it’s a character archetype, so there’s multiple factors. I’ve covered the history of it in several videos before already

I'm not normally a completionist, and I missed an achievement and some other stuff, so I I'm not gonna 100% it. But the fact that this game could keep me interested enough to do nearly 90% is pretty impressive

*I'm an advocate for intended difficulty, but since it does seem to be causing a lot of people genuine issues, I'd say if it is too hard to enjoy, maybe consider modding it

They're very easy to install, and the ones I played around with do a good job making it easier, but still somewhat balanced

Silksong is Team Cherry’s Dark Souls 2

…is what I would say if I was trying to be controversial and hyperbolic

I think they just tried to make a game for the people who mastered the first, and ended up making it so compelling I wish it didn’t require mastery to have fun

And it does suck, because a lot of the non-difficulty changes make this game feel made to sink into. You’ve got hubs and quests and more RPG elements. It’s beautiful and has a much stronger narrative

But the difficulty just turns any attempt at investment into stress and tedium

Enemy spam. Significantly more annoying runbacks. Double damage from what feels like everything

It’s a massive difficulty increase for no real reason, often from no real mechanical change. You just have effectively half health throughout the game. How is that not a troll?

Some of it is fair and balanced mechanical progression. The diagonal pogo, increased enemy and boss complexity, etc.

But so much is just… trolling? I can’t find any better word for it

Mind you, I completed a 100% run of Hollow Knight the day I started, so I’d say I went in well-prepared. And yet I STILL felt an immediate spike in difficulty that seemed intent on angering me

It’s certainly been happening for a while. This is from one of my favorite articles on the topic, all the way back in 2015

www.engadget.com/2015-12-02-p...

“What artist thinks they deserve $100?” = “I would feel bad paying/getting paid more than $100”

“Artists honestly deserve way more than $100” = “I would feel bad paying/getting paid less than $100”

That’s it. All discourse does is possibly drive other people’s ranges up or down to meet your own

Restricted Mode has existed since 2010, is off by default, and YouTube says it only accounted for 1.5% of views in 2017

It’s likely not the problem here, but I did do some research into how it might be related

This is all just coming from a couple hours on my phone though, so take it with a grain of salt

It’s a lot of speculation based on some weird coincidences that I don’t have any better theories to explain. All I really know is that something fishy’s goin on

At best, minors are having their algorithms fucked with to “protect” them

At worst, every person under 18 or on a public network is having guideline-compliant videos hidden from them and deprioritized without their knowledge

That could certainly explain a drop in views