Hollow Knight: Silksong - Is it possible to do better than Perfection?

MINOR SPOILER WARNING for Hollow Knight: Silksong below the picture. All images are early game, and I intentionally avoid mentioning any person or boss not featured in trailers, but if you want to enter Pharloom 100000% unspoiled step away and come back once you have beaten the game for the first time. 

7 years ago, Team Cherry – 3 guys from Australia, Ari Gibson, William Pellen and Jack Vine – stormed onto the scene with Hollow Knight.

A sprawling indie metroidvania that has quickly become the crown jewel in the genre’s crown. A mix of crunchy combat; exploration of a massive, interconnected world; bewitching hand drawn art; and a cast of homely and brilliant characters had gamers crying out for more.

Now, these many years on, the prayers of the waiting have been answered. Hollow Knight Silksong is here. Taking the role of Hornet – your antagonist come eventual ally from the first game – you set off upon the next great adventure.

This game started life as a DLC for the original game, but as it got bigger the decision was made to move forward with a full-blown sequel.  

And my oh my have the words “full-blown” never felt so adequate as they do here in Silksong.

The world of Pharloom here feels perhaps twice as large as that of Hallownest before it, and Hallownest was no small map. Around every corner is a new area, a new hidden room, a new enemy or boss to face off against.

More than once I thought “Ok, I’ve definitely seen everything now”, only to suddenly discover a full new area I didn’t know existed. It’s a feat of true exploration and the fact it keeps you guessing all the way throughout its runtime is a massive plus.

I touched briefly on the idea of bosses above. The boss encounters here are all unique and fantastically designed. They are HARD, but never once did I think they were unfair.

With every passing death (and oh boy will you die A LOT) you learn the patterns, you improve, and the feeling of celebration when the finally deal the final blow is one of catharsis and relief – until you go a few rooms down and start the cycle all over again with the next boss.

With a current play time of over 55 hours, I have to now only rolled credits on the first of several endings, but it’s a testament to the game that I am still enjoying exploring, still looking for every last secret it has within it. Every minute I am away from Pharloom I’m thinking of something I want to do when I get back into it.

The fact this is basically the work of 3 men (but for some localisation staff and playtesters) is simply bewildering. The big AAA games studios would struggle to build a game that feels this uniquely brilliant to play.

And with it comes the heart of these normal people. It shines through in the NPC characters. If Hollow Knight had a broad cast, Silksong has a whole menagerie. From the small, warbling Sherma, to the map making warrior Shakra, to Garmond and Zaza (a Knight of the realm and his trusty steed), and countless others, you meet these characters over and over, and it genuinely feels like they’re off on their own adventures.

Different moments with them trigger depending on what you’ve done up to certain parts of the game, so sometimes they’ll spawn, sometimes they won’t. Its as if you either just missed them, or got there before them, and your paths didn’t cross.

It makes the world feel alive. You are not the only sentient being moving around it. You come to care for these characters.

I can’t tell you the joy I would feel as I explored an area and heard little Sherma’s song in the distance, or spotted one of Shakra’s tell tale dropped rings, signalling our friend was nearby

I almost can’t believe I’m come this far without mentioning the 4^th part of Team Cherry’s group of compatriots. Alongside the three - aforementioned - designers, I would be remiss not to mention Christopher Larkin, the games conductor and sound designer.

Hollow Knight’s soundtrack was always impressive, but to say he has surpassed himself here would be a fair statement. Both in terms of the incredible orchestral range of songs for each area and fight, but also in the ambient sound.

The crunch of your Needle sword against an enemy. The clink of a bell or metal surface as you bash up against it. The mechanics of the cog work Citadel in which much of the games second act takes place. It’s all perfectly balanced. It’s another sign that this is a real, breathing world.

If there is one thing I can say (and as I will make clear, this is not a criticism), its that the difficulty spike versus the first game is a huge one, and for some this may be off putting. Even in the very early game many of the enemies hit for double damage, and the bosses are a definite step up from Hollow Knight.

That said: I don’t think this is a bad thing. This is a sequel in the truest sense of the word. Its clear that it being a post-game DLC for Hollow Knight was the original intent.

Team Cherry expects you to have already completed and mastered that game. They know you will be used to the combat loop, and the kinds of platforming that will be expected. There are absolutely new mechanics – Hornet is far more athletic and gymnastic than the Knight of the first game – but the central core gameplay is of a kind they expect you to know.

And that’s fine. It’s a singular vision that allows them to present the game they wanted to present. They know it may not be for everybody, and that’s fine. But for those who can master it, it is the first games better in almost every way.

It is, by some margin, the most difficult game I have ever had the pleasure to roll credits on. Some bosses took literally 50+ attempts to beat, and one particularly hard enemy gauntlet took multiple HOURS across several days to finally see the end of.

The cheers of triumph as those challenges were defeated though were all the louder BECAUSE it was a challenge. It was a case of buckling down, and trying to find a route through, and we got there.

 

Hollow Knight Silksong is a master work. The definitive example of the metroidvania game style.

“Until we meet down the road” Team Cherry muse in the end credits sign off. We can only hope its not 7 more years until we meet again with this trio of game makers. But if it is, I can believe it will be because they are putting as much love into whatever comes next as they have to this game.

The game is a love letter to a genre that clearly means the world to the three of them, just as they know it does to others around the world. It draws on every influence, both the obvious, in Metroid and Castlevania (Hornet’s signature moveset is HEAVILY reminiscent of Alucard in Castlevania: Symphony of the Night), but also in games as widely ranged as Ori and the Blind Forest, the Legend of Zelda, and dozens of others.

And what it leaves is, despite (or maybe even because of) its minor imperfections, is the closest I’ve ever experienced to a perfect gaming experience. They did what I and many others thought was impossible. They took Hollow Knight, itself already one of my favourite games ever, and somehow managed to better it in almost every conceivable way.

Thank you Ari Gibson. Thank you William Pellen. Thank you Jack Vine. Thank you Team Cherry for this magnificent game.

See you down the road. We will be patiently waiting, and until then we will just have to run through Pharloom again, just as we ran through Hallownest for the best part of a decade before it.