Despite the huge excitement surrounding Hollow Knight: Silksong, I went into the game with lower expectations. I wasn't that fond of the first Hollow Knight, so I assumed Team Cherry's Metroidvania sequel similarly wouldn't resonate with me.
I was wrong. As it turns out, even though Silksong retains much of what made the first Hollow Knight what it was, I became obsessed with the game to the point where I ended up reaching the true ending with a 100% completion rate after 70 hours. And I still have a couple of optional bosses I want to mop up.
So what made Silksong work for me? Some of it stems from a number of tweaks and refinements that help me to better appreciate the series as a whole.
An obvious example is the tools system. Hornet, Silksong's protagonist, can equip a strict number of tools, similar to the charms system of the first game. In Hollow Knight, I found it a bit annoying that the compass charm, which made the map significantly easier to use, took up space that could have been spent improving your combat or survivability.
Silksong's tools system avoids issues like these while retaining the importance of build choices. Instead of all tools being part of the same pool, they are divided into three categories - essentially combat (red), support (blue), and quality-of-life (yellow). The compass takes up a yellow slot, and it doesn't restrict you at all from taking advantage of the blue tools, many of which are handy for fighting enemies like quicker heals and increased weapon range.
There are also several different crests that - in addition to coming with different special abilities - alter the number of coloured tools you can equip. So, while two tools per colour is the standard limit, you can equip a crest that gives you an extra blue slot at the cost of having zero yellow slots.
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The flexibility with Hornet's loadout was really enjoyable, often making me reconsider my strategy after multiple deaths, even if I ended up just switching between the same three or four tools for each colour most of the time.
Changes like these are nice. However, I think a bigger reason I connected with Silksong the way that I did is Hornet herself. As a character, she's more interesting compared to Hollow Knight's lead. She's also much more fun to control, with a moveset that's agile and expressive and that makes both combat and platforming feats more satisfying to pull off. This is paired with the much-discussed high difficulty of the game really well, with Silksong increasing the challenge to keep up with and match Hornet's mobility.
I died a ridiculous amount during my time with the game. Some bosses must have taken me at least 30 attempts. But the high difficulty and how it is tuned in the game is a big part of why Silksong works.
There were many times where I became frustrated or where an encounter initially felt unfair, but they ultimately led to moments of payoff. Silksong gives you everything you need to overcome its obstacles. It's then about strategy, practice, and perseverance.
Every design decision that Team Cherry has made feels deliberate, even if they provide friction for the player. Take the 'runbacks' for boss fights - you spawn at the last bench checkpoint each time you die, meaning that to return to a boss you often have to make your way through the same several rooms.
By comparison, many games nowadays will checkpoint you just outside the boss's door. Silksong's contrasting approach here may feel punishing at times, but it helps to set the tone for the harsh and unforgiving world that the game is set in. It also offered moments for me to reflect on my previous death and to mentally prepare for my next attempt. I appreciated the runbacks, and design decisions like these helped Silksong evoke a range of emotions from me in a way that a streamlined and heavily focus-tested game normally wouldn't.
The region of Bilewater is another good example. Living up to its name, Bilewater is one of the least enjoyable areas in the game to explore both visually and mechanically - for example, the water is filled with maggots that prevent you from healing, which in turn makes enemy encounters more punishing.
Yet, it's also one of the more memorable areas for the same reasons. The execution of Bilewater is uncompromising. You're forced to wade through the putrid waters on the game's terms and it does not 'feel' good; at the same time the whole Bilewater segment absolutely nails setting the scene. It's not supposed to be a fun time! It's supposed to make you feel uncomfortable, and it does so in a very effective way.
World-building in general is something that Silksong excels in, with Pharloom's many different regions giving off a real sense of place without feeling generic. There was a certain anticipation every time I stepped foot in a new area, map-less. I never knew what to expect. The general difficulty, I think, adds to this as well - I was always on edge encountering new enemies and hazards, and taking my time and playing cautiously further helped me to take in the surroundings.
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Bilewater is also a good example of Act 2's strengths. While Act 1 nudges you towards a fairly set path, the second act really opens up and gives you multiple leads and paths to investigate. The exploration-heavy focus of this part of the game is emphasised by a large number of optional areas that you can stumble across.
Bilewater is one of those optional areas, and initially I spent about an hour there before I gave up and turned back. Much later on in a different (also optional) area, I came across a tool that negated the effects of the maggots. And so, when I returned to Bilewater, I had a very handy advantage.
Elsewhere, there's an area in Act 2 that is heavy on platforming and that required me to pull off precise dashes and pogo jumps off spinning cogs as I made my way up to the top. It was a challenge, but a satisfying one. Hours later, I found an area that rewarded me with the double jump, which I am sure would have made the previous area much easier. Silksong really impressed me with how it lets you tackle Act 2 however you want, and it's probably my favourite act of the game.
The only real issue I have with exploration is related to the game's main currency, rosary beads. Every time you die, you lose all your rosaries and must return to the same location to retrieve them. Die again before doing so, and they're permanently gone. Rosaries aren't just used to buy new tools in shops - you also need them to acquire maps and to activate some benches, which are vital in making your life in Pharloom easier.
The reason why I think this Soulslike feature is at odds with the Metroidvania setup here is because it can restrict you from deciding to head in a different direction. The economy, like the rest of the game, is harsh and most of the time you want to get your rosaries back. There were times where I wanted to take a break from a gauntlet or boss encounter and explore elsewhere, but I couldn't because hundreds of rosaries were tied to that location.
Eventually, you hit credits and reach the regular ending by finishing Act 2, but you can unlock a third act by completing a number of side-quests (the 'optional' areas end up being mandatory at this point).
After enjoying the first two acts a great amount, I actually found Act 3 slightly underwhelming by comparison, partly because of its heavier focus on action over exploration. That's not to say some of the bosses aren't memorable, but there's a more 'start/stop' feel to the final act because progression is more often gated by combat encounters, some of which are among the most difficult in the whole game.
And if I'm being really critical, sometimes taking full advantage of your tools can take away some of the satisfaction from beating a difficult boss.
There are some powerful tool combinations, and one that I relied on combined cogflies and poison. For some bosses, I ended up getting through the first phase and then deploying cogflies and letting them attack and poison the boss while I focused on avoiding the boss's attacks, occasionally getting some cheap hits in.
It's weird because taking down bosses in this way does feel encouraged as long as you have plenty of shards to use your red tools (you don't even lose shards for some Act 3 bosses and encounters), but at the same time I feel like I slightly cheesed them. In these cases, I didn't feel like I fully mastered the boss's late-phase mechanics.
I'm grateful, then, that this strategy didn't work for me in Act 3's final boss. After numerous failed attempts, I changed my build for one that focused almost entirely on survivability and defence. Surviving for longer helped me in becoming more confident against the boss's patterns, including how to punish them and how best to position myself for them.
It took many more attempts after that, but I slowly gained consistency and I eventually took the boss down through learning, persistence, and execution, without using my poison cogflies. It felt really, really good, and was a fitting way to bring my time with the game to an end.
Silksong won me over. As someone who didn't have strong feelings towards Hollow Knight, I'm glad I gave the sequel a chance. It's easy to label Silksong as brutal, but it's much more than that. Pharloom may be hostile, but fittingly so and makes for an incredibly rich and rewarding place to explore. Hornet is a delight to play as, and even though the game made me work hard, I never lost my motivation to progress.
Platform reviewed on: PC