Hollow Knight: Silksong has been widely lauded as a masterpiece, but not without some complaints and dissenting opinions. While the game’s punishing difficulty has been an exciting gauntlet for many players, it’s been a source of frustration for others. Unlike the moderate challenge posed by the first Hollow Knight, Silksong takes no prisoners.
Team Cherry addressed complaints about Hollow Knight: Silksong‘s intense difficulty spikes in a book available at the ACMI Game Worlds exhibition in Melbourne, as reported by Dexerto. Team Cherry co-director Ari Gibson acknowledged that “Silksong has some moments of steep difficulty,” but emphasized that the game’s freedom can prevent players from “getting stonewalled.”
Gibson also notes Hornet’s increased capabilities compared to the Knight in the first game, sharing that “Hornet is inherently faster and more skillful — so even the base level enemy had to be more complicated, more intelligent.” Co-director William Pellen adds that “the basic ant warrior is built from the same move-set as the original Hornet boss.”
Silksong Devs Addresses Game’s “Steep Difficulty”
Silksong Is Meant To Provide Options
Team Cherry’s comments track with the concept of Silksong as an evolution of Hollow Knight. The idea was to “bring everyone else up” to compete with Hornet’s intensity, resulting in more complex challenges and possibilities in virtually every encounter.
As Gibson emphasizes, taking full advantage of Silksong‘s non-linearity can certainly make a difference. Every player will have a unique opinion about which challenges are the hardest, and it might be worth backing off from a tough boss to come back after a useful reward from a platforming segment or vice versa.
Why Silksong’s Difficulty Has Become So Hotly Debated
Not Every Challenge Is Equally Fun
That said, players who are finding Silksong to be aggressively frustrating tend to have their reasons. It’s certainly a spike from the first game, and relatively casual gamers or those with accessibility concerns might find the new game out of their reach after loving the original. Complaints also focus on specific concerns, some of which Team Cherry’s explanation doesn’t entirely address, and tweaks in the game’s first patch didn’t necessarily focus on the biggest frustrations.
The non-linearity, for example, doesn’t always feel that rewarding. Many of the game’s challenges result in very minor rewards, so lucking across something that actually makes a difference in the next boss fight may not happen very often. Other complaints have fixated on elements like expensive benches, long runbacks, and fights that fill the arena with flying enemies, all of which can prove more demoralizing than a classically tough boss.
Seeing Hollow Knight: Silksong‘s challenges through to the end can result in one of the most astounding game experiences of the year, with plenty of beautiful details and fantastic fights scattered throughout Pharloom. Team Cherry’s comments on the difficulty are unlikely to make any new converts, but it’s nice to have some insight into the thought process behind Hollow Knight: Silksong.
- Released
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September 4, 2025
- ESRB
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E10+ For Everyone 10+ // Fantasy Violence, Mild Blood
- Developer(s)
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Team Cherry
- Publisher(s)
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Team Cherry
- Engine
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Unity
- Franchise
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Hollow Knight
- Number of Players
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Single-player
- Steam Deck Compatibility
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Verified
- PC Release Date
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September 4, 2025
