I think we don't have enough language to talk about difficulty in a productive way.

You could keep all the boss mechanics the same in a game but add a 1 minute unstoppable cut scene at the start and the game is "more difficult" because it takes you longer to learn boss patterns and experiment with different strategies. But that feels very different to narrowing the windows to react or expanding the move set of a boss which feels different again to changing the values so you need to grind more/fewer levels or resources to pass it.

"Runback too long" and "git gud" sound a lot like people talking past eachother, but maybe thats just an artifact of the journalist reporting rather than the discussion itself

something that i think gets lost in the sauce in thrse discussions is whether fun is derived from playing or winning. people are comparing Silksong- and to get ahead of it right now i haven't played and am not criticizing either of the Hollow Knights- to old arcade and early console games and their legendary difficulty, but a lot of those games were meant to be complete and fun experiences even if you game over very early on. they also didn't have levels full of bespoke Stuff in them, it was the same few tiles and entities in different configurations., so being stuck on level 1 didn't mean you were missing out on a narrative and worldbuilding. with how the lines have blurred between games and narrative art forms in the last few decades, there are different incentives at play and someone stuck on world 1 of SMB isn't missing out nearly as much as someone stuck on whatever the first stage of Silksong is. it's all ultimately apples and oranges

Honestly, Hollow Knight 1, and what I've played so far of Silk Song have frustrating runback only if you feel that exploration should carry no risk. And also if you feel the consequences--dropping your resources and needing to abandon them--are game ending.

The devs make no attempt to hide the fact that the father afield you get, the more dangerous it gets, but that you can get stronger if you make the most of what you've already explored.

Resources are unlimited in the world, so you can always get back to where you were even if you abandon your cocoon/shade. You can also go back and spend the resources before you lose them.

Once I realized that venturing too far off carries a growing risk, I started looking out for the telltale signs that I'm entering a boss room. When this happens or even when I just feel like I'm going to lose all health, I just venture back and spend at the nearest shop or just prioritize finding a bench. Where I don't heed the warning and go in anyway, I take it as my fault I can't recover my shade/silk before I once again prioritize finding a bench.

All that said, at least so far I've found that whereas in Hollow Knight, if you die in a boss fight you're not equipped for, you MUST abandon it or try again. In Silk Song, the silk cocoon actually helps with the fight: instead of also trying to kill you, it's extra health that you can save until mid-way through the fight. Also, some boss rooms don't lock the entrance (at all or as quickly) so you can die closer to the entrance and safely recover your stuff.

After starting Silk Song, I went back and started replaying the original and some changes like this are actually actually a quality of life improvement over the first 😂😂😂.

(I'm just irrationally mad that they removed the cheeseable pogoing. It was so cheeseable but I get why they tweaked the mechanic to become harder to use in exactly the same way. I'm actually using the other offensive abilities more.)

I'm in act 2 and while Im in love with the game, I can agree. The game could be impossible for people who aren't already very good at platformers. Benches are very sparse and money is always an issue. I hope Team Cherry make the game more reasonable through updates.

Did these people forget how ball-smackingly hard Hollow Knight was???

Regarding difficulty: I've lived through the 80's, where difficulty was ramped up to make the game last longer, as you only had precious few kilobytes to fill with content. I've grown to hate difficult games.

It is your right as creator to go that way if you wish, but it is my right as player to hate your guts if I buy your game and it kills me over and over again in the first minutes.

yea, that's entirely valid. I love these games (Metroidvanias) because of the exploration and worldbuilding. The combat is a way to advance further into that world, but it's just a means to an end to me. Make it too tough, and you're preventing me from enjoying the parts I like.

I played a good 4 or 5 hours of Silksong so far and loving it. It's a little tough though, and I think it could use a nerf.

I haven't played this yet, so I don't know anything about what difficulty settings it may or may not have But in general, I see difficulty settings as an accessibility feature.

I liked the way that Ender Magnolia did it, where, at a save point, you could adjust several settings to customize the difficulty. I was able to temporarily make it slightly easier just for a few bosses that I lost my patience for.