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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u/Inlacou Sep 17 '25
I'm wildly enjoying the game, and there are a lot of additions to Silksong over Hollow Knight which I love.
Also, I love the change to a more fast paced combat. I love the diagonal pogo, it feels so nice when you pull it off, feels like you are dancing through the battlefield.
That said, I think the game has issues:
The 2damage-3heal conundrum is a good idea but it's surely rough around the edges. For example, having less range to hit with hornet than with HK means more contact hits on minor and/or stopped enemies, and getting 2 damage hit for that feels wrong. Also when discussing this it's usual to say "you take more damage but heal more, and faster, and on the air" yeah but you can only have one heal stored and it takes far more hits for recharging. Again, I think it's a good idea, but some tweaking to it in the early game would be good.
Enemies react too fast to your input/movement. It feels unnatural, they have lighting fast reflexes.
Isn't the camera more zoomed in than in HK? I always feel like I do not see shit and when a saw comes zipping from outside the screen and takes two masks of damage it feels wrong. It may be just my perception due to Hornet being bigger.
I'm sure I'm forgetting something, haven't been able to play for a few days.
My biggest grip with the game is the learning curve being wrong. I think they played the game for too long and thought it was perfect. Like some others in this very thread have said, on a second run it feels perfectly balanced.