Shantae: Risky's Revenge (Part 2)

In Part 1, we collected 2 of the 3 seals and went on our way to find the last one. We help zombies by giving them coffee, and in return they'll help her go inside that dungeon. We need a machine, beans and a rotten egg – because the zombies have no taste, apparently. Coffee machine? Not far from the Lilac Fields. Beans? In a hidden cave in the forest. Rotten egg? That's been dealt with.

The elephant is the least graceful of all her forms, but it's
damn practical to smash golems and other rocky
formations. 

Speaking of quests, there’s an interesting additional side-quest you can complete. It involves finding jars of magic jam scattered around Sequin Land. Most of them are located in areas that cannot be reached until you have the proper ability – the monkey to climb walls, the elephant to destroy blocks and ram over small pits, or anything the mermaid does. There’s 17 to find.

By the way, each of Shantae’s forms can obtain a new ability as well, all of which are required to beat the game. The monkey form of Shantae can shoot itself from wall to wall like a bullet, the elephant can do a stomp to destroy blocks and the mermaid can blow bubbles. Just gotta find those abilities hidden around the world map!

I needed to bring you this coffee so that I could continue on
my quest. Of course I'd bring it to you.
Bu do you have any idea how much trouble it was?

Shantae’s friend Sky, another one on the list of girls in skimpy outfits in this game, helps her make a latte for the zombies, using a rotten egg as promised. And what do we get from them in return? Explosives, of course! We’ll force our way into the third baron’s dungeon! We just need an electric spark to blow the thing up… Gee, good thing Shantae has the Cloud Puff that blasts everything with thunder!

"Simon says, look up! Don't make me whip you with my
hair!"

The third dungeon has a very creative setup: Machines set up around the place will have their eyes rotate 90 degrees when hit, and every angle – up, right, down, left – will bring Shantae to a different place when she enters the next door. The puzzle is to, of course, follow the logical series of actions to get keys, unlock doors, same as usual. Speaking of rotating eyeballs, many platforms in the second part of this dungeon have eyes that rotate at a decent pace, and the platform will go in the direction the eye is facing when Shantae lands on it. Timing is the key. Oh, and it’s funny that I talk about keys, as you need to solve five devilish rooms filled with these special platforms in order to collect multiple keys, all of which are used in rapid succession to find four unchangeable one-eyed stones, in a pattern that must be replicated in another room, in order to finally get the Mermaid ability. Phew! The troubles I go through to get what I need... But hey, the power of swimming is now mine! As you can guess the (hot) mermaid Shantae turns into is excellent when underwater, and can dive into the depths, but is utterly useless on land, moving slowly and taking a long time to jump – and it’s also defenseless for now. The mermaid is then used to find both pieces of a skull needed to unlock the door to the boss. Phew!

You know... the barons weren't quite antagonistic so far...
Sure, you fight them, but they don't have villainous goals.
Something's wrong here.

So we meet the Hypno Baron, a skeleton in a wizard robe. He speaks in riddles, as if anyone actually spoke like that. He implies that with two seals in her possession, Shantae's land is no longer in danger from the magic lamp’s power. However, Shantae refuses to back down from getting the third one, so the Baron takes on a dark version of Mimic’s appearance to battle her. That’s a good boss, a bit on the easy side as it has only three attacks, but its huge amount of Hit Points make up for it. The Uncle Mimic, er… mimic is finally defeated, but Risky doesn’t show up when Shantae leaves the dungeon. Okay! Time to bring the three seals to Scuttle-er, Ammo Town!

It's so adorable! Can I keep it?

But when we get to the workshop, Mimic is nowhere to be found, and both Bolo and Sky inform Shantae that he was kidnapped by Risky, who asks her to bring the magic seals so she'll get her uncle back. Thankfully, we can count on a new ally: Squid Baron, back from a seemingly-fatal spontaneous combustion caused by heroic victory. Boy, this squid shatters the fourth wall at every chance it gets. However, it will only help once we’ve rescued its three golden baby squids, which have run off into underwater caves. Oh good, I haven’t done enough to help people around lately. Using the mermaid form, we retrieve the three babies, then come back to the Squid Baron, who honors its deal and gives to us the ability to shoot bubbles as a mermaid, in order to kill enemies and destroy blocks on the way. Who thought freaking bubbles could be so powerful?

Now that we have all of the abilities, the entire map is available. You can either revisit every location and look for any secrets you’ve missed (there’s a LOT of secrets everywhere, wouldn’t be a Metroidvania if there weren’t), or head directly to the final boss. Risky’s secret lair is located underwater, behind a block – which can only be destroyed by mermaid bubbles. Well, of course.

I quite like a gameplay change every once in a while.
Shakes things up a bit. Wouldn't even mind stopping by
for some fishing action in the middle of a platform game.

That dungeon starts with a surprise shoot-‘em up section in which Shantae’s mermaid form blasts bubbles at the enemies. Then there’s a single room in complete darkness… then the boss door. What, already?

Squid baron, over 30 hits; Hypno baron, 100-some hits.
This ship goes down after 4 hits. That's some
crappy craftsmanship!

As it turns out, Risky enlisted the help of Rottytops and her brothers to kidnap Mimic. Rotty! I thought you were Shantae’s friend! Oh, that friendship is so over! Okay, I’ll admit, I’m too forgiving. Shantae arrives, and sees that she has no choice but to give Risky the three seals… sure, you can refuse to do so, but it just results in Shantae handing them over anyway. Because, you know, the story just woldn't move forward and the writer couldn't think of a better idea than having both choices leading to the same result. Still, before the power of the magic lamp is revealed, we fight Risky… in a fight very similar to the one at the start of the game, with the robotic pirate ship. It’s got some new tricks up its sleeve and more HP, but it’s otherwise fairly simple to defeat once again.

Shantae versus Dark Shantae?
Nah, it's more clever than that.
It's Human Shantae Versus Genie Shantae!

When it’s done, an unharmed Risky grabs the lamp, and with the power of the three seals, it steals the genie half of Shantae. No! She was like, so much like a genie so far! Never granting wishes or anything! Now without any of her magical powers, Shantae can only watch as Risky unleashes her new “genie”, a dark version of Shantae’s genie powers. Hm, unable to transform, against an opponent that has all the tricks we used to have. Interesting concept for a battle there. Good thing we still have that prehensile hair. Oh, and those special attacks bought at the Ammo Town shop. Sure, Genie Shantae can transform into a monkey, an elephant or a mermaid – but we have firepower, Thor’s thunder, and spiked balls! Evil Shantae has a ton of HP, so I found the multiple-hitting flamethrower to be very useful in the fight.

No! Not the Elephant Stomp! It's my greatest weakness!

It takes some time, but evil-Shantae goes down. Risky admits her defeat but finds Shantae foolish for destroying her magical half in order to save her town. The pirate lady leaves, while Mimic comes back to congratulate Shantae. Back at the Lighthouse, Shantae is saddened, now feeling like she’s lost some of her mother’s legacy (since genies in that world are all females, if I understood correctly). Thankfully, her friends are here to help her train in using actual human moves! Oh, and the Mayor re-hires her, because he can't fire her in the next game if she isn't re-hired right now. Of course, Risky is still out there, but there’s confidence in the future. Roll credits!

After the credits, you get to see how long you took to beat the game, and how many hidden items you found (out of 34). Beat the game and you get a cute picture – and the better your performance, the more pictures you get as a reward! Namely, beating the game in under 4 hours and with all 34 items at the end gives you the best reward. You better learn to speedrun, pal! (For the record, the "reward" is ust a free piece of art of one of the characters in the game - the best one being Rottytops art, as shown here on the left.) Also, for beating the normal game, you unlock Magic Mode, a tougher mode where magic consumption is cut in half… but Shantae’s health drops twice as fast. Tough stuff!

That’s about it for this game… and yeah, it’s quite great. As a novice when it comes to Metroidvania, I can say I enjoyed the experience. I like the genre, although I can’t say I’ve played a lot of games that fit the bill – so perhaps the Shantae franchise is my way to catch up on that.

Magic Mode Shantae looks like an Arabian version of Princess
Leia in the slave bikini. So... exactly like Leia in the slave
bikini, then.

First thing that struck me with this game was the sprite art. Remember, this was created for the Nintendo DSi at first, so the game is adapted for the computer and fills the monitor screen. Result, the sprites are larger and we can clearly see all of the animations. It’s impressive, how many animations were made for the various characters and enemies – in Shantae’s case, a ton of animations, including some idle ones. Lines of dialogue show a full picture of the character on the screen instead, with full detail rather than sprites. The graphics of the environments are also very great, especially in multi-plane areas – like the forest, and you can see every plane behind the one you’re on. It’s a shame that only two areas use that fantastic style.

I can see two or three planes behind me!

The story is pretty decent; I don’t like that Mayor, but every other character is fine. The main quest is pretty basic, but it has fun mini-quests required to complete the story, and we get to see a myriad of fun characters with their own quirks. Rottytops and her spider-based Internet, the Ammo Baron peppering his speeches with spoken onomatopoeia, Bolo who can’t tell East from West… The story is pretty basic (villain gets a weapon, you collect items to prevent said weapon from being effective, villain gets smart and forces the hero to hand those items over. It’s been done, frequently). But the comedy of the cutscenes make up for the simpler plot.

All of those items turn out to be important in the long run.
Even the cream, especially the cream.

Now, as a Metroidvania, is it any good? On the short side, yes, but it’s still very good. Of course, collecting new abilities is par for the course, and so are the dozens of secrets scattered around. You’re rewarded for revisiting areas, and it’s actually required in order to get the additional abilities each form needs. Yes, as a Metroidvania, it’s very well-done. Just a shame that you can beat it in two hours, or in four hours with all the items gathered – obviously it takes a few playthroughs in order to know the game well enough for that, and I’d argue that the art pieces earned by beating the game so fast aren’t quite good enough as rewards, but it's better than a simple congratulations message. Plus, the feeling of accomplishment from beating the game quickly counts too. You better learn to use shortcuts. Otherwise, yeah: Good Metroidvania, very well-done. So many secrets!

Remember that just before that point he asked Shantae if
she wanted to join his army.

Now, I do admit that the fanservice is overbearing, what with all the innuendoes that go with it (especially since Shantae is supposed to be 16 or 17), but unless you’re really picky about that sort of thing, it shouldn’t be a problem. It’s, um… probably going to make some people uneasy, but it’s at least joked about from time to time, so it’s not just there without any acknowledgement. I would say that the fun and complex gameplay trumps that aspect and makes it worth playing regardless. And for those who don’t mind said fanservice, then good! You’re going to get a lot of it.

That covers it for this week. Next week, I’m moving on with another Steam Pack, then a Top 12, then a film review… one I’ve been itching to do for two weeks already.