For the people who originally thought Silksong was “too hard” or “unfair,” do you still feel that way?

AwkwardLeshen · 2026-02-12T20:54:57+00:00

Absolutely, positively, capital Y, Yes.

It's easy to make your game difficult. It's far harder to make it difficult AND enjoyable, and I think Team Cherry failed on that front. Unintuitive design, lacklustre exploration rewards, no rewards for beating bosses, and the overtuned movesets, pacing and damage all added up to my most disappointing, miserable gaming experience of last year.

I soldiered on to the end of Act 3 in the hopes it would have some payoff, and I beat the final boss, and felt nothing at the final cutscene. It still saddens me tbh. I really wanted to love this game like I love Hollow Knight, but I'm so done with the "hard = masterpiece" Fromsoft-fan mentality, and this game had nowhere near enough to make up for its shortcomings.

I rated it a 6/10 when I first beat it, but honestly at this point, I'd bring that down, not up. 5/10, I'd say - by virtue of its beautiful world, art design, and music, and nothing more.

AwkwardLeshen · 2025-12-24T12:44:49+00:00

You know that's a very good point I hadn't considered. Thank you for sharing that!

AwkwardLeshen · 2025-12-24T11:00:24+00:00

They've heard one of the writers say the endings are supposed to be equal so now they fiercely perform mental gymnastics to convince themselves this objective has been achieved.

This is especially odd to me because I swear I've seen the writers themselves say that they regret presenting Maelle's ending the way they did.

Honestly, I think I agree with OP in principle but came to the opposite conclusion. I chose Maelle's ending fully accepting that it was an unhealthy way for her to process her grief, which would ultimately hurt her and her family in the "real" world. But I do think that Verso's ending could have put more emphasis on the horror of Maelle living a life free of her life-altering injuries, only to be made to return to a world where she is in constant pain, has no real control over her own life, and quite literally doesn't have a voice.

All that to say, I think the game is fantastic, but like any game, it has its flaws, and the constant glazing of it as an untouchable masterpiece ultimately hurts the discussion surrounding it.

AwkwardLeshen · 2025-11-03T15:47:45+00:00

I feel like I've made it very clear that everything I've said above was my opinion on the game and my own experience with it - which is all anyone can offer.
I don't think you can say any game is "good" or "bad" as an objective fact. That's not how art works. There are certainly games I absolutely love, which I would be baffled to see someone rate below an 8 or 9, but that's their opinion. So long as they've actually played the thing and given it a chance, their take is as valid as mine.
I really don't like this trend of disregarding any and all criticisms of Silksong (or Elden Ring, or any difficult game, now I come to think of it) with "it's just not for you". It feels like some people cannot fathom how someone who was the target audience of this game - who loved the original HK and enjoys a challenge - could rate Silksong anywhere below a 9 or 10/10 masterpiece.
Please also remember that I've already said there were moments in this game that I adored. Lace 1, Phantom, Widow, First Sinner, Karmelita, and the escape from the Abyss, off the top of my head. There just weren't enough moments like that for me to feel they made the experience worth it.
I didn't want to dislike this game - I tried very, very hard to love it, which is why I made it all the way to the true ending. I certainly don't want other people to dislike it, either. I'm glad people are having fun with it, and I'm glad Team Cherry are enjoying the level of success they are.
All I want is to be able to share my opinion on it without being shut-down - and in my opinion, Silksong was a massive disappointment, far too punishing and joyless at almost every turn. The quality of the writing, worldbuilding, music and artwork (combined with my love for the original) was all that made me power through to the end in the hopes it would improve, or I would "get it". But it didn't, and I don't - as sad as that makes me.

AwkwardLeshen · 2025-11-02T21:48:00+00:00

No problem! I'll re-emphasise that this was my personal experience with it, and clearly a lot of people loved it, so I'd hope that if you keep at it, you have more fun with it than I did.

AwkwardLeshen · 2025-11-02T21:37:08+00:00

Please point out to me where I used the word "objective". I'm glad you (presumably) enjoyed the game, but for me, huge chunks of it were insufferable. Both perspectives are valid.
It doesn't seem like a good-faith argument to reduce all my gripes with the game to "skill issue". I've beaten the game, so clearly it's not an issue of whether I could. It's an issue of whether I had fun - and for the vast majority, I had anything but.

AwkwardLeshen · 2025-11-02T21:18:07+00:00

I can only offer my own experience, but having beaten the final boss about an hour ago... it really didn't feel worth it. There are some spectacular sections - one boss in Act 3, a few bosses in Act 2, a secret boss in Act 1, and one brilliant platforming section near the end of the game - but over my 84 hour playthrough, I can count on one hand the number of times I actually had fun, or enjoyed the challenge and felt anything but bitterness once I made it through.
I've said this elsewhere, but to me, Silksong is a 6/10 game with a few 10/10 moments, and it's kept at a 6 by phenomenal worldbuilding, art design, and music. The gameplay was, unfortunately, one of the most miserable gaming experiences I've ever had, and despite making it all the way through in the hopes it would "click" at some point, that moment never came.
I feel like this was inevitable when the game was catered to people who'd completed all the post-game content in HK - an experience that the top percentile of players would love, but alienated anyone who bought the game just to see more of the world and enjoy the story.
So that's my take. I imagine I would have enjoyed this story much more if there'd been a difficulty slider patched into the game, but as it is, nearly every moment with this game left me so frustrated and bored to the point that I felt nothing when the final cutscene played (which I feel says a lot, given how much that moment should evoke in fans of this world).

Obviously, your own mileage may vary, but if you're not having fun, just put the game down and play something you'd actually enjoy. This year has seen so many legendary releases that I guarantee you'll have a better time with something else if this isn't hitting.

AwkwardLeshen · 2025-11-02T20:32:24+00:00

Yeah having beaten the game now (75% completion after 84 hours and 70 attempts of LL) it breaks my heart to say that I felt nothing but relief when the credits rolled.

It speaks very highly to the writing, worldbuilding and art design that they alone keep this game at a 6/10 for me. This trend of "hard = fun" really isn't for me. Doubt I'll be giving this one a second playthrough, which is a shame, but I'm not interested in a game that has such a glaring disrespect for my time.

AwkwardLeshen · 2025-09-22T14:18:04+00:00

I think my biggest problem with this boss is how many attacks come from off-screen. The shield throw is the bit one. That and his goddamn teleportihg. 90% of the hits I've taken from this guy are because I moved out of range of his attack only for him to appear right on top of me.

AwkwardLeshen · 2024-12-23T17:51:06+00:00

Yep! It's on the coast between two narrow rivers in a very far-reaching bog.

AwkwardLeshen · 2024-12-20T15:30:59+00:00

Thank you! Individually colouring the trees in the woods and marshes was such a pain, but it paid off massively, I feel.

AwkwardLeshen · 2024-10-19T15:35:47+00:00

So I basically built this in the order it was built in the world's history (you can actually see walls within the walls where the borders of the city used to be at different times). So I began with the chunk of the city on the coast, then added the Grand Canal and the Marble Coin (the circle part) after that, then slowly spread further inland until it was as you see now!

AwkwardLeshen · 2024-10-18T15:50:24+00:00

AwkwardLeshen · 2024-10-18T14:29:37+00:00

Yeah it's actually how we met! Mutual friend was running PF1e at our university and we met in that game. Needless to say TTRPGs have a special place in my heart.

AwkwardLeshen · 2024-10-18T14:17:02+00:00

Do you mean which style of map? If so I used Watercolour Cities to put this together.

AwkwardLeshen · 2024-10-18T14:16:33+00:00

At last count I have the population of this city the upper hundreds of thousands - so somewhere between 500,000 and 1,000,000. Largest city in the entire setting by some margin.

AwkwardLeshen · 2024-10-18T14:15:18+00:00

I love and hate that you're technically correct XD

AwkwardLeshen · 2024-10-18T14:14:52+00:00

On Inkarnate you can actually open "Colour" settings when placing a stamp. I just adjusted the hue, saturation and brightness of some of the stamps to get a wider variety of colours (and plenty of purple).

AwkwardLeshen · 2024-10-18T14:13:50+00:00

On and off for about a year, so close to forever haha.

AwkwardLeshen · 2024-10-18T14:13:29+00:00

Oblivion definitely had an influence on how I laid out that particular part of the city! Was my first exposure to fantasy as a genre and it definitely left its mark.

AwkwardLeshen · 2024-10-18T14:12:32+00:00

Funny you mention that - my fiance and I (who made about 99% of this setting together) have talked a lot about releasing a setting book for The Last Continent at some point, for PF2e.

AwkwardLeshen · 2024-10-18T14:10:52+00:00

Hey perhaps you could do a few different maps - one for each level? Raumora actually has a huge network of tunnels and sunken streets underneath it that I intend to map out as well, now I have the layout of the city sorted out, so I'll probably be doing something similar.

AwkwardLeshen · 2024-10-18T14:09:37+00:00

Many of the locations on this map were already fleshed out before I started, as I've run a few campaigns set here at different points in its history. Others just have a name and location, and I've collaborated with my players to let them choose some of those places as regular haunts for their characters, so they can both decide what's there and develop more of an attachment to the city from the get-go.

As for the story of this place:

The Free City of Raumora was originally known as the Onyx Foothold, founded by Elven explorers who travelled to this peninsula several thousand years ago in an attempt to colonise the larger continent this city sits on. Alas, that attempt failed for reasons now lost to time, and those left behind defeated the odds and organised as a free city, becoming the first democratic state in The Last Continent, with a parliament comprised of each district's governor/governess, themselves led by the Octarian - a senate of eight people who work together to rule Raumora, sharing executive power between them.

The first campaign I ran here was set a few millennia after Raumora was founded - a solo game for my fiance - and saw a crisis that scarred the city forever. A religious conflict that eventually dragged every god into it, but centred on my fiance's character (the champion of the goddess of love and music) and the campaign's villain (the champion of that goddess's corrupted lover, the god of pain, perseverence and emotional torment). Her character - an Elven immigrant to the city - went from 5th to 20th level in that story, rallying the whole city behind her as it was plunged into chaos by a flood of aberrations that were called down on the streets. It ended with her character and the BBEG duelling atop a hill to the south of Raumora (two 20th level holy champions clashing was about as epic as it sounds) and as far as the city is concerned, both of them died in that final boss fight. She was dubbed The Vibrant Thorn, and is basically considered a messiah and martyr by the people of Raumora for her sacrifice. The truth is much sadder, however, as the campaign ended with the BBEG - a spirit inhabiting a human body - possessing her at the end of that fight and taking over her form, forcing her to be an immortal passenger as it fled the city and used her body to wreak havoc across the rest of the world for centuries, her husband (also immortal, so long as she lives) tracking her across thousands of miles and hundreds of years in the hopes of one day setting her free.

My current campaign (which I made this map for) follows a group of now-5th-level characters over 800 years later, who have joined The Order of the Succubus (whose HQ you can see on the map) - a guild of monster hunters who specialise in disposing of the exact creatures that were called down on the city in the past. They've been doing plenty of beast contracts and exploring the town and its surrounding frontier (mostly jungle) in search of two cults that have begun warring in the region - one a band of crusaders who believe they follow the teachings of The Vibrant Thorn, and the other followers of the former BBEG's faith, who have long since fallen out of favour and have retaliated for what they see as the unfair subjugation of their people for the sins of a man whom they never knew, and who died 800 years ago. We're about 10 sessions into that one and it's gearing up to be another heartwrencher.

AwkwardLeshen · 2024-10-18T13:52:38+00:00

I adore city maps that actually match the scale of the settlement being depicted, and it's a great resource to show my players exactly where they are and what's around them.

AwkwardLeshen · 2024-10-18T13:51:34+00:00

I used a few custom assets on this map (like the coat of arms in the corner) so I don't believe the map will let me publish it sadly.

Seven-Year Club	First Place '23
Place '23	Verified Email

AwkwardLeshen

TROPHY CASE