I couldnt agree more. It's okay if a game is too hard, either take the challenge or just move on to a different one, there's no shame in it.

Farming 1600 shell shards takes less than 10 mins or so by farming rosaries and buying shards from a vendor.

I mean, you’d have to try it to judge for yourself. But I think it’s one of the best side scrollers ever made.

I think twitch drives this a lot. Streamers getting annoyed with the game they’re playing tend to do better on their vods and bring in more people. As a result, people become more and more tolerant to games that are just annoying. Like I understand that some people enjoy the gameplay of soulslikes, but who enjoys run backs?

Agree but man it is punishing to get smacked back to a bench 6 screens back.

Once I switched from my steam deck to a platform where I got more than five frames and switched wireless controller surrounded by two separate wireless routers It became one of if not my favorite game but while I was playing with an unknown handicap I saw a bunch of unavoidable flaws that were not the fault of the player at least on the bell beast, there are instances that are impossible to escape like entirely impossible, you can avoid them and I did eventually beat it even with the handicap but the game definitely has flaws that the difficulty accentuates but the later upgrades and tools definitely eliminates most of them.

I'll repeat a comment I posted on another article. It has been 14 years since Dark Souls and yet, the holy words still stand. Git gud.

Your basically not even out of the tutorial yet in the grand scheme of things. Shards didn't become a problem for me for example till well past the half way point.

Then the game is not for you, saying that is not ridiculing you. At all. It's not a 70€ AAA game that's trying to cater to everyone either.

That's the point?

Every time I read about players bitching about difficulty, I wonder why they're so persistent. There's plenty of games out there to play instead. I tried dark souls and realized that kinda game isn't for me. Neither is getting over it, or anything like that. I just want to lean back and relax, and I don't want to mess with tight timings and stuff like that. I just play puzzle games because of that, and I thoroughly enjoy it. Why do they feel the need of forcing themselves through an experience they don't enjoy? FOMO? Bragging rights? I really don't get it.

It depends on the context. Let's say their is a hard boss that you need 10 attempts for. It makes a huge difference if there is a checkpoint before it or if you have to do 5 minutes of chores again (I agree that these are extreme examples...)

I'm fine with the difficulty, but I'm sure a lot of players bought silksong without beating hollow Knight first, and I feel that the game is too hard for someone just getting into the genre. it's unnecessary cruel to new players sometimes imo. someone could enjoy most of the game but be turned away by some of the more frustrating parts, which in my opinion is kinda unfortunate. maybe they bought the game on release and now feel like they are stuck with a game that isn't worth it.

If someone can speedrun the first two chapters in 1:08, it can't be that hard, can it?

Difficulty and fun are orthogonal, one doesn't exclude the other. Look at something like Celeste, it gets brutally difficult in farewell but never feels unfair. A difficult game should motivate the player to get better, and that can happen while still remaining a fun experience. Nine Sols has a difficult combat system, but the combat feels fluid and fast-paced. Learning how to parry an enemy's attacks and get in counter hits feels amazing, also you get lots of meaningful upgrades and rewards from everywhere. Meanwhile in silksong you have a character with insane horizontal movement, then you repeatedly get pushed through narrow vertical platforming sections with flying enemies above, spikes on the sides. Killing a bell guy by agonizingly hitting them 1 hit at a time before they dash away out of reach again is not a fun combat paradigm and doesn't create the power fantasy Hollow Knight excelled at. The boss fights and >!Mt.Fay!< are fantastic but exploring the map just feels frustrating, especially when 90% of zones don't drop any rosaries.

Are tedium and difficulty the same thing?

A game developer can have massive blind spots about their game, feedback can elevate the artist's vision if responded to critically.

Yes, but trying to please everyone can also lead to pleasing no one.

Hmm, fair point.

I think it'll only be "too hard" the first play through. I got every achievement in HK, I'll probably do the same with Silksong, which means eventually I'll be able to beat every boss in order without dying in less than 10 hours. It'll get easier to the point where I'm adding challenges to my game just to stay entertained. Most of the complaints are limited to the early game. After act 1, I didn't really struggle to the same level anymore. I had the masks and abilities I needed to navigate hard fights.