Shantae and the Seven Sirens Nintendo Switch Review - Is It Worth It? 

Half genie hero was boring, Pirate curse is still their best game.

@CJ P. All of this. Wayforward has been making strides to become more noticeable in the Japanese gaming industry (showing the Seven Sirens intro during the Promare movie screenings), but they just don't promote their games enough or run ads. Only fans of the Shantae series really knew this game even existed.

@@WingedSupernova and it's crazy when you consider that Shantae is their mascot. Heck, there's a separate trademark for Shantae herself and the Shantae logo (they're both trademarked by BOZON, which must be a separate entity specifically designed by Matt and Erin Bozon, co-founders of WayForward and the creators of Shantae), which shows how important she is to the company. Yet there's hardly ever anything to rope people in before the games release unless you helped to crowd fund the last two games or just decided to give the games a shot at random. They want her to be up there with Mario in terms of her popularity and she is up at the top of the indie platformer totem pole, but they rely too heavily on word of mouth since they may not have the funds to do any major marketing to make that possible on their own. If by some miracle, she gets into Smash as a playable character rather than a spirit, that could very well be the push she needs to become mainstream

I find these games good, but nothing special. Especially when you have games like Hollow Knight and Ori out there... They're worth playing, but don't expect a standout game.

@@steel5897 I think Shantae's metroidvania map is a lot more engaging than Hollow Knight's long linear stages.

This is what 1/2 genie should’ve been, a full on metroidvania not a weird kickstarter bottlenecked mega man Metroidviania hybrid (that still is fun don’t get me wrong)

@@motorwayt-s628 exactly... It was fun but weird... Thankfully this new one followed the previous formulas

Levi Sandoval yeah 7 sirens feels like an extension of pirates curse and the series. 1/2 genie feels like it takes a lot of Shantae ideas but does it’s own thing. It’s like if they made Mario 3D land in between the galaxy games

HGH has argueably better boss fights and way better OST though.

HGS worked quite well when it was just completing stages. However then the game forced to backtrack and it was just padding.

Grinding elsewhere is good, in 2d platformers it’s just straight up bullshit. Although there is that broken gem jug dance from HGH…

Good eye mate

Yeah, but honestly, can you blame them? That show's DNA drill helix perneates many of the shows made by the studio in one shape or form. So it is not uncommon for TRIGGER and Gurren Lagann to be talked out on the same sentence.

@@manuelalbertoromero9528 You are right, but it would be wrong to say Trigger made TTGL and i think it is important to point it out.

​@@Thengel09 i still see no much problem calling it trigger? miyazaki made cagliostro before Ghibli and people still call it Ghibli for convinience

It's like saying Petroglyph made Command & Conquer -- kinda true, but technically false.

nice tho

Well, you aren't technically wrong. All of the bosses can be symbolic of the sins. The wiki says so, and their designs and charactersistics seem eerily similar to the 7 sins themselves.

I cant wait for Shantae and the four horsemen. Becasue bible stuff....maybe featureing Metallica XD

Congrats on using the most overused profile pic on all of RU-vid. Yet another part of your life that is wholly unoriginal.

Shantae and the Seven Stars

Yeah, same here, but I think it will be worth it! Any clue on how long it usually takes Limited Run to get those out? My first Limited Run order.

Me too. Don’t expect it for a few months.

It took quite a long time for me to get my River City Girls copy from them. I've opted to just buying digitally and get the physical too if I have extra money.

@@WingedSupernova How is River City girls?

@@cinminroll7630 its a beat em up, so like all beat em ups it can get boring at times. That being said its probably the best beat em up ive ever played. Lots of unlockables and new attackes unlock as you play and the bosses have great variety. It really shines in 2 player coop though. If you have a friend whos bored of smash bros then invite em over and play some river city girls. Its a great time.

same

Smash Bros India guess what! Nintendo’s summer sale has shantae risky revenge as 10 bucks and half genie hero 20 bucks

@@InTheEnd75 lol ikr. I ordered everything LRG had for the games, steelbooks, and cards xD

@@devilkicksanji2 me too lol I got Risky’s revenge collectors edition and a switch copy of the first game

@@InTheEnd75 I got all collectors editions even the GBC one lol ^_^

I enjoyed all of them, the drill was intresting and everything flowed well so far for me

See, there’s a bit of a divide here. One of the big complaints in past games, and especially Half Genie Hero, is that transforming takes time that breaks up gameplay momentum. It’s something Pirates Curse gets praise for, since the pirate gear was all button activated rather than transformed into. It seems like the instant transformations were a way to mitigate this, keeping Shantae’s transformation powers but making them faster to help gameplay flow; while the fusion transformations are there for the classic dancing transformations. I kinda hope in the next game we can have both the classic permanent transformations for longer uses and classic feel, and the instant transformations for uninterrupted gameplay.

@@MHSchonberg I personally thought the way Half Genie Hero handled the transformations was perfect. It was quicker than the previous games and easy to use. And even so, so many reviewers I watch always mention a game's pace as an important aspect of gameplay but personally I just never cared about that, the sense of progression and reward is all that matters to me. The transformations may have required you to stop in place, but they are necessary to progress so even though I'm not physically moving I still feel like I'm progressing and that's what's important to me. I understand why people love Pirate's Curse, I love it too, but the difference here is that the transformations offer different play styles while the pirate equipment just expanded on Shantae's original moveset. I'm one of the few Shantae fans who doesn't prefer Pirate's Curse over Half Genie Hero, I love both of them and I can't pick which one I prefer because there are things I prefer from each over the other. But Seven Sirens feels like the crew at WayForward tried to hit on the strengths of both and in a few ways missed the mark on both counts

@@MHSchonberg This. I agree with this. Although, if they maintained the existing formula in Seven Sirens, I'd be satisfied.

@@Zitsanrael1117 I agree with almost everything. I understand why people like the pirate gears, but personally, I never minded that I had to stop in place for a second or two. It's honestly not much more "pace breaking" than pausing the game to access your inventory. Granted, the transformations were a required stop, but still. I do think...that people kinda overly praise the pirate gears a bit. The pistol and downward thrust aren't really all that useful outside of their intended puzzles. (Certainly not useful for combat, seeing how they don't match up to the might of her hair whip AT ALL, especially with Max upgrades, monster milk, and Pike balls thrown in. It's also not difficult to get in an enemy's face) Plus, she was capable of doing similar stuff before, like the elephant stomp. As for the hat glide and cannon jump... Shantae can straight up fly with the harpy, trouncing both of these. The only one that stands out is the boot dash, 'cause people love their speed boosters. I have a sneaking suspicion that if the dash weren't a part of the mix, the opinion on the Pirate's gears wouldn't have been as high, given the type of comments I've seen over there years. But that's just me. And I agree, HGH felt pretty quick and fluid in it's own right. Not quite like the pirate gears, but more than sufficient, in my opinion. If the games stuck with how HGH handled it, I wouldn't mind. Transformations that were commonly used, like the monkey, we're front and center, allowing for quick activation that took less than a second. The flow of the game was never hindered, in my opinion. Also, a point that not enough people talk about is the fact that time stops when she dances. That was always nice when I needed to adjust myself really quickly, specifically in hardcore mode. I also liked it because I interpret it as "When she dances, the world *stops* and stares.* HAVING SAID THAT, I do think that what Seven Sirens does, is the best of both worlds, and not just in a gameplay sense. You get that instantaneous activation while also maintaining the core aspect: transformations. And having the dances still be there in the form of the world-altering dances was a nice touch, to maintain that classic feel. (They...kinda went a little TOO classic. Enemies still move around while dancing, like in the first game, lol. At least it's not a big deal here) I personally think this is the best compromise they could ask for. In a story sense, I interpret the fusion magic as Shantae getting stronger, more powerful, and more comfortable with her powers. You can think of the dances to transform into animals sort of like training wheels. As she gets stronger, she no longer needs to do it, displaying how adept she's becoming with her genie magic. Kind of like how a magic user might need to use incantations at first to use spells, but as they get more experienced, they can just use the spells automatically.

nice pfp

This or goose game?

Same here 😊

Also, replay value. A game can give me over 100hrs of gameplay, and that's great. But if I never want to touch it again, that's not so great.

@@Gale_Storm_ That's very true. It always come down to replay value for me. If I had tons of fun with the game and want to revisit it again and again then that's all that matters. Graphics aren't always everything.

Funnily enough there hasn't been much art about the new characters at all. I guess the game has been kind of forgotten.

Exactly what I thought when he said that 😄

Because fire emblem three houses is 200 hours long

With symphony of the night and Hollow knight Duh.

Kirnale I can’t even imagine how someone takes 200 hours to beat three houses lol. It’s like 70 hours max

@@fade6355 U know there are serveral paths and each is pretty long. 70 hours is the average per storyline as well as my own records.beat all 4 of them in just 70 hours means you need to skip all dialogue and rush the game rapidly while having all the knowledge about each map.

I have it but its in pretty bad shape. It used to belong to my grandma and my aunt gave me her gameboy stuff when she passed.

Just gonna download a rom

The games are all mostly the same. If you really wanna try it just wait until its on sale. But don't expect anything drastically different from what you've experienced. They all mostly run together

Agreed. Id love to play a new Shantae game but they all look the same to me. I played Riskys Revenge and didn't care for it. I'd be open to a more traditional platform as opposed to the branching paths and dungeons that require a lot of back tracking and memorizing where to take keys or use new abilities. Its just padding.

The thing is metroidvania games are long games, You also have to understand something this is an easy game and is not that challenging, Hollow Knight for example has more content, looks better (But is Insect theme and is creepy)Is way longer and has free dlc and it costed 14.99$. There is also Bloodstained now. Both games take more than 12 hours to beat. Speedruns with all bosses and all secrets do hollow knight in 3 and half hours ( is insane how speedrunners do it) so no and this is not an open world game, this is a metroidvania.

Depends on the game. Persona 5 is over 100 hours. It’s all relative

I think a lot that thinking comes from how publishers have made map size snd play time one of the main talking points when they advertize a game snd a lot of people became used to thinking bigger/ longer=a better quality game. I tr emd to buy open world gsmes because by the time I finishe them I'll have saved up for the next big game I have my eye on, but these fantastic, 10 hr or less games are so great and studios like this one seem to hit the right time msrk to keep you wanting more, so whn people won't buy a game because it's "not long enough" they miss out of great more compact experiences that can boast quality over quantity.and I also agree eoth the above poster, Persona 5 is gold, and I'd happily sink 100s of hours into it. It's all abput content. Like you said big open worlds that are just filler are disappointing. TLDR- Short snd sweet is great and shouldn't be dismissed, and a quality, full open world is worth the money. Quality>Quantity.

@@raulrojas9253 it's possible to get a 100% speedrun of half-genie hero that takes less than 2 hours. If you know all the tricks, Pirate's Curse can also be beaten in 2 hours. It took me 1hour and 39 minutes to 100% half-genie hero's officer mode and that's without skipping dialogue and including several game overs (because I'm bad at videogames lol). It was also my very first crack at the mode. For a Shantae game, 8 hours is on the longer side of the spectrum. That's triple-checking everything to ensure a 100% on your first run and falling into pits a ton in the process (all things I do). Basically, that's taking the time out to thoroughly take in everything the game has to offer on your very first attempt

@@raulrojas9253 I don't know if Metroidvanias are really long games...Bloostained or especially Hollow Knight are rather the exception. HK might be the biggest Metroidvania in general, but the usual 2D ones are most between 7-15 hours usually (at least the ones I played, and those are most of the better known ones). Also, as the original post said, I'd rather have quality over quantity. A game isn't automatically better just because it takes longer to beat. Especially Bloodstained has still to this day some issues that take away from the enjoyment, furthermore it's so similar to the 6 Igavanias that came before...I'd really wish they'd mix up the formula a bit by now. Hollow Knight is a great game and really cheap for all it offers, but as much as I like it, some areas are also just "more of the same". I'm looking forward to Shantae on Thursday, it might be a bit pricey for its length, but since the quality seems to be as high as usual, I still wanna play it asap.

Cringe

Step ?

Most of those can just be chalked up to the genre both games share, but yes Shantae and HK are similar.

That does sound like a metroidvania.

so they're hand drawn metroidvanias.

Me yes

$30 for a 10 hour game I don’t think so

J J Maybe in your opinion, but there were plenty of other games that were with a full $60 price tag, and were just as short, if not shorter, and were still worth it. Yes, longer games are usually nicer, but I prefer quality over quantity.

Griff Wilson I always get both quality and quantity botw is perfect example

J J if you’re expecting every game to be up to breath of the wild’s standard than boy are you gonna be disappointed

@Encore I do, though.

@Encore Yes.

No, this game won't have any DLC!

Yea I don't like the new music as much as the old stuff but I don't think it's bad, it still feels like Shantae music just a bit lower quality

I think they approached him, but he declined because he was working on a different project at the time, but I don't know for sure

@@djsercy5879 Think that's case, yeah. Last I heard, in addition to other projects, he was working to establish his own independent studio.

Nah Nintendo good

HAHAHAHA once you go Hollow Knight You never go back. (Is cheaper and with more content too)So yeah Not worthty at all. ( I mean 7 sirens) is also too damm expensive 39.99 for a less than 8 hours metroidvania is too damn short and there is also confirmed dlc coming up.

@@raulrojas9253 source: my ass

That's "Pirate's curse", ignorant.

I agree that Half-genie hero is better

No

They're games of Nintendo quality and polish! That's why many say they don't get enough attention.

Good games getting attention makes a lot of sense actually. ;)

These games dont get much attention just the small fanbase is vocal and annoying af

What an ignorant comparison considering RE3 has replay value and the budget was much higher than any Shantae game. Why the hell would a new RE game not be sold for the standard price of other triple A games? 😑

@@randybear932 its not a new game dude... its a remake of an old one with a LOT OF STUFF REMOVED!!! NOT. A. NEW. GAME. how can you not understand that? how can you DEFEND REMOVING entire sections of the game? The Game Cube version of RE 1, THAT is how you REMAKE a game, you ADD to it, NOT REMOVE. tell me HOW RE3 remake ADDED to what we had. NO mercenaries mini game, and no, the "free game" they included DOESN'T COUNT, they only did that because they KNEW that would not sell ALONE, if you look back to the reveal of it, there was backlash, Capcom could not sell on its own merits. all this and you claim IM the ignorant one when you FAIL to see the reality of what was TAKEN from the original, KNOWING they can make remakes far superior to the original like they did with RE 1? you're either a master troll (and well done ya got me if thats the case) or are in fact the most ignorant fool on this earth.

if i seem angry its because RE1 on the gamecube is PERFECT, i am angry because they CAN do AMAZING remakes, RE3 just felt like a cash grab to me. i loved what we got, but miss what we lost.

Agreed. The fans overhyped this series. Theyre average to good at best. Maybe if the devs tried something different but they seem to pump out the same game every couple years thats why all the games look the same.

Yes

It's mid at best.

How much is the game 60 dollars is alot of money and I'm always running out of space. 60 dollars for what could be a moble game and 10 hours of game play no thanks I'm not rich.

@@MegaErockZ On www.nintendo.com/games/detail/shantae-and-the-seven-sirens-switch/ it says 29,99 $, please refrain from spreading misinformation.

Cause theyre an indie developer but yeah their games do look cheap and all blend together.