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Australian developer Team Cherry is working on more content for Hollow Knight: Silksong, and it sounds like some of it will at last revisit Steel Assassin Sharpe, a curious assassin bug teased in a blog post seven years ago almost to the day.
Speaking with Bloomberg, Team Cherry leads Ari Gibson and William Pellen wade deeper into plans for post-launch Silksong content, acknowledging comparisons to the many DLCs released for the original Hollow Knight.
"We will make sure to deliver on all of our obligations," Gibson says of Silksong DLC, asked about the fabled Village of Lions. "One, because they’re going to be very fun to do. But even alongside those tasks we had our own ideas for extra things that could be added to the world. We’re trying to juggle when that could potentially be."
We can add Steel Assassin Sharpe to that list as well. He, as well as his two Hornet-hunting compatriots, are "just waiting in the wings," Gibson says. "Waiting to arrive is probably the best way to say it. One of those enemies, a little suite of Sharpe and their companions, they got tucked away for a while because the game had so much in it. And all of these pieces need polish, and polish takes time. We’re excited to reintroduce Sharpe. We just have to get to them."
Here's how Team Cherry first described Sharpe all those years ago: "A hunter from a distant land. He's tasked with eliminating Hornet and he’s not come alone. Sharpe brings companions on his deadly quest. Who are they? And why are they pursuing Hornet? We’ll leave you to guess at their full nature. Just know, Hornet’s gonna be fighting for her life against this highly trained trio."
Gibson tells Bloomberg that the team is considering "different things arriving at different scales" for Silksong DLCs and updates. Some might be on the smaller side, but equally, "that might mean larger things like Godmaster," which added a boss rush mode to Hollow Knight.
"Certainly, we've noticed that people would like an expansion in that way, being able to enter pantheon spaces and refight bosses," he continues.
Heading off hears of another extended communication blackout from the devs, Pellen says "we'll start talking about it more soon," but doesn't commit to a firm timeline for Silksong DLC.
"We'll have more to talk about, more frequently," Pellen adds. "Our method is that we pop up when we've got something to talk about. Until recently we haven’t had anything to announce. We are working on stuff at the moment. The cadence will be more frequent coming up."
Just as Silksong evolved and expanded to suit the nature of Hornet's abilities and character, Gibson says any additional content is also shaped by the heroine's point of view, which adds steps. "If we add stuff now, because Hornet has this voice and mind, we want to find out what she thinks about this stuff," he explains. "Once you start having her think about this stuff, story starts to happen, and then that could increase the scale of any expansion we did."
We can cross New Game Plus off the DLC list for now; Gibson says the team hasn't discussed "anything like that" internally. And while the team has "some vague ideas" of a timeline, he reiterates that "we're not set."
"I’m not trying to downplay it, because we're excited about what we're making," Gibson stresses. "Maybe it's just that we don't want to overpromise some huge thing."
