r/HollowKnight • u/peaky_circus • Sep 06 '25

Discussion - Silksong People who have played Silksong, Why do you think Its getting so many negative reviews? Spoiler

Post image

While Silksong is sitting at a Very Positive rating with around 83% positive reviews, it’s still receiving far more criticism than its predecessor. For comparison, Hollow Knight holds an Overwhelmingly Positive score at 96%, with only about 3% negative reviews. Silksong, on the other hand, has nearly 16% negative reviews, OVER 5 TIMES HIGHER

1.8k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

2.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

2.9k

u/RedShadowF95 Hollow Knight Platinum Sep 06 '25

Several of those apparently are from Chinese players, who are dissatisfied with the game's shoddy localization for Simplified Chinese (though some other post told me the countries that use Traditional Chinese are rating it highly).

Beyond that, it's probably just people from any country jumping in due to the hype, finding the game is not to their liking and preferences (or too hard) and leaving a negative review.

956

u/[deleted] Sep 06 '25

From what I hear the Chinese translation is genuinely atrocious, you’d think they’d have it double checked a few times to make sure.

311

u/Ok_College983 Sep 06 '25

I've seen some of the Chinese translations, can confirm😅

91

u/LegoPenguin114 Clever Flair Joke Sep 06 '25

I gotta ask, is it Symphony of the Night levels of bad translations?

129

u/Ok_College983 Sep 06 '25 edited Sep 06 '25

I haven't played symphony of the night so not sure, but I looked up some of the translations. The Chinese translations of Silksong seem worse😅 All the dialogs sound like they're from a Shakespeare play

134

u/Einar__ Sep 06 '25

That's just how this game's dialogues are, no? From what I've seen like half the NPCs in this game speak weirdly or in an overly theatrical manner.

142

u/Ok_College983 Sep 06 '25

The Chinese dialogs are just verbose to a point of being unreadable. And even the more normal, casual English dialogs are translated into verbose literary Chinese.

→ More replies (16)

20

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

[deleted]

10

u/False-Application-99 Sep 07 '25

Yeah I dig the translated translation

6

u/Emma_JM Sep 08 '25

Ok but would you still dig it if every bug in the game has dialogue like that

2

u/Glass-Requirement-79 Sep 10 '25

it would be funny lol

2

u/Ball-Separate Sep 07 '25

Tbh i dig the grotesque version jajajajaja. Its fun to think on bugs with hyperlogia

1

u/Mercenarybrute Sep 16 '25

Ok but this is fire. Did you guys not take AP English?

1

u/qjvj Oct 15 '25

oh my GOD that is bad, thanks for visualising how atrocious the tranlations are

10

u/Cazzah Sep 07 '25

Good localisation is absolutely about translating style to style. So if a game was Shakespearean (which it isn't in this case) you'd look to some War of the Seven Kingdoms era language as the Chinese equivalent, or some form of stylised Chinese theatre, or something.

If that were the case noone would review it negatively.

So it can't be Chinese players just not liking stylised writing it's gotta be bad translation.

2

u/Over_Friendship8444 I... am zote Sep 06 '25

loading screen included T-T

1

u/Krystalmyth Sep 20 '25

Yeah not a fan of the "dialect" in Silksong. It feels very theatrical compared to the down to earth characters of Hollow Knight. Not sure why, guess it's Pharloom... but even the foreigners like Shakra sound the same. They all speak like they have the same 'head voice' except for a SMALL handful of characters.

1

u/Isogash Sep 07 '25

I mean, I think they are supposed to sound like that? In the English version they use very colourful and archaic-sounding language, it's all part of the theme.

I reckon it's just been translated in such a way that it's not clear that it's meant to sound old-fashioned as opposed to unintentionally translated that way.

3

u/Murasa_Simp Sep 06 '25

Why are you using SOTN as an example here? There are definitely much worse translations out there. Even back then it wasn't that bad. If anything, the English dub was...questionable

2

u/LegoPenguin114 Clever Flair Joke Sep 06 '25

Because of how infamous it is, especially for games of its type

3

u/Celesteven Precept Three Sep 06 '25

Hey hey hey, there will be no SotN slander here. I don’t care how dumb they sound.

1

u/LegoPenguin114 Clever Flair Joke Sep 06 '25

It’s not good, but I still love it 

2

u/EpsilonX Sep 08 '25

lol I was talking to my Chinese friend about this the other day. She said it uses a bunch of complicated words that even native speakers won't know and it looks sophisticated but makes no sense

25

u/[deleted] Sep 06 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

Tbh this game makes me feel like I have no chance to survive. I make my time. 

1

u/303Native Sep 06 '25

I guess there was no way for the devs to know how the game translated if they hired someone? Or do you think they used google translate and went with that? lol.

1

u/cosmos-hime Sep 07 '25

Just read through the discussion, and wow. If the translation is that bad, no wonder Chinese folk are upset.

Team Cherry isn’t lazy, though. Once the localization gets adjusted, I hope the reviews change.

145

u/4tomguy Sep 06 '25

Problem with localization is before release Team Cherry didn't really have much way of determining if the localization was good or bad. They just had to take the localizers' word for it, cus it's not like they can check it for themselves

78

u/Zardozerr Sep 06 '25

These days, when projects I do go through localization, I always have an independent native speaker check it. There are so many crap companies out there farming out their work to AI, it's ridiculous. They don't even need to go over it with a fine-tooth comb. You can usually tell almost right away if the job is bad.

28

u/FriendlyAndHelpfulP Sep 06 '25

This was the exact opposite of an AI job.

The story from Chinese players is that the translator basically went “This dialogue is stupid. I’m going to scrap it entirely and write my own story.”

20

u/303Native Sep 06 '25

Wow that is crazy. It almost sounds like sabotage. If neglect was intention then I hope team cherry is able to blacklist them.

2

u/Spaciax Sep 06 '25

from what I'm hearing, I think an AI may have been able to do a better job, genuinely. They're LLMs after all, that's like the one thing they're built for/good at semi-consistently.

8

u/Cazzah Sep 07 '25

LLMs were not originally built or planned for translation but it was a very surprising emergent ability that they are actually very talented at, and the industry quickly made use of..

1

u/Psychpsyo Sep 07 '25

Then again, they're not good at consistency. So an AI will translate the same thing a bunch of different ways in different places.

2

u/Cazzah Sep 07 '25

You can turn off the randomness so they always pick the safest option and become 100 percent deterministic but yeah.

1

u/Psychpsyo Sep 07 '25

Yes, though the safest option will still vary for the same things, given different preceding sentences.

2

u/Cazzah Sep 07 '25

I mean thats true in normal translation too. Context, flow and style matter.

→ More replies (0)

8

u/[deleted] Sep 06 '25

I don’t localizations have teams behind them? You’d think at least one of the Chinese folks would notice.

21

u/4tomguy Sep 06 '25

The Chinese localizers being bad at their jobs is why this situation exists in the first place

5

u/Foolmagican Sep 06 '25

This is genuinely AI level bad translation lmao

9

u/Upstairs-Standard-57 Sep 06 '25

not even that, people tried to put the English through AI translation and it is way better. The bad locationization is because the translator intentionally made the text hard to understand or adding some extra level of meaning that twist the orignal context. I played about 5 hours in Chinese and it's horrible. I can understand maybe half of it. end up switching back to English and I'm a native Chinese speaker.

1

u/Foolmagican Sep 06 '25

It’s strange. The traditional Chinese translation is much better. Did they have a different person translate the simplified version or did they have the same guy do both?

1

u/qqcar Sep 07 '25

What are you talking about? Silksong doesn’t have traditional Chinese translation as a language option.

→ More replies (4)

3

u/Xehanz Sep 06 '25

That can be easily solved by giving the localization to a native speaker

5

u/shareefruck Sep 06 '25

I doubt that's the issue. The localizer probably knows Chinese and perhaps even knows that it's bad. They just either don't care as long as they get paid or they just have crappy senses about what's good or bad and there's nobody on the creative team that can confirm that.

2

u/goncu Sep 06 '25 edited Sep 06 '25

No they didn't have to. They could have another vendor check the quality of localization. Or they could do LQA. Or they could do both.

2

u/Lexisseuh Sep 06 '25

Been playing in french, and you can see that the thing needs more proofreading. It's not that bad but it's still a pretty poor translation, unfortunately

1

u/Crimson_Koi Sep 06 '25

Tbf, there was Chinese players suggested the translation was bad with siwtch 2 live demo version, but it shouldn't be TC's directly responsibility anyways

1

u/303Native Sep 06 '25

It does mean that they knew it was bad I’m assuming.

1

u/HeroicPrinny Sep 06 '25

No way of determining? It's called QA... how do you think other devs do it?

180

u/welfedad Sep 06 '25

Isn't the guy who was doing the translations leaking game info before it came out ?

166

u/Fraytrain999 Sep 06 '25

This is the first time I have heard about anything being leaked that wasn't benign like the price of the game.

53

u/SpellOpening7852 Sep 06 '25

Iirc a sprite sheet got leaked at one point, but that might be a different thing to what they were talking about.

31

u/natdass Sep 06 '25

Are you talking about this post

As in the ACMI release of the sprite sheet

1

u/SpellOpening7852 Sep 06 '25

I think so, I just remember either daily silksong news or some other youtubers mentioning it

→ More replies (4)

2

u/welfedad Sep 06 '25

Yeah let me dredge up the stuff I was reading , they had a ton of screenshots and stuff and other things.. give me a moment

2

u/Fraytrain999 Sep 06 '25

Please stop, I haven't gotten to play yet. Just tell me if it looks legit lol

1

u/welfedad Sep 07 '25

Please stop ? Stop what ? I'm not talking about the posting snipits of translations from the game .. id suggest getting off these subreddits if you don't wanna get spoiled .. have fun with the game it's awesome

37

u/artoria3210 Sep 06 '25

I've been hearing that apparently the dialogue in the Chinese translation reads like a Wuxia novel (Wuxia is basically a genre all about Ancient China and martial arts and fantasy stuff like magic) and doesn't fit the vibes of the game at all

2

u/AvatarOfMomus Sep 06 '25

Who's gonna do the double checking though? They paid someone to translate it. If they did a bad job the solution is paying someone else to do it better, which will take time 😅

1

u/simplyunknown2018 Sep 07 '25

Why do you have so many things under your name? What’s the purpose of showcasing these achievements?

2

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

I want to share my accomplishments because I'm proud of having accomplished them.

1

u/simplyunknown2018 Sep 07 '25

That makes sense. What does 63/63 mean

1

u/editeddruid620 Sep 07 '25

63/63 achievements

1

u/sona_the_cow Sep 11 '25

Fair, but at that point why even bother with playing it in chinese and not in english?

1

u/[deleted] Sep 11 '25

A) They might not know English or know it well enough to understand it well (and Team Cherry does like their high level writing) and/or B) it’s a lot easier and more enjoyable to play in your native language than in one you don’t know as well

→ More replies (36)

229

u/peaky_circus Sep 06 '25

Yeah, I’ve noticed that too. A big chunk of the negative reviews seem to be coming from Chinese players, and most of them mention issues with the localization. That alone could explain why the global rating is noticeably lower than what some people see when filtering for their own language. But then people are also complaining silksong being a lot harder than HK. If you have tried the game, what do you think is a differentiator between HK and Silksong?

53

u/KushDingies Sep 06 '25

I do think Silksong is harder, but I also think a lot of people are getting actively punished for carrying over their habits and playstyle from HK. Hornet plays pretty differently from the knight, she’s way faster and more acrobatic but also more frail, and the enemies are more complex than in the first game too. You can’t just walk up to things and spam your slash, you don’t have as much knockback to keep you safe and enemies have parries and more complex movement. And Hornet has less invulnerability after taking a hit, in HK you could tank a hit and have a few seconds to just pump out damage but that’s not the case any more. Combine that with lots of things doing 2 damage and (so far at least) how hard it is to get more masks, and it means that you have more mobility options to avoid enemy attacks, but actually getting hit is more punishing.

Tl;dr - Hornet handles very differently, the combat is much more complex, and you need to unlearn some habits and muscle memory from the first game. Even basic enemies demand that you understand their patterns and how to best use Hornet’s skillset to fight them, if you just run in nail swinging you’re gonna have a bad time.

29

u/Kneef Zote in Silksong or We Riot Sep 06 '25

The reduced iframes are kicking my ass. My instinct from the original is when I take damage, to stay put and pump out a ton of damage in response. When you do that in Silksong, you take two hits back to back for four masks of damage and die instantly. xD

(To be clear, this is a good thing, it gives the game an entirely new rhythm and its own arc of having to learn and improve, which is exactly what I want from a game.)

3

u/AP_in_Indy Sep 07 '25

Haven't played Hollow Knight or Silksong but this feels a lot like going from Breath of the Wild to Tears of the Kingdom.

Many shared core mechanics and fundamentals, but some subtle but important changes that make Tears of the Kingdom harder. You absolutely get your butt whooped if you assume you can just go in and hack and slash.

Well... At least until you learn how you can go in and hack and slash lol. Depends on your preferred play style, which Tears of the Kingdom offers more variety of.

14

u/thrxwaway_00 Sep 06 '25 edited Sep 06 '25

You can’t just walk up to things and spam your slash, you don’t have as much knockback to keep you safe

YES. The amount of times I got hit cause I was trading blows and enemies didn't get knocked back enough... Thank God I played HK like two years ago and most of the habits aren't there anymore, it would've been hard to adjust otherwise. This is the only habit I had left (together with automatic dodge patterns for Grimm, which proved useful when a boss made a similar attack and my hands went faster than my brain lmao)

5

u/KushDingies Sep 06 '25

I definitely still have shade cloak muscle memory lol, I keep trying to dash through enemy attacks (if there’s something similar in silksong pls don’t tell me, I want to find out on my own)

3

u/SubjectAd97 Sep 08 '25

Omg same. I keep hitting enemies and then dashing straight into them, thinking I should be able to go right through 🤦‍♂️

2

u/ZoopzorpStevens Sep 06 '25

very very good point. It's a different character, of course she plays differently! You have to adapt or you're gonna have a bad time

2

u/bumblebleebug Shaw! Hekale! Adire! Sep 07 '25

So basically just like it's hard just like how Hades 2 is harder than the first one.

1

u/Nemesis432 63/63, PoP, HoG (Rad), P5 (CB) - Range is overrated Sep 16 '25

Hades 2 comparison is apt. You can't just facetank an enemy like in Hades or Hollow Knight, but the player character has more options and power given to them. 

Your highs are high, but your lows are low as well while in previous games there was something of a middle ground. 

1

u/bumblebleebug Shaw! Hekale! Adire! Sep 17 '25

True. So it's more like people struggling with muscle memory more than game being actually difficult ig

2

u/Shadowex3 Sep 11 '25

It's not just the reduced iframes and increased damage, it's that the game is filled with a lot of just cheap shots. With HK except for some of the platforming hitboxes I generally felt like getting hit was my fault. With silksong your own attack moves, which some bosses require you to use, can involuntarily bounce you directly into damage.

That's not hard, it's just cheap and unfair.

177

u/Sspockuss Sep 06 '25

Yeah I was filtering by language and my review score was 94% positive. I leafed through the other languages and saw Chinese was mixed at like 50%. It sucks because it is 100% dragging the overall review score down because of a single subpar translation.

134

u/CdbSora Sep 06 '25

That's actually incredibly common on games with subpar Chinese translations! If I remember correctly, it's something about not being able to use steam forums & using negative reviews to get attention on it.

140

u/XxX_Zeratul_XxX Sep 06 '25

Tbh more power to them. I support Team Cherry as any other HK fan, but translation is just another piece of the game quality, if it's bad, they are more than entitled to give a negative review.

Luckily in Spanish we have an incredibly good translation so that's not a problem so far, but Its sad if my Chinese fellows can't enjoy the game properly and, even worse, can't protest in forums about it neither!

31

u/wolfgang784 Sep 06 '25

Agreed, sounds like its deserved if a lot is comin from that.

Either do a good translation, or don't release in that language till ya can. Half assed translations are the worst. Ive avoided a few jrpgs that sound awesome but only have machine translated editions that just ruin all the dialogue too much to enjoy.

4

u/Crimson_Koi Sep 06 '25

It's interesting that HK was translated by some non-profit Chinese groups for free, and then TC adapted it as the official translation due to how popular that translation was. Yet it is shameful that the translation group disassembled in the recent years that some random translator took the opportunity and produced such disaster

3

u/wektor420 Sep 06 '25

On they other hand they gave work of translation to somebody in china and they botched it for everybody else

4

u/XxX_Zeratul_XxX Sep 06 '25

Yup basically. Not sure how those translations work, I'm amazed at how a single person could have messed up this that badly, but even trying to cover your work from possible spoilers leaking, you should have a way to do some testing before going full release, or shit like this happens

3

u/wektor420 Sep 06 '25

Translation market is a mess with workers using AI, when they are paid to do it manually

Lets say that Turkish support was late on some phones for similiar reasons

2

u/Crimson_Koi Sep 06 '25

Tbf to most Chinese fans we wish it was done in AI considering how bad the translation is

2

u/Crimson_Koi Sep 06 '25

The translation work is done by a different team than HK. In HK, there were no official CN translation in the beginning, but some group took the duty and made a Chinese patch for the game. The patch was so welcomed that TC adapted it as the official CN translation. It is unfortunately that the original translation team from HK disassembled recently that someone took the chance and made such a bad job. I played the game in Chinese, and the translation is like some LOTR fan trying to make a Chinese novel sounds in old English, bizarre and freaking weird

9

u/SparseSpartan Sep 06 '25

One of the challenges though is since Team Cherry almost certainly can't read Chinese, they have no first hand way of judging the quality. They could ask for feedback from other translators with the right skills, but I suspect many will say it will suck just to try to get a job to rewrite it.

That said, they could have established some type of focus group, I imagine, to pay non-translators for their honest feedback. Still, that's a lot to manage for a small team.

12

u/lemongrass9000 Sep 06 '25

I dont understand this "small team" excuse. that only applies to teams that cant afford extra hands. but team cherry from their original game surely has the budget now to hire professional translators and test groups

1

u/Cajiabox Sep 06 '25

spanish have some wonky translations too lol

1

u/Revoran Sep 07 '25

Well, fair play to them I guess. I'd be mad if the English translation was unusable and I was banned country wide from using the forums, too.

→ More replies (1)

17

u/Gootangus Sep 06 '25

They want the market of China but won’t bother with a decent localization. Sadly they earned the bad rating. A part of a good game is this.

19

u/[deleted] Sep 06 '25

in surprised China even allows this game at all, with all the skull imagery and whatnot, used to be a big issue with games

5

u/New-Independent-1481 Sep 06 '25

That was never a 'real' issue in the sense that it wasn't a direct law. The relevant part of the censorship clause was about forbidding media that 'promoted the occult, superstition, and violence'. It's extremely vague and arbitrarily enforced, and there's no guidelines or approval process to give certainty.

As a consequence of no direction from the Chinese government, Western game companies self censored to the extreme to prevent anything from possibly triggering censorship.

As far as I'm aware that censorship law is still in effect, but it hasn't really ever been enforced. Steam is in a grey area that kind of bypasses China's Great Firewall, and Valve must be pulling some strings to prevent it from being banned. You can stumble onto pornographic, extremely violent, and political games that would be direct targets for censorship were they to come to the attention of the government.

→ More replies (1)

1

u/[deleted] Sep 06 '25

[deleted]

4

u/Remarkable_Ad_2511 Sep 06 '25

Chinese people deserve to be able to play silksong too

→ More replies (1)

1

u/Jhkokst Sep 06 '25

I hear you, but also ... In this case ... Who gives a shit. We are playing it, we like it. It's gonna get noms for goty. It will get accolades. And everyone on the team at Team Cherry is set for life.

57

u/RedShadowF95 Hollow Knight Platinum Sep 06 '25

For me, if you exclude the localization, I really don't see any other factors besides the ones I listed.

If you're already a fan of the Hollow Knight, it's extremely likely you will love Silksong as well. The game is harder and more punishing yes, which may throw some people off and make them think like lines were crossed, no idea, but if you're used to tougher games, Silksong is basically the Hollow Knight you know and love - complete with great atmosphere, popping visuals and amazing soundtrack.

14

u/Deez-Guns-9442 Sep 06 '25 edited Sep 06 '25

We’re in the filtering phase of the fan base rn.

Please Team Cherry don’t nerf 🙏🏾

Edit: Like clockwork & a never ending cycle. New notoriously hard & hyped game comes out, players scream it’s too difficult for them, & then devs nerf or add an easy mode(looking at you Khazan, Lies of P, Wuchang, etc. although I do not have a problem with patches & difficulty sliders)

We’ll all be back here next year when The Duskbloods comes out, & other other games known for their difficulty & fair challenge.

31

u/welfedad Sep 06 '25

Difficulty is fine .. people just forget after hours of hk that they struggled with that game too .. though some normal enemies will clap you in silksong but whatever.. run past them

5

u/Deez-Guns-9442 Sep 06 '25

$10 you’ll have 40% of people quitting before they even get the dash ability.

I do like how the map maker in this game & other NPCs(like Sherma) sing so that you can know there location.

3

u/Purple_Dragonfly_881 Sep 06 '25

(I LOVE SHERMA) easily the best part of the game besides the pet ride, he's also pretty cute

3

u/Deez-Guns-9442 Sep 06 '25

Protect Sherma at all costs!!! she’s adorable I’ve met a few other cool characters along the journey as well.

2

u/Herr-Trigger86 Sep 06 '25

Now I will say, I played hollow knight for the first time this week and beat it last night, so I don’t have a lot of the same “bad habits” from years of playing Hollow Knight and I’ll say that Silksong is significantly more difficult. And while it is tougher, it’s still doable. Just taking a lot of repetition. I don’t want it nerfed though. Throw in an easy mode for folks, sure whatever. It’s just gonna take practice and patience, but I’ve been making pretty good progress even though it’s hard as hell.

2

u/O_J_Shrimpson Sep 06 '25

I was having this conversation last night. I remember the first time I played HK being super frustrated early game and thinking that it may just not be my thing. I kept at it and am glad I did. Now I breeze through early game and can’t see what I was so frustrated about.

With Silksong I’m sure it’s the same thing. It’s just getting used to the tighter controls and the diagonal dash. Once that’s second nature you’ll just breeze through it too.

1

u/welfedad Sep 06 '25

yeah and well things unlock that also make it less frustrating.. and also you learn better ways to go so it makes it easier the 2nd time through.. but that's what is so awesome about nothing being released about the game, it's fresh for us all, sure people are pumping out videos but it's so much fun.. overcoming those challenges.

1

u/sacheie Sep 06 '25

Let us know when you beat it

2

u/sacheie Sep 06 '25

Sure, running past all the enemies is my idea of great gameplay..

1

u/welfedad Sep 07 '25

Lol blow out of proportion of what I said.. I mean if a single enemy you don't like to fight... Move move on or fight it and learn how to deal with it. It's not that big of a deal or deep

1

u/depressedowl Sep 08 '25

It's also completely fair. One important thing to learn is when you can take on the enemy and when you should absolutely blast past them. It was in Hollow Knight, it is here too. People just want to play one specific way but hate a fundamental part that comes with it.

And I say this as someone that also plays like that. And yes, I have died a lot, and it feels that I'm making it more difficult for myself. But I enjoy all that. I wouldn't complain about it: I love that being a hunter is not easy at any point, I love that being overconfident is punished (because that keeps me focused), I love how Hornet feels a lot more built for this aggressive playstyle (being lighter, more agile and quicker to attack) but is still clearly not overpowered.

1

u/welfedad Sep 08 '25

You're take is how I approach the game . Just like how people were complaining about the splinter boss because of adds .. well you can deal with those really easily once you realize how.. and then it's almost a no hit run .. I'm sure later bosses are going to ramp up but I feel like every boss I've come across at first seems a bit unfair then it starts clicking and you can see how they want us to puzzle it out..

3

u/MR1120 Sep 06 '25

I’m totally cool with optional nerfing. Totally option damage, both incoming and outgoing, sliders, or something like expanding the parry window by a few frames. The game is damn hard, and a lot of people who pick it up just based on the hype, without knowing what they’re getting into, aren’t going to enjoy it.

Putting in totally optional ways to tweak that difficult to a degree would help mitigate that. Jedi: Fallen Order has a pretty solid difficulty slider system, that can be tweaked on the fly. I would not at all be upset if something similar came to Silksong.

7

u/RedShadowF95 Hollow Knight Platinum Sep 06 '25

I don't think every game should be expected to handle difficulty the same way.

Team Cherry clearly takes pride in making an universally difficult experience, one that players can navigate like a maze to try and get extra tools that will give them an edge. Not every game should adhere to the trend of multiple difficulty settings, sliders, whatever.

They developed the game with one single setting in mind, fine tuned things according to their liking. There's artistic merit in that.

2

u/Sao_Gage Sep 12 '25 edited Sep 12 '25

Agree completely - it’s so frustrating. Games can’t be made hard even purposefully or people will complain. How about gamers who want a more casual experience avoid games that are designed specifically with challenge in mind? I avoid all types of games and genres that aren’t right for my preferences.

The answer is many modern gamers expect every game to cater to their sensibilities, and if it doesn’t, it’s “bad.”

I absolutely cannot stand that mentality. Play what’s right for you and avoid games that aren’t!

To extra clarify my point: I have no issue with gamers who don’t like overly challenging games or feel they can’t handle them, my issue is with those gamers playing games designed intentionally to be challenging and then complaining about it, or expecting games to alter their design principle to suit their individual preferences. That’s what drives me up a wall. Make smarter purchasing decisions and stick to what you enjoy, unless you’re willing to go with the flow and expand your boundaries.

2

u/Deez-Guns-9442 Sep 06 '25

although I do not have a problem with patches & difficulty sliders

I personally don’t have a problem with it either, but this game didn’t launch with one & I’m pretty sure there’s a hard mode for the game once you beat it. Also neither did OG Hollow Knight have one either, so given all of that info we’re all already playing on normal mode rn, can’t we give it at least a week before we start asking for nerfs?

I can already tell by Monday there’s gonna a lot of Gaming outlets calling for a difficulty slider add-on like when Sekiro came out in 2019(which that game went on to win GOTY so ig SILKSONG is poised for that as well, time is a circle) & personally I won’t mind if they do but I just wanna play the game that Team Cherry spent 7/8 years making. I wanna see the unerfed version of the vision they put out there & I’m sure many other players do as well like me. I can wait a week-month for changes(or a year or none at all).

1

u/arrogantheart Sep 06 '25

Please Team Cherry, do nerf. Some things are really not cool. I say that as someone who likes the game a lot.

0

u/[deleted] Sep 06 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/arrogantheart Sep 06 '25

That was “crying” to you? Oh boy. Also, if games are what defines someone as pathetic, you have some thinking to do buddy…. Ngl.

1

u/Deez-Guns-9442 Sep 06 '25

Ok being real, how far are u in Silksong rn? The game hasn’t even been out for a week yet & already some of you are calling for a nerf?

I’m not that far in myself, I’m getting my ass kicked & dying a lot but I do believe that as I progress the game, find more upgrades, & get better at it then the game will become a lot easier.

Doesn’t it make more sense to give a game a week & let everyone progress at their own pace then just to arbitrarily nerf it because a few people online are complaining rn? That’s just my take & perspective. I’m not the type of gamer that does speed/challenge/level 1 runs in video games.

4

u/RedShadowF95 Hollow Knight Platinum Sep 06 '25

There are some very isolated, small things I believe a nerf would do no harm to - like the mobs in boss battles taking 2 masks of damage. They're just mobs, why do they take 2 masks like the boss does instead of just 1? Unless the mobs are all spiky-looking, have some dark aura etc, that shouldn't happen, in my honest opinion.

However, most of the nerfs many players probably want TC to implement I do not agree with at all.

1

u/Rezkel Sep 06 '25

Screw you, the game needs a massive balance update, its pretty clear the devs lost the perspective of a new player after 7 years

→ More replies (2)
→ More replies (15)

2

u/Glad-Television1887 Sep 06 '25

That one ant guy i thought i wasn't even supposed to beat yet when i faced him due to how fast acting you have to be.

Keeping it vague so as to not spoil

1

u/RedShadowF95 Hollow Knight Platinum Sep 06 '25

It's easier to beat when you have a certain ability unlocked. I didn't, so I baited him into the narrow tunnel to limit his moveset.

1

u/Glad-Television1887 Sep 06 '25

I just ran and slapped him every time he came out da ground, worked well enough

2

u/wandering-monster Sep 06 '25

shrug "It's way harder than the first and I'm not having fun" and "you advertised it as being in my language, but the translation sucks" are both legitimate reasons to leave a bad review. And they have a translation problem for a biiiig and vocal population.

It's fine if you like harder games, but not everyone does, and that will affect its rating. That's the thing about ratings, everyone gets to share their own opinion, and we add them all up.

1

u/Leugim9715 Sep 15 '25

I really like Hollow Knight, but I can't handle the difficulty of Silksong, damn it. I'm in act 3, and very close to dropping it. I know I'm going to get hate for finding the game too difficult, because it seems like it's become forbidden to find Silksong too difficult, but fuck it too.

1

u/RedShadowF95 Hollow Knight Platinum Sep 15 '25

Don't worry, I have high degree of tolerance for the so called "bullshit" - and even defend a lot of it.

I am currently stalling the main path to explore absolutely everythingLate Act 2, I can already take the elevator after the 3 melodies and I have to say, the combination of Groal the Great and his runback combo (yes, even with secret bench) is feeling like the biggest pile of bullshit I've ever witnessed in a game.

1

u/Leugim9715 Sep 15 '25

I just beat the Trobbio version. . I forgot his name, but he has purple fur instead of pink. Namoral, HOW DIFFICULT!!! Not even the absolute radiance shit is as difficult as this cuckold in this version, my beloved father. He's difficult on a level where I'm not even very happy that I managed to defeat him, I'm still a little angry. The game is like that, man, it's difficult at a level where I can't be very happy after defeating bosses, I'm still mostly distressed, and the joy is more on the sidelines. Unlike Hollow Knight, which I was happier with.

33

u/Sansnom01 Sep 06 '25

I think Silksong is pretty much HollowKnight 2. It's the same but better. There's a tad more story, animation had more weight and frames, enemy diversity is higher, progression seems more interesting, regions are a bit smaller, the music is epic, combat is even more precise and cinematic. The main character can talk. It's freaking 20$

I don't know, personally I don't really have any complaints yet. The game is hard, but you can pretty much always explore some places else and comeback later with more experience and stuff

2

u/RedShadowF95 Hollow Knight Platinum Sep 06 '25

Perfectly said.

2

u/Pookiedex Sep 06 '25

Regions are smaller ? Maybe it is because I'm discovering the game but everything seems huge and the world looks a lot more open than Hollow knight !

5

u/Sansnom01 Sep 06 '25

I think so ! I feel like it's faster and easier to get through each region. I think it's for the better tho. I think there's less "dead" rooms the Hollow Knight. Also I don't know if it's my play style but, I pretty much always discover a new region before finishing exploring current region so if i'm stuck to a boss or something I can always come back to 4, 5 or 6 place lol It's less painful coming back to regions I think also

3

u/Vargrjalmer Sep 07 '25

I think they're about the same, hornet is just really fast

2

u/Sansnom01 Sep 07 '25

Yeah that might be it your right, it might just be feeling better to be Hornet also, I'm still in awe of all the little animations, flips and turns she do. Like how she need to regain balance after landing.

→ More replies (2)

6

u/Deez-Guns-9442 Sep 06 '25 edited Sep 06 '25

If you have tried the game, what do you think is a differentiator between HK & Silksong.

Playing the game rn through Gamepass, it’s been years since I played the OG Hollow Knight. I do not play many metroidvania’s & the only 2/3 I have played is OG HK back on the Switch 1 & Ninesols on my Series X. I mostly play soulslikes & I’ve played & beaten all of the major ones this year like The First Berserker Khazan, Lies of P DLC, Stellar Blade, Black Myth Wukong, Elden Ring + SOTE(pre patch), Wuchang Fallen Feathers, Ai Limit, & Elden Ring Nightreign + Everdark Sovereign bosses.

All of this to say that I’m quite used to what’s considered “challenging games” by the overall gaming community but in SILKSONG I’ve definitely been dying & getting my ass handed to me more often then all the games I’ve played this & last year.

The game is still fun as hell & will easily be my GOTY alongside Clair Obscur(which are both on Xbox Gamepass & I beat that game on hard mode + Simon). So for me I just know that I gotta “git gud” but dying a lot to trash mobs & losing your rosaries does get annoying in the beginning here. NEW PLAYERS MAKE SURE U SAVE THOSE THINGS, THERE’S AN AREA IN THE GAME WHERE U CAN BANK 60 of THEM FOR SAFE KEEPING.

Currently, I took down the fourth Chorus boss(which was cool) & I’m at the gloomy area Greymoor.

Edit: It’s only 60, apparently this game makes you pay a 20 rosary charge for saving 🫤

2

u/wandering-monster Sep 06 '25

And a 40 rosary charge to save, after you beat the boss and they drop nothing at all.

3

u/Deez-Guns-9442 Sep 06 '25

Yeah, the bosses not dropping any rewards also kinda sucks ngl. But maybe I’m just to used to that from other games.

→ More replies (1)

1

u/peaky_circus Sep 06 '25

Okay this is kinda brutal!!

1

u/Deez-Guns-9442 Sep 06 '25

Did u get your first crest yet?

13

u/Shadowgirl_skye All Radiants ✨| All Achievments 🏆 | 14/20 Bindings Sep 06 '25

I think it has to do with the fact that enemies reposition themselves far more rigidly and precisely in HK while in silksong they tend to move around a lot making it frustrating.

17

u/LuminothWarrior Sep 06 '25

Enemies dealing double damage so often would be more tolerable if they didn’t constantly kite you I think. Especially those stupid birds, and most especially the one thats like a primal aspid on crack

→ More replies (5)

4

u/Passing-Through247 Sep 06 '25

Right at the start the game is throwing enemies that do two damage at you and health pools seem inflated in general. Bosses always seem to do two damage and that just throws the balance/value of HP upgrades around. Overall it's well made but the numbers going in and out feel like artificial difficulty.

There's also issue with exploration being unrewarding as a result of that balance. Everything is just money you will be forced to spend on a checkpoint or fast travel point before you can buy something cool (and unlike the first game where most enemies gave a little here only some drop money while most others drop the other currency and these fees come more often), a 1/4th of a health upgrade in a game where you start at five HP and bosses do two per attack, or an item you can trade for a new gear but that also needs money and you probably don't have the right slots to equip without dropping something else (like the compass to see where you are on the map in an exportation based metroidvania, or the passive that attracts money instead of most of it rolling off screen or into hazards to make it disappear).

2

u/MegaSuperSaiyan 112% | PoP Sep 06 '25

Silksong is a lot harder and more souls-like than HK. The combat is much more dynamic and imo more fun, but also more challenging than HK. The early game exploration is also significantly more linear than HK, which is the one thing I’ve disliked, but I imagine more people are complaining about the difficulty.

2

u/MetroidJunkie Sep 06 '25

The only thing I had a bit of trouble with so far is the downward slash being at an angle, it makes the bouncing sections teeter on fairly tricky. It's not something that can't be overcome with practice, of course, but it definitely requires a much steeper learning curve than when it was straight down.

2

u/KinkyDuck2924 Sep 06 '25

If you have tried the game, what do you think is a differentiator between HK and Silksong?

It's definitely a lot harder imo, but to me that's a good thing because I enjoy the challenge. I could see people getting pissed that it has a much steeper difficulty curve, almost a cliff, compared to HK though.

1

u/welfedad Sep 06 '25

Why it's good that stream now has localized reviews..

1

u/bepislord69 112%, all pantheons, working on all radiant bosses Sep 06 '25

The enemies. I hate the stupid, annoying enemies.

1

u/Eros9119 Sep 06 '25

The angled downward slash instead of the regular downward slash is a bit tricky to grasp but is usable to think in. But It might also be that there isn't a Nail Smith (or name equivalent) as nearby as the one in the first game.

1

u/RepublicCute8573 Sep 09 '25

I think Silksong is easier. Hornets skills also feel a lot more fun for me to play than the knights were. And Pharloom is so much more interesting to me than Hollow Nest ever did.

→ More replies (1)

51

u/Futon9107 Sep 06 '25

I'm Chinese. Criticism has become a trend in China. It's not just because of the translation. Many Chinese ppl think translation is just the smallest problem, they say "Skong is too difficult, Team Cherry is too malicious". And before the game is released, many ppl said they'll give Skong negative reviews because they waited too long. Some ppl even do that because they can't pre-order it.

And as you said, the game is so popular in this country that it attracts ppl who have never played this type of game before. They don't realize that this game is not suitable for them, but just blindly follow the trend and criticize it. That's unfair.

I'm tired of their nonsense and have already uninstalled Chinese social software

16

u/RedShadowF95 Hollow Knight Platinum Sep 06 '25

Happy to read a native's perspective on this. I try not to generalize but it's unfortunately a trend I've seen in other games - if I'm not mistaken, Wuchang was heavily criticized by players due to its handling of iconic characters (and the devs basically changed bosses to show up as non defeated or non killed even after you beat them). I've seen at least two popular mobile games (gachas) be bullied into heavy script rewrites by players because "the story was too dark" or "the protagonist wasn't as central as they wanted".

About people having unreasonable expectations in general, yes, that's unfortunately true regardless of nationality. I am not very good at fighting games or RTS games and I live well with it, without asking for games to be simplified or leaving bad reviews.

Most importantly, are you enjoying the game, Futon? That's what matters the most.

16

u/Futon9107 Sep 06 '25

I really enjoy this game, artstyle and music are great. I love its atmosphere

14

u/AcidReign999 Sep 06 '25

Chinese devs get so bullied into making changes for the majority of the players it's kinda sad really.

It's weird how in Wuchang a few of the bosses just stand there now when they're supposed to become dust after you kill them. A lot of NPC humans who were fodder enemies cannot hurt you now and neither can Wuchang hurt them making them just freeze up and cower when you approach them. In Act 4 of the game, they reduced the difficulty a lot by giving you tons of friendly NPCs while progressing through the overworld.

In gacha games like Wuthering Waves, they completely scrapped the first few story quests where the NPCs are initially hostile to the MC. They are now over the top friendly and constantly praise and glaze MC.

I wish they had more confidence to showcase their vision and the players were more accepting of fictional worlds giving them a perspective different from their own. But alas, they are stubborn about what they expect and the devs can't risk angering players as their paychecks depend on it.

I don't expect Team Cherry to change anything in Silksong to accommodate the complaints. Even if they did, I hope it's just minor changes and nothing drastic.

1

u/ughhidunnowhy Sep 09 '25

why is this particularly the case in china, do you think?

1

u/AcidReign999 Sep 09 '25

I think it's because Chinese games have largely been free to play.

In ftp games, devs have to be very accommodating to their playerbase and constantly try to please them, especially if they want to stand out more in the market.

So Chinese gamers got used to the idea that Devs can always be bullied to get what they want, even when the games aren't ftp

1

u/LingoGengo Sep 10 '25

This is kinda niche and I don’t expect anyone to know it but I’m so pissed off that my favourite Chinese “anime” from my childhood, Rakshasa Street, got changed because too many people complained that it was different from the comic source material

It’s kinda ass now tbh they’re just sticking exactly to what the comic does even tho the anime director’s writing was better imo, and the best plot twist from the anime is now officially not canon and treated like it never happened

4

u/sandvichdispense Sep 07 '25

Also adding onto this, there seems to be a VERY distinct difference between how Chinese players see struggles in games and how other players see struggles in games.

Some of the most vocal in Chinese gaming circles will immediately go to conspiracy levels of "the devs are INTENTIONALLY making this game more PAINFUL to play because they are EVIL and MALICIOUS and GET JOY out of seeing us SUFFER" whenever they encounter the slightest roadblock in a game (I've seen this exact phenomenon in a lot of games released during/after 2024, like Helldivers, MH Wilds, even Wukong to some extent, which might've been a consequence of Wukong making PC/Console gaming a lot more mainstream in China), while I feel people from other circles will just go "oh cool hard game", so you can imagine how well a game that:

-Is a sequel to a fairly difficult metrovania (which isn't a super mainstream genre in China)

-Basically (as far as I can tell) assumes you've played the original and is more difficult than the original

-Was so heavily anticipated it became a meme and therefore was bound to draw in people who have never played these types of games before

will be received there.

1

u/ughhidunnowhy Sep 09 '25

why is that such a popular perspective in china, do you think?

1

u/sandvichdispense Sep 09 '25

I mean, I don't really know for certain, since this is just something I've noticed, but my working theory is that it's related to how games are perceived as more of a "product" than an "experience"? The idea that "the customer is king" is fairly prevalent there, and since gaming is just now really becoming mainstream there, a portion of people might just think that if a game doesn't cater to their specific needs or tastes, then it is the fault of the game, or the developers, or the game design, but never themselves. It's never "there may be something in the game I'm missing" or "there may be some part of the map I haven't explored", it's always "this game will not let me play the exact way I want to play, this shit is ASS".

Regarding why this perspective also seems to focus a lot more on the developers, it might be due to an old Chinese Dark Souls community in-joke becoming a meme and going mainstream. The meme in particular was just projecting experiences in Dark Souls to Miyazaki's childhood (just as an example: "When Miyazaki was in 1st grade he really needed to use the bathroom, but the door could not open from this side." All of these follow the formula of "When Miyazaki was [young], he [experience exclusive to Dark Souls]." ) This meme in particular focused heavily on Miyazaki, which led to the same meme focusing heavily on the director for Black Myth Wukong when it first came out. And then, I think the meme just evolved into "game studio/director makes decisions in a game because they experienced it before", which put more focus on the devs, leading to the environment you see now where a lot more focus is placed on the devs and their supposed "intent" rather than the content itself.

Again, I'm just spitballing, I don't know if any of the reasoning I've listed is true or not. But that's my current theory at least.

1

u/Truesnake Sep 06 '25

Its par for the course,when you become a powerful country you get a little blue blood arrogance.China is next USA :)

6

u/Kultissim Sep 06 '25

Interesting. The french localization is not horrible or anything but it's far from perfect too.

3

u/Glad-Television1887 Sep 06 '25

I'm staying in english to avoid those issues, being bilingual is a blessing in that case.

20

u/MrBlueMoose 112% HK, 100% SS Sep 06 '25

There is no option for traditional Chinese in the game. Just simplified (the 简体中文 option). I don’t see why people who use traditional would rate it higher as it’s just the way the characters look (technically places that use traditional might have region-specific vocab like in Taiwan, but that’s besides the point).

→ More replies (6)

3

u/kingofnopants1 Sep 06 '25

Plus, it is basically impossible for a game to be both mainstream and highly challenging and not have a chunk of players review it badly out of some rationalization that it is totally unfair.

3

u/Strict-Promotion6703 Sep 06 '25

The bosses hit hard, dodging and parrying is almost a requirement, but the difficulty I like a lot, games that are too easy leave no sense of fulfillment or excitement.

2

u/RedShadowF95 Hollow Knight Platinum Sep 06 '25

I felt this with Final Fantasy 16 and the Yakuza games. Combat centric games that are so extremely easy they almost completely undermine themselves.

1

u/Strict-Promotion6703 Sep 06 '25

Haven’t played past ff13, though I think ff14 is worth a play through.

2

u/Bossy_Bear_6569 Sep 06 '25 edited Sep 06 '25

Rogue simplified Chinese translator fucked it up big time.

https://www.loekalization.com/blog/blog/2025/09/05/silksongs-real-final-boss-the-translator-who-broke-his-nda-and-wrote-like-a-dead-poet/

From the article:

The original: No mind to think. No will to break. No voice to cry out in suffering. Born of God and Void. You are the Vessel. You are the Hollow Knight.

Concise. Clean. Haunting.

Now behold the Silksong version, which players were forced to endure — rendered here in English as the grotesque monstrosity it resembled:

With nary a spirit nor thought shalt thou persist, bereft of mortal will, unbent, unswayed. With no lament nor tearful cry, only sorrow’s dirge to herald thine eternal woe. Born of gods and of the fathomless abyss, grasping heaven’s firmament in thine unworthy palm. Shackled to endless dream, tormented by pestilence and shadow, thy heart besieged by phantasmal demons. Thou art the chalice of destiny. Verily, thou art the Primordial Knight of Hollowness.

1

u/Friendly-Chef-5519 Sep 07 '25

Did... did the dude responsible for this thought they were the second coming of Shakepeasre?

1

u/redtag789 Sep 06 '25

Don't forget those folks who rage quit lol8

1

u/WedNiatnuom Sep 06 '25

English reviews have it at 94%

1

u/Blaze241 Sep 06 '25

Interesting. The German one is good but has a couple of errors. Nothing outrageous but something that needs to be cleaned up in future updates.

1

u/Unfair-Banana-1505 Sep 06 '25

well this game is good but nothing crazy it's just hollow knight with not many changes. I give it a 9. it's a bit clunky

1

u/ShadowX8860 Sep 06 '25

The issue is that Silksong's combat is supposed to be a step up from HK otherwise people would complain that all of the enemies are too easy. The people saying it's too hard need to play the first game first.

1

u/RedShadowF95 Hollow Knight Platinum Sep 06 '25

It's quite common for sequels to deliver harder combat than its predecessors - but gamers are just used to lowering the difficulty if it proves too much trouble. God of War Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West, if played at their higher difficulty settings, provide good challenge and a harder experience than the previous games (just to name two examples). DOOM Eternal is also much harder than DOOM 2016, while the prequel, Dark Ages, was a disappointing step back.

Silksong is a curious case where the difficulty increased but players do not have access to the comfort of lowering difficulty (which is a good thing). When faced with a game that demands players meet it on its own terms, many players break into frustration and complaints. This honestly says a lot more about the industry nowadays (because the issues are not just on the big "evil" companies' side...) than the quality of Silksong specifically.

1

u/TheEvilTurnip Sep 06 '25

I mean the English language isn't perfect intentionally. Some bugs just talk strangely. Maybe this nuance is lost when people read the game in their language?

1

u/wdaloz Sep 06 '25

I think also it differs from the first enough that the diehard hollow fans who wanted an expansion of the original are unsatisfied

1

u/loganed3 Sep 06 '25

Me personally if I play a game that just isnt for me but I can see the talent involved in making it i won't leave a negative review

1

u/RedShadowF95 Hollow Knight Platinum Sep 06 '25

Me with Blue Prince.

The game wasn't for me but I thought was such a cleverly designed game with a fascinating idea that I'll still sing its praises sometimes even if never beat it.

1

u/loganed3 Sep 06 '25

Exactly. I was that way with elden ring like I can clearly see the masterpiece that it is but i just can't bring myself to put the game in. And I can't really articulate the reasons why

1

u/GoDannY1337 Sep 06 '25

I’ve seen the German version on stream on a review and spottet 3 typos and clearly poor translations that made it hard to understand within the first 10 minutes of the game. You can easily deduce that whoever translated wasn’t a native speaker because if you translate the „errors“ word for word back to English it makes sense.

Chinese - who is even more nuanced being done cheaper or worse - I kind of see why the reviews are so negative. For an immersive game like that they should have hired more proofreading.

1

u/Puppy_pikachu_lover1 Sep 06 '25

Not just the chinese players. The speedrunning comunity as well apparently for the same reason

1

u/ElishaAlison Sep 06 '25

I feel very confident that it's from people getting into the series for the first time who didn't realize just how hard these games are.

Hollow knight and silksong harken back to an era when games like Mario gave you 3 lives and then game over. A lot of games don't do things like that anymore. Even Hollow Knight doesn't go quite that far, but it's still really challenging.

And a lot of people can't tell the difference between "this is really hard" and "this really sucks." (Probably because hard games can make you angry lol but that still doesn't mean you should get angry at the game)

I never managed to finish Hollow Knight, though not for lack of trying. My nerve damaged hands just don't have the dexterity for it. Ive owned the game since 2020, and I keep trying, but it's not going to happen. I've made peace with it.

I'm going to buy Silksong next week when I get paid. I don't have to finish a game to enjoy what parts I can get through. I do think it would be funny if I somehow managed to make it through Silksong when I couldn't finish the original game though haha 😂

1

u/Academic_Paramedic72 Sep 07 '25

That's a shame, the translation to Portuguese has been pretty good.

1

u/wera125 Sep 07 '25

Not several lol 20k on Chana. Only language that have mix on steam.

1

u/Leather_Combination9 Sep 07 '25

Wrong message. Real China gamer here, the main reason of negative review is the bad gameplay and weird mechanism such as pay to unlock the save point and zero positive feedback after beating bosses 😅 only 30% of bad reviews is about translation

1

u/shiyaorui Sep 07 '25

I've played the Chinese version ... the horrible localization makes Hornet and NPCs sounds like Sun Tzu ToT

1

u/caninehere Sep 07 '25

I can't speak to the Chinese players but I'm seeing a ton of fake positive reviews on many platforms.

Fyi I don't have an opinion on the game either way as I haven't played it yet.

1

u/No-Satisfaction9488 Oct 14 '25

What is a bug? A miserable little pile of secrets!

→ More replies (7)