Indie Roundup: The Sequel Season Comes Good
Indie sequels used to be rare — small teams moved on, or burned out. The last couple of years changed that, and this month we have been replaying two of the most anticipated follow-ups in the scene's history to ask a simple question: was the wait worth it?
Hollow Knight: Silksong — the wait became the legend
Few games have been "about to release" for as long as Silksong was. When Team Cherry finally launched it in September 2025, storefronts buckled under the demand — a remarkable sight for a three-person studio from Adelaide. A year on, the dust has settled and the verdict is kind: Hornet's adventure is bigger, faster and crueller than the original, and its world rewards the patience it demanded from fans. If you bounced off its difficulty spikes at launch, the post-release patches have sanded the worst of them down. It is safe to go back in.
Hades II — early access done right, again
Supergiant repeated their early-access playbook with Hades II, and the full release showed why the model works in the right hands: a game that was already excellent in 2024 arrived at 1.0 with its story complete, its systems deepened and its community's feedback visibly baked in. Melinoë's war against Chronos is a different rhythm from Zagreus's escapes — more deliberate, more magical — and the sequel earns its independence rather than trading on the original's charm.
The pattern worth watching
Both studios share a trait the wider industry keeps relearning: they shipped when it was ready, communicated rarely but honestly, and treated early access as a collaboration instead of a pre-order with extra steps. Small teams cannot outspend the giants. These two showed, again, that they can out-wait and out-craft them.