Silksong's disastrous Chinese translation has received an official fan-made overhaul, and it's just been pushed live on PC with Patch 4

When Silksong arrived in early September it was close to a perfect launch, save one glaring problem: Chinese players quickly cottoned on to some big issues with the Chinese translation, namely that it failed to capture the tone of the Hollow Knight universe. "This isn't about effort, but about taste and direction," an English-to-Chinese translator noted at the time. Another expert noted that its tone resembled "a high-school drama club's Elizabethan improv night."

That sounds pretty bad. As a result, Silksong's Steam rating briefly fell to "mostly negative", and ever since a fan group called Team Cart Fix has been working away in the background to improve the Chinese translation. The fruits of their labour have been available as an unofficial mod for a while, but now, in Silksong's new Patch 4, the work of Team Cart Fix has been officially implemented in the game.

"Their translation builds from elements of the original Silksong translation, retaining existing names for most characters and places, except in instances where the original translation was incorrect, or inconsistent with Hollow Knight," Team Cherry writes. "Most importantly, this is a translation by fans who are well-versed in the (quite dense) narrative and lore of both Hollow Knight games, and understand the subtle links and connections that should be retained in the text."

The problem with Silksong's translation is instructive at a time when AI is decimating large portions of the translation industry. The practice is as much—in fact, often much more—about capturing the spirit of the text as it is about converting raw information. If the first Chinese translation for Silksong resembled "a Wuxia novel instead of conveying the game's [true] tone", as a translator on Omori noted, then it was obviously a dismal failure.

Which makes it fairly easy to see why Silksong's translation might have proven a challenge for the original team: it's very tonally unusual. Understanding the subtleties of the world building and the tenor of the dialogue would be of utmost importance in a translation context. When I spoke to FromSoftware's English translators in 2022, they noted the non-typical tone of the Souls games was a real obstacle: "We do the text, the scripture that we run off first, and then we have to consult him [Hidetaka Miyazaki] to find out what the context is so that we don't make errors. Errors are inevitable, if you don't have context, and text alone is not enough to translate correctly."

Silksong's Patch 4 has a bunch of other improvements too: the team has transitioned to Unity's Input System, which means controller support should be wider, especially for rumble features. Check out the full patch notes below.

Silksong Patch 4 notes

• Updated Simplified Chinese translation to use fan translation provided by Team Cart Fix.
• Switched to Unity's Input System to improve overall controller support. This includes rumble features now working for various controllers, and additional controllers being recognised. Some issues may remain. For a full list of supported controllers and features, please visit here.
• Added additional dithering levels to advanced options. Defaults to 'low'.
• Added film grain effect to advanced options. Defaults to ‘off’
• Various localisation fixes implemented across all languages.
• Fixed Styx not giving rosaries when delivering the Queen's Egg.
• Fixed Druid's Eyes sometimes not equipping correctly when first acquired.
• Fixed some down attack colliders getting stuck on in rare instances.
• Fixed several instances of Hornet's plasmified state clearing when not intended (eg Bellway travel).
• Fixed issues entering the plasmified state when killing a Winged Lifeseed, rather than using the Plasmium Phial.
• Reduced unintentionally long bind time when using Multibinder with the Shaman crest.
• Updated Multibinder's initial bind to clear maggots, per community comments.
• Wreath of Purity durability increased.
• Fixed void incorrectly conducting electricity.
• Gurr the Outcast trap-throw attack updated from single lob to spin-style, to reduce time spent static. Other slight refinements.
• Fixed Beast Crest fury slashes not piercing as intended.
• Fixed Rune Rage damage scaling incorrectly.
• Fixed Thread Storm damage tapering (additional hits don't taper down as sharply).
• Fixed rare instances of regaining control when grabbed by a Wraith.
• Fixed couriers incorrectly offering the same delivery immediately after completing it.
• Fixed additional instances of Hornet being able to push some enemy types through the floor.
• Fixed issues when using Harpoon to stun or kill certain bosses.
• Fixed Fractured Mask not protecting against volt hazards.
• Various smaller tweaks and fixes.