Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows (2015)

Si la campaña Shovel of Hope gozaba de un diseño de niveles excelente, esta Plague of Shadows sigue su misma filosofía. De algún modo, las mecánicas, tan diferenciadas de las del caballero de la pala, son intuitivas y plantean un nuevo desafío. Los niveles se repiten sin cambiar demasiado sus assets; a primera vista, puede parecer vagancia de diseño, pero basta jugar un par de pantallas para darse cuenta de que en Yacht Games Club han logrado toda una proeza: sin trastocar elementos de diseño, han demostrado que es posible cambiar por completo mecánicas y jugabilidad únicamente con cabeza y saber hacer.

Plague Knight tiene un estilo mucho más aéreo y distanciado de Shovel Knight. Su uso de las bombas, por otro lado características de su diseño, crean una suerte de sinergia con el nuevo layout vertical de cada pantalla. A pesar de estar pasando por las mismas pantallas, cuesta recordarlas de la campaña anterior por los cambios de movilidad y, especialmente, de diseño. Como siempre con esta saga, la progresión mecánica y los desafíos se suceden magistralmente. El estilo de Plague Knight es, ciertamente, menos satisfactorio que el de Shovel Knight, pero ello no quita que su filosofía de diseño siga siendo fantástica.

Esta forma de tergiversar mecánicas principales se lleva también a la historia. Como una buena secuela (intercuela, realmente), es una historia que expande su universo primario con la inclusión de una trama de Mona, interacciones con el jugador en la obra anterior y, sobre todo, la aparición de secundarios del primer juego con nuevas capas de profundidad. Se nota que en Yacht Games Club se han divertido enormemente reproduciendo escenas del jugador en la anterior campaña, creando nuevas interacciones con los personajes, dando a Mona la trama que se merecía y haciendo una suerte de what if? del juego base. Al final, resulta confuso saber qué es cánon en esta saga, pero la diversión está en el centro de todo y hace que todo importe un poco menos.

La relación de Mona y Plague Knight es, para mí, lo más interesante del juego. De hecho, sus últimos compases me han tenido sonriendo como un tonto ante un pixel art fluido y unas conversaciones magistrales. También guarda cierto interés ver cómo se va cambiando la historia original gracias a la inclusión de Mona. La forma de explorar la psique de Plague Knight a través del jefe final y probar de algún modo su interés por Mona es algo que queda fácilmente grabado en la mente.

En cierto modo, Plague of Shadows es tan inferior a Shovel of Hope como es superior: aun si sus mecánicas son algo insatisfactorias y su diseño no está tan exageradamente pulido como en la anterior campaña, su forma de plantear los mismos niveles con nuevos desafíos, su historia y su relación de personajes son encomiables y una evolución perfecta de Shovel of Hope.

Brilliant way of reusing assets to make another game. All in all it's Shovel Knight but you play as the previously antagonist Plague Knight that brings it's own set of abilities and powerups. Every Shovel Knight DLC has solid controls that you easily get into.

The game is fun to play all the way through, but what really makes this game is the story. Never have a left a game with such a smile on my face. Still remember the ending fondly.

I was surprised when I discovered that the first (free!) DLC for Shovel Knight would have you play as Plague Knight. Not because I didn't like him (his boss fight is one of the best ones in the game), but because, while other Knights had similar weapons to Shovel Knight (with a few exceptions), Plague Knight threw bombs and used his strange potions against you. It meant that a game staring him would had to be completely different to Shovel Knight's from a gameplay point. And this was free DLC we were getting. So I didn't except the developers to completely change the game and not charge anything for it. But they did.

Instead of using a Shovel as weapon, which worked like a normal sword, you throw bombs. When you jump, if you want to remain in the air for longer, you can no longer jump on enemies (obliviously, since you don't have a Shovel anymore) so you have to trow bombs to stay in the air. But you can only throw three. So, if when you first jump or use the impulse of bombs to launch yourself to another platform, you have to calculate the move, or else the three bombs won't allow you to reach it. This makes the levels harder than the original game, because it's more difficult to jump long distances. This helps the game feel different, but it also leads to some frustrating moments that were not present in the original. It carefully walks the line between "challenging but fair" to "difficult and not fun". And I'm happy to say that most of the times, it falls into the first side of line. But it's also true that in some moments, the game stops being fair and starts being too difficult to be enjoyed. But there are only a few of these moments and they don't last much time, making the game, for the most part, fun and enjoyable. The only thing I didn't like was the new items and upgrades. There were to many and I never felt like I needed to buy most of them. The story takes place in current time with the Shovel Knight's story, giving us really good jokes and fun twists. Like the base game story, Plague of Shadows is a love story, even if it feels completely different to the original one. While there it was about Shovel Knight finding his lost love, Plague Knight's loved one in front of him, but due to thinking his is not good for her, he goes on a quest to became more powerful, despite not needing to. This change makes both stories completely different, and the latter adds interesting layers to Plague Knight as a character. While the levels remain unchanged, and that's fine, because the huge change in gameplay automatically makes the levels different, so are the boss fights, for good or for worse. Some end up becoming better due to the gameplay change. Others, not so much. Some that were originally easy, are now hard, and vice versa. However, it ends up being Plague Knight himself that makes this game. He is mean, sarcastic and crazy. So basically, he is great. His interactions with the other bosses are gold and he is funny while being completely nuts. He, like this game, is a lot of fun, and I vividly recommend his crazy change on Shovel Knight's adventure. I give this game a 4/5 stars.