Hollow Knight: Silksong Review

I remember back at Gamescom 2024, I interviewed more than fifteen indie studios—all of them working on metroidvania projects—and the majority cited Hollow Knight as one of their key inspirations. Now, years later, its long awaited sequel Hollow Knight: Silksong has finally been released, arriving with bold promises and high expectations.

During their Gamescom 2025, the developers behind the game—Team Cherry—announced that Silksong would feature a much larger world compared to the original, with an expanded map and a greater number of bosses to conquer. In this article, we’ll take a closer look at whether Silksong succeeds in capturing the brilliance of the first game, or if it gets tangled in the threads of its own lofty ambitions.

The narrative design of the original Hollow Knight placed a strong emphasis on environmental storytelling, which is why it was so often compared to soulslike titles. Silksong follows a similar philosophy: Visuals, environmental cues, and the evocative soundtrack remain the primary tools of storytelling. However, one major innovation sets Silksong apart from its predecessor. The game turns Hornet’s weapon—her needle—into a narrative device. At various points, whether near certain objects, NPCs, or even enemies, you can use Hornet’s weapon to play music. The fascinating twist is that this unusual interaction often unlocks hidden layers of dialogue, revealing crucial secrets about the world.

This clever integration of mechanics and narrative not only deepens immersion but also gives Hornet’s weapon symbolic weight, making it more than just a combat tool, it becomes a medium for storytelling itself.

Just like its narrative design, the soundtrack and audio design of Silksong—alongside its technical and artistic visuals—stand out as some of the game’s brightest achievements. With so much to unpack in terms of gameplay content, it’s best put simply: the music and visuals in Silksong deliver exactly the same level of excellence that defined the original masterpiece.

Let’s take a deep dive into the gameplay; When it comes to gameplay, things take a very different turn. In combat, Silksong introduces a new element called the Crest, which fundamentally reshapes the game’s battle system. Even without digging into every detail, it’s clear that redefining combat classes through this system is a major achievement for the metroidvania genre as a whole.

Unfortunately, the brilliance of this idea is undercut by several design missteps. The first major issue lies in how pogo mechanics are tied to each individual Crest. Unlike the original Hollow Knight, where you always had a consistent downward pogo attack, Silksong changes this depending on the Crest you equip. Some Crests allow a diagonal pogo, while others retain the familiar vertical strike.

This inconsistency creates real problems. Players naturally adapt to one Crest, but when switching to another, the platforming flow can suddenly feel awkward and disorienting. Getting used to a new pogo style takes time, which in turn discourages experimentation. As a result, many players may end up sticking with only a few Crests for the entire game, leaving the rest underutilized. Had the pogo mechanic remained consistent across all Crests—as in the first game—it would have given players far more freedom to experiment with different combat classes without disrupting the platforming rhythm.

Another key feature of the Crest system is the presence of multiple slots for equipping various tools. Over time, each Crest can unlock additional slots, allowing Hornet to carry a wide range of tools across defensive, offensive, and exploration-focused categories. But the appeal of Crests doesn’t stop there. As the game progresses, Hornet also gains access to numerous skills. Each Crest provides a dedicated slot for equipping one of these skills, further expanding the customization options.

Together, these mechanics significantly boost the replay value of Silksong, making each run feel fresh and encouraging players to experiment with different builds and playstyles.

Unfortunately, the Crest’s user interface undermines much of its exciting potential. For instance, certain skills and tools are mapped to the same button. As a result, in the heat of combat or during demanding platforming sections, it’s all too easy to trigger a skill when you meant to use a tool—or vice versa.

Environmental hazards and even minor enemy attacks deal significantly more damage than in the original game, often stripping away at least two of Hornet’s health masks. Within Silksong’s fast-paced combat and platforming, a single misstep like triggering the wrong skill or tool can easily result in death and reset your progress.

What makes this even more frustrating is that the game’s settings menu doesn’t allow you to separate skills and tools onto different inputs. They’re permanently tied together, leaving players with little room for customization or control.

If you think the problems stop there, think again. Silksong ties tools, grappling, healing, and even skills to Hornet’s limited Silk meter, much like mana in an RPG. But with the game’s fast pace, it’s easy to run out of resources at crucial moments—sometimes even failing a simple grapple—resulting in cheap, frustrating deaths born from poor design.

Some tools in Silksong also rely on a separate resource called Shards. Each time you recharge them, a portion of Hornet’s Shards is consumed. Since Shards are usually obtained by defeating mobs and have strict storage limits, you can only ever carry a finite amount. This becomes especially problematic during boss fights, where offensive tools tend to be the most useful.

Here’s where the microtransaction-like mechanic starts to hurt the experience: imagine attempting a boss several times, only to realize you’ve run out of Shards and can no longer recharge your tools. To put it into perspective, it’s like playing a soulslike where healing flasks don’t refill at bonfires but instead require a rare consumable item. The result is a system that disrupts the rhythm of gameplay, especially during the most demanding encounters.

The frustration doesn’t end there. Poorly placed checkpoints make this issue even worse. Consider how FromSoftware’s early Demon’s Souls relied on long stretches of backtracking—a design choice that was gradually refined and ultimately perfected in Elden Ring, where a clear checkpoint is placed before nearly every boss fight. That change wasn’t accidental; it happened because developers realized forcing players through tedious backtracking kills momentum. Silksong, however, oddly reverts to this outdated design, forcing players into unnecessary fatigue rather than rewarding persistence.

This lack of care in checkpoint placement even renders the game’s shortcuts meaningless. It’s no exaggeration to say that Silksong’s uniquely designed map becomes a victim of this simple yet costly design mistake.

Before the game’s release, developers promised that Silksong would feature more boss fights than the original. After launch, however, the reality feels more complicated. The bosses can largely be divided into two categories. Roughly 30% of them are beautifully crafted encounters, reminiscent of the first game, with superb design and memorable mechanics that truly deserve praise.

The remaining 70%, however, are far less impressive. Many of these so-called “boss fights” feel more like the Colosseum stages from Hollow Knight’ than true boss encounters. Typically, you face an elite mob or a larger version of a standard enemy, that continuously summons waves of smaller mobs. The result is less a duel with a distinct boss and more a chaotic brawl against an army of ordinary enemies.

To make matters worse, these summoned mobs can hit just as hard as the boss itself, sometimes taking away two health masks per strike. Death in these encounters rarely comes from skill-based challenges; it comes from poor design. Add in the flawed Skill/Tool input mapping—where pressing the wrong button in the chaos can spell instant failure. Now layer on long backtracking and the possibility of running out of Shards to recharge your tools, and frustration quickly outweighs the thrill of victory.

On the other hand, platforming in Silksong has seen remarkable improvements. Unlike the Knight from the first game, Hornet can sprint or dash across walls, and the addition of ledge-grabbing makes her movement even more flexible. Jumping also feels different depending on whether you’re running or walking, adding subtle layers of control. In short, platforming in Silksong is a clear step above the original, and it’s incredibly addictive.

All things considered, Silksong introduces exciting new systems: the Crest mechanic reshapes combat, while Hornet’s expanded mobility elevates platforming. Yet, despite these innovations, numerous design flaws prevent this gem from truly shining at its full potential.

In the end, Silksong is undeniably a good game; One that grew out of what was originally envisioned as a DLC and has now been released as a full-fledged sequel. Yet, the numerous gameplay flaws, both large and small, hold it back from reaching the status of a near-perfect masterpiece like its predecessor.

Score: 85/100