Team Cherry finally dropped Hollow Knight Silksong‘s release date trailer, and while there’s a lot to parse in it, what stands out the most to me is just how much personality Team Cherry gives Hornet’s toughest enemies. I didn’t notice a single repeated boss type, and there was nothing that resembled anything else Team Cherry has already shown. What I did notice was a ton of offbeat and distinctive designs — something that’s been sorely lacking in the glut of Soulslikes over the last half a decade or so.
Right now, my top contender for best weird little guy is the dandy bug wearing a red boa at 1:15 in the trailer. I love a good foppish character, but there’s a lot more going on, too. You’ve got a duo of elegant mantis fencers for one fight and then a deadly creature that looks like it stepped out of prehistory the next. (I particularly appreciate how the crudely-drawn lines contrast with literally everything else Team Cherry has created for this game; it drives home the primordial horror of this thing, even with just a quick glimpse.) Even the baddies who are Just Big lean heavily into that, like the monster that takes up the entire screen at 1:20.
One of my biggest nitpicks with many recent Soulslikes is how they take only the most obvious inspiration from the FromSoft canon. I like Lies of P well enough, but its bosses are just Big or Intimidating, with no other distinctive traits. Even the Robber Weasel was disappointing. It’s a weasel, yes, but it neither robs you nor behaves in a particularly weasel-like manner. King of Puppets? Big gold-plated guy. Laxasia? Big guy in armor. Champion Victor? Frankenstein’s monster (which also means Big Guy).
Wuchang: Fallen Feathers comes the closest to doing something truly unique with visually striking designs, though they tend to fall under the category I call “Messmerlike” — slinky, humanoid, dangerous-looking, like the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree demigod — or end up being variations of animals.
FromSoft doesn’t just do hulking behemoths or creepy humanoids for its bosses, though. Some of the studio’s most memorable designs are the freaky and weird ones. Consider the following:
- The giant spider from Dark Souls 2
- Ornstein and Smough, which you’ll never convince me isn’t a riff on Abbott and Costello
- Whatever the hell the Bed of Chaos is
- Rykard, the bishop who became a snake snack in Elden Ring because he wanted to live forever
Even when the fights suck, I remember them for just how off-the-wall the boss’ design or behavior is. In other words, the big, moody, mysterious monster angle is outdated and overdone, and I’m so ready to bask in Team Cherry’s most off-the-wall designs. Happily, I don’t have to wait long, as Silksong finally launches on Sep. 4.
