I'm not enjoying it that much initially. It feels like the game has been made for that 1% of Hollow Knight players that have platinumed it instead of for everyone else, a bit like how Elden Ring felt at launch.

I get the diagonal down attack as well. Pogo was sort of the answer to everything in the first game so they're trying to counter that, but that just involves putting helmets on a bunch of enemies so it feels artificial.

The thing that's irking me is the lack of build options. There are very few charms and the traps that replace them mostly need to be bought and are very expensive. So they involve going back to the same places over and over when you can afford them. I just feel like I can't tweak Hornet around the edges to suit me or what I'm facing better.

I think the overworld enemies are so tough because they all take at least 3 hits and don't get knocked back as much as in the first game. The flying enemies also float towards you slowly then speed up at the last second. Couple that with the 3 hits and little knockback and they get annoying quickly.

The game has been in development for a long time and has a solid fountain so maybe there's something I'm missing and it will eventually click. I remind myself Silksong was meant to be postgame dlc so of course it was going to be harder.but maybe Team Cherry spent too much time with it and everything makes sense to them but not normal people with fresh eyes.