Hollow Knight Silksong seems to have been worth the long and arduous wait ifs its blockbuster player numbers are anything to go by, but gamers playing in Simplified Chinese aren't having the greatest time with its baffling translation.
There's a pretty big gap between Silksong's 35,000 English reviews, 92% of which currently give the sequel a thumbs up, and 88,000 or so total reviews, where only 78% are positive - mostly blemished by around 14,000 negative reviews left in Simplified Chinese.
The issue became so noticeable, Team Cherry's marketing and publishing lead Matthew Griffin acknowledged the wonky translation online and promised improvements "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," Griffin wrote in a social media post. "We'll be working to improve the translation over the coming weeks. Thanks for your feedback and support."
Translation expert Loek van Kooten broke down what exactly the problem is in an extensive blog post, comparing the Chinese translation to "a high-school drama club's Elizabethan improv night" and saying it is "so puffed with fake-archaic frills that quest hints become riddles and basic NPC chatter turns to word salad."
Loek van Kooten even translates one of the Chinese version's passages back into English to emphasize the issue: "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."
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