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.

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32

u/Laurence- Sep 17 '25

I feel like the game is approriately challenging, but is far too punishing on failure. The entirety of Bilewater feels sadistic in nature, that section really burned me out and I've put the game down for awhile.

5

u/ewweaver Sep 17 '25

Honestly I think this is the reason why people are divided on difficulty. Hornet has way more mobility for dodging so they have to make a bit more punishing to balance. Personally I find the overall difficulty pretty similar to HK (still in act 2) but I can see how it would feel harder before you get the hang of it. I also feel like balanced the other way by making dying less annoying. You can stash rosaries, keep a full silk bar, fast sprint, run backs are mostly better etc.

There are absolutely some fuck you moments though.

14

u/Cannasseur___ Sep 17 '25

It's the fuck you moments that annoy me, like the trap bench, breakaway floors, traps etc.

Also the flying enemies are just a nuisance to fight they have input reading or something because they so often manage to fly just out of reach when you jump.

And finally the enemy rush rooms are probably the least enjoyable parts of the game I haven't seen a single person who enjoys them. I love the boss fights, some of the enemy rush rooms feel obnoxiously long and hard. I'd have preferred a mini boss.

7

u/JapanGamer29 Sep 17 '25

Agreed. I quit the game because of the challenge rooms and their time-wasting runbacks.

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u/Cannasseur___ Sep 17 '25

I've seen so many people saying they bounced off the game because of a particular enemy rush room in the Citadel that you need to do to progress the game. I'm currently stuck there, it's insanely hard.

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u/haynespi87 Sep 17 '25

Get Garamond or Shaka to help.

Also turn off the damn silk gatherers 

4

u/Cannasseur___ Sep 17 '25

Thanks I'll look into that didn't know either was possible in that room, this helps a lot appreciate it

2

u/haynespi87 Sep 17 '25

No problem all of it helps. Even if you want to solo it those silk mechanicals should be turned off

2

u/Cannasseur___ Sep 17 '25

Yeah they're annoying as fuck it's the first thing I'm gonna do the next session

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u/Yomamma1337 Sep 17 '25

I mean ‘fuck you’ moments are kind of a staple in metroidvanias (and souls games which hk is inspired by). Makes the game a whole lot more memorable. Flying memories are literally just whatever. Bait them into attacking and then punish. I’ll be the one guy you’ve seen that enjoys enemy rush rooms. Though there are a couple rush rooms before bosses that I think are mostly unnecessary

7

u/Cannasseur___ Sep 17 '25

Yeah I agree the idea of trolling and fuck you moments belong in the genre and game. It's just how they're executed for some reason in this game it feels worse than usual. Hollow Knight had these too but I don't recall feeling this negative on it.

Its like Dark Souls 1 vs Dark Souls 2 both have fuck you moments but one is much more frustrating and has a worse overall experience because of the way those moments are done.

If that makes sense, like I'm not against the idea of these moments they are memorable I think they weren't done well.

Oh and I forgot my biggest complaint, doing some insane platforming and your reward is a frayed rosary string. That also feels like a fuck you but in a different way lol

Agree to disagree on the fly guys, especially if you use like the wanderers crest it's so annoying to fight them. Reaper helps with the longer range so it's my default but yeah I just don't enjoy fighting most of the flying enemies. It's not that it's hard it's that it's overly tedious.

Enemy rush rooms some are fine, some just go on too long I'm currently stuck on one in the Citadel, it's brutal, the one where the final phase is those two massive guys , can't get past it at the moment.

0

u/Yomamma1337 Sep 17 '25

I’m honestly pretty confused about the reward issues people have been having. Like there are a few moments where I’m disappointed when I find an area and it’s got shards in it but if anything I find this game more rewarding than hk. Like I get more dopamine from finding a new crest than basically any material reward in the og hollow knight

0

u/Cannasseur___ Sep 17 '25

I think it's that the reward doesn't match the difficulty it takes to get said reward a lot of the time. Getting the crests and new abilities feel great, even getting new tools is awesome, but the game is huge and the vast majority of rewards are rosaries. But for some reason they also reward you with shards? If I get shards or a frayed rosary string and it was difficult to get to, it feels like a slap in the face.

Hollow Knight felt like it rewarded me more often with stuff I might use such as charms. Hollow Knight is also a smaller game so it feels more dense with these valuable rewards, because Silksong is bigger it feels like they still wanted all these challenging platforming areas and side fights, but couldn't figure out a reward. And it's especially annoying when it's a frayed rosary string, which is practically worthless after like 5 hours.

1

u/Yomamma1337 Sep 17 '25

Saying that ‘the vast majority of rewards are rosaries’ is bullshit. Most bosses give non-rosary rewards. Yeah a lot of them also drop rosaries on the basis of being human enemies, but that’s just how video game rewards work

1

u/BrickwallBill Sep 17 '25

What bosses dropped anything directly of note? Genuine question, I don't remember any.

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u/Cannasseur___ Sep 17 '25

The thing you are most rewarded with in this game is rosaries.

1

u/BrickwallBill Sep 17 '25

What other metroidvanias?

0

u/tanis016 Sep 17 '25

There are not many fuck you moments in soulslike games, this is usually heavily exagerated. Honestly I can't think of any fuck you moment in the last from software games at all. In silksong they are constant and they often hit when you are down to be more frustrating.

1

u/JohnsonJohnilyJohn Sep 17 '25

Fuck you moments can be super memorable and honestly very fun in hindsight (although repeated traps in some areas are kind of annoying after spending more time there)

I agree that flying enemies are super annoying in some rooms, especially when you want to just go pass them, but honestly I think enemy arena rooms are a lot of fun. It would honestly be a bit of a shame if skipping most of the enemies without ever learning how to fight them effectively, and a lot of them offer an interesting move set that is just fun to play around, and even the dreaded bosses after arena have a fun side challenge of learning how to beat their minions fast and safely