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Explore the haunted land of Hollow Knight: Silksong with this new trailer!

Ever since its original announcement trailer in February 2019, fans of the massive indie hit Hollow Knight have waited with giddy enthusiasm for more information about its sequel, Hollow Knight: Silksong. Finally, after three long years, in a shocking reveal at Microsoft and Bethesda’s Summer Game Fest event, there is finally a new trailer of the sequel for all of us to enjoy! Some may wish to avoid this trailer in order to dive into the game as blindly as possible, but for those who are eager for even the smallest new details, let’s break down everything that happens in the latest trailer for Hollow Knight: Silksong.

It feels good to finally see the beautiful art style of Team Cherry again. In this opening shot of the Hollow Knight: Silksong trailer, we see protagonist Hornet running through a land that looks faintly familiar to areas that have already been shown off in prior marketing. There is, however, an adorable little creature crawling on a nearby platform with foliage sprouting out of its head and a body that resembles many of the void enemies from the original Hollow Knight, possibly implying that the void is still a presence in the game’s new setting of Pharloom. Additionally, the caption promises a “haunted land” to explore, which means there could potentially be more supernatural elements to discover.

Transitioning to a darker location, we can now see some of the game’s traversal mechanics as Hornet bounces off a couple of small platforms using her weapon before wall-jumping to safety. The platforms light up and explode when Hornet hits them, so they could be some kind of bioluminescent creature or slime. In the background are decorative emblems that resemble faces, so this location could be an underground tomb, but it’s hard to tell in the darkness. The main information we get from this scene is the ease of platforming in Hollow Knight: Silksong compared to the original game, as Hornet is much better equipped to traverse the landscape around her.

Fans of the original Hollow Knight will surely remember its elderly stag companion, serving as the method of fast travel between locations in the game’s dilapidated kingdom of Hallownest. Hollow Knight: Silksong appears to continue this tradition, as we’ve seen footage of Hornet traveling on a large silvery beast before, and this scene in the new trailer shows what looks like one of Silksong’s fast travel stations. Its aesthetic is interesting, being overwhelmingly silver in color and featuring lots of bells hanging from the ceiling, which could have a religious significance in this world or could simply be decorative ornaments in one of the fancier sections of Pharloom.

As if Hollow Knight’s White Palace wasn’t hard enough, Hollow Knight: Silksong appears to put Hornet in some very precarious positions, this time featuring circular rotating saws on the floor and ceiling as small platforms fall to the ground. This scene could possibly be a scripted story moment given the falling rocks and platforms, which seem more like part of a one-off sequence than a room that can be visited multiple times. As well as this, there are two small symbols in the upper-left corner of the screen that haven’t been in any of the other scenes so far. They both have what seems to be timers represented by the red circles, and may be something to do with tools that Hornet can use which have time limits when used.

This next scene showcases a brand-new mechanic, that being Hornet’s ability to soar through the air in a gust of wind akin to Elden Ring’s spirit springs that launch players to new locations. There are small platforms to land on, and presumably, Hornet can leave the current at any time to land on the platforms or attack the nearby flying enemies, or instead choose to ride the wind all the way to its natural endpoint. The scenery in the background shows off more of Hollow Knight: Silksong’s ruined world in a pale green haze that gives off an eerie vibe.

Over the next two shots, viewers get to see more of Team Cherry’s gorgeous environmental design. First is another parkour scene this time in a room full of blooming white flowers, and then a strikingly different shot of Hornet riding a mechanical lift across what appears to be a pit of lava. Silksong definitely has an industrial vibe at times, possibly hinting at a kingdom slightly more advanced than its counterpart in the original Hollow Knight. We also get to see more adorable little creatures hovering in the air!

Yet another brand-new traversal mechanic can be seen in the next shot, showing Hornet later on in the game (as she now has eight HP in the top left corner) holding onto some kind of mechanical hand-hold that glides her across the room. This room has a very obvious industrial theme, with large mechanical cogs dominating the background and foreground. Given that we have previously seen a large bell in a prior trailer, could it be at the top of a clocktower and this room is part of the mechanism underneath? Regardless of the setting, it’s pretty neat to see a variety of new traversal mechanics, really emphasizing Silksong’s attempt to diversify its movement systems.

There are a lot of interesting small details here. First of all, the game is inviting the player to “hunt” foes, which says a lot about the tone of Hollow Knight: Silksong in general. Is Hornet a predator in the world of Pharloom, and her foes are her prey? Secondly, the icon in the top left corner has changed slightly compared to its appearance in many of the prior scenes, which suggests that Hornet is able to change something fairly fundamental about her playstyle. Could it be different weapons, or perhaps variants of the same weapon? Finally, we get an aesthetic vaguely reminiscent of Hollow Knight’s Godhome, which could mean an equally godly setting or some kind of fancy palace or castle.

Here is something a little more familiar to Hollow Knight fans: a room full of burrowing enemies and a dash attack that injures them. Team Cherry certainly knows how to upgrade its visuals from impressive to even more so, as this scene features some nicely-detailed spikes on the floor and dozens of particle effects on a scale that was never seen in the original game. So far the enemy variety on display in this trailer is exceptional, with enemies rarely appearing more than once. When Team Cherry said the world of Silksong was bigger than Hollow Knight’s Hallownest, they were certainly telling the truth.

Not only has the icon in the top left corner changed once again, likely meaning some kind of change in playstyle, but now Hornet is quite literally drilling into her foes! This attack could be related to the change in UI icon, possibly a kind of “class” that Hornet can equip that gives her new attacks, and in this case, it would seem to be an aggressive one centered around attacking from the top and drilling foes into oblivion. There is clearly an emphasis on proving different styles of play throughout the game, and this is excellent news for Silksong’s replayability.

Now we move on to the slightly larger threats that Hornet will face on her journey in Pharloom. In this luscious green environment that resembles a city being reclaimed by nature, Hornet faces off against an enemy on the same scale as the large mace-wielding knights in the first area of Hollow Knight. It’s possible that this is a boss, but it doesn’t quite seem imposing enough for that unless it’s a mid-area miniboss. The area it’s fought in is admittedly quite open, so it could be a boss arena. In any case, the design of this imposing foe has a wonderful design featuring a large white mask that makes it stand out among the other enemies we’ve seen so far.

Anyone remember the boss fight in Hollow Knight where Hornet used extremely similar tools to what is pictured above? Well, now you can use them yourself! In this short scene Hornet deploys some spikes that catch a nearby enemy off-guard and allows her to deal the finishing blow. The environment is some kind of marshland with reeds sticking out of the water and some surprisingly eerie fog in the background with large imposing spikes coming from the ceiling. So far there is a good variety of areas, ranging from the dank and dark depths to glorious industrial peaks.

Skipping ahead a couple of seconds as what followed were iterations on the same theme, we now get the second word in the trailer’s tagline: “survive”! In what is clearly a chase sequence, Hornet must escape from rising lava flows by platforming her way to victory and battle small enemies along the way. It’s a very imposing environment with spiked walls and decorative background objects that vaguely resemble skulls, and the colour palette is very effective as the bright orange lava fills an otherwise grey room.

This is a very staightforward shot of Hornet inside a falling lift, but it’s an interesting little example of what are presumably specific events throughout Hollow Knight: Silksong that players can discover on their journey. This lift was briefly shown earlier in the trailer, and now the trailer returns to this scene to show things going downhill very quickly. It adds some tension to the wider game because if this can happen to this particular lift, who’s to say it can’t happen elsewhere when you least expect it?

In what appears to be another story moment, Hornet is lunging her weapon into a veiled sleeping (or dead) creature, in much the same way that The Knight in Hollow Knight interacted with the three Dreamers of Hallownest. A swirling maelstrom of silk appears around Hornet as she performs this ritual, possibly tieing into the title of the game somehow. This could be as literal as her performing songs involving silk to these creatures, or something more abstract, and we will hvae to see in the final release for confirmation either way.

And thus the slogan is complete: “Hunt, survive, vanquish”! If this doesn’t set the tone for what’s in store for players in Hollow Knight: Silksong then I don’t know what does. This shot marks the final part of the trailer and transitions the gameplay into a boss battle showcase, with a large variety of imposing and challenging foes for Hornet to overcome. This particular boss seems to be earlier in the game given Hornet only has the base 5 HP in this screenshot, but sometimes developer trickery puts things slightly out of order, so this doesn’t actually spoil much.

We’re going to skip a couple of these bosses because there are quite a few in a short space of time, but this one is particularly interesting because of the way it’s set up. Hornet finds herself stuck between two identical foes that launch themselves across the room horizontally, one on the floor and one on the ceiling, and it takes precision timing to avoid them both simultaneously. Thankfully, Hornet has a midair attack that damages them both in one go, which hopefully will make this terrifying boss encounter a little easier to handle.

The good news is, we can see those strange tomb-like ornaments on the walls again, harkening back to one of the first shots in the trailer. The bad news is there’s a giant tree-like monster attacking from the ceiling and Hornet is forced to flee from its dangerous claws. Team Cherry once again showcases their incredibly beautiful world design with the stark contrast between nature and crumbling civilisation here, and it’s quite a sight to behold. It doesn’t look like there are too many opportunities to counterattack against this monstrous beast, so let’s hope Hornet can last long enough to not get crushed by its arboreal arms.

The penultimate gameplay shot of this wonderful trailer brings back a very familiar face for those who have been keeping up with Hollow Knight: Silksong’s marketing over the past three years. Lace is here! This adorable Hornet-sized boss encounter in a glistening field of white flowers is truly beautiful and is the perfect way to cap off all the new gameplay shown in the trailer. The final shot is of Hornet vanquishing the first boss shown in an earlier image, followed by the game’s title card.

And there you have it, all the new information we can learn from the brand-new Hollow Knight: Silksong trailer! The full video is shown below if you want to see even more of this highly-anticipated upcoming indie epic from Team Cherry.

James is a university graduate based in England whose main hobbies are history, languages, and of course video games. His favourite games are Hollow Knight, Horizon Zero Dawn, and anything made by Atlus or FromSoftware, and you can usually find him on Twitter @sacGOONER63 drooling over these games and many more. You can also read his weekly ramblings about games at sacgooner63.wordpress.com if you so wish.

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