(Spoilers)
My friend and I spent about 20 total hours getting 7/10 endings (No Side B). We couldn't bring ourselves to get the other 3 after we got the true ending. I think I have earned the right to say that this game was horrendously bad. Every additional click felt like a year taken off my life. I stayed because I wanted to put faith in the tidbits of plot that we were thrown in every 300 clicks. 80% of this game could've been cut out and still retained the meaning of the plot. I expected some kind of profound social commentary as a reward for my torture, but it all meant nothing by the end because the true ending is just genuinely horrendous. Even if I disregard the agonizing pacing, it's all built on petty, shallow "love", and simple revenge. The Bible had a better revenge plot in Genesis when Cain kills his brother Abel. At least the Bible teaches you something. and God actually punishes Cain for his wickedness,
This game could've been a tragicomedy masterpiece if the protagonist treated everything like a joke and poked fun at the insanity of his situation. Instead, he takes the abhorrently inconsistent romance and RUNS with it. For example, there were were so many points in the game when the protagonist acknowledges that the love interests may kill him, and can't help but swooning regardless??? Vincent literally hires kidnappers TWICE, and by the end, the protagonist continuously admires him. The game's plot revolves around the his idiocy, and even when the player tries to negate his stupidity, all efforts are futile. When you try to avoid the poisoned cupcakes and he eats another food that is very obviously trapped, I wanted to punch my laptop.
There was so much potential for depth and mystery with the inclusion of suspicion from the little brother, Reme, and the weird dialogue with Moria, It's just never never explored, and I was very disappointed because it was one of the only things that kept me sane enough to keep clicking. I feel cheated out of the shadow of a plot that this game contains.
The art... where do I begin? I had to keep my eyes GLUED to the text box whenever a CG was revealed for an important scene just to get through it. The proportions made me want to burst into tears. When the characters yell, they look like Domo in the worst way possible. Don't get me started on Vincent's cloak in the bar scene. I was expecting the protagonist to poke fun at it because it's HIDEOUS, but, proving my earlier point about his helplessness, HE LIKES IT. Everything looks so goofy, but it takes itself so seriously that the incongruous mood takes me out of the feeling that it's trying to create. The music didn't help either because it feels weird to get stabbed to death to the gentle tinkling of a piano. The voice acting also made my ears bleed. Why are you moaning at me while you bleed to death??? The only one with tolerable voice lines is Reme because she speaks in "ah".
In conclusion, that is 20 hours I will never get back, and this game's only saving grace is that it was free to play. It took 3 people to create Hollow Knight, and it's a masterpiece, The fact that 9 people contributed to this mind-numbing train wreck of a game, if you can even call it that, is bonkers. They should use this as a torture method for the most brutal of dictators and cult leaders at Guantanamo Bay.