The Localization Misstep That Almost Derailed Silksong’s Steam Reputation

When Hollow Knight: Silksong finally launched, it ignited a global celebration among metroidvania fans. Critics were swift with their praise, awarding the game an enviable 92 average on both OpenCritic and MetaCritic, cementing its status as one of the most acclaimed titles of 2025. The long wait had paid off—hornet’s graceful acrobatics, the hauntingly beautiful kingdom of Pharloom, and Team Cherry’s meticulous craftsmanship all resonated powerfully. Yet, for weeks after release, the Steam store page told a slightly different story. While hundreds of thousands of players flocked to the forums, the review aggregate stubbornly hovered at ‘Very Positive’, never quite crossing the threshold into the coveted ‘Overwhelmingly Positive’. The culprit was not a buggy boss fight or a performance hitch; it was a linguistic rift that fractured the experience for an entire region of dedicated fans.

A glance at regional review filters quickly exposed the anomaly. When displaying only English-language reviews, the approval rating soared to 91 percent, a figure that aligned perfectly with the game’s universal critical acclaim. The sharp decline in aggregate sentiment originated almost entirely from Simplified Chinese reviews, which painted a portrait of deep frustration. Players in China—a community that had passionately championed the original Hollow Knight—found themselves confronted by a translation that felt jarringly out of sync with the source material. The problem was not a lack of effort, but a profound misalignment in tone and creative direction.

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