Get Good - Is Silksong too hard?

I'll admit, I never finished Hollow Knight. It wasn't because it was hard but I reached a point where the fun waned. Despite that I enjoyed it. Enough that I was always destined to play Silksong all these years later. I'm about fourteen hours into Silksong now and I've reached the early parts of Act 2. It is not an easy game, that's a given. The question though is whether the game is good hard or bad hard.

Like the first game, Silksong is about exploration, hard bosses and dying a lot. There are some crazy people finishing the game without dying but for me its just part of the process. I find a new enemy, misjudge its move set and I'm dead. I try run past too many enemies, mess up a platforming section and once again, I'm dead.

Most games these days have some sort of failure state but one area where Silksong does feel a little punishing is the benches. Benches provide a pit stop, sit at one and you recover health and set a respawn point. Not an uncommon mechanic but Silksong does two things that are a little rough. Benches are miles from bosses and often cost rosaries, an in game currency, to access.

The low frequency of benches and their distance from bosses means that I've spent a lot of time running between a bench and boss fight. On it's own, running back to a boss isn't the worst thing in the world. Combine it with platforming and plenty of enemies and I'm often entering a boss room with most of my health missing.

I've seen plenty of complains about this online. The general sentiment seems to be that the world has moved on from run backs and Team Cherry should have as well. Personally I like the challenge. Running back through the levels and enemies in them is a good way to get in some much needed practice and helps to provide a little bit of a break between getting my ass handed to me by the same boss.

One thing I would change is putting more benches right after boss fights. I've had a couple of instances where I finally beat a boss only to die to a basic enemy in the next room. That run back is one I could do without.

The other mildly annoying thing is having to pay to access many of the benches. I've found myself on one health with just a few missing rosaries too many times, combine that with the fact that the nearest previous bench was probably a while ago and I often end up miles away now with zero rosaries unless I make it back.

I still feel like I am pretty bad at Silksong, not as bad as I was at the start but still not great. Some of the bossess have taken dozens of attempts and for a couple I felt more lucky than skilled. I find that those moments are part of the fun. I swing and dash around the fights and sometimes string together the right set of moves to win the day. Other times I don't and that's fine. The more I play the more I do feel like I am getting better, that progression is rewarding. More rewarding than any in game score or hitting the end credits. It takes work to get good and you can feel when it slowly starts to happen.

I knew the game would be hard going in, I've spent enough time playing punishing games that I can happily play until it stops being fun and still be happy with the purchase.