I Am Not Looking Forward To Relearning How To Fight In Hollow Knight: Silksong

I’ve spent the week since Hollow Knight: Silksong’s launch date announcement playing through Hollow Knight for the first time. I know, I know. I’m eight years late. I’ve been busy, okay? Rest assured, I’m doing my best to rectify my mistakes.

Your Pogos Are No Good Here

I’ve put in 20 hours over the last five days or so. I’ve gotten the Dream Nail. And now, after years of neglect, I’m finally beginning to understand how it turns regular people into absolute Hollow Knight sickos. I fear I’m turning into one of those people. There’s absolutely no chance I’ll finish the game before Silksong launches, but I’m taking my time with it regardless.

I don’t really have a choice but to take my time, really. I’m quite bad. It took me about a thousand tries to beat the Soul Master in the Soul Sanctum. I smashed my head against it for the better part of a Saturday afternoon, when I could have been doing literally anything else, like touching grass or watching a movie. Instead, I sat on my couch and did the same battle over and over again, watching myself get better and better until I finally beat the sucker.

I began to understand Soulslike players.

But that’s not the point of this article. The real point is that one thing that helped me improve almost immediately was switching to the d-pad on my Steam Deck. I found that my inputs instantly felt more precise, which really helped during difficult platforming sections and boss fights with lots of minute movement adjustments. Being able to precisely control my Knight’s movements in mid-air and mercilessly pogo enemies till they exploded into a cloud of Geo has gotten me through many a mini-boss fight.

Silksong doesn’t have pogos.

Silksong Is A True Evolution, Not Just More Hollow Knight

We don’t know a lot about Hollow Knight: Silksong yet, apart from what we’ve seen from the 15 minute previews of a section of the game we’d already seen several years ago. One thing we do know, though, is that the down attack players are already familiar with – the infamous pogo attack that allows you to traverse across metal spiked platforms and brutalise enemies – has been replaced with a down diagonal attack.

This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Hornet, Silksong’s protagonist, is a different character from the Knight, as we should have expected. From what I’ve gathered from previews, Hornet is faster and heals more quickly, but requires more energy to heal. She can grab edges to hop up to higher platforms. She requires a more aggressive playstyle, but allows you to move through the game incredibly swiftly.

But my god, I’m only just getting the hang of Hollow Knight. It had never even really occurred to me that movement and combat would feel so different, and having to change all the strategies that I’ve learned to suit this new character’s dive attack feels like it’s going to be a whole new challenge I wasn’t mentally prepared for.

On top of that, patience is what has gotten me through the first 20 hours of the game, and I’m sure it’s what I’m going to need for the next 20 hours and beyond. Cautious attacking and dodging is the name of the game, and having to completely relearn how to fight for a sequel is scaring the life out of me.

It’s exciting, though, and exactly the kind of evolution you’d hope to see in a sequel that’s taken this long to make and has expectations so high. I don’t know if Silksong will be better than Hollow Knight, but it’s definitely going to be different, and that alone makes it worth the price of admission.

Hollow Knight: Silksong

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