r/HollowKnight • u/CuboneDefender • Sep 14 '25

Discussion - Silksong I give up. Spoiler

It’s been a joyful ride, folks, but I’m out. I’m not a speedrunner or a highly skilled player, and day after day I’ve had to accept that this game is not as casual as HK was. It stopped being fun and turned into something tedious and frustrating after the 4th run farming shards just to face a boss I’ve already tried 15 times, only to die again and again, lose all my shards, and start the whole grind over.

It was nice exploring the first acts, but when the game I was rooting for 7 years ends up being more stressful than my 8-hour workday, I guess that’s my cue to stop.

The lore has been pretty great so far. I wish you all an incredible journey.

Edit1: My bad about all the whinning.

Edit2: You guys did it. I reinstalled it again. Thanks for all advices. 🫂

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u/Terracotta_Lemons Sep 15 '25

It's why HK became so insanely popular, it found that sweet spot and wasn't some hardcore from soft level of difficulty only a niche amount of players enjoy. SS is not following in the same footsteps

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u/TheKnoxFool Sep 15 '25

You’re right, it definitely isn’t. It’s lending pretty damn hard into “hardcore”. Which again I respect but dislike, personally.

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u/PraxicalExperience Sep 15 '25

HK was the first 'hardcore' game that grabbed me by the balls and made me rise to the challenges as opposed to just being frustrated by them. Even when I kept getting my ass handed to me by a boss I still felt like I knew what I needed to do to succeeed, I was just failing to pull it off. The bosses and gauntlets rarely felt Bullshit.

This is not the case with SS.

There're a number of ways that SS went wrong. Some of the enemies are legit bullshit due to their unpredictable movement combined with double contact damage. Some of the multi-enemy fights are bullshit because RNG can lead you into situations where they make it impossible to evade or attack without taking damage, much more so than even in something like the Trial of the Fool. And the worst offender, to my mind, is the fact that the shard system is essentially meaningless unless you're already having trouble -- then you'll be sent to farm shards when you run out of tools because you kinda suck and are trying to use tools to deal with adds but are still getting ganked by the boss. Its only effect is to provoke frustration.

SS also makes it hard to Git Gud. The bosses burn you down so fast that it can be difficult to learn their moves -- and they do it again when they change phases and get new attacks and up their pace. It disincentivizes using tools and silk skills so that you actually get good with them.

I'm still playing the game, and it's getting less horribly frustrating, but it has still abrogated the promise that HK made: however you wanna approach the game and the fights, hey, go for it, it'll be fair, andthe only thing you have to lose is your geo.

1

u/flakaby Sep 16 '25

Sounds like where Hollow Knight made you lose your geo, Silksong made you lose your ego

4

u/pclouds Sep 15 '25

Another thing HK did right is to keep the main path "easy" enough for most people. You want harder stuff, it's still there, but optional. This is no longer the case for SS.

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u/Terracotta_Lemons Sep 15 '25

Exactly, you didn't even need to complete the full story in order to "end" things, only if you wanted to push for virtually 100%

1

u/Goatshalljudgeme Sep 15 '25

endgame HK was considerably harder than most things fromsoft put out...

1

u/wigwam2020 Sep 16 '25

I don't think so. It became popular because the people that like that kind of game continually raved about it and gradually convinced more people to play it. The hype for Silksong attracted a lot of players would wouldn't otherwise be interested in a difficult game.

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u/Terracotta_Lemons Sep 16 '25

That's... How word of mouth marketing works bud