The best Hollow Knight lore videos to watch before playing Silksong
Hollow Knight came out eight years ago. I barely remember what happened last week let alone what a game I played almost a decade ago was about. With Silksong finally coming out, that's a problem—and maybe it is for you, too. Thankfully, YouTube has us covered, and you won't need several hours to get caught up.
Any veteran of the last-minute lore video binge will know that there are always two paths to take: You can either sit down and prepare to watch the big comprehensive explainer or blast through a condensed one and call it good.
How you want to spend your time is up to you. I generally stick to shorter videos if I've already played the game and longer ones if I'm completely new. I've got a recommendation for both types of video and I'll leave it up to you which one you want to check out.
The best long Hollow Knight lore video (1 hour 17 minutes)
Most fans agree that there's one creator to watch for a complete explanation of Hollow Knight's lore and story: Mossbag. At a little over an hour, their video summarizes the history of Hallownest, what unfolds as you play through the game, and what all the endings mean.
The whole thing is structured chronologically, which means even someone who hasn't touched Hollow Knight can follow along. I also appreciate that Mossbag uses in-game footage to point out important details and speculation based on where certain characters or artifacts are found. There are also chapters enabling you to skip to specific sections if you, say, only need a refresher on what happens in each ending.
The best short Hollow Knight lore video (4 minutes)
Comprehensive videos are great, but an hour is admittedly quite a long time to spend listening to someone gab about bugs. Cardboard Hed summarizes the Hollow Knight lore leading up to the start of Silksong in a breezy video that'll only take you a little over three minutes to watch. It's full of memes and tongue-in-cheek humor, but is just as accurate as Mossbag's video.
Cardboard Hed is particularly good at skipping over events that aren't necessary for understanding the gist of the lore. Instead of digging into each character's motivations, they just run through what everyone was up to and what happened as a result of that. While the video isn't long enough to get into what unfolds as you play Hollow Knight, it's perfect to get you up to speed for Silksong.