Silksong Devs Explain How Bosses Were Designed Differently Than Those in Hollow Knight

The developers behind Hollow Knight: Silksong have given some insight into how the bosses were designed. Unsurprisingly, Hollow Knight: Silksong is a challenging Metroidvania, like the original Hollow Knight. However, Team Cherry has revealed that the bosses were purposefully programmed to behave differently from those in the 2017 game.
After years of waiting, gamers have finally had the opportunity to play through the entirety of Hollow Knight: Silksong. The latest game from Team Cherry puts the focus on Hornet as she adventures through the kingdom of Pharloom. As with the original Hollow Knight, Silksong pits the player against numerous challenging bosses. Some gamers have even argued that these new enemies feel more brutal than those found in Hallownest. While the community continues to debate the hardest fights in both Team Cherry games, the developers have recently pulled back the curtain on the design philosophy behind Silksong’s bosses.
As spotted by GamesRadar+, an interview with William Pellen and Ari Gibson published in a guidebook by the ACMI detailed how bosses act differently in Silksong compared to Team Cherry’s first game. Specifically, the way bosses choose which attack to use has changed. "One thing we did totally differently in Silksong, though I'm not sure if it's apparent in the gameplay, is that we reworked how the bosses pick their attacks," Pellen noted. He said that bosses in the original Hollow Knight were much more reactionary, with their attacks selected based on the player’s positioning. However, Silksong did away with this, instead making the boss more proactive.
Pellen explains that bosses will “generally decide what they want to do and then move into the correct position to do it – the action gets decided first.” This is a significant shift from the first game, potentially making the moves of certain bosses more challenging to predict. The developer explained that this new programming for the bosses makes them better at positioning, which helps counter the increased mobility the player has as Hornet in Silksong.
These design insights attest to the effort that Team Cherry put into the development of Silksong and evidence why it took so long to complete. While the game built upon the successful formula of the original Hollow Knight, some substantial changes were made, like the reworked boss programming. While players can debate as to which game had the better boss fights, Silksong's new approach to designing these bosses helps make it feel distinct.
It is worth noting that Team Cherry is not finished with Hollow Knight: Silksong. Patches continue to be released to improve the gameplay experience, such as Update 4, which squashed various bugs. Additionally, the developers have said that future DLC is in the works, with the game’s composer, Christopher Larkin, recently teasing that he is still working on music for Team Cherry. It will be interesting to see if other bosses are added to the game in the future. While nothing is official, there could be more exciting battles ahead for fans if the DLC for the original Hollow Knight is anything to go on.