What can I saw that hasn't already been said by the thousands of other people who have already played and reviewed this game? I wasn't on the initial hype train for Hollow Knight. In fact I played it a few years later after all the DLC was released and the only community was modders and speed runners. I am not a speed runner. I am just your average guy who has been gaming since I was a kid. This is not a game I beat in 1 sitting or even in one long stretch of playing it. In fact I took a few month break from this game for one of the Pokemon games that released while I was trying it out.

It was and is a difficult game that caught my love for it with its simple charm. Initially I bought it on the Switch store on sale for $7 but I loved it so much I later bought a physical copy to keep forever. If Silk Song releases a physical copy you can damn well know I will buy it again, damn you Team Cherry making me buy this master piece multiple times. I write this review now because of how big SilkSong is and some people joining the Hollow Knight community and playing these games for the first time. 

You do not play as the titular Hollow Knight in this game but as a silent protagonist called simply The Knight or by his 1/2 sister Little Ghost. You get dropped into a little tutorial area that teaches you how to heal, jump, and swing your nail killing a few of the passive and less passive mobs in the area. When you finally break the large sealed door keeping you from Hallownest The kingdom this game takes place in. The first area you find is a tiny little down with every building boarded up called Dirtmouth and an old friendly elder bug to talk to. He tells you everyone who used to live her went down the town well to go descend into Hallownest proper. At this point you make your way down and the game opens up. Its a linear path at this point going to collect your first spell, defeat a few bosses some mask shards and this games upgrade system called Charms, which are quite charming. Not gonna like I wouldn't mind owning physical copies of. As you delve deeper into this dying land you get movement, health, soul (which is this games version of Mana), and various ways to improve your nail or spells. As you gather those you find some still sane denizens in the depths and some will reappear as fellow adventurers in your story, be shops, or appear back up in Dirtmouth. Eventually you find your way into the sealed city of tears where you find out that everyone in a very dark souls style is just mindlessly walking about and attacking anything they see, well mostly you. You find out about the Hollow Knight and the 3 dreamers who keep the Hollow Knight sealed. The Knight driven by forces of discovery and the player's curiosity goes to the dreamers, finds a magic weapon given to you by a moth called the dream nail. Kills the guards of the dreamers and eventually make your way to the Hollow Knight who's seal is now broken. At this point you can slay the Hollow Knight and take over his job of being the containment vessel of the infection that took the down the city of Hallownest. Or if you decide to explore every nook and cranny of the game can find out the secret story of the world. Find out that your sister Hornet is the guardian of this land, find out the Hollow Knight is one of your siblings chosen by your father, the king, creator of this city, and a god like being called a Pale Being, making you the Knight the Heir to this kingdom. You find out about your birth being a creature of 2 Pale Beings and void given form was one of hundreds of children hatched to seal the infection known as the Radiance, another pale being that the Pale King took this land from and she wants revenge. You find the Pale King's palace sealed in the dream of an artificial creature and claim 1/2 a charm from him as well as get the other 1/2 of it from your mother a pale being called The Pale Lady, who is a massive pale root. So the knight is part bug god part root god filled with sentient void stuff. Making it one interesting little god along with all its siblings. You make your way down to into the abyss fighting off the tormented void ghosts of your siblings who no longer have a shell to return to, you find your way to the place of your birth and turn the Pale charm you got from your parents into a void charm that no longer takes up charm slots and becomes a part of your soul. Finally using the dream nail you need to collect essence from the ghosts and dreams around Hallownest to power up the nail enough to awaken it. Once those are done its time to return to your taller brother The Hollow Knight, fight him again and go deep into his mind to defeat the Radiance and seal her into the abyss for good curing her infection. There some DLCs you can do which add bosses and a full boss rush and some fun side quests to do with everyone's favorite vampire bat known as grim which takes this games 100% completion to well over 100%.

Now that I have told you about the game did I have fun. I sure did. There were parts that were frustrating to the point of making me have to walk away for a bit. Sure I rage quit but I am never going to break my controller, its my controller after all those are expensive its like getting road rage and keying your own car who does that? The Path of Pain and the white palace being the most nerve wracking. When I finally beat the Radiance the first time it was like a weight came off my shoulders. I had beaten the final main boss. Now I am still having issues with the pantheons in the boss rush DLC but hey I'll get there eventually but I can say I 108%ed this game proudly. I have revisited this game after being Silksong a few times and I gotta say, Hornet has the better movement kit to the Knight. She feels so much faster and agile then the Knight its hard doing back to the more stiff controls. If I were to look at Silksong and play it fully before playing Hollow Knight it would be a chore to move from the flexible Hornet to the still and slow knight. Having to spam the shoulder buttons to dash instead of just holding the shoulder button feels like a downgrade but if you remember that Hollow Knight came out first you can truly see and feel how much SilkSong is just an improvement on many of the elements to Hollow Knight. On its own it is amazing and with its sequel its gets elevated more if not a rough comparison to the change in controls. 

But I plan on replaying it again and Team Cherry thank you for the experience. Keep making more.

-PhoenixQuill 

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