Hollow Knight: Silksong is one of gaming’s greatest achievements in 2025. It sold well, reviewed well, and everyone is talking about it. There is some frustration among fans concerning things like difficulty, but overall, it’s a positive story of an indie team giving something their all, and waiting a long time until they thought their ideas were perfect.
Best Games If You Want 3D Hollow Knight
Once you’ve rolled credits on Hollow Knight: Silksong, jump into a 3D perspective with these like-minded games.
With every success story, a wave of developers will come in to learn the right and wrong lessons from it. What can other developers and other game franchises learn from the things Hollow Knight: Silksong did right? Is there a successful blueprint to follow, or was it all a fluke?
Don’t Wait Until Launch Day To Post The Game Online
Preorders Online Actually Matter
It’s ironic that fans waited years for Hollow Knight: Silksong, and when the time came to actually buy the game, no one could. The digital stores for Steam, Nintendo’s eShop, Microsoft’s Xbox store, and Sony’s PSN all crashed. What was really bad was that Xbox consoles were offering the game for free as part of Game Pass, but it still took so long to get it added to the library.
This is a lesson for all developers that digital preorders matter. It allows players to have the game ready to go on launch day to play or auto-download. No digital store is set up to withstand so much traffic; not even the biggest platform, Steam, apparently.
But…Keep Your Game Mysterious
Discovery Can Create Thriving Communities
The way Team Cherry kept Hollow Knight: Silksong in the dark was a good idea. They didn’t put out too many trailers after the initial one in 2019, and that was enough to get the fandom buzzing. It’s a lesson that more companies should take to heart, including movie studios.
Hollow Knight Silksong: Things We Want To See In DLC
It’s already been a week, but Hollow Knight: Silksong is already thinking about DLC.
Showing too much in trailers is never good, as it can ruin the experience of the final release. Weapons is a great recent example of a movie that did it right when it came to trailers, showing just enough to draw interest while giving nothing away. So, movie studios and game developers alike need to learn that they don’t need to reveal everything in multiple cutting-edge trailers to generate sales.
If You Price Your Game Cheaply Enough, Players Will Come
And It May Even Dissuade Pirates
There were articles predicting the price of Hollow Knight: Silksong for years, and when Team Cherry announced the official price, the internet was stunned. $20 seemed too low, which prompted an uproar in the opposite direction of the usual outcries. Players wanted to pay more, which no one should ever say to developers out loud, as that could go badly.
The price was so low that game pirates were trying to dissuade others from pirating Hollow Knight: Silksong in favor of buying it instead. It’s quite a wholesome event, and the overall point is that a lower price point can encourage more people to buy games. Nintendo would never sell a game like Donkey Kong Bananza for $20, but it would be an interesting experiment for a company to test with one of its AAA games at launch.
Difficulty Matters To A Lot Of Players
Options Are Always Appreciated
As much as fans love the game, there is a lot of discussion about Hollow Knight: Silksong’s difficulty. There are various elements that make it harder than Hollow Knight, including random enemies hitting for two points of damage instead of one.
The run back to bosses is also a sticking point for some, and the overall vibe is that Hollow Knight: Silksong can be a little unfair. Soulslike games can often be more challenging than other genres, but if the balance is right, most fans won’t mind. However, if the scale tips more in an extremely challenging direction, it can cause some backlash, even for players who love getting hardcore with their games.
Hiding Critical Mechanics
The Diagonal Slash Should Have Been Optional From The Start
There is one other big difficulty point that deserves its own time to shimmer in the bleakness of Hollow Knight: Silksong. Many people dislike the new downward jump attack, which strikes enemies diagonally. It’s a hard pattern to master, and it’s not just combat that gives players trouble: it’s the platforming.
There are ways to fix this downward strike via Crests in Hollow Knight: Silksong, like the Reaper, but these are well hidden. Without guides, players may not even know they can change the downward strike. Hiding control options is something no developer should do, nor should they set downward strikes to move diagonally.
There’s Such A Thing As Too Big
The Biggest Metroidvania Map Ever?
There’s a certain part in the game wherein players will start to realize they have bit off more than they can possibly chew. Hollow Knight: Silksong’s Act 2 will have players realizing that the rest of the game is almost double the size of Act 1. Because it’s a Metroidvania, new abilities and items will prompt players to backtrack and uncover new routes.
Best Characters In Silksong
Whether they’re in the game for a long time or leave after a quick introduction, these NPCs stand out in Hollow Knight: Silksong.
However, if a Metroidvania map is too big, it can be a daunting task to keep track of everything that requires backtracking. It’s commendable that Team Cherry wanted to make the game as big and as cheap as possible, but developers should always know that less is sometimes more. Not everyone may agree, as they love to get the most bang for their buck, but it’s still worth noting.
If The Game Is Good, Players Will Wait
The Golden Lesson
Hollow Knight: Silksong is a lesson for all developers to take their time if they need to and if they can financially support themselves while doing so. If they can create one trailer that nails everything about their game, or perhaps release a solid demo, then it will keep players intrigued for years. It helps if the studio or franchise is well-established, as Hollow Knight: Silksong wasn’t exactly a fluke.
Hollow Knight was very successful, which is why the fan base was already so big for Hollow Knight: Silksong by the time of its launch. It’s a case-by-case situation, but in general, a successful launch of a solid game will help with sales in the short and long run.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 91 /100 Critics Rec: 97%
- Released
- September 4, 2025
- ESRB
- Everyone 10+ / Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood
- Developer(s)
- Team Cherry
- Publisher(s)
- Team Cherry
WHERE TO PLAY
