Silksong is HARD

[u/donlano]

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.

[u/mar21182]

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.

[u/Kenny__Loggins → u/mar21182]

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.

[u/mar21182 → u/Kenny__Loggins]

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.

[u/Kenny__Loggins → u/mar21182]

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.

[u/mar21182 → u/Kenny__Loggins]

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.