It didn't take much of playing Hollow Knight to give me a new most wanted fighter for the next Super Smash Bros. title, whenever that game will become a reality. At least when it comes to the realms of 3rd parties, there is no other character that I would like to see join the roster more than the knight.
And I even put in quite some thoughts as to how he should play, where he will be in the same boat as Min Min and Steve / Alex, meaning that there is a lot of potential by keeping his gameplay mechanics close to the game he came from.
Since Hollow Knight also uses directional modifiers for some of its attacks, mainly the spells, you can easily translate the abilities of the knight to the usual Super Smash Bros. input. Here is a rough concept for his moveset:
- Attack: Nail
- Neutral Special: Vengeful Spirit / Shade Soul / Focus (Hold)
- Side Special: Shade Cloak
- Up Special: Crystal Heart
- Down Special: Desolate Dive / Descending Dark
- Forward Smash: Great Slash
- Up Smash: Howling Wraiths / Abyss Shriek
- Down Smash: Cyclone Slash
- Final Smash: The Void
There are two main gimmicks here. One is that you use the attack button exactly like in Hollow Knight. So, you swing your nail and you can do so in four directions. With the Down Aerial you can bounce off enemies and certain hazards, exactly like in Hollow Knight.
Striking opponents with your nail then fills up your SOUL gauge, which then can be used to perform the three different spells (as marked in italics). Or you can use it to heal yourself a bit by standing still and holding the Special button ("Focus"). So, this is the second unique gimmick.
The question is whether it should be totally faithful to Hollow Knight, in which case the knight couldn't use spells at all without SOUL, rendering three of his attacks inert. Alternatively, you could perform the weaker versions of the spells without SOUL and the upgraded versions when you have enough SOUL. This would probably be a good compromise.
As for mobility, you can reset your double jump and the ability to dash (with the Side Special) by striking a foe or hanging on to a wall, which will make the knight very powerful in off-stage play. Your main recovery will be the Crystal Dash, however, which is the one thing that works completely different from the source material. There you could only use it on the ground or on a wall, but it will propel you horizontally as far as possible. In Smash it probably should work more like Sephiroth's Up Special, meaning you can use it even in the air and you can control the flight angle. And of course it can only last for a certain range or else it would break the game.
- Mario: "Here we go!"
- Link: "....."
- Min Min: "Ramen!"
Just some silly one-liners for entertainment.
Stage: Colosseum of Fools or Godhome
The world of Hallownest takes place within underground caves, where it's actually hard to find something that feels like a good fit for Smash. Well, there is one place that comes immediately into mind and that is the Coliseum of Fools. This combat arena could be modified to not have a solid ground any longer, basically like the Spring Stadium from ARMS, where thematically it would be the perfect choice and it's also a very memorable location from the game.
They could even include several mechanics here, where it spawns enemies from cages or it has Garpedes running all over the screen. They could even include a Zote cameo this way for the laughs.
However, it's not the only arena in the game, where in the world of dreams you are often in the open sky with nothing but an abyss below you, battling the most difficult bosses. Sounds like the perfect choice for Smash? Because it is!
And this leads us quickly into Godhome, which is the ultimate challenge in the game, where all the bosses come together, and is essentially another coliseum, where you fight for the entertainment of the Godseeker. Maybe the Godseeker even sees all fighters in Smash as "gods". There could even be a nice little gimmick, where the Godseeker always follows the leading player with its eyes...
But it's arguably a little bit out there and part of the endgame, which a lot of players might not even have experienced themselves. Godhome would be the more epic choice, while the Coliseum of Fools is more grounded and closer to the base game.
Music
The soundtrack by Christopher Larkin is absolutely beautiful and with so many boss themes you can create a pumping playlist for the next Smash Bros. game. Here are some good choices that should be considered:
- Hollow Knight (Remix)
- False Knight
- Decisive Battle
- Greenpath
- Hornet
- Mantis Lord
- City of Tears
- Soul Sanctum / Soul Master
- Dung Defender
- Hive Knight
- Broken Vessel
- Nosk
- Dream Battle
- Truth, Beauty and Hatred
- White Defender
- White Palace
- The Grimm Troupe / Nightmare King
- Gods & Glory
- Daughter of Hallownest
- Sisters of Battle
- Sealed Vessel
- Radiance
This essentially wrote itself. And speaking of songs...
Silksong
By the time Hollow Knight will even get considered for the next Super Smash Bros. game, there is a chance that the sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong, will already have been released (and I know that some Hollow Knight fans are probably laughing at this statement right now). In any case, the sequel will have some relevancy to all of this.
Since this is Sakurai we're talking about, I can easily see him turning Hornet into an Assist Trophy. It would even fit the original Hollow Knight very well, where she was both foe and ally. But of course I would prefer her to become a second playable character from the franchise in the future, maybe to get even a DLC Challenger Pack based on Silksong.
If the knight from Hollow Knight ever becomes playable in Smash, my next 3rd party most wanted will automatically become Hornet. That's how much potential I see there and how much I already love this franchise from my little time with it.
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