This week, after years of delays and silence and anticipation and Twitch chats filled with “Silksong when?”, Team Cherry has finally released Hollow Knight: Silksong. Originally meant to be an expansion to the critically acclaimed Hollow Knight, the project got so big that the developers eventually decided to turn it into a full-fledged sequel. The road to Silksong has been long — filled with delays and feverish excitement and hope that it would be featured in whatever video game showcase or presentation was coming up next — but it’s finally here.
By all accounts, Hollow Knight: Silksong is excellent. But I, for one, won’t be playing it, and I doubt I ever will.
Why, I hear you asking, aren’t I playing one of the most anticipated video games of all time? It certainly wouldn’t be a stretch to call Silksong the GTA VI of indie games. I’m very sure that almost every video game site out there’s going to be reviewing it, but why not Retcon? Well, the answer is simple. First, Retcon is an independent outlet, which means I simply don’t have the funds to make it worth anyone’s time to review it for my website. Second, I’m just not very good at Hollow Knight and I’d like to spare myself the grief of forcing myself through Silksong.
Back during the COVID-19 days, I was looking for new games to check out and stumbled upon Hollow Knight, which was already receiving rave reviews by then. The art drew me in instantly, despite my great fear of bugs. I could handle a tough game, I thought. I’ve beaten every Souls game, Bloodborne, and Sekiro. I’m used to beating my head against the wall when I’m facing difficult bosses. Hollow Knight would be no different.
Here’s the thing. I can handle tough boss fights and shameful runbacks (again, played every Souls game). I can handle Metroidvanias (loved Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night despite it being a new genre for me at the time). I can even handle platforming (I am notoriously terrible at platformers but somehow managed to beat Celeste without using Assist Mode). But when you put all three things together, and take into account the fact that Hollow Knight has an obscenely large map, my brain is no longer able to handle the stresses that Hollow Knight foists upon it.
All of a sudden, those runbacks feel longer and even more frustrating. Exploration becomes a severe case of decision paralysis because there are so many ways to go, causing me to feel increasingly unmoored, and not in the best way. I stuck with Hollow Knight as best I could. There were highs, including the time I finally beat Hornet after a bunch of attempts, but they were never enough to push me through the rest of the game. Knowing that things would only get harder as I approached the endgame confirmed that my decision to drop it was the right one.
With all that in mind, I find myself feeling absolutely nothing now that Silksong — a game that’s been hyped to the stars and back — is finally out, and that makes me oddly sad. After all, it doesn’t take a genius to see what a grand endeavor Hollow Knight is. Every detail of that game was lovingly handcrafted and I’m sure the same will go for Silksong. There’s a severe sense of FOMO that comes with not being among the first people to play Silksong. Yet when the game was announced, I decided to give Hollow Knight another try. Maybe this time it’ll click. Maybe I’ll fall in love with Hollow Knight and pick up Silksong on day one and join in on the launch window chatter.
I downloaded it, started a new game, and within an hour I was immediately reminded of why I dropped it in the first place. It’s just not my game. It will likely never be my game, and maybe that’s fine. At least, that’s what I’m still slowly coming to terms with.
