Look, it’s OK. Some games are just incredibly hard, and not everyone has the skills or patience required to conquer them. Many people are finding their limit with Hollow Knight: Silksong, reaching a boss that just cannot be bested or realizing their fingers just aren’t capable of the dexterity required to master the super-hard platformer. But don’t wallow! Pick yourself up and try any of these games that offer a similar experience, without being quite so brutal.
Silksong has re-opened the wound of gaming difficulty discourse, causing friction over the topic of how hard a game can reasonably be without offering difficulty options for less skilled players. Of course, for all the debate and discussion, one core truth always remains: developers are allowed to make their games any way they want. Some choose to do this by responding to feedback from players, but others have a fixed vision for their creation and aren’t going to be moved from that. There’s no sense fighting this, not least when the vast banquet of video games already offers so very many fantastic alternatives.
I dearly wish I were better at Hollow Knight: Silksong because it’s the so-called “metroidvania” format that so attracts me. The genre, whose name is somewhat awkwardly based on the franchises of Metroid and Castlevania, generally refers to platform games in which you gain a growing number of skills and abilities which, over time, give you access to previously inaccessible areas. Along the way, regenerating enemies attempt to thwart your progress, while one-time bosses are stationed at key points. The more skills you get, the easier those earlier areas become, and the better prepared you are for the later challenges. All that’s true of Silksong, of course! But there are very many games that offer it all without the punishing difficulty. Here are a few worth picking up if Silksong is getting you down.
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