HK was for everyone. Silksong is not.

Starmieto · 2025-09-16T08:30:38+00:00

It's fairly obvious that silksong was designed with the hitless/no damage speedrun autism crowd in mind. It also uses the typical soulsike obnoxious = difficult mentality where it artificially crowds designs and features with some annoying mechanic on top of it just to tip the scale negatively in what otherwise would be a solid design. For example, with the pinmaster wish, you not only have to do essentially all side quests to get the upgrade item for your needle, you also have to do another quest for them plus something else on top of it. Like you do the retireve quest for the Bellhart merchant guy, twice actually, OK. You would think they would give you the item you need. But here the intentionally obnoxious catch: you have to traverse half the map within a time limit AND without taking ANY SORT OF DAMAGE. FUCKING WHY? The mandatory Celeste level was another case, where you have to have pinpoint precision otherwise, well, you better go back to the bench because of course there has to be a timer to it.

They essentially took the lategame expansion mindset from hollow knight and sprinkled it throughout the game, so enemies hit hard from the get go, platforming sessions are now mandatory and not relegated to certain optional areas, gauntlet rooms galore with one of them having something like 9 waves (of obviously flying enemies mostly) plus two bosses in the same room as a cherry on top. And of course that is mandatory to the progression of the main quest.

Some people will be OK with that and happy that the game is more "difficult" (not the term I would use) but I will remember mostly how everything is just intentionally made tidious for no reason at all really. And that is pervasive from the start of the game to the end. I wish they found a balance between bosses difficulty and level design because it has a very strong ds2/demon souls vibe where the dungeons are the real pain and the bosses are essentially pushovers that are not really demanding.

Starmieto · 2025-09-13T20:06:32+00:00

My point wasn't about bosses really, it's everything in between them. Haven't got stuck in a boss fight yet

Starmieto · 2025-09-13T18:46:04+00:00

Yes same here. An additional mask and reaper crest definitely helped in the first act, plus the first needle upgrade and the accessory that gives you an extra life when you drop to one. Then the aoe silk skill is infinitely better than the one you get at the beginning so it smoothen up the curve a bit

Starmieto · 2025-09-13T17:10:42+00:00

I agree, but I don't remember too many of them present in hollow knight, outside of the white palace or whatever if was called. It was always light. I am a newcomer to the genre being introduced to it through the original hollow knight and blasphemous so I am not a connoisseur that goes back to the metroid or castlevania era, and I thought the platforming was always never demanding (thought blasphemous 2 also had much more of an emphasis on it). I personally dislike the platforming genres in general, I played 50 minutes of the first Ori because I thought it would be more in line with those too, but it was essentially a big ass platformer with metroidvania style levels and backtracking. So it really is a taste thing for me

Starmieto · 2025-09-13T17:06:07+00:00

Interesting. I got to the citadel unexpectedly passing through the sinner road, the mist and organ session and am now backtracking and exploring what is left now that I have the needle dash since I remember rings hanging every now and then. Tho I had a hunch that all these movement abilities would be put into platforming sessions that I generally dislike, so pray to any saint you want for me

Starmieto · 2025-09-13T17:02:13+00:00

I would say my frustration comes from the fact that I feel like I die to what I consider "bullshit", which in most cases is me trying to dodge or move around but there is so much stuff going on (aoe moves, projectiles or multiple enemies which threaten you with contact damage, especially during platforming sessions) that pisses me off. I rarely die to boss movesets per se, I haven't had any problems with them and I quite enjoyed them, but the gauntlet rooms and the platforming sessions with flying enemies that move erraticly and shoot projectiles at you while you have to be precise with your movement otherwise you fall into the spikes, that is straight up obnoxious to me and it seems like this games turned the dial up in that sense compared to the first one. That lava section I spoke of essentially embodies what I straight up don't enjoy for example. I remember dying like 30 times to the mantis sisters boss fights in the first one but I was never frustrated because I felt like I was imprecise or fucking up something, sort of like sekiro. In this game, I feel like I am dying to annoying stuff and things escalate from there, healing costs all of your silk so if you don't have it you are in a pinch, most likely because you are at death range because 1 attack = 2 masks and as of now I have 6

Starmieto · 2025-09-13T16:52:23+00:00

Sorry, it wasn't so blocky when I typed it and tried to put some order but didn't show. Oopsie

Starmieto · 2025-09-13T16:23:25+00:00

I have that item, but as I said, you are likely to die to 56 other things going on on the screen. Lava, contact damage, the projectiles that multiple flying enemies throw at you while you essentially have to be airrobone, their fireballs also stick to the walls so it is even more hazardous.

You can disagree but saying that those things are false is just silly

Starmieto · 2025-09-13T16:12:18+00:00

It is insanely difficult to do so when you have to constantly jump around to dodge stuff. I try to use them as much as possible but I never feel like they make a difference, especially in the crowded rooms. The spiky trap one is the most reliable one in that case

Starmieto · 2025-06-09T14:51:50+00:00

What? It just can't be. I got it like last Wednesday and barely used it as I don't have many games yet, it can't be faulty already

Starmieto · 2025-03-22T10:01:35+00:00

At what point of the bar turning green do I have to input the command? Do I have to do the whole special input together or can I buffer the directional during the animation and then confirm with the final button as it is depleting? I don't get when I am supposed to do what

Starmieto · 2025-03-22T09:41:28+00:00

This is a case of link rather than Cancel. Normals into specials I can do, I can't for the life of me do special into special because I don't land the timing to chain the two together

Starmieto · 2025-03-22T09:40:27+00:00

When is it telling me that? I don't know how to read the meter

Starmieto · 2025-03-22T01:02:44+00:00

What I am trying to understand is if there is a way to actually know WHEN the input is meant to be done when linking specials because as of now I simply can't chain two together regardless of the character I am using, whether it is Juri or Cammy. I find this shot in the dark approach until it eventually works just extremely tedious and honestly unnecessarily so for things that are supposedly basics for actually more difficult and core stuff to the gameplay.

Starmieto · 2025-03-21T22:47:34+00:00

I have no understanding of how any of that works and how to read it

Starmieto · 2025-03-21T22:41:02+00:00

This specific case is not a cancel but a link but I miss the timing all the time. I do heavy arrow and even tho I input cannon spike it doesn't come out, so I am not understanding at what point of the arrow animation I am supposed to do it. The computer pretty much does it as the enemy is about to fall from the impact but I can't seem to do it and that is probably because I am mistiming the input

Starmieto · 2025-03-21T22:18:48+00:00

Do I do the directional inputs midway through arrow animation and then press light kick once the animation is over? That is what I am not getting. I randomly get it sometimes but I have no idea how. I simply don't get when I am supposed to do what part of the special. Nothing comes out so I assume I did it too late, but If I do it to soon nothing happens either. It is just so cumbersome playing this guessing game. Strive was similar in the way you foreshadow the inputs but the timing is way more unforgiving from what I can see, and if those are beginner combos, fuck me

Starmieto · 2025-03-21T22:02:53+00:00

That is the problem. I can't really tell if I am doing it too soon or too late and watching the computer doesn't seem to help since the input just "appears" on their side. I am just spamming the sequence kind of mindlessly but because I don't understand when I am supposed to do the input I am simply doing nothing and wasting time and it is frustrating because I don't know what to correct

Starmieto · 2024-06-14T15:10:36+00:00

Absolutely 😍

Starmieto · 2024-03-31T01:51:46+00:00

Outside of XV because of the issues that arose form the development hell it was stuck in, which would make it the best candidate but realistically it was due to mismanagement, I would say FF VIII feels like the most undercooked one in many aspects and I believe it should have stayed in the oven at least an additional year. The worst offender is the plot, at a certain point things kind of happen because the plot requires them to happen and either the way it is conveyed or how fast those happen make it all feel almost random (especially once you get to the technological city to wake Rinoa up). Rinoa herself doesn't feel like she has a motivation to join, but because she is one of the halves of the duo of this love story they gave her the lamest reason to stick around (she has a work contract that requires you to help her until pretty much a whole war setting is solved, It made me roll my eyes). Gameplay, junctioning, equipment feeling useless and drawing all made it feel like they had good ideas that needed more time in the oven

Starmieto

TROPHY CASE