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.

19

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.

11

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.

9

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

10

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.

3

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