Silksong's out, and folks are playing it—they're also throwing their controllers, gnashing their teeth, and doing a lot of complaining about masks, if the r/Silksong subreddit is to be believed. As someone currently arm-deep in Pharloom myself and having a whale of a time, I have plenty of thoughts about that—but first, let's see what the people have to say, shall we:
"[My wife] has spent three days fighting Moorwing without beating it and she’s dropping the game for good. I hope she’ll pick it back up sometime but it’s sad to see all the anticipation die out like this," writes one player. Here's an in-depth critique that's almost entirely difficulty-based, to which one commenter concurs: "Hollow Knight started you off slow and steady, Silksong stabs you and kicks you for crying about it."
"Bad rosary economy, insane difficulty scaling, very few meaningful unlocks/upgrades, runbacks, locked into fighting bosses, contact damage stacking with normal hits, etc," writes one player in a thread decrying the 'git gud crowd' as hateful (it's one of those discourses, I'm afraid).
There have, of course, been other threads saying no, it's not too hard—but rather than throw more quotes at you, I figure I could offer my perspective as a certified soulslike freak: Both sides have valid points. What do you mean, 'boo, have an opinion!' ugh, fine.
For context, I'm about 20 hours in and just scraping into Act 2: And I'm just now feeling like I've gotten a proper handle on the game. And I will concretely say that Silksong is an absolute bastard.
Trapped resting benches, arduous boss runbacks, and a starved early-game economy (how do three bugs not have 60 rosaries between them?) make for a punishing experience, especially if you're doing poorly. Given resting benches and fast travel points are locked behind a currency you can lose by dying twice, I'm not shocked some players are having trouble.
Hornet is also a lot more technically demanding than the Knight from the first game. The diagonal pogo gets memed upon, but her moveset has far more technicalities to it—you're expected to use your movement abilities, dash attack, hover, and the aforementioned pogo in combat, whereas the Knight is just a little guy for the first few hours of the game with a modest run speed and directionals.
On the other hand, there are plenty of things you can do to alleviate this. Exploring does a bug good—there are several powerful early-game upgrades tucked away in corners. Actually using your tools can make certain fights, and enemies, far easier. And for the love of the Radiance, don't go to the Hunter's March before you've got your dash. The guy who flattens you into paste at the entrance is saying 'go get an upgrade first'.
If I have any complaints, aside from the boss runbacks, it's that the power arc is a little exponential. Now I'm in Act 2, and I'm accustomed to the movement mechanics, and I have some good tools and upgrades under my belt? I'm actually finding the game easier. It's a little wonky.
I also think that beating a boss should probably give you, like, enough rosaries for an upgrade or something. Or at least for the bench after the boss—even as someone who isn't losing my rosaries often, I had to grind once just to unlock a freakin' bench after beating a boss, and I obviously didn't like it.
There's also the point that, well—the people who are enjoying it are playing it, not making Reddit threads. Personally, if you're struggling, I encourage you to stay steadfast—and use your dang tools. You can throw knives for a reason.
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