Marvelous Europe has announced that Story of Seasons: Grand Bazaar has sold over 500,000 copies since its launch on 27th August 2025.
Specific figures across Switch, Switch 2, and PC have not been confirmed, but we’ve reached out and will update this article when we hear more. Nevertheless, it’s a solid performance for the game after such a short period of time, and it seems that most are in agreement that it’s probably one of the best entries in the series for quite some time.
Our expert Hollow Knight players are hard at work adventuring through the depths of Pharloom to unearth everything Silksong has to offer, updating IGN’s Hollow Knight: Silksong Walkthrough as they go. While it’s still in Act 1, we still have you covered with our latest findings, along with the recommended Silksong progression route to get the most out of the game.
Here’s every Silksong main quest and Wish (side quests) that we recommend doing, in the order we recommend, so far. The newest ones are at the bottom.
Silksong Act 1 Progression Guide and Boss Fights
The latest walkthrough updates start you off on your adventure across Pharloom as it helps you through the beginning of Act 1, passing through The Marrow, Deep Docks, and Far Fields. We’ll update this list with more Walkthrough updates as soon as possible.
During Act 1, there are a handful of Wishes and items you can hunt down for rewards, and despite being mostly optional, some of them are very important! We recommend the following:
The Lost Fleas – Collecting the first set of these allows you to skip a pretty tough boss fight.
Flexile Spines – Unlocks an essential upgrade you need to progress.
How to Get the Wanderer Crest – Essential if you’re struggling with pogo-ing/bouncing on seed pods, flower buds, etc.
If you’re just starting out in Silksong, we have guides to help, whether it’s tracking down a specific item or Ability, or simply wanting to learn about core mechanics. We recommend the following guides for beginners:
Meg Koepp is a Guides Editor on the IGN Guides team, with a focus on trends. When she’s not working, you can find her playing an RPG or cuddling her corgi.
Telltale Games obviously found a lot of success with its take on The Walking Dead, alongside several other series, but that whole episodic release thing never quite caught on. Even still, some former Telltale Games devs are clearly keen on trying it out again anyway. These devs are called AdHoc Studio, and their game is Dispatch, a comedy adventure game about managing superheroes, which just got a release date (dates?) today.
More than 75 game announcements, trailers, exclusive clips, and celebrity interviews will be featured when a brand-new special edition of IGN Fan Fest arrives October 15.
Streaming across all IGN platforms, IGN Fan Fest 2025: Fall Edition will see the likes of Keanu Reeves, Aziz Ansari, and other A-listers stop by to reveal exclusive looks at major upcoming movies and streaming series. We’ll also be announcing brand-new video games and showing off never-before-seen looks at some of the year’s biggest gaming titles.
IGN Fan Fest 2025: Fall Edition kicks off October 15 at 9am PDT / 12pm EDT / 5pm BST with a special one-hour pre-show filled with even more gameplay, trailers, and first looks.
Then, the main event streams on IGN.com, YouTube, Steam, Facebook, twitch, and X starting at 10am PDT / 1pm EDT / 6pm BST.
Fans can expect new looks at games like Jurassic World Evolution 3, Dispatch, Anno 117: Pax Romana, and WWE 2K25 along with sneak peeks and breaking news from movies and series like Netflix’s Splinter Cell: Deathwatch and Lionsgate’s Good Fortune.
And that’s not all. Throughout the show, we’ll be dropping info about newly-revealed games, the biggest upcoming blockbusters, and hotly-anticipated shows from all the biggest streamers.
Everything kicks off October 15, 2025 everywhere you get IGN.
February’s IGN Fan Fest saw a huge week of reveals including first looks at games including Assassin’s Creed Shadows, Anno 117: Pax Romana, and Atomfall, movies like Mickey 17, Novocaine, and Fear Street: Prom Queen, and tons of celebrity appearances from Stephen King, Jenna Ortega, Paul Rudd, George. R. R. Martin, and more.
Stay tuned to IGN in the coming weeks as we reveal more about October’s jam–packed show.
I think that no matter when Hollow Knight: Silksong released, it was going to ruffle some feathers. Not because of any of that difficulty discourse you’ve probably seen on your timeline since its release, we’re done with that, I’m talking about its literal release date, September 4th. You probably saw several games delay themselves out of its window to be in with a fighting chance in this current media hellscape we have. But there was one notable release that stuck with its date, and that’s Hell Is Us, which came out, oh dear, September 4th. And the game’s creative director, Jonathan Jacques-Belletête, understandably has some feelings about that.
The update brings a whole bunch of quality-of-life improvements to game alongside some standard bug fixes. The remaster launched on 19th June 2025, shortly after the Switch 2 itself landed, and brought extensive improvements to the PS2 original.
It’s often tough to build on a formula that largely works as-is, but a short hands-off preview of Warhammer 40,000: Mechanicus II last week showed us that even small tweaks can feel monumental. Mechanicus II looks like an upgrade to its turned-based predecessor in all of the right ways, with some smart new additions that make its combat loop feel far more approachable to all kinds of players.
The game revolves around a single planetary conflict, a war between the Adeptus Mechanicus, a machine-worshipping cult, and the Necrons, a race of robotic skeletons that essentially woke up after millions of years and chose violence. Unlike the first Mechanicus, players can choose which faction they want to control and can switch at will between the two campaigns. The campaigns have the same core story arc, but the developer tells me there’ll be gameplay and narrative differences for each faction.
The sequel builds on Mechanicus, a meaty turn-based tactical affair where you play solely as the titular Adeptus Mechanicus faction. Here, you can take control of numerous factions, customize and upgrade their abilities, and make unique decisions that impact the outcome of the story. In Mechanicus II, the story’s conclusion also depends on player choice – the team is keeping the narrative under wraps, but does confirm that there is a canonical ending to the first game, which is the Videx ending, for those who’ve seen it.
The demo showcased a critical narrative siege seen from the perspective of both the Necrons and the Adeptus Mechanicus. Each faction has a roster of leaders, with the Mechanicus returning from the first game – but, this time around, they are all playable characters with their own unique skillsets. Their abilities can be tweaked to suit a particular playstyle – you can spec them out to deal massive damage on their own, or home in on more support-based actions that can buff your team as a whole, which looks great for supporting different approaches you may want to take.
There’s a faction spoiler coming up, so if want to go into Mechanicus II with as little information as possible, look away now!
Mechanicus II will also see other factions make an appearance in battle for the first time; our demo shows off some fiendishly powerful Space Marine allies, and we found out earlier this year that a relatively new Warhammer 40,000 faction – The Leagues of Votann – will also appear during the campaigns at some point. These groups are not playable, but they will perform smart, automatic actions in combat, either alongside you or against you.
One major change that Mechanicus II makes is within its Cognition system. Cognition points (or Dominion points, if you’re playing on the Necron side), are essentially a currency collected by your chosen faction that can be used to upgrade or unlock weapon actions or skills fire one-off attacks, or perform other useful actions in battle. Mechanicus II appears to offer much more flexibility in how you collect Cognition points – every individual unit can collect them by completing smaller objectives or taking certain actions. This change is small, but it allows for much less rigidity in how you approach a skirmish, and the units you use.
Everything looks so much nicer, too – unit models and their environments are crisp and vibrant, the maps are dynamic and can change throughout the course of the battle. There’s also a new cover system, which allows the Mechanicus units to protect themselves from oncoming fire, but these elements are destructible, which means their use is limited. It’s a nice touch that makes you consider your positioning differently to gain an edge, but it won’t last forever.
Mechanicus II looks like a promising iteration on the first title – bringing back its signature complex strategy gameplay, with thoughtful changes and additions that truly feel like the series is evolving with player choice at the forefront of its design. For new players, there’s a much more reasonable barrier to entry, and far more flexibility in how you choose to do battle. It’s an impressive direction, and one that Mechanicus fans – and Warhammer 40k enthusiasts in general – can look forward to.
Remember when Blue Protocol died last year? And remember how it was brought back to life only a few months later as Blue Protocol: Star Resonance? It’s not often that such a turnaround happens, so you have to count your blessings when they do. And now, almost a year on from that, following a recent beta test, this retitled version of the game has a release date.
While the first patch prioritized “critical issues,” this one focuses on other lingering problems, as well as “cleaning up some bugs around specific tools.” (We can only presume that’s a reference to video game bugs rather than the ones found in The Citadel!)
Before it rolls out to all, however, Team Cherry is testing the new version via the public-beta branch on Steam. This means anyone can select and download it, albeit on the proviso that while it includes fixes, it may also be unstable — so something to bear in mind. You can find out more about the public beta on the game’s Steam discussion page.
Based on the patch notes, below, Update 2 doesn’t include any earth-shattering balance changes, after Update 1 made the early game easier. However, it’s worth noting Team Cherry told fans to “expect a few more additions and tweaks” before full release, so perhaps the developer has some surprises up its sleeve.
Hollow Knight: Silksong Update 2 Patch Notes:
Added Dithering effect option in Advanced video settings. Reduces colour banding but can slightly soften the appearance of foreground assets. Defaults to ‘Off’.
Updated Herald’s Wish achievement description to clarify that players must both complete the wish and finish the game.
Fixed Savage Beastfly in Far Fields sometimes remaining below the lava.
Fixed rare cases of Shrine Guardian Seth getting out of bounds during battle.
Added catch to prevent Lugoli sometimes flying off screen and not returning during battle.
Further reduced chance of Silk Snippers getting stuck out of bounds in Chapel of the Reaper battle.
Fixed various instances of dying to bosses while killing them causing death sequences to play messily or out of sync.
Fixed Shaman Binding into a bottom transition causing a softlock.
Cocoon positions in some locations updated to prevent it spawning in inaccessible areas.
Fixed Liquid Lacquer courier delivery not being accessible in Steel Soul mode.
Fixed some NPCs not correctly playing cursed hint dialogues in certain instances.
Fixed Pondcatcher Reed not being able to fly away after singing.
Fixed Verdania memory orbs sometimes replaying layered screen-edge burst effects.
Fixed the break counter not working for certain multihitter tools eg Conchcutter.
Fixed Volt Filament damage multiplier not applying for certain Silk Skills.
Fixed Cogflies and Wisps inappropriately targeting Skullwings.
Fixed Cogflies incorrectly resetting their HP to full on scene change.
Fixed Curveclaw always breaking on the first hit after being deflected.
Fixed Plasmium Phial and Flea Brew sometimes not restoring as intended at benches.
Various other smaller tweaks and fixes.
We thought Hollow Knight: Silksong was ‘Amazing’, awarding it 9/10 and writing: “Silksong is packed full of sharp platforming, enticing exploration, and nail-biting combat that’s all unapologetically challenging in just the right way. However, Hell is Us creative director Jonathan Jacques-Belletête called Team Cherry’s last-minute release “a little callous.”
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Hollow Knight: Silksong‘s second patch is here ahead of an impeding full release, with Team Cherry having shared the notes and initiated Steam beta testing. No balancing tweaks this time around, just a bunch more handy bug fixes that’re well worth being aware of.
