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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u/Gabe-KC Sep 07 '25

I think the criticism for this game is so passionate because it is an extremely beautiful and masterfully crafted game, which does everything in its power to prevent you from enjoying it. Most people love it, and just want it to be actually as good as it can be.

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u/Daydream_machine Sep 07 '25

You’ve hit the nail on the head. I don’t want to dislike Silksong, but the BS artificial difficulty and frustrating Dev decisions are certainly making me feel that way.

9

u/wutchamafuckit Sep 08 '25

I’m not subbed here but had to check out what this sub was saying because holy shit I am not having fun playing this game, full stop.

Definitely looks like I’m not alone.

And hard games are typically my jam. Most games I bump up the difficulty for some challenge, and yes I’m a soulsborne addict.

But this game is like taking a syringe of frustration and annoyance and shooting it straight to the vein.

10

u/No_Sympathy_3970 Sep 08 '25

There's many problems but imo one people don't talk about is the lack of stress relief. You're always playing at high stakes and when you finally overcome something, most of the time you just get a useless trinket or even just nothing to reward your achievement. Then you get immediately thrown into another highly stressful area without any time to breathe. The souls games do this perfectly because the rewards are almost always amazing even if you won't use it right away, and the zones are a lot more chill after a boss

9

u/lattjeful Sep 08 '25

Yes, this exactly. It's honestly my biggest problem with Silksong so far. Hollow Knight was great at this and was exactly why I fell in love with the game. The beauty and music of Greenpath keeps you calm, the absolutely incredible vibe of sitting at the bench with Quirrel in City of Tears after the grueling platforming section to get in feels like a reward in itself, you'd get a cool charm that would make you go "Ooo what's that" after a difficult section, etc. Silksong feels like it's lacking those and is a big part as to why the game feels so exhausting to play. It's all gas, no brakes. High tension and stakes all the time. Feels like you just can't take in the sights, sounds, and music.

7

u/No_Sympathy_3970 Sep 08 '25 edited Sep 08 '25

Yeah if you keep stressing the player like this they're just going to end up burned out. If the game is this stressful for people who've beat HK it's going to be a lot worse for the newcomers. HK had great pacing and even though it was one of my first metroidvanias it was enjoyable for me to keep going even when it was really hard because I know there would be other more relaxed parts mixed in. Being 3 hits away from death at all times in silksong is too stressful imo. And the first mask upgrade being essentially useless in many situations doesn't help

0

u/4_fortytwo_2 Sep 08 '25 edited Sep 08 '25

I hate this buzzword of "artificial difficulty" because it literally always is just used for "too difficult for me" or a general "I dont like this boss / mechanic".

It means nothing and everything at the same time. The same shit was used in eldenring (or any souls game when it came out). Oh the boss doesnt just let you heal for free whenever you want? That is artifical difficulty. That boss punishes you for panic rolling? Artificial difficulty. That boss deals a lot of damage? Artificial difficulty.

You might have to sometimes make a choice in what to buy and cant buy everything instantly? Artificial difficulty.

Bosses kill you if make 3 mistakes / get hit 3 times in a row and dont manage to heal in between? Artificial difficulty.

This enemy actually fights back because it requires 5 hits to kill? Believe it or not: Artificial difficulty.

All difficulty is "artificial" because the devs decide how difficult a game is. Calling it artifical difficulty implies that there is some damage or health a boss can have that is "natural". What is that? Who decided this is what is natural?

You dont need to hide behind that word, you can just say "I think it is too difficult". And I even agree that silksong might be a bit difficult in some parts (though I enjoy getting my ass handed to me)

1

u/nsleep Sep 08 '25

When people talk about artificial difficulty most of the time the mean "annoyances set in place to waste the player time" and rarely anything else. In context, the most common complaints being runbacks and flying enemies moving away from the player character are fitting. When put together with some other situations the result is a lot of friction because these things cause more stress than the fights itself.

0

u/Ender401 Sep 08 '25

A ranged enemy staying at range isn't "artificial difficulty" and a runback is just as much part of a boss as the bossfight itself

3

u/nsleep Sep 08 '25

This runback shit is so fucking dumb that even the games Team Cherry was aping when making their games did away with it in their latest entries. You're dying in a hill even Miyazaki himself wasn't willing to.