It took Silksong coming out for me to identify why I wasn't a fan of Hollow Knight, and it's touched on in this video.

It's the runback.

The Dark Souls series of games have the same "problem", and it's why I don't enjoy them either.

I'm a huge fan of Celeste, Super Meat Boy, the Ori series. When I fail at these games, I'm right back in the action.

I'm not against having to learn boss patterns, I really enjoyed Cuphead because after I've failed I'm right back in the action.

And while it's an easier game by comparison, Shovel Knight was a fun game. The checkpoints were plentifully and I could increase the difficulty by destroying them.

But when I played Hollow Knight I reached a point where I was just running to the boss and dying. Then again. And again. And again. I wasn't getting better. And the time it took to get back just took too long and wasn't fun. It wasn't a rage quit. I was having fun at one point... But then the game wore me down and eventually it wasn't.

I don't think the game needs to change. Although I think adding difficultly modifiers would be a good idea. I played through Metroid Dread on normal difficulty and after beating it was having so much fun I immediately played it again on Hard difficulty. If there were a mode with more checkpoints in Hollow Knight and Silksong I might give them a shot.

Very good video that lines up with a lot of my own thoughts (yay).

That said? I think I fundamentally disagree with the idea that everyone should be able to beat every game for narrative reasons. My preference is for something similar to what Nine Sols did (AMAZING boss fights. Dogshit metroidvania and traversal), but I don't fundamentally believe that everyone needs to be able to experience every game. Like, you can make an "easy mode" for DCS but... the point of that game is the fidelity and turning all of that off just feels "wrong"? At the end of the day, it is up to the devs and what they want people to consider "accomplishment" to be.

And we live in the internet age. I remember beating Arkham Knight, having fun, and then deciding there was zero chance I would ever want to get all the riddler keys or fight deathstroke a dozen times and just went to youtube.

But I 100% agree with the back half of the video. The game is very much designed to just take a break and wander off when you get frustrated. Which is where I DO wish there were more QOL features to make it clear what areas might still have a mask (preferably one you can reach) rather than needing to find a guide or try to guess. Especially when you don't even get map markers for a decent chunk early on.

There is a section in this video where he talks about game elements he thinks are "bullshit" and I don't know if I agree about any of them. But I will also admit that playing NetHack at an early age, where

You fall into a spiked pit! The spikes were poisoned! The poison was deadly! You have died. Do you want your possessions identified?

was a completely normal and expected way to lose a run, may have warped my sense of what counts as a fair game mechanic. ^_^;;

i define myself by beating challenges that were inherently designed to be beaten.

yeah, screw that, I only get frustrated and/or angry. And even if I have the patience to eventually I beat it, it's just not worth it.

What's the point of anything you aren't immediately good at?

I have played through Hollow Knight twice so I am pretty familiar with this gameplay style and I did just recently played through Hollow knight again before this game came out. I agree this game is difficult, but it’s not that difficult. Every boss has a pattern that can be learned after three or four tries.

The point is I get frustrated, then I get better. There's stakes, and every time I get a little better. I see the next phase of the boss, then it takes me multiple tries to get to that stage again. Then suddenly, nearly every time I'm getting to that phase in seconds

This game isn't hard for the sake of being hard, it's hard because it repeatedly gives you a new challenge that seems impossible, and if you have the will to keep pushing you can overcome it. Not through luck, you just learn the patterns, and you adapt your combat style

And once you surpass a challenge, it feels like an accomplishment. The world opens up, you're rewarded with new exploration and abilities

To have fun, some people prefer challenges, other prefer relaxation. It is good there are choices for everyone.

some people live the challenge in games.

some people enjoy cozy games just to have fun

both are absolutely good and correct in their own light.

TL;DW: Mark lays out 3 reasons why a game dev might choose to make a game challenging, discusses why it is difficult to balance difficulty, and then talks about how Silksong balances difficulty by always giving players another path to explore when they hit a boss that seems impossible.