Babe, wake up, it’s time for your quarterly discourse about difficulty in games. In today’s edition, we’re looking at Hollow Knight: Silksong, a game that absolutely no one expected to be a walk in the park. But as players shaw their way through Pharloom, there’s a sense that’s bubbling in the community that Silksong is harder than people were expecting. And what’s fascinating about the conversation precipitating online is that it’s being expressed by seasoned veterans who have played Hollow Knight.
On social media sites like X and Reddit, as well as conversations with colleagues at Polygon, it appears that some Silksong players are approaching the game with a tilted head. Few people are saying that Silksong is too hard. It’s more that everyone has had to adjust their expectations as to what Silksong was going to be like.
“Taking damage is more punishing, movement is more precise and feels a little clunky until you get the hang of it,” one popular Reddit thread reads. “The overall skill curve is much much higher. Love it though.”
“bro Silksong is like Endgame Hollow Knight difficulty FROM THE START,” a post from a viral thread on X reads.
The primary culprit here seems to be Silksong‘s damage mechanics, which stray from what people experienced in Hollow Knight. In the first game, typical enemies would deal one mask (or health blip) of damage to the player. The exception to this rule would be bosses as well as special enemies, which naturally hit harder than your run-of-the-mill fly. With your reserve health, and the fact that Hollow Knight ties health regeneration to the number of seconds that the player focuses, the exact number of hits you can withstand in either game becomes murky. That’s especially true when you can accrue juice in the middle of a fight.
But one thing is certain here: Silksong‘s early areas introduce enemies that damage Hornet the equivalent of two masks right away. Sometimes, even the environment will nick you for two masks! Already, the amount of damage Hornet takes in Silksong from the jump has a psychological effect on anyone who is primed on Hollow Knight. What do you mean, basic enemies harm you for the equivalent of how much a boss would in Hollow Knight? Couple that with the fact Silksong players can encounter basic enemies who require four to five hits within the first hour, and the way some people are perceiving the game starts to make sense.
For me, part of the schism is that it is now harder to gauge how much danger I’m actually in when things can affect Hornet in unexpected ways. This has less to do with the way Hollow Knight set expectations and more to do with my general video game experience, where games tend to penalize players more lightly for dying from environmental hazards than if they died in combat.
Still, there are a lot of factors to consider here for folks who swear Silksong is harder. When did you last play Hollow Knight, if you played it at all? Seven years is a long time in between games, and long enough to kind of forget what the series is like.
But let’s say you’ve played Hollow Knight recently. Then, perhaps, you’re aware that Silksong began as DLC for Hollow Knight. Initially, the developers were tuning what is now the start of a game for an experience that was meant to be played at the end of Hollow Knight, after the player presumably clears the worst the game has to offer. It’s probable that Team Cherry went back in and rebalanced the game once it was obvious it would be a standalone experience, but — and this is complete speculation — it’s possible that nuSilksong still carries some of the bones of DLC Silksong.
A simpler detail to consider: Hornet does not play like the Knight does. She’s nimbler, and her down attack hits at a kind of weird angle. Playing as Hornet takes some getting used to, and Silksong hasn’t been out for very long. Where some of us are licking our wounds as Silksong kicks our ass, there are other players who are bending the Metroidvania to their will. Speedrunners have already figured out how to move faster than us mere mortals. They’re also straight up skipping portions of the game and having fun doing so, which would ruin the experience for most of us.
How much does the presentation of things change what people think about Silksong? In Hollow Knight, recovering health took longer. During that time, the UI would show your souls slowly depleting as if you were pouring water out of a glass. In Silksong, Hornet’s heal focus ability happens much faster, and she only gets one charge before needing to replenish her reserve again. I wouldn’t be surprised if both characters could take around the same amount of damage when you break it down, but the information is presented in a way that suggests otherwise.
We can’t overlook the possibility that, whatever reason people cite in defending the idea that Silksong is harder, folks might simply be wrong. While I’m playing Silksong, I constantly feel overwhelmed while trying to keep track of where I’m going. I have a hard time believing that Silksong has twice as many resting spots as Hollow Knight, but that’s the cold, hard truth according to data miners. I’d love to hear Team Cherry talk shop about their design process here, especially after knowing that there’s a moment in Hollow Knight that secretely helps the player. If it’s intentional, then they’ve crafted a game that’s technically more accessible but has the vibe of a try-hard game.
But maybe, just maybe, people aren’t imagining it and being whiny babies. The way Team Cherry describes Hornet, it sounds like the studio wants to crank up the action while retaining a sense of balance. Hornet binds faster, and can heal midair. You regain three masks at once, meaning that players can feel empowered even during close calls. But for that to work, there needs to be an actual sense of danger, right?
“Hornet’s healing ability matches her Hunter identity, flipping battles from moments of near defeat to empowered strength in an instant!” Team Cherry wrote in a blog from 2019. “It’s a tense, lethal flow.”
I don’t know about you, but to me, that sounds like the thrill of the game is completely inextricable from Hornet’s vulnerability. Perhaps people are perceiving Hornet exactly the way Team Cherry intended them to.
