CG on Silksong

I've got about 60 hrs into Silksong and am probably only about two-thirds through the game. Silksong is the sequel to Hollow Knight, a game you might know from Game Pass. The series falls into the metroidvania genre, meaning it’s a 2D Dark Souls–platformer hybrid with lots of shortcuts, a maze-like world, enemy ambushes, and the occasional tough boss.

The premise of the story is that you play as Hornet, an antagonist from the first game, with the simple goal of reaching the top of the citadel, a huge structure that takes up a massive part of the open world.

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Difficulty

The feedback about the game being too hard is accurate. Silksong is drastically harder than the first Hollow Knight, and much harder than similar titles like Ender Lilies or Bloodstained, in my opinion. You should try one of those games, or better yet the first Hollow Knight, before attempting this game. The early game is very unforgiving, though the difficulty actually gets easier as your health, damage, and move set expand slowly in the mid-to-late game. There was a recent patch that nerfed some difficult early-game bosses, so some of my criticisms may not be fully accurate anymore, but regardless, it’s still a very hard game.

Most of the difficulty is a result of a lack of health or damage upgrades. You can't increase your damage at all until beating the first major boss, and health upgrades are very rare. Bosses deal 2 damage with most attacks, which is a ton considering you’ll only have 5 or 6 HP in the early game.

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World & Atmosphere

Silksong's world is surprisingly diverse, at least compared to the first game in the series. There's every biome you can think of, as well as a decent range of ambiences. Atmospherically, exploration is a bit tense due to your small health pool and the abundance of traps and strong enemies.

Finding shortcuts and hidden items is really fun once you get past the early game, where upgrades and useful items are rare. A big criticism I have of Silksong, and this genre as a whole, is that there’s no way to determine when you’ve found all the items in a particular area. This forces you to either look up a guide or waste your free time exploring old areas. This game is particularly bad in that regard due to how well-hidden health upgrades (you need four items to upgrade your health once) and essential shortcuts are.

The world is massive, and after 60 hrs, I’m still seeing new locations.

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Mechanics

Silksong plays similarly to the first game. It’s a souls-like platformer with a heavy emphasis on parkour, exploration, and memorizing boss attack patterns. Where it changes things up is it’s a very fast-paced game if you want it to be. I actually found playing cautiously to be much harder than opting for a quicker play style.

You can change your play style by swapping out various crests (a minimalist class system) and tools (things like throwing weapons/buffs).

One upside of this game only having four total damage upgrades that apply to all your classes is you can switch freely without having to resource grind too much.

Unfortunately, buying all the items from every shop requires a ton of currency farming due to how steep prices are and how little money enemies drop. Silksong is a game where every item sold by a vendor has a purpose, so you’ll actually need to buy at least most of them. I only found one viable farming spot in the entire game, and it wasn’t fun to use.

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Bosses

Silksong bosses will generally kill you within a few seconds of seeing them before you make the runback to their arena and figure out that it only has a few moves (usually 3–5), then take it out. I never got stuck on a boss beyond the early game, outside of random side bosses that I was probably under-equipped for. If you stick to the main path, you likely won’t get stuck on anything too unfair.

Something you’ll find annoying is that for several main story bosses, you’ll have to make a long runback to their arena past various enemies or traps.

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Final Take

Overall, Silksong is a solid 8/10 game. It’s far from perfect, but if you want a game with a world that feels endless with dozens of hours of story content, it’s a great game. I don’t think I’ve ever played a game where I’m still doing new stuff 60 hrs in. I’m not trying to 100% complete it either; I’m just doing main story stuff.

CG on Stellar Blade

Stellar Blade recently got ported from PS5 to PC, so I was finally able to play it. It's an action-soulslike game, with substantially more emphasis on scripted events, action sequences, and cinematic scenes than anything you'll see in a standard Souls game. The story is extremely simple—you play as Eve, an android girl tasked with killing the Elder Naytiba, the leader of a race of alien-like mutants that have taken over Earth. There are also several subplots relating to side characters within Xion, the main city hub, that are optional but necessary to complete for the full story, in my opinion.

I didn't see a single bug or glitch in my playthrough aside from some weird death animations, so the PC port should be really stable for you. I played it on 4K, medium settings, with no framerate issues.

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World & Atmosphere

The world and atmosphere are very mixed, with some incredibly good levels and some awful open expanses. I personally hated the open-world maps, both of which are large desert areas known as the Wasteland and the Great Desert, respectively. There's way too much uniformity in the color palette, and traversing them just isn't that engaging despite the boosted movement speed Eve gets in the open world. Having two deserts is just a weird decision thematically.

Where the game shines more is in the linear sections, full of scripted events and little side paths to explore for more resources. I rarely got bored during these sections, aside from one tedious one near the endgame. The map is a bit interconnected, but it's much closer to something like Dark Souls 3 or Elden Ring than games like Dark Souls, AI Limit, and Lies of P.

The linear levels have a ton of diversity in tone and location, with one even leaning into some light horror elements. Most levels are in underground facilities, but they're varied enough to feel unique.

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Mechanics

As I said earlier, Stellar Blade is an action-soulslike, so a few Souls mechanics are present, but they're extremely mild. Death carries no penalty, and Eve isn't canonically immortal like the protagonists in most of these games. You unlock these camps as checkpoints throughout the game, which are similar to bonfires in Dark Souls, but that's about it as far as the Souls similarities go. The parry/dodge system is much more similar to what you find in Sekiro than Elden Ring.

You only have one weapon—a one-handed sword—but a ton of skill trees that add more moves and skills. There are few boring perks like "increased damage." Your stats like HP, damage, and Beta (the mana equivalent) are all upgraded via exploration. 

This is a bit annoying due to the boring nature of the open-world sections, and you'll be under-leveled if you refuse to explore at all.

There are also a ton of side quests and collectibles, which do help make the world more bearable, but I personally only liked the ones relating to the main side characters in Xion. I didn't bother completing any of the really long collection side content. 

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Customization

Customizing Eve's appearance plays a big role in the game. A lot of the rewards for quests and exploring are cosmetic items (glasses, earrings, and outfits). You can also customize her hair, but all the styles are unlocked and just have to be purchased with currency one time. Armor and gear are invisible, so you can have Eve wearing whatever you want with no stat implications. The outfits are all pretty decent, and there's a big range between modest and revealing options.

This was my personal favorite: 

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Bosses

The boss design is mostly solid, with few repeating bosses. I generally beat most of them in 1–5 tries, but in the endgame, you hit a difficulty spike unlike anything I've ever seen in a game. Bosses go from medium-difficulty cinematic encounters to high DPS tanks instantly, with no gradual ramp-up in difficulty. For comparison, I'd say the last three bosses are on par with Sekiro's difficulty, although not quite as tedious or punishing. 

Due to only having one weapon and limited gear, cheesing bosses is probably much harder than in other similar titles. You can stun-lock certain ones, but the tiny damage you deal means it really doesn't matter unless you can keep it going for 4 minutes. There also aren't any ally NPCs, but there is an easy mode option in settings, which I imagine most people who aren't veterans of the genre will need to turn on to finish the game.

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Final Take

I can confidently recommend this game to basically anyone. The inclusion of an easy mode, plus the normal mode getting very tough at the end, means no one's excluded from enjoying the game.

Overall, I give it a solid 8/10.

CG on AI Limit (2025 Souls-like Game Review)

AI Limit is a new souls-like game that came out earlier this year (March 2025). The premise is that you're playing as a robot girl in a post-apocalypse with amnesia and tasked with recovering her memory by repairing these branches scattered throughout the world that connect to a mythical tree.

The story is a bit more convoluted than that. There are several factions, including the Church, which provides protection to the few humans left on Earth from the Necros (weird big zombie-like creatures), and Seed, comprised of other robot girls (called Bladers) like your character, Arissa.

In my playthrough, I only encountered two bugs: one which was fixed by verifying the Steam files, and the other being a recurring fall damage bug, so you should have a decently bug-free experience if you pick it up.

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World & Atmosphere

Unlike most games in the genre, humans actually comprise a big chunk of the enemies you fight. There's a decent variety in landscapes/environments, despite plant life being canonically extinct in-game. There's poison swamps, underground caverns, a futuristic palace, and more.

The NPCs you encounter are all interesting, and I felt compelled to finish their quests and listen to their dialogue, something that's rare in this genre in my experience.

Humans survive by exclusively eating Mud, a magical substance that's visually identical to normal mud, but has some weird properties like spawning monsters known collectively as the Void. It also serves as a secondary healing item and is mysteriously linked to the Church and Necros, as you'll discover by reading various bits of lore throughout the game. Some of the lore items you pick up can even be sold for a lot of money, so there's a real incentive to read it all.

The level design in this game is very strong, easily on par with games like Dark Souls 1 & 2, Lies of P, and sections of Elden Ring. There are tons of shortcuts, areas that loop back around, and enough challenging enemies guarding hidden items to keep exploration rewarding. The world is about as interconnected as it can be.

One huge downside of the game being offline is there aren't messages on the ground to guide you (like those found in Elden Ring) to where secret areas are, so you'll almost certainly need to consult an online guide if you want to find all the weapons, armor, and upgrade materials.

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Mechanics

This game is pretty difficult and unfortunately borrows a lot of bad mechanics from other souls games, but also strips away some of the more outdated features like stamina and carry-weight limits.

You can dodge and attack infinitely, but your damage gets lowered if your sync bar (a combination between stamina and mana) gets depleted by getting hit/casting spells. The bar is restored by attacking enemies, and it's a huge improvement over the standard stamina/magic bars you see in every souls-like/RPG.

Parkour is torture. You can only jump while sprinting, and only to cross gaps because there's no verticality to it, just like in the Dark Souls trilogy. The fall damage calculations are completely random; you can fall off the same edge and lose 90% of your HP or just half.

On death, the only penalty is you'll always lose a portion of your currency (between 10–50%) depending on what items you have equipped. It's really not an issue.

Reallocating your stats is completely free and can be done at any resting branch once you find a certain item in a hidden area. This prevents you from getting soft-locked by a terrible build.

Weapon upgrading is the same as any other souls-like. Every weapon has 10 levels, with the final material being the only one that can't be bought infinitely. Fortunately, there are only 4 upgrade materials, and you actually find enough to use more than 1–2 weapons in a playthrough.

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Bosses

The bosses are a mixed bag, with only 3 having NPC summons (these are also some of the best-looking boss fights). In terms of difficulty, they're all over the place, with some late-game bosses being much easier than early-game ones. Atmospherically, there are no misses. I didn't encounter anything that felt out of place, and almost none of the bosses are reskins aside from a few in the end-game.

Healing is very limited early on, meaning you'll pretty much need to parry every boss until you get more healing items, because tanking/DPS isn't viable until mid-game, and you can't actually knock down bosses for a critical hit without parrying. In my playthrough I used a strength/magic build, so it was frustrating to have no reward for charging up big power attacks to hit a boss.

This leads to an unsatisfying feeling when you finally take down these early-game bosses because parrying isn't as hard as in games like Elden Ring, but not parrying makes the difficulty excessively high.

Around the mid-game, you start to encounter more standard souls-like bosses, and can use strategies other than spamming parry.

There are several humanoid-sized bosses as well; of course, these are also the most challenging.

Unfortunately, there are no gimmick bosses. Everything is just a straight-up fight.

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Final Take

Overall, I can only recommend this game to you if you've at least finished Elden Ring or Dark Souls 3. It's not a great intro to the genre, and at times the difficulty is on par with harder games like Sekiro. The story is quite hard to follow in the late game, and I actually had to consult guides on where to go next despite having completed pretty much every other game in this genre. It took me about 30hrs to finish the game, including all the optional content aside from one hidden boss.

If you play these games primarily for the exploration like I do, you'll have a good time. But if you're looking for a more boss-focused experience like Elden Ring/Dark Souls 3, this game probably isn't for you.

It's an 8/10 for me and I can see myself buying a DLC for it or replaying it in the future. 

Withering Rooms (CG Review)

Recently, I picked up Withering Rooms on Steam, a weird 2.5D horror game that reminded me a lot of Little Nightmares, a similar-looking horror game, from the description and artwork. I went in expecting a 2-3 hour forgettable horror game but ended up spending the next 30ish hours (currently 50) on one of the most unique souls-like games I've ever played.

The best way to describe it is a combination of Dark Souls 1 and Luigi's Mansion.

The plot centers around Nightingale, the girl you play as (no character creation—this isn't a blank slate game), trying to escape from a dream world full of undead that she gets trapped in after being put in an asylum at 14. The dream world consists of the Mostyn mansion, as well as some other large buildings, an underground section, and a few other outdoor areas. Naturally, there's a ton of lore to be found in notes, item descriptions, and dialogue.

The story actually engaged me throughout the whole four chapters of the game, which is impressive considering that the souls-like genre isn't exactly renowned for its storytelling.

Atmospherically, it's perfect, from the OST to the colors and character design. The vibe is really similar to Luigi's Mansion or cartoon horror, wherein you're more cozy and comfortable than scared.

Gameplay-wise, there are three basic builds you can spec into: melee, ranged, and magic. I've only done melee and magic playthroughs, but magic is obviously by far the best option. Since this is a horror game, there are also stealth mechanics, which I almost never used. The game encourages you to kill enemies, and past the first chapter, you won't be running into too many monsters you can't beat unless you keep dying and don't have enough items stashed up.

I did die a ton in the first chapter and a bit into the second chapter, so if this is your first 2D souls-like game, or souls game in general, I could see you needing to stealth more to avoid getting frustrated by losing all your stuff. The house's rooms also shuffle around upon respawning, but this is more of a way to keep the game's relatively small world feeling fresh rather than to confuse you.

I mention stashing items because upon death, you'll not only lose all your coins but also all your items. You can't recover them by going back to where you died either. This sounds pretty brutal on the surface, but once you get into the game, there are more than enough ways to hold onto important items. All armor is permanent, and once a weapon is upgraded, it becomes permanent.

Earlier, I described the gameplay as being most like Dark Souls 1, but because this is an indie game made by just one dev, the jankiness of the combat leads to some less-than-satisfying encounters. Bosses, while all cool-looking, feel more like you're just trying to DPS them while dodging one or two attacks every once in a while, and they never really get that difficult (at least in regular new game; New Game Plus is a whole different story). Regular enemy encounters are all good/great, though. There's a decent balance between trash mobs and things that can take you out quickly.

New Game Plus is actually worth exploring once you clear the main game. It's rare in this genre for New Game Plus to offer anything more than increased enemy health while you keep your items and skills.

In Withering Rooms, New Game Plus extends the main game's story, adds several new enemy types, at least one new boss that I've seen so far, and a few other things I won't spoil. Within NG+, you can find an item that activates hard mode, where enemies are insanely strong and a genuine challenge to take down. Beating one of these enemies/bosses gives you items to continue the story, which I've yet to finish after 50 hours.

Overall, it's an easy 9/10 game, and you should pick it up rn (right now).

CG on Black Myth: Wukong

When a new souls-like game comes out, I always buy it on release because it's rare for a game in this genre to be disappointing. Black Myth falls into this genre but refines the Souls mechanics to create a unique experience that diverges significantly from games like Elden Ring.

It doesn’t resemble the original Souls trilogy, Bloodborne, or Lies of P very closely. Instead, it's more akin to something like Bayonetta, though it leans more toward souls-like rather than action-RPG.

I’ve finished the first of what appears to be six chapters and part of the second chapter.

I won’t be reviewing the story, as it’s not a major focus in games like this, but I will mention that the cutscenes are excellent, and there are animated music videos.

I've yet to see any of the girl NPCs though.

It's basically a souls-like game that's more focused on being a replayable boss gauntlet.

Gameplay

Black Myth plays like most other souls-like games. You have an i-frame dodge, a healing flask, earn souls from enemies, and rest at bonfires to level up. There’s also a crafting system, skill trees, and a built-in shop within the shrine (bonfire) menu.

It thankfully deviates from typical souls mechanics by removing outdated features such as losing souls on death, complex stats, and skill reallocation tied to obscure NPCs.

You won’t lose all your souls upon dying to a boss, and you can reset your skills as often as you like at any bonfire.

There aren’t stats to level up beyond HP, Stamina, and FP. These can also be improved by finding items in the world, similar to the prayer beads mechanic in Sekiro.

Additionally, there’s no weapon or armor upgrade system. Gear is acquired through crafting after defeating a boss or finding specific locations. Farming drops isn’t tedious, as enemies drop only souls and crafting components.

Bosses

The boss design, both in gameplay and aesthetics, is undoubtedly impressive. Each encounter is unique and visually stunning, even though I’m running the game on low-to-mid graphical settings.

Most of the bosses I’ve encountered so far are most similar to those in Elden Ring and Sekiro. They move quickly, have powerful attacks, and may require some learning to defeat.

Unlike in Elden Ring, where fast bosses often require either easy strategies or extensive practice on a suboptimal build, Black Myth allows for a variety of strategies. You can immobilize a boss with a spell, then transform into a giant humanoid bull and attack with a flaming twin-blade. There are enough evasive options to move around while your spells are on cooldown.

If your current approach isn’t working, you can completely change your build in just a minute or two.

Level Design

Unfortunately, the world design isn’t as impressive as the boss design. It’s not bad, but if you can run it on high settings, some issues might be mitigated. Each area is relatively linear and lacks unique features or decorations.

I’ve only encountered one instance of a souls-like shortcut, an area where you open a big gate to get back to the bonfire, and there are numerous invisible walls in unexpected places. You might walk down a path and hit an invisible wall simply by straying a few steps in the wrong direction. I assume this was due to most of the development focus being on the impressive bosses and enemies, so don’t expect anything close to the expansive map of Elden Ring.

Overall, I highly recommend trying it out, especially if you have a PS5. 

The PC performance is poor, but this might be due to me running it from an external drive, at least according to ChatGPT. 

CG on shadow of the erdtree (no spoilers)

CG's spolier-free review of shadow of the erdtree.

Like all real gamers, I've been a big fan of Elden Ring since release. It was my first souls game so I went with a pure mage build because I wanted an easy experience and figured mages would be strong. Fortunately for me, I was right, and my mage build could trivialize most bosses, including Mohg, the boss you need to defeat to access the DLC. After beating the Elden Beast using a now-patched Radagan cheese, I moved on to Dark Souls Remastered as a mage, and found that it was an even easier experience.

I've since completed every game in the series at least twice, except the PS5 exclusives, with a variety of builds, typically starting with a ranged build, then moving on to melee builds. 

If it's not obvious by now, I don't go outside.

So far, I've put in around 10hrs with the Elden Ring DLC and defeated two remembrance bosses (main story bosses), and I've seen more than enough to come to the conclusion that this expansion is definitely not for everyone, but it is if you're like me.

Accessing the DLC

To start off, you need to defeat Mohg to even access the expansion, which I think was the best possible decision, given the DLC's difficulty and mechanics. Mohg can be incredibly challenging, especially if you don't find the crystal tear that makes you immune to his curse. He forces you to go out of you way to find an item very far away from him, which is knowledge that's essential to have going in to the expansion.

Leveling Up

If you don't like exploring open worlds to find sometimes hidden essential items, then the DLC isn't for you. If you enter at level 150, your character's level is unaffected, but your overall damage and defense are reduced drastically. You'll have to elevate this effect by searching for shadow blessings and using them at a bonfire to level up your shadow blessing level. You'll also need to find shadow ashes to level up the damage your spirit summons and NPCs do. 

Skipping these items will result in you doing very little damage and getting 1-2 shot by heavy-hitters. The enemies and bosses are tanky and deal a ton of damage so I'd advise finding them all. 

Personally, I don't hate this system because my favorite aspect of these games has always been exploration and finding new gear to try out. so I'm just finding these items as I progress. 

Level Design

One area where the DLC is just objectively better than the base-game is level design. The open world areas are all unique looking and full of interesting colors and structures to explore, while the two main dungeons I completed both had secrets and shortcuts to find. There aren't any boss-runs though, so missing a shortcut won't impact your progress than much, but having them unlocked will help you search for items.

The enemy design is pretty varied, but you will see a decent amount of returning enemies from the base game. I'm not a fan of a few of the new ones. Some of the basic soldiers can take you out in 3 hits but they go down easily enough.

You'll find a ton of new weapons and gear if you explore, I'm currently using a great-hammer than does a massive wave of holy damage if you guard-counter with it and an armor set I farmed from a new black knight enemy.

Boss Design

(Context: When I mention playing solo below, I'm referring to being 100% alone, no summons, NPCs, or other players).

If you didn't like the boss design of the base game, you'll hate the bosses in the DLC.

The best way I can describe them is having the HP of two fire giants + the Demon of Hatred, and the speed of Maliketh. The ones I've seen also have a lot of combo spam, massive AoE, and 1-2 shot attacks that cover most of the arena. 

Even at level 200, with enough shadow blessings, and a maxed-out weapon, you'll be doing almost no damage without bleed / frost / scarlet rot / black flame. 

In fairness, I think this is because they wanted the bosses to have phases without having a cutscene pull up and reveal the second health bar, but it's just not fun to see the bar barely move after a critical.

Like in the base-game, these boss encounters weren't design for players that run around with basic great-swords and no summons.

I can't imagine how long it would take to drain their massive health pools alone.

Elden Ring wasn't designed to be a solo game and this expansion exacerbates that. If you want a good solo experience, go back to DS3, Sekiro, or Lies of P, but from what I can tell, this expansion is the worst solo experience in gaming. 

After I finish one of these games, I typically go back and do a solo playthrough but I can't imagine returning to any of this content alone in the future.

For me though, this boss-design is perfect. 

My build is a a great-shield with a great-hammer and spear combined with some incantations and maxed-out summons. I trade aggro with my summon and NPC while moving around to buff /heal them and the experience is what I want out of the game. I also use a ton of consumables and just about anything else I can do to optimize my build. 

That being said, even if you go in with a setup like mine, expect a challenge.

I've yet to see any gimmick bosses yet, which is unfortunate, because I feel these bosses would be drastically improved by giving you a way to slow them down / beat them faster.

Conclusion

If you liked Elden Ring's base game and boss design, this DLC will give you more of what you like and you should buy it, but if you only play solo and use basic weapons, you'll likely hate it. Every problem solo-players face is multiplied by a thousand. But if you like exploration, the old souls game level design, and optimizing your build, this DLC is a solid 8/10 so far. 

Have yet to find any girl in the DLC that can replace Ranni so I'm holding off on giving it a 10/10.