Recent reviews by Vaermi

If it wasn't for Baldur's Gate 3 this game would have been the game of the decade.
But when it comes to storytelling Clair Obscur is probably the best game of all time.

Congratulations Sandfall, can't wait to see what else you are cooking!

It is with a heavy heart that I leave a negative reviews for this game. I loved Hollow Knight, even going as far as doing P5 although not Path of Pain and I was very excited about Silksong finally releasing(granted I didn't have to wait as much as a lot of people here, a mere 2 years).

My list of issues with this game, with some being present even in HK (but since it's 2025 and not 2017 Silksong suffers more from them) are many but first let's talk about the good.

1. Art direction and animations are on point just like the previous game but since Hornet has a plethora of possible movements that Ghost didn't have access to I'd say Silksong does it better.
2. Mechanically a great game, Hornet's kit fit both her character and enable the game to do more things in regards to enemies and exploration.
3. Bosses both look and feel great, it's very fun to progress a boss and learn which moves you can pogo off.
4. Crests, while limiting in some cases, are great overall, offering a variety of playstyles.(Reaper my beloved)

The bad.

1. Difficulty curve was given 0 thought, after Hunter's March the game pretty much doesn't care about what difficulty it throws at you. Some areas play alright, others you are getting ganked by flying mobs throwing projectiles while you have to pogo on moving spikes.
2. 2 mask damage, so many things have to be said on just this point alone. Where to even begin, that it was quire rare in the first game and even then it was reserved for the endgame bosses with very telegraphed moves. 2 damage on environmental hazard while playing a Metroidvania is quite absurd, actively betraying its whole genre by making it harder to explore every nook and cranny of any given level. 2 damage for boss contact which sometimes result in 4 damage total because the boss hits you but you still end up inside its hitbox. And to top it all off, you aren't even given a lot of life to deal with all this, almost 30h in and I still only have 1 life upgrade even after a lot of backtracking to find masks that were locked behind movement upgrades(not that it would matter, since practically everything deal 2 damage so the difference between 6 life and 5 matters little).
3. You almost never get properly rewarded from the bosses as opposed to HK. They drop neither Rosaries nor Masks nor Silk which just leaves you with the frustration of fighting a hard boss and getting practically nothing from it aside from being able to progress the game.
4. Awful economy even after the patch. With so many more merchants and the addition of quests that want donations you are always starved. The only way to combat this is by grinding mobs but who wants to grind mobs in a Metroidvania, if I wanted to grind i'd play an MMO. And if that wasn't enough you need rosaries to even unlock checkpoint and fast travel, I genuinely struggle to think as to why someone would even gate checkpoints behind an easily lost currency.
5. Platforming sections in early-mid game straight out of HK endgame(Platforming of White palace and in some places even Path of Pain)
6. Egregious runbacks. I don't know what the devs have been doing the past decade but runbacks should in no way shape or form exist in a 2025 game. Bosses are significantly harder than last game which is a good thing but the last thing a player wants when they are progressing through a boss is it get thrown 5 rooms away with enemies, platforming and 2 damage hazards in between them and the boss. Takes you out of the zone completely. Even when the runback isn't hard and it's just running then it's even more unneeded and boring.
7. Rarely you actually get properly rewarded when exploring. if I did a hard platforming section or found a hidden room I expect something more than a couple of rosaries that fly all the way down or even worse Shell Shards.
8. Shell shards are such a useless currency. If they aren't maxed out(which they are 98% of the game) then they are at 0 because you are progressing through a boss. If you want to limit tool usage then make them bound to resting not by adding a currency that has almost zero use.
9. Quests are such a sad addition, when I first saw them i was intrigued but as the game progressed I realised that the Devs added the bare minimum of what can be considered quests. Fetch quests, kill 10 random mobs, Find my Mom's Uncle's Niece. Extremely uninspiring use of the quest system, such a shame.

I haven't gotten stuck in any particular boss so far but I have pretty much zero desire to continue playing this game with so many problems plaguing it. They are not even that bad by themselves but so many of them just make the game frustrating.
Nevertheless I will probably try to play it a bit more.

Great game