Hollow Knight Silksong: My Thoughts After 20+ Hours

I have been playing a lot of Hollow Knight Silksong for the past couple of days. I have about 20 hours in-game, and now I am in a better position to talk about it. Also, I re-read my previous post on Silksong which talked about my first impressions after playing just a few hours but now that I have much more experience with it, I can talk more about it and correct some of the things I said in this post.

I had a lot of expectations from the game and thought that I would love everything from the first frame. But you start a bit slow in the early game, struggling to adjust to the diagonal down attack and not having dash and other abilities, along with 2 mask shard damage at the start, makes a few sections a bit frustrating. But only when you get used to Hornet's skills and more agile and complex movement abilities, the game become a lot more fun to explore.

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Better Visuals and Level Design

In my first impression post, I praised the visuals and music in the game. That sentiment has only become more apparent as I heard more tracks and saw a lot more maps. The world is much grander, epic-looking and filled with a lot of interesting NPCs, each having their own unique quirks. Love that part of the game.

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The level design is impeccable again. The entire world is interconnected and a lively place. It rewards you for revisiting the parts of the map that you have already been to. Although the early part seemed a bit too linear but once you have more abilities, you can choose your path and make that journey personal. I can see myself taking different paths when I play it again.

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There seem to be a lot more benches in the game, especially in Act 1. So you don't lose your currency by dying twice in a row and losing it, which can make the game frustrating for many players.

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New and Improved Mechanics

The old charm system has been replaced with the new Crest system, which can have slots to fit charms, but these are divided into sections, so you can only fit a specific category one into that system. There are multiple Crest systems which you can change depending on your playstyle. I complained about the removal of the downward pogo thing in the game, but I didn't know that I would get more Crest system, and one of them has a big down slash that I love a lot.

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These options, in my opinion, are better because a lot of players will prefer one or the other depending on what they like the most, without too many cons. The little trinkets you can fit in those slots are customizable, and they are categorised into sections so you can always have the compass equipped without the worry that you are making your build weaker. That was the player's concern in Hollow Knight and why many players didn't carry these quality of life charms.

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The addition of Tools is a huge change to the combat. There is are variety of tools she can have, and you have to find them and continuously craft them sitting on the bench. The crafting part is automatic, but it consumes the secondary resource, which thankfully, is very abundant in this game.

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The new quest system is, for the most part, amazing. It does put unnecessary pressure on me to complete them because they are in my objective area, but the info it gives helps me complete them more easily. The rewards for doing those could have been better, but they are fine. At least, the game has a lot of variety in these side quests. It would be bad if they were repeating.

Epic Boss Fights

The best part about the first game was its bosses, and Silksong seems to have some epic boss fights too. I have not encountered too many of those. But the difficulty is as par with the first game, if not more. Most of the bosses, even some normal enemies, do 2 mask shard damage, and combined with the less immunity frames after getting a hit. These fights can be over soon. But good to see that a lot of them are rhythmic and not very chaotic.

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A good boss fight should, in my opinion, feel like a dance off between you and the boss, with the boss's attack telegraphed slightly before they happen so you can learn those attacks and improve on them, with a very low amount of RNG involved in those rights. I am happy to report that most of those fights seem fair, apart from the two mask shard damage, which sometimes seems a bit forced, especially when the game gives you mask shards very slowly in Act 1.

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My favourite fights so far have been the Widow and Last Judge; both had epic music to go with them. Both were tough encounters which forced you to learn the fight, and it took me multiple tries to beat them. I wished the benches were a bit closer to these bosses.

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I don't want to spoil much about the story; you must experience it yourself. It has been a journey, and Act 2 feels a bit better to me than Act 1. I will be playing it more right now. If you haven't played it yet. I strongly suggest you give it a try.