Pro-tip: There's a secret final boss locked behind Joustus, in addition to some fun character/plot stuff It's nothing mindblowing, but not something I'd recommend skipping entirely
When King Pridemore joined King Knight's crew. I was dreading the inevitable moment that leads to King Pridemore's negative attitude towards King Knight in the Shovel of Hope campaign. I knew it was bound to happen but I desperately wanted this to be an alternate timeline where things go better. That post credit scene was more of a gut punch to me than it had any right to be.
sharzin lalebazri yes but in plague of shadows king pridemoor is king and king knights sweeping the floor Still feel bad for the glidewing members Especially the talking birder
Today I finished King of Cards and this represents me clearly. I knew it was bound to happen, yet I really wished that King Knight had a more... prideful ending. But in the end, he just embraced what he thought he was.
this is how I see the 4 stories Shovel of Hope is an epic adventure story, Plague of Shadows is a love story, Specter of Torment is a melancolic story and King of Cards is straight up a commedy story I love how the 4 stories have their own flavor like this
The scepter of swiftness is great for bypassing entire platforming segments if you know their layout beforehand, all you need is a straight line you can travel across and a floor at the other end and your good, plus it acts just like the shoulder bash when you hit a wall with it. You'll also go straight through enemies that you kill with it, expanding the places where you can use it to speed through areas. Newgame+ speedruns are going to be abusing the fuck out of this item.
I ended up using it to grind for gold on the first (or second, I can't remember) Tower of Fate level, you go through the liquid samurais and can speed towards the secret exit. And with the upgrade that sucks in gold when you spin you can get the gems off the samurais almost immediately.
Solid ranking... But the shorter levels is a plus for me. It waa perfect for controling the pacing of my time playing it...sometimes i had 5 min to kill so i just went there and finished a level. It was great!
my only complaint is that you can't re-fight most of the bosses in the game. They really are fun and it's a shame you only get to beat them once before they vanish.
@@bookswithbek2702 What's cool about it, is that you could make this it work in real life. If I had printer and laminator, i'd make a bunch of cards and try to make it myself. I don't know how the rules would work, Either each player gets random cards, and each match they can replace 1 card or the winner can steal a card. Or, you use a draft system, or maybe you just have multiple copies of everything so people can just build their own deck. You could roll a die to determine where the gems go.
I find it really cool that your final ranking is the exact opposite of mine. This just goes to show how amazing all of these campaigns are, and what an amazing journey Yacht Club have taken us on.
I was thinking the same thing! It especially surprised me because I also play games gameplay first. It’s crazy how even valuing the same thing I came out with a completely different opinion!
Plague knight is my absolute favorite. I love just flying through levels and then actually fighting bosses, unlike specter of torment where you just jump and spam attack button while specter bonks his head against whoever happens to be near.
@@thatonepersonwhoeatscheese7348 dude, opinion or not, if you dislike something for a petty reason like that, you’re going to get backlash either way. we are allowed to dislike someone else’s opinion, as long as we don’t become idiots and scream and yell about it.
Personaly, this is my favorite campaign so I guess I'll talk about why. #1- Gameplay I found myself enjoying playing KoC more than any other shovel knight campaign. I think King Knight's moveset is basic, but fun to use. I also liked the shorter levels with no boss at the end because it made it better to go in and collect the merit badges than a huge level with a boss I had to go through for 1 red skull, or cipher coin, etc. I also liked the boss fights and the secret one you get for beating Joustus. #2- Character's I found King Knight my favorite character out of them all. I'm not as big on his design, but I liked his childish attitude and his general not really careing attitude. I found the ending good, he was a jerk and then he paid for it. The other characters like Trouple King and the mom were fun additions and it gave the game a fun sort of vibe. #3- Airship I liked the Airship more than the other "hubs" in the other campaign's. Shovel Knight kind of had the town's, but those were just for buying stuff, Plauge Knight had the little lab but it was just a place on the map, Specter Knight just had the castle, which I liked because of the fun secrets like the robot, but King Knight's airship is the best for me. Its a little hub world, were you can talk to people, play Joustus, buy stuff, and do other fun things. And you can get to it anytime at the map by pressing a button. #4- Joustus I liked Joustus. It was fun. #5- Secrets/Endgame Content I looove all the stuff to do once you finish the game. You can find all the secret exits, beat all the Joustus people, get all merit badges and Joustus cards, beat the secret boss, do the secret propeller knight battle, fight all the order of no quarter and beat them in Joustus as well, do the secret with the horse and the fairyland etc. That's why I loved KoC and will be 100%ing it ASAP
@@joshtheostrich1173 oh, he's a dullahan, not a robot. And I guess he technically counts as a secret since he's behind a wall. But really, the best secret in that hub is petting the meemec. And the glidewing kinda has something like that if mona and the spinewolves are beaten. If you check the background on the top floor, you can see mona pet one of them.
Your criteria for the final ranking I very very much agree with, I know several people who tell me that story is the most important thing in a game or act like graphics are all that matter (which they are allowed to have that opinion). But to mean I don't care if your game is the most beautiful game ever with the best story of the year if the gameplay is lackluster I won't be able to put my energy into playing it. For example death stranding apparently has a really good story from what people tell me, but for at LEAST the first 6 hours basically all you do is walk from point a to point b to point c so and so forth. Good graphics,music, and story when added to good gameplay are what make a game a masterpiece in my opinion, which is why shovel knight treasure trove is so good as a collective.
The Horns of Heralding and Staff of Swiftness are acceptable because they're attacks King Night has in the campaign. Plus the staff reveals more secrets than it first appears...
Shovel Knight has been on my backlog for such a long time! This video though has reinvigorated my interest in picking the game up especially with all the other campaigns... that honestly I didn't know existed 😯 Amazing analysis mate, I'm keen to binge some videos of yours now!
I absolutely agree that the heirlooms were excellently balanced, i usually used the confetti horns for boss fights it or just clearing rooms full of weak enemies, and the scepter of swiftness is great but I didn't use it to it's full potential of sequence breaking the level design, the things speedrunners can pull off with it and the turncoat heirloom are ridiculous. the armor sets were balanced well too, with the only one that really feels underpowered being the one that lets you run since you have several other options for faster movement. all in all this is definitely my favorite campaign, i love the gameplay style, the new overworld layout, the bosses, joustus, music, I love everything here. joustus can easily be frustrating if you try to rush into it, but if you properly take the time to consider your moves and deck, it's surprisingly in-depth and feeling like I was outsmarting my opponent by forcing them into a trap and thinking several turns ahead was intensely satisfying after I got the hang of it. it has an extra boss fight tied to it as well, which was really cool. and since I did play joustus i really got to appreciate all of the music, which is easily my favorite soundtrack out of all the campaigns. maybe it's partly because I've played it more recently than the other campaigns, but I have king of cards music play in my head far more often than say, specter of torment or plague of shadows. I hear the shovel of hope OST pretty often too, but that's mostly the iconic themes like the plains and credits
I know this video is incredibly old, but I still wanted to post my take on the placement of each campaign. I honestly think King of Cards was my favorite. I liked Joustus, it was a fun minigame that wasn’t forced down my throat so I didn’t get annoyed by it, while simultaneously giving rewards for playing Joustus so it felt more fulfilling, even if that reward was just more Joustus cards. The boss fights were some of my favorite ones yet, mostly because it rarely reuses bosses from Shovel of Hope like the others. Sure, you can still fight the rest of the Order of No Quarter, but aside from Specter Knight, who acts as Black Knight in this campaign, they’re all optional and even sort of secret like Propeller Knight. The unique bosses in the forms of Specter Knight’s “playable” moveset, King Pridemoor, Troupple King, King Birder, Specter Knight’s “playable” moveset merged with his boss fight (and the more difficult version of the darkened screen mechanic thanks to the background), the King’s Essences, and of course Giga Cardia were all fun boss fights that I thoroughly enjoyed. I also think that King Knight’s moveset was the smoothest of the bunch, it felt great to play as him and have the terrain matter more, along with every Heirloom be fun to use and, as you mentioned before, much more balanced than the others. Beyond the subtle change of King of Cards being on top, my comparison between the campaigns in Treasure Trove is pretty similar to yours. 1. King of Cards 2. Specter of Torment 3. Shovel of Hope 4. Plague of Shadows 5. Showdown
Hyve: *Gives Plague Of Shadows last place and loves Mona* *Plague Knight wants to know your location* Oh, and uh, I guess ranking for me IMO. 1) Plague Of Shadows 2) King Of Cards 3) Specter Of Torment 4) Shovel Of Hope
I think there's one big aspect that King Knight actually tackled in a vastly superior way than any of the prior campaigns - Money. From the beginning of the game to the very end, there was so much for me to buy. They did a fantastic job adding a bunch of very high cost upgrades to ensure that collecting money is always worthwhile. Even considering Specter Knight's campaign was crafted brand new, I was disappointed to notice that I had like 60000 gold I couldn't spend on before I got to the Enchantress in his campaign. This makes the moment to moment gameplay so much more satisfying in King Knight's campaign - all the money you're collecting is useful from the first stage to the very last stage. The subweapons were balanced much better in King Knight's campaign for the most part, except the aforementioned bubble item being a little cheap relative to the rest of his heirlooms (though again, he needs to be able to hit a wall when shoulder bashing out, or else it can't bail him out).
Excellent video. I appreciate how you make sure to stress that much of what you have to say is just your subjective viewpoint. I personally really enjoyed the bite-sized level structure. The other campaigns' levels would typically play with a gimmick for a few rooms, then drop it for the rest of the level to make way for a new gimmick. Because of this, I often didn't feel much of a sense of progression. Here, each level is centered on 1 or 2 gimmicks that are built on all throughout the level. Levels ending in a tough, lengthy platforming segment rather than a boss also felt more appropriate to me; you're tested on what you've learned throughout the level, whereas boss fights are something you have to learn mostly independently from the rest of the level (though they do sometimes incorporate some of the level's gimmicks). I also enjoyed the less linear map. I liked that it gave you a reason to choose one level to play over another, albeit not an especially meaningful one. Also, the secret exits were a much more satisfying reward for discovering hidden areas to me than the in-level collectibles from past campaigns. And can I say that the secret/treasure placement in this campaign is easily the coolest in the series? King Knight's unique moveset provided the opportunity for some really creative secrets, my favorite of which being the secret exit in one of the Lost City levels. There's a drop-through dirt pile next to a wall that you couldn't bash, so there's seeming no way to get a spin to drop through the pile, but you're able to lure a Fleeto from farther in the room over to the pile and bash into it to get a spin. Some scattered final thoughts: I liked the point you made about King Knight being defined by his limitations. For me, platforming is the most important aspect of any game that features it, and King Knight's limited moveset did wonders in making the platforming engaging. Joustus was surprisingly deep and fun for me and brought my experience up a lot, but I can totally see that it's not for everyone. Finally, I would love to see you make a video on King Knight's NG+. It doesn't make you rethink how you play quite as much as Specter Knight's, but it still brings some interesting concepts to the table. The gold multiplier made levels basically rain cash if you avoided damage, which made buying all the Joustus cards from Chester much quicker.
I really love King of cards, I still don't know what is My favorite King of cards or specter of torment. And I also didn't like showdown that much because of the lack of fun single player content.
Just today I finished the last campaign (King of Cards) and as a geek on good card games, I'll admit that Joustus is hard to really embrace. But once you do, once it clicks, oh boy. As for the overall ranking: 1. For me, Shovel of Hope is better and 1st because although you said gameplay is the most important thing, I'll never forget the feeling of the first time playing Shovel of Hope. The dream sequences, the tension of the fights, the first time I fought the Boss Gauntlet, the first time I saved Shield Knight... The emotion I felt back then was unrivaled, and for that, Shovel of Hope is 1st in my list. 2. 2nd probably King of Cards for the reasons you said, pretty balanced, good humor, I was truly flabergasted by the fact that King Knight's motivation was being the best at a card game. It feels ridiculous. Yet, the ending really left me with a bad taste in my mouth. It was like watching a monumental car crash accident. You know it ain't gonna end pretty but you can't stop yourself from watching it. 3. 3rd must be Specter of Torment, but I know it is a completely biased and personal opinion, because I just made my experience miserable by doing a "Checkpointless, No Darkness upgrades, No Will upgrades, 60000 gold ending" run, and it really made my experience with Specter Knight just horrible. It was the most miserable three and a half hours of Treasure Trove. Yet I know the story, the mechanics and the overall gameplay is great, I also hated that it had no in game map. I love in game maps, and the hud with the bosses just felt bleak. 4. And of course, the passive way of playing Plague of Shadows made it an easy 4th place, although I learned to enjoy the movement options of Plague Knight. And although everything I wrote, I can't disagree with anything you said in the two videos. Great ranking!
I found Joustus really really fun, despite originally thinking I wouldn't like it. It's a little bit challenging sometimes, but I found that it never got to the level where I was actually having trouble. Also, I don't know why, but I really love collecting all the unique character and enemy cards. I battled some characters multiple times just to get unique cards I might not even use, just because I wanted to. Also I'm glad I'm not the only only who definitely, absolutely does not have a crush on Mona.
King of Cards is my favorite anime and jrpg. Ok but seriously though, I do have to say my opinion on this game is that I found it very enjoyable. While I do find joustus really enjoyable, I do still have to agree with your list of specter knight, king knight, shovel knight, and plague knight. Specter knight just had the best gameplay feel throughout the entire thing, the plot I will say I have forgotten over the past 2 years, though I remember the music being really good. King Knight was very enjoyable with it's gameplay, and personally, was the easiest of all the modes. Maybe it's just the shorter level length because of how they split it up, but it seemed easier to me. The story was really funny to me at moments, with the ending also making me feel like the bad guy even if I expected it, and the music, while it was mostly reused, was still a bop. Shovel Knight was really good gameplay wise, but definitely the most basic to me. The music and story were good, and that's about all I can really say about it. Plague Knight... it was alright. The story was nice and enjoyable, but the gameplay... really didn't do much for me. It wasn't that fun to me with how it all played, and was the campaign I took the longest to beat only because I got bored with it and didn't enjoy it all that much.
Nice thorough review! Great detail and explanations. I have to say I had a very different experience. I loved the Super Mario style level switch up. I place less emphasis on items since I always play things vanilla if possible. The new tracks in KoC were incredible (Trouple pond + Cardia especially). Joustus was a great strategy game (not so much card game) -- if you play it as intended you'll get a decent challenge, but it can be cheesed by coming back with op cards later (the challenges have fixed decks for joustus which is where you'll get the best experience). Level design wise, KoC had some of the best of the series, Yacht Club definitely treated this like their big finale. Awesome boss design too. I don't know if I'd rank them, since each experience brings pros/cons and is more based on personal preferences. Shovel knight is a nice classic experience that still holds up. Plague was overall just an alternate version of Shovel knight. Specter changed things up bringing in a total overhaul to match the air dashing mechanics. KoC overhauled almost the whole experience, and using the world/engine/characters to deliver a very different final product. All excellent.
Awesome video! Here's my personal ranking for the campaigns: 4. King of Cards Great game (obviously, it's Shovel Knight), but I found beating bosses and making progress in the game to be worse than the others. Joustus is fun and extremely challenging a lot of the time; it's great except for getting 100% of cards means spending 4 million gold on Chester 3. Specter of Torment Specter Knight is my second favourite knight to play as because of the unique slashing mechanic and the music is incredible (Tools of War might just be my favourite Shovel Knight theme), but the main problem with it is the same as in King of Cards: Without the structure of levels and bosses, you didn't feel like you were exploring much or getting anywhere until the end. Still 10/10 2. Shovel of Hope The one that started it all! Honestly playing as Shovel Knight is just incredible and the stages seem perfectly suited around him. The story is great and there is literally nothing wrong with it. But... 1. Plague of Shadows I think this is the best because of how unique it is from any game I've ever played. The challenge of the game comes from the moveset of Plague Knight and not in the stage design - you have to go about beating the stages in a different way. The love story is incredible and just flying across the screen as Plague Knight made me happy in a way no game has ever made me feel. 11/10 Sorry this was long; again great video and whoever reads this have a good day (or night)
Though I disagree with some of what you discussed, I must applaud how well presented the content of this video was. You raised your personal issues, but also acknowledged that they were your opinions and in a very convincing way. I was really able to appreciate your thoughts despite not relating to them myself, which isn't something a fair few content creators consider when writing analytic/evaluative videos like this. Better than AntDude's Shovel Knight video for sure!
I'm pretty biased on some element in a game and that is (the variety that support replayability) because I get to see how much time I get to enjoy the game. so my personal ranking are: 1st: King of Cards- different type of levels / a lot of different music to hear (it is recycling but I don't really care as long as its feel fresh on the different levels of the same location) / not a fan of joustus when I played it for 100% but when i go back and replay it when I'm bored, it actually pretty fun (bc I don't care much of losing cards anymore) / some of the heirlooms offer a different type of mobility / the one time boss fight is really disapointing bc the boss fight is really fun to play using different heirlooms (the rematch in challenge mode is alright. but I'd liked to enjoy my boss fight without time limit please). 2nd: Plague of Shadows- there is a lot of customization in your bomb attack that I went into the levels with different combination / fun to replay the stages using different arcana except for the first two tower of fate level. 3rd: Specter of Torment- the only curios that I'm always used is will skull, hover plume and the skeleton sentry and I don't enjoyed it (because it fell like I abused it) / for me the judgement rush lose its awesomeness because it is pretty much the same as the vanilla move (dash slash) / I'm mostly replay this to hear the remixed music and to play Horace's Challenge. 4th: Shovel of Hope- its great but I don't feel any satisfaction with the relics / I only replay this for the tower of fate's level (the boss rush, black knight [third fight] and the remnant of fate is crazy fun boss battle). *bonus: Showdown- really hope I have a friend to play this with / Trying to unlock everything is really fun / After everything has unlocked, I just play this when I'm really bored....
I actually played showdown and clocked in more than 20 hours on battle mode alone and more if I count story etc it’s a much more fun experience when u get to learn all the characters move sets and go in depth like mr hat is capable of hopping on his platters in midair allowing for infinite airtime and the enchantress hovering around with dark strafe(her charge move) gives a lot of movement options. Also I learned that the rat heirloom functions so much better as a double jump/ projectile which also translates into his campaign where the explosion is more powerful making fights attacking airborne opponents much easier and satisfying including the bosses I know I’m late responding to this video but I’m gotta say the rat bomb is underrated. Edit: also I like to think of king knight as Dio when I cast scepter of swiftness idk why it just seems fitting
The way I ranked the adventures 1st: Plague of Shadows: I LOVED this SO MUCH! the mostly samey level design from Shovel of Hope didn't bother me at all as it convinced me to think outside the box and ask "What can Plague knight do that Shovel knight can't" The story is my favorite of the 4 and the added sections are where you find most of those Cipher coins. this mode was the only one I 100%, the only one I've beaten on the harder mode, and the only one where I've done the penniliess/upgradeless/no tonic run while PLAYING the hard mode. I used the float a lot when I started but I found real power in sticking with the OG burst and the spin attack. 2nd: Specter of Torment: a wonderfully tragic story with original music, and I would say is better mechanically for most people compared to Plague knight. his gameplay flows very naturally and entices reckless play where Plague knight would err on the side of caution before laughing and blowing stuff up. I loved the megaman style choose any boss order and one of the few times I could say "yeah, you could win against any of them starting out". 3rd: Shovel of Hope: the one that got this whole content pack going, really solid and really good despite the fact I cannot play a single megaman game to save my life. admittedly I just use the phase locket and chaos orb to kill most bosses, and wall crush gimmicks can go starve out to die in a desert hole. the fact he is the most horizontally challenged kinda irks me because of propeller enimies. 4th: King of Kards: frankly fools too. This was the campaign where I realized how much I hate bottomless pits. it was always an argument with myself between mana and items, while the card mechanics are fun you need those damn booster packs and rare cards to beat those cheating bosses. King knight was a brat through and through, the side characters were fun, but everything in the 3rd area can go die.
Something I really appretiate about showdown is that, even though each character has such a small moveset, they have a lot of move synergy. King knight can shoulder bash his rats. Black knight can shoot his dark wave through his rocks. Polar knight can plow his snowballs, and a million more examples. It felt like the first time I learned you could use any attack on wiifit trainers soccerball or playing rivals of Aether. Perhaps in won't be endlessly replayable like melee, and ultimate feel, but it is build on a STRONG foundation. Hopefully we can see more platform fighters from yacht club sometime in the future.
I pretty much agree with your final ranking, though for slightly different reasons. I still haven''t finished Plague Knight's campaign as I find his movement awkward and lacking any sort of flow that you get with the other three. Regarding Joustus: I am not a fan of card games and was dreading that this addition would be mandatory. I felt pretty so-so about it for the first two houses of Joustus, but then I started getting really into it. I'd strongly encourage you to revisit it - as you start to build up a more powerful deck it becomes really fun and involving, and as others have mentioned, there is a fantastic secret boss available if you clear all the houses.
Joustus was my favorite aspect of King of Cards in comparison to the other campaigns. It's what bumps it to being my 3rd favorite, with my order being the inverse of yours. (Plauge #1, Shovel #2, King #3, Specter #4) Maybe I'm just too eager to spout Yugioh memes and pretend that King Knight is Kaiba. Also, this was my least favorite story. It had some funny moments, but what really brought it down was the ending. Even before you play the game you know King Knight is going to betray absolutely everyone that hails him as a hero, and it underpins the entire adventure. I have a similar problem with Specter of Torment, but King Knight's ending ends up being so much more hollow. Even worse is that this is what ends off Shovel of Hope altogether.
Gameplay: Specter of Torment 1 King of Cards 2 Shovel of Hope 3 Plague of Shadows 4 Music: Specter of Torment 1 Shovel of Hope 2 King of Cards 3 Plague of Shadows 4
Since you talked about the failure of darkness in plague knight, anyone else laugh when the enchantress turned reize evil? Like I was really surprised when I was supposed to take it seriously
It’s sad to see shovel knight go, I still wish we could have gotten a propeller knight dlc, he was a fun character and I think he would have had a really great and unique story mode in terms of gameplay mechanics
Gameplay IS the most important aspect, I agree! With the music, you could just turn it off and put on your own if you don't like it. The story gives some context as to your journey, but some games don't NEED a story to be fun. Consider Tetris. The music is good, but I prefer my own. There is absolutely no story. The main thing is the gameplay, because that's what you're experiencing THE MOST. I'm not against you on this. I actually completely agree! I'm glad I get to see someone's breakdown on it, even if it's just opinionated.
I almost fully agree with your opinion, but for me KoC gets the first place. That is mainly because I really, REALLY liked the more open and vast overworld, because my favorite childhood game was SMB3, and that influenced me and my ranking a LOT. Thank you if you read it😁. Your vids are good, keep it up!!
First off, yeah, I'd like to see a New Game + video. I think that there's a lot to say about this sort of mode, with how it turns money, which otherwise has no purpose in a NG+ playthrough, into a whole new system in its own right. Talk about making it an entirely new kind of currency. Second, I think your rankings are honestly pretty fair. I think sometimes it's hard to explain that one game being lower doesn't make it bad, so I understand your stress over putting the other games where you put them. Personally, I'd put Shovel of Hope on Par with King of Cards, but I totally agree that the Phase Locket kinda messes with the difficulty. I really do think that a high magic cost or longer cooldown would've gone a long way, or at least designing bosses with certain relics in mind. Sometimes they actually pull it off - I'd wager that the SoH fight against Specter Knight works well even if you have the locket, just with the way you're attacked - but fights like Polar Knight are definitely made a lot easier with that thing. This is similar to what you said about the Enchantress and Black Knight fights in Specter of Torment, with the most fun fights being ones where the most powerful subweapon isn't really reinforced like it is elsewhere. (Also, I think maybe it's just that this thing is cursed for you. Like, literally everything involving the Phase Locket is your least favorite part of whatever it shows up in, mainly Specter Knight's story and Shovel Knight's gameplay. Maybe consider selling that thing to somebody, I know a guy named Chester who'd take that off your hands.) I also agree about the whole deal with the music - there's not a ton of new music, and even fewer standouts compared to the other games. I could listen to Hidden By Night on repeat for a WHILE. (Incidentally, there's a stellar acoustic cover of it that I highly, HIGHLY recommend checking out, with how you said you loved that song.) Only other thing I really feel like I wanna say is about Plague of Shadows. The devs went on record saying that it was designed originally to be a sort of Richter Mode to Shovel of Hope - the same levels, or at least as identical as possible, with an entirely new character to run around them in - and so wasn't built as the ground up to fit Plague Knight the way every other playable campaign was. I think this is what you were trying to convey in this video, when explaining why Plague Knight was still 4th in the gameplay category, so I figured I'd point out what I could to help. Anyway. I've rambled enough. I think your video is stellar, and I honestly think you did a dang fine job. As someone who adores hearing someone talk about game design the way you do, I applaud you and your excellent work. Honestly, your talk about the subweapons makes me wanna make a video myself - I think this is a topic that lots of developers could learn from, I don't see Mark Brown making a Game Maker's Toolkit video for this any time soon. I'm on Twitter as @TahmisGoogboi if anyone is interested in talking more - I just love talking shop about game design. I look forward to whatever you make next, Mr Minds! \o
I personally think King of Cards is my new favorite campaign, you made some fair points but U personally thought the story really got you connected to King Knight despite his faults, and despite the way we see him I really thought he would change by the end despite where it takes place in the lore, the shorter levels also in my opinion complemented his play style as sometimes playing as King Knight for long periods of time with lots of challenge can be fun but overwhelming. Finally, I think Joustus was hard and tedious, but also super satisfying and rewarding upon winning, and while it’s optional you could always come back to it later. Anyways great video! Would love to see your thoughts on new game +!
Short summary of my thoughts? Best campaign of all four. I largely agree with your rankings, with Plague Knight being my least favored campaign and Spectre Knight being my most before King Knight. But, for some reason, I enjoyed King Knight's kit a lot more than I did Spectre's. While yes the rail armor is fucking awesome and the items are fun, King Knight's kit was just overall better. The rats for vertical attacking, the sceptre for brushing enemies, and the frog for platforming. All unique to contrast King Knight's very limited moveset. And, his limited moveset makes for the most fun I've had. And it seems to be a trend, the simpler the moveset the better. Spectre's and Plague's were a pain for me to pick up, and should I lose the muscle memory I'd have to burn through some levels just to get the hang of it again. Plague moreso Spectre. But, a shame you didn't enjoy Joustus. I enjoyed it so much I end up wanting it to be playable on my phone! It is simple but it has depth. An easy game to pick up, but a difficult one to master. Plus the added sprite art for all things Shovel Knight is much appreciated by people like me. And yes, while the new soundtrack is few and far between, they're still really good. The story, oh man. Did I feel bad. (Spoilers ahead) The entire time I knew King Knight was always a bit of an asshat, but I actually grew quite fond of the characters around him. They were written so well, I think I nearly teared up at the ending. The time his mother finally refers to him as King Knight, was that of which when she was disappointed. And, I honestly enjoyed playing as the childish asshole. With his bawling and pompous throne taunts, and every cutscene after the major boss. My largest and only complaint with King of Cards was probably after the credits. You see him in Pridemoor Keep, gilded and glistening. He finally catches a moment to enjoy his unearned grandeur. Only for a certain Knight in blue to trot in and shut the door. I really, really wished I could have fought Shovel Knight as King Knight the way Plague Knight did. And I would willingly lose, because it felt like a hollow victory.
Putting Gameplay as the highest weighting is the correct decision. Also saying that King Knight is defined by its limitations makes perfect sense now to me. At my first playthrough his playstyle felt awkward and limited, but with time it started to make sense and you get a grip the more you play aka it gets more fun. Can't say the same with Plague Knight because I couldn't feel the flow with him but that's my own opinion and gaming experience.
To me, these are my personal rankings of these games based off of story and gameplay. 1) specter of torment- the story was a different tale on what shovel knight offered us. It was serene, dark, and subtle; just like the character. The story flows perfectly; adding many twists and turns with the added flashbacks making all the more of an enjoyable story. All the side characters are memorable and funny, and the final ending scene with reize left an emotional impact. The level design flows perfectly with specter’s gameplay style; hacking and quickly moving off of enemies is so satisfying and challenging. Sure the sub weapons are over powered, but all are interesting enough to bear some usage. 2) plague of shadows- this game has in my opinion, the best story and characters in the whole franchise. Plague being hilarious and endearing, Mona just being my favorite character, Percy just being one of the best comic relief characters in a work of fiction, and the magicist actually being given some good character development. The gameplay, while being the most challenging, is the most entertaining to use. Sure just about every arcana you get is useless, but the arsenal of bombs and sub equipment to them are amaizing, due to how different and useful every single one and combination is. And the final scene is one of, if not the most wholesome thing I’ve seen in a game for a long time. Mona and plague’s Romance is so funny and cute that I kept the animation on my tv for over ten minutes. The level design is the worst out of all of them, but the ending boss and story make up for it completely in my opinion. 3) king of cards- while being very different from the others, the level, map, and gameplay design was a fresh breath of air. The shorter level design I like, and the over world boss fights fits with the story; as your the adventure dashing through the land, stumbling upon unexpected but rather funny dialogue with your enemies and rivals. The story fits the character and is rather charming and a fun ride to see what will happen next. Mom is wholesome and sweet and the romantic tension between priemoor is rather enjoyable. Pridemoor is like the dad king never had. Cooper, Doe, and bard knight are a great supporting cast. Just one major problem though. Like every rpg, king of cards adds the troupe of adding a side character that does a few semi important things; and never leads. I’m sorry I know it fits with the character wanting an ontourage, but I just hate that troupe as it just adds an extra weight. And I love joustus as a game mechanic. In real life I’m a major fan of card games, being an avid mtg and yugioh player, and joustus is the perfect blend of cards and chess all in one I did end up beating every player and house of joustus and every new card, deck type, field, and opponent were fun to play against. Sadly there’s two flaws. One, new cards you obtain out right replace old cards, practically making most of what you collect useless (kinda like real life tcg). And two, tons of trial and error gameplay with most not being fun. Strategy is bread and butter to my nerdy little mind but no how much I plan out my moves, I still lost. And the most often there is a lot of misplaced power segments. Meaning some people are extremely easy while others are incredibly difficult for no reason. For example, Mona and Horace who are the leaders of some house of joustus were easily first try wins for me and the people who you fight on your airship and standard opponents can take over half an hour each. Well over all this game offered some of the best mechanics and gameplay, it doesn’t over shadow the compelling and entertaining stories and characters the other two offered And 4, sadly is shovel of hope- this mainly come off of me replaying the game. Six years ago when I was 10 I played this game and loved it. However when king of cards came out, I re played all the games in order to re-fresh my mind to compare them. And now since I matured, while having a better understanding of character development and story writing, I depressingly say that I don’t like this game as much I used to to. Don’t get me wrong, I love this game and the franchise as a hole, but I feel shovel of hope was the foot hold on setting the premise of the world and the others building off of the already great things that were put into place. And though the story is great, it’s not the best. The writing of it is very fidgety and complacent at times. Every other one has a great, smooth, and compelling story to offer. From plagues love chemistry to Kings ever changing and flowing conquest, shovel just doesn’t compare. (get it? Chemistry;...... I’ll shut up now). It’s vey good with a spectacular pay off, but the story is very inconsistent with a slow beginning and middle, with a suddenly quick end where I often ask myself, “how did I get here”. The ending is amazing, but sadly doesn’t leave much of an impact like plague or specter did. It still does have and amazing end however. I’m very sorry for the negativity, but the story is often the main thing I focused one these games due the importance of them all wrapping into each other, but I feel if we get another campaign revolving around black knight, I believe it could fix the problems I have with it. Now on to the good stuff. The gameplay is flawless while building upon all the staples we see in the franchise, that rather make it endearing and fun. The side characters aren’t the most memorable but fits with the message of your character. The warrior traveling the land to find his beloved, only to make essential stops at nearby towns to gather equipment to prepare for upcoming challenges. Overall I still love shovel of hope, but sadly, my nostalgia can’t really compare to what I believe was perfected in the others that came after it. Anyway this analysis was far to long for its own good. If anyone is reading this I apologize and thank you for your patience. Has a great day.
My scores Gameplay: 1 specter 2 king 3 shovel 4 plague Story: 1 specter 2 plague 3 king 4 shovel Music: 1 king 2 specter 3 plague 4 shovel Overall: 1 specter 2 king tie for 3 shovel and plague
My favorite Gameplay: Shovel Knight + his Amiibo. After some time the Amiibo gives Shovel Knight access to Plague Knight's Bomb burst. Coupled with Shovel Knight's inherently high jump and low knock-back you can just fly all over the levels, really breaking them and making a Speedrun ridiculously fast.
Not sure if there are others feeling the same way, but Specter Knight never really clicked with me. In theory his moveset makes you want to play as slick and cool as possible, slicing through every enemy you see, jumping of walls, grinding everywhere with that black cloak. But in reality you often end up wallrunning on walls you didn't want to, just cause you got to close to it, then you'd have to awkwardly try to slip off of it, then it restarts the wall run cause you held towards the wall half a second to early, slip off again. By then an enemy has come to close so you try to dodge and slice through it but get the angle slightly wrong, slice down instead of up and fall in a pit. I feel like Specter Knight kinda has the same Problem as a lot of Sonic games, where the character is smooth and fun to control, but large parts of the leveldesign force you to do exactly what the character is bad at(i.e. precise, calculated platforming), so the entire game just feels inprecise and unwieldy. That's largely why Specter Knight is actually my least favourite campaign and King Knight my favourite, because there is exactly 0 things inprecise about him. He always does exatly what you want him to do, allowing you to actually get a feel of mastery over the character moveset after a while. At the same time the Stage gimmicks all play off of his moveset in creative and interesting ways, which make every one of the smaller levels still feel unique and memorable.
If i thought about them more critically my ranking would probably change but in terms of just how generally positive i feel when i think about each campaign i think it'd be -1st Plague -2nd King -3rd Specter -4th Shovel
Technically, you get a _slight_ upward boost when using the bubble frog... If you have lots of vigor to spare, you can completely cheat certain platforming sections, especially with reboundable walls added to the mix.
As someone who loved the joustus feature, I can say that if you liked it the way I did, and included it in the gameplay segment of ranking, king knight would’ve won. It is surprisingly very deep in terms of strategic possibilities, and it made me think a lot. My only complaint with it is that the tutorial “level” of it wasn’t enough to explain everything, and that it doesn’t let you vs really smart opponents with super strong cards instead of having “boss abilities” that is just them cheating at the game. Long story short, the joustus was amazing, but they didn’t go far enough with its potential.
Joustus was like Gwent to me. The first playthrough I didn't care about it at all but then I went back with the thought "I wanna do everything in the game this time" and damn I'm glad I did because it was fun. The secret joustus boss was a real bitch to beat since I could never seem to nail down the timing of the floating orbs though
I'm not really good at strategy games either, but I genuinely enjoyed Joustus a ton. Beat every single opponent, including the final super boss. A majority of my losses came from the one turn puzzles that don't really punish you for losing, but I still had to think about what my opponent can do before I make my move. I had a lot of tense moments with Joustus. King Knight's New Game+ is way too stressful for me. I often die while trying to get my money back, or get hit over and over, thus losing more of it, especially in boss fights. If you wanna make a video on it, I'd appreciate that since Idk if I'll even finish King's ng+. I think Showdown is fun, and while I've taken a break from it recently to play other games, I enjoy unlocking all the characters and playing quick matches against family members and friends on occasion. For my personal ranking for the main 4 games I'd say 4th: Shovel of Hope 3rd: Plague of Shadows 2nd: Specter of Torment 1st: King of Cards (I do think KoC and SoT are interchangeable though, as I may prefer one depending on which I'm currently in the mood for playing. Same thing with SoH and PoS) Tldr: King Knight is super fun to play and I like the characters, story and presentation a lot
My HC is that King of cards is a story King knight tells the rest of the bosses while they’re having that big dinner thing. He got beaten by specter knight just like everyone else but whenever Donovan isn’t listening, KK somehow beat him twice. Plague knight is the only one who believes him even if KK once told a version of the story where he bests plague knight
The gameplay had one big issue, which is how it sometimes forces you into a situation where you kind of need a particular setup or good luck. The big example being the super boss once you fully complete all the joustus matches. She is completely unreachable except for brief moments, but her pattern allows her to just spam crystals safely out of reach that don't allow you to reach her and she can leave the screen from the top and have a new set of crystals and wait until you inevitably slip up and die from taking the occasional hit. The game almost always starts you with full magic so you can use heirlooms, but this fight starts you with no magic. You're clearly intended to come in with the armor that let's you earn some magic by fighting, but you are forced into the super boss fight immediately after completing joustus. You can't just swap your armor and go back to fight her; you are locked in with whatever you are wearing. I only beat her because I completely mastered dodging all her attacks and got lucky that she only stayed out of reach a few cycles during the second phase, so I went into phase 3 with enough health to win the dps vs dps fight.
There is some upward movement on the frog bubble, I've used it to skip sections by getting a couple of pixels higher than a jump would get me and getting enough height to do a wall bash. Also, it can cover a good amount of horizontal distance if you trigger it at the start of a dash, it has some sort of momentum mechanic. I've used consecutive frog bubbles to skip over difficult sections of platforming in a few levels.
Thanks for making the video. It was great as always. I would just like to say that I love playing showdown, I would highly recommend going back into it and checking it out again bc of one sole reason, with limited moves and whatnot it forces you to analyze and create the best strategy for yourself to win. Anyway great job and thanks for making shovel knight videos.
I agree with most points in the video, but I can't rank king of cards or spectre of torment over each other. Regardless, I especially agree with the fact that the gameplay ranking was always going to be the final ranking! Great video in general though!
You should try to go against the secret boss, cardia, easily the hardest boss fight in the entire series. Although it is locked behind multiple joustus battles
I just finished playing the 4 campaings of treasure trove and I think I loved King of cards for the things you didn't really like it that much. I loved the shorter level structure, and LOVED Joustus. King of cards became my favourite shovel knight campaign
I didn't know joustus was optional, but you know what? I'm glad I didn't know about it because I had a pretty fun time playing it, especially when I outsmarted an opponent it felt so satisfying (even though I used gem thief half the time)
great video. I kinda agree with your opinion on the items. I hate it when certain available weapon can suddenly turn the game from very hard to very easy in an instant. just ridiculous
Really liked your review. Your a kind and easy to watch guy (I just started watching you) and your just so fair with the other games it's not even funny. Personally my stack of favorite games goes Plague of Shadows, King Of Cards, Shovel Knight, Specter Of Torment.
King knights control's are honestly the best in my opinion. And the dash leads to so many fun platforming scenarios. In other games id have a problem with the mario 3 approach but the gameplay is so addicting and spin jumping is so satisfying i dont even care. Its definitely my favorite even for king knights interactions with the cast alone its hilarious.
The horn costs a lot of mana, but it also can pick up gold. I don’t know if I lost my dropped gold a single time in this campaign, because no matter where it was I could always just use the horn and get it with no extra effort.
agree with almost everything… you had me at 4th place specter of torment story. idk i’d say its the best solely off of the fact that the whole game is based off of a story, but its your oppinion lol. i just rank story off of how much story there is and how well its executed which specter of torment executes it almost perfectly, but i get where you’re coming from. for you story is more like character and how you like the main character, which is perfectly fine i just got a little confused as to why it was last
In my of opinion, joustous is actually a really fun card game that has an easy to learn ruleset with mechanics that are hard to master, the power up system is an annoying money sink, but is unnecessary. Special arrows like conveyer, triple, double, or bomb are cool and side specific which can lead to interesting moves paying off while card wide effects like sumo, converter, or grave are fun to mess with and can be game changing, even if grave is crazy rare, it's still worth it. If you get into it it's a lot of fun and I feel like it makes it edge just barely over spectre of torment but not by much
I loved that there were more levels, but they were shorter and didn't always have a boss. Yes, King of Cards felt a lot like Mario and I preferred it. Shovel Knight's levels overstayed their welcome with me more often than not. Also, King Knight plays like Wario and I miss his side scrolling games. So, it was great getting that feel again. Plus, I love Joustus. Call me crazy, but I played it a ton and collected every card. I do wish they had additional tutorials beyond the basic one. I would get new cards and have no idea how they worked.
I had some difficulty with Joustus at first, too. However, once I got through to the end game and had some more powerful cards at my disposal, I went back through and did all the Joustus stuff and was rewarded with a FANTASTIC secret boss. I will say though, I cheated a little bit by closing the software if I knew I was going to lose so I would go back to my last save without losing any cards. Anywhale, it was fun. I personally didn’t like King Knight’s character, but the gameplay more than made up for it, and it was funny to hear Kaufman go full classical for the music in this one. Anywhale, I went through and collected everything, even the cards, and didn’t regret the time I spent. I’m planning on doing the new game plus versions of each campaign next, but I’m stuck at the boss rush for Shovel Knight at the moment.
King knight is not only the most fun campaign for me, it felt much easier than shovel and plague knight. Joustus is the only card game I love in a video game and the ending with king knight throwing his hands in the air just made me love him. If anything king knight comes first in terms of gameplay because of its limited but very fun move set. Specter knight was my favourite character and I was very confused as to how they were going to make king knight enjoyable. Turns out, Yacht Club Games know what you would love before you know it yourself!
Good video!! Wanted to give my ranking. For me plague knight is at the bottom mainly because of the nippy controls and repeated levels followed by shovel knight due to me finding it difficult to control. But for my top I have to put king knight. Personally I found spectre knight a little clunky but that was at the start and as I moved through it got smoother but I just loved how fluidly n could get king knight moving as well as the light hearted story and shorter levels. All these things are preference and completely understand different opinions
Joustus is great. It's a really polished clever game. It reminds me of the board game pente or something similar. King of Cards is my favorite campaign, I think he's the coolest character by far. His mechanics feel perfect.
How could you not mention the airship's absolute banger of a theme. I was disappointed in the lack of new music too but that theme might be my favourite out of all the games. Also I really enjoyed joustous, just thought it was a neat side mode. Another one of my favourite things about King Knight is how you amass all the people which join you on the airship. When I played Specter of Torment I thought it would be really cool if you could see the knights join the order of no quarter one by one, so that eventually all would be sitting around that banquet table, so when King of Cards did basically that I was pleased. Gameplay-wise I think King of Cards is the best. Specter of Torment is second because running up walls when I wanted to fall down annoyed me quite a bit. I prefer the short levels where they all with different gimmicks too. I'm still torn between whether King of Cards or Specter of Torment is the best though, I liked Specter Knight's story a lot. The memory scenes were very cool.
Kings of cards is actually the first campaign I finished. I know I know, I'm the worst. When shovel knight released it just didn't appeal to me even though I bought it. But I always try each new campaign when it came out. I got hooked on king knight's movement. Plus I loved joustus. I mean I did everything but NG+. I loved it so much I tried to look up review and it led me to your channel before you released your review and I watch your other video about the other campaigns. Because of you I went back and beat Specter of Torment (it was amazing). And I am working on beating shovel of hope. Love your videos.
Honestly I tend to agree with.... like 90% of what you say in all these videos, so my ranking is about the same. I don't care so much about the balance of side items that are just a matter of "don't like, don't use", and while I see how some of them are almost thoughtlessly powerful, it just doesn't bother me. (So I'm just kinda neutral on it, I find most challenge arbitrary anyway, so I don't see not using them as any more arbitrary than anything else. I know people who still fail hard at the game even with all those items anyway, so take it for what it's worth) End of the day, I'm just glad to see everything release for this game finally, and I'm really impressed with the quality of it all! I think I still like playing on the 3DS the most, just cause the effect does REALLY make things pop, but there's also a reason I own the whole series 3 times over. lol
I wish they would make a physical joustus game. Also, I'd say King of Cards and Spectre of Torment are tied for me, because I like King Knights difficulty and I like the character interactions, but Spectre Knight has some banger gameplay
In general all the weapons of King of Cards are great, I honestly do not know why everyone always says that the weapons in Shovel Knigth are useless in general, that they do not use them does not mean that they stink, they are to make easier some situations not mandatory objects , which seems that nobody understands
Honestly, the rats bothered me because I couldn't throw one when another one was out. Afaik, you couldn't manually detonate your rats, so if you were trying to use the rats like Shovel Knight's anchor or Plague Knight's arching bomb, missing meant that you couldn't just throw another one.
King Knight is so hard to compare to the other campaigns for me personally, because it's hard for me to see it the same way. Specter Knight's game is always going to be the most fun to me, but I don't really know how I'd compare it. King Knight was much easier to pick up and put down which is something I appreciated greatly. I see it as more of a puzzle platformer than anything else, since every level is designed around throwing a gimmick at you and having you work around it, which is really fun. The other games tend to focus on a lot of gimmicks which come and go throughout the stage which is good, but I don't think it would've suited King Knight as well. That being said, I don't see myself replaying it nearly as frequently as I do the other campaigns, because for me it's like, I already have all of the solutions to each level now, and it'll likely feel a lot more like a drag if anything because of that. Not inherently bad at all, but less replayable. The other side to that is that, as cool as I think it is I am TERRIBLE at Joustus. Not to mention that when I replay any of the campaigns I always 100% them and trying to do that with collecting EVERY Joustus card all over again sounds even more tedious then I found it the first time around. Over all I still really loved King Knight and it's some of the most fun I've had ever with a game, not that there's anything new with that sentiment when it comes to Yacht Club and Shovel Knight.
Pro-tip: There's a secret final boss locked behind Joustus, in addition to some fun character/plot stuff
It's nothing mindblowing, but not something I'd recommend skipping entirely
plus, joustus is just a really fun card game
@@ralphthejedimaster That too
Yes, this is important. You have to beat the house masters of all 4 jousts houses, then beat Cardia on the airship
Cardia is the best Shovel Knight boss. No contest.
@@abzu235 really? I actually didn't enjoy the boss fight at all. But it was definitely like way harder than any of the other bosses in the games
When King Pridemore joined King Knight's crew. I was dreading the inevitable moment that leads to King Pridemore's negative attitude towards King Knight in the Shovel of Hope campaign. I knew it was bound to happen but I desperately wanted this to be an alternate timeline where things go better. That post credit scene was more of a gut punch to me than it had any right to be.
Just remember that many years ago we already set things right. We just needed to see why we had to set it right.
sharzin lalebazri yes but in plague of shadows king pridemoor is king and king knights sweeping the floor
Still feel bad for the glidewing members
Especially the talking birder
Verserer Gred oh he’s still alive
Today I finished King of Cards and this represents me clearly.
I knew it was bound to happen, yet I really wished that King Knight had a more... prideful ending. But in the end, he just embraced what he thought he was.
this is how I see the 4 stories
Shovel of Hope is an epic adventure story, Plague of Shadows is a love story, Specter of Torment is a melancolic story and King of Cards is straight up a commedy story
I love how the 4 stories have their own flavor like this
An epic, a romance, a tragedy, and a comedy. Couldn't have put it better myself.
I really love Specter, it's a shame Hyve doesn't
By the end King Knights turns into a tragedy aswell
@@Doodle1678
a comedic tragedy
@@creeperchumsworth1219 yes definitely
The scepter of swiftness is great for bypassing entire platforming segments if you know their layout beforehand, all you need is a straight line you can travel across and a floor at the other end and your good, plus it acts just like the shoulder bash when you hit a wall with it. You'll also go straight through enemies that you kill with it, expanding the places where you can use it to speed through areas.
Newgame+ speedruns are going to be abusing the fuck out of this item.
I ended up using it to grind for gold on the first (or second, I can't remember) Tower of Fate level, you go through the liquid samurais and can speed towards the secret exit.
And with the upgrade that sucks in gold when you spin you can get the gems off the samurais almost immediately.
exactly it's so good
Wouldn't using the bubble frog along with the charge armor be better? At least for climbing.
Solid ranking...
But the shorter levels is a plus for me. It waa perfect for controling the pacing of my time playing it...sometimes i had 5 min to kill so i just went there and finished a level.
It was great!
my only complaint is that you can't re-fight most of the bosses in the game. They really are fun and it's a shame you only get to beat them once before they vanish.
@@Indiand123 there is a mode where you can fight the bosses again if I'm not wrong...
Ariel Shapiro They have time limits and also your equipment is limited
Agreed, I like how every level wasn’t as much of a commitment as the levels from other campaigns
I like the new map for narrative reasons. Its pre-prequel, so the lands are wild and untamed. The map design and short levels fit that theme.
I never even considered that joustus was optional since I was always looking forward to the joustus areas.
same, I LOVED joustus.
I never had a problem with it, but that secret boss was very difficult if you weren’t prepared.
Sameeeee
@@bookswithbek2702 What's cool about it, is that you could make this it work in real life. If I had printer and laminator, i'd make a bunch of cards and try to make it myself. I don't know how the rules would work, Either each player gets random cards, and each match they can replace 1 card or the winner can steal a card. Or, you use a draft system, or maybe you just have multiple copies of everything so people can just build their own deck. You could roll a die to determine where the gems go.
The confetti horns collect dropped gold bags and were great at hitting the larger bosses and the enchantress when under the stage.
... they collected... the gold bags..?
fffffFFFFUCK
I mean I breazed through almost every boss using only the gyro boots plus decree of rejuvination
I never found the horn.
@@humbleheathen69 you get it buying drinks in the first joustus house
@@abrahamcoronelbeltran6033 oh now you tell me.
The “confetti horns” tear apart the Troupple king in his boss fight. Because he’s so big, it hits him much more than it should.
Lol i used the horns to get my money that fell into the water and he just. Died. It was hilarious
I find it really cool that your final ranking is the exact opposite of mine.
This just goes to show how amazing all of these campaigns are, and what an amazing journey Yacht Club have taken us on.
I was thinking the same thing! It especially surprised me because I also play games gameplay first. It’s crazy how even valuing the same thing I came out with a completely different opinion!
Plague knight is my absolute favorite. I love just flying through levels and then actually fighting bosses, unlike specter of torment where you just jump and spam attack button while specter bonks his head against whoever happens to be near.
@Grimm you just didn't practice enough. When you know what you are doing he isn't awkward at all
@@СергейКочетов-о3л its not that he hasnt practiced its just that people have different opinions
Bro plague knight was even easier, just jump and mash the attack button and stuff dies in 10 seconds.
@@thatonepersonwhoeatscheese7348 dude, opinion or not, if you dislike something for a petty reason like that, you’re going to get backlash either way. we are allowed to dislike someone else’s opinion, as long as we don’t become idiots and scream and yell about it.
they recycled all the levels though
Personaly, this is my favorite campaign so I guess I'll talk about why.
#1- Gameplay
I found myself enjoying playing KoC more than any other shovel knight campaign. I think King Knight's moveset is basic, but fun to use. I also liked the shorter levels with no boss at the end because it made it better to go in and collect the merit badges than a huge level with a boss I had to go through for 1 red skull, or cipher coin, etc. I also liked the boss fights and the secret one you get for beating Joustus.
#2- Character's
I found King Knight my favorite character out of them all. I'm not as big on his design, but I liked his childish attitude and his general not really careing attitude. I found the ending good, he was a jerk and then he paid for it. The other characters like Trouple King and the mom were fun additions and it gave the game a fun sort of vibe.
#3- Airship
I liked the Airship more than the other "hubs" in the other campaign's. Shovel Knight kind of had the town's, but those were just for buying stuff, Plauge Knight had the little lab but it was just a place on the map, Specter Knight just had the castle, which I liked because of the fun secrets like the robot, but King Knight's airship is the best for me. Its a little hub world, were you can talk to people, play Joustus, buy stuff, and do other fun things. And you can get to it anytime at the map by pressing a button.
#4- Joustus
I liked Joustus. It was fun.
#5- Secrets/Endgame Content
I looove all the stuff to do once you finish the game. You can find all the secret exits, beat all the Joustus people, get all merit badges and Joustus cards, beat the secret boss, do the secret propeller knight battle, fight all the order of no quarter and beat them in Joustus as well, do the secret with the horse and the fairyland etc.
That's why I loved KoC and will be 100%ing it ASAP
what robot in spectre?
Do you mean horace, the climbing minigame npc?
or the dragonarmor?
@@thecommenter6773 Horace
@@joshtheostrich1173 oh, he's a dullahan, not a robot. And I guess he technically counts as a secret since he's behind a wall.
But really, the best secret in that hub is petting the meemec.
And the glidewing kinda has something like that if mona and the spinewolves are beaten.
If you check the background on the top floor, you can see mona pet one of them.
Did anyone else find out the secret that happens when you press down once and then hold down in the Donovan armor?
@@joshtheostrich1173 I always thought that Horace was just an empty suit of armor..
Your criteria for the final ranking I very very much agree with, I know several people who tell me that story is the most important thing in a game or act like graphics are all that matter (which they are allowed to have that opinion). But to mean I don't care if your game is the most beautiful game ever with the best story of the year if the gameplay is lackluster I won't be able to put my energy into playing it. For example death stranding apparently has a really good story from what people tell me, but for at LEAST the first 6 hours basically all you do is walk from point a to point b to point c so and so forth. Good graphics,music, and story when added to good gameplay are what make a game a masterpiece in my opinion, which is why shovel knight treasure trove is so good as a collective.
The Horns of Heralding and Staff of Swiftness are acceptable because they're attacks King Night has in the campaign. Plus the staff reveals more secrets than it first appears...
What secrets ?
Man, you deserve so much more for your work. I hope that one day your channel will grow big. Wish you all the luck man.
Shovel Knight has been on my backlog for such a long time! This video though has reinvigorated my interest in picking the game up especially with all the other campaigns... that honestly I didn't know existed 😯 Amazing analysis mate, I'm keen to binge some videos of yours now!
I absolutely agree that the heirlooms were excellently balanced, i usually used the confetti horns for boss fights it or just clearing rooms full of weak enemies, and the scepter of swiftness is great but I didn't use it to it's full potential of sequence breaking the level design, the things speedrunners can pull off with it and the turncoat heirloom are ridiculous. the armor sets were balanced well too, with the only one that really feels underpowered being the one that lets you run since you have several other options for faster movement. all in all this is definitely my favorite campaign, i love the gameplay style, the new overworld layout, the bosses, joustus, music, I love everything here. joustus can easily be frustrating if you try to rush into it, but if you properly take the time to consider your moves and deck, it's surprisingly in-depth and feeling like I was outsmarting my opponent by forcing them into a trap and thinking several turns ahead was intensely satisfying after I got the hang of it. it has an extra boss fight tied to it as well, which was really cool. and since I did play joustus i really got to appreciate all of the music, which is easily my favorite soundtrack out of all the campaigns. maybe it's partly because I've played it more recently than the other campaigns, but I have king of cards music play in my head far more often than say, specter of torment or plague of shadows. I hear the shovel of hope OST pretty often too, but that's mostly the iconic themes like the plains and credits
The Twilight of Tomorrow is an amazing piece of music.
The Twilight of Tomorrow is an amazing piece of music.
This was an amazing ranking, you’re style is incredibly entertaining. I’m working my way through King of Cards right now
I know this video is incredibly old, but I still wanted to post my take on the placement of each campaign.
I honestly think King of Cards was my favorite. I liked Joustus, it was a fun minigame that wasn’t forced down my throat so I didn’t get annoyed by it, while simultaneously giving rewards for playing Joustus so it felt more fulfilling, even if that reward was just more Joustus cards. The boss fights were some of my favorite ones yet, mostly because it rarely reuses bosses from Shovel of Hope like the others. Sure, you can still fight the rest of the Order of No Quarter, but aside from Specter Knight, who acts as Black Knight in this campaign, they’re all optional and even sort of secret like Propeller Knight. The unique bosses in the forms of Specter Knight’s “playable” moveset, King Pridemoor, Troupple King, King Birder, Specter Knight’s “playable” moveset merged with his boss fight (and the more difficult version of the darkened screen mechanic thanks to the background), the King’s Essences, and of course Giga Cardia were all fun boss fights that I thoroughly enjoyed. I also think that King Knight’s moveset was the smoothest of the bunch, it felt great to play as him and have the terrain matter more, along with every Heirloom be fun to use and, as you mentioned before, much more balanced than the others.
Beyond the subtle change of King of Cards being on top, my comparison between the campaigns in Treasure Trove is pretty similar to yours.
1. King of Cards
2. Specter of Torment
3. Shovel of Hope
4. Plague of Shadows
5. Showdown
Finally some interesting shovel knight content on UA-cam. Please do a vid about NG+
Hyve: *Gives Plague Of Shadows last place and loves Mona*
*Plague Knight wants to know your location*
Oh, and uh, I guess ranking for me IMO.
1) Plague Of Shadows
2) King Of Cards
3) Specter Of Torment
4) Shovel Of Hope
I have the exact same ranking
For me, I'd reverse Shovel of Hope and Specter of Torment, but otherwise I'd agree.
Shovel knight treasure trove is awesome! Cant wait for more shovel knight in the future!
I think there's one big aspect that King Knight actually tackled in a vastly superior way than any of the prior campaigns - Money.
From the beginning of the game to the very end, there was so much for me to buy. They did a fantastic job adding a bunch of very high cost upgrades to ensure that collecting money is always worthwhile. Even considering Specter Knight's campaign was crafted brand new, I was disappointed to notice that I had like 60000 gold I couldn't spend on before I got to the Enchantress in his campaign.
This makes the moment to moment gameplay so much more satisfying in King Knight's campaign - all the money you're collecting is useful from the first stage to the very last stage. The subweapons were balanced much better in King Knight's campaign for the most part, except the aforementioned bubble item being a little cheap relative to the rest of his heirlooms (though again, he needs to be able to hit a wall when shoulder bashing out, or else it can't bail him out).
Excellent video. I appreciate how you make sure to stress that much of what you have to say is just your subjective viewpoint.
I personally really enjoyed the bite-sized level structure. The other campaigns' levels would typically play with a gimmick for a few rooms, then drop it for the rest of the level to make way for a new gimmick. Because of this, I often didn't feel much of a sense of progression. Here, each level is centered on 1 or 2 gimmicks that are built on all throughout the level. Levels ending in a tough, lengthy platforming segment rather than a boss also felt more appropriate to me; you're tested on what you've learned throughout the level, whereas boss fights are something you have to learn mostly independently from the rest of the level (though they do sometimes incorporate some of the level's gimmicks).
I also enjoyed the less linear map. I liked that it gave you a reason to choose one level to play over another, albeit not an especially meaningful one. Also, the secret exits were a much more satisfying reward for discovering hidden areas to me than the in-level collectibles from past campaigns. And can I say that the secret/treasure placement in this campaign is easily the coolest in the series? King Knight's unique moveset provided the opportunity for some really creative secrets, my favorite of which being the secret exit in one of the Lost City levels. There's a drop-through dirt pile next to a wall that you couldn't bash, so there's seeming no way to get a spin to drop through the pile, but you're able to lure a Fleeto from farther in the room over to the pile and bash into it to get a spin.
Some scattered final thoughts: I liked the point you made about King Knight being defined by his limitations. For me, platforming is the most important aspect of any game that features it, and King Knight's limited moveset did wonders in making the platforming engaging. Joustus was surprisingly deep and fun for me and brought my experience up a lot, but I can totally see that it's not for everyone. Finally, I would love to see you make a video on King Knight's NG+. It doesn't make you rethink how you play quite as much as Specter Knight's, but it still brings some interesting concepts to the table. The gold multiplier made levels basically rain cash if you avoided damage, which made buying all the Joustus cards from Chester much quicker.
I really love King of cards, I still don't know what is My favorite King of cards or specter of torment.
And I also didn't like showdown that much because of the lack of fun single player content.
Just today I finished the last campaign (King of Cards) and as a geek on good card games, I'll admit that Joustus is hard to really embrace. But once you do, once it clicks, oh boy.
As for the overall ranking:
1. For me, Shovel of Hope is better and 1st because although you said gameplay is the most important thing, I'll never forget the feeling of the first time playing Shovel of Hope. The dream sequences, the tension of the fights, the first time I fought the Boss Gauntlet, the first time I saved Shield Knight...
The emotion I felt back then was unrivaled, and for that, Shovel of Hope is 1st in my list.
2. 2nd probably King of Cards for the reasons you said, pretty balanced, good humor, I was truly flabergasted by the fact that King Knight's motivation was being the best at a card game. It feels ridiculous. Yet, the ending really left me with a bad taste in my mouth. It was like watching a monumental car crash accident. You know it ain't gonna end pretty but you can't stop yourself from watching it.
3. 3rd must be Specter of Torment, but I know it is a completely biased and personal opinion, because I just made my experience miserable by doing a "Checkpointless, No Darkness upgrades, No Will upgrades, 60000 gold ending" run, and it really made my experience with Specter Knight just horrible. It was the most miserable three and a half hours of Treasure Trove. Yet I know the story, the mechanics and the overall gameplay is great, I also hated that it had no in game map. I love in game maps, and the hud with the bosses just felt bleak.
4. And of course, the passive way of playing Plague of Shadows made it an easy 4th place, although I learned to enjoy the movement options of Plague Knight.
And although everything I wrote, I can't disagree with anything you said in the two videos. Great ranking!
the biggest tragedy is that you missed mona hanging out with the dogs and petting them because you didn't play more joustus
I found Joustus really really fun, despite originally thinking I wouldn't like it. It's a little bit challenging sometimes, but I found that it never got to the level where I was actually having trouble. Also, I don't know why, but I really love collecting all the unique character and enemy cards. I battled some characters multiple times just to get unique cards I might not even use, just because I wanted to.
Also I'm glad I'm not the only only who definitely, absolutely does not have a crush on Mona.
King of Cards is my favorite anime and jrpg.
Ok but seriously though, I do have to say my opinion on this game is that I found it very enjoyable. While I do find joustus really enjoyable, I do still have to agree with your list of specter knight, king knight, shovel knight, and plague knight. Specter knight just had the best gameplay feel throughout the entire thing, the plot I will say I have forgotten over the past 2 years, though I remember the music being really good. King Knight was very enjoyable with it's gameplay, and personally, was the easiest of all the modes. Maybe it's just the shorter level length because of how they split it up, but it seemed easier to me. The story was really funny to me at moments, with the ending also making me feel like the bad guy even if I expected it, and the music, while it was mostly reused, was still a bop. Shovel Knight was really good gameplay wise, but definitely the most basic to me. The music and story were good, and that's about all I can really say about it. Plague Knight... it was alright. The story was nice and enjoyable, but the gameplay... really didn't do much for me. It wasn't that fun to me with how it all played, and was the campaign I took the longest to beat only because I got bored with it and didn't enjoy it all that much.
Nice thorough review! Great detail and explanations.
I have to say I had a very different experience. I loved the Super Mario style level switch up. I place less emphasis on items since I always play things vanilla if possible. The new tracks in KoC were incredible (Trouple pond + Cardia especially). Joustus was a great strategy game (not so much card game) -- if you play it as intended you'll get a decent challenge, but it can be cheesed by coming back with op cards later (the challenges have fixed decks for joustus which is where you'll get the best experience).
Level design wise, KoC had some of the best of the series, Yacht Club definitely treated this like their big finale. Awesome boss design too.
I don't know if I'd rank them, since each experience brings pros/cons and is more based on personal preferences. Shovel knight is a nice classic experience that still holds up. Plague was overall just an alternate version of Shovel knight. Specter changed things up bringing in a total overhaul to match the air dashing mechanics. KoC overhauled almost the whole experience, and using the world/engine/characters to deliver a very different final product. All excellent.
I actually loved the smb3 map waaay more than the mega man map.
Might just be me
I would love another video
I'm gonna craft my own Joustus board. I love card games and that one was the cherry on top of an already amazing campaign.
Awesome video! Here's my personal ranking for the campaigns:
4. King of Cards
Great game (obviously, it's Shovel Knight), but I found beating bosses and making progress in the game to be worse than the others. Joustus is fun and extremely challenging a lot of the time; it's great except for getting 100% of cards means spending 4 million gold on Chester
3. Specter of Torment
Specter Knight is my second favourite knight to play as because of the unique slashing mechanic and the music is incredible (Tools of War might just be my favourite Shovel Knight theme), but the main problem with it is the same as in King of Cards: Without the structure of levels and bosses, you didn't feel like you were exploring much or getting anywhere until the end. Still 10/10
2. Shovel of Hope
The one that started it all! Honestly playing as Shovel Knight is just incredible and the stages seem perfectly suited around him. The story is great and there is literally nothing wrong with it. But...
1. Plague of Shadows
I think this is the best because of how unique it is from any game I've ever played. The challenge of the game comes from the moveset of Plague Knight and not in the stage design - you have to go about beating the stages in a different way. The love story is incredible and just flying across the screen as Plague Knight made me happy in a way no game has ever made me feel. 11/10
Sorry this was long; again great video and whoever reads this have a good day (or night)
Though I disagree with some of what you discussed, I must applaud how well presented the content of this video was. You raised your personal issues, but also acknowledged that they were your opinions and in a very convincing way. I was really able to appreciate your thoughts despite not relating to them myself, which isn't something a fair few content creators consider when writing analytic/evaluative videos like this. Better than AntDude's Shovel Knight video for sure!
Great vid! About King Knight's NG+, maybe do a comparative video on all of the campaigns NG+ modes
I'm pretty biased on some element in a game and that is (the variety that support replayability) because I get to see how much time I get to enjoy the game. so my personal ranking are:
1st: King of Cards- different type of levels / a lot of different music to hear (it is recycling but I don't really care as long as its feel fresh on the different levels of the same location) / not a fan of joustus when I played it for 100% but when i go back and replay it when I'm bored, it actually pretty fun (bc I don't care much of losing cards anymore) / some of the heirlooms offer a different type of mobility / the one time boss fight is really disapointing bc the boss fight is really fun to play using different heirlooms (the rematch in challenge mode is alright. but I'd liked to enjoy my boss fight without time limit please).
2nd: Plague of Shadows- there is a lot of customization in your bomb attack that I went into the levels with different combination / fun to replay the stages using different arcana except for the first two tower of fate level.
3rd: Specter of Torment- the only curios that I'm always used is will skull, hover plume and the skeleton sentry and I don't enjoyed it (because it fell like I abused it) / for me the judgement rush lose its awesomeness because it is pretty much the same as the vanilla move (dash slash) / I'm mostly replay this to hear the remixed music and to play Horace's Challenge.
4th: Shovel of Hope- its great but I don't feel any satisfaction with the relics / I only replay this for the tower of fate's level (the boss rush, black knight [third fight] and the remnant of fate is crazy fun boss battle).
*bonus: Showdown- really hope I have a friend to play this with / Trying to unlock everything is really fun / After everything has unlocked, I just play this when I'm really bored....
The confetti horns are my most used heirloom because it's just fun to use them and they're pretty powerful
I actually played showdown and clocked in more than 20 hours on battle mode alone and more if I count story etc it’s a much more fun experience when u get to learn all the characters move sets and go in depth like mr hat is capable of hopping on his platters in midair allowing for infinite airtime and the enchantress hovering around with dark strafe(her charge move) gives a lot of movement options. Also I learned that the rat heirloom functions so much better as a double jump/ projectile which also translates into his campaign where the explosion is more powerful making fights attacking airborne opponents much easier and satisfying including the bosses I know I’m late responding to this video but I’m gotta say the rat bomb is underrated.
Edit: also I like to think of king knight as Dio when I cast scepter of swiftness idk why it just seems fitting
The way I ranked the adventures
1st: Plague of Shadows: I LOVED this SO MUCH! the mostly samey level design from Shovel of Hope didn't bother me at all as it convinced me to think outside the box and ask "What can Plague knight do that Shovel knight can't" The story is my favorite of the 4 and the added sections are where you find most of those Cipher coins. this mode was the only one I 100%, the only one I've beaten on the harder mode, and the only one where I've done the penniliess/upgradeless/no tonic run while PLAYING the hard mode. I used the float a lot when I started but I found real power in sticking with the OG burst and the spin attack.
2nd: Specter of Torment: a wonderfully tragic story with original music, and I would say is better mechanically for most people compared to Plague knight. his gameplay flows very naturally and entices reckless play where Plague knight would err on the side of caution before laughing and blowing stuff up. I loved the megaman style choose any boss order and one of the few times I could say "yeah, you could win against any of them starting out".
3rd: Shovel of Hope: the one that got this whole content pack going, really solid and really good despite the fact I cannot play a single megaman game to save my life. admittedly I just use the phase locket and chaos orb to kill most bosses, and wall crush gimmicks can go starve out to die in a desert hole. the fact he is the most horizontally challenged kinda irks me because of propeller enimies.
4th: King of Kards: frankly fools too. This was the campaign where I realized how much I hate bottomless pits. it was always an argument with myself between mana and items, while the card mechanics are fun you need those damn booster packs and rare cards to beat those cheating bosses. King knight was a brat through and through, the side characters were fun, but everything in the 3rd area can go die.
Something I really appretiate about showdown is that, even though each character has such a small moveset, they have a lot of move synergy. King knight can shoulder bash his rats. Black knight can shoot his dark wave through his rocks. Polar knight can plow his snowballs, and a million more examples. It felt like the first time I learned you could use any attack on wiifit trainers soccerball or playing rivals of Aether. Perhaps in won't be endlessly replayable like melee, and ultimate feel, but it is build on a STRONG foundation. Hopefully we can see more platform fighters from yacht club sometime in the future.
I pretty much agree with your final ranking, though for slightly different reasons. I still haven''t finished Plague Knight's campaign as I find his movement awkward and lacking any sort of flow that you get with the other three.
Regarding Joustus: I am not a fan of card games and was dreading that this addition would be mandatory. I felt pretty so-so about it for the first two houses of Joustus, but then I started getting really into it. I'd strongly encourage you to revisit it - as you start to build up a more powerful deck it becomes really fun and involving, and as others have mentioned, there is a fantastic secret boss available if you clear all the houses.
I would absolutely love to see you play new game +
Joustus was my favorite aspect of King of Cards in comparison to the other campaigns. It's what bumps it to being my 3rd favorite, with my order being the inverse of yours. (Plauge #1, Shovel #2, King #3, Specter #4) Maybe I'm just too eager to spout Yugioh memes and pretend that King Knight is Kaiba.
Also, this was my least favorite story. It had some funny moments, but what really brought it down was the ending. Even before you play the game you know King Knight is going to betray absolutely everyone that hails him as a hero, and it underpins the entire adventure. I have a similar problem with Specter of Torment, but King Knight's ending ends up being so much more hollow. Even worse is that this is what ends off Shovel of Hope altogether.
Reaching the enchantress didn't feel scary cause you knew you may fail but because you knew you would win
Gameplay:
Specter of Torment 1
King of Cards 2
Shovel of Hope 3
Plague of Shadows 4
Music:
Specter of Torment 1
Shovel of Hope 2
King of Cards 3
Plague of Shadows 4
I highly agree with the final ranking. All of them are great but Specter of Torment was just so SLEEK.
Since you talked about the failure of darkness in plague knight, anyone else laugh when the enchantress turned reize evil? Like I was really surprised when I was supposed to take it seriously
It’s sad to see shovel knight go, I still wish we could have gotten a propeller knight dlc, he was a fun character and I think he would have had a really great and unique story mode in terms of gameplay mechanics
Gameplay IS the most important aspect, I agree!
With the music, you could just turn it off and put on your own if you don't like it.
The story gives some context as to your journey, but some games don't NEED a story to be fun.
Consider Tetris. The music is good, but I prefer my own.
There is absolutely no story.
The main thing is the gameplay, because that's what you're experiencing THE MOST.
I'm not against you on this. I actually completely agree!
I'm glad I get to see someone's breakdown on it, even if it's just opinionated.
I almost fully agree with your opinion, but for me KoC gets the first place. That is mainly because I really, REALLY liked the more open and vast overworld, because my favorite childhood game was SMB3, and that influenced me and my ranking a LOT. Thank you if you read it😁. Your vids are good, keep it up!!
First off, yeah, I'd like to see a New Game + video. I think that there's a lot to say about this sort of mode, with how it turns money, which otherwise has no purpose in a NG+ playthrough, into a whole new system in its own right. Talk about making it an entirely new kind of currency.
Second, I think your rankings are honestly pretty fair. I think sometimes it's hard to explain that one game being lower doesn't make it bad, so I understand your stress over putting the other games where you put them. Personally, I'd put Shovel of Hope on Par with King of Cards, but I totally agree that the Phase Locket kinda messes with the difficulty. I really do think that a high magic cost or longer cooldown would've gone a long way, or at least designing bosses with certain relics in mind. Sometimes they actually pull it off - I'd wager that the SoH fight against Specter Knight works well even if you have the locket, just with the way you're attacked - but fights like Polar Knight are definitely made a lot easier with that thing. This is similar to what you said about the Enchantress and Black Knight fights in Specter of Torment, with the most fun fights being ones where the most powerful subweapon isn't really reinforced like it is elsewhere.
(Also, I think maybe it's just that this thing is cursed for you. Like, literally everything involving the Phase Locket is your least favorite part of whatever it shows up in, mainly Specter Knight's story and Shovel Knight's gameplay. Maybe consider selling that thing to somebody, I know a guy named Chester who'd take that off your hands.)
I also agree about the whole deal with the music - there's not a ton of new music, and even fewer standouts compared to the other games. I could listen to Hidden By Night on repeat for a WHILE. (Incidentally, there's a stellar acoustic cover of it that I highly, HIGHLY recommend checking out, with how you said you loved that song.)
Only other thing I really feel like I wanna say is about Plague of Shadows. The devs went on record saying that it was designed originally to be a sort of Richter Mode to Shovel of Hope - the same levels, or at least as identical as possible, with an entirely new character to run around them in - and so wasn't built as the ground up to fit Plague Knight the way every other playable campaign was. I think this is what you were trying to convey in this video, when explaining why Plague Knight was still 4th in the gameplay category, so I figured I'd point out what I could to help.
Anyway. I've rambled enough. I think your video is stellar, and I honestly think you did a dang fine job. As someone who adores hearing someone talk about game design the way you do, I applaud you and your excellent work. Honestly, your talk about the subweapons makes me wanna make a video myself - I think this is a topic that lots of developers could learn from, I don't see Mark Brown making a Game Maker's Toolkit video for this any time soon. I'm on Twitter as @TahmisGoogboi if anyone is interested in talking more - I just love talking shop about game design. I look forward to whatever you make next, Mr Minds! \o
I personally think King of Cards is my new favorite campaign, you made some fair points but U personally thought the story really got you connected to King Knight despite his faults, and despite the way we see him I really thought he would change by the end despite where it takes place in the lore, the shorter levels also in my opinion complemented his play style as sometimes playing as King Knight for long periods of time with lots of challenge can be fun but overwhelming. Finally, I think Joustus was hard and tedious, but also super satisfying and rewarding upon winning, and while it’s optional you could always come back to it later. Anyways great video! Would love to see your thoughts on new game +!
Short summary of my thoughts? Best campaign of all four.
I largely agree with your rankings, with Plague Knight being my least favored campaign and Spectre Knight being my most before King Knight. But, for some reason, I enjoyed King Knight's kit a lot more than I did Spectre's. While yes the rail armor is fucking awesome and the items are fun, King Knight's kit was just overall better. The rats for vertical attacking, the sceptre for brushing enemies, and the frog for platforming. All unique to contrast King Knight's very limited moveset. And, his limited moveset makes for the most fun I've had. And it seems to be a trend, the simpler the moveset the better. Spectre's and Plague's were a pain for me to pick up, and should I lose the muscle memory I'd have to burn through some levels just to get the hang of it again. Plague moreso Spectre.
But, a shame you didn't enjoy Joustus. I enjoyed it so much I end up wanting it to be playable on my phone! It is simple but it has depth. An easy game to pick up, but a difficult one to master. Plus the added sprite art for all things Shovel Knight is much appreciated by people like me. And yes, while the new soundtrack is few and far between, they're still really good.
The story, oh man. Did I feel bad.
(Spoilers ahead)
The entire time I knew King Knight was always a bit of an asshat, but I actually grew quite fond of the characters around him. They were written so well, I think I nearly teared up at the ending. The time his mother finally refers to him as King Knight, was that of which when she was disappointed. And, I honestly enjoyed playing as the childish asshole. With his bawling and pompous throne taunts, and every cutscene after the major boss.
My largest and only complaint with King of Cards was probably after the credits. You see him in Pridemoor Keep, gilded and glistening. He finally catches a moment to enjoy his unearned grandeur. Only for a certain Knight in blue to trot in and shut the door. I really, really wished I could have fought Shovel Knight as King Knight the way Plague Knight did. And I would willingly lose, because it felt like a hollow victory.
Putting Gameplay as the highest weighting is the correct decision. Also saying that King Knight is defined by its limitations makes perfect sense now to me. At my first playthrough his playstyle felt awkward and limited, but with time it started to make sense and you get a grip the more you play aka it gets more fun.
Can't say the same with Plague Knight because I couldn't feel the flow with him but that's my own opinion and gaming experience.
To me, these are my personal rankings of these games based off of story and gameplay.
1) specter of torment- the story was a different tale on what shovel knight offered us. It was serene, dark, and subtle; just like the character. The story flows perfectly; adding many twists and turns with the added flashbacks making all the more of an enjoyable story. All the side characters are memorable and funny, and the final ending scene with reize left an emotional impact. The level design flows perfectly with specter’s gameplay style; hacking and quickly moving off of enemies is so satisfying and challenging. Sure the sub weapons are over powered, but all are interesting enough to bear some usage.
2) plague of shadows- this game has in my opinion, the best story and characters in the whole franchise. Plague being hilarious and endearing, Mona just being my favorite character, Percy just being one of the best comic relief characters in a work of fiction, and the magicist actually being given some good character development. The gameplay, while being the most challenging, is the most entertaining to use. Sure just about every arcana you get is useless, but the arsenal of bombs and sub equipment to them are amaizing, due to how different and useful every single one and combination is. And the final scene is one of, if not the most wholesome thing I’ve seen in a game for a long time. Mona and plague’s Romance is so funny and cute that I kept the animation on my tv for over ten minutes. The level design is the worst out of all of them, but the ending boss and story make up for it completely in my opinion.
3) king of cards- while being very different from the others, the level, map, and gameplay design was a fresh breath of air. The shorter level design I like, and the over world boss fights fits with the story; as your the adventure dashing through the land, stumbling upon unexpected but rather funny dialogue with your enemies and rivals. The story fits the character and is rather charming and a fun ride to see what will happen next. Mom is wholesome and sweet and the romantic tension between priemoor is rather enjoyable. Pridemoor is like the dad king never had. Cooper, Doe, and bard knight are a great supporting cast. Just one major problem though. Like every rpg, king of cards adds the troupe of adding a side character that does a few semi important things; and never leads. I’m sorry I know it fits with the character wanting an ontourage, but I just hate that troupe as it just adds an extra weight. And I love joustus as a game mechanic. In real life I’m a major fan of card games, being an avid mtg and yugioh player, and joustus is the perfect blend of cards and chess all in one I did end up beating every player and house of joustus and every new card, deck type, field, and opponent were fun to play against. Sadly there’s two flaws. One, new cards you obtain out right replace old cards, practically making most of what you collect useless (kinda like real life tcg). And two, tons of trial and error gameplay with most not being fun. Strategy is bread and butter to my nerdy little mind but no how much I plan out my moves, I still lost. And the most often there is a lot of misplaced power segments. Meaning some people are extremely easy while others are incredibly difficult for no reason. For example, Mona and Horace who are the leaders of some house of joustus were easily first try wins for me and the people who you fight on your airship and standard opponents can take over half an hour each. Well over all this game offered some of the best mechanics and gameplay, it doesn’t over shadow the compelling and entertaining stories and characters the other two offered
And 4, sadly is shovel of hope- this mainly come off of me replaying the game. Six years ago when I was 10 I played this game and loved it. However when king of cards came out, I re played all the games in order to re-fresh my mind to compare them. And now since I matured, while having a better understanding of character development and story writing, I depressingly say that I don’t like this game as much I used to to. Don’t get me wrong, I love this game and the franchise as a hole, but I feel shovel of hope was the foot hold on setting the premise of the world and the others building off of the already great things that were put into place. And though the story is great, it’s not the best. The writing of it is very fidgety and complacent at times. Every other one has a great, smooth, and compelling story to offer. From plagues love chemistry to Kings ever changing and flowing conquest, shovel just doesn’t compare. (get it? Chemistry;...... I’ll shut up now). It’s vey good with a spectacular pay off, but the story is very inconsistent with a slow beginning and middle, with a suddenly quick end where I often ask myself, “how did I get here”. The ending is amazing, but sadly doesn’t leave much of an impact like plague or specter did. It still does have and amazing end however. I’m very sorry for the negativity, but the story is often the main thing I focused one these games due the importance of them all wrapping into each other, but I feel if we get another campaign revolving around black knight, I believe it could fix the problems I have with it. Now on to the good stuff. The gameplay is flawless while building upon all the staples we see in the franchise, that rather make it endearing and fun. The side characters aren’t the most memorable but fits with the message of your character. The warrior traveling the land to find his beloved, only to make essential stops at nearby towns to gather equipment to prepare for upcoming challenges. Overall I still love shovel of hope, but sadly, my nostalgia can’t really compare to what I believe was perfected in the others that came after it.
Anyway this analysis was far to long for its own good. If anyone is reading this I apologize and thank you for your patience. Has a great day.
My scores
Gameplay: 1 specter 2 king 3 shovel 4 plague
Story: 1 specter 2 plague 3 king 4 shovel
Music: 1 king 2 specter 3 plague 4 shovel
Overall: 1 specter 2 king tie for 3 shovel and plague
My favorite Gameplay: Shovel Knight + his Amiibo. After some time the Amiibo gives Shovel Knight access to Plague Knight's Bomb burst. Coupled with Shovel Knight's inherently high jump and low knock-back you can just fly all over the levels, really breaking them and making a Speedrun ridiculously fast.
Shovel knight is my favorite just because I like playing as the custom knight
If you’ll ever return I would really love to see a video about king of cards new game plus
Not sure if there are others feeling the same way, but Specter Knight never really clicked with me. In theory his moveset makes you want to play as slick and cool as possible, slicing through every enemy you see, jumping of walls, grinding everywhere with that black cloak.
But in reality you often end up wallrunning on walls you didn't want to, just cause you got to close to it, then you'd have to awkwardly try to slip off of it, then it restarts the wall run cause you held towards the wall half a second to early, slip off again. By then an enemy has come to close so you try to dodge and slice through it but get the angle slightly wrong, slice down instead of up and fall in a pit.
I feel like Specter Knight kinda has the same Problem as a lot of Sonic games, where the character is smooth and fun to control, but large parts of the leveldesign force you to do exactly what the character is bad at(i.e. precise, calculated platforming), so the entire game just feels inprecise and unwieldy.
That's largely why Specter Knight is actually my least favourite campaign and King Knight my favourite, because there is exactly 0 things inprecise about him. He always does exatly what you want him to do, allowing you to actually get a feel of mastery over the character moveset after a while. At the same time the Stage gimmicks all play off of his moveset in creative and interesting ways, which make every one of the smaller levels still feel unique and memorable.
The gyro boots are seriously amazing, don't sleep on them!
If i thought about them more critically my ranking would probably change but in terms of just how generally positive i feel when i think about each campaign i think it'd be
-1st Plague
-2nd King
-3rd Specter
-4th Shovel
Technically, you get a _slight_ upward boost when using the bubble frog...
If you have lots of vigor to spare, you can completely cheat certain platforming sections, especially with reboundable walls added to the mix.
As someone who loved the joustus feature, I can say that if you liked it the way I did, and included it in the gameplay segment of ranking, king knight would’ve won. It is surprisingly very deep in terms of strategic possibilities, and it made me think a lot. My only complaint with it is that the tutorial “level” of it wasn’t enough to explain everything, and that it doesn’t let you vs really smart opponents with super strong cards instead of having “boss abilities” that is just them cheating at the game. Long story short, the joustus was amazing, but they didn’t go far enough with its potential.
Joustus was like Gwent to me. The first playthrough I didn't care about it at all but then I went back with the thought "I wanna do everything in the game this time" and damn I'm glad I did because it was fun. The secret joustus boss was a real bitch to beat since I could never seem to nail down the timing of the floating orbs though
After just beating KoC on Ng+ I'd love to see a video made on it
I'm not really good at strategy games either, but I genuinely enjoyed Joustus a ton. Beat every single opponent, including the final super boss. A majority of my losses came from the one turn puzzles that don't really punish you for losing, but I still had to think about what my opponent can do before I make my move. I had a lot of tense moments with Joustus.
King Knight's New Game+ is way too stressful for me. I often die while trying to get my money back, or get hit over and over, thus losing more of it, especially in boss fights. If you wanna make a video on it, I'd appreciate that since Idk if I'll even finish King's ng+.
I think Showdown is fun, and while I've taken a break from it recently to play other games, I enjoy unlocking all the characters and playing quick matches against family members and friends on occasion.
For my personal ranking for the main 4 games I'd say
4th: Shovel of Hope
3rd: Plague of Shadows
2nd: Specter of Torment
1st: King of Cards
(I do think KoC and SoT are interchangeable though, as I may prefer one depending on which I'm currently in the mood for playing. Same thing with SoH and PoS)
Tldr: King Knight is super fun to play and I like the characters, story and presentation a lot
My HC is that King of cards is a story King knight tells the rest of the bosses while they’re having that big dinner thing. He got beaten by specter knight just like everyone else but whenever Donovan isn’t listening, KK somehow beat him twice. Plague knight is the only one who believes him even if KK once told a version of the story where he bests plague knight
The gameplay had one big issue, which is how it sometimes forces you into a situation where you kind of need a particular setup or good luck. The big example being the super boss once you fully complete all the joustus matches. She is completely unreachable except for brief moments, but her pattern allows her to just spam crystals safely out of reach that don't allow you to reach her and she can leave the screen from the top and have a new set of crystals and wait until you inevitably slip up and die from taking the occasional hit. The game almost always starts you with full magic so you can use heirlooms, but this fight starts you with no magic. You're clearly intended to come in with the armor that let's you earn some magic by fighting, but you are forced into the super boss fight immediately after completing joustus. You can't just swap your armor and go back to fight her; you are locked in with whatever you are wearing. I only beat her because I completely mastered dodging all her attacks and got lucky that she only stayed out of reach a few cycles during the second phase, so I went into phase 3 with enough health to win the dps vs dps fight.
There is some upward movement on the frog bubble, I've used it to skip sections by getting a couple of pixels higher than a jump would get me and getting enough height to do a wall bash. Also, it can cover a good amount of horizontal distance if you trigger it at the start of a dash, it has some sort of momentum mechanic. I've used consecutive frog bubbles to skip over difficult sections of platforming in a few levels.
Thanks for making the video. It was great as always. I would just like to say that I love playing showdown, I would highly recommend going back into it and checking it out again bc of one sole reason, with limited moves and whatnot it forces you to analyze and create the best strategy for yourself to win. Anyway great job and thanks for making shovel knight videos.
I agree with most points in the video, but I can't rank king of cards or spectre of torment over each other. Regardless, I especially agree with the fact that the gameplay ranking was always going to be the final ranking! Great video in general though!
My personal ranking is: 4. Shovel of Hope, 3. King of Cards, 2. Specter of Torment, 1. Plague of Shadows
Note: you do actually get a small bit of upward movement with the bubble frog, but not that much.
You should try to go against the secret boss, cardia, easily the hardest boss fight in the entire series. Although it is locked behind multiple joustus battles
I just finished playing the 4 campaings of treasure trove and I think I loved King of cards for the things you didn't really like it that much. I loved the shorter level structure, and LOVED Joustus. King of cards became my favourite shovel knight campaign
I didn't know joustus was optional, but you know what? I'm glad I didn't know about it because I had a pretty fun time playing it, especially when I outsmarted an opponent it felt so satisfying (even though I used gem thief half the time)
great video. I kinda agree with your opinion on the items. I hate it when certain available weapon can suddenly turn the game from very hard to very easy in an instant. just ridiculous
I gotta say, I do like Specter Knight the most.
Really liked your review. Your a kind and easy to watch guy (I just started watching you) and your just so fair with the other games it's not even funny. Personally my stack of favorite games goes Plague of Shadows, King Of Cards, Shovel Knight, Specter Of Torment.
King knights control's are honestly the best in my opinion. And the dash leads to so many fun platforming scenarios. In other games id have a problem with the mario 3 approach but the gameplay is so addicting and spin jumping is so satisfying i dont even care. Its definitely my favorite even for king knights interactions with the cast alone its hilarious.
The horn costs a lot of mana, but it also can pick up gold. I don’t know if I lost my dropped gold a single time in this campaign, because no matter where it was I could always just use the horn and get it with no extra effort.
agree with almost everything…
you had me at 4th place specter of torment story. idk i’d say its the best solely off of the fact that the whole game is based off of a story, but its your oppinion lol. i just rank story off of how much story there is and how well its executed which specter of torment executes it almost perfectly, but i get where you’re coming from. for you story is more like character and how you like the main character, which is perfectly fine i just got a little confused as to why it was last
How do you have the exact same ranking as me, it’s insane
In my of opinion, joustous is actually a really fun card game that has an easy to learn ruleset with mechanics that are hard to master, the power up system is an annoying money sink, but is unnecessary. Special arrows like conveyer, triple, double, or bomb are cool and side specific which can lead to interesting moves paying off while card wide effects like sumo, converter, or grave are fun to mess with and can be game changing, even if grave is crazy rare, it's still worth it. If you get into it it's a lot of fun and I feel like it makes it edge just barely over spectre of torment but not by much
I loved that there were more levels, but they were shorter and didn't always have a boss. Yes, King of Cards felt a lot like Mario and I preferred it. Shovel Knight's levels overstayed their welcome with me more often than not.
Also, King Knight plays like Wario and I miss his side scrolling games. So, it was great getting that feel again.
Plus, I love Joustus. Call me crazy, but I played it a ton and collected every card. I do wish they had additional tutorials beyond the basic one. I would get new cards and have no idea how they worked.
I used the confetti horns all the time in order to reclaim lost gold. I found it really helpful for that.
I agree with your rankings!
I had some difficulty with Joustus at first, too. However, once I got through to the end game and had some more powerful cards at my disposal, I went back through and did all the Joustus stuff and was rewarded with a FANTASTIC secret boss. I will say though, I cheated a little bit by closing the software if I knew I was going to lose so I would go back to my last save without losing any cards. Anywhale, it was fun. I personally didn’t like King Knight’s character, but the gameplay more than made up for it, and it was funny to hear Kaufman go full classical for the music in this one. Anywhale, I went through and collected everything, even the cards, and didn’t regret the time I spent. I’m planning on doing the new game plus versions of each campaign next, but I’m stuck at the boss rush for Shovel Knight at the moment.
King knight is not only the most fun campaign for me, it felt much easier than shovel and plague knight. Joustus is the only card game I love in a video game and the ending with king knight throwing his hands in the air just made me love him. If anything king knight comes first in terms of gameplay because of its limited but very fun move set. Specter knight was my favourite character and I was very confused as to how they were going to make king knight enjoyable. Turns out, Yacht Club Games know what you would love before you know it yourself!
Good video!! Wanted to give my ranking. For me plague knight is at the bottom mainly because of the nippy controls and repeated levels followed by shovel knight due to me finding it difficult to control. But for my top I have to put king knight. Personally I found spectre knight a little clunky but that was at the start and as I moved through it got smoother but I just loved how fluidly n could get king knight moving as well as the light hearted story and shorter levels. All these things are preference and completely understand different opinions
Joustus is great. It's a really polished clever game. It reminds me of the board game pente or something similar. King of Cards is my favorite campaign, I think he's the coolest character by far. His mechanics feel perfect.
How could you not mention the airship's absolute banger of a theme. I was disappointed in the lack of new music too but that theme might be my favourite out of all the games. Also I really enjoyed joustous, just thought it was a neat side mode. Another one of my favourite things about King Knight is how you amass all the people which join you on the airship. When I played Specter of Torment I thought it would be really cool if you could see the knights join the order of no quarter one by one, so that eventually all would be sitting around that banquet table, so when King of Cards did basically that I was pleased. Gameplay-wise I think King of Cards is the best. Specter of Torment is second because running up walls when I wanted to fall down annoyed me quite a bit. I prefer the short levels where they all with different gimmicks too. I'm still torn between whether King of Cards or Specter of Torment is the best though, I liked Specter Knight's story a lot. The memory scenes were very cool.
Kings of cards is actually the first campaign I finished. I know I know, I'm the worst. When shovel knight released it just didn't appeal to me even though I bought it. But I always try each new campaign when it came out. I got hooked on king knight's movement. Plus I loved joustus. I mean I did everything but NG+. I loved it so much I tried to look up review and it led me to your channel before you released your review and I watch your other video about the other campaigns. Because of you I went back and beat Specter of Torment (it was amazing). And I am working on beating shovel of hope. Love your videos.
Honestly I tend to agree with.... like 90% of what you say in all these videos, so my ranking is about the same. I don't care so much about the balance of side items that are just a matter of "don't like, don't use", and while I see how some of them are almost thoughtlessly powerful, it just doesn't bother me. (So I'm just kinda neutral on it, I find most challenge arbitrary anyway, so I don't see not using them as any more arbitrary than anything else. I know people who still fail hard at the game even with all those items anyway, so take it for what it's worth) End of the day, I'm just glad to see everything release for this game finally, and I'm really impressed with the quality of it all! I think I still like playing on the 3DS the most, just cause the effect does REALLY make things pop, but there's also a reason I own the whole series 3 times over. lol
I wish they would make a physical joustus game. Also, I'd say King of Cards and Spectre of Torment are tied for me, because I like King Knights difficulty and I like the character interactions, but Spectre Knight has some banger gameplay
Actually the Bubble Frog DOES have a small amount of upward movement if you stay in it long enough.
Joustus is pretty fun,you shoud try it out,and their side stories are neat
I used the suicide rats all the time, they are great for boss fights.
you can also shoulder bash off of them which is cool
In general all the weapons of King of Cards are great, I honestly do not know why everyone always says that the weapons in Shovel Knigth are useless in general, that they do not use them does not mean that they stink, they are to make easier some situations not mandatory objects , which seems that nobody understands
Honestly, the rats bothered me because I couldn't throw one when another one was out. Afaik, you couldn't manually detonate your rats, so if you were trying to use the rats like Shovel Knight's anchor or Plague Knight's arching bomb, missing meant that you couldn't just throw another one.
I’m glad I didn’t overuse the phase locket a bunch in my play through
King Knight is so hard to compare to the other campaigns for me personally, because it's hard for me to see it the same way. Specter Knight's game is always going to be the most fun to me, but I don't really know how I'd compare it. King Knight was much easier to pick up and put down which is something I appreciated greatly. I see it as more of a puzzle platformer than anything else, since every level is designed around throwing a gimmick at you and having you work around it, which is really fun. The other games tend to focus on a lot of gimmicks which come and go throughout the stage which is good, but I don't think it would've suited King Knight as well.
That being said, I don't see myself replaying it nearly as frequently as I do the other campaigns, because for me it's like, I already have all of the solutions to each level now, and it'll likely feel a lot more like a drag if anything because of that. Not inherently bad at all, but less replayable. The other side to that is that, as cool as I think it is I am TERRIBLE at Joustus. Not to mention that when I replay any of the campaigns I always 100% them and trying to do that with collecting EVERY Joustus card all over again sounds even more tedious then I found it the first time around.
Over all I still really loved King Knight and it's some of the most fun I've had ever with a game, not that there's anything new with that sentiment when it comes to Yacht Club and Shovel Knight.