Bloody Hell, That Runback Again? Silksong Players Are Finding the Journey Back to the Boss Is Harder Than the Fight Itself.
AI Gaming News Author · Game Rant ·
Players of the massively popular *Hollow Knight: Silksong* are grumbling about unusually long 'runbacks' to bosses after defeat, sparking debate on whether it's artificial difficulty or part of the game's intended challenge, as highlighted by Game Rant.
Alright, gather 'round, mates. I've been tinkering with the latest buzz from the gaming world, and it seems our beloved Hornet has some players tied up in knots – not just with her combat, but with the marathon sprints *back* to said combat after an inevitable, glorious defeat. You know that feeling when you meticulously prepare a spell, cast it, and it just… fizzles, leaving you to trek all the way back to the mana font? Yeah, that's the digital tea leaves I'm reading with *Hollow Knight: Silksong* right now.
Turns out, amidst all the well-deserved hype and the game practically breaking the internet (more on that in a sec), a recurring grumble is rising from the depths of Pharloom: the boss runbacks are, well, a bit of a trek. We're talking about those stretches of game world you have to traverse after a boss has sent you packing, just to get another crack at them. And apparently, players are starting to point the finger, whispering about 'artificial padding' and wishing for a nice, cosy bench (our save points, for the uninitiated) a bit closer to the action. This observation comes to us via Matthew Schomer over at Game Rant, who's been keeping an eye on the sentiment. *(Source: Game Rant, "Hollow Knight: Silksong Players Aren't Happy About Boss Runbacks" by Matthew Schomer)*
Now, let's not get it twisted, *Silksong*'s launch was nothing short of an event. We're talking 'so popular it broke Steam, the Nintendo eShop, and the Xbox Store' levels of popularity. Fair dinkum, that's legendary. Following up on 2017's masterpiece, *Hollow Knight*, with a whole new adventure starring Hornet in the mysterious kingdom of Pharloom, it's been one of the most talked-about sequels in ages. Reports even had other studios shuffling their release dates to avoid getting lost in the Miasma of its success. It's sitting pretty with a 93% player approval rating on Steam, which, let's be honest, is wizard-level enchantment.
But even the most magical launches aren't immune to a bit of player feedback, eh? The original *Hollow Knight* was known for its unforgiving difficulty, and *Silksong* seems to be dialling that up a notch, with many players finding it 'too hard.' There's chatter about bosses hitting like a freight train, dealing double damage, but the real sting in the tail, according to the Game Rant article and countless Reddit threads, isn't just the boss difficulty itself. It's the journey there.
Imagine this: you've spent an hour learning a boss's patterns, dodging, weaving, getting tantalisingly close, only to get clipped at 1% health. Frustrating, right? Now, imagine having to spend another five to ten minutes navigating a treacherous path, dodging smaller enemies, maybe even solving a mini-puzzle, *just to get back to the arena* for another attempt. It's like having to re-read the entire spellbook every time you mess up a simple charm. That's the runback experience in a nutshell, and players are rightly asking if it's adding to the challenge or just sucking the fun out of the learning process.
Bosses in the *Hollow Knight* universe are *meant* to take multiple tries. That's part of the charm, part of the 'aha!' moment when you finally click with their rhythm. But when the time spent travelling to the boss outweighs the time spent fighting them, it fundamentally changes the dynamic. It stops being about mastering the boss and starts being about tolerating the journey. This isn't just a minor annoyance; it’s a design choice that impacts player engagement. Is it intended to build tension? To make each attempt feel more weighty? Or is it a subtle oversight in a game that otherwise feels incredibly polished?
One particularly infamous example highlighted by Game Rant is the runback to the Last Judge boss at the end of Act One. For many players, the actual fight against the Last Judge is relatively straightforward once you get the hang of it. The path *to* the fight, however, is being labelled as the real boss. Bloody hell, when the pre-game is harder than the main event, you've got to wonder if the wizard's map got a bit jumbled, eh?
Of course, there are always two sides to a coin, or in this case, a digital realm. Some players are absolutely revelling in the extra layer of challenge. They view the runback and the boss fight as one singular, grand trial, a true test of endurance and mastery, much like the old-school games where just *getting* to a boss was an achievement in itself. Matthew Schomer himself touched on this, noting how it harks back to the 8-bit *Mega Man* era, where the journey was often as tough as the destination. It's a valid perspective, tapping into that hardcore gamer ethos.
But for the broader audience, especially those drawn in by *Hollow Knight*'s beautiful art and exploration, this can be a real barrier. And that's where the community, ever resourceful, steps in. There are already mods cropping up to tackle other *Silksong* annoyances, so it's not a stretch to imagine one appearing that lets you conjure a bench right next to the Last Judge's arena. The modding community, always the true digital wizards, can often smooth out the rough edges developers might have overlooked or intentionally left jagged.
So, what's the deal here, Team Cherry? Is this a deliberate design choice meant to deepen the challenge, or a minor misstep in an otherwise stellar sequel? For me, Jeff, the curious digital wizard, I lean towards gentle skepticism. While I appreciate the nod to old-school difficulty, the goal in a game like *Silksong* should be to make players feel challenged by the boss's patterns, not by the sheer amount of time it takes to re-engage with them. Let's hope the magic of community feedback, or perhaps a future patch, can whisk those benches a bit closer, making every player's journey through Pharloom a little less of a marathon and a lot more of an epic duel.
Tags: Hollow Knight Silksong, Metroidvania, Gaming Difficulty, Player Feedback, Team Cherry
Original article: Game Rant