Recent reviews by Ledgem

This would be game of the year if not for Expedition 33 being released in the same year, and only because I think that game is more innovative in its genre where as silksong is perfecting the fundamentals of its genre.

Silksong takes everything in the metroidvania genre and maximizes it. Its world is huge and full of secrets. The routing is ridiculous and no two playthroughs will look exactly the same. It rewards exploration and thinking outside the box. Its controls are fluid and feel like second nature to those familiar with the genre.

For some, there are complaints in difficulty, but I think a big part of that comes a lack of practice, not a skill issue. This is a game made for people like me, catered to metroidvania sickos. People who have played the greats of the genre and desire more, who have mastered platforming and 2D sidescroller combat. I wouldn't even call it the most challenging metroidvania; that goes to Nine Sols. It's not the most obtuse exploration, that goes to La Mulana. It's not the hardest platformer, that goes to games like Celeste and its mod community. No, this game challenges you on all fronts, fronts where if you played the hardest of their respective genres and enjoyed them, you will come to understand this as a masterpiece of blending them all together.

But blending them together requires experience in all of them. And this is a game whose dificulty curve starts where hollow knight left off; perfectly reasonable for a sequel, but maybe not what many have come to expect from new releases nowadys.

I don't fault anyone for struggling, for taking a break, or for giving up on silksong. It is hard. Not the hardest, not even close, but for the inexperienced, it very much is. I myself take for granted just how second nature the controls feel, even as I get new upgrades. How I effortlessly move about the world and then hear friends and strangers talk about their struggles with environmental travels. How enemies and bosses who gave me a fun duel and a few deaths have given others hellish runbacks and rage inducing defeats. I take it for granted that I am an expert in this genre, where others are not. I can't hit a moving target in an FPS, I can't control multiple units in an RTS. But I can solve puzzles, navigate a map blind without ever buying the compass, and I can fight a a boss after a platforming gauntlet without breaking a sweat. Not everyone can do that.

To those who want to find joy in this game but struggle with the difficulty, I tell you with sincerity. Get Good. Get stronger. Play Celeste. Play La Mulana. Play Nine Sols. Hell, go back to the roots and play Super Metroid. Symphony of the night. Megaman X. Donkey Kong Country 2. Link to the Past. Any number of 2D platformers and action games and any kind of exploring game. I didn't start silksong gud, I got gud because ive played a lot of games and learned the fundamentals over the years. I guarantee afterwards you will find silksong significantly easier and more aproachable.

But not everyone has time for that. I get it. And silksong is the hot new thing! I also guarantee if you practice and keep at it, it will eventually grow to be second nature. But I can't guarantee you will enjoy every step of the way. Maybe silksong isn't for you in the end. Its like fighting games too, it requires practice.

But even if you don't like it, even if you think its garbage because its hard, please understand. For me, and others like me, it's a masterpiece. I recommend it to anyone who wants to try one of if not the best and most well rounded metroidvania ever made. But if it's your first one, you're gonna be jumping into the deep end. Like me as a kid playing megaman X for the first time. even Chill Penguin and his stage was a monumental feat to overcome. You gotta keep at it. Be persistent. Keep a cool mind. Take breaks. Practice. Play other games of the genre first or accept that you're getting ahead of yourself and understand you're playing hard mode.

Should the game have an easy mode? probably. I believe every game should have effectively all forms of "cheats" and accessibility features easily available for those that desire it. Not everyone has the time for mastery, not everyone has the capability to get as strong as might be necessary or even _enjoy_ certain aspects of the game. but that is the risk of the genre. Its a blend of multiple genres. And enjoying it to its fullest requires enjoyment of all its aspects and knowledge of the fundamentals. But you can enjoy it a little bit just fine if that's all you want.

But to those that want silksong at its best, please, play other games first. Learn your fundamentals. Come back to later after. But if you really want to just play silksong, be it because of the 7 years of hype, because its the new popular thing, or because you only play new things, know that it is designed for people like me. Experienced players who like all aspects of the metroidvania, platforming, exploration, and combat, and want a bigger challenge than your average metroidvania.

If you get nothing else from reading this review, I hope it helped inform where fans of the game are coming from when we say this is a masterpiece, or gives you a stranger to nod your head along with in understanding.

Better than the witness, but impossible to have without it.

This is one of the best games I have ever played. I cannot recommend this game enough to anyone who loves exploring and solving mysteries.

This was my first space game and the controls took a little getting used to, but nothing that felt immediately upsetting.

The DLC has an issue for me, but there is an assist option that removes my one complaint with the game.

This game actually surpasses La Mulana for me in terms of exploration puzzle gameplay, which was easily in my top games of all time. Beautiful game. Emotional game. I crave more.

Controls are uh, "unique". not a fan of "crouch then hold a to jump a tiny gap".

I was told it was like La Mulana. It is not. I hate it.


edit: I still hate it. played it a bunch more, got credits. if you like sokoban go wild. I like the parts of this game that _aren't_ sokoban puzzles. There are things that make it more fun, I left off last time kinda at the "miner stopping before diamonds" meme. It made things a lot better for a little while.

But then the game gets real tedious. it does not respect your time and is filled with lots of repetition and busywork. There are tidbits of fun and cool in this game for non-sokoban sickos, but they are few and far between.

I do not recommend this game unless you love sokoban or are DESPERATE for even a GRAIN of the metroidbrainia genre of game.

While very neat aesthetically, the narrator quickly became annoying and presumptuous about the player's actions and should have avoided using "you" and "your" or given more options as I quickly felt disconected from my blob and all the emotions claimed felt incredibly forced and, like the void, empty.

Dificulty wise I found the main game to be a giant tutorial and upon trying the post-game "void mode" found it was both the real meat of the game but sadly left a bitter taste in my mouth and I have no real want to complete it. The game lacks a dificulty curve and goes from mind numbingly easy to dreadfully dificult with no real middleground. Many deaths seem to require forsight to bypass on a first try or be up to luck. Thankfully, in the main game this is mitigated by frequent checkpoints and while not so great design wise is quickly forgotten. In Void mode however, the game feels like platformer romhack design in that there is a lot of waiting, needless spikes for precision platforming in long puzzle areas, and the oppening has you face to face with an enemy and flat terrain and is just an awful introduction to the mode that left me feeling "Really game?".

While I do have negative complaints, let them not be the entirety of my view on the game aside from aesthetics. I enjoyed the combination of platform and painting puzzle elements and I would like to see more done in this vein without resorting to the void mode levels of dificulty! There are amazing ideas at work here and I think they are more in need of fine tuning and dificulty balancing than being anywhere near outright bad. I hope to see more from these devs in the future, and hope they improve along the way!

Amazing game. Decent amount of replayability and challenging puzzles for any fan of top-down zelda-esque adventure games.