The release of Hollow Knight: Silksong triggered a wave of negative Steam reviews after players found the Simplified Chinese translation confusing, with roughly 14,000 of the responses in Chinese rated negative. Developer Team Cherry acknowledged the problem in a social media post and said “We’ll be working to improve the translation over the coming weeks.”
To our Chinese speaking fans:
We appreciate you letting us know about quality issues with the current Simplified Chinese translation of Hollow Knight: Silksong.
We’ll be working to improve the translation over the coming weeks.
Thanks for your feedback and support.
— Matthew Griffin (@griffinmatta) September 5, 2025
English-language reviews remain overwhelmingly positive, with about 35,000 English reviews sitting near 92% positive, while total reviews approach 88,000 and the Chinese-language feedback pulls the aggregate down; the disparity is visible on Silksong’s Steam reviews page. Launch attention also ran enormous: a separate player numbers report put concurrent players in the hundreds of thousands. The game continues to spark a lot of discussion globally.
Translation expert Loek van Kooten laid out the practical problem in an extensive blog post, comparing the localized copy to “a high-school drama club’s Elizabethan improv night” and arguing that phrasing choices turned hints into riddles. It’s jarring. Loek’s analysis argues the translator overloaded lines with faux-archaic flourishes, which makes essential directions harder to parse and erodes the flow of dialogue. The translated passage reproduced by the analysis reads:
“With nary a spirit nor thought shalt thou persist, bereft of mortal will, unbent, unswayed. With no lament nor tearful cry, only sorrow’s dirge to herald thine eternal woe. Born of gods and of the fathomless abyss, grasping heaven’s firmament in thine unworthy palm. Shackled to endless dream, tormented by pestilence and shadow, thy heart besieged by phantasmal demons. Thou art the chalice of destiny. Verily, thou art the Primordial Knight of Hollowness.”
Team Cherry’s social acknowledgement suggests the studio will apply edits over the coming weeks rather than leave the text unchanged. The developer message thanked Chinese-speaking players for flagging issues and promised fixes while the community continues to document problematic lines.
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