This content originally appeared on dbushell.com (blog) and was authored by dbushell.com (blog)
This is an “RSS-only” post where I discuss topics tangentially related to my usual web design and development feed. Ignore or enjoy! Before I delve into the dark corners of Pharloom I’d like to discuss one related topic.
Difficulty and Accessibility
Silksong is a hard game that offers no affordances. There is no “easy mode”. There are no granular controls to tailor the experience to your individual ability or preference.
Silksong is in stark contrast to games like Star Wars Outlaws by Ubisoft. Modern Ubisoft games take accessibility seriously. Outlaws has a huge list of accessibility options covering visuals, audio, controls, menus, and gameplay. Outlaws is a masterpiece of development that is unfortunately undone by being a rather boring game.
The Silksong meme is “get good” and it’s a great game if your able to “get good”. But I strongly disagree with the notion that it has to be that way.
Any argument for single-player games not providing “difficulty” settings is inherently exclusionist. If a game offers one mode, that does not mean all players experience the same challenge. An abled twenty year old memer is playing an easier game than anyone with a disadvantage. Be that any disability or distraction.
How others’ experience a game should have absolutely no bearing on your own enjoyment. That’s just pathetic. Online discussion tends to fall into shallow gate-keeping. Providing more accessibility options would help ensure players get a comparable experience. Such options allow more players to find fun in a game.
There’s a grey area between artistic choice and discrimination. I believe hard games should be allowed to exist in the same way comedians should be allowed to tell edgy jokes. The difference is games can have options, so why add self-imposed limits to exclude players?
Silksong Review
In 2007 game devs Team Cherry published a five star game, Hollow Knight. I never played it on release. I picked up the Voidheart Edition some years later and completed almost every challenge (can’t remember how far I got in the Pantheons).
Silksong is the long awaited sequel. Hornet is the playable character replacing John Hollow Knight as Silksong’s protagonist. Hornet’s movement and play style is faster and more aggressive.
★★★☆☆
If Hollow Knight was five stars I’d give Silksong three stars. A good game but nothing special and let down by lessons unlearned.
Spoilers Ahead!
Fair warning: spoilers galore below! Nothing is off limits.
After 18 days and 52 in-game hours I rolled credits on Silksong. I immediately jumped back in for another week to tie up loose ends. After 68 hours, my Silksong adventure is over!
I played the first Hollow Knight and shamelessly followed a walkthrough verbatim. Silksong was an amazing experience to explore blind and discover for myself. I followed every path and found every upgrade to make the main quest easier. I enjoyed the fast paced combat.
That said, I can’t be bothered to 100% Silksong. I’ve seen two endings and I’ve watched the rest on YouTube. I’m in Act 3 and I joined the Flea Festival and I’m happy here! I’ve absolutely no desire to see more. A shame because there are cool boss fights I’m missing.
But boss fights are what let this game down.
The Good Bosses
Before I discuss the bad these are my top five in fight order:
These were great fights I beat clean without spamming tools.
The Bad Bosses
Sadly fun bosses were few and far between in Silksong. Too many bosses were giant amorphous blobs where contact damage from their fat-ass movement was more deadly than the attacks. Boring; forgettable.
That’s my main criticism of Silksong; underwhelming boss fights and an over-reliance on harder gauntlet battles. The High Halls gauntlet would have felt more rewarding had I not been fatigued already.
Most bosses I beat within a dozen tries. For me Silksong lacked a Soul Master moment where hours of practice and progress felt like a real achievement. First Sinner came close but as an optional hidden boss — I never got captured and had to break into The Slab — it didn’t feel like a major victory.
I’m actually complaining about lack of — or the wrong kind of — difficulty in boss fights. Difficulty in a fun way where I learn to overcome a challenge. Not difficulty where I repeat the same madness until I get lucking and not caught in the air between fat bouncy blob, randomly spawning blob, and heat-seeking acid spew blob. Lazy game design is not fun.
Missed Bosses
I know quite a lot of potentially cool bosses are in Act 3 along with possibly 20–30 hours of extra content. I wish I cared. It just feels like a chore to progress any further. Backloading the endgame is just bad design in my opinion. You might say I never finished the game and quit before the final act. Whatever, I got my money’s worth!
Gameplay
Personally I think Silksong was comparably easier than I remembered Hollow Knight. Regardless, I found the difficulty in this game unfair. Deaths in Hollow Knight always felt preventable. Many deaths in Silksong came from gambling with flying enemies designed to punish no matter how you moved or attacked.
Like many players I discovered poisoned Cogflys to be very effective against pesky flies. This made areas like Bilewater bearable. If everyone is using the same overpowered tactic that suggests poor game balance.
Platforming challenges were fun once I mastered the 45° degree pogo. Longclaw made that easier. Climbing Mount Fay to unlock the double jump was a pleasant change of pace. I would have preferred a Path of Pain over Bilewater’s gimmick.
The economic balance of rosaries and shards sucked and dissuaded me from experimenting. Many tools felt unnecessary and my load-out rarely changed. The Architect Crest looked interesting but farming shards was bad enough. I went 80% Hunter and 20% Reaper when I required longer attacks. I found Weavenest early which also locked in my choice.
The Verdict
Silksong is a fantastic game overshadowed by the relative perfection that was the original Hollow Knight. In comparison I found Silksong a little too unfair and at times unrewarding. I don’t feel like I could play Silksong again but I could give Hollow Knight another run. Unlocking every skill in Hollow Knight felt like a big milestone. Silksong missed that mark.
For me Silksong is a solid three stars that took risks but failed to improve on the original.
I’ll be playing Ghost of Yōtei next!
Thanks for reading! Follow me on Mastodon and Bluesky. Subscribe to my Blog and Notes or Combined feeds.
This content originally appeared on dbushell.com (blog) and was authored by dbushell.com (blog)
dbushell.com (blog) | Sciencx (2025-09-28T15:00:00+00:00) RSS Club #003: Silksong. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/09/28/rss-club-003-silksong/
Please log in to upload a file.
There are no updates yet.
Click the Upload button above to add an update.