Team Cherry says it is addressing “quality issues” in Hollow Knight: Silksong’s Simplified Chinese translation after player feedback sparked a wave of mixed user reviews on Steam. The Adelaide-based studio acknowledged problems ranging from mistranslations to awkward phrasing and said fixes are being prioritized as part of ongoing localization updates.
The response underscores the stakes for Silksong, the long-awaited follow-up to the 2017 indie hit, in a market where accurate, culturally attuned translations can shape early reception. With Chinese-speaking players flagging inconsistencies across menus, dialogue, and item descriptions, Team Cherry’s swift public acknowledgement signals an effort to steady sentiment and restore confidence while broader launch expectations remain high.
Mixed Steam reviews spotlight translation inconsistencies and lore terminology drift
Early player feedback on Steam has zeroed in on translation cohesion as a pain point in the Simplified Chinese version, with reviewers citing friction between established Hollow Knight terminology and new in-game wording. Longtime fans argue that shifting names for core concepts muddles lore continuity and complicates community knowledge built over years of guides, wikis, and fan translations. Complaints point to issues that impact readability as much as canon clarity, with some praising the breadth of localization effort while still calling for a firmer editorial hand.
- Terminology drift from the first game’s accepted translations for key proper nouns and items
- Inconsistent registers, oscillating between literary phrasing and casual slang in adjacent lines
- Context loss in hints and NPC dialogue that alters quest intent or tone
- UI/UX text issues such as truncation, punctuation spacing, and line breaks affecting readability
- Name variance for the same character or location across tooltips, menus, and subtitles
In response, Team Cherry says it is addressing “quality issues” in the Simplified Chinese localization, a move welcomed by Chinese-speaking players and curators who have urged tighter alignment with established lore terms and a clearer style guide. Localization specialists point to practical fixes-centralized glossaries, cross-file consistency checks, and targeted retranslation of lore-critical lines-paired with rapid patch iterations to rebuild confidence. Until updates land, reviewers remain split: some flag the text as a barrier to immersion, while others note that the underlying game design shines through and expect fast corrective passes to restore continuity with the series’ canon.
Community feedback details context loss, awkward tone, and UI text overflow in Simplified Chinese
Early player reports on Steam and Chinese forums point to context loss in key narrative and mechanical terms, with several strings reading like literal renderings rather than grounded in the series’ established lexicon. Fans note that item names, quest cues, and boss titles occasionally diverge from translations cemented by the first game, muddying lore continuity and moment-to-moment comprehension. The result, they say, is an awkward tone that oscillates between formal honorifics and casual internet slang, flattening distinct character voices and undercutting the melancholic cadence Hollow Knight is known for. While not universal, these issues have been cited often enough to prompt calls for a coherent glossary and tighter editorial control to restore nuance and mood.
On the interface side, users highlight UI text overflow as a recurring friction point, with longer Simplified Chinese strings spilling beyond containers and obscuring critical information. This is most visible in menus, tooltips, map labels, and quest entries, where clipped lines and overlapping glyphs complicate navigation and readability. Localization testers in the community emphasize that font fallback and line-breaking rules for CJK scripts require bespoke tuning, and argue that more aggressive string-length guards and layout adjustments are needed to prevent truncation in high-stress moments like boss encounters and fast inventory swaps.
- Terminology drift: Inconsistencies with prior series terms create confusion for returning players.
- Register mismatch: Shifts between colloquial and formal address tones disrupt character intent.
- Overflow and clipping: Truncated charm effects, quest steps, and button prompts in dense UI panels.
- Typography issues: Mixed full-/half-width punctuation and font fallback producing uneven stroke weight.
- Line breaking: Poorly handled breaks around punctuation leading to stray symbols and orphaned phrases.
Team Cherry moves to address issues with a localization QA pass using native editors, style guides, and regression testing
Following a wave of mixed feedback on Steam about the quality of its Simplified Chinese text, the studio is rolling out a structured remediation plan aimed at clarity, consistency, and cultural nuance. The approach centers on native-speaking editors reviewing lore, UI strings, enemy and location names, and on-screen hints to correct mistranslations and awkward phrasing while preserving the game’s tone. To lock in consistency, the team is formalizing style guides that govern terminology, punctuation, honorifics, and formatting across all in-game contexts, ensuring the Chinese script reflects both readability and authorial intent.
- Native editor review: Mainland-based and wider Chinese-language editors revising idioms, terminology, and context-sensitive lines.
- Centralized style guide: Project-wide conventions for names, skills, UI elements, and lore terms, with examples and do/don’t references.
- Regression testing: Automated and manual checks in continuous builds to prevent reintroduced errors and verify fixes across menus, subtitles, and edge-case triggers.
The studio says the process will be iterative, with regression passes validating each change set and cross-checks for line wrapping, font rendering, and platform locale behavior. Alongside internal QA, the team plans to maintain a living glossary and change log to improve transparency, and will prioritize high-visibility strings flagged by players. The update is intended to replace mistranslations, harmonize terminology across the script, and restore confidence in the localized experience without compromising the game’s voice.
Recommended next steps include publishing a terminology glossary, opening a beta localization branch, and issuing transparent patch notes with timelines
Stemming the backlash will require structure and visibility. A public, bilingual terminology glossary and style guide can lock down names, abilities, UI strings, and lore terms to prevent drift, while an opt‑in localization beta lets native speakers validate fixes in context before they ship. Paired with transparent patch notes that are time‑bound and specific, this approach signals ownership, creates an audit trail for improvements, and gives Chinese‑speaking players a clear way to test, respond, and see their feedback reflected.
- Glossary & style guide: Publish a bilingual termbase (proper nouns, enemy types, system terms) with rationale and sample sentences; host it on official channels and as a downloadable CSV, and mirror key entries in‑game for reference.
- Beta branch: Open a “Chinese Localization Beta” on Steam with weekly drops, a pinned feedback thread and form, rollback instructions, and a posted schedule for string batches under review.
- Transparent notes with timelines: Release dated patch notes that categorize fixes by impact (Critical/Clarity/Fluency), list string IDs with before/after examples, and track unresolved items with target ETAs.
To reinforce trust, couple these steps with a predictable cadence and independent checks. Commit to weekly or biweekly localization updates, publish a three‑week horizon of incoming fixes, and engage external native editors and lore‑familiar reviewers for paid LQA passes. Run consistency scans in CAT tools against the original Hollow Knight corpus, set QA gates (for example, 98%+ pass rate on critical strings), and report measurable outcomes such as fix turnaround, glossary adoption rate, and tester satisfaction. A small, steady drumbeat of dates, diffs, and data will matter more than sweeping promises-and it will show that quality is being corrected methodically, in the open.
For now, Team Cherry’s pledge to address the Simplified Chinese localization will be the next test of Silksong’s post-launch support. The studio’s response time and the clarity of its fixes will determine whether sentiment on Steam stabilizes-and whether discussion shifts back to the game’s design rather than its text.
The episode underscores a familiar tension for global releases: localization quality isn’t ancillary, it’s foundational to how a game is received in its largest markets. With Chinese-speaking players representing a significant share of the PC audience, translation choices can meaningfully sway review aggregates and word of mouth.
Team Cherry has not detailed a timeline for the update, but says work is underway. We’ll update this story as patch notes land and community feedback evolves.
