A Gorgeous However Imperfect Sequel

Mere days earlier than the extremely anticipated launch of Hole Knight: Silksong—a DLC and Kickstarter stretch aim turned mammoth sequel to one of the impactful video games of the 2010s–the lead builders behind the sport, William Gibson and Ari Pellen, broke their near-monastic vow of silence and defined the rationale for the sport’s lengthy absence from the general public eye. After years of no communication, throughout which many assumed the long-delayed sport was struggling by growth hell, the pair revealed the precise reverse.

In an interview with Bloomberg, they defined that Silksong solely took so lengthy as a result of the crew had been having enjoyable making the sport. There was no behind-the-scenes disaster. No drama or rift between the members of the comparatively small growth crew in Adelaide or the handfuls of contractors who helped Staff Cherry carry Silksong throughout the end line. There was no meddling from the varied publishers that, at one level or one other, appeared to vie for the crew’s favor and the power to advertise the titanic sequel at one or a number of showcases. It turned out that Silksong was only a actually intense, and actually extended, labor of affection, a rarity in an trade that has solely grown smaller and colder within the time the sport’s taken to gestate. 

A humorous factor occurred throughout that self-imposed, years-long radio silence: Silksong turned the most wildly anticipated sport of the era, exterior of solely the subsequent Grand Theft Auto. By means of little greater than effusive word-of-mouth round its predecessor and a few rock-solid previews, Silksong got here totally undone from actuality and entered the harrowed halls of gaming legend. For years, gamers would champ on the bit in livestream chats wherein they endlessly screamed “SILKSONG???” to no avail. 

Ultimately although, on September 4, 2025, Silksong arrived, and with its arrival got here the teardown of a long-held fantasy. Lastly, we had been in a position to see, hear, and really feel the sport in its entirety for ourselves, because it really exists. Consider it for what it was moderately than what we wished it to be. This cherished factor that so many, throughout the sport’s builders and its many followers, had poured an immense measure of affection into for all these years. 

So, is Silksong all the pieces that I, a self-professed Hole Knight sicko, wished? Does it stay as much as the hype? Does it reinvent the Metroidvania? Is it a cultural reset? Is it too hard? Was it definitely worth the wait? Is it enjoyable?

Act I

Properly, what ought to a sport of Silksong‘s magnitude be? To grasp that, I believe you first should get what Hole Knight was.

In 2018, Hole Knight got here to the Nintendo Swap. I might wax poetic about how a lot the expertise meant to me and the way completely it rewired elements of my mind. How a lot of my very own style clicked into place whereas combing the depths of Hallownest, the collapsed bug kingdom wherein the primary sport takes place. How in contact it felt with my very own anxieties. How stunning it felt regardless of the collapse, barbarity, and spoil that it invited gamers into.

The now thoroughly memed final encounter in opposition to the sport’s true villain, a deity-like determine generally known as the Radiance that in the first place disguises itself because the solar, has not solely given me my desktop wallpaper, but additionally, in its hero’s resistance and dedication, provided me a mannequin of absolute defiance. The weirdos, adventurers, and screwballs tucked away within the darkest corners of Hallownest have time and time once more embodied the virtues of range and acceptance that I stay my life by. Quirrel, a type of exact same oddballs, is considered one of my favourite characters of all time, and his odyssey by Hallownest is considered one of my very favourite threads of the entire journey. 

After all, it’s onerous to speak about that first sport with out mentioning its spectacular cadre of boss fights both, which matches nicely past that closing confrontation I discussed. Whereas a lot continues to be product of the collection’ problem, particularly with the discharge of Silksong, I’ve hardly seen the video games as ones pushed by a cruel bloodlust that assessments the gamers at each flip. Don’t get me incorrect, many a Hole Knight boss has stumped me, however I’ve not often considered these fights as significantly grueling. They’re extra…rhythmic. I’ve written earlier than about how I believe Silksong‘s combat can feel balletic and, well, Hollow Knight was my first dance instructor. Through its rigorous gauntlets and tutelage, including the game’s now famend bouts in opposition to the Mantis Lords, Watcher Knights, and Troupe Grasp Grimm to call a couple of, I realized my marks and easy methods to hit them with one thing resembling grace and finesse.

And as a reward for diving in headfirst and consuming so deeply of Hole Knight‘s waters, I was granted the keys to Hallownest, one of the most thoroughly realized settings any work has ever spirited me away to. It’s a well-worn trope at this level to marvel at its development and stage of element, however the Metropolis of Tears strikes me so deeply that I should all the time invoke its quiet majesty. Town’s defining high quality, exterior of its lavish and stately skyline, is the rain. Regardless of being underground, a crack within the ceiling above it–a robust however refined metaphor amongst Hole Knight‘s numerous elements that echo with greater meaning–invites the pristine waters of an underground lake, casting a pallid blue light over the decaying city and drenching it in a never-ending rainfall as if trying to wash away its sins. 

Though it never occurs in the game, I think about the day that crack rips the sky above the City of Tears wide open. In a rapturous moment, the lake it holds up will appear to the city’s valuable few survivors just like the ocean coming down on their heads, and right away, it’ll swallow the town entire.

This, and a lot extra, is the precedent set forth by Hole Knight. It’s the legacy of that sport, and it solely grows with every passing yr. Suffice to say, it’s a hell of a factor to stay as much as, and a troublesome–some may even say unattainable–act to comply with and construct atop. However that’s what Silksong units out to do. And I let you know what, it makes an amazing try, even when some cracks start to kind within the basis beneath the sheer weight of all of it.

Act II

Silksong largely continues Hole Knight‘s exemplary work. It once again casts players as a diminutive but fearsome warrior critter, though this time as the first game’s deuteragonist–and generally rival–Hornet. Very similar to the Knight of the earlier title, Hornet is pushed to Pharloom, Silksong‘s similarly haunted kingdom, by forces greater than herself. Along her journey, she learns of a similar corruption to the one that threatened Hallownest before–Silksong does make clear it is a successor that follows after the events of the first Hollow Knight. And just like the Knight, Hornet befriends many oddball (and adorable) bugs, fells terrible foes left and right, discovers many secret passages, and uncovers the unflinching cruelty of this doomed, yet beautiful setting she’s now compelled to avoid wasting. You’d be forgiven for pondering Silksong was a “lazy” sequel given these acquainted parameters and beats, however the comparisons (exterior of the sport’s visuals and environment) largely finish there.

That’s as a result of Silksong is aware of its enjoying the hits–which its builders workshopped in Hole Knight after which sharpened right here–after which spends a lot of the remainder of its runtime continuously fucking with the inspiration in ingenious, and infrequently dastardly, methods. Like Silksong‘s inverted narrative–in which Hornet climbs from the depths of the kingdom as opposed to the Knight’s descent into the abyss–the sport’s hostile design delights in toying together with your expectations. Hunter’s March and Bilewater, two of the brand new locales nestled in Pharloom’s expanse (a phrase I don’t use evenly on this sport’s case), are actually notorious for the best way that they jostle the participant and refuse to permit them the time and space for complacency, however might you consider they’re solely the tip of the iceberg?

Later sequences, like a rad-as-hell jail escape and an icy climb in opposition to the clock, show out how thrilling it’s that Silksong, as a core precept, type of fucking hates the participant. In Hole Knight, like in most Metroidvania fare, it’s enthralling to develop extra highly effective and open up doorways that you just had been beforehand locked out of. Silksong acknowledges this, however slows that development to a relative crawl and often forces Hornet, and the participant, on their backfoot. The result’s a tangibly scrappier sport that’s much less and fewer determined by arbitrary numbers and ranges and has extra to do with what I can solely describe as attaining a stage of drift compatibility.

This antagonism bleeds into a number of of the ache factors and criticisms which have been levied on the sport, resembling punitive and demoralizing runbacks to a number of bosses, particularly one to a sure combat in a sandblasted area ripped straight out of Hell. And sure, it additionally extends to Silksong‘s several–and I do mean several–wave-based gauntlets, as well as its sometimes oppressive (not to mention optional) third act, both of which feel like exhaustive trials by fire. But I’ve gotta admit, I’ve realized to like this sport throwing the entire rattling guide at me. For probably the most half. It retains me on my toes.

If Silksong is responsible of something, it’s figuring out what the participant expects to seek out at practically each twist and switch and preempting them, generally with a brand new type of impediment or gag, and trusting them to beat these common assessments. This absolutely have to be the mark of well-learned college students of the medium and kind, and makes the hackneyed flip of phrase “a love letter to the genre” into one thing resembling a extra concrete argument. Since being launched, Silksong has been accused of being a fairly unforgiving sport for lots of the above causes and extra. When you ask me, although, what it truly is fairly rattling playful. Playful and trusting of your capability to choose up the sport and overcome something it throws at you, particularly with the arsenal of instruments and motion skills bestowed upon you, in addition to Hornet’s pure grace.

Reader, I hooted (I by no means hoot) on the fakeout bench trap in Hunter’s March. I jumped in my seat at my overcome the gauntlet in Excessive Halls and hardly regretted the hours I spent chipping away at it. The climb up Mount Fay falls simply shy of Celeste-level platforming in my eyes, and the Deep Docks? Properly, they’re by no means boring. And with time, these classes all taught me to bounce by the Blasted Steps unscathed by any of the man-eating sandworms that occupy it. By the point I confronted The Final Decide for the ultimate time, I emerged freed from any burns, like solely the warrior-princess Hornet might. 

Silksong relishes in a type of defiance that I like. Sequels, particularly online game sequels, are sometimes larger than their predecessors, a sin which Silksong is responsible of, however they’re not often extra frictional. And since Silksong zigs the place others would zag, it has a persona that I believe is uncommon to return throughout in sequels, that are so usually by-the-numbers. It’s bought chew and verve, identical to its sharp and commanding protagonist. It’s headstrong, and its architects–Staff Cherry itself–really feel like a pleasant rival I’m in competitors with, and that back-and-forth has constantly motivated me to push again and push additional. Taking part in Silksong appears like being in dialog with it, and with each session–with each speak–I often felt like I used to be studying greater than I might enjoying a sport completely content material with enjoying it protected.

And the factor is, Silksong‘s heights are largely price these lengthy talks and toils, however that steadfast perspective and hardheadedness solely get it thus far.

Act III

Silksong is an exceptionally well-constructed sport as much as the tip of its first act, crammed with rousing fights in opposition to spectacular bosses that check your mettle early on, in addition to locales that tease the creativeness whereas concurrently sating that thirst for journey that the primary sport so completely quenched. Nevertheless it’s actually within the sport’s second act, which sees Hornet exploring the intricacies of the Citadel—a brass metropolis and holy place on the very high of Pharloom—that it explodes and begins constructing the connective tissue that binds the whole lot of this huge kingdom collectively.

Bear in mind how I invoked the Metropolis of Tears from Hole Knight earlier? How a lot I beloved the depth of it, not solely as a setting however due to the straightforward and highly effective metaphor completed by linking it to Blue Lake above it? Silksong’s vistas enthrall me to no finish, and its visuals are little question extra diversified than these of its predecessor, but it surely fails to inform tales as succinct or as impactful as that first sport did.

To its credit score, there are locations the place Silksong rises to the event. Greymoor, a downtrodden village that sits squarely beneath the Citadel (and in addition boasts a wet disposition) performs a well-known tune. That and the supposed route of the Pilgrimage on which so many bugs discover themselves reveal so much about Pharloom and its individuals whereas saying little or no. However by and huge, I discovered looser connections between areas, fewer storytelling nuggets and pocket-sized narratives, and fewer alternative for my very own curiosity to thrive. 

Silksong nonetheless yields a lot to see, and there are inarguably extra nooks and crannies than ever to discover in Pharloom, however Hallownest’s elegant and understated mystique is absent right here, and it’s as an alternative changed by a labyrinthine behemoth–full with many proverbial Minotaurs–although one which instills in you the strain of compulsory completionism moderately than the liberating sense of journey.

At this level in my very own expertise with it, the sheer extra of Silksong started to weigh on the sport, my very own curiosity in it, and the world which Staff Cherry had so immaculately constructed. Its forged of characters dwarfs that of Hole Knight, however much less of them stand out among the many remainder of the noise right here. Shakra, the sport’s recurring map maker and touring warrior, is all the time a pleasure to work together with, and following her narrative thread to its finish supplied an emotionally satisfying decision I’m grateful to have seen to its finish, however she’s one of many sport’s exceptions on this regard. By comparability, there are quite a few threads I can bear in mind following in Hole Knight, just like the tales of Quirrel and Material, in addition to boss characters just like the Traitor Lord and Soul Grasp, all of which supplied narrative bows with which to wrap up and bundle the small, impactful vignettes throughout Hallownest.

Silksong appears occupied with turning a few of these interactions and asides right into a extra concrete side of the collection, however they nearly appear misplaced within the expanded scope of the sport. For instance, job boards crammed with side-quests known as “Wishes” look like they’d present ample alternatives to develop on characters in express methods—Hole Knight most well-liked the Elden Ring strategy of loosely threaded emergent narratives—however they largely quantity to busy work and chores which fortify pockets of neighborhood round Pharloom, however not often dive deeper into the make-up of those cities and their bug denizens. 

What stings is that beneath all of it, there are some really superior issues tucked away in Silksong, a sport whose depth in locations steadily, sure, awed me. Superior encounters and sequences that continued to check me proper as much as the very finish, threads which tied the 2 video games collectively, and glimpses on the world exterior of the Hole Knight collection’ haunted kingdoms that I might like to see explored additional down the road. Nevertheless it does additionally really feel at instances like a sequel made for gamers with a watch in direction of awe and spectacle moderately than profundity.

Possibly that weight I’m referring to, the one which threatens to undo Silksong at instances, has much less to do with literal bloat from the sport’s extended growth (although it has absolutely manifested on this approach) and extra to do with the unattainable burden positioned on Silksong to be probably the most unimaginable sport ever. I reckon that when Staff Cherry first launched Hole Knight, they’d no thought the ripples it could make and the legacy it’d set up. And it’s unattainable to separate what Silksong wound up being–a fork-tongued center finger of a sport that nobly goals to keep away from being an ordinary, typical sequel but additionally feels stretched in locations to satisfy the expectations of a Hole Knight sport–from the popularity it constructed up in its time exterior the limelight. 

Love breathed life into Silksong all these years in the past, reworking a would-be enlargement right into a sprawling title whose growth was cultivated over a few years with nice care and a focus, which makes it all of the extra ironic that over the course of that growth, a lot of what made Hole Knight particular to start with feels diminished right here. That very love pushes Silksong to be a wealthy expertise, one which makes you’re employed to find it irresistible and prefers to shock moderately than lull you with awe. Sooner or later although, the previous provides technique to the latter, and beneath that weight, Silksong begins to crack. Its enormity hides these fractures nicely, however they’re nonetheless there. And possibly, simply possibly, in the future, just like the Metropolis of Tears, that crushing weight will collapse the inspiration and swallow it entire.