I've been camping on my wishlist for what feels like forever, watching that Team Cherry sequel taunt me with its absence. Every gaming event, every announcement season—I'd scroll through hoping to see that release date. Now that Silksong's launch window is finally approaching, I'm facing a question that's way less romantic than my fanboy heart wants to admit: Is this actually worth the asking price?
Look, I'm not saying I don't trust Team Cherry. The original Hollow Knight consumed three months of my life and cost me less than a decent pizza. But here's the thing—excitement doesn't pay bills, and hype doesn't balance budgets.
The first game set impossible standards. For under twenty bucks, I got a masterclass in level design, boss encounters that still haunt my dreams, and enough secret areas to make my completion percentage look embarrassing. Team Cherry basically wrote a love letter to classic Metroidvanias and sold it for pocket change.
Now everyone expects Silksong to deliver that same magic, but bigger. Pharloom promises to be more expansive, more mechanically complex, with Hornet's movement system opening entirely new gameplay possibilities. But here's where my wallet gets nervous—more content typically means more cost.
I've been burned before by sequel pricing. Studios know they've built goodwill, and sometimes that translates to inflated launch prices. The question isn't whether Silksong will be good—I'm pretty confident it will be. The question is whether it's good enough to justify whatever premium they're asking over the original.
The Metroidvania Arms Race
Here's what keeps me up at night: the competition has gotten brutal. While we've been waiting for Silksong, other developers haven't been sitting idle.
Let me break down what I've played recently:
| Game | What It Costs | What You Get |
|---|---|---|
| Blasphemous 2 | Mid-tier price | Brutal combat, religious horror aesthetic, 15-20 hours |
| Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown | Full retail | Smooth parkour mechanics, gorgeous art, 20+ hours |
| Nine Sols | Budget-friendly | Deflection-based combat, emotional story, dense design |
Every single one of these titles delivered experiences that would've been genre-defining five years ago. Now they're just... expected. The bar has risen dramatically, and Silksong needs to clear it while justifying its price point against these established benchmarks.
If Team Cherry prices Silksong significantly above these competitors, I'm going to need a damn good reason. Am I paying for quality, or am I paying a "hype tax" because the internet has spent six years building this game into a mythological artifact?
I've developed what I call the "cost-per-hour" rule. It's cold, it's mathematical, and it's probably way less romantic than most gamers want to admit. But it works.
If Hollow Knight gave me 60+ hours for $15, that's roughly 25 cents per hour of entertainment. That's insane value—better than any movie, concert, or night out. For Silksong to match that ratio at a $40 price point, I'd need around 160 hours of content.
Do I think Silksong will deliver that? Honestly... probably not. The original was an outlier in terms of value density. But here's where expectations get tricky—if Silksong gives me 40 hours of content at $40, that's still a dollar per hour. Reasonable by most standards, but it feels expensive compared to its predecessor.
My personal threshold:
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Under $20: Instant purchase, no questions asked 💳
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$20-$30: I'll wait for early reviews, check the completion time estimates
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$30-$40: I'm waiting for the first major sale unless critics unanimously call it a masterpiece
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Above $40: Unless there's substantial DLC included, I'm out until it drops
Is that harsh? Maybe. But I've learned that day-one purchases rarely reward patience. The game will be identical in three months, except it'll probably be cheaper and definitely more stable.
The Technical Gamble
Here's something nobody talks about during hype season: launch performance. I don't care how much I love Team Cherry's design philosophy—if the PC port stutters, crashes, or has game-breaking bugs, I'm not paying premium prices to beta test.
The original Hollow Knight was remarkably stable, which gives me confidence. But that game also had a much smaller scope. Silksong's expanded mechanics, larger world, and presumably more complex systems create more opportunities for technical issues.
I remember the Prince of Persia launch. Gorgeous game, solid mechanics, but those early-day performance problems on certain hardware configurations? Brutal. The people who waited a month got a significantly better experience for less money.
Unless I see verified performance reports from my specific platform (PC with mid-tier specs, if you're curious), I'm not pulling the trigger at full price. My backlog is deep enough to afford patience.
When I'll Actually Buy
Let me be honest about my breaking point. If I see Silksong drop to anywhere near the original game's price range—say, under $20 during a launch promotion—I'm buying immediately. At that price point, even if it somehow disappoints, I'll still get my money's worth.
But full retail? I'm waiting. Not because I doubt Team Cherry's talent, but because smart shopping means respecting your own financial limits, even when your heart is screaming to pre-order.
I want to experience Pharloom. I want to master Hornet's movement system, discover all those secrets Team Cherry has hidden in the shadows, and probably die to the same boss seventeen times while my friends make fun of me in Discord. But I want to do all that after I've confirmed the price matches the value.
The Real Question 🤔
So here's where I land: I'm not a day-one buyer unless something dramatic changes. I'll be watching reviews from critics I trust, checking completion times on HowLongToBeat, and monitoring performance reports across platforms.
If the consensus is that Silksong delivers content density matching the original's legendary value? I'll pay whatever they're asking. But if it's just a good game with a standard runtime and genre-typical pricing? I'm waiting for that inevitable 25% off sale.
My Steam wishlist notification is ready. My hype is managed. My wallet is guarded.
What about you? Are you throwing money at the screen the moment it's available, or are you joining me in the patient gamers club? Because honestly, the hardest boss in any Metroidvania might just be resisting FOMO during launch week. 🎮
Bottom line: Silksong will almost certainly be excellent. Whether it's financially excellent for you depends entirely on what you're willing to pay for that Team Cherry magic. Me? I'm setting alerts for sales and keeping my expectations realistic. The game isn't going anywhere, and my backlog certainly isn't getting any smaller while I wait.
