Though Hollow Knight: Silksong is the game currently associated with Metroidvanias — a genre named after the iconic Metroid and Castlevania series and defined by large interconnected maps and ability-gated progression, the developers have cited a different influence for the game’s overall aura as well: the classic Nintendo title Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.
And not just because of the difficult enemies Hornet faces all throughout Pharloom and her pogo-jumping mechanic. Moreso the game’s sense of rewarding exploration.
In a feature from the Australian Centre for the Moving Image, which is currently hosting a Hollow Knight exhibit, Team Cherry’s Ari Gibson and William Pellen highlighted an aspect of Zelda II they hoped Hollow Knight: Silksong would echo. Specifically, they pointed to Zelda II’s sense of mystery and discovery, more specifically the feeling of uncovering secrets in a world where players had to rely on their own curiosity rather than the conveniences of the modern internet or mobile phones.
Hollow Knight: Silksong/Team Cherry
Gibson and Pellen explained that they “were playing those games in an era before the internet [where] all the information you could gleam would come from friends at school, through whispers and rumors – so the sense was that there could be all this other stuff hiding in the game that you hadn’t yet uncovered.”
Pellen continued, “With those games it just always feels like there’s more in there. They’re really just games about exploring a world, meeting characters, meeting monsters – building up a map in your head of the world, poking at it and exploring it.”
Gibson added, “It’s very hard to preserve mystery these days. People can’t quite have that same mystical experience when the guts of the thing are out on the table in a day or two. But we try to build our games from that same context or idea – if a player was divorced from the internet, they could make all those discoveries for themselves, and it would always feel like there was more to find.”
Team Cherry leaned into that sense of discovery in Hollow Knight: Silksong by making the world just as new to Hornet as it is to us. We’re exploring alongside her. “As Hornet discovers things, you as a player get to discover them as Hornet encounters them for the first time,” Gibson said.
What do you think of the fact that Hollow Knight: Silksong’s Hidden Inspiration Comes from Zelda II? Do you agree with the developers that it’s difficult to preserve mystery these days? Do you think Silksong does a good job at presenting some of that same sense of mystery and discovery that Zelda II did?
Are you a fan of the Legend of Zelda games like the Hollow Knight: Silksong developers? Check out these 6 enemies we want to see return in a Zelda game.
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