Hollow Knight: Silksong

Silksong is a metroidvania in the classic mould: a huge interconnected map, abilities that open paths you passed hours earlier, and benches that act as lifelines between dangerous stretches. Hornet is built for speed and acrobatics, and fights are built around darting in, landing a strike and dancing back out before a counterattack lands.

The big new layer is crafting. Hornet builds tools, from weapons to traps and mechanisms, and the arsenal keeps growing as you explore. Picking the right tools for a boss, or for reaching a ledge that seemed impossible, is a large part of the puzzle. Quests add a second thread: locals ask you to hunt rare beasts or untangle old mysteries, and finishing their wishes slowly restores hope to the kingdom.

The bestiary is large, with more than 200 enemy types and over 40 bosses ranging from fabled heroes to fallen kings. Mastery means learning every pattern until you can hit back without taking damage, and the difficulty is unapologetic. Once you finish, Steel Soul mode raises the stakes for players who want an even harsher run. The game recommends a gamepad and supports DualShock and DualSense pads, but a keyboard-only option is there too.

Silksong opens with Hornet in chains. Captured and carried away to the unfamiliar kingdom of Pharloom, the Princess Knight has no allies and no obvious way home, so she starts climbing. The land is a fallen insect civilisation built in layers, from moss-choked caves at the bottom to a radiant citadel at the very top, and every tier holds its own rulers, cults and broken promises.

The pilgrimage to the peak is also a journey into Hornet's own nature and past, with secrets tied to who she is waiting along the way. Like its predecessor, the game tells much of its story through the world itself: overheard conversations, ruined architecture and the desperate bugs who ask for help. Composer Christopher Larkin, who scored the first Hollow Knight, returns with an orchestral soundtrack that swings from melancholy strings to thundering boss themes.

Silksong is out now on Windows, macOS and Linux through Steam at US$19.99, and it supports Steam Deck. Local Steam prices are RM49 in Malaysia, S$18.50 in Singapore, ₱615 in the Philippines, ฿400 in Thailand, Rp 165,999 in Indonesia and 220,000₫ in Vietnam. It offers 11 languages, including Japanese, Korean and both Chinese scripts, but none from Southeast Asia. The minimum spec is tiny: a GTX 560 Ti or Radeon HD 7750, 4 GB of RAM and 8 GB of storage. It runs fully offline, with Steam Cloud saves and full controller support.