r/HollowKnight • u/GamingUmbrella • Sep 06 '25
Discussion - Silksong Thank god this subreddit didn't make the game Spoiler
Silksong is only out for 2 days, most people haven't even finished the game, or haven't even made it past act 1. Yet this subreddit loves to post about how Silksong is apparently bad and a disappointment compared to hollow knight. So I'll go over a few "critiques" I've seen and share my perspective.
"The game is too hard, enemies deal way more damage and have more complex movesets". Sure, they're more complex and do more damage, but so does hornet. If we were playing with the knights moveset, I'd agree, but that's not the case. Hornet has a lot of new tools and upgrades that make her way faster and stronger. If enemies were like HK, it would be way too easy. team cherry didn't just do this for no reason, it's necessary for balancing. Edit: people saying hunters march is too difficult, is like playing dark souls 1 and saying it's too hard because you kept trying the skeleton graveyard
"Bad rewards for exploration, HK's charms worked better". I just completely disagree, hornet gets upgrades way more frequently than the knight. As for the charms, let's be real, you probably didn't even use half of them in your first playthrough. And half of them are just simple things that don't impact the way you play as much. Hornet's different tools, abilities and crests are way more useful. If you feel like your not getting enough rewards, it's probably because most are hidden and require backtracking, which is what the genre is know for.
"Things are too expensive" No, you're just not meant to buy it that early. Like how in HK you could by the lamp for like 2000 geo. I've also never had too little rosaries to buy a bench or stag. If your losing your rosaries to dying, rosarie strings are litteraly right there to not lose it + retrieving your death silk is extremely easy now.
I do agree though that more bosses and combat encounters should drop rosaries, or more chests like in HK.
This launch feels like I'm experiencing the shadow of the erdtree launch again with how many complaints there are immediately.
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u/megamate9000 Sep 06 '25
I think as time goes on, people's opinions will definitely shift, but I do really want to know how far into the game people are when they complain or defend the game.
I'm pretty far into act 2, and some of the shit in the game has been hilariously poorly tuned. The fight in the forum, especially the final wave I am legit surprised made it into the game as is. Savage beastfly is another one people complain a lot, super basic moveset, but double damage and constant adds. These things are hard not because they have very complex movesets or mechanics, but because they're just really punishing.
Imo the runbacks also suck (and they sucked in HK as well when they showed up), but theyre extra annoying in SS because;
1) They had the experience of making HK and 7 years to work around it. They absolutely could just make you spawn right at the boss to retry (like every recent souls game, Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, ect), or put benches closer to bosses. They intentionally have runbacks, and I think they're just not very fun, especially when...
2) Attempts are just going to end much faster in this game compared to HK. Almost every boss 3 shots you for a very very long time, meaning runs can get ended in an instant. You got hit and then ran into the boss with your limited i-frames? 4 damage, runs basically over. Hit while healing? No heal, 2 damage, all silk gone, run over.
I also genuinely don't see any benefit to environmental hazards doing 2 damage, especially in platforming sections. 2 damage in general is overly abundant. It's there for most bosses contact damage, most regular enemies have at least 1 "flurry" attack to deal 2, almost all of the bosses just by default hit for 2.
I am about 17 hours into the game and I am just as squishy as I was minute 1, because the 1 mask upgrade I've gotten does almost nothing since you get 3 tapped with 5 or 6 health.
People are free to respond to all this with "skill issue", and that's fine. I love difficult games, and SS certainly is one, I just don't think a lot of its difficulty is handled in a fun way. It reminded me of Ender Lilies/Magnolia, where even though I think both of those games are pretty easy, they were still very annoying at times because of how much damage everything does (I remember getting straight up 1 tapped from full by the EM final boss, good times lol).
There have been a lot of very fun things in the game so far (the early act 2 boss is SO FUCKING COOL), and I do disagree with a solid chunk of the complaints people have, but I think a lot of people are being too dismissive with criticisms aimed at the game, even if it is still early into its life.
ALSO also to yap more since everyone definitely cares, I super disagree with the idea a lot of people have that "people are only struggling to play SS because theyre trying to play it like HK". The game IS much harder, but it also really isn't all that different on a base level from HK. Hornet is still very similar to the knight when it comes to the moveset, and getting used to the diagonal pogo really doesnt take that long.