SO, let’s dive into it!
The original Hollow Knight was a game I played back in 2018 on the Switch 1 and I remember enjoying it very much! The cartoon artstyle was utterly gorgeous, the metroidvania gameplay style (exploring, gathering upgrades and finding new areas with said upgrades) was and will always be drugs for my brain and the game offered a compelling challenge! Games with high difficulties are ones I’ve come to *ahem* respect the more I play games as an adult, and Hollow Knight did not disappoint! However, from what I recall, the game was easily the longest metroidvania I’d played at the time and because of that the pacing suffered from just how slow and methodical everything felt, like a snail that grows into a badass, darkness ladened beast but still moving at… ya know.
For this reason, Hollow Knight fell into the back of my brain where it could grow moss and gestate. It’s still a fantastic game, but it was never among my favourites of all time. But now, we have Hollow Knight: Silksong, a game that reminded me that “Oh yeah, these games kick arse!” And for seven years, this thought lay dormant like a senior who happens to own a giant sword, because this game took a long time to come out! We first caught a glimpse of Silksong in 2019 and since then, basically nothing. With every new massive gaming livestream that would showcase new trailers and announcements for every game EXCEPT Silksong, the hunger and demand for it kept swelling and swelling, which admittedly resulted in some very funny memes from the fandom, most of them involving clown make-up. Then, out of nowhere, Team Cherry finally announces it’s coming out… in 2 weeks time. And everyone metaphorically exploded.
So, does Silksong live up to the unbelievable amount of expectations it’s been given not just as a sequel to a fantastic game but also as an elusive mystery game people have been begging to see for years? Welp, despite not having fully finished the game myself yet, I can say, yes it was. Even if realising that came with a few reality checks.
Silksong seemingly follows the events of the original Hollow Knight where this time, you play as Hornet, who in the original was a recurring mini-boss that eventually joined your side, but now has the spotlight all to herself! She’s kidnapped by a mysterious race of bugs and ends up stranded in the land of Pharloom, where a mysterious Citadel looms ominously overhead. Hornet decides to make her way up through Pharloom towards the Citadel and learn why exactly these bugs are so obsessed with her and then probably kill them, ‘cause she’s just like that.
The structure of the game is essentially the same as the original! You start out with nothing and a very limited moveset and slowly become more powerful, unlocking cool and stabby new abilities that help you traverse the world! Said world is brimming with beautiful locations, towns, NPCs to talk to and accept quests from, and a bunch of enemies who all want you DEAD. This time though, Hornet’s moveset is much more agile and quick than the Knight’s was in the original Hollow Knight, which ultimately makes exploring much more fun! She can get a dash that allows her to dodge enemy attacks and Sonic/Naruto run like me in Year 5, a cool horizontal grappling hook, and the ability to launch herself upwards like she noticed a Monster Munch packet on the ceiling! She can also grab ledges just like Samus in Metroid so you already know this is the greatest game ever. Combat works very similarly to the OG Hollow Kinght as well, as in you’ll be doing a lot of slashin’ and dodgin’, but Silksong introduces Crests, which Hornet can equip to give her entirely new movesets, giving the player tons of freedom for customisation! There’s the Reaper Crest, which gives Hornet stronger and wider but slower attacks, the Wanderer which makes her swipes faster like the original Hollow Knight, and more unique ones like the Architect, which turns her needle into a drill! The amount of options given to you may seem overwhelming when laid out like this, but Silksong’s pacing means that you’re given enough time to become acquainted with one set-up before unlocking and trying a new one, like a motorway with rest stops perfectly placed for when you’re about to combust.
And you’ll want as many options as you can get because this game is hard. Like, one of the hardest games I've played in a very long time. The original Hollow Knight was a very difficult game as well so this is to be expected somewhat, but my gosh Silksong does not play around. Enemies can take so much punishment before finally squelching, they hit like friggin' trucks, it takes ages to find any meaningful health or attack upgrades and the bosses are just as brutal as before. And oh my GOODNESS does this game love enemy gauntlets. Not only do they appear often, they can last for so many waves! Just when you think you've killed the last enemy, the game provides five more of them. The worst offender of this is The Forum. I was stunned when I got to this point because of how unfair it felt, not because of how hard it necessarily was, but how long it went for. Okay, firstly we have a few waves of enemies and then, oh here's a miniboss that's completely unique so you don't have time to learn their patterns! Man, that was annoying... Oh whoops, was? How about instead we have four more waves of enemies and then TWO of that same miniboss at the same time! All of which without dying once in a game where nearly every enemy can kill you in three hits! It was clear at this point I realised that Silksong is a game that asks a lot from its players and I do not blame anyone for not braving it, as I shall discuss later when the conclusion barrels forward like a bug yelling “etto!”
On top of being very very hard, Silksong is also very very HUGE. Every area, much like the original game, feels like its own fleshed out world with unique enemy designs, gimmicks that add to the horrible atmosphere and so many secret areas that at a certain point it feels like using a guide becomes mandatory if you want to see everything. In that way, the game’s exploration evokes that of classic games like the original Legend of Zelda, where the joy of realising, “wait there’s a whole new area hidden behind this breakable bit of wall?” was part of the fun! My personal favourite areas are Greymoor because OOOOO I can’t get enough of that rainy, gloomy atmosphere, and the Choral Chambers because of how ethereal and grandiose it feels ,as well as having one of my favourite songs in the whole soundtrack. The soundtrack overall is incredible, with each area theme evoking the appropriate feelings of awe, malice and hype!
My least favourite areas on the other hand, inhale okay let’s talk about these two. First off, Hunter’s March. Not a very big area compared to the others but it’s one you can access pretty early in the game and for that, it’s about as sharp a spike as a porcupine eating a pineapple whilst listening to Linkin Park. Super tough platforming with red buds to bounce off of, these very annoying ant enemies that can somehow always throw their boomerangs precisely where you’re going to be and my goodness, Savage Beastfly. This boss fight has already become a massive meme in the Hollow Knight fandom for how difficult it is. His flying patterns are super unpredictable, his body is so huge that it makes it incredibly difficult to dodge at the last second and he spawns enemies as well? AND you have to fight him again later? Nope nope nope nope, Beastfly please follow this peremptory to stay away from Hornet now please. Secondly, *shudder* BILEWATER. My gosh, this area was almost too much for me and it’s all because of three things, one being the maggot infested water that infects you if you touch it, canceling your ability to heal if you don’t get rid of it, the second being the lack of benches you can use to heal, save and/or get rid of infections, and finally…
GREAL THE GROA-
…
GRAIL THE GOA-
hold on, *flips through notes*
GROAL THE GREAT!
Easily the hardest fight in the entire game for me so far (Last Judge was also pretty friggin’ tough), not only because of his giant body giving you the same trouble as Savage Beastfly, not only because of the maggot infested water as mentioned previously, but… the runback… In order to even get to the Groal, not only do you need to traverse a large chunk of Bilewater, which is already one the hardest areas in the game, but you also need to, you guessed it, fight another enemy gauntlet! And if you die to Groal, it's all the way back to the bench to do it all over again! And what’s even “better” is that this is only taking into account you using the hidden bench in Bilewater, a bench much closer to Groal that I was only able to find thanks to a guide! And if you don’t find it, guess what? The only other bench in Bilewater is in the furthest possible corner to Groal, meaning you basically have to traverse ALL of Bilewater AND fight an enemy gauntlet just to get the CHANCE of fighting Groal again!
Since I’ve spent the last few paragraphs documenting my at the time frustration with the game, you might think that the game sounds off-putting and unfun, and while I do think there is an argument to be made about how difficulty is balanced in games, I don’t want this to come across like I wasn’t having fun! It was honestly quite enjoyable and cathartic to describe my experiences in the last few paragraphs and on a macro level, I understand that the frustration was ultimately necessary if I wanted the feeling of satisfaction of beating something I thought was impossible. Some of my proudest memories in gaming, (beating Yozora in Kingdom Hearts 3, beating Nyx in Persona 3 FES, beating any level in Cuphead etc.) as well as my proudest memories in life (finishing my degrees, learning how to draw, tying my shoelaces) are when I managed to surpass seemingly insurmountable tasks, and Silksong takes that feeling and concentrates it so much you could buy it at a supermarket.
The question then remains, why do Team Cherry choose to design their games this way? Surely the game would be more accessible and appealing right away to gamers if they didn’t want to pull their hair out like a nervous writer when they started playing, right? Why not include multiple difficulty options for players to choose what they like? In an interview with Bloomberg discussing Silksong’s launch, their philosophy on game design and why the games they make are so forehead bash inducing, the co-directors of Team Cherry, William Pellen and Ari Gibson, explain that they chose to not include extra difficulty options to allow the player to feel more immersed in the world. Pellen said:
“I feel limiting it in that way - as in, not giving the player an out to fiddle with things when they hit a wall - it means when we’re making it, we don’t have an out either. We have to be quite considerate about that stuff, and we’re playing it constantly as well.”
Basically, they wanted to make sure the game’s world was well designed and fair even if it was horrifically difficult. Ari Gibson also stated:
“You could still come up with (ways to avoid difficult sections) if there were difficulty sliders, but this helps you focus in a way, which is quite nice… All of your thinking is in the world itself rather than on a meta level”
Essentially, Team Cherry wants you to be immersed in the gross, dank and horrible world of Pharloom and not focused on aspects outside the game. This philosophy seems to coincide with another aspect of Silksong’s design, that the game rarely gives you a reward for beating a tough challenge that feels worth it. For some, this could be a massive complaint, having to suffer through a frustrating boss or set piece only to be greeted with basically nothing. However, Team Cherry seem to be expressing their admiration for intrinsic rewards with this design decision, rather than rewarding the player extrinsically. Essentially, your reward for playing Hollow Knight Silksong is… getting better at Hollow Knight Silksong. The satisfaction of the game comes from the mastery of the game’s mechanics rather than getting any big shiny rewards. And that’s definitely going to feel frustrating at first. There will always be moments when a challenge feels too impossibly hard and you’ll want to give up or take a break. But that’s also the case with a lot of life skills, as highlighted previously!
Since 2020, I’ve been teaching myself how to draw and back then I couldn’t even imagine being as good at drawing as I am now. Sometimes it’s been frustrating, and even now there are moments where I want to give up and I feel that I’ll never be able to beat a specific challenge, but knowing that I’ve come so far already really helps with that feeling. Writing these posts always gives me that same feeling too! I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked back on a blogpost and thought it was the worst thing ever and that I’d never get better at writing, but these things take time! Silksong is the same way and in that sense, Silksong being designed this way is essentially Team Cherry teaching us to value these skills in patience. To never give up on a challenge you want to achieve, even if it seems impossible at first. Even if you have to whack yourself against a wall of spikes and acid over and over again. Because every time you try you get just a tiny bit better. To paraphrase one of my favourite Doctor Who episodes, sometimes you just gotta keep punching that diamond wall and eventually it’ll break. And in a world where gaming, social media and nearly every form of entertainment is moving more into overstimulation and giving people easy and effortless access to instant dopamine, it’s nice to have a game that is so popular give a message that says “Nah, that’s stupid. True peace and satisfaction comes from discipline, growth and believing in your capacity for it. So go ahead and believe in yourself.” Metaphorically speaking of course, games can’t talk.
So yeah, even if I still haven’t beaten the game yet, I’m not giving up! Silksong is a wonderfully put together, beautiful, super fun and immensely hard game, and it’s all of these things with the intent of bringing the best out of the player and giving them the most satisfying experience ever, and I think that’s just neat! Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m off to play Silksong again then rage quit and play Ace Attorney instead!
Thanks for reading!
BloomBerg Interview Link:
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