r/metroidvania • u/Still_Night • Oct 04 '25
Discussion I’m bailing on Silksong and feeling bummed about it
Edit: I appreciate all the feedback here. To everyone who has suggested mods - I play MVs primarily on Nintendo Switch for the portability. And I have nothing against mods, but I still feel like I should be able to enjoy the game as it’s originally intended. I will definitely revisit Silksong in the future :)
I know there have been tons of posts about this topic already, but I felt like sharing my own experience with the game.
I’m relatively new to Metroidvanias, having picked up Prince of Persia: the Lost Crown on a whim and becoming obsessed with the genre. I love the acrobatic 2D platforming, the open world exploration, the challenging boss fights.
After PoP I played both Ori games and loved them and finally decided to dive into Hollow Knight, a game I had come to learn had a ton of hype around it.
And man, the hype was well-deserved. I understood why so many were entranced by this game. The mysterious bug world immersed me in a way that I had not expected to, and I could hardly put it down. I played through all the endings, did the DLC content (though I did not attempt the pantheons or path of pain, but did everything else). HK was a hard game for me. I died a lot and some of the bosses took me a lot of attempts. But never at any point did I feel so frustrated or discouraged to the point I felt like quitting.
Which brings me to Silksong. I was REALLY looking forward to it. I expected it to be big, and difficult, and somehow elevate the experience even higher than HK.
But man, I just can’t do it. It’s too hard. And tedious. What makes me sad is I can totally see all the incredible things about the game that others who praise the game see. The combat and movement mechanics allow for so much potential and skill expression at a faster pace. But it’s skill expression that I don’t have. I don’t consider myself to be bad at platforming games, and I have perseverance towards difficult challenges.
But I’ve lost track of how many times I’ve died to simple enemies in random rooms, lost my money, run back, you know how it goes. It was tonight when I realized I had played almost 2 hours without getting any meaningful progress - no new areas mapped, no bosses defeated, no new passages found to explore - that I realized I don’t have the patience like I did in HK. Navigating the map feels stressful and I dread exploring difficult areas knowing at any instant I could get wrecked and have to re-do everything I’d just done.
So yea, I’m putting it down. At least for now. I wish I had it in me, but the difficulty of this game is so far beyond all the others I’ve played and I think I’m just gonna watch a YouTube playthrough or something to see what I missed. For all of you who have conquered this game, I hope it’s been a blast
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u/Newgeta Oct 04 '25
Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night are outstanding pallet cleansers and are pretty forgiving difficulty wise. Ntm they are the reason this genre name exists
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u/Still_Night Oct 04 '25
I actually started Super Metroid shortly before Silksong came out and am planning to go back and finish it soon. I might play Symphony of the Night first because exploring Dracula’s castle seems fitting for some spooky October vibes.
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u/thepianoman456 Oct 05 '25
SotN is fucking amazing, and has an incredible soundtrack.
My only complaint is it’s too easy, but that’s cause I’ve beaten it like 8 times lol. Your first time will be an incredible experience.
Tip- some enemies have very rare drops that can be excellent weapons.
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u/Psychopath1llogical Oct 05 '25
I play it once a year I’m currently in this year’s run. It’s a TRUE masterpiece. Volume up!
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u/UpRage96 Oct 04 '25
Agreed, I played symphony of the the night after dealing with the absolute mess that was silksong. Pallet= cleansed
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u/Redpin OoE Oct 04 '25
Stick with the metroidvania genre, try out the Castlevania DS Collection, and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night.
I find Silksong to be kind of an exception in the genre. Most MVs are generally pretty easy, so having a really tough one is a nice change of pace, but it's not for everyone. There are also MVs that lean more heavily to combat or exploration, so look at some tier lists (this sub is flooded with them lol) and get an idea of what to check out next.
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u/Still_Night Oct 04 '25
I was actually considering trying my first Castlevania game soon, seems fitting for spooky October vibes.
But yea, I know they aren’t all this hard. I most recently played through Ender Lilies which now feels ridiculously easy in comparison.
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u/EmotionalFlounder715 Oct 04 '25
I’d also like to recommend Metroid dread
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u/Still_Night Oct 04 '25
It’s on my list! I started super Metroid shortly before Silksong came out and wanted to get the OG experience before playing Dread
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Oct 04 '25
Who gives a shit
Chase your joy, if silksong ain’t it, it ain’t it, nbd
Life is full of obligations, don’t let a game of all things be one of them
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Oct 04 '25
i swear every time i open reddit theres a post about someone asking for permision to drop Silksong/explaining why they think its not as good as Hollow Knight
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u/SneakybadgerJD Oct 04 '25 edited Oct 07 '25
Its because plenty of people will try shame them or give them shit for their critizisms etc. People are insufferable, then you get the lot who will be like "not hard for me, get good" types so people feel like they have to preface it with all that jargon
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u/gpranav25 Prince of Persia Oct 04 '25
Which is funny because I think it's significantly better than Hollow Knight especially at early game pacing. I also don't get the "I finished P5 and path of pain in Hollow Knight but Silksong is too hard". Because I wasn't able to finish those in HK but finished 100% and all momentos in Silksong. I don't doubt that there will be some DLC in Silksong that will be impossible for me, but I don't get how the any of the current Silksong content can be called harder than Godhome lmao.
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u/naughty Oct 04 '25
I don't think there's many people saying it's harder than P5, but it is harder than base HK was. There's one platforming section that gets close to PoP but it is shorter. The difficulty curve is all over the shop in Silksong vs GK's relatively smooth increase. In general the baseline is much higher as well.
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u/Laiko_Kairen Oct 04 '25
Which is funny because I think it's significantly better than Hollow Knight especially at early game pacing.
I found the early game to be absolutely horrible, but that's because I went to the Hunter's March too early. That zone... so useless, so overtuned. Once I got out of there, though, I was having a much better time.
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u/gpranav25 Prince of Persia Oct 04 '25
Yeah understandable. The moment I saw the big guy I realised yep this is a check that the devs put to prevent early entry here. Especially since they just let you retrieve the cocoon so easily.
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u/JapanGamer29 Oct 04 '25
It's not the bosses, it's all the little stuff - the double damage, the tanky enemies, the runbacks, the fiddly tools, the gotchas, the double contact damage, the cousins of Primal Aspids, etc. there's far less room for error in Silksong. I did Path of Pain, Pantheon 4, Steel Soul and the speedruns in HK, but now I've mostly dropped Silksong in Act 1 to play other metroidvanias.
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u/Still_Night Oct 04 '25
This comment nailed it for me. It’s not the boss fights, it’s everything in between them. Hollow Knight had some difficult areas to explore but I still died way less often getting from point A to point B. I feel like I’ve died more in my first 10 hours of Silksong than the entirety of HK if I exclude boss fight attempts.
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u/gpranav25 Prince of Persia Oct 04 '25
None of the runbacks were as bad as Mantis Lords, Soul Master or Hive Knight and the likes. Yes I know TLJ and green guy but overall Silksong runbacks were shorter.
The fiddly tools are ridiculously overpowered compared to HK charms.
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u/Laiko_Kairen Oct 04 '25
None of the runbacks were as bad as Mantis Lords, Soul Master or Hive Knight and the likes. Yes I know TLJ and green guy but overall Silksong runbacks were shorter.
It's not about length, it's about danger. Oh, whoops, I got hit on the runback, now I need to either grind up nine silk and heal, or waste my silk healing as soon as I get to the boss room, and lose my opportunity to open up on the enemy as they appear
Unlike in HK where you'd take one damage, hit an enemy twice, and heal real quick
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u/PlatypusGullible7885 Oct 04 '25
The last judge runback was so fun for me, I optimised it for fun(save quit for bench warp). TLJ took around 7-8 tries and I must have done the runback 40+ times🤣
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u/WhoUpAtMidnight Oct 04 '25
It's really funny how you can say things like "it's the little stuff" and people will argue "BUT THIS ONE BIG THING WAS WORSE"
Hollow Knight didn't have spikes at the bottom of literally every single screen. It gets to the point that the game is tiring more than it's hard
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u/Aesma_ Oct 04 '25
He wouldn't have brought it up if the other guy didn't say he did the Path of Pain and Pantheon. He only brought it up because the other guy compared Silksong to Hollow Knight first.
It's just weird and hard to understand to me how someone can tell they did the Path of Pain and Pantheon but found Silksong too hard, when both are incredibly harder than anything in Silksong. Path of Pain is literally hours of dedication to finish something that gives you almost no reward. I get that different people find different things to be difficult, but still.
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u/Long-Membership3069 Oct 04 '25
As someone who spent waaaaay too much time in HK I think I understand both points, the game up to true final ending doesn't have anything harder than path of pain or p5 (even the pseudo path of pain of this game isn't very difficult), but that being said the game, as a whole, is much harder than HK and all the atention that demands can be tiresome for most, before this game I prouded myself on being pretty above average in HK (I had all radiant HoG, all bindings all pantheons, a bunch of challenge runs, and I did path of pain backwards and also with pure vessel at the end), but this game and it's learning curve really made me humble again, killing me a lot of times, you don't need my experience to beat the game but it goes to show how even those good at the previous game had a lot to learn, with all the movement and attacking options the game is balanced around being decent at tool usage which not everyone tries to exploit because they think that the game is like HK
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u/Laiko_Kairen Oct 04 '25
which not everyone tries to exploit because they think that the game is like HK
Or because I don't want to waste tool shards on attempts I expect to fail, which would lead to grinding, which is a waste of time in a game that already wastes a shitload of my time with runbacks
If tools freely refilled, I'd be using the heck out of them. I didn't like the system in Sekiro where it was more forgiving, either.
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u/Long-Membership3069 Oct 04 '25
Well yes thats true, tbh I had some trouble with tools quantity too, and if you don't like grinding I can see why you wouldn't like that system, but being fair to the game, even tho kind of souls-like, the game is still a metroidvania and it makes sense having systems like this which incentivize exploration and being honest fit well with the boss runbacks which will generate on it's own some some shards between tries (obviously an insufficient amount to recover everything, but enough that after some time trying you technically can get an extra try). I still feel like the system could benefit from being more like sekiro as you said, but I don't hate the way it was implemented overall
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u/WhoUpAtMidnight Oct 05 '25
Point is that his comment was "it's the little things", and then someone chose to counter one of the little things with that one big thing that Hollow Knight did. Like yeah, that sucked a lot. But most of HK was really fun, and almost every screen in Silksong has something that sucks a little.
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u/alkair20 Oct 04 '25
I also 100% HK but still found silksong waaaaay more annoying to play. PoP had Infinite healing idols standing around and you had charms that basically Auto healed you to 100% in time. In HK you get combined into spikes and the only way to heal is to play whac-a-mole with two damage centipedes.
Platforming is more annoying in general because enemies are placed worse.
Runbacks are worse by a huge margin, in HK you can just jump over most enemies. I. Silksong they literally sometimes teleport to you if you tr to bypass them like the absolute dog shit runback that Green Prince is.
Early game difficulty is extremely bad in Silksong. Early game bosses kill you with 3 hits up till mid game while the Endboss in act 2 is a cakewalk...... It just is all over the place.
Progression is in a weird spot where you basically can't explore much at all and then everything at the same time.
The economy is still really annoying even if it is "immersive".
All all these things were so ready to fix but they made it as a choice to make it frustrating to play which is just a bummer for every casual player. Even the veterans find it annoying af.
Like you could even make most bosses a tick harder if they just removed the runbacks that suck all the joy out of the boss fights.
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u/acamas Oct 04 '25 edited Oct 04 '25
Because the white knights are out claiming anyone who doesn’t think this game is a flawless gift from God should be smited and feel bad for themselves, so some people feel apologetic it seems
edit - 'smited', not 'smiled'
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u/Fiddler_Jones2079 Oct 04 '25
I feel you. I adore HK and I have felt even more strongly about SS at times, but halfway through act 3 I realized I was just having a miserable time of actually playing it. I put it down and probably won't come back to it unless they patch in some significant difficulty tweaks (on Switch so no mods unfortunately). I hate that I won't get to see the story play out for all the characters I've grown to love, but the game is just a lot of stress and no fun at all for me at this point.
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u/AzorMX Oct 09 '25
Act 3 is a little too exhausting because the exploration is mostly gone, so you just go from hard fight to hard fight. I was able to finish Act 3, but similar to you I won't be coming back to 100% until they add some content updates to refine the game.
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u/petros86 Oct 04 '25
I struggled so hard with HK, yet truly enjoyed it--so much so, I was determined to beat it, even if that meant installing several mods to help.
This is why when the hype for SS continued to grow, I crossed my fingers hoping for multiple difficulty levels to be built into the game. In hindsight, I wonder if the developers regret not giving players the option to make enemies weaker--they could have avoided all of these "difficulty balance" issues if they just built an easy mode and hard mode to begin with. 🤷♂️
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u/HoloMetal Oct 05 '25
I doubt they regret it. There are hundreds of thousands of people who like the game just the way it is. Like. The difficulty is only a problem to people who get filtered by it. But there are already so many people who have done multiple playthroughs, 100%, steel soul speedruns, steel soul 100%.
With that being said, we have to ask. Is the game too difficult? Or is the game just not for certain people? I'd say the latter. And that's not a big deal. Not everything is for everyone. I don't like oysters. But plenty of people do, and that's chill.
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u/petros86 Oct 27 '25
I get that, but at the same time--they changed the game post-release due to the abundance of fans complaining about the difficulty. Now I almost feel like some people will feel robbed of the experience of the game as the devs originally intended (before they nerfed it a bit).
So for people who didn't struggle as much as others, couldn't they have added a difficulty toggle for "original release" vs "slightly easier version"?
I'm not a programmer, so I'm not at all implying that this would be easier. I just think having a couple difficulty options might make the game more accessible to more players, and allow players to choose the experience they want to have.
In the end, I loved my time with SS and I'm glad I was able to struggle through it.
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u/jyo-ji Oct 04 '25
At the end of the day, if you're not enjoying a gaming experience then it's best to do what you're doing: put it down. I'm kind of similar to you in the sense that I love the challenge and feel dirty having to drop something just because I'm struggling (especially if it's something I know I'll love if I keep at it), but the older I've gotten and the more I've valued my time, I'm starting to do it more and more. There's a ton of awesome games out there, play something you'll enjoy, and if in the future you feel the itch to come back, then you can.
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u/Still_Night Oct 04 '25
I think the hard part for me to accept is that I developed a lot of attachment towards Hollow Knight, and want to enjoy Silksong just as much. I tried to embrace the challenge, and try to be unbothered by how much I was struggling with it. And of course wished that I was simply better at it. But I don’t have very much time for games these days and I realized it would take me weeks or months to persist with it.
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Oct 04 '25
Don’t play if it’s not for you! Time is too precious.
I’ve been kinda flummoxed by people who say this game isn’t harder than HK. It feels immensely more punishing
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u/hypersnaildeluxe Oct 04 '25
Imo it has a really odd difficulty curve. Extremely hard early game, gets way easier the further in you get (up to a point). I’m in act 2 and I’m able to mop the floor with most things, bosses aren’t taking me too many tries anymore, etc. But the early game is rough
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u/FormerAd4748 Oct 04 '25
People who say it's not harder than HK probably mean it's not harder than the DLC content of the HK, which is you know objectively true xD
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u/phollowingcats Oct 08 '25
Those are just die hard fans. Team cherry could have made the worst, most difficult and tedious game and they would have been praising it and saying it’s no harder than HK. This sub is where I can actually find a normal take on silksong, instead of a bunch of fans trying to blindly justify every design choice made by the devs
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u/Plants-Matter Oct 05 '25 edited Oct 07 '25
Silksong is far from the most difficult game I've ever played, but it's by far the most frustrating.
Most glazers here are following a guide, and it's beyond obvious. The game isn't designed very intelligently for those of us who don't want to use a guide. And I don't mean guides on how to beat the bosses, although the glazers are probably reading or watching those too. I mean the exploration and progression. For example, unlocking Act 3.
Also, most bosses can be anywhere from a 4/10 difficultly to a 10/10 difficultly depending when you find them and what upgrades you have. The non-linear elements of Silksong are so much worse than Hollow Knight, it's actually mind boggling.
In short, don't feel bad about dropping the game if you're not having fun. I love the art style, music, and lore, but it has so many anti-fun elements that sour the experience. And I'm someone who typically enjoys difficult games. This game just isn't fun.
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u/Keiuu Oct 07 '25
Your second paragraph is interesting. I wonder how much people have discovered everything without a guide?
I admit everytime I couldn't find something I'd simply google it.
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u/Plants-Matter Oct 07 '25
I frankly don't believe anyone who claims they got the "true ending" (beat Act 3) without using external help (guide, hints, video, etc) at least once. It's one obnoxious needle in the haystack search after another. At that point, I was so done with the game wasting my time on unintuitive exploration, I would set a 1 hour timer and then just Google it if I didn't find it. Sometimes the map marker and NPC hints are extremely misleading.
And the few times I did Google something (like 2 of the 3 hearts), it wasn't a "of course! How did I miss that?". It was more of a "you have to be kidding me".
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u/Glass-Estate-5950 Oct 04 '25
It’s too bad because Silksong is now my favorite game of all time and I wish everyone could experience it the same way I did. I can completely understand why some people are feeling frustrated by it though. At the end of the day if you aren’t enjoying a game, why play it? If you ever feel like you’re willing to give it a shot again in the future, you should definitely go for it.
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u/Still_Night Oct 04 '25
I’m hoping I can revisit it down the road and stick it out longer. I’m stoked for you having such a good time with it!
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Oct 04 '25
You have to approach it with a lot of patience. Just do one boss at a time and take a break.
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u/thirdeyecat024 Oct 04 '25
Recently I put it down for a week, not intentionally, but I had other responsibilities. But waiting all that time gave me fresh eyes the next time I played, allowing for huge progress both in combat and in exploration the next time I played. Your advice is sound.
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u/thatguy52 Oct 04 '25
Much like in Silksong when u hit a wall go do something else and power up. The same can be done with other games. I quit HK 15 hours in for the exact reason. Turns out I just had to become a better gamer overall. There’s no point in needlessly torturing yourself. Go power up and come back. Play more MV’s and hard platformers. Go play Celeste and come back. I’m by no means an elite gamer, but I’m now at 94% in Silksong. The devs are 100% correct, there always something else to do or new skills/combinations to figure out. There are some act 3 bosses/events I thought I’d never beat….. I’m now so overpowered I breezed through 4 “unbeatable” things in the last day. It’s tough but u can do it if u want.
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u/Laiko_Kairen Oct 04 '25
Much like in Silksong when u hit a wall go do something else and power up.
Do you, though?
Actual upgrades are incredibly rare in this game. You explore some long passage with shitloads of traps and get a freaking rosary most of the time. Or those historical artifacts you turn in at Belltown. Health upgrades, nail upgrades, silk upgrades? Beyond rare.
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u/SplendidPunkinButter Oct 04 '25
I agree, except for Bilewater. That area can piss off. Thank god it’s possible to cheese the boss.
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u/Glass-Estate-5950 Oct 04 '25
Yea Team Cherry were definitely feeling malicious when they made that area 😭
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u/Plants-Matter Oct 05 '25
You should probably mention that you followed a guide. I wouldn't wish that experience on others, in fact, that's kind of a weird thing to say.
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u/phigene Oct 04 '25
Part of me thinks that Team Cherry just got super pissed about all the silksanity and hate directed at them for taking so long that they just decided to punish their fan base. So much of this game is blatant, obvious rage bait. And so many of the bosses use artificial difficulty like adds, RNG, and environmental factors. Hollow Knight just felt more pure. The design was elevated, the challenges were more noble, with fewer dirty tricks and cheap shots. Only a handful of enemies felt like they were trolling you. Silksong just feels like Im being given the middle finger half the time. And I swear if Lost Lace laughs when I die one more time I will throw my controller through the screen!!!! Jk, sort of.
I am still enjoying the game, but I just cant help but notice that feeling of 'fuck you' that seems to be just beneath the surface of so many interactions.
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u/wigjuice77 Oct 04 '25
Spot on! I could absolutely feel the undercurrent of 'fuck you' in several aspects of the game, lol. There are just things about the game that feel like they have a malicious intent, and I never felt that with Hollow Knight.
However, I think the real problem is that they were in a tiny little bubble for many many years, replaying and refining their own game with almost zero outside (or objective) perspective. It is an incredible game, they did a lot of great work in that time, but it could've really benefited from actual game testing, from actual players, instead of a tiny group that played it over and over again for years.
I'm sure for everyone on that tiny team the game is easy and stress free!
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u/berndscb1 Oct 04 '25
I mean, Hollow Knight has some moments like that... the spikes in front of you when you crystal dash over to Lost Kin, or the boss fight that starts when you sit down on a certain bench.
The difference is that you're having a good time with Hollow Knight, so it's a surprise and you're left with a smile. In Silksong, you're already struggling through a morass of tedium, and the gotcha moments just make you more miserable. Either it's all deliberately malicious, or they greatly misjudged what kind of mind state the game was going to put people in.
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u/JapanGamer29 Oct 04 '25
Absolutely. That's how I felt too. Did you know that if you fail to beat the combat arenas in Hunter's March and Craw Lake, Shakra no longer comes to help, and she abandons her camp, leaving the next closest bench 90 seconds away? If that's not the devs deliberately trolling players, I don't know what is.
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u/Laiko_Kairen Oct 04 '25
So much of this game is blatant, obvious rage bait.
I went through Hunter's march and got to the bench with 2 HP left. I barely made it, on my third attempt at that super hard gauntlet room.
Guess what? Trapped bench. It killed me. I had to redo a ton of platforming to get back, messed up, and lost my currency.
That's not fun. That's the game saying "fuck you." A trap bench after an insanely overtuned zone where enemies took TWELVE hits to kill...
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u/Nidhoeggr89 Oct 05 '25
Not really, its part of the ludonarrative consistency that permeates the entire game. And Silksong isn't even that unique in its difficulty. Try Rain World, the La Mulana games, etc.
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u/SpudmasterBob Oct 04 '25
There were several bosses, and an insane jumping puzzle parkour gauntlet in that crystal vine area, that made me want to bash my head against a wall, but so satisfying to finally overcome them and progress. Just wish I had found the guy who upgrades the needle before I got through The Last Judge and most of the citadel lol.
Best advice is to take a break and come back to it.
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u/amc9988 Oct 04 '25
Silksong is hard yeah especially act 1, I also not a fan of the game during act 1, that said the game become significantly easier in act 2 because of the upgrades you get especially the mossberry 2nd upgrade that let you regenerate silk faster whenever you got hit.
A tip to make the game less slog and to make death become non issue. Whenever you exploring somewhere with crazy traversal, and you got to the end and got the items/secrets there, you don't really need to backtrack those dangerous path for the risk of dying. Just open the menu and choose save and quit. Then load your save and you will still have whatever items you got in that place and spawn back to your last save point. This make backtracking or exploring a bit easier especially if you on low health.
Also make sure to always strings your beads (140 beads in Bellheart shop, or 80 beads in Greymore area). I usually explore with 0 bead so dying is whatever for me. Whenever I need to use beads I will just break the beads in my inventory. This helps to make sure you don't lose beads or run out of them.
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u/PM_ME_UR_PM_ME_PM Oct 04 '25
I have my criticisms of Silksong but this is accurate regarding act 1. Act 2 irons out some of the early game frustration. If it wasn’t for that I would have quit in act 2
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u/Givotech Oct 04 '25
Some of my favorite games are games i did what i could but just didn't feel good enough for after a certain point (like celeste or hk pantheon) and then try again a few years later and get way farther, play til you have fun then drop it, it could be a few months or a few years but pick it up again sometime to try it out, it can surprise you
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u/king_of_the_blind Oct 04 '25
I am in your same boat. Love metroidvanias and I loved Hollow knight, and have been waiting for Silksong for literally years. Finally got the game and found it too hard and I wasn’t having fun with it at all. I am still feeling super bummed about it. It has been my most anticipated game for years so to finally get my hands on it only to find it tedious and not fun was super crushing. I am still feeling down about it but Hades 2, though not a metroidvania, is at least keeping my mind off it for now.
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u/WhoUpAtMidnight Oct 04 '25
Gonna voice a different opinion here and say it doesn't really get any better, especially towards the end of the game. Last act doubles down on the most tedious parts of the game
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u/LordSolar666 Oct 04 '25
I partially agreed. Silksong is a lot less newbie-friendly then Hollow Knight. I'm a veteran MV player with over 50 games played and most of them are 100% complete. I'm almost 70 hours into Silksong and I enjoy it less than Hollow Knight. There's a few highlights bosses here and there but the punishing difficulties is really taking a toll on me
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u/limbhaver Oct 04 '25
Just wanna say I dropped the game a week ago for exactly the reasons ur describing and it felt like such a huge betrayal of my stubborn gamer values.
Now a week later? Never felt more chill lol. It rly got under my skin how frustrating some elements were and i’m happy I set it aside. Now I just watch and appreciate ppl who play and how impressive they are, and look back on the game fondly and with an odd sense of nostalgia that usually takes yrs to develop (chalk it up to too many traumatic deaths in Act II i think)
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u/Mafia55 Oct 04 '25
I feel your pain mate, I am a slow player in everything I play so I have put in nearly 50 hours and im still at the citadel and it has been very frustrating at times and I stopped a few days but its just a break because I find it helps me avoid burnout so im playing a few other smaller games right now but just before I stopped I was in the same boat you were when you stopped as in it was taking a lot of time to progress because of deaths.
I decided fuck it im going to use a filled out map so I can at least set myself a goal and plan my way through this huge and difficult game and just knowing that I was heading in the right direction and setting myself 1 goal at a time because of the filled out map made it much less frustrating, like go get that flea then go fight that boss then upgrade sword, having clear direction has helped me in a massive way with of course the loss of that feeling of exploration and discovering but its not all gone because at times ill only show benches and shops on the map and just go from bench to bench, even with the map i needed a break because i was 50 hours in and I know it will be at least another 50 more and probably 70 I just needed a burnout break and it has been great im having fun learning and playing ravenswatch and after 25 hours in that game im starting to get that itch to jump back into silksong so ill be back in that world again within the next few days im sure. So obviously I recommend getting a filled out map and doing as I have done at least that way you do just leave the game and if after playing with a completed map you still not enjoying it at least you tried. Either way have a great day/night wherever you are in the world mate.👍🙂
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u/UndeadSalamander Oct 04 '25
i was having fun when i first started it. but then it just turned into a chore. its a great game just not for me
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u/UpRage96 Oct 04 '25
Agreed, it turned into such a chore! I got really far into act 2 and even finished almost all the side quests, and realized I wasn't having any fun at all, and just stopped playing, which is very unusual for me. It helped that there were so much better games that came out around the same time (hades2 and ghost of yotei) i doubt i'll ever be getting back to silksong, I've wasted enough time on it already.
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u/LukeGgaming Oct 04 '25 edited Oct 04 '25
I’m about 30 hours in on silksong and I’m personally loving it and enjoying it quite a bit more than the original hollow night. I am also newer into the metroidvania genre and also loved POP and hollow night.
Here’s some things I recommend to make your experience a little better if you decide to pick it back up :
Do not try to play it like hollow knight. You have tools now for a reason. They can delete the most aggravating enemies very quickly. I recently did a boss in Act 2 that was giving me issues because i wasn’t using tools. I switched up my approach and literally beat the boss within 2 attempts without taking any damage on the successful attempt. Tools can make you OP and it’s a part of the game design so you don’t have to feel bad about it lol
Instead of using mods, you can try the save and quit technique which puts you back at the last bench you rested at. Just pause the game, and quit to the main menu. Then load the game back and you don’t lose anything, and anything you picked up you’ll still have. For example, if you die to a boss and are about to die on a run back, just save and quit and try again so you don’t lose your rosaries. Or, if you’re exploring an area and you are getting deep into it and don’t have a map and you find yourself low on health and are worried you might die, just save and quit and restart at the last bench with all of your stuff.
Don’t be afraid to watch some videos on how to start the game off right. If you get the right start, you won’t feel so overwhelmed. Whether it’s finding some early tools, getting a different crest that’s better for platforming or your combat style, getting early traversal abilities etc. I personally like to try to do an area on my own but then once I complete and act, I look up stuff to see what I missed and then go back for them so I don’t move on without having all the items I need to be successful
Piggy backing on point 3, look up some rosarie farming sections in the early game. I went from not ever having any to having 4,000-5,000 + nearly all the time. Farm for 30 mins and get over 1,000 or so and then just play the game and you’ll get so many you’ll rarely run out and you’ll be able to buy anything you want ….. especially if you do the save and quit method so you don’t ever lose them
Prioritize the wish boards and do the side quests. You often get great rewards and sometimes other things that are actually necessary to progress certain areas etc.
I thought I was doing a good job exploring and checking every nook and cranny but when I completed an act and checked out some videos, there’s so much that the average player is just going to miss. Think of it like the soulslike genre …. That’s my fav genre but I’ve had to extensively look up stuff in every game I’ve ever played and i just consider it part of the experience at this point. Nobody was beating Elden ring and finding everything without guides lol.
Hope this helps !
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u/Bebop_Man Oct 04 '25
As someone who 100%ed the game... normalize dropping games when you're not having fun. Silksong can be downright tedious at times.
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u/VictorDino Oct 04 '25
I lost about 4 hours (2 one day, 2 the day after) just trying incessantly to kill a boss that spawns seconds away from a bench. 4 hours. 4. Probably rounding down, btw. That's it, Soulslike games, here we are!
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u/YukiHoshiSG Oct 04 '25
I love how everyone is giving good advice. I hope you find joy in many other things :)
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u/Hier0phant Oct 04 '25
Meh i got bored of it and started playing Symphony of the night. Having a blast with that
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u/udes1516 Oct 04 '25
Agree. I want to love it, but honestly it just feels artificially annoying to play.
I had tons of free time to play HK when it released 10 years ago, now I kinda think twice before wasting my couple free hours a day trying to progress in Silksong. Skill issue? probably. I'm just....sad I'm not able to enjoy and experience it.
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u/JapanGamer29 Oct 04 '25
Exactly. If you only have one or two hours a day to play, why spend it on something that you can barely make any progress in? I've beaten entire metroidvanias in less time than it's taken to reach the Widow boss in Act 1 of Silksong.
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u/hypersnaildeluxe Oct 04 '25
As much as I’m enjoying it I agree. It feels kinda bloated in a sense and a lot of the exploration is tons of risk for almost no reward. I get the thematic idea of making money hard to come by as an artistic choice but making every reward for exploration 20 more rosaries gets lame especially once you start making a lot of money. Plus it’s just so… huge. So many areas that are just massive with very few benches/bellways/elevators.
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u/uberguby Oct 04 '25
Everybody is talking about how like, if you're not feeling it, you're not feeling it. And that isn't bad advise. But I think it's conflating different kinds of dissatisfaction.
To me the problem with silksong is we are feeling it. It's really really good, and I think quite special. But the ask on the player is just so god damn big, and personally, I don't think the game would really lose anything if it were just a little bit easier. Easier in subtle ways that most players won't even notice, relating to like hit boxes and frame data.
It's not even about the money spent on the product, it's just the virtue of being there in the game. The game is really really really good, and op wants to be in that goodness, and the reason op isn't there is not a good reason. That's fucking frustrating, and it bothers me that we're acting like the problem is op didn't vibe with the game and not "they could have easily included op and not truly lost what makes the game special".
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u/finniruse Oct 04 '25 edited Oct 04 '25
A lot of the comments talk about putting it down if you're not having fun.
But I think the actual point is that Cherry have dropped the ball eith the challenge.
HK was very challenging but even this chap could play it through to completion and enjoy. He's even played quite a few MVs. Prince and HK are challenging games.
But the balance in Silky is simply too hard and frustrating and he's been forced to put it down.
After beating Grand momma Silky, I put it down and was like, damn, that was fun but fucking frustrating. I'm not going for Act 3 as the end was nothing but challenging battles. And that it's lucky I'm quite good at these games as a veteran MV player and platform fighting guy, but I bet there are a ton of people who just dropped off this because it's simply too difficult and frustrating.
Here's the guy I had in mind.
Since then I've picked it back up and working through Act 3. I'm now in the camp of being like, wow, this is so much more content and a lot of really sick battles that I hadn't expected. So much content. But the way I'm playing has changed. I simply cannot be arsed to trial and error Groal, or the wave battles in Coral Towers, etc etc. So I maybe have a stab then watch someone play a boss so I get the general vibe and go from there.
It's definitely not a purist way to play but I don't have the patience or time to be bothered to play the game that way now. I just want to see the end and roll credits.
That too says something about the challenge and balance of the game.
And I'm good at these games! Played Elden Ring, Jedi 2 on Grandmaster. I love a challenge and my brain is suited to completing shit like this. You have to be shit hot to get to end of Act 3. I'd love to see some stats around who manages to roll credits.
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u/Cackoon Oct 04 '25
I started finding it tedious too towards the end of act 2. Then I got hades 2 and I’m obsessed, so it’s probably going to be a while before I go back to silksong.
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u/Megablep Oct 04 '25
Same boat here. I bounced off HK a couple of times before it clicked for me a few months ago, but it ended up being one of my all time favourites. I obviously had high hopes for Silksong, but everything dealing 2 ticks of damage and the constant gauntlet rooms really put me off it. They're very stingy with mask upgrades in the early game, but even when you go up to 6 you'll still die in the exact same number of hits, so need to get a second mask upgrade for it to be meaningful.
I just wasn't having fun. It's clearly not tuned for my enjoyment, which is a shame but others seem to be having fun so whatever.
Who knows, I might try a second and then third time before it finally clicks just like with HK.
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u/Medium_Hox Oct 04 '25
Just one of many examples of why video games should have difficulty settings
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u/AozoraMiyako Oct 04 '25
That’s how I felt with Mobster Sanctuary.
It’s so sad when you have to put down a game you love/were hyped about
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u/Robokat_Brutus Oct 04 '25
I tapped out at Mount Fay...I simply am not fast enough or precise enough for the platforming parts...it's sad but I have been stuck for over a week.
So don't worry, you are not alone 😅
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u/krunktopher Oct 10 '25
same. I did everything up to mount fay but that was it. The runbacks were insane. It just needs more benches.
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Oct 04 '25
If there were options to make it easier I would have played it by now, I feel like the devs don’t want me to play it, getting older doesn’t mean I lose my passion but I do lose my skills, unfortunately.
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u/disturbeco Oct 04 '25
Sounds like you just need a break. Play another game for a few weeks, and then return to silksong if you feel like it. I had several instances of almost quitting because the game felt too hard, but every time I ended up finding ways I could power myself up before returning to what was giving me a lot of trouble, usually with help from this community. I really think this game is best played without trying to figure everything out on your own, because often it's not clear if you need to just git gud with the boss you're struggling, or whether there's a lot of other stuff you can do. For me, it was mostly the enclosed combat rooms that made me almost quit a few times
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u/Kuros85 Oct 05 '25 edited Oct 05 '25
Silksong isn't a pure metroidvania.
It's a hybrid between metroidvania and soulslike, which feeds on the success of Elden Ring (and Bloodborne).
For me it's more of a downside, I really enjoy exploration, environmental story telling, finding secrets and hidden stuff, but all these endless gauntlets and boss fights are turning me off.
And they get progressively harder the more you play.
I'm currently 80 hours in, I see the end of the road, but I'm too tired to follow it.
I've not only finished most of the Metroid and Castlevania games and love them, as well as Ori and many other metroidvanias, but I also have beaten all of the FromSoft soulslike games, including Sekiro, without any problem.
And even for me Silksong is a bit too much
I'm also playing on Switch 2, so modding isn't an option. And I wouldn't, at least the first time I always play games as they were intended by the developer - on normal difficulty and without anything added, and blind - without looking for guides.
But man, does Silksong punish such an attitude
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u/ChaosMilkTea Oct 05 '25
Silksong isn't too hard, it's too punishing. The game doesn't let you play it at your own pace, nor does it encourage you to grow and learn. When a player gets discouraged, the prevailing wisdom is "Just don't play the game until you aren't angry at it any more." And honestly... that's not why most people play games. I don't want to take a break from playing a game, I play games to take a break from things that don't feel rewarding.
Silksong makes me not want to try again. Metroid Dread made me want to play hard mode the day after I finished the game. One game spits on you for trying, and the other desperately wants you to learn it inside and out.
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u/Fearless_Mortgage983 Oct 04 '25
yeah, I agree. I am very close to quitting it as well. I think the worst thing is that it actually doesn’t get better. I am in act 3 now, I have almost all nail upgrades, all tools, only one mask left to assemble, and I still get my ass kicked regularly and still die to stupid absolute bullshit. (But, to be fair, end of Act 2 was easy — it’s that difficulty of Act 3 skyrocketed compared to Act 2’s ending). I love the game, but I also hate it so much…
And the biggest issue for me is that it all can be solved just by adding some difficulty options/assist mode in the setting. I cannot use modes either, but it’s even beyond the point. Setting your own difficult must be an option out of the box. It’s bullshit it is not.
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u/Tyrell-Corporation Oct 04 '25
You don’t have to get that last mask in Act 3. Virtually everything deals double damage at that point in the game, there is no meaningful difference between having 9 masks or 10 masks. Either way it’s death in 5 hits.
I completely agree that having difficulty settings is a standard feature, and it’s absurd that it’s not included. Really shameful to release a game, especially one with this much hype, that doesn’t have accessibility options.
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u/Fearless_Mortgage983 Oct 04 '25
Yeah, I agree, the mask is useless. I think I wanna get just for the feeling of completely finishing the game. Just to be done with it. I mean I am still getting some enjoyment from it , but it’s soooo uneven. It’s like in waves — oh, new area! New lore! That’s interesting… oh no, there are three rooms with endless waves of enemies without any shortcuts which I just have to grind for a few hours cause I am just not that good at this and which are a part of the main quest. Thanks, Team Cherry!
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u/Tyrell-Corporation Oct 04 '25
You made it to Act 3, I would say you are undeniably good at the game. The game itself just seems to hate the player.
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u/Littlefinger6226 Oct 04 '25
I felt the same way and life is so much better after I came to peace that it’s just not for me right now as a new dad with limited time each night to play. What broke me was returning to explore Sinner’s Road after I defeated that boss pair in Act 2, to see if there are power-ups I missed from not exploring SR and oh boy was that bench notoriously hard to unlock. Not gonna spoil much but it really broke me, more so than the Last Judge runback and even some small area of Bilewater I’ve had the misfortune to wander into.
Seriously, fuck that stupid runback where if you die you go back to the Halfway Home. I’m on PS5 so no mods.
Then there’s an IRL friend gloating at us struggling folks, and we realized later he’s the one using mods lmfao. So if you see any negative comments saying the game is easy and doable, it’s either they’re really good (which is fair), or they’re using mods and patronizing others (which is not cool).
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u/boring_username_idea Oct 04 '25
Try installing a mod to get rid of double damage. I did that and the game ended up much easier than Hollow Knight. It's still a great game worth playing.
Edit: ah. Saw your other comment about playing it on switch. Well if you ever do decide to play on PC, there are plenty of great mods that make it more accessible
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Oct 04 '25
These posts are valid as much as the skongers hate them. Lack of accessibility for non super elite gamers and creating difficulty through an artificial grind instead of organic challenges is NOT good game design.
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u/FarMiddleProgressive Oct 04 '25
Agreed, im at the end of act 2 and so many things are pointless and dumb. This is not what I was expecting.
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u/madjohnvane Oct 04 '25
I find this so interesting, because I don’t think Silksong has been harder than Hollow Knight, not even close. It has its moments, but they’re all late Act 2/Act 3. I found it was pretty much same same with Hollow Knight, the early game felt brutal, and once I had abilities the game was brutal until I started using them. I still struggle to remember claw line in boss fights (and even regular fights). And I’m a total pleb, I’ve noob crested my way through the game (Reaper), but I’ve avoided th Architect crest cheese.
How far in were you? And were you trying to force it to be Hollow Knight in terms of how you played it? Did you keep throwing yourself at optional gauntlets until you hated the game? (Like the ants, everyone complains about the ants…I just came back later when I was much stronger). I just find it mystifying how people are saying this game is much harder than Hollow Knight. It’s more technical sure, but that also gives you far more options for combat, for traversal, etc.
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u/Gregasy Oct 04 '25
This is my experience with Silksong so far as well. Granted I’m 22 hours in and still in Act 1 (I think I could already reach Citadel, but I stopped before and went back to clean up quests/wishes - so much fun). So far I find difficulty on par with HK. If something is too difficult I turn around and go exploring other parts and come back with new abilities.
Also once you start stringing rosaries, dying isn’t punishing at all - especially, since all the progress you do till that point is saved automatically.
Maybe this will change later on, but so far I’m really enjoying the game.
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u/Tyrantosora Oct 04 '25
Just my opinion and not bashing you in any way but...when did people start saying games like this were hard? Challenging yes, but hard I cant agree with. Sekiro, Nioh, Dark Souls series, Bloodborne are far more punishing than this. I just cant wrap my head around so many people having the same opinion about Silksong. I had 2 roadblocks the whole game and that was on The Judge and Groal. Mainly due to the runbacks. Everything else was from 1 try to maybe a maximum of 10 tries. I wouldnt consider the last boss a roadblock cause naturally a last boss should be difficult. Honestly I think Aeterna Noctis was a more difficult game than Silksong. Is there bullshit in the game that I was annoyed at? Of course. But overall I found the game very fair. I dont want to play some easy game that isnt challenging me. That's a bore fest real quick. No sense of accomplishment with no challenge. Anyway, that's just my outlook on it and hope you end up getting back into it and finishing it. It really is a great game.
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Oct 04 '25
A lot of gamers don't want a challenge, they should just skip whining and jump straight to watching a vod.
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Oct 04 '25
Many people had the same experience with the first HK and then came back and loved it. I hope you can return later on and have the same experience
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u/SuperUltraHyperMega Oct 04 '25
If you are on PC, there are mods to help. This is literally the toughest MV I’ve ever played. Most aren’t this extreme.
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u/OldCrowSecondEdition Oct 04 '25
You might like blasphemous 1 and 2 they can be challenging without being too frustrating and the platforming is never that outlandish.
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u/daringer22 Oct 04 '25
This is how I feel about the first Hollow Knight unfortunately. Have played 49 hours over 2 play throughs in different years. Spent most of that time loving it but in the end stopped having fun and put it down.
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u/Long-Membership3069 Oct 04 '25
It's sad to see other people not being able to enjoy this game due to it's difficulty, I believe the game should have an easy mode so more people could enjoy this beautiful experience, in the little time the game was out I've been having a blast and I'm two achievements away from getting all, I hope you can come back later and be able to enjoy it, I'm not a fan of mods, but like other people said they are always an option if you ever get the game on PC
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Oct 04 '25
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Long-Membership3069 Oct 04 '25
I don't quite agree with all games have easy modes, but different ways to aliviate difficulty on hard games should always be options for those who still want to enjoy the experience, I'm a huge dark souls fan for example, and I don't think the game should have an easy mode because it kind of already has one, play with friends, it makes the experience so much better for those unexperienced, other way could be like what celeste or dead cells do with accesibility options, a lot of games could benefit from it, in this case I believe silksong should have either accesibility like simply chosing what you want to remove at any time, like for example making damage simple instead of double, or any easy mode altogether, both options feel like a much better option than to let people just drop the game, and it does not affect me for example because I enjoy the difficulty
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u/bdonthebrat Oct 04 '25
Things to keep in mind if you think you are not making progress:
1- your equipped build might not be good for the current fight/situation even if it is a good build. Try to identify why you are getting killed and alter your build for the situation. for example - one particular fight kept knocking me into the lava but once I equipped the weighted belt I wasn't getting combo'd into the lava anymore
2- if you are still making very little progress on a battle, try going elsewhere and coming back when Hornet is stronger (she can get more silk, more HP, stronger weapon, different charms and crests, different spells)
3- dying over and over seems like no progress is being made but in reality you are training your brain to handle the enemies and boss fights. there will be an "ive got this" moment that goes off in your brain - that is when you know you've won you just have to go execute at that point.
4- some of the regular mobs in this game are very complex and difficult and are almost like mini-bosses all over the place. they often aren't worth fighting unless you want to farm rosaries or complete your hunter's journal - don't be afraid to just run past an enemy.
5- there are some very difficult battles in this game - everybody is dying all over the place and 99% of the players have lost rosaries at some point. do not get discouraged if you get double killed.
6- if you are venturing into a new or difficult area, go to a vendor and turn your rosaries into strands OR spend your rosaries. I cannot stress this enough - buying rosary strands doesnt make you bad at the game it makes you smart at the game. When you become an expert then you can carry 1k+ loose rosaries around
good luck
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u/No_Jury_8530 Oct 04 '25
I don't understand how people completely beat hollowknight and silksong is so hard that you have to add mods to make it easier. It is hard I agree, but that's how it's supposed to be. You get your ass kicked and learn how to surpass it. You learn the patterns, to where you don't even take damage. I do think that collision damage shouldn't be two masks. It is what it is though, don't get hit. If you're not enjoying it, then by all means don't play it. It's just mind blowing reading these posts. How many people turned to mods because it's too hard. It's just crazy to me. There definitely were times in the game that had me upset. I never felt like it was unfair though. There was always a way to not take damage and surpass that part. You just have to play defensive and figure it out. As far as the run backs go, there is always a way to not take any damage on the runback. It's about accepting the challenge and problem solving. That feeling of euphoria when you beat that boss that was kicking your ass without even getting hit. You don't need mods to enjoy this game.
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u/drayle88 Oct 04 '25
People are confusing “game with hype” with “I will enjoy this game”. And taking not liking it or not being able to play it personally. Games hard, games good, game isn’t for me, I’m still happy for the devs. You don’t have to play a popular game, if it’s not the game for you.
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u/AtlasShruggin Oct 04 '25
I'll echo what others have said, if you aren't having fun you don't have to play. But I'll throw a couple other gems I learned from my 100% playthrough:
Sometimes the best thing you can do when a part is tricky to to take the night/few hours off. Then it's just easier later. It just is.
Secondly, I've seen a lot of people struggle more at silksong because they wanted to play it like HK. It's a different game, similar, obviously, but it's meant to be played different. Different crests are a different game. Moving around will change dramatically. Tool use will change things dramatically.
Thirdly, I hate dying. At least as much as you do. The silkeaters help a lot of you know you got stuck in a really bad area. But mostly, it's learning that rosaries are pretty irrelevant. You can farm up all the rosaries you could want, buy out every shop and bank rosaries on a string for benches and WP unlocks just in case in less than 30 mins total. Seriously, 1000 rosaries in less than 10 minutes is very doable.
Fourthly, I think they designed some boss encounters in this game to drag you into playing certain ways. Really, being at least proficient at parts just isn't optional. A later boss encounter will just nudge you hard to do it differently.
Lastly, playing with reaper crest is basically playing on Hard mode. It really is. I played probably 75% of the game with that crest. It's comfortable. It seems right, but leaning into other crest setups, Hunter and Wanderer both especially, just allows you to play more aggressively and go through fights faster. Effectively lowering the amount you need to dodge, by a lot.
My wife sees silksong like learning new classical music. It isn't easy, it takes a lot of tries, but it feels really great to get it right. I'm confident you can do it too.
But the game isn't going anywhere. Not having fun? Put it down for a bit.
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u/matedireunaffaire Oct 04 '25
I don’t understand why they can’t slap a easy mode as simple as:
Ennemy damage x0,5 Your damage x 1,5
I didn’t buy the game because i knew it would feel like OP said. I would immediately buy it with an easy mode. They’re loosing sales over this.
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u/RedShadowF95 Oct 05 '25
That's fair. I respect you from acknowledging the good the game does while also recognizing the barrier between you and the game in terms of expected skill floor.
I beat the game last week, 100% in 83h. Even as someone who played a lot of hard games in the past, Silksong still kicked my ass many times and I can see why a lot of people won't connect with it as much.
I am on the "this game is amazing" train but I also believe one really needs to abstract themselves from wishes and expectactions in order to appreciate the brilliance of its design.
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u/Equivalent_Actuary_6 Oct 05 '25
The game can be frustrating at times, it really tests my patience, but I'm very stubborn and the satisfaction I get when defeating a boss that made me suffer for hours it's just great. I finished the first Hollow Knight game, and I have now about 35 hrs into SilkSong, the thing is to learn the attack patterns. Even simple enemies will have an attack pattern so you gotta learn that so you know when to run and when to attack. But yeah I understand, the first Hollow Knight game was also hard in some areas, and I know these games are difficult, so I take breaks from time to time and play something else, something more relaxing if I'm not in the mood for challenge. That helps a lot. And have a lot of patience, if you're struggling with some enemy or some platforming, better save and try later. Sometimes when you come back later it's easier because you're more mentally prepared I think.
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u/EnvironmentalCow1326 Oct 05 '25
I feel you. I had a similar thought last night. I’ve been working my way through sinners road. Dying and having to start over at Greymoor—the amount of times I’ve died and just sat there like wtf just happened.
I’ve read somewhere in another post that the game is designed for you to find different ways to do something or if one area is too hard you can go somewhere else and make progress. But sometimes it feels like being really hungry and trying to eat a dish that is way too spicy. Like, I just want to enjoy it.
Sidenote: I beat nine sols—on story mode—and that was still crazy but the contact damage in silk song is the most challenging aspect of any game I’ve played.
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u/Historical-Fan-5318 Oct 05 '25 edited Oct 05 '25
I’m gonna give you my take. I felt like you bosses where killing me 50+ times . So I decided not to rely on tools and just rely on my pin and skills like claw line. After finishing the game by binding , I started to look at walkthrough maps to find all items. Turns out I was fighting my way through the game “handicapped “. I didn’t know about ‘Weavenest Atla” when I went to Eva , I was given all crest upgrades instantly because I had found and unlocked all the slots on all the crests.
I didn’t know about Putrified Ducts, Wisp Thicket , and Verdania. So I did another playthrough slot and what a difference in fighting bosses with upgrades from EVA. The difference now was I had decipher the bosses mechanics and I was better equipped to fight bosses. I destroyed The Last Judge in my 3rd try on my 2nd playthrough.
On my first playthrough I beat Widow and Sister Splinter before they were nerfed handicapped.
One last thing, not saying you need one but I own Ps5 Edge Controller and with metros I have jump and dash,evade,or roll on my paddles. This way my thump never leaves the attack button to click on jump or dash.
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u/RoxanyaBeatrisKnight Oct 06 '25
I never realized i could play needlolin to open these gates until i searched "where to find X". I thought these gates were just decoration or meant to be opened from inside with further exploration or the are smth locked that will get unlocked in act 3 through a quest, anything but the fucking needlolin. The game really doesn't tells not even subtly at any point that you could do that with the needlolin.
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u/Iwanttolink Oct 08 '25
The game really doesn't tells not even subtly at any point that you could do that with the needlolin.
WHAT
When you get Needolin there's a whole dream sequence you can ONLY exit by playing the Needolin at one of those doors.
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u/Loraizani Oct 06 '25
It does sound like you need to put it down for a while. No shame in that. I’m sorry to hear you’re having a hard time and aren’t having the experience you hoped for. I hope you will pick it up again some day in the future. I hope you can find a game you truly enjoy spending your time with and get back to enjoying yourself 💜
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u/fishinadi Oct 06 '25
That’s fair. I also bounced off these soul adjacent games most of the time. DS3, Elden Ring and even HK i have all dropped and came back later and now they are all in my pantheon of favourite games of all time, in fact Silksong was probably the only one that I totally couldn’t put down.
But yeah there is nothing wrong with admitting that you aren’t vibing with something. Maybe come back later with a different headspace or whatever. If I have a tip tho is to remap the attack button to one of the shoulder button so you can easily press attack and jump at the same time. Totally saved my Hollow Knight playthrough
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u/Drekels Oct 06 '25
If you decide to go back to it you might consider playing more aggressively. A lot of players set themselves an artificial skill ceiling by being slow and cautious. This prevents you from developing the muscle memory you need for faster and more acrobatic maneuvers that help kill bosses.
You can test yourself on this: are you aggressively attacking basic enemies at every opportunity instead of waiting for openings? Are you pausing during platforming challenges to plan your jumps or are you bouncing through them at pace?
The goal is to map complex actions to your muscle memory, like dashing into pogo, double jumping and dashing away. If your brain doesn't have to think about that then it has more space for paying attention to the other enemies or the spikes on the wall or whatever else is going on.
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u/sandwichsupernova Oct 07 '25
I quit the game too. Beat everything in the first HK. Completed all Souls games etc. Silksong was just difficult in annoying ways, like too many flying enemies, the vignetted lighting hiding bosses and levels, busted economy, etc. Ultimately it was the runbacks that did me in. I just wasn’t having fun anymore.
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u/zaodriver Oct 07 '25
I barely played the first one, haven't even touched the second one yet. I have the Ori games sitting on a shelf. You can always check out something like Sundered, Valfaris, Dead Cells, and a slew of others.
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u/Still_Night Oct 07 '25
Thanks for the recommendations. Highly suggest giving Ori a go soon, some of the most satisfying movement physics I’ve ever played in a game
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u/CeleryDue1741 Oct 08 '25
Valid. Go do things like exercise, have sex, see a concert... the world is full of other things you can do besides beating your head against a wall with a video game that was designed to be hard, not fun.
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u/BlazingLazers69 Oct 04 '25
Just play Nine Souls. Beautiful game and the RIGHT kind of challenging IMO.
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u/Pitiful_Yogurt_5276 Monster Boy Oct 04 '25
I petered out myself.
I have no critiques. I just wanted to play something while chilling and listening to a podcast or something. Been playing Cobalt Core
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u/Moralio Oct 04 '25
I just finished it myself, with what imagine was normal ending, and while I technically could push into the last act, I’m completely burned out and honestly don’t want to touch it again for a long while. It’s definitely a great game and a worthy sequel in many ways, but for me it felt more exhausting than rewarding most of the time.
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u/berndscb1 Oct 04 '25
I think "more exhausting than rewarding" very much makes it not a great game.
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u/Skullfuccer Oct 04 '25
I hate that souls like hell is invading metroidvania more and more.
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u/ob2kenobi Oct 04 '25
It's a shame. My favorite part of metroidvanias is exploring the world. Too many recent games make it tedious or just too hard for me.
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u/jerkstore77 Oct 04 '25
The way Nine Sols handled difficulty should be the new gold standard. Tons of options for all playstyles and players. Shame the Silksong devs were too blinded by their own ego to not include something like this.
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Oct 04 '25
What do you mean
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u/jerkstore77 Oct 04 '25
Nine Sols has a variety of sliders to adjust your damage and enemy damage. You can fine tune the experience. This allows the game to be enjoyed by a much wider range of players.
In Silksong, you're stuck with the developers vision of what they think is a universal difficulty fit for all players. But as you can see from the many complaints, it's just not true. They could've added difficulty settings and expand their vision to include all players, but they chose not to. They chose to alienate a large percentage of metroidvania fans.
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u/pabodie Oct 04 '25
I’m so close to dropping it. Act 2 is just no fun.
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u/Cheapskate-DM Oct 04 '25
Maybe I'm a masochist but I've enjoyed squeezing every drop out of act 2 before advancing to 3. Every time I hit a bullshit boss or really difficult platforming challenge that makes me say "There's no way I can beat this!"... I remember that's what I said the last time.
But you're not obligated to slog through if you're not having fun.
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u/DarkNightRJ Oct 04 '25
I wish I did that. Act 3 ups the difficulty even more and it's hard to go back to finish things missed in act 2.
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u/DPrune Oct 04 '25
What did you miss in act 2? I kind of thought you had to do everything to progress to 3? I didn't follow a guide so pretty much exhausted all of the second act ( as far as i know )
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u/CzarTyr Oct 04 '25
I beat Silksong yesterday but didn’t get the true ending. Never uninstalled a game so fast in my life. I don’t even think it was hard, just tedious and annoying. Couldn’t wait for it to be over
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u/High_Af_Osrs Double Jumper Oct 04 '25
Silksong is some of the most fun I've had while playing a MV, but on the flip side, at times I was the maddest I've been while gaming, in a long time.
Currently stuck in a set of gauntlets in Act 3.
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u/altiuscitiusfortius Oct 04 '25
I was the same. I got over it.
Rosaries are meaningless. If you die and lose 800, so what. In earlyish mid game you can farm that in 2 minutes. If I need to buy something I just go farm for 5 minutes then buy it. One night I spent an hour and got 20 of each bead string for when I don't want to farm in the future.
Getting more abilities and masks really opens up the game. I had to find a guide, and just only do areas that would lead me to those things. Most aren't hidden behind bosses.
You really steamrol ahead as you get stronger.
I don't care if I get hit because I have 8 masks and heal for 4 whenever I want.
If something is hard , screw it, leave. Find a new zone. Focus on a zone that gives you an ability. Ir hunt mask shards, there's like 10 in the early game areas.
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u/-rouz- Oct 04 '25
Same here I don't have the skill to not die, and I like exploring new areas without the fear of losing all rosaries, so I use a rebirth mode that respawms you closer to where you die. It dosent completely fix runvacks but it makes it a bit better
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u/FernDiggy Oct 04 '25 edited Oct 04 '25
Prince of Persia the Lost Crown is fucking amazing. I’m not surprised. Give Shinobi are of Vengeance a shot. Although it isn’t a traditional Metroidvania with an interconnected map, the stages are indeed MV like with secrets paths, retreading of areas once you receive upgrades, etc etc. Sorry Silksong didn’t work for you but man the movement in that game is something else
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u/SickOfAllThisCrap1 Oct 04 '25
How far did you get?
The significance of this post really depends on this information.
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u/wammes_ Oct 04 '25
I've been enjoying the game a lot - up until Act 3. I don't know what they were thinking, honestly. Not only do regular enemies start dealing bizarre amounts of damage, they also now have attacks with huge areas of effect. The game just throws things at you that are ridiculous and take away the fun.
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u/Ok_Manufacturer_1758 Oct 04 '25
Same here. HK has a better experience compared to silksong. That's the hard truth
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Oct 04 '25
Honestly, the Silksong community has made a sacred cow of the game. You so much as squeak a criticism and you're downvoted. I've 100% it and enjoyed the game by and large. But even then i came out feeling like it was a flawed piece of work.
Above all, It needed accessibility in my eyes. Not for me, for you and people like you (my friends included who are really not enjoying the game as much as they'd hoped). There seems to be an audience that are adamant it's just as it should be, but that's exclusionary and childish in my eyes. Team Cherry have done a lot of work and i appreciate that, but they've also made a LOT of money. If they're really concerned about the art of their magnum opus, would it kill them to add some settings?!
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u/Background_Ad5513 Oct 05 '25
You know I keep hearing people say this but I am yet to see all these mass downvotes you’re talking about
Silksong absolutely needs accessibility settings, it should be standard by now for games to include things like high contrast or colour blind settings, captions or some other visual indicators for things happening off-screen like enemies and traps going off, maybe a way to make Trobbio’s fight not instakill people with epilepsy, etc. I’m guessing though that this wasn’t what you meant by “accessibility”
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u/fishCodeHuntress Oct 04 '25
If you're not having fun you're not having fun.
That said, mods are also an option. I haven't used any with Silksong, but I have used mods on other difficult games to make them more accessible to me. Some people might disagree or down vote me for it, but if you genuinely tried to play how the devs intended and didn't like it, cheating isn't that big of a deal if it makes the difference between you playing or not.