The weirdest book series I read last year is Journeys of the Catechist by Alan Dean Foster. This is a trilogy of:
Carnivores of Light and Darkness (1998) Into the Thinking Kingdoms (1999) A Triumph of Souls (2000)
The basic premise is simple: in a remote backwater, a simple goatherder finds a shipwreck along with a dying man, who with his dying breath passes on his quest to save a princess from an evil sorcerer. Due to the traditions of this simple goatherder's culture, someone's dying wish cannot be ignored. Thus, he shares the news to his wife and family, gets some supplies & various items from his village, and heads out to find this faraway land he has never heard of.
The story is composed entirely of episodic chapters where the main character travels to one weird place after another where something magical or unusual happens. The main character observes the weirdness, appreciates it, understands what it is, and moves on. Every now and then he utilizes one of the many magical items he received from the wise people of his village. As the story goes on, he picks up a few companions who add personality to the otherwise monotone main character's solo adventuring.
The series' weakest point is the plot, which is essentially given in the first paragraph of this review. The character arcs are essentialy non-existent. However, the series makes up for its downsides with the extremely unusual and imaginative worldbuilding: among the many stops along the journey, we meet a dog that is also a witch who herds lightning bolts, a kraken that became a huge caffeine addict after attacking a coffee shipment, and a town where fish swim through the air and no one considers it odd.
Verdict: If you read other books out there and find yourself saying, "I've already seen this a hundred times before", you will find Journeys of the Catechist a positive surprise.
Absolutely. What I'm talking about is something like Bloodstained, where honestly the upgrades simply meant you now get to proceed to the next linear area in the game, where the area now can use the ability you unlocked, but lots of older areas have no use of it.
An example of a "key" like ability in Hollow Knight is the rocket dash. It's only ever used to bypass an obstacle you normally wouldn't be able to cross, but at the other side of the obstacle, you have no more use of that skill. I suppose it can be used in rare instances to travel around the map faster, but only if there's a straight path.