7 Things We Want in Hollow Knight: Silksong

After a six-year wait, Hollow Knight: Silksong is finally releasing today, and the anticipation is palpable. Ahead of the game’s official launch, online discourse is overflowing with fan theories and wishlists regarding what exactly Silksong might entail. Hollow Knight: Silksong has some massive shoes to fill, and fans across Reddit, Discord, and Steam forums haven’t been shy about where the sequel can improve on an already strong foundation. We at CheatCC dug deep and compiled the top 7 most requested features in Hollow Knight: Silksong, both from the Hollow Knight community and ourselves.

In Hollow Knight, the playable character is mute; however, Hornet is relatively talkative. Many fans hope for a more narrative-driven story in Silksong, with hopefully the opportunity to talk and respond to NPCs through Pharloom. If Silksong is indeed a direct sequel to Hollow Knight, we also hope to see some of the fan favorite characters from the original make an appearance. Bonus points if we get to interact with Bretta, Sly, or even Zote the Mighty.

Hollow Knight‘s map is sprawling, and we expect Silksong‘s to be no different. The new kingdom, Pharloom, seems to require us to scale it in contrast to the descent into Hallownest. Hornet, as a character, is incredibly agile, and her different abilities in both traversal and combat should open up opportunities for new and exciting map design. Still, most of us are hoping that Team Cherry scaled the size of Pharloom according to Hornet’s increased mobility to help the game not feel too short. Silksong’s world should be massive and diverse while maintaining the clever shortcuts that made its predecessor’s world so fun to get lost in.

The best part of Hollow Knight is its boss fights, especially those introduced in later DLC expansions. Silksong is already rumored to have more of them, but we hope that the increase in quantity has not affected the quality. The Pantheon in Hollow Knight set a high standard for difficulty, and we hope Silksong continues in the direction of demanding but rewarding fights in its endgame. Team Cherry has confirmed that Silksong will have roughly double the number of benches as Hollow Knight. We hope that not only means that the game is bigger, but that some of those benches are placed next to some of the hardest challenges yet.

One thing that most players are likely wishing for in Hollow Knight: Silksong is an expanded combat sandbox. This isn’t to say that Hollow Knight‘s wasn’t good enough; it’s just that a common criticism of Hollow Knight is that it takes too long for you to reach max strength. Hornet isn’t the same as the Knight, so we expect a more varied combat system earlier in the game’s runtime. The previews have already shown just how different Hornet will control when compared to the Knight. We hope that there are many more new mechanics in store for us that we have yet to see.

The side quests in Hollow Knight admittedly leave a bit to be desired. We hope that in Silksong, the side quests are a bit more structured. We already know that there are more towns to visit across Pharloom, each with its own set of NPCs. Hopefully, that’s an indication that we’ll be getting a proper quest system to keep track of more and varied objectives, which should also indicate the presence of a more narrative-focused experience as mentioned earlier. NPC interactions are some of my favorite moments in Hollow Knight, so I hope that Silksong will follow suit.

We anticipate Silksong to be either as difficult or more difficult than Hollow Knight. But along with that increase or maintenance of difficulty, we also hope that the new title will bring some quality of life improvements, specifically better fast-travel options. Throughout the main story, implementing fast travel via Hollow Knight‘s stag station is fine, but backtracking to complete side quests and objectives can quickly become tedious — unless the tedium is the point, as seen in Hollow Knight‘s flower side quest.

Another major improvement commonly asked for is better checkpoints. Facing off against the incredibly difficult bosses in Hollow Knight is exhilarating. Walking a long distance after dying for the 50th time is not. Hollow Knight‘s Dreamgate was a nice band-aid fix to this issue, so we hope that in Silksong, there is something like this by default. As difficulty rises in the game, more players will be willing to try again if they know the time between attempts has been drastically shortened.

Speaking of difficulty, Silksong is the most wishlisted game on Steam at the moment. Many players have bought into the hype and will inevitably bounce off the title once they see just how difficult these games tend to be. We anticipate the Steam player count to see a massive drop-off after launch, but hopefully, with the right options, Team Cherry can retain some of those players that might be new to the series.

Options like being able to lower enemy damage or providing extra checkpoints are a few ideas thrown around in fan spaces. Hollow Knight‘s modding community made some of these changes available to alleviate some of the friction in the original, but here’s hoping that Team Cherry takes the initiative to implement non-intrusive options that allow new players to comfortably explore Silksong, and perhaps even allow purists to make the game harder as well.