HK led players through a more linear suggested path in the beginning imo which definitely gave most players a more gentle ramp into the difficulty, for sure.
But in that regard I think the early game of Silksong is actually a significantly better metroidvania than the original. Comparing the paths and unlocks between my friends, we did mostly totally different things in act one and had totally different experiences. People are currently praising HK’s gradual difficulty curve in comparison, but at the time the “early game drag” was actually a big criticism of the game.
I prefer Silksong’s curve simply because the devs trust me to auto-regulate. If I’m frustrated I can go look for upgrades and come back, or be stubborn and try the boss a hundred times if I’m in the mood. If I’m doing option 2 I know I can’t complain since I’m just doing it to myself.
The recurring pattern I see among people who exaggerate the difficulty is they refuse option 1 for their own reasons, but then speak about the game in objective terms as if they weren’t doing it to themselves. If that makes sense
I think a lot of players don’t have experience with non linear games. That freedom of choosing where to go is something that some players need to be taught and I haven’t really seen a good tutorial in that regard which doesn’t just say: “hey, go wherever you want, you have multiple options!”. Maybe Outer Wilds, but there they also specifically say: go where you want, doesn’t matter.
And yeah, I liked Silksong and it’s openness. But I would never recommend it to somebody who hasn’t already played Hollow Knight. It really should be seen as post endgame DLC for HK in that regard.
And regarding your “bash your head against the Boss”: the guard at the beginning of Hunters March was that for me. I was debating with myself if I go somewhere else, but then I got stubborn and wanted to get in NOW not after some upgrades. And I did it… After … a few deaths.
At some point I think the multitude of paths themselves are a clear enough suggestion, but you’re right, that is a developed intuition from having experience with these games. I can definitely see strong arguments being made for Team Cherry to improve the onboarding.
I’m would also be curious to know how many players have run into this. I.e. having not played HK or other similar games and just not clicking easily with the style
If you do get past that fight early, you get assistance in the gauntlet fight a little ways past it.
I did not get past that fight early, and so did not get that assistance. The gauntlet ended up taking me about 10 hours (over multiple days of trying). I did get much better at the diagonal pogo though as a result though…
Oh, didn’t know that was why a certain somebody helped. It was awesome and I was glad when I saw them joining. I sadly missed the later opportunity to have training fight against them.
I don’t know what the exact trigger condition is, but it didn’t happen in my playthrough. I watched a streamer play that part after I was well past it expecting to see them suffer like I did and was really surprised!
![[HK: S] You must embrace the traditional advice](https://lemmy.zip/api/v3/image_proxy?url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedia.piefed.world%2Fposts%2FUe%2FmL%2FUemL5Btbn1LNJYn.jpg){kind=link}
HK led players through a more linear suggested path in the beginning imo which definitely gave most players a more gentle ramp into the difficulty, for sure.
But in that regard I think the early game of Silksong is actually a significantly better metroidvania than the original. Comparing the paths and unlocks between my friends, we did mostly totally different things in act one and had totally different experiences. People are currently praising HK’s gradual difficulty curve in comparison, but at the time the “early game drag” was actually a big criticism of the game.
I prefer Silksong’s curve simply because the devs trust me to auto-regulate. If I’m frustrated I can go look for upgrades and come back, or be stubborn and try the boss a hundred times if I’m in the mood. If I’m doing option 2 I know I can’t complain since I’m just doing it to myself.
The recurring pattern I see among people who exaggerate the difficulty is they refuse option 1 for their own reasons, but then speak about the game in objective terms as if they weren’t doing it to themselves. If that makes sense
I think a lot of players don’t have experience with non linear games. That freedom of choosing where to go is something that some players need to be taught and I haven’t really seen a good tutorial in that regard which doesn’t just say: “hey, go wherever you want, you have multiple options!”. Maybe Outer Wilds, but there they also specifically say: go where you want, doesn’t matter.
And yeah, I liked Silksong and it’s openness. But I would never recommend it to somebody who hasn’t already played Hollow Knight. It really should be seen as post endgame DLC for HK in that regard.
And regarding your “bash your head against the Boss”: the guard at the beginning of Hunters March was that for me. I was debating with myself if I go somewhere else, but then I got stubborn and wanted to get in NOW not after some upgrades. And I did it… After … a few deaths.
At some point I think the multitude of paths themselves are a clear enough suggestion, but you’re right, that is a developed intuition from having experience with these games. I can definitely see strong arguments being made for Team Cherry to improve the onboarding.
I’m would also be curious to know how many players have run into this. I.e. having not played HK or other similar games and just not clicking easily with the style
If you do get past that fight early, you get assistance in the gauntlet fight a little ways past it.
I did not get past that fight early, and so did not get that assistance. The gauntlet ended up taking me about 10 hours (over multiple days of trying). I did get much better at the diagonal pogo though as a result though…
Oh, didn’t know that was why a certain somebody helped. It was awesome and I was glad when I saw them joining. I sadly missed the later opportunity to have training fight against them.
I don’t know what the exact trigger condition is, but it didn’t happen in my playthrough. I watched a streamer play that part after I was well past it expecting to see them suffer like I did and was really surprised!