Less than twenty-four hours ago, I finally rolled credits on one of the most grueling and intense gaming experiences of my life. I clawed my way into The Citadel for revenge and dove to the depths of Pharloom in order to save a doomed world. I met a wonderful cast of characters and formed bonds with the meekest of pilgrims and the strongest of warriors. I suffered frustrations and loss as well as triumphant victories. Throughout my nearly sixty hours with Hollow Knight: Silksong, I experienced about every emotion possible in human existence. And I wouldn’t have changed a single thing about it.
I don’t know where Team Cherry will go next from here, but they have solidified themselves as one of the best indie game studios of all time with Silksong; I will be along for whatever ride they have to offer.
Welcome to Pharloom
Silksong begins with Hornet, having been captured by an unknown group of bugs, escaping from her captors, and seeking out revenge against those who kidnapped her. Keeping in line with Hollow Knight, Silksong’s story leaves a lot open for interpretation and requires exhausting NPC dialogue, exploring environments, and piecing things together for yourself. Those familiar with souls-like games will feel right at home with this style of storytelling. It gives the player just enough to intrigue them and to have a vague understanding of what is going on, but if you want to know every detail and fully understand the story and lore, you’ll have to do some legwork of your own to get it.
I was enraptured with the world of Silksong from the moment I began the game. The world of Pharloom has such a unique and charming personality with every new location that makes it an absolute joy to discover and explore. Each locale contains so many details that breathe life into the world and tell a story about how it came to be and who inhabits it. Silksong’s art also goes a long way in bringing these locations to life. The beautiful hand-drawn art by Ari Gibson is breathtaking and is key to building the atmosphere of the world and its characters. Speaking of characters, Silksong has such a strong and diverse cast that deserves recognition. Every character you meet in these locations has a story and organically fits into each area. Parloom is so well-realized that it’s understandable why it took over six years for Silksong to be released since it was announced.
By the end of the game, I was motivated to save Pharloom, not because the game told me to or for the sake of completion, but because I wanted to save the people of Pharloom and give them hope when all seemed lost. Few games can create such a powerful connection with me that finishing them feels less like checking off a goal and more like fulfilling a personal duty to protect their world. Every victory and every loss felt like the next step needed to achieve this duty, and every single one of those steps was well worth it.
The World at Large
Besides the numerous boss fights and enemy encounters in Silksong, a vast amount of my time was spent exploring every nook and cranny of Pharloom. The sheer size and density of the world are nearly unrivaled in the Metroidvania genre. I cannot tell you how many times I was left shellshocked by the discovery of yet another new and unique location or would break through a wall and be rewarded with what seems like an endless maze of caverns to explore. Some would argue that the reward for exploration might not always be worth it, though.
The economy of Silksong is incredibly stingy. Rosaries, Silksong’s currency, are scarce, and carrying large quantities of them is a huge risk. In typical Soulslike fashion, you drop your rosaries upon death, and if you die again before recovering them, you lose them all. After years of playing FromSoftware games, I’ve become used to the feeling of losing a large amount of whatever currency they are calling it for that game after sloppy play and have become practically numb to the pain that comes with it. Silksong manages to bring back that fear and pain. By making Rosaries more difficult to come across, especially in the early game, they have revitalized that stress that comes with carrying thousands of Rosaries and needing to get back to town to spend them all. I really like how they managed the economy to make every last bead matter in some way, and I think that it was smart of them not to shower the player with them at all times. I do wish bosses dropped rewards after beating them, however. There is just a little bit too little fanfare upon beating a boss for there to almost never be a reward for doing so other than to move the story forward.
Make a Wish
Every hub in the world will have a Wishwall for Hornet to interact with and hear the wishes of other bugs. Granting these wishes either rewards Hornet with rosaries, a new tool, access to a new feature or area, an upgrade, or progress in one of the numerous side stories connected to a member of the cast. I was constantly revisiting towns and Wishwalls around Pharloom to complete these quests, as they offer a lot of the most challenging and rewarding moments in Silksong. Having to track a ferocious beast in The Marrows only for its mate to then attack the town of Bone Bottom led to one of the most emotional moments in the game for me and let me know just how much my actions impacted Pharloom and its inhabitants.
There are also other wishes you can find outside of towns and hubs with NPCs that live out in the wild that are usually pretty well hidden. One of these wishes I discovered in one of the first areas of the game, dozens of hours after I had thought I had already cleared it earlier. There are so many secrets and hidden areas to discover throughout Pharloom that it is nearly impossible to discover them all on your own. I sparsely scrubbed through each area as much as possible and consulted with others online about possible secrets and hidden areas, and still managed to miss hidden boss fights and areas. I ended up finishing the game at 98% completion, and you better believe I am going to be jumping back in to knock out whatever that last 2% is.
It can not be overstated enough just how much there is in Silksong. It is overflowing with ideas and content, and it excels at almost every one. This is especially true considering that Silksong was released at only $20. With the current landscape of gaming and publishers pushing to jack up the prices of every release, it is wonderful that Team Cherry decided to launch at such a low price and not give in to the greed that is flooding the medium.
The Will to Go On
Let’s get to the main talking point of Silksong and the reason you probably clicked on this review: yes, Silksong is a VERY difficult game. It is one of the hardest games I’ve ever completed. I died ad nauseam to some bosses or encounters and had to backtrack through areas in order to reach these encounters again. Countless hours were spent navigating narrow corridors while fighting for my life and begging to find a bench to rest at or a bell station to travel with. I broke through secret walls to uncover massive areas that would be filled with creatures out for blood. Silksong does not hold your hand from the start and expects the player to be aware of just how much danger they are in at all times.
However, this difficulty is earned. Anytime I was stuck on a boss, I could feel myself getting better at the fight after each attempt. The game does a great job of teaching you how to survive and gives you so many weapons and upgrades to help fight back against the game. I was able to find out what passives worked best for my playstyle and found which tools gave me the best chance to eek out a victory. The satisfaction of overcoming the challenges of Silksong is as good, if not better, than any accomplishment I made in one of From Software’s games.
There were a few times I felt a particular boss runback (looking at you, Bilewater) was excessive or that an encounter may have been a bit overtuned in its difficulty, however. There are also one or two bosses that have way too many minions that they spawn, which adds too much randomness to the fights. In a game with such tight controls and high difficulty, it is a hard pill to swallow when you take a hit and feel like there is nothing you could have done to avoid it. Despite this, I don’t think I would change these encounters or shorten the runbacks if I had a choice. Yes, running back through an area over and over again can be frustrating, but I think that having to do a lot of these runbacks helped me understand the intricacies of Silksong’s controls and systems to make me better at the game. Going back and watching captures of myself playing Silksong in the early hours showed me just how much the game had trained me and how much better I was by the end. It made me appreciate just how satisfying the combat and learning curve of Silksong really is.
Difficulty is such a hard thing to balance in a video game, and there is a conversation to be had about when a game is artificially amping the difficulty versus a game that is trying to push the player to improve and truly understand what it is asking of you. There are a lot of people who will hit a wall and become frustrated or uninterested in putting themselves through the work of getting to that point, and I completely understand that. Not everyone wants to be pushed that hard or play a game that demands so much from the player. Does that make Silksong a bad game or too hard? Absolutely not. It just means that it isn’t trying to be a game that everyone can enjoy, which is what every game should be. Team Cherry had a clear vision of what they wanted with Silksong, and they are uncompromising in that vision and should be applauded for it.
Worth the Wait
To say that Silksong blew me away is an understatement. I enjoyed Hollow Knight and thought it was fun, but I wasn’t as blown away as others. I came into Silksong expecting more of the same and for Team Cherry to expand a bit on the foundation of Hollow Knight. Instead, Team Cherry dismantled that foundation and built something fresh and new while maintaining the spirit of Hollow Knight. It seems like almost no idea was turned down during development, and they managed to fit them all in without feeling bloated.
Is Silksong perfect? Not at all. There are little tweaks here and there that could be made and some unforgiving runbacks that test the player’s skill and patience, but I never stopped having fun while playing Silksong. There is too much love, care, and sheer brilliance radiating off of Silksong that overshadows any small shortcomings or questionable design choices. It’s not for everyone, but for me, Silksong stands on its own as a monumental achievement that should not be missed.
Disclaimer: Hollow Knight: Silksong was reviewed on PlayStation 5 and purchased by the reviewer.
