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Notes -
Video games thread:
Back to Silksong after a few weeks break. A difficulty tweak mod made the game much more enjoyable for me. If you're in a similar boat to me — if you enjoyed HK1 but thought the Radiance ending challenges were too much, enjoyed the difficulty of early FromSoft games but thought they crossed a line around Sekiro/Elden Ring — I recommend the following changes to the config file, as the defaults trivialize the game a bit too much: 2x -> 1.5x Player damage, 2x -> 1.6x rosaries, disable Tool regen. On the other hand, consider changing the health regen to every 1 second; it only starts after you're 12 seconds damage free, so it won't make the boss gameplay much easier, but will make runbacks less tedious.
On my first post I complained that there's not enough exploration in Silksong. I'm glad to say the situation improves a lot once you read the Citadel at the top of the map. It acts as a massive hub area disconnected from the main fast travel network, with many hidden areas you can discover and tackle in different orders, lots of unlockable shortcuts, etc.
I can now recommend the game with a few reservations.
Is it me or does Silksong gameplay make the player rely on tools and spells way more than Hollow Knight? In particular, flying enemies seem much more of a menace, constantly dipping out of reach of the primary weapon while often chucking projectiles at you. If I'm stuck in an arena with multiple of those I basically have to blast them quickly with a spell or I'll be toast. I don't envy the "nail only" gimmick players.
I am far more nail reliant in Silksong than I was spell-reliant in HK, partly because the upgraded spells in HK were just completely OP. It always kind of hurts to use tools because shards are not actually that easy to rapidly acquire if you are aggressively using tools.
I do greatly appreciate tool repair being free for some tough act 3 battles.
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