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Comment on Hollow Knight: Silksong Sparks Debate About Difficulty and Boss Runbacks

I think the big difference is that HK had a smooth difficulty curve as you slowly unlock new abilities. Silksong by comparison picks up where HK left off and is immediately hard which makes it hard to approach for new players. Early game areas feel as hard as late game areas from the first game. That's throwing everybody off who is either new to the franchise or hasn't played Hollow Knight since it came out checks notes 8 years ago

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rozodru@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
I mean...it's kinda silly to go into Silksong without playing Hollow Knight yeah? Unless Silksong has something at the beginning that sort of catches you up to speed OR is like a Souls or Final Fantasy where it has nothing to do with the previous game entry.

But If I were a fan of the series I would hope the game ramped up difficulty and didn't hold my hand for the sequel. That, in my opinion, would be a worthy purchase. I had playing sequels that kind of "reset".

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- Nick@mander.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  It’s the latter of the two. The focus is on a side character from the original game, but takes place in an entirely different map/kingdom. You don’t need to have played Hollow Knight, but there are little lore pieces that tickle the brain if you have (and didn’t just skip over all the dialogue). I’ve been really enjoying the game so far, and there’s only one runback that’s felt REALLY tedious, but it’s on what I’m assuming is an optional boss based on what I’ve played so far.
  
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NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

Early game areas feel as hard as late game areas from the first game.

Are you sure about that? It's been a while since I played Hollow Knight, but other than Hunter's Marsh I think Sillksong has been comparable to or slightly harder than equivalent parts of the Hollow Knight. The enemies are tougher, but you also get more tools to deal with them so it evens out. Mostly thinking of the projectiles here, but the mobility difference also can't be understated; you can abuse dash attacks in Silksong in a way you never could in Hollow Knight.

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- simple@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
  
  Are you sure about that?
  
  Ya, Hollow Knight's first areas like forgotten crossroads and greenpath were a lot easier. There werent any mechanics you have to worry about other than jumping and attacking, and most enemies you faced just walk slowly towards you. Bosses were also fairly straightforward.
  
  By comparison Silksong has you fighting tougher enemies that could deal 2x damage, and quick bosses right off the bat like Bell Beast which kills you in 3 hits. Healing taking your entire bar also makes platforming more difficult because newbies will often be low HP and not have enough silk to heal.
  
  Yes, Hornet is way faster and stronger than the knight but that kinda assumes you're good at dashing and pogo jumping, which many people fail at in the start.
  
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  - Goodeye8@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago
    
    Ya, Hollow Knight's first areas like forgotten crossroads and greenpath were a lot easier. There werent any mechanics you have to worry about other than jumping and attacking, and most enemies you faced just walk slowly towards you. Bosses were also fairly straightforward.
    
    Compared to what areas in Silksong? Because Moss grotto and Marrow seem to have roughly the same range (and difficulty) of enemies as forgotten crossroads and greenpath. I think you also have somewhat rose tinted glasses regarding the starting areas of Hollow Knight because most enemies weren't walking slowly towards you. I'd say it was more of a 50/50 split between walking enemies and flying enemies with some flying enemies shooting projectiles and flying projectile shooters are much harder than the one projectile spitting regular enemy in the first 2 areas of Silksong.
    
    By comparison Silksong has you fighting tougher enemies that could deal 2x damage, and quick bosses right off the bat like Bell Beast which kills you in 3 hits. Healing taking your entire bar also makes platforming more difficult because newbies will often be low HP and not have enough silk to heal.
    
    I think the comparison here isn't as one to one with Hollow Knight. Silksong is much faster paced. Hornet is more mobile and heals faster (and heals more at once), so bosses killing in 3 hits might not be that much harder because it's easier evade attacks and healing is faster. Bosses killing in 5 hits in Hollow Knight might end up being harder than Silksong because healing is a much slower and deliberate action and you might not get a time to heal with an unfamiliar boss. You also get more combat options with tools because unlike Hollow Knight the tools/abilities don't use the same resource pool as healing.
    
    From my experience grotto and marrow have been comparable to crossroad and greepath. It gets harder after marrow but Hollow Knight also got harder when you got into fungal wastes. Maybe the pace change makes you feel like it's harder than Hollow knight but so far I haven't felt like it was noticeably harder than my first Hollow knight playthrough.
    
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