Hollow Knight: Silksong devoured my weekend as I threw myself against foes that bested me again and again, and I walked away certain of two things: the game is tough, and I am not good at it. But despite the countless deaths, I had fun. It’s a Metroidvania; it’s hard not to enjoy it, as the masochistic fun of losing over and over resonates with my nostalgia for Super Metroid.
And then this morning, I saw an announcement from Team Cherry detailing an upcoming patch that will provide “slight balance adjustments in the early game.” The team states that the patch should be available to all players next week, although it is currently accessible to Steam players through a public beta.
That’s great news, and will make the game more approachable for newcomers, but it doesn’t fix Silksong’s biggest issue: the total lack of accessibility options. The original Hollow Knight also lacked those, although the community addressed many of the problems with fan-made mods. Silksong already has 87 different mods available on Nexus Mods, including one that tackles the annoying double-damage bug. Other mods lend automatic health regeneration, increase player damage, and much more.
I’ll be honest: the problem is one without an easy answer. I want the game to be accessible to anyone who wants to play it, but if someone purchased Silksong for a platform that can’t easily be modded (like Xbox or Nintendo Switch), those options aren’t available to them. I’d like to see Team Cherry implement native accessibility options, but I also understand that the mere existence of Hollow Knight and Silksong is a herculean feat in and of itself, having been created by only three people. The guys deserve kudos for what they’ve done.
But in 2025, accessibility options aren’t something that’s nice to have. They’re practically a necessity.
Gaming is for everyone
Division and elitism have always been part of gaming culture, but have intensified with the advent of Soulslike games. The “get gud” mentality promotes a void of empathy and understanding, especially for players who might lack the physical abilities to complete a game the way the developer intended.
There are multiple forum posts regarding accessibility in Silksong, many of which have been met with criticism from other gamers. I’ve seen several comments voicing opinions that players should “just accept some things no longer work for you.” Others have said it’s a bizarre request to ask developers to add accessibility options to a difficult game, erroneously comparing it to asking an author to use smaller words in a book.
In response, the original poster used an analogy that hits the nail on the head: that accessibility options aren’t about asking a book to be simpler, but rather to translate it into their native language.
That’s what accessibility options do. They don’t decrease the experience for able-bodied gamers, but they do improve the fun someone can have that might not otherwise be able to interact with the mechanics exactly as intended. It’s right there in the name: accessibility.
A gamer should not be shut out of an experience simply because they battle with cerebral palsy or a similar condition, or because an injury has long-term effects on hand strength. Navigating a world designed for able-bodied people when you have a disability is already a challenge in itself. If accessibility options can make a game easier to play — especially one with such a beautiful, atmospheric world as Silksong — then I struggle to see a downside.
There’s a certain subset of players who take pride in finishing difficult challenges and earning all the Steam/Xbox/PlayStation achievements in games that require nearly frame-perfect precision, and that’s fine. There’s a lot to be proud of in learning the mechanics and mastering it, but that pride shouldn’t lock out less-abled players from enjoying the game itself. Adding accessibility options takes nothing away from the achievement.
The critique that challenges are meaningless if someone can turn on assistance to help complete them is simply a bad take. The achievements still matter, and if it’s that important, developers can enable an option that indicates players earned the achievement with assistance. But ultimately, they’re part of video games: does it matter how someone gets an achievement? With nothing on the line except bragging rights, it feels like a particularly self-centered take to suggest a game should only be experienced by those “good enough.”
How accessibility could improve the game
As I said before, Team Cherry is a small studio and has already poured a tremendous amount of resources into Silksong. I understand the need to launch the game and start generating revenue, but I hope they will implement more accessibility options in the future.
Difficulty sliders would be an easy way to welcome newcomers without changing the planned experience too much. If players could adjust how much damage an enemy dealt, it would make Silksong much more approachable. Even early in the game, some enemies deal two points of damage (Masks, per the game’s language), and you only have five to start with. Some bosses also deal two points per attack, and often use multi-hit abilities that are all but impossible to dodge.
In fact, the hardest enemy I’ve fought so far is an unnamed miniboss — not even one of the main foes. Its ability to burrow underground and cut off my retreat, as well as the range of its weapons, make battling it frustrating. It’s good to know I’m not alone on that front, though; I have seen a lot of players venting about that foe in particular.
In 2020, Team Cherry’s Ari Gibson said Silksong was built to be a solid entry point for new players. The game was developed around this mindset, but Silksong is significantly harder than Hollow Knight. Many players say the opening hours of Silksong have more in common with late-game Hollow Knight than a starting point for a game, and while that’s fine — difficulty isn’t inherently bad — it isn’t what was promised.
Other accessibility options Team Cherry could implement would be turning off environmental damage, especially during difficult platforming sections. I’ve died to spikes a lot. Getting the hang of the diagonal-down attack takes a bit of practice, and I can see how it might be troublesome to players with motor control issues.
Silksong could take a page out of Celeste’s playbook. Celeste is one of the best examples of a difficult game that implemented accessibility options in a way that doesn’t detract from the experience. It allows players to slow down the speed of the game, make themselves invincible, grant infinite stamina, and even skip sections of the game.
They’re relatively small tweaks, but they make a world of difference. The team behind Celeste said it took only a couple of days to add these options to the game, and I would love to see Team Cherry do the same with Silksong.
And on that topic, there’s one last thing to address. Many Celeste players think enabling Assist Mode is cheating for those without disabilities, but that’s nonsense. The ultimate goal of a video game is to be entertaining, and there is a fine line between challenge and discouragement. If a game is so hard that you are no longer having fun with it, use the tools available to move forward. Don’t be afraid to turn down the difficulty or skip a particularly difficult section. Life is too short to worry about arbitrary digital achievements, and it’s better to bypass a small part of a game than to miss out on what might otherwise be a memorable experience.
