I just can't take playing the same levels yet again. They made linear maps that you must visit again and again because you were missing an ability previously or an NPC suddenly spawned and there are so many transformations but you only use them to open/cross a barrier that is otherwise impassable and never again. They should just have sticked to making a linear game rather than trying to slap metroidvania elements on it.

There are other campaigns but they are the same levels again but slightly modified for that character's abilities and maybe one unique level for that character.

Completed, 5/10
Pros:
-Great music
-Combat is simple to learn
-Most of the platforming is good, and utilizes the animal transformations (except for the spider, who is pretty much never used).


Cons:
-Having to go through full levels in order to complete an objective is quite annoying. I wish that they'd either go full platformer and ditch the metroidvania, or full metroidvania and ditch the Mario style levels. (The Warp Dance somewhat fixes this, but not entirely.)
-Combat can be far too easy most of the time, including bosses.
-It can be very difficult to tell where you need to go sometimes, even with the hints from the bathhouse.
-There's a few platforming sections that are long but easy, followed by a difficult jump that could take a few tries to do it, with no checkpoints in the middle. This can lead to quite a bit of frustration.
-Story is pretty meh and forgettable. If someone asked me to explain the story a month after beating the game, I'm not sure that I could.

All in all, if you enjoyed other Shantae games (or similar games), I'd probably recommend trying Half Genie Hero out, but I definitely wouldn't recommend starting with HGH.

I previously enjoyed Shantae and the Seven Sirens, so I decided to try one of the older games. While there are differences between Seven Sirens and 1/2 Genie Hero (mostly level/map structure), I am enjoying my time with 1/2 Genie Hero.