I am new to the reviewer scene but I have been gaming since I was 4. That gives me 28 years of gaming under my belt. I have been playing since the game boy and still game to this day. A vast majority of games that come out are hot garbage in my opinion but occasionally a gem gets released. I wasn't on the initial hype train for Hollow Knight, which I will write a review for separately, I played it a few years after it released when all dlc was out. But I fell in love with Hollow Knight and its Sequel SilkSong. As I said I have been gaming for a while and most games are just too easy, so when a game comes out that gives me a genuine challenge I get an endorphin rush like you wouldn't imagine. SilkSong isn't a perfect game but it is one of the closest things too it that I have played in the last 10 years. The opening cut scene showed us that Hornet has been capture by some kind of enchanted cage and by chance or maybe with some help someone sends a butterfly made of silk to disrupt the magic and free her. She falls down a big pit and as is class to the Metroidvania game type loses all her powers and has to strengthen back up and collect tools and upgrades so she can find and slay the person or group who has brought her to this strange land. 

So you are now free to explore the land of Pharloom. Standard Metroidvania stuff of side scrolling platformer with enemies to face and hazards to avoid. Bosses were charming and fit the areas they were found in. Some enemies are passive but only deal damage on contact while others dive bomb you like missiles or stay out of needle range and taking well timed dive attacks or pot shots from the air. I loved learning how to deal with all the creatures I encountered in my journey, some bosses were definitely more difficult then others to learn and finally beating them was such a relief. But some normal chump enemies deal 2 damage out of no where, which is a problem when you only get a max of 9 masks in acts 1 and 2 and 10 max in act 3. This is balanced out by Hornet's heals doing 3 HP compared to the Knight's 1 HP. With bosses always having a standard of 2 damage. So in bosses or in areas with the 2 damage enemies or hazards cuts your HP total in half. It was frustrating but not anything that kept me from moving forward. But I would be lying if there wasn't a few bosses that walled me so hard my first play through that I had to get up and take a walk to my local game store to calm back down. Then I would sit down throw myself at the boss a few more times until I stopped being bad at it and finally started feeling like the demi-goddess batman that Hornet is supposed to play like. Which her tool belt is massive and the many ways to swing her needle change with the various crests you pick up along the way. 

Pharloom is full of characters Hornet can interact with and get the stories of and some stories are harder to get to the end then others. Some are part of the main story and the NPCs just do their thing as you do yours while others require Hornet's involvement for the story to go forward. You even get someone who feels like a rival named Lace, who ends up being the silk made daughter of Grandma silk, the final boss. The art style is just as charming if not better than Hollow Knight and the world is massive and expansive but not being too big to feel overwhelming. I do think that SilkSong is missing a lot of the normal back tracking that Metroidvanias are supposed to have but it still exists mostly to find hidden tools, mask shards (which are this games health), or spools (which are this games mana). But every time I got a new movement ability I would turn around find the nearest Bell Beast Station and call over my trusty steed so I could run the map all over again just checking to see where else I can go now. This game is very much about exploration and persistence. No matter how walled I would get I would know it was my fault for not being good enough and not the game being too hard. So I would just keep working to "get good" and finally see this game to the end. The first wall I hit was The last judge but I eventually made it through. The next wall embarrassingly was the dancers and they telegraph their attacks so obviously and it was my fault for being greedy on damage and not dodging, my final wall was the high halls gauntlet. Which was honestly harder then the "final" boss. Grandmother Silk. Once you beat her you get the credits and the first ending. But if you are awesome, saved all the fleas, did all the quests, bought yourself a house, and seen your local map mommy to find her master, then you can get a final quest that unlocks act 3. Getting here is where the real challenge begins. Grandma silk is trying to pull herself and her daughter out of the abyss you cast her into as part of the quest to get into act 3. Hornet now needs to find a way to survive the abyss and kill Grand mother silk to save all of Pharloom from her Abyss soaked threads. You go track down old leaders of the areas around Pharloom, enter dreams and fight dream variants of them at their peaks to get their hearts for a spell. You need 3 hearts but there are 4 bosses. So 1 gets to be a trophy in your house. Which ever 3 you choose to kill gives you their hearts and the ingredients to the spell to get the item you need to survive the abyss, 1 Boss is much easier than the others and in my personal opinion easiest to hardest was Nyleth > Green Prince > Khann > Karmelita. Though my first play though I killed Khann last because he has a big multi level gauntlet before you get to him. My issue is the long drawn out fights where my resources run thin. But as far as the actual boss fight he was a chump and Karmelita is a dancing singing badass. Finally you have your true descent into the abyss. Where you fight corrupted Lace and Grandmother silk is trying to maintain a protective cocoon in the abyss, you best Lace in her 3rd fight Grandma silk gives you the last of her strength so you can escape with her youngest daughter. With an ended that was so hype I was genuinely excited.

Over all this is my game of the decade not just my game of the year. Was it the perfect sequel to Hollow Knight? No but it was pretty damn close. As I said the random hazards and random fodder enemies that can deal 2 masks of damage are far too common but hey just teaches you those areas are supposed to be the toughest, but the way Hornet moves feels so much better than the Knight that going back to Hollow Knight honestly feels like a downgrade and I was missing the freedom of movement that Hornet has to her sibling. The 7 crests give such a unique way to play for her though one of them gets you back to playing like an upgraded version of the knight. All the various tools and upgrades just feel marvelous.

I would give this game a 9.5/10 and I have played through it on my Switch 1 so many times. If you have $15 to spare team cherry has made a game that is well worth the price and blows all current triple A game devs out of the water and shows them what gamers want and the experience they deserve with free DLCs already announced and the first one being claimed to release 2026. The 7 year wait was well worth it. Good Job Team Cherry and thank you for the experience. 

-Ignus PhoenixQuill