Courtesy of Team Cherry

Team Cherry proves to players that their years spent waiting were not wasted.

In April the game “Hollow Knight: Silksong” was revealed by Team Cherry, breaking a 3-year developer streak of silence and exciting legions of dedicated fans like us. 

The original “Hollow Knight” was released in 2017 and received widespread praise. 

In “Hollow Knight,” players explore a ruined subterranean kingdom of bugs as an insect warrior. It gained fame because of its deep and rewarding storyline, highly explorable kingdom, multitude of abilities and many difficult bosses. Later, it was expanded upon by four free content packs, earning its place alongside the greatest games of all time. 

“Silksong” was originally planned as another downloadable content pack (DLC) that would make Hornet, a major character in the game, playable. However, because the creators kept adding more and more features, the DLC was expanded into an entire sequel game.

The 7-year path to the release of “Silksong”

“Silksong” was announced in 2019, and the developers, Team Cherry, continued with sporadic updates until 2020, when they went nearly dead-silent. A trailer was revealed at the Xbox Game Pass in 2022 promising a release by June 2023 at the latest, but the release date was delayed in May with no specific date or year. 

No substantial news was released for three years, causing speculation that it was no longer in development, until it appeared with confirmation of a 2025 release in the special Nintendo Switch 2 Direct (the game showcase for games that would appear on Nintendo’s next console) on April 2 this year. Afterwards, the developers resumed communication up to its release, releasing a new trailer and other news. 

In an interview with Bloomberg, they revealed why it had taken so long: “It’s also that problem where, because we’re having fun doing it, it’s not like, ‘It’s taking longer, this is awful, we really need to get past this phase,’” said Ari Gibson, one of the two creators. “It’s, ‘This is a very enjoyable space to be in. Let’s perpetuate this with some new ideas.’”

When “Silksong” released on Sept. 4, it temporarily disabled online storefronts like Steam, the Nintendo eShop, and the PlayStation Store for several hours due to the sheer volume of people trying to buy it — a rare occurrence.

The game launched highly polished but still had a few issues. Its ratings were dragged down because of its subpar Chinese translation and complaints about its difficulty at launch, so it currently stands at a rating of 91% on Steam in contrast with its predecessor’s 97%.

“Silksong” gameplay features an expanded assortment of enemies, abilities and characters

As we played it, we found that the seven years of polish clearly shone through. The bosses are crafted beautifully, with the intense combat and engaging music to increase tension. 

The regular enemies of this game have also greatly improved. Not only are there over 200 enemies compared to the 150 in the original, but large and difficult arenas of opponents are far more common than in the original. 

In “Hollow Knight,” there were only three arenas, but all are confined to one location and feature similar enemies. This new system lets a variety of strategies shine, allowing players to creatively take advantage of the game’s heavily expanded arsenal.

“Silksong” also includes over 20 unique tools that the player can use in combat and encourages them to use every one at their disposal. While it is definitely harder than its predecessor, we believe much of its difficulty-related criticism can be attributed to people playing it without using their full arsenal. 

The tools also add variety to each boss fight. Nearly every single tool in the game is useful in some way to a particular playstyle, and tools can be swapped out for each other in order to be the best against a particular boss. 

Spoiler: Some tools that players may default to are useless against the “Father of the Flame” boss because of the enemy’s metallic nature, but the enemy being stationary opens even more doors. When we fought this boss, our poison tools proved ineffective against its metal hide. Instead, we used a drill tool that was very effective against non-moving targets. 

 

 

Unlike the protagonist of “Hollow Knight,” Hornet is much faster and more mobile. She can dash farther, sprint, climb walls, double jump, float in midair and use a new skill called the clawline, which acts similarly to a grappling hook or harpoon. 

Combined, Hornet never needs to walk, and her skillful movement makes every part of combat and platforming an attention-gripping experience. 

The overhauled combat system also includes a new feature: crests. Each one changes Hornet’s attacks — her weapon’s hitboxes, size, appearance and even the speed of strikes. This makes each crest useful for different things. The sweeping Reaper’s Crest is useful for platforming, while the speedy Wanderer’s Crest hits incredibly fast.

 

 

Each one also expands on different parts of Hornet’s arsenal. The tool-focused Architect Crest doesn’t let Hornet use spells, but this is replaced by the ability to equip more offensive tools. Meanwhile, the spell-focused Shaman crest only allows for two tools that can’t be used directly in combat, but it makes up for this with three slots to equip spells.

Finally, each one has a special ability. The Hunter’s Crest increases Hornet’s damage with a combo meter as long as she doesn’t get hit, and the Beast Crest lets Hornet temporarily enter a fury state where she deals more damage and heals on strike. Crests let each player play to their strengths, and they are an incredible addition to the game.

 

New plot structure adds to depth of gameplay

Not previously featured in “Hollow Knight” is the introduction of “acts” to the game’s story and structure. Each one changes the world of the game in varied ways and introduces new locations.

 

 

The first act is primarily located in the world’s wild, nature-prominent regions and poorer areas, where pilgrims seek to ascend to the top of the world. The second is set in the city at the seat of the kingdom’s government, with new enemies, challenges and an expansion to the plot. Finally, the third act completely changes the entire world of the game. It adds more difficult enemies, new locations and new versions of previous bosses. 

Each area in the new game is completely different from each other, and we really liked how Team Cherry made an effort to stop areas from feeling the same as places with similar themes from “Hollow Knight.” Many games fall into the trap of having a forest area, ice area, desert area, and so on for each game, but each area from “Silksong” is creative and different from Hollow Knight, such as the coral coves or lava underground.

 

 

Lastly, Team Cherry has introduced a quest system under the name of “Wishes,” which acts similarly to side quests one might encounter in other games, such as “The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom” or the famous “Grand Theft Auto” series.

These quests are a welcome addition: they give completionists — people who aim to complete 100% of the game — more to do, and can be a nice distraction from the main story. Some of these are even necessary to achieve the final act of the game, ensuring that players will fully enjoy every last bit the game has to offer.

 

Our final take: We loved “Hollow Knight: Silksong,” and we are both still exploring it on the path to completing 100%. It continues to challenge us, and the developers have made it clear that they still have more ideas that they’ll be adding to the game. After all, the only reason it was so late in the first place was that they couldn’t stop adding more to it. 

It easily deserves its 5 out of 5 Falcons, even without further updates. This expansion to the world and lore of “Hollow Knight” is phenomenal success, and we can’t wait to see what Team Cherry does next — we hope without a 7-year wait.

 

Rating: 5 out of 5 Falcons