u/Skybetweenstars

I know this is not important and it's not the "IT RUINED THE GAME FOR ME" youtube title thing. I just think silksong's difficulty discussion took over so much of the spotlight at least in my circle, that when I got to my favorite parts/aspects of the game i was like "wait what about this cool thing?". Everything i saw was "bilewater this bilewater that", "2 damage", "runbacks".

My friend kept asking me "did you reach bilewater yet?" and i already knew it wasn't gonna be fun. So then i finally reached the area and i tried to do everything i could do in there as smoothly as possible and never set a foot in there ever again. done. I didn't think about it much after. It's not memorable or, at least in a good way. If it's not gonna be fun, why anticipate it so much then?

(act 2 and 3 spoilers ahead) Now when talking about the >!Citadel and its architecture, its music, its emptiness. First reaching the Citadel felt the same way as reaching City of Tears and it's magical. Act 2 is amazing, exploring the Citadel is fun af. The cradle section was great, especially when it's similar to the zero suit section from Metroid Zero Mission. Second Sentinel and First Sinner fights are so much fun. And can we talk about act 3 my guys? the escape from the abyss is one of the greatest moments of the entire series, good fucking lord. The bell eater twist when calling the beast AND the twist in the final moment of the bell eater fight are chef's kiss.!<

This game's discourse reminds me a lot of Devil May Cry 3's reputation back in the day. DMC3 was my first "git gud" game. my 10yo brain could not deal with this game's difficulty, I'd get stuck in the first "boss" in chapter 1 and my friends and I would talk how much difficult the game is. BUT the difference is we would never take away how much fun we're still having despite the difficulty. yeah the game is hard, but EVERYTHING in this game is so cool you just keep coming back. Dante controls like a dream, the music is great, the theming, the weapons, the cutscenes, the difficulty just couldn't hold you back. I spent days in the chapter 3 boss, but when i finally beat it, I felt like a goddess and unlocking another weapon just created another layer of "WHAT??? I CAN DO THIS NOW???"

Silksong Act 2 felt the same way. >!when finding the Citadel map and it's this massive area itself AND it also leads to the cogwork core which i love the design (i love steampunk/industrial theming), discovering the threefold melody. going through the underworks by accident, only to see how bad the Citadel treats its people. !<

This game has so many great moments and all i got to hear about it was "erm but what about bilewater?" FUCK BILEWATER.

Anyway sorry for the rant. i was just mad that all i heard was about the least interestint parts or the game and it almost made me think twice when booting the game, when actually the game is full of great moments, it's just that it expects more of the player and sometimes it can feel harsh when you just wanna explore. I still have to finish act 3, but yeah the game is great.

I think HK offers an overall better package as in it's more rewarding in its exploration which i think is the best aspect of a metroidvania. But Silksong is a better challenge i'd say. HK had a lot of "wait there's no boss here?" moments while silksong goes the other way around.

Don't get me wrong I LOVE every tiny bit of this soundtrack and back when the game was released I spent hours listening to it. But one thing that keeps me from listening it a lot nowadays after the "addiction" to the game got over is that the tracks play each and every variation that "adapts" to what's happening in the game, making kind of a queue or timeline of events in the track. It's great for appreciating all the details put into the OST, but if I'm using youtube music and a track from the game gets queued, it's a tiny bit boring to wait for the "main portions" of the track.

A great example is "this'll be rough" it's actually one of my favorite tracks in the game, full of details and variations, but because of that it gets extended to 9+ min, and if i'm just listening to some music on a bus ride I would prefer to listen to the vocal portions primarily.

So it would be cool if the game had a "ost edition" or something that select the main portions of the themes to make that "intro - verse - chorus - verse - chorus" progress more streamlined, like the boss tracks that go about 4 min long because they're based on the licensed tracks. "this'll be rough" and "i got this" would benefit a lot from that!

anyway sorry for the rant!