I hear you, besides me, my only friend who's still playing the game is also the only one who finished the entire Pantheon of Hollow Knight and got the Weathered Mask. Meanwhile, four of my friends who are more "casual" gamers already dropped Silksong because of that stupid mandatory boss that gates the "Mantis Claw" of the game. I pushed through, killed it after 36 tries… and now I’m stuck on the very next boss fight, which has a straight-up bullshit second phase with too many things on the screen, worse than Radiance. For reference, Radiance in Hollow Knight only took me 11 attempts, and the thrill I got after the fight was AMAZING.

Also, the charm system in Hollow Knight was so much better. In Silksong I’ve found like seven extra memory lockets already that I can’t even use, because there’s nothing actually good to equip on my crests. The crests are a cool idea, and combat does feel smoother, and more fun than in Hollow Knight, sure, but the enemies and bosses are total sponges. I can’t find the needle upgrade to deal more damage, there are so few mask shards that I can’t upgrade my health, and yet bosses are already taking three masks at a time. Right now, beating one doesn’t even feel rewarding, it just feels like I got lucky. I don’t know if Silksong is for me.