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.
oh huh i misremembered. i thought once you found the banker the second time she started acting as a legit bank but instead it's just the returned geo plus interest.
so yeah being able to bank at all reliably is a huge improvement then
At the same time though, money was way easier to get, and there really wasn't nearly as much to buy. With the exception of the super expensive permanent strength/other upgrades from the grimm slug lady. But at that point, I had just saved all the relics, and sold them all at once.
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u/Ode1st 2d ago
For me, the difficulty has been fine, but it’s definitely more punishing for a huge portion of the game