games

Sorry for the late response, but I would recommend Aeterna Noctis over Hollow Knight. When I said there are other metroidvanias on occasion better than HK, that's probably the only one I would firmly plant there. There are many more that I think are just as good and may be arguably better, as in they're better in some ways and Hollow Knight is better in other ways, but Aeterna Noctis is just in its own category for me. It's definitely one of those games that is not for everyone though. I love it so much because of the platforming design, some of which is extremely difficult, but brilliant. If you don't like difficult platforming, then you probably won't gel with Aeterna Noctis. In many other ways it's fashioned after Hollow Knight, like you can really feel how much HK inspired the mechanics of AN, though AN is even bigger, on a more grand scale than HK. Other games that are up there along with Hollow Knight in my opinion are Ender Lilies and Ender Magnolia, more so the latter. I would say that Grime is up there with Hollow Knight. The original Castlevania: Symphony of the Damned for sure. Possibly The Last Faith, maybe. Since BeanisBrain mentioned it, I agree that Axiom Verge is up there. Blasphemous is great too, like Frivolous_Beatnik said but I'd put it below Hollow Knight, and I would put Blasphemous 2 below the original (edit: they are also right that Silksong is harder than either Blasphemous game, by a mile). I would say I enjoyed Salt and Sanctuary as much or more than I enjoyed Hollow Knight, but I wouldn't try to argue it's better. There are plenty more I could recommend that I don't think get the credit they deserve, but aren't necessarily in the running with Hollow Knight.