In the years since its release, the indie action-platformer Hollow Knight has revitalized the metroidvania genre by combining it with a Souls-like formula. The resulting world filled with challenges, secrets, and organically-told story has made it a fan favorite and, in turn, caused its surprise sequel Hollow Knight: Silksong to be met with massive amounts of hype. However, developer Team Cherry doesn’t plan on making the same game; rather, it intends to design the experience around rival-turned-protagonist Hornet, and the new kingdom she is exploring.
The first Hollow Knight put players in the role of a mute knight who wandered into the fallen kingdom of Hallownest, but the sequel was designed to take everything from that description and turn it on its head. Hollow Knight: Silksong puts players in control of Hornet, who, having resolved her duties in Hallownest, now travels to Pharloom, a still-withered but much more populated kingdom ruled by strange, mystical forces. Hornet will need to use all the tools at her disposal, as well as favors from the inhabitants, to climb her way up to the Citadel. Already, it has been shown that Hornet is ascending, while the original’s knight descended into the bottom of reality itself. This is only the beginning of Silksong’s changes.
As noted above, Hornet can speak, and the first game’s knight could not. The ramifications of this will likely be felt almost immediately; Hornet is an active player in the story right away and likely has a much more direct way to involve herself in the stories of other characters. Hornet can strike up conversation with NPCs, ask them questions, and volunteer to perform tasks for them. It is rather unusual for a Souls-like to have a large cast of NPCs, but Silksong could get there. This is in addition to the noticeboards filled with available quests dotting the kingdom, encouraging players to constantly have some sort of ongoing objective as they navigate unfamiliar lands.
The ease and prevalence of taking sidequests is a radical change from the first Hollow Knight. While a couple characters there did supply players with tasks, those tended to span the entire map and were long-term goals to accomplish while exploring. Much of the side activities found in that game were simply things that were there in the world, and players could choose to engage with them if they wished. Silksong now has the opportunity to add a lot more story through its quests, and keep them localized to certain parts of the map. Considering all the value its action-RPG contemporaries add through their sidequests, this seems to be a worthwhile endeavor.
In the first Hollow Knight, the PC could equip a variety of badges that modified its abilities and conferred all kinds of benefits, and they could even be fit together to create surprising combinations. While the concept behind that system of setting up an equipment loadout is still present in Silksong, how it manifests is completely different. Over the course of her journey, Hornet will acquire crests that have different amounts of slots, which can be filled with a variety of different things, including weapons, consumable items, abilities, and perhaps other things as well. Players now have the chance to customize a Hornet distinct from any other Hornet.
To do this, they will need to craft Tricks. Like unlocking blacksmithing at Dark Souls 1’s bonfires, Hornet can now craft at benches. Throughout her expeditions, she’ll be picking up shards from defeated enemies. These shards can be used to craft a variety of tools, such as thrown pins, bombs, traps, and other such things. More shards will need to be used up to replenish tools, but on subsequent visits players should know what tools they really need to overcome a given area. While the knight had their own small repertoire of magical attacks, Hornet’s arsenal has the potential to eclipse it several times over. It will be interesting to see what players make of it once the game is out.
One thing players remember about Hornet from the first Hollow Knight is how swift she was. Even at the peak of the knight’s strength, he was still much slower than the acrobatic Hornet. This trait carries over to Silksong, giving Hornet the chance to dive and twirl through levels. Hornet is able to run faster, jump higher, mantle onto ledges, use enemies to gain horizontal distance as well as vertical, and can even gain a grappling hook, making her a force to be reckoned with. The developer has gone on record stating that the game’s design had to be reworked to accommodate Hornet, and while there will be more of a focus on combat than platforming this time, there will still be a host of new traps to circumvent.
Of course, all of that new mobility and power would be worthless without something to use it on. Hollow Knight: Silksong will boast more than 150 new enemies for Hornet to fight, and they won’t be going down as easily as before. Enemies will have new ways to pursue and attack the player, keeping them on their toes with more variety than ever before. Defeating foes will no longer be as simple as enticing them to fall into a pit, or springboarding on their heads repeatedly. Hopefully, these new foes will still be fun to fight, and not just frustrating like some Dark Souls foes.
On top of that, enemies deal more damage than their Hollow Knight counterparts, balanced by Hornet being able to heal more health pips faster. Every fight the player chooses to engage with will likely be a much more frenetic and kinetic affair, with death coming to both sides in an instant. Finally, once players have beaten the game, they can challenge it again in Silk Soul mode. This will be somewhat similar to the original’s Steel Soul mode, but will feature much more remixed content, so challengers beware.
It’s clear that even those who stuck with Hollow Knight through its DLC will have a lot to learn when Hollow Knight: Silksong drops. With so many changes, it may be alienating to fans of the first game, but at the same time, there is little reason to doubt that what Silksong is will be polished and well-received. Until a release window is set, fans will need to amuse themselves with similar games and hope for the best sequel Hollow Knight: Silksong can be.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is currently in development for PC and Switch.
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