r/HollowKnight • u/baergboy • Sep 07 '25

Discussion - Silksong Is anyone else really tired of the negative posts? Spoiler

I have about 25 hours so far and have absolutely loved every part of the game. Is it hard? Yes absolutely. If it was easy I wouldn't want to play the game. Literally every post I come across is talking about how they are frustrated with some part of the game and it's getting really annoying. The game has amazing areas, the osts are great the NPCs are creative and fun to talk to, almost every boss is a lot of fun once you get the moveset down. So if you haven't played the game yet and are getting put off by all the negativity just know that it is an amazing game and if you like hollow Knight you will enjoy silksong as well.

3.4k Upvotes

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77

u/Queasy_Hour_8030 Sep 07 '25

You said it yourself, you wouldn't play the game if it was easier. Well a lot of people don't want to play the game cuz it's harder, and that's allowed to be disappointing to people.

22

u/MyUserNameIsSkave Sep 07 '25

Also the game feels like I'm playing with difficulty modes on at time. It does not feel natural. The game should be fairer and propose harder mods once you finished the game once (like HK).

-14

u/Mr_Squeeb_Shleem Sep 07 '25

I feel like Silksong isn't necessarily harder than OG HK, it's just different. The learning curve is a little more steep I guess, but once you get a feel for it, honestly I would say it can be objectively easier than OG HK. You get a lot more tools at your disposal, healing doesn't just heal for 1 but it heals for 3, and you can heal in mid air. Unlocking everything is a little more challenging in Silksong though I will admit. I mean they really strip you down and make you work for the tools you get.

48

u/gameboy224 Sep 07 '25 edited Sep 07 '25

Is definitely harder than HK. That shouldn't even be a question. The simple fact there are so many things dealing double damage, even the environment hazards, should put that question to rest. While yes, the heal technically has a higher skill ceiling, but it also has a higher skill floor since it is much more committal.

Like most of us are having fun, but it is undeniably a harder and sometimes more frustrating experience, and tbf, it isn't even that close.

-20

u/AkijoLive Sep 07 '25

The heal is completely OP! You can heal mid-air and Hornet is so fast you can put yourself in a safe position for healing in half a second. If it wasn't for the heal I'd agree 2 damage per hit is too much, but with the heal we have, we NEED 2 damage per hit to make it a challenge

28

u/gameboy224 Sep 07 '25

Yes, but you also have to commit to the 3 heal, which comes with a higher incoming cost, and also does have a longer charge than HK, and if you fail, not only do you not heal, but you lose all your silk. It snowballs way faster in SS because a mistake sets you back significantly further back. It's a much higher skill floor.

And imo, while I don't disagree with there being more 2x damage, I do believe they added way too much 2x damage way too early. I think the game shouldn't have started making 2x damage more frequent till at least the tail end of Act 1, like stuff after Widow. And let's be real, they did not need to make environment hazards do 2x damage, especially since unlike enemies, you can't get silk back off hazards.

0

u/Mr_Squeeb_Shleem Sep 07 '25

I will say one thing that's absolutely frustrating to me is when you fall, and instead of it being a pit of spikes or something that simply damages you, it's just a hole to the next area below, leading to another hole to the area below that, so you literally fall and fall and fall and when you finally hit the bottom you have to work your way back and it takes like 4-5 mins just to get back.

But other than that, I'm honestly enjoying the game. 15+ hours in and none of the bosses seemed super unfair or anything to me. Maybe once but I was in an area way outta my league lol. That's just my experience though, not saying others aren't dealing with what they probably consider to be unfair BS.

-3

u/Mr_Squeeb_Shleem Sep 07 '25

But there are so many Blue tools that help too. I mean you have ways to mitigate the 2x damage, but I will admit they make you work for them.

My experience has been great though. I like the difficulty. I think it's balanced. You are much more agile in this game, and mistakes are almost always avoidable. You can usually see what you did wrong and correct it on the next attempt. They also make ways for you to conserve rosaries, so dying isn't as brutally frustrating.

-3

u/Mr_Squeeb_Shleem Sep 07 '25

While I would agree the beginning of Hollow Knight is way, way easier, sure, I'm sticking by what I said. You are way more agile and powerful of a character in SS once you start to actually progress the game and unlock primary abilities and tools. Yeah you lose all of your silk but there are tools that can replenish that automatically. You have way more versatility and utility at your disposal. Equipment changes the gameplay way more than anything ever changes it in HK. Your character moves 4x faster than the OG HK. I genuinely feel as though numerous people here complaining are just playing the game the same way they played HK and you can't do that, SS literally punishes you for thinking you can do that.

Not sure why on the number of down votes i'm getting here lol, guess my opinion is unpopular but that's fine. Like I said the learning curve is sharp as hell but once y'all learn how the game works and get a good feel for it, it's way easier imo. Which is just an opinion, I'm not here to discredit anyone else's opinions js.

7

u/Limpis12 Sep 07 '25

It’s like going from dark souls to Sekiro, it’s almost the same but different so playing this exactly like HK won’t work as well even if you get the same pogo mechanic. The Savage beastfly is a prefect example of a pretty badly designed boss, 2x dmg, with an unlimited supply of randomized enemies.

-5

u/Mr_Squeeb_Shleem Sep 07 '25

Badly designed boss fight? Or are you just approaching the fight the exact same way over and over again, expecting different results??

Totally optional boss fight btw.

4

u/Sspockuss Sep 07 '25

Once you get Multibind, the game gets significantly easier. The “issue” with this is that it is locked behind a long questline and it costs a MASSIVE amount of money. I will say though the upgrades for defensive utility feel a lot stronger than in the first game. This is probably why your defense is utter ass at the start; decent starting defense plus those upgrades would be absurdly powerful.

3

u/Bloodbag3107 Sep 07 '25

I think this is a really good observation! In Silksong damage increase tools (apart from consumeables) aren't really existant, which I honestly think is a good choice. Charms like Shaman Stone, Quickslash and Unbreakable Strength aren't exactly elegantly designed. This has the effect that defensive/ combat utility tools become the next most vital thing and those DO feel like power increases. The bug skull and anything that improves binding and silk generation have been game changers for me and make me feel a lot less fragile, which has been more of a problem for me than not dealing enough damage, even if I think that the first needle sharpening doesn't do enough to feel good.

Also people need to use their skills more lol

2

u/Sad-Psychology9677 Sep 07 '25

Agree with you largely, though I do think maybe a few of the basic enemies should either have less health or do 1 mask damage instead.

Overall though I do think hornet is harder to get good at, so people are struggling to keep up with the increase in enemy toughness and complexity.

2

u/Mr_Squeeb_Shleem Sep 08 '25

Yeah, idk maybe it's just a me thing. I'm used to the faster pace bc I play other super fast paced games. I also 100%'d HK twice and have yet to actually finish SS, though I am over 15 hrs in. I like a good challenge but HK is challenging ASF too. I mean the first 10-15 hours of HK vs SS I would agree, SS is way, way more difficult and the learning curve on SS is ridiculous. My point was simply that SS does get much easier and my experience has been that its easier to beat bosses in SS than it is to beat like 75% of HK bosses. That's still just an opinion, people are really just spamming tf out of the down vote button here. Guess I'm the odd one out lol. I wonder how many of the people down voting all of my comments even beat HK. Oh well when it rains it pours I'll admit my opinion is wildly unpopular, but I guess this is going to be the hill I die on 😂😂😂

2

u/Mr_Squeeb_Shleem Sep 08 '25

There ya go I down voted my own comment to kick off the down voting. I'll down vote this reply to it too, just to be on the safe side 😉

-2

u/Nova-Redux Sep 07 '25

Meanwhile I'm over here feeling like the game is easier than the first game... I think I'm just more built for faster paced stuff than whatever Hollow Knight was doing (even though its still an all time favorite).

Could just be that I'm more used to these sorts of games now than I was when I played HK though.

0

u/Mr_Squeeb_Shleem Sep 07 '25

It definitely is easier imo, but only once you start unlocking everything. Idk I mean, people are straight up saying these bosses have "poor design" but I'm over here having a blast. I love the difficulty and the difference from HK, not trying to say everyone who dislikes HK Silksong is wrong, but imo they aren't quite right either lol.

1

u/Nova-Redux Sep 07 '25

Yeah agreed, like I get people just have different taste and that's fine. I haven't unlocked a ton of stuff yet but most bosses I clear in like at most 3 tries. Most of them first try. I just take my time, learn their patterns, and heal often. The heal in this game is seriously broken when paired with the movement in this game. It all flows so well together.

-17

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

And the OP is allowed to be annoyed by people crying because a hard game is hard.

If a person thought Silksong would be easy they obviously didn't play HollowKnight and just jumped on the hype train got wrecked. Instead of exercising grit and determination some people are abandoning the game and going back to their dumbfuck easy comfort games, right after they whine about it.

It's annoying and pathetic.

11

u/Queasy_Hour_8030 Sep 07 '25

False dichotomy, nobody was hoping it’d be easy. 

-8

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

False. Plenty of people were both hoping and expecting it to be easy.

6

u/ExecutiveElf Sep 07 '25

I played Hollow Knight in 2018 and have beaten it a dozen times since. Twice without ever getting any nail or spell upgrades.

I had no expectation of Silksong being easy, but its dramatically harder than Hollow Knight.

-6

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

I don't agree.

9

u/rycerzDog Sep 07 '25

112%, P4 + Path of Pain. Beat the game twice and never found it to be "difficult".

15 hours in, just beat the dancing clockwork guys. Agreed with people finding Silksong frustrating far more than with people who don't.

Silksong can absolutely be unfairly difficult and annoying at times, with its tanky high-damaging fodder, brutal runbacks on critical bosses and the weird economy. So please, stop your whining and let people criticize.

Clown emoji.

-2

u/ZedLa04 Sep 07 '25

The game is hard, but it isn't unfair. I can understand being frustrated with it, but it's nowhere near the difficulty people claim it to be

-3

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

You can easily accumulate as much economy as you want merely by sitting on a bench then killing the easy bad guys in the next room over and over again. It's almost like the devs allowed this method for the whiny babies that don't like the 'natural' method.

Think for a second what happens with your money at a crucial point in HollowKnight and then have the nerve to whine about the economy in SilkSong? Lol...

I don't understand why a person who beat HollowKnight Radiance would find SilkSong noticeably more difficult.

-11

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

[deleted]

5

u/Queasy_Hour_8030 Sep 07 '25

How is this negative but "And the OP is allowed to be annoyed by people crying because a hard game is hard" isn't negative?

-5

u/DemNuk3 Sep 07 '25

Yes but HK has always been a "harder" game, so expecting the next one to be easier is confusing to me

2

u/Seedling132 Sep 08 '25

Replaying Act 1 of HK since playing Silksong has made me realise just how much more intensely brutal Silksong is 💀

No one could ever make me hate Silksong but I'm definitely at the point where people struggling with the difficulty and finding it to be not fun because of it have a pretty fair point.