What Did We Play Yesterday?

Well, my Silksong journey is coming to an end, I think. I got stuck on the challenge room at Craw Lake, but I figured out I could actually explore Shellwood (before, I assumed I couldn't pass the water for some reason). I did that, but the difficulty ramped up a notch. I found myself avoiding enemies and dying more. I guessed (correctly) I'd be getting a wall jump ability somewhere in this area, so I held out for that (and it was VERY hard won), but at this stage the difficulty definitely feels more punishing than rewarding. Damage is stacked in such a way, if I make one or two mistakes I'm toast, and it feels... IDK, unwarranted?

I decided to explore some new nooks and crannies in the map with my cling grip ability, but I am starting to find the challenge rooms overwhelming and a bit too frustrating. I think if I could explore for a bit with less gated obstacles it would help, but it is what it is.

I really enjoyed the first eight hours of this game, though! I guess I could play through it with mods, but the mods just emphasize how the boss and challenge room setups run counter to what I find enjoyable about gaming and that's not fun either. I returned to Hollow Knight a few times, so I'm sure I'll eventually come back to this one, but it's kinda weird how within about a day, it was like a few levers were flipped and it simply wasn't that fun anymore.

Well, I beat Lace my first try this session, which was nice. I circled back around to Mooshka and had enough fleas to earn a bonus trip to other lands, and I was able to unlock an extra bell station and found a fucked up town... but I can't do anything to help yet, so bye for now.

Once I'd explored that area as far as I could, I was kinda stumped where to go next, so I retread the map again and realized I wrongly assumed I couldn't progress in Far Fields. I picked up the long-awaited drift ability, and got clobbered by Fourth Chorus.

My boss encounters always start the same way. First time, the thing clobbers me and I'm like oh my god this is impossible that's it I'll never get past it. Second time, I last long enough to say, oh, okay, here are the patterns. And so on. So I'm optimistic about beating her next time.

I beat the chungus (by luring him into the tunnel so he couldn't jump--score!) and got to the second flower area which is much more challenging. I did OK and found a flea there, but ultimately decided to seek out upgrades before trying again.

Speaking of fleas... I've rescued several and I still haven't returned to the circus. I need to do that.

Lace is proving a challenge. I was having trouble figuring out how much damage she was taking, and learned she gets dazed at the end of each phase, and during the third she has a new attack. So I've gotten that far, at least. I experimented with pogoing her, but the results were kinda mixed. It's probably better to dash attack and be really patient.

Welll maybe I'm not quite ready for Lace yet. I explored the map a bit more and found a sekrit area that needs a sekrit key (boo). I skipped the first little flowers section earlier, because I heard the red flowers were bedeviled, but I decided to give it a shot. The trickiest part, by far, is heading back up because you have to pogo-bounce, switch direction, and bounce the other way, and that did take a few tries. The biggest bummer of all? The hidden secret wasn't anything I needed.

I always try to spend rosary beads as soon as possible so I picked up the trap which is uhhh really useful? Yay!

After combing the map again, my paths forward are between two bosses, Lace and Big Chungus. More on this as it develops.

Continuing to have a great time. I've been finding these little fleas and freeing them, which reminds me I need to double back at some point and work on those quests I started.

I reached a few dead ends and realized I needed a way to cross lava, so I got the charm from Forge Daughter and shortly after got the extremely useful dash ability.

I stopped playing after Lace clobbered me a few times. This boss feels very doable, I just need to revisit when I'm fresh. So far, most bosses kill me the first time right out of the gate but by the third attempt or so I've got it. My issue is I often get impatient, because fighting bosses makes me nervous, and I need to just relax and take my time.

Silksong continues to delight. The Bell Beast ended up being a really doable battle but also a glimpse of what's to come, because ultimately it's "just pattern memorization" but if I made 1 mistake, say on the beast's dive maneuver, I could easily lose half of my health or die outright. Bell Beast has really obvious pattern signals, but I know later bosses will be a lot more subtle and my reaction windows will be a lot narrower both in terms of time and space.

One change in this game is it seems to be a bit more open in terms of paths to take. And this is a metroidvania, so if you reach a path where it seems impossible to go forward, it is, you need an item or ability. This game also has quests. Some are simple, like donate shards, and others require you to bullseye 12 whomprats on your T-16 back home or whatever.

Unlocking the subway system (I'm not sure what it's called in this game... maybe the bell system?) has been useful, and I'm continuing to make a point of spending rosary beads as often as I can to avoid losing them to death.

I wasn't going to get Silksong because I knew it would be too hard. I figured I'd watch a playthrough. But then I decided... fuggit we roll. I'll just treat it like I treated the first one and bumble along until I need a break.

So far, it's awesome! I love the art, the characters are fun, and the difficulty has been manageable. This game gives you a way to store currency (stringing rosary beads) so the death penalty isn't as harsh. I've been going around in a loop, exploring all the maps I have access to and trying to buy up all the things. I attempted to fight the worm in the bell room and was immediately clobbered, so when I get to a good place in terms of rosaries I'll try again.

I've been playing the heck out of this game but keep forgetting to take screenshots and/or blog so here's a few.

I actually started a new game with the goal of solving rooms in an orderly fashion so I could better keep track of my progress, but by the time I got to the later islands that sorta fell apart and I'm back to hopping around doing what I can. Fortunately, the map has been updated (I think?) and shows icons on islands where you have unsolved puzzles, which helps.

There are a few puzzle types I don't like (noooot a fan of ice), and I find the little wind elemental things confusing to use, but I've made very decent progress on most of the islands. There are a few puzzles, like the one for the green relic, where I feel the mechanics aren't adequately explained and need better visual cues, but I've been able to experiment my way through most of it with minimal hint hunts. And actually, getting hints on this game is kind of a pain because the developer continues to refine the puzzles and I found the puzzles I had the most trouble with had outdated solutions online (yay).

There are puzzles that are impossible to solve if you haven't unlocked certain powers, and sometimes it can be difficult to tell if that's the case, but after scratching my noggin repeatedly on currently unsolvable puzzles I've sort of gotten a feel for looking at a puzzle and recognizing there should be a certain element present, and I probably need to unlock something and come back.

For an "oh, that looks cute!" impulse buy, this has been a brainburny, good time. I've put in about 30 hours which is definitely at the high end, considering I haven't completed everything. People can be anecdotal assholes about this sort of game ("I 100% it in 10 hours" sure whatever Steve) but there are 12 of each collectible and 109 stars, so if you're a better than average puzzler you can probably complete it around 25 hours.

I'm not sure how far I'll go, because I'm happy with the experience and I'm not sure I want to hem and haw too much over the more tedious puzzles, but historically I get tired of games around 40 hours so that's probably when I'll call it.