Silksong Journal, Entry 9

Back to a big screen, I've completed the Threefold Melody quest and reached the top of the Citadel. This means I've explored the rest of the Whispering Vaults and the Cogwork Core, as well as the High Halls and finally the Cradle, with a detour into the Wisp Thicket in between. And technically I have now beaten the game, but as with the first Hollow Knight it's rather questionable and there is still more to discover.

First of all, to play this game in a wide screen format truly makes a difference. There are even bosses who might prepare an attack outside of your view, which makes it harder to react to them, e.g. the Savage Beastfly. This was already a problem in the first game, so it's not necessarily that you have to play Silksong in a wide screen format, because it was designed for it, but it certainly helps. And it makes bosses like Trobbio all the better, because the whole stage fits on your screen:

This was the absolute highlight among the bosses so far. Trobbio brings those positive Dung Defender vibes with him, where it's just a joy to play against, but combines this with the spectacle of a fireworks show. When I first had defeated him on the small screen, I immediately hit Alt + F4, because I wanted to do it another time on a big screen. That's what this fights deserves.

The theatrics when you defeat Trobbio are also hilarious. I love how he just pretends to be dead, so you can still hear him outside the room and interact with him a little. Wouldn't mind to meet him another time elsewhere. Anyway, it seems like you have to defeat him in order to obtain the Vaultkeeper's Melody, but maybe there is a way around, because you open up some tunnels towards the Underworks from here. I also love how Vaultkeeper Cardinius absolutely despises you, but still jams with you anyway.

Next goal was the upper Cogwork Core, which is a lengthier platforming section. Because I had hundreds of Rosaries on me and was afraid to lose them, I decided to go spend them beforehand, completing my new luxury bellhome with a fresh paint and a spa:

It's getting cozier! Hopefully, you can also obtain a music player somewhere, so you can play the cylinders here as well. Can't wait to enjoy a nice hot bath while listening to the Last Surgery.

However, I had now spent all my money and you need some change, in case you find another Ventrica or bench. So, I decided to head into the nearby Greymoor to defeat some enemies there for a change. I'm also still intrigued by the hut where you have to bring something vile, so I kept exploring and eventually found a whole new sub-area, cleverly hidden at the top of Greymoor, the Wisp Thicket. It's easy to miss during a small platforming challenge towards a flea.

This is always something that had amazed me about Hollow Knight, where Silksong surely lives up to it. You expect to find a small, hidden secret, but instead get greeted by a whole new area. To be fair, it's not an independent area for some reason, but visually and atmospherically it certainly is.

You can find a bench right away, which causes both relief and worry at the same time. The gimmick of this area are "Wisps", which are like the fire bats that Ganon shoots in A Link to the Past. So, they fly around for a little, before they home in on you. The platforming section to the right is quite frustrating with this, but only as long as you don't understand that you can break those Wisp Lanterns, which spawns them.

And of course they had to make a whole boss out of this mechanic, the "Father Flame". This was the first time that I made use of the Druid's Eyes, because you don't obtain any silk from attacking this monstrosity. Combined with the constant homing attacks this was a rather annoying battle... But I expected it to have a third phase, where there is something hidden behind the legs as well, so it could have been worse. And I love the "wood boss" music, which was also played during the Sister Splinter battle.

Curiously, the whole battle took place at the top of Bellhart, judging by the map. You can even reach the outside of this giant bell from the Underworks, where I previously thought that maybe you could create a connection between the two areas, but that doesn't seem to be the case after all. But you do get a tool for summoning wisps yourself as a reward, the Wispfire Lantern.

You can also find another new tool in this area, which lets you throw flaming bombs, called Pimpillos, as well as Craftmetal required for it. I also found another Craftmetal in the deeper Deep Docks, which I had overlooked before, so I could now get the circular blade tool from the Architect, which is also really cool and effective.

Learning the Architect's Melody afterwards was actually much easier than expected. The platforming section at the upper Cogwork Core is nothing a White Palace veteran would sweat about, so I was worried that another boss could be waiting at the top and that you had to do the whole climb every single time. But the Cogwork Dancers already have served as the boss of this area, so it was just a puzzle.

And with this I'm thinking that I had waited too long with freeing the Green Prince, because right now it doesn't seem like this had an impact. Overall, my three comrades at the Citadel have yet to support me in any significant battle, so I was wrong about gathering them for the different parts of the Threefold Melody. At least I did get support from someone else in the next area...

Enter the High Halls. I had only peeked once into this place so far, so this was completely new territory to me. Early on I found the last Spool Fragment in the game (according to the Steam Achievements), where now I can heal two times in a row by default. I'm missing at least one Mask Shard, though.

A friend had told me that there is an excessive challenge room somewhere in the High Halls, so I proceeded with caution. But already reaching the part before said challenge is rewarded quite significantly.

There is a hidden room, in which the annoying Clawmaidens keep spawning like crazy. You can destroy a large cobweb at the end, which gives you a Hunter's Journal update of the Clawmaiden, even though I already had that. 

So, I'm guessing that this may stop them from spawning indefinitely and you're getting the journal entry in case you hadn't defeated enough of them yet. At least I haven't encountered another of those silk suckers since them... Would be nice, because the random spawns were super annoying.

Otherwise, I could also find another bench and the last Ventrica, as well as a treasury. The latter requires a fourth Simple Key, but I already that. You can find some money in there, of course, but also a gun that shoots Rosaries in case you're getting too rich in this game.

And I think this treasury was placed here quite purposefully, because getting all that money might make you shy away from the battle awaiting ahead, at the "Forum". Well, you can string up your Rosaries inside the treasury, but you might also be inclined to instead return to Bellhart and spend it there (or go for the large Rosary Strings). And that's when you can find a new wish, one from Shakra. She wants you to follow her into Bilewater, where she is searching for her old master.

At first I thought that Shakra might assist you in the Groal battle at Bilehaven, which I would have very much welcomed, but her trail takes a turn before that and leads you into a beautiful waterfall cave, which is so refreshing after the maggoty rottenness before.

You obtain the Throwing Ring from her, which could have the potential to become my favorite new weapon. In addition, she now appears at the High Halls, right before the Forum battle, where you can request her aid, so Hornet and Shakra can finally battle together.

I'm not exactly sure what triggers the wish in the first place, but it wasn't there when I last had visited Bellhart, before completing the Cogwork Core just earlier. So, maybe you have to reach the end of the High Halls first. Or maybe you have to unlock all Ventricas. One of the two, but supposedly the former. 

Well, my friend was right, this mob battle was rather excessive, but thanks to Shakra it was easy enough in the end, because she really does a lot of the work, if you let her. Afterwards you get an audience with the Conductor, who for some reason looks exactly like the Unravelled. Can't wait for mossbag's lore videos to understand it all, but first I want to complete this game myself.

And I have taken the next important step to do so. I have played the Threefold Melody at the Citadel's core and opened the elevator that will bring you to the very top. (I didn't have to use the Spider Strings for this, by the way. I previously speculated that you might need this tool here, but that's not the case. It mainly seems to be useful for enemies that will react to it.)

I personally expected that playing the Threefold Melody would lead into the game's third act, but this wasn't the case. At the end of the elevator ride you're greeted by Lace, who lasciviously has been waiting amidst a field of white flowers for you. This is a fight that was already shown by the trailers, so this encounter wasn't a surprise by any means.

She is a bit tougher than the first time, but she is only one elevator ride away from trying again. I experimented a lot in this battle with different crests, because the Wanderer's reach was too short and the Reaper felt too slow. In such a case the Hunter looks to be the perfect middle ground and it was also what I had used to first defeat her, but I still wasn't entirely happy. Eventually, I gave the Architect a try and managed to defeat her with it. (Well, technically it was one of Shakra's Throwing Rings that has finished her. I like this new weapon!)

It is revealed that she is a being of pure silk, created by the powers above. I originally thought that Lace might turn into a supporting role, like Hornet did in the first game, but it turns out that she was acting purely on jealousy, because Hornet is what her mother truly wants.

After the battle you can enter the Cradle, which is were the Weavers got captured and enslaved until their demise. There are lots of those cages, which were used to bring you to Pharloom, scattered all around, giving you a good idea for how long this has been going.

You can open a wall into Terminus from here, which is central node of all the Ventricas. For me this was quite the poetic moment. Since I had entered the Citadel from the Phantom's lair, Terminus was one of the first places I saw. So, it's now back to the very beginning of Act 2 for me. And seeing those cages brings you back to the start of the whole game.

I was ready for Act 3 to start at any moment now, but instead I reached what's supposedly the final boss and saw the credits role... Naturally, we're getting into big spoiler territory here, because unlike the Lace battles this isn't something that Team Cherry had shown in their trailers.

You have to do a little bit of platforming, but afterwards you can set foot on a bridge and see that gigantic spool of silk in the background, which has the shape of a globe. This thing has been present as a religious symbol all over Pharloom and is even used for the game's saving icon.

Here you can challenge the "Grand Mother Silk", in a similar fashion to the Radiance in Hollow Knight. The battle itself also feels quite similar, where her primary attacks are blades that sweep over the screen from different angles. Very much Radiance. Very much intended.

However, the battle was much easier. Almost too easy. I was able to reach the final phase on my second attempt and defeated this boss on my fourth. And I'm not that good at this game, where it usually takes me quite a while to learn new bosses and be able to defeat them, especially at this late stage. So, something was already off here, though it didn't feel as intentional as with the Hollow Knight, where the boss was even hurting itself.

It's really cool how your crest changes into this crazy thing when binding the Grand Mother, where your masks turn into Weavers with the six eyes and your spool keeps growing longer. Maybe there is some Weaver form that you can take here, similar to how Samus transforms at the end of Metroid Dread, but whatever it is, I am unable to trigger it and Hornet gets simply absorbed by all the silk, along with the entire Citadel.

The ending sequence shows how she grows additional legs in her cocooned state. It's quite disturbing and now only confirms that something is indeed wrong here. Hollow Knight had originally three different endings (before the DLC) and two of those were clearly bad, also leaving you somewhat unsatisfied after the credits have rolled.

Well, when I first played Hollow Knight, I already knew that the game had different endings. And I had an idea of what to do to reach the better ending. This isn't the case here. I have no clue what I even could be missing. I also have no clue how much of the game I have completed so far, because I wasn't given a completion rate.

But I do know that there is still more to explore. There is still that awful Bilewater boss battle waiting. There is still the oceanic area above Bilewater. I have yet to get truly into the Slab. And I still have to get to the top of the Sands of Karak.

Also, I have watched both the reveal and the launch trailer again, which both contained a number of things that I have yet to witness myself in the game. Well, some stuff from the reveal trailer likely got changed or cut (for example, you could originally find the lantern-wielding enemies from the Wisp Thicket at Greymoor), but there were also whole bosses in there that I'm still missing, including the ant queen and the Second Sentinel. And the launch trailer features one silk skill and two tools that I don't have yet. So, I'm far from done.