this post was submitted on 07 Sep 2025
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I’ve never played either game but I’ll be honest: that English text looks really pretentious to me. I can imagine how bad things could get if that were carried over into the Chinese translation.
Everyday Chinese speech is very plain, blunt, and utilitarian. The Great Classical Chinese novels are anything but. They are as important (arguably even more so) to Chinese as Shakespeare is to English. Speaking in that style should come off just as pretentious in Chinese as a video game character speaking Shakespearean style would in English. Generally, in English fiction (especially TV shows), characters are brutally mocked for speaking in that style unless they are literally reading, rehearsing, or performing Shakespeare.
The search-engine retranslated English from Chinese from English is very obscure.
Some Chinese is blunt, some is poetic.
Some English is blunt, some is poetic.
Original Silksong:
"They see your peace, driven of faith and toil."
Nobody has to like poetry, but HK game language is steeped in archaic poetry, grandeur and metaphor.
It’s not about liking/not liking poetry, it’s about credibility and verisimilitude. When a character says something, is it credible for the character to have said that? A guy walking around in the Harry Potter wizarding world speaking Shakespearean English is not credible, he’s a laughingstock.
I don’t know much about Hollow Knight but from what I can see it is not set in a fantasy Classical Chinese setting. Having characters in the game speak in the Classical Chinese style is not credible. It does not fit the setting, regardless of the broader similarities between Hollow Knight’s setting and Wuxia novels. It’s culturally tone deaf.
HK games are not set in China, but they are both firmly set in a medieval fantasy world, with knights, legends, superpowers and archaic language.
There is not much to ridicule about the literary poetry of Hollow Knight or Silksong; the mystery and grand imagery in their official description and dialogue is central to their overall historical fantasy worldbuilding.
Regarding Harry Potter, a very different modern urban fantasy setting, a Silksong phrase like "They forget your heart, bound in slumber and servitude" would be out of place(could be a Goblet of Fire clue). That phrase, however, fits squarely and properly into the medieval fantasy setting of Hollow Knight and Silksong. Both HK games are set among the ruins of a legendary, vaunted kingdom, where chivalry and remnants of castle courtesy live on.
The dramatic, archaic poetry present in HK and Silksong is a natural aspect of the game's dramatic, archaic setting.
I am curious about the Chinese translations directly compared to the original English and how the official HK English compares to the official Silksong English.
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??!
I guess we have completely different ideas of the word medieval. This to me looks like a completely separate, unique fantasy world with no resemblance whatsoever to a historical medieval setting of the sort that games like D&D are based on.
It’s fine if they have created this wonderful unique setting of their own, but then it leaves me with the question of how the language aspects of medieval society ended up there despite all the other differences. I mean these characters don’t even resemble humans!
I’ve got no dog in this race, but they’re bugs my dude. Even then, it’s quite clear later on this isn’t meant to be a modern setting, it’s definitely medieval. This is like screen grabbing the first shot of Robin Hood and saying it’s in a forest so it must not take place in medieval times.
"...completely different ideas of the word medieval."
That is likely due to our staggered familiarity with the games, which you haven't played. Your screenshot is from one of the areas outside the collapsed castles and cities, without any narration or dialogue, and is consequently non-representative of the setting and atmosphere.
Bearing in mind that medieval only refers to one aspect of the setting mentioned above, it's an accurate descriptor for Hollow Knight and Silksong: Medieval refers to the time after the bygone era of royal society, fallen castles and a decimated population left behind after the apparent invasion and collapse. Even in your screenshot early on in the game, you can see evidence of some higher society collapsed by that gilded metal.
The Hollow Knight games are all about a wandering knight/warrior returning long after the collapse, working their way up to a central castle structure, "The Citadel". What used to be a thriving world and society with centralized authority has been reduced to destroyed cities and towns, abandoned, shadowy brick and mortar rooms and roads, some shuttered churches and scattered huts lit by candles. Evidence of grander past societal achievements are the physical setting of the game in the forms of great broken bridges, mechanical mechanisms that few are capable of operating or maintaining, and importantly to this thread, "the language aspects of medieval society" can be seen throughout all game text as anachronistic linguistic references to a bygone higher world, both structurally and socially.
"the characters don't even resemble humans!"
They are not humans, they are bugs, which is where the "fantasy" descriptor comes into play.
If you like video games, you should give HK or Silksong a whirl. They are great games and a lot of what I have had a very fun time describing will be both apparent and described in-game after you've spent time in their world.
Yes, it seems we do have different ideas of the word medieval. To me, medieval is not an abstract idea, it’s a specific period in European history. To be medieval a setting has to bear significant resemblance to that period.
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This is not medieval. It’s very ornate but it bears no resemblance whatsoever to medieval art or architecture. If anything, it’s closer to Victorian than medieval. Everything I’ve seen in HK screenshots tells me it’s a fantasy pastiche of elements. It has no affinity with any particular period in human culture. Rather, it’s a cut-and-paste construction. (I hate the word appropriation because it implies theft. I do not want to imply that).
Like if a fantasy game is set on Mars with a bunch of green skinned Martians as characters then it’s not medieval even if the characters use Anglo-Saxon instead of English. It’s a pastiche of science fiction, fantasy, and medieval elements and it suffers from the same issue that a lot of bad Star Trek episodes had (see: planet of hats), which is verisimilitude:
Why did this society, which otherwise seems completely alien, just happen to evolve a conspicuous element that’s uncannily similar to an element in human history?
"Why did this society, which otherwise seems completely alien, just happen to evolve a conspicuous element that’s uncannily similar to an element in human history?"
The game was designed to include gothic architecture and medieval society, rather than those elements evolving within the game.
It's natural that the game would be designed with elements of human society and history given that humans designed the game around the character of a "knight", calling to mind swordplay, castles, legends and chivalry.
If the story was all about food delivery in Adelaide in 2011, the setting and language would be very different.
Since the HK stories focus on fantasy swordsmanship, fallen castles and knights, strongly associated in the human world with chivalrous poems of legends(King Arthur, for example), the descriptions and dialogues of HK reflect that.
They speak in a classical style in the games, you have not played them. Theres no need for several paragraphs on this subject from someone that has not played the games. There are plenty of chinese speakers that have, give them a chance to speak.
I have played plenty of other games where characters speak in a classical style. Unless it’s being done to mark the characters as old fashioned (or the world is literally set in medieval times) then it comes off as extremely pretentious.
Edit: I know Hollow Knight is sacred in the indie game community. I’m just saying this is something that annoys many people (including me) who prefer verisimilitude and authenticity.
Thats the thing, that IS the atmosphere the game goes for, you do not know about what you are talking about.
The game is deliberately pretentious? Okay. Then the negative reviews are justified.
The people talk like characters from a Shakespeare play, youre just virtue signaling
Believe me, no one gives a damn about a critic.