WARNING - This post will contain very minor spoilers to Hollowknight: Silksong.
Where We Stand
Last Time on DragonBall Z I talked about Silksong being a real game. A game you could play on September 4, 2025. A game that I, and myriad others, have been eagerly anticipating for nearly a decade. Well, I did not play it on September 4. You see, in my home we have a strict “no screens during the week” policy, and I lead by example. As such, my son and I frothed at the mouth until the following Saturday morning when we woke early, scarfed down the quickest breakfast ever, and booted up the game for the first time. As those first strings were plucked, we were immediately transported back in time to our first play-through of Hollowknight. Oh, Christopher Larken… how we missed your beautiful scores. We sat there in disbelief for a moment, but then immediately dove into the game we had both been dreaming to play for so long.
Now, I knew we would have a tough road ahead. Not because of the game’s difficulty or anything, but because of the house rule I would have to avoid spoilers for weeks or months depending on the length of the game. As such, I have been avoiding BlueSky, YouTube, Reddit… you name it. Basically, anywhere someone might put a spoiler like “Look at this boss I beat!”
As I pointed out in the previous post I like a lot about these types of games, but the thing I love most is getting lost and exploring the unknown. I see a ledge that’s just out of reach and I am immediately looking for ways to get there, be it using the intended game mechanics or sequence breaking. I find a breakable wall that leads me off the clear path in front of me and I cannot help myself. Not knowing where I’m going and maybe being rewarded for it is so much of why I play this type of game to begin with.
So, full discretion: we have beaten Grand Mother Silk in Act II (the first “final” boss), which unlocked the first (bad/false?) ending to the game. I’m trying to spoil as little as possible, so forgive my hand-waviness of the boss and ending. We have been playing for about half a calendar month, but only in the mornings on weekends; so, that’s roughly 40 hours of in-game time. For $20, I would call the game an absolute steal. We will be back at it this weekend looking for more things to do: bosses to beat, world to explore, quests to complete… we want more!
Review
After the opening cinematic, we (Hornet) are thrust into a lush green undergrowth called Moss Grotto. We are alone, save for our weapon - Needle, in an unfamiliar, yet oddly inviting and warm world and need to search for answers. Immediately, we are given the same experience as Hollowknight except that where that world was dark and forboding, this one feels warm and tentative; inviting us onward. The music starts with uplifting light vibraphone; the tone begs the player to explore in relative safety. Then the vibraphone gives way to strings which are playful but cautious. As it was with Hollowknight, Silksong progresses its story with an OST that perfectly fits each area, from this light opening to dark and looming later in the game.
The graphics beautifully mirror the musical accompaniment. The lust greenery, the simple enemies placed about to help teach Hornet’s mechanics, the subtle animations in the foreground, background, and primary player focus all play off one another in a purposeful dance. The theme of this game largely revolves around musical narrative, and don’t get me wrong - it does so beautifully, but the perfect balance between all the aspects of gameplay interweaved with the score is downright glorious. Every tense moment accompanied by musical foreshadowing and buildup. Every defeated boss delivered with the sound of accomplishment and relief.
I have written about Music in Games before, so it will come as no surprise that I was won over before ever leaving the tutorial area. I was immediately enthralled and back “down the well” into a new world, with new experiences, new challenges, and a new OST that had already swept me off my feet. I have since been catching up with my favorite YouTubers as I hit certain benchmarks, such as seeing their play-throughs of Act I once I had gotten fairly deep into Act II. I heard a lot of the same cheers around the music, art, and gameplay, but where I found the game enchanting on the whole almost everyone else seemed to be complaining about the same thing: the difficulty.
In Hollowknight, you played as the Knight. You started with 5 masks (health points, essentially), and would find upgrades to your mask pool throughout the game. By a huge margin - maybe 90%? - the enemies you would encounter would do a single mask’s worth of damage to you on a given attack. Few bosses in the regular game had attacks that would deal 2 masks worth of damage. The challenge modes in the game introduced boss rush events where bosses suddenly dealt 2 masks worth of damage to up the ante, but throughout the main game (even up to the true ending) most bosses did a single mask of damage.
Enter Silksong. Hornet similarly starts with 5 masks; however, the number of enemies who can deal more than a single mask’s worth of damage is off the charts. Simply running into little bugs will only deal a single mask, but some regular enemies have “grab” style attacks that deal 2. Most bosses will deal 2 mask’s worth of damage just by inadvertently bumping into them. Some bosses (and even a few enemies) deal 3 masks worth of damage on particular attacks.
Now, in Hollowknight your heal ability, which required standing still and focusing it for a moment, would take most of your Soul gauge and heal you a single mask. In Silksong you can heal at any point - on the ground or in the air - and is only a single button press rather than holding to focus. I feel like you also get more opportunities to improve your mask count earlier in Silksong making the extra damage still impactful, but not completely overwhelming. Hornet is also much more nimble than the Knight, so boss fights feel much more complex and fast-paced. To me, the learning curve feels much the same as the original Hollowknight, and I have yet to get stuck on a boss for more than 20-30 minutes. Without spoiling much, I will just say that so far my favorite fights are the First Sinner and Lace 2. These fights are daunting and it feels like you never get a moment to read/plan during them, but after grinding them and learning patterns for a bit, they became fun and manageable. Overall, I would say that the difficulty of Silksong is similar to that of Hollowknight - tough but fair.
Given that this is a game by Team Cherry, I know that there are bound to be multiple endings to experience. I am still avoiding spoilers as best I can to try and find them on my own. Given that we have been waiting so long, I would say it’s hard to express what my expectations were going in. Having played it, I am amazed and feel that the wait was well worth it. I feel challenged, I feel immersed, I feel hungry to find more, I feel happy to once again be engaging in this bug universe.
I think that mainly I am looking forward to finding out more about the game (more endings, more interactions, more secrets). I’m looking forward to those “WHOA!” moments. I’m looking forward to more challenging boss fights (despite what everyone else says). I am really looking forward to mossbag doing a deep dive into the lore. I am REALLY looking forward to understanding how this narrative fits into the broader story of Hollowknight.
After all, I have been calling it “Silksong” for 8 years, but it really is “Hollowknight: Silksong” and is part of that world. The original Hollowknight left us asking so many questions, and I want to know whether these games tie into each other in some way that answers them.