When Eminem raps, “His palms are sweaty, knees weak, arms are heavy,” in the opening of “Lose Yourself,” he’s describing what his semi-autobiographical character in 8 Mile is feeling during a rap battle. Though, really, he’s describing me during a tough boss fight in Hollow Knight: Silksong (minus the “vomit on his sweater already” part).

Boss fights are often the most tension-filled moments in action games, and there are plenty of them in Silksong. They range from tough one-on-one duels to somewhat gimmicky fights where the floor is literally lava. Something they all share? Difficulty — Silksong’s boss fights are tough as shit, y’all. But that toughness doesn’t translate to excitement for me as much as it does in other games with challenging boss fights due in part to the lack of enemy health bars.

I can quickly learn how many whacks with Hornet’s needle are needed to take down a regular foe while exploring Silksong’s winding levels. For boss fights, however, the enemy health pools are so large that I can spend minutes whacking away with seemingly little........

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