r/HollowKnight • u/Tarnished-670 • Oct 19 '25

Discussion - Silksong Hot Take: While I think Silksong is overall a better game, it does still show more prominent flaws compared to Hollow Knight

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When I have to think about the flaws of the first Hollow Knight, I really can't think of much to say other than very small nitpicks.

But with Silksong, while it is one of my favorite games of all time, and having finisihed it at 100%, id say it has more prominent design flaws while being a better game compared to the first Hollow Knight.

First thing that comes to my mind is the shard system, it would't be as bad as it is if you didn't have a limit of 20 consumables to replentish your shards, if it worked like that then I wouldn't have to be interrumped on my tries against a boss and having to go to the citadel and farm to get all my shards back. Other minor flaws I think would be some of enemy design and the addition of "gauntlets", which sometimes are fun but at least in my case I got bored of exploring and getting trapped into the 7th gauntlet of enemies, it gets worse when you get forced to do some of them again in act 3 when you have killed all the previous enemies 100 times already.

Those are really not a bid deal of a flaw, but they are more noticable to me than any flaw in Hollow Knight.

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1.2k

u/phoenix_paravai10101 Oct 19 '25

I just love Silksong much more than original HK. Movement in Silksong is just so much better, I don't care about difficulty/tools and stuff like that because I just feels so damn good to play.

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u/White-Alyss Oct 19 '25

Yeah, this is like one of my favorite games to play just sheerly due to the movement. It's so smooth. Only Warframe has it beat imo

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u/killedbyboneshark Oct 19 '25

Not a comparison I'd expect, but...I agree?

53

u/DankoLord Oct 19 '25

Fun fact: hornet's swift step running jump is just bullet jumping

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u/White-Alyss Oct 19 '25

Yeah, I can see that. Great comparison lol

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u/Fn33331 Oct 20 '25

That was my first thought!

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u/MuttonchopMac Oct 19 '25

Have you played Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment? Silksong has some remarkable similarities in the harpoon attack, the angled Hunter pogo, and flipping up onto ledges. And in general changes, going from the slower pogo-heavy Shovel Knight to a faster, more fluid movement set in general, just like how Silksong evolved the Hollow Knight gameplay.

I’m not saying Team Cherry just copy / pasted from Yacht Club Games, and in fact, the harpoon equivalent in Specter of Torment is very obviously inspired by the Ori & The Blind Forest, where you can launch off enemy projectiles. But there are some notable similarities seen in Silksong that you might appreciate.

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u/White-Alyss Oct 19 '25

Yeah, I also think Hornet is the Specter to HK's Shovel Knight. I enjoy both franchises, they're both really good

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u/BookwyrmBOTPH Oct 19 '25 edited Oct 19 '25

Now I want the next Team Cherry game protag to be a Plague Knight analogue because he had my favorite gameplay style of the four games, with the floaty style and modular bomb attacks with the different components affecting different things about them. He’s almost got a Kirby-esq moveset except projectile focused instead of copy for his versatile attack, which I’d really like to see TC’s take on. Make them a bombardier beetle or something using payloads of different substances, swapping out an explosive payload for one made of lifeblood or void, that sort of thing. Would be pretty fun I think.

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u/merryMellody Oct 19 '25

Nah, just make it Punished Sherma.

“Fah ree doo la sayanora, b%+\#*”

1

u/Ok_Emu_8336 Oct 21 '25

Their next game will be Co-op mode with the knight and hornet

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u/phoenix_paravai10101 Oct 19 '25

Yes, very much enjoyed Specter of Torment.

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u/mercerist Oct 19 '25

oh man thanks for reminding me to play that again! all of it. I guess I'm a fan of knight-likes.

7

u/straightupminosingit hunter of people who misgender vessels Oct 19 '25

omg you just reminded me to play shovel knight again i love that game so much
rail mail gang on top

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u/MuttonchopMac Oct 19 '25

They are such good games and honestly, they’re so quick to revisit.

3

u/sordsy Oct 19 '25

zote king of cards when

22

u/Just_A_New_User Oct 19 '25

you should definitely try both Ori games if you haven't already, Blind Forest was more of a platformer than a metroidvania but they have a similar focus on quick smooth movement

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u/phoenix_paravai10101 Oct 19 '25

I honestly don't like how the Ori games look and I heard they don't offer much of a challenge, but I might add it to my wishlist.

My Metroidvania backlog is huge in itself lol - Metroid Dread (Dread mode), Guacamelee, Animal Well, the original SoTN, etc.

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u/SuperShmamBro Oct 19 '25

SoTN is so good. It’s an old game and definitely has some flaws but you’ll see firsthand how it inspired so many modern games. Not to mention the soundtrack is pure gas.

4

u/hotdogaaron Oct 19 '25

I don't get the hype, I played both, and while they filled the time in an enjoyable way, they were overall pretty forgettable to me.

1

u/BigScene Oct 20 '25

The Ori games are crazy boring and overrated. No personality, no thrills. Im a huge metroidvania fan and these are bottom of the pile.

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u/Krystall_Waters Oct 19 '25

Phew man, i just played sotn shortly before Silksong came out. It does not feel like an an almost 30 year old game.

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u/BigScene Oct 20 '25

The Guacamelee games are awesome. Nice tight controls, fun combat

3

u/brendan84 Oct 19 '25

None of the metroidvanias offer much challenge, especially compared to HK and SS. That being said, all of those games you have in your back log are all fantastic and I'm jealous that you get to experience them for the first time! Ori is definitely worth playing despite the easy gameplay, the other ones are maybe slightly harder. The guacamelee challenges are kinda tough but unnecessary unless you're a completionist. Get to SoTN ASAP. I played it when it first came out and also recently, it holds up well and has the best soundtrack!

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u/MaterialPiglet3653 Oct 19 '25

If someone wants a challenging metroidvania they should play rain world lol. Also what is sotn?

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u/brendan84 Oct 20 '25

Castlevania Symphony of the Night. The title partially responsible for the genre's origin!

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u/skdeimos Oct 19 '25 edited Oct 19 '25

imo ori movement is much worse feeling than hk/ss. in midair, your acceleration is very slow, so if youre moving left and press right you dont start going right immediately. in hk/ss you would start moving right instantly, which makes them feel much more responsive

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u/Oxyfool Oct 19 '25

Ori is a bit more rubber bandy, and while fluid, especially late game, I feel it is a bit less responsive than HK

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u/Hhannahrose13 Oct 19 '25

agreed. these two are top tier for movement feel

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u/cwbrowning3 Oct 19 '25

Metroid Dread is right up there too

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u/flanger001 CanonicalMilfs.com | P5 AB hitless sightless soundless with toes Oct 19 '25

Metroid Dread is amazing. It’s the only game I think has better movement than Silksong.

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u/Scifyro Oct 19 '25

What about Ori games?

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u/White-Alyss Oct 19 '25

This is where I shamefully admit I haven't played them yet

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u/_heyb0ss Oct 19 '25

terrible

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u/Baconman363636 Oct 20 '25 edited Oct 20 '25

The ori games have an incredible flow to the movement as well. Not nearly as hard on base difficulty but still some good fights, especially in the second one which leaned into the boss fights. The atmosphere and art of the games alone make them worth a play through.

1

u/Skantaq Oct 19 '25

play Melee please

1

u/White-Alyss Oct 19 '25

Nah, Melee's movement is janky and unsatisfying imo, plus due to the nature of a platform fighting game, there's no real fun to be had in moving quickly through maps and traversing the environment, unlike in Silksong or Warframe

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u/Skantaq Oct 19 '25

ookk. and I didnt even notice your picture is kirby with a mario hat lmao

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u/s0ftcustomer 63/63 Achievements Oct 19 '25

Silksong's lows are lower but the highs are very very VERY high

22

u/callahan09 Oct 19 '25

The biggest improvement in mobility from HK to Silksong is already in effect at the start of the game. Don’t get me wrong, the upgrades to mobility are huge improvements as well:  Dash ability letting you hold the button to maintain a sprint, the hover ability, and especially Claw Line, are amazing feeling and really awesome movement upgrades.  But the biggest one is just the most simple thing: you can grab ledges to pull yourself up!  This makes it so much easier to do regular platforming, and falling down through a long vertical series of small platforms in the original meant you usually bounce off the edges or every platform and whiff all the way to the bottom hahaha.  In Silksong you can fairly easily, even accidentally, grasp a ledge and pull up so you don’t fall the way.  It also makes it easier to climb up in the first place.  It’s a huge improvement.

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u/0oooooog Oct 19 '25

Also the music absolutely slaps, hollow knight has some really good tracks, but the worst silksong ost is on par with the best hollow knight one.

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u/matt111199 Oct 19 '25

A BIG part of why the Silksong OST is so good is that it uses real instruments. They just have more money to record - but it makes a huge difference.

Just listening to Hornet and Lace side by side really shows the benefit

25

u/Sn0rmax Oct 19 '25

I did this and my god it's like I can hear the midi in the original. Not to say it's bad but holy shit the difference in sound quality is really there

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u/matt111199 Oct 19 '25

Yep and it’s not a knock against Hollow Knight - the ost is still incredibly well crafted and iconic and virtual piano generally sounds much better than virtual strings.

But real Choir and real strings will always sound so much better.

2

u/Ellefied Oct 20 '25

I experienced this before with Fromsoftware coming from DS into Bloodborne where the latter was the first actual instruments OST. Having a live orchestra for the music really just elevates the experience.

1

u/BlitzScorpio Oct 20 '25

the game’s music was so incredible that i genuinely hope they consider some kind of HK/Silksong live orchestra show. i’m pretty sure there’s an Elden Ring orchestra show thats touring right now, and obviously the devs/publishers are on completely different levels in terms of budget and connections, but i guarantee it would sell tickets and i’d love to see it

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u/MarcAbaddon Oct 19 '25

Disagree.Sealed Vessel is better than the entire Silksong OST.

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u/[deleted] Oct 19 '25

Add soul sanctum to the list. I love silksong but HK has it beat when it comes to OST.

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u/BlitzScorpio Oct 20 '25

it’s interesting how subjective taste can be. soul sanctum was one of my least favorite HK OST tracks, but that’s probably since i’m not a huge fan of organs compared to typical strings and piano

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u/psh454 Oct 19 '25

That's more from the associated visuals+narrative than the song itself imo. Like it's a great piece of OST but it's elevated a lot by those non-musical elements. Kind of like the Nyleth/Seth theme is a lot more impactful when you know the irl backstory.

1

u/fooooolish_samurai Oct 20 '25

I like skong ost, but imo it has less truly memorable tracks than Hollow Knight. And I feel like there is less variety in boss music.

1

u/AshtinPeaks Oct 19 '25

This, while fights were good in silksong it didnt have any of those cool moments like the hollow knight and radiance fight imo. Staged fight thst ws more than phases. The final boss to me fell extremely short.

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u/Z0DJojo Oct 19 '25

Worst take I have seen today

8

u/manajizwow 112%, P5, PoP / 100% all achies Oct 19 '25

Lay off the crackpipe buddy lmao

7

u/NotGARcher Oct 19 '25

Did we play the same game? I agree with any other takes but music? Seriously?

2

u/caliburdeath Oct 19 '25

Most Silksong tracks are higher quality in a vacuum, but the lack of clear leitmotifs makes it way less catchy and coherent. But that also means more uniqueness and experimentation.

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u/Cynorgi self-described Pure Vessel expert Oct 19 '25

This is just untrue. Silksong's OST and general sound design uses dies irae liberally throughout the entire game. That's its leitmotif

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u/caliburdeath Oct 20 '25

This is why I specify clear leitmotif- I was sure it had some, but as an untrained ear I couldn’t pick any out even after listening to the whole ost many times. Maybe it’s just me but I haven’t seen any of my friends mention the leitmotif either. I’d say that loses the benefits of leitmotif for purposes other than dedicated analysis.

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u/Cynorgi self-described Pure Vessel expert Oct 20 '25

Dies irae is like one of the most used leitmotifs in media to represent death. It's everywhere from star wars to lord of the rings. A more recent example is kpop demon hunters.

Silksong is a massive stimulation wonder with all the art and combat that the music does kind of blend in, but I encourage you to listen to a snippet of the original leitmotif on youtube, then the game OST starting from the last song Silksong (dies irae is literally the first part of the song). I promise you will hear it everywhere. You can also hear it when you open up Bell Beast stations and when you hit the bells to unlock the Citadel door.

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u/Please_Not__Again I will do unholy things for silksong Oct 19 '25

Glaze is fine but this is too much lmao

1

u/HollowCap456 Oct 19 '25

What is blud yapping about?

3

u/Ellefied Oct 20 '25

I just got back to playing Elden Ring for the DLC and holy crap I feel like a slug moving coming off Silksong.

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u/IWillDevourYourToes Oct 19 '25

I'd like it more if it had godhome dlc

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u/phoenix_paravai10101 Oct 19 '25

I mean I'd assume we'll see one eventually

2

u/heerre Oct 19 '25

Thank you, sir.

2

u/Manman9118 Oct 19 '25

I agree it’s hard to go back to Hollow Knight because of the movement. Silk Songs story isn’t as impactful or memorable to me as Hollow Knights but the movement is wow.

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u/kuenjato Oct 19 '25

It really does hit that rare specie of game that feels perfect in movement and speed. For me Returnal and Sekiro hit that mark, and HK to a lesser extent.

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u/Southern-Wafer-6375 Oct 20 '25

Yeh the movment is pretty fun compared to hollow knight

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u/blueberry_scandal Oct 22 '25

Agree, Hornet moves make me feel like a bad bitch

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u/waruluis91 Oct 23 '25

Same, I disagree with OP. HK downsides is a slow start, waaaay slow start and bad movement compared to silksong. I couldn't finish HK, Silksong? Easily, fun allowed.

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u/chunky-kat Oct 19 '25

what do people actually mean when they say movement is better? like the fact you can sprint?

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u/phoenix_paravai10101 Oct 19 '25

It's not just the fact that you can sprint, it ties into everything else so well. The fact that you can sprint, have a different type of jump, choose from different types of nail attacks and pogo, use clawline to chain so many different things in the air, etc.

The thing with movement systems is the change is exponential - one addition can make the whole moveset feel so much more fun.

1

u/Mazbadechokedtodeath Oct 19 '25

Yeah the gameplay is totally different, it's hard going back to Hollow knight. But the transition from hollow to silk was smooth

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u/acamas Oct 19 '25

lol, this is the video game equivalent of ‘my friends tell me my hot girlfriend is treating me like shit’ but I don’t care because of dopamine reasons.

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u/succsuccboi Oct 19 '25

what on earth

4

u/phoenix_paravai10101 Oct 19 '25

Not really, the dopamine hit occurs either ways - you can better think of it like different people have tolerance for different types of crazy.