On Sep. 4, game development studio Team Cherry released the highly anticipated 2D Action-Platformer game Hollow Knight: Silksong, and gamers have been claiming that it’s too difficult.

Silksong is definitely a step up in difficulty from the first Hollow Knight game, especially considering how the combat mechanics have evolved. 

On the Steam page for the game, the developers explain that the player “[wields] a huge suite of deadly moves as [they] dance between foes in swift, beautiful combat.” 

Notable changes to mention are the new sprinting ability that adds more movement options, and the new “clawline” ability, which is basically a grappling hook to strike enemies from afar. These new abilities, along with more complex enemy attacks, makes combat more difficult. But when executed correctly, the combat tends to flow very well.

YouTuber Alex Barr makes a similar point in his video ‘Silksong Isn’t a Fight, It’s a Dance,’ where he explains that “the game is teaching you a deadly choreography,” and after some practice, the enemy patterns can be learned by heart.

The changes to the combat aren’t the main focus of online chatter, though. The complaints have mainly been coming from three things: barrages of enemies, enemies and bosses sometimes dealing twice the normal damage, and tedious boss runbacks.

 A runback is the part of a game after you die to a boss where you have to traverse through the area to get back to fighting. There are a lot of them in Silksong, and many that have caused a lot of frustration to players worldwide.

In a review of Silksong on Polygon, journalist Patricia Hernandez writes, “Every boss I’ve fought requires some type of runback, and the farther you get into the game, the more elaborate these become.” One notable boss with a long runback is Groal the Great, a later game boss which challenges players with a notoriously long and difficult process in order to start the fight.

Sophomore Gus MacRhodes said in an interview that “the runback and gauntlet of enemies before [Groal the Great]” were more annoying and difficult than the boss itself.

In terms of double damage, one boss that has newer players and those stuck in the early game struggling is Moorwing. 

Sophomore Ty Jones explained in an interview that Moorwing is difficult to new players because “it was the first boss that was notable for dealing double damage and having ranged projectiles.”So yes, Hollow Knight: Silksong has some very difficult and annoying parts that seem like glaring errors on the developers’ side. However, the challenging parts of the game can often be overcome by using the abilities given to you and putting in time and effort to practice.

Article By Elliot Gardner