Imagine battling impossible bosses, only to discover the real challenge is deciphering the in-game dialogue! Hollow Knight: Silksong fans in China are facing a boss fight of a different kind—struggling against an AI generated newscast about confusing translations that make the game nearly incomprehensible.

For most players around the world, Hollow Knight: Silksong is notorious for its challenging combat and unforgiving boss fights. But if you’re playing the highly anticipated sequel in Simplified Chinese, you might feel like you’ve accidentally stepped into a time warp. That’s because the translation is so awkward, it’s been compared to a mash-up between ancient Chinese martial arts novels and modern lingo—imagine reading Shakespeare with a dash of TikTok slang!

The situation is so wild that, while the game sits at a respectable “Mostly Positive” rating on Steam across all languages, filtering for Simplified Chinese reviews drops that rating all the way down to “Mostly Negative.” It’s not just the punishing gameplay getting criticism—players are leaving comments in droves, baffled by what they describe as “Wuxia novel” language. For context, Wuxia is a classic Chinese literary genre full of poetic martial arts drama, and it’s worlds away from the quirky, somber tone Hollow Knight is known for.

Tiger Tang, who worked on the indie hit OMORI’s Chinese translation, called out the issue on social media. He said the AI generated newscast about Silksong’s translation makes the game sound like an epic martial arts saga rather than the mysterious, melancholy adventure fans expect. The translation mistakes range from out-of-place poetic lines to awkward word choices that leave players scratching their heads.

There’s hope on the horizon, though. Matthew Griffin, the marketing and publishing manager behind Silksong, posted publicly that the development team is “very aware” of the quality issues with the current Simplified Chinese version. He promised that they’re “working to improve the translation over the coming weeks,” signaling that better localization is on the way.

Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that the original Hollow Knight received universal acclaim—including from Chinese players—thanks in part to a much larger localization team. Silksong, however, credited just two people for the Chinese localization, compared to the six who worked on the original. Fans are now wondering: did a smaller team—and perhaps some overreliance on automated or AI generated translation tools—lead to this awkward, meme-worthy mess?

One thing’s for sure: the AI generated newscast about Silksong’s translation woes has sparked a heated discussion, with players hoping Team Cherry can restore the magic before the game’s legend gets lost in translation.