"The game is unapologetically hard and punishing right from the beginning." -- sorry i just dont agree with that. Mosshome is really basic. My 11 year old kid is already in citadel. Yes the game is hard but i think the community is forgetting how hard the original HK was, not to mention when Dark Souls came out it was notorious! But yes I agree silksong has its moments. Moorwing made me feel at a complete loss for a while, first time i've felt that since I was fighting Ornstein and Smough in DS1. Last Judge was also pretty difficult but felt balanced and learnable.

I guess more than anything it's just been cool to see the community come together on silksong.