Hollow Knight is one of the most impressive independent games we've ever played - even years after its release, it still has an aura about it that we judge all other Metroidvania platformers against.
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We've known for years that Team Cherry is working on a follow-up game, Hollow Knight: Silksong, but with very little information beyond that. Here are all the key details for you.
Hollow Knight: Silksong release date
Silksong was announced to massive fanfare back in 2019 during a Nintendo Direct, and its first trailer is remarkably fleshed out for a game that then went pretty silent for basically four years.
It has plenty of clips of gameplay, but didn't end with a release date announcement at all. Years later, in June 2022, we saw the game again during Xbox's summer showcase, which pledged that it would show games coming out in the next 12 months. We now know that won't happen, as per an update from Team Cherry in May 2023:
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This leaves us without a clear release date, although there's still reason to be optimistic that the second half of 2023 could see further news and possibly even a release.
Hollow Knight: Silksong platforms
We can piece together a fairly clear idea of where you'll be able to play Silksong thanks to the various announcements. We know that it will be on Xbox Series X/S on launch day, and will be included in Xbox Game Pass at no extra cost, for one thing.
The game was first announced for Nintendo Switch, so you can be sure it'll come to that console as well, while a Steam page also indicates that it'll be on PC.
The one gap comes where the PS4 and PS5 are concerned - there's been no mention at all as yet of it hitting Sony's consoles, sadly.
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Hollow Knight: Silksong gameplay
From the trailers that have come out so far, it's easy to tell that Silksong is continuing where Hollow Knight left off in gameplay terms, giving you a new character to control but with the same fluid movement and zippy combat.
Hornet is much bigger than the Knight was, but her moveset is also completely new to us, and looks like it has a bunch of mobility built-in, from grabs and dives to special moves that zip her around on threads manipulated by her needle weapon.
We're not surprised that Team Cherry was able to get gameplay segments ready way back in 2019, given that Hornet was a character in the first game, so they must have had plenty of her design ironed out when starting Silksong.
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Still, the first trailer also reveals that there will be at least 150 new enemies to fight, and plenty of new sights to see thanks to an all-new world to explore. We're hoping the game can recapture the sense of mystery and tension that Hollow Knight managed thanks to its Souls-like experience system, which could see you miss out on plenty of experience if you died at the wrong time.
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It's also safe to assume that, like Hollow Knight, there will be a chunky post-game in Silksong for the most dedicated players. If you want platforming so precise it's almost laughable, and combat so unforgiving that it'll make you tear your hair out, we're sure Silksong will deliver the option of both once you've finished the main story.
Hollow Knight: Silksong story
We met Hornet during the course of Hollow Knight, initially as an adversary before convincing her to help us (depending on exactly what order you did things in), and the true ending of Hollow Knight has seen her left without the Knight at all.
We won't go into big details on why, for those who don't know how the game ends (or who got an ending that's less difficult to obtain, which is fair enough), but that means we don't actually know too much about what Hornet will be up to.
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The game could be a prequel, or it could see Hornet moving on to new lands but, either way, we know we're in a new setting with new bosses and therefore presumably a new "big bad" to replace the Radiance that was ultimately at the source of the malaise in Hollow Knight.
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