Lead: On 7 September 2025, players reviewing Hollow Knight: Silksong on Steam reported that the game’s Simplified Chinese localization contains awkward and anachronistic phrasing, prompting a steep drop in ratings from Chinese-language players. Across all-language reviews the game still registers as “Mostly Positive,” but when filtered for Simplified Chinese the overall tag has shifted to “Mostly Negative.” A mix of dissatisfied players and language professionals highlighted tone and word-choice problems that, they say, change the game’s atmosphere and clarity. The publisher and marketing lead acknowledged the issue and said fixes are planned in the coming weeks.
Key Takeaways
- As of 7 September 2025, Silksong’s Steam page shows a “Mostly Positive” rating overall but a “Mostly Negative” rating when filtered to Simplified Chinese reviews.
- Multiple Simplified Chinese reviews cite translation tone—described as inconsistent and sometimes archaic—as a major factor in negative scores.
- Silksong’s Simplified Chinese localization was credited to a two-person team, compared with six people credited for the original Hollow Knight localization.
- Matthew Griffin, Silksong’s marketing lead, posted that the team is aware of “quality issues with the current Simplified Chinese translation” and is working to improve it over the “coming weeks.”
- Professional localizers and community translators noted specific issues such as genre-incongruent phrasing (compared to Wuxia-style language) that alters player perception of characters and narrative tone.
- Early fixes and patch notes are expected; however, timing and the extent of corrections were not specified beyond the public acknowledgment.
Background
Hollow Knight: Silksong is the follow-up to Team Cherry’s 2017 hit, a Metroidvania noted for tight combat and a moody, evocative world. Localizing such games requires not only literal translation but careful preservation of tone, register and cultural references so that dialogue, item descriptions and UI remain coherent to native speakers. China (Simplified Chinese) is a major market for indie PC titles distributed on platforms such as Steam, and player reception there can materially affect community perception and early sales momentum.
The original Hollow Knight received broadly positive reception globally and maintained strong ratings among Simplified Chinese reviewers; that project credited a six-person localization team. By contrast, Silksong’s Simplified Chinese credits list two contributors, which some players and observers point to when explaining the current problems. Localization budgets, timelines and QA processes vary widely across indie development, and smaller teams can struggle to cover idiom, register and region-specific QA at scale.
Main Event
Following Silksong’s release on PC, reviewers who filter Steam reviews to Simplified Chinese began leaving predominantly negative feedback focused on translation quality rather than technical issues. Comments collected on the store page and in social posts described sentences that felt unusually formal, archaic or genre-mismatched—phrases that some readers said read like historical wuxia novels rather than the game’s intended tone. These stylistic mismatches reportedly affected players’ understanding of mechanics, quest text and character motivation.
Notable voices in the localization community amplified these concerns. A translator who worked on the Simplified Chinese version of another indie RPG publicly said the Silksong translation “reads like a Wuxia novel,” arguing that register choices shifted the game’s feel. At the same time, many reviews still praised the game’s art, combat and design while calling for a corrected localization patch rather than a content refund or boycott.
Team members connected to marketing responded on social media. Matthew Griffin publicly acknowledged there are “quality issues with the current Simplified Chinese translation” and said the team is “working to improve the translation over the coming weeks.” That acknowledgement preceded a flurry of community discussion about timelines, quality control and how quickly players might see updated localized text in a patch.
Analysis & Implications
Localization errors that alter tone can have outsized effects on reception because they change the player’s emotional reading of story and characters; wording choices that seem small in isolation can accumulate into a sense that the game is tonally inconsistent or narratively incoherent. For a narrative-driven Metroidvania like Silksong, perceived mismatches in voice can reduce immersion and increase player frustration, which in turn shows up in review scores and social shares.
The difference in credited team size (two people for Silksong vs six for the original) suggests resource allocation is a plausible factor. Smaller teams can be efficient but may lack scale for multi-stage QA—copyediting, cultural proofreading, and in-context checks inside builds. This is especially relevant for languages where register and historical genre markers (like wuxia tropes) can radically change connotation.
From a commercial perspective, a temporary drop to “Mostly Negative” among a region’s reviews can influence discoverability in localized storefront filters and influence buyer decisions during the critical launch window. A patch that corrects tone and terminology could restore player confidence, but the speed and visibility of those fixes will determine whether ratings recover quickly or whether the negative impressions harden into lasting perception problems.
Comparison & Data
| Metric | All languages (Steam) | Simplified Chinese (filtered) |
|---|---|---|
| Aggregate review tag | Mostly Positive | Mostly Negative |
| Credited Simplified Chinese localization team | — | 2 people |
| Credited original Hollow Knight localization team | — | 6 people |
The table highlights the contrast between the overall sentiment and the filtered Simplified Chinese sentiment, and it records the difference in credited localization staffing between the two titles. These data points indicate the problem is concentrated in the Simplified Chinese presentation rather than a universal technical or gameplay failure.
Reactions & Quotes
Players and professionals responded quickly; the quotes below are short excerpts chosen to represent official and community reactions with surrounding context summarized here.
“We are aware of quality issues with the current Simplified Chinese translation and are working to improve the translation over the coming weeks.”
Matthew Griffin (marketing/publishing lead) — public social post acknowledging issues
“The translation reads like a Wuxia novel instead of conveying the game’s tone.”
Tiger Tang (translator; worked on OMORI Simplified Chinese) — social post commenting on register and tone
“Beautiful game, but many lines are confusing—I had to guess what several quests wanted me to do.”
Steam user review (Simplified Chinese filter) — player describing gameplay friction caused by wording
Unconfirmed
- Whether the two-person credit reflects the full staffing or if additional uncredited contractors assisted is not confirmed.
- It is not confirmed how long it will take for corrected translations to reach players or whether the fix will fully reverse negative review trends.
- There is no confirmed public record that machine translation was used in initial localization; claims about automated tooling remain unverified.
Bottom Line
Silksong’s gameplay and core design remain highly regarded overall, but localized presentation in Simplified Chinese has generated substantial negative reviews driven by tone and phrase-level issues. The publisher’s public acknowledgment is a necessary first step; what matters next is demonstrable improvement in localized text and clear communication about timelines and scope of fixes.
For players and observers, this episode illustrates how localization quality can materially affect perception in major language markets. A measured, transparent patch process that shows corrected strings and QA steps will likely be the quickest route to restoring confidence among Chinese-speaking players; failure to act swiftly risks lasting reputational effects in that community.
Sources
- Steam store search for Silksong — official storefront listings and user review filters (platform).
- Team Cherry on X — official developer/publisher social channel (official).
- Engadget — original news report summarizing community reaction and including quotes (media).