One major difference between Hornet and the Knight could pave the way for silk abilities to replace magic in Hollow Knight: Silksong in a way that could completely change how players engage in combat. Specifically, looking at Hornet's silk spool in Silksong and the abilities that it gives her to replace the light and void magic that the Knight is able to learn throughout the original Hollow Knight.
The most important change that could come from the prequel story of Hornet in Hollow Knight: Silksong is the lean towards the abilities that she can be seen using in several fights. More than simply swapping out the lore implications of how the Knight was able to access magic in the first place, Hornet's more passive style could give players access to better crowd control abilities and passive traps.
Hornet Vs The Knight in Hollow Knight
Across the several times that Hornet can be fought in the original Hollow Knight, she acts as an impressive barrier that tests the player's ability to make it through to lore-heavy locations. However, the combat in these moments is interesting in that while Hornet uses a similar Nail weapon as Hollow Knight's protagonist, she doesn't appear to have access to the same shaman magic as her sibling. Instead, she uses her silk to lay traps for the Knight to fall into, as well as lashing out with whips that attack in all directions. It's a far cry from the powers of light and void that the Knight uses.
Digging into the lore of Hollow Knight, there is a reason why the Knight has abilities that Hornet doesn't, due to the connections the previous protagonist has to the powers of light and void. With Hornet lacking this connection, she has to fall back on her own prowess and the abilities that she can spin with the silk spool she carries under her cloak. While in the lore this means that she isn't able to take the Knight's role to either constrain or destroy the Radiance, it does mean that it gives Silksong the chance to redefine magic.
Passive Traps Over Active Magic in Hollow Knight: Silksong
For most players making their way through Hollow Knight, the magic can add to the Knight's aggressive playstyle, with attacks that reach across the screen and blast in large areas of effect. However, with Silksong focusing on Hornet, the best playstyle could change from overtly aggressive with magic to a combination of melee combat and passive traps. Instead of following up nail strikes with distanced magic, Hornet could drop a silk trap into the air that will send spikes at enemies that walk into them and then move back quickly into melee aggression.
It's a completely different style of fighting that could allow the player the chance to take better control of the arena and funnel crowds of enemies into position to best dish out punishment. This would then allow the pace of Hornet's combat to take on a completely different tempo, which doesn't have to be a bad thing for Silksong in comparison to Hollow Knight. The addition of passive traps could help turn boss arenas into a bullet hell for the enemies, and possibly change the encounters for Hornet as well.
With most of the boss fights in Hollow Knight revolving around one-on-one combat with the Knight versus the boss, Hornet's ability to lay out traps could incentivize a whole new approach to the design of encounters. Namely, giving Hornet's silk better crowd control abilities could mean that Team Cherry can fill more rooms with dozens of enemies, rather than making every fight one-on-one. So even the most mundane bosses could inherit the frantic pacing of the Hollow Knight's Colosseum of Fools without feeling overwhelmed thanks to Hornet's new powers.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is currently in development by Team Cherry.