Final thoughts on King of Cards and Shovel Knight in general.

[Oguzhan]

Welp the game is finally over, I have completed all of the campaigns though I won't be going after all achievements in this game (F Shovel of Hope, its bad).

First off King of Cards:

The writing is hilarious. I love it. I love how King Knight is just a spoiled brat who loves his mother but at the same time is a huge D. Building the airship was really fun and seeing his reactions to everything was even better. He also easily has my fav secret room in the game.

Game-play wise its basically Mario World with a megaman character who uses dashing as his main method of attack. And before anyone says, "its not megaman though", the final boss is literally the final boss from X1, shut up :). Exploring the stages and going around as king knight was very fun overall albeit some of the level design was really bad. Every time I've died it felt like it was the game's fault. For example remember those green propeller guys? one of them is literally inside a wall that you need to destroy, and unless you are quick he will throw you off of the platform. I was quick enough luckily but that is a kaizo trap which is something shovel knight in general has a lot of. It's like I've never died in this game due to loosing health, it was always due to a pit. Megaman 9,10,11, Mighty gunvolt burst etc etc.... this ain't.

Boss fights were a bit of a meh this time around, which is weird since all of the other campaigns has really good ones. I just bumm rush through all of them or use the fire sword to quickly finish them off. Speaking of the fire sword, just like Shovel of Hope, a lot of the weapons in this campaign suck. Specter of torment was really good with weapons but this is no Specter of Torment. I just used the frog, the sword. Former for the stages and the latter for the bosses. It is a let down as I am a person who loves using weapons in stages. Megaman 4, 9, 10, 11 are my favs in the classic series for a reason. EVERY weapon in those games (not counting sheep cloud what were they smoking)

The card game was fun but a bit unnecessary. Especially by the end. No seriously, King Knight literally orders for the destruction of all the Joustus cards. What was the point then? Same with the airship constructions, Enchantress literally destroys the whole thing. Again what was the point? I know that this is a prequel but maybe it shouldn't have been you know.

Overall King Knight was a fun experience and who knows I might re-play this one again in the future.


Shovel of Hope:
F this thing so much. It is so bland, so boring and so cheap. The weapons with the exception of the blade and the talisman all suck. The writing is easily the worst out of the 4 campaigns too. Meh. The boss fights are really cool though.

Plague of Shadows:

This one I respect more so than I like. The writing is hilarious and probably the best on in the whole package. The stages are not bad and the boss fights are decent for the most part. My main problem is plague knight himself. I HATE charging the buster in megaman games with the exception of 9 and 10 and the Zero games as it is pretty quick and not needed since the bosses have shorter I-frames. Now imagine that with jumping here. Why do I need to charge whenever I want to do a decent jump. Your normal jump is gimped as all hell. Honestly this alone is enough of a reason for me to never want to replay this mode ever again.

Specter of Torment:
Now THIS is a treat. I have clocked in about 70 hours on Shovel Knight Treasure Trove and at least 60 of it is thanks to this guy right here. I loved playing as him so much that I have finished his campaign multiple multiple times. It takes me about 50-60 mins to finish his campaign. His weapons are all great, his boss fights are fun, his levels are easily my fav and lets not forget his fantastic base movement capabilities. I ADORE the homing slash ability. It is so fluent, so accurate and just so fun to do. I have literally no problems with Specter of Torment. While the writing is not as fun as the ones in King of Cards and Plague of shadows, it is still good and gives some nice back-ground info on Specter Knight. This is the guy who does most of the work for Enchantress and is interesting to see why he does it. Specter Knight is best knight.


As for Treasure Trove? Well first off I wanna thank Yatch Club for this great package. I'd bought shovel knight before the other campaigns were a thing. And I did it on a sale too. After that I have got one update after another, giving me 3 free campaigns. Sure I am not a big fan of Plague and Shovel BUT King and ESPECIALLY Specter were really fun. And that's not counting all of the extra challenges and the Smash mode (latter of which I haven't tried yet but it is free content none the less). So yeah, Shovel Knight was very much a worth while purchase for me. It has its ups and downs for sure but over all it was a great package.


EDIT

One last thing, give me a life system instead of taking my money please. In a 2d game, I want extra lives, not flying money bags.

[The Snopingasusual]

Oh god I've just encountered that green propeller guy. It's a pure pain. I can't pass it without the blue frog bubble item.

I aggree with you with most of the point for King of card. But I think the bosses are very good, they feel bad because they are easy to deal with thanks to the jumping attack which can combo them easily and the hearts they drop regularly. I haven't died a single time from health bar, except agains Baz and his Thunder shield. Most of the time, I only die because I fell in the void or on a spike.

[Oguzhan]

Originally posted by The MentleGentleMentleGentleMen:

Oh god I've just encountered that green propeller guy. It's a pure pain. I can't pass it without the blue frog bubble item.

I aggree with you with most of the point for King of card. But I think the bosses are very good, they feel bad because they are easy to deal with thanks to the jumping attack which can combo them easily and the hearts they drop regularly. I haven't died a single time from health bar, except agains Baz and his Thunder shield. Most of the time, I only die because I fell in the void or on a spike.

That is basically shovel knight in a nutshell. You never die because of your fault, it's always a pit.

[The Snopingasusual]

I can agree with the fact that they have really improved themselve after Shovel Knight.

[crab.king274]

Unlock the Toad Gear in Shovel of Hope and do a NG+ run.


It feel gud.

[cacotigon]

Originally posted by Oguzhan:

That is basically shovel knight in a nutshell. You never die because of your fault, it's always a pit.

In that respect Shovel Knight borrows heavily from old-school Castlevania games. You never die from losing all your hearts, you die because you fall or get knocked into a pit.

[Sifer2]

I found all 4 to be pretty good. Except Plague felt more rushed gameplay wise. Probably back when they thought alternate knight campaigns would just be quickly produced rehash campaigns. Glad they decided to make Spectre, and King campaigns more of their own thing. Though it certainly added to the development time lol.

[geraq]

Originally posted by Sifer2:

I found all 4 to be pretty good. Except Plague felt more rushed gameplay wise. Probably back when they thought alternate knight campaigns would just be quickly produced rehash campaigns. Glad they decided to make Spectre, and King campaigns more of their own thing. Though it certainly added to the development time lol.

Agreed, Plague of Shadows feels like a very lazy DLC, which it essentially is. Spectre of Torment is in a completely different league, it's a full game on its own right and it's amazing.

[Sierain]

Originally posted by Oguzhan:

Originally posted by The MentleGentleMentleGentleMen:

Oh god I've just encountered that green propeller guy. It's a pure pain. I can't pass it without the blue frog bubble item.

I aggree with you with most of the point for King of card. But I think the bosses are very good, they feel bad because they are easy to deal with thanks to the jumping attack which can combo them easily and the hearts they drop regularly. I haven't died a single time from health bar, except agains Baz and his Thunder shield. Most of the time, I only die because I fell in the void or on a spike.

That is basically shovel knight in a nutshell. You never die because of your fault, it's always a pit.

Don't fall in a pit, then? I don't remember it being cheap, but I guess I'll have to replay the original campaign, it's been ages.

[Macario]

I will give a brief summary of each one because I do not have much time, so I probably miss saying a few things about each one.

*King of cards: it became my favorite of the 4, it has a funny story, I love that King Knigth fights against the other Knigths literally annoying them in something, like when King Knigth broke Mole Knigth's pool, I disagree with the levels , I found them one of the most creative level designs that I played and fun, I never felt that the game cheated me, and with the weapons I also disagree, I feel that it is the best repertoire of weapons of Shovel Kingth, all of them found useful, the spear that is a weapon at a distance, that is always good, the glove to attack flying enemies in areas where the platform looks somewhat complicated, the bubble (yes, I do not remember their name at this time) that saved me life many times and you can have infinity dash with it, the shield that is useful to beat some mini-bosses and bosses (annihilate Troupple King with that) the trumpets with the confetti to collect gold, etc, etc, in general I found them very useful s. Even if the game is not so difficult, but that is not bad. Joustus seemed very good, although there are people who wonder why it was necessary? And I say, what's wrong? it's just an extra complement to the game, I'm not going to cry just for that, if you don't like it just skip it, anyway it's completely optional, it would be bad if it was mandatory, or if it was directly bad. I like them to be mini levels, it is easier to return for collectibles if I am missing one, alterative routes, etc., it is very good and I love it, in general I think it takes advantage of the fact that it is overworld, the bosses seemed very good to me Like some have multiple phases, it is not like the bosses in other campaigns where they can finish in seconds (I imagine they can if one is already a master in the game but that is obvious). I was thinking exactly the same thing about the final boss IS ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ SIGMA OF MEGAMAN X1 and I liked it.


*Shovel of Hope: The best way to describe Shovel Knigth is simple, but that it is simple does not mean that it is bad, it is still a very good and solid platform, very useful items, a good level design, good improvements, etc. in general very good, only maybe it looks opaque for some by the other campaigns.



*Plague of shadows: MMmmmm possibly this is the one I like least (that does not mean bad or mediocre) simply the mechanics of jumping and bombs do not seem so entertaining, on the one hand the combat is not very intuitive, enemies that would be a piece of cake with other characters, now they are a nightmare, sometimes they are very close, sometimes they are far away, etc. And the jump in general, if it may be fast, but personally I do not like it very much, I am not interested in winning the game as quickly as possible if not to enjoy a good level design (and that is fun first and foremost) I do not like to skip all the fun and it is annoying to have to charge always the jump, many items are boringly expensive, and the bosses are unbalanced, since they were not adapted to the new gameplay as a specter of torment, but at least the final boss is great, except the enchantress, it's a nightmare with this character. Not bad, but I always feel weird when I'm going to play it is like: "eeeeee I think I'm better going to play specter or king of cards in game +"


*Specter of torment: What I think in gameplay is very good, I think for people who enjoy speed this is perfect, (not for me), as I said I like to enjoy the contents of the games, but since the whole game is focused on that excellent mechanics of dash and climbing, speed is part of the game therefore the levels are oriented to that and it is very fun, and it takes time to master it but when you do it it is beautiful, however, the story I do not like much , I think a lot of forced drama, and the items are either absurdly broken or very useless, I like that the bosses adapted to the new gameplay, and it feels very cool, but I think it has a very weak final boss, you can hit it again and again with the dash non-stop from the first second and you win, it is somewhat disappointing as a challenge, but at least it looks cool.

Overall I think all the games are very good, yacht club games did a good job with each one.

[Oguzhan]

Originally posted by Sierain:

Originally posted by Oguzhan:

That is basically shovel knight in a nutshell. You never die because of your fault, it's always a pit.

Don't fall in a pit, then? I don't remember it being cheap, but I guess I'll have to replay the original campaign, it's been ages.

Look pal I am a person who's gotten all the achievements in cave story, I speed run Megaman style games and usually go for like the hardest difficulty setting. I am not the type to blame the game but in this game knockback is a severe problem as it leads to you fall off of a cliff most of the time. And let's not even talk about the propeller enemies. Jesus, some of them are actually hidden inside destroyable blocks that are placed near a cliff and you need to destroy them from the side. I didn't die due to this thanks to my quick reflexes but it is a legit kaizo trap.

And people say Megaman 9 has cheap moments. I don't ever remember dying to a pit in that game.

[EdgarAllenSwole]

Games like Shovel Knight and Castlevania are balanced around knockback. It's an intended hazard that keeps you from holding forward to win. Falling in pits is your fault 99% of the time.

[Oguzhan]

Originally posted by EdgarAllenSwole:

Games like Shovel Knight and Castlevania are balanced around knockback. It's an intended hazard that forces you to pay attention and manipulate enemies when needed. Falling in a pit is your fault 99% of the time.

Lol no, it's bad design. Look at curse of the moon, I don't remember every dying to a pit due to some bs enemy placement.

[EdgarAllenSwole]

Name a time when dying is unavoidable. The propellers are bad design but everything else is completely reasonable. Every no-death run I lost was because I got lazy or impatient.

[crab.king274]

Originally posted by EdgarAllenSwole:

Name a time when dying is unavoidable. The propellers are bad design but everything else is completely reasonable. Every no-death run I lost was because I got lazy or impatient.

Agreed. I didn't feel like there was any cheap enemy placement (besides a few propeller meanies yeah) when I was doing my Specter of Torment checkpointless run. I only died once in the iron whale do to me being impatient, and once in Pridemoor Keep because I wasn't watching my health and I tried to damage boost through a beeto. (that's right, a beeto killed me)