After playing through Risky's Revenge, I thought it only natural to move onto the other Shantae game I already owned on my 3DS. It took me a while to have the successive down times to play through it, but I eventually got it done just before I headed back to Japan. I'd heard this one was pretty good, and that's about what I found as I played it, with some not insignificant caveats along the way. It took me just under 7 hours according to the in-game clock, and I also collected all the collectibles.
At the end of Risky's Revenge, Shantae lost her genie powers, so the entirety of this game is Shantae as just a human (so no transformation powers). The Ammo Baron from the first game who bought Scuttle Town has moved in to take what's his, and on top of that, Risky has come in as well to inform Shantae that the Pirate Master is awakening from his undead slumber because of events that happened in the last game. Shantae has to team up with Risky (or really just borrow her ship and her info on where to go) to travel to five islands and defeat the "dens of evil" (dungeons) there to keep him dead for good. The humor is still very much Shantae, although it does wear a bit much at times. A lot of the humor is also tied up in references to pop culture (some hit, some miss), although I don't mind that. The music is nice, and the animation looks great as WayForward are known for.
The biggest issue I had with the presentation is that you can REALLY tell the game was designed by men with how the game seems to go out of its way to constantly shove the female characters' bodies in your faces in all manners of costumes and standing positions. The degree to which the four central female characters are constantly sexualized got to somewhere between pathetic and creepy for me, and it's something that brought the whole game down a peg for me.
Mechanically, Pirate's Curse is more Shantae but faaar better than Risky's Revenge. It's still the same power-ups for your base attack (a simple hair whip you can make hit harder and/or faster), but the transformations are gone now. They were a gimmick that did nothing but slow things down in Risky's Revenge, so I had no problem with that. Instead you get more moves that incorporate far more easily into how you play the game and don't break the pace. Levels also look more different on the whole, and you also finally have a Metroid-style auto-updating mini-map so you aren't wandering around lost constantly. I would've liked the ability to pin places of interest on the map, but overall the game design is head and shoulders above Risky's Revenge in a way I really liked.
That's not to say that the mechanics aren't without their fumbles. The dungeons are still the best designed levels of the game, but the overworlds are still a bit too flat and bland. With the whole concept of going across tons of islands, they didn't really need to have these mostly flat areas connecting to the dungeons or gimmick stages (the running one and the stealth one both suck, especially the stealth one) instead of just having several smaller labyrinths. The signposting is nowhere near as dire as the first game, but it's still a problem (especially if you're looking to get ever single bit of dark magic hidden throughout the game, as some are very fiendishly hidden).
Verdict: Recommended. This is a really solid Metroidvania on the 3DS. If you can deal with the signposting issues and the character design, you'll have a good time. It's certainly not the best Metroidvania out there in 2020, but on 3DS, particularly back in 2014, this is a really solid addition to the genre.
At the end of Risky's Revenge, Shantae lost her genie powers, so the entirety of this game is Shantae as just a human (so no transformation powers). The Ammo Baron from the first game who bought Scuttle Town has moved in to take what's his, and on top of that, Risky has come in as well to inform Shantae that the Pirate Master is awakening from his undead slumber because of events that happened in the last game. Shantae has to team up with Risky (or really just borrow her ship and her info on where to go) to travel to five islands and defeat the "dens of evil" (dungeons) there to keep him dead for good. The humor is still very much Shantae, although it does wear a bit much at times. A lot of the humor is also tied up in references to pop culture (some hit, some miss), although I don't mind that. The music is nice, and the animation looks great as WayForward are known for.
The biggest issue I had with the presentation is that you can REALLY tell the game was designed by men with how the game seems to go out of its way to constantly shove the female characters' bodies in your faces in all manners of costumes and standing positions. The degree to which the four central female characters are constantly sexualized got to somewhere between pathetic and creepy for me, and it's something that brought the whole game down a peg for me.
Mechanically, Pirate's Curse is more Shantae but faaar better than Risky's Revenge. It's still the same power-ups for your base attack (a simple hair whip you can make hit harder and/or faster), but the transformations are gone now. They were a gimmick that did nothing but slow things down in Risky's Revenge, so I had no problem with that. Instead you get more moves that incorporate far more easily into how you play the game and don't break the pace. Levels also look more different on the whole, and you also finally have a Metroid-style auto-updating mini-map so you aren't wandering around lost constantly. I would've liked the ability to pin places of interest on the map, but overall the game design is head and shoulders above Risky's Revenge in a way I really liked.
That's not to say that the mechanics aren't without their fumbles. The dungeons are still the best designed levels of the game, but the overworlds are still a bit too flat and bland. With the whole concept of going across tons of islands, they didn't really need to have these mostly flat areas connecting to the dungeons or gimmick stages (the running one and the stealth one both suck, especially the stealth one) instead of just having several smaller labyrinths. The signposting is nowhere near as dire as the first game, but it's still a problem (especially if you're looking to get ever single bit of dark magic hidden throughout the game, as some are very fiendishly hidden).
Verdict: Recommended. This is a really solid Metroidvania on the 3DS. If you can deal with the signposting issues and the character design, you'll have a good time. It's certainly not the best Metroidvania out there in 2020, but on 3DS, particularly back in 2014, this is a really solid addition to the genre.