two days ago, i beat silksong 100% on steel soul mode, giving me the steel heart achievement. i feel obligated to write a review just because of how much this game has changed my life.

tl;dr + spoiler free part:

this game is stunning. if you like exploring, always finding new things you never would have thought you've learned regardless of how many times you replay the game, if you have time on your hands and don't mind spending it on mastering a beautiful system of combat that makes you feel like you're dancing with your opponents, this game is absolutely for you.

i do have to warn you, this game is not for people who don't have free time on your hands. this game does not respect your time. if you live a busy schedule and just want to play games for the fun of it, silksong is not that. it is an all-consuming beast that will rot your mind with rage and anger and will likely ragebait you into giving up (similar to rain world, in which i come from.) a perk is that this exposure therapy will make you immune to future ragebait, though!

if you are a busy person and you plan on toughing out silksong regardless, please be patient. there's so much to this game and you will die a lot but it's all so incredibly beautiful. i would highly recommend it to anyone who has the time, patience and curiousity to explore and save a dying kingdom.

upcoming marked spoilers for ALL of silksong + yap incoming!

when i first got the game back in last year, november, i started out without much combat and platforming experience. yes, i played silksong before i even touched hollow knight (skipped the supposed tutorial for this game, i know). i come from rain world, which is quoted by many to be another similarly difficult game, but in terms of skill i wasn't that good! sure i spent a lot of time playing the game but i had a lot of mods installed that made the game way easier for me.

and trust me! silksong is difficult. it was immensely difficult for me. each boss would take on average 2-3 hours for me to beat. platforming sections would always take me so long to figure out.

this game has brought me to tears, so many times. i remember crying because of how genuinely difficult the (act 2 spoilers from now on) clawline gauntlet was to complete. there were tears in my eyes when i fell to the lava again just because i forgot i had to wait for the silk heart to regenerate. i cried at the end of the high halls gauntlet , both because my suffering and torment were finally over, and also it broke my heart to hear the conductor sing that raspy, broken melody whilst on his deathbed.

however feeling the joy of seeing the summit of mount fay after a 4 hour climb, the satisfaction of being able to aura farm with a push of a button (cross stitch my beloved) , and dancing with the silly butterfly trobbio ... this game has also made me feel so much, especially the feeling of accomplishment. growing up i could never really have the determination to 'git gud' with video games. but now after more than 500 hours of silksong i understand. in my first playthrough, i was stuck on (act 3 spoilers from now on) skarrsinger karmelita for days. it genuinely came to a point where i thought it was impossible to beat her, or the abyss climb , or the dreaded final fight of the game...

but i toughed it out. i beat karmelita , i did the abyss climb , and i beat lost lace despite being five hits away from death at any given time and unable to heal. (i used the shaman crest glass cannon build, because i genuinely wanted to learn the fight without cheesing, and actually beat the game.) so many of the achievements were so nerve-racking - i literally gave up on the speedrunner and twisted child achievement beacause they were too hard to do, only to convince myself to have another shot at them once i was more experienced, and i went ahead and got them! steel soul was a run where i felt i was riddled with anxiety at every turn. i even had to use a guide run to help me practice the parts of the game that I was the most unfamiliar with. but surprisingly, trusting my gut and just dancing with these bosses carried me such a long way.

if there's one thing this game has taught me, it's that achievement is possible regardless of how much prior experience you have, and that the route to mastery is tedious and filled with tears and pain. but it works. eventually, as long as you keep coming back for the love of the game, find a breakable wall that you didn't know existed until your 7th playthrough, and find a hidden room you didn't know until your steel heart run, you will just keep getting better and better at the game. you will git gud, just by coming back and refusing to give up.

thank you so much, hornet for being with me at every step of the way, all the angry garamas and all the double damage you've taken with me throughout my silksong journey. i'll see you again in sea of sorrow and future dlcs. :)

and if you've read this review to the very end, thank you! please consider buying this game if you haven't already. :D

This is just hollow knight but the devs forget to hide the fact they hate you.

♥♥♥♥ Flea Juggle