I'm gonna be honest, I think the moment I decided I wanted to play was when I realized you play as a cute anime chick with nice boobs. (I think its gonna get harder to convince you guys Im not a weeb ;_;)
Part of the reason I don't play that many games is just due to the fact that I usually just get bored after playing through the first two hours. Ether a game just gets stale to me or I just get frustrated with not being able to get past a certain point in the game, and I refuse to look up a walkthrough.
While I'm only halfway through tanline island (aka fanservice island)
I've played the game for over 8 hours, and that's more than I can say for most games. After 4 hours Im usually like "yea....Im done..."
I can honestly say, this game is incredibly fun and creative. If I could say this game takes it's inspiration from any one series, I'd say it takes pretty big inspiration from the metriodvania games. I've never completed a metriodvania game due to just being incredibly sick of getting lost every 10 minutes. It was fun at first, but I felt like 90% of the time I played those games, I would get lost just wondering "WHAT DO I DO!? WHERE DO I GO!?!?!?" Eventually, I just got tired and didn't find it fun to get lost at every corner. So I quit.
The reason I love Shantae, is I feel like the only time I've actually been lost is during the dungeons. While during metriodvania games, the whole world is a dungeon! And that's what's so genius about shantae. I like that the "action adventure" aspect is in moderation. On top of that, I never really found any part of the game so far to be excessively hard to find out what to do or where to go. I think the hardest part so far is when you have to get the squid oil from squid barron.
And even this wasn't too hard to figure out.
The other aspect to the game is the fact that it's also a side-scroller platforming game. And I'd honestly say even this aspect of the game is done REALLY well! All of the stages I've played so far feel so different. Scuttle town was a simple introduction to the game. Salavia island was all about timing. Spiderweb island was about precise movments, and tanline island is all about stealth. So far I'd say all of these islands are unique and fun in there own different ways. I'd honestly say that Spiderweb island is my favorite, mainly because Im a huge fan of halloween themed stuff (yea, expect a post about how much I love soul eater soon ;)
And probably the best thing I can say about the game is the dialogue. I'm being honest when I say It probably has the funniest dialogue I've ever seen in a videogame. Almost EVERY SINGLE NPC has funny dialogue, and IN GENERAL, this game just has the silliest dialogue.
One thing I also like is the back and fourth funny dialogue between risky and shantae. They have a pretty interesting relationship, being old enemies and such. I also like how you got shantae who's really upbeat and cutesy and you have risky who's coldhearted and kinda cruel. There contrasting personalities really create for and interesting and funny relationship.
Overall, I'd honestly say this game is probably one of, if not my favorite platforming/side-scroller videogame! Everything about this game is just stellar.
Because most of you know me as the "pessimistic reviewer" I guess I can't go without having a few complaints I feel like the game is pretty easy. I've never gotten a single game over, I don't even think I've gotten close to getting a game over yet. I feel like most of the games challenge comes with finding out where to go first rather than having challenging bosses and enemies. Part of this probably has to do with the fact that a friend spoiled the fact that monster milk is broken as fuck. But in general, even without monster milk, I still feel like this game has been pretty easy.
Honestly, other than this, I feel like any other negative thing about this game so far is nothing more than a nitpick. I can complain about how the controls are bad for the steam version. Because honestly, It took me at least 20 minutes to find out how to get out of the shop menu. I had to press the "esc" button. In general, because I'm playing on a keyboard, I REALLY wish I had the option to actually CHANGE the keyboard settings because normally Im use to "X" being the attack button and "Z" being the jump button. But in shantae it's inverted!
But all in all, I actually have to THINK about problems I have with this game. In general, I've enjoyed every moment I've played of this game. I have plans of playing more when I have the time. As for other games I might talk about on this blog.... here have a hint.
"Fuck these birds am I right?"
