Even long after its initial announcement, Hollow Knight: Silksong continues to be one of the most highly anticipated indie games in the industry — but after more than five years of development, I'm done waiting for it to come out. Initially conceived as DLC for Hollow Knight, which would feature Hornet as the main playable character, Silksong quickly expanded beyond the scope of what developer Team Cherry had originally planned, and it was announced as a standalone sequel in 2019. Over five years later, the game still hasn't come out, but expectations are still just as high.

In 2019, after Silksong was originally announced to be a standalone game, it seemed to be progressing smoothly through development, and a significant portion of the game was shown off later that year at E3, along with a playable demo. In the years since, however, communication from Team Cherry has dwindled drastically — after a short teaser trailer shown in 2022, updates on Silksong have been extremely minimal, and any hints at an release date inevitably end up amounting to nothing as the game continues to avoid any sort of appearance at major gaming showcases.

It's Not Worth Getting Disappointed Over Silksong Anymore

Five Years After Its Announcement, I Can't Get My Hopes Up For More Silksong News

For me, Silksong very quickly became one of my most highly anticipated games shown off in 2019, as the promotional material painted the picture of a game that looked like it could easily sur Hollow Knight in of gameplay. That initial hype kept up throughout the next few years, renewed in 2022 by a new teaser and the implication that the game could be released within a year, but sometime in the years after, with minimal communication regarding the game, my expectations for Silksong's eventual launch have been tempered by the ongoing lack of news.

In 2023, it was announced that Silksong had been delayed from a planned release date in the first half of that year to an unspecified date, but no news on a new planned release date has been announced since.

So, while I'm sure that Silksong will be good when it eventually comes out, at this point, I'm more than willing to let any sort of announcement or release date be a pleasant surprise rather than continually getting my hopes up every time a major event swings around — especially since the continued cycle of hope and disappointment around Silksong can sometimes end up overshadowing the games that actually do get announced and released. It's been a long wait, but obsessing over Silksong updates that aren't coming won't make it any faster.

Other Metroidvanias Can Carry Hollow Knight's Legacy

In The Wait For Silksong, It's Worth Giving Attention To Other Indie Metroidvanias

Additionally, in the wait for more Silksong news, several other games have been released that can at least partially fill the void — some of them being indie metroidvanias that seem to take heavy inspiration from Hollow Knight. Bo: Path of the Teal Lotus, for example, displays heavy Hollow Knight influences in its gameplay, with similar mechanics for traversal and combat, while still having enough original ideas to not be entirely derivative, making it a worthwhile game for Hollow Knight fans looking for something new but familiar.

I think that continuing to get my hopes up for an announcement would only be setting myself up for disappointment

Another indie metroidvania Nine Sols, resembles Hollow Knight much less closely than Bo, instead opting for a heavier focus on combat systems that heavily resemble those of Sekiro. The alternate inspiration makes it a good contrast to Hollow Knight's own Dark Souls-adjacent mechanics, though, and it offers an experience that's fairly unique in of indie metroidvanias. Both Bo and Nine Sols have been released in full at a time when Silksong updates are especially scarce, and both are worth checking out for anyone still hung up on Silksong's release.

So, while we still don't know when Silksong will be released, and might not know for a long while, Hollow Knight's influence on the metroidvania genre can still be seen in games released by other studios, and I think that many of those games are worth giving some attention instead of hanging onto every potential hint towards Silksong's appearance at whatever gaming show is coming up next. Games like Ender Lilies: Quietus of Knights, or even metroidvanias with minimal resemblance to Hollow Knight, like Animal Well, are all worth giving attention to even as the wait for more Silksong new continues.

I'm still looking forward to Silksong, in spite of the long wait. While the lack of communication can be frustrating, especially after the game was shown off heavily in 2019, I think that continuing to get my hopes up for an announcement would only be setting myself up for disappointment. I'll let the eventual announcement and release of Hollow Knight: Silksong be a pleasant surprise when it does happen, and while I'd be happy if this ages poorly and the game's release date is announced tomorrow, I'm not holding my breath for it.

Key Background

• Silksong is only the second game of studio Team Cherry since their debut with Hollow Knight in 2017.
• In the Hollow Knight lore, the Hollow Knights are genderless beings raised to become mindless, will-less and voiceless vessels.

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