I've very torn about Silksong, there's some really solid combat and versatility thanks to the crests and tools, some bosses are such a thrill to fight (Cogwork Dancer, First Sinner, Trobbiooooo) but on the other hand it seems like the game is intent on pissing you off.

So many bosses summon trash mobs instead of having an interesting moveset, some runbacks are awful (looking at you Groal), there's very few areas that are fun to traverse ( stuff like maggot water or the constant dark sections filled with see-at-the-last-second traps really sap the fun out it) also I feel like regular enemies have too much health, fighting them gets tedious.

This is why I paused my playthrough of the game for the time being, that and the fact that Hades 2 is so much more fun and rewarding. I'll come back later to Silksong but right now I'm annoyed with it.

Hades is amazing. I'm close to 70h and is just so addictive I don't want to let it go! It's even better than the first one which was also great, but 2 is just the perfect sequel. Bigger, more complex, more interesting weapons and boons, more variety in bosses and endmies. The fact Melinoe has a mana bar really make combat more tactical

Meta progression is less streamlined but still fun how you organically unlock everything rather seamlessly, peak game design imo

Once you get many upgrades you will find a game a breeze, that's when speedrunning and terror runs comes to scene to spice things a bit

The game works very well for people who wants short bursts of entertainment because a run can be easily finished from start to end in less than 30 min

I can't recommend it enough for people who likes action games

Seems written by AI tbh

I agree with some of these tbh. The Groal runback is absolute ass. Three whole areas with maggot water are pretty ass too. And I agree the needle does too little damage overall, I always wished the upgrades were more meaningful immediately after getting them but enemies took forever to kill consistently throughout the game. The fact that you can't kill the little bats in 1 hit even with the fully upgraded needle is just kinda ridiculous.

I loved Act 3 a lot (despite wishing the needle was stronger), that part of the game is the reason why I consider this game amazing and close to the original in quality. But I think ultimately, I do prefer Hollow Knight to Silksong.

And yeah Hades 2 rules.

Yes, Silk is used for healing and skills.  Knowing how many hits it takes to fill your gauge in order to use your silk skill is a skill.  Knowing how many hits you can get on an enemy within a second is a skill.  Knowing how to use your movement to get in hits is a skill. Knowing the right height to jump to hit an enemy is a skill. Understanding how enemies move and their moveset is a skill.  All of those are skill issues which require the player to pay attention to those issues in order for the them to be able to use all of their abilities.

So there is a risk to reward in the system.  Do I use my silk skill when low on health when I believe it will kill or do I heal and be safe.  Do I be aggressive in getting that hit in to top off my silk and heal or do I play it safe.  Do I heal now and risk getting hit and losing all my silk or wait until I see an opening.  All of those are skill issues and decisions that come with understanding the game, your abilities and the enemies.  Would it make the game easier if certain enemies did not take 2 heath bars or running into a boss did not take 2 health bars or getting nuked if you are hit while healing.  YES it would make the game easier and its definitely not what the devs wanted.  The game is pretty easy once you figure out all of its mechanics.  Even biowater is a breeze once you understand movement better. 

The fun part I like to do is after I finish a boss to see how others finished the boss. There was a time when I never used the clawline for hits but its such a perfect skill to use for a lot of bosses as well as enemies.  It closes the distance and allow you to jump to the other side of the area when needed.  It refills your silk when you get a successful hit on an enemy and allows you to either pogo or hit for another damage before you need to jump away.

The game gives you all the tools to be a boss in the game but people get stuck in doing the same thing over and over again, never adapting or changing tactics and then cry that the game is tough.  Its not the game being tough, its that you are not adapting to the situation.

And that's the issue. Many parts of the game don't look designed around "this will be fun" but rather "this should be the hardest and most annoying possible." Shellwood comes to mind. Mobs are slow, dumb, with uninteresting movesets  but they fly away from you all the time. Killing them is purely a matter of patience because you need to hit them 5–6 times. I simply don't have that much patience, which leads me to fail more and die more. It's just not a fun gameplay loop for me

Sometimes, more difficulty doesn't improve the experience and that's the case of many areas here. I like to be constantly tested against a boss with a difficult moveset to learn and react to, like, for instance, Last Judge. Died for like a whole night against him and still found the fight fun. But I absolutely hate bosses that summon minions (flying minions, to make it worse) and turn the combat into something more RNG-based like, let's say, Sister Splinter

You can make a game harder and still satisfying somehow, with better mechanics. One area that is a good example of difficulty, while also a bad example of difficulty, is Sinner's Road. I like the fact that you can’t simply heal if you touch the putrid water it gives you a fair punishment for making a mistake without ruining your run, and gives you the opportunity to heal again if you beat enough enemies

What does this area do wrong? It locks you out of a bench (a bench you paid rosaries to get) with a hidden platforming section. Okay, you want to increase difficulty by making me earn the bench? Fine, even with the annoying runback from Greymour, I'd still think that's fair. What isn't fair, however, is making it extremely hard to even find the platforming section. I totally missed it until my second playtrough and I needed to look for a guide, which means you're locked out of a bench during Sinner's Road and need to always go back to Greymour. And… for what reason? To make the playtime longer? More stressful? 

Goty for me

Hollow Knight is probably better in terms of exploration and combat, but I like the story and setting of Silksong more. Even so, I've got to hard disagree on anyone saying the level design is poor. The environments are rich and interesting and once you complete an area you either gain skills or open up easier paths to make traversing it again easy. The only places I didn't like the game was long run-backs to a boss and thankfully that was only a handful of the difficult ones.

I can't speak on Silksong yet. I've only recently started playing the first Hollow Knight. It's a great game so far. It's hard, but, aside from a couple of optional areas/bosses, isn't as soul-crushingly difficult as I had heard. It's not an easy game by any stretch, but it is a mostly fair challenge (Primal Aspids can go the hell, though). There have been multiple fights (e.g., the Watcher Knights, the Trial of the Fool) that gave me a hard time and took me several tries. But once I learned all the enemy patterns and everything, and actually took the time to beef up the Knight and tried the right combination of charms whenever possible, I eventually prevailed in those various encounters. I'm currently in Godhome trying to complete each Pantheon at least once. Took me about four times to beat the first one (had to practice on the main boss of the run a bit), I beat the second one on my first attempt, but the third one was a massive pain in the ass. Finally beat it last night after like twenty attempts. I'm on the fourth one and I have a bad feeling about that one. I already know the fifth one is a boss rush against literally every boss, so I might skip that one since it's apparently not needed for 112%, though there is an achievement for it.

I do intend on playing Silksong at some point, though I'm probably going to wait until it gets a physical release for PS5. I already have a ton of other games I need to play in the interim. I want to experience for myself whether it's as bad as some people say. I never played a Souls game until this generation, and I felt Demon's Souls and Elden Ring weren't nearly as bad as I heard the series can be. Very tough, but still mostly fair. I felt Ghosts & Goblins is a harder series where you play as a guy in armor in a dark fantasy setting.

But while I haven't played Silksong yet, I do want to talk about difficulty more broadly, but that's off-topic enough to warrant it's own thread. I will at least say in regards to the OP's statement "there's no such thing as 'artificial difficulty'" that there's a reason why TV Tropes has an entire article devoted to "Fake Difficulty." The phrases "artificial/fake difficulty" are in at least semi-common use, though there's no exact definitions and what they mean may vary from person to person.

This is where we differ because what you do not consider as fun, I found it challenging and fun.  I wanted to conquer those areas and it seems like you just wanted to breeze through them.  The thing is, once you become adept at using the abilities given to you in the game, all those areas are a breeze to get through. 

Its interesting that you say the enemies are too aggressive in a previous post and I believe they are not aggressive enough.  I have a very aggressive playstyle so I love it when enemies are aggressive because they are way easier to engage.  If I had an annoyance is when enemies run away from me which there are a few but even they have their patterns that are very easy to predict and take advantage of.

The game isn't difficult to be difficult.  Its difficult because you do not have the skill set or knowledge yet.  A lot of the bosses and battle areas are so easy now that I understand the mechanics of the game and the pros and cons to the silk skills and tools.  The key point in making any game is that you are never going to please everyone and a game developer should never even try because that will lessen your focus and vision for your game.  Instead the key to any game which makes it fun for me is did the developer give me the tools to succeed within the game and this the Devs gets a high mark.  There is nothing within Silksong where the devs did not give you plenty of tools and abilities to not only be successful in the game but a boss.

A game gets boring to me if its not making me adapt to different situations and that is what Silksong does very well.  You are never comfortable playing the game.  Enemies change with different areas and different environments have their pitfalls which you as the player need to overcome.  It they just made everything this static playstyle where all you need to do is use the same set of attacks every time, I would have jump off of it quick. 

This of course just my opinion but I believe the whole goal of the devs isn't difficulty but to make sure each and every different zone felt unique and different which than challenged the player to upgrade their abilities to overcome and adapt.  Its why you remember those areas so well because they were challenging your first go through and you as the player felt uncomfortable because you couldn't use the same skill set you developed in the previous level to the new one.  To me that is great design, for others its frustrating but like I said, as a developer, you cannot please everyone.