, you know, so I'm a little worried about that. But that's, you know, a lot of people have been commenting of like, oh, bear getting stuck on, on things like for hours and hours and hours. And that's what like it's just my personal stubborn stuff. But that's also, I love that of you know, getting to a boss and being like, oh man, I can't rely on stuff. But having the ability to kind of see, see through the matrix a little bit and knowing like I can do this, I can figure this out without having to go out and grind for shards, which I find very annoying. And maybe I will give in to that at one point, but that's, that's where I'm at right now in terms of endgame stuff.
C
A favorite meme that, that I mentioned on stream the other day, Tim, was it was like a two part meme and it was like the first image was somebody gifting somebody a gift and it was metal shards. And the guy said, oh, thank you for the garbage or something like, give me, give me rosary beads. Who gives about, who gives a, about these? And then it says now that you're in the late game and it's Tom Holland saying I need my shards if. Or I need My tools. If you're nothing without your tools, you're not. You're nothing at all.
B
And that's like. I love just giving into. Into that and giving into the fight in a way that doesn't feel. And not to say that tools are like, cheesing, but tools kind of help you figure things out in ways where you don't need to figure out everything pixel perfect in terms of reaction. You can kind of reset yourself and, you know, let a boss run into, you know, poison spikes or, like your cog flies fly at them or something like that. And I love just giving into. I. I want to read this piece. Moises Riveris wrote a piece about Hollow Knight Silksong and like the ballet, essentially. And I just love giving into the dance of it all. There is one boss that I don't think you've gotten to yet that I think is the best boss in the game. And it does feel like this flowing, kind of active, reactive ballet. And that's what the final boss is feeling like for me as well. And I love just figuring that puzzle out and figuring out what is the choreography to all of this. And. God damn, this is such a good game.
C
Yeah, the. I mean, the way some of the surprises keep on coming and like, when we talk about what Tim just went through at the end of Act 2 or. Yeah, at the end of Act 2.
A
Are we getting the spoilers?
B
Yeah.
A
Who's calling now?
C
Yeah, I would say so.
A
From here on out, everybody, full spoilers for Hollow Knight Silk song. None of us have fully beat it, but we're gonna.
B
I won't talk about, like, the final. Final stuff because Andy still hasn't got there yet, so I want him to be able to react to that.
C
You know, I. I just love the cinematics and the drama leading up to that, to those final moments. Oh, my God. I. I think the way it's all sort of paced out story wise is so damn beautiful. Lace, man, that fight with Lace at the end, the. The. The conversation of life creation. You like, she favored you anyway. Like, oh, my God.
B
Yeah. Her feeling like this heartbreaking from what I can understand this just being created out of Silk, right. From Grandmother Silk and her feeling like this daughter that's being thrown away. But then even the continued stuff after that. Right. Is like, it's really great of like this emotional kind of like three, four, five punch of like what who Lace is, how. What her connection is with Grandmother Silk.
C
It's.
B
It's really phenomenal.
A
Yeah. And then getting to that fight like that fight was one of my favorites in the. The game so far. Like, it was so sick. I love even the field of flowers. The. Oh, my God, it's so. Come on. It's so fucking good. But the final fight, the final fight about two at least, is so epic, of Hornet looking away from the camera and, like, fighting that way. That looks so sick.
C
The soundtrack.
A
The soundtrack's popping off, but when you do the final bind and your silk just starts growing and growing and growing, your magic gets cooler off the fucking screen. I'm like, holy shit, dude. I forgive this game for all of its things. Like, this is so amazing, man.
C
Yeah. It's those moments that. That are the memorable moments that stick with you for sure. And, you know, going into it, when. When Barrett told me I beat the game, but I don't really think I beat the game. I think I got the bad ending. And I was like, all right, so it's like every. Like, what a lot of these stories do, a lot of Dark Souls games do, what Hollow Knight does. It's there. Are you going to continue the status quo? Are you going to just. With you continue the system that going. Are you going to be the one to break the wheel and kind of like change, like, be the.
A
The.
C
The. The one who starts all.
B
Are you gonna do the basic Elden Ring thing or are you gonna, like, do Ranny's quest, essentially? Right.
C
And. And all of that stuff is just still so well done. And the way that it's framed and structured here is certainly way more different than what I experienced with a lot of endings like this, because I just wasn't sure what I was in store for. I wasn't sure what I. I was assuming that I may have been able to do something different. But no, the first ending is. You get that ending.
B
Yep.
C
That's. That's the option that you have. You can't have done anything different in the lead up to that final fight to change this destiny or whatever. And then you go back in and your save is still up, and you go, okay, so I'm starting right before this fight. There's a lot of other stuff I could have cleaned up. Let me go do some cleanup missions or whatever. And the way that these things are kind of secretly, you know, very vaguely hinted at. Yeah.
B
What you need to do that is one thing. Like, I don't. You know, I. There is an Act 3, which, you know, I think makes it even just the implication of act one and two. Right. Like, be weird to only have two acts in a story. Right. I don't love how you have to unlock Act 3. I think it's still very vague and stuff.
A
Can I jump in here?
B
Yeah.
A
Because that's where I'm at. Yeah. Like, I'm at this place where I have spent the last couple days, specifically, like, playing the. Out of this game. Like, I. When I flew to Paris, I played hours and hours and hours, but it really was the last couple days I was like, I'm locking in. I'm, like, focusing on getting this done, trying to do this and finishing Act 2. The entire thing felt like a Metroidvania. I. It always. I always felt like I knew where I was supposed to go at all moments. And that's good. It's good game design of looking at the map. There's. Okay, cool. There's an opening here. I can check that out. That's probably going to take me where I need to go. Whatever. As you start getting into act two, it's very clear. Okay. You got to collect the three things. Right. Good. I understand all this, all of that set me up to get to this boss fight. I fight the boss. I get the ending. Cinematic. It's hype as shit. Credits hit. I'm like, okay, cool. This feels like a bad ending. I also heard there's an Act 3 and all this shit, but credits roll. And then when I come back, I expected some level of, hey, there's an Act 3. Like an Act 3 title hit or something. Or, hey, some character talking to me. Even like the person next to the bench just being like, hey, go do this right now. I'm like, what do I do?
B
Yeah, I would have loved a bigger push from, you know, the. The guy in the robe in Song Clave being like. And he does have a very vague conversation where he kind of notices at one point, if you've done enough quests from, like, the. The boards from each of the towns, he'll be like, hey, you've been helping a lot of people out. That's cool. You're cool. It's like, ah, thanks, man. And then you keep doing quests, and then eventually, if you've done. I think it's like all of the town quests from the boards and then.
C
Not all of them, you know, not all of them. No. There's a, like a great super chat here from Damon Cooper. 19 months or not even a super chat. Just becoming a member for 19 months on YouTube says something that I didn't know that you can get the Silk and soul. And Silk and soul is the. The secret Mission quest. Yeah.
B
Gets you Act 3.
C
Gets you to the start of Act 3 and says, you can get that before finishing the game for the first time. That's how I completed it. I didn't get the quote, unquote bad ending the first I need. Or I didn't get the quote unquote bad ending first I need to replay the story to get that achievement.
B
See, I thought it was a requirement to beat the game first to even, like, have Act 3 be an option as well. That's crazy.
C
So the way I was able to do it was by doing a lot of the board missions.
B
I. I had to clear for it for him to even wave me down.
A
This just seems so unnecessarily obtuse for a game that isn't obtuse.
B
Yeah.
A
Like, I don't understand. Like, what? Like, just tell me, hey, clear the message. Then I'll do that. Like, that's what I've been doing last night because I didn't want to go to sleep. I wanted to keep playing.
C
Yeah.
A
I wanted to hit Act 3. I was like, where the is it? But, yeah. Oh, that's so. Okay. So I need to do most of the things, but not all of them. I only have, like, three left, I think.
B
Yeah, most of those. The. You need to keep collecting fleas, and there are some specific fleas I think you need to get for them to move, because where are they for you right now?
A
I don't know.
B
I've got the entrances.
C
Also, I had something. I had to roast him the other on stream the other day.
B
Oh, damn.
C
Because Tim was like, oh, yeah. The fleas asked me if I wanted to join them on the journey. I said no. I was like, why the would you say no?
A
Because you knew the fleas well. Because. Well, like, do you want to go with them? No, I didn't want them to move me up. I don't know where the they're going on the map.
B
You do that could have deleted a boss for you.
A
Well, you don't know that he's saying no. Is it gonna trigger a boss?
C
Otherwise, you give into the game.
B
All right. It's just ending, Tim.
A
I know, but when I'm in an area, try to complete everything, I'm like, I know. I went left. There's a right. I need to go through and get whatever's in that room. I don't know where these fleas are taking me.
C
If Gia tells you I need you to go to the grocery store, and you're at their grocery store, and you're shopping for. And you're like, man, I gotta find all this stuff for. For. And then, you know, Leonardo DiCaprio walks in. He goes, hey, Tim, let's go to. Let's go to my pad. You go fuck the grocery store.
A
I mean, I guess you're right. You're making.
C
The main fleet.
A
What happens if you go with the fleas?
B
They'll just take you.
C
They.
B
You know, they go to their respective spots. So the. The first place that they travel to is. What is it? Graymore? And so the. The boss area that you have to fight that big. Like, I forget what his name is.
C
More Wing Morning.
B
If you just travel with them before you get to him, he just won't populate there so that, like, essentially deletes him there. I think you have to fight him somewhere else.
A
Deletes the bosses. So I beat them. I got the boss.
C
Okay, you beat more Wing, right?
A
Yeah.
C
Agree more.
B
And so. And I think I forget if that happens as well with last Judge. If, like, if you move them to. What is it? The entrance of the citadel, if you have to fight last judge or not.
C
But see, I. Yeah, I wasn't even sure that that was an option.
B
Yeah, but eventually you have to, like, essentially collect enough fleas to get them to their final, like, place where they're going to stay for the rest of the game.
A
I'm pretty fleed up, so I might be good. Yeah, I need to go check on those.
B
There's a couple of specific character fleas that you might need as well.
A
I got one. Big boy.
B
You got the big flea. Okay. And then there's, like. There's, like, a warrior flea. I forget what her name is.
C
I think she's sick as hell.
B
She's really cool. And she also sells you maps of, like, the rest of the.
C
Where. Where are the fleas vibing at right now?
A
That's a great question.
C
Okay. Because they're on the map.
A
No. Yeah, I know. You can just find. Yeah. When I get home, that's gonna be the first thing.
C
Because they post up at where you fight the last judge.
A
Oh, you know what? The one thing, like I was saying this earlier of, like, I keep finding parts of the map that I haven't been to. There are two whole areas that I didn't get to until after I beat Act 2. The something docks.
C
Putrid.
A
Putrid docks. And then underneath it.
B
So you want to be ducks. Yeah.
C
Or ducks. Yeah, sorry.
A
Yeah. So I had that. And then there's the area underneath that.
C
Hell Bile. Water. Yeah, Bile water. Oh man.
B
Well, I didn't do bio water until I finished act two as well. Yeah.
C
Oh, wow.
A
Those are kind of tricky to get into. Like, I never would have thought I accidentally jumped up into it from like little save room or whatever.
B
I forgot how I got into biowater eventually because I'm looking at the map right now.
C
Putrid ducks or whatever it's called is where you want to be for one of the final. Is flea things you need to do.
B
Yep.
A
Okay.
C
You find an important NPC there and then that NPC can also tell you the locations of the rest of the fleas and she'll like mark them on the map for you. But you gotta like buy the info from her. Yeah. So I ended up doing that. But you need most fleas based on the teams that say consensus in chat that you need most of the fleas.
B
I think it was like 20 for me that it finally popped that they moved to their final location. Okay. And I found. Yeah, I found putrefied ducks before finishing Act 2. But then. Yeah, I didn't. I didn't learn about biowater until much later. Yeah. I think I got through there through Sinner's Road.
C
Yeah.
B
And then there's also chakra I think you need to finish. You need to get Chakra's quest, I think is another thing for Act 3.
C
I'm pretty sure I ended up doing that.
A
I have a house now.
C
Yeah, you do.
A
I painted it blue.
C
Oh, nice.
A
Pretty sick.
C
I should have painted mine red, but I. I went with the kind of. The gold to just kind of fit. No, I went with silver because I just kind of wanted to. I didn't want to be the one house in the. The HOA comes after me and gets angry at me. It's a nice house. Yeah.
A
Those delivery side quests, those are.
B
Yeah, I haven't with those.
A
Those aren't fun at all.
C
My favorite dude.
B
Dude, Mike and Roger.
A
Dudes are great.
C
I just. Every time they're just asleep, you whack him with the Nina.
A
The.
C
There's one of them that's the hard one of the hardest ones that I have not done yet is leads you to Mount Fay prey. Oh man.
B
Yeah.
A
Oh yeah. You don't freeze anymore though.
C
But I did the super quick one. I did the one that you have to do fast where it's like not.
B
The meat like goes bad.
C
The one that you have to take to one of the dudes who gets you a needle upgrade.
A
Yeah.
C
Cuz he has the other oil there that you could take to pinmaster Plenty.
A
Yeah. I think I have two upgrades now.
B
Nice. Yeah, that makes sense because you get the first one for saving Bell.
C
Bell Heart.
B
Bell heart. And then the second one, there's an oil that you can find somewhere in. What is it? The citadel. That's just like, in a random room, little gear spots.
C
It's like a puzzle room. There's a puzzle room in the. In the citadel tin that you end up pushing a lot of, like, wooden blocks on tracks. And it's like a. Like, there'll be a wooden block, and if you whack it, it go. It moves to the left, and you see that it's on a track, and there might be one above you, and if you hit that, it might go up and the next.
A
Oh, yeah, I did that.
C
So you got the oil up the. Okay. Yeah, so. But the other oil is with that old dude who's like, hey, find all.
B
These foods and feed my master.
C
Yeah.
B
And yeah, the meat run from pippin trip to get. Because you can't fast travel with it. It's like. It has like, five things of health, and you have to get there in a certain amount of time, and if you get hit, the ticks will go down. And. Yeah, that's a tough one. What I ended up doing was my first attempt at it, like, having the, like, faster running thing that uses silk and then doing that run all the way up to the citadel. And then I got hit near the end, and then it killed the meat, and I was like, God damn it. I was like, well, what if I just not sit at a bench and kill all of these dudes and then just run back all the way back to Belhart and then just do that run again with no enemies on.
C
Smart call.
B
That's a smart. It was like another five, ten minutes of work, but it was. Made it worth it. But that gives you another oil thing to upgrade as well, which I highly recommend.
C
Very, very helpful.
A
Since we're talking full spoilers here.
C
Favorite. Favorite. You know, weapons and shit to use.
A
I was gonna just go favorite boss.
C
Oh, okay.
A
Cuz it's my boy Trauma. I fucking love this dude. I didn't want to kill him. I really didn't. And when I did, and he just fucking poses. His fireworks go off of like, this is my God.
C
Well, you don't kill him.
A
Spoilers.
C
Well, like, when he's on the ground there, if you walk off to the side of the screen, does he trap door? No, he's just like. He like looks up and then he'll like, he'll see that you're looking at.
A
Him and he's like, oh, I fucking love this guy.
C
It was so great.
A
That's also happy.
C
Chad told me to do that because I beat that one during the kind of funny stream. And it was so funny when Chad was like, andy, just walk off to the side of the street, to the screen. But don't be. I'd never be far away from him.
B
That's hilarious.
C
You're far away from him. He'll be on the ground, but then he'll kind of look up and, like, kind of, you know, do the thing that kids do when they're trying to see if, like, anybody knows that they're asleep or whatever. It was really funny looking.
A
So funny, dude. Yeah. I loved him as a character. Like, he's my favorite boss.
B
So Tro is the one who glitched out for me because he just flies up and then he doesn't do his death pose. And then I was just stuck in that boss fight arena. Like, it doesn't unlock, so I had to fight him again, which I found really annoying because I. I didn't. I love Tro's vibes. I love the idea of Tro him as a character. Most of his moves I actually do find fun. But I hate how inconsistent, like, the ball is. Like, orbs that he throws out of, like, how many times are they actually going to, like, bounce and all that stuff? Yeah, Very similar to the. The bug that you fought that poops and, like, spits out, like, the little bouncy poops or whatever is very similar to that, where it's just like, I. I don't know what to learn here. So I was running into a lot of frustration with Trobio.
A
Yeah, he was my favorite boss. Like, character wise presentation. But in terms of gameplay, I actually really liked the act two, the grandmother.
B
Oh, grandmother.
A
Anytime there's just like lines of silk all over the screen and you have to, like, jump where it's not. And like, she had the double one of it. I'm like, this is cool.
C
And, like, it's even harder with a double jump.
A
Yeah. Oh, exactly.
C
Yeah.
A
Yeah. It's so funny how the double jump gives you so much more flexibility but gets the ability to just get into your float post so much harder. And, like, it's a fun challenge. I actually like that.
B
Yeah, it makes platform. It like the platforming stuff. So, like, tough in terms of, like. No, I just want to float here.
A
Why?
C
And then, like, you.
B
It'll reset your double jump sometimes in ways you don't expect. I'm like, God damn it.
C
Some people in chat had mentioned that. That something got patched out where if you jumped with a. But just held it immediately, that you would float and you would. That would circumvent the double jump. Oh, I don't know how true that is, because some people were like, yeah, I think that works. And then some people said that it did get patched out. I don't know if it ever did or not or whether that was true. But it can get kind of frustrating. The. You know, the. You gotta just hit that double jump real quick to get into the float.
B
I'm not getting it. That's right now trying it.
A
And Andy, you. You were a great motivator for me to, like, stick with this because, like, some of the earlier stuff was really kicking my ass in a way that wasn't fun. But you're like, there's this boss, the Cog work.
C
Cog Work dance dancers.
A
And you're like, you gotta get there. You gotta get there. And I'm so happy I did because that was awesome and heartbreaking.
B
Heartbreaking.
A
It's like, that was a standout boss fight all time, not just this game. That was awesome.
C
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
B
Just like the.
C
The whole.
B
It continuing to, you know, you think you've beaten it, but then the one is still dancing by itself. And you're like, I killed something beautiful here. Like, even though that they were kind of my enemies, it's like, ah, damn. And let me tell you, Tim, you don't even know half the story there.
C
And it's even more heartbreaking.
B
And you're like, God damn. Yeah. I love the cogwork dancers. I would also recommend exploring before you do, like, unlock Act 3, finding Sinners Road, if you haven't already.
A
I did. Yeah.
B
Did you unlock that one dude who is in jail?
A
Yes.
B
Okay, cool. Go.
A
I'm waiting for you.
B
Go find. Go explore around a little bit. You might run into him.
A
Where should I explore?
B
Citadel.
A
Citadel. Okay. I need. Yeah. One of my challenges right now. I need to get four more pins from Citadel people.
B
Oh, yeah. To collect for conclave.
C
Yeah, There's. I think that the. I didn't really have a whole lot of bosses that I wasn't vibing with. I think maybe the one that I hated the most is probably Grohl, Dave Grohl. And it just was annoying enough to be like, I hate. It's not only. It's only just hard, but it's doing stuff that is not fun and pissing me Off.
B
Yeah.
C
And I'm at a part right now in the game where I am fairly. I'm getting close to the end game, but one of the annoyances I have right now is like, we have such great momentum. Things are amazing. The last couple things I did were just so awesome and fun and thrilling and just cinematic as hell. And now it's like, you got to do the three things before the fight and it's another mob fight. I'm just like, ah, we don't need one of those right now.
B
And let me tell you.
C
And I know that it's hard, and I know that this is a get good situation, but it's more of a pacing. Oh, if it's a pacing thing for me, if you just introduced. If. If this end game was like, all right, you gotta go fight the three things. And I walk into a room and Marmaduke the Grand walks through the door. And it's like, oh, I've been hearing about you all game. But it's like, here's another mob fight. And it's like, oh, man. Like, not, ah, we were doing so great, you know, And. And yes, it's challenging and I'm sure if I got through it on my first try, I wouldn't give a. But it's annoying enough to. I'm like, not only is this annoying, but it's also just kind of with my pacing right here. Because you could have just had me do the three things and go to all the three spots and knock on their door and there's, you know, werewolf Willy and I gotta fight him now. And all that stuff would have been awesome. But.
B
And that one that you're on is. The one is like a fight that just keeps going.
C
Yeah.
B
More so than like, high halls or whatever. And that is where I was like, what is going on here? But remember, I did tell you that there's a little side quest that I wanted you to get started in Act 2 that might make the section that you're in right now a bit easier. So maybe, like, maybe walk away from that fight that you're on right now. Go explore a bit more. Maybe do those other two things, if you haven't already, because those are really fun fights. And there. There might be something that.
C
Because I'm in the top left one right now.
B
Yes. Yeah, that one. That one I hate. I like it in theory, because it's. Again, what you're doing in Act 3 in terms of, like, I, you know, the lore and story that they're telling right now with what you're doing with playing some certain songs and stuff is like really, really fascinating and cool and learning more about this kingdom. But yeah, that that area in and of itself, I was like, I absolutely hate this. And I was able to do something that let me essentially circumvent that.
C
Gotcha.
A
I haven't even faced Groal and you're saying you don't like him?
C
Oh, girl. Yeah. Gro was a nightmare of a run back.
B
Yes. Because worst run back in the game.
C
Bile Water is the worst spot in the game.
A
Oh, so he's in bile water.
B
Yes.
A
That's why.
C
Welcome to Biowater is hell. Whenever you. There are lakes of maggots on the ground, you know, below you. And if you get into the maggots lake, then all of your silk gets infected and it takes longer to build up. And then the first time you want to heal, it's only to clear the.
A
Clear that. Yeah, that's happened to me before.
C
But yeah, I think that was.
B
If you've gone to Sinner's Road, it's also. Yeah, the Bio water is just all of that dang.
C
And the boss fight is, you know, couple platforms on the ground with the maggot stuff on the ground. And the boss fight, the boss will suck you towards him and you might or may not fall into the. Into the lake. And then, you know, spits out. You know, it's. It's just a annoying enough to where you'll be having an amazing run. And then two perfectly placed projectiles from the dude bounced the wrong way. And it's like, oh, now I'm really.
B
Yep.
C
And then you're just kind of desperate. You're like, I hope I'm maybe near the end of the fight. Let me go. Push. And then you fall into the lake and it's like, oh, I can't even heal. It's like, yeah, that's why I. I.
B
Was able to download him enough where I was like, I'm pretty sure I can just cheese this. And yeah, there's like kind of a simple way to. To fight him, but that still took a lot of head bashing against a wall because it's. I think the smaller arena fights is where I get more frustrated in terms of like fighting really big boss enemies, but in like a very small compact thing. There's also the gross little worm lady that I'm blanking on right now that's in the jail. Did you ever fight her?
C
No.
B
I don't believe she's a hunt. I forget what her name is. Yeah, she Was not fun. And she's in a very, very small arena. Let me see if I can find her broodmother. Not fun. This lady right here.
A
Yeah.
B
She's a hunt that I think you get from Maybelhart or whatever.
C
Did fight her. Yeah.
B
That and then. Yeah. Grohl is also like. And his ads are like the really frustrating thing where, like, you think you go through, like, two rounds of just fighting regular dudes, then him, but then he'll summon them back every once in a while. It's just like, God damn it.
A
Oh.
C
Honestly, I was stoked for the ads because I was my chance to build up my bar. And sometimes. And that's how one of the gauntlets they have you run through that I'm going through right now is very much designed to where it's an unending thing that you don't have a chair to sit in between, but between each round, they are giving you little enemies to build up your. Your heel. Yeah.
A
The savage beast fly was one of the first moments of pride for me of beating that. And it was difficult.
C
That was a 100 minute fight for me. That was a long.
A
Yeah. The hardest thing in the world. But I mean, like, it was. Yeah, it took me annoying. It took me a long. I think it took me like two hours. You want to.
B
You want to go fight him again?
A
Well, I did.
B
Oh, nice. And I just kicked his ass.
C
Yeah.
A
And I was like, fuck, yeah.
C
Yeah.
B
That second fight was way harder for me than the first one, I thought.
A
I mean, I had the dash and stuff, the double jump. I was able to just fucking move.
C
I was.
B
I was like, it's not that I think I didn't have the double. So, like, that was like, for him possibly, like, all of this is a blur now. The high halls fight. Like, I like, Andy learned about this the other day on Stream where it's like, yeah, I didn't have the double jump for a good majority of Act 2 and say. Because I think it, like, I didn't go over to the frozen area until, like, hours and hours and hours after, like, getting kidnapped and put into jail and stuff. Like, I don't think I got the double jump until fighting lace the second time.
C
So you ended up just going back to the frozen spot way later.
B
Yeah, because I was just, like, looking for, like, I was banging my head against the wall, I think against Lace, maybe high hauls. Because I think I did, like, high hauls. And then 30 minutes later went to lace and then grand Silk Mother. So I was banging my head against the wall of that and then was just looking for like, all right, I need to go figure something out. And then, yeah, finally did, finally did that and got the double jump. So yeah, there was a lot of stuff that I was just like not. Didn't have that I didn't.
C
Yeah. The second Savage beast fly fight for me, it wasn't the easiest thing, but I did it in like maybe 15 minutes or something. Like probably like six or seven attempts. And a lot of it was the reason why I think the first fight would have gone a lot quicker for me was the, the first fight I probably would have beat the dude a lot faster had we were we not in an enclosed space. And the second time you have a much higher ceiling and I was just juggling. I was just pogoing a lot as we went higher and higher. And the amount of times I wanted to do that the first time but the ceilings were right there.
A
Yep.
C
And that would kind of, you know.
A
That'S what it was. That's what made the second one so much easier is I just got on top of him.
C
I would just poke it a whole lot on the way up.
B
Yeah, yeah.
C
So I would get like three to four POGOs on the way up and eventually fall all the way back.
B
Fighting him on his own was fine. It was really those, the skull dudes, the little flying dudes who just like are like have the craziest quarterback stats in Madden. You know, just insane accuracy, always throwing those and completing those hail Marys. Truly insane.
A
We, we're running a little long. I want to make sure we get to all the, the super chats. We have a game showdown stuff to get to because I know we could talk about.
B
I just want to say Carmelita is my favorite fight. So Andy, once you get to Carmelita you'll know. You'll be like, damn, this is Barrett's favorite fight.
A
Last question. I have spoiler wise in terms of Act 3 because I'm very interested and now that I kind of know how to get to it, are we going to a new place or is it just using the same map still?
C
It just, I mean, do you want us to just say.
A
I mean I want to know. I want to know what I, what I, I'm in for. Is Act 3 as long as Act 1 and 2?
C
No, but it's still not short.
B
Yeah, it's not short. I would say it's similar to Act 2 because I would say Act 1 is probably the longest in terms of everything that you should be doing before act one where it's like, if you've done all that in act one, act two is actually pretty.
A
I mean, act two, I like, semi breezed through.
B
Act three can be as long as you goddamn want because there is a little bit of using. Using the same map. There is one added area, but that's not really the focus of Act 3.
A
Got it. Okay. Fuck, I'm interested. Let's get into some super chats here. Ken G says you're showing some love for kind of funny and Silk Song. Thank you so much, Kenji.
C
Thank you, Kenji. Kenji was the fourth giveaway winner for the drawing.
A
Oh, hell yeah.
C
Drawing some characters that he told me what to draw, and I was like, I think that's a spoiler. And it was so. I hate him for that. But thank you, Kenji.
B
Oh, damn.
A
So cool.
C
Thank you for your support, Kenji.
A
Zeke speaks. This took my morning. Me took off my morning meetings to watch y' all skong while I draw some Hornet fan art. Living the dream. Happy Fridays.
C
Happy Friday.
A
Dude. I love Hornet, man. I love her. She's so fast.
C
Yeah, yeah.
A
Every pose is cool. I love when. When you hold back and she does that like, little.
C
Yeah.
A
So sick.
B
Have you seen the. The. Did Andy show you the tool where it can make her do an actual little spider?
A
I have that. I hate it. Yeah. It reminds me of Pichu running in Smash Brothers. I don't like it. Damon says Silk Song's an easy game of the year contender for the year. Who was your worst boss to fight and why? Was it the savage beast, Fly. Love you guys. You know, for me, the boss. And this is hilarious, now that I've beat Act 2, the section of the game that I was on the longest is when I was on my flight. You know, one of the first bosses you fight, the, like, red dude with the swings at you.
B
Oh, yeah, the mini boss.
A
Yeah, the mini boss. Like, when I first faced him, it took me a handful of tries, whatever, but I got through it. When you face him again and he has another friend that's like flying and he's throwing the spear at you, I got.
C
I did that, like, in three tries. That's like. I don't know why I popped off so hard in that fight.
A
That dude, that. And you're in, like, a very low ceiling. Like.
B
Yeah, I fought him again. I don't remember the second dude because, yeah, like, with the dash and the double jump and all this, like, I was able to kick his ass.
A
Yeah, I. I didn't have the double jump.
C
He definitely had a second friend.
A
Yeah. And the second friend was also just another. Another mini boss. Another ass you played at some point. But dude, I. It took me probably three hours on that stuff. And it's like those are just freaking two dudes that I kicked before.
B
He was a dude that flies around.
A
He's flying around. He like throws the spirits just the way that their move sets were going in the space. Right.
B
I figured out.
C
And you on the flying dude. And then the other guy would go on the ground.
A
Ground. And it wasn't that bad. It just. I think I was getting so frustrated because the run back for that wasn't horrible, but it was annoying enough that like it was a semi precision jump thing. So like if you got hit, you'd be like, God damn it.
B
I've learned how to deal with the flying guys. I've got the, the thing equipped that turns your like skirt coat into like a. A thing of blades whenever you do your double jump and whenever you do your float. So like I just. Yeah, I just like jump near them. Do a double jump or do a float and it just like hits them twice.
A
Oh, that's sick.
B
Yeah.
C
The longest for me was Dave Grohl growl in the. In biowater. That was. That was. That was a four hour fight.
A
Oh, man.
B
I think longest for me was I.
C
Was very bad and tilted high halls.
B
And then the final boss are. We're the longest fights for me.
A
Trevor says, last night I finished Act 2 and now I'm doing extra content. This game met and exceeded my crazy expectations. Expedition 33 will be the favorite to win at game awards, but Silksong is my game of the year. Zeke Speak says, does Act 3 count as spoilers, like just existing? Yeah. I mean, yeah, I'm very interested in. I'm so interested in Act 3 and what it's going to be. Because so far it being an ax, I'm like, I don't really. It seems a little weird but because like after Act 1 and Act 2, I'm like, why was Act 2. Act 2? Just felt like more of the game.
B
Well, I think it's because like to me at least you know, you're set up with this like, okay, you're gonna get to this location and it's gonna be another like normal sized area where you know you're gonna get to the final boss. And if that was the case, you wouldn't need ax. Right. I think like having that moment of Act 2 gives you this moment of like, like, oh, the citadel is like big and you're doing like a Whole mighty quest.
A
Yeah.
B
Throughout it and then more stuff unlocks. And then I think it maybe that will work a bit more for you once you get to Act 3.
C
But it also just hits so much harder when you see the font pop up. I mean the third with the word below and you're like, oh, that's what we're doing here in Act 3. Cool.
A
Yeah, yeah. Any excuse to get any of those little cinematics. I love the, just here's three seconds of cut scene. It's a, it's so beautiful.
C
Animation cutscenes are fantastic.
A
And God, the, the little, not cutscenes, but just like the out of nowhere animated moments. Like when you get kidnapped and then.
C
Breaks the neck of the dude.
A
You go down, you break their neck. Like, this is the coolest thing I've ever seen.
C
That was nuts.
B
And you're just naked. Very uncomfortable.
A
Oh my God. Hilarious. Alex Frazier says, Barrett, are you planning to go back and play the first one now that you've played Silk Song?
B
Yes, probably not. For a while I was think I was telling Andy this of like, I need this game to be deleted from my memory just because from what I've heard of what people talk about with Hollow Knight versus Silksong, it's like, yes, similar game and like you're gonna know a lot of the same things. But I feel like a lot of the habits that I formed playing as Hornet I'm going to carry over in the beginning of Hollow Knight. And so I kind of want to let that move set go and maybe give it a year before I go back to Hollow Knight. But, but yeah, I do want to go back to it at some point for sure.
A
Andy, I'm sure this will be a conversation for a different time in a bigger way. But like, do you have any initial thoughts on Silksong versus Hollow Knight?
C
It's just been such a long time since I played Hollow Knight that so much of it has been Memory Hold. And I, I, I like the movement more in Silksong and I think Silksong is a lot better about not having you explore a gigantic place and then you walk into a room and there's Gary the Great, and you're like, I don't know who the you are. I think this game, you have a lot more context for what's happening as opposed to just kind of mindlessly fighting stuff. And then you get a big boss that pops. You're like, all right, I killed you. We'll find out who you are later. I think I enjoy this being like 20% less obtuse. I it's hard to say right now. It really is. Yeah But I've been wanting to go back to Hollow Knight for quite some time.
A
Trevor says what are your favorite music tracks? Minor Coral Chambers and Cogwork Core.
C
Cogwork Core is one of my favorites for sure.
B
Cogger Core is goaded the boss that I mentioned earlier Carmelita that entire the entire presentation but also the song that backed it up is 10 out of 10 and then the I won't say it but like the the final fight as well is like that is something that's kind of helping me as I'm yeah like five hours into this final fight of just trying to learn it and understand this phase three maybe the final phase I don't know. Again not convinced that it's just one boss that I have left. The the music for the final boss is just Chef's Kiss.
C
I think grandmamy Silk song is or that when that pops up after the the title card in and her Hornet standing there looking yeah yeah yeah so.
A
Good good Zeke Speak says it's gripe slash annoyances make it a masterpiece for me. I don't love all the design choices but it all fits together into a wider tapestry of pure vision and heart and soul. This is anti this is an anti algorithm game.
C
I agree. I agree with that. I I do like the that they were blessed to be in such a position to do whatever they wanted to do for as long as they wanted to do it and there is and for this to be the outcome I think speaks volumes. To have a team passionately make something that they want to without any sort of oversight without anybody intruding and making decisions for them like we are seeing the final product in the most pure form of a game development journey that could have been made and it's like all of that hype, all the lead up, nobody telling them what to do just devs with their passion and making this shit and want and having fun making it putting this out and it's like that's the result and let's learn some lessons industry yeah I also think.
A
They should have talked to a couple more people but Z Speak says two endless mode pieces I highly recommend Elijah Gonzalez's difficulties can difficulty conveys a world in penance and Maddie Myers Hornet makes Silk Song sing so good and I think what's Endless Mode?
B
Endless Mode is I think a newer site and I think that's the site that Moises wrote as well for the Hollow Knight and Ballet but I don't Think that's in the headline? I'd have to look it up.
A
And then z speak says, 1, first center 2, lace 3, cogwork 4, widow slash phantom. Shout out to Lace. Man, I'll. Those fights are definitely maybe my favorite. Mechanically, they're simple, but, like, it's just.
B
I. I love a. I love a boss where it's like they're using a moveset that's very similar to you.
C
Yeah, right.
B
And, like, are your size and have the same flexibility as you do. I think that's always super fun to me. That's why I, like. Was it Gaskey on? Yeah. That's why that fight is so fun until he turns into Wolfman. But, yeah, those. Those are always sick. Also, I just want to shout out the, you know, the overall commentary and story with the whole, like, talking about, like, organized religion and kind of the. The hollow promise that comes with people who put all of their devotion into that. Really awesome. And kind of learning to just actually devote themselves to each other in their community is also fucking top notch.
C
I love it.
A
Final one here is from Alex Frazier. How does it stack up on your game of the Year lists? Are you all ready to say that at all?
C
No.
B
Yeah, it's tough. Like, Kevin asked me the other day, and I was like, oh. Like, I think it's probably here on my list underneath a few of these other games. But, yeah, now that I'm at the final fight and just like, kind of realizing in this final fight, like, everything that I. I really, truly love about this game, it is. It is a tough conversation between this game and two others for me, for sure.
A
Yeah. Yeah, I'm. It's definitely. It's top three for me. And I. I can't wait to play through act three and see.
C
I mean, yeah, like Haiti. Sue throws a wrench and she does, man.
A
Yeah.
C
This guy's three or two.
A
You said two.
C
Two. Okay. Yeah, it really, like. Holy. What a megaton coming out of nowhere. That.
B
Is that next week?
C
I think so.
B
Yeah. I need to beat this boss this weekend.
A
What a time to be alive, everybody. Great game of the year discussions coming your way in just a few short months as we continue to add more and more to the list. Will Ghost of Yotavi a contender? We have that coming up, too. God.
B
Smalls HD says Black Ops 7.
A
Oh, man. Well, everybody, thank you so much for hanging out with us. Stay tuned for kind of funny game showdown. The new season starts in just a few minutes. Till next time. Love you all. Goodbye.
Date: September 19, 2025
Hosts: Tim Gettys, Andy Cortez, Barrett Courtney
Episode Focus: An in-depth, spoiler-rich review and discussion of Hollow Knight: Silksong, exploring impressions, gameplay design, world-building, and sharing personal experiences with Team Cherry’s long-awaited sequel.
This episode sees Tim, Andy, and Barrett dive deep into Hollow Knight: Silksong after many years of anticipation, dissecting everything from game design and combat philosophy to boss battles and narrative. Each host brings their own playthrough perspective, sharing triumphs, frustrations, and stand-out moments, while weighing in on the game as a “masterpiece” contender for 2025’s Game of the Year. The panel also engages with live questions and discusses the best and most challenging content the game has to offer—for both newcomers and returning Metroidvania fans.
"I was late, Tim… immediately saw the light and saw why all the hype is there… I’m glad I got in late. That way I don’t have a long wait for Silksong." (09:38)
“I’d give this a 10 out of 10 so far.” (11:49)
"Even with some gripes… this is a 10 out of 10 masterpiece." (16:35)
"This game has so many 10 out of 10 masterpiece qualities… But I feel like I was wasting a lot of time… I think that getting rid of those things would not detract from the game whatsoever..." (21:29 – 24:09)
“If this game had more options… it would help the flow…” – Tim (23:47)
“I don’t love the kind of tool shard system…” – Barrett (14:30) "That's just my personal stubborn stuff… but I love that." – Barrett (34:04)
“The more you give it, the more it gives back…” – Andy (25:05)
“Every single frame of this game I put on my wall… every NPC, I want to meet them all…” – Tim (16:38)
(Do not read beyond this section if avoiding spoilers. Begins ~[37:36])
“It’s really great… this emotional kind of, like, three, four, five punch…” – Barrett (38:21)
“That fight was one of my favorites… even the field of flowers…” – Tim (38:51)
“Hornet looking away from the camera… fighting… soundtrack’s popping off… I forgive this game for all its things. This is so amazing.” – Tim (39:14)
“It just seems so unnecessarily obtuse for a game that isn’t obtuse.” – Tim (44:03)
“I didn’t want to kill him… his fireworks go off… I fucking love this guy.” – Tim (51:42)
“That was a standout boss fight… not just this game… awesome and heartbreaking.” – Tim (54:57) “You don't even know half the story… and it's even more heartbreaking.” – Barrett (55:21)
“That was a 100 minute fight for me.” – Andy (62:01)
[65:41+]
The Kinda Funny Gamescast crew unanimously agree: Hollow Knight: Silksong is a must-play, an artistic triumph of world, challenge, and vision—worth the years-long wait. While a few interface and progression frustrations nag, the game’s atmosphere, incentive to explore, and scope of content catapult it to all-time great status among Metroidvanias (and modern games in general). Each host’s journey—whether as a series veteran, a newcomer, or a skeptical perfectionist—reinforces Silksong’s universal appeal and distinct tone.
Final word: “What a time to be alive, everybody. Great game of the year discussions coming your way in just a few short months.” – Tim (76:33)
End of summary. For timestamps and deeper topic breakdown, refer to the sections above.