Released on 4th September 2025, Silksong is Team Cherry’s most ambitious project yet. It also shares some of the same mechanics as Hollow Knight, while also demonstrating a richer, deeper exploration experience that included new mechanics that they wanted to reveal.
Protagonist and Story Premise
Image via: Nintendo
Players will be taken on a journey as Hornet, who is a supportive character in Hollow Knight. She is the princess of Hallownest. Hornet is more speedy and acrobatic than the mute Knight and takes a much bolder character than the more phantasmic Knight. The story of Silksong now implies, or may have confirmed, Hornet has been kidnapped and taken away from Hallownest to a different land called Pharloom, which is a very, and entirely, new area to discover, and is much bigger than her hometown. For all intents and purposes, her story begins once she has finished escaping her captors and the experience will entirely involve working through these lands. Greymoor is the first place; and is the largest game area which Team Cherry has designed.
Exploration and World Design
Image via: Team Cherry
Pharloom intends to add a scope and depth that surpasses Hallownest. It will include secrets, breakable walls, hidden upgrades, and unique NPC encounters, located deliberately throughout every region. The developers expressed they planned to design, in a tradition of focused wonder and deliberately rewarding curious exploration, which are inheritances from Hollow Knight and even Metroidvania designs of the present day.
Quest System
Hornet’s quest system indicates a structural disparity to the original game. Hornet can perform branches of quests that sit under the four categories, which are the Gather, Wayfarer, Hunt or Grand Hunt. It is implied that having four different categories helps cultivate awareness during exploratory periods, arousing curiosity with intent and providing a defined way to methodically explore again with purpose and tasks.
Currency and Crafting
Image via: Team Cherry
Silksong has two currencies:
- Rosaries: Like Geo, these are used for purchasing items or paying tolls. If you lose Rosaries upon death, you will need to acquire them again.
- Shell Shards: Used for crafting and repairing gear. Add a level of resource-management gameplay which Hollow Knight did not utilize.
Movement and Combat
Hornet’s gameplay is more about speed and agility. Developers noted, she is definitely faster than the Knight which affords them new opportunities for platforming and combat. Hornet heals faster, and being able to recover from damage during a high-stakes boss fight feels less punishing.
Difficulty and Genre
Image via: Team Cherry
Silksong is also a difficult Metroidvania, but Team Cherry has been clear in stating, while difficult, it is still fair and has progressive difficulty scaling. It combines Soulslike gameplay styles with accessibility, creating a medium of advancement for players in the game, but through pattern recognition instead of arbitrary punishment. It creates a medium for hardcore players who usually hate excessive handholding, while still accommodating to new players ready to check out all that classic Metroidvanias have.
Read More on games: 007 First Light: Official James Bond Casting and Release Date Revealed
Conclusion
Hollow Knight: Silksong will serve as a future platform for Metroidvanias, with significant improvements in story, scope and broader depth of gameplay systems. Silksong will be an exciting, detailed play that maintains parts of Hollow Knight while also being outrageously quirky and convoluted.
