So, it seems like Team Cherry is completely opposed to ever posting a blogpost again.
I think they’re scared.
Their website crashes every time a new post goes up.
In fact their website just crashed last month on the one year anniversary of their last
blog post simply because Hollow Knight fans were hoping for an update and constantly refreshing
the page.
But it appears Team Cherry has found a medium that is impervious to server crashes: print
media.
Hence, our latest batch of Silksong news comes from Edge magazine.
They are based out of the U.K. and have been around since 1993.
Their 100th issue even had cover art drawn by Shigeru Miyamoto himself, best known as
a producer on the game Wii Music.
And now we have issue 354 which includes an interview from Team Cherry about Silksong,
and has two cover arts drawn by Ari Gibson himself.
This article was written by Jen Simpkins, who has actually interviewed Team Cherry before
back in Edge issue 329, where they discussed Hollow Knight’s development.
But this new article contains heaps of new information and screenshots regarding Silksong.
There’s a link in the description where you can purchase a single digital issue of
the magazine, which I highly recommend so you can read the article in full for yourself.
Buying a copy also helps legitimize indie games as being worth writing cover stories
about.
One of the first topics discussed in this article is why exactly Team Cherry decided
to make Silksong a completely separate game from Hollow Knight, as opposed to just a DLC.
And the reason is because Hornet is too damn tall.
The Knight is a little shrimp compared to Hornet, and due to her more acrobatic style,
higher jumps and weightier feel, Team Cherry felt like she would be too cramped maneuvering
through the corridors of Hallownest.
Which is sort of funny to think about.
Hallownest is already considered one of the largest metroidvania maps out there, and yet
it feels too claustrophobic for Hornet.
According to William, it took them a year and a half to fully understand how much Hornet’s
height affects designing for her.
Another interesting tidbit of information is that Team Cherry wants to make Silksong
as accessible as possible.
And by that I mean people can play Silksong without playing Hollow Knight first.
So it seems like Team Cherry wants to have a bit of a barrier between the events of Silksong
and Hollow Knight so new players don’t get completely confused.
In general that’s probably a good idea, but honestly, I would have preferred if new
players were required to watch all of my videos before even being allowed to play Silksong.
Maybe a password on the opening title screen asking what my favorite color is, or how many
warrants I have.
Stuff like that.
Another thing Team Cherry mentioned is that they want Silksong to match Hollow Knight
in terms of difficulty as well.
So the early areas of Silksong are supposed to be similarly easy compared to the early
areas of Hollow Knight.
Now while waiting in line for the Silksong demo at PAX Australia, I saw plenty of people
absolutely getting destroyed by the Moss Grotto area, but then again, people struggled with
the Forgotten Crossroads too.
So it’s kinda hard for me to judge whether what I played was actually easier or harder
than the early Hollow Knight areas.
That being said, late game Silksong probably won’t shy away from cranking up the difficulty
as well as giving us some lore connections to Hollow Knight.
Like, there has to be.
I’m still waiting for a resolution to Bretta.
However, it appears the enemies in Silksong are going to be more sophisticated.
We could already see that in the E3 demo, with these simple bell enemies already showing
off a bit more dynamic interactions.
But in this interview, Team Cherry specifically points out that some of the enemies in Hollow
Knight feel very video gamey, like the sentries in the City of Tears.
With Silksong, they feel like the enemies of the world should be more dynamic and aware
of their surroundings.
Ari says that they have spent more time focusing on combat over platforming with Silksong due
to Hornet having more weight and less hang time.
But that’s enough about vague game design decisions, let’s talk about what we actually
learn about Pharloom in this interview.
To give a brief overview, Pharloom has been described as a land haunted by silk and song,
and many have visited the land in a pilgrimage to make it to the shining Citadel at the top
of the kingdom.
One thing we learned from this Edge article is that pilgrims are actually carrying precious
thread up to the Citadel, and that they will actually attack other pilgrims on the way
for some reason.
Also the kingdom is littered with gates that can only be opened by paying melodic tributes,
although that was something we already speculated.
Apparently Hornet has become weakened due to her time trapped in the sealed cage we
saw in the intro, which might explain why she passes out after the Moss Mother fight.
Ari explains this in a pretty alarming statement.
“Part of what Hornet’s doing is she’s lost her traditional strength… and the Weavers,
or what’s left of them, are helping her restore it.”
So what exactly is Hornet’s “traditional strength”?
Is that just her physical strength?
Did she lose her spidey sense or some shit?
And then there’s “what’s left of the Weavers”.
That does not sound good.
From screenshots and the Edge article, we can tell that the Weavers are residing in
chambers here in Pharloom, possibly behind these, but we don’t know.
Are they trapped in these locations?
Or are they hiding so they don’t get taken to the Citadel?
The floor in this room is identical to that of the Weaver’s Den in Hallownest, so it
is most likely a location built by Weavers.
Since the pilgrims are bringing threads up to the Citadel, it seems like a safe bet to
assume that these bugs want silk, so would probably want to capture Weavers, hence some
of them are hiding or are protected by these gates.
So what exactly are these bugs doing with this silk?
Well, I mentioned in my first Silksong video an idea that bugs below the Citadel are being
controlled by silk some way, sort of like puppets.
And since then, people have pointed out that when enemies die in Silksong, we can briefly
see long silk threads above them.
This phenomenon is consistent and definitely intentional by the developers.
Another thing I think we can say fairly confidently is that the name Pharloom is actually pretty
literal.
In this image we can clearly see silk running together in lines, with these bindings that
appear to be like forks used in actual looms.
So the bugs of the Citadel are collecting silk from Weavers and pilgrims to add to their
giant loom which in turn they used to do something that results in the citizens of the kingdom
being haunted by silk.
Or something like that, I’m not sure.
One thing we do know is that the Weavers grant Hornet the ability to use power ups, one in
particular being the Silk Spear, which allows Hornet to break through web barriers.
My guess is this move is the Silk Spear, although it’s described as a lunging move, while
this is more of a stabbing move.
So the Weavers will probably hold power ups that Hornet will need to reach new areas,
in standard metroidvania fashion.
From the interview, we also learn a bit more about the structure of Pharloom.
Hornet starts off in Moss Grotto, like we suspected.
But after that, the next area is actually the Bone Forest area that was cut from Hollow
Knight.
In this area we can find Bonebottom, which is pretty much the main hub of the game, similar
to Dirtmouth.
Also, the fast travel tunnels are called the “Marrow” and this creature we have to
tame is called the Bell Beast.
After getting the Silk Spear, Hornet can free the Bell Beast, who immediately attacks her.
But she is defeated, the Bell Beast ends up running away, implying that you won’t be
able to fast travel in Silksong until later in the game.
Since we’re talking about the structure of Pharloom, let’s take a look at some of
the screenshots provided in this interview.
Nothing we see here appears to be new areas.
This Moss Grotto screenshot gets us a look at a new enemy.
I’ve seen a few people call this creature a Moss Deer.
Now I don’t know why but I just think this guy is neat.
We also see Hornet playing music for this Kratos cosplayer.
Why is she doing this exactly?
Is Hornet one of those assholes who always brings their instruments to parties and just
starts playing them?
We can also see that Team Cherry has added some new statues into the background of locations
we have already seen.
These statues are of bugs looking upwards while holding what appear to be cymbals.
So what does this mean?
Are they expecting something from the Citadel to come down to them?
Are they offering something up?
Something interesting about these statues is that there is actually a very similar one
hidden in the Godhome art assets in Hollow Knight, although this thing doesn’t have
a face so I don’t know if it’s looking up or not.
We also appear to get a lot of images of Greymoor, which you might remember Team Cherry saying
was one of their largest areas they have ever made.
Now we don’t know if these rooms are actually Greymoor, but I’m assuming so because these
areas are grey.
Also I think this room with the shopkeep is Greymoor too, simply because it has a similar
floor.
In this room, which appears to be to the left of one of the bell cities, we can see Hornet
in a swamp-like area.
What’s interesting about this room are these weird stalactites hanging from the ceiling.
Now these might be giant plant or tree roots hanging from above.
These small branches jetting out from the sides might be similar to tap root systems.
Another theory is that these are manmade, or bug made I guess.
Whatever these are, I really like them.
They remind me of the Ash Lake from Dark Souls, or the cave seen in Nausicaä of the Valley
of the Wind.
Details like this and the aforementioned statues really help to emphasize Pharloom's verticality.
We also see this in a new screenshot of that weird bell city.
You basically have to jump on this thing to climb up the vertically stacked bell houses.
Seems like a pretty dangerous place to live, but maybe the bugs of Pharloom are really
into parkour.
In this screenshot, we do get a glimpse at Pharloom’s written language.
This sign appears to be littered both with musical notes and gilded pins.
Now it’s possible that this is just how the language of Pharloom is written, indicating
how important music is here.
We can also see what appears to be some musical notes on the lore tablets in Deep Docks.
But other glimpses we’ve seen of Pharloom’s language looks pretty similar to Hollow Knight’s
random scribbles.
There are some tablets in Hollow Knight that appear to make sense, such as the Stag Station
signs.
If you stare at this long enough, you can kinda see what it’s saying.
So this sign might just be specific to this building, or in other words, this building
is a shop that sells musical instruments and pins.
Finally in this image we can see that members of the Citadel’s caste can use silk as well.
Good for them.
Getting back to the interview we also learn that getting to the Citadel isn’t quite
the end goal of Silksong, as once you get there, getting to the top of the Citadel is
a task of its own.
So the actual amount of time spent in the Citadel will be a greater portion of the game’s
runtime that we might have thought.
So maybe some of the areas we have already seen are actually in the Citadel already.
I do think it’s possible that this area we’ve seen several times is actually located
inside the Citadel.
What’s more interesting is that this room in the Trobbio boss fight has structures that
look similar to the buildings found in the Citadel, if this is the Citadel.
So the top of the Citadel might actually be this giant ball thing.
Although I’m starting to think this ball might actually be a cocoon of some kind, but
at this point I’m just speculating wildly.
William mentions that magic is a more distant thing in Pharloom, which I have a bit of trouble
understanding.
I think he means that a lot more things in Pharloom will look constructed, like traps
and mechanisms and what not.
Like instead of a Snail Shaman exploding and the Knight just slurping up its life juice,
Hornet will actually find objects and tools to upgrade her kit.
But while soul might not be as prevalent here in Pharloom, I feel like all this stuff with
silk and song still falls under the definition of magic, but maybe that’s just me.
We also learned about another mechanic with Rosaries.
We’ve seen before items called Rosary Strings which Hornet can find.
Basically when you die, you lose rosaries, but if you have Rosary Strings, those stick
around.
And then you can break them whenever you need to spend them.
So it’s basically like a more flexible version of the relics in Hollow Knight.
But now it turns out you can actually create Rosary Strings from your own rosaries.
A vendor might charge Hornet 120 rosaries to put 100 rosaries on a string.
I think the Geo system in Hollow Knight suffered from players losing thousands of Geo in the
early game and getting frustrated.
And it could be quite a while before the player ever found Millibelle.
So having this Rosary system that allows the player to easily store their wealth at a small
cost seems like a pretty good change to the currency system.
Ari goes on to say that Rosary Strings can also be made at certain, special benches.
Speaking of benches, apparently this bench from the Deep Docks with all these bells is
considered a Holy Bench, and that Ari has already designed like 100 different benches
for Silksong.
Now this statement is pretty eye raising for multiple reasons.
So let’s dive into this.
First of all “100 different benches” is probably hyperbole, since 100 isn’t an exact
number.
That being said, however, how many benches are there in Hollow Knight?
If we count the additional breakable bench in Beast’s Den, the three benches in the
White Palace, and the three non-pantheon benches in Godhome, there are a total of 49 benches
in Hollow Knight.
So if there are already 100 different benches in Silksong, that implies that Team Cherry
has become much more generous with bench placement this time around, which I doubt, or Silksong
is twice as big as Hollow Knight.
But it’s worth pointing out that a lot of these 49 benches are not different, as a lot
of them are just generic benches.
So how many different bench designs are there in Hollow Knight?
Well, there’s the generic one, the Toll Bench, the benches found inside Trams, the
one in Ancestral Mound, the one found outside Salubra’s Hut, the one in the stone sanctuary,
the one near the Lake of Unn, the one found near Leg Eater, which is more of a corpse
than a bench but I’m counting it anyway, the one in the Mantis Village, three slight
variations found near the Nailmasters, the one in the Pleasure House, the one in the
tent near Hornet 2, the one in the Colosseum of Fools, the one in the Teacher’s Archives,
the one found in Beast’s Den, the one found in front of the Pale King statue in the Queen’s
Garden, the ones unique to the White Palace, the one found in the Temple of the Black Egg,
and two different ones found in Godhome.
Also we can find two unused benches in the game’s art assets.
This bench which can be found in a room called “Hornet’s room” and a bench literally
composed of fucking vessel corpses.
Like seriously this is the best bench ever and I’m so mad Team Cherry didn’t use
it.
This puts the total of unique bench designs at 24.
So Silksong might have four times as many unique benches, which means Silksong might
actually be 4 times bigger than Hollow Knight.
Now I don’t actually believe that.
I’m guessing that Team Cherry is just opting to make new benches more often.
So far we have seen 8 benches in Silksong, with 6 of them being unique.
So while I’m sure Silksong will have more benches than Hollow Knight, I think a greater
percentage of them will be unique.
The other thing interesting with this quote is Ari Gibson’s exact wording.
“Unsurprisingly, we ended up with, like, 100 different benches.”
The fact that he said “we ended up” is pretty interesting.
Does this mean they are done making area artwork?
The finality implied in this statement might spell good news for an impending Silksong
release.
Now I don’t want to build up hype too much, but Silksong is definitely coming out by the
end of the week.
Regardless, it’s obvious that Team Cherry is still keen on paying very close attention
to detail.
For example, they’ve got Jack Vine working on things like having little rings be able
to roll around for a while after you hit them, and I’m guessing he’s responsible for
small things like making these objects move more realistically.
Speaking of these rings, they will be used to denote that Shakra is nearby, Shakra being
this game’s version of Cornifer.
So these rings will act similar to Cornifer’s discarded pieces of paper.
It’s also implied that we might be fighting Shakra at some point in the future.
Which unfortunately, never happens with Cornifer.
There is also some news on the fleas, remember them?
Well, apparently not only will they just be sitting around, but they can also get captured
by other bugs somehow.
So it seems like there will be more to collecting fleas than just finding a physical location,
which will hopefully make them a bit more interesting to collect than the grubs, since
they were pretty much just always stuck in jars, sometimes guarded by random enemies.
Like, why the fuck does this guy care so much about guarding this grub?
Trobbio got mentioned in the interview.
Basically it’s been confirmed that he’s a bit of a clutz, with his fight being accompanied
by goofy music.
Also he’s named after and voiced by another developer that Team Cherry is friends with,
Matt Trobbiani.
Matt worked on the game Hacknet, which even featured a song by Chris Larkin, himself.
You can see Matt being interviewed along with Team Cherry in this event from Bitsummit back
in 2018.
So is this Matt Trobbiani guy canonically a clutz in real life?
Well I did actually meet Matt when I went to PAX in 2019.
He said he liked my videos, so he seemed like a pretty smart guy to me at least.
Team Cherry also discussed quests in Silksong.
They confirm that there will still be the traditional random quests you can stumble
on like in Hollow Knight, but that there is also an organized collection of quests that
the player can find using quest boards.
If you remember, there are at least four different types of known quests: Wayfarer, Hunt, Grand
Hunt, and Gather.
It seems like Team Cherry only showed off a Gather quest, which had the player collect
Mossberries to take to the Druid of the Moss Temple, which is the guy we saw from the reveal
trailer.
We can see Mossberries placed in the E3 demo, but it turns out enemies can just be carrying
Mossberries around with them.
Also you can apparently jump into this caldron, but it isn’t a very good idea.
We do see a screenshot of what might be a Hunt or Grand Hunt, where Hornet is fighting
some strange creature alongside Garmond and Zaza.
I don’t know why, but whenever I see them I assume it must be some kind of quest, but
I suppose that’s just speculation on my part.
And now I think it’s time we get into Hornet’s tools, since we see a lot of crazy stuff going
on in these screenshots.
First of all, we can see that the Hornet’s HUD takes on three different versions.
This is entirely new, as none of the gifs from 2020 had anything like this.
So what are they?
Well, the HUD actually changes appearance based on what Crest Hornet is using.
Here on the menu, we see a new Crest called the Reaper, which has twice as many slots
as the Wanderer crest we saw before.
And that Crest design seems to line up with one of the HUD changes.
From this we can see that there are Crests that allow you to have two weapons at once.
And from other screenshots we can see this in action.
In the E3 Demo, the R button was how you activated a tool.
But it’s not clear how it would work with two of them.
The L and ZL buttons weren’t mapped in the demo, so those might be candidates for possibly
using a second tool or changing the tool order.
It’s also possible for tools themselves to be upgraded, as the Straight Pin can later
be upgraded to the Tri-Pin.
Apparently, Hornet can even learn to make new tools based on the tools used by the residents
of Pharloom, like seeing an enemy throw a javelin can help her learn to throw a javelin.
Which… okay.
I’m sure it will make more sense when we see it in game.
Also she’ll add her own little touch to them.
This is shown off pretty well in this screenshot.
You can see Hornet is using the same tool as this NPC except it has that red rope on
it.
So what new tools can we see in these screenshots?
As we can see here, Team Cherry has finally given Hornet a boomerang.
I know Team Cherry’s Australian audience was pretty upset with the lack of boomerangs
in Hollow Knight, so this is a welcome addition.
Now if they could just add a gun, then us Americans will finally feel represented.
We’ve got some kind of container full of orange liquidy goop.
I’m sure that’s not harmful at all.
I think this is a grenade of some kind, maybe similar to the pimpillo.
We can also see this longer spear weapon, and a drill type weapon.
But then we also see another drill type weapon without a handle.
Now according to Ari, there is another drill attack where Hornet “becomes something like
a spinning top, and descends towards enemies.”
I don’t think either of these items are related to that though.
It could be this red drill, but we have yet to see a tool like this directly affect Hornet’s
movement.
From an earlier gif, we can see another way Hornet’s air movement can be altered.
We can see her glide in the air, and I’m guessing this is yet another part of Hornet’s
kit that can be altered, possibly via crests.
Maybe you can choose between giving her a double jump or a glide, or turning into a
fucking beyblade.
Also we got a name for this tool.
It’s called a Sting Shard.
There are some other new tools here in the menu, but we still have no idea what these
things do.
I still think these are passive effects.
In this screenshot we can see spikes around Hornet’s masks, which might imply she is
wearing a Thorns of Agony type too.
But nothing in the interview directly mentions it.
But one thing we do know is that Team Cherry is adding sub reactions to these tools.
By that I think they mean stuff like how charm abilities would combine in Hollow Knight.
Basically tools will have unique interactions depending on the context in which they are
used.
There’s another part to these Crests that I still need to mention, and that’s how
it appears that you can actually equip Hornet’s abilities to a crest.
From this screenshot, we can see this image presumably of Hornet’s needle sitting in
the middle of the crest.
Then if we look above the red section tools, we can see another image of Hornet’s needle.
So it seems like Hornet’s silk abilities can be swapped out.
So you can maybe have this big slash move equipped, or the Gossamer storm, or this stabbing
move.
And judging from this layout of the controls, these will be called skills.
Another interesting change is that the Crest we see in the screenshot, doesn’t have the
slots colored like in a previous example.
Although there still is some color here, so I’m not sure what that’s about.
Moving away from Crests, I have just one more thing to say about the UI in regards to the
spool meters.
It seems like these systems have changed since the E3 Demo.
The lower spool meter now has a base length of 9 silk notches instead of 8.
Also we can see that the spool is segmented now.
It appears there is always a mark to denote the first nine notches.
But sometimes there are other smaller marks at around 5 notches.
It also seems like the silk will glow brightly once it hits 9 notches.
Except in this screenshot where it lights up at 8.
This might be related to whatever mark the silk has reached on the spool.
We can see the upper spool meter is also segmented in some cases.
Also we can see from these screenshots that this spool meter doesn’t light up once Hornet
reaches 8 notches of silk anymore.
At first I thought maybe it only lights up when you have lost health, basically as an
indicator that you can use Hornet’s bind ability to heal.
So a segmented meter means that with a full spool of silk, you’d be able to bind multiple
times as long as you didn’t reach full health.
But in the gifs released last summer, we can see the meter both lit and not lit while Hornet
has full health.
So either this gif is outdated, or my theory is dead ass wrong.
Regardless, it’s safe to say that the segments on these meters, or whether or not they are
lit up, is likely determined by whatever abilities and tools Hornet has equipped to her Crest.
Other than that, it might be possible that Hornet can increase the length of her spool
via collectables like the Soul Vessels from the first game.
But I’ve spent too long looking at these stupid fucking screenshots and I still can’t
pin down exactly what’s going on.
So I’m gonna drop it for now.
Now just a few more things to mention.
Apparently, the Lace song we’ve all come to know and love wasn’t what Christopher
Larkin originally wrote.
The first song he wrote was the result of Team Cherry trying to explain the lore and
backstory to him.
They ended up using a different piece that he had just written as a boss theme.
So it sounds like Team Cherry is kinda just gonna let Chris do his thing.
Which, given Larkin’s track record, it will probably be fine.
So will we ever get to hear the original Lace theme?
Well, as it turns out, I was able to actually get a copy of the song.
So I’ll play it for you right now.
[Totally the original Lace theme, I swear]
Also we got an image of what appears to be a new boss.
According to Ari, this boss is known as the Last Judge.
William then says that this enemy immediately makes the player wonder what his deal is.
And then the author of the magazine actually calls me out by name.
I truly am honored to be mentioned in a UK based gaming magazine.
I remember buying issue number 1 back and 1993 and thinking to myself how amazing it
would be to get my name in Edge Magazine.
That was pretty much the whole reason I started this channel.
And now my dream has finally come true There’s just… one problem.
They capitalized the “M”.
[Maniacal laughter]
Now to be completely fair, Jen Simpkins informed me that she had to capitalize the “M”
due to something called style guides.
Sounds made up, but I think Jen is telling the truth here.
In fact, Jen appears to be a pretty big Hollow Knight fan in general.
She is even aware of the milksong meme which started over on the Hollow Knight Memes subreddit.
If you don’t know what the Milksong memes are or why they exist, well, neither do I
honestly.
Getting back to the actual screenshot, there is a bit to talk about here.
First of all, for being a land without much magic, I’m pretty skeptical that this mother
fucker isn’t some kind of wizard.
It’s got the silly headwear and it can make giant spirals of flames all over the place.
Now this magic ability might be tied to the rosaries he appears to be clutching.
Also, if we look at his eyes, we can see streaks under them.
Now in the early days of this channel, I always tied this to void.
But there are a lot of bugs and statues of bugs in Hollow Knight that have these streaks
that don’t appear to have anything to do with the Void.
So I think this is more of a stylistic choice.
So this might just be related to the last Judge crying because all his other Judge friends
are dead, hence the name Last Judge.
But what exactly is this thing judging?
Now we have seen that Pharloom has some kind of prison system, as we can find Grindle locked
away in a cell.
But this bug doesn’t quite seem like a law and order type judge, if that makes sense.
Maybe it judges whether or not pilgrims can enter the Citadel.
And if not he torches them.
It’s also worth pointing out that this bug has a similar aesthetic to the bug Team Cherry
showed us in their last blogpost.
It also looks similar to a bug found in the Coral Forest.
And it’s worth pointing out that we don’t know for sure if these bugs are actually related
to the bugs we see in the Citadel.
All we know is that this bug is a part of a scholarly suite guarding a vault of ancient
knowledge.
So we actually don’t know for sure if these guys are actually directly tied to what is
going on in the Citadel, although it’s certainly possible and it probably is the case.
Finally Team Cherry was asked about what happens after Silksong.
William and Ari talked a bit about a non-Hollow Knight related game that they have been thinking
about.
As of right now, this project consists of just a google doc that they add to every now
and then as they work on Silksong.
A strong candidate for what this game might be is Fearless Fox, a term Team Cherry trademarked
back in 2019.
It isn’t guaranteed that this game will be a metroidvania.
In the past, William has expressed interest in doing a top down 2D Zelda style game.
But they did clarify that whatever games they make will continue to have large sprawling
worlds and interesting characters to interact with.
So what does this mean for future Hollow Knight content?
The only Hollow Knight content not directly produced by Team Cherry that we can consider
canon is the Wanderer’s Journal which ultimately didn’t add a whole lot to Hollow Knight’s
story, since it was just a character experiencing all the same stuff we did.
According to Team Cherry’s marketing director, Leth, Team Cherry has been approached by companies
wanting to make Hollow Knight television shows and comics.
Leth explained this on Live from the Abyss, a podcast created by two other Hollow Knight
YouTuber’s: DeepDockProletarian and Mythreel.
Leth: We’ve been contacted by some companies wanting to make other media of Hollow Knight.
Whether it be a cartoon, or a show or a comic book or what have you…
It usually comes down to Ari just not…
I don’t know.
And I understand this.
I think it is basically like we don’t want to corporatize the…
DDP: The franchise?
Leth: Yeah, not too much.
So basically, it seems like Team Cherry really wants to avoid turning Hollow Knight into
some giant franchise with books and shows and all sorts of other crap.
And who could blame them?
That’s a really good way to completely screw up your fictional world and make it less special.
I mean, Cuphead’s deep and comprehensive lore will no doubt be ruined by their upcoming
Netflix show, which is a damn shame.
So it seems like Silksong might mark the end of Hollow Knight content for a while, unless
Team Cherry decides to make Zote Boat or changes their mind on third party stuff.
But honestly, I think Team Cherry will do at least one other Hollow Knight related thing
other than Silksong.
Call it a feeling.
Call it speculation.
But I feel like William and Ari are so invested in this world, and the fact that they can’t
stop adding to it, makes me think there will be other Hollow Knight content coming out.
Or maybe I’m just in denial.
You decide.
And so that’s about all I have to say regarding this interview.
We learned a little bit more about the Crest system and the world layout.
And we got a little more info about characters like the Bell Beast and Shakra.
But I think what was most interesting is how different Silksong has been development-wise.
Team Cherry had to make rooms bigger and adjust the game’s camera just to accommodate Hornet’s
playstyle, as well as create more complex enemies for her to fight.
I’m a little bummed to hear that Team Cherry has been focusing less on platforming, since
Hornet seems really well equipped for that kind of stuff.
One thing that still eludes us is a full explanation on how exactly some tools alter Hornet’s
playstyle, other than they seem to affect her silk meters in some way.
Lore wise we learned that pilgrims are actually bringing thread to the Citadel, and that they
will even attack other pilgrims.
We’ve also learned that Hornet’s time in her cage has zapped her of her “traditional
strength” and she now has to find the Weavers to get it back.
But there are still many questions left regarding Lace, this Conductor Romino fellow, the Steel
Assassins, as well as who is running this whole operation and if any of this will tie
back to what we saw in the cliffhanger endings from Hollow Knight.
Yeah, remember those?
Fucking cliffhangers, man.
I swear to God, I hate it when they just abruptly cuts things off right