Modding Hollow Knight: Silksong is “totally fine” say Team Cherry, but studio is “largely” happy with difficulty balance

Hollow Knight: Silk Song Developer Team Cherry has commented on the use of mods following a heated debate over the game's difficult challenge.

Silksong's difficulty level has been an ongoing topic of debate since the game finally released in September. Developer Ari Gibson previously said players “have ways to mitigate difficulty through exploration, training, or even bypassing the problem entirely, rather than being stumped”, although for some this was not enough. Shortly after Silksong's release, several mods were released for the game that added certain customizable variables such as damage and health.

“The fact that people are modding is completely normal,” William Pellen of Team Cherry said in a post. new interview with Bloombergdiscussing the difficulty level of Silksong. “Perhaps we think that part of the presentation of the game is to create the illusion that this is a real world that exists independently of you. Most decisions ultimately depend on this. And one of those solutions is to not make it so that you can necessarily reach out and play with how difficult certain parts are.”

Pellen said he “encourages” Team Cherry to “give you ways around things, different ways to approach battles or return to challenges when you've already prepared, or just avoid certain things and crawl around them instead.”

“I want to limit it in this way – like not giving the player the opportunity to mess with things when they hit the wall – which means that when we do that, we don't have a way out either. We have to be very careful about these things, and we play this constantly as well,” developer Silksong continued, before Ari Gibson added:

“Years of game development allowed us to create new opportunities for ourselves, and then for the players. By hitting the walls and saying, “Well, that's hard,” we're potentially going to hit a roadblock, so let's find other ways. Let's find a second way. Let's find a small crack that you can crawl through. Let's find something that rewards the explorer more than the fighter.”

The duo said that while they probably still could have come up with an experience like this even if difficulty sliders had been turned on at the start, approaching things this way “helps you focus, which is quite nice.”

Said Pellen: “When you think about what options a player has and how he might react to the world, you don't think about him giving up options and changing the world. It's nice. All your thoughts are focused in the world itself, and not on the meta level.”

Gibson said Silksong's “ideal” experience would be returning to a once-harsh boss with a new level of knowledge and different equipment and winning.

When further asked if Team Cherry felt it had found the right balance in Silksong, even with those who found it too harsh, Pellen responded that he was “pretty much” happy with it.

“We've made some changes to various things, with subtle changes to make some things a little less severe. Despite how much there was in the game and how few people were playing it at the time of release, I was happy with the fact that it only took us a month or so to get there. Things may change a little in the future, but I think this is a pretty good point right now,” he responded. Gibson also added that now that the first release is months away, there are those in the Silksong community who are helping others who are struggling.

““The Scary Judge” is a very good example.“It's a huge wall, and admittedly that's how the character presents themselves, but there's another detour that will allow them to skip that challenge entirely and then potentially come back much, much later in the game where they're much more prepared for it.”

What do you think of Silksong's difficulty levels? Meanwhile, if you find it difficult to pass a certain section, be sure to take a look Guides and walkthrough for Silksong from Eurogamer. Here one about Silksong bosses to get you started.

In the same chat Silksong developers also talked about the DLCbut remains cagey about details.

Upon its release, we gave Silksong five stars. “Beautiful and charmingly sneaky, this is a game filled with revelation and genuine personality,” the release said. Silksong review by Eurogamer.