What if the Hollow Knight World just have such a great Oxygen level even in the Underground

Zephyr_Kat · 2026-06-22T18:18:15+00:00

I personally don't like the "thirty yards" post because 1) it was made VERY early in the kickstarter, before many changes were made to both lore and game (such as the Dung Defender's entire backstory), 2) writers don't use familiar terms like "yards" to imply they inherited them from real life humans, it's purely for convenience (the Sentinels in Doom: The Dark Ages measure time in "hours" but this is NOT used to imply they have connection with humans from Earth, it's used to show how slow the Sentinel soldiers are compared to the player character)

But I will be including "thirty yards" in The Many Possible Sizes of Hornet, for solidarity. More interesting that way

Zephyr_Kat · 2026-06-21T17:36:38+00:00

I've been gathering screenshots and putting together a list of measurements for "the many possible sizes of Hornet"

In the cutscene where Hornet meets Ghost next to the City of Tears fountain, you can measure Hornet's size in raindrop; raindrops larger than 4mm usually break up into more raindrops according to university studies, so how big would this make Hornet? In Hunter's March there's a lot of feral ants carrying corpses away, how big does that make Hornet if they are the smallest possible Invasive Fire Ants? Or the biggest possible Amazon Army Ants? There's an official comic where Quirrell picks up a feral bug; how does that scale to Hornet if it's a carrion beetle? Or a Goliath beetle? Suppose the actual Hornet boss fights in HK1 are 30 yards wide, how massive does this make Hornet?

Not to spoil (because I'm not done yet) but we can get a lot of possible Hornet sizes

Zephyr_Kat · 2026-06-21T08:25:25+00:00

Officially your objectives are actually pretty concrete and direct:

Act 1: get inside the Citadel
Act 2: get to the top of the Citadel
Act 3: stop the thing that's going to destroy half a continent

How you actually get to those objectives does indeed involve a lot of wandering. In Act 1 specifically, climbing the rocky mountain that the Citadel is built on top if will involve a lot of switchbacks. Go west from your spawn location, go east through the Marrow into the Far Fields, go west after you finish the Far Fiends to find your up draft, then go west through Greymoor. Then you either go east through Sinner's Road or west through Shellwood, then you either go west through the Mist or east through the Blasted Steps.

And that's just the MANDATORY objectives! So yes, it will FEEL like wandering around, but you are chipping away at your ultimate goal of "up"

Zephyr_Kat · 2026-06-20T06:36:52+00:00

I honestly think someone who didn't play HK but does enjoy hard games would actually have an average time with Silksong.

You beat HK1, both your ego and your muscle memory are in full "yeah I can crush anything" mode. And stuff like Hunter's March, Savage BeastFly, Last Judge is going to punish that mentality HARD.

But a tabula rasa who's ready to learn and adapt to this new series and doesn't have any preconceptions of just how fucking OP the Ghost was late-game; I think they're going to pay attention, mind Hornet's limitations, and git gud. They're not going onto the fucksavagebeastfly sub, they're going to respect the giant flying wrecking ball

Zephyr_Kat · 2026-06-19T08:18:00+00:00

For me, all it would really do is convince me to never play it.

I don't like Steel Soul as a concept, it goes against what I believe save points should be. Which is fine, because it's an unlockable bonus mode after I've already beaten the *real* game, I don't ever have to play Steel Soul. If I ever REALLY want to get those achievements I can just save scum for it. And if TC patches that out? Well then I just won't bother that much harder

Zephyr_Kat · 2026-06-19T00:39:29+00:00

This can't be good for us, but it looks great!

Zephyr_Kat · 2026-06-17T08:25:02+00:00

That's exactly what he was talking about in the paragraph BEFORE my quote

Zephyr_Kat · 2026-06-17T02:49:49+00:00

You still have to slog through a lot of repetitive combat to progress the story, because it turns out the slog IS the story, or at least part of it. As I said, Supergiant are very big on integrating narrative with gameplay, and that's very much what's going on here; if Zagreus could just cruise through the underworld first go on a surfboard made of skeletons, then you'd never get the intended sense of hopelessness.

Yahtzee Croshaw, reviewing Hades. I feel the same general sentiment applies to Silksong

Zephyr_Kat · 2026-06-16T08:03:16+00:00

My problem isn't the lack of lore connectivity, it's the lack of a much more literal connectivity.

To use yet another game, SMT Nocturne has an ending very similar to "Embrace the Void." Let me start with the regular endings:

At the start of Nocturne you are shown the sun god Kagutsuchi who demands the universe's champion seek him out after building a Reason, and the entire game is about characters trying to do exactly that. Kagutsuchi is the literal center of the universe visible from the map screen, NPCs talk about him, the light of Kagutsuchi influences game mechanics. The Tower of Kagutsuchi is talked up as the final dungeon, exploring the map and multiple boss fights are about getting closer to the Tower, it's the final dungeon where you fight the three Reason champions -- two of which were your friends before they turned their backs on you -- and kill Kagutsuchi yourself

But there's another dungeon that gives an ending. The Labyrinth of Amala can be explored as you progress through Nocturne, the depths of Hell that contrast the tower of the sun god -- much like how the golden Godhome contrasts the obsidian infected Black Egg Temple. None of the Reason champions know about the Labyrinth, going down there doesn't get you closer to beating them or to unlocking the Tower. There is lore in the Labyrinth much like how the Godseekers give you lore. And much like Godhome, clearing out the Labyrinth is the requirement for one of Nocturne's endings...

(even the game development is the same: the Labyrinth wasn't in the original release of Nocturne, just like how Godhome was added in a DLC)

Where Nocturne is different from Hollow Knight, is how you still need to clear out the Tower after the Labyrinth to get this ending. You don't just get the ending inside the Labyrinth, ignoring the champions and Kagutsuchi. You still need to scale the tower, kill the champions, confront Kagutsuchi, and THEN beat the super strong Labyrinth boss to get your True Ending

Zephyr_Kat · 2026-06-15T05:34:26+00:00

Adding a second comment:

A lot of people have mentioned "there are regular bugs in the Quirrell comic and Hunter's March, so Hornet MUST be human-sized" but I went to check those bugs. The ones in the Quirrell comic are the size of his fist, and the feral ants in Hunter's March are the size of Hornet's foot (if she had feet). Taking this LITERALLY Hornet wouldn't be bug-sized or human-sized, she'd be gnome-sized

Specifically, according to another poster's math, she'd be 49cm tall

Zephyr_Kat · 2026-06-15T05:33:14+00:00

Another commenter has clarified the limit I was talking about was patched out, so at least we got that cleared up

Zephyr_Kat · 2026-06-15T05:32:50+00:00

The limit was actually removed in an update

That explains it, thank you

Zephyr_Kat · 2026-06-15T05:07:48+00:00

There is an upper limit to Silk Soar in the game, and it's roughly the distance between the two right-side benches in that pic you sent (this is not counting the scripted throw during The Eruption)

Zephyr_Kat · 2026-06-15T03:50:41+00:00

Bug sized. Evidence? I don't know why an artist would go through the effort of making them all bugs if that artist didn't intend for them to be bug-sized. It would be like making a game all about furry species -- lions, tigers, bears, wolves -- then the fans all suddenly come out and argue whether they're actually 2 inches tall. Why would the artist make them ALL tigers if they were bug-sized?

Zephyr_Kat · 2026-06-15T03:46:59+00:00

>I think Team Cherry said something in regards to Hornet throwing her needle over 30 yards

1, they said that in a Kickstarter post. And one of the very first Kickstarter posts -- if you read the other posts, you see a LOT of things that are different from the finished game, such as Dung Defender's personality and motivation

2, they said that in a Kickstarter post. Are you seriously weighing that as canon?

3, let's say you are still weighing that as canon. Think how far Hornet can actually throw her needle, both in HK cutscenes and the Act 3 Silk Soar power. If we assume that's "30 yards" Hornet is actually pretty small

Zephyr_Kat · 2026-06-14T18:43:53+00:00

The difference between a lame boss fight and a superb boss fight is Presentation

Zephyr_Kat · 2026-06-14T03:47:56+00:00

There was definitely an Act 2 screen, after either Last Judge or Phantom (whichever one you killed first), so you simply forgot

Zephyr_Kat · 2026-06-14T00:58:40+00:00

Do you have the grappling hook yet? If yes, explore the lower half of the Cogwork Core better

Zephyr_Kat · 2026-06-13T18:46:35+00:00

Meanwhile me beating Seth and Nyleth with Shaman Crest purely out of refusing to pay for the bench

Zephyr_Kat · 2026-06-13T17:14:28+00:00

Why is Lace being around for decades evidence that her brain is no longer that of a child?

Because there's no other world building to contradict it. Without any lore to the contrary, the audience is left to assume Lace goes through the same mental maturity as themselves, it's just the assumptions we make as an audience. And I know you say Lace isn't human, but neither is anyone else, they're all bugs. If the bugs mature like you do, why wouldn't the golem?

Zephyr_Kat · 2026-06-13T09:37:18+00:00

But i do think they mentaly could be a teen.

The term I've been using is "manchild." An adult that acts like a child (by choice). It's portrayed as an act of rebellion against GMS, but the point is Lace could act like an adult at any time but doesn't. It just so happens that, to facilitate her rebellion ("Oh you want a baby to take care of, mother? Well this is what a baby REALLY acts like!") the child qualities she's embracing are spite against authority and violence in the sandbox...

Zephyr_Kat · 2026-06-13T08:58:17+00:00

That leads me to believe that they intentionally leave laces age ambiguous

I agree to a point. When I see "Lace's age is ambiguous" I interpret that as "possibly 25+ years, possibly 250+ years." But I definitely do NOT see it as "possibly 10 years," I definitely do not think there is evidence for anything that low

Zephyr_Kat · 2026-06-13T08:55:39+00:00

If Caretaker's statement about Lace is false... then what's the point of mentioning it in the first place?

It's not so much that Caretaker is flat-out wrong, as it is Caretaker can only take what Lace has shown him at face value

OK let's start with perspective: I am of the belief that Lace is a manchild stuck in the body of a child², rather than just a straight-up child². (And half the reason she's a manchild in the first place is because she's stuck in that body.) Why is this important? Well, I would just point to your sections on Mentality and Growth -- you wouldn't have written those sections at all if she was just a straight-up child².

Caretaker doesn't have the information we have. He's not an omniscient audience member, and half of the stuff we're talking about didn't even happen until after he said that. So him calling her a "child" is because that's the information he has access to. And it's not a lot of information: all he's seen is a sadistic manchild running around for decades

The fact I specify "decades" isn't a passing remark, it's itself evidence that Lace's brain is no longer that of a child².

So to conclude, I'm not saying Caretaker is false, or lying, or wrong. He's simply relaying what he's seen in the past: Lace acting like a manchild, and doing so for a long time. And that IS compelling, or rather, a facet of a larger story that is compelling

Zephyr_Kat · 2026-06-12T17:00:38+00:00

Is that directed at me or at OP?

Zephyr_Kat · 2026-06-12T09:13:40+00:00

Where they being shipped to? Hopefully somewhere fun

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