Game: Shantae and The Seven Sirens
Genre: 2D Platformer
System: Nintendo Switch (also on iOS, PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4)
Developer|Publisher: WayForward
Age Rating: EU 7 | US E10+
Price: UK £25.19| EU €27,99| AUD $42.00|CAD $ 39.89 | USD $29.99
Release Date: 4th June 2020
Review code provided by WayForward
Shantae and (most of) her pals have been invited to the resort of Arena Town for an all expenses paid vacation. This is in exchange for participating in the Half-Genie Festival. However in their debut performance all the Half-Genies but Shantae vanish. It’s up to her to explore the mysteries of the Sunken City to rescue her new friends.
Paradise isn’t nice
The Shantae games are 2D Platformers with this game going back to the Metroidvania format (unlike Half-Genie Hero which was levels based). As the entirety of this game takes place on the one island.
She starts out only with her normal hair whip attack. As you explore the Sunken City you’ll find Labyrinths (Dens of Evil) where the other Half-Genies are being held. Once freed each girl will give you a new fusion transformation that’ll allow you to complete the rest of the dungeon, beat the boss and explore further in the Sunken City.
There are five of these abilities in total, such as the Dash Newt that is very similar to the Monkey from previous games, allowing you to air dash and climb walls. These transformations are tied to different buttons to use their abilities like ZR to Newt Dash, or in the case of the Gastro Drill and Sea Frog, pressing down towards dirt or water respectively. As such there’s no need to transform back as Shantae does so once the ability is done (or after pressing Y with the Bash Tortoise’s charge).
Paced Exploration
Between Labyrinths you’ll go on a small quest to find a new Fusion Stone that’ll let Shantae borrow the recently rescued Half-Genie’s magic. These four dances use magic but have their own abilities like temporarily seeing previously invisible platforms, or reviving dead trees and bringing statues to life.
While progression is in a certain order it’s blocked off by the abilities you don’t have yet. Not just for access to dungeons but also extra rooms, the pathways between different areas and the caves. Though it’s all one island it is divided into various sections (with loading screens between). These are roughly ten seconds and are more annoying if you’re just trying to fill in the map (or accidentally charge up your tortoise spin in a vertical room). Thankfully you unlock warp points between most of these so you won’t have to make your way around the whole island all the time.
Something old something new
As you go across your travels you’ll find caves that usually have a Heart Squid sitting painfully out of reach. Though you can come back later with the right abilities to obtain them. Like previous games you can take them to the Squid Smith to melt them into heart holders. Although you may feel bad about doing so later.
You still have the option to use gems you’ve found to purchase consumables, permanent upgrades like Shampoo for attack power, or items that require magic to use. Later on with more money you can upgrade these items further such as throwing three boomerangs instead of one. Personally I found with all the new abilities Shantae has at her disposal I rarely used the items if at all. Still it’s good to have them there (and in NG+ they’re likely more useful).
Defeating monsters may reward you with the usual gems, hearts or food (which can drop quite frequently) but this game introduces Monster Cards, of which there are fifty. After collecting a certain number of a particular card (anywhere from 1-10) you can equip it with three slots total. These are various buffs from an increase to a particular form’s power, lessening the magic use on a specific item, or things like increasing the amount of hearts that drop and item shop discounts. More powerful ones can be acquired through exchanging Nuggets with NPCs in towns. These can be freely swapped over in the pause menu allowing you to change your strategies in new areas or even in a boss fight. Though be careful when getting rid of a speed increase as you will notice the difference very quickly.
Piece of Golden Crab!
The game is pretty easy (I should know I was able to beat it). Though Shantae can die taking you back to your last save, there are plenty of heart and food drops. It has that Breath of The Wild problem where you can just pause and stuff your face to heal. I for one have no self control if a game gives me options to make things easier. Spikes and pits will cause you to reset the room (taking off some health). Even in the very few sections that required platforming skill it doesn’t take long to get past. The bosses themselves were mostly easy with some of the last few disappointingly so.
Once you’ve beaten the game you’ll unlock New Game +. This mode gives Shantae less defense, more magic and a new outfit the whole time. The only achievements the Switch version has are the different completion win screens. Forgoing heart upgrades in NG+ is probably the only way to get a challenge as then touching many enemies can be an instant kill.
Pulling the Trigger
Opening up the game you’ll be treated with a wonderful opening animated by Studio Trigger. Meanwhile other cutscenes are done by Kay Yu. Of course they aren’t as spectacular as the opening but are still very nice. The rest of the game looks quite pretty, it seems they’ve gone back to a flatter look though there are still different background layers. Still the art is as colourful and fun as ever.
The music is great and though I don’t mind it, only the intro theme has vocals. A few areas had some good tunes that made me stop for a minute to listen to the music. There is some voice acting in this game but strangely it’s only partly. A character might speak one sentence then go to grunts or complete silence. I find this especially strange as two of WayForward’s most recent games have more voice acting than this. There’s plenty of amusing dialogue so it’s a shame it didn’t get the same treatment that River City Girls or Vitamin Connection did.
The controls felt very smooth and outside of the loading screens between areas I had no technical issues.
Overall
It took me a bit under eight hours to finish the game. Though an hour of that was wandering around as I assumed I couldn’t go somewhere I was meant to. I wish it was longer purely because I’d rather play more with my new abilities than start the game over. I will have to as I can’t get 100% on my first save file because late in the game a section gets locked off permanently. That and the intermittent voice acting are the only complaints I have about this game. An option to mark things on the map would have been nice but the world is small enough it’s not hard to remember things.
It’s terribly hard to resist the siren call of this game. It’s been hard to finish this review because whenever I go to check something I just keep playing it. I had a really fun time with this game and I give it:
Final Verdict:Two Thumbs Up 