Silksong News and Trailer Analysis (Xbox Showcase) (Script)

After a year and a half of agonizing waiting, and the r/hollowknightmemes community trying to sacrifice me to appease the Team Cherry gods, Hollow Knight Silksong finally has some news in the form of a brand new trailer [Source]. Not only that, but Silksong will be releasing day one on Xbox Game Pass for PC, Xbox Consoles, and the Cloud. This means that Silksong is officially coming to Xbox, which hadn’t been officially confirmed before now. But it makes sense. Team Cherry and Microsoft seem to be on good terms, considering the first Hollow Knight is already on Game Pass. And Team Cherry even streamed Hollow Knight on Microsoft’s own beloved streaming site, Mixer.

The Silksong trailer was shown during the Xbox and Bethesda event at the Summer Games Fest. According to Xbox, every game shown in this event will come out in the next twelve months. That means that Silksong won’t release any later than June 12th 2023. This was even confirmed by Xbox on Twitter [Source]. But some people have challenged this since Silksong doesn’t appear on this image that Xbox shared [Source]. But even if Silksong was in this image, it still says that developers are “aiming” for these release dates. So nothing is concrete here. All that said, and I am really hoping I’m correct here, Silksong will definitely be out within the next 12 months.

It’s not really clear if the game is launching on Xbox the same day as PC and Switch, and we still don’t have confirmation of a PlayStation release, but I’m sure time will tell on all those questions. Regardless, the real reason we’re here is to dive deep into this new trailer to see what Team Cherry has been cooking up for us these past 18 months. Does Hornet have any new moves to show off? Will any exciting bosses be making a debut? Will Kimmy Gibbler from Full House make an appearance? Let’s find out.

First up, we see a Rating Pending logo. That means that Team Cherry has submitted Silksong to the ESRB to get an age rating for the game. I don’t know how long it takes for the ESRB to rate a game, and I’m also not sure how complete a game needs to be before the rating process can begin. But if I were to take a complete guess in the dark, I’d say this is a good sign. 

Afterwards, we see a few strands of silk, and then Hornet shouts.

Hegale!

The first shot of the new trailer takes place in what appears to be an early area of the game. We’ve seen it several times before, and I’m guessing it’s what connects the opening Moss Grotto level to the Forest of Bones fiery area. Interestingly enough, the Moss Grotto doesn’t seem to be in this trailer at all.

We’re introduced to some new enemies here. They appear to be moss-like creatures suffering from male pattern baldness. This shot does tell us to “Fight for the Fate of a Haunted Land”, and we’ll see examples of that later in the trailer, but maybe these bugs are also suffering somehow, causing them to lose their leaves. We also see these small bugs that fly away when Hornet comes near, similar to what Maskflies do in Hollow Knight. They look like baby versions of the Moss Knight and that makes me a little uncomfortable.

The next shot appears to take place in a new area. It appears to be some kind of crypt or abandoned church. We have seen a graveyard-like area in previous footage, so it might be somewhere close to that. We see Hornet do some pretty standard platforming here by diving head first into balls. Hornet also has a new tool equipped that we haven’t seen before. We’ll be seeing it later in the trailer so put a pin in that detail for now.

In the next shot, we see Hornet dismount off the Bell Beast at what I assume is some kind of station. I’m guessing that this is an early game station somewhere near the green bony area. As mentioned previously, the Bell Beast will be like the Last Stag in Hollow Knight, the only difference being that you have to actually fight and subdue the Bell Beast first.

This next shot is fucking awesome. Hornet appears to be inside of some large scale industrial grinding machine, and is forced to jump from platforms as they fall out of the ceiling. Conceptually, this reminds me a lot of something like the Crystal Peak in the original Hollow Knight. And it’s fun to compare these two, because it really shows how much Team Cherry has refined their craft over the past five years.

We also have a new tool on display. The left tool appears to be similar to the Pimpillo we saw in the reveal trailer. We know that Hornet is able to upgrade her tools throughout the game, so this could be an earlier version of the pimpillo item that doesn’t have fire. This tool is never used in the trailer unfortunately, so we’ll have to wait to see how it works. The second tool is some kind of drill which we saw in the Edge magazine interview. And don’t worry, we’ll see Hornet drill some bugs soon enough.

Another new detail about these tools is a slight change to these HUD sprites: they now have what appear to be arrows. I’m guessing that this means tools will use directional inputs. So you have one tool button, and you press that along with up or down to use a certain tool, similar to how items worked in the old school Castlevania games. As mentioned in previous videos, these tools have a limited number of uses, but when Hornet rests at a bench, she is able to pay shell shards picked up from enemies to rebuild them.

Next, we see Hornet riding an updraft to move upward through a room. Team Cherry explained in the Edge Magazine interview that Hornet’s larger profile over the Knight forced them to make Pharloom larger than Hallownest. Figuring out how to integrate verticality into this larger world probably influenced them to add things like this. It seems much faster and less committal than having to ride an elevator, like we see in the City of Tears, so I’m really digging this. One of Hornet’s tools is a Lifeblood syringe. We’ve seen it before, it basically just gives her additional Lifeblood hearts.

The next shot appears to be in some watery area. What’s most important about this shot are these white flowers growing here, similar to the ones seen during the Lace fight shown off in the reveal trailer. 

Another area we’ve seen that has these flower petals is the arena where Hornet fights Seth. Seth can be found waiting amidst tangled roots at the base of the Citadel. From this, we can assume that this area is somewhere close to Seth’s arena.

We still don’t know how these flowers tie into Silksong’s grander narrative. But we know that similar looking flowers that were carried to Hallownest by the Grey Mourner carry some sort of strange power. Seemingly capable of stopping the Void. We can see in this shot that Hornet has a basic pin tool. She also has a broken silk meter here, which I assume is the result of having died and not yet retrieved her cocoon.

The next shot shows Hornet riding a horizontal platform as it zooms through the Forest of Bones. Nothing much of note gameplay wise. But let’s take a look at the heads up display. We’ve seen a number of different HUD designs already in this trailer, which were shown off earlier in the Edge magazine interview. But this design is not only new, but also functionally different from the other ones.

We don’t know for sure, but it seems like the HUD changes depending on what crest Hornet has equipped. Crests allow Hornet to use different types of tools in different quantities, but it seems they can do more than just that. Notice how this HUD design has a few differences from the other ones. Not only is the actual area of this top meter smaller, the bottom meter has a notch in a different location. From what I can tell, once Hornet’s silk meter fills up to this notch, this top meter lights up, meaning that Hornet can perform her healing move, Bind. This means that Hornet can actually heal herself with less silk when she uses this crest. This HUD also appears to open up into a harp when enough silk is collected to use Bind. There’s plenty more to talk about with these huds, but we’ll be revisiting this later so hold tight.

As for Hornet’s tool here, we never see it in action so I have no idea what it does.

This next shot is so dope, Hornet ziplining! I just love this shit, it’s so cool looking! This appears to be an area we’ve seen since the reveal trailer. I always call this area a clocktower. It’s never been confirmed or anything. But it would make sense to be a clocktower. We know that the bugs in the Docks keep track of when certain things needing to happen based on a bell toll. A society like this would probably use a giant clocktower with a bell in it to keep things running orderly.

In this area, there’s also a new enemy who puffs up like a hedgehog whenever someone gets close to him.

If you thought that last shot was cool, check this out! Hornet taking an elevator. Hell yeah! I know I’m taking this piss right now, but I just want to say how happy I am to see a new Silksong trailer. What is this 2019?! This could be the elevator that finally takes Hornet up to the Citadel. Interestingly, we see a lot of cobwebs in this room. We know that Pharloom is haunted by silk, but it’s nice to see it manifesting in a physical way like this. We also see a new tool in Hornet’s inventory. But we never see her use it, so I’m not sure what it is. It kinda looks like a grappling hook? This other one is just a flying familiar, probably similar in function to bugs created by the glowing womb charm in Hollow Knight. This creature seems to be similar to the one we saw in the previous shot, but painted red to match Hornet’s drip.

In the next shot, Hornet fights some enemies on what might be a bridge between two large structures. To me, this looks like it’s just on the edge of the Citadel. The Xbox website actually uploaded a few additional screenshots of Silksong, and we can see another area that looks like it’s near the entrance of this large city [Source]. There’s even an enclosed bridge in the far background.

Another interesting detail here are the white bugs. They appear to be the same type of bug that Lace was conducting before the fight in the Deep Docks, which might also be the same bug that freed Hornet from her prison at the start of the game. Do these bugs naturally live around the Citadel? Are they connected to the white flowers somehow? 

We also see silk just lying around this area too.

Getting back to the trailer, we see Hornet do this tasmanian devil move. This appears to be like her pogo attack we’ve seen before, but modified to be more like a spin. It appears that Hornet’s pogo, dash attack and standard attack are actually different depending on which crest she has equipped. 

In fact, in this same scene, we see her do a modified dash attack where she leaps into the air like a Naruto character. Probably. I haven’t seen it.. And for her standard attack, it looks like she does a claw slash. You can see Hornet’s HUD has these little claws on it in this shot.

Since we’re on this topic, let's cover the other crest attacks really quickly. The harp crest’s regular attack is pretty similar to the base crest. The dash attack sends Hornet way back if it connects. And the pogo launches you slightly upwards, kinda like the Hollow Knight pogo. 

The spikey crest appears to have a wider swing for its base attack with an uppercut dash attack, and a sweeping pogo move. 

I honestly think this system is pretty cool. It’s interesting to think about which crest moveset might make certain bosses or enemies easier to deal with.

Getting back to this shot in the trailer, Hornet has some kind of orange jar that we never get to see in action. She also has the tri pins equipped, which we do see her use later in the trailer. There’s also a different looking cap on the end of the silk meter. We get a better look at this from one of the pictures uploaded to Xbox. It appears to be something that increases how much silk you can hold. I’m fairly certain this is some kind of tool upgrade.

Believe it or not, but there’s one more detail we need to address in this shot. There appears to be some figure watching Hornet from the background. This being appears to be one of the vault keepers mentioned in a Team Cherry blog post [Source]. So these bugs seem to be keeping an eye out for any potential looters who might stumble upon their secret.

The next shot shows Hornet fighting an enemy in what appears to be some windswept desert. This area is really interesting looking, perhaps located on the outskirts of Pharloom, close to the outside world. The tool she has equipped will be used later in the trailer, so hold tight on that.

This next shot shows Hornet using some kind of silk consuming skill to dash through these freaky enemies that kinda look like baby Bell Beasts. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I  believe that this shot takes place not far off from where the last shot was, but I could be completely wrong.

Next, Hornet uses a drill tool to turn into a blunt and attack this guy. She then throws a Pimpillo at this other enemy. The Pimpillo was actually in the reveal trailer as well, and… it looks a little bit wonky now.

This next shot appears to take place in a tower we’ve seen a few times in the reveal trailer and screenshots. There’s speculation that this might be the “Soaring Warlord’s Tower” in Greymoor mentioned in a Team Cherry blog post [Source]. Hornet uses another attack against this big eyed monster, which might be either a Crawbug or a Dustroach, two more creatures mentioned in a Team Cherry blog post. I think they are supposed to be Crawbugs, since they are said to be nesting type bugs that live in dilapidated towers. [Source] And I mean, look at this thing, the buck teeth. The disgusting tail. It’s very clearly supposed to look like a filthy, disgusting, bubonic plague infested James Corden.

Once Hornet kills this monster with what appears to be a nail art, or I guess, needle art, a small icon appears in the bottom corner of the screen. The two best guesses for what this is are either for completing a quest, or unlocking an entry in this game’s version of the Hunter’s journal. It’s speculated that the Huntress is this game’s Hunter equivalent, but this icon doesn’t really look like her. So I’m guessing this is for a quest. And if Crawlbugs are nesters, it would make sense for there to be a quest to go kill one.

Next we see Hornet fighting an ant enemy we saw in the earlier trailer. She also throws some caltrops at it. Nothing much else to say about this one. I wish we got more ants in this trailer. I wanna see the ants.

Next is a scene in a swamp area located somewhere in Greymoor. We’ve seen this place before in the Edge magazine interview, but an interesting detail here is the flower petals floating down from above. This implies to me that this area might be located directly under the area we saw earlier in the trailer. We know that there are tangled roots above, which might explain these large root looking things sticking out of the ceiling.

Hornet also uses her spike tool as a weapon. And the enemy is kind enough to fly right into it. How nice. Hornet also has a tool that looks similar to the weapon the enemy is using, which we see her throw like a javelin in the Edge magazine interview.

The next scene takes place in one of the Deep Docks rooms we already saw in the Silksong demo. But Team Cherry made a huge change. See? Yeah, it’s pretty blatant right? There’s now a heat wave distortion effect being applied.

The next shot shows Hornet fighting against some burrowing bug creature carrying some sort of pitchfork. The enemy looks pretty fun to fight, but what interests me more here is the location itself. This is probably another part of Greymoor, since Team Cherry said it’s the largest area in the whole game. The area is full of these strange objects sticking out of the ground. I think the only other time we see a similar design is an enemy in the tower area who is partway offscreen. So I think this area is probably somewhere near this warlord tower. These objects also seem to be collecting silk. 

It seems like all of Pharloom is covered in this silk. Enemies shed it when they get hit. Hornet seems to be encompassed by it when she enters Pharloom for the first time, and now we see it collecting in these things. We can see a giant windmill in the background, which could indicate that this area is windy. So perhaps there’s silk in the air that these bugs are collecting using these tools and then using that silk to do…. Something. It seems these bugs are aware of the silk’s apparent power, especially considering they walk around with slightly oversized scissors.

The next shot in the trailer is a sequence where Hornet has to escape from rising lava, while these freaks with messed up teeth spit at her. Like seriously, I hate to even look at these things. what are they, (expletive)?

It looks like Silksong will have a lot more of these scripted platforming sections. Which is definitely exciting to see. Hollow Knight’s platforming doesn’t really get pushed much outside of the White Palace, so it’s nice to see these platforming challenges more integrated into the entire world. Also, these shells all over the walls remind me of the Masks found in the Holy Grounds, an area planned in Hollow Knight for the Forest of Bones, but was ultimately cut.

Next we see Hornet take the elevator… down! Can we just take a second to appreciate how awesome this is. 

The next shot shows Hornet stabbing somebody laying on a platform with a cloth over their face. This might be similar to how the Knight destroys the Dreamers in Hollow Knight. It gives very similar vibes, especially with all the candles. This room is probably located at the top of the tower area, and I’m guessing this character is being haunted by silk in some way, and Hornet is here to release them. Or, you know, murder them in their sleep. 

When the screen flashes white, we do see what appears to be some kind of face. At the very least, we can make out a pair of eyes. Is this supposed to look like a crest? Is this how she unlocks them? Stabbing people in the head?

The next shot features our good old friends Garmond and Zaza! They appear to be helping Hornet on a quest to defeat some wild beast. We’ve seen this creature before in screenshots and I always thought those white dots were supposed to be its eyes, but now I see they are fangs. I can’t be the only one who thought this, right? Anyway, Hornet has some kind of boomerang tool. But unfortunately,  she never uses it. 

We’re getting to the end of the trailer now, and Team Cherry is just gonna keep throwing bosses at us. We finally get a better look at the Last Judge. He carries what I think is supposed to be a censer. Censers are little incense burners that are usually tied to chains. They are used a lot in Catholic ceremonies, and we can even see them being used as such in the background of this scene. It also might be intentionally designed to look like a bell, since that’s kinda a big motif in this game. There’s also another screenshot of the Last Judge throwing his censer like a ball and chain. We also have some footage of this from a tweet Xbox sent out after the trailer dropped.

As for who this guy is and how he’s connected to Pharloom, he could be in charge of the prison we saw back in 2020. We’ve seen one other enemy who might be related to the Last Judge. Perhaps these are officers looking for criminals to be arrested and judged. 

Getting back to this shot, Hornet throws what is most likely a bugle chip at the Last Judge, which then bounces around off the walls. Funnily enough, the next shot shows us where this tool probably came from. These two enemies are wearing giant bugles on their heads. I’m happy to see another boss fight with multiple enemies. They’re such a fun challenge. I’m not exactly sure where this is, but we can see some kind of stone structure in the background and some sand as well. So maybe it’s near that sandy area we saw before? On the other hand, these guys kinda remind me of shellfish, so it might be closer to that pier area we saw in the reveal trailer.

The next shot appears to take place in the crypt-like area we saw earlier. A strangely humanoid monster covered in leaves and grass attacks Hornet from above. This is probably the most striking thing in the entire trailer. Maybe even a bit out of place with how human-like it is? Then again, I think this enemy is supposed to be unsettling in a certain way, so maybe that’s intentional.

The next shot shows Hornet fighting against this chef and ON MY GOD HIS ASS IS HUMONGOUS! He literally swings his gigantic ass at Hornet as an attack. Is this what’s been delaying Silksong so long? Getting the ass attack right? Did Ari Gibson see one too many inflated Hornet images and just snap?! Anyway, this character, referred to lovingly by the Hollow Knight community as Ass Jim appears to be located somewhere in the tower area. So keep your eyes peeled when you get to that part.

In these last few shots, we see Hornet go up against an enemy we saw in the first trailer. But unfortunately we can’t see their ass at all. Then we see Hornet fighting Lace. If you want to see her ass, I’m sure you can find it online somewhere. And the final shot of the trailer shows our good friends, Garmond and Zaza. How nice.

And that’s it for the trailer, there are still a few screenshots I haven’t mentioned, but there’s nothing new in them, so I wouldn’t bother studying them too closely.

And that’s all the new stuff we got from the Xbox Event. The real takeaway from this trailer doesn’t really come from analyzing all the little details. I mean, that stuff’s great and all, but I think the best part about this trailer really just comes from watching Silksong in action. It's so satisfying to watch Hornet weave through enemies and environments with a level of style and grace that just isn’t possible in Hollow Knight. I am so excited to eventually get my hands on this. Only one year left folks. We can do this!

And that about wraps things up. If you hated this video, be sure to subscribe so YouTube will fail to notify you when I upload. 

Now I do have a Twitter, but let me warn you I say the stupidest shit on there. Like seriously, only follow me if you want to see some of the most moronic takes you’ve ever seen, I am not joking. Anyway you can follow me on twitter.com/jamescorden.

I have a discord server as well. discord.gg/amoungusgaming.

I’m making a video game of my own, so check the description for details on that. Be sure to check out my streams on Mixer. 

Songs Used:

Lace - Hollow Knight Silksong OST

Bonebottom - Hollow Knight Silksong OST

Dirtmouth - Hollow Knight OST

Reflection - Hollow Knight OST

Crystal Peak (Main Loop) - Hollow Knight

Hornet - Hollow Knight OST

Fungal Wastes - Hollow Knight OST

City of Tears (Outside Loop) - Hollow Knight

Furious Gods - Hollow Knight OST

Haunted Foes (Flukemarm, Markoth, Troupe Master Grimm)

Truth, Beauty and Hatred - Hollow Knight OST

Nosk - Hollow Knight OST

Mantis Lords - Hollow Knight OST

Hollow Knight - Hollow Knight OST