By Jessica Park
On September 4, 2025, maybe one of the most anticipated video games in history was released. So famed that many other games, such as Faeland and Cloverpit, moved their release date to October. Respected enough that entire communities of game pirates refused to. This famed game wasn’t produced by an AAA company, as you may expect, but rather a small, 3-person indie studio called Team Cherry.
Years ago the studio published its first game, Hollow Knight, which reached sales comparable to many famed franchises: a whopping 14 million by August 2025, and built an active community of gamers. Soon after, Silksong was teased two years later in what was originally meant to be a small DLC representing Hornet, the Knight’s half-sister and major supporting character within the game. However, for nearly seven years, no further information had been released. As a result, the community had essentially dissolved into internet madness, and this seemingly infinite waiting had become well known within the entire gaming community, which may contribute to the explosive popularity of Silksong compared to Hollow Knight.
However, what truly allowed the game to succeed was the quality of the game itself. Usually games that were in development for so long and so strongly received by fans would be considered overhyped, but Silksong outclasses Hollow Knight by a good margin. Despite the comparatively simple premise (fighting off a mass hivemind infection called the Radiance that is slowly taking over a kingdom and potentially threatening others vs. being abducted into a different kingdom), the potential storylines, hidden areas, and quests enrich the storyline much more than Hollow Knight’s more linear structure.While there are some complaints about the difficulty of the bosses compared to the previous game, many more are satisfied by the new challenges.On top of that, the game is incredibly cheap for the time and dedication spent on it, costing a mere $20.
In the end, it is truly incredible that a mere 3-person team was able to create such a quality game that well reflected the amount of time and effort spent on it. Hopefully, future indie games and Team Cherry will continue to make incredible masterpieces such as Silksong.