Hollow Knight ((Hollow Knight #citation)) does so many things right, but one place it stumbles (as stated by Mark Brown ((The World Design of Hollow Knight #citation))) is with the Dark Souls-esque mechanic ((The World Design of Hollow Knight #citation)) where you need to go back to the location you were killed to get all of your little money chips back.
The issue is that this game is punishingly difficult as it is. It would make sense that a player would get more general satisfaction following that path of interest through what is intrinsically fun, poking at the system's edges ( -discovery vs performing), and only pushing through when they are ready to do so.
But the souls mechanic brings the player back to where they died - where they probably don't want to be right now. While the player is returned to a prime location to try fighting the boss again - there may be more satisfaction in coming back to the boss again at a later time.
The souls mechanic helps the game a lot, but in this particular case, it's easier to get frustrated and walk away than it is to just come back another time like you would in Breath of the Wild, for example.
#gamedesign #toolong
The souls mechanic in the [[202004021208 Dark Souls]] (et al) games is very interesting to me. It's a built-in way to incentivize the player to face t...