It has been a long time since the last news about Hollow Knight: Silksong was released, but there is a lot of material to dissect about Team Cherry's second game. Hollow Knight has become one of the most beloved games in the Metroidvania subgenre because of its gameplay, design, and lore. The latter has been quite studied by fans everywhere, who have taken up the task of deciphering the backstory of Hallownest. While there is some straightforward information spread throughout the game, most of the time players need to be paying attention to little details, and have a good ability to connect the dots, in order to understand the story.

Luckily for fans, Team Cherry has shared some details about Hollow Knight: Silksong together with the game's trailer, providing more than enough info to start speculation. Fans have been studying in detail every single piece of information they can get their hands on. Of course, this is due to the lack of official news, but it's also the complexity of Hollow Knight lore that requires fans to pay attention to everything. So far, fans have been digging into the few blog posts by Team Cherry, the official Silksong trailer, the Edge magazine feature, and some fan-made videos of the demo shown at E3 2019 to get more information about Hollow Knight: Silksong.

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There are definitely some similarities between Hornet and the Knight such as the ability to heal themselves or using nails as weapons. However, even these change a bit from one Hollow Knight game to the other. While the Knight focuses soul to heal, it seems like in Silksong, silk and soul are inseparable. Hornet needs to bind herself in silk to heal.

Another huge difference regarding this is that binding takes less time than focusing and it can be done mid-air, but it costs Hornet an entire spool of silk to bind. Another difference is that, aside from her nail, Hornet seems to have the ability to shoot daggers. These projectiles might be part of the tools that will replace the charms from Hollow Knight. Lastly, instead of leaving a shade behind one death like in Hollow Knight, Hornet will leave a cocoon with silk.

One of the first things fans noticed from the trailer and the demos is that Hornet is much more quick and dynamic than the Knight. Hornet can be seen walking, running, and sprinting, which is quite an upgrade from the Knight's one-speed walk. Additionally, Hornet can jump in the air in more ways than just the usual dash the Knight had. It also seems like Hornet can use her nail to move through the air like some sort of grappling hook. In general, it seems like the gameplay will differ a little from Hollow Knight, meaning there might be a bit of a learning curve, even for players who got through Team Cherry's first game.

Another thing that has been explicitly mentioned by Team Cherry is the fact that Hornet is bigger than the Knight. This might seem like obvious information, but it does have an impact on how the game had to be designed. Since the main character is considerably taller, the whole map needs to accommodate Hornet's size so it does not have a claustrophobic feel to it. Consequently, enemies need to be bigger so that they can match Hornet's capabilities.

Finally, Hornet has a small but significant difference from the Knight: She has a voice. Interactions in Hollow Knight required the Knight to just listen to other characters. However, as seen in Hollow Knight: Silksong, Hornet does talk, which means fans will get to see more of her personality in the new game. While there are not many details available about Hornet's conversations in Silksong yet, it could be that Hornet's dialogues will reveal more information about the lore to players in a more straightforward, accessible manner.

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The quick answer is no. The longer answer goes into more detail about what makes Hollow Knight: Silksong different from Hollow Knight. While Silksong will obviously maintain a connection with Hollow Knight, Hornet's adventure and the way she will interact with everyone at Pharloom are very different. Hornet's ability to speak might make new players become familiar with the game much faster, and even build rapport with the main character even without knowing Hornet's backstory.

While some fans might feel discouraged that Team Cherry is not making new players go through Hollow Knight before diving into Silksong, there are plenty of good reasons to do so. The obvious one is that it will not scare off people who might not have heard of Hollow Knight before but still decided to buy Silksong.

Another reason might be that, by not assuming the player knows anything about Hollow Knight, it might be easier to account for the different endings of the first game. Team Cherry has previously stated that all five endings of Hollow Knight are equally cannon, but the consequences of some of them contradict what is known about Silksong so far. While it is still unclear how Team Cherry plans on accounting for the Sealed Siblings ending in which Hornet is trapped in the Black Egg Temple with the Knight, maybe the plan is to pitch Silksong as a fresh start so it does not contradict the events of the first installment.

Even without the Sealed Siblings ending, it is hard to see how the Godmasters DLC fits into the new story, making it hard to see how all the endings will be reconciled with Silksong. This is precisely why some people think that Silksong is going to be a prequel instead of a sequel. Nevertheless, Team Cherry has been referring to Silksong as a sequel. Some people have argued that Team Cherry is using the term "sequel" loosely, just to refer to the second game they have released. However, the most popular idea is that the events in Silksong are supposed to come after those in Hollow Knight, effectively making it a true sequel.

Hollow Knight: Silksong is currently in development for PC and Switch.

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