Hollow Knight: Silksong holds not just a special place, but a massive, premium estate in my heart as one of the most tragic yet hopeful games I have ever played. We follow Hornet (a spider-demigod creature–it’s a long story) who was captured by soldier bugs of Pharloom’s citadel (Pharloom is the kingdom of silk and song…yes, I know), and fights her way through the kingdom to find the truth behind why she was captured. It wasn’t the dialogue or the main story itself that made me sit in silence for hours, though–instead, it’s the little details that tell one massive, overarching tragedy about the fall of Pharloom. Secrets tucked away in the darkest corners of the map–Phantom, an imperfect creature abandoned by its creator and left to rot in the exhaust systems of the citadel (see image). Bugs like Loam, slaving away in the underworks of the city, working tirelessly for a liberation that will never come. All these tidbits and side stories add up to a harsh reality of the in-game world that in many aspects mirror our own. The game forces the player to confront the truth that, no matter how willing you are to help someone or fix something, the fact remains that sometimes you simply can’t. The game brought about this feeling of helplessness, yet it was simultaneously a motivation to give it my all even if it made things just a little bit better for them.
