Hollow Knight: Silksong's Beautiful but Baffling Designs | Design Delve
This week's episode of Design Delve is now available!
Hollow Knight: Silksong's Beautiful but Baffling Designs | Design Delve (YouTube)
Comments (8)
For me this game screams “watch a longplay”. Gorgeous, looks amazing, sounds great, absolutely unpleasant to play. But I’m not a fan of it’s whole deal tbh so I was never likely to pick it up.
Took me 30 hours to complete Act 1 because I am lame and had to cheese Moorwing... But finding Act 2 feels much more like Hollow Knight of old so far. Might be because I have nailed movement with the Wanderer crest now and don't feel totally useless. Anyway, lots to agree with here. The rosary issue is interesting - it definitely feels like they want you to engage with the rosary string creators and to make sure you are prepped before any excursions into the unknown (albeit there's no actual suggestion anywhere that people should do this). The 20% tax on that sucks, but, hey, just another miserable commentary on capitalism... :( And, boy is this game beautiful visually and audibly. Will continue just for that.
They nerfed Moorwing in the first patch, so it looks like they've decided it was overtuned. I didn't even see Moorwing until well into Act 2, because apparently it doesn't show up if you enter the area via the Flea Caravan. Some of the rosary stringers charge less than 20% (though it's still a 20 bead fee) -- some will string 120 beads for a cost of 140, for example.
I am maybe halfway through Act 1 and this does not encourage me that the game will be rewarding of my time.
There are rewards! The highs of Silksong are very high. Moments of discovery that induce real wonder, peaks of mastery that feel really epic to achieve. But there's also some very From Software extents to which those highs are partly built of deliberately inducing player suffering, and you do need to be on board for that. I still feel this a much better use of my time than a Ubisoft game with 150 hours of repetitive map icons to clear, but it's very much a YMMV kind of thing.
Although I really love parts of this game (quest system, art design, music, story), I genuinely can't think of a more frustrating game play experience I've had this year than Silksong. My hands hurt after every game play session from clutching my controller and trying to operate with the precision that this game demands at every turn. I'm 40 hours in and still only in Act 2, I'm stuck on at least 3 different bosses. The punishing nature of this game is very discouraging, especially as an older gamer. Even with a lot of tools at my disposal, I'm never feeling empowered. In the first hollow knight, discovering a new area was exciting, in Silksong I just feel dread. I want to love this game, but this game does not love me.
Couldn’t agree more!
Spot on analysis, but as to your opening "What a beautiful atmosphere, boss design, player options, etc" - that may be true but, personally, the punishing nature of this game makes me want to give a middle finger to the undoubtedly talented and creative Team Cherry group. This game wasn't fun for me. I got to the first major boss, realized how hard the rest of the game would be and peaced out. I'm all for hard games, but the punishment factor is too much. As a reviewer and game designer, it's probably easy to get caught up in "this punishment is deliberate and all part of a grand message," but screw that. My life is better without this game in it.