More than six years ago, Hollow Knight: Silksong, was announced to the public. Many fans of the original Hollow Knight were excited at the announcement of a sequel focused on the character Hornet, an antagonist from the first game.
In the beginning of the game, Hornet is shown to be kidnapped and taken to the land of Pharloom. Pharloom is a very strange place, ruled over by silk and song, in which its people ascend on a pilgrimage to the kingdom’s peak. Most of the people either die or get controlled by silk and turned into enemies that you face along the path.
At the time of the game’s announcement, I was not really into Hollow Knight. It wouldn’t be until a couple months ago that I ended up beating the game and learning about its extremely interesting and vast world. A running joke in the fandom was about how people were constantly saying Silksong is finally going to be announced, as very little updates were revealed about the game.
To my surprise, just a couple months later, Silksong would finally get a release date revealed and it was releasing in less than a month.
After falling in love with the first game, I was so excited to learn about the sequel finally coming out. The best part is that, just like the original game, the sequel was also really cheap. Despite how much content it has, the game is priced at just $19.99.
Now, when this game came out, I was ready and waiting to buy it, but, to my surprise, the Steam servers were down.
It seemed so many people were hyped about the game that it not only crashed the Steam servers, but also the Playstation and Nintendo online stores as well. Later that day, I would finally be able to purchase the game myself.
As of right now, I have 25.6 hours total within the game. While I am not done with the game yet, it has greatly lived up to my expectations so far.
The game adds on to what the original Hollow Knight had, giving the player a variety of different tools and fighting styles at their disposal.
Though it was somewhat difficult to get used to at first, it becomes fairly easy to understand the new game mechanics. The mechanics this time around allow for more traversability for the player, as the kingdom of Pharloom is very vast and more focused on climbing than the kingdom of Hallownest from the previous game.
Just like the previous game, the music and artwork of Silksong is genuinely some of the best and most beautiful that I’ve seen in a while.
The environments within the game are so detailed, from the old and hollow look of Greymoor to the ancient look of Bellhart.
I can’t help but to stop and admire each and every single environment. That is also a core factor to the Hollow Knight series in general. By taking the time to look around at the environment, you can learn so much about the world of the game. Hollow Knight has some of the best in-game world building I have ever seen, and the same can be said for Silksong.
The boss designs are also incredibly interesting. They are definitely a step up in difficulty compared to the ones in Hollow Knight, but they are so much fun to play through once you learn their patterns. Some of my favorite bosses in the game include Fourth Corus, a giant, ancient robot, and the Cogwork Dancers.
The Cogwork Dancers are, by far, my favorite fight. They attack alongside each other, but as the fight goes on, their movements become strayed from one another as the music goes from a very light and classical tune to a more intense and heavy one.
When you finally manage to beat one of them, the music suddenly goes somber, sounding like a tune from a dying music box.
The craziest and most inspiring part about Hollow Knight and Hollow Knight: Silksong is, despite how vast and large the game is, it was made by only three people, four if you include the music composer.
Team Cherry, the team behind the series, truly serves as inspiration for many aspiring indie developers with how they were able to create such an amazing series with so few people.
I can’t wait to see what else lies within Hollow Knight: Silksong as I dive further into the game and its many secrets, and what future projects Team Cherry may develop in the future.
If you have never experienced any of the Hollow Knight series before, I highly suggest looking into it. Even though the games can be difficult, they are decently priced and are such a joy to experience firsthand.