Silksong's first area was only added after Team Cherry realized it needed a softer intro: "We're trying to be kind of respectful to the player. We're not trying to baby them"

Hollow Knight: Silksong cutscene screenshot showing Hornet lying on the ground in front of her nail.

Hollow Knight: Silksong developer Team Cherry ran into a design problem after slotting in The Marrow, the first major area of the game's world of Pharloom. It was kind of a brutal introduction to the game, so the team set about adding what we now know as the actual first area of Silksong: the Moss Grotto.

That's according to Hollow Knight masterminds William Pellen and Ari Gibson, who spoke with the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) earlier this summer for an interview published on September 5.