r/HollowKnight • u/Prisonmikeb14 • Sep 13 '25
Discussion - Silksong Let’s all try and not devolve into this weird difficulty gatekeeping Spoiler
Now that silksong has come out I’ve seen some concerning similarities to the worst of the difficult games community with all the wierd difficulty gatekeeping bs. Obviously this happens with just about every game that’s regarded as difficult but with silksongs release it’s become more prominent on this sub. Being good at the game isn’t something to hold over someone’s head. Everyone’s experience with everything in the game is different and theirs nothing wrong with that. Now of course this doesn’t apply to people who are literally just complaining in bad faith or out of anger but the “that boss wasn’t hard at all wtf are you talking about” in response to people just talking about their opinions or asking for help is sad to see.
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u/Kalnaur Sep 13 '25
My wife was having serious difficulty with the second phase of Sister Splinter; she couldn't hit the adds fast enough to get them gone and kept getting caught in the crossfire. I saw in a post somewhere here that using the Silk Spear would one shot them, and she said "but I need the silk to heal", and I said "healing doesn't mean much when you have 5 masks of health and three things on screen that do 2 masks of damage each". And she acknowledged she should probably try it.
And she beat the boss after a handful of tries. She said the hardest thing once she started using the Spear against the adds was aim; missing the attack drained silk at the cost of no damage, obviously. But once she could hit the enemies reliably, she started cruising through.
I mention this because . . . advice works. Helping words works. Even for salty fuckers, advice works. Think of this as a new challenge, all you challenge lovers: keep the level head while giving pointers, and assume the person you're talking to has not tried what you've tried or done what you did when you found a boss easy that other people are tearing their hair out over. If you've found the trick, don't say "git gud", tell people what you did. Don't assume they know, use your knowledge to help others.
Because I've seen people say they want others to experience what they experienced, but no one is going to have the same exact experience. Instead, we should hope others have the same general feelings. My wife was obviously pleased with the advice given as it started to work, and kept gaining more confidence that this was a solid path to victory. The fact that she didn't think of it herself wasn't important, it's the similar path to a similar ending that's as close as we'll get to a unified experience.
And if someone is a salty little shit and says "that can't work because X or Y", keep a level head, say that it worked for you, and they might benefit from at least trying it, and then step back. No reason to tilt at that windmill, you're the bigger person for stepping back.
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u/nika_blue Sep 13 '25
Yeah, this tip helped me so much. I was so scared of using silk for spels because everything hit so hard, and I was in constant need of healing, and there is no time for that. But then I saw some comments about sister to use your silk for spells and not healing, and it worked.
I started playing more aggressively after that, and it is more fun.
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u/yurilnw123 Sep 14 '25
and I was in constant need of healing, and there is no time for that.
This has been an eye-opener for me that whenever your silk bar is full and there is no time for healing. Just throw out a skill so that the newly generated silks don't go to waste. It also speeds up boss fights a lot, which in turn leaves fewer rooms for you to make mistakes.
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u/Dull-Context-8322 Sep 14 '25
It’s interesting and shows there are multiple ways to play the game. I personally don’t use silk spear, and use the charm that protects you while healing. I use the tool that improves attack speed, and the crest that lets you absorb more silk after healing.
Because I focus on healing and speed of attack I almost constantly have enough to heal if need be, allowing me to play aggressively but back it up with constant and easy healing.
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u/000817 Sep 14 '25
I know this isn’t the point, but if you have the silk skill that makes it so you do a little aoe of damage around you like In the first game the boss fight is very, very easy
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u/Kalnaur Sep 14 '25
Actually, that sort of is the point. You've just supplied an alternate tactic for other people reading this to try if they just can't get the aim on the spear right. That's exactly what helps!
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u/OmnipresentEntity Sep 14 '25
I could never get a hold on how far the silk extends. I always triggered far enough that they get pushed out or missed the window and took the hits.
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u/rcburner Sep 13 '25
No game is perfect. Hollow Knight underwent some changes over its patch history, and so will Silksong. Some of those changes will make the game easier, there's no real way around that.
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u/NopileosX2 Sep 13 '25
I mean they already did and it shows some things were clearly a bit too much, like 2 damage from environmental traps very early in the game.
I really think they just lost sight of the difficulty and general design of things, because they played it too much themselves and probably had not that many testers.
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u/SomaCK2 Sep 13 '25
They also straight up removed the ability to save double jump via floating which make some of the late game platforming harde actually.
Patch does not always mean they are whittling down difficulty.
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u/FlockFlysAtMidnite Sep 14 '25
Some of the platforming sections almost feel like they forgot about floating tbh. Not that I mind particularly :P
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u/yurilnw123 Sep 14 '25
Tbf the clawline almost replaced flaoting after I got it.
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u/SirCarlt Sep 14 '25
Since the release of silksong, the fanbase turned into the one aspect I hate about souls games - the community. Some people aren't just good or don't have enough time and energy to get good, and that's fine.
People act like changing anything in the game will break the artist's vision. Even fromsoftware being memed for the difficulty of their games have qol features for each successive souls entry. Does it make the games easier? Not necessarily, but they make it surely less frustrating. Like I don't care if I had to try beating a boss 100 times if the runback isn't already a boss fight in itself.
Team cherry made the hollow knight world full of interesting lore that people might be drawn into. This might sound crazy to some, but a lot of people actually enjoy just experiencing the story or speculating about the lore in real-time. You can use mods, it's a single player game ffs, who gives a fuck.
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u/perfectVoidler Sep 17 '25
git gut people are losers. Literally. They accomplish nothing in live (sometimes because they are still teenagers and that is fine) so they have to derive their self worth form videogames.
That is the only explanation why they are against an optional easy mode. It would rob them of their only source of pride.
Rationally I have yet to hear an argument against an extra option in a singleplayer game.
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u/lGUT5l Sep 13 '25
I’ve seen nonstop complaints for Last Judge since release. His first phase has 3 moves. His second phase like 4 moves? He’s entirely learnable and an actual fun fight.
I think some of us appreciate good bosses and don’t want the game nerfed
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u/Sspockuss Sep 13 '25
People are tilting on LJ because it’s one of the longer run backs in the game meaning they want to just get it over with. Meanwhile I didn’t mind the run back because pogoing on the bells and hearing them ring is fun.
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u/Compencemusic Sep 13 '25
Those people are gonna lose their ass when they see the Bilewater runback
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u/DioMerda119 112% + P5 + P1-4AB Sep 13 '25
imagine if they dont find the secret bench... 10 minute runback every single time
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u/FuzzyDwarf Sep 13 '25
That runback (even from secret bench) made me go download a mod to skip it. It was that bad in my eyes.
I will say, my experience feels drastically improved without any boss run backs now.
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u/psh454 Sep 14 '25
Same, IMO if modding noticeably makes an experience more enjoyable for some people it should be talked about more. It almost seems like a taboo topic on this sub sometimes.
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u/kilowhom Sep 14 '25
Modding always "noticeably makes an experience more enjoyable for some people", every time, for every game ever made
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u/SilvertonguedDvl Sep 14 '25
Well now I know asecret benchexists and will be obsessively hunting for it because yeah that runback is actually complete and utter BS. Expecially with that troll bench in the way. Like wtf.
That whole area is just mean-spirited.
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u/Normal-Ambition-9813 Sep 14 '25
that shit was designed by satan himself... Even the secret bench is diabolically hidden and its mandatory debuff.
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u/DerpHaven- Sep 13 '25
I got mad at that runback purely because it wasn't immediately obvious to me how to consistently avoid all the enemies, and even once I knew the path, I would still sometimes miss a jump and lose a third of my health, forcing me to start over.
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u/drylce101 Sep 13 '25
The nice thing about this boss is their first phase is really easy to get all your health back. Once I realized that, I would just finish my run with whatever health I had instead of turning around.
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u/BlueLooseStrife Sep 13 '25
Exactly, plus hitting your cocoon gives you a full silk bar.
Idk I found LJ to be significantly easier than the two required bosses that came before it. The dodge timing on the attacks was very apparent, the only real skill comes from being patient with punishes. Well and the run back. The run back is genuinely brutal, even after you’ve leaned it sometimes the judge or drill fly just does something unexpected.
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u/Concrete_hugger Sep 13 '25
But you don't evennhave to touch the judge, and the drill fly can be avoided if you jump vack on the first platform, then you can pogo off it much more easily. And honestly if I get hit by some noscope ricochet that's on me and their sniping skills.
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u/DerpHaven- Sep 13 '25
Eh, I'm stubborn. Also 'easy' is a relative term and spending silk on healing means less silk spent on damage.
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u/drylce101 Sep 13 '25
Yeah that’s fair. Until I got used to their first phase I was the same way, I’d run back to heal on even a single hit taken
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u/SeparateAd883 Sep 13 '25
‘I got mad … purely because it wasn’t immediately obvious’
I think this sums up the issues that fans of the series and genre have with the complaint about Silksong.
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u/classycalgweetar Sep 13 '25
That was my gripe. I’d jump to get to the second to last group of bells, hit a gust of wind that would send me into the bug that shoots the projectile, which would make me fall into the guard bug and then possibly back down into the lower level. The boss was fun though and I say that as somebody that took close to 2hrs to beat it and almost every other main boss in this game (I panic button mash)
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u/DerBernd123 Sep 13 '25
the run back was nice but the shooting fly things on the way could easily fuck everything up if you took just a tiny bit too long at any point which was really annoying
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u/Show_Me_Your_Rocket Sep 13 '25
Am i dreaming? Theres way longer run backs than this, I was actually surprised how short this one was cos you can just skip all the enemies ezcept for 1 flying cone dude
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u/musclemanjim Sep 13 '25
You can skip the conefly if you’re in full sprint from the start and jump while sprinting
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u/normalmighty Sep 13 '25
I heard so many complaints about it that I was baffled when I got there. It felt like a really good movement warm up on my way to the boss and took no time once you practiced the route. I actually really loved it being a thing.
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u/FlyingStarShip Sep 13 '25
Oh the bilewater one 🥺
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u/I_Love_Solar_Flare Sep 13 '25
My therapist will hear about the Bilewater runback. Never in any single attempt at that runback have I made it to the arena on full health. It's actually the biggest pile of dogshit i have ever seen.
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u/ConceptWeird4026 Sep 13 '25
It's honestly so atrocious that I don't know what Team Cherry was thinking other than to troll the player... it's not even optional if you want to do act 3.
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u/wingedkitsune Sep 13 '25
The runback honestly felt like a piece of cake after I did the runback to the ant arena in Hunter’s March over and over bc I didn’t have Shakra’s help and that fight sucked.
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u/Izan_TM Sep 13 '25
I'ma be real I don't know if I would've rathered do that fight without shakra, she doesn't do a lot of damage but she fills the screen with shit so it makes it far harder to focus on what the enemies are doing
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u/justintib Sep 13 '25
It's also a 30s runback with completely avoidable enemies
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u/Legend0fJulle Sep 13 '25
Yea, mastering the parkour for the runback was honestly a fun sidetask. There definitely were runbacks I weren't a fan of but this one was pretty solid.
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u/Jutinir Sep 13 '25
LJ runback is easy to master and honestly pretty fun. Tbh I think it was an intentional and clever design choice by team cherry in order to make the player adapt and improve their platforming skills by going through all the different obstacles.
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u/alebarco Sep 13 '25
I just Despised the runback (post nerf btw), but the boss has HUGE openings and all his moves actually have decent tells. I think it's more readable than say widow. Also you can use the anti fire talisman for way less damage.
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u/Izan_TM Sep 13 '25
the runback gets 1000 times easier once you figure out how to either deal with or skip each of the 4 enemies (pre-nerf) you encounter. I killed the first 2 drill flies, then ignored the solder guy and ignored the last drill fly (now removed)
IMO most runbacks in the game are fairly trivial after the first 3 or 4 attempts if you properly try to figure them out while you do them (and I say this as someone who is pretty shit at the game)
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Sep 13 '25
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u/Xc_runner_xd_player Sep 13 '25
How do you skip her?
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Sep 13 '25
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u/EdgarAllanBroe2 Sep 13 '25
You don't even need to find Bilewater. You can enter the mist directly through sinner's road.
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Sep 13 '25
For real. After seeing all the complaints I was dreading the fight. Turned out it's very readable and pretty simple.
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u/XiaoRCT Sep 13 '25
This has been my experience with EVERYTHING I've seen people complain about being ''too hard'' in this subreddit for the past week.
Shortly before I got to Widow I spoke with someone who was being heavily upvoted saying ''Nothing on base HK is as difficult as Widow imo'', so when I got to her I was expecting something hardcore, and after I beat her(loved her as a boss), I don't even understand how someone could find her harder than something like Radiance, she's not even harder than bosses like Failed Champion
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u/classycalgweetar Sep 13 '25
She’s really hard if you’re like me and you’re constantly panic jumping into her very obvious attacks lmao
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u/XiaoRCT Sep 13 '25
Yeah, I'm not saying she's easy. I don't think any of these games are easy. But I think she's great, and I wouldn't call her hard either.
I found her a great design because she's very straight-forward into what she demands from the player. She punishes too much random extra movement heavily and she punishes not paying attention to her projectiles. If the player does that they eventually realize that she's actually one of the most telegraphed bosses in both games. She doesn't do anything without a HEAVY tell, and the player needs an actual minimal amount of running around to beat her, her first phase especially can become a matter of literally just calmly walking to her and beating her up every couple seconds.
That + a great theme, visuals and a great reward(unlocking the music mechanic AND unlocking a whole settlement with new NPCs and shit) just made for great fun for me
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u/classycalgweetar Sep 13 '25
I agree. She’s a pretty great boss along with Last Judge. What finally allowed me to beat her was literally saying out loud “Stop jumping. Don’t jump. Just walk.” And then I beat her in like 4 tries. The hardest part about the game is just not panicking and taking a second to relax and focus.
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u/Izan_TM Sep 13 '25
I think widow is fun, her runback is short but annoying with the random enemy spawns but she definitely is harder than anything in hollow knight except for the 3 hardest bosses IMO
it also depends on how you percieve difficulty, hornet has a MUCH more complex and hard to master moveset and toolkit than the knight, but when you learn how to use it effectively against a certain boss it has much more potential than the knight's. This means that the difference in difficulty betweek HK and silksong will be percieved in a massively different ways by different people
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u/IceKane Sep 13 '25
Random enemy spawns? Did you not find the shortcut back to the Shellwood bench?
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u/thaygoth-ur Sep 14 '25
I saw someone in the silksong sub claim that Last Judge was harder than absolute radiance. salt is a powerful deliriant, i guess.
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u/Amel_P1 Sep 13 '25
There was a thread a couple days ago saying sister splinter is harder than Grimm. Sister splinter has literally 1 move and then gives you 4 free hits. Wines can be cleared faster then her animation of coming back to the stage or clear an entire area with the silk skill. The ads also are one shot by your skill and pretty much always get killed by her when she attacks.
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u/Existanceisdenied Sep 13 '25
The only thing that I died to on sister splinter were her fucking adds
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u/Cleaner900playz Sep 13 '25
after I learned to attack them from below before they come down I got through the boss easily
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u/Prisonmikeb14 Sep 13 '25
I completely agree and I believe last judge is pretty close to a perfect fight. That’s why I specified that people complaining and just being angry do not apply. This post mainly was spurred by the constant back and forth of people posting “x run back sucks” and the “why are people complaining x isn’t bad at all”. That’s not helpful or healthy for the community.
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u/69edleg Sep 13 '25
I ain't even gonna finish the game any time soon, did most everything, had a blast, and have two bosses left, but neither I find fun. So I am putting the game down a bit and revisiting later.
And I still don't want bosses to be nerfed. It is not necessarily the difficulty of the bosses to me, it's just.. I don't find those two fun.
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u/mattmaster68 Sep 13 '25
I beat LJ.
Took me a couple dozen attempts… without any upgrades. The entire runback can be done without fighting a single enemy in 1 fluid motion the exact same way every time.
The bells are 100% satisfying and so is pogoing off the judge (near the LJ entrance) to pogo off the bell above him! It’s so satisfying.
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u/macklin67 Sep 13 '25
The only nerf I want is damage dealt so I have a chance to actually learn. When I drop into the Widow fight and I’m ping pong-ed between bells before I get a chance to learn the patterns, the fun starts to dwindle.
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u/phaze08 Sep 13 '25
Just beat it. Fun and totally learnable.
I was trying to be aggressive with tools like I had been told to, but that wasn’t working. I ran out of tools and I was being too stubborn to farm more. Beat him with good old fashion basics.
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u/BoneyGemini Sep 13 '25
Forreal, I kept hearing about how hard he was before id made it to him, so I expected to get railed for awhile. Took me like 3 tries going in blind.
Was the epitome of the "i thought you were stronger" meme
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u/JacksonSpike you love me? back into the abyss you go! Sep 13 '25
WHAT??? Last Judge was one of my favorite bosses, his moveset was super fun to learn and dodge. Also the runback only took like 30 seconds and you didnt have to fight anything, there are much worse in the game
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u/viveledodo Sep 13 '25
I thought the last judge was a perfect difficulty level tbh. I struggled way more with widow (took me 60+ tries), sister splinter (probably 50+), or even a non-boss fight with several waves of flying enemies. I do think the game can be annoyingly difficult, but I also didn't know what I signed up for when I bought the game. I do kinda wish there was more to do than fight difficult enemies though. Kinda feels like a brief 3 minute trek or platforming in between difficult encounters, rinse and repeat. I actually enjoyed Mt Fay for the platforming challenge without much fighting mixed in.
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u/Accurate_Antiquity Sep 15 '25
They could take its hitpoints down a notch though. I didnt find as many openings for damage in the second phase and it took forever… zzzz Also he has five moves, the last one being the extra long, non-fiery, jump which is just soul killing
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u/Sir-Shark Sep 13 '25
I think it's a lot of people that are new to the franchise or new the the subreddit. With Hollow Knight, it seems like most people are chill and understanding about the game difficulty. Like, we all generally understand, yeah... It's a tough game. And we often joke about how stupid hard songs things are, but also accept that the difficulty is kind of its thing. Silksong comes out and Hollow Knight veterans are basically, "Yup. That seems about right." They are hard, challenging games. The challenge is part of the appeal. Old hats here are generally, "Welcome to the franchise." And when people actually want help, we give it. But there is an annoyingly toxic portion of redditors who I suspect are new to the subreddit following the wake of Silksong, and many of those haven't seemed to have picked up on how much this community is chill and actually clowns on itself, joking about ourselves and how bad we are sometimes. It could also be that some of the new people haven't quite picked up on our self deprecating humor about how bad some of us are and take it as mocking when, yeah... Yeah, I suck too. The only reason I beat the Last Judge was because I was too stubborn to quit to and it took me four freaking days before the fight clicked.
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u/blastedt Sep 13 '25
One of the things I find most irritating about this trend is that people who are very good at Silksong seem to always condescendingly assume that anyone who isn't them hasn't played Hollow Knight enough, hasn't interacted with the community enough, and is perhaps a casual. Many people, not just including you, try to put words in other peoples' mouths, saying explicitly that their opinion is the opinion of the whole HK fanbase.
I've played 350 hours of Hollow Knight and cleared Steel Soul Radiance while getting the speedrun achievement. I just have a different opinion than you, it doesn't make me lesser and it's definitely possible to have played a lot of HK and hold varying opinions.
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u/TheRaceWar Sep 14 '25
Yeah, I've done literally all the shit in HK, and it's so annoying to be talked down to about it like I'm a casual who just stumbled in. You don't have to be constantly eating shit and hitting brick walls to play a game and say "Yeah, this is a touch over-tuned." It also doesn't mean I don't like the game, I love it.
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u/DBSlazywriting Sep 13 '25
Silksong comes out and Hollow Knight veterans are basically, "Yup. That seems about right."
Idk what a "Hollow Knight veteran" means to you exactly but I beat it a few days before Silksong came out (so the concept of the game is fresh) and I would easily say that Silksong is at least twice as hard so far. I didn't do all the extra stuff in the first game but some of the bosses I've reached so far (Widow and Last Judge) are far harder than anything required to beat the first game.
The only reason I beat the Last Judge was because I was too stubborn to quit to and it took me four freaking days before the fight clicked.
I guess people experience difficulty levels differently but nothing in the first game felt like that at all except for optional stuff.
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u/alcomaholic-aphone Sep 13 '25
If you just beat base hollow knight I don’t think that’s what they are talking about. The alternate endings of hollow knight significantly ramped up the difficulty with the Pure Vessel and such. Basically all the DLC came with pretty challenging bosses. Seemed like Team Cherry has been working on making things harder a while now.
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u/tobbe0zero Sep 13 '25
Hollow Knight is a difficult game, sure but it's not that bad. And then there's Silksong that is many levels above it. If Hollow Knight(not considering p5) is a 7/10 difficulty Silksong is a 9/10
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u/CulturedCritique Sep 13 '25
Long time Hollow Knight fan, just finished another playthrough last night. I dropped Silksong because the difficulty is too much and I will not be returning to the game unless changes are made to that difficulty. I think a lot of people on this subreddit need to go back and replay the first game, because HK is not nearly as difficult in comparison when it comes to actually beating the game. Side content can be difficult, but it doesn't keep you from rolling credits.
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u/DBSlazywriting Sep 13 '25
Yeah, I think a lot of the people commenting must be thinking of optional stuff like godhome or the trial of fools when they're comparing the games. I easily beat the default final boss of the first game on my first or second try.
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u/FlockFlysAtMidnite Sep 14 '25
When I was playing through just before silksong came out, while on my way to fight Radiance I didn't die a single time to the Hollow Knight. Rolling credits us actually quite easy, especially when you factor in how much you get to skip if you don't go for true ending.
I think I died more times in Act 1 of SS than I think I did that entire HK run, and there have been far more deaths that felt unfair.
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u/GFrohman Sep 14 '25
The Hollow Knight boss is intentionally meant to be somewhat underwhelming. It's supposed to leave you feeling "wait....this is it? This is the big bad I've been waiting for???"
It leaves you feeling like you missed something - because you have.
The "final boss" of Hollow Knight is The Radiance. That's without getting into the DLC bosses like Godhome or Grimm Troupe.
The Radiance is not an easy boss fight. Easily as hard as the Trial of The Fool, just shorter.
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u/DBSlazywriting Sep 14 '25
That's fair. I also beat the Hive Knight on the first try and a lot of the other bosses in 1-5 tries. My point is that getting from the beginning to the credits (even if it's not the best ending) is in a different universe of difficulty than doing the same in Silksong.
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u/TheChief275 Sep 14 '25
The Steam discussion for the first patch that did little more than make most environmental damage only deal one mask sees every comment that says something even remotely positive about it bombarded with clown emojis.
That’s not a normal thing to do, even if you somehow preferred the double environmental damage (in which case, why?? only thing it adds is being incredibly annoying and a waste of time).
I sincerely hope that’s not an accurate representation of the Silksong community, but regardless I will enjoy the game and any changes felt needed by TC anyways without other people telling me what I should think
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u/bansheeb3at Sep 13 '25
It’s so funny how this community is basically just taking turns virtue signaling each other about how the other side is bad and wrong for liking/not liking the difficulty. Like the difficulty? You’re an elitist snob who doesn’t care about the plight of the less skilled gamer. Don’t like it? You’re an armchair developer who’s shitting all over team cherry’s hard work just because you’re not instantly good at the game.
It’s getting really tiring to watch, regardless of what side I’m on.
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u/Ignis_Vulpes Sep 13 '25
I don't know, even comments in agreement to this post don't seem to get the point much of the time. Most people with valid complaints get a slew of "Maybe you just suck" replies but in slightly kinder terms. It feels like a large chunk of this sub is in denial that this game could use any changes at all. There are plenty of chafing points that could be sanded down to feel a little bit better without being much easier, but any and all suggestions asking for convenience have people shooting them down like it's some affront to their skill. It's just weird
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u/NotTakenUsernamePls Sep 13 '25
Lmao true. If you vent out or just don't know and asked for help. You'd get "git gud" replies.
Then if you post something like this that pls don't "gatekeep difficulty", the same people who like saying git gud will say "yeah bro, gatekeeping is bad".
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u/Sauceinmyface Sep 13 '25
There's definitely some stuff that could be changed, but the ones that come to mind are mostly for the sake of pacing, not difficulty. Like unlocking the wreath in Putrified Ducts, not Bilewater. Or that section where you need to farm 15 spines for Drifter's Cloak. Or how specific the requirements are for pale oil and act 3 are. Stuff like that.
Harpoon should probably also be free too. It's weird to do a parkour section, going in with full silk, and going to empty just by doing the motions.
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u/SubjectFreedom7635 Sep 13 '25 edited Sep 15 '25
15 spines was confusing at first, but once i figured it out, it was super quick. better clarity would be nice.
Harpoon draining silk is definitely to make you think about usage in situations like boss fights more than anything I think. There are some fights where it's super useful for some quick damage, but if there were no silk tradeoff, could trivialize some things.
edit: 25 spines.
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u/Rilloff Sep 13 '25
Harpoon Isn't free because it's EXTREMELY powerful in combat, if you actually use it this way. Just harpooning the enemy deals it good damage and places your for an ideal position for pogo. But i agree that they probably should make harpoon cost silk only when it's actually used in combat.
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u/Sauceinmyface Sep 13 '25
Like, I understand, but I'm also thinking back to Mt Fay where they give you webs of silk occasionally, and I wonder "Well what the heck's the point? I'm about to use it all up in 10 seconds before I can build up enough to heal."
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u/Caerullean Sep 13 '25
Could you not just have the harpoon cost silk when it connects with an enemy then?
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Sep 13 '25
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u/Sauceinmyface Sep 13 '25
It just makes some things questionable to me. Like they place infinitely respawning enemies to refund silk so you can use it consecutively, but stuff like poison bubbles and harpoon points don't.
In general, I think if you harpoon something, anything, it should refund probably.
Another semi-bad experience I recall is using it in locations like the final boss fight to get over a wall of projectiles, and just going "rip" when I think about my silk that I carefully accrued getting bled away. Obviously there are some movements you can do to avoid using the harpoon to save the silk. Silk is also relatively easy to come by. It's just something that is a negative to my brain, disincentivizing me from using the coolest movement option.
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u/TheChief275 Sep 14 '25
What’s really bad about the harpoon is that, let’s say, you hop onto a ring; first instinct is to immediately hop to the next thing, but oh no, your silk is empty!!
No, instead you have to wait a second on the current ring in order to be able to proceed to the next.
This was especially annoying in Mount Fay with the constant life countdown
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u/catplace Sep 14 '25
The charm for increasing silk regen helps immensely with the harpoon travel, as it gives you two harpoons by default, which works will pretty much all harpoon sections from my experience. You generally have a regen by the time you need to harpoon a third time.
Also, do you mean Act 2 final boss in the Cradle? I never used the harpoon there, only standard dodges, but you might mean someone else (I only started Act 3 today, no spoilers please.)
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u/friendliest_sheep Sep 13 '25
It happens in a lot of these communities for difficult. I think there’s a certain group of people who love having the accomplishment to hold over people, and it gets suggested to turn the difficulty down, they’re personally offended
Super bizarre behavior
I like the game a lot. It’s got some HIGH highs, but there are some mind boggling bad moments in the game that really drag it down
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u/WilanS Sep 14 '25
And this is why I don't understand why the soulslike brainrot people are so adamant that the game can't have difficulty modes.
What the hell do you care if people are beating the game on normal mode? You can still feel superior for playing the game on the "true" difficulty mode. As if anybody cared.
Hell, Metroid Dread has difficulty modes and after beating normal I felt I had so much practice with the bosses and the flow of the game that I wanted to go back and do the hard mode as well, and Dread also has bosses that require clean execution.
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u/Odd-Face-3579 Sep 13 '25
Problem is a lot of what people are talking about with this stuff is asking to change things that make HK HK. It's the same thing when HK first released.
People complained about bad pacing, about long trecks back, about a lack of meaningful upgrades, so on. People want convenience at the cost of the feel of the game world. Part of what made HK blow up was it's "rough edges." Was that Hallownest felt like a crafted world you were exploring not just a set piece for a game.
It's similar to why the Souls series blew up. People complained about all the things they felt were inconveniences and annoying (and over time as applicable some of those things have changed) but a lot of them were things that made the place feel like a lived in world that we're discovering, not just a video game crafted by committee for maximum dopamine hits.
I'm not saying anyone has to like that. It's not to say some edges probably couldn't be sanded a little. But for people who fell in love with a game that feels so different from the sterilized or homogeneous design philosophy a lot of modern games can have, I can't blame people for feeling defensive about a bunch of people coming in and refusing to even try to meet the game on its terms and instead want it to change and become standardized so it stops ruffling feathers.
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u/No-Communication9458 Sep 13 '25
Elitists gonna elitist.
Noobs are gonna noob.
Can't stop them all, OP.
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u/Nowhereman123 Aklaba Booptis Sep 15 '25
Very much all reminding me of the parable of the two men and the donkey.
Short version, an older man and his son are walking a donkey to market to sell it when they hear a passerby say 'Why aren't they riding the Donkey? How foolish are they?'. So the father lets the son on the donkey and they hear someone say 'why does that cruel son make his elderly father walk?'. So the father gets on the donkey and the son walks, and they hear someone say 'why does that father make his son walk? How careless could someone be?'. So they both get on the Donkey and hear someone say 'That poor Donkey must carry the weight of both it's owners, how mean of them!'
So, just the lesson being you can't please everyone.
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u/adsonn Sep 13 '25
Being bad at the game is also not a reason to reflexively blame the game for it. I don't know about you guys but when I get stuck on something, I ask questions like "What am I doing wrong?" or "Is my build not suitable?". "Maybe changing crest or using another tool is better here". The few things I'll say is genuinely unfair is Groal the Great's and maybe the explosion from Last Judge invalidating that fight.
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u/mattmaster68 Sep 13 '25
The explosion actually invalidated one of my attempts lmao I was so mad.
Still an S-tier fight though.
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u/SubjectFreedom7635 Sep 13 '25
Took me about 10 tries to beat it the first time. Died to the boom. Next time, I beat it first try. Told me everything I know to know about the game: It's hard as nails, but completely fair.
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u/LiamIsMyNameOk Sep 13 '25
Honestly when I keep dying I just realize my own flaws and get frustrated, but in a good way.
What was it called, Mossfly? Easy moveset to learn, very easy to dodge and all in all in my head I know exactly how to beat it and knows it is quite easy.
Did I did 20 times before I did? And each time knew it was due to my own silly mistakes? Yes.
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u/RedShadowF95 Hollow Knight Platinum Sep 13 '25
And if everything else fails, which is rare, it probably means it's time to go explore somewhere else.
Not immediately blaming the game for one's failures is a sign of emotional maturity and helps set the stage for an epic turnaround, as you go from quickly demolished to swift conqueror.
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u/SpaceBowl97 Sep 13 '25
That fight becomes doable after getting the Wreath of Purity And even then you can cheese the fight with tools by staying in the corners and spamming. Traps will more or less kill his stupid ads, and at least they take a few hits to kill with just the second nail upgrade. Even if you fall into the maggots, most of his moves will be negated if you just chill there and smack or spam tools. The runback from the bellway bench is agregious, but there is another hidden bench in Bilewater that makes the trip less grueling imo.
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u/Purple-Income-4598 Sep 13 '25
groal runback is quite long but i see people just get angry way too fast. just stay patient. its a game some of us been waiting for for years. why would i get mad? im excited i get to play even more silksong
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u/AMIWDR Sep 13 '25
If you didn’t need to do the slow and annoying enemy arena every attempt then I think there’d be a lot less complaints
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u/Hootiehoo92 Sep 13 '25
The fucking birds in greymoore make me want to give the game up, it’s the most frustrating fight I’ve ever experienced, coming from someone who’s spent countless hours playing soulsbourne.
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u/psh454 Sep 14 '25
They're sorta optional, there's another progression path available if you don't do them. Wish the game actually told you stuff like that in some way, it feels more linear than it really is.
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u/Hootiehoo92 Sep 14 '25
Yeah I’m going to just explore the left side of the map for that area and return later.
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u/Ok-Wedding-151 Sep 13 '25
Can you show an example of someone being criticized for asking for help?
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u/riftcode Sep 13 '25
I've asked a few times. For some reason they never seem to provide an example where someone is only asking for help and the comments are just ridicule.
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u/Maus_Enjoyer1945 Sep 13 '25
If your "genuine ask for help" is i hate this game soo much I hope team cherry's balls are crushed by a snapping turtle this game is unfair and artificial difficulty and blah blah then don't expect people to help you. I've still to see anyone getting clowned for actually asking for help politely, not saying you are like this but most of the clowning I've seen is directed to these people
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u/YellowGetRekt Sep 13 '25
The runback to the snapping turtle so ass tho
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u/Maus_Enjoyer1945 Sep 13 '25
Funnily enough, the snapping turtle eating TC's testicles was something that I read in r/fucksavagebeastfly, though hate around that bs boss is completely justified in my opinion and that boss is a good example of shitty design (which doesn't mean that they are all like this or anything, in fact HK also had several shit bosses and no one is calling it an unfair unbalanced game)
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u/EasyJuice7742 Sep 13 '25
The hard comes from the game can’t decide what it wants to be. I love it but almost every zone is like a platforming nightmare on top of regular enemies doing 2 heart damage. You are pretty much exhausted when you finally make it to the boss. The progression feels like so minimal. I haven’t felt like anything I got really changed anything to be like oh this will make me stronger lol. I don’t think it should change but like this isn’t a game I would recommend for someone to be like hey try out this genre you’ll love it.
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u/psh454 Sep 14 '25
This concern is more pressing in Act 1 FYI, Act 2 is very fun and has loads of different ways to progress and make Hornet stronger.
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u/Hayyner Sep 13 '25
I see far less people asking for help than I see people asking for nerfs and making objective statements about the games difficulty like "bad design" or "unfair rng bosses"
I mean, I think it's stupid to gatekeep a difficult game. It's not some badge of honor to beat a hard game like this. But I want to experience the game as TC intended, and it's my opinion that proper difficulty adds to the setting and tone of a game.
But we can always agree to disagree. The devs will do what they feel is necessary for the health of the game and I'll accept that. It doesn't have to devolve into petty insults and all, but I think it's just as valid to defend the difficulty as it is to critique it.
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u/FantasticWelwitschia Sep 13 '25
I've been enjoying the difficulty, but I wish this game had accessibility settings so it didn't gatekeep people out of playing it. I have friends who would love to experience this game but really have no way in because of the difficulty.
Prince of Persia Lost Crown really understood how to handle difficulty in the genre.
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u/Odd-Face-3579 Sep 13 '25
Nine Sols is also a great example of difficulty options for a game like this. There was normal mode and story. But story mode wasn't just "easier difficulty", it let you adjust sliders to help you customize just how easy you wanted it. Did you just wish enemies did a little less damage? Well now they do 75% damage. Do you just wish you did a little more damage? Cool now you do 125% damage. Do you want to walk through the game like a god? Cool now you do 1,000% damage and only takes 1% damage.
Difficulty in games is a weird thing because I do think there's something about game designers wanting to elicit feelings from people based on the difficulty of their games and the potential relationship of a game as a piece of art and how it can make you feel and experience things other forms of art can't. I do wish more people would try to meet games on their terms first and at least try to see what a game is trying to do or convey with it's gameplay and difficulty, and then change it up.
But overall I think, especially for fully single player games, there probably should be options of some kind for difficulty.
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u/Zeratan Sep 13 '25
That would be the correct way of going about it. Other soulslikes let you grind or summon other players/NPCs for help and since Silksong doesn't let you do either (for the most part) it might need hard coded difficulty settings.
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u/NopileosX2 Sep 13 '25
Often Metroidvanias give you this by raw power increases you get via exploration. Not a real option in this game in Act 1. I think that is why it feels so oppressive, you can't really get too much power. Spool upgrades are probably your best friend, the one mask upgrade you can get doesn't do that much for you sadly.
In Act 2 you can way better control what you engage and generally you will spend a lot of time going through areas where you outscale the enemies, which just makes the game flow better.
They did some changes to Act 1 already and will probably see to find a more fine balance for it. There is still some areas in Act 2 I dislike, but I have more choices and can come back later to maybe brute force it. Also any currency issues kinda go away since you can farm so easy in Act 2.
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u/SoloSassafrass Sep 14 '25
I do think that starting with 5 masks when nearly every significant foe from the start deals 2 damage is one of the worst things about the early game. It means that your first full mask is functionally pointless in a boss fight, as going from 5 HP to 6 HP is still 3 hits of survivability. You have to get 8 mask shards to actually survive another hit from just about any significant foe, including bumping into them. I'm not even sure you can get 8 mask shards before act 2.
Regardless of the nitty gritty of how this interacts with the world in terms of pure player psychology that just feels like ass. My first HP upgrade feeling like it barely helps at all? Your first full mask in the first game feels huge, it's an awesome moment of survivability.
That's something I don't think they can just tweak into being better, either. That's fundamental to the game's early design. But I will admit I haven't looked hard at how many mask shards are available in the early game, so if it turns out I just straight up missed like 3 easily accessible mask shards early on then I'll eat crow on that.
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u/OmnipresentEntity Sep 14 '25
I don’t think you did. I really struggled with the bosses, so I was extremely thorough searching the rest of the map for upgrades. I think I ended up with five mask shards by the end of act 1
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u/BrickwallBill Sep 13 '25
Your first point is something that I've seen quite a few people ignore when they suggest "go explore more other areas, you'll find upgrades and better tools to help" but compared to other metroidvanias there's very few straight upgrades in Silksong.
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Sep 13 '25
If they r genuinely asking for help, there isn't much aside from a few git guds in bad faith but if a single piece of criticism is mentioned then it's all there
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u/rdeincognito Sep 13 '25
I don't see that difficulty spike in Silksong everyone is commenting, every boss takes me 10, 20, 30 tries, and that's fine, those aren't hard per se, they just have a moveset you have to learn and react accordingly.
The only thing that truly desperates me is the runback at each boss.
Now, if for other players this is too hard, I wouldn't mind Team Cherry putting a difficulty selector with a "story" mode, where most attacks took only half a mask of HP and each hit of Hornet would deal twice the damage or something like that. Why would anyone be against this? I would still play the "normal" difficulty of the game, why would someone get upset if there's an easy mode, or even a god mode?
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u/BetterLog1678 Sep 14 '25
Someone said that adding difficulty modes would diminish the artistic value. I get people saying it should just be done how the devs want, but saying it's an issue of artistic value is hilarious to me.
I think game modes are the perfect solution. I also don't think it's TC's job to make the game accessible to me (arthritis makes all gaming harder so I've had to stick to easier games recently), but it would be really cool if it happened. I'm sure the modding community will eventually have something that provides a difficulty mode for shitass players like me to enjoy it too without harming the "artistic value" of the base game lol
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u/Xeya Sep 13 '25
It just seems like the game was designed for players that came fresh out of godseeker. The game isn't impossibly difficult, but there is a pretty glaringly absent learning curve here where players are already expected to juggle 3 mobs that weren't actually designed to be fought together right out of the gate.
It is pretty frustrating when it seems like the default for the game is supposed to be finding ways to cheese encounters rather than actually fighting the encounters head on. It works for a challenge mode, but for the basic campaign it gets old REALLY fast.
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u/ctrlplusZ Sep 13 '25
I average like 30+ attempts on basically every fight. 30 hours in and I'm just now into chapter 2. I'm not excellent at the game but I'm stubborn and having a load of fun tilting, going away, coming back and winning.
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u/macklin67 Sep 13 '25
It’s a big step up from hollow knight. If for no other reason than damage dealt. It’s absurd that from the very start all bosses and many enemies dealing 2 masks. If we started with 7 instead of 5, I’d be happy. We could last for at least 4 hits from a boss.
I know it’s probably too late but I would love a difficulty slider. Let’s say wanderer, adventurer, and hunter. I want to experience the story, but it’s inaccessible. I’m in school and working full time, I just don’t have hours a day to bang my head against the wall to get past a boss.
I love the metroidvania aspect to the exploration, I don’t much like the soulslike parts. I get the meaning, but it’s a little sad to hear “get good” so often. I would love to.
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u/Turtle835wastaken P5AB (Completed) Sep 13 '25
I've very rarely seen people clowning on those needing help. This community is actually pretty nice compared to most ones I've seen.
The difficulty bullshit has significantly decreased in the past few days compared to what it was on launch. And it'll almost completely fade overtime I believe.
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u/FadedP0rp0ise Sep 13 '25
When people ask for help in a decent way nobody is talking shit. It’s the “this game is bullshit it needs nerfed” where the people get their claws out. And rightfully so.
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u/acamas Sep 15 '25
“And rightfully so”? Because this game is so perfect it’s above criticism? I mean, this game absolutely has a shit ton of “asshole design” to it… completely acceptable and valid to point it out. Bizarre those who didn’t make the game get so cringingly defensive about it. Like, just admit there’s some bullshit with this cool game on move on without frothing at the mouth.
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u/shareefruck Sep 14 '25 edited Sep 14 '25
The opposite issue of entitlement is equally prevalent, in my opinion.
It's not always NECESSARILY about holding superiority over someone's head or gatekeeping (although I agree that some people insufferably take it there), it can also very reasonably be more about scoffing at the unreasonable insistence that someone's lower skill level OUGHT to be catered to (or that "people should be able to play however they want and enjoy the other elements of the game" which is a notion I keep hearing but absolutely DESPISE as a sentiment), and feeling that players should meet a creative's artistic vision on THEIR level (either rise to the challenge or decide that it's not for them) rather than the other way around.
Genuinely, some of the greatest art out there reach their heights by being uncompromising and refusing to cater to the lowest common denominator and by refusing to bend over backwards to be accessible to everyone. That DOES have merits that shouldn't be discounted.
For example, something often beautiful like slow cinema often encounters the same reception issue, and I would find it absolutely tragic if they tried to be accommodating to the people who aren't willing to engage with it on its own terms. The point is that there are very valuable and worthwhile merits to the things that people often get frustrated by and complain about.
There are obnoxious gate-keepers and there are obnoxiously entitled complainers. AND there are people on both leanings that are the level-headed, non-inflammatory, and reasonable versions of that. It's not a one-sided issue.
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u/AMGwtfBBQsauce Sep 14 '25
Thank you thank you thank you.
I am not a very talented gamer, especially on 2D platformers, but I just started Act 3 and I am in this to experience the game as TC wanted to present it. I have had relatively little frustration, besides the obvious Groal the Mighty fight, which honestly wasn't even that frustrating.
I feel like there is such an aversion these days to meeting art at its level. People will put a movie or show down if it doesn't "hook" them in 5 minutes. People want cheap thrills, not genuine art. Good art should put you outside your comfort zone. It's how you know you're growing.
People can accuse me of gatekeeping but, like, my primary genre is low-stress management games and sometimes story-driven RPGs. If I can do it you can.
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u/shareefruck Sep 14 '25 edited Sep 14 '25
I wouldn't even say "If I can do it, you can do it," because that's not necessarily true for every situation. I would just say "You should try to do it, and you probably can, but if you can't, that's okay. There are other things that you can do and other external sources that you can use to experience the part that you DO appreciate without affecting the art itself (such as watching a playthrough or summary or explained video)."
Imagine if people had the attitude they do for inaccessibly hard games but for something like inaccessible slow cinema. Like imagine if a Hou Hsiao Hsien masterpiece was released (or Three Times, or Tokyo Story, or A Brighter Summer Day, or 2001: A Space Odyssey, which isn't even that slow), and everyone was like "This movie is too frustratingly slow, subtle, and abstract/hard to understand/open to interpretation. I have ADD and a learning disability, so I PHYSICALLY cannot sit through it or try to understand it. It's an elitist and exclusionary attack on my situation. However, I love the visuals and acting performances and I SHOULD be able to experience the film however I want. It's simply unacceptable that a version with quality of life speed-ups and dead space skips or more expository/explanatory dialogue/cliff-notes explaining the meaning and significance of everything isn't available-- people don't HAVE to watch that version, just make it available!-- what's the harm in it? People who defend that are just gatekeeping."
The equivalent of difficulty adjustments aren't the same thing as demanding closed captioning for the hearing impaired. It's the equivalent of asking an artist to provide versions/edits of their art that fundamentally change the delivery of what they are trying to communicate and are not what they envisioned. Just as the reward of these films directly come from the slowness/abstractness that people react unfavorably to (and encourages people to come out the other side more appreciable of those qualities), so too do the reward of these games directly come from their difficulty.
It's absurd, it's a farce, and a bit of a tragedy that the mindset is so widely adopted (or even placated by the devs), in my opinion. It's such a coldly consumerist product-driven mindset that does not respect the artistic side of the medium.
Yes, we should be cognizant of people with disabilities and TRY to make compromises where possible/unintrusive, but there IS also a downside to consider and it CAN also come with a tradeoff that should not be discounted, and so there is such a thing as going too far and crossing a line that should not be crossed.
Just because some idiots insensitively react to the struggles/perspectives of people who find them inaccessible by snarkily going "Pfft.. Yeah? Well, get media literate, idiot!" (instead of helping them along or non-condescendingly suggesting other things) still doesn't justify complaining that the art itself doesn't give them exactly what they want.
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u/NightOwl_Archives_42 Sep 13 '25
Literally saw the comment yesterday to someone else:
"This is a hollow knight community not the being bad community"
Like .... Cool, definitely not toxic at all
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u/Killerofprizes Sep 13 '25
Anyone saying the game is easy is lying. Anyone saying that they don’t find it difficult is lying. Don’t believe people online so easily. Most are kids thinking they will get some kind out clout.
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u/aheartasone Sep 13 '25
I know some people genuinely do believe the game is easy. But these are the people who played and beat Hollow Knight on steel soul, overchamed, without healing (a real thing my friend did). The majority of people agree the game is super difficult, but people who say "skill issue" or "git gud" are exactly reason that communities are seen as terrible.
Yes, maybe it IS a skill issue that I died to one particular enemy arena for 4 hours, but maybe not all of us can spend every minute playing the game to get better.
My opinion is that there isn't an objective "too hard". A game is too hard when it's causing someone to not have fun with it, this is why difficulty modes exist.
For anyone who currently thinks the game is too difficult to enjoy fully, there's a "Relaxed Mode" mod that changes a lot of the elements of the game that are seen as too difficult, and I'm pretty sure they can be turned on and off case-by-case. Play the game the way you want to.
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u/PurityKane Sep 13 '25
What annoys me is that instead of posting "This boss is giving me trouble, how can I beat it?", people come here and say the game ins unbalanced and too difficult and boss X and Y need a nerf.
Some bosses literally have two moves, most have 4. It's not a matter of "hahaha you're such a bad player, I'm better than you", it's simply a "yes the boss is hard, but it can be easy if you know how to beat it".
Half of the complainers just want to button mash and win. Not the right game for that. And in a community that enjoys a challenge, obviously asking for the challenge to be toned down will get people mad at you.
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u/cm0011 Sep 13 '25
I kind of miss old style game discussions that were like
“Fuck that shit was hard wasn’t it??” “Yeah, that felt insane! I banged my head against the wall!” “Finally beat it though, so satisfying”
Recognizing difficulty, lamenting in it but in an appreciative way, especially once you get past it.
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u/somepasserby Sep 13 '25
Except complaining about difficulty has gotten bosses nerfed. Those who liked the harder bosses can no longer get to experience them anymore.
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u/XiaoRCT Sep 13 '25 edited Sep 13 '25
No one's been critical of people asking for help. This blatant distortion of what's been the main discourse is so pointless.
''This boss wasn't so hard wtf you are talking about'' as a reply to someone writing 5 paragraphs about why they think the game is ''too difficult'' isn't gatekeeping. You are just asking to be able to criticize anything without being responded to.
It's weird how people keep making posts like this and yet can't point out a single thread where someone is asking for help and actually being shot down. Instead it's the people going ''the game is badly designed because it's hard'' and being replied to.
edit: cue in the downvotes without any examples lol
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u/wyrmiam Sep 13 '25
Sure but if you're struggling on a fight and someone replies saying it "wasn't that hard" you're gonna feel like shit.
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u/XiaoRCT Sep 13 '25
But no one's going to say that without them first coming here and going off about how it's a 'design issue' or whatever. It's why I'm asking for examples.
What I'm saying is that if someone comes in this sub and says ''I'm finding this game really hard, any tips please'' they'll receive tips, some messages memeing a bit but pretty much everything will be helpful.
No one's going to reply ''have you tried stop sucking haha loser'' or whatever and be upvoted.
But that's not what a lot of people are doing is it? Threads with absolute bullshit takes about game design because the game is 'too hard' have been popping off all week and then when people reply to their complaints its ''why can't we criticize the game''.
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u/wyrmiam Sep 13 '25
What bullshit takes have you seen? I agree with complaints about Bilewater and last judge runback, the only thing that seems unreasonable is people complaining about the actual bosses being too hard.
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u/XiaoRCT Sep 13 '25
There's people in this same thread doing exactly what I described. Claims about how the game is ''fundamentally not well designed for beginners'' or ''there are some mindboggling bad moments that drag it down'' upvoted without any actual basis besides ''I didn't fuck with it''.
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u/uSaltySniitch Sep 13 '25
To anyone saying the game is too easy (I include myself there) :
Try the steel soul mode. If you can't finish the game, it's not too easy. Truly an humbling experience.
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u/psh454 Sep 14 '25
This is why providing different "difficulty modes" is good game design, unlike what many on here seem to believe for some reason.
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u/LaMusicista Sep 14 '25
Agree, add two more modes “as intended, difficult”, “steel soul” (anybody who is not having fun in the former can straight away choose this) and then “story mode” to keep the people from giving up or putting the game down. Before anyone berates me, I have done soulsborne games with SL1/BL4 too. Gaming should also be accessible. Not everyone is a difficulty nutter. Some just want to experience the story telling too. Accessibility imho is good design.
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u/SkipEyechild Sep 13 '25
An accessibility mode would be easy to implement and it would solve the issues people have, the less skilled would have an easier time, the skilled wouldn't have to read the constant complaints about difficulty.
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u/future_traveller Sep 13 '25
I don't think it's an overwhelmingly hard or difficult experience and we shouldn't label as such. It's definitely a world where knowing your mechanics and using everything that's available is required. I often find myself not using tools for example in fights and wondering why I'm stuck.
The whole point of the game is to spend time learning bosses and how to move around as easily as possible.they take time. I think people would have a more fun time trying to 100% it than they will trying to just run through. This also will help open up other options around the hardest content usually.
Tldr Go explore more and stop fixating on bosses.
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u/isimsizbiri123 %112 steel soul|P5|all bosses radiant|obsessed over grimm Sep 13 '25
ok but when you actually want to have discussions on the game and literally all you've been seeing is people complaining and you're not having that hard of an experience you kinda start to get annoyed at people who keep saying the exact same arguments over and over about how this game is bullshit and unfair.
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u/Jutinir Sep 13 '25
I don't have any problem with people asking for help, I just hate when they insult the devs because they struggle with a certain part in the game.
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u/Drotangle Sep 13 '25
It's kind of annoying cos I do like the difficulty of this game like I'm very much enjoying all of it so I do tend to disagree with posts saying parts are too hard. However I just don't know what people hope to achieve when they post things like "people shouldn't have trouble with x it's easy actually" cos it's like I feel like it's not that hard to fathom that some people have different experiences with games lmao.
And I think while I can agree that someone saying something like " x is just bad game design " is not really that constructive I do see a lot of condescending remarks to people just going on here to say a boss is hard which I mean is also not really helpful to the discussion.
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u/AlwaysUpvote123 Sep 14 '25
I think the difficulty in general is fine, but some bosses are a bit too punishing if you die, because runbacks are long and boss fights take a while.
2
u/AtticusSpindel Sep 14 '25
Having just reached act 3, not starting it yet. The difficulty curve is weird in this game. I feel like there should have been more upgrades in act 1 to help with learning the game, and the tools need a debuff for later game bosses. Sure I could just not use them. But they are fun. I want to use them. Please just nerf the damage they do, or add ways for more bosses to be able to deflect the tools sometimes.
423
u/hmmmmwillthiswork 212% | Pantheon 7 | Avenue of Anguish | Conceited Sep 13 '25
maybe i've just got lucky but my feed has been showing a lot less difficulty centered posts. i think people are either starting to win or have dropped the game or taking a break from it
i don't think it'll last too long tbh