Silksong on Steam has faced an influx of negative reviews from Chinese users. Their complaints are related to the translation: it is worse than in the first part, excessively archaic, and overloaded with ornate phrases.
As a result, the game's overall rating remains "Very Positive", but in Simplified Chinese, it is only 51% ("mixed").
Team Cherry responded promptly. Studio representative Matthew Griffin wrote on X: "We thank Chinese players for their feedback on the quality of the Silksong translation. We will be working to improve it in the coming weeks."
Players are comparing the current version to English text in Old English, which drastically changes the atmosphere. One user noted that the translation "looks like a teenage attempt to write a wuxia-style novel."
Difficulties with Chinese localization are familiar to other indie projects as well. Last year, Stardew Valley had to roll back a patch with a translation fix due to a scandal. The problem is that hieroglyphs require precise graphics, and the selected fonts often interfere with proper perception.
Players are increasingly complaining about the quality of Chinese versions of Western games, although the audience in China has become the largest on Steam — in 2024, Chinese surpassed English for the first time in the number of users.
