After years of waiting, Hollow Knight: Silksong finally has a release date, and it’s just around the corner: September 4. The long-awaited follow-up to Hollow Knight has been the subject of discussion, controversy, and disappointment for years, plagued by delays and missed deadlines. But die-hard fans can finally breathe a sigh of relief and begin warming up their hands for the fast-paced, punishing Metroidvania they’ve dreamed of.
The news dropped today as part of a special Silksong presentation at Gamescom 2025. Originally announced in February 2019, Hollow Knight: Silksong saw updates through December 2020, but then Team Cherry maintained radio silence until a new trailer dropped in June 2022. Silksong was originally scheduled for release within the year, but a year later, fans were left pining.
Rather than playing as the titular character of the first game, Silksong puts players in control of Hornet, the princess of Hallownest. She has been kidnapped (bug-napped?) and taken to the land of Pharloom, where she must fight her way to freedom. The combat is different than the first game, and Silksong adds a quest system to its larger world.
Gamescom 2025 has had a playable demo of the game, and players report a few additional changes. In Hollow Knight, if you die, you have to fight a shadow of your character to retrieve all of the souls you collected. According to those who played the demo, Silksong takes a bit of mercy on the player by dropping a silk cocoon rather than forcing the player to fight a clone of themselves (something that made retrieving dropped souls particularly difficult in boss fights).
The gorgeous, hand-drawn art style returns for the sequel alongside more than 200 unique enemies, over 40 bosses, and so much more. If you’ve been waiting to get your hands on Silksong (and at this point, who hasn’t?), the wait for your next favorite Metroidvania is almost over.
