Hollow Knight: Silksong's Upcoming Patch Will Nerf The Difficulty In Certain Areas

Difficulty options would be best. Could keep the experience as intended by default then and have it be more accessible to a larger player base too.

Always very strange and disappointing to see a game without difficulty/accessibility options. Particularly nowadays.

Yeah I'd rather have this be optional. I don't know if I'm in the minority, but I'm really enjoying it as difficult as it is.

Well, I guess I have to hurry up and play it then before it gets watered down.

They should just make an easier mode if they're going to do all of this. I think some changes would make the game a bit more enjoyable, but a lot of those changes are on things I've already managed to get past myself (I'm not that far into the game but I managed to handle Moorwing and Sister Splinter already).

They will no doubt do more patching and changing, but I'm unlikely to use any accessibility options at this point myself. I'm about 13 hours in and committed to the core experience.

I wouldn't mind a slight difficulty reduction in boss battles. Not that they're hard, there's just a lot of them, and each is kind of long and samey. Or at least put a save station before each one.

It would be very much appreciated if everything in this game did not do 2 damages. It's crazy how when certain boss finally do 1 damage on most of their attacks (Widow and Phantom), their fight becomes, much, much, MUCH, funnier and exciting. Also, they do not summon random enemies.

Could they also add a feature allowing you to just respawn in front of every boss (Elden Ring did it) ? Doing 30s to 1m runbacks is not fun. It never has. It never will. It's just a waste of time, and it diminishes the enjoyment out of certain bosses (last judge cough cough, and yes I timed it, it takes 1 minute between the bench and the boss arena, so if you die 20 or 30 times, it's 30 minutes of your life wasted on meaningless content... and it's not even the worst runback in the game !)

It's almost like some people never played the first one. Lol

Is this necessary? The game's not that hard.

Devs need to have difficulty options for their games. I’m a casual gamer and enjoy the experience but will get frustrated by an overly difficult game and give up on it. Other players enjoy the challenge of a hardcore mode. I never got far in Hallow Knight and I won’t be getting this game since the only difficulty option is harder than I would enjoy. Please add an easy mode to these games.

As a slightly older gamer with all that entails, I wouldn't mind some easier modes in certain games.

Its the reason I haven't entertained Cuphead or Elden Ring.

I know this would go against the developers vision but Im way past the age of trying 100 times to succeed and the controller being thrown across the room.

Im of the era of no saves for games and did my time back then.

No reason not to have fully adjustable difficulty levels in games today especially as it ties in to accessibility settings very nicely.

@michellelynn0976 many didn't. Neither did I, and I guess I should have.

Didn't Hollow Knight have difficulty options? Strange they didn't include them here.

@KidSparta Or just not update it, that should work too

Doesn't seem like this changes much. Reducing prices of benches and bellways is fine with me, money is pretty tight early on, and whether you have enough money is entirely dependent on how often you die. So players can get overly punished for being less skilled. This change seems fine.

Regarding Moorwing, seems like I accidentally skipped it completely without realising. Apparently there are ways to bypass this boss if you complete certain quests first. But if you don't complete the quests in time, it becomes mandatory? I don't know lol.
If it was just an optional boss, I wouldn't see the need for the changes, but if there are scenarios where it becomes mandatory, then I guess it makes sense.

The hardest mandatory boss I've seen so far is the one at the end of Act 1 just before the Citadel. Interesting to see no patch notes for this one. Because dang, I can definitely see players struggling to progress at this point.

I’m not finding the game all that difficult. It can be tough in a few areas, but it’s not halting my progress whatsoever. That said, the game does feel unbalanced overall, so I’m welcome for the update. As others mentioned, I wish there would be a difficulty option—but I’ll take whatever is given to me.

FFS stop nerfing games just because a few people don't enjoy it. I'm loving the difficulty level so far. Team Cherry worked on this for what, 7 years, and a small group of people think they know how to balance the game better themselves after only being out for a few days.

@Pillowpants

Hollow Knight did not have any difficulty settings.

So it's not unexpected that Silksong doesn't either. But given the emphasis and awareness around accessibility in gaming during the years since HK and Silksongs release, it is disappointing to not have anything.

A high difficulty is part of the art, you should self-reflect and find out more about yourself. And for that, knowing that there is no option to easily reduce difficulty is important.

You want options. For nice, harmless entertainment for everyone, there are options, aka other games.

I liked the way Ninja Gaiden: Ragebound handled it, with the difficulty/accessibility options it had. Surprisingly, I never had to use any of them (I'm not the best gamer) and I pushed through the game even though some bosses touched me up badly, but it was nice to know the option was there if need be.

@user0 Came here to say this. More games should have the Dead Cells approach and allow players tailor to their own liking on difficulty. Wanna breeze through and be a god? Sure. Wanna get wiped out by the wind? We can do that too.

I enjoy harder games, and i also enjoy easy casual games. I don’t think whatever I prefer in difficulty should be forced on the masses however. And so called balance adjustments/nerfing is just that.

By making an update to a game like this they’re forcing everyone to accept as is. Those that prefer the current difficulty have to accept the nerfing, and that’s not right either.

User defined difficulty options are always the best route. Have them default at whatever the devs intended vision is and allow the player to work from there.

@Max_the_German It would have been nice then to provide early copies to game journalists, so they can inform people on the difficulty, and they can choose to NOT buy the game thanks to those reviews.

Team Cherry no preorders + no early copies to journalists was BS as its finest.

Personally I don't care that the game has no difficulty options. If this game has the same difficulty as Hollow Knight then I will be fine. Hollow Knight was a real challenge for me, but always fair and never frustrating. But the thing I like most about Hollow Knight and Silksong is exploring the world and find hidden places. It's unfortunate that less skilled players can't do that or get stuck because of a boss fight that is just too difficult.

If they could tone down the amount of bomb-like things the enemies can throw I would be happy! It’s so annoying to deal with multiple enemies when they keep throwing bombs at you from everywhere.

@Oldstalk What did you expect, knowing the first game? Or did you preorder without knowing it? Or is it fomo to play a game „everyone“ plays, but it’s not somebody’s cup of tea?

@Oldstalk Or you could have waited for the reviews to drop before purchasing it I suppose?

Ergh they are nerfing the difficulty why??
A game for everyone is a game for no one I enjoy the difficulty of this game and if you don’t. Don’t play it there’s plenty of other metroidvanias that are easier

Whew, the difficulty gatekeeping is coming out full force with this. What is it about Hollow Knight that brings out the absolute best in gamers.

@raymond23 This^^^... I picked up the first one and it just didn't click with me, I tried and tried but just was not enjoying the game. It may have been due to difficulty, I'm not sure, I may revisit the first one again but who knows.

Sister Splinter has a pretty recognizable pattern, and you can get a bench close to the boss fight. I personally dont think nerfing it is necessary

Seems like fairly minor tweaks

@Yosti I’m in the same boat, I’m fine regardless, grew up playing NES games so pattern recognition is built into my personal gaming mechanics, and I’ve spent thousands of hours on monster hunter, so twitch response ability and patience are there as well.

I just feel for the gamers, like myself, that are aging, and while the skill is there, maybe their hands don’t quite work as well as they once did. My hands thankfully are still fine. But I do have friends that also spent countless hours at a keyboard growing up to now be going through arthritis. Which aside from being blinded, is the gamers worst bane.

I get developers artistic vision and wanting the player to experience growth during the game, again, over 3k hours across MH titles.

Which is why I think artistic vision and player growth would be MUCH better handled via difficulty sliders in a menu rather than relying on a community voice to adjust via patches. Those that want the reg experience can maintain that, or even up the difficulty if it gets too easy for them, and vice versa, players that might get stuck on this or that area because their hands just won’t do what the brain wants can move past and readjust afterwards. Truly a win for everyone.

@Max_the_German Well I wish I could have preordered it, like said in my previous comment.

And yes, a lot of people bought the game without playing the first one, out of general hype, but since no reviews were released at the time, they could not be completely informed in their purchase.

It is completely on Team Cherry because they had the option to give the game early to reviewers.

Ugh crybabies ruining it for other people. This game is easier than HK.

Just goes to show how little time they had to work on this. 😆

@Oldstalk the game hasn't even been out a week and you say its the devs' fault people couldn't wait a little longer for reviews? I'm lost

@RBRTMNZ not crybabies. Different people, different abilities.

Throwing insults into the conversation shows a real lack of consideration, acceptance of others and maturity.

Join the conversation if you have something useful and respectful to say.

I don't mind these tweaks, but what I would really like them to change is the mechanic where you have to pay for everything. For example, your special weapons are not automatically replenished when you rest on a bench rather you have to pay for that, and if you don't have any money they won't replenish. And early on in the game there's a house with a shop and a bench inside, and you have to pay 30 rosaries every time you want to even enter the house. These kind of barriers don't add any interesting challenge to the game, they just increase the pointless busywork you need to perform in order to gather the required money. There was nothing like this in Hollow Knight.

@Oldstalk Or people could wait for reviews. I haven’t bought it yet, my backlog is long enough, patches will iron out unbalanced difficulty spikes, and there is the chance for a physical release.

Hype is always a bad advisor!

They did the same with Mario Kart World AI, "gamers" today can't make any effort.

@Coalescence This. It’s so bizarre to me that people gate keep difficult games… the original Hollow Knight is one of my favourite games and I had a blast without accessibility options. But… I’m also aware I’m not the only person on this planet… there are people that need accessibility options in order to play games ie. people with disabilities.

If I were a developer, I’d want as many people as possible to enjoy my art. Adding accessibility options helps with that.

For people complaining about adding a difficulty settings, you can still play at hard, and get the experience YOU want.
The "Git Gud!" crowd are such an annoying bunch of elitist a******s.

I was musing about the original Hollow Knight (and how I'd gotten a bit stuck on one of the bosses to the extent it wasn't fun anymore, so I'd missed out on a lot of the subsequent game), and found this excellent John Walker article: https://kotaku.com/skip-boss-fights-elden-ring-metroid-prime-argument-1851781231

To all those players who are 'git gud' - it's fine, you're better at some games than I am. You can keep being on hard mode, but I'd like to PLAY the rest of the game (not watch it on youtube, predicting your responses) and not get hammered by difficulty spikes.

Difficulty is a tricky thing to get right. I completed the OG Hollow Knight, but there was one memorable evening where I stayed up until 2 AM getting obliterated by a boss and questioning whether I had a problematic relationship with video games. I suppose that is the appeal of the game though 🤣

Its been hard, but manageable. I'm sure it'll get harder as time goes on, so i welcome the patch. I couldn't finish the first game due to difficulty.

@Duncanballs there are difficulty options in Cuphead.

As a purest and day 1 purchaser, I cannot update the game beyond the launch patch for potential glitches. Gotta beat the game at least once before I do, then lookup speed run strats.

It took me around 15 tries to beat Moorwing, but on the last try I didn't get hit at all.

Yes it can be frustrating to some, but just like in the Souls games it feels so rewarding on the last try when you beat the boss and you say to yourself "OK it wasn't so difficult after all".

This is what happens when you rush a game out in only 7 years. Maybe next time thry should take 10 years so there are less things to fix. 😂

The difficulty is fine for me. Don’t get me wrong I’m no pro, I’ve died a tonne. It’s great they’re considering accessibility for those that don’t crave punishment. Be nice if this is optional though

Every game should have difficulty options in my opinion. Everyone doesn't have the time to "get good", especially if you're a working adult with a family. Gaming should be relaxing and not rage inducing.

Must admit I haven’t got this game because Hollow Knight while great the bits I played, one boss was just too tough and frustrating. I don’t see why this can’t have difficulty modes, I would love to play this game.

Makes sense, particularly Moorwing was a heavy difficulty spike in a game thats generally had a very good learning curve so far.

@Max_the_German It’s not really about self-reflection. For my sins I did my master’s thesis years ago on difficulty preference in games (and gamified apps), and what I found was a pretty even split with some people motivated by mastery or 'hard work', while others are driven by the satisfaction of completion, just getting from A to B because of an internal push to finish.

These groups overlap but I did see that not everyone is motivated by overcoming challenge alone. Older people for example were far less represented on that front than younger people, probably in large part due to time constraints.

I think that’s why bigger studios often bring in people to advise on this. It’s not just about maximising sales, but also about making sure players can connect with the many strengths a game offers. Hollow Knight has this in spades with its visuals, animation and music. It's not all about the difficulty.

PS I like the difficulty.

As much as I'm old skool and want to beat the developer's original vision without difficulty tweaking or guides etc I now firmly get behind difficulty options. Simply because not everyone has the same ability or skill (or time to some extent) to play and beat games but everyone deserves the chance to enjoy the game through to the latter stages if not completion.

The way I see it, accessibility options should be in pretty much every game nowadays. Not to make the game easier per se, but to have it be more comfortable to play. Not everyone has the time or patience for insanely hard games.

I'm pretty worn down spending all my rosaries on nothing exciting and put the game down.

If I got it on PC I'd use a bunch of mods

@Duncanballs I’m not saying people should git gud. I spend a lot of time getting my ass kicked. Its fun. That’s the point of the game. It’s HK. What did people expect?

@Dark-Luigi But aren't there enough games out there for you to pick the ones that suit you? If you think a game is too difficult and not for you, if you don't have the time or patience for a game, then why not just pick another one?

@Res462 thanks. I'll look into this. The aesthetics always appealed but the difficulty put me off.

@RBRTMNZ that's fine.

Im just not up for the ass kicking in some games anymore. I appreciate for some devs it's a choice of design and equally for some gamers part of the fun.

Lots of games I would dive in on if a little easier or the general norm of difficulty.

I probably butchered my twitch fibres on the likes of SF2 in the arcades. Things dont work as quick as they used to.

@Athropos Well, yeah? I know I can do that. I'm just saying more options wouldn't hurt, is all. If it doesn't have them, then whatever.

@ROMhaiku I find you explanation interesting and insightful. But what is the consequence? That games which appeal with their presentation to a big audience must also appeal to this audience’s wishes for easy accessibility? Or that niche games shouldn’t have a mass appealing presentation? I don’t think so.

There are films and books which are easy to watch/read but hard to understand and appreciate. And they also have their reasons to exist.

@Polvasti I swear I read you can break the door mechanism or whatever it is so you don't have to pay anymore.

My only wish is to be able to change controls on certain moves.... I would love to change my throwable weapons to be single triggers and my bigger attacks be the 2 buttons cause.... There are many times I accidently use my flashy moves that eat up my silk and now I can't heal 😅. Games been great so far.

@user0 yep. I used to love hard games, but nowadays I am content to often play on an easier setting and if I like it enough to replay one day I will bump up the difficulty a little. I keep my difficult games to the likes of TMNT, Ninja Gaiden, Castlvania etc on the NES.
Also, not everyone is a competent gamer and can feel left out when they would like to experience a game that everyone is enjoying. Using an example, a friend of mine actually loved the look of Hollow Knight, but heard so much about it's difficulty he never bought it. You have to wonder how many people felt the same.

Hmm, I've just made sure auto update is turned off just incase. It is a tough challenge so far, but feels very rewarding once you learn all the boss attack patterns and use smarter healing strats to mitigate the double damage attacks. Also I found sister splinter much easier that most of the others, only took maybe 5 attempts, so interesting that she's getting a nerf.

@KidSparta they specifically mentioned early bosses.

So the issue was probably Team Cherry decided it was too much too soon. Difficulty should ramp up, not feel like a wall you slam into immediately. Especially early on.

@Athropos Because Hollow Knight and Silksong have a unique feeling and ambience about them, with stunning world and that is why people want to play it. They may not be competent enough or have the time to spend to keep repeating till they succeed, hence the desire for difficulty options. Options would in no way effect people like you, so there is no problem. What Team Cherry have done here is wrong, that does effect those that like it as it is.

It is up to the designers to curate the experience of the game they wish to ship. Like many of the game's pilgrims, some players just may never make it to the Citadel. It's certainly not the end of the world. HK was known as a difficult experience; people could have waited for reviews if this were a concern of theirs.

@user0 Agreed wholeheartedly. I love the challenge in this game and I would encourage people to play it as intended because it’s so rewarding but an easy mode wouldn’t take anything away from my enjoyment. There are games like Persona 5 where I just really don’t care for the combat but love everything else about it so having an easy mode where I can just breeze through combat is a God send. Maybe I didn’t play it exactly as the devs wanted me to but the alternative would be that I just never played it at all.

@link3710 I would estimate it took me about 80 attempts to beat Moorwing.

I’m not particularly great at these games but do enjoy them.

He was a bugger indeed.

@Yosti This game is more difficult than Hollow Knight by a long shot.

@Duncanballs Definitely crybabies. If it's clearly not a game that's meant for you then why barge in making demands when the real fanbase is adamant about it being perfect the way it is? We don't infest your Hello Kitty games demanding more blood. Everything about the game and the experience is designed with intent and competence, it's no oversight that there isn't a difficulty setting, it's that the game would lose a massive amount of what makes it genius by taking out the challenge hence reducing the satisfaction just so normies could say they got to see the pretty colors or whatever. If it's not fun for you, move on.

@rvcolem1 Is Sister Splinter the white one that fights like a fencer?

I don’t like difficulty options, and I think developers should stop trying to cater to everyone. If the current difficulty reflects their vision, it should remain as is.

@larryisaman It would take things away that you're not considering. It would take them more time to balance every fight in a mode they clearly have no interest in making. It would change its reputation in general and no longer be seen as the punishing/rewarding experience it's perfected and just find itself in the abyss of games forgotten to time, because optional hard modes don't make masterpieces, you have to be forced to face the same pain as everyone else. You don't get to see the ending without earning it. There are many many games out there for people who want this kind of game without the difficulty, there's 0 reason to pervert this one for the real fans.

I don't think it needs to be made easier, but more beads is welcome. I think enemies ought to drop more, or more enemies drop them.

Making bosses easier though? No. Moorwing took me about 20 goes, and I loved it. When I finally beat him it felt like an achievement. Some games are harder than others.

I knew this game would bring out the die hards ‘games must be difficult because completing very hard games is the only thing I offer society’ crowd.

Games need to be more respectful of my time. And they can do this with a really simple difficulty option. That way the insufferable pricks mentioned above can have their game and I can enjoy the story while doing all the other things that I have to do as an adult.

@michellelynn0976 The first games difficulty was nowhere near Silksongs

@JumpingJackson Or just play other games? This is the only media we have this discussion about. Why are there not people crying out for a more accessible version of James Joyce's Finnegans Wake? If they want to put difficulty modes in, then fine. Give players more health, deal more damage, but don't patch things to change it for everyone so we all have to play an 'easier' game.

And accusing everyone who doesn't want things to be made easier being people who have "nothing else to offer society" and being "insufferable pricks" says far more about you. It's possible to want the game to remain as it was designed without being an "insufferable pricks". Jesus... 🤦🏻

@JumpingJackson You're interested in this game because it's popular. It's popular because it's great. It's great because it was made very intentionally exactly the way it is. You want to change it to meet your demands of what it should be. That's selfish, shortsighted, and thankfully will never happen. This isn't even a debate, it's just whiners being whiners while the people who love the experience get to rest easy knowing the developers will never bend the knee to the selfish babies. Sorry.

Would be nice to have some difficulty options. Celeste did it, so Silksong doesn't really have an excuse as much as I love it. They dont have to do all of what Celeste did but some would be nice.

he game is definitely very hard - harder than hollow knight. I'm kind of enjoying the struggle but I think they've made some annoying choices this time around. The bosses spawnining minions feels a bit cheap.
Saying that, I'm loving the game. This would be a lock for my GoTY if Clair obscure hadn't come out this year.

I really don’t understand why they don’t just add an easy mode. I would buy it if it had one.

@SpaceboyScreams I don't agree with the way they expressed it, but I don't think wanting difficulty options is selfish. Also it takes away nothing, Celeste is still known as one of the toughest platformers out there yet they give you the options to jump as many times as possible, slow time and be completely invincible. It still defaults to the harder platformer and it takes away nothing from those who want that nor the dev's intended vission.

It actually just opens the game up to more people, and allows more people to experience the game in a way they are able to enjoy. Celeste has a lovely extra narrative layer about mental health, you don't need the difficulty to be that high to appreciate that. I'd argue that Silksong and Hollow Knight's deep lore is the same. It's a shame to lock it off to people who can't do the higher difficulty.

And lets also not forget difficulty settings are not just for those who don't want to learn and hone their skills, they are essential accessibility tools. Not everyone is physically capable of say pressing buttons in time due to the restraints of their own physical body, a thing that no amount of practice will overcome. Adding things like the slow time option in Celeste, yeah it makes the game easier for those who want to cheese it, but it also make it actually playable for many others who would be locked out without it.

I don't want to speak for Team Cherry, but I do image that whilst yeah they want people to experience the beautifully crafted game as they built it, they also want as many people to enjoy it as they can. Hence this update and hence the low asking price.

I've worked in games and people often misread the final product for the original intent, especially when it comes to difficulty. When you're making a game you play it so much that it becomes second nature, even the toughest sections become muscle memory. It's actually very easy to loose sight of the intended difficulty level and you loose a bit of perspective on it. That's one reason betas and external playtesting companies exist, to help reign that in. The fact they're changing some parts of the game to be less difficult, to me at least, indicates that they lost perspective on the difficulty there rather than it being a key artistic intention. I could be wrong, but I don't see why they would change it if that was the case.

@Alex79uk
Yeah, got him in 10. Fun fight, good old pattern recognition. Savage beast fly though? Woof, the amount of RNG BS present is off the charts. It's just a giant fly with two moves, but with the summoning of his buddies, 2 mask damage and tanky HP? I had greater success with Nightmare Grim tbh

oh no some people had to try more than once, change the game, quick! Why is too hard taken as an immediate threat to sales, but too easy is completely ignored. I don't want my playthrough changed to appease the lowest common denominator gamer.

@Lightsiyd no, it is a vine like creature

@Riverlution as someone who did play the OG Hollow Knight, I’m not having too much trouble so far. I just beat Moorwing last night. Still, I don’t care too much about this, as long as folks are still having fun

@JumpingJackson Exactly. Difficulty options don't "water down" or hurt the experiences developers intended for their game. It actually broadens the reach of the game which benefits developers and gamers. If someone wants to make the game as hard as possible they should be able to do that. Just like if someone just wants to experience the lore and gameplay without ripping their hair out she be allowed to do that too. So many people are selfish and would rather gatekeep something than see other people enjoy it too. It's ridiculous

I absolutely hate it when entire parts of games are changed, especially when it involves an update. Not only does it ruin a physical copy, but it also may force someone who never wanted to have their game changed because they liked the difficulty to something else. A difficulty slider and other optional accessibility options would be awesome though.

@Duncanballs And it's totally fine if you don't want to get your ass kicked. We all have our preferences. I tried Blue Prince and found that puzzles were way too hard for me so moved on to something I enjoy. I didn't complain about the game online for being too hard because I understand that the whole point of the game is it is supposed to be hard and that is the specific reason why people love it.

I will say that I do think this game and all hard games should have an easy mode.

@SpaceboyScreams yeah thanks for that.

Im no fan of Hello Kitty games or similar but have no issue with anyone who does.

There's no barging in or demanding things. Observations of how difficulty levels could open up games to others and why for me personally, the uber hard games dont appeal.

Its not a demand by any means and if anything I think difficulty levels are better than tinkering to suit for all players.

@DennyCrane There is nothing wrong in what they've done. It's their game and their vision, and this includes the visuals and the difficulty as well. They're entitled to do what they want with their game, and people are entitled to not like or buy their game if they don't want to.

@Max_the_German Yeah honestly I was mainly sharing as your comment made me remember. I more side with your take that games should do what their creators want. In this case, it's fine for me that Team Cherry want it to be hard. I suppose that's also the beauty of being a game by an indie developer not beholden to other pressures.

@The_Trooper49 That's an interesting post! I never play schmups so I had no idea how they do it but I really like the idea of those 3 granular difficulty options. I personally really like when games are up front about 'original' difficulty. It may not be necessary to say but when I see wording like 'this is how the developer intended the experience to be' it makes me want to try that mode first.

Why not just add an Easy Mode for those who suck at the game?

@Polvasti
"And early on in the game there's a house with a shop and a bench inside, and you have to pay 30 rosaries every time you want to even enter the house. These kind of barriers don't add any interesting challenge to the game, they just increase the pointless busywork you need to perform in order to gather the required money."

Okay I think this is a really bad example.
I feel like this was an artistic choice to highlight how much the pilgrims were being exploited for their faith. It's unfair because it's supposed to be unfair on everyone in that world.
There is also a guy offering shelter for free just down the road from there so you don't really need to go there other than the shop.
I'm not far enough in the game to have found much use for the shards other than secondary weapons but I might get annoyed with that later.

Every single game should have difficulty options. Difficulty should never keep you from enjoying something, not everyone wants to beat their head against a wall all day. No game has ever been made worse by being more accessible.

@AJWolfTill Yeah, I guess that one particular case could be an artistic choice, but that doesn't change the fact that basic things like benches and fast travel stations also cost rosaries to unlock, which in no way adds a meaningful challenge to the game, because rosaries are mostly farmed in small amounts from basic enemies. Like I said, it just creates some extra meaningless busywork.

@KidSparta sounds less liek watering it down and tackling legitimate issues with the bosses in question.

The beastfly deals too much damage for how chaotic the battle is and the arena for the latter boss gets halved for parts of the fight, with it also dealing excessive damage, imho.

Just to put it in perspective, these are early game bosses that deal as much damage as the FINAL bosses in hollow knight and a bunch of the dlc bosses that were meant to be very difficult.

I finally beat Sister Splinter last night. I don't know how many tries it took me, but it took me around 3 hours.

Very happy to be able to wall jump now!

@user0 there is a difficulty option, but it's hidden behind a button combo.
in extras, up - down - up - down - left - right - left - right unlocks hard mode.

People upset over this change have either forgotten or been totally unaware of the tons of balance adjustments made to the first game, or maybe they disagree with balance changes on principle.

@Lizuka Agreed. I'm not a fan of the try hard, no difficulty option mentality at all. The 3D Ninja Gaiden games are famed for their difficulty, but they offer enough difficulty options for anyone to see the story through. It also takes absolutely nothing away from the games.

I’m ok with this. I’m loving this game but I do think everything is a bit too expensive. Feels like every door, every item, every bench has a heavy cost. Maybe there’s a metaphor there?

I do like how not every big fight locks you in the room and how often your silk is at the entrance so if you decide to NOPE on that particular fight you can still get your stuff back. The difficulty has been really enjoyable in some parts and really frustrating in others…which is what I expect from the sequel to hollow knight!

Adding difficulty modes/accessibility options won’t tarnish your gamer cred I promise.

I might ignore the update and play along for now. However, when the dlc arrives (they are planning dlc) you are forced to download the update.

I believe the original Hollow knight was also toned down a bit by the time I downloaded it (but still very challenging). And the same probably goes for the original Blasphemous.

Sister Splinter diff reduction? It's the only boss I did without dying once. Super easy and predictable.

Well I already beat those bosses. And no they won't ruin the game by making easy mode.

Silksong is hard. It very much feels like its origin as DLC has boosted its expectations for player skill. I thought I might have missed a damage upgrade somewhere with how many hits most enemies take. All that said, I'm still having a great time with it. Those complaining about difficulty need to accept that games have no obligation to let them win. They are challenges first and foremost, and if you find the difficulty more frustrating than fun, that just means it's not your kind of game.

If I do have one complaint, it's that you can't fully remap the special attacks. Trying to press up or down on a stick while dodging attacks is more likely to damage me than the enemies and I tend to find moving with d-pads too uncomfortable and finicky, so I'd rather change those to a bumper/trigger+A/X/Y or just relegate some non-combat buttons to the d-pad/clicking sticks to free up dedicated buttons for each tool.

@SpaceboyScreams I don’t think any of that is true at all. Everybody who is playing it as intended and loving it would still play it the same way and it would still get recognized for being the game it is, the only difference is those who aren’t interested in it because of the difficulty or those who have quit because of it would have a way to enjoy it.

There’s a lot to enjoy about this game- the art, music, characters and world are all a joy to take in and it sucks that people who would otherwise love those things are locked out of it because they can’t deal with the difficulty for whatever reason. Countless games have easier settings that are clearly not the intended experience but they’re still included- I don’t know why games like this and Dark Souls etc. are so often exempt and praised for not having them. Team Cherry even included a mode that isn’t the intended default experience with Steel Soul so what’s stopping them from including the opposite?

Why do they have to nerve the game, only to cater to the motorically challenged?

I like how the people against this act like Team Cherry was held at gunpoint by casual gamers to make these changes. Devs can change certain aspects of their games after realizing that it needs balancing.

You’re not special if you choose to complete the game by bypassing this patch.

I like an Assist Mode or Story Mode. That allows people who don't want to "get good" to enjoy other aspects of a game, such as the story, the vibe, the atmosphere, the music, and so on.

I also like accessibility options. That's a whole different thing. It has nothing to do with ensuring everyone can beat a game, because you don't actually need to beat a game. It's not a health service. Accessibility options are about leveling the playing field. But the playing field can be an impossible war zone, if that's the intended experience.

(Most game developers won't do that because, you know, they want to sell copies of their game. But they could if they wanted to. It'd be artistically valid. I mean, technically, this is how Halo: Reach ends. You could — if you really wanted to — make a game that's just Halo: Reach's last level. Maybe to make a point about the futility of war. And that'd be totally valid, if not very commercial. And in such a case, accessibility options would ensure that the game is — let's say — equally impossible for everyone. So everyone is on equal footing when it comes to being unable to beat the game. I know I'm using an extreme example here, but hopefully it gets the point across.)

As for difficulty levels, I like how Nintendo approaches them: a relatively easy critical path layered with optional challenges or areas. I also enjoy it when game mechanics, charms, skills, armor, and so on, can become stealth difficult levels: that's how the Dark Souls games do it. Or Hades. I think of these as organic difficulty levels: there's technically just one difficulty level, but your approach to the game — within the game — can modulate the challenge. And as you get better, your relationship to the game world and systems changes.

I don't love selectable levels or sliders, though. I do think a well-tailored, single, canon difficulty is fundamentally better.

As a player, you don't know how good you can get at a game. When you have one intended difficulty, this can push you past challenging areas and force you to learn the game in a deeper way, rather than resorting to an easier difficulty. Remember: most gamers will default to making games boring for themselves through safe, dull strategies.

This can absolutely live alongside a well-labeled Assist Mode or suite of accessibility options, though.

@Oldstalk i'm exactly in that same boat right now. I don't mind a difficult boss if I get to try it a bunch of times, but the punishing run back really discourages me and makes me want to drop the game sometimes. I'm on the one you just mentioned... I seriously can't believe there's no closer bench

I wouldn't say too hard, no..
Just overly cheap in the boss department.

Optional fix please~

In this day and age it should be standard practice for most games to offer easy, normal and hard difficulty options. NOBODY loses out by having difficulty options. The only people saying that games shouldn't have those options are egotistical people who like to brag about their gaming skills.

@Hervine It's not that bad. It is not tough though.

@SirLink It's glorious.

@Denoloco It's interesting. Neither of these bosses were that difficult. The hardest fight for me so far was the red ant with the flying, spear-throwing ant in the same room. I may just be remembering things poorly, or maybe the difficulty ramps up later (I haven't made it into the citadel yet), but I remember Hollow Knight being harder and much more frustrating for me. Maybe I've gotten better at games since then, but I haven't gotten stuck really anywhere in Silksong yet.

This seems to be a proof of lack of proper play testing. They should have released the game with difficulty fine tuned based on play testing results. Instead they released something and immediately decrease the difficulty. I would expect better from such a high profile game.

Actually loving the increased difficulty. I never finished Hollow Knight for a lot of reasons but am obsessed with Silksong. A tip for people having trouble. There's a place you can get to in the early game that gives you a quicker slash and changes the angled downward sword slash back to an improved version of the downward sword slash from the first game. You need to buy the 500 rosarie key from the shop. Then in the area above the settlement (you'll unlock an elevator and it's right above that) - you can make your way to left to find a door that needs a key. You need to sword bounce over enemies to cross an empty space to reach it. I did this before obtaining the dash, so I got it early, and it greatly improved the fun of the game

@Jack_Goetz

Indeed the entitlement is off the charts , it was the price of a cocktail man .... In the age of mad greed , and it reminds me ofbthe days when games were hard... Its good to know some things take some effort..

I don’t believe all games should have difficulty settings. I’m sorry, but some games are just not for everyone.
If you haven’t completed Hollow Knight, you really shouldn’t start with this game either.

Oh... so it gets the famous "journalist difficulty"?

Boy, this is just depressing.

I despise how elitism has crept into the gamership to the extent popular games get put on a pedestal above certain criticism. You can critique length, or backtracking, but God forbid you say anything about difficulty and the mobs of mindless footsoldiers crawl out of the woodworks to mock and ridicule you with "git gud" platitudes.

Difficulty is NOT above criticism. And offering an Easy Mode that does not affect your experience in any capacity. whatsoever is only a good thing. Those who argue against such options are gatekeepers and egocentric narcissists.

Just beat Moorwing before the patch!!
It was so hard 😅 died like 20 times.
I can understand that many give up on the game at this boss.

@Polvasti
I think it is a matter of taste. I completely get your argument. It can definitely be frustrating/stressful when you have made a bunch of uncheckpointed pointed progress and you don't quite have enough rosaries to unlock the next bench or station and no nearby way of getting more.
However, I personally think this approach by and large works really well when you have a currency/resource that you driven to gather but always at risk of loosing. Because you keep having to use it in this way it stops you from hoarding loads of it and feeling devastated if/when you don't retrieve it on death. Where I am so far I've occasionally had enough to travel back to a merchant and splash out on something expensive but am usually having to make little judgement calls as to which facilities I can afford to skip/bypass until later.

@JaxonH This is not about difficulty, but people who are not able to beat a simple tutorial and claum to be a professional. The saying "Life ain't no pony farm and there are no free rides" is not for nothing. There are things in life not everyone will achieve them. Not everyone is a judge, doctor, a police officer or politician, because you need a set of skills to do these positions. Same is it with this game.

No one said people need to buy this game to be hip. This is a niche game like Dark Souls, whether you like it or not. It will test your skills and if you are not fit, you better get better because no one will hold your hands. So either get better or play something easier. Oh, and about the gatekeeping. Yes, this is a gate keeping because spme people are f-ing tired or hearing people complaining that there is no difficulty level for this game. This is a niche game, if it too hard for you, it wasn't made for you. Get better and stop complaining.

I'm so sick and tired of this charade all the time when a game like this comes out and people are simply too lazy to learn how to play it, when the game SHOWS IT to them.

Rant over. And if you feel better, you can even downvotee if you like. I don"t vare. I'm just sick of this kind of whining.

I got through this slog already. Perhaps if they patch it more it’d be worth a replay but as it is there’s more issues than just the unbalanced difficulty. There’s just far too many areas and most of the areas are pretty pointless. You can definitely tell an 8 year long dev cycle with only 3 people play testing the whole time the game comes out misguided and rough. This game was undeniably boring.

Interesting debate here, but more curious for me is the bosses they chose to nerf….

I beat Moorwing a few days ago (pre-patch) and genuinely didn’t think there was a balance issue here. I’m certainly no elite gamer (I still cannot beat Savage Beastfly… coming back to him later once I’m more OP lol) but Moorwing has pretty well-telegraphed moves, it’s just the projectile dodging that caught me a few times

Generally so far this game is hard for sure, but hasn’t felt insurmountable at any point yet.

Generally speaking though I’m actually a little against difficulty options in games, as I would prefer to play as per the developer’s ‘vision’. It’s not really clear what is the intended experience when selecting a difficulty option, at least not for me.

Not wanting to sound like a gatekeeper, but HK was a hard challenging game / made for people who like that kind of thing (I’m one of those people regrettably)

I guess not every game can be for every player and this also works inversely… for instance I’d be far more drawn to Bananza if there was opportunity to ramp up the difficulty

Anyway, nice to see SS out in the wild and complete. So far for me it’s probably an 8/10….. I still prefer Nine Sols and the Blasphemous games though!

How does it compare to Metroid Dread pre- or post-patch? That's my main reference point.

@Duncanballs It's not that serious, dude. Trying way too hard...

@Interneto trying what to hard? You've lost me.