By Hollow Knight: Silksong finally appears to justify its drawn-out, grueling delay if its record-breaking launch figures are an indication, yet players using Simplified Chinese are enduring a far bumpier ride thanks to a bewildering localization.
A stark divide exists between 35,000 English critiques of Silksong—92 % of which praise the follow-up—and roughly 88,000 appraisals in total, of which a mere 78 % are favorable, dragged down by about 14,000 thumbs-down notes written in Simplified Chinese.
The uproar grew loud enough that Team Cherry’s marketing and publishing head, Matthew Griffin, addressed the clumsy wording on social media and vowed refinements “during the next few weeks.”
“To our Chinese-speaking community: thank you for highlighting the shortcomings in the present Simplified Chinese rendition of Hollow Knight: Silksong,” Griffin posted on social platforms. “Over the coming weeks we will polish the localization. Your feedback and backing mean a lot.”
Localization specialist Loek van Kooten dissected the mess in an in-depth article, likening the Chinese script to “a high-school drama troupe’s mock-Shakespeare jam session” and complaining it is “so bloated with faux-antique ornament that quest clues morph into riddles and everyday NPC lines dissolve into word salad.”
Van Kooten even renders a sample Chinese paragraph back into English to underline the absurdity: “With neither soul nor mind shalt thou endure, stripped of mortal resolve, unbroken, unshaken. No lament, no tearful wail, only sorrow’s requiem to trumpet thy endless grief. Sprung from deities and the bottomless deep, clutching the celestial vault in thy unworthy hand. Chained to ceaseless dream, harried by plague and gloom, thy heart assailed by spectral fiends. Thou art the vessel of fate. Truly, thou art the First Knight of Emptiness.”