Much has been made about Hollow Knight: Silksong’s difficulty. Of course, many of us expected it to be a challenging game, especially as it was not only coming off the heels of the original Hollow Knight, but also years of Metroidvania’s that have increasingly ramped up the challenge. Silksong was released to an audience accustomed to a little difficulty, especially in the wake of the rising popularity of soulslikes.
So, one would expect Silksong’s difficulty to be taken well, yet the opposite is, unfortunately, true. Silksong’s difficulty problem had to be addressed by its developers directly after fans complained. Patches have been released to address some of the biggest issues, and many are wondering whether the whole experience was worth it. All of this has me rethinking not just my time with Silksong, but video game difficulty as a whole.
Hollow Knight: Silksong Is Punishingly Difficult
From Unfair Disadvantages To Bad Boss Design
Hollow Knight: Silksong can be very unfair at times. It isn’t just the unexpected troll moments like being killed while resting; it isn’t just the fact that you don’t recover ammo on death, forcing you to farm it before returning to a boss; it isn’t just the backtracking to bosses after each failure, resulting in repetitive exploration and ultimately turning up to the fight weaker.
It is all of this and so much more that make playing through Silksong such a frustrating experience. It often pushes the experience from being rewardingly challenging to punishingly difficult. Silksong’s impossibly hard bosses – many of which just overwhelm you with basic enemies – unfair design decisions, and even the level layout make it an experience many may opt to avoid rather than see as a fun challenge to overcome.
Of course, you could argue it is a skill issue, and I’ll be the first to admit that, in some instances, it is. However, games like SIlksong, games that pride themselves on difficulty, are supposed to show you where you’re making mistakes and give you the tools and the opportunities to fix them. Occasionally, Silksong will do that, but the majority of the time it doesn’t, making me question why I bother putting up with it in the first place.
Silksong Makes Me Question Difficulty In Games
Should Games Really Be This Hard?
Throughout my time with Silksong, I constantly questioned whether I was having fun. Games designed to be hard can be enjoyable, and the likes of Elden Ring and Dark Souls have proven that to be true. Even the original Hollow Knight illustrated how to balance fun and difficulty well. However, we’ve increasingly pushed ourselves to make everything challenging, whether it be a simple RPG or yet another soulslike.
It feels as if developers are beginning to think that what players want above all else is to be challenged, as that’s where the greatest reward stems from. While it is true that a challenging encounter will, eventually – and if balanced correctly – result in a sense of euphoria that few other experiences can offer, it shouldn’t be the be-all, end-all. Silksong feels as if it were designed with its punishing difficulty in mind, as if that is its entire identity, and that is where its biggest problem lies.
Developers shouldn’t have to patch out difficulty like Silksong is. The difficulty should be tested and fine-tuned before release so that the core experience remains enjoyable. Silksong is proof that difficulty and challenge shouldn’t be the core goal of a video game. A difficult game is absolutely fine, but how punishing it is shouldn’t be its core identity. Hollow Knight: Silksong has made itself unapproachable, and, in doing so, robbed many of a potentially great experience, and that is an unfortunate waste that could have been avoided.
- Released
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September 4, 2025
- ESRB
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Everyone 10+ / Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood
- Developer(s)
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Team Cherry
- Publisher(s)
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Team Cherry
- Engine
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Unity
