Hollow Knight: Silksong

Absolute masterpiece, combat is so fun and music and world building, everything is elegant n beautiful

an unforgettable experience and the true Goty of 2025 in my opinion, each location is unique and beautiful. especially the citadel of song and its theme music

very good game that dwarves its predecessor in a lot of aspects but also makes really questionable decisions regarding the ones where it fumbles in: the last stretch of the game is kind of disappointing and not particularly interesting to actually play through, relying on rehashed enemies for the most part with a few boss fights that do bring back some form of excitement before ending in a final boss that's just kinda alright even if the character it's attached to is really good (though severely lacking in screentime for what it feels like team cherry wants to do with them). furthermore, durability is awful. I understand the desire of making the player feel like their resources are ephemeral but rosaries already do that perfectly: the player is constantly wringed out of resources for basic commodities (maps and benches) to say nothing of any equippable tools (both red tools, which require a second currency for maintenance, and blue and yellow tools which are passives). Speaking of, that secondary currency is extremely obnoxious to farm; the only real way to actually get shards in a timely fashion is to buy them for rosaries, which further puts strain on the rosary economy. I understand what the game is going for, but the end result turns out to discourage players from using one of the core mechanics for a vast majority of it, which is a shame. lastly, this game is Secrets as all hell. this is a more neutral point and your mileage may vary since this kind of gameplay might strike the fancy of a manner of freak different of my own, but I personally am a bit fed up with secret walls by this point. as for positives, well, the fact that there's multiple movesets, and that hornet controls really well, as well as the fact that acts 1 and 2 are the most fun I've had with a videogame in recent memory all definitely more than justify my time with the game. I would not have finished it nor written this review if I didn't have strong feelings about the game, but nonetheless I cannot hide the fact that I have some misgivings regarding it, which sour my enjoyment of the full experience, even if I still think it's deserving of praise for the majority of it, with only the last stretch feeling tacked on whereas the rest of the game had such high peaks they concealed the lows of the game dramatically well. strongly recommended, in spite of its flaws. As an addendum, Lace is perfect and deserved way more screentime. She is the only thing I'd add more of to the game, honestly; while I could enjoy some of the fat being trimmed, I think the game would be better with more of Lace in it, both because I quite like her and because the game's plot would work better (not that it doesn't already) with her having a greater role.