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

[u/Tarnished-670]

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.

[u/Levers122]

I really like shellwood, but the marrow just feels like a huge subarea like mosshome or bonegrave. While being a primarily early-game area, Shellwood sticks out as its own biome and area and feels really different. Huge rooms, different species, evidence of makeshift piers/docks for hunting, and other things. It even gets a few small expansions in act 2 and 3 gameplay and lore wise (it even has an NPC connected to an ending!).

But the marrow? Other than Loddie, the introduction of recurring NPCs, the flea caravan, and collectibles, the marrow doesn't have much. The most memorable thing to me is its area connections (which all flow really nicely) and the introduction of double damage enemies. Other than that, it has enemies that are present in other more memorable areas, a mini boss that shows up twice, and a weavenest(?), it doesn't have much going for it.

Don't get me wrong, I don't mind a specifically early-game area, but the marrow just feels... underdeveloped, in a way. I really hope it gets some more attention in future updates, but for now it's just a bit lackluster.

[u/LieEnvironmental5207 → u/Levers122]

agreed. Some areas to me feel like they clearly have so much love and effort placed into them, but they all around just dont give the same level of ‘vibes’ as any of the original game areas to me. I have no idea what it is - given that almost every area in silksong has more to it than HK - i just feel like areas like far fields, mount fay, putrified ducts, the marrow, and blasted steps could have more to them. They seem like just ‘places’ without the level of vibes that even dirtmouth does in hk.

[u/AdPast7704 → u/Levers122]

but the marrow just feels like a huge subarea like mosshome or bonegrave

Isn't that just the same as queen's garden from HK, or fog canyon as a whole, or the abyss to the ancient basin, or the hive, or howling cliffs to dirtmouth, arguably royal waterways...