Hollow Knight: Silksong (2025)

Hollow Knight: Silksong (Switch) La verdad que ya pasó la época en la que tenía ganas hace tiempo, y no esperaba demasiado. Sin embargo tengo opiniones. Es un juego precioso en lo visual, con muchas ideas buenas y otras no tanto. El tema es que las que no tanto pesan mucho. La OST no brilla igual, las oleadas de bosses ya estarían, las maratones para llegar a los bosses pues tal y las misiones con estructura de 1997 pues no son muy estimulantes. Las herramientas me han dado igual, y que dependan de consumibles me parece una idea de diseño cuestionable, pero el control sigue siendo igual de preciso que siempre, y los bosses una delicia. Y la historia me ha vuelto a dar exactamente igual. Un tema.

Roll Credits?: Yes!

Surprised/Let Down/As Expected: Surprised

Favorite Mechanic or Narrative Moment: The worldbuilding (in both the lore and mechanical sense) is unmatched here. The world is massive - constantly expanding from areas you thought had to be the edge of map. Each new zone adds to the history of what happened in Pharloom, and the designers delight in hiding important things that you might never see without a guide in a way that few do in this era of streamlined, intentional game moments. All of this culminates in a modern day retelling of the inverted castle which doesn't disappoint in the slightest.

Least Favorite Thing: The only negative I really felt while playing was in regards to some of the obtuseness or ease of overlooking hidden items/npcs and their importance in progressing certain content. But even then, some of that I would chalk up to my own impatient tendencies, and thinking back on the experience I know that it was more memorable because of this design.

Silksong expands on the world of Hollow Knight, as well as the movement and combat. I loved Hollow Knight for the exploration, the rich and interesting world, and the comfortable movement mechanics when exploring that world. So, being in a new kingdom with new enemies, bosses, areas, music, items, and mechanics is very refreshing and was an incredible experience.

I think that, in expanding on these things, Silksong is technically a better game than Hollow Knight, though I prefer Hollow Knight. I will spend the rest of this review explaining why I prefer the first game over this sequel. It may sound negative, but I want to be clear that I do think Silksong is an amazing game for the same reasons that Hollow Knight is.

I played Hollow Knight a couple of years ago, when it already had its status as a legendary indie game, and after all of its DLC content was released. This means my experience with Hollow Knight was an experience of a fully polished and updated game. Silksong was just released and has no DLC content. Maybe my opinion of Silksong is skewed because it was such a highly anticipated game and I went into it with lots of expectations. Mostly, these expectations were met, some were exceeded, and others were not. Overall, I just didn't enjoy Silksong as much as I did Hollow Knight.

I loved Act I, because I was dropped into a whole new world and had so much to anticipate. each new area and ability was fresh and exciting, and I couldn't wait to uncover more. I didn't have a problem with the difficulty, though I had heard how others were struggling. The boss fight at the end of Act I was difficult but doable, but Act II was where I started to understand the difficulty complaints.

Pretty much any enemy, as well as each of their individual attacks deals two masks of damage in Act II. It made exploration difficult and annoying. Every boss became a hassle, rather than a fun combat challenge. I'm not fully against high-difficulty games, but I hated the high density of this high difficulty. Every enemy is annoying. Every area is annoying. Every boss is annoying. It is fine for a game to be hard, but it is also fine for me to be annoyed by this.

Like I said, I love these games for the exploration, the rich and interesting world, and the comfortable mechanics of exploring that world. But the exploration was also worse in Silksong than in Hollow Knight. Everything is hidden behind a secret wall and I felt a lot more lost when exploring. I couldn't figure out how to get into the "Cauldron" area of The Citadel because the part of my map that I needed to explore showed that I had already explored it. This same issue happened multiple times, which I don't recall happening at all in Hollow Knight.

I completed Act II without even getting the double jump and having left at least 5 areas unexplored (because I didn't even know they were there). I was shocked when I completed the game because I thought there was more to do. It turned out that there was more optional content and a third act, which I wouldn't have known if I hadn't looked it up. I wanted to get to Act III because I wanted to explore more and was unsatisfied by the abrupt ending. It took me 20 hours to beat Act II initially. Now, I am at 35 hours without even having entered Act III. I'm not going to keep playing because I'm just not enjoying exploring. And by "exploring", I mean following a guide.

Again, Silksong is a great game and these are all problems that affected my personal enjoyment. It reminds me of Jedi: Survivor as the sequel to Jedi: Fallen Order. I think the sequel is technically better, but I didn't enjoy it as much. this is why neither Silksong nor Jedi: Survivor is in my "When The Sequel Is Better" list. But Ori and the Will of the Wisps is in that list because it expands on the world and introduces new mechanics while still being a delight to play.

The game expands on what the original in a delightful way.

It is pretty much the perfect metroidvania experience.

I feel there isn't much to say as this is almost overtalked about all over the web.

The one thing I think is worth mentioning is tha exploration feels extra-rewarding in this one, and that is one of my favorite aspects of the genre.

Even if I had a great time with it, I can't shake the feeling that it didn't hit me as hard as Nine Sols did.

Although I appreciate that Hollow Knight: Silksong will be available on Game Pass at launch, my initial feelings about it have shifted a bit, largely because I've been replaying Hollow Knight. My initial response to the fact that it launches on Game Pass led me to say:

Nice thing about it coming to Game Pass is I can save my pennies for the inevitable physical edition.

Yet a week into playing the first game, and as I enter into the last third of the game and start completing the aspects required to face the Radiance I fear I don't feel the same. Yes, I will be buying a physical copy of Silksong, as nothing can change that, but I so fundamentally enjoy Hollow Knight as a handheld game that I can't imagine being stuck sitting on my couch playing it on my Xbox. And streaming it to my Steam Deck won't cut it. No, I need a handheld copy at launch. Whether that's a Switch copy (if that is still happening at launch) or a Steam copy, either will do. I suppose then it seems I won't be saving any of my pennies at launch.

Hey everybody. The time to replay the original is now. My uncle works at Nintendo and...

I feel it in my soul that Silksong is soon. Plus I already started playing Hollow Knight again, and man, it holds up. I got to the first-ish boss which is that mother fly. It is so well directed that after you kill it, a bunch of baby flies pop out which you also must kill but do not offer any geo (the in game currency). It is the kind of sharp directing that both makes sense in the world of Hollow Knight and drives home the sadness of the world.

Look- any excuse to replay Hollow Knight is a good one in my book. So Silksong trailer is a good excuse.

Tune in May 11 at 7:00 a.m. PT for a new @IndieWorldNA Showcase featuring roughly 20 minutes of information on upcoming indie games headed to Nintendo Switch. #IndieWorld

Watch it live here tomorrow: https://t.co/OCOJhqYfD9 pic.twitter.com/5nuNImMLB0

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) May 10, 2022

Before people start making jokes about whether or not Silksong will be featured in tomorrow's Nintendo Indie showcase, let me say this.

It will not!

I'm so sure about this, I've posted a little something in the forums that will be fun if I am wrong. If you are a Hollow Knight fan that is excited for Silksong, be sure to check it out: Hollow Knight: Sliksong @IndieWorldNA?