The Silksong Problem

If you'd asked me a month ago what I'd write about Hollow Knight: Silksong, I would've laid a twenty on the table and said "Not a chance it's anything but paragraphs and paragraphs of praise". Yet here we are in the introduction of a piece that I plan to be essentially a critique - an effort to propose that the game is in fact best experienced by those not familiar with its predecessor, and fans of the first game might even have a 'near-miss' attitude towards the seven-years-in-the-making second title from beloved developers Team Cherry.

But just because that's the thesis doesn't mean I can't talk about why the game still reaches the highest tier of prestige in the eyes of millions, and why Valve had to whip out the fire extinguishers on launch day since their servers caught fire globally. It captures the very essence of Hollow Knight and expands it threefold. Mechanical uniqueness is taken to another level, somehow above the precedent set by Team Cherry in 2017 - one that few games have matched since. Environmental storytelling, atmosphere, and immersion are all at the core of the game; the 'Oh shit, it's been four hours' variety of being totally engrossed. Primarily exploring themes of religion, maternity, and artificial life, it pulls no punches in the lore department either.

There is plenty of evidence to argue that it's a better game than Hollow Knight. I just think it would've been even better... without the existence of the former. Call it nostalgia if you like, but every hour I sank into Silksong, the more I felt something missing. A feeling, one that you can't stop getting in Hollow Knight. Multiple playthroughs and several any% attempts later, I think I might be able to articulate just what was nagging the back of my brain. Back in late 2018, a younger me sat bored on a beanbag scrolling the PlayStation store. Flash forward 20 minutes I've finally pressed install on a little game called Hollow Knight (who would've guessed), and before you know it I'm reading what might genuinely be the first ever poem 12-year-old me has ever read, and it's written by an oversized jellyfish that appears to you in dreams. Intro-cutscene. A cute yet empty-looking horned figure is wandering a dimly-lit, damp, possibly abandoned cobbled road. They reach a cliff overlooking the unknown, gazing upon unseen mysteries and adventures, the very wind howling at them to take the leap. And without an ounce of regret, it jumps. Who is this traveller? Is this a settlement they're in? What are they doing here? And why is it so fun to type Monomon? All questions would be answered. And therein lies the secret ingredient. When you first play Hollow Knight, you know nothing. And I mean nothing; the only information to be gleaned from the Steam store page is 'a vast ruined kingdom of insects and heroes', which does nothing short of raising a few questions. You play the entire game blind, every single aspect is a surprise. You know only what your silent, emotionless character knows. From unlocking a nail that accesses dreams, to unleashing shrieking souls from the abyss, from a one-on-one with a maggot, to challenging the sun - you will leave with your mouth permanently agape. When you first play Silksong, you know a fair bit (particularly if you're me). Not because I was spoiled or anything, I avoided everything possible - I even went so far as to only watch the reveal trailer 14 times. I went in knowing my character, Hornet, knowing what to expect from the environment and the kingdom, and knowing what abilities I might unlock. The biggest surprise of the whole game was the difficulty (or maybe that Hornet didn't once say "SHAW"). I don't think I ever got lost.

I always knew my current objective, where to go to progress the main story and the new side missions.

Before you interject, I know this is all just good game design - who wants a game where you don't even know what goal you're working towards? I guess what I'm trying to vocalise is that the game has a reputation before you even install it. When I first played Hollow Knight, it was on a whim, a gamble on a good time, and I was completely blown away. The reason Silksong blew up Steam, Xbox, and PlayStation stores, was because millions of people knew what they were getting into, and they knew they wanted to get into it. And Team Cherry knew this. They knew their player-base contained a huge number of people who held Hollow Knight dearly in their hearts, and they took advantage of that.

This brings me to Act 3: Abyss.

There's very little explicit reference to Hollow Knight before Act 3, but following the void consuming Grandmother Silk (a moment that made me literally shout "Void!" in my bedroom), the nostalgia-laced fan service comes thick and fast. Void appears, the snail shamans' disguises are removed, we have an entire flashback sequence to Hallownest, and the cherry on top is the appearance of Sprintmaster Swift (even though he looks like the dashmaster charm - what's with that?).

This entire act is engineered towards returning players, with precision accuracy. I think it's telling that the most jaw-dropping moments in the game happen merely by virtue of it being a sequel.

You see this in the design of the rest of the game too: Similar map vendors, the same trifecta of dreams to enter, Lace as a substitute for Hornet in the first game, simple keys, bellways - the list goes on. When a formula works of course it's going to be used again, but maybe I wanted Team Cherry to deviate just slightly more from the recipe - sprinkle in a little 'unexpected' maybe.

For most people the game does deviate enough, and I obviously agree it's deserving of its critical acclaim. But when I'm bored, I'll load up Hollow Knight before Silksong every single time.

I suppose I should loop around to the thesis statement. New players have a better experience with Silksong than returning ones (*up until Act 3, where Team Cherry would've been better off nodding to Hollow Knight without making it so obvious that they strained their neck).

A new player can have the journey I had with Hollow Knight, but with an even more intricate and detailed universe.

But I'll always recommend playing Hollow Knight first.