Another Nintendo Indie World Showcase has come and gone, and Hollow Knight fans are left waiting for news on the upcoming Hollow Knight: Silksong. The Hollow Knight community is passionate about the game, and invariably manages to get Hollow Knight or Silksong trending on Twitter every time an Indie World presentation comes around. While this dedication is impressive, developer Team Cherry has made its intent for the game’s development clear: it will come out when it is ready. That is part of the reason why fans are so excited, as it is clear this will be a quality product looking at both the prior game and footage already released.
Despite the fact that no release date is in sight, Team Cherry has done an admirable job keeping the Hollow Knight community in the know about exactly what will be in its new game. Hollow Knight: Silksong takes place in the brand-new kingdom of Pharloom, and features the adventures of former rival character Hornet as she seeks to climb to the top of this mysterious new locale. Along the way, Hornet will take advantage of many new features, including combat mechanics, a crafting and equipment system, and the ability to actually converse with NPCs and take on more structured quests. This information has come from a series of interviews, trailers, and other updates over the past two years, so while everyone is waiting for Silksong to come out, they might as well refresh themselves on how far it's come.
Hollow Knight: Silksong's Humble Beginnings
Hollow Knight: Silksong has some unique origins as far as video game sequels go. Initially a Hollow Knight Kickstarter stretch goal promised Hornet as a playable character, but the game’s scope ballooned over the course of its development and many things that were promised couldn't make the cut. Even after three major expansions, Hollow Knight is still technically incomplete. So, Team Cherry looked at the work it had done and the work it promised to do, and made the difficult choice to expand the unmade Kickstarter content into a new game.
It got to work behind the scenes, and in February 2019 Hollow Knight: Silksong was revealed. A trailer and a developer diary video were released alongside a platform list for the game's launch. This initial reveal contained a hefty amount of information regarding the game's features, setting, and details about how it will intersect with the unreleased Kickstarter content. This massive information dump was followed a month later by a mini update as part of a late anniversary celebration. This update introduced a number of the major characters in Silksong, including the rival Lace. Fans didn't expect much out of a random update, but it was nice to have.
Hollow Knight: Silksong's Information Droughts
News continued to flow in 2019. Hollow Knight: Silksong was featured at the Nintendo Treehouse E3 2019 livestream, which offered a sneak peek at two areas from the game: The Moss Grotto and the Deep Docks. A post E3 wrap-up also contained a lot more information on various areas and mechanics, including how Silksong protagonist Hornet can heal. A holiday sign-off from Team Cherry came in December 2019, showing off some late-game enemies and detailing the Hollow Knight: Silksong soundtrack by Christopher Larkin.
Unfortunately, this is where the trail goes cold for a while. For a full year, there was no further news on Hollow Knight: Silksong. It was not until the last day of 2020 that EDGE Magazine released a huge exclusive article detailing many features and information about Silksong. The release date is still elusive, but fans have a pretty good picture of what the gameplay flow for Hollow Knight: Silksong will look like. The EDGE Magazine article reiterated several old points of information, expanded others, and spoke about some new things, such as what some of the game's tools will be. Now, over halfway through 2021, Hollow Knight fans are still waiting for news on when Silksong will be out, but at least they can rest assured that the game is coming along well.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is in development for PC and Switch.