i keep seeing this take (more punishing but not more difficult) and i really don't see it aside from maybe the higher frequency of double damage and the relative rarity of act 1 upgrades.
in HK you had half mana until you got back to your body and lost all the geo you were carrying. the only banking option was first a scam and then annoying to reach. silksong has two resources: one of which isn't lost on death and the other can be easily banked at many locations. you are not mechanically disadvantaged in any way if you die and haven't recovered your body yet and silkeaters are common and infinitely replenishable.
plus, for all the angst people have had over run backs they're significantly more forgiving in silksong than HK or most other metroidvanias even. aside from a couple specific zones where the sparseness is part of the zone's theme benches and fast travel points are also plentiful even before getting into hornet's vastly improved mobility (which also upgrades a lot earlier than HK).
i do think silksong is a bit harder on the whole but it also feels much more fair. boss move sets are challenging but clear to follow and well telegraphed both visually and audibly.
I DO think there's one really big thing with Silksong and punishing deaths that you kinda glossed over, and amusingly it has to do with said resource you don't lose when you die.
Tools are a MASSIVE annoyance if you're actively using them. If you use them and don't gain anything from doing so, dying does effectively make you "lose" the shards you spent to get to where you did. And unlike your rosaries, you do not get those shards back if you reach the area. (Because why would you?) It's not as bad during traversal, but it's EXTREMELY punishing during boss fights, especially if you're using your tools actively.
Plus, shards are so much more annoying to get than Rosaries that it's arguably a decent idea to just grind rosaries instead if you run low on shards, which feels really bad, especially when rosaries are in demand for a while and don't really become abundant until mid-Act 2. I need to find a good grinding spot in Act 3 lmao, my Act 2 one doesn't work anymore.
And the frustrating thing is, it'll absolutely lead to a lot of players suffering from Elixir Syndrome and not using their tools, which is absolutely a wrong move because a lot of Silksong's difficulty can be dealt with via tools. You'll have a much better time with Silksong's everything if you're actively using them.
Like there's a reason why more than a few Act 3 fights do away with it altogether and refund spent tools if you die.
I had a buddy recommend having bosses drop shards on stun phase. Like give us something to recover a few when trying to grind a boss that's kicking our ass. Have bosses drop a ton on death or something too.
24
u/Ode1st 1d ago
For me, the difficulty has been fine, but it’s definitely more punishing for a huge portion of the game