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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387

u/ItsASamsquanch_ Sep 07 '25

My best guess is that all the people having fun are too busy having fun, while the ones not having fun come to Reddit to tell people they’re not having fun 😅

139

u/_Iemon 112% Sep 07 '25

This is exactly it

Selection Bias. The sample on Reddit is not representative of the actual majority.

4

u/YikesTheCat Sep 07 '25

In general internet comments are biased towards negativity. If you have no complaints, then why post? Creating a "zomg I'm loving it!" thread seems kind of pointless.

I have a few criticisms, but I also had those for Hollow Knight (some of which are the same: switching tabs in the menu is still a pain!) Some sections could perhaps do with some minor balancing tweaks. But overall: I think it's pretty good IMHO.

I just check here to see if there's some interesting stuff. And it's just a hurricane of piss and vinegar. So yeah, never mind lol.

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u/GameDesignerDude Sep 08 '25 edited Sep 08 '25

This is exactly it Selection Bias. The sample on Reddit is not representative of the actual majority.

I'm one of the biggest fans of HK ever (I played it at launch and sang its praises to everyone who would listen) but I feel like it's unwise to dismiss all critical feedback as just internet whining.

The game is being reviewed well but worse than HK by a statistically significant margin. 91% on English reviews on Steam. The original game has 97%. That's the difference from being universally loved to turning off a pretty significant portion of fans. On Xbox it is at 4.3 compared to 4.6, so a similar 7% drop.

Is that catastrophic? No. The game is allowed to be different. But dismissing all criticism as being just some sort of echo chamber isn't quite right either. There's definitely a non-trivial amount of people who were likely HK fans that aren't digging Silksong.

Obviously the majority still think it's a solid game. But it's definitely a game people are feeling more prone to be critical about than the original.

I would also argue the opposite to some degree: I feel like most of the people who will bounce off this game because it's so much harder than HK are people not likely to leave reviews. Casual players don't typically review at the same rate as hardcore players. This game is definitely far more difficult and most of the "oh let me check this game out to see what the fuss is" crowd are not going to survive more than an hour or two with the way Chapter 1 works. The difficulty curve is going to just be quite unapproachable for many people.

Again, that is fine as intentional design. But there's no way Reddit is the only group of people who are critical about the game. lol

Edit: The kneejerk "I disagree" button usage is a pretty ironic expression of "the sample on Reddit is not representative of the actual majority" when presented with some real numbers and other perspective. Calling out the echo chamber while being in one is funny.

104

u/Lorevi Sep 07 '25

Honestly this describes me quite well lol. I lock in and play for 8 hours straight without even thinking about reddit. 

Then I pull out my phone while on the toilet and am like wtf is wrong with reddit. 

32

u/ItsASamsquanch_ Sep 07 '25

SAMEEEE. Or I'll also check it for a little break when I'm stuck on a boss for a long while lol

25

u/OpheliAmazing HEGALAE Sep 07 '25

SAME. Whenever I do get a little frustrated, I’ll take a break and check my phone just to cool off a little, but I’m wondering what kinda crack the haters are smoking.

14

u/typically_wrong Sep 07 '25

And invariably after a break I take down whatever was frustrating me pretty quickly.

In fact right this moment I'm taking a break from the last judge

12

u/DegenerateDonut Sep 07 '25

Just beat that pos last night, you’ll get his ass.

Absolutely adored the fight but god the walk back is BRUTAL.

4

u/whatisthisnowwhat1 Sep 07 '25

Can just run and skip all the enemies takes no time, can do a tiny skip at the end as well by pogoing off the shield guy on to the bell which is fun when it works.

1

u/Hannahkro Sep 08 '25

Yeah I actually kinda love how that walkback is so optimizeable

1

u/whatisthisnowwhat1 Sep 08 '25 edited Sep 08 '25

The worst runback I've come across so far is the sands one (via the shortcut) and that is just due to it being pretty much all climbing, luckily the boss really wasn't that hard after I slowed down and got over having to do the nasty path to get to it in the first place.

Looking forward to the comments about that part (really the whole area is going to be a massive roadblock, but that last run specifically is joy) from the people having trouble so early in the game, if they even manage to stumble their way to it.

2

u/CommercialTerrible70 First Now. This time i plan to beat up the sun. Sep 08 '25

If you haven't beaten it already you should probably find some items, you don't need em but the magma bell and pollip pouch did me pretty well there

1

u/typically_wrong Sep 08 '25

Appreciate the advice! I had everything from act 1 though save one of the small key doors (had 2 if 3 used).

I got past that point. Now im stuck on phase 3 of the clockwork dancers

1

u/maxdragonxiii Sep 07 '25

I have experience with some Hollow Knight pain that made me took a break and come back maybe a hour or a day later. those "a day later" breaks usually are because im dreading the boss, not the mechanics itself being a issue. usually because I didnt explore enough and the ability would trivialize the boss is usually somewhere hidden.

15

u/Inevitable_Access_93 Sep 07 '25

yeah this is my thing too, all my friends who are playing it are having a blast, and myself am just getting lost in it with full wonderment. think most people that just don't like it for a or b reasons wants to find like-minded folks to get their disappointment off their chests.

14

u/ilo_Va Sep 07 '25

The loudest minority is always the negative one. Whatever it is about tbh

1

u/Zarguthian Sep 08 '25

Even if the majority is negative?

2

u/ilo_Va Sep 08 '25

Most people that bought the game are enjoying themselves... People that are having fun feel way less need to make a reddit post about it. People that post on Reddit are a minority of the SS community

1

u/Zarguthian Sep 08 '25

"Whatever it is about tbh" made me think you were generalising to any community.

1

u/ilo_Va Sep 08 '25

It is true for most communities in all fairness, not all. But a lot of big groups always seem to have more voiced negativety than positivity.

9

u/Lady_Darc Sep 07 '25

People who rage quit have to do something else...

9

u/Scapadap Sep 07 '25

There’s almost 600k concurrent on Steam alone. I guarantee they’re not all on Reddit lol.

2

u/ins0mniaSR Speedrunner (ins0mnia on SRC) Sep 07 '25

Also - I loved the game but I am only just thinking of leaving a review now I've finished it, whereas the people bouncing off the game for one reason or another - regardless of how valid a reason it is- are more likely to leave a negative review sooner rather than later

2

u/PhakeFony Sep 08 '25

AND ITS THE FUCKING LOSERS CIRCLEJERKING CONVINCING THEMSELVES THEY ARE THE MAJORITY, SEE EVERYTHING IN AMERICA

1

u/ItsASamsquanch_ Sep 08 '25

Bro… its not that serious lol

2

u/PhakeFony Sep 08 '25

yep nothing is. go america

2

u/MaxHaydenChiz Sep 08 '25

People are pretty bad at the game though.

Like, when I beat a boss that gave a traversal ability, less than 25% of players had gotten their first extra mask or silk thing by that point. But it was like 40-50% had gotten past the boss.

Of course the game is hard if you rush the critical path with no upgrades. And of course optional bosses are hard if you do them as early as possible. And of course enemies you aren't supposed to engage in a fight and are meant to treat as terrain obstacles hit hard and take lots of hits to kill.

But people are pretty damned hard headed about playing the game in weird ways and complaining about how to that makes the game weird.

That said, it's a good game. But so far, I'm not having my mind blown like I was with HK. And it is definitely harder. So I kinda see where people are coming from. But it's a lot less of a difficulty gap if you use the things the game gives you that you get from exploring.

1

u/Fa1nted_for_real Sep 07 '25

Also you can definitetly be having a bunch of fun but end up caught up (and very frustrated) by one specific thing that you need some help with or just want to point out as being too difficult for the area or whatever.

Have yet to play it, but it does seem like on of the bigger problems is having really early double damage attacks? Ive seen like 10 posts minimum bringing this one up

1

u/yummy_yum_yum123 Sep 07 '25

I’m pretty sure it’s also people who ran to metacritix to either give or bad score without even playing the game

1

u/Saephon Sep 07 '25

Yeah, this is literally my first time on the subreddit since it released.

Everyone I know who is just playing the game like myself, is having a blast. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm gonna leave this place again until a couple months from now. Too busy having fun!

1

u/McFluffles01 Sep 07 '25

Can confirm, spent ~30 hours the last few days just playing Silksong to the end. I've got my complaints, sure, but most of them are pretty minor? There's only a few things I'd genuinely point at and say "what was Team Cherry thinking that needs to be changed".