Hollow Knight Silksong has beat my ass for 11 hours, but it's not too hard – we just have a problem with instant gratification

Is Hollow Knight: Silksong too hard? It's an interesting question, and one that's been doing the rounds since Team Cherry casually dropped its long-awaited Metroidvania sequel with just two weeks' notice. As my colleague Austin wrote, Silksong is undeniably harder than Hollow Knight was – feeling less like a clean entry point for newcomers, and more like a natural continuation of Hollow Knight's later-game challenge.

But I don't think it's too hard, nor do I agree with some of the more common criticism I've seen of Silksong so far. I'm enjoying runbacks perhaps more than I should – despite loathing the process in FromSoftware games – and at times have been surprised by my own patience when a silly misstep has cost me two health. I'll get into all of that in a moment, but to answer that original question, Hollow Knight: Silksong is as hard as Team Cherry intended it to be, and perhaps we're expecting to git gud quicker than we should.

Hard as nails

Back in February, the senior game designer for Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 told me that "instant gratification in gaming has become a problem". It's a thought I've since spent most of 2025 musing over, albeit mostly within RPGs. I think we've become so accustomed to Progress and Reaching Places that we don't linger in the spaces between, relishing the journey as much as the destination. All the while, many of us – particularly in the Metroidvania genre – have only gotten better at the genre, with the eight-year gap between Hollow Knight and Silksong leaving space for countless peers to flourish and push boundaries.

Even in FromSoftware's games, the time between major bosses has decreased, with closer resting points culling the need for runbacks. It's a change I've been very glad for – my sanity wouldn't have survived Promised Consort Radahn if every death hadn't plonked me just outside of his door. But playing Silksong has made me think of the runbacks in the first Dark Souls, which was far more punishing with its bonfires. As a result, I spent so much time dodging arrows in Anor Londo and inching through the Catacombs – afraid of being sent back to my distant foothold, yes, but also understanding these areas far more because of the intimacy and attention they demanded from me.

Punishing checkpoints are the reason I can picture so many obscure Dark Souls areas vividly, while struggling to do the same for Dark Souls 3 – which marked a major step toward closer bonfires to bosses. Eliminating runbacks changes the dynamic of the challenge, separating the boss fight from the area leading up to it – and by doing so, turns the boss into a more isolated dopamine hit. I've already written about how playing Silksong feels like jumping into Dark Souls for the first time, and being forced to sprint from bench to boss – banking every small frustration until it finally spills into triumph – is where I feel it most.

In tandem with Silksong being mechanically challenging, it feels like Team Cherry is hitting the brakes and forcing us to slow down. Some of those tricky opening bosses – think Bell Beast, Widow – have very simple movesets, but are phenomenally punishing if you do get hit. Likewise, those pogo flowers that everyone hates are actually quite easy to climb (the trick is to not panic and swing too soon), and quietly reinforce the importance of aerial maneuvering as Hornet. Some enemies are certainly tougher than the usual fodder – shoutout to the ant warriors of Hunter's March, from their biggest hater – but again, it feels like a conscious move to stop us from merely tearing through every stage.

As someone who's felt diminishing returns from completing Soulslikes and Metroidvanias in recent years, it seems Team Cherry has tried to push the boat out and see if we're ready for something harder. Once the dust settles, we'll see the answer. Will that baked-in resistance amplify the eventual feeling of accomplishment, the delayed gratification making every runback worth it? Or will Team Cherry's vision for Silksong prove misaligned with the community who have been waiting years to see it realized?

I don't think Silksong has to fit our preconceived molds, or follow the best practices of already-creaking genres. That way lies stagnation. Perhaps tastes have shifted, and we do expect our efforts to be gratified quicker than Silksong provides. But I'm glad that Silksong – which was so big it didn't really need to risk anything – decided to take that swing against the grain, if only because I'm selfishly having a blast with it.

PSA: One of Hollow Knight: Silksong's hardest early-game skill checks is an enemy cosplaying a boss that's destroying everyone too stubborn to come back later