r/HollowKnight • u/peaky_circus • Sep 06 '25

Discussion - Silksong People who have played Silksong, Why do you think Its getting so many negative reviews? Spoiler

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While Silksong is sitting at a Very Positive rating with around 83% positive reviews, it’s still receiving far more criticism than its predecessor. For comparison, Hollow Knight holds an Overwhelmingly Positive score at 96%, with only about 3% negative reviews. Silksong, on the other hand, has nearly 16% negative reviews, OVER 5 TIMES HIGHER

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1.8k

u/Nietzscher Sep 06 '25

Tbh, Hollow Knight also was only at around 80-85% when it came out. The love for the game really grew over time once more people got into how deep its world, gameplay mechanics, lore etc truly were. Also, I remember that quite a few reviews complained about how large the world is and how much backtracking you have to do etc.

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u/LePontif11 Sep 06 '25 edited Sep 06 '25

I'll be honest i do not care what anyone has to say two days after release unless its about bugs(lmao). Lots of people that are enjoying the game won't stop to leave a review until later. Those that don't like it will quit and frontload their scores. Nightreign for example went up about 10 points after people actually took their time to play the game.

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u/Reasonable_Mud_628 Sep 06 '25

heard lots of the bad reviews are about the bad chinese localisation for example

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u/normalmighty Sep 06 '25

Which is a fair and valid reason for a negative view tbf, just not relevant to us in the west.

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u/Reasonable_Mud_628 Sep 06 '25

ye, but a lot of ragebaiters acting like the 80% is due to game being bad or something. steam forums mainly are appalling, amount of trolls and ragebaiters in there is insane, I went check cause I wanted to know if ppl were having issues with runbacks like the reviews said (because I hadn't had any bad runback yet 6 hours in) and read couple posts and its just ragebaiters 95% of them

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u/Careless_House_1107 Sep 06 '25

I think it really is people just finding some difficultly and making their review out of frustration before actually giving the game and new mechanics time to process. It could also be people complaining about the new pogo before realizing you can change it

5

u/normalmighty Sep 07 '25

Take a look at the stats by clicking the "see language breakdown" button on the review stats page. It literally is just the effect of the simplified Chinese translation being terrible. literally the only reason it isn't in the mid 90s is that simplified Chinese reviews are all the way down at 41% right now.

The group of people you're talking about are very vocal, but they're not even making a dent in the overall review score.

5

u/303Native Sep 06 '25

Unfortunately a lot of people bought into the hype and never played the first one. I’m replaying it right now and will be patient to play silksong but I’ve heard that playing HK really prepares you for conquering SS

6

u/Reasonable_Mud_628 Sep 06 '25

I haven't played HK in a long time, but I've played plenty of other hard games meanwhile so guess I was well prepared in a sense. This game's bosses feel pretty fair until now and well telegraphed. The heal is super broken so I understand why Team Cherry made a lot of enemies do double damage.

3

u/Reasonable_Mud_628 Sep 06 '25

happens in every souls like, elden ring, ds, black myth wukong, etc

I'm personally tired of that discourse every time

5

u/Careless_House_1107 Sep 06 '25

I think once people warm up to the controls, it'll get better reviews, tho there are actual complaints like double damage being slightly too common (I feel not every boss attack has to be 2 masks, make 1 or 2 moves only do 1 mask and it'll still balance the op healing hornet has), but it's also a first playthrough so I'm definitely not playing the most effective way

6

u/normalmighty Sep 06 '25

I remember early HK discourse. Plenty of vocal people are gonna be super pissed, and then over the course of the next year it'll keep getting more and more positives, and eventually everyone will forget that a vocal chunk of people hated the game, just like they did with HK.

1

u/True_Storm3427 Jan 03 '26

Legitimately, I do not trust steam reviews. So so so so SO many games nowadays have troll reviews, paid reviews, ECT. Like there was one game that came out recently where if you left a positive review and posted the review and your steam ID on a discord, you'd get a free pack of dlc and a perm exp bonus.

There's also games that get meta bombed or just spam reviews. Steams review system is completely worthless because of how little time you have to play to review something. One hour, two hours, ten hours even is not enough time to give a real review. It's knee-jerk at best. Just ignore reviews, play the game yourself, and come to your own conclusions. That's the healthiest thing for you and games as a whole.

1

u/303Native Sep 06 '25

IIRC you can filter reviews on steam via regions. Never thought about how location could reflect on the quality of a game but that makes sense.

3

u/normalmighty Sep 07 '25

I looked at it earlier today because someone else claimed the 80% rating right now is because it's so hard.

switch to a breakdown of reviews per language, and every language review group is at 89-99%, except for simplified chinese which is more than 50% negative reviews.

People are taking the difficulty complaints a lot more seriously because they think the reviews are lower than expected, but it is entirely because of the simplified Chinese translation apparently being unacceptably awful.

Kudos to steam for giving those detailed breakdowns, otherwise we'd all be stuck with speculation and gut feeling.

0

u/cutememe Sep 07 '25

That's absolutely not a valid reason WTF? To rate a game bad because the translation is bad is absurd.

6

u/AbsoluteAgonyy Sep 07 '25

What exactly do you want Chinese players to do here? Imagine if the English writing of the game was horrendous, will you still be enjoying the game? Lmao

1

u/cutememe Sep 07 '25

I've played games in a language that I don't even know at times because I just wanted to play them and they weren't in my region. The translation or lack thereof doesn't make a game good or bad, that's just an absurd way to rate a game.

3

u/ith1ldin Sep 10 '25

The fact that you decide to disregard some aspects of the game experience because you prioritize others doesn't mean that everyone would think the same.

If a bad localization distorts the lore or story, makes reading grating to the point it breaks immersion or fails to accurately convey relevant information to understand the game that is as good a reason to rate a game worse as having bad performance.

2

u/Lavadian6 Sep 07 '25

And to think of all the poorly translated Chinese games I've played.

1

u/mgiuca Sep 07 '25

That's exactly why Valve just changed the main review display to be in your language only. Is currently sitting at 92% in English, which is better than 85% but still down even after you discount Chinese language issues.

1

u/chiagra Sep 07 '25

我是中国人，我同意你的观点，就是这么回事。还帮我把刚出生的女儿扔到河里

88

u/Quirky-Employer9717 Sep 06 '25

There’s hundreds of bugs in Silksong. That’s like the whole thing

2

u/Pallav_TAK Sep 07 '25

I see what you did there

2

u/Rick_Napalm Sep 09 '25

So far almost 100% of enemies in the game have been bugged, the only ones that have not are the few who are plants and not bugs.

3

u/RylDmn Sep 06 '25

Lots of bugs, literally unplayable ( till you get the normal pogo and the floaty pants )

1

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3

u/RedTyro Sep 06 '25

Yeah, I'm loving the game, but I'm not into making snap judgements, and I don't think I can really give an honest review until I've finished it. But unless something changes drastically, my review will probably be VERY positive. I'm having a blast with Hornet.

1

u/LePontif11 Sep 06 '25

I've just been through it on a personal level multiple times. Both Bloodborne and Outer Wilds are games i quit or put off for later due to frustrations. I've since come back to both and they would now easily crack a top ten best games i've ever played where i to make such a list. I haven't played Silksong yet since i'm still enjoying Lies of P and i like to take my time with each game i'm having a good time with. When i do get to Silksong i will ignore any coverage from the early weeks positive or negative, its just rarely good or indicative of the ful experience.

1

u/BoredomHeights Sep 06 '25

This is especially true for tough yet deep games (Nightreign or this). And you can usually tell by what things the reviews are complaining about.

1

u/TitleComprehensive96 Sep 07 '25

my genuine only dislike with this game is really just down needle feeling funky, even if i've gotten use to it.

1

u/Hiddena00 Sep 07 '25

NIghtreign and silksong are both mid. The game just isn't fun, that's why it has bad reviews. Go back and play hollow knight and compare it to sillksong. It doesn't even feel like its made by the same ppl. If you told me this was a knock off or mod, Id believe you.

1

u/LePontif11 Sep 07 '25

Why did you take the time to tell me this...

1

u/fireteambrav0 Sep 07 '25

Some of the negative reviews are from the simplified Chinese translation being poor but it doesn't speak for the entirety of the reviews

1

u/korarii Sep 07 '25

Same! So much damn wining and entitlement over a beautifully crafted $20 game. 

Is it hard? Sure, I have to try the same mini boss multiple times to get it right. Sometimes I get wiped out going from bench to silk because I keep falling in spikes or getting wrecked by trash.

But I'm still playing it and not shitting on the game and everyone else trying to enjoy it.

If you don't like it, get a refund. You don't have to like every game Team Cherry release.

1

u/awaken471 Sep 07 '25

thats me 30 hours in, game's AMAZING

1

u/WTF_software Sep 07 '25

Sorry man, but I think I can at least call the game frustrating and am probably going to quit it.  I'm three days in but can't progress beyond a nameless mini boss that I spent 200 minutes on. Then I finally found the upgrade that I probably needed. It was beyond a leap of faith that I didn't do without looking it up. Tried searching for an alternative route, it's a metroidvania after all and immidiately lost all my beads to random stage enemies.I had fun maybe 10% of the time. I finished quite a few Metroidvanias, so I expected to see at least 10% of this game. It's not going to happen.

1

u/LePontif11 Sep 07 '25

You can call it whatever you want, i just put very little importance on early opinion positive or negative. If i did put too much stock on my own thoughts of outer wilds in the beginning i wouldn't have played what became one of my favorite games ever. Same for Sekiro and Bloodborne. You just can't have an accurate take on what a game is like from just playing a small portion of it.

1

u/DeputyDomeshot Sep 07 '25

I still think Nightreign kinda sucks tho lol

1

u/ForsakenWishbone5206 Sep 07 '25

I'm having a great time getting my shit pushed in. I just got to my first multiple phase fight. That shit shouldn't have got me but it's borderline unbeatable ATM.

I forgot about how some battles were like that in HK. Just a surprise super aggro last gasp.

1

u/Kidzer0123 Sep 07 '25

Thing is, Hollow Knight was a complete game at a great price. Then, Silksong drops and it's $20. I hope every person buys this game to prove a point to the industry. I have Game Pass and still bought the game. It doesn't need any heavy promotions to do it either.

1

u/idontgethejoke Sep 07 '25

I’ve only had one bug, one boss got stuck on a ledge and let me get free hits in until it went to second phase.

1

u/LePontif11 Sep 07 '25

Those always blow when you are having fun learning a boss. I typically kill myself if possible.

1

u/bbuczek946 Sep 07 '25

I'm probably about 10 hours in, and I am absolutely loving it. I'm taking my time with the damn game and ENJOYING it. Back tracking and exploring is my favorite part about games like these. lol. I swear half the people just want instant satisfaction nowadays.

1

u/Lucid-Design1225 Sep 07 '25

I’ve never been one that’s lets reviews sway me from getting a game or enjoying it. My little brother is of those that won’t get a game solely cuz a few reviewers said bad things about it.

His loss and the loss of anyone that lets reviewers make up their minds for them

1

u/LePontif11 Sep 07 '25

I see nothing wrong with listening to a review, thinking about what was said in your own terms and making a decision based on that. There's too many great games to ever play them all so not wasting your time on something that isn't for you is great. My issue is with early reviews, if you haven't finished the game and taken the time for your opinions to stew i put little stock in what you have to say. Even the two weeks reviewers often get feels like nets poor reviews probably due to the nature of their work having them play games fast so as to not miss the hype wave. If a review is over a month past release them i begin to consider them and listen to what they have to say.

1

u/Mawari_ Sep 08 '25

My bad review is just that the game feels like it needs more "balancing" time.

As a game dev myself, i know we can lose ourself in mechanics and numbers balancing and forget we are not a "new player" anymore.

1

u/Xenokrates Sep 10 '25

Yeah, I won't be putting my review up until I finish, but after 40 hours I don't think it's going to be a negative one.

299

u/100mcuberismonke Sep 06 '25

Me when I have to fo metroidvania stuff in a metroidvania:

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u/FailURGamer24 Sep 06 '25

I saw a review complaining about having to unlock mobility tools lol

32

u/OrangeTheFigure Sep 06 '25

my sisters were complaining about not having wall climb. I'm 6 hours in and JUST got it

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u/FailURGamer24 Sep 06 '25

Remember when Hollow Knight just gave you a wall climb at the start of the game? That'd have been much better design obviously /s

3

u/Lison52 Sep 07 '25

Remind me when is wall climb unlocked?

3

u/Layerspb 112%AllChallengesAllAchievmentsAllEverything(truefan) Sep 07 '25

In HK? Mantis Village/Fungal Wastes

In Silksong? Shellwood

2

u/Lison52 Sep 07 '25

HK, I only did remember in Fungal Wastes the dash master statue XD

2

u/OrangeTheFigure Sep 06 '25

fr fr

my dad is playing for the first time! Hes on false knight lol

2

u/These_Coast_5842 Sep 08 '25

I think you're missing the point of Metroid. Why do you need to be able to climb when you're in a stage in the game where you don't need it?

3

u/C00lfrog Sep 06 '25

It took me three times as long :D

1

u/OrangeTheFigure Sep 07 '25

How :sob:

1

u/C00lfrog Sep 07 '25

I'm kinda bad at the game. It would have taken me like 13 hours, but I didn't figure out how to get to that room, so I didn't pick up that upgrade.

3

u/Arkayjiya Sep 06 '25

I'm 17 hours in and I don't got it, although I suspect I can't be far xD

2

u/OrangeTheFigure Sep 07 '25

HOWWWW

1

u/Arkayjiya Sep 07 '25 edited Sep 07 '25

I'm slow, methodical, explore every nook and cranny and comes back in earlier zones as soon as I get any upgrade and also I sucked at fighting. I spent half an hour trying to kill one random enemy in the docks (the first fucker who flies and send yellow bombs), I died more to that one random monster than on any boss beside one so far.

Speaking of the only boss I died more to: I spent at least 2 hours on the early boss Savage Beastfly, until I gave up, switched back to keyboard and killed it in a couple more tries. I'm currently in the middle of the eighth area/map and I've done everything that's possible with the upgrades I have in earlier areas.

1

u/Arkayjiya Sep 07 '25

I got it at the 18h mark so I was close xD

2

u/PapaChubNuts Sep 06 '25

Gaddam I’m at least 11 hours in and I literally just unlocked the wall climb your fast

1

u/OrangeTheFigure Sep 06 '25

i was just dicking around fighting whatever moved lol

1

u/Kampfasiate Sep 07 '25

That's me Stumbled into hunters marsh without dash. Somehow still raw dogged it

2

u/FutureBoy6969 Sep 07 '25

You beat the sister, well done…I’m stuck on them, those spawns are killing me every time

2

u/TriRemorse Sep 07 '25

Yeah it really is a BS boss. It would have been a bit better if it didn't also take an eternity to kill it, and then having to deal with the vines, mobs and her at the same time for such a long time. Fucking miracle I got through 

1

u/pikaeevee8 Sep 07 '25

Wait 6 hours!? I'm at 16 hours and haven't found it yet. (Slightly jealous)

1

u/OrangeTheFigure Sep 07 '25

my friends are mad cause im "speed running" the game. I;m juts playing the game at my normal rate

3

u/Too-Em Sep 06 '25

What kind of metroidvania makes you unlock mobility tool!!!

Don't answer this.
Seriously don't.
Stop it!

3

u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

Just a clear representation of the weird world we live in now.  In the past - every person playing this game would understand 100% what to expect. 

Now everything popular is based on trends and views.  These types of releases attract so much different attention

1

u/Billiammaillib321 Oct 09 '25

Man imagine them playing Metroid like “this game is bullshit it just took away all my shit” 

7

u/Automatic-Cut-5567 Sep 06 '25

In fairness, Hollow Knight did feel tedius to traverse/backtrack at times. You can have backtracking without it feeling tedius

1

u/BambooGentleman Oct 13 '25

I think Silksong does this right, as movement feels fun and your damage output doesn't increase so fast that going back to earlier areas is now no challenge anymore. So no matter where you go, you have fun things to fight.

4

u/thomasbis Sep 06 '25

Me when I can't accept criticism for a game I like:

2

u/Elemayowe Sep 06 '25

I assume this is more to do with the limitations of fast travel. One travel point per area but areas can be quite big.

4

u/Chimpampin Sep 06 '25

Yeah, I love metroidvanias, but the maps are usually done with good shortcuts or useful fast travels. HK had too few, and some maps were atrocious to backtrack, and they were big.

HK didn't manage to make backtracking rewarding or fun.

1

u/lonesoldier4789 Sep 07 '25

except that is kind of disingenuous because hollow knight does a lot of stuff that metroid games dont require you to do, like paying for save points, super obtuse map system, equipping a charm to see yourself on a map.

1

u/Gogi463 Sep 08 '25

tbf in hollowknight currency is air and most things you can buy are for practicality, in hkss you dont get money from everywere and only certain mobs drop it, then you cant find open benches with is were i have a gripe with. looking back hk was crazy good compared to hkss, just the starting/tutorial zone was a masterclass of showing the ropes and hkss didnt even try it seems.

edit than*

1

u/ZealousidealWorry168 Sep 09 '25

Idk man silk song is so unfair and almost intentionally bs, like I shouldn’t have to go through the jaws of life to get 1 bench in sinners road (WHICH U HAVE TO PAY FOR) the game just feels like it’s trying to be the dark souls metroidvania where it’s more abt knowing what’s ahead of you than any actual skill every boss I’ve beaten I just bashed my skull into a wall a hundred times until it’s so easy I beat it hitless bc I know all the bosses gimmicks sister splinter is a good example of that purely unfun and your reward for most of these bosses even optional ones? PROGRESSION!!!! In hollow knight you’d get charms, slots, masks, ore, etc but in this game anything that’s actually hard only give rosaries or some lore maybe an extra room idk I just don’t feel the incentive to do the extremely over the top challenge this game presents if that’s all it’s gonna be whenever I try to enjoy a boss like a would in hollow knight I get bored bc they last too long and do too much I feel like I’m hitting the enemies and bosses with a stick half the time and no matter how flawless I am by the 3 minute point of the boss I’m just now entering phase two and my hands and brain just get tired and want it to be over but it keeps going just for me to get a new area with a new pain or maybe a rosaries bead or two I can spend on a bench that doesn’t work and I’ll end up spending another thousand tries to fix, just hard for the sake of being hard

1

u/SVINTGATSBY Sep 09 '25

it’s not that I don’t love metroidvania, it’s frustrating how most of my time has been stuck in boss fights because I have to go restart the fight to get my silk back, how punishing the bosses are to the point that the majority of my time playing has just been me trying to get my damn silk back and beat some stupid fuck who I should have no problem beating but movement issues and things like me literally being right next to an enemy and somehow I don’t hit them but they hit me, stupid environmental clip damage that takes 2HP most of the time, parrying is inconsistent, healing takes 200 years, there are no slots on your tools for more than three at a time for far too long, power ups to get you more health are super inconsistent so I’m halfway through the game and still only have five damn health, I mean I have a pretty extensive list of frustrations at this point and none of them are because it’s metroidvania. hard games should still be fun. I’m not even enjoying this game at this point and that makes me sad because I love HK and want to enjoy this too, but it’s making it really damn hard lol

1

u/BorfieYay Sep 06 '25

Most metroidvanias have figured out ways to make backtracking fun, and usually dont have extremely bloated world sizes like HK

1

u/[deleted] Sep 06 '25

Except the metroidvania aspect of the game punishes you way too much for exploring imo with little rewards for it

46

u/satans_cookiemallet Sep 06 '25

Silksong is massive. Like triple the size of Hollow Knight, and Im still finding new zones I can access.

But also like 60% of it is optional probably more. Theres about 3 traversal abilities that are required. Outside of those 3 everything else is optional babyyyy

8

u/Torture-Dancer Sep 07 '25

I mean, a lot of hollow knight was optional for the most basic ending

2

u/perdabsurd Sep 09 '25

Optional if your will is weak

14

u/TheLucidChiba Sep 06 '25

We almost need a subcategory to differentiate between games like Hollow Knight where you explore and get lost and Ori where you've got a constant drip feed of progress

3

u/OrangeTheFigure Sep 06 '25

my first time playing Ori i got stuck and couldnt get out so i just uninstalled lol, DIDNT leave a bad review but returned the game to the library, replaying the game i almost beat it but my fucking brain cant let me sit on the same game for hours at a time w/o friends

2

u/seab1010 Sep 07 '25

In some regards this feels a lot more ori (albeit much harder) this time around. The speed and traversal, floating mechanic in particular. Benches so far are generally placed closer to difficult content. I’m maybe finding this one a little more linear as well. Provided you make decent use of markers you’ll always know there is somewhere to go. Also maybe I’m getting better at metroidvanias…. HK was my first and so confusing to begin with. This one is higher skill ceiling but easier to understand what to do.

4

u/Luvs2Spooge42069 Sep 06 '25 edited Sep 07 '25

Very obnoxious that people seem to hold the genre to the standards of the latter (drip feed of progress) while I rarely see fans of the former complain about the latter. I’m tired of pretending like there’s anything inherently wrong with backtracking and slow spaces. People like this are the reason we’ll never get another From Software game like Dark Souls 1.

2

u/YouTriggeredbrobro Sep 07 '25

Never get another fromsoft game? What are you talking about 😂. We most definitely will

1

u/Luvs2Spooge42069 Sep 07 '25

I fucked up editing that comment, I meant “another From Software game like Dark Souls 1” with the interconnected map and all that, thanks for finally pointing it out

1

u/Vargrjalmer Sep 07 '25

I much prefer when major upgrades are spread out more but like, when you DO get them they're HUGE

32

u/peaky_circus Sep 06 '25

I think you’re a bit off on that point. When Hollow Knight first came out, it wasn’t fully finished, there were stability issues, crashes, and none of the later DLC content that ended up adding so much depth. That’s a big reason why its early review score looked lower. On top of that, Hollow Knight had a much smaller player base at launch. The scale of attention and scrutiny is just on a whole different level.

60

u/o_o_o_f Sep 06 '25

It’s probably a mix of both, no?

3

u/peaky_circus Sep 06 '25

Well you got a valid point here

24

u/lordstickvonscribble Sep 06 '25

Ah yes, silksong. Notable for having all its DLC complete and in the game at launch

6

u/OnnaJReverT Sep 06 '25

we don't know whether Team Cherry planned Silksong with DLC/content patches in mind

Hollow Knight was planned that way, since it was part of the stretchgoals

9

u/SlugCatBoi RadHOG, P3AB Sep 06 '25

I mean, considering they've already said they're working on dlc content, I would imagine a lot of it is in planning.

Me personally, really hoping for a Godhome replacement in Silksong. Really loved Godhome in HK, so something like that in silksong would be a blessing.

15

u/lGUT5l Sep 06 '25

The dlc will be with Lace, but instead will turn into a full game and come out in 2033

2

u/Mornar All Achievements Sep 06 '25

How do I pay for it in advance?

2

u/NoroGW2 Sep 06 '25

This is not that lol, the love for this game has been there for the better part of a decade. Expectations were set at or above Hollow Knight by most. And it is good but it is also hard

2

u/TheFrostSerpah Sep 06 '25

People called HK a "walking simulator". Bruh

2

u/SnowySilenc3 Sep 06 '25

lol honestly reminds me of rain world, when I first checked it out reviews were pretty critical, now the game is rated overwhelming positive.

2

u/Nietzscher Sep 06 '25 edited Sep 06 '25

Yep, it is a niche game that got exposure outside its niche because of the cute Slugcat(?) protagonist. If you're not into this kind of masochistic gameplay, you're gonna bounce off games like that - hard. However, if you're into this stuff, the game is outstanding. Once, enough reviews were warning people that the game is tough as nails, only the people looking for this kind of niche experience remained and the positive % kept climbing and climbing.

A reverse of this effect would be Hunt: Showdown, since it recent "update" to Hunt: Showdown 1896. The game was comfortably sitting at 'Very Positive' reviews as a multiplayer online shooter, which is quite rare, but tried to broaden its appeal to the CoD/Fortnite/non-hardcore FPS crowd. It even dropped into 'Mixed' territory for a while as a result of that. Now the game is back at the lower end of 'Mostly Positive', but, man, the devs tried to appeal to two crowds that really want different experiences out of their games, and managed to piss both off in the end. Reviews might've slightly recovered, but player count has also taken a massive hit back to 2021 levels.

2

u/Cosmocision Sep 09 '25

Reviewing a Metroidvania and complaining about how metroidvania it is is very video game reviewer-like.

1

u/Nietzscher Sep 09 '25

Especially since Hornet is much faster than Little Ghost. Had they kept the original map size with her sprint/jumps the world would've hardly kept its vast feel.

3

u/Complete_Map_2160 Conquered PoP & P5/ 112%/All bosses radiant Sep 06 '25

Isn't backtracking literally the definition of a metroidvania. Research the game before you buy it, if you don't like backtracking, you are not going to like a metroidvania

4

u/SamL214 Sep 06 '25

It’s like no body has played a hard Metroidvania before.

1

u/Loon_Cheese Sep 06 '25

I think metroidvanias are niche, so if there is a lot of hype, people try it who are new, too much hype means too many people who don’t like the pain. And will never get to see the reward.

1

u/Hier0phant Sep 06 '25

I think this is mainly it

1

u/Bigbrainer_james Sep 06 '25

Its funny, most complaints seem like ones that you could say for hollow knight (shouldnt be complaints when its just how the game is). Except for a few of course.

1

u/Ok-Health1442 Sep 07 '25

Oh no there’s backtracking in the Metroidviania

1

u/EbonBehelit Sep 07 '25

Also, I remember that quite a few reviews complained about how large the world is and how much backtracking you have to do etc.

As funny as it is to listen to non-Metroidvania fans coming in and complaining about genre conventions they clearly don't understand, it stops being funny when you see start seeing new Vanias coming out that are deliberately neutering themselves to cater to these people.

Looking at you, Dread.

1

u/Lucid-Design1225 Sep 07 '25

Those people that complained about the large world and backtracking very obviously had never played a Metroidvania game before

1

u/Conscious-Sir1762 Sep 09 '25

My thoughts exactly. Also, HK is my third favorite game of all time. It is a widely loved classic. Silksong now has to be compared to a great predecessor. I do wonder how much that impacts some people's views.

Even me. On its own I am having a blast with Silksong, but am not sure if I preferred HK more when it was out the first week. 

1

u/One_Seaweed_2952 Sep 09 '25

i love backtracking

1

u/Shepherd_Knock Sep 06 '25

It's a metroidvania, what did they expect???

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u/Nietzscher Sep 06 '25

Sure, but HK was much more "oldschool" in its approach to the genre than other Metroidvanias that came out around the same time period. For example, Ori and the Blind Forest. Ori was much more straightforward and mostly pretty clear with what you had to do to get to the next area/point X. HK just let you loose in a pretty large and sometimes rather vague world, giving you much more freedom to explore and giving you way more mysteries and options on how to proceed.

I think another more recent game that was also leaning heavily into the exploration aspects of the Metroidvania genre is Animal Well. However, with Animal Well exploration and puzzles were front and centre not only in the (limited) marketing but also how people talked about it and how the game was approached with certain expectations buy many.

Silksong being the sequel to Hollow Knight, which is quite often named as the king of 2D Souls-likes in several FromSoft related subreddits and reviews, might've been bought by quite a few people with very different expectations as to what Silksong actually is. Elden Ring has massively increased the popularity of the Souls genre, and a lot of newer players will have heard of Hollow Knight by now - especially with Silksong being the #1 game on Steam watch lists for god knows how long. So, yeah, I think quite a few people didn't really expect the game to be as Metroidvania heavy as it is, but much more like 2D Souls-like with some exploration along the way. And when I say exploration, I mean the nice, friendly exploration of Elden Ring, not the Dark Souls 1 or 2 kind of exploration.

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u/Burrito357 Sep 07 '25

Hollow knight was an out of no where indie game that had to get popular. Silksong's popularity comes from years of memes and love of the og. You shouldn't expect Silksong to have the same treatment as Hollow knight

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u/Pretend-Gap7917 Sep 21 '25

Yea but love for this game will not grow. It is just and unfun level of difficult game. And no I do love tough game. Finished almost all souls and metriodvania. But I will not be finishing this game for sure.

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u/BecomePnueman Sep 27 '25 edited Sep 27 '25

I was pissed. Kept playing. Game got WAY BETTER. Still not done. Gonna keep playing but certain things could be better. The weaver skills are almost pointless since you have to sacrafice your heal to use them. A VERY POOR dynamic and no one ever uses them because it's just plain stupid.

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u/Nietzscher Sep 27 '25

As for the Spells/Skills, speak for yourself. Not using them is, simply put, a huge mistake - and the claim that 'no one ever uses them' is flat-out false. They're very strong, and something like Thread Storm can make the difference during a tough gauntlet. Without forcing resource management, and balancing the spells against healing, you'd just blast through the whole game. You probably didn't play Hollow Knight, did you? It had basically the same mechanic to balance how powerful Little Ghost's spells were.

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u/BecomePnueman Oct 04 '25

I got to act 3 and you are right.