I really hate the phrase “Let them cook”, but I can’t say it isn’t applicable to a few Indie developers. Solo devs like Toby Fox or Eric Barone (Concerned Ape) can disappear for years, with no update or announcement for their next project. It’s within those absences that Undertale and Stardew Valley fans may yearn for a release date or at least some info on their next title. During those times, I remind fans that whatever we eventually get will be worth the wait. In Silksong’s case, the three-man dev team, Team Cherry, became almost infamous for their lack of updates about the elusive sequel over the seven years since its announcement. Every major games conference was flooded with comments on its absence, which itself created the biggest hype-train I’ve seen since Cyberpunk 2077. While the wait was certainly a long one, I never had any doubt that they were busy in the kitchen, and to no one’s surprise, they did indeed cook.

(In what I assume to be) Some time after the events of Hollow Knight, ex-boss and favourite sibling Hornet is kidnapped and taken far away to the land of Pharloom, a dire kingdom that has long since been overtaken by a phenomenon known as The Haunting. Unlike the first game, where the answers you’re seeking are found in the deepest depths of Hallownest, Pharloom’s crowning jewel and peak, The Citadel, is where Hornet will have to ascend in order to understand her kidnapping. Joining other lowly bugs in their pilgrimage to higher society, you’ll find out why so many don’t make the journey, and just what awaits those who succeed.

Silksong’s predecessor, Hollow Knight, is one of the few games I consider to be flawless. I can’t justify giving many of my all-time favourites a 10/10, but I’ve really tried to find issues with HK, and personally, I just can’t. Even the properly difficult sections are all post-game and entirely optional. Team Cherry proved themselves heavy hitters, with every aspect of the game firing off on all cylinders. Incredible world-building, beautiful level design, and memorable characters, enemies, and bosses all worked together to create the best modern Metroidvania, hands down. That’s without even mentioning Christopher Larkin’s triumphant, untouchable soundtrack. So how do you improve, or more simply, follow up on something that feels unbeatable and has, over many years, garnered so much hype?

It seems that Team Cherry wanted to retain everything that made the first game great, while amping up the difficulty and taking a new approach to combat, movement, and exploration. Hallownest wasn’t a walk in the park or anything, with bosses like Watcher Knights presenting clear skill-checks throughout the game, however, Pharloom is definitely a harsher land. Thematically, this actually makes a lot of sense. I get the feeling Team Cherry wanted this game to feel harder by basing it around a truly unfair, classist system that is very much an uphill struggle. You’ll have to pay to unlock and utilise most benches in the game, with a currency that is pretty difficult to obtain early on, and you’ll notice that healing in Silksong gives you three times the health than in the previous game, and for good reason, as it feels like most everything in Pharloom deals two points of damage.

Now, double damage isn’t new. Larger enemies in HK and most end-game bosses dealt that much, and the true final boss even dealt a staggering four points each hit. The difference here is that you’ll experience that level of damage a lot earlier and a heck of a lot more often. This quickly becomes the most frustrating aspect of what is otherwise a perfect sequel, as it’s not just enemies’ heavy attacks that deal this, it’s contact damage and even the terrain around you that can shave two masks off instantly. I say frustrating as, with most Metroidvanias, you begin the game a lot weaker than you end up, and it’s really the placement of these double-damage enemies that feels like a possible mistake. It’s a more difficult game, sure, but taking four damage from a contact hit that knocks you into rough terrain, in a game that has a greater emphasis on mobility and faster-paced combat, sometimes feels like it’s at odds with itself. I think the Moorwing fight is a good example of what I mean, in terms of silly use of double damage and mobility (specifically with contact damage).

I also want to emphasise that overall, I’m in favor of the increased difficulty of the sequel. As a massive fan of the hardest parts of Hollow Knight, like Nightmare King Grimm and the Pantheon of Hallownest (both of which are optional), and with triple digits of playtime, I’m glad that they strived to make the game more challenging. There are many ways they do this that I think are more successful than the artificially more difficult double damage issue. Platforming itself leans into more difficult movements, including pogo-like downwards attacks being required to traverse certain paths, which feels like a natural response to speedrunners bouncing off enemies in HK to skip entire areas. Hornet moves a lot faster than the previous protagonist and has many more movements that make for satisfying, fast-paced combat options once you’ve gotten used to them. You’ll eventually be able to do a running slash that launches Hornet into the air as she attacks an enemy and then quickly hook to a different target across the screen. It’s hard to convey in words, but there’s a new fluidity in the way combat works, and there feels like a lot more options to choose from, even if some have a slight learning curve.

One of the ways you can go about choosing these new options are Crests, which change your basic directional attacks and add different abilities that often activate once you’ve healed. You’ll find these throughout the game, and it’s fun to find which ones suit your preferred method of attacking. Whether you rely on pogo attacks, quick successive swipes, or heavy hits, you’ll find one that fits the bill for each player, with some being ideal for traversing enemy-filled areas and others working better in a boss arena.

A feature of each of these crests are charm notches that you can attach the traditional charms from the first game, now split into combat and traversal catagories. While these charms offer plenty of standout choices akin to HK, it’s the new, third option of Tools that steal the show. Replenished using shards found in the environment and from enemies, these gadgets can provide the edge to control even the most difficult fights. From knives, boomerangs, and other throwing weapons, to self-buffing items that temporarily increase damage and mobility, there are more options than you’d expect. Remembering to utilise them often sways a difficult encounter, especially when confronted with multiple enemies at once.

The expansive world, as well as being generally wider in scope, has many more interactions, settlements, and vendors, and with the larger selection of optional content comes Wishes. Tracking both the main quest, as well as the numerous side-quests you’ll come across, Wishes cleverly negates the problem a lot of Metroidvanias and even Souls-likes have, by directing you towards side-content you may have missed. In the multiple settlements you’ll come across, you’ll find boards of sidequests you can embark on, as well as being personally given to you by certain characters. Some include tracking clues in areas to lead to bosses or lost NPCs, others require you to gather a certain amount of materials from fallen enemies. They can vary from a quick donation of the world’s currency, rosaries, to lengthy endeavours that span a good portion of the game, but are either way a useful and welcome addition to the series.

While Hollow Knight had memorable faces such as Zote “The Mighty” and mapmaker Cornifer, the increased number of unique characters in Silksong gives fans more than enough candidates for their new favourite character. The new encounters are an excellent showcase of the fact that Hornet is a lot more expressive than the silent protagonist of the first game. Her reserved, blunt dialogue results in hilarious moments in every part of the game, with multiple instances of her literally smacking those who get a bit too friendly. Not all interactions are comedic moments, but through each line of dialogue, we get a better picture of the kind of person (bug) Hornet is and how she tackles her strange new surroundings. A few personal character highlights are Grindle the Thiefbug’s scavenging pursuits, Sherma’s musical respite, and Garmond and Zaza’s sudden triumphant arrivals. With the addition of sidequests via the Wishes menu, the NPC character arcs you’d come to expect after the first game are more easily accessible, and in a similar fashion to HK, can be pretty heartbreaking to witness.

To highlight one of Team Cherry’s greatest strengths, the boss encounters are once again a beautiful blend of memorable, difficult, and most of all fun. While the double damage issue persists for a few earlier bosses, you get used to it later on when you’ve got more health and increased damage. Like with last year’s Black Myth: Wukong, there are boss fights that strike that perfect balance of a challenging fight and impeccable visual storytelling. Again, like Wukong and the original Hollow Knight, there’s a hefty number of bosses in Silksong, and while not all are imperative to your progression, each does a fantastic job at filling in the world’s rich history. For example, The Cogwork Dancers (which feel likel a spiritual successor to my favourite fight in HK, Mantis Lords/Sisters of Battle) is an intensifying multi-phased fight, accompanied by a haunting score that telegraphs each attack. With an elegantly depressing finale akin to Sif from Dark Souls, and being fair but challenging, it offers all you could want from a boss fight. You’ll find many other unique battles that stick around in your head long after you’ve fought them, and I’m only going to mention a few in this review, so as not to spoil the unravelling narrative and expertly designed bouts you’ll experience throughout.

If the amount of additional and improved aspects makes Silksong sound grander in scope to its predecessor, that’s because it most definitely is. Upon starting the game, you’ll find the surprising but equally exciting statement that you’re entering Act I, which is a great way of dividing the massive journey into distinct sections. While the earlier two acts are stellar, it’s really the final, third act that takes the cake when it comes to memorable moments, challenging encounters, and allaying all doubts that this is a worthy sequel to Hollow Knight. With multiple endings, returning challenge runs like the speedrun achievements and Steel Soul mode, even after the third act has wrapped up, there’s still plenty to come back for.

There are so many tiny details within the world of Silksong that you might miss some of the best additions without outside context. This doesn’t take away from overall enjoyment, rather paints a picture of the kind of group Team Cherry are. One example: I mentioned Eric Barone at the beginning of this review, the sole developer of Stardew Valley. Well, it seems that TC are as big fans of his as the rest of us, as it’s been confirmed that he has a voice acting role somewhere within the game. Given the nature of the bugs’ made-up language, we may never know who exactly it is he voices, but it’s fun to know nonetheless.

On a less fun but even more meaningful note, you’ll come across a boss in the third act by the name of Seth. Initially, I took the fight and its simplistic character design at face value, enjoying the character’s determination and the reason behind why you fight him. It wasn’t until after the game ended that I realised Seth was named after and designed in part by a young fan named Seth Goldman, who got to meet up with Team Cherry and create his own character, before tragically passing due to his ongoing illness. I don’t think I can have more respect for the beautiful way his wishes were honored, and it’s both heartbreaking and wonderful to replay the fight knowing the additional context around its inclusion.

It’s each individual, often minuscule aspect of Silksong that blows me away. It’s the rare example of a game’s prolonged development reflecting the final product, with each year spent in development resulting in a grand, fleshed-out world that just keeps on delivering. Silksong shines with a love for games that you just don’t get from most AAA teams. It’s hard to know if the feeling of unfair damage in the earlier stage is a conscious choice or not, again reflecting the world of Pharloom, but to be honest, after the final boss was defeated, I’d journeyed so far that I wasn’t even thinking about the Act 1 struggles. I was instead thinking, ‘Shit, I don’t think Look Outside is my game of the year anymore. ’