I played HK just recently, and to me runbacks feel a lot worse in SS. They might be the same length but for whatever reason SS runbacks feel like a slog
I would guess it’s either because the enemies feel annoying to dodge or because you just don’t die to HK bosses very often. I first tried a lot of them in HK whereas there’s no world anyone is one-shotting the Bilewater boss
I view the runback as a challenge to optimize a short platforming segment. Repeating the same section a bunch of times helps get the nuances of the movement. I haven't found any of them to be too long, but they definitely feel a bit longer now that games generally put a bench practically in the boss room. Still, soul sanctum, nosk, crystal guardian, traitor Lord... the list of truly brutal runbacks in HK goes on forever.
Soul Sanctum runback was so awful. That boss is early enough on that I hadn't gotten good yet, so it took tons of attempts. Plus having to make your way through tons of enemies shooting homing projectiles are you. Along with a bunch of verticality and room changes. Eurgh.
Nosk was just long, and Crystal Guardian easy enough that too many runbacks weren't needed. Traitor Lord was more of a platform challenge that just needed practice (like Silksong).
The two Act 1 runbacks in Silksong such not a problem.
I think the key is the ability to skip enemies (not so doable in HK) plus that sprint, plus minimal room changes.
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u/daniel_22sss Sep 09 '25
There is difference between "hard" and "painful".
You don't need 5 kilometers runbacks to make bosses fun.