Team Cherry demonstrates the evolution between Hollow Knight and Silksong: "If the Last Judge had existed in the previous game, it would have probably been more of a big, round blob"

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Hornet's original move set was the basis for a normal enemy

Hornet clashes with the pinstress in Hollow Knight: Silksong in a training cutscene
(Image credit: Team Cherry)

The Last Judge, the big chapter 1 boss of Hollow Knight: Silksong, is a pretty good encapsulation of how the game's combat sandbox evolved since the original Hollow Knight. Even developer Team Cherry reckons The Last Judge would be a slower, squatter boss if it had appeared in Hollow Knight rather than Silksong.

Team Cherry's Ari Gibson and William Pellen discussed the evolution of Silksong in a recent interview with the ACMI (the Australian Centre for the Moving Image) in a guide book available via the centre's online store. In a broader discussion of how boss behavior changed in Silksong – from move select to move-and-movement select under the hood – they single out The Last Judge as an example of Silksong's more agile design language.

"The basic ant warrior [in Silksong] is built from the same move-set as the original Hornet boss – the same core set of dashing, jumping, and dashing down at you, plus we added the ability to evade and check you. In contrast to the Knight's enemies, Hornet's enemies had to have more ways of catching her as she tries to move away."

Austin Wood
Austin Wood
Senior writer

Austin has been a game journalist for 12 years, having freelanced for the likes of PC Gamer, Eurogamer, IGN, Sports Illustrated, and more while finishing his journalism degree. He's been with GamesRadar+ since 2019. They've yet to realize his position is a cover for his career-spanning Destiny column, and he's kept the ruse going with a lot of news and the occasional feature, all while playing as many roguelikes as possible.

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