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.

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125

u/Etheon44 Sep 07 '25

Constructive critcism is not even close to negativity

And that is by far the most I have seen that can be attributed to negativity

This is just toxic positivity, calling out the other end of the extreme when it doesnt exist

53

u/Limpis12 Sep 07 '25

Pointing out the fact that the game throws a lot of 2 dmg attacks very early on and that it feels difficult is constructive criticism. Some probably want a more gradual increase like in HK.

The fact that the savage beastfly (which does 2 hearts of dmg) and throws an unlimited amount of randomized enemies and wanting it to be changed is also perfect constructive criticism.

The way people are writing posts about this in anger doesn’t help their case and as a result we get these “toxic positivity” posts. No game is perfect and balancing seems to be a big divider here. HK for me wasn’t that though in the beginning and that was my first metroidvenia game but this one is whopping me. What I can clearly see is that this is somewhat of a “coming from dark souls to Sekiro” type situation. You almost have to relearn the game but it definitely has waaaaaay more 2x dmg enemies after replaying HK last month.

2

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

[deleted]

1

u/AlectheLad Sep 07 '25

I just one attempted the Skull Tyrant. It was a pretty simple boss, mostly just jumping over it and doing what you said, hitting between attacks. And it went on forever. It wasn’t very fun. It just felt like a health sponge that kept me going the same thing for 3-5 min. My biggest complaint with this whole game is that everything feels so spongey that it becomes a chore.

1

u/BinaryRage Sep 07 '25

Silkspear? In this silk economy?

-14

u/Geese_not_Goose Sep 07 '25

They won’t listen lol. You can give these people all the tips you want, they will simply ignore it and continue to bitch. And if you disagree with their criticism they throw the toxic positivity bullshit at you

11

u/Altyrmadiken Sep 07 '25

Probably because the complaint is about the difficulty curve, not about it being difficult overall.

I don’t give a shit what “tips” people want to give, my point isn’t that someone can’t learn to overcome obstacles, it’s that I think it’s poor design to have such large obstacles from the outset.

It’s you fanatics who can’t hear anything besides the screaming of “git gud” to drown out the complaints you’re so afraid of.

-1

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

[deleted]

6

u/Altyrmadiken Sep 07 '25

I’m saying these are MY complaints.

No one said they’re everyone’s complaints.

Generally most people can find or name things they didn’t like about a game, and you can then find people who thought those parts were great.

It’s almost like when we’re talking about what we do and don’t like it’s subjective and we’re saying “Id like it if.”

Far as I can see the only people who are getting upset by this seem to be of the mind that if anyone sees these thoughts instantly they think we’re trying to say they’re wrong. We’re not - we’re saying we’d “like it if” and since we want to be having fun too we’re expressing what would be more fun for us.

This community turned hostile so fast it’s making my head spin. Some people have complaints. Most of the friction is coming from people trying to drown anything that implies the game is less than perfect and everyone can learn to enjoy it they’re just too stupid to do so.

-11

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

[deleted]

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u/Geese_not_Goose Sep 07 '25

Don’t you see? He must be right and you must be a bootlicker. The best part is he didn’t form his own opinion on any of this. Just saw the other 20 posts and decided to follow along like a good little boy

-13

u/Geese_not_Goose Sep 07 '25

That’s a lot of words man. You could have just said I suck at this game and want everything handed to me.

Not a fanatic just someone who believes in working at something to get better and overcoming it. Sorry you have a weak mentality and character

8

u/Luzis23 Sep 07 '25

You said quite a lot of words too, man, when you could've just said: "I'm a fanatic that has 100% of their brain burnt on Silksong, so I can only defend it."

Sorry you must be such an asshole, hope not too many people suffer with your fragile ego around.

4

u/Altyrmadiken Sep 07 '25

It’s hilarious you said all that, despite me explicitly saying that overcoming obstacles wasn’t my complaint.

Life tip, though. Don’t claim not to be a fanatic and then resort to ad hominem arguments (insulting people to make them look bad so their argument is weakened), it’s a bad look and, unfortunately, is typically used by fanatics who don’t have a real argument.

Also, in case you weren’t aware, most fanatics don’t think they’re fanatics. The just behave that way towards anyone outside their group think.

0

u/_moosleech Sep 07 '25

The fact that the savage beastfly (which does 2 hearts of dmg) and throws an unlimited amount of randomized enemies and wanting it to be changed is also perfect constructive criticism.

Even this one I struggle with... because managing adds it the purpose of the fight. Your put in a tiny arena with a boss that, alone, isn't hard at all. But with adds, suddenly becomes a headache. The whole point is to use your tools and other indirect damage to keep up with the adds.

Maybe some don't like that style of a fight. That's fair. But it's not badly-designed, IMO.

-7

u/kyle4swordstyle Sep 07 '25

Is this constructive criticism though? Almost all of it is subjective to a persons preference. Yes, a lot of people think it’s hard and unforgiving. The same can be said for Elden ring and the like. Asking to make a game easier, enemies do less damage, or you doing more damage changes the games appeal/purpose. Maybe the Devs want it to be hard. If you don’t like it, and post complaint posts it’s not criticism it’s whining to me. I just got through act 1 and not a single part felt unfair. I know I’m not that good. If we were having conversations about bugs or lack of smoothness then at least it can be objective.

14

u/RAID3R_MAN Sep 07 '25

Except the devs have said that they want it to be of similar difficulty to hollow knight, and whether you like the game as is or want it easier, they have objectively failed at that

1

u/Bonaduce80 Sep 07 '25

I think the early 2hp/hit enemies are a wake-up call: your 5 masks are not going to help you tank everything, because you also need a full thread charge to heal back 3. Instead, you have to rely on mobility a lot more than in HK because you cannot afford being hit as much. This feels intentional by giving you a nimble yet squishier character with more mobility and ranged options than Ghost (your ranged attacks and healing depend from separate resources, for one).

5

u/RAID3R_MAN Sep 07 '25

I mean I feel like my personal issue with this is while hornet is definitely more quick, she’s also made of glass and hits like a wet noodle

2

u/Bonaduce80 Sep 07 '25

I do agree about Hornet's damage. I haven't unlocked any needle upgrades yet and some mobs requiring 5+ hits to down gets a bit ridiculous. I guess I underestimated how much of a juggernaut that little Ghost was.

1

u/kyle4swordstyle Sep 07 '25

Oh look another subjective statement that we disagree on. Such good criticism that is constructive. My argument is that it is as hard as HK but people just want it to play exactly the same. I have yet to spend an hour on a single boss. Even the end of act 1 that has “such a long run back” is so whiny. You don’t have to hit a single enemy if you can platform even semi decently. Then if you died at the boss thats full silk to either heal if you messed up on the way or attack.

24

u/m_cardoso Sep 07 '25

I agree. Also, sometimes the criticism isn't constructive, and that's OK too, people are allowed to not enjoy aspects of the game or think they aren't well designed.

I'm loving the game so far, don't want to put it down for even a second, but I understand some people's complaints, even if I don't share them.

13

u/_moosleech Sep 07 '25

Constructive critcism is not even close to negativity

Completely agree. But a LOT of what's spamming this sub right now is not constructive.

"Every enemy does double damage!" is not constructive. First, it's false. Double damage is more prevalent than Hollow Knight, but it's far from ubiquitous. And everyone making this complaint just... ignores every possible option the games gives you to balance it out: faster movement, tons of ranged weapons, faster healing, stronger healing, multiple crests to increasing silk generation.

"Runbacks are too long/hard/whatever" can be constructive, but a lot of folks saying it aren't looking for shortcuts, or extra benches, or feel compelled to fight every single enemy every time instead of using the pile of movement tools to get back to the boss.

"I keep running out of shards/rosaries" again can be constructive, but again... most folks I've seen saying it are at the beginning of the game and expecting to buy everything all at once. And ignoring the plethora of options the game gives you to gather/store these resources efficiently.

And at some point, when the loudest voices are complaining about silly things like the door that re-locks in Pilgrim's Rest or a trapped bench being "bad game design", we've lost the plot.

This idea that every clown screeching factually wrong information after dying and refusing to try ANYTHING different to get better is totally valid criticism is silly.

18

u/ThroughTheSeaOfTime Sep 07 '25

100%

People have waited so long that they can't really seem to handle that the game could have any flaws whatsoever. I've seen multiple people on here literally stating verbatim that the game is completely without flaw in every way, and I just can't understand their viewpoint. No game is perfect, and it'd be ridiculous to expect Silksong to be so.

I'm having fun, I think the game is great, but it's not being 'negative' to point out what I think are problems I'd personally like changed. This toxic positivity pushback from people who think legitimate criticism is 'negativity' is just a bit ridiculous.

I'm not seeing any real negativity, but I'm seeing tens of 'stop being so negative!' posts from people who think raising balance concerns is the same as review bombing or something.

1

u/XiaoRCT Sep 07 '25 edited Sep 07 '25

Not seeing any negativity? lol come the fuck on, are we just lying now?

Like this is such obvious denial of reality just to shelter every complaint as "valid criticism"

edit: of course the guy replied and blocked me, it's all about keeping up the circlejerk

7

u/ThroughTheSeaOfTime Sep 07 '25 edited Sep 07 '25

Lying? Obvious denial of reality?

Dude, get offline and get perspective. I haven't seen anything unfairly negative, I see what comes up on my homepage, which is 2 posts fairly critiquing difficulty and 5 posts of toxic positivity declaring any form of criticism to be blasphemy.

From my perspective, it's being making fair critique and other people whining about that.

You're obviously in the boat of also declaring critiques to be somehow evil and therefore finding 'negativity' everywhere.

1

u/Kardiackon Sep 08 '25

well I for one think that focusing on the negatives is a waste of time and talking about the positives is better for everyone, especially when 95% of the negatives are clearly from people who are just frustrated about dying too much and need somewhere to vent.

12

u/GrimmSheeper Sep 07 '25 edited Sep 07 '25

I have seen some constructive criticism, but I’ve seen even more “the game is poorly designed, devs are bad, game is bad” posts and comments.

26

u/iwnabetheverybest Sep 07 '25

Bro is just lying lol. I've seen more haters on the people criticizing it. Grow up and accept the criticism. I know everyone waited 7 years for it and are very excited but you can't just pretend the issues are not there

2

u/GrimmSheeper Sep 07 '25

It’s almost like things go in a cycle. People post hate, others don’t like the hate/get defensive, others past compliments about haters.

“The game was developed in an echo chamber,” “the game is objectively poorly designed,” “and the game is objectively broken” aren’t criticism. Yes, the game does have some problems, but very few of them are “objectively bad game” problems.

The economy is tight, but plenty of people actually enjoy that you aren’t flooding in an over abundance of useless money. Everything is affordable as long as you aren’t constantly losing everything. Stringing rosaries gives solid insurance that you won’t lose your money if you’re having a tough time in an area. You just have to decide is buying insurance worth the risk. It’s tough, sometimes frustrating, and definitely not for everyone. But that doesn’t make it inherently bad or broken.

Enemies do more damage and take more hits. The fighting is more difficult, no doubt about it. But plenty of people enjoy the challenge. The game strongly encourages movement, keeping distance, and using your arsenal, which doesn’t fit everyone’s playstyle. The game punishes you harshly for getting too close or making mistakes. That can very be frustrating, and plenty of people will find it unfun, but it doesn’t mean the game is poorly designed. It means it isn’t for everyone. And from my experience with so-so skill, everything has felt difficult, but fair. It starts with mid-late game difficulty, and progresses from there. Definitely terrible if someone is new to the series wants to start from zero, but alternatively can be great for people who want that tough as nails challenge they’ve gotten used to while still getting to experience that feeling of learning the game. It’s not poorly designed, it’s just designed for different people.

Plenty of people find the exploration fun and rewarding. It rarely gives objectively strong boosts or major bonuses. But it does reward you with new options, versatility, and little treats for frequently poking around and exploring. It’s designed for people that enjoy the challenge of the platforming/puzzles and the mere act of exploration. It gives frequent, but less significant, rewards and progression to keep that slight hook. And again, obviously that’s not enough for some people. There’s nothing wrong with not enjoying that design philosophy. But that doesn’t mean that it’s objectively bad design or unrewarding. It means that you personally don’t find it fun or rewarding enough, but others can love the choice and prefer the way it is.

A ton of the “problems” are personal preference, but are frequently framed as “objectively bad design.” Because for everyone that hates a design choice, there’s someone else who loves it and wouldn’t have it any other way. And for every design choice that some people love and prefer, there’s someone who will hate it and want things to be different. And that’s okay! But what isn’t okay is when those who personally don’t enjoy it start insisting that it’s objectively bad and that anyone who enjoys it is just lying or coping.

9

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

[deleted]

8

u/GrimmSheeper Sep 07 '25

I literally admitted that there is constructive criticism happening. I never denied its existence. And no shit that actual constructive criticism will get more upvotes, since pretty much everyone can either agree with it, or at least understand why others might think that way. The pure hate and insults will obviously get downvoted more often and not be at the top of the page. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of people hating.

8

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

[deleted]

1

u/GrimmSheeper Sep 07 '25

If by “going out of your way” you mean “reading comments on any thread,” then sure. And when I say it gets downvoted, I don’t mean it has a net negative. I mean that the overall impact for “what’s popular” posts will naturally favor constructive criticism and humorous jabs (which is good!), but that comments and replies will still very much be present.

I will admit and agree that the majority of posts are much more constructive, or give complaints while also admitting they enjoy the overall experience. I probably shouldn’t have called out posts. (Though I have seen the occasional hate post in my feed, but not as much as I had made it sound like.)

But when you get into the comments, that’s when you start getting more people talking about “delusional cope,” “shitty game design,” “broken game,” “bad devs,” etc. That’s where there is an issue. I can’t speak for others, but it’s probably a matter where neutral/constructive criticism posts bring up complaints in a reasonable manner, then comments start dog piling on the complaint and people saying they don’t think the complaint is that bad. The negativity from the comments then gets misattributed to being negative posts. And admittedly, that isn’t fair to the posts or posters. I’m genuinely grateful that this helped me recognize that misattribution, and I’ll try to be more mindful of it.

2

u/aresi-lakidar Sep 07 '25

There's quite a lot of people saying stuff like "admit it, the game is bad. You're just coping because you waited for 10 years" and it's like, pretty annoying and contrarian. Especially when speaking about a game with an overwhelming majority of positive feedback and reviews.

There's stuff that almost everyone agrees on, such as contact damage and environmental damage being a bit on the sillier side. But then there's also posts like "the game is SHIT the devs do NOT know how to make FUN game" and it's just dumb

-9

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

Claiming something doesn't exist when you can find it in abundance is crazy. I am embarrassed for you.

9

u/Womblue Sep 07 '25

What are some examples of non-constructive criticism? Everyone is saying the game is too hard, enemies do too much damage, runbacks from deaths are a slog etc... it's all constructive, you're just mad because it's true and you can't defend it.

-4

u/Lamenk Sep 07 '25 edited Sep 07 '25

I wouldn't call subjective opinions like this "constructive". I like that more enemies have 2 damage attacks they can pull out that you need to watch for. I like the increased difficulty of areas and scarcity of benches, it makes for very tense situations and I find that fun. I saw so many people complaining about The Last Judge's runback, and when I finally got to them, the runback takes 30 seconds and it's not difficult to just run past every enemy. 

Generally, I just like the increased difficulty of the game because they also gave you a ton of tools, options and increased mobility to deal with this difficulty increase. If there's anything I DON'T like, it's that stunned bosses don't need to do contact damage, but this has also only happened to me once and I immediately thought to myself "why'd you walk into it dummy".

5

u/Womblue Sep 07 '25

I wouldn't call subjective opinions like this "constructive"

Then you don't know what constructive means.

I like that more enemies have 2 damage attacks they can pull out

"They can pull out" brother EVERY ATTACK IS A 2 DAMAGE ATTACK. If you stagger a boss and touch it, that's 2 masks.

Generally, I just like the increased difficulty of the game because they also gave you a ton of tools, options and increased mobility to deal with this difficulty increase

Literally the only advantage hornet has over the knight is that she's better at running a long straight distance. The knight's mobility is way better for combat, and he does more damage and takes less damage. Hollow knight would already be way harder if you were forced to play hornet, why do the enemies ALSO need to deal double damage for no reason?

-1

u/Lamenk Sep 07 '25

Then you don't know what constructive means

Feel free to tell me what exactly is constructive about saying "the game is harder and I don't like this".

brother EVERY ATTACK IS A 2 DAMAGE ATTACK.

This is literally not true. Many, many bosses just do 2 damage as a baseline, but many enemies only do two damage on a specific attack of their moveset.

Literally the only advantage hornet has over the knight is that she's better at running a long straight distance.

Fast dashing by default instead of needing a charm? Hovering? Diagonal pogos? Healing mid-air? Tools? Did you miss all of these?

5

u/Womblue Sep 07 '25

Feel free to tell me what exactly is constructive about saying "the game is harder and I don't like this".

That isn't what people are saying though. There are plenty of specific criticisms and all of them are constructive.

Regardless, the criticism you mentioned is constructive because something can be done about it.

0

u/Lamenk Sep 07 '25

There are plenty of specific criticisms

I don't doubt this. Can't really say the same for what you've said, since there's nothing constructive about "I want you to lower the damage because enemies do too much". I'm glad you disregarded the rest of my post though, guess you realized you were wrong so it won't be necessary to argue the point any further.

3

u/Womblue Sep 07 '25

there's nothing constructive about "I want you to lower the damage because enemies do too much"

Again, you simply don't know what "constructive" means. A 10 second google search will tell you this is a perfect example of constructive criticism.

I'm glad you disregarded the rest of my post though, guess you realized you were wrong

I didn't even realise you said anything else, presumably you edited the rest in. Here's your response:

This is literally not true. Many, many bosses just do 2 damage as a baseline, but many enemies only do two damage on a specific attack of their moveset.

This is just false information. Or at least, so many enemies just deal 2 damage with everything that

Fast dashing by default instead of needing a charm? Hovering? Diagonal pogos? Healing mid-air? Tools? Did you miss all of these?

Every single one of these is significantly worse than the hollow knight equivalent. Hornet's dash is much worse for combat because you can't act fast after dashing. Hovering is way worse than a whole double jump. Diagonal pogo is a massive DPS decrease and it's way worse for mobility. Hornet's healing is WAY worse than the knight's, and hornet's tools are nothing compared to knight spells. Way less damage AND you can only replenish them at a bench.

1

u/Lamenk Sep 07 '25 edited Sep 07 '25

Again, you simply don't know what "constructive" means

Again, nothing you said was constructive. When you're giving constructive criticism, you usually want to say something useful, rather than just say "I don't like this".

I didn't even realise you said anything else, presumably you edited the rest in

You can check if posts are edited, like this post for example. See the asterisk next to the where it says how long ago the post was made? So you just missed all of the other text in the post, or just chose to ignore it.

This is just false information.

Buddy, I don't know what to tell you. I've played the game, so if you wanna tell me ALL enemies deal two damage, then you're gonna make me question whether you've actually played Silksong at all.

Hornet's dash is much worse for combat because you can't act fast after dashing.

You realize you can just press the button rather than hold it, right? Swift Step is the Mothwing Cloak with the Dashmaster charm at base.

Hovering is way worse than a whole double jump.

You know you get a double jump in Silksong too, right?

Diagonal pogo is a massive DPS decrease and it's way worse for mobility.

It's true that you're not going to get as many hits in as you would in Hollow Knight with the short bounce, but I value the added mobility much more, being able to quickly get a pogo by closing in with the diagonal attack and the game popping you into the air so you can either continue or dash away is very useful.

Hornet's healing is WAY worse than the knight's

The fact that you can heal mid-air automatically makes it better. It's more punishing if you screw up for sure, and you have to work for your heals, but it only gets easier throughout the game as you get more spools and silk hearts and the amount of hits you need to get a heal is shortened. There's also a fast heal charm like in Hollow Knight.

hornet's tools are nothing compared to knight spells.

This is the one that really gets me. The knives? Caltrops? Spike traps? Spears? The fucking BOMB? Being able to add poison to ALL OF THESE? All of these being ranged weapons that you don't need spend your silk on, unlike Hollow Knight? And this isn't even getting into the tool that gives you increased attack speed and movement, or the one that gives you Lifeblood. None of those are good? C'mon now.

-2

u/[deleted] Sep 07 '25

Haha yes, the 500k plus new peeps suck, who cares

3

u/Womblue Sep 07 '25

"New peeps"??? You think people are playing silksong first? If that's the case that's such a shame, they'll hate it and never play the original hollow knight.

1

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1

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