INTRO:
Just about every game developer, including indie ones, will have people leaving them for whatever reason. Perhaps the reason is unfortunately acrimonious, or perhaps the reason is more innocuous, like leaving to do something different.
The reason for the people of Yacht Club Games having left Wayforward Studios is not entirely clear to anyone else. This is so, even at this time of writing when proverbially explosive and ugly revelations about conditions at video game developers are a trend. Furthermore, the resulting game is not one that is really far off from what Wayforward usually does (albeit Wayforward had a predilection for licensed games back in the first half of the 2010s).
Still, the result from the departure is an entertaining game with just-decent gameplay and plenty of charm – in other words, something that can be expected from those who worked at Wayforward.
PREMISE:
Since this is not a licensed game and this is not one of Wayforward’s flagship titles, the story and set-up in Shovel Knight is superficially but still noticeably different from what Wayforward usually does.
For one, the protagonist was canonically a male – something that is a rarity in Wayforward’s titles if they are not already licensed ones. At this time of writing though, this matter of gender is moot: the story is presented and written in such a manner that gender would not even matter at all.
There will be more elaboration on this later, so for now, this article would return to the premise.
The game takes place in a fantastical land with presumably medieval/feudal cultures. It is also filled with a ridiculous amount of riches, e.g. gems and gold galore. Of course, there are also nasty (and mostly stupid) creatures who prevent easy gathering of these treasures. Incidentally, there are also evil-doers, who happen to be rich too.
Therefore, typically, this land is a great place for “adventurers”, heroic individuals who risk their life and limb for gratuitous treasure-hunting and righteous trouncing (and robbing) of villains.
So far, so familiar. Yet, there are some peculiarities.
Knights in this realm are practically self-proclaimed individuals who happen to be suited in armor and wield peculiar weapons. They do not necessarily owe fealty to any lord. Not all of them are of chivalrous nature either; indeed, some can be terribly egotistical and/or eccentric.
The most prominent of these Knights are Shovel Knight and Shield Knight, who also happen to be foremost among adventurers. It is more than likely that these two have a close relationship, but their love for adventure (and treasure) would keep them going instead of settling down. Unfortunately, this would also lead to an incident that does them part.
This incident occurred at the mysterious Tower of Fate – thus far off-limits to all but the most skilled adventurers. The duo’s attempt at raiding it ended in disaster: Shield Knight was trapped in the Tower, leaving the Shovel Knight bereft.
The Shovel Knight suffers a sudden loss of confidence for whatever reason. The Knight appears to retire to farm-life (working fields with his shovel while still bedecked in armour).
The absence of the duo from the adventuring scene has consequences. The Enchantress (canonically female) has arisen from the Tower of Fate, and formed the (hilariously named) Order of No Quarter after recruiting champions who have little if any notion of justice.
After hearing enough of their dastardly exploits, Shovel Knight decides to come out of retirement and return to the Tower – while trouncing (and robbing) villains and hunting treasures of course.
That said, by the time of the Treasure Trove version of the game, the main story has been renamed as the “Shovel of Hope”. Incidentally, this story is canonically the culmination of the Shovel Knight saga, which would be expanded upon (through prequels) by the expansions and updates to Shovel Knight.
2D PLATFORMING:
If it is not apparent already, the game is a 2D platformer. This should not be a surprise, because the developers have worked at Wayforward, which is known for making a lot of 2D platformers (especially for its Mighty and Shantae IPs).
Indeed, followers of Wayforward’s games – especially those who remember the earlier Shantae titles – might find that the gameplay is rather familiar. Shovel Knight has reliable mid-air controls, can make short and high jumps easily, and have melee attacks that can be done on the ground and mid-air. The player character would be jumping up and down platforms, even at living spaces and urban environments.
ROCKMAN-STYLE SCREEN TRANSITION:
Another design that is notable is that the game uses screen transition that are similar to those used in the earlier Rockman/Mega-Man games.
To elaborate, there are stretches of horizontal or vertical levels with a camera that automatically moves in tandem with the player character. These only go so far, before they are bookended with a transition to other stretches. These stretches become more common as the player character progresses towards the Tower of Fate.
DUCK TALES BOUNCING:
Early on in the game, or even earlier if the player experiments with the control inputs, the player learns that the Shovel Knight can direct his shovel downwards while in mid-air. This is easily done; the player does not even need to use the control input that is dedicated to making attacks.
This is not just for show. Any enemy that happens to be beneath him will be hit, and for more damage than regular attacks. Peculiarly though, the impact causes the Knight to bounce off, instead of the shovel impaling the enemy. If the player is deft enough, the Knight can be directed to make another downwards thrust after the rebound. This can be repeated until the enemy is defeated or moves out of the way.
Similarly, the Shovel Knight can jab into rocks too. This breaks the rocks (usually in one hit) and also causes the Knight to rebound. It would not take long for the Knight to break through a series of rocks while deftly collecting whatever is within them.
However, later levels will pose complications that require the player to control the downward thrusts. That said, the game is not entirely clear about how to cancel the thrusts. By default, making a regular attack cancels the thrust, though there are other options in the controls set-up screen.
CONSECUTIVE REBOUNDS FROM CERTAIN THINGS INCREASE HEIGHT:
Not everything that is struck with the downward thrusts would let the player character rebound, and most cannot withstand more than one thrust before being shattered. Consecutive rebounds can be made from striking enemies while they are still alive, but these will not increase the rebound heights.
However, certain things do increase rebound heights when they are struck repeatedly. It is not always clear which ones do, but these tend to be things that are specifically intended to accommodate the Shovel Knight’s style of fighting. The most prominent – but not immediately clear – example of these is Shield Knight’s own large shield.
LOTS OF TREASURE:
As mentioned earlier, the land is awash with treasure – so much so that precious things like gold coins and gems are considered to be the de facto currency. There are more than a few thing that that they can be spent on, though how the treasure recirculates is unclear. Besides, there are critters that have gems and coins somewhere on or in their bodies.
That said, the player character will be gathering spoils from defeated enemies, which are the most common sources. Rarer sources, typically, have higher densities of treasure, such as the chests that can be found behind breakable walls or secluded away in precarious places, of all locations to place chests laden with loot. The rewards are usually commensurate with the player’s efforts – which is just as well, because the platforming in this game can be rather challenging and even frustrating.
RESPAWNING ENEMIES:
Certain enemies will respawn if the player character moves far enough from their spawning locations; this is not unlike the “Nintendo-hard” platformers of yore. However, the distance is considerable enough such that the player would have to backtrack significantly to get them to reappear.
Enemies also respawn if the player is subjected to a Rockman-style scene transition. However, any enemies that are close to where the player character makes his entry are not respawned. This is a wise design decision, because it would have been irritating otherwise.
NO EASY FARMING:
Although enemies respawn, the player would not be able to farm them readily. This is because the game tracks which enemies have yielded their loot. Those that have done so (typically after being killed) will not yield treasure again if they are defeated again after they have respawned. They might yield magic potions, but more often than not, they yield nothing.
PLAYER CHARACTER’S HIT REACTION:
The player character takes damage when he is hit with an attack, or when he comes into contact with enemies. When the player character is hit, he staggers backwards away from the enemy, and the player briefly loses control of the player character.
This design has been in the “Nintendo-hard” games and some of Wayforward’s titles. It makes platforming more complicated, especially if the player needs to proverbially thread the needle with a platforming sequence that also involves fending off encroaching enemies. After all, a single hit would be all it takes for the player character to fall into a pit of doom.
The compensation that the player gets is in the form of invincibility frames. These frames last a bit longer than the aforementioned momentary loss of control, so it is possible for the player to move the player character out of harm’s way.
There is a suit of armor that greatly reduces the player character’s hit reaction, while also shortening the loss of control. However, the armor increases the player character’s inertia with regards to horizontal movement, which is not desirable.
VERY NARROW WINDOW OF INVINCIBILITY IN ATTACK ANIMATIONS:
One of the major frustrations with games that have hit reactions is that hit reactions can cancel the player’s attempts at having the player character do something crucial, namely hitting the enemy.
In this game, there is a narrow window of invincibility that occurs after the player character begins an attack animation. This means that it is possible to complete the animation and hit the intended target, but Shovel Knight remains open to any punishment for not attacking in a “safe” window.
PLAYER CHARACTER’S DEMISE & CHECKPOINTS:
A player that is new to the game would have to be incredibly skilled not to die at least once. That said, learning what happens after the player character is knocked out is not an entirely unpleasant experience.
Throughout any level, there are ornate magical lamp-posts that represent the checkpoints in the level. If the player character comes across one, the player’s progress in the level is recorded and updated to that checkpoint.
If the player character meets his demise, the player character respawns at that checkpoint with full health and magic reserves. All enemies and obstacles are also restored. Progress in collecting treasures is not restored though; in fact, this is part of the player’s punishment.
Chalices are also not refilled. This is something that is important to keep in mind, especially if the player is depending on these to compensate for lack of skill.
LOSING TREASURE:
For better or worse, From Software’s Souls series has influenced the development of many games, including those that are not supposed to be Souls-like.
One of these influences is the gimmick of having the player character lose some currency or accumulated resource over a gameplay death; the currency is not irrevocably lost, but it lingers near where the player character croaked. This is the case for Shovel Knight.
The player can attempt to have the player character go to where he met his demise earlier to retrieve the gold that he has lost. The gold is lingering there, in the form of sacks of coins with flapping wings. Of course, to regain it, the Knight has to come into contact with the sacks in order to retrieve the money.
This is easier said than done. If Shovel Knight was defeated in mid-air, the sacks would be hovering in mid-air. If he met his demise by falling into a chasm, the sacks would be floating above the chasm. Retrieving them can be troublesome or risky, usually both.
If the player character dies before being able to retrieve the sacks, they disappear, together with whatever gold that they had. New sacks appear where the player character has just died instead. Players who have experience with Souls-like titles would be all too familiar with this setback.
SIZES OF SACKS:
Having more gold prior to a defeat means more gold would be lost upon suffering that. However, the sacks will never number more than three. Losing more gold also means that the bigger sacks have bigger hitboxes, meaning that they are a bit easier to retrieve.
If the player has very little gold, e.g. less than 200 points of gold, then none is lost at all upon the Knight’s demise. Therefore, it is generally a good idea to spend gold where possible in order to minimize losses from defeats.
CHECKPOINTS CAN BE VANDALIZED:
The first few checkpoints that the player comes across can be hit, but they are indestructible. However, the later ones are vulnerable to damage. They can only be destroyed with the Shovel Knight’s downward thrusts, however, so their destruction would have to be deliberate acts on the part of the player. (NPCs in the town would remark on this possibility if the player deigns to talk to them.)
Checkpoints that are destroyed yield considerable treasure, but obviously they could no longer be used. The player will be sent back to the previous checkpoint if the player character is defeated.
DESTRUCTIBLE WALLS:
Rather alarmingly, there are more than a few clusters of ground and wall constructions that are particularly susceptible to being hit with shovels. When struck, these blow up gratuitously, revealing hidden rooms that contain goodies or pathways that lead to optional challenges that in turn yield goodies.
Usually, destructible walls can be spotted due to the presence of certain distinctive visual designs, such as a skull that is protruding out of a wall. At other places, these walls may have features that are out of place, like sprites or textures that do not blend into their surroundings.
It should be mentioned here that these walls must be struck with the shovel to reveal them. Other forms of attacks generally do not harm them, with the exception of clearly explosive means.
A LOT OF INSTANT-DEATH HAZARDS – OVERVIEW:
For better or worse, the level designers of Shovel Knight have a predilection for instant-death hazards. In fact, there are so many of them, they appear to dilute the benefits of increasing the maximum hitpoints of the player character.
Overcoming most of these hazards will require determination rather than skill. Indeed, some of the more onerous ones require the new player to forge ahead first and see what would come out and which allows the player character to progress.
Enemies are generally not impervious to hazards; they can be killed by these. However, specific types of enemies are immune to specific hazards; examples will be described where relevant. There are also enemies that are immune to all hazards, namely the flying ones that move across the foreground layer of the screen.
FALLING HAZARDS A.K.A. DEATH PITS:
Death pits are of course falling hazards that immediately eliminates the player character; there are no means to prevent this. There are a lot of death pits in the levels, including even in the first. Death pits become increasingly more common as the player character gets closer to the Tower of Fate.
There are more than a few platforming challenges that would have the player avoiding these, and these challenges so happen to have goodies that are intended to bait the player into making bad decisions.
VERTICAL SCREEN TRANSITIONS & FALLING HAZARDS:
Perhaps in a spot of inconsistent designs, places that have Rockman-style vertical screen transitions may or may not disable death pits. If they disabled them, the player character would be falling down towards the lower parts of the level, so the risk in this case is a bit of lost progress instead of a demise that sets the player back to the recent checkpoint.
SPIKES:
There are two types of spiky hazards; one is rarer than the other. The rarer one only appears in the demesne of the Plague Knight; it only inflicts damage.
The other kind of spikes are longer and more numerous throughout the game. They also immediately inflict a knock-out if the player character does not have some form of invincibility. If the player character does have such a buff, he can run over the spikes without a problem.
The spikes in the Polar Knight’s demesne can packed in with snow in order to render them harmless. The packed snow generally cannot be removed, with the exception of the Polar Knight’s own shovelling.
LAVA:
Lava is a common hazard in fantastical platformers – it is a trope of such settings, in fact. That said, lava can exist in two forms: horizontal flows, or a mound. The latter is particularly prominent in Mole Knight’s fiefdom.
Interestingly, Mole Knight’s fiefdom has substances that can somehow turn lava into a jelly-like substance. This is temporary, however, and is only used for a few platforming challenges in that level.
CRUSHING HAZARDS:
Crushing hazards appear late in the playthrough. Typically, the player character expires if he is caught between two surfaces that are coming together. There is no exception to this; even if the player character has some form of invincibility buff, the fatal outcome cannot be averted.
AUTO-SCROLLING CHALLENGES:
For better or worse, there are also auto-scrolling sections. Horizontal auto-scrolling ones threaten the player character with crushing against vertical obstacles. Vertical auto-scrolling ones pose the risk of rising death pits instead. There are only a few of these in the game, but each one can test the patience of all but the most bull-headed players.
PLATFORMING FEATURES:
Certain levels have platforming gimmicks. Some examples have been described already, such as the jelly substance in the Mole Knight’s demesne and the packed snow in Polar Knight’s. For another example, there are the rockets that the Shovel Knight can ride to get to another platform in Tinker Knight’s massive workshop.
These features pose both risks and opportunities. The risks are typically falls into death pits or onto other instant-death hazards. As for the opportunities, the player would be using the features to get to areas with goodies and collectibles.
CANNOT JUMP OFF LADDERS:
The player character can climb ladders, but cannot jump off them. This is a notable limitation, something that the developers are well aware of because there are levels that are designed around this. It is unclear as to why there is such a limitation, considering that the game could have had more entertaining platforming without it.
FOOD:
One of the tropes about the platformer games of yore is that edible food can be found in unlikely places, and they somehow heal the player character who can somehow consume them immediately. Shovel Knight perpetuates this trope.
Of course, there are some differences to make this seem a bit more believable. Food are always found within covered platters, which in turn are found within rocks or behind breakable walls. There are three grades of food: apples, which heal the least; carrots, which heal more than apples; and turkeys, which completely heal the player character.
BOMBS:
Sometimes, breakable walls reveal bombs instead of goodies. Some food platters open only to reveal bombs inside. These are unpleasant surprises, but the bombs have fuses of a few seconds, so it is possible for the player character to get out of their explosive radii.
Some bosses, such as Propeller Knight, can have bombs raining down on the arena too. Interestingly, bombs can harm enemies, and they can be hit with the shovel to hurl them away. On the other hand, it might be more prudent to just get away from them than trying to use them against enemies.
ENEMIES - OVERVIEW:
The Enchantress’ influence has extended to animals, beasts and sapients with few moral obligations. There are even rats that have learned how to use propellers so that they can make use of their ability to damage the Shovel Knight with mere contact.
Still, many of them can be defeated by hitting them repeatedly with a shovel-blade. Certain hazards can be used against them too. All enemies also have behaviour patterns that can be exploited.
Indeed, enemies are lesser dangers compared to environmental hazards. In fact, most boss fights are encounters that are easier to deal with than encounters with hostiles that are lingering around places with instant-death hazards. (The later bosses do create instant-death hazards, however.)
CONTACT DAMAGE:
Contact damage is the most common type of damage that the player has to cope with. Enemies that do not have actual attacks will always try to get close to the Knight and touch him, because he is the kind of protagonist that is allergic to tactile contact with hostiles.
Thus, an experienced player is likely to use tactics that let the Shovel Knight withdraw immediately after inflicting a hit. Incidentally, the downward thrusts and the bounces that happen after fit such tactics very well. Indeed, skilled players are likely to use that whenever they can, especially if they are good at managing the Knight’s air-time.
ENEMIES’ HIT REACTIONS:
Most enemies would just take hits in stride. For most of them, their sprites may flash psychedelic colours when damage is inflicted on them, but that’s it.
However, some of them do respond to hits. Some push the player character away. Some others back off, or even disappear to reappear later. Such designs of course prevent the player from continuously striking the enemy.
The Black Knight, which is one of the bosses and Shovel Knight’s proclaimed rival, is a particular example. Unlike most other bosses, the Black Knight will respond to hits by hopping away. This resets his animations though, so hitting him at the right moments can cancel his attack sequences.
TELLS:
Almost all enemies that have attack animations would telegraph their attacks. Otherwise, they have noticeable delays between their starting animations. This is the player’s cue to do something to counter or evade them. The only exception is the Black Knight’s default shovel swing, which is carried out immediately.
BOUNCING OFF ENEMIES TO GET ELSEWHERE:
The player would eventually learn – and if not, made to learn – that bouncing off enemies is an important means of getting around. Indeed, there are a few optional platforming sequences in which the player character must bounce off some enemies in order to reach a chest that happens to be in some secluded spot.
BOSS FIGHTS:
Eventually, Shovel Knight has to fight the champions of the Enchantress. Somehow, he already knows them, so the back-and-forth when he meets them is short (but filled with puns). Expectedly, they are not eager to listen to Shovel Knight’s demands for them to stand down or rescind their service to the Enchantress.
The bosses begin with their initial set of moves, which are not as troublesome as the ones that come after. When their life meters are reduced to certain points (usually after any one-thirds portion has been depleted), they change their move-sets or introduce new moves.
Only a few, such as Tinker Knight, have predictable orders to their attacks. Typically, these are among the easiest bosses to defeat.
That said, there is a boss-rush moment in the game. This is a lot easier than the player would expect though, because the other Knights are not fighting on their home turfs and the player is likely to have the Shovel Knight already powered up.
WORLD MAP:
Outside of the levels, the player is directing Shovel Knight around on a world map, not unlike the one seen in Super Mario Bros 3 and later games. The player can pick which level to play next, if there are no obstructions in the way. Incidentally, there are obstacles.
Firstly, there are the locks that are in the paths that lead to the Tower of Fate. These locks cannot be removed unless the champions that are associated with them are defeated. Thus, Shovel Knight has to confront each and every one of the champions and defeat them; this happens to mirror the usual storyline progression of Rockman games.
The demesnes of the champions also act as obstacles themselves. The player character can move onto the nodes that represent their domains, but cannot move away from the nodes except in the direction from which the Knight moved onto those nodes in the first place. The player can have the Knight go around the nodes through other paths, of course.
By the way, the levels that are associated with the enemy Knights can replayed after having completed them. This will reset the treasures in them, with the exception of the reward from emptying the pockets of the enemy Knights. (This also means that the player can only score the most gold from these levels the first time around.)
CHALLENGE LEVELS:
There are also challenge levels that require the player character to use specific Relics to get past the obstacles in them. These levels are locked out after the player has found all the collectibles in them, so the player might want to be forewarned about this.
TRAVELLERS:
Then, there are the “travellers”. On the world map, travellers are practically mobile obstacles. They move whenever the Shovel Knight exits from the location on a node.
Some of these are short levels that let the player gather some more treasure, if the player is not keen on replaying previous levels. Incidentally, these are represented with gems that are floating about, instead of a humanoid super-deformed sprite. These are forgettable though, mainly because there is next to no story exposition in these.
Travellers that are represented with super-deformed sprites are usually encounters with named characters. The exceptions are those that are represented with sprites of Goldarmors, which are generic knights in the service of the titled Knights.
Some Travellers are secondary characters who are out looking for a name for themselves. Incidentally, many of these characters were conceived by major Kickstarter backers of the game. Some would later be revealed as major characters in other parallel stories of the Shovel Knight saga.
Anyway, most named characters in these encounters are there to challenge the Shovel Knight, for whatever reason. For example, the Black Knight is a recurring challenger; defeating him yields foreboding hints about the identity of the Enchantress and the Black Knight’s motivations. (Shovel Knight also apparently robs him every time that he is defeated.)
Otherwise, the named characters are mainly there to flesh out the fictional world of Shovel Knight, and to provide some humour. For example, there is a large edgy brute who is inclined towards aggressive violence, but who turns into a hilarious cry-baby upon being defeated.
TOWNS:
Next, there are the towns. These are where the Shovel Knight spends most of the treasures that he has accumulated. Prices are typically high (which is to be expected when the lands are awash with glittering things), but the gold would go to things that are mostly useful to the Shovel Knight.
The first town has two vendors that raise the player character’s main statistics, which are his hitpoints and magic reserves. Both kinds of upgrades get progressively more expensive. Eventually, there is a ceiling limit, as is to be expected from games cut from the cloth of the classic Metrovania titles.
The second town has blacksmiths that can provide the Knight with different suits of armor and upgrades for his shovel-blade. In the case of the armor suits, the player has to return to that town in order to swap between the suits. Fortunately, the upgrades for the shovel-blade are inherent.
CHESTER:
One of the goofiest characters in the game is Chester, a merchant that can be found at the unlikeliest of places. Chester first appears in the first town, but he will pop out of particularly large blue chests too. (His excuse was that he was looking for special items, implying that he got himself trapped or he has been hiding from enemies. However, it is also just as likely that he has an ability to somehow come out of large blue chests.)
(By the way, there is at least one creature that uses the appearance of a blue chest as a lure.)
Wherever Chester is encountered, he has something useful to sell to the player character. It is unclear as to why Chester doesn’t keep the item for himself, though these items are notably more useful for those who are inclined towards combat – such as the Shovel Knight.
Every sale makes the next more expensive. Furthermore, Chester is usually found in a secluded area of a level. Therefore, the player will want to have enough money and try to keep it before finding him. Usually, the parts of the level prior to meeting him would have enough treasures for the player to gather enough funds to pay him, but only if the player is good enough to keep them until then.
The immediate area around Chester usually contains some optional challenges that would make use of the item that has just been bought. These challenges are not for safe training though; many of them have instant-death hazards.
Sales of the items are permanent. The items are retained if the player character dies sometime after getting them and reverting back to the most recent checkpoint. However, if the player backs out of the level without completing it, the sale is considered to not have been made because the player reverts to the game-save just before the start of the level.
RELICS & MANA:
Relics are the aforementioned items that Chester sells. Relics draw upon the Knight’s reserves of mana. He is not exactly a magician or spell-caster, so he spends his mana on powering the Relics instead.
Different Relics grant different powers. The first Relic is one that lets the Knight shoot straight-flight fireballs, which is handy for attacking enemies that are out of the reach of his shovel.
Some Relics grant mobility as well as attacks. One of these is a gauntlet that lets the Knight punch through a series of rocks (and enemies), if they are in mid-air. Another Relic is a sword that lets the Shovel Knight dash forward with a stab, which also lets him move across places that he could not otherwise traverse with his jumps.
Indeed, many optional challenges are not possible without the use of the Relics. Some even require the use of multiple Relics, and at least one requires their use in quick succession.
Switching between Relics requires the use of a menu, which pauses the gameplay. This can be immersion-breaking, but this is much appreciated.
FISHING:
One of the Relics is a fishing rod that has an anchor instead of a hook. For some reason, the Rod can be used on pits that have sparkles above them. Before “fishing”, the Knight must be completely stationary.
The Knight assumes a sitting pose while casting the rod. After a short while of waiting (the length of which depends on the player’s luck), exclamation symbols appear over his head, indicating the short window in which the player should have the rod reeled in.
The “catch” may be an actual fish, e.g. a golden carp of sorts. In this case, the fish will bounce around and might be lost if it falls into a pit.
Another kind of catch is another fish, albeit one that happens to a servant of King Trouple, which will be described later.
Interestingly, the fishing rod can catch any money sacks that are hovering underneath it. This is the player’s most reliable method at getting sacks that are not within easy reach, especially those that are created after the player character fell into a pit.
CHALICES:
In addition to the Relics, there are chalices. There are two of these, and both are sold by the follower of King Trouple, a sapient and massive fish that can grant aid as long as the recipient has the chalices. Although his aid comes in the form of his spit, his spit has magical properties that can benefit anyone who has no issue with imbibing the fluids.
Outside of the levels, the player character has to visit King Trouple’s lake in order to fill the chalices. In this case, the player can pick which spittle to put into any empty chalice. Filled chalices cannot be replaced with other fluids, unless they are emptied first (and of course they have to be emptied by drinking their contents).
During attempts at levels, the chalices can only be refilled by fishing King Trouple’s servants out of pits. There is no indicator which pit has a servant, but which pit that is, is always fixed. The servant fills an empty chalice – presumably with second-hand spittle that is otherwise effective. As for which spittle it is, this is also fixed, though it may not be what the player wants. There is more than one servant in each level, by the way.
CANNOT USE RELICS WHEN CLIMBING LADDERS:
For whatever reason, the Shovel Knight cannot use Relics when climbing ladders. Considering that he could use his shovel while on a ladder, that he could not use Relics is odd. (He uses them with one hand, by the way.) There is a lost opportunity for more challenging platforming because of this.
BATTLE TOADS CAMEO:
Last but not least, there are the cameos of characters from other IPs, which are unique to specific platforms. In the case of IBM-type computers, these share the same cameos as the Xbox consoles: the Battle Toads.
After finding a certain secret in a location that honours Kickstarter backers of the highest tiers, the location where the Battle Toads make their appearance is revealed. Amusingly, the Shovel Knight’s encounter with them soon turns into a challenge for “additional training”, and of course Shovel Knight accepts.
There are two sequences to the Battle Toads’ level. The first sequence has the player character fighting one of the Toads while rappelling down into a sewer. Relics are disabled for this fight, something that is not told to the player.
The Propeller Rats in this sequence are, amusingly enough, armed with scissors and are of course allies of the Toads. Obviously, it is not in the player’s interest to let them complete their mission.
The next sequence is a lot less fun, because it is more frustrating. It is a 2D side-scrolling race, something that is not always a good idea in video games because the player does not get to see what is ahead. There are on-screen warnings about upcoming obstacles, but ultimately the player only has half a second to react to the appearance of the obstacles on-screen.
This sequence is for those who are determined enough to memorize and practice the control inputs to avoid the obstacles. Fortunately, there are at least several checkpoints, which lessen the frustration of the experience.
The cameos culminate with a fight against the Toads, though only one of them would be actively fighting the Shovel Knight.
TOAD ARMOR:
The player’s reward for completing the cameo levels is a suit of green armor that grants peculiar combat capabilities to the Shovel Knight. To be precise, he fights a lot like a Battle Toad, complete with comically-enlarged extremities when dealing the coup de grace.
This is not just for aesthetics; these attacks appear to have invincibility frames of their own. Since the attacks are so rapid, the frames could almost overlap. The coup de grace also has a relatively wide invincibility window.
There are two significant setbacks. One of these is that the different attacks appear to edge the player character forward – something that is not always desirable in a game that is also a platformer. The other is that the upgrades for the shovel appear to be disabled, likely because the attacks with the Toad armor are using different coding.
POST-GAME CONTENT:
After completing Shovel of Hope for the first time, New Game Plus mode becomes available.
This is practically a “hard” mode, with a lot of setbacks implemented to inflate the challenge. For one, healing items such as the food that the Shovel Knight can eat to restore health are replaced with bombs instead. The player character also takes more damage from each hit.
There are also the “Challenges”, which restrict the player character with specific statistics and gear while locking him into a room with hazards and enemies. The player is given a timer, which shows the time that is given to achieve the objective. These are there for players who believe that they have the skill to win fights with limited resources.
CO-OP:
Last but not least, there is co-op mode. This is local-only, and has to be enabled prior to entering any level, including even the Towns. It cannot be disabled during a level, at least not without losing progress.
When enabled, this creates a copy of the Shovel Knight, which is coloured differently. This copy will never be acknowledged in the story; in fact, other characters only addresses the first Shovel Knight.
The player characters’ health and mana reserves are separate, but they share the same gear, including whichever armor is being used at the time and the expenditure of filled Chalices. If one of them dies, their owning player can revive him by taking health from the other player.
Damage from friendly fire is nil, but one hitting the other does cause hit reactions. This can make co-op experiences unwieldy, if the players could not coordinate between each other.
Interestingly, only one player character needs to reach the exit of any area to trigger a screen transition. The other player character reappears next to that one.
To balance the increased combat power that the players have, bosses are stiffer. Some obstacles are also changed, requiring the player characters to work together to overcome them.
VISUAL DESIGNS:
Shovel Knight is not aiming for high-end graphics, if it is not apparent already. There is official artwork that shows crisp looks of the characters in the saga, but those are for promotional purposes. The actual in-game looks of the characters can be quite different.
(This is not unlike what has been done for Wayforward’s marketing of its games. This is apparently a habit that Yacht Club Games retained from their previous work experience.)
Fortunately, the sprites are large enough such that they have notable features that make them recognizable. There is Shovel Knight’s horned helmet and, of course, his shovel; both are his most iconic features, because everything else about him looks like a generic SNES-era video-game knight.
The player should still expect a lot of palette swapping though. This can be seen in the NPCs that walk around the towns. Many of them are palette swaps of each other. There are also the armor variants that the Shovel Knight has – all of which are palette swaps of each other.
The best visuals are the animations for the cutscenes. Watching bosses deploy their combat assets or taking their stance is entertaining. Watching them double over before falling flat after having been defeated, among other indignities, is also entertaining.
SOUND DESIGNS:
Firstly, there is no voice-acting whatsoever. This is a notable omission, because the game’s closest contemporaries are Wayforward’s titles – most of which have voice-overs wherever their copyright and licensing concerns allow them. Even sound clips such as characters laughing are just produced with electronic means.
This omission is very much one of the factors that allow the implementation of whimsical gender swaps for the prominent characters in the game. The developers do not need to accommodate voice-over changes at all. (There are also “cheat codes” that swap words with others.)
As for the sound effects, many of them can be considered “retro”, e.g. they are reminiscent of the sound clips of the 8-bit era, albeit with greater depth in pitch and quality. The sound designers did put in the effort to make sure that almost every occurrence has its own distinct sound clip, however, so the sound effects are not likely to become repetitive too early.
The music is perhaps the best component of the sound designs. Jake Kaufmann is the composer of the music, thus demonstrating once again (and perhaps even more so this time) that his loyalty is not just to Wayforward alone. The tracks are very much of the “9-bit” sort though, so the player would have to be familiar with music of the Famicom era in order to appreciate them.
There is an in-game feature that is about collecting music sheets to unlock musical tracks. There is a character that will purchase them while making remarks about how he somehow has the gold to pay for them while not really having actual income at the moment. (It is likely that this is an in-game representation of Jake Kaufmann.)
CLOSING PASSAGES:
At first glance, it seems like Shovel Knight is one more of those indie games, riding the renaissance wave of indies that started in the early 2010s. It even scored a Kickstarter victory.
Of course, down the years, that wave has subsided. The perception of indie games has been soured by problems that afflict the indie scene – the most perennial being that most indie game designers do not know much about actually running businesses. Being a game that came out during these times when cynicism about indies are coming to the fore, Shovel Knight has its work cut out if it is to be something more than yet another “one of those”.
Indeed, it would seem that Shovel Knight is not really aiming high. Perhaps the most notable sign of this is that some of the content updates include things that do not actually add much to the game. For example, there are the whimsical gender swaps, which are superficial and inconsequential, and perhaps even pointless where narrative presentation is concerned. After all, the game and its expansions lack any voice-overs and other designs that would have complicated the implementation of such options.
Then, there is the actual gameplay. There is not really many things that Shovel Knight – or rather, Shovel of Hope – has not done that other 2D platformers have not done. There is the return of the downward thrusts and bounce-offs, which is something that Duck Tales has done but which few other indie platformers do (unless they are Mario-likes). Otherwise, much of the gameplay is just more of the usual Metrovania that is rather pervasive in indie platformers. There is also the matter of instant-death pits being rather common hazards in the level designs.
Yet, having played the game, there is a very noticeable charm that Shovel Knight has. This can be seen in its presentation, such as the pun-filled dialogues, the entertaining personalities of the characters, their peculiar visual designs (visored helmets being pervasive is one example) and their goofy animations. This is a trait that the expansions to the game would perpetuate, much to the endearment of those who favour this indie title among so many others.
Consequently, Shovel Knight can proverbially punch far above its weight. Players who are cynical and sceptical may not be impressed by its technical designs and gameplay, but its charm would win over just about everyone else.