Idk if it's just me but after playing silksong, the first hollow night now feels like a cake walk

Difficulty aside, Hollow Knight and Silk Song's game design, lore, art, atmosphere and overall world building are so incredibly good.

Personally I blame Silksong's difficulty on the guy who proved it was possible to beat Nightmare King Grimm without jumping once (it involved a lot of carefully-timed usage of Dark Dive to abuse the invincibility frames). I think Team Cherry took that rather personally.

In Hollow Knight the difficult moments are punctuations, memorable and challenging, but with easier sections in between allowing the player to absorb the world. In Silksong it feels like most of the game is challenging and difficult without much let-up. That’s the key difference for me and it’s why I find Silksong quite tiring

Explore, they say. Read the room, they say. Cowards. Every. Single. One of them. My blade too heavy to walk back with, my pride to large to swallow. I know but one way. Forward. Either I overcome, or reality itself ends beneath the sheer weight of my ire

I never really felt lost in either Game.
I felt wonder and excitement from exploring Areas i didnt know yet.

The only thing I hate is getting your 2 mask gone just for touching the boss and some normal as NPC. Especially when mask are so hard to come by

Very interesting analysis. I have somewhat mixed feelings about the online community being an intended part of the game experience. I don’t love needing to break up my gaming experience to pull up my phone and look things up online. I’d rather the game be able to explain everything it needs to me through the game itself. But at least it’s cool to know that the online community is a part of the intended experience of playing the game. Makes it feel less like cheating or caving and more just what you’re meant to do.

Yeah, I kinda figured after I found Bilewater.

13:55 Sorry Team Cherry, but NOT ONCE in your game have I "given up on a challenge" because it was "too hard". I know how to deal with problems even without having a dash! This was so serious that I wasnt even captured, and send to the slab, completely skipping that part of the game. I WILL NOT SWALLOW MY PRIDE!

Something no one seems to mention: the game is only hard on the first playthrough. Play it again after you beat it, and you will be amazed how much better you are at it. You can only experience something for the first time once. On the second go, you know what you're doing, you know where everything is, and how to fight all of the bosses is more baked into your muscle memory than you realize. Just last night, I beat Groal the Great on the first try, when on the first play through it took me about 2 or 3 hours. This has been happening the whole way through. The Last Judge I beat on the third try. I beat Trobbio on the first try just before going to bed, figuring, "what the hell, I'll give it a try." Easily the best $20 I've spent in a long time.

EDIT: Add the First Sinner to the list of bosses I beat in the first try on the second playthrough.

My children love to watch me play Hollow Knight and Silksong, and them seeing me die over and over without giving up has taught them a lot about not giving up in the face of failure. Many times I would take a break, finishing some wishes, and come back later to emerge victorious against a boss.  Team Cherry built masterpieces.

i don't mind if the fight is hard, it's the parkour back to the boss that annoys me

last judge is easy to learn though, as it's not very chaotic. compare that to a gauntlet in a narrow room of multiple flying enemies with projectiles and explosions, these are the worst.

I love this game, I'm closing in on the end of act 3. But one thing that has bothered me the whole playthrough is, as you mentioned, that most bosses/gauntlets give no rewards at all. This is, in my opinion, the only real blunder of silksong imo (although maybe bilewater was needlessly cruel). Not all people are intrinsically motivated. Many, like me can certainly appreciate intrinsic rewards, but are still heavily motivated by extrinsic rewards. Not getting any reward at all for beating a tough boss feels really shitty. And no, the door opening to another punishing area is not a sufficient reward imo.

4:45 This is crazy because they in turn actually did do a form of this in Silksong with Trobbio's feather as a reward

I have to admit it but, hollow knight the first game I started playing when silk song released geniunely made me feel like for the first time as a gamer I was learning new skills and actually developing my abilities from previous only playing Fps games. Then came the 2nd hornet fight. BOY. I STRUGGLED. I spent 2 afternoons after work fighting her and failing because lacked the skills to pay attention to the boss and focus on my knight and also swat away her spike traps, fps games focused me into a tunnel vision and because of that I struggled,  but hollow knight geniunely broke that down and forced me to evolve and eventually I defeated her. Best achievement from a game I've had in years honestly. I'm playing silk song now and the skills I developed from the first game are the only things that help me do so well in silk song now, currently at the citadel and I'm so glad I played the first game and learned what I needed to learn. Hollow knight is a great teacher lol 😂 (feels so good cause I don't spend alot of time on bosses in silk song now)

12:04 the giant ant can be beaten even without dash. If you notice the layout of the boss room, theres a big area where the ant can jump and an area where the ceiling is low. And you can beat him easily if you stay only in that location. Things like that is why I love this game! There are plenty of ways to beat a challenge and make it easier if you are creative enough and if you are observant enough. This also happens on another boss fight with skull tyrant. You can fight him the hard way or the easy way. Just be observant on the boss room.

Something I’ve always said is that the gameplay rewards patience and slowness. Learning patterns, exploring areas.. it’s a masterpiece

11:47 i went straight into hunter's march as my 3rd area 😭😭😭 I didn't know i was supposed to turn around and look somewhere else