2025 launch window. The cycle has been significantly longer than the two years and change that ed between the 2014 Kickstarter reveal of the original Hollow Knight and its 2017 release, and the frequent radio silence has been even worse.

While keeping track of possible updates and speculation is part of my job, when it comes to Silksong, I personally settled into an "it comes when it comes" attitude years ago. Hollow Knight is one of my favorite games of all time, but I have plenty to play in the meantime, and I trust Team Cherry to release something compelling when all is said and done. The original game's extraordinary ambition seemed like a simple enough explanation for how the sequel's development could get out of hand, and a newly released interview doubles down on that perspective.

Hollow Knight Was Planned As A "Very Small" Game

Hollow Knight's Kickstarter Changed Things

Unless you're talking about the insect-friendly scale of its world, the last thing you could fairly call Hollow Knight would be "very small." The game's $14.99 price tag belies a sprawling Metroidvania experience that outclasses most of its peers in its depth of content, an incredible value prospect that helped it become a hit. In a Source Gaming interview conducted in 2018 and published in full just this month, however, Team Cherry co-director Ari Gibson mentions that the original plan was to create a Metroidvania of a much less significant scale, plans that shifted with the success of the Kickstarter.

Hollow Knight's Kickstarter sought AU$35,000 of crowdfunding, a number apparently bumped up from just AU$30,000 days before launch, and ultimately raised $58,000.

Looking at the end result, it's clear that Team Cherry went above and beyond what would have been necessary to create a satisfying game experience, and that was done with relatively limited funding and the financial necessity of a reasonably efficient turnaround. Take off those constraints, and it's easy to see how things have shifted with Silksong.

Silksong Is Capable Of More Unchecked Ambition

Far More Money & Time

Considering the enormous success of Hollow Knight, Team Cherry has far more money and time to burn with Silksong, and it's not all that surprising that the team is going the distance with it. While it might be entirely possible to outdo the ambition of the original game in three or four years of development, the quest to go above and beyond doesn't have to stop there, and it obviously hasn't.

This time around, the primary source of pressure is simply the weight of increased audience expectations, and that's an issue that might delay development rather than speed it along. While the constant hunger for a release certainly gives Team Cherry some sense of a ticking clock, it's just as likely to be paralyzing, much like George R. R. Martin's seeming inability to finish another A Song of Ice and Fire book after Game of Thrones catapulted the books from fantasy bestsellers to global phenomenons.

Team Cherry Might Be Its Own Worst Enemy

The Quest For Greatness Is Tough

At some point, you've got to call it a wrap and ship the product, and Team Cherry might be making the whole affair harder upon itself than necessary. If Silksong had released years ago and maintained the high standard of the original game, it wouldn't have needed to reinvent the wheel. Most fans weren't asking for more than new enemies, areas, and a continuation of Hollow Knight's polish. After six years, though, the weight of Silksong expectations has only increased.

Team Cherry's capacity and drive for greatness is a blessing and a curse, but I'd ultimately rather have it that way than any other. Even if Silksong does turn out to be overstuffed and unfocused by comparison, I'd rather see a real swing for the fences, and we wouldn't have gotten the original Hollow Knight without that ambition. I just hope it all coheres into something that Team Cherry is happy with, because if Hollow Knight: Silksong turns out to be the stepping stone for yet another bigger and better project, we might not see that one for another decade.

Source: Source Gaming