In Silksong, players will control Hornet, the former princess of Hollow Knight's fallen kingdom of Hallownest and a prominent supporting character from the original game. The story follows her as she is captured and transported to the mysterious new land of Pharloom, where she must navigate a vast, interconnected world filled with unique enemies, challenging bosses, and intricate environments. The game expands on the combat and traversal mechanics introduced in the first title, incorporating Hornet's agility and needle-based combat, as well as adding a quest system to encourage exploration and discovery.
Originally planned as downloadable content for Hollow Knight, the project grew in scope over time, prompting Team Cherry to announce in February 2019 that it would instead become a full standalone sequel.[2]
Gameplay
Gameplay screenshot showcasing Hornet in combat with three enemies.
Hollow Knight: Silksong's gameplay is set to be similar to its predecessor Hollow Knight, featuring 2D platforming and combat. Some changes are made from the original, such as Hornet moving with a more acrobatic flair compared to Hollow Knight's protagonist, and that healing is faster. Side-quests will be part of the game, and include a journal to keep track of them.[3] This includes a quest system divided into four categories titled Gather, Wayfarer, Hunt, and Grand Hunt, which are provided by the non-player characters or by quest boards.[4] Two new currencies will be introduced: Shell Shards and Rosaries. Rosaries are planned to act similarly to Geo from Hollow Knight, with them mainly being collected after defeating enemies, and with them being lost upon death. However, if they are put on a string, they will not be lost. The game will also feature "crests" and "tools", the latter of which are confirmed to be craftable, and require Shell Shards to repair.[4]
Team Cherry has stated that Silksong will be very large, with it featuring over 200 new enemies, over 40 new bosses, and around 100 different "benches" throughout the game world, compared to over 140, over 30, and 51, respectively, in Hollow Knight at launch.[5][6] One of Silksong's areas, "Greymoor", is one of the biggest Team Cherry has ever created.[7]
Premise
The former Princess of Hallownest, Hornet, is captured and inexplicably brought to the Kingdom of Pharloom, a kingdom described as being "haunted by silk and song". Hornet then takes on a deadly pilgrimage and begins to ascend to its peak, and discovers ancient secrets tied to her nature and past along the way.[4][8][9]
Development
Hollow Knight: Silksong was originally planned as downloadable content for Hollow Knight. Eventually, due to the increased scope of the project, Team Cherry decided to expand it into a full sequel.[2]
In a Bloomberg article in August 2025, Team Cherry co-founders and co-directors Ari Gibson and William Pellen gave further detail on the game's development. They stated that their original vision for Silksong involved the game having a smaller world than that of Hollow Knight, instead implementing a quest system to encourage revisiting areas within the world, but that they progressively expanded the game's map as development proceeded.[10][11] The team decided to limit their communication about the game's progress during development, explaining that they wanted to focus their energies on the development process itself and that they wanted to avoid revealing too many of Silksong's secrets before release.[10][12]Bloomberg hypothesized that reasons for Silksong's lengthy development process included the small size of Team Cherry, as well as the developers' focus on delivering a finely tuned experience—Pellen was paraphrased as saying that "the last year or two [of development]" was focused on adding polish and additional detail to the game.[10]
Gibson described the development of Silksong as "enjoyable" and "very satisfying"; he and Pellen both recounted that they could have continued expanding the game but forced themselves to stop in order to avoid delaying its release further than necessary; they will instead add extra content in post-release updates, like they did for Hollow Knight.[10][11]
Release and promotion
Hollow Knight: Silksong was announced on 14 February 2019 in a trailer, with a developer diary video sharing more information.[2] Since the announcement, per GameSpot, "updates have been sporadic and infrequent".[13] The developers released an update in March 2019, sharing descriptions and images of characters who will appear in Silksong. They thanked the game's fans for supporting them regarding the announcement of the sequel.[14]Silksong was playable during E3 2019, at the Nintendo booth,[15] and a Nintendo Treehouse livestream additionally showed off the game.[16] Team Cherry released a new blog post soon after this, which mentioned that the area "Greymoor" is one of the biggest they've ever created; the post also explained further gameplay details.[7] In December 2019, Team Cherry released a preview of the soundtrack, composed by Christopher Larkin, as well as an update on the total number of enemies developed (which was 165 at the time), with a focus on a trio, described as "members of a scholarly suite."[17]
In June 2020, Team Cherry began a series of riddles that revealed non-player characters and short videos of Silksong once solved; these riddles continued into July. One of the characters revealed was "Seth", who was created by an ill fan of the same name, who wished to meet Team Cherry.[18] In December 2020, an issue of Edge revealed details about Silksong, with multiple screenshots and quotes from Gibson and Pellen.[19]
An article in PC Gamer from February 2022 showcased Pellen stating that Silksong was still in development despite the lack of updates since December 2020, and said that more details would be revealed as it got closer to its release.[20] A new trailer was revealed at the Xbox & Bethesda Games Showcase in June 2022, revealing that Silksong would be released on Xbox Game Pass at launch, with the game being available through the service for PC and Xbox Series X/S.[21] While no release date was announced, the XboxTwitter account stated in a tweet that all games in the showcase will be released within twelve months, implying they expected a release by 12 June 2023.[22] In September 2022, Sony confirmed in a separate tweet that the game would come to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.[23] Team Cherry marketing and publishing director Matthew Griffin declared on 10 May 2023 that the game was delayed, stating "We had planned to release in the first half of 2023, but development is still continuing", and to "expect more details from us once we get closer to release."[24]
On 14 February 2024, which marked five years since the game's announcement,[25] Griffin posted on Discord that Team Cherry was "...still hard at work on the game."[26] After nearly a year of silence, in January 2025, in response to rumors online,[27] Griffin said that Silksong was still in active development, was progressing, and was still planned for release.[28][29]
During the Nintendo Direct on the then-upcoming Nintendo Switch 2 system, which aired on 2 April 2025, Silksong was presented in a sizzle reel, where it was given a 2025 release date, alongside some new footage.[30] Soon after, Nintendo sent out new screenshots of the game to press.[31] On 1 May, IGN announced that Silksong would appear at ACMI's upcoming Game Worlds showcase, which will open on 18 September 2025. The exhibit was confirmed to include sprites from the game, information on boss fights, and the ability to play Silksong. They also shared a partial spritesheet of Hornet.[32] On 8 June, Silksong appeared at the 2025 Xbox Games Showcase, as part of the reveal trailer for the ROG Xbox Ally. It was confirmed to be available on the console day one; the console is planned to release in Holiday 2025.[8] Soon after this announcement, Griffin clarified that the game would release before Christmas 2025, and that it is "...not tied to a console release."[33] On 30 June, ACMI posted an Instagram story that revealed new sprites of Silksong, alongside development sketches.[34] They later announced a 65-page Silksongzine, that will notably include a new Team Cherry interview, on 3 July. The zine will be available as exclusive merchandise at ACMI's Game Worlds exhibit.[35]
On 28 July, a new Silksong demo was announced to be playable at the Xbox booth during Gamescom 2025, which started on 20 August;[36] the demo was later confirmed to be playable at the Nintendo booth as well, on 7 August.[37] On 19 August, Team Cherry—breaking their infamous radio silence[38]—announced that they would have a "special announcement" on 21 August.[39] A Bloomberg interview with Gibson and Pellen was also announced to release on that day; it was stated to "explore why Silksong has taken seven years to develop."[40] Also on 19 August, Silksong appeared at Gamescom Opening Night Live, where it received new footage.[41] Two days later, the Bloomberg interview was published,[10] and the "special announcement" aired on YouTube; it was the game's release trailer, which ended by revealing that the game would release on 4 September 2025.[1]
The announcement of the game's release date just two weeks prior to its release caused several other indie games originally set to release around the same time to be delayed for fear of being overshadowed by Silksong,[42][43][44] while some, such as Dark Deity 2 and Cronos: The New Dawn, are keeping the release date as they intended.[45][44]
Reception
Pre-release
The playable Silksong demo at E3 2019 received critical praise. IGN writer Tom Marks liked "its combat and movement even more than the original", and said "Silksong has the potential to be even better than the original."[46] Ozzie Mejia of Shacknews praised the "tremendous amount of detail in the environments and in the backgrounds".[15] Writing for Game Informer, Matt Miller prematurely called Silksong a "worthy sequel", stating "the portion of Hornet's adventure on display maintains the tradition of excellence established by the original."[47]Nintendo World Report writer Melanie Zawodniak praised the speed in which Hornet could traverse vertically, as she believed such movement was "a bit too sluggish in Hollow Knight." Despite the short play-time, the demo made her certain that "Team Cherry [is] putting just as much of their skill and passion into the project as [in] their debut title".[48]
The demo at Gamescom 2025 was given similar praise. Writing for Destructoid, Adam Newell called the demo "stunningly beautiful with its lush visuals and animations", and stated that he was "hooked from the start."[49]GamesRadar+ writer Josh West stated "there's an attention to detail in its visual and audio design that's scintillating to experience. The play itself is smooth, Hollow Knight's occasional sharp edges sanded down to ensure that movement and motion is the star."[50] Writing for Game Informer, Wesley LeBlanc stated "if what I played today is any indication, Silksong will follow in [Hollow Knight's] steps – I really enjoyed what I played."[51]
As of late August 2025, Silksong is on roughly 5.2 million Steam users' wishlists, making it by far the most-wishlisted game on the service.[52][53]
Awards
After Hollow Knight: Silksong won the "Most Anticipated Game" award at the Unity Awards 2021, Team Cherry thanked the community for their support and said "It can't be too much longer, surely!"[54]
Due to the game's long development cycle, fans would often hope for Silksong news to appear at video game showcases. After repeated no-shows, the fans eventually would consider this hope illogical, so they used clown imagery to signify this, with the most popular image being an edited screenshot of Hollow Knight, showing its protagonist wearing a clown wig and nose.[59][60][61] The meme was referenced by Geoff Keighley in August 2024 and 2025.[60][61]
Starting on 16 January 2021, the YouTube fan channel Daily Silksong News began tracking and reporting updates on the game's status every day, leading to over 1600 uploads; most of which have stated "there has been no news to report for Silksong today";[62][63][64] the game received its release date on day 1,679,[64] and will release on day 1,692.[63] The channel's host, Araraura, was interviewed twice by PC Gamer writer Harvey Randall.[62][63]
Since Silksong often received minimal news for lengthy periods of time, users on the Silksongsubreddit began creating elaborate fake posts, known as "Silkposts", to trick readers into thinking there had been Silksong news. This has become a viral phenomenon in the subreddit.[65][66][67][68] In July 2025, the subreddit "sacrificed" (banned) four users in order to "secure Silksong's release", which received coverage due to its absurdity.[67][69]
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
