When the Switch launched 4 years ago near this day, I wasn't the most excited to play Breath of the Wild as everyone else. Despite owning the game on 3DS already, I bought Shovel Knight on Switch again on LAUNCH DAY just so I could play Specter of Torment as soon as possible. I was still in my days of being obsessed with Shovel Knight, having played the original game back when I was only 13. I obsessed over the game and its world, and even with the issues I had with Plague of Shadows, I remained infatuated with the game. There was just something about this world, this aesthetic, this cast of characters that I loved seeing, and wanted to know so much more about. In that sense, it almost feels as if Specter of Torment was made specifically for me. As if they made a game just to make me happy.
Only 3 years seperate the releases of the base game and the Specter of Torment campaign, and yet it was enough to invoke such powerful nostalgic feelings for me at 16. Beyond me being the perfect person for the game, it feels as if I was also the perfect age to play it. So while I'm going to delve into the gameplay and the feelings I have on it, I cannot stress enough just how absolutely blindingly perfect the game is in its presentation from that perspective. The music, visuals, world, and story, all clicks into place so utterly perfectly. But its more than just nailing that execution: It isnt just great music, great locations, great writing, all of that on its own. Its that all of those elements were made to build off of that original game from 2014. That each part of the aesthetic is made as a love-letter to it. Take Lost City: A level with decent music and a generic look, is suddenly contexualized into this greater world. You get to see the icy plains outside, with music hitting an emotional, narrative chord. And it clicks into place due to the familiarity you had with the original.
Everything just...clicks. It feels like the game Shovel Knight should have been, and yet its elevated so much higher due to how much the game's presentation and story mines from the player's familiarity with what they're seeing. Its a near-perfect execution of a prequel game. Its thus really heartbreaking to me that, just like the original Shovel Knight, the challenge of the base game has almost entirely disappeared for me and I no longer find the basic movement fun enough. Note the wording and caveats here, because I'll get back to them. Like Classic Mega Man you move with a sort of rigidity and a fixed speed, lacking the fluidity and self-expression of a game like Mega Man X, Zero, Hollow Knight, etc. The game is undoubtedly more satisfying to play than Shovel of Hope due to the new moves that ARE here, but it almost feels like a game thats chained to the original game, an ironic tradeoff for how much it gains from that deal in terms of presentation. The game is still rigidly divided up into screens, with a controlled pace, and the "intended way" to play always so glaringly obvious.
That untapped potential can almost be tapped into, however, with the Rail Mail armor upgrade. Giving you a core new movement option that ups the pace and expressiveness of the game, it in a way transforms it into something far closer to my ideal kind of 2D platformer. Combining this with playing the game on New Game+, which balances out the special weapon lineup far more and encourages a brisk, aggressive playstyle, leads to something magical. Its strange: "the game I wish this could've been" is just unlockable within the game itself. Even with this, there are just too many restrictions still in place. Enemies are still far too simple and unaggressive, the per-screen structure still halts the pace, and the game overall still isn't difficult enough due to not having enough depth to its mechanics to challenge.
In the end, what I have here is a game that is absolutely magical to me, that I can ALMOST turn into the game that I want it to be, yet is shackled by its predecessor to keep so many elements that just dont align with my philosophies for 2D Action games. Its able to ride so hard on the enchanting presentation, pacing, and the side-options that nudge it closer to my tastes, that it still sits among my all-time favorites. Yet I'm always going to wish it could've been unrestrained.
[Playtime: 50 Hours]
[Keyword: Bittersweet]
Only 3 years seperate the releases of the base game and the Specter of Torment campaign, and yet it was enough to invoke such powerful nostalgic feelings for me at 16. Beyond me being the perfect person for the game, it feels as if I was also the perfect age to play it. So while I'm going to delve into the gameplay and the feelings I have on it, I cannot stress enough just how absolutely blindingly perfect the game is in its presentation from that perspective. The music, visuals, world, and story, all clicks into place so utterly perfectly. But its more than just nailing that execution: It isnt just great music, great locations, great writing, all of that on its own. Its that all of those elements were made to build off of that original game from 2014. That each part of the aesthetic is made as a love-letter to it. Take Lost City: A level with decent music and a generic look, is suddenly contexualized into this greater world. You get to see the icy plains outside, with music hitting an emotional, narrative chord. And it clicks into place due to the familiarity you had with the original.
Everything just...clicks. It feels like the game Shovel Knight should have been, and yet its elevated so much higher due to how much the game's presentation and story mines from the player's familiarity with what they're seeing. Its a near-perfect execution of a prequel game. Its thus really heartbreaking to me that, just like the original Shovel Knight, the challenge of the base game has almost entirely disappeared for me and I no longer find the basic movement fun enough. Note the wording and caveats here, because I'll get back to them. Like Classic Mega Man you move with a sort of rigidity and a fixed speed, lacking the fluidity and self-expression of a game like Mega Man X, Zero, Hollow Knight, etc. The game is undoubtedly more satisfying to play than Shovel of Hope due to the new moves that ARE here, but it almost feels like a game thats chained to the original game, an ironic tradeoff for how much it gains from that deal in terms of presentation. The game is still rigidly divided up into screens, with a controlled pace, and the "intended way" to play always so glaringly obvious.
That untapped potential can almost be tapped into, however, with the Rail Mail armor upgrade. Giving you a core new movement option that ups the pace and expressiveness of the game, it in a way transforms it into something far closer to my ideal kind of 2D platformer. Combining this with playing the game on New Game+, which balances out the special weapon lineup far more and encourages a brisk, aggressive playstyle, leads to something magical. Its strange: "the game I wish this could've been" is just unlockable within the game itself. Even with this, there are just too many restrictions still in place. Enemies are still far too simple and unaggressive, the per-screen structure still halts the pace, and the game overall still isn't difficult enough due to not having enough depth to its mechanics to challenge.
In the end, what I have here is a game that is absolutely magical to me, that I can ALMOST turn into the game that I want it to be, yet is shackled by its predecessor to keep so many elements that just dont align with my philosophies for 2D Action games. Its able to ride so hard on the enchanting presentation, pacing, and the side-options that nudge it closer to my tastes, that it still sits among my all-time favorites. Yet I'm always going to wish it could've been unrestrained.
[Playtime: 50 Hours]
[Keyword: Bittersweet]