It pays to know what ones specialty is, as trying to overextend yourself in an attempt to be everything all at once on account of appealing to everyone can come off as being an uninspired, belligerent mess.


Something tells me Combo Man wouldn’t be considered for a Fortnite cameo…which is ridiculous, cause they’ll take fucking anyone

I put off writing my article today for perhaps, way too god damn long, as I now have an exceptionally small time frame with which to play with, meaning I may have to alter my plans slightly in the content I focus on in delivering something snappier to finish up before my midnight deadline. I have not even finished writing about Silksong as of yet, and looking back, the amount of conversation the game has spawned, even just within my own machinations of deconstructionism, is somewhat fucking Looney Tunes I must say, though I’m quite satisfied with my output on the matter, which is the best one can desire in the face of such an endeavor. I doubt my discussion about the games difficulty has completely concluded yet, as I have a feeling I’m approaching the end of Act II, and there is an entire ‘nother act for me to content with, even if it turns out to be optional endgame content. If that does end up being the case, I look forward to this happening with a twisted amount of glee, as one man’s spirit shattering challenge is another man’s intense state of arousal, and what is “hard” ends up meaning very different things to very different people.

I’ve mentioned before that my play sessions have been mostly short ones, for a number of reasons, which is mostly the culprit for my lack of “last boss ownership” in the realm of Silksong. Though, I imagine that turn of phrase will have a big asterisk next to it, as I’m sure the end of Act II is just one of the first of many endings, and certainly not the “truest” ending, I gather, which leads me to believe there will be at least a couple of last bosses of sorts to look forward to. To reiterate; it’s not that I contest the game is hard, I think it’s fine tuned to an excellent degree, but I haven’t had the trouble many others have had, and I’m still far ahead of the median player base, with my next achievement of progress which I’m ever so close to standing at only about a paltry 6% of players having achieved, so still marching onward faster than the lot of them, this much is evident.

The intentionality behind what this article was going to be about was going to involve a follow up on both my psychoanalytic posturing towards Silksong, as well as a bit of an after-touch with my write-up involving my observations involving Marxist Alienation of the title, too, but I feel as if with such little time on the clock, I would not be doing follow ups to either justice, let alone in combination, so they will have to wait till tomorrow, I imagine. In spite the myriad number of ways I have approach my examinations of Silksong, I feel as if there may yet be one more less than obvious but terribly pertinent angle I have yet to acknowledge within the pretense of the game, and I’m quite hoping I stumble upon it in my random moseying towards the first ending, whatever that ends up being. I may yet make my next session, which will coincide with an all nighter, a big final push to wrap-up the initial run through of Silksong, so I may put a feather in the cap of my long streak of articles detailing my time with the title. October is right around the corner, and as much as I’ve been delightfully engaged with Silksong, the spoopy season is upon us, and I have a great endearment for the survival horror genre, and look forward to getting back to some proper freights in a short time from now.

This is maybe an odd aside, and perhaps this quality I’m about to touch upon is not as rare as I’m making it out to be, but it’s nice to see Silksong take itself seriously, not in the way of difficulty, mind you, but in its approach to characterization, world building, and general tone to boot. I feel like a great many games that hearken back to the 2D era or base themselves in what would be considered “retro callback genres” tend not to take themselves too seriously, or are so hellbent on such common fan-service humor that is so familiar to the realm, it almost comes off as derivative and uninspired at this point, even if the original intention was one of an innocent standard.

I think another moment that I want to observed and lauded as time moves forward is the celebratory acknowledgement of Hornet as being a great female lead in video games, as she helps to really create the sleek atmosphere that pervades the entire package. Having a character who maintains kind of this humble worthiness, not of class or lineage per se, but one that comes from character qualities spawned from writing that observes a genuinely virtuous intent, which would lead one to believe that she would be among the rarities who could lift Mjolnir, given the chance. A character that mirrors the same dignified standard Team Cherry strove to embody with the entire game, and a respectable approach to admire from afar, especially with no prior familiarity whatsoever in the matter, which, in this genre and this day and age, is not a small feat to achieve.

I think what’s more, and for others this may be common place, for me less so, but the world of Silksong, and the denizens that make up it’s world Pharloom in all of it’s spoopy glory, does genuinely excite me to check out more of what and or how the community is doing, in terms of fan-art, theories about the lore, etc. I’m not usually one to be so flirtatious with such notions, and even condemn the ideas of fandoms, in their entirely excessive gratuity of toxic behavior and fanatical furies, but the kind of inviting whimsy the world of Silksong represents just begs it to be explored. With the kind of turn around time on Team Cherry’s projects, I expect it will be a long time yet before we get another glimpse into what will continue to go on within the realm of Hollow Knight, so it will most certainly be up to the fans to carry the torch for a long time coming.

Something I suspect Team Cherry knows in their heart of hearts they have likely successfully inspired in the gaming masses.

~Pashford