E3 has once again reared its ugly head upon us, and Team Cherry has decided to grace us
with a playable demo for Hollow Knight: Silksong. Unfortunately, William and Ari decided to
stay in Australia this year. Did last year’s trip leave them permanently scarred from the
horrors of the L.A. transportation system? Of course we can only speculate. But even
without William or Ari’s presence, we still got a lot of info about Silksong to plow through.
Nintendo Treehouse did an excellent segment on the game, and we also have a few off screen
videos to go through as well. But first let me give my overall thoughts on E3 2019. *Farting
noise
So we have quite a few recording of Silksong from E3. But this one by Harker is the only
video to actually give us a look at the title screen for Silksong. And yeah, it’s fucking
awesome. I wish we had better footage of it, but I guess nobody wanted to stare at the
title screen for 20 seconds like I would have. Anyway, there are two zones available to play
in the demo, the Moss Grotto and the Deep Docks. Both of these areas appear to be early
on in the game, located at the bottom of the kingdom of Pharloom. That’s right, the name
of the Kingdom in Silksong is Pharloom. Like Far as in “far from Hallownest”, and loom
as in “a frame or machine for interlacing at right angles two or more sets of threads
or yarns to form a cloth”. Wouldn’t have been my first choice for a name, but I guess
it’s okay.
That game starts off with a poem. Very classy. All great media starts off with a poem. Like
my recent creepypasta, for example. Although it pains me to call this a poem since it doesn’t
even rhyme. Maybe it’s slam poetry or something. The poem is titled Pharloom’s Folly and
it was written by the Conductor Romino. It reads:
They see your beauty, so frail and fine, They see your peace, woven of faith and toil,
They forget your heart, bound in slumber and servitude,
When you wake they shall see your truth, A beast’s nature bare to all.
So the author of this poem appears to be speaking directly to Pharloom, or whoever or whatever
power Pharloom operates on. This could be similar to the Elegy for Hallownest, which
was more or less speaking directly to the Pale King. Pharloom’s Folly seems to tell
the story of how Pharloom’s people forgot about the true nature of the heart of the
kingdom. The poem then warns about what will happen when this nature is awoken. This awakening
might have already happened, as this poem might have been written a long ass time ago.
Digging deeper into this, the first two lines go into detail about the citizens of Pharloom.
It appears as though the citizens kept the heart of Pharloom at peace through faith and
toil. If I were to wildly speculate, I might be able to link this back to the bells. The
bells do seem tied to some sort of faith or religion, and the bugs of Pharloom appear
to be endlessly toiling to create more of them.
The next line in the poem tells us what Pharloom’s folly actually is. The citizens have forgotten
about the heart of the kingdom, as they have kept this heart in slumber and servitude.
In other words, these bugs have kept something bound for a really long time. They appear
to be doing this as a way to gain some kind of service. But this has been going on for
so long that the citizens of Pharloom have forgotten just what they are dealing with.
In the last two lines it is explained that once the heart of the kingdom awakens from
its slumber, the citizens will finally see its beast-like nature.
I will be calling back to this poem a few times so you might want to write it down on
a sticky note or something. But for now, let’s move on to the opening cutscene. Part of this
cutscene was already shown off in the reveal trailer, but the new shots we got are not
only beautiful, but also really important. It’s like Team Cherry cut all of the best
bits from the reveal trailer. What a tease! The first new detail we got was that this
cage is surrounded by what appears to be a Seal of Binding. At least that’s what the
Treehouse hosts call it. “No, it seems like there’s some sort of Seal of Binding as
well on this.” That’s right, these ladies actually know a little bit of Hollow Knight
lore. In fact, they are even able to give a few new tidbits of lore during the event.
“These enemies seem to have some sort of curse”
“I do believe that’s the Church Keeper…”
“I’ve been terrorized by fleas in my past.”
“It’s okay, Katie.”
Getting back to the Seal of Binding, this explains why Hornet was never able to escape
the cage when she was first captured. Anyway, we now get a shot of Hornet’s captors carrying
her through some sort of archway. This is likely the proper entrance to Pharloom. This
next scene finally gives us a clue about how Hornet escaped. This glowing white bug lands
on the cage, and destroys the Seal of Binding. Now that’s OP as fuck. I don’t know why
Team Cherry keeps giving insane powers to these tiny, white glowing objects. Actually,
you know what? That’s not a bad idea. I’m gonna use that in my creepypasta.
After the Seal of Binding is destroyed, we get that same scene of thread coming out of
Hornet as her expression changes. The threads destroy the bridge and everyone falls into
the darkness below. Now the big question here is what exactly is happening to Hornet? Maybe
with the seals gone, Hornet’s abilities came back to her, allowing her to unleash
her thread and escape. I’ve theorized in the past that the thread coming out of her
was the result of some power that Pharloom has over those who enter it. And that’s
still possible, Hornet does seem pretty shocked about what’s happening, implying that she
isn’t completely in control of the situation. I don’t feel too strongly about either explanation,
so I’ll leave it up to you to decide.
And now we arrive at the Moss Grotto. Hornet’s needle pierces into the ground and you have
to use the bind ability to get up. Binding in Silksong requires Hornet to spend her entire
spool of thread in order to heal three masks of damage. In the demo, the thread now has
8 notches instead of 12 like in the reveal trailer. Binding appears to have replaced
focusing from Hollow Knight, and allows for much faster gameplay. Instead of playing it
safe, waiting for a chance to spend a little soul to heal, you are now encouraged to be
aggressive. Keep landing hit so that you can heal a bunch of damage.
Now in one part of the demo, Hornet gets hit at the end of her heal, and all three masks
disappear. This has led to some confusion about how getting hit while healing works.
In this particular instance, I think it’s just a glitch in the HUD. We can see Hornet
get hit two more times after this, but her she never loses any masks. I think this is
because Hornet still has those masks, but they just aren’t showing up on the HUD.
I’ll get more into movement later, but the Bind ability is a good glimpse into what makes
Silksong different from Hollow Knight. People compare Silksong to being like what Bloodborne
is to Dark Souls or what Spectre of Torment is to Shovel Knight, or what Garfield Kart
is to Garfield and I’d say that those are all pretty apt comparisons.
Getting into Moss Grotto proper, there are a lot of cool details that I want to point
out. First of all, the moss underneath Hornet’s feet actually reacts to being stepped on.
You see, this is the small shit that gets me really excited. Killing enemies in this
area will get you shell shards. Shell shards are described as being fossilised fragments
of shell and bone. This item can be used for crafting tools, which we will see later on
in the next part of the demo. Shell shards can also be found by breaking these weird
statues.
Now you didn’t hear this from me, but it appears as though silk will be very important
in this game, seeing as there are many natural silk reserves in the world, similar to soul
totems in Hollow Knight. In the Moss Grotto we have these spider webs resting on vines.
I really hope each area in Silksong has different designs like this. It helps each area feel
more distinct, instead of just finding Soul Totems all over the map, including the Royal
Waterways for some reason.
In terms of enemies, we have this spikey moss baby and this flying spikey moss baby. I’m
sure they have really cute names like mossbug or winged mossbug or something dumb like that.
Moving on, we also have this little guy. He kinda looks like a mix between a Tiktik and
Sonic the Hedgehog. But not only that, if you go right instead of left at the beginning
of the demo, you can find this secret location. Here, you’ll find a giant version of the
same bug. And if you hit it, it gets super pissed. I have no idea how Team Cherry expected
anyone to fight that thing. I’m guessing they just stuck it here as an easter egg and
will give it a big arena later. Or maybe this is supposed to be some kind of ascended arena
or some shit.
Now during the treehouse event, the hosts mention that the bugs of Pharloom are cursed
in a manner similar to the bugs of Hallownest. We can already see in this area of the game
that enemies give off silk fibers when they are hit. In one of my other Silksong speculation
videos, I talked about the different colored particles that came off of different enemies.
But in this demo, some bugs have been changed. But they still all give off silk, so that
appears to be the common thread between all of these enemies. And just like with the infection
in Hollow Knight, this silk is probably tied to why so many creatures are hostile to Hornet.
At the end of the Moss Grotto area is the Old Church subarea. There, Hornet must fight
a boss called the Moss Mother. Now people have been saying that this thing is actually
my mother. Which makes this line much more awkward.
“It also looks like a total bitch.”
Moss Mother seems to be a sort of parallel to the Gruz Mother, since that was also a
mother, and also lived in a church, and was also was a total bitch. But maybe I’m wrong.
Maybe this boss might actually be pretty tough. She definitely gave a lot of pro gamers trouble.
Here’s a reporter from Kotaku dying to her. “Hubris there. Hubris,folks.”
After the battle, Hornet is knocked unconscious when this silhouette does… nothing. And
then she starts laughing. For all she knows, Hornet just had a heart attack! According
to Katie, the woman playing the game for the Treehouse event, this NPC is the Church Keeper,
who might act as a guide for Hornet throughout the game. We know from the Silksong reveal
trailer that the Church Keeper teaches Hornet how to play her needle like a stringed instrument.
We still don’t see any of this in the demo, so the utility of this ability still remains
up in the air.
Before we leave the Moss Grotto, I wanted to call attention to these strange doors that
can be found on either side of the map. The face designs appear to be based on the Weavers.
There is no way to open these doors in the demo, so we’ll have to wait to see what
might be hidden behind them. More importantly, this strengthens the argument that Pharloom
was the original home for the Weavers.
And now let’s move on to the second area of the game, the Deep Docks. In this section,
Hornet gains more of her moveset. She gets access to her tool by pressing R. She gets
her sprint, which is activated by holding ZR. And she gets a skill move using the X
button. Looking at the footage that was recorded on the show floor, it seems like Hornet is
a little difficult to control at first. When using the downward strike in Silksong, Hornet
will lunge down diagonally, making spacing a bit more complex than in Hollow Knight.
When sprinting Hornet can perform a long jump, which is used to reach a mask shard. She is
also capable of grabbing ledges. And if you press in the right joystick, she does a cute
little taunt. All of these movement abilities give Silksong a larger emphasis on platforming.
Here in the Deep Docks, we see lever operated platformers, a room filled with hot coals
that Hornet has to run on and a room with lava falls that fucked up a ton of people
playing the demo. I’m really happy to see this greater emphasis on platforming. The
biggest problem with Hollow Knight for me was that it didn’t have enough areas like
the White Palace.
Let’s take a look at Hornet’s inventory. So we have Hornet’s cloak, known as the
Hunter’s cloak, which confirms that Hornet has pockets that allow her to store things
like giant ass buzzsaws so that’s good. We have the needle which is described as being
perfectly balanced, as all things should be.
Next up, we have the Thread Spool. This item tells us that silk thread is produced naturally
within Hornet’s shell. So how exactly does hitting enemies cause Hornet to naturally
produce silk thread? Does it have to do with the fact that these enemies release silk fibers
when they get hit? And then Hornet is taking these fibers and turning them into thread?
Is this related to soul at all? Can Hornet even manipulate soul? She is the daughter
of the Pale King, so it’s not an unbelievable suggestion.
Hornet also has a tool kit, which is likely what holds all of the weapons we saw in the
reveal trailer. There’s a description of the mask shard, which says “Mask Pieces
2”. This is probably just placeholder text, indicating that the player currently has two
masks shards, given that the player collects one later and is shown to have three of them.
There’s also the description for the Mossberry, which is an item that is mentioned in a quest
we saw in the reveal trailer.
Now let’s talk about Rosaries and Shell Shards. Rosaries are the new currency found
in Silksong. They are described as being holy, and having patterns etched into them. What
I like about this item is that none of the enemies in the Moss Grotto drop them, which
makes sense, since these bugs have probably never used currency living in the wilderness.
It never made sense that Primal Aspids would be carrying Geo after all. What are they gonna
do with it? Go to a matinee?
Now there is an item that we don’t have a screenshot of called the Rosary String.
But we do have a description of it from the Nintendo Live Treehouse hosts. Basically they
state that Hornet will lose all of her rosaries upon death. It’s unclear whether or not
she can retrieve them, but as of this demo, she cannot. But they do go on to explain that
rosaries on a string won’t be lost. They then mention that they kept breaking their
rosary strings to get the rosaries. So I think Rosary Strings act like Boss Souls from Dark
Souls. It’s just a regular item, but you can spend it to receive a certain amount of
currency.
Shell shards aren’t currency like rosaries, and you don’t lose them when dying, but
they are still important collectables in Silksong. In the Deep Docks demo, Hornet has access
to a tool described as a straight pin. When Hornet uses a pin, this wheel decreases. The
one only way to replenish Hornet’s tool is to sit at a bench. Hornet will then use
the shell shards to rebuild her tools. But how exactly do you get a metal pin out of
bone and shell? Are these benches able to transmute matter? In the demo, Hornet is only
able to hold 400 shell shards, meaning there might be items in the game that increase how
many you can hold.
Since I brought up Hornet dying earlier, I think it’s time we talk about… it. Now,
as you know, the debate about whether or not Hornet is a void being has been raging on
for over two years now. For a long time now. I have firmly believed that Hornet is not
a void being, and I even made an amazing video about it.
But even after this video, there have been people who have continued to believe a lie.
Vysuals, a Hollow Knight speedrunner, even made a fool of himself at ADGQ this year sharing
his silly belief that Hornet is made of void.
“Is Hornet void?”
“Hornet is definitely void.”
I’m sorry, Visuals, but isn’t your job to see as little of the game as possible?
Why should anybody trust you on lore?
But despite what anyone thought, we all knew that the answer would finally arrive once
Hornet became a playable character. If Hornet was a void being, similar to the Knight and
the other vessels, then she would leave a shade behind upon death. And now, after years
of waiting, we finally have an answer.
HORNET IS NOT FUCKING VOID. WHENEVER SHE GETS HIT, SHE SPILLS WHITE PARTICLES LIKELY REPRESENTING
SOUL. THIS IS DIFFERENT TO THE KNIGHT, WHO ALWAYS SPILLED BLACK VOID PARTICLES. WHEN
HORNET IS AT ONE HEALTH, SOUL WILL LEAK FROM HER BODY AND HEALTH METER, SIMILAR TO HOW
THE KNIGHT LEAKED VOID. WHEN HORNET DIES, SHE EXPLODES INTO SOUL AND SILK UNTIL THE
SCREEN GOES DARK. UPON RETURNING TO THE PLACE OF HER DEATH, HORNET IS GREETED WITH A COCOON
THAT REPLENISHES HER THREAD SPOOL. WHEN THE KNIGHT DIES, ITS BODY CRUMBLES APART AS VOID
PARTICLES APPEAR. A SHADE IS LEFT BEHIND THAT THE KNIGHT HAS TO DEFEAT IN ORDER TO REGAIN
ALL OF ITS SOUL METER. ALL OF THESE DETAILS CLEARLY HINT AT HORNET NOT BEING RELATED TO
THE VOID.
But of course, we all knew it wouldn’t be that easy. There are still those in the Hollow
Knight community who believe that Hornet is still a void entity. How is that? Well, it
all has to do with how the screen goes black after Hornet’s death. Some people believe
that this is void violently erupting from Hornet’s body. Here’s my counter argument.
It’s just a screen transition.
You see, screen transitions are important in video games. They give the game a chance
to load in new rooms, instances and other shit without looking really weird. They are
also useful for setting the pace while storytelling. Here’s an example from the popular cartoon
TV show, Ed, Edd n Eddy.
“End of first sequence and fade to black.”
You see the Eds weren’t being swallowed up by void. They were just ending that scene.
Hell, even I use screen transitions sometimes. Here, watch.
See how seamless that was? If
I had just hard cut to this image, it would have been really weird.
Oh shit! Did you just
see that? Hornet and her captors just got attacked by a whole cascade of void. Oh wait,
that was just a transition.
But maybe I’m being too harsh on Team Vornet. Let’s look at this scene where Hornet gets
killed by the Moss Mother. Wow, that’s a lotta void! There’s way more void there
than anything that ever erupted out of the Knight. I bet there must be void all over
the Moss Mother’s lair now.
“Oh my god.
There’s VOID everywhere.
My house is full of VOID!
He VOID everywhere!
Look what he did, he VOID all over the wall!”
Oh wait, there’s literally nothing here but a silk cocoon. Now where did all of that
pesky void go? Ah, who cares? It just disappeared. It’s not like Hornet has to come to term
with her regrets or anything. That was never a part of Hollow Knight lore. /s
Now of course, all of Hollow Knight lore is up to the reader’s own interpretation. That’s
the beauty of this kind of storytelling. However, when an interpretation is countered by numerous
pieces of evidence found in the game, you have to reevaluate your theory. If you still
think Hornet is void, let me give you a quick rundown of all of the issues you have to resolve
with lore.
Why doesn’t Hornet leave a shade? Why doesn’t Hornet leak void like the Knight
when at one health? Why would Herrah sacrifice herself for brood,
if her child would be killed and hollowed out by void?
Why does Hornet say “your birth” to the Knight when talking about the Abyss? Why not
say “our birth”? What is the purpose of putting void in Hornet
if she’s not meant to be a vessel for the Radiance?
Why does Hornet say she lacks the crucial emptiness of the Knight when we know that
“emptiness” is a phrase completely synonymous with the void?
Why does Hornet have a gender? Why does Hornet say the bindings of the Black
Egg would drain her if she’s a void being? “How can my feet smell if they don’t have
a nose?”
If you think Hornet isn’t void, you have the very difficult task of explaining why
the screen goes black when she dies. Hmmm… Yeah, it’s a real toss up, isn’t it.
But hey, it’s not that big of a deal. Let’s talk about what kind of characters can be
found in the Deep Docks. The enemies found here have already been shown off in the reveal
trailer, aside from one. This guy uses a bell cap as a form of defense, as well as a weapon
to charge forward with. As we can see in the demo, bells act as a form of protection against
Hornet’s needle, requiring the player to rethink how they approach these enemies.
But there are more than just enemies to be found in this area. One new character is this
weird looking thing that the Treehouse host calls a flea. Not sure what the fuck kind
of flea this is. These creatures appear to be the replacement for the grubs from Hollow
Knight. According to the treehouse host, these fleas came to Pharloom seeking enlightenment.
The Silksong website describes Hornet’s journey to the top of Pharloom as a deadly
pilgrimage. So between all of that, and the numerous amounts of religious imagery in the
game, we can see that Pharloom must offer some kind of spiritual enlightenment. I don’t
think we can really know how this works yet, but it seems very likely that bells are somehow
involved.
Speaking of which, Hornet meets a few new NPCs in the Deep Docks, a large bug known
as Forge-Daughter and her assistant Ballow. First of all, this gives us our first look
at how dialogue will work in Silksong. However, Hornet doesn’t “Listen” like the Knight
does, she actually speaks. Dialogue from NPCs will be indicated with the twine ball sigal,
while Hornet’s dialogue is indicated with her face, as well as a Weaver face. Hornet
being able to talk will probably be one of the biggest boons to loremasters such as myself.
Just from this conversation, we can see that Hornet still remembers the weapons she used
to have before getting captured.
This whole issue of what happens when bugs leave Hallownest has troubled me to my very
soul for quite some time now. Hornet is yet another example that some bugs can maintain
their minds and memories even after leaving Hallownest. Is the specific example due to
Hornet’s nature, or the Seal of Binding protecting her? Regardless of the answer,
I do believe this question will be answered by the very virtue of Silksong taking place
outside of Hallownest.
Getting back to Forge-Daughter, she appears to be the NPC that will give Hornet access
to make new tools, weapons and accessories. From what I can gather, it appears as though
Hornet will have to find the right supplies, and then Forge-Daughter will turn them into
permanent items that Hornet can then replenish using shell shards.
Forge-Daughter also describes her work as “the ancient line and honoured role.”
Now the treehouse host mentions that the bugs in this area appear to be gathering coal to
send up to the citadel high above in Pharloom. So whatever this process is, it must have
been going on for a long time. It probably even connects back to Pharloom’s Folly.
This could be related to the section mentioning toil. This process does seem like it would
be very difficult, and I don’t think OSHA would be too happy with this work environment
either.
Another important nugget of information that Forge-Daughter gives us is that the other
bugs have indeed lost their senses. So this whole silk thing is very similar to that of
the infection from Hollow Knight. But is it a hivemind? Possibly, but we don’t have
the finer details quite yet.
In this part of the demo, we also find an interesting lore tablet. This tablet appears
to be a list of instructions. When the bugs hear certain bell tolls, they have to send
Smokerock and Sweetmelt. These are likely materials similar to what this bellhead is
carrying in his fanny pack, and they might even be what Hornet has to collect for Forge-Daughter.
What’s interesting about this lore tablet though, is that these materials are measured
using measures and beats. Now, I’m not an expert in music lore, but measures are used
to indicate a period of time in a song, while beats are when the actual notes are played.
This further reinforces the importance of song in this world. The last line these two
instructions reads “Mark of fealty, all workers”. Is this referring to the “faith”
part of the “faith and toil” line from Pharloom’s Folly? Or are the workers forced
to show fealty to the bugs up in Pharloom? Are we going to see some kind of deep class
warfare commentary from Team Cherry?
Now let’s turn our attention to one of the most exciting parts of the demo, the fight
with Lace. Lace’s dialogue in this section is really entertaining. She sounds like such
a brat. And the fight itself looks incredibly frantic. Lace’s moves come out quick, and
we can see here that Hornet has fewer invincibility frames than the Knight. I really hope we get
some kind of boss rush for Silksong like we did in Hollow Knight, because I have the feeling
these fights are going to be really fun.
Before the fight starts, we can see that Lace appears to be conducting these glowing bugs
with her pin. This is a really important detail, since a very similar bug is what removed the
Seal of Binding from Hornet’s cage. Lace might even be aware of this, since she mentions
the cage that Hornet was trapped in. If this is true, then it means that Lace might be
working against the bugs we saw carry Hornet into Pharloom.
Lace tells Hornet that she will face suffering as she continues her journey up through Pharloom,
offering to kill Hornet instead. How nice! Lace also keeps referring to Hornet as a “little
spider”, which is weird since Hornet and Lace are the same size, so she should probably
just shut her mouth. But I think this tells us why those bugs captured Hornet in the first
place. They want her because she is a spider. The bugs of Pharloom might be capturing spiders
and using them to produce silk that the kingdom uses. This is why we see a sleeping Weaver
in the reveal trailer, it's been captured and forced to produce silk. All of this might
also tie back to Pharloom’s Folly, which talks about a beast’s nature being revealed
after it is awakened. Hornet’s mother, Herrah, is called the “Herrah the Beast”, so the
word beast might be synonymous with the word spider. In other words, I think the bugs of
Pharloom imprison spiders and force them to produce silk.
Lace, on the other hand, wants to keep these spiders from being captured. That’s why
she wants to kill Hornet. She doesn’t want Hornet falling into the hands of these bugs.
But this theory raises a few questions. Why does Lace appear to be part of this bell cult
if she disagrees with their plan? Her design appears to be tied back to them, given she
uses a pin similar to what other bugs in the cult use. On top of that, Lace’s stupid
headdress appears to be based on the stupid headdresses that other religious people wore
in the past such, as the cornette. So maybe Lace has nothing to do with the bug that freed
Hornet. The Treehouse host did say that Lace was part of a group that was trying to impede
Hornet’s journey, so there’s definitely still more to her than what we know right
now.
A few other noteworthy details about this fight. Lace gives off the same silk fibers
that other enemies give off when hit, implying that she has also been targeted by whatever
is haunting Pharloom. However, Lace appears to maintain her senses, given that she can
shittalk Hornet. On top of that, Hornet also explodes into silk when she dies. So I think
it’s something that happens to everyone in the kingdom, but it’s not clear how exactly
it affects them yet.
When staggered, Lace and the Moss Mother both have this weird animation that shows up over
their heads. I’m not sure why this was added to the game. I’ve never had a problem with
telling when a boss was staggered in Hollow Knight, but maybe the bosses in Silksong get
so frantic, that it was necessary to add this effect in. Also, this fight was in the reveal
trailer, and it appears as though they changed the background. I think the background looks
a lot better with that giant statue covered in moss.
After the fight, Hornet gains access to the Wild Songshrine. In the shrine, there is a
giant bell covered in silk. After removing the silk, a lever appears which winds up the
bell. Unfortunately, the Treehouse feed cuts away right before the bell starts to ring.
I have no idea why Nintendo thought that was a good idea, but it angers me so. Luckily
we still have footage of the bell ringing. The most interesting detail here is that the
Seal of Binding on the bell is white instead of the purple color we saw in the reveal trailer.
So I guess this means Grimace won’t be the final boss of Silksong.
So the big question here is, who covered the bell in silk? Was it these guys, or Lace and
her crew, or some other group that we haven’t met yet? What does the bell even do? How does
Hornet know it’s a good idea to ring them? Is this bell related to the lore tablet we
saw earlier? Is Taco Bell canon in this game?
And there you have it, that’s pretty much everything we can pull from the demo. But
that doesn’t mean we’re done here yet. We still have to talk about the footage shown
during the Nintendo E3 direct. Now there was some really great stuff shown off in the Nintendo
Direct. So I’ll just list them real fast.
Gooigi.
5 seconds of Silksong footage.
And that’s about it. Unfortunately, half of this footage we got for Silksong was old,
so we basically only got three seconds of new footage.
The first new shot we have is of Hornet using her aerial tricks to bounce off a bunch of
bells. This is yet another example of how Silksong appears to be implementing more challenging
platforming into its world. The second shot shows Hornet fighting these strange hooded
enemies. And I think these guys might be fucking birds! Yeah, birds. First of all they appear
to have beaks peeking out from their hoods. This guy is also flapping his wings, which
apparently is a thing that birds do. Also, the silhouettes of these guys can be seen
in the Silksong reveal trailer. They appear to be perching in a manner similar to birds.
Another explanation for the beaks coming from the hoods might be that these guys are wearing
plague doctor masks. Now I’m not a history major, but I am not aware of plague doctors
being able to fly either.
Now while William and Ari were both absent from E3 this year, Matthew Griffin, or Leth,
was able to make an appearance. Leth is the PR and marketing guy for Team Cherry, and
he apparently spent some time on the E3 show floor talking to people who were demoing Silksong.
I’m not sure why Leth didn’t make an appearance on the Nintendo Treehouse event. I guess he
was too busy eating burgers at IHOP or something. Now I was not able to attend E3 this year
as I was too busy playing Fortnite, but I was able to get a few people to talk to Leth
and try to coerce information out of him. One of my informants sent me this message.
“Hey mossbag, your spies are terrible, man. They’re terrible.”
I never heard from my informant again after this message. Did Leth have them taken out?
Of course we can only speculate.
Let’s talk release date. All we got officially is the dreaded “Coming Soon”. But during
the treehouse event, Sam mentioned that development of Silksong is wrapping up, but how would
Sam know such information? Nintendo of America released a list of what games were coming
out soon, and Silksong is nowhere to be found on this list. Judging from what we saw in
the demo, there was a lot of stuff that wasn’t developed. We didn’t see how crests work,
we didn’t see how the quest system works, and the level layouts felt more like demo
areas than actual level designs for the game. So I personally believe that the game still
has quite a way to go. But I’m not an expert on game design or anything so believe what
you want, I suppose.
So how is Silksong looking after analyzing this demo? Well honestly, I believe that this
game could be better than Hollow Knight. I think the exploration and platforming will
be more challenging and varied. I think the combat will be faster-paced and more engaging.
I think the story will have a greater presence, while the underlying lore will continue to
be amazing. I think the art will be even better, as we can see how Team Cherry is learning
how to integrate it with digital effects, such as the swinging signs and krumping ground.
Of course the big question will be how Team Cherry introduces side quests and item management
and how they’re going to keep them feeling fresh and interesting without being boring.
As for interpreting what we know about the story so far, I think Pharloom’s Folly acts
as a good backbone to figure out what happened in this kingdom. Hallownest’s architecture
was typically embroidered with the symbol of the Hallownest Seal, which appeared to
be some kind of depiction of the Pale King. In Pharloom, the symbol is this ball of thread,
usually surrounded by a hook. I think this symbolizes what Pharloom is all about. This
cult imprisons spiders, and puts them into a life of servitude creating silk for the
kingdom. Somehow, this is all maintained through faith and toil, which could be related to
the cult that has formed around bells. But at some point, this slumber broke, or will
break, and the beasts, or spiders, are set free.
But that’s just my interpretation, which really doesn’t make sense, and it also doesn’t
explain why silk fibers are coming off of everyone. So be sure to let me know what crazy
theories you guys can come up with in the comments section. And that’s it. The video’s
done. You can stop making memes about me now. I do have a life outside of Hollow Knight you know.
Now if you’ll excuse me.