I remember when Dark Souls was the new hotness, it didn't take long for the "actually, this game isn't hard if you're just cool and smart about it" crowd to crop up. I see a lot less of that with Silksong, which PC Gamer reviewer Tyler Colp called the "videogame equivalent of sticking your hand into the Dune pain box" in his review (where he also gave it a 90).
It's hard—much harder than you'd expect, even if you factor in the metroidvania's reputation for difficulty—and that aspect of it is fielding some mixed reactions. In an interview for a gaming-focused exhibit at Melbourne's ACMI museum spotted by Dexerto, Team Cherry honchos Ari Gibson and William Pellen talked about their perspective on difficulty with an admission that yeah, Silksong's hard, but that's more or less the point.
"Hornet is inherently faster and more skillful than the Knight—so even the base level enemy had to be more complicated, more intelligent," Gibson said. "[Players] have ways to mitigate the difficulty via exploration, or learning, or even circumventing the challenge entirely, rather than getting stonewalled."
Indeed, Gibson said that while "some moments of steep difficulty" may be frustrating, if it encourages you to take a break and go find something else to practice on or explore for an alternative solution, the game's winding paths are richer for it.
Pellen put it into perspective by noting the "basic ant warrior is built from the same move-set as the original Hornet boss," and that it was better to "bring everyone else up to match Hornet's level" rather than cut back on her powers.
Gibson's and Pellen's comments on difficulty came from an interview in a booklet printed to accompany ACMI's in-person Game Worlds exhibit, which means it was almost certainly conducted before Silksong's release—and before a whole lot of players got riled up about the game's difficulty. It's possible they'd say the exact same things today, but the pair have yet to comment on how players are reacting to the challenge. Based on the second Silksong patch, though, it seems they're not rushing to make the game easier.
It's all relative, I suppose. A game like Ghosts 'n Goblins is unfathomably hard when compared to other platformers, but that friction works as intended considering you're expected to restart it a thousand times as you memorize its enemy placements. How meaningful is a metroidvania labyrinth if you never look down a path without some legitimate trepidation?
Perhaps Silksong has a similar polarizing effect to Shadow of the Erdtree in that it builds on a game people have become proficient with and asks a lot more from players if they want to see the end credits this time. That said, Gibson said at the time that he was confident people have all the tools they need to succeed. If they feel like they're bashing their head against a brick wall, there's usually a better way: "Part of allowing a higher level of freedom within the world means that you have choices all the time about where you're going and what you're doing."
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