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Hollow Knight: Silksong |OT| It’s SHAW-time!!!!

After some very frustrating sessions i'm starting to enjoy it a little more.

Despite all the annoying things in the game i think the fact you don't unlock a lot of things that would allow you to cheese the game is a good and ballsy move.
 
Is it safe to say that at this point i just could play the first Hollow Knight which i haven't played yet?
It seems to be easier and as good as Silksong, right?
 
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Is it safe to say that at this point i just could play the first Hollow Knight which i haven't played yet?
It seems to be easier and as good as Silksong, right?

Yeah HK 1 is a no brainer

After you are done with it then I guess you'll still have the reflexes to jump into Silksong because it feels like it continues from the optional area difficulties
 
I bounced off for now. Between the "get fucked" difficulty and rosary headache economy, there's way too much friction baked into this game's design. It's like the game is practically daring me to enjoy it.

The first game is still my personal pinnacle of Metroidvanias. But this right here is what happens when Team Cherry gets together and says, "how do we take everything they loved about HK and make it annoying as fuck?"
 
This game !
just got catch by a crazy insect with cage. Now in "The block" (at least in french) without any equipment.
Reminds me a bit Bloodborne with the Snatchers
 
Once again, there are valid criticisms to be made, asking to nerf the challenge and fundamental design philosophy of overcoming great odds isn't one of them. There is no rulebook saying Metroidvanias need to be easy or accessible lol, and I've played them all, as I have with everything in the Souls genre. It is what it is, if the game is that frustrating then the dumbest thing you can do is keep playing and wasting that precious, finite resource called Time complaining about it.

Anyway, found a FOURTH zone in Act 1 that has a *major* upgrade, sometimes you just need to go back to where it all started... I've also now seen multiple events unfold in already visited areas, so damn cool, Silksong eclipsed Hollow Knight in pretty much every single way.

Nah. See you are completely wrong on so many accounts.

Metroidvania is about exploration and gaining abilities to explore more of the map. Souls like is about dying repetitively and either learning boss patterns or leveling up to overcome challenge, with checkpoints placed strategically in between. Silksong is a Metroidvania on the surface with a poorly implemented souls like under the hood. For someone who mentions design philosophy, you seem to be deeply ignorant of either genre.

And complaining is 100% warranted if people who love both genres are finding there are problems. Notable examples are Celeste, Lies of P, and many others, which added difficulty modes after the fact (sometimes they add a hardcore mode too!). Nine Sols integrated difficulty sliders at launch not compromising any of the game and allowing more people to enjoy it. So capable developers are more than able to do this, especially ones who want as many people to enjoy their game.

Toxic egotistical gatekeeping is not a way to make compelling arguments or to bring people to your side.
 
I bounced off for now. Between the "get fucked" difficulty and rosary headache economy, there's way too much friction baked into this game's design. It's like the game is practically daring me to enjoy it.

The first game is still my personal pinnacle of Metroidvanias. But this right here is what happens when Team Cherry gets together and says, "how do we take everything they loved about HK and make it annoying as fuck?"
It does open up a bit more after you get a few more abilities but it does seem to be designed to be annoying. There is zero reason for balloons, white and red plants that all need bouncing off of constantly throughout the game. There is a huge 3 zone path that has minimal rosaries which I took and it sucks but it seems others went different ways or farmed so it wasn't such a pain for them.

As soon as I got back to Greymoor I'm swimming in rosary again, but I have to go to a different harder area to find the map vendor as she moved from where she was.
 
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Man, if you thought the run back for Last Judge was bad, wait 'til you find ol' Groal the Great. Holy shit it's like some Mario Maker tryhard designed that area.

middle finger GIF
 
Nah. See you are completely wrong on so many accounts.

Metroidvania is about exploration and gaining abilities to explore more of the map. Souls like is about dying repetitively and either learning boss patterns or leveling up to overcome challenge, with checkpoints placed strategically in between. Silksong is a Metroidvania on the surface with a poorly implemented souls like under the hood. For someone who mentions design philosophy, you seem to be deeply ignorant of either genre.

And complaining is 100% warranted if people who love both genres are finding there are problems. Notable examples are Celeste, Lies of P, and many others, which added difficulty modes after the fact (sometimes they add a hardcore mode too!). Nine Sols integrated difficulty sliders at launch not compromising any of the game and allowing more people to enjoy it. So capable developers are more than able to do this, especially ones who want as many people to enjoy their game.

Toxic egotistical gatekeeping is not a way to make compelling arguments or to bring people to your side.

I've been doing this gaming thing since the Atari 2600, played it all, my post history speaks for itself and you're not going to school me on anything sweetheart, promise you that lol. There is no gatekeeping, I stated simple facts and you're still crying about it, git gud, I don't give a flying fuck about bringing you or anyone else to "my side". I'm familiar with your kind though, don't even worry about it 😂
 
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This game !
just got catch by a crazy insect with cage. Now in "The block" (at least in french) without any equipment.
Reminds me a bit Bloodborne with the Snatchers
Damn! The intro for the arena of this zone is absolute Hornet badass moment.
 
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I spend so much time just on the flower jumping puzzles. Death , death and more death. My pogo stick jumping was abysmal in the first game but worse here. The goddamn White Palace was easier!
 
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I spend so much time just on the flower jumping puzzles. Death , death and more death. My pogo stick jumping was abysmal in the first game but worse here. The goddamn White Palace was easier!

With the 45 degrees right?

To me it's more difficult. Good news is that there's a crest that makes the pogo jumping like the first game
 
just beat another boss and got a really cool upgrade. But sister splinter was a bit similar to savage beast fly. I sure hope there are a lot of bosses ahead whose concept isn't tight area + multiple summons
 
just beat another boss and got a really cool upgrade. But sister splinter was a bit similar to savage beast fly. I sure hope there are a lot of bosses ahead whose concept isn't tight area + multiple summons
Just came here to vent a bit.

Just beat another boss with a annoying minion throwing stuff at you.

I am not someone easily triggered but these kind of boss really makes me mad. And there is a lot of them.

I just have the feeling I loose because I have to pay attention to an annoying minion in plus of avoiding the boss attack.
 
Nah. See you are completely wrong on so many accounts.

Metroidvania is about exploration and gaining abilities to explore more of the map. Souls like is about dying repetitively and either learning boss patterns or leveling up to overcome challenge, with checkpoints placed strategically in between. Silksong is a Metroidvania on the surface with a poorly implemented souls like under the hood. For someone who mentions design philosophy, you seem to be deeply ignorant of either genre.

And complaining is 100% warranted if people who love both genres are finding there are problems. Notable examples are Celeste, Lies of P, and many others, which added difficulty modes after the fact (sometimes they add a hardcore mode too!). Nine Sols integrated difficulty sliders at launch not compromising any of the game and allowing more people to enjoy it. So capable developers are more than able to do this, especially ones who want as many people to enjoy their game.

Toxic egotistical gatekeeping is not a way to make compelling arguments or to bring people to your side.
How is it metroidvania "on the surface" when it exactly fits the definition you gave previously ? You explore and gain abilities to explore more of the map.

That's just funny when people wants to give precise definition to overall bastardized and ambiguous subgenres. There's not textbook to apply especially for modern game-design, as for Silksong it's more or less what HK was and that people liked.

It's exactly the same for difficulty modes, you just can't make something seems like it's mandatory or "objective". You just want easier modes because it suits you, there was never any debate when HK launched, it's not a discussion about quality.
 
The thing with minion bosses is that it's not just an obstacle to avoid, it's another enemy that needs to be defeated. Yes often the bosses will defeat them themselves with their attacks, but the random nature of that is annoying. You can't count on it just by avoiding them.

I have no problem with incredibly difficult bosses. Throw the kitchen sink at me and force me to learn it's pattern and tells. Overcoming that is way, way more satisfying than just throwing 3 generic enemies on the screen to distract.

I think there's definitely room for this type of boss, but so far it seems like they overdid it, and the first game did it better.
 
I've seen some people with a fiery orange circle next to their throwing pin trap. Does anyone know what it is? Something to do with Twitch?
 
I think I'm near the endgame now and just finished a PHENOMENAL platforming section. This elevates the game by itself in my eyes, well paced, challenging but not stupidly so, great benches placement, probably my favorite part of the game until now.

It's a shame once again the reward is kind of a wet fart.
 
I bounced off for now. Between the "get fucked" difficulty and rosary headache economy, there's way too much friction baked into this game's design. It's like the game is practically daring me to enjoy it.

The first game is still my personal pinnacle of Metroidvanias. But this right here is what happens when Team Cherry gets together and says, "how do we take everything they loved about HK and make it annoying as fuck?"
I really do not get people naming this game the pinnacle of metroid / castlevania games.

Feels like fucking calling James Pond the pinnacle of platforming
 
People progress so fast your glowy 10% or less achievement lose their luster as you play. 19% cleared the Last Judge.
"Resident" still lies at 3.4%.
 
Some good news.
Seems there are mods that remove the tedium and scale back the difficulty of this game:

- There is a mod to make any hit take just 1 mask
- There is a mod to create a spawn point anywhere you'd like, so you don't have to waste time running back to the boss

I think with these two I might just give it a go and actually enjoy myself.
 
This one? Happened by mistake for me.


Lol, no. It's a cheese strategy. Like in most Souls games, when the boss fight happens in a large stage with obstacles and it's very hard, there must be some optional cheese for the non-skilled.

If you get the reaper cape (located in a nearby chapel) your sting has a wider range and you can hit the boss through walls. You climb to the ledge on the right, the boss follows you and then spam jump down attacks.
 
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Last Judge runback you say?



I will say they should have added something akin to the Stake of Marika in Elden Ring, that is what we call a *valid* criticism lol. Beat the Last Judge after about 10 attempts, sure do love it's death animation... don't get *too* cute Team Cherry 😂
 
So happy to see success stories like this while putting the big middle finger to the AAA studios.
 
I love the game and I think overall it's better than the original. Just entered act 2.

Few small things I have issues with:
1: I'm not sold out the quest system. Seems like it opens itself up to fetch questing and it does. It is handy to have because you'll likely never get lost with tasks available to view and it's generous of them to finish most of the tasks by just going to the board.
But there is a good bit more " hunt 30 x" that I don't know if any gamer really enjoys.

I mean we're not taking about Witcher 3 levels of quests here. Its literally just " find me 30x shit".

Its not overkill though just something to point out

2: the controls on the menu are weird. Not sure how you can fuck up a menu but it's very fiddly I often end up closing it by accident or selecting the wrong thing.

3: Having everything cost rosaries is overdone.

4: This is my big one. Again my biggest peeve with this game and the previous one is the distance between the bench and the bosses. Souls games don't really have this issue anymore but in a 3D game you can map out your journey, you have more freedom to try and find faster ways and sometimes that is the fun of unlocking shortcuts ( like a new door or lift or a secret bonfire/bench etc) to make the journey more bearable.

Hollow knight and this are 2dD games and I don't get the sense smart level design is in place to match the distance between the bench and boss...for instance you could be rewarded for exploration in finding a faster route to the boss from the bench.. like a cracked wall here a switch there. They don't really do this though. In all cases with me the nearest bench is the nearest bench and there is nothing even remotely close to that. It seems like it's a arbitrary difficulty thing.

The journey to get to the boss is not a challenge.. it's just tedious and should have been fixed for this. There's no justification for it. Its not bad enough to ruin the game for me though but it needs to be pointed out.

5: As others have pointed out.. too many mini bosses with regular enemies appearing in multitude.. they really have a hardon for this in this game haha. My only guess is they've done this to encourage you to buy and try out traps etc.. but it's a tad overdone.

All of these points are pretty much fixable. I'm not sure how receptive the team is to fixing these sort of things.
 
Serious question! I never played it.

What the heck is so special about HKSilksong?

Im asking bacaus the videos look like every other game in this genre. Is there something special?
 
17h later, Act 2 start. There was 1 secret area that had an enemy I couldn't damage so I decided to leave it for later (assuming there will be a needle upgrade), otherwise I explored every nook and cranny in Act 1, no stone left unturned, found lots of goodies 👌
 
The beast crest is such a useless piece of shit because the downwards attack is almost unusable when platforming and the healing is too limited. Basic attacks and running attack I like.
 
Even with a needle damage upgrade the Skull Tyrant took over 40 hits to die. It's just boring.

I'm doing the side missions purely because I can't be arsed to bounce off of bells to climb up and progress the story.
 
Bell hart improved my opinion of the game a lot.

The Widow was a great boss. Best in game so far.
 
Damn some of you guys are tearing through this thing. Seems like some completed 1st playthroughs already? For those "near the end" or whatever, what is the time played? Because I put like 10 hours into this in the first 36 it was available, and I don't know how close I am to finishing act 1.
 
Are you all using the D-pad or the analog stick?
I use the D-pad and my thumb hurts… Been playing nearly 10 hours today, lots of flower bouncing in Far Fields and balloon bouncing in Greymoor.
 
Couple hours in and I remembered why I couldn't get into the first game... Completely stuck with no idea where to go, I have checked every single part of the map with unexplored parts and none seems to be passable
 
Damn some of you guys are tearing through this thing. Seems like some completed 1st playthroughs already? For those "near the end" or whatever, what is the time played? Because I put like 10 hours into this in the first 36 it was available, and I don't know how close I am to finishing act 1.
I played for about 30 hours and I think I might be 80% done with the main story. There's quite a few optional areas I haven't found yet, I know because I never encountered some environments shown in the trailers.
 
The way the character art style, atmosphere and overall sound design blend together is truly a masterclass. For both of these games. Something to be studied. Hard to really put into words how satisfying it all is. Love the feeling of being in some sort of horrifying environment surrounded by danger and suddenly you hear the familiar sound of your buddy Shakra or Cornifer and feel a sense of relief. The little bell girl in front of the door singing. All the characters unique little grunts and gibberish. It's all so satisfying. I want them all to be happy.
 
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About the Last Judge runback: believe me you'll be thankful for the repetition, you'll need to have these moves memorized for later because there's a certain quest that requires you to take that path again and take it FAST. Hardest thing I've done in the game by far, much harder than any boss (don't worry it's optional).
 
Did you know that if you save and quit in Bellhart bench you get strung up with the rest of the citizens while it's cursed and have to break free with your Needle?
Nope. Never did it I guess.

I did see some guy after the boss with a little hat on, right side of town, never appeared again.
 
Yeah, this probably isn't for me. Too much back tracking, getting lost, re-running after dying. And I'm only a few hours in.

I can only imagine the frustration ramping up. Sometimes you need to wave the '51 years old' flag 😂
 
Serious question! I never played it.

What the heck is so special about HKSilksong?

Im asking bacaus the videos look like every other game in this genre. Is there something special?

Yeah the game sucks your dick while you're playing it, not sure how, it's some sort of new technology like ray tracing.
 
Think I'll drop the game for a bit.

It's beautiful, but I have exactly the same complaints as I did with the first.

It's a 10 hour game stretched to 25 plus and the pacing is all over the shop. The first game was better. Parts of Silksong are flat out boring.
 
Serious question! I never played it.

What the heck is so special about HKSilksong?

Im asking bacaus the videos look like every other game in this genre. Is there something special?
The game is beautiful. It has a sort of unsettling warmth to it. I think some people truly love the world design and simply enjoy spending time there.

The actual gameplay is average and some of the design choices are baffling.
 
HK is one of my favorite games ever and I can admit this game is just a solid 8.5/10

Any review that calls it a masterpiece is full of shit, anyone that says it's overrated trash is full of shit.

it's just a really good game with some bad design decisions, likely due to the developers fucking around with it for an extra couple of years and tinkering too much. And to add to that point there is something that happens when developing games where you just get so fucking good at the game because you know every single enemy and where they spawn and what they are going to do that you become completely out of touch with how the common gamer is going to play your game. I suspect that has happened here.
 
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