Games like Hollow Knight
Discover new adventures that match what you love.

The modern metroidvania benchmark: a silent little knight descends into Hallownest, a ruined bug kingdom of staggering scale, where nail combat, charm builds and cartographer-driven exploration reward every ounce of curiosity. Years of free expansions built it into one of the densest games in the genre - and the foundation Silksong builds upon.
Similar-game research
In Hollow Knight, you control a small knight exploring, fighting, and defeating bosses in an interconnected underground kingdom. In the recommended similar games, players can experience vertical citadels with aerial hooks, parry-focused combat in an eastern cyberpunk city, and companion skill-swapping with multi-zone escapes.

Hollow Knight: Silksong
MetroidvaniaExplorationAtmospheric- Why it's similar
- You still dash, pogo, and wall-jump to open routes, defeat bosses to gain mobility, and return to old areas with new tools; the exploration-fight-upgrade loop carries over even though Charms become crafted gear.
- Choose it when
- Preferring more platforming over spelunking, wanting to chain over forty boss fights with stronger mobility, and accepting crafted tools instead of detail builds.
- But
- The lead character's move set focuses on longer dashes, an aerial hook, and faster multi-hit strings, set in a vertically stacked citadel instead of branching caves; resource recovery changes from a shade run to a craftable tool, and boss count exceeds forty.

Nine Sols
MetroidvaniaActionStory Rich- Why it's similar
- You manage lateral movement, jump dodges, and close-range melee while unlocking shortcuts in an interconnected map and fighting stylized bosses; instead of dash-through damage, you time a deflection press to negate attacks and build a counter.
- Choose it when
- Treating every encounter as a deflection drill, wanting to trade detail variety for one precise parry combo.
- But
- Combat becomes parry-then-punish rather than dodge-then-retaliate, with elites often requiring timed blocks to finish quickly; the map is still connected but shifts to an eastern cyberpunk city, adds an explicit boss list, and offers adjustable difficulty.

ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist
MetroidvaniaExplorationAtmospheric- Why it's similar
- You discover companions while exploring, switch among them for different attacks and traversal moves, and use new abilities to reach previously locked areas; collecting gear and upgrade materials is the main reason to backtrack.
- Choose it when
- Caring more about experimenting with companion skill combinations, trading single-weapon mastery for multi-character rotations and gear tuning.
- But
- Instead of one melee moveset, you mix ranged drones, dashing strikes, and area blasts from thirty skills, with combat centered on swap timing and cooldowns; the map splits into misty underground, academy, and factory zones with denser loot, and boss kills let you recruit purified enemies.

Ori and the Blind Forest: Definitive Edition
MetroidvaniaExplorationEmotional- Why it's similar
- Both use double jumps, dashes, and later movement abilities for precision platforming while expanding the map through exploration; here combat is simplified to an auto-targeting spirit flame, with enemies as obstacles rather than duels.
- Choose it when
- Wanting a session of route planning and escape choreography, no detail loadouts or boss chains, and accepting weaker enemy fights.
- But
- The map is split into large zones, each ending with an escape sequence after the main objective, forcing constant movement past one-hit hazards; resource pressure shifts from Geo to experience orbs, and death respawns you at a checkpoint instead of a shade run.

Ghost Song
MetroidvaniaAtmosphericExploration- Why it's similar
- You manage supplies, ammo, upgrade modules, and weapon heat while exploring interconnected underground tunnels and recovering dropped resources after death; the loop replaces melee swings with ranged blaster fire, where heat build-up empowers the next gun-butt strike.
- Choose it when
- Spending exploration time juggling gun overheating and ammo resupply, wanting longer firing distance over melee combo gaps and accepting hub return trips.
- But
- The map is a multi-layer vertical tunnel complex beneath an alien moon, with no fast travel, so you repeatedly return to a base hub for quests and dialogue; progression uses module slots instead of Charms, and death drops resources while reducing max health temporarily.
Broader alternatives you might enjoy
Shortlists for these games
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