Hollow Knight: Silksong is getting review bombed for bad Chinese translations

Hollow Knight: Silksong achieved unexpected success at launch, breaking Steam records with over 500,000 concurrent players and crashing multiple digital storefronts. The Metroidvania sequel earned overwhelming praise across most regions, maintaining an 82% positive rating overall.

However, Chinese-speaking players have launched a coordinated review bombing campaign against the indie game. This has driven the game's Simplified Chinese rating down to "Mixed" with only about 44% positive reviews. This backlash comes from what players describe as ‘poor translation’, which misrepresents the game's tone and atmosphere and ruins the whole experience.

According to localization expert Loek van Kooten, Silksong's Chinese version transforms the game's "evocative but concise writing" into something resembling "a high-school drama club's Elizabethan improv night". Players report that dialogue reads like ancient Chinese literature with archaic phrasing that feels completely out of place.

A Chinese review on Steam reads, "Your speech has no integrity, your words make no sense, and your so-called elegant phrasing is nothing but forced invention."

Steam's recent policy change to segregate reviews by language has prevented the Chinese backlash from significantly impacting Silksong's global rating. Without this change, the controversy could have seriously damaged the game's overall perception, especially considering Chinese users now represent Steam's largest demographic.

Team Cherry's marketing representative, Matthew Griffin, quickly addressed the controversy on social media. Griffin acknowledged the translation quality issues and promised improvements "over the coming weeks". However, this response drew more criticism, with players demanding a complete translation overhaul rather than minor fixes.

Despite the translation disaster, the game's core gameplay has received universal praise. Even frustrated Chinese players have acknowledged that they "love" the actual game. It remains to be seen what corrective measures Team Cherry will take to fix the experience for Chinese players.