BRILLI-ANT

HOLLOW KNIGHT: SILKSONG proves that there is pleasure in pain

- By Tyler Colp

Nothing prepared me for the Sisyphean exercise that is playing Hollow Knight: Silksong. Part of that is my bad for skipping the original Hollow Knight - I thought I'd have plenty of time to try it before Silksong ever actually came out. But now it’s here and I’ve spent over 25 hours with the videogame equivalent of sticking your hand into the Dune pain box.

Silksong may be one of the most painful 2D action games I've played, and the worst part? I inflicted that pain on myself by pressing forward until I'd seen just about every inch of the bug-inhabited land of Pharloom. I may be bruised and sore from the experience, but I'm happy to say that for all the pain Silksong put me through, it was worth it.

As much as I find the term inadequate for describing what's truly special about Silksong, calling it a Soulslike has some merit. Combat-wise it doesn’t quite fit, but the construction of Pharloom rivals (and echoes) that of Lordran in Dark Souls. Not only is it intricate and interconnected, but it’s warped by its tragic history. You can open the map and draw a line from the golden citadel all the way down into the stagnant, maggot-infested pools of Bilewater to understand exactly where the rot began.