Like many players out there I’m slowly but surely making my way through Hollow Knight: Silksong.
I adored Hollow Knight and was excited to see its sequel finally see the light of the day, but I’d be lying if I said I thought it was a better game than its predecessor, at least at the moment. While the game is challenging and the in-game economy a little bit excessive I haven’t rolled credits yet for one reason and one reason only, the game’s too big.
Like other metroidvania’s Hollow Knight: Silksong has you huffing it from one location to the next, slaying whatever stands in your way and collecting items that unlock new paths several areas prior.
There’s a lot of back and forth and while I’ve never minded that style of gameplay in titles like Super Metroid, Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night and, of course, Hollow Knight, something about Hollow Knight: Silksong’s world design just isn’t hitting the same.
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I think it’s the lack of upgrades personally, or rather how few and far between they are. Not trying to say I have a low attention span but when I play metroidvanias I always feel a profound sense of progression from picking up even the simplest of items, like something that’ll boost my health or a new ability. It’s one of the reasons I liked Hollow Knight so much as exploring felt worthwhile, and backtracking when I had a new movement ability like the dash or double-jump didn’t feel tedious, the sign of a well-designed metroidvania.
Hollow Knight: Silksong has all of that, but there’s far more downtime in-between those little wins, and when my aimless wandering leads to yet another room where I get jumped by waves of enemies for little to no reward it kills my appetite for exploration.
I mean just look at a map comparison between Hollow Knight and Hollow Knight: SIlksong. The difference is insane and while I’m glad Team Cherry have been able to do more than they probably ever thought possible with the sequel it’s clear why so many have been overwhelmed.
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Combine that with the game constantly trying to separate your rosaries from your wallet to buy maps, benches, key items and more, it’s made it quite a frustrating journey so far, but one I’m inevitably going to stick with until the end.
Again, I’m glad we have more Hollow Knight but surely there’s such a thing as too much? I’m thoroughly enjoying the game but it feels like I need to lock-in and play for a few hours at a time to feel like I’m really accomplishing anything.
We’ll see if my opinion changes by the time I roll credits, but for now my main criticism with the game isn’t the difficulty or even the in-game economy, it’s the map itself.
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