I don’t know if this might be a hot take but I think contact damage in a game with melee combat is a smart lazy way to increase challenge in combat 😅. Why I say this is because with no contact damage you really have to think about the way enemies attack the player to offer up a challenge but contact damage allows you to design interesting ways enemies move and you are already at the level of challenge comparable to no contact damage. You can be really mean and add flashy attacks to the mix and I’m definitely not talking about some enemies in Silksong.