4/5 ★ – xeothe19th's review of Hollow Knight: Silksong.

System Played(s): PC Tagline: Feels much the same as before, except not as good. Overview: I finished Silksong yesterday after defeating the final boss. My total Playtime for the 100% completion?: 83h25m40s. In that time period, I dropped the game for something that pulled me in harder (Xenoblade Chronicles 2), resolving myself to come back once I finished that game.Since then I watched a lot of other reviews and video essays on Silksong in preparation for this review.. To me, this is an important one. The original Hollow Knight is one of my favourite games of all time (Bloodborne, Hollow Knight, P5R), so I wanted to give Silksong the attention it deserved, being a direct follow up to such a profound experience in my life. I finished Godhome on my first Hollow Knight playthrough on the Switch in early 2020, including the Pantheon of Hallownest. It was during that specific piece of content where I remember, sitting in front of a flatscreen in a basement apartment, thinking to myself “What am I doing with my life”, as I repeatedly practiced the Watcher Knights fight in the solo boss arena in the early hours of the morning after a sleepless night. It wasn't a difficult fight, but it was positioned right before the Pure Vessel in the Hallownest Pantheon. I was trying to take as little damage as possible moving on to the next stage. It was a vastly different time in my life, right as the world was entering lockdowns for a global pandemic, uncertainty about timelines in Canada, unsure what I wanted to do in life. So many things in my life were swirling around in a vortex over which I felt I had no control, and yet there were the Watcher Knights, and there was I, and the Pantheon of Hollownest. I perfected the fight, I defeated the pantheon, and I stared at the screen as my very first playthrough of Hollow Knight came to a definitive close. I thought to myself “What a masterpiece of a game” as the Godhome ending played and the credits rolled again. I knew someday, I would be back. Since then, I played and completed Hollow Knight multiple times after, doing things I didn’t get to do before. I played the game on Xbox Gamepass and beat the one hit Zote fight for the Golden Zote statue. I made tutorials to help my sister along in her playthroughs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIb6EhXOhac, and generally had a great time (even as I watch that review, it makes me want to replay Hollow Knight). I write all this to say, Silksong feels different. The fact that I had to take a long break from it to play something else already spoke volumes. Something is wrong with this game, and it took me a while to realize that there were a lot of compounding factors, leading to an intensely less enjoyable experience than the original. This overview section is long, but I need to lay out my thoughts as to why I felt this disconnect, and I will attempt to do so: Hornet is not the Knight. She is relatively taller, and a more imposing figure. She was shown to be powerful (one of the bosses in the original), and when fighting other bosses, she is of comparable size to them. When you lose, there is this subconscious feeling of disconnect. As the tiny Knight, you were able to overcome colossal bosses, twice, up to 10 times your size. Hornet losing to bosses the same size as her feels wrong, but it’s not immediately apparent. Only watching myself defeat Grimm in the video I posted above brought that intuition to the surface. The bosses should have been scaled up, since Hornet does not match the power level she was presented to have in the first game, now that she is the playable character. Gameplay feels too chaotic. There is too much visual clutter on the screen. This is the feeling for most boss fights. In the end, even when you win, it does not feel deserved, or like a triumph. It feels like, this run, I lucked out because the clutter on the screen arranged itself in a way I could take advantage of the situation. Due to this, the many bosses do not feel memorable (perhaps there were also too many, I remember all the bosses I fought in the original game, while when watching a boss tier list video for silksong, I could not for the life of me remember “Watcher at the Edge”). I did not like the red tool system at all. Maybe, if it were not a finite resource, I would have engaged with this system more. They should have replenished at a bench, instead of being tied to a currency to use them. I was more inclined to experiment with silk skills, blue and yellow tools, and different movesets for the crests (I used them all at one point or the other, gravitating towards, in order: Shaman, Hunter, Beast). I still did use some staples, like Cogflies and the boomerang, but I would use them to close a fight, or thin trash mob herds so I wouldn't have to rely on them. Mobility, while improved, didn’t feel that way. It looked visually sloppy (ledge grab and hover), while not being as precise on the inputs (sometimes I would downwards pogo with Hunter and be pointed in the opposite direction I intended). The lack of an equivalent to the Shade Cloak also made contact damage a huge problem (exacerbated by 2 mask contact damage on some bosses). Also, Shade Cloak was just super cool, why axe it? Lack of a sense of adventure. The build up was good at the start. Everything after Coral Chambers (early Act 2) felt mid. Act 3 was a slog, in that all areas were already discovered, and it was more of teleporting to a Bellway, going to the nearest checkpoint to the boss target, and essentially running a boss gauntlet. This was made worse by entire sections being closed off by Void debris and not being noted as such on the map. Every enemy has a tendency to jump away at Hornet’s approach, flying enemies being the worst contender, and an equivalent to Abyss Shriek wasn't introduced in this game. Even some bosses tend to back off when Hornet approaches. This, coupled with the flimsy mobility tools (why do some mobility tools cost silk? Terrible decision) Upgrades did not significantly feel impactful. I didn’t get a new tool, or a new nail upgrade and feel excitement, like I did with new skills in Hollow Knight. Even the movement traversal options that opened up more of the map for me to explore didn’t feel game changing. This is a sequel, building up on much of the core fundamentals of its precursor. The novelty is gone. But still, there’s more that keeps me from feeling the need to return. I’m at a vastly different time in my life. Full time job, and the constant chase for more prevents me from devoting as much time and attention as I did with the original game. While certainly a factor, it could definitely have drawn me in more (like XC2). Gameplay (8/10): I already covered much of my qualms about the gameplay in the overview, and this will probably be a recurring theme from here on out. Some extra points here: Hits on enemies did not feel as satisfying (the sound effect changed? Feels less weighty). Combat being balanced around 2 masks (just reduce the amount of masks Hornet has) Combat as a whole feeling less precise and meaningful, instead being a mess of mobility tricks, explosions, constant dodging and repositioning. The purpose was to make it more dancelike, but a dance with too many steps just ends up being less thoughtful on each individual step. The philosophy should have been to improve on Hollow Knight’s fundamentals, not revamp the combat system. Even games like Elden Ring have precise combat, though evolved from the original games. Finally, artificial difficulty. Removing Shade Cloak should have mitigated contact damage (some bosses have egregious hit boxes in this game), gauntlets before fights with annoying flying enemies, removing the floor for some boss fights like Nyleth, bosses being able to nullify/parry attacks with no windup guard animations. All very poor decisions in the long run. With all that being said, the story was still intriguing, Hornet was an enjoyable if not haughty protagonist, the characters were very charming (The shamans and Sherma), and Pharloom was enjoyable to explore for the most part (barring some areas, but that complaint could be extended to Hollow Knight as well). Some of the set pieces and sequences were amazing (escape from the Lava, the Last Dive, duel with the Pinstress atop Mt Fay). The true ending was also :’) Graphics + Performance (9.5/10): No complaints here. I could literally run this on a handheld and still net 120fps, this game is well optimized, I have no complaints. The graphics still retain the handcrafted artstyle from the original. The bugs were still charming as ever (though I miss the little worms). Soundtrack (10/10): Christopher Larkin is a genius, and one of my favourite composers ever. The OST for Hollow Knight was ever present on my reading playlist, and already, I’ve added tracks from Silksong (Moss Grotto, Greymoor, Coral Chambers, Bilewater, Last Dive). Every track was perfectly placed to heighten the emotion of each scene. Can’t wait to see what this guy works on next. Replayability (7/10): And the main problem of this game. I felt exhausted at some point during my playthrough, leading me to switch games. And even when I came back, I was reinvigorated to try again, but still couldn’t wait for it to end. After the credits rolled on the true ending, I had no desire to replay the game again like I did with the original. Maybe when expansions come out? Even then, I don’t feel excitement at the upcoming expansion promised for 2026. I might even skip out on it entirely. Conclusion (8.5/10): The original was a 10/10, and I’m scoring this 8.5 for many reasons. The price, and the love and care given to this game by the developers. The continuation of the story from the original game. Maybe the timing was off? Maybe a sequel will always fall prey to comparisons (though rightly so, I believe). If this game had been the original, I would have probably seen it differently. There’s a reason so many people give up this game before completing it. And though I can't narrow it down to one definitive thing, I feel like I did a pretty good job relaying the tiny grievances that built up over time to eventually become the fatiguing feeling that people feel when they play this game. One day in the future, I’ll come back to this game, and this review, and see if my feelings have changed.