Hollow Knight: Silksong has demonstrated that it abides by its own marketing strategies, and fans should withhold any expectations about a release date as a result. It is still possible that it launches this summer or in the fall, though games are already officially being pushed back to 2024, as was the case with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s delay. Likewise, fans now know that an Elden Ring DLC expansion is looming, but some still hold out hope for a port, remaster, remake, or sequel of FromSoftware’s Bloodborne.
Bloodborne having any kind of refurbishment or revival in the future is incredibly unlikely due to nothing being announced or confirmed. Elden Ring’s Shadow of the Erdtree DLC could potentially release this year, but with nothing shared about it besides a piece of conceptual art, it would also seem unlikely to expect it to release soon. These and Silksong’s absences are felt as highly anticipated Soulslikes, but fans shouldn’t forget two Soulslike games scheduled to release this summer that can help tide them over in the meantime: The Game Kitchen’s Blasphemous 2 and Neowiz’s Lies of P.
Summer 2023 Now Features a Hollow Knight: Silksong Substitute - Blasphemous 2
Hollow Knight: Silksong was not at Nintendo’s Indie World Showcase, but the reveal for Blasphemous 2 was a wonderful substitution for fans who adore the 2D Soulslike Metroidvania genre. Blasphemous 2 was officially announced a while back with nothing more than a numerical logo and a release window of 2023, but the Indie World Showcase reveal trailer narrowed that date further to “late summer.”
Late summer is sort of an ambiguous window itself, with an arguable range between late July and late August to cram itself into, but knowing it is planning to release this summer in general is great news. Blasphemous is unique enough apart from Hollow Knight for it not to be a one-to-one comparison, and therefore there are features or aesthetics that fans enjoy more about one than the other, but if Silksong is going to take much longer to launch, Blasphemous 2 might be as close as fans get to a game like it this summer.
FromSoftware’s Armored Core franchise is making its return this year as well, and based upon what has been shared from it thus far—what with Armored Core 6’s latest update being good news for fans—it can be assumed that its release window is somewhat reliable. However, because Armored Core is not a Soulslike franchise like many of FromSoftware’s other endeavors, fans still wait for a game to scratch that itch that Elden Ring’s DLC or a Bloodborne port could scratch.
Summer 2023 Also Features a Potential Bloodborne Substitute - Lies of P
They might not have to look too far, though, because summer 2023 is also set to release Lies of P, the Soulslike game that has been unendingly compared to Bloodborne. It is true that Lies of P and Bloodborne’s comparisons are remarkable, and if Lies of P did not have the level of fidelity it has or the reminiscence of Bloodborne in its art design, it is uncertain whether it would have earned as much publicity.
Many Soulslikes are swept under a rug due to how unoriginal they may seem, but fans seem to appreciate Lies of P’s Bloodborne comparison while the Bloodborne IP itself has been seemingly abandoned. It will be interesting to see how much that comparison affects Lies of P at launch, such as if fans perceive it as worse compared to Bloodborne, regardless of how unfair or unfounded those comparisons might be.
Lies of P’s own launch has been narrowed down to August, which makes this summer a Soulslike double-feature with Lies of P and Blasphemous 2—two highly anticipated games that make for fantastic experiences in the meantime as fans wait for Hollow Knight: Silksong, Elden Ring DLC, and anything imaginable from Bloodborne.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is currently in development.
