Game looks gorgeous, sounds awesome, content is along the lines of Hollow Knight.
But the bosses vary between "nice", "awful" and "who thought this was fun? did anyone ever play this?"
Just why?
First Hollow Knight is one of the, or if not the best metroidvania out there. I just adore it. For the first 10-ish hours Silksong was amazing. Maybe the level design isn't at the peak level of HK, but it's still fine and dandy, and the world is interesting place to explore. But then the frustration kicks in, I just can't get comfortable platforming with the tight, precise pogojumps needed even with the easier crests. That drained the joy of out coming back to the game so much, that I've eventually didn't even bother to try it anymore. For those who handle it, Silksong might be the best there is, but for me, it's too much.
The game has good music, better visuals, engaging characters, great controls and mechanics, and an imersive narrative, but lacks the non linearity and non combat win conditions that set Hollow Knight apart from its peers. Difficulty is also very high with enemies and obstacles dealing more damage earlier than in the Knight's adventure. Platforming challenges are tougher sooner with checkpoints far away.
The game is good, fun, and very polished with much forethought which shows the long dev time was well spent, but stands out less in many areas compared to other metroidvanias one could play. Its difficult to pick the original HK over Silksong, but something was lost in the transition that made HK unique. The difficulty also makes it a challege to play before HK if one is new to metroidvanias.
Economy of the game doesn't work. You have to constantly farm for roses to open up shortcuts or benches. Even the map markers themselves need those roses. Unless you are keeping notes outside of the game it is impossible to remember everything. You always have a vague idea on where everything was but everything turns to a mush after the 3rd are you don't have access to a map .Yes it was the same as the first game, which I finished, but that doesn't mean it was enjoyable back then. For me at least.
The combat at least prior to parry, is mediocre at best and frustrating at its worst. 90% of the enemies fly and so you have to jump in air hoping they don't dodge in order to land a hit. The combat at its basis is inherently not interesting. Single hits here and there, move back a bit, hope the enemy does something you can retaliate with a hit rinse and repeat. Maybe it gets better with parry but I gave up before it. Boss runbacks were a chore in demon souls, they still remain a chore 15 years later.
Way too many gauntlets so in combination with the not interesting combat makes its a chore to play through. It genuine feels like I am playing a 2d god of war with that many gaunlets. Again probably gets better after the parry but don't know.
Exploration and platforming play a secondary role to the combat unfortunately. You can find a hidden path, perform platforming and at the end of it you are rewarded with 30 roses which amounts to literally 1 enemy kill. You might as well not go through the effort.
Bosses are great, I am at the point where you have to basically do 3 of them to progress to avoid spoilers. Apart from bosses I would describe the experience as lackluster. Way too much focus on fighting meaningless mobs and unrewarding exploration. Feels like a god of war metroidvania without the combat mechanics to make it interesting enough.
All in all the presentation and bosses are great but the rest of the game in my opinion is very lackluster.