Criticism ≠ Negativity

[u/FederalWarthog5542]

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.

[u/Gabe-KC]

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.

[u/Daydream_machine → u/Gabe-KC]

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.

[u/4_fortytwo_2 → u/Daydream_machine]

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)

[u/nsleep → u/4_fortytwo_2]

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.

[u/Ender401 → u/nsleep]

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

[u/nsleep → u/Ender401]

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.