After seven years of memes and hope, Hollow Knight: Silksong finally arrives—and it’s a faster, harsher, richer Metroidvania that makes ascension feel like obsession.
If you’ve been anywhere near the internet since 2018, you know Hollow Knight: Silksong wasn’t just “another indie sequel.” It was the Rorschach test of hype—equal parts patience, prophecy, and punchline. On September 4, 2025, Team Cherry finally opened the gates. Storefronts buckled under demand; Steam and console stores stuttered as players stampeded in; within the first half hour, the concurrent player count blasted past 100,000 on Steam alone. That’s not a launch—it’s a tectonic shift for a hand‑drawn bug opera.
It helps that you can play it almost anywhere. Silksong landed day‑and‑date on PC and Mac/Linux (yes, really), plus PS4/PS5, Xbox One/Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and Switch 2—and it’s on Game Pass day one. Even better, it’s priced like a love letter rather than a ransom: $19.99.
So the question isn’t “Was it worth the wait?” so much as “What did Team Cherry spend all that time building?” The short answer: a sequel that turns descent into ascent, swaps stoic Knight for needle‑wielding Hornet, and re‑threads nearly every system into something sharper, faster, and more demanding. The long answer is everything below.
A Kingdom of Up—Verticality, Velocity, and Pharloom
The original Hollow Knight was a pilgrimage downward, an elegy to a dead kingdom sunk in memory. Silksong flips the compass. You’re Hornet, captured and carried to Pharloom, climbing toward a shining citadel at its peak. The geography feels like a manifesto: where Hollow Knight smoldered, Silksong burns upward—all switchbacks, chimneys, and sky‑hungry chambers that nudge you to learn, then master, momentum.
That momentum belongs to Hornet. She’s acrobatic and aggressive, wielding a needle and thread that make fast footwork a way of life. Team Cherry frames it plainly: Hornet “learns incredible silken abilities” and crafts deadly tools, then faces over 200 ferocious foes along the climb. That last number matters—each new micro‑dance partner refines your movement vocabulary, pushing you toward that intoxicating rhythm where it looks like improvisation but feels like fluency.
Combat That Clicks Like Scissors
The most consequential change isn’t just that Hornet is faster—it’s how she sustains herself under pressure. Instead of the Knight’s soul‑powered Focus, Hornet builds silk and Binds—a snap‑fast heal she can even perform mid‑air. It’s powerful but not free: an early Bind drinks your entire spool of silk. Get clipped during the animation and the heal fizzles; mismanage your meter and your bravado collapses. It’s a brilliant bit of risk design: Silksong turns defense into tempo, rewarding players who create half‑seconds of safety through movement. Die and you leave a silk cocoon—a tactical resource you can pop later for an edge.
Mapping returns, but even that changes tenor because Hornet talks. She’s curt, yes, but it reframes how the world meets you. You’ll meet Shakra, a cartographer‑adjacent helper whose charts and compasses echo Cornifer without repeating him. It’s familiar in structure—benches, fragments, area maps—but subtly different in feel. Pharloom may be haunted, but it isn’t mute.
The New Grind: Quests, Wishes, and Why the Side Paths Sing
Where Hollow Knight sprinkled optional threads like secrets in the walls, Silksong systematizes side content. Towns host Wish boards (think community request boards) and NPC questlines that track in a journal, from bite‑sized errands to sprawling monster hunts. What could’ve been busywork becomes wind in the sails—quests often reward tools, resources, or breadcrumbs that alter the route you take through Pharloom. It’s the rare quest system that respects the Metroidvania loop, moving you through the world rather than pulling you out of it.
The design is intentional; Team Cherry spent years tuning progression to deepen backtracking with purpose. The result is a sense that the kingdom itself wants you to poke its corners, not just for completion’s sake but to sculpt your build and broaden the combat tactics you can express.
Difficulty: A Needle With Two Points
Let’s address the thorn: Silksong is hard. Not “optional Pantheon DLC” hard—early‑game hard. The level of aggression in encounters rises quickly; invincibility windows feel tight; some benches hide behind gauntlets that verge on puckish. PC Gamer captured the vibe perfectly: players are “wrestling” with a game that “stabs you and kicks you for crying about it.” That’s not a complaint so much as a warning label. If the original only clicked for you after 20 hours, Silksong might ask more, earlier.
For many, that ask is thrilling. The sequel reads like a conversation with veterans: you wanted me to push back? Fine. Bring your A‑game. The payoff is that signature ballet of parries, pogo strikes, needlesnaps, and silk‑timed binds that turns a nightmare boss into an elegant duet—once you learn the steps. GamesRadar’s early review‑in‑progress puts it well: Silksong is “worth the wait,” evolving the formula, but it can feel fiddly when the same forward‑leaning dive that’s joyous in combat complicates delicate platforming. Fair. The game’s highs come with some stumbles.
Art That Breathes, Music That Haunts
Ari Gibson’s painterly 2D craft was already top‑tier, but Pharloom lets Team Cherry flex. Gilded cities, coral forests, misted moors—the palette is richer, the silhouettes busier, the animation snappier. It’s still unmistakably Hollow Knight, but with more gleam and bite.
Then there’s Christopher Larkin. The composer returns with a score that leans more orchestral and muscular without losing that fragile, melancholic thread. Several boss themes are thunderous; area tracks refresh their motifs as you climb, mirroring the loop of mastery the game asks of you. As a standalone listen, the soundtrack’s been warmly received for its broader scope and dramatic spine. In game, it’s oxygen.
Performance and Platforms: Where Should You Play?
On Xbox Series X|S, the official store listing flags 60 fps+ and a 120 fps mode, with the usual modern comforts (Smart Delivery, cloud saves, Play Anywhere). On Switch 2, multiple outlets reported a 120Hz TV Mode option that trades some resolution for silk‑smooth motion—a tempting toggle in a game where timing and clarity matter. On PC, as ever, the ceiling is “how wild is your monitor.” The upshot: Silksong runs well basically everywhere, with credible high‑frame‑rate paths on current‑gen consoles.
(If you’re on macOS or Linux, rejoice: this isn’t a late‑to‑the‑party port. It’s there at launch, and it’s live on GOG.)
Launch Wobbles: Translations, Crashes, and the Cost of Being Big
Beyond the storefront meltdowns on day one, the most notable friction has been Simplified Chinese localization. Chinese‑speaking players flagged the tone as over‑stylized—more wuxia novel than Hollow Knight—and the Steam rating in that language slipped to “Mixed.” Team Cherry’s publisher/marketing lead acknowledged the issue and promised improvements. It’s a reminder that when an indie becomes a global event, every comma carries weight.
How Long, How Big, How Satisfying?
How you answer that depends on how deeply you hook into the side content. The main climb will land around the 20‑plus‑hour mark for most, but Silksong’s real depth blooms if you let the Wish quests, boss hunts, and optional challenges braid into your route. The density of distinct enemy behaviors (200+!) plus Hornet’s craftable tools gives you more ways to approach the same problem—and more reasons to reroute through a region you thought you’d “finished.” It’s not just bigger. It’s busier in the right ways.
Verdict: A Sequel Built for the Faithful—And a High Bar for Everyone Else
Silksong doesn’t try to reinvent Hollow Knight. It tightens it, then tilts the whole board. Hornet’s rhythm—the all‑gas footwork, the snap‑heal Bind, the needle precision—pushes the series toward a more assertive, expressive combat loop. The quest system keeps you engaged in the world rather than in menus. The art? Still sumptuous. The music? More commanding without losing the ache.
Is it harder? Yes—aggressively so in the early going. Will that alienate some? Also yes. But if your favorite moments in Hollow Knight were the trials that demanded mastery, Silksong gives you that feeling sooner and more often, and when it clicks, it’s galvanic.
Critics are already circling the top of the scoreboard—OpenCritic has it at a “Mighty” 92 as reviews roll in—and the player zeitgeist is a roar. The seven‑year meme became a game. A really, really good one.
Play it if:
- You love Metroidvanias that reward movement mastery.
- You want a world that still hums with secrets, now with structured sidequests to chase.
- You relish a challenge that punches first and apologizes never.
Maybe skip (for now) if:
- You bounced off the original’s difficulty, especially pre‑upgrade.
- You’re allergic to backtracking, learning boss patterns, or getting lost on purpose.
Score: A razor‑bright 9/10 — one of the genre’s new gold standards, and a confident ode to the original’s spirit.
