Hollow Knight just fixed a bug that's plagued the final boss fight for 9 years, and I don't know if I want to celebrate or cry: "The amount of deaths to this is insane"
Team Cherry's still updating Silksong's predecessor
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It only took the bones of a decade, but Team Cherry's finally fixed one of the most annoying glitches in all of Hollow Knight. The orb attack from the Radiance doesn't linger in the air longer than it should anymore, and I'd like to know how it's taken this long to sort that out.
For a quick primer, the Radiance is the real final boss of Hollow Knight, and she's part of most of the endings. In her later phases, she starts throwing out these honing balls of golden light that are quick and powerful. They're a total pain, and up to now, you could still get hit by one in the air even after it finishes.
This has now been rectified: "Fixed Radiance's orb attack hitbox lingering slightly longer than intended if the orb expires in the air," state the patch notes. I'm always happy to see a fix rolled out, but nine years after the game came out? That's a slow turnaround, but I'm probably just projecting because of my memories of that fight.
Others are feeling the sting, too. "I can't believe they fixed the Radiance's orb attack bug after so much time," says one commenter on Reddit. "Just in time aaaaah update," another Redditor adds.
"Thanks and this is my fav game ever but also why did this take nine years to fix, the amount of deaths to this is insane," someone on the Steam forums asks. "Of course they fix the Radiance orb attack after I already beat her on Radiant," another player on Steam says.
I definitely feel for them - Radiant is the highest difficulty, forcing you to beat the game with only one mask of health. I've not touched it because while I love Metroidvanias, I'm not a masochist. But at least they know how good they are at the game.
While it may beggar belief to see such patches still, the release of Silksong is likely prompting people to either return to Hollow Knight, or play for the first time. It's cheaper anyway, and went 50% off in both the recent winter and spring sales. Whatever the reason, I hope newer players enjoy their easier fight and pour one out for those of us who had to be made of harder stuff.
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Anthony is an Irish entertainment and games journalist, now based in Glasgow. He previously served as Senior Anime Writer at Dexerto and News Editor at The Digital Fix, on top of providing work for Variety, IGN, Den of Geek, PC Gamer, and many more. Besides Studio Ghibli, horror movies, and The Muppets, he enjoys action-RPGs, heavy metal, and pro-wrestling. He interviewed Animal once, not that he won’t stop going on about it or anything.
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