I’ll just say it: I’m a big video game guy, and I’m so good at video games. Silksong? Easy. I’m not like other gamers — I don’t struggle. Okay, time to get real. Hollow Knight is a hard game, and Silksong is no walk in the park either. When I first played Hollow Knight seven years ago, I got my butt handed to me on a silver platter. Partly because I hadn’t touched many platformers back then, and partly because the game was engineered to make you sweat. The Mantis Lords demanded laser focus, and the first Hornet fight showed me exactly how brutal an agile enemy could be. The Nightmare King? The Path of Pain? Let’s just say I learned the meaning of “trial by fire.”

Fast forward to 2026, and Hollow Knight: Silksong is finally here after what felt like a lifetime. I was fully prepared to get wrecked all over again. Not just because my platforming skills are still shaky, but also because of small changes like the downward strike, which completely threw me for a loop at first. But then muscle memory kicked in, and the opening hours felt surprisingly manageable. Don’t get me wrong — Silksong wasn’t a piece of cake. It just felt like I wasn’t fumbling around as badly as I did seven years ago. That comfort didn’t last long.

Then the Second Half Arrived

I’m now 25 hours deep into Silksong, and while I’m avoiding Google at all costs, I’m trying to see and do absolutely everything the game has to offer. Side quests, secret areas, NPC interactions — you name it. At this rate, I’m going to run out of pins to stick in my map. But here’s the kicker: even though I have more tools, abilities, and health than ever before, the difficulty has started testing me in ways I didn’t see coming. Side quests are throwing boss fights at me that have me learning every attack pattern like the back of my hand. One side quest had me trading blows with a certain Disgraced Chef Lugoli, and I won’t lie, that fight taught me a thing or two about humility. Platforming sections are making me set the controller down, take a deep breath, and question my life choices. This is the Hollow Knight experience I signed up for, and it’s hitting hard.

The Walls I Keep Hitting

Right now, the struggle bus is real, and these are the things making me sweat:

• 🎮 Side quest boss runs that require me to memorize every move or get flattened.

• 🕹️ Platforming gauntlets that make me put the controller down and breathe.

• 🗺️ Secret area exploration where one wrong jump sends me back to square one.

• 📌 Map pin management because I’m running out of markers faster than I can find new ones.

Overwhelmed, but in a Good Way

I’m probably only halfway through my time with Silksong, and every time I stumble into a new area, it opens up into another new area, then another, all with secret interconnections hiding treasures and lore. Is anyone else feeling overwhelmed but in a “please don’t stop” kind of way? Because same.

Now, instead of sitting down for a few hours to make progress, I sit down to run into a few walls, painstakingly climb over them, and then take a break so I don’t double my grey hair count before I hit 30. But damn, if this isn’t exactly what I wanted from Hollow Knight: Silksong. Knowing the second half is going to be a long, troubling road makes me even more excited. Bring it on.

With the promise of such a long, brutal road ahead, I’m setting up little rituals to pace myself. Besides taking deep breaths between platforming gauntlets, I’ve gotten into the habit of planning my next gaming purchases while I let my hands stop shaking.

Since the backlog is just as intimidating as Silksong’s map, I tend to use a game price tracker whenever I catch myself eyeing up indie darlings or upcoming DLC. It helps me stay patient, knowing I can wait for the right price rather than impulse-buying out of frustration after getting flattened by some optional boss. For now, it’s all about pacing, patience, and enjoying the climb - one pixel-perfect jump at a time.