REVIEW - Hollow Knight: Silksong is worth every minute and worth every penny
Good things come to those who wait.
By JessHardlyKnows
06/10/25
Reviewed on PS5.
Review copy purchased at retail.
Spoiler Warning.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is the long awaited sequel to Team Cherry's indie smash hit from 2017, Hollow Knight. After 7 long years of radio silence, they dropped a trailer with release only a month later, and as a huge fan of the original this was a pleasant surprise. We bought the game for a more than reasonable £15.99 on release day and struggled to put it down, until just the other day when we got 100%.
The game's tutorial, the Moss Grotto, is fairly standard; a linear little area with some easy to find secrets that ends with a simple tutorial boss. This sets you up for the first Act of the game, because yes, this game is separated into a 3 Act structure. In Act 1 there is a very set path forward and each new upgrade unlocks the next place to go. This is different to the first game that has a very open approach right from the start. If you prefer the open nature then don't worry because Act 2 is essentially its own Hollow Knight where you travel through one of the largest areas I've ever seen in a Metroidvania, The Citadel.
In here you must explore each corner to find 3 MacGuffins, just like the main plot of the first game. This eventually unlocks the "final" boss, but after doing story shenanigans, you can unlock the secret Act 3. This is the section with the most connections to the first game's story, but I won't get into the lore or we'll be here all week. You explore some beautiful areas and have to collect another 3 MacGuffins but this time there's a 4th bonus one that you can collect instead, then fight the true final boss. There's quite a lot more in between and so, so much side content that we’ve managed to get 80 hours out of a first playthrough and plan on coming back many, many times.
With this game originally being planned as a final DLC for Hollow Knight, the main draw was a new playable character, and with Hornet being a boss in that game, everyone was wondering how they'd make her attacks fit a playable move set. At the beginning you just have the simple up, left and right swings of the first game but now with a special diagonal downward dive. You'll also unlock a dash that comes with a really fun run mechanic that allows for the fast pace movement of Hornet's original boss encounter.
There are also multiple spells to unlock and a revamped charm system using throwable tools, many of which she used in Hollow Knight, but so many are completely new. The most interesting element to the combat is the Crest system that gives Hornet entirely new melee attacks. There are 7 different Crests so if you don't like the starting moves, mainly that diagonal dive, you can swap to any of the other much easier to use Crests that each get their own bonuses. We’d suggest the Reaper's Crest because of its generous downward slash as well as the extra Silk given on attacks after a heal which carried us through most of the game.
Dash and dive.
The kingdom of Pharloom is exceedingly large with around 28 beautiful areas, over 200 enemies and more than 40 bosses. It's full of the classic Metroidvania level connections and useful upgrades like keys for invisible locks that define the genre. The amount of detail across the environment is astounding, each room makes you wonder: "What was this used for?" "Who has been here?" And even if it's not clear, there's definitely an answer to these questions somewhere. The devs said they had "too much fun" making the game and couldn't stop adding everything they wanted.
Though if getting lost in such a vast world isn't fun for you, don't worry because Silksong keeps the easy and useful map system from its predecessor. Of course you need to buy most maps from an NPC but she's always easy to find and arguably more helpful than the first game's map salesman. In fact, there are many little quality-of-life improvements like the ledge grab for when you just barely miss a platform, and increased movement speed for this larger world.
But now... the controversial stuff. This game is HARD. You should not be going into it expecting an easy time, or even the same difficulty Hollow Knight had. With the player's movement options being so expanded, the bosses must adapt to them and if you're playing like you're The Knight it won't go well. We did notice pretty much throughout our entire playthrough we’d have 10 awful attempts on a tricky boss, then suddenly a beautiful attempt where our brain just clicks. We dodged effortlessly and got all our hits in until we win. So if you're really struggling, just keep trying, you'll get it eventually.
Alternatively, go somewhere else as there's very, very few bottleneck situations in the story so there's always something else you could be doing, like finding health upgrades. As the devs said, use Elden Ring logic. The other, less defendable issues are the optional, often boring fetch quests that boil down to "collect 15 of this" or the hunting quests that are "kill 15 of this guy" and even the Grand Hunt quests are some of the game's worst bosses. The only other major issue we’ve seen floating around is how much harder money is to find.
There are now 2 currencies but vendors will only accept the rare one... obviously. The Rosaries are very clearly rare for story reasons as only enemies that worship the kingdom's Gods hold them. But oh dear... here comes the class divide because in the middle and bottom sections of the map most enemies drop ~5 Rosaries each, but in the grand capital at the top of the world, The Citadel, even basic enemies can drop 15-30 each. This makes early game a nightmare when every Fast Travel Station and most important Save Benches cost 60-90 to open.
Despite those small flaws, Hollow Knight: Silksong is a 2025 highlight that'll be remembered for years to come, not just as a great indie game or even just an incredible Metroidvania, but one of the most impressive games out there. Hunt your foes. Discover your past.
WORTH IT?
At the bottom of every game review, we ask the question: Worth it? And the answer is either “Yeah!” or “Nah”, followed by a comment that sums up how we feel. In order to provide more information, we also have “And” or “But”, which follows up our rating with further clarification, additional context for a game we love, or perhaps a redeeming quality for a game we didn’t like.
YEAH!
Hollow Knight: Silksong is a polished Metroidvania that keeps you engaged with mysteries and challenges. It builds upon the mechanics of its predecessor in every single way. A shining Citadel of the genre that proves you can't rush perfection.
AND
There's more on the way. DLC is confirmed! With Team Cherry being self described perfectionists, they'll make sure it's just as great as the main game. Even if it takes another 7 years.
5/5 - INCREDIBLE
TARPS?
At the bottom of some of our articles, you’ll see a series of absurd looking images (with equally stupid, in joke laden names). These are the TARP badges, which represent our ‘Totally Accurate Rating Platform’. They allow us to identify specific things, recognise positive or negative aspects of a games design, and generally indulge our consistent silliness with some visual tomfoolery.
