Hollow Knight: Silksong is Team Cherry's Arkham City

Summary

Hollow Knighttook the world by storm upon its initial release in 2017, and rightfully so. Anindie Metroidvaniawith an immense level of charm,Hollow Knightnot only offered satisfying combat mechanics, engaging boss fights, and a beautifully grim world to explore but also a sense of character that was wholly unique at the time. Looking back, it’s no wonder thatHollow Knightreceived the extreme critical praise it did, and now, all eyes are peeled for any scrap of news regarding its sequel,Hollow Knight: Silksong.

Originally intended to be a DLC expansion for the first game,Hollow Knight: Silksongquickly exceeded its original scope, and it seems as though that scope has only gotten increasingly greater with each passing year that the game is in active development. Despite being announced back in February 2019,Hollow Knight: Silksongstill doesn’t have a release date, but when it does eventually come out, it has the potential to be Team Cherry’s ownBatman: Arkham City.

Hollow Knight: Silksong Tag Page Cover Art

How Hollow Knight: Silksong is Team Cherry’s Batman: Arkham City

Batman: Arkham City Improved on Arkham Asylum in Almost Every Way

Back in 2009,Batman: Arkham Asylummade a monumental impact on not just the superhero gaming genre, but the gaming industry as a whole.Batman: Arkham Asylumintroduced the now-iconicFreeflow combat system, a system that’s been imitated and borrowed from heavily by almost all third-person action-adventure games sinceAsylum’s release.Arkham Asylum’s focus on comic-accurate character portrayals and outstanding voicework and writing also helped it become an immediate hit among fans and the wider gaming world.

When a sequel toBatman: Arkham Asylumwas first announced, many fans were skeptical that Rocksteady could ever surpass the first game. But in almost every way,Batman: Arkham Cityended up being a better game. While some fans still prefer the firstArkhamentry, it’s hard to deny just how much of a leap upArkham Citywas fromAsylum—despite essentially becoming a different kind of game entirely. Huge improvements to the Freeflow system, refined traversal mechanics, the introduction of a true open world and some excellent side content, and an even greater cast of iconic DC characters came together to makeBatman: Arkham Citythe ultimate superhero game, and it still acts as a benchmark for video game sequels all these years later.

Hollow Knight: Silksong Is Also Trying to Be Bigger and Better

WhileHollow Knightand theBatman: Arkhamseries share extremely little in common, it feels fair to say that if everything ends up coming together forHollow Knight: Silksong, then it could easily end up imitating the major leap betweenArkham AsylumandCity. For a start,Hollow Knight: Silksong’s worldis getting a similar glow-up toArkham City.

Set in the new kingdom of Pharloom,Silksongwill feature over 100 Benches, which marks a pretty hefty increase from the original game’s 41, and implies thatSilksong’s world is over twice the size.Silksongwill also apparently put more of an emphasis on side content, with NPCs being much more common in Pharloom than in Hallownest.

Hollow Knight: Silksongcould also be Team Cherry’sArkham Cityin the way of gameplay. According to various blog posts and pre-release materials that Team Cherry has released over the last few years,Hollow Knight: Silksongwill have over 165 different enemy types, which players will be able to defeat using an entirely new moveset courtesy of the game’snew lead character Hornet. New upgrades, improved combat mechanics, and a new tool system should all help to makeSilksongfeel like a huge iteration over its predecessor, just likeArkham Citywas back in the day.