Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus: It's NOT a Hollow Knight Clone

[@whyisgooglemakingmedothis603]

: One thing that struck me even more than the art in this game was the foley work. I haven't had a good cup of tea in a long time, let alone matcha. However I am on a mission to find some because sitting at a tea shrine gives the player a lot to pay attention to, just by the ambient sound alone.

[@Awan2407]

Wow this video is not bō-ring, very cool very nice

[@Burr_]

king shit

[@matthewormatt]

Every time I watch one of these videos my first thought is "when will this guy miss? will it ever happen?"...the world may never know.

[@Burr_]

I must have missed at some point

[@richardwhite3521]

I’ve gotten into BO a week or so ago, and it’s excellent. The movement tech is a combination of hollow knight and ori. Which is literally everything I could ask for. The platforming and combat is difficult enough to provide a challenge and a little bit of frustration, without breaking your controller because it’s taken you 20 attempts and waterfowl dance still crushes you. Theoretically of course, I crush waterfowl dance. Waterfowl dance doesn’t crush me.

[@GroovusGoonicus-nb5op]

Yo, your thumbnail got me to check out and immediately buy this one. Aerial combat?? Hand drawn art??? Yes please! My radar totally missed this one, so a big thanks dude. Ill be back to listen after i finish it

[@Burr_]

Hope you enjoy it! I want to go do everything if I can.

[@jurtheorc8117]

If you're up for another (fairly recent) metroidvania with hand-drawn art, can recommend Cookie Cutter. It's a fine game to play, set in a very colorful, cartoonish, rather out-there sci-fi/cyberpunk setting. Combat's more like a 2D beat-em-up and some weapons include a big metal fist, an electric guitar and a chainsaw. The hand-drawn animations are very much amazing and it cost the lead dev a long time to finally get it out. Dude was *really* adamant to let it have the creative vision it has, fully knowing how niche and hard-to-market it can be. Sadly wasn't able to tell the full story he wanted to... yet. Support so far has allowed for the production of Xbox, PS5 and Switch ports and a BIG update for other stuff, which he's currently working on. Dude regularly teases new gameplay ideas, mechanics, characters, weapons, enemies and story beats on his twitter. I'm excited for more. Hope this got you interesting, but either way-- wish you a lot of fun on the Path of the Teal Lotus and what other games may be on your road

[@chonkhampter]

I'm surprised people are even calling this a nine sols clone where Bō was announced way before nine sols announced. Let's pretend they didn't announce before nine sols still how stupid can people be to think that they can make a game in 1 month??

[@Burr_]

Nine Sols looks like an incredible game, but i didnt even know of it's existence until it released. I'm not surprised people will call this a clone to that though. One game gains a lot of success and people will just assume devs will copy a game because it's popular. Sadly the world we live in. Let all games exist in harmony

[@Seisachtheia]

There's literally no comparison between these two games other than the fact they're 2D side scrolling action platformers with light metroidvania influence. So basically, they pass like ships in the night because they're both sailing the same sea. Personally, I think Nine Sols is the far superior product (I am not impressed by Bo) but calling either a clone just tells me those people haven't played both games.

[@FSVR54]

@@Seisachtheia Why are you not impressed? I keep hearing this, but it's hard to believe a game with this artsyle isn't an all-time masterpiece, that sucks

[@FalcusDead]

The egg was my favourite part. Bless the egg 🥚

[@Burr_]

That god damn side quest.

[@JacobTMolter]

It wouldn’t be your favorite party if you spent 7 million thousand hours on it.

[@Moon_Sushi]

Great video as always.

[@Burr_]

Thanks for watching and supporting! Means a lot

[@TheGheddon]

It’s on sale, on Steam!

[@SwitchUpYt]

It kind of is tho 😂❤

[@Burr_]

Regardless, it’s still a great time. I hope we can agree on that ❤️

[@nerdzone]

I sincerely thank you for making this video. I am sick and tired of Hollow Knight redditters flooding threads and Discords and claiminng that a game is a Hollow Knight clone for a few surface level similarities like the character having a similar silhouete, or the graphics being hand drawn (??).

[@nerdzone]

Not that your video is going to change it but still, it's a step in the right direction.

[@kerstin1719]

I agree. It seems like a lot of those people didn't know Metroidvanias even exsisted before HK. HK is a near perfect game but it's not the first and will not be the last of it's kind. Devs are inspired by other games and that is nothing new.

[@nerdzone]

@@kerstin1719 That's what happens when the passionate crowd of a more popular game/style embraces a game in other smaller niche. That's what happened with HK being embraced by the Dark Souls audience back half a decade ago since they carried a similar spirit - vast map, not too challenging secrets, simple and methodical battle system, a lot of collectibles that carry the lore of the game, bizarre yet atmospheric and somber world. A lot of those guys you mention really have not played a metroidvania prior to HK, or might have not even played any since. They don't really care for the genre at all and would not play a game in it unless it specifically scratches this exact itch. And when it piques their interest in any way, they call it HK clone since this is the only thing they know.

[@Burr_]

That's the negative of a game having a massive fanbase and helping define a genre. Hollow Knight is an incredible game, but the fans that ONLY love hollow knight can be relentless. You can only love 1 game, sure, but calling out other games a clone of your favorite game and not playing said clones is pretty stubborn. Metroidvanias are some of the best games ever. They're all so expertly crafted, love it

[@JacobTMolter]

This game is one of my top 5 games of all time.

[@Burr_]

Glad you enjoyed it a lot! You going to get every achievement?

[@JacobTMolter]

@@Burr_ ha never. I couldn’t do the whole game without healing.

[@vrajasundara_das]

It is very beautifull as much as bō-ring. Or probably i had to much expectaitions from this game.

[@zangelo100]

typical banger burr video

[@Burr_]

thank you for always watching!

[@MochaSlushes]

Thank you for not automatically disregarding every metroidvania on the planet as a hk clone, there are truly some special ones out there like Islets but no one will play them because “it won’t be as good as hollow knight!!!!” (it’s not even that good?) so they flop. It’s not about which game is like another, it’s about every games’ individual strengths. Unfortunately some games thrive on comparisons like ACT calling itself “crab souls” and so did everyone else. The games could not be more far apart in terms of atmosphere. By the way, Nine Sols is drowning in HK comparisons too, but I feel like there’s enough videos about that game already… comparing it to HK. God forbid you make a 2D hand-drawn metroidvania apparently, how dare your game share a single resemblance to the greatest game in the universe that is untouchable!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@Burr_]

Yea sadly that's the way the gaming universe works with games once something as dominant as Hollow Knight pops up (or souls like with Elden Ring). Now they're incredible games I think (i love hollow knight), but so many of these smaller games offer such an enjoyable and memorable experience

[@nerdzone]

What pisses me off is that most of those games, if not almost all, are probably not even inspired by Hollow Knight in any capacity. I've seen truely egregious comparisons being drawn.

[@jurtheorc8117]

Man, Islets has a nice art style and a sweet soundtrack. I hope the dev's new game will be received well. Right on with appreciating games for their individual strengths. I hate ideas like every game *having* to do something new, cross a new limit, "push the hardware" etc. All developers have their own development journeys to go through as well. Some may have yet to learn particular programming tricks that make certain animations or mechanics easier to perform, or have a particular puzzle idea that ends up alright in the final product and has potential for more-- and with good support, individual devs will be able to cut, refine or redirect what doesn't work, alongside refining what *does* work. For example, a game by name of Soulstice (in the same genre as Darksiders and DMC) is one of my absolute favourites in recent years. Has a lot to offer. Though it has a rather divisive central mechanic: certain enemies can only be harmed if you cast an Evocation (blue) or Banishment (red) forcefield around you, which is done with a button press. I didn't mind it much on my playthrough. Still had a lot of fun with it, heck, I even replayed it twice, and interesting things were done with it beyond color coding alone, though has been a point of annoyance for others. It's important to the lore of the world, which has received just as much lore as the gameplay. So for that, I feel like it shouldn't be outright gone, but I am hoping for a sequel and would like enemies to simply take reduced damage if you don't have a forcefield up. For another example, there's a hand-drawn 2D animated metroidvania by name of Cookie Cutter. The lead dev went in from the idea of making something that really came from him-- a world shaped by his personal tastes in media throughout life, from comics to music, from manga to cartoons. He wanted to bring this out to the world in a media form. He got the opportunity to make this world into a game, and so he did. Which was quite a journey and he proverbially fought tooth and nail for it to retain this artistic vision, fully knowing how niche and out-there and off-putting it may be. The lead dev really wants to make it a solid game too, but he doesn't want to be "better" than something else. "I'll keep putting my characters out there until i'm not better, not worse, until i'm different". Technically, Cookie Cutter is a fine and fun game. The strongest part is definitely the presentation, the worst parts are some ranged enemies and (for me) some bits of the structure and item drops. But by fup, does it resonate with me more than I expected I would. I enjoyed my time with the game, want to see more of it, and to that end try to spread word on it so that the dev can keep sharing this world. Adding new areas, story beats, characters, quests, enemies, weapons etc. Sometimes there's games that hit you in the right ways, and like you say it's important to be able to look at things on their own. Their own merits, shortcomings and everything in-between.

[@MochaSlushes]

@@jurtheorc8117 exactly! by the way Crypt Custodian is one of my most anticipated games to come out this year

[@jurtheorc8117]

@@MochaSlushes Crypt Custodian, that was the one! Thank you. Also thank you for taking the time to read that all through and reply! And I hope that Soulstice and Cookie Cutter have been sounding interesting based on what I described.

[@matthewt8214]

Great video! I love the game, 100% beat it and wish it was longer. It is definitely a HK clone though 😂

[@Burr_]

Thanks for watching! I feel it can be more inspired from Hollow Knight (and Ori and Okami) than a clone

[@nomongosinthaworld]

Not trying to ever touch the ground during boss fights made this game absurdly fun tbh

[@Burr_]

It's one of the achievements i had my eye on and failed in my playthrough, but oh man I want it

[@nomongosinthaworld]

@@Burr_ didn't even realize that existed lol just meant as a playstyle

[@ShamBell]

Unfortunately, w/ this stance on HK, you'd be wrong b/c there are certain elements that HK implemented that made it a very successful game...i.e hand-drawn art. Now, I'd say this developer was more an Ori fan but the ideals of HK are THERE. It's a good thing too b/c gamers love HK, and it's a good bet that they'll love any game built like it, so long as its done well. Bō fits the bill. It just needs a "stomp" to return to the ground quickly.

[@Seisachtheia]

It's definitely not a Hollow Knight clone, it's an HK and Ori clone!

[@thamster55]

Finally, someone said it!

[@retiredshubh]

way better than nine sols

[@Burr_]

I haven’t played Nine Sols so I can’t say, but Nine Sols looks a lot harder

[@JustinGodoy-ug9fo]

Please play Nine Sols

[@Burr_]

I've seen a good amount of people play it. Looks incredible and hard. I'm currently playing a LOT of metroidvanias but didnt include Nine Sols as i dont think i had time, but it's on my list to play eventually

[@JustinGodoy-ug9fo]

I'm looking forward to watching a vid about it sometime in the future. You just got a sub

[@kerstin1719]

An unbiased video about a Metroidvania? Subscription earned.

[@Burr_]

Thanks for watching! Glad you enjoyed!

[@gameman876]

Developers when you make achievements in your game. Going through the game in a certain amount of time or without dying are the worst and the laziest achievements ever. Especially when your game doesn’t have a ng+ to counter the challenge without making it too easy. Stop this or make it so your game. Especially metroidvanias come with ng+

[@Burr_]

Yea I can understand wanting to have some replayability, but achievements like that are just miserable. Another great game that suffers with bad achievements is Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Masterful game, one of my favourite metroidvanias, but it has like 3-5 insufferable achievements

[@jabbs888]

So you never finished the game?

[@Burr_]

No, i beat the entire game before I made the video.

[@TheSometimeAfter]

It's just nine lives

[@Burr_]

The game? or the cat movie?

[@Jenova-rk9mh]

This review made me curious about Gestalt tbh 🥲😂

[@Burr_]

It's another great game! 100%ed it in 12 hours!

[@Jenova-rk9mh]

@@Burr_ Thank you! I might give it a try before Bo now :D