I did not play Hollow Knight: Silksong when it launched in 2025. Not because I was not curious. I was. But I was still grinding through the first Hollow Knight, dying to Mantis Lords and telling myself I was having fun. Then the discourse around Silksong hit: long runbacks, bosses that felt tuned for masochists, a currency economy so stingy that every Bellway unlock felt like a mortgage. I watched friends rage-quit. I read posts about mods that softened the difficulty. And I decided, quietly, to wait.

By 2026, that decision feels less like cowardice and more like patience. Team Cherry finally released the first balance patch for Silksong, and it targeted exactly the early-game pain points I had heard about. It was not a dramatic overhaul. It was a careful nudge. And honestly, that made me more interested, not less.

The first patch adjusted two early bosses: Moorwing and Sister Splinter. It reduced the damage dealt by Sandcarvers. It made the Bellway and Bell Bench cheaper to unlock. It increased the rosaries rewarded by relics and psalm cylinders. Courier deliveries also started paying out more rosaries. If you have played Silksong, those words are not jargon. They are the difference between exploration feeling like adventure and exploration feeling like punishment.

Let me put it in a table, because my brain likes lists when it is trying not to think about how many times I died to a giant fly.

These are conservative changes. Team Cherry did not remove bosses or add an easy mode. It did not turn Silksong into a walk through Hallownest. But it did acknowledge that the early game had spikes that were turning people away. And that matters, because Silksong is not a live-service game. There is no seasonal meta. There is no ranked ladder. When a single-player game gets a balance patch, it is usually because the developers believe the original tuning missed the mark for a meaningful number of players.

I am one of those players. I am not bad at games. I am just tired. I have a job. I have a backlog. I have limited patience for a game that treats every death as a tax on my evening. The first Hollow Knight was hard, but it was fair. Silksong, from what I saw and read, often felt fair in the way a hailstorm is fair: technically, you could have stayed inside.

That is why the patch news caught my attention. It suggests Team Cherry is listening. It also suggests something else: maybe Silksong would have benefited from an Early Access period. I know that is a controversial thing to say about a game that was famous for its silence. The long wait, the total radio silence, the lack of review codes before launch, the absence of a public beta, all of that built an aura. It made the launch an event. It made Silksong feel like a myth that finally became real. But it also meant there was no chance to gather feedback before millions of players hit the same brick walls.

Compare that to Hades 2. Hades 2 is another highly anticipated indie sequel. It also has a passionate fan base. But it spent a long time in Early Access, and that period was not a marketing gimmick. It was a workshop. Balance changes were made. Mechanics were added. Quality-of-life features were improved. Players felt like collaborators, not test subjects. When the full launch arrived, the game was sharper because the community had been in the room.

I am not saying every game needs Early Access. Some games benefit from mystery. Some developers work better in isolation. Team Cherry clearly does. But Silksong is a game where balance is crucial. It is a game where a single boss can stop a player for a week. It is a game where the difference between a 30-rosary reward and a 50-rosary reward can decide whether someone keeps playing or uninstalls. That kind of tuning is exactly what Early Access is good at.

Maybe the first patch will be enough. Maybe Moorwing and Sister Splinter will stop being community boogeymen. Maybe the cheaper Bellways and richer relics will smooth out the early game. Or maybe Team Cherry will keep adjusting. I am curious to see if more patches arrive in 2026. If they do, it might be a sign that the original difficulty was tuned higher than intended. If they do not, it might mean Team Cherry is satisfied with the current vision, and players like me just need to meet the game where it is.

Either way, I am glad I waited. I am not waiting because I think Silksong is bad. I am waiting because I think it might be great, and I want to experience it when my patience has a fighting chance. I want to explore Pharloom without feeling like every bench is a luxury tax. I want to fight Hornet's enemies because they are interesting, not because I am stubborn. I want the game to align with the developers' vision, yes, but I also want that vision to include players who are not looking for a second job.

So for now, I will keep grinding through the first Hollow Knight. I will keep an eye on the patch notes. And I will keep telling myself that waiting is not the same as missing out. It might not technically be Early Access, but it kind of feels like I am waiting for a full launch anyway. Sometimes, waiting is just another way of playing the long game. In Silksong, that feels appropriate. 🕷️