Games Like Hollow Knight for When Hallownest Isn't Enough

You've beaten the Radiance. Maybe even the Absolute Radiance. You've explored every corner of Hallownest, found every grub, and completed the Path of Pain while questioning your life choices. Now you need something that fills the same space — atmospheric exploration, tight combat, a world that feels alive and interconnected, and art direction that makes you stop playing just to look at things.

Here's what's worth your time, and why each one scratches a specific part of the Hollow Knight itch.

For the Exploration

Ori and the Will of the Wisps is the closest match for sheer beauty and movement satisfaction. The platforming feels like flying — every dash, wall jump, and grapple chains together so fluidly that traversal itself becomes the reward. The emotional storytelling hits hard, and the world design rivals Hallownest for interconnected exploration. If Hollow Knight's melancholy resonated with you, Ori's bittersweet tone will too.

Animal Well strips the combat away and focuses purely on environmental puzzles and exploration. You're navigating a mysterious underground world using items in creative ways, and the community has been uncovering hidden puzzle layers months after release. The atmosphere is moody and quiet in a way that Hollow Knight fans will recognize — it's a game that trusts you to figure things out without hand-holding.

Rain World is the most unusual recommendation here. You're a slugcat surviving in an ecosystem of AI-driven predators that are smarter and more dangerous than you. The exploration is terrifying because the world isn't waiting for you to be ready — it's actively trying to eat you. It's harder than Hollow Knight and more atmospheric in its own alien way.

For the Combat

Dead Cells has the tightest combat of any game on this list. The movement is instantaneous, the weapon variety is enormous, and the roguelite structure means every run feels different. It's less atmospheric than Hollow Knight but more mechanically satisfying moment-to-moment.

Nine Sols brings Sekiro-style deflection into a metroidvania framework. The parry system is demanding — you need to read enemy attacks and time your deflections precisely. When it clicks, combat feels like a rhythmic dance. The Taopunk setting (cyberpunk meets Taoist mythology) is visually distinctive.

Blasphemous 2 combines punishing soulslike combat with grotesque religious horror imagery. The three weapon system gives each playthrough a different feel, and the boss designs are inventive and challenging. If Hollow Knight's boss fights were your favorite part, Blasphemous 2 delivers that specific satisfaction.

For the Atmosphere

Ender Lilies captures Hollow Knight's melancholy better than any other game. You play as a small, vulnerable child in a ruined kingdom, purifying corrupted knights who become your abilities. The watercolor art direction and somber soundtrack create an emotional tone that lingers long after you finish.

Axiom Verge 2 trades the first game's alien horror for a more contemplative sci-fi exploration experience. The parallel dimension mechanic — shifting between the overworld and a glitchy alternate reality — is the kind of spatial puzzle that Hollow Knight's dream sequences hinted at.

Sundered has hand-drawn animation that's visually stunning and a corruption system that forces you to choose between your humanity and power. Thunder Lotus made something that feels like playing through a dark mythology.

For Something Different But Adjacent

Tunic isn't a metroidvania — it's an isometric action adventure inspired by classic Zelda. But it shares Hollow Knight's philosophy of trusting the player to explore without explicit guidance. The in-game manual system, where you gradually discover pages of instructions written in a fictional language, is one of the most clever design choices in recent gaming.

Outer Wilds isn't a platformer at all, but it captures the exploration satisfaction of Hollow Knight better than most metroidvanias do. You're exploring a solar system where knowledge is the only progression — there are no upgrades, no unlocks, just your growing understanding of how everything connects. If what you loved about Hollow Knight was piecing together Hallownest's history through environmental storytelling, Outer Wilds does that in three dimensions.

If you want to go in a completely different genre direction but keep the indie spirit, the bullet heaven and roguelike deckbuilder scenes are both producing games with the same handcrafted quality and depth. Games like Granny's Gambit and Granny's Rampage won't scratch the Hollow Knight itch specifically, but they scratch the indie game itch — the feeling of discovering something made with genuine personality by a small team that cared about every detail.