Honestly, this game is kind of a mess.
I'm in act 2 and there seems to be less focus on interesting exploration and more on combat scenarios, but the combat balancing is so beyond fucked that it's simply fucking miserable to explore new areas, especially since they kept the dogshit map system from the first game. The runbacks to bosses are some of the worst I've ever fucking seen in a game and the fact that EVERYTHING does 2 masks of damage since the very start of the game is absolutely moronic, it makes your first mask upgrade completely fucking useless against bosses since you still take 3 hits to die. The pogo on default crest feels fucking terrible and the dash is fun at first but becomes really fucking clunky the more you play.
I kinda fucking hate to say this since I waited for this game like it was the second coming of christ, but Ender Magnolia completely and utterly shits on Silksong unless they patch the combat balancing.