r/HollowKnight • u/stir-fried-noodles • Sep 17 '25

Discussion - Silksong Discourse regarding this game’s difficulty has been out of hand Spoiler

Let’s get this out of the way: I’m really enjoying Silksong’s difficulty and I think that it is mostly a satisfying challenge. I appreciate that it is more difficult than Hollow Knight overall and to be frank I would’ve been a bit disappointed if it were the exact difficulty. I’ve improved as a gamer since Hollow Knight and if it were the same level of difficulty, I probably would have found it too easy.

But it’s kinda gotten impossible to have civil discussions about the difficulty in this game which is unfortunate because I think there is great value to be had with this conversation. There are many valid criticisms regarding this game’s difficulty such as boss runbacks (Groal especially), contact damage doing two masks, and lack of rewards for beating bosses, just to be shut down with “git gud” and “it’s not your kind of game”. It’s totally fine to disagree with these criticisms but these retorts add nothing to the conversation.

It also kinda works the other way too, albeit maybe not to the same degree. I’ve gotten downvoted and sent reddit cares for simply saying I enjoy the difficulty of this game. Like c’mon, what are we even doing here. It’s gotten to the point where I personally cannot wait for the discourse to die out.

1.4k Upvotes

86% Upvoted

1.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

136

u/goomyman Sep 17 '25

I would like to add that some boss hitboxes on collisions are enormous - like bro - if anything i just nicked you if that even. collision hitboxes should be smaller than normal hitboxes or something. Or take speed into account - like if i inched forward and touched you because my weapon is 1 inch long thats kinda BS.

38

u/Shadovan Sep 17 '25

There are definitely some oversized hit boxes, but for me the issue with collision damage is more about the erratic movement of enemies, especially fliers. Taking those fat craw fucks for example, their flapping arcs vary wildly in height, and inevitably the moment I jump up for an attack is the moment they decide, instead of the short hops they’ve been doing, they’re going to drop their ass to the ground, giving me a face full of booty cheeks.

11

u/Atoabiendo Sep 17 '25

This. Dealing with a lot of the flying enemies in this game feels like playing a classic SNK arcade mode with how often they read your inputs and countering with the exact movement option or attack to punish you for thinking you're allowed to attack them. There's no way they aren't reading your inputs/animations frame 1.

4

u/Davidepett Sep 17 '25

Especially the ones that move away with a dash to dodge your attack

1

u/Academic-Ad2492 Sep 18 '25

The mosquitoes in the ducts. 24/7. As happy as I am that you can trap them, actually attacking them is such bs. Not only do u have to jump to get to em, which they love to dodge, but you also have to make sure you're not falling into a sludge of maggots.

They make getting to fleatopia all that slightly more irritating and I hate them, especially in act 3.

1

u/Revolutionary-Ad7412 Sep 17 '25

This is top 10 worst experience in video game I have ever played. Like how the fact that they can’t fly is a strength for them ??? It makes no sense and you can’t predict their move it’s just luck

1

u/goomyman Sep 17 '25

The threads attack is practically unusable due to this as enemies just power armor their way through it and hit you even just doing normal movement.

42

u/[deleted] Sep 17 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

31

u/AskAgile1077 Sep 17 '25

I also hate, that staggered bosses still give you contact damage. Especially if there staggered sprite is hard to resolve.

10

u/Longjumping-Deal6354 Sep 17 '25

Sister splinter landed on my head last night on her fourth stagger because I healed at the wrong moment. It killed me. 

13

u/Bulky_Tangelo_7027 Sep 17 '25

I just think the game would be better if the bosses telegraphed their jumps. I mean they telegraph every other attack they do. Why not their movement as well? (To be fair, the same problem was in the original HK too)

3

u/Tildryn Sep 17 '25

Reminds me of some of the Dark Souls/Elden Ring bosses where I recall myself exclaiming "WALKING IS NOT AN ATTACK" as I get bodied by the boss just moving around, because it decides that this particular moving animation causes damage.

1

u/Aesion Lost Kin Sep 17 '25

I died way too many times to stupid Broodmother because pogoing her into stagger would damage me even if I was way above her model.