Hollow Knight SilksongThe first look at Hollow Knight: Silksong that many people got at Gamescom is the same demo played all the way back in 2019, but development has come a long way since then.
It’s no secret that Silksong has been in development for a long time. It’s had a bizarre transition from Hollow Knight DLC into a full game, with the developers taking their time and having fun making the game they wanted to.
Considering the original Hollow Knight has sold over 15 million copies, they have the luxury of time. The devs probably could have never released a game again and been set for life, but, according to an interview with Jason Schreier, they do this because they love it.
Despite us getting a brand-new look at Silksong at Gamescom 2025, as reported by IGN and others who have played both versions, it’s the same section of the game that was played at E3 2019. So while we haven’t had any new gameplay, we can see how far it’s come in the last six years.
Silksong looks even better in Gamescom demo
Both demos feature the Moss Grotto and Deep Docks areas of the game, as well as the Moss Mother and Lace boss battles, and not much has changed in terms of content these past six years.
However, comparing the two versions, the most striking changes are the textures, color, and lighting. We can see there’s a lot more detail in the rocks, foliage, and background in 2025, giving a much greater sense of depth. It looked great before, but now, it looks even better.
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Load times are also much faster, but this is to be expected as the E3 2019 version was played on the original Nintendo Switch, while Gamescom’s version was played on current tech.
So, while we haven’t seen any more of Silksong after Gamescom 2025, the bright side is that no more areas have been spoiled, so we’ll discover it all for ourselves when it arrives on September 4.
