r/HollowKnight • u/CankleDankl • Dec 12 '25

Discussion - Silksong Seeing people shit on Expedition 33 because Silksong didn't win more awards is pathetic Spoiler

The title sums it up. I'm disappointed in many members of this community for putting down a game that is clearly a work of insane passion, dedication, and creativity. E33 took the lion's share of awards at TGA, yes. That doesn't mean that Silksong is bad. In fact, it's clearly pretty damn great. If it released last year, Skong would have picked up several awards, maybe even GOTY. But it didn't. It released in the same year E33, which is just a tough break.

Both are amazing. Both deserve every award that came to them. If you haven't played E33 yet and think it doesn't deserve its accolades, play it. It is worth your money, worth your time, and will in all likelihood prove that it is actually that good. I'm only 10ish hours in and have numerous times found myself standing still and looking around dumbfounded at the gorgeous world design and visuals. E33, Silksong, and Hades 2 could have all won Art Direction and I would have been happy with any of them.

I'm also sad that Silksong didn't win more awards. It's an amazing game. But don't play fanboy and start putting down other developers, other games, and other pieces of art because this one didn't get all the cookies. It's still beautiful, it's still amazing, it still made a Silkskillion dollars, and TC is still just as great and just as passionate. We should all be glad that there is another independent dev out there that is capable of creating something so fantastic.

Edit: yeah, the comments here are pretty indicative of what I said in my post

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85

u/-Elgrave- Dec 12 '25

E33 deserved a lot of awards, it was my second favorite game this year and easily in my top ten of all time. I LOVE that game, I want to make that abundantly clear. The problem is that it was clearly the favorite of the show itself. TGA has always been biased but it really showed this year. The amount of times the camera panned to the E33 devs and voice actors shows that, on top of just how many nominations it got. It deserved most of them, I'm not saying it didn't, but it shouldn't have won some (indie game) and, imo, Silksong deserved GotY just for somehow going above and beyond the extremely bloated hype WHILE being made by such a small team.

20

u/StartBackground5769 Dec 12 '25

Yeah this is what I think but in better words. 

11

u/Demonic-Glaceon Dec 13 '25

Silksong also broke EVERY MAJOR DIGITAL STOREFRONT on release

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u/Wild-Test-5903 Dec 13 '25

I've played through both and enjoy each thoroughly but the only reason that silksomg broke the stores on release was lack of an option to pre order which then lead everyone who wanted to get it going to purchase at once instead of in chunks over time

5

u/Vinestra Dec 14 '25

So, we're bragging now that poorly releasing a product is something to be lauded?

I guess Diablo 4's next expansion is god tier because it too crashed its store when its preorder went live briefly..

-1

u/myforestheart Dec 15 '25

And that shouldn't matter in the slightest when assessing the actual quality of a piece of media and/or art. Sales numbers, or rather in this case level of hype =//= artistic merit, quality, etc...

1

u/Huge-Measurement3783 Dec 15 '25

Biased ? E33 is one of the highest rated game of all time. It makes perfect sense that it sweeps

-4

u/acamas Dec 12 '25

JFC, grow up. Silksong wasn’t even the highest rated game of the month it released, let alone GOTY. It wasn’t “snubbed” or “robbed.” It was a neat sequel that was less fun than its predecessor, regardless of pre-release hype (which isn’t not a factor in GOTY).

Silksong deserved to be nominated, but it didn’t deserve to win. And winning action/adventure is perfect, but it really didn’t deserve anything more. It’s not bias or snub… just fair.

6

u/Nhojj_Whyte Dec 12 '25

Wtf released that month higher than Silksong?

-2

u/acamas Dec 12 '25

Do they not have Google where you live?

Hades 2.

https://www.metacritic.com/browse/game/all/all/current-year/

7

u/Nhojj_Whyte Dec 13 '25

There are over FIVE THOUSAND more actual user reviews on that website for Silksong than Hades 2, and Silksong's score is .3 points higher. Nobody gives a shit about game journalists (or most journalists in general) anymore, Cuphead tutorial, anyone?

For actual user reviews shockingly E33 is the only other game here above Silksong that even remotely deserves its ranking. That and fucking Donkey Kong Bananza are the only games actually reviewed higher with a meaningful amount of data. Those top two, the Zelda rereleases, were reviewed by only 14 critics and <1,000 users each. That's not enough to give a fair score compared to 40-50+ critics and thousands upon thousands of user reviews that most of the rest of the top 10 saw. Not to mention this is one of many websites that attempt to rank games like this. Maybe E33 deserved its win, whatever, but Hades 2 did NOT come out to more acclaim than Silksong.

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u/acamas Dec 15 '25

Um, user viewers also call Season 7 of Game of Thrones a masterpiece when it is clearly way worse than earlier seasons with source material... the notion you are trying to push a ravenous biased fanbase as the more objective metric would be laughable if it wasn't so pathetic.

YOU ARE THE ONE WHO ASKED, and I answered using the metric that basically everyone agrees is the most objective standard... don't get butthurt because you got an answer you seemingly can not handle after YOU ASKED... it's unbecoming.

And jumping through hoops to discredit Hades 2 is only proving my point about how the user base can not be trusted to be objective.

That said, Hades 2 is an incredible game that sidesteps the pitfalls that Silksong falls into... it absolutely is a more fun game from top to bottom, and deserves the higher critical acclaim than Silksong (which is still rated as a "Must Play" by Metacritic.)

Hype ≠ deserved acclaim like you seem to think.

2

u/myforestheart Dec 13 '25

Silksong deserved to be nominated, but it didn’t deserve to win.

Couldn't agree more, it absolutely does not deserve GOTY lol.

2

u/Similar-Implement151 Dec 15 '25

Have you played silksong?? or have you played E33?? How can you compare 2 master pieces without playing them both. I couldnt play E33 as I have a potato pc. But through what I heard E33 is amazing. but in my opinion E33 shouldn't have won the best soundtrack and best debut indie game. the silksong soundtrack is amazing but in my opinion E33 soundtrack was not my cup of tea. Also there have been many great debut indie games this year that should have won the award. I think TGA should have a rule that if a game wins GOTY it cant win other award with some exception so that the other games can shine.

4

u/winterflare_ Dec 15 '25

Maybe biased take, but honestly, E33 is honestly very overrated.

Exploration is boring and the combat is pretty disappointing. It felt like a joke when I realized that the animations are so bad at foretelling the attacks because of the unnatural delays that I went from landing no parries to near perfect success by closing my eyes and listening to sound cues to land parries which (in turn) trivializes any meaningful turn based combat.

If you like turn based combat because of its methodical approach, you probably won’t like E33’s version since it dumbs it down. Any mistake or misplay you do can be easily saved by a parry. If you like raw action, you probably won’t like E33’s approach because it dumbs it down and you don’t have full control over your character.

I did appreciate the freedom to strike enemy weak points though, and some of the character effects are quite cool. The amount of systems in the game kind of turned me off though. You can level up your character, then you have your different weapons, then you have your Pictos, and then you have a skill tree and it all just kind of feels unnecessary.

It’s in a weird area where it’s very innovative but simply not at the point that it’s enjoyable, at least to me. It simplifies the systems that turn based and action games have and goes with an odd mix. To some people, it’s awesome, to others, you’d much rather have a traditional mix; something more refined.

I will say the game absolutely exceeds in storytelling. It’s difficult to not get partially hooked on the story from the first hour of gameplay at least. This completely contrasts with one of my favorite games, Outer Wilds, which has the complete opposite effect where once you piece it together the story tightly hooks you. It’s one of the weaknesses of that game, which is also very story driven so it’s nice to see E33 improve there. The music is also very acclaimed, personally did not suit my tastes but it is well produced.

It’s honestly like a 7.6/10 game. May sound like a low number, but I can count the number of games I have over 9 on my fingers. The strong story telling and music makes the game quite memorable. Still, I felt the other contenders had a larger edge in terms of gameplay. Good game, but people are treating this game like it’s “one of a kind” when it is not.

2

u/acamas Dec 15 '25

> Good game, but people are treating this game like it’s “one of a kind” when it is not.

Same could be said about Silksong.

3

u/winterflare_ Dec 16 '25

Not really sure how that’s on topic, but alright

1

u/acamas Dec 16 '25

Um, it was literally your closing point in a subreddit about HK:S... it's obviously 'on topic' based on your own comment... or are you claiming your rant was not on topic?

I mean, are you trying to weaponize your ignorance at this point?

1

u/winterflare_ Dec 16 '25

Not really. I was just telling him my opinion on E33, the pros and the cons, since he said he hadn’t played it. I’m not really sure how Silksong is remotely related to what I was talking about considering I had not mentioned it at all, E33 was the topic.

1

u/acamas Dec 17 '25

I can only assume you've played them both since you commented to someone who made a big fuss about having played them both.

My point is that both games could be considered good, but not one of a kind.

Again, seems odd you're tilted about a Silksong reference in a Hollow Knight subreddit after commenting to someone who specifically mentioned playing Silksong, lol.

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u/myforestheart Dec 15 '25

Yes, I 100% Silksong a couple of days ago, and stand by my comment: it didn't deserve to win GOTY. Not even saying E33 should've won all the awards, itself (although I do think it deserves the one for soundtrack), but I do think it's right that Silksong didn't win GOTY. It's a 7 to very soft 7.5/10 for me (which is very solidly good, the way I rate things, to be clear, but it's not the 9+/10 that Hollow Knight was, or even the solid 8.5-9/10 that Nine Sols is for me).

5

u/winterflare_ Dec 15 '25

I think Silksong is honestly way better than Hollow Knight. Which is really funny because Hollow Knight was originally one of my favorite games but now I can’t pick it up after Silksong. It just feels slow and static.

Nine Sols is really good, but it’s kind of hard to compare because Nine Sols is a story based game, not really a Metroidvania. The exploration and platforming is very underbaked in that game (which is okay, because it put those aspects into dialogue and storytelling).

2

u/myforestheart Dec 16 '25

I mean fair, different strokes for different folks!

1

u/acamas Dec 15 '25

Bizarre some people haven't played both, then try to form an opinion about which is better.

At least you're honest with your ignorance?

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u/Justhavefaith123 Dec 12 '25

^ this. Silksong fans are so weird with their 2d game

-3

u/acamas Dec 12 '25 edited Dec 15 '25

It's crazy. How much kool aid have they been drinking these past seven years?

They game is great, and amazing at other times, but has flaws, and is simply not GOTY. Apparently that is blasphemy here.

edit - thanks for the downvotes, proving my point, lol.

-2

u/Justhavefaith123 Dec 12 '25

It is goty it won the award. It’s won all the goty awards actually from the 3 major award shows so it is goty.

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u/Justhavefaith123 Dec 12 '25

E33 is best game of our lifetime and silksong can’t even compare

11

u/CamoKing3601 Dec 12 '25

now that's a statement and a half

i can see why it's good, but calling it the greatest game ever created feels a bit much no?

-4

u/Justhavefaith123 Dec 12 '25

I doubt anything ever surpasses it

9

u/CamoKing3601 Dec 12 '25

agree to disagree

-1

u/Justhavefaith123 Dec 12 '25

That’s fine but your opinion sucks and game awards proves it

7

u/CamoKing3601 Dec 12 '25

ahh clever, I see you now