Hollow Knight: Silksong is currently enjoying a wide wave of enthusiasm and praise after the long-awaited indie sequel was finally released yesterday. Silksong‘s player count is already through the roof and it’s being lauded for its tight mechanics and accessible low price. However, despite this overwhelming success, there is a contingent of fans who are not happy with the game.

On Steam, Silksong is currently suffering from a deluge of negative reviews over the state of its Chinese translation, which disgruntled fans feel is worse than the original Hollow Knight and leans too heavily into archaic speech and pretentious prose. While the game currently has a “Very Positive” rating from reviews in all languages, Hollow Knight: Silksong only has a 51% “Mixed” rating in Simplified Chinese language reviews. This brings the game’s entire average down compared to review languages like English, where it has reached “Overwhelmingly Positive.”

Team Cherry Responds to the Translation Backlash

Wanting to address this situation quickly and succinctly, a representative for Team Cherry issued an apology over the translation issues with the game and promised to address it in the near future. “To our Chinese speaking fans: We appreciate you letting us know about quality issues with the current Simplified Chinese translation of Hollow Knight: Silksong,” wrote Team Cherry marketing & publishing representative Matthew Griffin wrote on X. “We’ll be working to improve the translation over the coming weeks. Thanks for your feedback and support.”

According to complaints, the equivalent of this unpopular translation in English would be like if they suddenly switched the dialogue to Old English and completely changed the tone from the previous game. The prose was compared to a “wuxia novel written by a teenager” by one user on X.

Chinese translations have been notoriously tricky to get right, especially in the Western indie space. Stardew Valley encountered trouble last year when it attempted to fix translation issues through an update patch, which sparked controversy and led to an eventual rollback. Chinese language characters rely on precise linework to be read correctly, and specific fonts can present issues for readers since characters can look similar and might have overlapping meanings depending on the context.

Those who play Western games in Chinese often complain about the quality of translations that haven’t improved much over the years, despite Chinese language customers making up a larger part of a game’s potential audience than ever before. Earlier this year, GameDiscover reported that Chinese slightly surpassed English as the primary language for Steam users for the first time in 2024, underscoring the need for better Simplified Chinese translations.

I think that, as the release of a massive game like Silksong has shown, translation issues will start having more outsized effects on user and review scores, forcing developers to put more effort into outputting better games in the future. No longer is having a bad translation a niche issue, since the majority of users on a platform like Steam, according to the data, have their primary language set to one other than English. This issue seems to be on the platform’s mind, as recently, Steam changed the way review scores are displayed to reflect the “vastly different experiences” that users were having in different languages for the same game.

What are your thoughts on the reviews of Silksong over the unpopular Simplified Chinese translation? Is the reaction justified, and does Silksong deserve a lower overall review score because of this misstep?

Editor’s note: The title of the article was updated as “review bombed” was not appropriately accurate.

Cato, N.Y. – Owners of a food manufacturing plant raided by over 50 federal agents and law enforcement officials Thursday said they were shocked and alarmed by the raid.

Federal agents, some masked and wearing bullet-proof vests, swept in and took away about 70 of the 150 people working at the Nutrition Bar Confectioners plant in Cato, according to Jeff, Lenny, and Mark Schmidt Jr., three brothers who own the business.

Nothing like this has ever happened in the nearly 50 years the Schmidt family has operated the business, they said in an interview Friday.

“We feel terrorized, there is no explanation,” said Lenny Schmidt.

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About 9 a.m. Thursday, the agents with US. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies raided the factory at 12351 Route 34 that pumps out hundreds of thousands of food bars each shift. Cayuga County and Oswego County sheriff’s deputies assisted in the raid.

Workers said the federal agents detained anyone who was Hispanic working in the factory, Lenny Schmidt said. The others were released.

Some workers detained had government documents in their cars showing they were legally in this country, but they weren’t allowed to get them before being taken away, the brothers said workers told them.

Some of the employees detained were later released and began to return to the business Friday, the brothers said.

The brothers said they were not in the factory when the raid started, but they rushed over when they heard about it. They said agents and deputies would not allow them past the entrance to the property.

The brothers said the factory was shut down for the rest of Thursday. This morning, they resumed operations, but with a very depleted workforce.

The plant normally runs 24 hours a day. After the raid, the later shifts were told not to come to work, the owners said.

The owners said they are trying to support their employees, including reaching out to some families who have children left behind.

“We met with everyone this morning. Just let them know how heartbreaking this was,” Jeff Schmidt said. “We’re there for them. If they can’t work today, that’s okay. If they want to find other work, we can help with that too.”

Lenny Schmidt said he can’t imagine how scared the other Hispanic workers are after the raid.

Some of the workers have been with the company for eight to 10 years, he said.

“These are well-trained, hard-working, good people who have been taken,” said Jeff Schmidt.

The company, which makes snack and protein bars and meal replacement bars, employs about 220 people.

“70 out of 220, that’s a huge blow, no doubt,” said Jeff Schmidt.

Cayuga County Sheriff Brian Schenck said the raid was a U.S. Department of Homeland Security investigation into felony crimes, but has refused to say what crimes.

The Schmidt’s said they were told the same thing, but are unaware of what crimes are being investigated.

An ICE spokesperson would not answer questions submitted by Syracuse.com | The Post-Standard, including what crimes were being investigated. Illegally entering the country more than once is a felony.

ICE won’t say how many people it detained. On Thursday, the state said more than 40 people were detained.

The brothers said their hiring practices and standards are fully compliant with federal law. They said all the employees had proper documentation to work.

They said they are particularly diligent because they know they have many migrant workers.

The owners said a lot is still up in the air for the company that was founded in 1978 by Leonard “Len” Schmidt and his son Mark Sr. as Incred-a-Meal. Mark and his three sons rebranded the company in 2007 as Nutrition Bar Confectioners.

The brothers don’t know how many employees will come back and they don’t know if the investigation will return to their factory.

They questioned if anyone would want to come work there after what happened and that they will have to hit the market to replace some of their highly skilled, practiced workers if they do not return. Some people did apply for jobs on Friday.

The family said they have received positive messages and support from the community.

The owners said that it will be a difficult for the company to bounce back.

Look to the skies on Sept. 7-8 to witness Earth’s shadow roll over the lunar disk, giving rise to a deep red “blood moon.” Here’s what to expect during each phase of this week’s total lunar eclipse.

A total lunar eclipse occurs when Earth passes between the moon and sun, temporarily bathing the entire lunar disk in its shadow. This in turn causes our natural satellite to glow a deep red, as the scattered light from every sunrise and sunset on Earth is bent onto the lunar disk.