Hollow Knight: Silksong definitely feels like a story DLC turned into a full game. I think many would recoil at the sentiment, but, truthfully, these kinds of DLCs are often the best part of a game. They are smaller, and thus condensed and maximalist. Creators can adjust to what their audience reacts to most positively, as well as subvert their expectations in new ways.
To have a game three times the size of the original Hollow Knight with that same DLC philosophy is ridiculous. It could not have worked in the current year, in this forsaken industry where projects die left and right. Passions pass, hype cycles come and go. Somehow, Hollow Knight persevered. A resilient, creative, and dedicated community born from the love for one metroidvania, created completely organically thanks to the efforts of a tiny indie team.
I came into Silksong expecting more of Hollow Knight: a tight world, a bunch of great bosses, some wacky NPCs, and beautiful music. Instead, I was immediately faced with the reality that Silksong is a game for the sickos. Diagonal pogo attacks? Tracked quests? Protagonist dialogue? Ledge grabs? This wasn’t the Hollow Knight I knew. This was a new world. Pharloom, like a DLC layering its unique progression and mechanics on the old. Team Cherry is once again confidently playing tastemaker.
Each space is maximized in every way: immaculate sound design where each surface produces new, wonderful noises, screens that are a joy to traverse at high speeds, those incredibly magical, dynamic Christopher Larkin tunes hitting you right from the very start, but also unexpectedly high levels of reactivity. Bugs make their way around in Pharloom, popping up in all sorts of places. Locations evolve throughout the story, and new tasks appear on boards in social hubs, making all that classic metroidvania back-and-forth traversal shockingly organic.
Silksong pulls you in in a way that only these tight experiences can, yet it always makes room for something weird. “Screw you, here’s endless Flower Quest,” says a bug duo, as if they did not just trigger in me a reaction more visceral than the end of White Palace. That annoying, flying, summoning boss you fought for an hour? Check your beast journal, buddy, it says it right there, you need to beat one more to unlock the full entry. You know what that means.
There are moments where excess overwhelms. Revisiting the early game, I found so much beauty and freedom in its layout, but without knowledge, it may feel almost railroadish. Befitting the DLC philosophy, it also begins on a high difficulty note, throwing out a lot of difficult basic enemies, many flying out of reach to avoid the downward leap you are not yet used to, all the while dealing two masks of damage to balance the three you are able to heal in one go. Act 1 may stop many in their tracks—without much in terms of customizability in those early goings, it is sink or swim.
You will find yourself swimming eventually though, right? It is Silksong; everyone loves Hollow Knight, so everyone will, for once, try their best to earnestly interact with the game’s less glamorous, identity-forming aspects. In an admirable, and I think ultimately very successful effort, Team Cherry advocates for how these tedious or commonly negatively viewed elements can enrich a game world. Were it not Silksong, would it be celebrated? No. That is why it matters that creators of this scale and reach on the indie scene are so passionate about reintroducing what we have fallen in love with to audiences that are otherwise less adventurous.
When you finally swim, when you reach the doors of the looming citadel and the most incredible piece of music I have heard in a long time hits you to your very core, you will know you are home. So will Hornet. Starting out as slightly colder, though always brave and heroic, shaped by her recent battles across Hallownest, her nature grows softer as she befriends and assists the various residents of this unfamiliar kingdom.
Dialogue can definitely feel a bit dry at times, but by the end I was often genuinely moved. In a way, I think the dry, courteous mannerisms Hornet has gathered from her time as Hallownest royalty allow for the player to more naturally fall in love with Pharloom and all of its little bug goobers. When I realized just how many interactions one may have with these characters, I ended up revisiting hubs every time I beat a boss or completed an objective just to check on all my friends.
I was shocked when the first of them fell to a threat I thought I had dealt with. Then, after a while, I came back to see their funeral ceremony. The remaining few gathered and sang for their fallen comrade, in a sign of respect for those who choose to venture to the shrines. Meanwhile, far, far above, a lone pilgrim dealt with a crisis of faith. Hornet, steeled by the terrors she witnessed in Pharloom, suggests they, too, may feel better by assisting others.
There is so much happening in Pharloom at all times. It is impossible to detail each interaction, but the times where Silksong plays it straight with character interactions and these kinds of events add up to the gut punch I felt when I dealt the final blow to the final enemy. Oh, how I wept when I knew that all that time waiting had given me this experience. I will admit, I was never one to expect Silksong at any one showcase prior to this year, but eventually I got swept up too. It was worth it for this exact release.
There is still room for all the secrecy I came to love from video game storytelling, with moments and reveals that will satisfy only those curious enough to delve deeper into the history of this ruinous kingdom. Though for once a lot of it is encountered on the main path, the two complement each other and reward the effort you put into understanding the tales of both Pharloom as well as Hallownest.
With knowledge comes power, and on my second run through, now knowing where all the tools lie, it is undoubtedly apparent that Silksong will reach the same longevity and meet the same passion as the first Hollow Knight game did. Perhaps the two audiences will not always see eye to eye, with the heavier focus on questing and platforming found here, but somehow, Silksong is that once-in-a-lifetime game that everyone wanted it to be, defining the lens through which all video game discussion moves. Again.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is not Hollow Knight II. Hence the subtitle. Perhaps starting out as DLC and growing from there has given it the sort of qualities I only ever theorized we would be able to see in video games in the distant future, shaping its philosophy. However it came to be, Team Cherry has created a masterpiece of proportions that can only be reached if all of us are able to elevate developers to a kind of status that allows them such unique opportunities. Its new directions inspire so much in me.
A new horizon appears, for what kind of heights can be reached in the medium now that I saw the release of a title that seemingly follows every thread I have been chasing after? From the oddities and friction I have been exploring in my private time to the hyper-specific movement details that I have been raving about with other enthusiasts, it all coalesced into something everyone around me is actively experiencing. If this dream can materialize, what else dare I dream of? How can I and everyone else take all this and not sing of our hopes together? Wherever it takes us, let us meet again on the road ahead.
Mateusz reviewed Hollow Knight: Silksong on PC with a purchased copy.
