The high points of the game are very good. The low points ruin it, in my opinion. I get that frustration might be fun for some people, but I find it discouraging and I don’t feel like Silksong wants me to be successful. It feels like it wants me to feel frustrated and angry, and that’s not an experience I want to have. I doubt I’ll finish the game, which sucks, because I loved Hollow Knight, and I love the parts of Silksong that aren’t just making me mad.
Seriously. I love Hollow Knight and what I have played from Silksong thus far, but this elitist “game must be ultra hard and exclude people that can’t do it” shit is and always has been a garbage take as far as I am concerned. Having some sort of option to allow people that aren’t that good or have accessibility issues enjoy the game seems like a fine thing. Having those be optional should in no way prevent people that like the hard default settings from enjoying the game. Maybe have those options disable getting achievements/trophies if it prevents these elitists from enjoying the game knowing that their “lessers” are also able to enjoy the game.
Nine Sols did this perfectly. It’s another very hard metroidvania, but it has some options you can enable if you want to that adjust the difficulty in a variety of very tangible ways. I wish that was standard.
Nine Sols is great, and I agree completely that they did a good job of adding those options. I didn’t end up using them, but I bet it let a lot of people enjoy the game that could have hit a wall in Hollow Knight or people that just couldn’t grasp the parrying mechanic.
And the idea that every game should be for everyone is the reason why Elden Ring is… kind of a bad game.
Great open world, beautiful scenery… bad boss design, which yes — that is the game.
Like, think about this in the real world setting. Think about how this hyopthetical would play out, person becomes disabled and has to sit in a wheelchair. Everyone agrees ‘it’s not fair that they can’t walk, no one should walk because this person can’t’. And then everyone sits in a wheelchair despite being perfectly abled.
Does that make sense to you? Because it doesn’t to me, I’m sorry if there are people who can’t beat these games — but damn, at some point you have to recognize life isn’t fair and just enjoy the shit you do enjoy. If being good at a video game isn’t important to you, ok that’s your prerogative. Do not play the hard video game. But this constant whining about difficulty settings and nerfs is just obnoxious.
I’m sorry that having an optional setting for people that aren’t as capable as so offensive to you. I also think most people would agree it would be pretty cool if we could fairly easy add an option for people in a wheelchair to get them walking. Clearly you’d rather they didn’t.
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?
… I do? They’re like the most basic manifestation of mastery over a particular section meaningfully impacting my experience. Not only does getting good at a run back let me focus on learning the boss more, but it also increases my general mobility throughout the map as a whole and drastically improves how cool it feels to replay the game and just blow through previously challenging sections.
I think the point at which I decided I hated Symphony of the Night was when I could go a whole session without finding anything new, or learning anything. The map is just so wide, with no clues as to where you can next explore.
I’ve played 7+ total hours and I’ve only managed to get Greenpath and Forgotten Crossroads. The fact that my ghost can (and has, many times) kill me is infuriating. How am I supposed to progress if after 30 minutes I want to throw my controller at the wall?
The problem is not the game… its getting mad. You’re supposed to be having fun. If you’re not having fun you’re doing it wrong. Either enjoy overcoming challenges or find something else to do.
It really wouldn’t take much. Just some accessibility options to address some of the most punishing mechanics would do it. Would be great if mods solved this.
Several Soulslikes I’ve played have hidden in accessibility options things like not hitting you for falling into a pit, or not taking resources when you die.
I had a fantastic moment with this in Another Crab’s Treasure; I was doing some platforming when Krill glitched off the geometry and fell, killing me in the process. When I respawned, I knew I had tons of microplastics (souls) out there I wanted to save, but also felt frustrated because it wasn’t my fault I died - just bad game coding, as many games have. Plus, the odd positioning meant I might not be able to reach the death spot.
Instead, I just went to Accessibility and recovered them that one time; the game was nice enough not to even invalidate any achievements from the brief use.
Me after beating
a specific boss
Savage Beastfly for the 2nd time
only to immediately lose all my rosaries in
hard location
Sinner’s Road
and then spending the next 3 hours barely failing to
complete hard wish quest
deliver the courier’s rasher on time
The high points of the game are very good. The low points ruin it, in my opinion. I get that frustration might be fun for some people, but I find it discouraging and I don’t feel like Silksong wants me to be successful. It feels like it wants me to feel frustrated and angry, and that’s not an experience I want to have. I doubt I’ll finish the game, which sucks, because I loved Hollow Knight, and I love the parts of Silksong that aren’t just making me mad.
You’re describing the horrid souls-like experience embraced by every gamer in these times.
It’s unpopular to dislike being annoyed and frustrated with your game, didn’t you hear?
Seriously. I love Hollow Knight and what I have played from Silksong thus far, but this elitist “game must be ultra hard and exclude people that can’t do it” shit is and always has been a garbage take as far as I am concerned. Having some sort of option to allow people that aren’t that good or have accessibility issues enjoy the game seems like a fine thing. Having those be optional should in no way prevent people that like the hard default settings from enjoying the game. Maybe have those options disable getting achievements/trophies if it prevents these elitists from enjoying the game knowing that their “lessers” are also able to enjoy the game.
Nine Sols did this perfectly. It’s another very hard metroidvania, but it has some options you can enable if you want to that adjust the difficulty in a variety of very tangible ways. I wish that was standard.
Nine Sols is great, and I agree completely that they did a good job of adding those options. I didn’t end up using them, but I bet it let a lot of people enjoy the game that could have hit a wall in Hollow Knight or people that just couldn’t grasp the parrying mechanic.
I wouldn’t have beaten the ‘true’ final boss without them. No way in hell.
And the idea that every game should be for everyone is the reason why Elden Ring is… kind of a bad game.
Great open world, beautiful scenery… bad boss design, which yes — that is the game.
Like, think about this in the real world setting. Think about how this hyopthetical would play out, person becomes disabled and has to sit in a wheelchair. Everyone agrees ‘it’s not fair that they can’t walk, no one should walk because this person can’t’. And then everyone sits in a wheelchair despite being perfectly abled.
Does that make sense to you? Because it doesn’t to me, I’m sorry if there are people who can’t beat these games — but damn, at some point you have to recognize life isn’t fair and just enjoy the shit you do enjoy. If being good at a video game isn’t important to you, ok that’s your prerogative. Do not play the hard video game. But this constant whining about difficulty settings and nerfs is just obnoxious.
I’m sorry that having an optional setting for people that aren’t as capable as so offensive to you. I also think most people would agree it would be pretty cool if we could fairly easy add an option for people in a wheelchair to get them walking. Clearly you’d rather they didn’t.
Great so you missed the point entirely, just like most people miss the point of games with one difficulty setting.
The way we actually react to that situation is having wheelchair ramps and elevators. (i.e. difficulty settings in games)
We don’t say “Fuck handicapped people, life isn’t fair, it SHOULD suck to be them.”
You’re right, difference being that what you’re saying is more akin (following the analogy) to putting wheelchair ramps on a mountain.
Silksong is the mountain, git gud and climb it or shut the fuck up.
No, Silksong is a game, bright moving colors on a screen, meant to amuse and entertain.
You’re not an elite mountaineer for pressing buttons faster than a disabled person, to quickly move a spider in a red dress on the screen.
Crying about difficulty in video games isn’t going to stop. There are thousands of video games that are not difficult. Play those.
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?
… I do? They’re like the most basic manifestation of mastery over a particular section meaningfully impacting my experience. Not only does getting good at a run back let me focus on learning the boss more, but it also increases my general mobility throughout the map as a whole and drastically improves how cool it feels to replay the game and just blow through previously challenging sections.
God, all the people that can’t imagine that people don’t enjoy things the same exact way they do.
Exactly.
Imagine being ridiculed for not enjoying frustration and games designed around failure. It’s a damned shame.
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.
Ok.
That’s me with Hollow Knight. I want to finish, but it’s frustrating to the point that I give up after 30 minutes with no progress.
I think the point at which I decided I hated Symphony of the Night was when I could go a whole session without finding anything new, or learning anything. The map is just so wide, with no clues as to where you can next explore.
That’s definitely a rookie amount of time with no progress for this style of game in general.
I’ve played 7+ total hours and I’ve only managed to get Greenpath and Forgotten Crossroads. The fact that my ghost can (and has, many times) kill me is infuriating. How am I supposed to progress if after 30 minutes I want to throw my controller at the wall?
The problem is not the game… its getting mad. You’re supposed to be having fun. If you’re not having fun you’re doing it wrong. Either enjoy overcoming challenges or find something else to do.
Maybe mods could be a solution to this?
It really wouldn’t take much. Just some accessibility options to address some of the most punishing mechanics would do it. Would be great if mods solved this.
Several Soulslikes I’ve played have hidden in accessibility options things like not hitting you for falling into a pit, or not taking resources when you die.
I had a fantastic moment with this in Another Crab’s Treasure; I was doing some platforming when Krill glitched off the geometry and fell, killing me in the process. When I respawned, I knew I had tons of microplastics (souls) out there I wanted to save, but also felt frustrated because it wasn’t my fault I died - just bad game coding, as many games have. Plus, the odd positioning meant I might not be able to reach the death spot.
Instead, I just went to Accessibility and recovered them that one time; the game was nice enough not to even invalidate any achievements from the brief use.