Mixed Reviews?

[Macario]

I am considering to buy this game, I love Shovel knight and all its DLC, but the roguelike is putting me off, but I saw some gameplays and it looks very fun, but I go to steam store and I am surprised that it has Mixed reviews, what are your problems with the game? it's worth it?.

[The Snopingasusual]

I mostly noticed that some of the complain are the roguelite part of the game itself which can be a little unforgiving sometime (some of the handcrafted room doesn't work well with each other, lacks of true Rogue Legacy like progression for some since you cannot improve shovel Knight himself that much between run, you can mainly unlock new items and thats pretty much it) but more especially the short lenght of the game (took me 1 1/2 hour to do beat a run for the first time) and the lack of endgame, which is technically isn't totally true since there is a true ending but still, after that you're left with not a lot of things to do.

I'm kinda sad to see this because otherwise, the game is very enjoyable,maybe the quality is not as high than the other Shovel Knight entries minus Pocket Dungeon probably because it's just a spinoff not entirely made by Yatch Club game themselve but it's still a very decent game

[11clock]

From my understanding, there isn’t a lot of overlap between Shovel Knight fans and roguelike fans, since a lot of the complaints are just from it being a roguelike.

[The Snopingasusual]

It's surprisingly hard to make a good platformer focused roguelite, I haven't seen that many of them in the market.

[Macario]

Originally posted by 11clock:

From my understanding, there isn’t a lot of overlap between Shovel Knight fans and roguelike fans, since a lot of the complaints are just from it being a roguelike.

I thought so at first, but I started to actually see reviews with good points, not just disparaging the game for being roguelike.

[ᵀᴴᴱ Uʟₜiᴹₐᵀᴱ ᴰᴱᴳᴱᴺᴱᴿᴬᵀᴱ]

to me, camera is a pure nightmare (with horns for exemple), it could be played on Gameboy resolution, give me few pixel to see above me. The gameplay is good but the roguelike aspect is weak.

Downwell was so much better to me for 3€ full price.

Edit: the main reason is the steam binary review system, some people are disapointed, put negative review even if the game is fine

[Smaxx]

I think it's a bit complicated – I can clearly see why people might be disappointed – and if in doubt, I'd ask you to just buy and try it yourself (and refund if you're not satisfied for now):

• I've finished my first playthrough (I'm fully aware there's more to see) after around 3.5 hours.
  
• The game plays like Shovel Knight, but the levels are definitely different.
  
• Having to get through in one rush makes the game feel harder, although I'm not 100% sure how you'd compare this (it's mostly vertical movement compared to the regular game's horizontal movement, obviously).
  
• The game has roguelite elements (i.e. permanent upgrades/changes between runs), but those are mostly unlocks (stuff you can find), less so your typical permanent upgrades you'd see in other games, such as Dead Cells or Rogue Legacy.
  
• Maps are randomized, based off a premade pool (just like many other games of this genre), but the order of regions is somewhat fixed.
  
• There's a certain time limit you may spend on most screens. While there's plenty of time to explore, you might sometimes run short, if you want to move careful or make some harder jumps.
  
• Some rooms are clearly lacking some balancing, requiring rather precise platforming (or are confirmed simply impossible to beat without lucky upgrades).

Is the game good? I've had my fun so far, four hours and counting.
Is it a good Shovel Knight game? I'd say so, but it's definitely a spin-off, not a sequel.
Is it a good Roguelite? Probably, especially with some more polish. But it's important to note it feels more like a true Roguelike at large (at least to me).

Should you buy it? That's still totally up to you.

[ashleyiirc?]

They mentioned in a recent AMA they were excited to develop DLC for this. Hope they pivot it into content updates to bring the game up to par. The amount of bugs is frustrating as well. But all in all I'm happy with the game.

[Gabber420]

Originally posted by Macario:

I am considering to buy this game, I love Shovel knight and all its DLC, but the roguelike is putting me off, but I saw some gameplays and it looks very fun, but I go to steam store and I am surprised that it has Mixed reviews, what are your problems with the game? it's worth it?.

If you have Iphone this game is also in Apple arcade

[Beelistic]

its a very fun game its just pretty short for the price but you can play it pretty well still once you beat it. it also has a secret last level you can atempt to find

[Minneyar]

I think that most of the negative reactions fall into one of two categories:
1. People who wanted another traditional sidescrolling platformer in the style of the original Shovel Knight
2. People who wanted a roguelite with lots of meta progression between runs that gradually becomes easier as you stockpile more resources

There is fairly little meta progression, and most of it just gives you more options; there are very few things you can unlock that actually make the game easier.

I'm eight hours into it and have beaten it three times -- I haven't quite gotten the true ending yet, but I've gotten pretty close -- and my main complaint is just that some of the upgrade options are pretty unbalanced. A few of the accessories and abilities you can get are much better than the other options, so how well a run goes often comes down to how lucky you get with item drops. It's a fun game, though, and I can see myself continue to play it until I've at least gotten the true ending and unlocked all of the accessories and armors.

[infernogott]

I like it too. Its not on par with the best Roguelites like BoI, EtG or Spelunky, but it's still fun.

[varezhka]

If you love Shovel knight and all its DLC don't play this game.

[WillSP]

It has the basis of a good game but it has a lot of problems

1. Due to the fact that most of the gold in this game is found via collectables in a procedualy generated environment this game can vary from incredibly easy to incredibly hard based on seed RNG.
2. The gears sometimes break off screen or well out of reach.
3. locked doors take so long to open that if your ground is breaking beneath you you can probably kiss that treasure room goodbye.
4. Shrink spore rooms can be a nightmare to reach at times (which sucks because that room might contain Altius)
5.most upgrades dont feel impactful enough for any given run to be considered a "god run" which really hurts the games replayability.
6. Some of the games platforming requires near pixel perfect precision, and some of the games collision systems are weird as well.

[cheesemate]

I love Shovel Knight, it is a top tier platformer. And I love roguelike games. The problem with Shovel Knight Dig isn't that it's a roguelike, it's that it's not a very good one. It's incredibly short, there's very little roguelike progression, there are significant balance issues. (there are bugs as well, but those are more easily fixed) If this game didn't have the Shovel Knight name and art style, there's no way people would be ok with spending $25 on this gameplay.

[bitbat]

I am a roguelike enthusiast (i've beaten at least 10 of them) but the main reason why people are complaining is because of the variety of issues within the game. The drill levels, the fact that its incredibly unfair, and that the only way to upgrade within the game really is skill