Hollow Knight: Silksong arrived with strong praise from critics and many players, yet its public reception on Steam soon became more complicated than the gameplay discussion alone would suggest. The issue was not combat, platforming, or the haunting world design that fans had waited years to explore. Instead, a wave of criticism focused on the game’s Simplified Chinese localization, which many Chinese players described as tonally jarring and poorly suited to the game’s atmosphere. The result was a visible drop toward a Mixed rating, with the localization debate becoming one of the most discussed aspects of the sequel’s early life. Team Cherry later acknowledged the problem, and the episode became a notable example of how deeply localization can shape a game’s reception.

A Localization Problem, Not a Gameplay Problem

The frustration among Simplified Chinese players was not rooted in Silksong’s mechanics or design. The game was still being praised for its intricate combat, demanding platforming, and richly imagined insect kingdom. The criticism instead targeted the translation’s voice and direction. One player argued that the current Simplified Chinese text read like a Wuxia novel rather than conveying the game’s intended tone. That complaint was especially pointed because it framed the problem as a matter of taste and creative direction rather than simple effort. In other words, the translation was not merely inaccurate in places; it was said to feel fundamentally out of step with Silksong’s melancholic, strange, and delicate world.

Public review data made the

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