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Just now: local wannabe game dev analyzes Shovel Knight Treasure Trove gameplay like they know what they’re talking about
Okay, to start off, I’ll be going through the campaigns as they are related chronologically. My main critique about Treasure Trove is savability. I don’t think it’s an actual word, but the meaning is how easy or possible it is to recover from a mistake.
Shovel of Hope:
Ah yes, the original! I’ll be honest, I don’t really enjoy Shovel Knight’s movement. Not having horizontal acceleration or any kind of dash makes going through his campaign feel kind of “slow” after playing through it once. This also applies to deaths; due to Yacht Club games dedication to mimicking the old timely style of retro game, the checkpoints in SK’s campaign are spaced out fairly far, which when paired with really long levels with no savequit, forces players to plan out a time frame to play the game, discouraging just playing around on it. Savability in SoH is arguably the worst as it’s ever been. Spikes instantly kill you (unless you have that one set of armour) and bottomless pits litter the map. The issue I have with Shovel Knight is if you miss a single jump over a bottomless pit, without any items you can’t recover. This makes it super easy to die when traveling through all the levels, and while this on its own isn’t necessarily bad, when paired with the level design I discussed earlier, it forces players to replay a lot of the rooms repeatedly. This makes the players memorize the room layouts and thus makes exploring them less fun, but also discourages replaying any levels for collectables since most players will have seen a lot of the rooms more than once already. In summary, Shovel Knight’s campaign is really easy to die in, has few checkpoints, and no save quit, causing gameplay to feel repetitive and unfair and discourages replaying.
Plague of Shadows:
Plague Knight! Love this guy.
In PK’s campaign, Yacht Club Games added 2 double jumps, each with their own downsides. One only gives you a little height, while the other requires a charging period. I think this was their first attempt to fix the savability issue I discussed for SK, and they did succeed. If you miss a jump over a bottomless pit with PK, you have a higher chance to save it. If the mini double jump doesn’t get you enough height, you can still air stall with your bombs, and if you were lucky enough to have a bomb burst ready you basically have all the height you’d ever want. He still dies to spikes instantly, which is fine. This makes PK a lot funner to play as, since players will die a lot less or much more slowly. It makes replaying levels a lot less irritating.
My main complaint about PoS is that the game wasn’t really designed for PK. I mean, obviously, it’s SoH’s levels, but by reusing them normally, there’s some really awkward jumps and such. For example, I often found that a jump that Shovel could make quickly with a singular up input was often impossible to make with a Plague jump and the mini double jump. Even though it looked possible, I would have to jump, double jump, miss, and spend a few seconds charging my bomb burst before making it to the ledge.
I can’t really blame YCG for this though, and it’s not really a bad thing. Plague Knight’s story is about not fitting in, so it makes sense for him to be less adept at navigating a world designed for Shovel. The mild irritation at failing those ledge jumps helps mimic how something that is easy for Shovel requires much more thought, trial, error, and time for Plague to do, not because he’s less powerful but because the world didn’t consider him when being designed. That being said, the rooms that are designed for PK are really fun to play as! The lab under the armour outpost and the alchemy coin rooms are really good and a breath of fresh air from Shovel Knight’s rooms. My only issue with these is that the ledge in the lab is one of those ledges that just barely require a bomb boost, but it’s honestly a funny way to show how you can explode your own minions and kind of explains why it happens so often lmao. Additionally, once you get used to playing as Plague, you can tell when you’ll need a bomb burst, making the world feel a lot less clunky as you go through the game.
It’s not all great though. Playing as Plague is really hard to get used to, since his attacks are really different from Shovel, King, and Specters. It’s kinda like crests in silksong, where you can alter your attacks with a different crest. His default diagonal attack is kind of like Hornet’s default diagonal pogo, which is really trippy to use at first but comes around with time. However, silksong doesn’t have any insta-death zones like bottomless pits, and the game is really forgiving for the tutorial at least. In the first few levels of PK’s campaign, it’s really annoying to get used to his diagonal attack, his charged double jump, and his mini jump at the same time. Additionally, Treasure Trove is inherently a lot less forgiving than Silksong, with insta-death everywhere. Paired with the same level design / save quit issue as SoH, Plague Knight’s campaign is really difficult to get motivated into playing, especially the early levels.
In summary, Plague of Shadows is a really good sequel to SoH, utilizing level design to emphasize the story and altering gameplay drastically to improve savability, but creates a playstyle that is difficult to master and hard to get used to.
Specter you sad potato
Omgg, specter knight.
Specter’s gameplay is a vast improvement from Plague’s in my opinion. First of all, his direct forward scythe slash is very intuitive and easy to master, while the slight delay time at the end of an attack forces players to utilize a more aggressive strategy, attacking quickly then relying on his quick movement to get away to line up another combo. His diagonal dash slash is really really really well done. It makes for some really interesting platforming challenges, especially since you have to stay concentrated to keep dash slashing off the lanterns. The dash obviously makes Specter go a lot faster than Plague or Shovel, and it pairs really nicely with his limited wall climb to make Specter gameplay feel extremely smooth. YCG really fixed most of the savability issues with Specter, with the wall jump and dash slash. It feels really fair, since players now have a really high chance of saving themselves if they fall into a pit. Additionally, the fact that Specter can just. Skateboard?? On his scythe????? Gameplay wise this was SO FUN to do. It’s the fastest reliable, non magic based form of transportation in his campaign and it’s so great! The rail mail was always my go-to armor (probably cause I’m a Celeste player) but it’s a great tool for navigation and makes replaying levels really fun. The only real critique I have is for the Nightmare Reize boss fight, where one wrong jump can kill you and it feels kind of unfair for one single miss input to end an entire bossfight, but it makes sense, really. It’s the final boss, if anything should kill you immediately it should be this. Realistically then, my only actual critique is that we’re only introduced with Specter Skateboarding in Polar’s chapter and the tower of fate skate rink. It’s not really emphasized as something you need to master anywhere else in the game. I was personally delighted to fall into the void and land on a skateboard park, but I was also extremely surprised that all my time spent hitting combos and outskating Polar’s people was worth something. It’s not really taught how to fight on these rails, and Polar’s chapter being the only one to use them makes some sense (given the whole slippery thing), but there's so much more potential!! How fun would it be for you to race someone else as a minigame, like Mona’s spin the bottle(???) or Joustus? This is me going way off topic but how whimsical would it be for Specter to race the other members of the OONQ when they come to the Tower of Fate?? It’s SO CUTE!!
Well anyway, back on topic
Realistically, skateboard gameplay isn’t required except for one chapter and the final boss fight. I think if they were integrated elsewhere, like maybe Clockwork Tower as another type of conveyer, then it would be less jarring to suddenly have to fight the final boss while skateboarding.
I do love this bossfight though. It’s such a whimsical idea, fight your adopted son who hates you while skateboarding over the void. It’s kinda trippy, because if you jump over a fireball there’s a chance you’ll just fall into a gap between the platforms but I suppose there’s the expectation that you look ahead that I just never adhered to.
That’s all for Specter, as you can tell, he’s my favorite so far.
KING!!! MY SHAYLA
I love King Knight gameplay.
Unlike Specter, King’s “wall jump” isn’t rechargeable by jumping off a wall. So players only have one chance to save themselves if they fall into a pit. But, realistically, this isn’t really an issue. If you give the players a chance to save themselves when they make a mistake and they bungle it, that's their fault and they know it, so it makes insta-death in KoC feel more fair.
(also if you have enough magic and the frog bubble you’re like fine. This was my always selected item)
Additionally, they leaned into making game play feel more fast. King Knight’s attack is literally a dash, with an extra dash built in (roll). He’s so fast and it’s amazing.
I find it interesting how they changed the level layouts. It solves the savequite issue, but it also makes gameplay feel a bit more choppy since it isn’t necessarily linear anymore. It isn’t a bad thing, it’s just different and I found that I personally liked this style more, even though it deviated from the old timey video games they wanted to emulate.
Treasure!!!!!
Now, Treasure Knight. I’m making a fake campaign for him, but for this to work, I need a playstyle and moveset that makes sense, is fun to use, and I can accurately capture in a comic.
Following YCG’s development of making their knights move faster, with more ability to save themselves, Treasure gameplay would give the players a dash or something of the sort. I’ve been feeling inspired by silksong’s harpoon/grapple, where Hornet’s needle shoots out in front of her, doing a few points of damage, and she shoots after it with a slight delay, dealing another few points of damage. It stalls her in the air and takes some time, but speedwise is somewhere between her dash and her walk. Since Treasure gameplay in showdown has this feature but with an even more exaggerated air stall, in this imaginary campaign his harpoon would probably move him faster if it hits a wall. Maybe his “wall jump” would be similar to King’s; harpooning into the wall, then hitting it will make Treasure do a jump off the wall, giving him a vertical boost. During the harpoon animation, similar to his boss fights, taking damage won’t stop him.
I think Plague Knight’s unique mechanic of being able to alter your primary attack is interesting and might be what I choose to do with Treasure. Some alterations can make your harpoon faster, some make the chain longer, some are purely appearance based. I think to start off, his harpoon will be faster than in game showdown, but with a slight delay between shooting it and being grappled forward. Also, I see two options for what would happen if you hit an enemy. 1, it’s like a wall jump, you bounce right off in the same direction you came from. 2, you harpoon through them and you basically jump off of them. It’s kinda like King’s attack which gives you height as well, but with a more horizontal boost of speed. It’ll be an interesting parkour challenge as well, to harpoon into a hook or something that gives you a height boost.