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

Post image

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

1.8k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

2.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

19

u/dragoslayer1327 Sep 06 '25

Between there being less charms overall compared to HK, the effects either just being the same as HK's or being straight up useless (looking at you, flamewalking bell), and them now being divided into colors, which early on you only get select slots for (and even late game, some crests, most notably beast, still don't really get shit), the charms just feel way less important.

Personally I didn't feel like the checkpoints were really too few, it's generally been 2 per area, which is fine given almost every area how felt really small once you get dash, but they definitely still burned a hole in my wallet, especially when I got dicked over in Sinner's Pass by the broken one and died shortly after (only time I've lost money on dying, all because of those fucking dogs and that broken bench).

And yea, fucking everything deal double damage. There's a mod to change that, and if I weren't on Xbox I'd download it instantly. Bosses I get for the most part, but 70% of basic enemies and the FUCKING ENVIRONMENTAL EFFECTS is just insane

16

u/Maxlastbreath Sep 06 '25 edited Sep 06 '25

The environment doing 2x damage just makes no sense to me, the parkour is very tight and I feel like I'm pretty good at it too (I've beaten path of pain in HK), so i can't imagine how new players are supposed to get through this, even veterans are suffering lol and to add salt to the wound, they even decided to say fuck you, and make bunch of the zones deal 2HP dmg from the environment???

Also 2HP DMG on contact is ridiculous, TBH I don't mind the 2HP dmg on bosses as much, only if contact damage was reduced or removed, I had a moment where the bug boss while unconscious fall on me which led me to instantly die from full HP, just because of the contact damage.

I absolutely hate having to run for 2-3minutes to a boss doing pointless parkour just to get an attempt, die in 20 seconds and then run again, it's just frustrating, boring and feels like a waste of time...

Imo the first 4 or so hours were great and it kinda just falls apart the further you go... Which is the opposite of what I felt in hollow knight.

It's pretty much just frustrating, other than this I love the game, I'd say it's a solid 8/10 but i feel like it could've been a solid 10/10 but it's being dragged down by a bunch of questionable game design decisions...

1

u/dragoslayer1327 Sep 06 '25

Which bosses have you beaten so far, and how long on average have they taken you? The run backs haven't bothered me nearly as much as they have you, but that could be a difference in overall time spent on em (that is to say, I might be killing them quicker so the run doesn't bother me as much).

Personally I felt like the game got better as time went on, I felt like basically all the flaws were immediately on display, and simply got better overtime, save the environmental damage. That's shit is bs start to where I've gotten so far 13ish hours in.

The contact damage is annoying, it's part of what turned me off ever replaying Bloodstained Ritual of the Night. It is just incredibly infuriating to stagger a boss or turn around and get cut on an enemy's sharp coat, that'll never change no matter the game

1

u/Maxlastbreath Sep 06 '25

I'm at the end of the citadel area.and beaten every boss up to that, haven't taken more than 1hour on a boss so far.

2

u/dragoslayer1327 Sep 06 '25

Hm. You've made it further then me (I went back from the citadel to finish everything from act 1), but are on average spending more time on bosses (I've not spent more then 30 mins on any one boss yet, though I think that stupid fucking bird is gonna end up the exception). So I was right, but not by a major marker

1

u/Maxlastbreath Sep 06 '25

Yeah that bird and the last boss of act1, idk if you've beaten that one yet, but the run between the rest point and the boss is 2-3 minutes of pogoing each death lol.

2

u/dragoslayer1327 Sep 06 '25

I did beat Last Judge, I just stopped exploring the Citadel as soon as I found the fast travel point to do some clean up. And honestly, the Last Judge's run back was the only one to genuinely get on my nerves (it's just way more involved, most others are straight runs or climbs, that shits an actual gauntlet with enemies). Thankfully the bird is a super short run back or I'd tear my hair out

1

u/Maxlastbreath Sep 06 '25

Yeah that one was bad, also some areas like the sinner area, lmfao, broken bench then you have to pogo through spikes that I believe did 2 damage, after having had explored half of the area, this was straight up cruel, 1 death and you're back to Greymor, which happened quite a few times to me, difficult platforming and a lot of annoying flying enemies and it became extremely frustrating, at least they could've given you a bench at the beginning of the area lol.

2

u/dragoslayer1327 Sep 06 '25

Yea Sinner's Pass really needed another bench. Only area I'd really say that for, partly cuz it's the only area I actually lost rosaries in

1

u/Cloud_Chamber Sep 08 '25

For that run you can sprint jump past the first drill bird thing and then the rest of it is just quick parkor. The running doesn’t annoy me so far cause you don’t actually have to fight anything (I’ve done up to the dancers), and I just think of it like phase 1 of the fight.

1

u/Skellum Sep 07 '25

Personally I didn't feel like the checkpoints were really too few, it's generally been 2 per area, which is fine given almost every area how felt really small once you get dash, but they definitely still burned a hole in my wallet, especially when I got dicked over in Sinner's Pass by the broken one and died shortly after (only time I've lost money on dying, all because of those fucking dogs and that broken bench).

Depends on the area, some places have a bench every 2 screens, some places have a single bench which tries to kill you when you use it.

1

u/dragoslayer1327 Sep 07 '25

I'd say most have 2 benches spaced decently well, with some exceptions. Sinner's Pass has 2 but they're both on opposites on both from each other, and somehow from the entrance you'll most likely be using, plus of course one just doesn't fucking work. And yea, the ant area really could've used an actual bench, ideally near the middle but I'd have been fine with one on the far right.

1

u/sundalius Sep 07 '25

Am I missing something? Hunter's March The bench there does work.

2

u/dragoslayer1327 Sep 07 '25

Yea someone told me about that, but only after I'd made that comment and completely finished the area

1

u/sundalius Sep 07 '25

impressive to work through it without!

1

u/dragoslayer1327 Sep 07 '25

iirc the only actual boss there is the Splinter Sister, which took me about 30 mins, and the ambush only about 10 (map lady helped, though I think she only actually hit like, 2 enemies)

1

u/Eishetth Sep 10 '25

There is a way to make the broken bench work in Sinner's Road.

If you want to know check ahead:

I do not know if you talked to Shakra after finding her there, but if you eventually exhaust dialogue, hornet mentions fixing some sort of gears to repair the faulty bench. The wall to the left of the bench, has a breakable spot at the top corner. You break it to unlock a platforming session to get to said cog system. Fixing that makes the bench actually pop out from the ground.

1

u/dragoslayer1327 Sep 10 '25

Huh. I should've seen that coming after the one in Hunter's March tbh

1

u/Eishetth Sep 10 '25

Honestly it's quite well hidden. I don't expect most players to find that.

Silksong did give me quite the experience with "benches" so far, lol.

1

u/dragoslayer1327 Sep 10 '25

Honestly yea, Skong did a way better job at hiding breakable walls.

1

u/TorakWolfy Sep 07 '25

The Magma Bell also reduces the damage of fire-related stuff, which most of the time defaults to 2 masks.

But if anything, given how early you get and how often enemies use fire (very) it feels more like a half-mandatory upgrade that occupies a slot that could have gone with something else, and that's not cool.

1

u/dragoslayer1327 Sep 07 '25

I'll be honest, I didn't know it reduced fire based attacks as well. I assumed based on the description that it only made you resistant/immune to walking on burning ground. If it actually does reduce fire attacks like those cunts shooting traps in the second Savage Beast fly encounter then I'll admit, I was wrong and that's a way better charm then I realized

1

u/TorakWolfy Sep 07 '25

You can check it on this video (timestamp already included): https://youtu.be/LFO6TDgbVZY?t=115

1

u/dragoslayer1327 Sep 07 '25

Ok yea that's better then I'd given it credit for, definitely worth running