On the handheld front, I'm still playing Tales of Phantasia, and still enjoy it quite a bit. But I discovered that the fine folks at Yacht Club Games had released a new, free content update for Shovel Knight, featuring an entirely new playable character with his own campaign, Specter Knight!
If you're a regular follower of the blog, you'll know that I'm a big fan of Shovel Knight. I found the second campaign, Plague of Shadows, to fall quite short of the fantastic performance of the original campaign. Plague Knight's controls were a bit wonky and unpredictable, and the levels you progressed through were pretty similar to Shovel Knight's, albeit tooled a bit to account for Plague Knight's new bomb based kit.
So I began Specter of Torment with some degree of trepidation, although I had been badly yearning for another trip through the Shovel Knight universe, so I was pretty excited. And Specter of Torment delivers, for the most part.
A prequel to the original game, the expansion follows Plague Knight as he gathers up followers for the Enchantress. These followers will be well recognized as the bosses from the original game. In addition to this prequel portion explaining from where the bosses came, however, you also get a more in-depth look into the back story of Specter Knight, finding out who he is, where he came from, and why he became Specter Knight. This makes for a compelling narrative in the Shovel Knight universe, and in typical 8-bit fashion, the story is primarily told in visual and musical media, rather than with text.
The gameplay additions for the expansion are mostly excellent. Specter Knight feels completely different than Shovel Knight, as his more ninja-style kit enables you to walk up walls, jump off walls, and dash through enemies in the air with a slash. This simple kit, similar to Shovel Knight's, is used to get around a wide range of obstacles, and most importantly, always feels fun, rewarding, and responsive. Slashing your way across huge pits is super fun, and you rarely feel like the mechanics have cheated you by being unfair, but rather that the game rewards skilled playing and good timing. This is particularly essential, especially since the game is fairly difficult.
This time around, the levels have been completely redesigned to fit Specter Knight's kit, and some are completely unrecognizable. Several bosses are completely different in play style (like Propeller Knight's fantastic boss fight), and there are new bosses as well.
If there's one critique I have of the game, it's that the bosses have become a bit too easy this time around. Shovel Knight's mobility was very limited, making for a more strategic and skill based combat. Specter Knight, on the other hand, can quickly fly around the stage using his slash dash, and has a large period of invulnerability during the slash itself. For many bosses, you can simply mash the slash button as Specter Knight dives and slashes them, bounces back, and then dives and slashes again. The retaliation of the bosses is also muted using this tactic, due to the the invulnerability granted during the slash. There is also an item you can get (after the very first level) that will restore large chunks of Specter Knight's health, making a more reckless, all out approach at dive bombing as fast as possible the best path, due to a reduced need to conserve health.
The music is again excellent, as composer Jake Kauffman returns with a tremendous selection of old songs, remixes of old songs, and plenty of new tracks. I just wish that I could have gotten this new, updated soundtrack to go along with my well-worn copy of the original (I may be able to do this, but I haven't seen how, yet.)
If you like Shovel Knight, retro gaming, chiptune music, or just good family fun, I'd highly recommend Specter of Torment. It's free for Shovel Knight owners, can be gotten on just about every gaming platform in existence, and is an excellent return to form for a very talented group of developers. I'd give it a 9.3/10.
-TRO
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