Hollow Knight: Silksong Review (So Far) - Kinda Funny Gamescast

Summary

Kinda Funny Gamescast: Hollow Knight Silksong Review (So Far)

Date: September 8, 2025
Host: Tim Gettys
Panel: Andy Cortez, Barrett Courtney, Greg Miller

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Overview

In this much-anticipated episode, the Kinda Funny crew dives deep into their early impressions of Hollow Knight: Silksong, one of the most hyped sequels in recent memory. Each host shares their unique experience with the game, their playtime, what surprises them, what frustrates them, and whether Silksong lives up to seismic fan expectations. With perspectives from hardcore fans (Andy), converts (Barrett), skeptics turned believers (Greg), and new players experiencing the franchise’s signature challenge, this is a wide-ranging and passionate review-in-progress.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. How Much Has Everyone Played? [04:53]

• Andy Cortez: ~32 hours; Hollow Knight superfan, only panelist to beat the original.
• Barrett Courtney: 39 hours; nearly 40 due to needing a "bed game," newbie to the original, a Nine Sols convert.
• Greg Miller: 10 hours (~12 on Xbox app), a big surprise addition as someone not drawn to tough metroidvanias.
• Tim Gettys: 13 hours; multiple starts with Hollow Knight 1, but Silksong is clicking more quickly.

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2. Does Silksong Live Up to Expectations?

Andy Cortez’s Perspective [05:55]

• "1 million percent. It has surpassed all of the expectations, which is so tough to do." [05:55]
• Andy loves the imaginative boss fights, “weird little dudes,” and the surprising new mechanics—specifically the shift from the charm system to customizable combat loadouts.
• Community engagement noted: players passionately discuss which "charms" and tactics they’re using.
• “It’s just a great time so far with some completely different mechanics that I wasn't expecting.” [06:51]

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3. Difficulty and Accessibility

Barrett’s Experience [07:48–10:28]

• Barrett crashed into a brick wall—a nine-hour boss fight!
  • “This game’s tough… I’ve bashed my head against a wall for the last nine hours.” [08:03]
• Even post-Nine Sols, Silksong feels punishing, but Barrett is obsessed with discovering every secret and story moment.
• He draws strong parallels between Silksong and Souls games—not just in difficulty, but in subtle world-building and environmental storytelling.

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4. Greg Miller’s Silksong Revelation

[10:37–15:58]

• Greg’s entry point was his sick son Ben wanting to watch Andy’s stream:
  • “Ben was like, ‘Can we play this game?’… I busted out the ROG [Ally], downloaded it, and passed it to him.” [11:05]
• The storybook-like reading of dialogue to Ben transformed character interactions into “really endearing” moments.
• Silksong scratched a "player-driven exploration itch" for Greg, contrasting it with linear AAA titles.
• “I am living for this game right now, Tim. I really, really love this!” [14:44]
• For Greg, the satisfaction comes from persistent progress and fighting bosses with his son watching.

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5. Progression, Structure, & Pacing

The opening hours are friendlier and more guided than Hollow Knight 1:

• Tim Gettys: “For Hollow Knight… it is a dream game for me… But [the first] always felt aimless. This one… I feel like I always know where I’m supposed to go. Hornet feels way more kitted-out.” [16:36]
• "I love the locomotion of this game," Tim notes, with swift dashing, fast movement, and a general sense of constant progress.
• The traditional punishing “run-backs” after death are still an issue for Tim, but early abilities keep the action flowing.

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6. Technical Aspects & Platforms

• Andy: Mostly on PC (“120 frames, baby, it’s insane.” [25:10]), some Steam Deck.
• Barrett: Mostly on Switch 2—praising its performance at both 60 and 120 fps.
• Greg: Split between Xbox Series X and ROG Ally, sometimes in bed on handheld.
• Early minor gripes: lack of HDR, some controller input oddities (recommendation for wired play for seamless diagonals), and the importance of input mapping for boss fights.

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7. Visuals, Audio, and “Every Frame a Painting”

• Unanimous praise for the art direction and music:
  • “It feels like every single room is its own experience. Every frame of painting is true for literally every frame in this game.” — Tim [21:00]
  • Barrett: soundtrack is “incredible… gets weird at times” and constantly shifts as you explore.
  • Andy notes the influences from Souls/FromSoft titles in deliberate design and lore, down to “missable” moments that only a fraction of players will experience.

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Notable Quotes & Standout Moments

On Difficulty & Recommendation for Mods [18:55]

"This is the time right now that if you're liking the game and if you're playing on PC, to download those mods that will help you... because I know how punishing it could be."
— Andy Cortez [19:38]

On Visuals, Handcrafted Feel, & World-Building

“Nothing feels like tiles next to each other. Every single bit feels like it was handcrafted… nothing is quite like this.”
— Tim Gettys [21:00]

On Playing with His Son

"Playing it, I was like, holy shit, this is so much fun. And the fact that Ben was enjoying it… it became this weird thing where he went to bed and I just kept playing it."
— Greg Miller [12:10]

On Character and Boss Fights

"That feel of the world just constantly kind of evolving and changing around you... This game feels like it’s actually kind of living alongside me and not just like an interactive thing."
— Barrett Courtney [38:00]

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Most Impactful Criticisms

Difficulty Curve, Early Game "Chunking" [43:35]

• Andy: Wishes the early game was a bit less punishing, especially for environmental traps taking two health ticks.
• Some environmental hazards and bosses seem overtuned in the initial hours.
• Both Andy and Barrett want tweaks to small things like the compass taking up a crest slot (they’d prefer quality-of-life improvements here).

Crest & Customization System [46:50]

• Barrett and Tim feel limited by the new combat loadout system, often wanting to do more than their current kit allows.
• Tim: “I always feel like I want to be able to do more than I'm given in one kit. And I get that that's the design… but the system you were talking about in Hollow Knight 1 of having different costs... I kind of feel like I would prefer that...” [54:48]

Small Annoyances

• No HDR support at launch.
• Annoyance with run-backs, certain iframes/damage interactions, and getting hurt by downed enemies.

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Favorite Features & Standout Elements

• Unique “weird little dudes”: Regularly cited as a personality-defining trait of Silksong’s world.
• Boss battles: Consistently thrilling, diverse, and fair (if sometimes brutal).
• Art and animation: “Every frame a painting,” “gorgeous and unique” on all platforms.
• Optional tools and player agency: Echoes of FromSoft and Elden Ring; “there's a lot of tools to be used, and it’s up to you to utilize them.” — Andy [57:33]
• Soundtrack: Shifting, atmospheric, and referenced repeatedly as phenomenal.

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Memorable Moments

• Greg’s son Ben delivers passionate color commentary as Greg dies repeatedly:
  • “I don’t think we can beat them, Dad.” [35:20]
  • “I’m sad because you keep dying, Daddy.” [35:44]
• Andy’s custom watercolor art giveaway tied to marathon stream subs. [41:07–42:55]
• Barrett’s 9-hour boss roadblock, still wanting to play.
• Community discussion of hidden content, secrets, and “conditionals” — the thrill of finding unique NPC lines, bosses, and events others may miss.

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Timestamps for Important Segments

• [04:53]: Playtime stats & panel’s background with the series
• [05:55]: Andy’s verdict as hardcore fan
• [07:48]: Barrett on difficulty, falling for the Silksong world
• [10:37]: Greg’s entry story — playing with his son, discovering his love for the game
• [16:16]: Tim on the approachability of Silksong versus Hollow Knight 1
• [25:10]: Technical praise for framerate, visual performance
• [38:00]: Barrett on how the world feels responsive and dynamic
• [43:35]: Critique segment — early-game difficulty and system nitpicks
• [54:48]: Discussion of accessibility and crest/charm customization

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Final Thoughts

All panelists are deeply impressed with Silksong’s ambition, polish, and artistry. The game is harder and more punishing than Hollow Knight’s opening hours, but more onboarding-friendly in world/map design and progression. Technical performance is broadly excellent. The difficulty curve, some design “old school-isms,” and limited quality-of-life options are the biggest criticisms. Modding is encouraged on PC to mitigate spikes.

Silksong is celebrated for its dreamy audiovisual style, unique "weird little guys," deep boss design, and the sense of discovery reminiscent of Souls games. Even those new or previously indifferent to the franchise (Greg, Tim, Barrett) are finding themselves hooked.

“God damn, this game is so special. Like, art being so unique and every single thing... It really feels like every frame of painting…”
— Tim Gettys [21:00]

The panel will continue their journey and likely return to discuss Silksong on future Game of the Year episodes.

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Super Chats & Fan Q&A Highlights

[56:18]–[61:46]:

• Players call out favorite bosses, crests, characters (“Reaper rules… less confusing down pogo”), and tools—praising the game’s breadth of build variety.
• Ongoing appreciation for “weird little guys” and the adaptive, rewarding world.
• Andy, in particular, shouts out the conditionals — emergent sequences and secrets that feel just for you.

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Closing: The Ultimate Showdown — HK or KH?

• At the top of the show, Andy is put on the spot: Which is better, Hollow Knight or Kingdom Hearts?
• He concludes, "Honky Kong" and "Harry Potter" — the recurring Kinda Funny in-joke, sidestepping real comparison, underlining how both franchises inspire deep love and silly debate.

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Summary by: Kinda Funny Gamescast Expert
Episode delivered: September 8, 2025

Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

What's up? And welcome back to the Kind of Funny Games cast for Monday, September 8, 2025. Of course, I am your host, Tim Gettys. I'm joined today by Andy Cortez.

[A]

Hello.

[B]

Making a rare appearance here at the Gamescast deck, it's Barrett Courtney.

[A]

Yo, what up?

[B]

And for some reason, Greg Miller's here.

[C]

Hey, Tim, how are you?

[B]

He's not alone.

[D]

This man doesn't play games.

[C]

Colby's here too.

[B]

He's here. Cole's here.

[D]

The real star.

[C]

Look at the fear in his eyes.

[B]

Very excited for this. Obviously, we're talking about Hollow Knight Silk Song today. So I am interested in why Greg Miller might be here. A game that we would not expect him to play. Has he been playing it? You're about to find out. Because this is the Kind of Funny Games cast. Each and every weekday we get together to talk about the biggest reviews, previews and topics in video games live on YouTube, Twitch and podcast services around the globe. If you love what we do, please get the the Kind of Funny membership it gets you. The shows ad free and you get a daily exclusive. Greg Way for a chance to be part of this show though. Submit your thoughts and opinions as YouTube super chats as we go. The super Chats are already coming in. We have a real head scratcher from Kebab saying which is better, HK or kh? Hollow Knight or Kingdom Hearts? I need everybody to think about that. I know it might be a hard question for everyone to answer.

[C]

Sure.

[B]

But Andy, by the end of this episode, I need you to definitively make the call of which is better, HK or kh.

[A]

Okay, man, I wasn't prepared to do something like that today, but you on the spot.

[D]

I'm glad you explained it too, because hk, My. My head goes to Hong Kong.

[A]

Hong Kong?

[D]

Yeah.

[A]

I say Harry Potter.

[C]

Harry Potter. Okay.

[B]

Harry, Nick's back today. That was some Nick shit. Andy, has Nick seen the shark yet?

[C]

I don't know.

[D]

He's been in the studio.

[B]

Okay, okay.

[D]

But like, did he notice it though?

[B]

I don't know, man.

[D]

You know, he gets us thinking about.

[C]

Dune and we gotta beat the light out of his eyes. I don't like when he comes in all happy and refreshed.

[B]

Helski, before you. We're an 11 person business. All about live talk shows. Games Daily was all about reports of PlayStation 6. Next big feature. The next big feature?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

You're not having a disk drive.

[C]

Yeah.

[B]

Okay. After this, we returned to Cuckoo in Review with conjuring last rites. Yes, James and Elise will be joining us remotely, but very excited to have them back on. Kind of funny. Content to talk about what big old Bathsheba's up to.

[C]

Have you seen any of the rumblings out there on the Internet lately?

[D]

Rumblings?

[B]

I don't know where to address everything that's been going on in my text.

[C]

Greg, but gentlemen, nbs. If you watch Conjuring in Review, Conjuring Last Rights in Review, I guarantee I will change your life.

[A]

Oh my God.

[B]

He's been threatening this for a couple days.

[C]

Put up a subreddit post, Andy.

[A]

Oh no. Oh no. I'm excited.

[D]

I'm going to tune in.

[B]

Unrelated to that, on the text thread that is Greg and Nick, but Andy and I happen to be on it. We did get a text from Nick after not hearing from him from weeks because he was gone that just says Greg, 911 is coming up. Just a reminder. And Greg says, welcome back, Nick. And me and Andy just have to deal with this, you know. And then last night, last night I get a text from Greg. Actually earlier in the day I got a text from Greg saying, let's see, let's see. 3:38pm 3:38pm I got a text, let me know when you're eating dinner. And I said, I hate you. Fear inducing. And he said, just let me know.

[A]

We go back and forth.

[B]

No, he didn't let me know.

[C]

I had to send him another one of like, let me know when you're eating dinner.

[B]

Then at 8:26 he goes, Let me know when you're eating dinner. My plans for the day got all out of whack. She ended up having dinner with her friend. So I was like, oh fuck, I have to order. I just. Dinner was not on my mind. So I ended up not eating until pretty late. I eventually do text him, I'm eating dinner. And he replies, I've never seen garbage eat garbage before.

[A]

Got it. Nailed it. You got him.

[C]

What did you say? Because you had a good response.

[B]

I truly don't know what to say.

[C]

The conversation. And here we are making the use case, everybody.

[B]

If you're kind of funny, remember Today's Greg Ways 21 minutes about how you are looking at the future of PC, Xbox and PlayStation handhelds. All wrong. Thank you to our Patreon producers, Carl Jacobs, Omega, Buster and Delaney. The Psalm Twining today we're brought to you by Shady Raisin Factor but we'll tell you about that later. For now, let's start with the topic of the show. It's Hollow Knight, Silk Song review so far the game is here. Everybody has been waiting for it. Where is it going to be announced? When is it going to come? We have all those answers and more. The four of us have been playing it to different degrees and different levels. Andy Cortez, how much have you played?

[A]

I've played probably around 32 hours or so. You know, you gotta subtract some time during the marathon stream where I wasn't playing the game.

[C]

Sure.

[A]

And then I played a bit more over the weekend and. Yeah. So probably, you know, I would say 32 hours conservatively.

[B]

Yeah. Barrett, Courtney, what about you?

[D]

I've put in 39 hours because I was kind of stuck in bed with nothing else to do but play this game and also have Andy stream on, so.

[B]

Yeah. Yeah. Greg Miller, how much have you played at Hollow Knight Silksong?

[C]

I'm just shy of 10 hours right now on my save. My Xbox app says a little over 12 hours though, so I'm not sure what the discrepancy is there now.

[B]

Yeah. And I am about 13 hours in to Hollow Knight Silksong, so we're gonna have a fun conversation here. I want to start with Andy Cortez. You are the only one here that has beat Hollow Knight 1. You are a big Hollow Knight fan. You've been very excited for Silksong. Has it lived up to your expectations so far?

[A]

1 million percent. It is. Surpassed all of the expectations, I would say, which is so tough to do. I think the game continues to surprise at so many different turns. It's thinking back to maybe it was a games daily or games cast where me and Greg were talking about it and you know, what would it take for it to live up to those expectations? What are you hoping to get out of it? And for me, it was really awesome. Boss fights in an imaginative world, but also just a lot of weird little dudes. And this game's filled to the brim with weird little dudes and I, I love hearing their stories and I love learning about them and then moving on to new spots and getting updates on the weird little dudes. It's just, it's a great time so far with some completely different mechanics that I wasn't expecting. I was expecting the charm system to be back, which is what Hollow Knight had where when you upgrade your charms, you might have eight charm slots and that one good charm is force. Takes up four slots and. But you can go with like five one slot charms or whatever. You know what I mean? Like there's. I was expecting that system to be back But I really am enjoying the different take on what if you get the character. Character loadouts like combat loadouts, which is really cool and different and I just wasn't expecting that. And it's been really cool seeing the community not only experience the game in a lot of different ways, but also experiencing it combat wise and going, oh, I've been using this charm. I've been using this. Oh, you're using that. I love that. This one move is awesome. I love the run up attack. I don't love this. It's so cool how varied this video game is. And yeah, I mean they, they crushed it and I think that, I think it's going to sell a decent amount.

[B]

Barrett, you're Mr. Nine Souls.

[D]

Yes.

[B]

Are you becoming Mr. Hollow Knight?

[D]

In. In ways, yes. In other ways. I'm doubting myself for sure. I've just definitely hit a wall yesterday that I've been stuck on for a few hours. So I don't know, explain that I've been stuck on one particular fight for the last nine hours.

[B]

Nine hours.

[D]

This game's tough. And yeah, I'm someone who never gave the original Hollow Knight like it's, it's proper due.

[A]

Right.

[D]

Despite Andy's, you know, singing its praises for years.

[A]

But only one.

[D]

Yeah, you're the only one.

[C]

I heard about your coverage here.

[D]

Funny with Andy, but I did fall in love with Nine Souls. What was that last year? And a lot of people made the comparisons of like if Hollow Knight is Dark Souls 1 for the kind of 2D Metroidvania, really tough action game. Nine Souls very much felt like Sekiro in a lot of ways. And so going to like a different developer's take on all this. I was excited to see like what kind of inspired like the people to need to meme this game to absolute hell, what clearly inspired Nine Souls and all this stuff. And yeah, I, I adore this game. Obviously I put nearly 40 hours into it in just the last few days. Right. But this game is way tougher than I expected it to be, even playing through Nine Souls. But I'm still just in love with it. Even though I've bashed my head against a wall for the last nine hours of just fully just being immersed in this world and kind of truly seeing like even though it is a 2D metroidvania house souls, it feels. And not just because like, oh, it's a hard game, but in terms of world design and you know, level design that like Andy always talks about that this game does. And I assume Hollow Knight one does in ways that like, I don't feel other 2D metroids doing in a lot of ways of how you. How some interconnected spots can come back around and make you forget where you were in the world. Also, just like what Andy was saying of these, these weird little dudes and checking in on them and seeing them in places that you weren't expecting throughout the world, I've just absolutely adored. And then the combat is just so fun and the. When you get into that flow state against a boss that you've been struggling with for like the last hour, it just. Nothing feels as good as it. Right. And so, yeah, coming off as from, you know, nine souls going into this, I'm like, I'm so glad we have another game like this. And I understand why people were highly anticipating this for years and I'm excited to give Hollow Knight one a shot eventually as well.

[B]

Now, Greg Miller, probably the biggest surprise to be here is you playing this game. I want to hear all about it. What's your journey been like and do you see yourself sticking with it?

[C]

I can't believe that I'm here, Tim. You know, we did the whole thing with Hollow Knight and the build up to it and your anticipated games and yada yada, yada. But like, I was like, I'll give it a shot. I remember trying Hollow Knight Night one and being. I see the quality, but it's just not what I want to do kind of thing. This one was such. It just caught me so off guard, the vibe of it. And it happened so naturally, you know, we woke up on Thursday morning. Ben had a fever. That meant, you know, all hands on deck, I'm gonna stay home since Jen's got meetings and I could do my stuff that I could do from home, blah, blah, blah. And so we're on the couch and he's super sick. And he. I turned on the stream to see what Andy was up to and he heard. He's like, what? What is that? I'm like, oh. To Andy streaming this game called Hollow Knight. You want to watch? He said, yeah. And so he threw it up on the big tv and it took about five minutes. And Ben was like, can we play this game? I'm like, yeah, of course you're sick on the couch. We can do anything you want, buddy. So I busted out the rag and I went to Xbox and I downloaded it right away, passed it to him, he started playing it. He. But he got to that thing of like, dad, can you help? I'm like, yeah, sure. And I went through and did it, and then he. But then it was this one where he let me play, and then I'd pass it back. And it was our normal thing, but when we would get to these spots, he would just let me go for way longer than usual because he was sick too. I think had something to do with it. And then we got what I thought was really. I think one of the reasons I connected with it. Well, there's two big reasons, and one of them would be, when we get to it, of course Ben can't read. So then I started reading it. Like, I read him his books at bedtime. And so I was, like, doing a little bit of, you know, tone changes. Nothing crazy, but, you know, for when I'm being Hornet or when I'm being other one. One of the. One of the weird guys we're talking to.

[A]

You're a union worker. So, like, they can't. He wasn't paying.

[C]

Exactly. Exactly. I don't want to have to file a complaint with sag.

[D]

Yeah.

[C]

But, like, doing that immediately made everybody more endearing to me. And then. But playing it, I was like, holy shit, this is so much fun. And the fact that Ben was enjoying it, even though obviously a tough for him at times or whatever, and then us enjoying it together, and then it became this really weird one of, like, he went to bed and I was like. Or to nap. And I was like, okay. And then I'm just playing it, and he went to bed at night, and I went downstairs and put it on the Xbox and just kept running with it. And I think for me, it's crazy that it's scratching an itch I've had since finishing Hell Is Us. I finished Hell Is Us and Hell Is Us. This whole thing, right, is we're not going to hold your hand. It's player plattering. Go figure it out. And I'm working on another review at the same time redacted that I was planning on playing all Thursday. And whether it's good, bad, or otherwise, that game redacted is a Go here and do this follow line and do this. Okay. Okay. And coming into that after Hell Is Us, I was like, ooh, I'm kind of missing the. What am I supposed to do? Where am I supposed to go? What am I supposed. And so to jump into Hollow Knight Silk song and find that I was like, oh, shit. Holy fuck. Like, I have a little flame that has been over here that's been started. And now it's become a fire of me actually wanting to do this bonfire. A bonfire, someone said. And so, yeah, I don't. Will I finish it? Will I do the whole thing yet? Of course not. Probably not. Like, I think I'm gonna go I like today. Now that we're doing this. I finished Gamescast and it's right back to redacted and I need to make up a lot of time that I lost with Ben being sick for redacted. And I'm excited for that, of course, because I like my job, but I want to keep going with this. And I can't tell you the.

[B]

Pride.

[C]

I had in myself when I was on Blue sky last night or two nights ago. And like IG was like, he's not. He's not one of the name bosses. But a lot of people are having trouble with this. And I clicked on it. I was like, beat this guy's ass, you know, and it's like, you know, again, like, I'm not the. I don't like getting run through the rubbed in broken glass and not if I get to a boss is going to take me nine hours. I doubt that'll be what I stick it out. But it is the thing of Hollow Knight. Silksong is so good and so rewarding and I feel like there are such nice stretches of just going, I beat the things, maybe I lose, maybe I don't. Whatever. I pick up my rosary beads and I come back to it. I get so much rogue legacy out of it where it's like, even when I have a bad run, I feel like I still did something, I accomplished something, I expanded the map, I found what I need to do. And so for the bosses I have fought and I have beaten, it's been that idea of like, okay, cool. It's taken me a few tries and I wish I was but not even I wish I was doing it. I understand what I'm doing wrong and the fact that I'm. I have a bench two screens away. It's not like I ran up the mountain and fell down and slid down and now I gotta go. Like, I am living for this game right now. Tim, I really, really love this.

[A]

I did love during that marathon stream seeing Greg pop in and go, I just beat the bell beast. Annie. I feel so alive.

[C]

And it's that thing of like, you know, I. It's not the experience I had with Bloodborne. Like, I've tried other souls, but I've rolled credits in bloodborne and like, you know, even with Hell is Us, there's so many people like, oh, in the comments, Greg Is like. Loves this game, but he doesn't. Like, he's never. He would love a soul's game if you give it a shot. But it's like, well, games are so many different things of setting, characters, story. Like, you know what I mean? I'd read a book if I just wanted a good story. Like something about Hollow Knight, something about the characters, the weird little dudes. As you said. Jason Schreier said on launch day on Blue Blue sky. Like, something about them, about Hornet, about the world is just so endearing. That, yeah, I want to be there and yeah, I want to keep going. And when I run into these bosses, I'm. I lost, but it's like I didn't lose a gajillion beads because I've been playing this strategically of if I'm trying to save up for something that I'm not engaging in that kind of thing. I'm just running a loop here to get. I'm having a great time, Tim, and I want to play more, but I am worried about review season.

[D]

Tim, how about you?

[B]

God, I love this game. Hell yeah. I do really, really worry that I'm gonna hit some walls that I'm not gonna be able to get past. And I've gotten to a couple walls. Like there was a boss that took me an hour and a half last night, and that was very frustrating. But I did it and it felt really good afterwards. This. What's his name? The Shadow Beast. Savage beast.

[A]

Fly, baby.

[B]

Holy. And I first played it Andy. I get in there and I'm like, I'm gonna beat this fucker's ass. Like, I had such a good run.

[A]

On my first stupid. Like, I'm gonna kick his ass.

[B]

Oh, I got your pattern down. Like, yeah, throw your little guys at me. That's fine. I got this die. And then I'm like, okay. Again and again and again. And eventually I'm like, how did I think I had this? That's crazy.

[A]

He thought be the longest.

[B]

Yeah, it was just. It was wild, man. But, yeah, what a. What a fulfilling experience there. Love this game so far. And I think a big part of it is almost in opposition to what Greg's saying where for Hollow Knight I. I've started it up so many times and on paper it is a dream game for me. Just visually how it sounds like a simple 2D metroidvania that is combat focus. Like so much of that is my shit soundtrack. But Hollow Knight, I feel has always. The opening hours of Hollow Knight 1 really just feel like it's aimless. You don't know where you're going. It is that kind of like no direction. Like no. Like waypoints telling you where to go. This one so far, I'm like, oh, it's a Metroidvania baby. Like, I feel like I always know where I'm supposed to go. I feel like it does a really good job of guiding me and starting the game out. Hornet feels a way more kitted out than the first character did, at least in the early game. And for a lot of the hesitations I had for how slow I was moving, even in Silksong quickly you get the dash. You get like these things that I'm like, oh my God. I'm zooming around and loving it. Like, I love the locomotion of this game. And I feel like that to me is the make or break for if I'm enjoying a Metroidvania and if it's worth pushing through some of the brutal difficulty, which is just not my thing. Like, I really don't like that type of experience. And so far with this, I feel like the. The bosses have been fair and like the. The different. Some of the. In addition to bosses, like some of the challenge rooms where they just keep throwing waves at you. Like that stuff can get really, really tough. And yeah, it's real good. Birds are flying around you. I'm like, I fucking hate these birds.

[A]

Oh God.

[B]

But it's like, you know, I feel the game works best when it allows you to just get back to the mistake you made and to try to fix it. I really am not vibing with the. The run back stuff and certain areas of like having to get to back to where you were. I'm like, I just. It's. The normal enemies are difficult enough and hard enough to like get around that. I'm like, after I've done this a couple times, I'm like, I don't need to do it a hundred more. And I understand get good. But that stuff does get in my way and kind of pads the. The runtime of this game that I'm just like, I understand why. And that is for a lot of people. It's not for me. And that's fine.

[A]

Yeah, I think this game is definitely a lot tougher than Hollow Knight at the start. That's. And on the opposite side, way less obtuse. Right. But the number one question that was asked a million times during this marathon stream is what are some immediate differences? Can I hop in here? Is it harder? And I would say that Hollow Knight at The start is definitely not as difficult as this, where there are times where I'm early into silksong and oh my God, I'm getting chunked for two ticks of damage. That's crazy right now because I have five of these ticks of damage, five masks. And little did I know that I was about to, you know, 12 hours from getting the second. The sixth mask piece, you know, so it's like they. I think it's definitely a lot more. It's a lot more un. It's a lot more friendly in terms of player onboarding and tutorializing. Not really tutorializing, but just like, you know, really good tutorial stuff where you don't really feel like you're doing a tutorial. But I think it's a lot tougher on the other side of things where it's just environmental damages taken away too, mask pieces and. And in. And that's where I would recommend to everybody that this is the time right now that if you're liking the game and if you're playing on PC, to download those mods, download the mods. That will help you and I, because I don't want you to just give up on this experience because I know how punishing it could be. And I was already floating that idea out there to Greg and people were like, oh, Andy saying Greg's bad at games. Like, no, Greg just does. Greg has a kid and a family and doesn't want to spend three hours fight. So, like, help, you know. You know, there are these mods out there already through Nexus mods, and I can easily run you through this and. And help you and just do it for you because I think a lot of these mods are a bit more helpful. And yes, you're changing the core of the game, but I'd rather the core of the game be changed and you just give up on what could be one of your favorite experiences ever if it were a game that just had difficulty options.

[D]

Yeah.

[B]

And then that goes back to the favorite experiences ever. It's like, God damn, this game is so special. Like, art being so unique and every single thing, nothing feels like tiles next to each other. Every single bit feels like it was handcrafted. Now, I don't know for a fact that it was, but I honestly wouldn't be surprised if it. If that's the case. Right? Like, it really feels like in addition to the beautiful animations of each character and designs of the world and everything, it feels like every single room is its own experience. And I can't believe how the, the every frame of painting concept is true for literally every frame in this game. Like every single shot in this I would put on my wall in my house. Like, it's so gorgeous and, and, and unique. And Andy and I talk about the puppeting tool all the time. And like, when games just have that flash aesthetic and I feel like when you look at Hollow Knight, this might just. It would not in motion, just a screenshot of it. You might be like, we've seen this before. And it's like, no, you fucking haven't. Like, nothing is quite like this.

[D]

And like the, the soundtrack behind it as well of every frame so beautiful and unique in the range that it has. Like, the, the early segments feel kind of like very typical of like this weird kind of wilderness that you're in and exploring that. And then just like the way things will change over time. And like, Andy and I are in an area right now that like, I'm excited him to like, really explore just because the way the, the score evolves and gets weird at times is just incredible. That reminds me of some games that I won't say out loud just to not spoil some things. But again, just like y' all haven't seen yet, in terms of just like, in terms of visual design and sound score and even like sound design, there's just like the game like keeps just going and going and amping those things up to another degree where, you know, they're in that interview with Shrier where they're just like, oh, yeah, we just like kind of kept making this game. And there are moments where I'm like, oh, I could see possibly early on this is where they wanted to finish the game. This is like what this would have been the final beat or whatever. And then that just kept making more and more and that more and more for the most part is fantastic.

[A]

Yeah, I think it's pretty. I think it's immediately evident right where we're at. Like, no wonder this took so long. Yeah, because it's, it's a pretty tiny team and they are putting every ounce of love into how handcrafted all of this area is. And I, I had a great time watching very popular youtuber Moss Bag over the weekend who does a lot of Hollow Knight lore stuff. Super funny. You know, I'm not saying anything new to Hollow Knight fans that don't know this, but he, you know, a video from five years ago which is like complete lore of Hollow Knight. And it's just so eye opening because you know how deliberate things are and then you realize that you don't really know how deliberate A lot of the design is and a lot of the art and a lot of why that thing is in that room and why this thing is here. And everything is just so purposeful and like, dude, another way that it feels.

[D]

Another way that it feels like like a Souls game. Like a Fromsoft game in terms of that. And that was like kind of the cool way of like experiencing this finally over the weekend. Because you know when you hear like, oh, this game is very like souls, you just think of like oh, hard combat. But in. In terms of how it deliver subtly delivers you story through the context of the world. I think it's very well done and rarely seen in like as deliberate in these types of games that I'm just falling in love with. And I just want to shout out how good it looks on Switch too. I also just played Shinobi on Switch to Let me tell you, Shinobi does not look good on Switch to and it's crazy. Just like how Shinobi kicks ass. That's a great game. I finished it. It's fucking great. But man, it was just like after playing Shinobi, I was like, man, do I want like where do I want to play this game? And I still like went for the Switch version. I was like, God damn, it's crazy how good this game looks.

[B]

Yeah. Andy, I imagine you're playing on PC.

[A]

Been playing on PC a lot and on Steam Deck a little bit. Yeah. That OLED scene, like real nice.

[B]

I'm. I. I would say maybe like 90% PC on my TV. 120 frames, baby. It's insane.

[A]

That's how we stream the whole thing here. Barrett and Kevin got it working to where I was getting 120 frames. Looked amazing on that OLED, dude.

[B]

Just the animation of when you just go left and right and like she's just so smooth and symphony and I love it. And then yeah, maybe 10% on the steam deck OLED and God, it looks. It looks great. This game needs hdr. I'm really sad it doesn't have hdr. That's. I get it. Small team or whatever. Also guys, it's fucking Hollow Knight Silksong. Like I'm a little upset about that. But there's like Andy was saying there's mods for that as well. I haven't been able to get him to work, but I'm a fucking idiot. So I might have Andy help me there. But I. It looks so damn good and it Runs so well both on deck and on tv. But my problem with the Steam Deck is this is a game I need to lock in for. So it's like it's, I just, I can't be watching something and playing at all.

[C]

You know what I mean?

[B]

It's like this is which is my majority of Steam Deck use, otherwise I'm using the tv. Yeah, there has been a couple times I've been in bed just playing.

[C]

Last night, yeah, I was playing and Jen was asleep next to me and it was that thing where I, I didn't, I didn't bother putting on headphones, which I know a sin, but I love this soundtrack to the game, don't get me wrong. So. But it was then just like, I mean and it's just, it was one of the bosses so it was just like. And I kept dying. So it was the rhythmic like and then it'd be like a stop and I'm like, I wonder if in her she's putting it together, what's happening. It would be a hard stop and then it'd be like run, run. Trying to get it all done. Yeah, I, I, for me it's been pretty split between Xbox Series X and the Rog ally.

[D]

Yeah, I've been kind of rocking both. It is one of those like if I'm playing handheld, I need Alyssa to watch something that I don't give a shit.

[C]

Last night Jen finally broke down and started Peacemaker Season 2. And when that, when she's like fine. I was like, okay, that down. I'm not. Whatever bullshit you were doing before I was playing once that starts, come on now we gotta watch the Peacemaker.

[D]

But yeah, it runs great. On Switch 2 I've been doing just the 60 frames per second mode just because if I do 120 I have to. I think I sacrifice a little bit of resolution there on the Switch, but it running 60 like on a really good looking OLED TV like on the switch too is really damn impressive. So I've been enjoying my time and also I've been really preferring that as well. Not just because of like having it on a big screen, but someone in the marathon stream chat was suggesting at one point with a lot of people struggling with the kind of down strike with the pogo because mentally I'm always like, all right, if she's going diagonal then I need to move the stick downward diagonal. Which like will sometimes work, sometimes not. But you need to be doing that down press. And someone suggested tying one of the back buttons to down and that has been like such a good game changer for me of like having that like the controller with the back button to actually really nail that pogo.

[C]

When I realized I was becoming a different gamer before this game, it was when I abandoned the stick and went to the D pad. Like, that's not who I am. But I was like, for the diagonal shit. I was like, I got to do this. And then I just. For some. In some. One of the early bosses, I was like, I got to get over here. And I've just been stuck on. I'm just deep at Nice. I'm all about it. Andy. Wow.

[B]

Someone in the chat I think was Bander was saying that they're having a lot of problems with the. With D pad recognition of it just not working. I was telling Andy right before this that and I was on Games Daily when I gave my initial thoughts on playing the game. Like I was having so much trouble with those diagonals. And then I realized it. My dual sense. The Bluetooth wasn't registering. And the moment I plugged it in, it works perfectly. So maybe try to play Wired if you're having issues because that solved everything for me. Even though it's inconvenient.

[A]

Yeah, the down on the back paddle really changed a lot of stuff. There's a. There's a run a boss run back much later on that I think is wildly punishing. But by the end of it, because I was dying to the boss so much, it was just like you could do it in my sleep. And it just felt so good to hit all those button commands and feeling so smooth while doing it, you know?

[B]

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[E]

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[B]

We'Re back.

[A]

Greg, I worry that I may have gotten your hopes up for mods because you're playing on the Xbox store.

[C]

Yeah, but I never. I must have not been in the twitch chat when you suggested that I use mods if it ever got tough or whatever and I wouldn't I don't think like again like I I here's my hope with this game again, the Greg's not a Greg sucks at games or whatever. Whatever they said there true. I usually like a 13 year old coming of age story. Maybe there's a dead parent involved visual novel but I don't think it's so much I'm bad at games as much as like I usually am just not drawn to Metroidvanias, let alone punishing Metroidvania.

[A]

Oh, nobody was making funny. No, no they were. They were saying oh Andy's. Andy's telling Greg that he sucks at games for suggesting mods.

[C]

Yeah, yeah, I know, I know.

[A]

And yes, but it was like no, I just you know people got time.

[C]

And and I hear that and so but I my interest level in Hollow Knight right now and how much I am enjoying Hollow Night right now and the Fact that we have been. I saw a couple other. They might have been former industry games journals types talking about, since it's just out, we've all been lifted from the burden of an embargo. You know what I mean? We're not rushing to try to. And the people talking about they're going to chip away at it and do this. My hope would be that would be my life with it. Where I love this game, playing this game. I'm so like, fuck, I got to go back to the trip, play Hollow Knight 1. You know what I mean? I already downloaded to the Xbox at home. Like, I know. I'm so far from that. It's that idea, though, of like, all right, cool. From here to redacted, from that to Ghost of Yote, from that to probably some other redacted game or whatever. When do I actually get back to it? And when will muscle memory and all of that jazz. But my hope is, again, the way I see the game is I know it's punishing. I haven't run into those difficulty spikes yet. I know there's skill checks coming up.

[D]

And maybe, like, by the time you get to them, there will be patches or something. Well, not even balance patches, but more people figuring out, like, the metas to certain fights where it's like, we're coming in to certain points where, like, everybody else is coming in with us. So it's like everybody at the same time is trying to figure out, like, you know, how do we get past this certain fight that some people are saying is harder than the final boss kind of thing.

[C]

Yeah. And so, like, for me, though, coming back to it, like, so much, I take so much enjoyment of. All right, cool. I'm just going to do a night of rosary. I'm just going to go do normal enemies in this area. Just farm them, get all the stuff here. I still haven't bought that key. I found the locked door, but the keys over there for 500 beads. But I haven't. I've been. I kept waiting for, I'm going to run into that boss on this. I'm going to run into the skill check where I just can't do it. I get frustrated and I walk away. And instead, I've run to several bosses that I was like, okay, fuck, I got to. Let's pay attention. What are you doing? Okay. And I beat them in, you know, five tries or six tries maybe, whatever it is. But it's not. I haven't hit that wall where I'm like, I can't progress so I'm going to go back and do something else. When I hit that wall, my hope is to go back and get all the other things that I haven't got done and then come back, like, back to the hell is us comparison. I just enjoyed running around the world and so not having the embargo on top of me and not feeling like the game is like, you got to get to the top of the Citadel. Why aren't you there yet? Blah, blah, blah. Like, I can totally see this being a game I do put down, and then, oh, I'm getting on a flight and I don't have something else, and I jump into that and I do a run that is just like, cool, let's just buy all this stuff to get our feet wet and then come back and try to figure it out. But mods never even entered the equation for me. But again, you make a great point. Especially being so far along and Barrett being at hour nine of this boss fight where I just would never do that. Like, it would be eventually of like, I'm either not good enough or that's when I look up a strategy and I do it because that's the other thing I've been actively avoiding, where people pop up and they are like. On the BS where they're like, oh, man, I'm this, that. And I'm like. I'm like, I'm not looking at even the IGN one. Where I was like, were they talking about who? I think they're. Oh, fuck that guy. I got that idiot.

[B]

Yeah.

[C]

You know what I mean? And again, like, it's been so much fun playing this with Ben because he's the little statler Waldorf next to me, where he just has no filter or whatever. And so fucking when I ran up against Lace the first time, right? And, like, Ben, I died like, two or three times in a row. And Ben's like, all right, let's play something else. I'm like, no, no, Ben. Like, we gotta. We gotta beat this. We gotta lock in Ben. And Ben just goes, I don't think we can beat them. Ben was like, I don't think we can beat them. And then, yeah, even before Lace, when it was just regular enemies, I put out this BS that's blue sky too. He goes, I'm sad because you keep dying. And then another one. Wait. When I was playing and I was just. He's just sitting there silently watching me. He just goes, everything gets, Daddy. I took another cheap ass hit. I was like, damn.

[D]

I need him to grow to be Like a pro, like game commentator. But not for like fighting games or anything. It's just watching other people.

[C]

This is the problem is that we set the expectations too high. Me. Like I said, we started this whole hollow night journey by watching Andy stream. And so Ben got to see Andy go and beat a boss and then sent him this voice memo special message.

[A]

Special message.

[C]

What?

[A]

Oh, he did not even play it.

[C]

Did he beat him. You say congratulations.

[A]

Congratulations to Andy.

[B]

Tell him how good he is.

[C]

You're just so glad. This when I can't even believe my eyes. Couldn't even believe his eyes. So then he sees his hot dog fingered dad. Can't do a goddamn thing to anybody. Ready to quit. Let's go, dad. It's too tough. Let's play Hot Wheels unleashed. We're gonna beat Lace and we beat Lace and it was that thing of like beating Lace or whatever in any insert any of the bosses he's seen me play is that thing of what beating it. And then turning to him and seeing his realization like his eyes light up that we actually.

[A]

Yeah.

[C]

So cool.

[B]

You were mentioning in your initial impressions and there's going to be some things for me that feel like the final destination. One on one Smash Brothers shit. And that fight gave me that so much. I'm like oh my God, I love this. Like this is like such a thrilling gaming experience. Or I'm like this is what it's all about, baby. I want her to come back where she at. I need. I wanted that rematch.

[A]

The fast moving, the reflexes like again, it's crazy to see. Even the way some of the trailers looked back in the day of like all of that movement was still there. All of this stuff was like. Like just always. She was always meant to control the way she does when she pops up in Hollow Knight and fights you a couple times. She's a very fast, agile character and it's so cool unlocking that kid and slowly feeling like man, I am just zooming past these enemies and being so acrobatic in ways that like that I look like the boss to these enemies. You know, it's almost like you get.

[D]

To play a zero. Yes kind of thing.

[B]

That's sick.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

God.

[D]

Really quick. I want to shout out just before I forget the one of the things that kind of like really solidify of like this is definitely one of the favorites of the year already. Even though I haven't beaten it. Who knows how long it'll end up taking me is just like again that, that feel of the world just Constantly kind of evolving and changing around you. And, like, I got to, you know, I was banging my head against the wall against this fight, but going back and doing other things as well and then going back and trying my hand at it again. But there was a moment where I went back to an area to check in on a character. And, you know, after a while you start to recognize of, like, okay, I know what enemies are here and there and whatnot. And I go back to an area and I was like, oh, yeah, this guy with like this big scepter or whatever is going to be here ended up being a completely different enemy, which then turned into an insane sequence that reminded me, like, that wouldn't have happened unless I came back here. And now I'm on, like, this whole crazy thread that I don't feel like would have like. Like, if that happens in any other Metroidvania, it's usually like a scripted thing that, like, you are funneled into. But it's because I made that choice to arrive at this area at this particular time in the story in the game that landed me into a sequence that I would not have seen otherwise. It's just so, like, magical and special. And it's just like that extra ounce of like, man, this. This game feels like it's actually kind of living alongside me and not just like an interactive thing. It's. It's really special.

[A]

It's all the conditionals. Those are always the most special things to me in gaming. It's the I. I'm happening. I wear. If you put on those shorts, those, those khaki shorts and go talk to so and so, they're like, holy, I did. Whoa, you're wearing. Whoa. I didn't know you were a khaki short lover. Like, and all of that stuff is so cool.

[C]

Classic moment.

[A]

All that stuff is so cool. And when it happens and if you're doing things in certain orders and to see the amount of people go, I haven't fought that boss. Why haven't I fought the. Oh, I miss it because of so and so. Like, it's awesome to experience this stuff along with everybody else experiencing these things at the same time. And yeah, all those conditional moments are why I love these games so much. Not only just Hollow Knight and Silks Song, but so much of FromSoftware's library. Liza P. Does an amazing job of it as well. And it must be a developer's nightmare to have people talk about. I love. I love experiencing that only 3% of players might experience or whatever be Like, I remember when we were checking out Split Fiction with Joseph Fares and it was me and Mike playing it, and Joseph Fars is like, yeah, this shit is like, so missable. But we still want to put all the love in for the people that do get to experience this very easily missable thing. And it sucks for the developers. They're like. And people will hear about and discover it, but, you know, to put so much love into something that it, you know, bought. That's why Baldur's Gate 3 was so special as well. Like,.83 people experience this conversation. But it's awesome when it does happen because you feel like you are. You are experiencing so much player agency and you are having this special moment that is just for you because you went and did things a certain way, you know?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

One thing I want to point out. Kevin, can you bring up the drawings from Slack? We've been doing a giveaway. We did this giveaway where if you gifted 10 subs that equals you get thrown into the raffle one time, that's one entry. There are some people that are gifted 50 subs during the marathon stream. That's five entries. Right. So on and so forth. And if you all. If you all have gifted those subs, we will be selecting the final winners on Friday. There's still time to get your 10 gifted subs in. And we have one of the winners. Sprat Scotch wanted me to draw Sherma, which I was so pumped up about because Sherman rocks.

[D]

This is so good.

[A]

And there will be a couple of other winners. One other winner was Quezlight12, who has not responded to any of the Twitch Whispers. If you're listening to this right now, Quez Light, Twitch Whisper us back. Which we know Twitch Whispers are not the most used function at all on that website, but that's the easiest way to get directly back to the Twitch channel to say, I want Andy to draw this and this for me. Here's my name, here's my shipping address. We'll ship all these out. We have one more winner to select for the custom art. And we also have the winner who the final winner, which will win the journal of where I'm kind of just like cataloging the experience with the bosses and things like that. And, you know, all the little notes and places that I'm going and people I'm seeing. It's. This was the kind of like the final giveaway thing. So two winners yet to be selected. Get your drawings or, you know, get your 10 subs in and we will pick a Winner. The final winners on Friday.

[B]

Andy, I know that we give you a lot of props for your talents all the time. That's unbelievable.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

I can't believe how sick these water.

[A]

These watercolors have just changed my life. I love these damn water. And they are called Chromatech watercolors.

[C]

I get asked brushes or.

[A]

They are. They're markers that are, like, bristled. And. And then there's a. There are a couple of markers that you. Or a couple of the bristle that you pour water into. And so on another side, I'm like, mixing colors there and using the water to kind of mix and things. Yeah. Chromatex. Check Tek at the end on Amazon. Those are the ones I've been buying. And those rock.

[D]

Neat.

[B]

Hell, yeah. Andy, has there been things that you're not loving about the game?

[A]

Yeah, I would say the. The early level of difficulty. I think it. I think that some early bosses could have only taken away one tick and still. Just. And still have been as. Not as challenging, but still have put up a challenge. I. I think that the. The difficulty ramp starts off a lot stronger than Hollow Knight and doesn't give you a whole lot of room to. It doesn't. There's not a whole lot of room for. To go up because it starts off always that hard. And I wish that they had kind of leveled that down a bit. I wish that some of the environmental hazards only did one tick of damage, but some of them end up doing two, and that certainly sucks. I would say. I would say, on the plus side of things, for quality of life, the. These mission trackers are really cool. That's way further than I thought that they would do. Like the fact that you can open up your start menu and you can see these missions that you've picked up at these certain little towns, and you can keep track of where you're at. That's kind of shocking to me. That seems like something that would have been modded in because the. The, you know, Hollow Knight didn't really have anything like that. It was just, you know, you just play the game and you hope to remember that you found that one item that this one NPC was looking for. But it is really nice that they are so descriptive about where to go and where to find that person. And maybe it's not going to put it on the map, but you can put a marker there. So there is still some of that. You know, I am. This is my playthrough. I am putting down these pins. I am putting down these markers to remember where NPCs are. So yeah, I would say early difficulty a skosh too high. But on the plus side I think the player onboarding and tutorializing has been really cool and those small quality of life things are really awesome that I just didn't expect anything like that from a game like this where they kind of take pride in the obtuseness of the experience and you discovering things on your own. I think it's nice knowing that a lot of people are playing this game and we saw Hollow Knight numbers skyrocketing before Silksong came out. And it is really cool that there it isn't the most punishing experience possible for new players, but holy. Like I don't know when we'll possibly get sales numbers. I don't know when that they'll casually.

[D]

Come out in like three years and be like oh yeah, it showed like 30 million.

[A]

Yeah, I, I don't know where those numbers get tracked but the fact that Steam only had over 500k and that.

[D]

Was only concurrent and it broke all the stores.

[A]

It broke all of the stores. But like only, you know, the, it was concurrence only not sales on Steam. That's 500k. I don't know the day one sales but I'm going to assume around 3 something, 3 something million because all the other consoles still had to sell Xbox. Game Pass was an option and you could get it and just download it there if you have a game Pass.

[C]

But that's where I got it.

[A]

Man. They are, they, they are gonna be sitting pretty for another while and we'll see Hollow Knight 3 in about a decade. It's insane. It's crazy.

[B]

What about you are the things that you're not loving so far?

[D]

I was thinking like the, the mask system where you're putting like little items on your, what is it called, Andy? The, the, yeah, the crests. The one thing is I, I don't love the compass thing. I, I, I wish that was just like a permanent thing you had. Yeah, that, that's like one of those like quality of life things where I'm like we, we could have changed that a little bit.

[A]

Right?

[D]

Besides that.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

I would say like little things here and there of like. Yeah. Like running into spikes should be like. It's one of those weird ones where like the initial hitting the spike gets you a health down and then like blowing up again to like go back to like whatever platform you're on takes off. Another thing of how it's like all Right. Come on. Little things like that. But overall, I've had such a great time with it. I've only had one technical bug, not the, you know, not an insect. Very unfortunate. There's a very tough fight that I don't love. It is very rng heavy in terms of how to get through it and beat him. He falls off screen, and then like the, you know, the arena usually will open up. After the arena doesn't open up, I'm like, okay, here comes the second phase. Minute passes by. Nothing, and I start hitting everything around the arena. And I. Eventually I was like, I just got to look up this boss fight. Whole sequence like, that should have happened. Didn't happen in my playthrough. And I had to. I was scared. I was stuck in the room.

[A]

Right? Yeah.

[D]

And, like, even after reloading, I was scared I was going to be stuck. But I reloaded. It brought me back to the bench. I was like, all right, run it back. Time to run it back with this rng heavy fight, which really sucks. So that. That was tough. And then, yeah, like, the. The fight that I'm on, I will say, is not a boss fight that I've been stuck on for a while. And that is. It is the very clear. It. It's tough to critique it, though, because it does feel very much like the, hey, you need to, like, once you beat this, you're gonna have the rest of the game down. This is like our challenge to you to, like, figure it out type of thing. Yeah. And it's one of the, like, it reminds me a little bit of, like, some people will understand this. I think one of the late bosses in Persona 5 Royal, that is just like, the difficulty spike is ridiculous. And you're just like, how. How this feels like. But that fight is really teaching you, like, hey, you've been playing a certain way. Let's try to help you understand the deeper ways and to be playing this. And so it's just one of those things where I'm just. I'm almost there, but I'm not quite.

[C]

Yeah.

[D]

So, yeah, that's, you know, the. The only big, like, kind of head scratchers. Everything else I'm just absolutely head over heels for.

[A]

Let me not get hurt by a downed creature. Let me not get hurt by it. If I touch your thigh. Yeah. Like, I, you know, there was. And that's just the way Hollow Knight's always been. And I think a lot of that, your. Your mind sort of expects different things from certain games like this, because Prince of Persia would let you just dash through people, and that's your. Your iframes. Mandragora, which was another Metroidvania that came out earlier this year. Fantastic game so far, but that one lets you, like, the whole concept is like. Like, dodge, roll, you know, through him, and now you're behind him, and those are your iframes. But, yeah, like, I. I totally understand, although frustrating, getting hurt by an enemy that you know is running into you. But the. Like, I would just get so annoyed at the. The amount of times of, like, I think Savage Beast Fire is one of the ones that when it drops down on you, I was like, oh, that's. That sucks that when you stun it, it drops down and can hurt you. Yeah. But then I was. I had unlocked a special move that I really, really liked, and so I would. I wanted it to kind of like a larger AOE type move, and I wanted to really kind of envelop all of that beast fly when I was on it. So I would, like. I wanted to kind of dash into it, then use that move and dashing. I would get her like, oh, that's right. You're down on the ground. You hurt me. It still sucks. Yeah, I don't like that, you know, it not. Not that it's led to, like, a whole lot of deaths lately. It's just more of an annoyance. Like, I think the. The game would still be hard if. If I wasn't getting hurt by a downed enemy, you know?

[D]

Yeah, that's one of those, like, everything. Like, not having those iframes almost feels like, especially in a 2D. Like, Metroidvania feels like, very weird enough putting, but it feels so inspired by, like, every movement needs to be thought out. Like a souls game. But I think, yeah, like, the down enemies feels like, like almost an overcorrection of that in a way that. That's one that I definitely forgot about and also get frustrated whenever it comes up.

[A]

So far, though, I. I don't really have any bosses that I haven't loved, regardless of difficulty. Beating one, you know, beating some of the tougher ones and just being so pumped up about how awesome the moveset was and what was required of the player and how it ramped up, up. And sure, there were a couple times where I was like, oh, we were fine with two phases. We don't need more. Like, we were fine ending it here. Why would you add on this extra little. But then by the end of it, it's just they. I think they have been so supremely designed, man. Like, the most recent one I just did on stream last night, it's far and away the most different of all the other ones that I've experienced so far, but so cool and so creative. And the story that it's even telling while doing it and getting all this context from the world in that moment, it's God damn, like, what a goatie list this is gonna be. This is one of the strongest lists of all time.

[D]

Yeah. Of the 18 named bosses that I fought, there's only one boss I actively dislike. And everything else has been such a fun time. Even though how, like, despite how frustrating some of them can get because of that downloading and learning to master and figuring everything out and yeah, the storytelling that it all does at the same time.

[B]

Greg, what about you? Are there any things that you're not loving about it?

[C]

No, I'm taking the game as it comes.

[A]

Right.

[C]

It comes to me. So I really don't have much to critique. I feel I'm enjoying what they're laying out for me. I enjoy learning the new enemies, whether they be small or big bosses or something that effect the compass is a good one because it is. I haven't gotten to a point where I feel like I need to switch it out for I have other things to put in there. But it's like I'm always so lost to start the game, you know what I mean? To learn for me that discovery of the new area and figuring it out and the nooks and crannies and then I know I can't, you know, when, like, we've all played Metroidvania, so it was like, you know, jumping on. I can't get to there. I get the dash. I'll be back. And you get the dash and you come back. Like, that exploration of it is so much fun that, like, I'm sure eventually I'll need to switch it out when I feel like I'm grinding something or I know the area well. But yeah, I'm having a great time. You?

[B]

Yeah. I mean, the compass thing's big for me. Like, that just feels obtuse for the sake of being obtuse. Like, I don't know why it needs to take up an item slot. Like, just let me have the option to turn it on or off if I want. I feel like that just comes down to a lot of my criticisms of the game. Like, I understand why they did it, but I do think just giving options and having all these things that people are making mods for just as options, like Prince of Persia Lost Crown did where I didn't use those. But the fact that they were there for that game I think is. Makes it a better game and I think it's more accessible to more people. And so I do wish that there were more tuning options here because I do think for this game I would use some of them without any shame. I don't care. I want to experience the game and.

[D]

Like especially like post 9 souls that did a lot of like, not just like things like compass, but difficulty options and all that stuff in the back end for Nine Souls, like you can go and percent wise change a lot of stuff that I think would have. Granted this is a small team as well. But like I think some of that stuff, like I get people having a vision, but I think like some things on the back end to help with an experience like this.

[B]

I just love that stuff. I love the options and to me that is a plus when games have it and it's a minus when games don't. So I do look at it as, as a tarnish on an amazing experience, an amazing video game for me. And yeah, just so far my experience with the Crests, I always feel like I want to be able to do more than I'm given in one kit. And I get that that's the design of them trying to limit you. But the system you were talking about of Hollow Knight, one of having like the different costs, the charms, that sounds cool to me. Like, I kind of feel like I would prefer that just in theory so far because I do feel like there's a couple abilities and items that I have that I'm like, I don't want to use these like the, like throwing the little like knives or whatever. I'm just like, I'm never using that.

[C]

I do it all the time. We're like, oh, you're scary. Stay away from me.

[B]

So I don't know. It's like, I do think maybe it's just like so far where my journey has taken me. Like I'm still like there's a couple things I've heard you guys talk about that I didn't get those. So like maybe I just need to go back and find some things.

[A]

But I've got a, A, like a poison add on that that adds poison to the other moves. The, the knives and, and projectiles. So like you hit them once and then you see a poison after the fact, tick them for another damage. So it's like, dude, dude and you. And it's like, I'm doing extra here. It just it feels awesome. The projectiles I feel like have early on was like, oh, but they use those metal pieces. I'm gonna want to be really, really careful, dude. The last several fights, it's like, it's so built into my attack plan, you know?

[B]

Cool.

[A]

They're awesome.

[B]

I'm excited for that. Let's get to some super chats to close out the show here. JB says I just got to Act 2, but I'm already confident between this and Expedition 33 for Game of the Year.

[A]

Agreed. I loved, while I was streaming, having somebody pop in and be like, damn, I just got to act two. And I was like, what the. The. There's an Act 2.

[B]

I mean, honestly, that's been me today too.

[A]

And then just hearing everyone.

[B]

You see the chat talk about Act 2, I'm like, oh, my God.

[A]

And then you remember that it starts off with act one, and you're like, oh, that's right. That was such a long time ago.

[D]

Though, and like it again that it does that thing so well of getting lost in an area for a while, and then you loop back around to an area you've been before, and you're like, oh, right. And like, they do that with the Act One thing where you kind of get to a point where you think you're getting to the end of the game, then you get past that point, and then it says act two, and you're like, oh, fuck. Right, okay. Yeah, this game's real big.

[B]

Trevor says, I'm close to the end of act one, but I absolutely love this game and it's tied right now with Expedition 33 for my game of the Year. Love that.

[A]

Tools are very important, too. Yeah. I got to use more of them tools from the Forge sister, if you remember the Forge Sister. Big lady in that sort of like, fire area after you fight Lace.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Kind of around the Lace fight. You can buy tools from her that I haven't utilized yet, but I want to just after seeing how much people love them little, like spike things to leave on the ground in case there's ads in the match where, you know, maybe one of the ad on the ground while you're dealing with the savage beast fly, the ad will kind of hit that trap and get hurt by it and killed or whatever. So there's a lot of stuff out there. Kind of reminds me a lot of Elden Ring, where there's a lot of tools to be used, and it's up to you to utilize them.

[C]

2.

[B]

Two Little Things that you said just remind me that I really love about the game one is I love how the enemies can hurt each other. Not all the time.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But, like, there'll be times where, like, you're in a boss fight and, like, then there's, like, little dudes that they savage.

[A]

Beast Fly was a lot of that.

[B]

And, like, you kind of, like, can control. Not control, but lead him to ground, pound on them, and kill the little guys. Which I was like, this is satisfying as hell and very, very cool. And the other thing is the. The, like, souls, like, thing of when you die, being able to go back and pick up your. Your right from there, where your silk is. I love that even just as a map function, because I feel like some Metroidvanias do a great job with this, but some don't. Where you die and you're like, where was I?

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

How did I get there? So having that little, like, icon on your map of where you're going, I'm like, oh, this is, you know, probably not the intention of this, but it's been very helpful for me.

[A]

Yeah, for sure.

[D]

Shout out to the item that helps that system of, like, losing stuff feel a bit more like Shovel Night than a souls game in terms of, like, currency and all that stuff.

[B]

Yeah.

[D]

I recommend. I think I got that early game, so I recommend looking around for that.

[B]

Zeke Speak says, did y' all see Jason Schreier's Skeet? About how more games need to stop spending millions on graphics and give the people what they want. A shit ton of weird little guys.

[A]

Oh, yes.

[B]

We will reference little guys forever.

[C]

And then, I mean, Nick's gonna work here a long time, so. Yeah.

[B]

Yes, exactly. He is such a weird little guy. While Paulo says, listen to six hours of One Composer soundtrac Tracks. Hiroyuki Sano Tim. If you don't lose your marbles, I'd be surprised. Attack on Titan Suite is my fave. I'll have to check that out. Thank you for the recommendation. And Zeke says, who's your favorite character and why? Is it Sherma? I'm shout out to Sherma.

[C]

Now.

[D]

For me, it's chakra.

[C]

Yep.

[A]

Yeah.

[D]

Chakra is the go.

[A]

She rocks.

[B]

And then Trevor says, don't forget to use the tools. Tools help a lot. And then Z Speak says, crest of choice, boys. I'm loving Reaper for general and Beast for bosses. Also, Claw boomerang tools, A plus. That and the triple kunai are always on. I don't know half the words you just said.

[C]

Yeah, I know. I haven't got Reaper.

[A]

Reaper rules. That's the one with the better down pogo. Yeah, the less confusing down pogo where it's not directional, it's just a general kind of all encompassing beneath you. Just the way the old school Hollow knight worked as well. Yeah, that's definitely a lot easier for Pogos. But then I also found like a neat upgrade to the general. The first sort of the hunter. Yeah, the. The hunter badge or hunter crest. Crest got emblem, badge, charm, always a scourge. All of those. Yeah. The. I got an upgrade for that that is really neat where if you're at full silk, do more damage. So like little things like that will kind of lead me towards one or the other. And I again, it just kind of reminds me of my favorite thing of souls games are going to a boss fight and thinking, all right, well this one isn't working out. Let me try this other badge. Let me try this other crest and see if things are a little bit easier to figure out. It's awesome.

[B]

Yeah. What's the word on the Beast? Should I care about this?

[A]

The one.

[B]

The Beast one.

[A]

I heard the Beast one kind of sucks. And I don't like the move set either. I don't like the. The down pogo where you kind of do a cartwheel forward and it just seems weird, really odd.

[D]

But it seems some p. Some people have enjoyed it because of the bonus of binds to enter a wild fury and steal life from prey. So then there's like this kind of balance, you know, it's like the vampire kind of thing that you always like in. In games as well. So Life steel. Life steel. So, you know, some positives, some negatives with it.

[B]

I decided been able to vibe with it. I switched back immediately. I can't believe this is what I got for all my efforts.

[D]

Shout out to the reaper. I only changed the reaper to try to attempt to beat this fight yesterday. And the. The cool thing where like it knocks silk out of enemies so you can collect more silk and stuff like that, like that's really helpful as well.

[A]

So.

[B]

Very cool. Well, this has been a review so far of Hollow Knight Silksong. We will obviously keep you all updated through our progress of the video game and I'm sure it'll end up somewhere on our game of the year list with how much we're all loving it so far.

[D]

Barrett, There was a question that was asked at the beginning of the show. Tim. Oh, you're right that Andy needs to answer.

[B]

Kh.

[A]

Oh, Honky Kong.

[B]

Harry Potter.

[A]

Harry Potter.

[B]

Oh, everybody, if you're watching live, if you're on Twitch. You can stay right where you are. But if you're on YouTube, you got to make the jump over to Kind of funny. In review for Cuckoo, the Conjuring Cinematic Universe. In review, Greg has something.

[C]

I will change your life. Your life will never be the same.

[A]

Yay.

[C]

You will think about me till the day you die.

[B]

I hate this so much. We'll see you there. Bye.