Theory - Joustus was included to promote a future mobile card game even though it's terrible.

[Nathaniel Prime]

The title says it all. Nobody who ever played any of the Shovel Knight games thought what the game really needed was a 20-year old card game from the Final Fantasy series. And, surely, anyone who played it during development realized it detracted from the game by being a totally different genre behind which important upgrades for the real game are locked. It totally kills the pacing of the game, shoehorning a game of a completely different genre into Shovel Knight... and Shovel Knight only got popular because it did a few similar things very, very well. The devs seem super self-aware and I can't imagine them not realizing how bad an addition Joustus was.

Most perplexingly, the overlap between "People who want to play hard retro platformers" and "People who want to play card games on their phone" is almost zero.

But I think that's intentional.

High quality PC games are losing market share to trash-tier phone games at a high rate, so I bet the devs are trying to cash in on the popularity of the Shovel Knight brand to promote their new trash-tier phone game. If you've ever looked through the simplest games on the droid Play Store, for example, you've seen hundred games like Joustus, all free but with microtransactions. And as much as people complain about them, microtransactions are big money. I don't think Joustus was intended to be something to actually improve the expansion (which would have been otherwise very good), I think it's just a cash grab using the Shovel Knight brand to promote an upcoming "pay-to-win" phone game.

Next time you look at the Joustus board, go ahead, tell me you don't see a free-to-pay app store game coming our way.

[Swampbunches]

Even if this is true, it wouldn't mater. This is a free expansion with an optional card game and there are zero micro transactions here. It's just more content without a fee. The things people complain about now blow my mind. I hate microtransactions as much as anyone else but there are none in Shovel Knight.

[MarioFanaticXV]

They've done some stuff with Level 99 games- maybe they already have a contract to make a physical copy? I'd defintely want to bring it to game night as a nice filler title.

[Energy Melons]

I think you're 100% spot on, OP. But I also don't think there's anything wrong with them wanting to monetize Joustus in the future. I personally don't find the card game enjoyable, but there's no arguing that they put a lot of thought and effort into its design.

Yacht Club has gone above and beyond to prove that they're one of the good guys in this increasingly stinky climate of hyper-monetization. More power to 'em, I say.

[Noelle Suplex]

if this is true... good. BRING ME MORE JOUSTUS! The only downside to Joustus was the lack of PvP. Even if Yacht Club isn't doing this, they should. Joustus was a superb addition to King of Cards. It really cemented King of Cards in my mind. Honestly, without it then this expansion would've felt pretty samey and would've blurred with Shovel and Plague's campaigns. Specter stands out since it has those jamming tunes.

[Okita Asada]

You dont need joustus to get any of the upgrades so what you say is factually incorrect.

[Nathaniel Prime]

Originally posted by Dong Zhuo:

You dont need joustus to get any of the upgrades so what you say is factually incorrect.

Are there more of those special shield things you get for Joustus than there are abilities to spend them on?

[Okita Asada]

Originally posted by Nathaniel Prime:

Originally posted by Dong Zhuo:

You dont need joustus to get any of the upgrades so what you say is factually incorrect.

Are there more of those special shield things you get for Joustus than there are abilities to spend them on?

Yeah, I got every medal in the game and after getting every upgrade I was left with like 25 medals or something.

[Colonel Mustache]

Originally posted by Dong Zhuo:

Originally posted by Nathaniel Prime:

Are there more of those special shield things you get for Joustus than there are abilities to spend them on?

Yeah, I got every medal in the game and after getting every upgrade I was left with like 25 medals or something.

is that spare 25 enough to get everything in the game without playing any Joustus?

[Okita Asada]

Originally posted by Colonel Mustache:

Originally posted by Dong Zhuo:

Yeah, I got every medal in the game and after getting every upgrade I was left with like 25 medals or something.

is that spare 25 enough to get everything in the game without playing any Joustus?

According to Yacht Club games, it is, I don't know because I haven't tried getting everything without playing joustus.

[Nathaniel Prime]

Oh thank god. I appreciate it, this expansion is probably worth playing after all!

[ringrbug]

Originally posted by Nathaniel Prime:

Are there more of those special shield things you get for Joustus than there are abilities to spend them on?

you can beat every single variant of the main game without getting any of the upgrades or abilities. to say that it's required is just plain stupid.

[ringrbug]

i get it, you're entitled to your own opinion, and you may not be good at the game so you have to find a way to knock it down to make yourself feel better about your gamer-ness. But to say that it's mechanically bad would be ignoring things like this:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Joustus/comments/enccw0/fully_printable_joustus_set/
where people put time and effort into this minigame because it's fun. you may not like it, but some people (myslef included) really like this card game.

[HeraldOfOpera]

Originally posted by Plate0:

Originally posted by Nathaniel Prime:

Are there more of those special shield things you get for Joustus than there are abilities to spend them on?

you can beat every single variant of the main game without getting any of the upgrades or abilities. to say that it's required is just plain stupid.

And we know this because there are achievements for doing so.