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I had no trouble going through Silksong (and I'm having a blast!), but there were _a lot_ of times when I thought that this would be really hard for people who are new to the series.

> Everything so far has felt achievable and reasonable to me, having played HK, Dark Souls, Elden Ring and other similar games I don't think Silksong is significantly more difficult than any of those

If you are a type of player that plays HK, Dark Souls and Elden Ring, then yes Silksong isn't brutally hard.

But I think the game is brutally hard for majority of people who hasn't played any of those. I think HK had a better difficulty ramp for beginners.

Yeah sure but they will play the game and struggle and learn just like everyone else has. HK/Silksong are not games for someone who just wants to chill and breeze through. They are difficult on purpose. People who don't want difficulty can play other games.

I'm not particularly good at this, by the way. Before Silksong I haven't picked up my playstation controller since Elden Ring came out. I've been pressing the wrong buttons and running/jumping/dashing into enemies over and over. I've been struggling. That's what I signed up for when I bought the game.

I agree with you. These games are difficult on purpose and its a lot of fun is in rewarding the player with getting good. But if it is too difficult from the get-go, newer players will bounce off the game.

What I would have liked in Silksong is for the devs to remove some of the "frustrating" part just at the start: more free benches, less hp for some enemies, less flying enemies in platforming parts etc. Once the users have unlocked abilities and are used to the movement (and hooked in!), crank up the difficulty to what it is now.

It is most definitely not an overstatement. I have over 425 hours in Hollow Knight. I stopped playing Silksong in 8 because it felt like unfun masochism.

Did you go to Hunter's March? That place is a nightmare early, much easier later on.

As someone with similar stats, that's a huge loss on your part then, you'll love silksong, stick with it.

> If you went to Hunter's March as soon as you found it you probably had a bad time but going in there later on was honestly pretty easy.

That's probably a significant part, too. Silksong is more open than HK, where the lack of abilities put a natural wall around the areas which are too hard at that point of time. But in SK you can easily stumble into areas where you are not supposed to be, which can be frustrating.

What's also frustrating is not knowing if I've walked into an area that is hard because I'm not really supposed to be there yet or if it's hard because I'm just trash at the game. I ran in circles for way too long at the start of the game because I kept thinking I was going the wrong way due to entering a different named zone without finding any objective in the first zone and also due to the enemies in that new zone feeling awkward to fight, like I was missing an ability.

That's kind of just how the genre is. You don't really know where to go and what to do, that's part of what makes it magical. You just explore. If you hit a dead end you turn around and go somewhere else. If you get to a spot that's really hard it's up to you whether you want to push on or look around elsewhere. That's why I turned around when I saw the big guard, I figured I have easier places to check out first. And then I found new zones and new abilities and stuff and then I went back.

Yeah, that might be a potential improvement. They did put a really big and mean doorman outside which worked on me, but putting another obstacle there as well like an air vent or climbable wall might have been better.

You can go there before you even get the hover ability, and I totally see how that would be demoralizing.

Yes, that doorman is a pretty bad Idea, because you can beat him. And beating him is not even a matter of skill or ability, but more about luck and whether you can figure out the trick fast enough before you are losing motivation.

As someone who completed most of the HK main story, I've decided to stop playing silksong during act 1 because I'm just not having fun

That's alright, you do you.

Wait, I didn't have to go to Hunter's March? I thought there was nowhere else to go, however the sudden change in difficulty made me feel I must have missed an area.

Yup! I saw the big guy guarding the entrance and noped out of there, only recently went back - with hover, dash, wall climb etc, different moveset (no directional downslash).

I think I went through the narrow to the balloon place, then maybe back through the marrow or something up to Bellheart, deep docks etc.