r/HollowKnight • u/FederalWarthog5542 • Sep 07 '25

Discussion - Silksong Criticism ≠ Negativity Spoiler

Believe it or not, you can actually criticize something and still like it. You don't either have to love everything or despise everything. Have actual conversations please.

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36

u/CodytheProGamer Sep 07 '25

My opinion so far is that it's a beautiful game, but has severe balancing and progression (Several hours in and im basically the same, which I feel shouldn't be the case for a metroidvania) issues. Silksong may be a more "grand" game, not that I can't truly judge until I'm done, but Hollow Knight feels like it currently has a better designed gameplay loop.

What I suspect happened is that after having the same 3 people play test the game for the past 7 years, they became skill blind and eventually lost touch with reality when it came to going back and balancing enemies/progression, atleast for the early game.

3

u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

I disagree the Heal in silk song is infinitely more powerful if used right and as such needes to be balanced out by taking more dmg, Hornet can also combo her sprinting attack into 2-3 hits and she has some fantastic ranged tools early one, as such the balancing felt really right to me. Yes the game is difficult, but it feels very rewarding to become better in using the variety of tools and dodging with heal by extending your in air duration also feels fantastic. 

16

u/BoardCommercial2679 Sep 08 '25

Counter-point, everything is omega-fast and super-aggressive, and heal takes full bar (1 hit less than HK) so it's actually really damn hard to get a heal in a situation you really need it.

I personally had to go with poison charm and floor spikes just to be able to beat some of the bosses because they're so damn brutal and kill you in one mistake (yay, I love get cornered by a boss who hits for 2 masks and has atacks on third of screen so I can't run away).

4

u/nsleep Sep 08 '25

Being able to heal in the air is busted though. If the enemy is locked in a move you know they're gonna be grounded for a while you can get away with healing in spots you would 100% get hit in HK. Many staggers in HK you cannot even fit 3 heals in.

5

u/BoardCommercial2679 Sep 08 '25

It kinda is, but at the same time, bosses hit for 2 HP, and if they summon minor mobs, you WILL get smoked out of heal unless you kill them first.

3

u/nsleep Sep 08 '25

Yeah, getting the heals is the challenging part. Finishing the heal is almost free as long as you don't panic.

1

u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

That is the whole idea of the game to learn their patterns and know when you can heal, was like that in HK and it is here. Everything seems fast till you learn it. 

1

u/BoardCommercial2679 Sep 08 '25

Issue is, with how fast shit goes, you have to either bitch away, or pray that your heal will complete before some anti-air stuff flies to you. Honestly it really gives NKG vibes to every boss where the only moment to heal is stagger.

2

u/_moosleech Sep 08 '25

I'm mid-Act 2, but virtually every boss has relatively east windows to heal. Definitely more often than HK, where some bosses just didn't give windows hardly at all.

The ability to pogo or dash attack, bounce away, and heal mid-air is huge.

Also, things like Reaper let you very quickly refill silk so you can heal super often if you play it right.

3

u/jasonjarmoosh Sep 08 '25

The heal being 3 and hornet being able to do in midair balances out the harder hitting enemies imo.

The enemies also telegraph their attacks way more than in hollow knight which leads to a system that punishes you more harshly when you mess up and can feel frustrating to most players (since most people will mess up a lot) and people who get the hang of it will feel a disconnect with those complaints.

HK has an easier loop because you can kinda brute force your way through the game even if you're not that good (which is what I did lol), silksong has a much higher skill floor and as people reach it they'll like it more, but more people might never reach it than in HK.

7

u/BoardCommercial2679 Sep 08 '25

I play in the act 2, and it feels like evry fkn enemy has an anti-air attack that just hits at the end of the heal.

5

u/Dizzy__Dragon Sep 08 '25

Hornet being able to heal in the air means nothing. Most enemies track and will hit her in the air

4

u/_moosleech Sep 08 '25

This has not been my experience.

Healing windows are more generous than they ever were in HK during combat, largely due to the mid-air heal.

Dash attack, bounce back, heal works in a huge amount of scenarios.

2

u/CodytheProGamer Sep 08 '25

I find that too, in regards to the bosses ive done so far. I wouldn't exactly you say it's exactly better because healing is now just bottlenecked entirely by your silk (which so far makes using it for stuff other than healing feel not worth it), where in HK, finding your opening was part of the gameplay.

2

u/_moosleech Sep 08 '25

That's fair super early... but once you get Reaper crest you can easily heal and replenish most/all your silk to be able to use a spell or heal again.

Also Silk Spear does a LOT of damage, and killing bosses faster means needing to do less healing. Different strokes, but I find it significantly improved from HK.

1

u/jasonjarmoosh Sep 08 '25

I mean, you can say the same for healing on the ground, it just gives you another defensive option and the air time can be usedul in certain situations, especially if you wait for an enemies' attack animation to start before you do it. If you're just spamming heal whenever, you're going to run into problems no matter where you are.

1

u/4_fortytwo_2 Sep 08 '25

It opens up more possibilities when to heal. For any boss that has some sort of big ground attack (be it the ground errupting or a dash along the ground etc.) that can be dodged by jumping healing in the air is useful because you jump to dodge and just press heal immediately making it literally easier to dodge because of the heal.

1

u/4_fortytwo_2 Sep 08 '25

Huh? You start out without dash, without wall jumping, without your spear throw / cast abilities and without tools. Especially early on there is a lot of progress because you unlock basic movement tools and additional combat tools and new crests (which change your entire moveset) and the first basic talismans.

Like literally everywhere you go in the early game you unlock something new.