I thought we moved on from hellish boss runbacks, but Silksong is here to remind us what it's like to be kicked while you're down

As a modern society, I thought we were done with mile-long, soul sucking boss runbacks in videogames. We're evolved. Enlightened! Then Hollow Knight: Silksong came out.

In a world where even FromSoftware —the worst offenders of hellish boss runbacks in the Dark Souls series—all but ditched them in Elden Ring , Silksong is here straight out of the 2010s to remind us of when games just straight up wasted our time.

Clawing your way to a boss in Silksong is merely step one of the trial that awaits you when you inevitably die. Instead of showing you mercy and letting you respawn a few steps away from the fight, it drops you in a different zip code.

What could be a short jog back to the boss is actually an obstacle course of spikes, falling rocks, and flies equipped with sniper rifles. Silkso