I've been busy playing Hollow Knight: Silksong the past 2 weeks - game was launched on 4th of September.
I've honestly been having a blast. There's one single problem however - the difficulty is absolute horse crap.
What's the point of a video game?
Videogames are an escape from the mundane to me. When I've got some time at my hands and want to kill some, video games are great at doing that. It could be about admiring great art, level design, fluid movement, interesting options so that I can strategize, or a good lil' challenge thrown at me so that I can feel like I accomplished something.
The point is, video games are about having FUN. And occasionally, chasing a feeling of winning which may or not be something you're getting every day. The moment a game becomes about grinding, I lose all interest in it. If I want to do some chores I have my real life. I'd rather go outside and just touch some grass.
Difficulty is difficulty
IMO setting the difficulty just right is not easy at all.
Make it too easy and the tryhards will complain.
Too difficult and the normies (like myself) will complain.
Difficulty setting is perhaps one way to go about it. But then again, I'm not a fan of it because the experience doesn't feel authentic. I want to experience something the way everyone else does.
Video games SHOULD in fact have challenges in them. If not, I'd rather go watch a movie. It's about HOW you present these challenges.
The difficulty needs to be felt "earned".
If the feeling upon coming over a difficult section is that of triumph = good
If it’s that of relief = you’re doing something wrong.
The Silksong problem
Stupid runbacks. What even is the point of them?
So many of them are unnecessarily long for no apparent reason. There's no fun in them?
I understand troll-like difficulty - you've got bile water for that.
Learning cool boss patterns and overcoming them? Fun.
Take 10 mins just to get to them? What is the point?
You cannot convince me that this isn't bad game design.
Beautiful architect crest that actually lets me break things a bit. Fun.
Stupid shard system that does not let me use architect crest at all? Why. Just why.
Silksong is such an incredibly beautiful game. Amazing story, fluid movement, lots of customization with tools and crest system, incredible hand drawn levels, etc etc. But the difficulty just absolutely ruins the experience for me.
When the average thing is made un-fun on purpose, I lose all interest.
Tons of cool tools and powerups are given to you only upon hours and hours of grinding. Where's the fun in that?
I've been adding items to my reviews page (https://www.kashyapsuhas.com/reviews) off late and I've given Brotato (https://store.steampowered.com/app/1942280/Brotato/) a higher rating than silksong.
Is Brotato not difficult? Absolutely not. It takes very many attempts to do certain characters. But the main difference is that there is no "grinding". The game constantly allows me to break it - now that's fun. When I lose, it feels like consequences of my own decisions and not some horse 💩 unfun entity.
Silksong is so un-funn-ily difficult that, even with 50 hours in, I haven't been able to experience even 30% of what the game has to offer. What's the point even, Team Cherry?