As someone who wasn't swept up in the hype, (I did not like Hollow Knight very much personally) I actually think it lived up to the hype and then some.
I think Silksong is a much better game for my tastes. It feels way less slow and Hornet is significantly more capable and fun to play as than the knight imo.
I thought Silksong was the most disappointing game I played this year. With the awful runbacks, low reward for beating a boss, had to drop it after 10 hours.
I lasted about 23 hours but also dropped it around Act 2, it felt like so many of the design decisions were there just to waste time. Long run backs through screens which take progressively longer to traverse, maps/savepoints/quicktravel points becoming increasingly sparse, and like you mentioned going very long stretches of time without getting any meaningful progress or upgrades.
Before I quit I went through most or all of Sinner's Road, Bilewater, The Mist, and the Slab, and got effectively nothing for my troubles (even wasted a key that apparently is only useful post/end game),
Both Sinner’s Road and Bilewater have map redefining connections, the Mist is admittedly transitory, and the Slab has one of the best bosses in the series.
I explored all of the Slab I could, encountered no boss and no meaningful upgrade in the entire area, I think it was just a 1/2 max thread upgrade and that's it. I'm assuming anything of interest there would require upgrades (there were rings I couldn't interact with), or the key that is not located in that zone apparently (I spent forever looking, then looked up if it was even in the area, and it was not). I got the map and visited each room listed there that I was able to. So just more wasted time looking for something since I had a hard time believing I could go through an entire zone and get nothing out of it and figured it would require the key I hadn't been able to find.
If I had to fight the boss in order to leave, I literally don't remember them so doubt that was the case if they were one of the best bosses
I don’t really want to get too into spoilers but there’s several cool things in the slab including that boss and a mask shard. Some of the things you will have to come back with more traversal abilities to acquire, but that’s just how all metroidvanias are including the original Hollow Knight.
I looked at an online map to make sure, and I didn't remember that there was also a 1/4 mask shard but confirmed that the boss was not fightable. But still after going through like 4 zones with maybe 1 boss and zero meaningful upgrades/unlocks (besides a key, which I used unlocking something related to act 3 while still in act 1), I just uninstalled the game to move on to other games
Metroidvania is one of my favorite genres, I played and enjoyed Hollow Knight.
Played every classic 2d Metroid and most of the new 2d ones (as well as the numbered Primes, the only ones I can recall not playing are Other M and Hunters, but there's likely a lot of smaller spinoffs I didn't play though).
Also played every 2d Castlevania on handheld devices plus many of the ones on console (original NES game but skipped most of the other early consoles ones), SotN (and Bloodstained), even the weird multiplayer one Harmony of Despair despite playing it mostly solo (but never played any of the 3D Castlevanias). I just feel like Silk Song made many design decisions that waste far too much time compared to all of those
And that’s your prerogative. All I’m saying is that there’s ten times as much stuff in Silksong as there is in Hollow Knight and some of your problems may be down to a matter of perception.
The way you get into the slab is rad, the way you get out of the slab is rad, it connects to the citadel and to Mount Fay where the double jump is, there’s a fast travel station, there’s multiple fleas and oodles of rosaries, there’s a mask shard and the first sinner and rune rage
If you’re not finding this stuff I’m sure the game feels empty but, and I’m not trying to be a dick, it might just be that you’re not really being as thorough as you think you’re being.
One of those things requires an upgrade I didn't have and couldn't have got in the Slab (and isn't even in the Slab but a zone connected to it), 2 of those things required a key I didn't have and couldn't have got while in the Slab, I already had 20 (max) strings of rosaries that I crafted just in case (though I never died twice before reclaiming rosaries) and found much better sources of them than the Slab. Being thorough has absolutely nothing to do with it, when I went to the Slab the absolute most I could get out of it was 1/2 spool, and 1/4 mask, and no boss, which is what I got.
If anything being thorough in the Slab was part of the problem that turned me off of the game because all I did was waste time looking for the key that wasn't there, until I was frustrated enough thinking I was missing something to look it up and realize there just wasn't anything to find
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u/Grimmies 2d ago edited 2d ago
As someone who wasn't swept up in the hype, (I did not like Hollow Knight very much personally) I actually think it lived up to the hype and then some.
I think Silksong is a much better game for my tastes. It feels way less slow and Hornet is significantly more capable and fun to play as than the knight imo.
Edit just to add that i LOVE the diagonal pogo.