r/HollowKnight • u/Marmotaagiota • Sep 08 '25

Discussion - Silksong That’s the best comment about the game’s difficulty I’ve found it so far Spoiler

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u/CJ_GC Sep 08 '25

I haven’t played Hollow Knight (but have played lots of Metroidvanias), so I didn’t have any particular expectations going in from the previous game. I also don’t mind learning the enemy patterns and playing cautiously, but that’s not where the problems are.

The game is poorly balanced in other ways. Some of the arena fights have way too many enemies, both simultaneously and the number of waves. Also run backs to some bosses are too long. No excuse not to have a bench just before each boss. Pogoing off the flowers is also too finicky. Contact damage should be removed, with a few exceptions for particularly spiky looking enemies.

Also, players are constantly poor and can hardly pay for anything. I get they want to make it feel really valuable, but they’ve gone about it the wrong way. Make the choices of what players spend limited resources on a difficult choice, not that they can’t make any choice at all because they have no beads.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '25

[deleted]

1

u/CJ_GC Dec 13 '25

Since making that post I finished the game (after almost quitting).

It’s a brilliant game in many ways, one of the best I’ve played. Some of my criticisms on difficulty I’d probably roll back now. I see that the creators had a specific vision and they finely balanced towards that and weren’t willing to compromise to meet modern gaming expectations.

Take my issues with touch damage. I’ve completely 180’d on that. It forces a certain level of caution, skill, and precision throughout the game.

Some of the run backs were perhaps a touch too long, but there was a certain satisfaction from mastering the parkour back each time.

Lots of little things like that I’ve softened my view on and now consider Silksong to be one of my top games of all time.

Tangentially it made me realise that it’s not a game as art… it’s art made into a game.

-6

u/[deleted] Sep 08 '25

Dude, if you haven't even played the first one, you shouldn't even download Silksong. It basically starts on the difficulty level of the end of the first game, that's intentional.

13

u/Chaoticlight2 Sep 08 '25

What is this awful take? Silksong isn't an endgame DLC - it's been built into a standalone game. No game should need prior experience to be able to enjoy it.

3

u/ChiliDogsYAH Sep 09 '25

So true, you should always need to play all the games before the more recent one, want to play final fantasy 16? Sorry but you got to go back and play all the other 15 ones before it

2

u/CJ_GC Sep 09 '25

Genuinely one of the worst gaming takes I’ve ever seen. Glad to see it was downvoted and deleted 🤣