Shantae: Half Genie Hero Review

I really wanted to like this game, I really did and while the game isn't terrible by any means, I found it to be a mostly tedious experience. I really do love the music and art in the game. The music fits the gameplay and action really well and the ambient music is quite good. The art style looks very bright and colorful.

This is where I my praise ends, everything that involves playing Shantae Half Genie Hero, I found to be a chore.

I never played a Shantae game before and over the years I have heard it was a metroidvania and then I heard later that it isn't. Thing is, Shantae Half Genie Hero isn't so much a metroidvania as it an awkward combination of metroidvania and traditional 2D platformer, best way of describing this game is that it's an amalgamation of Metroid, SOTN styled Castlevania games, 2D Mario and other similar 2D platformers like Donkey Kong Country and Rayman Origins and Legends.

It has Metroid's health system where you need to find extra health containers scattered throughout the world, Castlevania SOTN's item use like potions and other healing items, magic attacks and seeing damage numbers when hitting things while having the backtracking of both and the fast paced precision platforming where you need to avoid falling into death pits and you go through individual stages like the aforementioned 2D platformers I mentioned. This all sounds kind of interesting on paper but in practice, this game makes me wish I was playing all the above mentioned games instead since they all feel like they are combing all the aspects of other 2D games and they have their own identity compared to this game.

One big problem with the game and I know this might sound weird considering the game is infamous for being way too easy but I felt the difficulty of the game is an awkward middle ground of being way too easy and then randomly getting scream inducing hard. I will admit, the early levels of the game can be sort of barely scrapping by challenging untill you unlock Scimatar and then combat becomes trivial.

Then there are levels that have no death pits at all and then there are levels that do and when the latter pops up it can feel super jarring. Say if you were playing a 2D Metroid game and the platforming in that game is forgiving and doesn't feature much in the way of too much precision and there are no death pits, but then you get to the 3rd or 4th level and the platforming requires you to be precise and avoid death pits and becomes a 2D Mario game, the change in the style of platforming can really ruin your mood and expectations especially for first time players like me. One minute you are playing a forgiving platformer and then another minute you actually have to try during the platforming sections. It can feel confused as a result.

If the game didn't let me cheese many of the harder platforming sections with the bat form, I honestly wouldn't have been able to beat the game at all. Would've dropped around Tassel Town honestly.

This leads me to my second issue, and that is the health and continue system, remember when I said the game is an amalgamation? The health system is also that, it's basically 1 part Metroid, 1 part Castlevania SOTN and while it may sound weird but a pseudo lives system found in other platformers. You get health containers like Metroid and you get potion and healing items like Castlevania, but the thing is your potions is not only used for health revival during combat but also to recover your health during platforming when you fall into death pits and spikes. So basically, the healing items is a pseudo lives system and it can be really irriating since I want to use the potions and healing items for combat and bosses but if I die too much to the occasionally challenging platforming I might have to use up all my healing items anyway since I don't want to restart an entire platforming section from the last save point.

If it wasn't for the OP Scimatar ability that made me cheese much of the combat and bosses, I wouldn't be able to beat the game at all. It's just weird how the game has so many weird and questionable design and the game also has cheesing methods for them. I like the game for having them since I can see it through to the end but it also makes moment to moment gameplay a chore.

And speaking of chores, the backtracking where you have to revisit levels was the final nail in the coffin as to why I am so lukewarm on the game. The hint system is super vague, and games with them like some of the Zelda games never feel good to use since they are too vague and I might as well look up a walkthrough to get a better direction on where to go. The return levels is where the metroidvania aspects come in and guess what? It's just too a bunch of boring fetch quests with the animal forms to progress furthur into the story, no interesting or meaningful exploration with an interconnected world like a traditional metroidvania game.

Overall, didn't hate it but also not a fan. Maybe I would enjoy Shantae more as an animated series than a game despite Shantae clearly being a gameplay driven game.