Shantae and the Seven Sirens (2020)

Beat the definitive mode, going to play the legacy mode + hulu costume next. I don't really have a vivid memory of the other games I've played other than the fact that I like them, but I think this is either the 1st or 2nd best game in the series for me.

• I like the artstyle. One of my biggest gripes with Half Genie Hero was that the portrait art for Shantae felt like a stepdown from Pirate's Curse. This game feels like a nice middle-ground between the two of them.
• This game is funny. I forgot how lighthearted and whimsical the series is, so it caught me off-guard.
• I love the monster card system. It was a cool way to customize the way you play with the buffs they provided. It kind of reminded me of Castlevania: Circle of the Moon's card system, but I enjoyed this one more.
• I like the story. It did a nice job expanding the world and lore of the series by showing off more half-genies with cool designs. Big fan of the reveal that one of the half-genie's was Rotty Tops in disguise and the fact that this twist isn't just a joke, but it actually has a satisfying effect on how the game ends. I liked the revelation of how Risky planned everything, I felt like all my questions about the story events were wrapped up cleanly and nicely.
• I like the idea of having the dances have their own effects, while still keeping Shantae's transformations. It allows her the keep her versatile mobility, while also giving her additional abilities. When all of her abilities are unlocked, the mobility is fun.

• The map is pretty awful, at least for finding collectibles. I'm pretty sure the older games let you know when a room contained a collectible, but this one doesn't. It would've been nice if we were able to at least put down pins. That's the biggest reason why I do not think I'm getting 100% for this game. It was also inconvenient that opening the map didn't automatically center on your current position. I want to stress that when I say map, I mean the map in the menu, the level-design is great. Considering I have such a big issue with the map in definitive mode, from what I've played of legacy mode, it seems like the map is even worse there because it lacks the QoL of showing you your next destination.
• It's a bit unfair to call this a con because I did it to myself, but the early game is pretty darn hard. I felt like there wasn't enough healing hearts or magic pots considering how much damage enemies do and how much you need magic for various puzzles. I remember getting 2 more heart containers thinking the game would be easier because I got stronger, just to be blindsided by new enemies doing 2.5 heart containers of damage per hit. I should mention that I intentionally avoided using items and magic for the entire game, and the healing dance until late in the game.
• Did we really need to fight Risky Boots 5 times?
• It's a staple of the genre and I'm sure the other games did the same thing, but the backtracking to get collectibles in this game felt particularly bad. There's so many instances where I just had to comeback because I didn't have the right ability and it got annoying after awhile.
• Spoilers for unlockable abilities: two of the unlockable transformations are basically the same, except one digs and the other swims in water. The sand and water hazards basically served the same function in this game though. It's honestly a very minor thing to nitpick, but it would've been nice unlocking the double/triple jump sooner.
• Spoilers for late game levels: Squid pit is stupid hard and the final dungeon is long for no reason. There isn't really anything particularly interesting to see, there's no collectibles, and there isn't anything new added to make gameplay interesting. I don't think it really tested the skills you've gained along the way all that well either. My feelings for the last level are mostly due to the fact that I was ready to just fight the final boss and be done with the game at that point rather than go through a slog of a dungeon.

This game came out in 2019, so I'm ready for a new entry in the series. I'm a big fan of all of the WayForward titles I've played and I can't wait to see them put out more.

It honestly feels like they did a rough sketch of a good game. It is a Metroidvania / Zelda-like mashup that really feels super under-realized. The platforming is very basic and repetitive, the combat is clunky and required no real skill development due to generous consumables, and the overall story is just kinda vapid.

That said, I was impressed with the character animations and environmental art. The game looks good and plays pretty smooth. The overall world design is also well done, it just feels like it is a first iteration and could use a year or so more in the oven to get some really engaging gameplay in the room designs and an overhaul in the combat mechanics.

If you got nothing else to play, it’s not a terrible play though. But ultimately, pretty bottom of the barrel Metroidvania for me.

If you've played the other Shantae games, you've played this one. That's my first thought. This doesn't change the format. What it does is polish it up. Yes it lacks some of the 3D elements of the previous game, but it still looks gorgeous and this one has animated cutscenes which really make me think a proper Shantae animated show would have a lot of potential.

It's probably the easiest Shantae game I've played. Eveything is super cheap and item drops are generous so even the final boss isn't a real threat. Puzzle solving, which is the core concept, is still there and has some challenge though.

The soundtrack is stuck in my head too!

Shantae games are just so upbeat and good looking, a bit fan service-y without being cliche. They are just pleasant to play. There's also an underlying mystery around the missing genies that adds depth to the lore. The final scenes of this game sow some seeds for the next too and hint that some of Shantae's unanswered questions about her missing genie mother might be answered next time. But we shall see, I hope! Do I hope they mix up the format abit more next time? Yes. But it's still a lot of fun as is.

Magic.

Shantae and The Seven Siren Review

Shantae and The Seven Sirens is the 5th game in the Shantae series and sigh its the worst one. Now before anyone thinks i don't know anything about Shantae, I played all 5 games, that includes the gameboy one. My favourite Shantae being The Pirates Curse because it was the first one i played.

Shantae and The Seven Sirens story is about Shantae and her friends and uncle going on vacation to get a much needed break. They go to Paradise Island where there is a Half Genie festival. Shantae being a half genie, meaning her mother was a genie and her father a human, she meets 5 other Half-Genie's like herself and there really the last generation of Half Genies left. She meets Harmony, Vera, Plink and Zapple all Half Genies with different powers from herself. Than theres another Genie thats not a genie its just rottytops which is super obvious. After meeting them the festival begins where there on stage performing suddenly the lights go out and all The Half Genies disappear except Shantae.

Shantae than has to find and rescue them learning secrets of Paradise Island. She learns that there are Seven sirens hidden in the depths of Paradise Island which sits up top a Sunken ancient city, so she has to find and defeat all the sirens and rescue the Genies and Rottytops.

Gameplay Gameplay is more of the same you come to know from Shantae. You explore a world with multiple areas and secrets and towns in the metroidvania style. Shantae can run, jump,duck, crawl and attack with her hair. Shantae can also dance. The new thing in this game are fusion dances and monster cards. Fusion dances are dances you get when you rescue the Half Genies, you have to find a fusion stone than there able to give there power to you, allowing you to use them in the environment, there are 4 powers. One is giving life to plants, there's one where you can see hidden stuff invisible, there is one that shakes the ground or area and the last one is an electricity one. Shantae also gets new things to transform into, more on that later. Theres also the towns to upgrade Shantaes health and buy these powers like a fireball and a bubble shield and honestly i barely use these til the final bosses.

Negatives

Honestly this whole game is a negative. Firstly the way the game looks, its downgraded from Half Genies look, Seven sirens is fully 2D while Half Genie environments were 3D Shantae was 2D. The areas in this game are so boring to explore, like the backgrounds the designs are just all uninteresting. Its not even the fact its all 2D again the other Shantaes all had way better areas than this one even the gameboy one. Theres like 7 or 8 areas and there all boring every single one. The only thing that is good about it are the towns you visit there all well designed. Even outside when your not exploring the dungeons those areas suck to. Nothing happens in the background of the 2D environment its just bland for the most part.

All these dungeons are connected in this game when you get your powers but man i got lost when i got this damn water transformation because everything looked the goddamn same in all these areas. In the Sunken City theres like these tubes you go up and down or you go across just so boring. Now the transformations in this game they suck to. All of them are just little creatures. You get this worm one that can burrow underground, You get this squid one that helps you jump multiple times, you get this newt one that lets you cling to walls like the monkeys in the other Shantaes, theres a frog one to go in water, than your biggest transformation is a turtle which replaces her elephant basically but its like the best one. The way the transformations look are boring. She had a monkey transformation, she had the Elephant, she had the Mermaid one, in one game she had a bird one all way better than Seven Sirens transformations.

The way these transformations are used to in this one there like Pac man mini games. The worm one you burrow under ground but than monsters try and eat you so you have to avoid them. The underwater frog one is another pac man one where you collect coins or manuever between enemies. Most of the transformations you don't even use a lot, got tired of the damn water one going through those water areas was putting me to sleep, there awful designed areas there all boring to look at. There are not like the underwater areas in the other games.The final area is freaking awful. Shantae has great final areas but this one freaking sucked

Lets go back to the areas in this game. So first area is in the sunken area. The area in this the colors are brown and kind of silver with a rusty look, the background is green and since your underwater you see a window with water and a rock and seeweed but all you see is light blue. The 2nd area to this the background is just leafs and its just blue in the background, than this area is silver and purple color but some areas are entirely blue. 3rd area is a moss area it is literally the same brown and rusted silver color just with green covering it. For the moss, the background is leafs AGAIN just with added vines and the color is green tint. It also sometimes has what looks to be a cavern but its all blue in color. 4th area the same rusted platform but instead of silver and rust its brown now like baige and the area is orange and brown than the background is the cavern with a blue background. Next area well lets make the rusted platforms all light blue and the area itself blue....ITS JUST FUCKING COLOR SWAPS.  You see what i mean these areas are just so freaking boring when literally all the other 4 Shantaes had good areas and interesting backgrounds and colors to them. Im not saying the other Shantaes didn't do it either but there areas did not look like carbon copies of each others with a different color palette.

The monster cards were useless to me as well they give you different abilities all the enemies drop a card randomly i only used two cards.

Final thoughts

Its a disappointment literally the only thing i liked was the story and characters. The Half Genies all looked really good they all had great designs. The game also had anime like cutscenes so for every boss you got a cutscene which was cool. The bosses were pretty good to they were all gimmicks but fun stuff there werent that hard besides the final boss. Its just that only makes up a fraction of the game. This game relies on exploration so having good areas to explore is everything, but all these areas were awful wasn't any good ones. I understand they wanted them to be connected with each other but that does not change the fact that not much work went into these areas at all. Did not like the transformations, i did not like the fusion dances most you use like 5 times than there useless until the final area. She had like really cool forms when you use them but its just a picture they should have did more with them.

I loved Half Genie Heroes areas had so many fun areas to explore and the backgrounds were all nice to look at and it was colorful.

So my final score for Shantae and The Seven Sirens is a 4. This is the worst Shantae in my opinion. Everyone said its more of the same, it is but every things worst.

Series as a whole though i give a 8 with Pirate Curse being the best one.

Fun, but didn't really do anything new. Not as good as Pirate's Curse. Also a smidge too easy, especially after getting some of the late game cards. I still had a great time though! And the music is AWESOME, though I suspect a lot of it was reused from older games. Same with the art.

EDIT: Looks like the music is all new, not reused, though this is the first game in the series where it was not composed by the same person (Jake Kaufman). I guess it all just sounds similar? Which I don't think is a bad thing, if the sound is good.