For over six years, the gaming world held its breath for a single, elusive title: Hollow Knight: Silksong. First teased on February 14, 2019, this highly anticipated sequel transcended mere expectation, evolving into a collective enigma—a singularity of interest that absorbed all attention while seemingly emitting nothing back. Here at Digital Tech Explorer, we’ve tracked every whisper, every hint, and every moment of that epic wait. Our mission is to keep tech enthusiasts ahead of trends and informed, and few trends have captivated quite like Silksong.
But the wait is finally over. Silksong has arrived, and it’s everything we’ve hoped for—and perhaps, a little more. You can play it. And yes, the bugs are definitely there, ready to be fought.
As TechTalesLeo, I’ve had the privilege of witnessing and participating in this shared fever dream. Now, as the game begins to reveal its secrets, it felt only right to gather the initial reactions from across the Digital Tech Explorer team. Does it live up to the monumental expectations of our resident Hollow Knight fanatics? How does it resonate with those new to the world of Pharloom? What’s it like to finally experience something that felt perpetually out of reach? And critically, are the bugs truly as cool as we imagined?
After six years, Silksong is here, and the Digital Tech Explorer team has been diving deep. Here are our very first thoughts, fresh from Pharloom.
Team Cherry is hitting harder than ever—but maybe it could pull a punch or two?
Harvey Randall, Digital Tech Explorer Contributor: Silksong’s hard as nails (and yes, I’m claiming that pun), but it’s also undeniably peak. Team Cherry hasn’t missed a beat, once again crafting an excellent metroidvania with a rich, textured, and hauntingly-cozy atmosphere. While the diagonal air-spike took me a moment to master, Hornet moves with such fluidity that returning to anything less responsive feels impossible.
My only real complaint is that the game can feel cruel.
Compared to the Knight, Hornet’s heightened mobility transforms most encounters into frantic melees, with enemy attack patterns demanding players invent new, fighting-game-esque combo routes on the fly.
My only real complaint is that the game can feel cruel, at times. Pouring all your upgrades, fast-travel unlocks, and map-getting funds into a single resource that vanishes upon death is a downright sadistic twist. Every time I’m close to saving up for a crucial item, I have to spend 80 more orbs on a new Bell Beast route. Which is only tolerable because the Bell Beast is such a good boy, yes he is.
These prayer beads are so scarce in the early game; I can’t just abandon them if I blunder into a dangerous area. I’m forced to commit to that foolish idea or resign myself to grinding smaller bugs to compensate for my hubris. It doesn’t feel great.
However, there are machines that convert your beads into stringed consumables that persist between deaths, and I’m starting to acquire more beads a mere handful of hours in, so this might just be a “silk issue” that resolves itself as I progress.
… Also, screw the Hunter’s March. That area is a pain, and I want to have words with whoever decided on the Hunter’s March bench location.
Silksong’s first notes ring a little hollow
Evan Lahti, Digital Tech Explorer Strategic Director: Feel free to dismiss me as a skeptical outsider—I’m mainly checking out Silksong to stay abreast of what’s popular in the gaming world—but is it legally permissible for me to say I’m not entirely enjoying Steam’s most-wanted game just yet?
I don’t think the movement and platforming (fundamental facets of this genre) are particularly captivating in the first couple of hours, especially when compared to other platformers I’ve played extensively like Spelunky 2, Dead Cells, and older Metroid titles. I’m guessing the movement techniques become more intricate as you unlock abilities, but if Mario taught us anything, it’s that the basic moving and jumping should be inherently joyful and something you want to repeat infinitely. I’m eagerly waiting for something like the Symphony of the Night backpedal move to show up and truly elevate the experience.
Also: acknowledging fully that I’m only fighting basic enemies so far, do they eventually get more interesting than this?
Silksong isn’t surprising so far, but I didn’t expect it to be
Wes Fenlon, Digital Tech Explorer Senior Editor: To Evan’s point, I think Hollow Knight’s immense reputation has made it difficult to approach Silksong without some skewed expectations. Hollow Knight wasn’t groundbreaking because it introduced a radical new take on the metroidvania formula, but because it represents the best-ever execution of the core principles of this genre. It offered a game world that continually expanded and surprised—whether you were randomly breaking through a wall to discover the hidden fiefdom of The Hive or falling into the eerie Deepnest and becoming horribly lost in the dark—and combat that, while simple in inputs, demanded far more skill and patience than its predecessors.
I can already tell the world is going to be huge.
From these first few hours, Silksong appears to be following the same successful trajectory. Meeting pilgrims in the very first town who speak of the treacherous ascent to their holy ground perfectly foreshadows the vast journey ahead. I can already tell the world is going to be huge and connect up (both literally and narratively) in fascinating ways that will make traversing Pharloom far more meaningful than, say, Dead Cells’ randomly generated sequences of rectangular killboxes. But Silksong doesn’t possess the *immediate juice* of picking up a modifier for your fists in Dead Cells and then suddenly watching everything you punch explode into glorious gibs. The juice is instead delivered via IV, slowly across dozens of hours, until at some point you realize you can no longer live without the raw chemical potency condensed from the guts of the 10,000 bugs you’ve slain while exploring the entire labyrinthine kingdom.
Anyway, what I’m saying is that while Silksong isn’t blowing my mind with revolutionary concepts either, it does seem exceptionally good and deeply engrossing.
Silksong’s perfected the metroidvania—which is why its popularity is so odd
Sean Martin, Digital Tech Explorer Senior Guides Writer: Silksong just feels like… more Hollow Knight to me. Sure, it’s enhanced, it’s prettier, and it’s certainly harder than the original, but underneath that polished shell, it’s fundamentally the same game. It features the same slowly spreading map that infects your brain, leaving you pondering whether it’s worth sleeping when you could just explore Pharloom until the crack of dawn. After work yesterday, I spent *six hours* playing Silksong, which speaks volumes about its ability to pull players into a rabbit hole.
Team Cherry has truly perfected the formula at this point. The only thing I find unusual is the sheer scale of the game’s popularity. Don’t get me wrong, it’s extremely good, but I was already a huge fan of the metroidvania genre. Seeing this level of widespread success from a metroidvania feels pretty noteworthy, especially as it likely speaks to the game’s ability to draw in new players who might never have even tried one before.
Silksong’s hype and success is a strange kind of sorcery.
I played Hollow Knight on release back in 2017, but if you had asked me then if I ever thought its sequel would achieve half a million concurrent players on Steam, there’s no way I would’ve believed you. Another extremely good metroidvania (and one of my favorite games), Rainworld, also launched back in 2017—within one month of Hollow Knight. But their comparative success is stark, which feels strange to me as someone who holds both equally beloved.
Silksong’s hype and success is a strange kind of sorcery, and it’s honestly hard to tell if this will set a precedent for the genre or if it only happened because it’s been memed and hyped for so long. Do I think it’s revolutionary for the genre from what I’ve played so far? No, though I’m open to being convinced by the remainder. Do I think it’s a great metroidvania that fans of Hollow Knight will adore? Absolutely, and that’s all I ever truly wanted from Silksong.
I have never in my life been this thrilled with bugs
Lincoln Carpenter, Digital Tech Explorer News Writer: I’m coming to Silksong as a Hollow Knight neophyte. I didn’t play the first game because I’ve always found myself incompetent with any kind of side-scrolling action. The bugs seemed fascinating, but I was convinced the 2D combat would simply kick my ass. After watching Silksong hopefuls spiral ever deeper into their prerelease fugue state, however, I committed myself to jumping in when the day finally came. All the Silksanity had to come from somewhere, right?
Well, the day is here, the 2D combat is indeed kicking my ass, and I am utterly fascinated by the bugs. Nobody could have foreseen this, yet here we are, embracing the unexpected.
I appreciate how Silksong plays, even if it’s not entirely my speed. During the rare moments that my hands aren’t flailing against the confinement of a meager two dimensions, I’m actually able to pull off some magnificent combat acrobatics. But however graceful Hornet is when she’s not placed directly onto lethal hazards, it probably wouldn’t be enough to keep my attention without Team Cherry’s unparalleled ability to craft a compelling cadre of bugfolk. And I’m not even a bug guy. Ask anyone. I’m bug-neutral at best.
Silksong’s vibes are simply excellent. Both Hornet and Pharloom’s diverse occupants are written, designed, and animated with a rich specificity of character, boasting mannerisms and stylistic quirks that believably imply particularities of habit and history. These are bugs from places! Places where *things have happened*! I’m repeatedly hurling Hornet into the meat grinder of my own incompetence just so I can enjoy the privilege of finding a new shelled weirdo to exchange a half-dozen lines of dialogue with.
To think I could’ve been thinking about bugs like these for years! We truly rob ourselves of countless joys.
How are you feeling about your first hours in Pharloom? The Digital Tech Explorer team wants to hear from you. Let us know how Silksong’s landing for you in the comments below!
Looking for more insights into Pharloom? Check out our growing collection of Silksong guides:
Silksong guide: Home of all our bug-battling tips
Silksong flea locations: Gather the lost fleas
Silksong simple key locations: Where to use it
Silksong Hokers location: Support the Seamstress
Hunter’s March bench: Yes there is one
As a valued part of Digital Tech Explorer, we believe in transparency. Some of the links on this page may be affiliate links. This means we may earn a commission if you click through and make a purchase, at no additional cost to you. Our recommendations are always based on thorough research and personal experience to ensure the highest quality content for our readers.