maurog.earth

Previous post: Silksong Journey #1

If you're following the conversation around Silksong, you will have read people complain about how hard it is. There's even people abandoning the game because it frustrates them so much. Even though I can understand the feeling of frustration, I'd like to throw in my opinion because it's a bit more nuanced than "it's too hard" or "git gud".

For context: I'm not a very skilled player, I tend to not have the patience for hard games and I don't have the hand-eye coordination to be good at retro games. I finished Hollow Knight 100% and absolutely loved it. It wasn't easy and I had a few frustrating moments (those damned Watcher Knights) but it taught me to persevere, study enemy patterns, manage resources and adjust my strategy. In contrast, I did not enjoy Elden Ring at all, it didn't resonate with me and it didn't encourage me to try to get better at it. I mention this so you can understand my level of skill and taste.

First of all we have to take into account the perfect storm of disproportionate hype around the game and social media's hunger for peoplo talking about the hot new thing. You can tell there are a lot of people that haven't played Hollow Knight but are playing and talking about Silksong because it's what everyone else is talking about. I'm not saying that you can't play Silksong without playing Hollow Knight, but there are a lot of things that shouldn't be surprising.

Having said this, the game is pretty hard. I don't think it's a matter of bad game design, this is a masterfully made game by experienced developers. I think it's a matter of balance and progression. The game feels like the DLC of Hollow Knight that was originally intended to be.

In classic Metroidvania fashion, Hornet starts with all her powers stripped off. But the enemies and the environment don't fool around, they are out there to kill you and they have the tools to do it. The game requires a relatively high degree of precision with the controls from the start, which makes you die a lot and have to repeat sections over and over again before you had time to really get into the world. The amount of things that do 2 damage (out of the 5 you start with) is scary. I think it's fair for boss hits or lava to deal 2 damage. But touching a boss or common enemies feels a little too punishing for the first 10 hours of the game.

Another point of imbalance is the fact that, for the most part, going from one boss to another feels a lot harder than the actual boss fights. I haven't struggled with any bosses from the main path (one secret/optional boss made me sweat, but those should be like that), but I have got frustrated with certain sections that combine tricky platforming and enemies in tight spaces. I think these long sections to go from A to B with no benches (I'm looking at you, ants) break the flow of the game and make you feel stuck too early in the journey. The game should have sections like these (and trust me, it has plenty of them), but a bit later, once you have more tools and are a bit more used to the controls.

I don't think it's useful to speculate why Team Cherry made certain decisions. I think they had a pretty difficult job to live up to unrealistic levels of hype and the legacy of a masterpiece like Hollow Knight. If you stick to it, Silksong is a truly amazing game.

If you're still struggling, here are some tips:

• Some common enemies can feel like mini-bosses, they are worth studying their patterns. Find the nearest bench and fight them 10 times in a row. The game is very good at making you fear the unknown, but you can lose that fear with a mini-grind session
• I find tools more useful to kill common enemies in tight spots than for bosses. Go all out! Bosses are complex enough that dodging and managing your silk is enough mental load. I find tools are a distraction against bosses with tight timings or tricky move patterns.
• You don't have to kill every enemy you encounter. Hornet is agile for a reason, you can just run and jump away and live to fight another day
• Speaking of agility: it is your best weapon. The more you move, jump and diagonal slash enemies on the head, the better things go for you. Don't trade blows like in Hollow Knight, you'll lose. Keep in mind that the invincibility period after getting hit is very short, so don't try to push through enemies, jump over them and deal damage in the process.
• Find a different path: the game is designed to have different paths, not a single main one. Go in the opposite direction, get lost somewhere else. You might find a different way of progress in the map or a new weapon, upgrade or tool.
• The game has tools to counter all dangers. Struggling with the lava section? There's an accessory to reduce the damage. Tricky flying enemy? The spike trap will mess them up. Tools and crests change your attack patterns, experiment with them and optimise for your most hated enemy. The right tool can make tricky fights trivial.
• In order to get tools you'll need to explore but also money. Lots and lots of money in the form of red beads. First of all: you don't need to buy everything there is on offer. Only buy things you need or that sound useful. And for the love of god and everything that's holy: take every opportunity you get to buy rosaries. The 20 beads you lose are worth it.
• If you haven't, play Hollow Knight first. You won't regret it and you will enjoy Silksong more.