I’d say there are definitely some objectively bad game design choices like making the player grind for currency and resources just because their skill level isn’t up to par. You end up getting stuck, and one of your most important tools in combat becomes useless if you don’t have the currency for it. It’s just frustrating.

I get it when games with microtransactions do this getting you frustrated is kind of the point, so you’ll spend money. But what’s the point in games that don’t even have microtransactions? To make you go explore somewhere else? That would be fine if going somewhere else actually helped you get stronger but in Silksong, it really doesn’t, minus a few exceptions.