Will Silksong be better than Hollow Knight?

Will Silksong be better than Hollow Knight?

Many people are expecting Silksong to be the best Metroidvania ever, some are even expecting Silksong to be the best game of all time. While those might seem like lofty expectations, there is a way to see how likely the chances are. We can take a look at the precedent for metroidvanias over the years, when looking at the difference between the first and second entry in the series. Granted this isn’t definitive by any means, but history does always have a way of repeating itself, and at the very least, it will help pass the time until Silksong releases.

Also before heading any farther, i’m aware of games like Hungry Knight but Team Cherry themselves have stated that Hollow Knight was the studios first game, which makes sense as the previous attempts were more game jams and concepts. Here are seven relevant comparables, that can help us form some type of conclusion.

Comparables

When looking chronologically at the seven examples, you start back in the 1980’s with Metroid which scored much higher than Metroid 2: Return of Samus. Also that same year Castlevania scored drastically higher than Castlevania 2: Simons Quest, which was a very big departure from the original.

We then take a leap for a few decades with Guacamelee, Axiom Verge, and Salt and Sanctuary all performing better than their sequel. The only two exceptions where the sequel was received better was with Ori and The Will of The Wisps and Steamworld Dig 2.

Explantation

Most of the examples that received better scores didn’t stray far from the original formula and mostly played it safe by refining what was already there. Building upon the strong foundation with new features and abilities seem to be the safest path for a sequel.

The only time where this didn’t occur was with Metroid 2: Return of Samus, where there were plenty of new additions that would remain key staples in the series including new suits and weapons. Most of the gripes were due to the gameboy limitations removing a lot of what made the original great including feeling of isolation from the audio, the visual cues to differentiate between areas which led to a reduction in atmosphere that has been a shining star in the series.

I have played most of these games but not all and I likely missed some other examples from the genre but if we are using these examples. The original was better over 70% of the time with only two sequels performing better, which only accounts for around 29%.

My thought process is that after seemingly coming out of nowhere with the original, people start to generate hype and anticipation of what the sequel can be and its very hard to improve upon the original without people being upset that its just more of the same. The flip side of the coin is that too many things get changed and people become unhappy that the sequel strayed too far from what made the original special. It’s a tight rope to walk and I wouldn’t want to be in that position.

Takeaway

The takeaway is that there is a 71% chance that Hollow Knight will be received better than Silksong as it currently sits around an 88 average.