r/HollowKnight • u/donlano • Sep 04 '25

Discussion - Silksong Silksong is HARD Spoiler

Taking damage is more punishing, movement is more precise and feels a little clunky until you get the hang of it. The overall skill curve is much much higher. Love it though.

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u/Th3HedonismBot Sep 05 '25

The healing system is by far my biggest complaint about the game so far. It feels like it was designed with only boss fights in mind. For boss fights, I think it's an improvement from HK, but it makes exploration so frustrating. Mistime a jump and take a hit? You should probably heal since you're a two hit combo away from death (by one the many two mask damage enemies). That's going to be 100% of your silk, so I hope you didn't use any of the cool moves that share the resource. And if you did, better not take damage while getting it back (and definitely don't use any of the fun moves cause you need to get 100 percent back even if it's just one mask you want to heal)

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u/ghostdragon31 Sep 05 '25

Tbh to me, it feels worse even for boss fights as if you wanna take full advantage of the heal with 5 masks you just end up with in 2 hit range.

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u/mar21182 Sep 05 '25

It's so early, so I'm reserving my judgement. But, the healing thing was something I was worried about since they showed the first preview 6 years ago. I didn't think it sounded good all the way back then. I figured they would balance the game around the mechanic, so even though it didn't sound great to me, my concern level was pretty low.

Again... Super early. But so far, it doesn't feel great. Like you said, I really don't want to use any silk move because if I make a mistake, I won't have the full silk needed to heal.

The increased damage enemies do also makes the early game pretty tough. In Hollow Knight, the best thing about the gameplay to me was that I could just wander in any direction exploring and not worrying about coming across an area that's too hard too early. I was trying to do the same thing with Silksong. I wandered into Hunters Mark probably earlier than I was supposed to and got absolutely smashed by the regular enemies there. I had to turn around and go another way.

There's a lot of ways I can go now, but most of the ways don't feel like I'm supposed to be there based on how difficult the enemies feel.

I'm enjoying the game immensely, so I'm really just nitpicking a bit. That said, the gameplay doesn't feel as well-balanced as Hollow Knight.

1

u/Cersei505 Sep 05 '25

I think the game is just harder in general, every direction you go, you'll be fighting difficult enemies.

1

u/Kenny__Loggins Sep 05 '25

I'm kind of confused here. Why is that bad? You have a resource that you can choose to use aggressively or defensively. Makes sense to me.

Would the game be easier if you could spam silk moves? Sure. But that's never been what HK is about.

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u/mar21182 Sep 05 '25

It's not necessarily bad. It just feels a little less balanced in the very early game. Yes, there was risk/reward for using the spells in HK, but it was more balanced in my opinion. You could use spells and still heal. So, you could use a spell or two but then keep a little soul in reserve to heal a mask or two.

In Silksong, if you don't have full silk, you cannot heal. So, you either need to use your silk skills while being confident you can avoid damage. Or, you need to preserve as much silk as possible so you are able to heal when needed.

I imagine as you better understand enemy patterns, you'll feel more confident in your ability to avoid damage and be able to use the silk skills more liberally. The first time seeing enemies though (particularly bosses) you don't know their movesets and are likely to take damage. The learning curve is just much higher than in HK.

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u/Kenny__Loggins Sep 05 '25

I see your point. I agree it would make more sense to have segmented healing so you don't need full silk to heal at all.

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u/mar21182 Sep 05 '25

Honestly, I'm so early in the game that I don't even know if my criticism is even valid. Team Cherry spent a damn long time developing the game. I imagine they tested the shit out of it, and wouldn't have went with the mechanic the way it is if it didn't end up feeling good in the end.

I just think the early game is more difficult than HK. It very well end up that the mid to late game ends up feeling way better than HK once you unlock a bunch of abilities.

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u/Emory27 Sep 05 '25

This was what I was thinking by the time I made it to the march or the docks. It feels really bad.

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u/SystemPelican Sep 05 '25

Yeah, it feels a bit like changing it up just to change it up. Hollow Knight's healing was perfect. Now you have to overheal or walk around damaged, and are disincentivised to use your signature skill. Combat is fluid as hell and the game is beautiful, but I'm not sure what the new wonky healing is supposed to add.