I'll preface this by saying I had only 12-15 hours in HK, yet I loved every moment. Team Cherry really outdid themselves with Silksong, the art is beautiful, the stages even more so. Music is powerful. The combat and movement is smooth and impactful, plus a hell of a lot of fun to experience. This game mirrors an evolved Hollow Knight, yet it has many features that make it it's own game. Think modern Dooms. Most of the boss fights/mini trials have been excellent. The bosses are a lot more fun than Hollow Knight's which already were superb. Their movesets are hard yet learning them and adapting is a dopamine rush like no other. All of the actual designs and animations were Eye Candy. The game is harder than Hollow Knight, which I welcome with open arms. The basic enemies are a lot trickier and more fun to engage with than Hollow Knight's. Their movesets much improved and probably harder than some bosses from Hollow Knight. Yet, there's a part of me that feels frustrated in this game, and it's moreso at some of the decisions than the actual difficulty. Game has two currency systems, Rosaries = Geo, and shards = crafting materials. Sounds fine, but half of the enemies I have gone against do not drop Rosaries and only shards. Making the economy more limiting is not wrong, if done right but here it's not. Everything costs rosaries, a doorway, a bench, a fast travel point, etc. These payments existed but were rarer in HK. Shards drop from enemies that drop Rosaries, what's the value of me fighting the enemies that only drop shards? The bosses have rarely dropped rewards, this feels like a weird punishment from Team Cherry. Further requiring grinding. Half of the basic enemies take too many hits. I like the more diverse movesets, but not 3x the health. Flying enemies are painful, especially a certain boss that spawns goons. Contact damage with bosses is 2 masks, why? GOTY Nominee, yet I hope they fix the aspects that make the game frustrating, not challenging.
