There's something magical about finally holding a game you've dreamed about for years. When I first booted up Hollow Knight: Silksong on September 4th, 2025, I had to pause for a moment and pinch myself. After what felt like an eternity of delays, memes, and countless "Silksong when?" comments across the internet, Team Cherry's masterpiece had finally landed on my screen.
Seven years. That's how long we waited for this moment. Seven years of theories, speculation, and increasingly desperate hope that maybe, just maybe, this would be the year. And now, having spent the past weeks immersed in the haunting kingdom of Pharloom, I can confidently say that every single day of that agonizing wait was worth it.
The Weight of Impossible Expectations
Let's be honest – Hollow Knight: Silksong had perhaps the most impossible task in modern gaming. Its predecessor wasn't just beloved; it was revered as a masterclass in Metroidvania design, a testament to what a small indie team could achieve with passion and relentless attention to detail. Following up on that legacy would be challenging enough under normal circumstances, but Silksong carried the additional burden of seven years of accumulated expectation.
I remember playing the original Hollow Knight back in 2017, completely unprepared for how deeply it would affect me. The melancholic beauty of Hallownest, the precision of its combat, the way it trusted players to piece together its environmental storytelling – it was everything I loved about video games distilled into one perfect package. When Team Cherry announced Silksong in 2019, originally planned as DLC but expanded into a full sequel, I thought we'd be playing it within a year or two.
How naive I was.
But here's the thing about waiting – it changes you. Every delay announcement, every cryptic developer update, every false hope raised by a gaming showcase only to be dashed by silence, it all becomes part of the story. By 2025, Silksong wasn't just a game anymore; it was a cultural phenomenon, a meme, a shared experience of collective anticipation that bonded an entire community together in mutual suffering.
Meeting Hornet: A Princess Worth the Wait
From the moment Hornet breaks free from her cage in that opening cutscene, Silksong announces itself as something special. This isn't just "more Hollow Knight" – this is a completely reimagined experience that honors its predecessor while fearlessly charting new territory.
Playing as Hornet feels like switching from a methodical chess master to a graceful dancer. Where the Knight was deliberate and heavy, Hornet is swift and acrobatic. Her needle and thread combat system creates a completely different rhythm of play, encouraging aggressive, flowing movement rather than the Knight's more defensive approach. The first time I successfully chained together a dash-attack combo while simultaneously grappling to a higher platform, I felt that familiar Team Cherry magic – the moment when complex mechanics suddenly click into place and make you feel like a master.
But it's not just the mechanics that make Hornet compelling; it's her personality. The Knight was a vessel, mysterious and empty by design. Hornet is vibrant, determined, and gloriously sarcastic. Her interactions with Pharloom's eccentric cast of bug NPCs inject genuine personality into every encounter. When she quips at a particularly pompous merchant or shows unexpected gentleness toward a frightened child, these moments feel earned rather than forced.
Pharloom: A World That Lives and Breathes
If Hallownest was a decaying kingdom frozen in time, Pharloom is a living, breathing organism that pulses with chaotic energy. The visual design is nothing short of breathtaking – Christopher Larkin's haunting score weaves through environments that feel both alien and oddly familiar. The Moss Grotto's sun-dappled clearings give way to the industrial nightmare of Cogwork Core, which then transitions into the ethereal beauty of Bellhart's floating gardens.
Each area tells its own story through environmental design. In the abandoned coastal town of Deep Docks, you can almost hear the echoes of merchants hawking their wares in better times. The way morning light filters through broken windows in Silk Cradle creates moments of unexpected beauty amid the danger. These aren't just levels to traverse; they're places with histories, inhabited by creatures who feel like they belong there rather than being randomly placed obstacles.
Team Cherry's approach to world-building has always been to trust players to piece together the narrative through exploration and observation, and Silksong takes this philosophy even further. The introduction of the "Wishes" quest system – essentially side quests delivered through environmental storytelling – gives structure to exploration without sacrificing the series' signature sense of organic discovery.
The Beautiful Brutality of Challenge
Let's address the elephant in the room: Silksong is punishingly difficult. This isn't Dark Souls difficult, where death teaches you patience and observation. This is Team Cherry difficult, where every enemy encounter demands precision, every platforming section requires perfect timing, and every boss fight becomes a test of your dedication to mastering Hornet's moveset.
I won't lie – there were moments when I wanted to throw my controller across the room. The Widow boss fight alone took me over four hours to complete, a brutal endurance test that pushed every aspect of my Hornet mastery to its absolute limit. Two-mask damage attacks, environmental hazards that appear just off-screen, trap switches that punish hasty exploration – Silksong delights in keeping players on their toes.
But here's the thing that separates good difficulty from cruel difficulty: fairness. Every death in Silksong feels like a learning opportunity rather than cheap punishment. When I finally defeated the Widow after dozens of attempts, my victory wasn't just about muscle memory or lucky timing – it was about truly understanding the fight, reading attack patterns, and executing a strategy that I had slowly developed through trial and error. The game's faster healing mechanics and more generous checkpoint placement show that Team Cherry learned from player feedback without compromising their vision.
Technical Artistry That Redefines Beauty
Running Silksong at 120fps on my gaming setup revealed just how much care went into every single frame of animation. Hornet's movements flow with balletic grace, her needle trailing silk threads that catch the light in ways that make simple traversal feel like performance art. The hand-drawn sprites maintain incredible detail even during the most chaotic combat encounters, with particle effects and environmental animations creating a living tapestry of movement and color.
The sound design deserves special mention. Christopher Larkin's score builds on the melancholic foundation established in Hollow Knight while introducing new themes that perfectly capture Pharloom's unique character. The way Hunter's March's poignant strings swell as you explore the ruins of an ancient civilization, or how Cogwork Core's mechanical rhythms help you time your platforming – music and gameplay integrate seamlessly.
The Evolution of a Formula
What impresses me most about Silksong is how it evolves the Metroidvania formula without losing sight of what made the original special. The introduction of tools that require Shell Shards to repair adds a resource management element that encourages experimentation. The Crests system allows for character customization without overwhelming complexity. Silk skills unlock through exploration rather than linear progression, maintaining that sense of organic discovery that makes every new area feel like a genuine adventure.
The map system has been refined to provide better guidance without sacrificing the joy of exploration. New traversal abilities unlock at a steady pace, constantly reshaping how you approach familiar areas. By the time you reach Act 2 and see the full scope of Pharloom's map, the sheer scale becomes apparent – this world is massive, with secrets tucked into every corner and multiple paths through most areas.
A Community's Vindication
Playing Silksong feels like vindication for an entire community that refused to give up hope. Every inside joke about delays, every meme about "Silksong when?", every moment of shared despair when another gaming showcase passed without news – it all becomes part of the story. The fact that Team Cherry delivered not just a worthy sequel but genuinely one of the finest games ever made in the genre feels like proof that sometimes, just sometimes, good things really do come to those who wait.
I've watched streamers break down in tears during the opening sequence. I've seen hardened gaming journalists admit they never thought this day would come. The collective release of pent-up anticipation has created a shared cultural moment that transcends the game itself. Silksong isn't just succeeding as a video game; it's succeeding as a communal experience that brings people together through mutual appreciation of artistic excellence.
Perfection Was Worth the Wait
Hollow Knight: Silksong is more than just a sequel – it's a statement. It proves that taking the time to perfect your vision, even at the cost of external pressure and community frustration, can result in something truly transcendent. This isn't just one of 2025's best games; it's one of the finest examples of game design artistry I've ever experienced.
Yes, it's brutally difficult. Yes, it will test your patience and skill in ways that might make you question your sanity. But beneath that challenging exterior lies a game crafted with such obvious love and attention to detail that every moment feels precious. From Hornet's fluid movement to Pharloom's breathing world design, from the haunting musical score to the perfectly balanced progression system, Silksong represents indie game development at its absolute peak.
Team Cherry took seven years to deliver this experience, and I wouldn't change a single day of that development time. In an industry increasingly driven by rushed releases and live-service models, Silksong stands as a monument to the power of patience, perfectionism, and uncompromising artistic vision.
To everyone who waited, who doubted, who memed their way through the years of silence – you were right to believe. Hollow Knight: Silksong is everything we hoped it would be and more. It's a masterpiece that justifies every moment of anticipation, a game that will be studied and celebrated for years to come.
Sometimes the best things in life really are worth waiting for. In the case of Silksong, seven years of waiting has given us something approaching perfection.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is available now on PC, PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch platforms. Prepare to die, repeatedly, and love every minute of it.
