Finally... A Silksong Update!

After over five months of complete silence, Team Cherry has finally decided to grace us peasants with an update for Hollow Knight: Silksong. The last update we got was a post E3 update all the way back in June, which I never actually covered on this channel because I’m lazy. So I’m going to talk about that, as well as go more in depth about my interactions with Team Cherry while at PAX Australia. But please keep in mind, a lot of these conversations happened at bars or places with easy access to alcohol, so my memory might not be its best. I also want to use this video to address some of these release date rumors that are floating around. Basically I’m just trying to push this bitch above 10 minutes. If you don’t like that, sue me.

This update confirms to us something that should have been quite obvious. Team Cherry is still making the game. I keep seeing all these people saying that Team Cherry will shadow drop the game, or that it’s actually finished. Well, it’s not. In fact, Team Cherry has been putting themselves through crunch months just to keep on schedule. In October, William told me that they had a crunch month in August, and were planning to do another one in November.

I also asked Team Cherry about the scope of Silksong, or if it would be more or less linear than Hollow Knight. They had no interest in answering those questions, but from the latest update, we can see that Silksong could very easily end up being bigger than Hollow Knight. Team Cherry has just added their 165th enemy into the game. This puts Silksong at about the same number as Hollow Knight. If Team Cherry plans to keep going, then it will easily surpass Hollow Knight in terms of total enemy count.

The blog post gave us an image of the three latest enemies, of which two are just silhouettes. Team Cherry describes these goons as members of a scholarly suite, former tenders of a dusty vault full of ancient knowledge. These enemies are also going to fight Hornet together as a deadly trio who cover each others’ weaknesses. This is exciting because the only other boss fight we have seen with three bosses at once is the Sisters of Battle fight in Hollow Knight, and it’s probably one of the best fights in the game. And due to Hornet’s increased speed and mobility, I’m guessing this new fight is going to be even more intense.

More interestingly, these characters were once guarding a vault of knowledge. I assume they were guarding some kind of library, likely located in the Gilded City we’ve heard so much about. This four legged friend of ours appears to be from that area. I’ve seen a few people say he looks like the Godseeker, but two characters being the same color doesn’t mean they’re related. I mean, is the Gorgeous Husk related to the Godseeker too? Are Grimace and Thanos related to Waluigi?

But the best part of this update is the release of two brand new songs from Silksong’s soundtrack. Chrisopher Larkin is, of course, returning to write the music for Silksong, but this time around he’s got that sweet Team Cherry money. Most of Hollow Knight’s music was created digitally, but this time around, the music is actually being performed and recorded, featuring performances by members of the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra. On top of that, Silksong’s music will predominantly feature stringed instruments over the piano. The two samples we now have now really are incredible. The Lace theme is erratic and exciting, while the Bonebottom theme is somber, similar to many of the songs in Hollow Knight, but still sounding fresh and original.

There are apparently 30 songs for Silksong at the moment. Now Team Cherry points out that this pushes Silksong above the 26 song count for Hollow Knight, but Hollow Knight got an additional 15 songs that were included in the Gods and Nightmares soundtrack. And technically, there are even more songs since the soundtrack actually omits different arrangements and other smaller songs. In other words, 30 songs isn’t really that impressive. Sorry Christopher Larkin, but you’re gonna have to do better than that.

From this post we also learn that Team Cherry is sticking with the name “Bonebottom”, and that it will be the starting town in Silksong. And honestly, I’m coming around to the name. It actually has some poetic symmetry to it. In Hollow Knight, the opening village is called Dirtmouth. So while the Knight entered Hallownest down its mouth, Hornet will be entering Pharloom up the butt.

And that’s about all we got for this newest update. Basically, Team Cherry is still working on the game, adding in more and more content. Team Cherry also wants to stress that they aren’t just adding in content willie-nillie and that they know what they’re doing. I really don’t care, they can add an entire sidequest where Hornet uses her spider powers to deliver pizza in Manhattan and I’d still play that shit.

I want to go back and talk about some of the earlier updates we have that I failed to make videos on, but first let’s talk a little bit about release date speculation. There are a few quote-unquote “leaks” that have appeared in the last 9 months. Basically, Steam requires devs to enter a release date for a game whenever they add it into the database. Team Cherry put a date of June 12, 2020, likely as a placeholder date, but that date ending up getting revealed somehow. There’s no way to know if Team Cherry picked this date on purpose, or just as a random date with no meaning. If it was their initial target date, it sounds like they are going to miss it due to their desire to just keep adding shit into the game.

So I’m sticking with my mid to late 2020 release date. But that’s just my view. According to Team Cherry, the game is running on Cherry-time, so it will come out whenever it’s ready. Another aspect we can discuss is development time. According to Team Cherry, development on Silksong started just a few months after Hollow Knight launched. This would mean the game has been in development for almost 3 years now, while Hollow Knight was in development from November 2014 to February 2017. So by that logic, Silksong should be very close to being completed. But there are a few details I want to lay out.

Team Cherry worked on Hollow Knight for about 6 months before the Kickstarter. After the Kickstarter, they had to port the entire game over to Unity, and William had to learn how to even use the new engine. After Hollow Knight finished, Dave Kazi left Team Cherry, leaving William and Ari to work on Silksong as well as the numerous Hollow Knight content packs alone. So the team size was actually smaller for quite a while after Hollow Knight came out. They also had to work with Sharkjump Studios to port the game to Switch, PS4 and Xbox One. It wasn’t until 2018 that Team Cherry hired Jack Vine to help with development. And we all know that Jack Vine is a shitty coder, so he’s probably not adding anything to the development. So yes, Silksong has been in development for almost 3 years, but a lot of other stuff has been happening at the same time as well.

That being said, Silksong benefits from being built on top of Hollow Knight’s code. William mentioned that designing bosses and enemies is even easier now that they have a huge database of code from other enemies that they can utilize. Or he said something like that, I don’t know, I’m not a game dev or a programmer, so I just kinda stood their and nodded my head. So yeah, there are a lot of things we can speculate on in terms of release date. My rule of thumb, tho, is the longer it takes, the more content we’ll probably get. So I really don’t care.

Let’s talk about the June update Team Cherry had. In this update, we got a name for this drabby looking area, Greymoor. This area is filled with misted fields and dilapidated towers. This area is filled with creatures called Crawbugs, which are described as devious nesting types. The former tenders of this land have become haunted. It seems like becoming “haunted” in Silksong is about the same as becoming “infected” in Hollow Knight. That means you can kill these people without feeling bad, so that’s nice.

At the top of Greymoor, there are Dustroaches kept in pens. These creatures have insatiable appetites and breed very rapidly. I don’t think we have seen any dustroaches either, but it’s nice to know they’re there, I guess.

Finally, Team Cherry explains that Greymoor is one of the biggest areas they’ve ever created, and that Hornet will uncover many mysteries, making several new friends and duel with a lethal lunging foe. Now, this lunging foe might be referring to Lace, but I’m guessing there’s going to be a fuckton of lunging foes in this game.

This update also confirms that Silksong will use the same mapping system as Hollow Knight. But this time around, Hornet will come across Shakra instead of Cornifer. Shakra is seeking out her master who vanished under mysterious circumstances. Shakra is a part of a clan, each of which has their own Craft-Skill. So chances are we’ll be seeing a lot of bugs like Shakra during Hornet’s adventure.

At the end of this post, Team Cherry mentions that they have been reaching out to people in the Hollow Knight community to provide voices. William and Ari provided the vast majority of voices for Hollow Knight, but it seems they have decided to outsource this to the community, probably because they are a bunch of lazy devs. Lace’s voice has been provided by Mitsuki Hashimoto, an active member of the Hollow Knight fan art community. And I know what you’re thinking. No, I haven’t recorded any lines for Silksong. But I am taking expensive vocal training classes just in case Team Cherry decides to call me up.

And now I have a few more details from the update before the June update, where Team Cherry talked about some of the various characters in the game. This character’s name has confirmed to be Trobbio. He is the Master of the Stage, the Brush and the Voice. He’s a flamboyant butterfly that seeks fame and adoration throughout Pharloom. And as of right now, he’s my favorite character.

We also got a few more details about Sherma. He’s apparently in constant need of help. No surprise there. He’s also described as an optimistic pilgrim on a spiritual journey. The whole concept of bugs going to Pharloom for some kind of pilgrimage has been present since Silksong was announced, but as it turns out, this idea has been around for quite some time. We recently gained access to the original Hollow Knight lore document that Team Cherry provided to backers after the kickstarter ended.

Now, this document is obviously very old and nothing in it should be considered canon. But in the area description section, it mentions the Forest of Bones, an area cut from Hollow Knight that appears to have been transferred over to Silksong. In this document, it mentions that bugs would take pilgrimages to the Forest of Bones to find the Holy Grounds. We only have one image of the Holy Grounds, but is there a chance that this area will end up in Silksong as well? I’m guessing it would be quite different, considering the fact that there are Dreamer masks plastered all over the walls. But perhaps a place like this is where Sherma and other bugs are going.

We also have a bit more information on Garmond and Zaza. It is explained that these two are looking for a new home, and that while Garmond does the talking, Zaza is the more intelligent one. I don’t know how I feel about this relationship, but I am going to avoid asking too many questions here. I mean, imagine riding a horse that was smarter than you. That wouldn’t be fun, you’d just feel like an asshole.

And the last bit of info we have relates to the Ant Queen we saw in the Silksong reveal trailer. Her name is Hunter Queen Carmelitia, and William told me that she is actually a backer character. That brings the total amount of confirmed backer bosses to three out of six. There are still three more bosses and dungeons that were promised during the Kickstarter that haven’t appeared yet.

And that’s a wrap. I’ll see you all after the next Team Cherry update whenever that is. I’m thinking… April.

Silksong gameplay footage by Hobby Consolas:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkbM5L5Q9qY

List of songs:

Bonebottom

Lace

Dirtmouth

Kingdom’s Edge

Hornet