Silksong Journal

Since I'm doing something unusual by playing a game on release, I decided to compound the bizarreness and use a journal-like format for this review.

I've grouped my thoughts by area, in the order I encountered them, which might not necessarily be the order you encounter them in. If you need to get pastan area you haven't seen without spoilers to see one you have, clicking the table of contents on the right should jump you to the area you want without revealing anything above it. It might reveal stuff below it depending on screen-size/paragraph-length though, so probably don't do that on second thoughts.

I'll start each section off with some vague, spoiler-free tips I would've found helpful for getting through the area to minimize the risk of spoilers, then dive into my impressions.

Overall Impressions

I'm 5 hours in as a start writing this and absolutely loving it, so if you're on the fence about getting the game I can wholeheartedly say go for it! It's definitely harder earlier than Hollow Knight, but you have more tools to start with and get even more fairly quickly.

Animations are so slick, there's something for absolutely everything. You glide back a bit before changing directions, jumping immediately after a ledge grab lets you immediately jump again while doing a bunch of backflips, Hornet flips away from the enemy after pogo-ing... the list goes on. You can tell just from this that they really took their time making everything perfect.

Time to set off on my pilgrimage!

Bone Bottom

Hints

Thoughts

We start with an opening cinematic which (I think) is unchanged from the initial reveal, before waking up at the bottom of the ravine Hornet's tantrum plunged everyone into. Obviously the first thing to do in any Metroidvania is look for the secret opposite the obvious direction of travel, and I had a mini heart-attack here when I thought Team Cherry spent 7 years forgetting to add this essential feature. Luckily it's just a little higher up than you might expect, so no need to uninstall the game immediately.

The run up to the first boss is a pleasant introduction to the mechanics; I was pleasantly surprised to learn Hornet can swim when I spectacularly failed the first minor platforming section and there's even a tantalizing collectible which will save you some grief later if you can figure out how to grab it. Said boss has a pretty basic moveset as expected, but still some nice variety and forces you to deal with multiple enemies/hazards. In typical metroidvania fashion you're then presented with not one, but possibly two doors you can't open yet in addition to a strangely high ceiling. You'll also meet nice old lady who Hornet immediately prepares to murder.

Luckily she collapses from exhaustion first, and you meet the first of what I'm sure will be many bugs you get incredibly attached to before their horrible deaths. Make sure you come back to visit granny every now and again, she's keen to hear what the young whippersnappers are up to. After that its into town to meet yet more bugs and a soon-to-be-finished sidequest board.

Not sure how I feel about a Hollow Knight having quests so far, on the surface it makes keeping track of what to do much easier but it just... feels weird. Three of the quests so far (out of 5) have just been straight up fetch quests to areas you've already explored for currency or some regular item, which feels especially weird. The second and third at least introduce some exploration challeges/a new enemy type respectively though, so I'll withold judgement until further in. The other two I've done introduced new characters and rewarded me with something meaningful though, so those are fine in my book.

None of those are available for you to worry about yet though, so off you head to the appropriately named Marrow.

Mysteries

The Marrow

Hints

Thoughts

Cornifer's replacement is a tall warrior bug lady who I'm sure will be a hit with... certain parts of the community. She's also very capable of looking after herself judging by the dead bugs always scattered around wherever she sets up shop. From her location you probably want to go left to grab the silk spear/meet a druid who's definitely not brewing a cauldron of THC. That allows you to unlock fast travel/make a new friend through violence, then finish exploring the menacing looking area. Enemy variety starts to pick up a bit here, with some variations on just running straight at you or following a preset path.

Speaking of enemies, I temporarily forgot I wasn't playing a souls game and didn't necessarily need to beat the boss to proceed, leading to me dying probably 50 times to that goddamn skull/club guy. I very quickly found myself wishing I had a dash to make it easier/possible to dodge his moves, but unfortunately never remembered I'd already found a way into the Deep Docks where I might have been unable to unlock said dash. Since I was stuck with just walking, jumping and pogo-ing, I had a really tough time trying to identify if he was jumping or going for a standing attack in time to pogo or just walk under the attack in time.

I ended up getting frustrated enough to watch a video of someone else beating him, which revealed the strat of trapping him in the smaller tunnel to prevent his jumping attack then just using the classic Hollow Knight 'hit then retreat' strat while he tunnelled left & right. I actually tried to beat him 'legitimately' another 20 times or so after seeing this, but eventually gave in to the cheese. The presence of the small corridor inside the boss room does make me wonder though, did Team Cherry anticipate people banging their heads against him without getting dash and leave the corridor as part of the arena to make it reasonably doable? No other mini-boss arena I've run into so far is anything other than an open space, so you have to wonder.

Mysteries

Deep Docks

Hints

Thoughts

Another step up in enemy design, now we have flying enemies that lob stuff at you from range and spear guys with reach on their attacks. Also the fact they're wearing helmets stops you from damaging them by pogo-ing, and actually deflects projectiles which hit them there. Cool little detail. ANother cool little detail is that you can parry the rocks the flying guys throw at you right back at them, or at other enemies. The shield guys are criminally underused here, their attacks are so fun and the have at least 2, maybe 3 of them. Hopefully more of them behind that door at the bottom, the room where you have to fight all the enemies from this area was a lot of fun.

Speaking of fun, Lace also wielding a needle is a great fight, the first one so far I really enjoyed. She has so many moves but they're all fair and give windows to punish, though you've gotta be quick to not get parried. You can even dodge the counterattack part of the parry if you're quick enough. Her phase two AOE attack she telegraphs beforehand looks really cool and compensates by messing you up if it hits by giving you a free hit when she lands. If you take your time to learn the moveset and stay away from the edges of the platform (most of my deaths) you'll have a great time beating her in a reasonable number of attempts. Also should point out I love the ability to grab your cocoon from most boss rooms and just leave, skull guy guaranteed spawning it right near the entrance but even though that's not the case here it's usually still possible to get it and get out.

I completely missed the forge lady for way too long despite her being just right of the bench, she seems cool and has a nice little relationship with her shovel buddy. Looking forward to unlocking the crafting kit and actually having something to use my overflowing crafting shards on, but I spent all my rosaries and there's so much to save up for...

Mysteries Uncovered

Mysteries

Far Fields

Hints

Thoughts

I actually thought this Hunter's March until I looked at the overall world map, guess there's still a whole area I haven't explored in the early game. I initially ran straight through the bottom of this area, then up to the top and what's presumably the final bench. Judging by the sheer number of thermals near the end I guess I was meant to go up and unlock the ability to fly up on those like Hornet does in the trailer, but I'll get back to that later. Speaking of the final bench, requiring (not cheap!) payment every time you want to access a bench is borderline sadistic. Not a fan of that at all, Pharloom capitalists.

The most fearsome of all enemies in this area are the little shadow dudes just hanging out under shrubbery trying to live their lives. The don't aggro you at all, just contact damage, but they make platforming annoying enough and provide easy enough silk refills that I've killed more than I'm comfortable with. How people treat these lil' guys is a far more accurate personality test than Myers-Briggs.

The bottom right area had wayyy more to it than I expected, big fan of the balloon house lady and her general attitude to life. Also a fan of they way you actually have to 'farm' the spine cores needed to upgrade your cloak, a bit more interactive than the usual 'kill x of enemy n' mechanic. They could've made it a bit clearer; I only got two accidentally and for a while thought they just weren't dropping the spines ever time, but the dead body with spines in it near the end does a good job of forcing the reveal since you're likely to hit it fighting the surrounding enemies.

The Fourth Chorus lives up to his impressive name, lots to keep track of but he never feels unfair. I really thought he wasn't going to require the ability to float at all, but the last phase makes great use of it for an insta-kill. I wonder if you can also beat him by just continuing to damage him normally? I'm mildly disappointed you can't parry the boulders back at him, but it's telegraphed by them being much larger than regular projectiles and you can still get in a bunch of free hits while he's making them rain if you're careful. Overall another fun boss, but definitely easier than Lace.

Mysteries

Hunter's March

Hints

Thoughts

Man it's a good thing they gate this behind a boss that's difficult without unlocking the dash, because this area is even harder. The enemy complexity really starts ramping up, adding ants with ranged, dash and digging attacks and bigger ants with a decent subset of Lace's moveset. And it's a challenge even getting to the enemies, with some sections that really test your ability to consistenly pogo in order to traverse them. Also some fun little traps, just for a cherry on top.

Man, this area took me so long to get through. Probably 2 hours of attempts just to clear the "here's all the enemies for this zone" challenge room, then another half hour after that to get past the platforming section immediately following it. Unfortunately I'd seen the trap bench online before I ran into it game, so I missed out on throwing my Steam Deck through a window, but I hadn't seen the lever to disable the trap behind a hidden wall so I felt a little satsified at finding that on my own. Despite the difficulty though, I actually didn't hate it.

The game really makes sure you've learned how to pogo by basically making you do it as a substitute for regular jumping, and really tests your knowledge of enemy attack patterns with the challenge room. Every time I died I felt like it was my fault for messing up, and since I got so much practice finding good routes/getting the pogo timing right the runback didnn't really bother me. I never hit the wall I do with some FromSoft bosses where I just need to put the game down and touch grass for a while; every time I failed I immediately ran right back in and felt like I could do it this time.

Having said that I was so, so happy to finally see Shakra and get an overview of the hell I just ran through, along with a shortcut back down to Deep Docks. I was slightly less happy when after a few attempts at the Savage boi I got far enough into the fight to see how many adds he can summon at once. I'm not smart/good enough to track/dodge that many enemies at once, so I'll come back once I powered up a bit. Back to Greymoor, through the proper entrance this time.

Mysteries

Wyrmway

Hints

Impressions

The first time I made it here it basically served as a longish passageway to Bellhart from the other side, as well as a way into Shellwood. Nice example of multiple paths in Metroidvanias, this makes 3 ways to Bellhart/Greymoor from the start of the game so far. The Wyrms flying down from the ceilin are easy enough to dodge, though ambushes from their offspring can be challenging to manage in the confined tunnels. Mildly annoying that the runback is as long as it is when there's a one-way detour early on, but the area is easy enough that you're unlikely to die and need the runback more than once.

Mysteries

Mysteries Uncovered

Shellwood

Hints

Impressions

Nice, relaxing area compared to the desolation of Greymoor before (?) it. Enemies here are fairly predictable other than the goddam harpoon guys who hunt the water striders (which is a cool way to show the world existing without you). Sister Splinter is another nice fight where there's a lot going on but it's still manageable, once you learn you can clear the thorns you're in business (positioning traps to deal with multiple adds also makes a big difference). And the reward for it is, finally, a mantis-claw replacement! Time to revisit pretty much everywhere I guess.

The layout of this biome makes it incredibly easy to get lost, exacerbated by the fact I still haven't found Shakra despite having half the flower cores and having beaten the boss. Will go revisit some old areas/maybe clear Greymoor before I come back and look for her. Might even find her in Greymoor and get the Shellwood map from here there (yep), which is a nice QoL feature.

The verticality is pretty cool, especially once you have a map, but needing to collect 6 plants feels like a few too many. I have 5 just from exploring, but I have a feeling number 6 is gonna require me going over the whole area with a fine-tooth comb. At least there are some quests giving you another reason to come back once you free Bellhart.

Mysteries

Mysteries Uncovered

Greymoor

Hints

Impressions

First off, I actually got here the first time by finishing the flea troupe sidequest. Love that you can get to what seems to be a midgame area early (and unlock a consumable) by completing a side quest (though it does mean missing out on the Moorwing fight). The main entrance is also pretty cool, jumping between thermals for such a long time makes you feel like it's a big deal you're going this high, as does busting through the ceiling at the end. In the end I put off properly exploring this till later and went back to the early game, ended up finding yet another way in through Shellwood/Bellhart.

The scissor guys are interesting for their ability to burrow up & down through platforms, as well as their ability to block pretty much any front-on attack. The centipede guys not so much, at least so far, I have no idea how to consistently land hits on them even if I'm perfectly capable of dodging all day.I like the little inn, and the menacing intro to Bellhart made an impact. Seems like we'll be getting some main story progression before making it to the main objective for Act 1.

I explored a lot of this area without the map because I went in completely the opposite direction to Shakra, who was sitting on the floor about 2 screens right of the Far Fields entrance. The crow dudes are about as annoying as I've heard, they're so hard to hit for some reason so you end up just waiting for them to swoop so you can short-jump and pogo on them. Sometimes there are two and I have to fall back on ol' reliable of panic jumping/slashing. I like that the challenge room at the bottom of the bird village opens the path up as well as the usual rewards. It's also pretty funny that they dangle them in front of you on the way there and you can probably waste a lot of time getting them without beating the room, only to beat the room and see all the balloons appear which would've made them trivial to get.

Mysteries

Bellhart

Hints

Impressions

I entered through the Shellwood entrance (at the top right), which I think is probably the only entrance. Absolutely love that you can shortcut back to the bench you probably started from, very curious to know if you can hack through those vines from the other side if you know where they are. Don't think there were any obvious tells. The enemies here aren't particularly challenging but they are entertaining, you can parry the little bell dudes that dive at you and bounce on the big ones.

There is one rather challenging enemy though, Widow is another excellent boss who keeps you on your toes the whole time without being unfair. Lots of classic 2D metroidvania moves clearly telegraphed beforehand; if you take a hit means you messed up rather than being bad luck. Not that it's easy to avoid messing up, there's a lot happening all over the screen at times and she's slippery enough to tempt you into slashing at air in frustration when you should be dodging. I have a feeling you can deflect some of the bells she flings at you, though I didn't end up trying it too much since it was very possible to beat her without it.

Having an actual platforming section in the dream realm made it a bit more interactive than the usual 'jump up' situation, and the Needolin seems like it's going to let me explore a whole range of new places. I've also heard you can use it on more than you'd expect, similar to the dream nail, so looking forward to that. Freeing the town is also a satisfying reward, as it finally gives you somewhere to decipher/sell the artifacts you've been collecting (revealing some interesting lore in the process) and a place to upgrade your nail. Also the shopkeeper means you only need to lose 20/120 beads, rather than the 20/80 you've been losing up until now.

Discovering the shortcut down from the fast-travel station was delightful, especially since it took me right to the newly decorated prison area I spent so much time running back to the skull ant from. I wonder if that's triggered by beating Widow, finding the shortcut or something else? If it's finding the shortcut that's pretty cool. Still wonder if I'll ever see the guy I could've freed there by just hitting the cage below him again.

Mysteries Revealed

Weavenest Alta

Hints

Impressions

Seems like there might be a few of these zones, and I'm looking forward to finding them. Kinda like stumbling on precursor technology, the Weavers seem like a much more advanced society than the current one (at least by the standard of stuff I've seen in Act 1, which is outside the Citadel). I got a mask shard, a lore thingy to trade with my new friend in Bellhart, half a spindle and the ability to evolve my base crest (maybe more in the future?). Also some interesting lore about what the heck Hornet is.

Fighting double Moss Mother was foreshadowed by the Hunter's Journal, and really requires you to track a bunch of stuff/react quickly. Killing the second after you drop the first feels like a relaxing stroll in the park after the frantic first (middle?) phase, and taking down two of the first boss you fought at once is a nice reminder of your progression. Overall not that much to do here, but still an interesting diversion from the 'main' biomes which reveals a little more of the main story.

Mysteries

Sinner's Road

Hints

Impressions

The stuck bench is absolutely brutal, it's not even that far in and you have to both find a hidden path and do the hardest platforming section so far to unlock it. The dog-snake enemies are also a giant pain in the ass, I found it really hard to tell when they were jumping and pogoing on them can be difficult at times due to small tunnels/swinging spikes overhead. I think the infection you get from landing in the water is pretty cool, slowly sucking away your silk + consuming a healing charge just to get rid of it makes it punishing to fall into even if it doesn't kill/damage you.

Mysteries

Bilgewater

Hints

Impressions

I knew you ended up without your gear at some point, I didn't realise until after I'd been caught that it might be from some random bug with a metal thing they use to try and bonk you in Bilewater. The timing was a pity though; I felt like I was finally getting close to being able to whack the mossy guy who kept harrassing me with poison darts.

Mysteries

Prison Break

Hints

Impressions

The setup is really cool, as is leaving you basically powerless after you spent so long building yourself up. Fighting is incredibly tedious, so you're incentivised to just run/sneak past as much as possible like you might in a real prison escape. I also like how they make cold something you actually need to worry about since they took your clothes, and it's not that long until you get a very cathartic moment of taking your stuff back like a badass and beating the shit out of your jailers.

Mysteries

Deep Docks Deux

Shakra wasn't kidding when she said there was more to this area when you might expect, I found a whole extra area behind the locked door and still can't open the boiler-looking one (though I know it has a tram of some kind behind it now). New enemies as well; a big, dumb, persistent one and a flying armored bug with miniature nuclear grenades (which you can parry but don't damage him, and will damage you if you're too close when they hit him).

The Blasted Steps

Hints

Impressions

Mysteries

The Mist && The Exhaust Organ

Hints

Impressions

The Phantom was another excellent boss fight; his first stage some stylistic similarities to the Lace fight in the sense he parries and some of the move are similar, but the way he throws his pin then dashes to it pretty much completely changes the rhythm of the fight. His second phase dives are similar mechanically to Lace's telegraphed blitzes but look cool nonetheless, and his berserk chain of them definitely caught me off guard. I enjoy how he occasionally disappears/teleports into the dust all those consecutive slams raised in the third phase, makes him a bit harder to predict. And the reward is so good, now instead of just attacking to cancel out an enemy attack I can actually parry it! Will this be the thing that finally makes me use silk for something other than healing?

Mysteries

Choral Chambers

Hints

Impressions

After creating my own little settlement at the end of my initial exploration, I decided it was time to head back and see what reaching Act 2 had unlocked in previous areas. I got my very own bellhome in Bellhome, and spent ~3 hours straight dying to Savage Beastlfly v2 before finally getting him. Words cannot describe my despondency when he not only had a 3rd phase, but summoned 2 adds to start it when I'd already been struggling heavily with one.

Running the gauntlet of the 3 elite knight guys to get back to Cogwork Dancers definitely makes you learn them (or at least learn you can bait they're flying dive then just run past). The running slash turned out to be really handy for me here, used it inadvertantly at one point then ended up spamming it because it puts you almost out of reach from the counterattack.

Despite that runback, holy shit are Cogwork Dancers a good boss. You get the nice slow start to get you used to the telegraphed attacks and how to dodge them, then in phase two it's the same but the tempo picks up which makes it much harder. In the third phase you're now dealing with the speed from the second phase while the dancers move at staggered intervals, breaking their pattern thus far of only moving at the same time. This really threw me off since dealing with multiple enemies at once is definitely my weak point in Silksong/most games really. Then the final phase, man that hit hard. The music slows down, the remaining dancer barely moves, and to cap it all off when he flies to the center for what used to be their ult he just kinda hangs there sadly before slowly drifting to the ground and collapsing for a sec. Really drives home their paired nature and made me feel kinda bad for killing his buddy tbh. My only complaint is this absolute masterpiece of a boss fight probably took me half as long as the second bloody Savage Beastfly haha.

Thank god for the bench right at the start of the Cogwork Biome, otherwise I would've lost my mind when I saw another 3 elite knights on the other side of the boss room. Some exploring gave me my 7th mask shard, finally giving me more effective HP against enemies where it actually matters (since they all deal 2 masks anyway). There're definitely some vents I'll open at some point which lead upward and are sealed right now, as well as the clearest evidence yet that I'll get a grappling hook in the top left. Also interesting that the Gourmand is planning to use the Nail oil I need to upgrade my weapon for cooking haha, should've known it wouldn't be as easy as just finding it.

I ended up back in The Slab while exploring the left hand side of Choral Chambers which was nostalgic, looks like the only remaning section will lead me down to the door I died to the Last Judge at then abandoned. Should probably check if opening it from the other side somehow skips him since I don't want to do that.

Mysteries

Conclusion

Yeah there is way too much stuff in this game to journal it all, and trying to is interfering with my enojyment of an amazing game. I wasn't even halfway through my playthrough when I stopped writing this, so if you're worried Silksong is light on content hopefully it serves as ressurance that's not true at all.