Hollow Knight mod brings voice acting to hundreds of characters and items
Hollow Knight lovers now have another excuse to play the game again. A group of ambitious fans has finally completed an impressive project: Hallownest Vocalized, a mod that brings voice acting into the game. It is available for free for PC players and can be installed using the Scarab Mod Launcher.
This mod is absolutely huge in size. Not only main characters now have voice acting, but also bosses, ghosts, corpses (lol) and numerous item descriptions – including lore tablets, charms and all Hunter’s Journal descriptions and notes. According to the YouTube video description, over a hundred voice actors lent their talents to this project. In the trailer, you can get a sneak peek at some of the voices from Hornet, Quirrel, Snail Shaman, Markoth, Uumuu, and more.
Hollow Knight had some sort of voice narration prior to this mod, but one that was a bug language gibberish. I, like many die-hard fans of the game, am incredibly attached to these original vocalizations. Shopkeeper Iselda greets you resignedly [sigh] bapanadashouts the Dung Defender DOMA DOMA DOMA before throwing a huge, spherical turd at you, and the Nailsmith gruffly greets you ronjo-stenja.
But the idea of a community project that adds voice acting to the actual text being rendered is incredibly compelling, both as an example of what a fan community can produce and as an artistic perspective. While Hollow Knight lore is somewhat contentious – I may have seen one too many moss bag videos – there is a consensus that the insect inhabitants of Hallownest have been given the gift (or curse) of sentience. Voice actors give that idea even more credibility by bringing their voices to life. It also increases accessibility for people with visual impairments, who find it difficult to read small text.
It’s worth pointing out that there are over 40 different people who have provided voice actors for larvae, suggesting that each larva has a distinct speaking voice. Color me intrigued! (Though people who download the mod, on the other hand, have to accept the fact that Zote can talk.)
It’s an exciting way to keep busy while we all wait for the release of Silk song, Hollow Knightthe long awaited sequel.