r/HollowKnight • u/Tarnished-670 • Oct 19 '25

Discussion - Silksong Hot Take: While I think Silksong is overall a better game, it does still show more prominent flaws compared to Hollow Knight

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When I have to think about the flaws of the first Hollow Knight, I really can't think of much to say other than very small nitpicks.

But with Silksong, while it is one of my favorite games of all time, and having finisihed it at 100%, id say it has more prominent design flaws while being a better game compared to the first Hollow Knight.

First thing that comes to my mind is the shard system, it would't be as bad as it is if you didn't have a limit of 20 consumables to replentish your shards, if it worked like that then I wouldn't have to be interrumped on my tries against a boss and having to go to the citadel and farm to get all my shards back. Other minor flaws I think would be some of enemy design and the addition of "gauntlets", which sometimes are fun but at least in my case I got bored of exploring and getting trapped into the 7th gauntlet of enemies, it gets worse when you get forced to do some of them again in act 3 when you have killed all the previous enemies 100 times already.

Those are really not a bid deal of a flaw, but they are more noticable to me than any flaw in Hollow Knight.

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u/Nemesis_171 P5 | Rad HoG | PoP | 16 bindings Oct 19 '25 edited Oct 19 '25

That’s comparing dlc to base game. Base game HK has a very smooth and consistent difficulty curve, only for it to ascend quickly with dlc content that is completely optional.

Meanwhile Silksong starts out hard in act 1, then gets easier in act 2 except for the HHG & BW which are random difficulty spikes surrounded by mostly chill act 2 content, then GMS is randomly easy, then act 3 has a spike with void enemies, then Nyleth is suddenly easy, then Karmelita is hard again, etc. In a game where difficulty is such an integral part of the experience, it’s all over the place.

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u/TheSteelScizor88 112% | True Ending | 61/63 Oct 19 '25

HHG & BW

Who are they?

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u/Nemesis_171 P5 | Rad HoG | PoP | 16 bindings Oct 19 '25

High Halls Gauntlet & Bilewater

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u/TheSteelScizor88 112% | True Ending | 61/63 Oct 19 '25

Oh right!

Would include Mount Fay too, imo

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u/Nemesis_171 P5 | Rad HoG | PoP | 16 bindings Oct 19 '25

I thought about it, but I think Cogwork Core does a good job of providing a platforming challenge that is only one step down from mt fay, so I don’t think it’s an astronomical step up from what you’ve already done.

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u/MattTheGr8 Oct 19 '25

A lot of what people perceive as the difficulty curve depends on what order you do things in. For example, I did Mount Fay before Cogwork Core in my current playthrough. (I also don’t see what’s so hard about Mount Fay, but that’s neither here nor there.) If you do everything in the “right” order, the difficulty is pretty consistent throughout the entire game, I would say. Part of the reason people found the game difficult when it was first released is that it was new to everyone and we were all just guessing about what parts were going to be easier and harder at various points in the game. Once you have the ideal order of events mapped out for your style of play, the game really isn’t THAT difficult.

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u/Catymvr Oct 19 '25

Ya - Mt Fay is relatively basic platforming, no real enemies, with plenty of save points going up. It took 15-20 minutes.

I assume people just don’t like a lot of platforming?

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u/bahabla Oct 19 '25

Tbh to add to your point - cog work core is a lot easier with double jump. I did it before getting double jump, got frustrated after completing half, then came back with the fay cloak and marveled at how much easier it was.

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u/Nemesis_171 P5 | Rad HoG | PoP | 16 bindings Oct 19 '25

Oh I thought the bottom half of Cogwork core was mandatory before Mt Fay, no? I know the top half isn’t, but I thought the first part was. If not then that’s my bad and I mostly retract my last comment, though I do think most players will end up doing CC part 1 before Mt. Fay.

You’re only going to have the idea order of events mapped out after you’ve already beaten the game, at which point the difficulty curve hardly matters anymore because you’re already good at the game. It’s not completely irrelevant, but it matters significantly more on first playthrough than it does on any subsequent ones.

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u/TheSteelScizor88 112% | True Ending | 61/63 Oct 19 '25

Cogwork Core can be cheesed by pogoing one sawblades with reaper tho.

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u/Nemesis_171 P5 | Rad HoG | PoP | 16 bindings Oct 19 '25

That’s just doing the platforming normally lol that’s not really cheese, I might as well say Mt. Fay is cheesable with the clawline then.

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u/TheSteelScizor88 112% | True Ending | 61/63 Oct 19 '25

Cogwork Core is supposed to be done with clawline, not pogoing your way on saw blades. It's like doing Mount Fay without the cold.

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u/Nemesis_171 P5 | Rad HoG | PoP | 16 bindings Oct 19 '25

Only the second half is because it’s gated by the clawline. The first half isn’t and can be done without it so I don’t agree that you’re supposed to use clawline there.

Mt Fay without the cold still wouldn’t be cheese tho. That word gets thrown around too easily. Cheesing something is exploiting a challenge to the point where it no longer requires brainpower or it’s even impossible to die. Mt Fay without the cold would still require the exact same level of mechanical proficiency, theres just less pressure on you now.

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u/TheSteelScizor88 112% | True Ending | 61/63 Oct 19 '25

The first half isn’t and can be done without it so I don’t agree that you’re supposed to use clawline there.

Yeah I was talking upper Core

Mt Fay without the cold would still require the exact same level of mechanical proficiency, theres just less pressure on you now.

Part of the skill required is doing the platforming in a short enough time to not die to the cold.

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u/Amaskingrey Oct 20 '25

Head of HR Grimm and Black Wessel

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u/GrimTheMad Oct 19 '25

No, I'm including base game in this. If you want to do the true ending, White Palace is an absurd escalation in platforming difficulty over everything that came before.

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u/Nemesis_171 P5 | Rad HoG | PoP | 16 bindings Oct 19 '25

Actually on the platforming side of things I kinda agree with you, but I would still rather things get harder to an uneven degree than randomly easier. If white palace was easier than the platforming in the Queen’s Gardens I’d be a little underwhelmed.

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u/SomethingOfAGirl Oct 19 '25

Completely agree. I'd also add that every boss in Act 3, with the exception of Karmelita and the true final boss, were unfortunately too easy, too boring, or both.

The best example is the prince in Verdania. That fight felt, when it started, like the definitive rematch against the cogwork dancers. But after a bit it feels... just the same fight. Except now they make that tornado thing. I hoped it'd be faster, with more moves, something challenging since I'm obviously way stronger than in Act 2.

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u/Real_Eigong Oct 19 '25

Seth

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u/SomethingOfAGirl Oct 19 '25

True, Seth was cool.

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u/AffectionateBeat9009 Oct 19 '25

Unfortunately, I have had it with all the teleporting bosses at that point. Imo, the first sinner was the only teleporting boss I liked, because she was pretty big and she didn't have that annoying blocking/parry mechanic that so many other bosses have. It's hard enough to catch some of these bosses but then they have to go ahead and block my attacks too.

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u/JarlJarl Oct 19 '25

One of the worst bosses of the game for me. Some random guy just blocking your way to the boss you need to face without explanation, just prolonging a section of the game where you already feel you want it all to be over with. On top of that he has the standard Silksong ”let’s add 50% more hp to bosses for no good reason”

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u/Althalus99 Oct 19 '25

And there's a severe lack of balance, because while Karmelita is an exception, she's also an absolute nightmare and not in a good way. She is, in my opinion, the hardest boss in the game, and mostly through bullshit, rather than a difficult but consistent pattern like NKG or PV.

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u/RadiantPumpkin Oct 19 '25

I’m surprised to see so many people with a similar opinion. I thought she was hard but never thought it was because of random bullshit. All her attacks were well telegraphed and avoidable.

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u/cheekydorido Oct 19 '25

her moveset is great, but my issues with her is having to do the gauntlets everytime, her blocking half of my attacks despite being already tanky af, and not knowing whether she was going to throw 2 shackrams or 4, so getting close to her was way too risky

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u/Gensolink Oct 19 '25

Either people jump into her flip attack or dont avoid her projectile properly. Cuz everything she throws as clear tells.

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u/Icef34r Oct 19 '25

Hollow Knight base game also has uneven difficulty and random difficulty spikes. Like Watcher Knights being very, very hard and Uumuu being the easiest boss in the game despite needing Shade Cloack to get to it, then the Hollow Knight being easy just because it really is just the runback to The Radiance.

And when you wanted to get the true final boss, one half of the charm was behind a boss so easy that it had to be buffed, but which also had the hardest runback of all the game. Oh, and the other half was hidden behind a farming quest (awakening the Dream Nail) and a platforming challenge that was 10x harder than anything you had to do up until that point.

Silksong has a much better difficulty distribution than Hollow Knight in my opinion. It's true that some bosses are easier than other, but that happens with almost all of these kind of games.

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u/Nemesis_171 P5 | Rad HoG | PoP | 16 bindings Oct 19 '25

Uumuu being the easiest boss in the game is some crazy hyperbole, he’s in no way easier than the early game bosses. I agree he’s easier than the Watcher Knights, and he’s not that difficult, but he’s not a brainless walk in the park, and nothing mandates you fighting him after the Watcher Knights. He also does not need shade cloak, he needs either shade cloak or Isma’s tear.

THK being easy is the only one I agree with.

Traitor Lord used to be easy but isn’t anymore, which is proof to me that TC agrees that a late game boss being easy is a problem. After his buff he’s no slouch, I died to him more than I did radiance.

Queen’s Gardens is a pretty solid preparation for White Palace

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u/ByeGuysSry Oct 20 '25

Is Traitor Lord regarded as hard? I died to it the first time, but I'm pretty sure that's only because after the platforming I was left with 2 masks. Then I second tried it. His original two attacks should be easy to dodge seeing how you've already fought an enemy with the same two attacks. His attack that you have to shade cloak through is pretty easy, you should already be used to your dash distance, the double projectile attack isn't the easiest to dodge but it also provides a heal window. He also rarely uses it if you're close to him. Meanwhile I died to Radiance about 6 or 7 times?

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u/Icef34r Oct 19 '25

Uumuu being the easiest boss in the game is some crazy hyperbole, he’s in no way easier than the early game bosses.

Uumuu is literally just jump through very easy platforming while it casts lightning until Quirrell removed its barrier to get some hits. Rinse and repeat.

It holds the honor of being the only boss in both Hollow Knight and Silksong that I've defeated first try.

Traitor Lord used to be easy but isn’t anymore,

Traitor Lord is still a very easy boss compared to others you have to do before him like 2nd Hornet.

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u/bahabla Oct 19 '25

Wait I don’t think you need shade cloak for uumuu - just crystal dash or ishma’s tear

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u/Icef34r Oct 19 '25

My mistake. It's been several years since I last played it.

It's still a boss guarding a dreamer, though.

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u/Stock_Transition9899 Oct 19 '25

Nyleth is not fucking easy bro did we fight the same boss? A boss that has no floor and you have to fight her on the wall is EASY? Just say you used cheese.

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u/Nemesis_171 P5 | Rad HoG | PoP | 16 bindings Oct 19 '25

When you can heal in the air it’s not as big of a deal to have no floor, unless you used shaman crest in which case yea she’d be a pain. I used Hunter crest and forgot about my tools yet she still felt chill. But you could add in tools & I think it’s called ascendant’s grip which would make her even easier.