The WORST Item in Shovel Knight - Shovel Knight Analysis - Hyve Minds 

I want to make a pinned comment here because this video is OLD and I don't entirely agree with what I said in it anymore. I'm not gonna go over everything I think I was wrong about here but overall I think I took some criticisms a little too far and would do it differently if I was making this video today.

Regular people: Use the phase locket in order to avoid taking damage Me an intellectual (?: Spams the phase locket in mid air to make a recovery when falling from moving platforms

I straight up forgot I had the phase locket when I did Shovel Knight's campaign, so I never used it. I abused the crap out of the will skull though.

I come from that Mega Man school of thought, where there are a lot of tools and options that you get to figure out and use in the best ways possible. To me, it's more fun to try using a variety of methods rather than just always picking the best strategy every time. That's what replayability is all about, I think.

After watching this video I think that King Knight's healing "item" (it's more so a move than an item) is done really well.

Hollow Knight does one of my favorite iterations of specter knights heal - it's a heal that requires you to spend a resource plus stand still and regains the resource by attacking enemies. However, Hollow Knight in his base form has a small maximum "darkness" pool, cannot use the heal in midair, and has a lengthy windup.

Staff of Striking SHREDS certain bosses when spammed

Hey man, don't knock the staff of striking. It has super high damage per second with no charge time which just drains boss life real quick. all you need is an opening at close range to wail on what ever is in your way.

I felt like the leech liquid was very powerful, but I never used the locket or the will skull, thinking they were garbage. It's quite interesting how the way you play games influences your view on certain mechanics. I was interested in which of the two items you put on the thumbnail was worse, so i was really surprised by the direction the video went.

King of cards might have their own item of this sort. That item being the heart hammer, a hammer that, if it hits the enemy, they drop hearts.

The staff of Striking is actually amazing in speedruns. Sure otherwise it's useless but since it's a fast attack, it keeps the Damage frames up, aaaaand yeah my wording is poor sorry

7:17 awesome music sync up w/ the smashing snowball

What you said about the Items' optional nature is specifically why I didn't care for Specter Knight nearly as much - his moveset is so powerful as it is that I never have a desire to use the items, meanwhile I consistently use pretty much every item in both Shovel and Plague Knight when running or doing casual speedruns of the game. Most of what you said here genuinely does come down to playstyle, as you said. That's specifically why I _do_ love them, because while I felt the same way you did during my early playthroughs, in the 50 playthroughs and 2 full 100% runs of Shovel Knight/Plague since then, I've fallen in love with most everything. (That's also why I'm holding out before I lock my opinion on Specter Knight, because I haven't cared to go back to him ever since several facets of that campaign soured me on the experience. Funnily enough, Specter Knight's NG+ is what hurt it the most. I feel the constantly-decreasing health bar should've been a separate mode of some sort. That they added it the way they did essentially undercuts the entire previous playthrough to me, and that cheapens Specter's items and replayability. I'd like to be able to play NG+ casually whenever I want to, and experiment with items to learn to love them like I did with the other two, but instead I'm stuck having to start the game fresh every time - and thus missing out on using later curios in older areas - or just pick levels in a near-finished save.)

Surely you’d have realised the phase locket was detrimental to your experience after the first (or first few) times using it. If you made the active choice to keep using it after that point, I think that’s a problem you’ve created yourself.

I think a lot of the items work really well during the Shovel Knight NG+ Boss Rush, you couldn’t just use the phase locket for an instant, because then you’d be out of Mana for the next boss. You had to strategize which boss needed which item and how much of that item to use. Conserving Mana was a big part of the boss rush, so you had to use a combination of pattern memorization and item use to win.

This is a great video, but you have to keep in mind some items are useful for speedrunning, seeing that yacht club games knows of them. The staff of striking is good for bosses and the orb and bouncy thing in specter knights campaign are good for platforming and bosses respectively. This is a great and we'll put together video/essay type thing. I would just like you to think about different types of playing, as it seems you are thinking from one perspective, which is still fine.

I never used the phase locket but i used the will skull like there was no tommorow

One of my favorite things in specter of torment was the risk mail: it brought you down to 4 health and you had to break a checkpoint to use it but it gave you a more powerful attack and regenerative darkness

In my opinion the "Just don't use them" argument is completely valid. I know for a fact in my first run of the game I used the phase locket like twice through the whole thing. The phase locket was probably meant for little kids to have a crutch. If you use the crutch even though you know It's wrong to do so, that's on you. It's like if you used a wheelchair ramp instead of the stairs just because you didn't feel like climbing them.

I know very little about Shovel Knight, but I did find your comments on how overpowered items can put a damper on the game interesting. You're incentivized to use them because they're good, so obviously you're gonna use them. That logic is why I don't like Nioh's spells.

Everything you said in point 5 invalidated your previous 4 points. Seems like you're just whining the game wasn't made for just YOU and the way YOU play. The different relics and curios provide a diverse way to tackle an obstacle that's up to the player's individual play-style. Using good items isn't the same pressing a "win button". Like you said in point 5 some people need or want to use the phase locket. The purpose of playing these games isn't to win in the most efficient way it's to HAVE FUN. You said yourself you had the most fun when you didn't have the phase locket. I had lot's of fun playing the game in different ways, between using all the relics to speed run the game as fast as possible. Or just using the items that were the most fun for the play style I like, Propeller Dagger and Dust Knuckle. Overall I think you're missing the point that these items not being mandatory produces a new experience and a whole lot of options for play styles.

Excellent analysis on items. I agree with the notion that those items are overpowered and that handicapping yourself to have fun again is counter intuitive. Will look forward for more content

Fun video! I enjoyed used the Judgment Rush in the Specter Knight campaign a lot - it allows you to bypass a lot of tricky platforming, particularly in my second run-through in the difficult mode where time really matters.

Honestly, the Staff of Striking is actually one of my favorites from Plague's arsenal. Yeah, its attack range is hilariously short, but the combination of mid-air hovering for as long as you manage to chain it and the fastest DPS out of any item in the game, and it absolutely *eviscerates* airborne bosses. I can shave off half of Specter or Propeller's health with one bar of power with this thing. Saved my ass against Black Knight's final fight. Actually, I ended up at least tolerating half of the arcana Plague had. Bait Bomb's useful for puzzles, Vat and Staff of Surging are good for recovery, and Leech Brew's good in a pinch as long as you know how to dodge. Although, in his case, you really don't need Arcana that often due to the combined benefits of the loadout(side note: who regularly uses a burst that isn't Float?). As for Shovel Knight, I will agree on Mobile Gear, and Alchemy Coin sucks, but the others have uses. War Horn's crowd control, Flare Rod's a solid projectile, Throwing Anchor's a good piercing, Propeller Dagger's great for platforming and chaining combos, and Dust Knuckles are just *fun*. It's just fun to punch through lines of dirt piles with that thing. Actually, Specter Knight's loadout is probably the most mixed for me, as most of the upgrades(rendered very cheap by the fact that nothing else requires currency if you're the exploring type and thus likely have a mountain of gold)pretty much eliminate most, if not all drawbacks to item usage. And honestly, only ones I used regularly were the Will Skull for pickups, the heat seeking slash attack because *oh my God that's awesome*, the shadow clone to pick up items at zero darkness cost, the hover for invincibility and platforming, and the skull sentry thing for when I want to eviscerate certain minibosses. Everything else was just too bland or too situational.

Interesting. I found the smoke bomb to be the most OP of the three in my playthrough because you get a much longer period of invulnerability and you can have it up almost 100% of the time.

one thing I need to say about the mobile gear is that at times there are places where I need to have another block to get up there but again that is just for treasure

I don't necessarily agree with your view on the will skull tbh. Sure, it can be overpowered when it comes to bosses, but that's not the whole game. It's not an automatic win the game button like you compared it to. You can still die while using it, whether it be falling down a pit in a stage or certain boss fights, or not being able to use it fast enough. The phase locket does more or less fit that description, though, as the only thing that can kill you while using it is pits if I'm correct? If they even can? I'm not sure, I never used it until going back for music sheets. That was a while ago. I do think it's a bit unfair to judge them for being overpowered if, like you mentioned in the video, they're completely optional. There's a difference between applying house rules and choosing not to spam an overpowered item if you don't like it. If they break the game so much you can, again, choose not to use them, or only use them in a pinch. Keeps the challenge to the game completely by your own choice. And, keep in mind, there are some people(myself included) who like making the game easier in those ways; whether it be they are just unskilled or just like playing for fun. In my case it's kinda a mix of both, I'll admit. I dunno, video was ok even if I didn't agree with it entirely.

4:56 - From what I've seen, speedrunners use that item every time at some point or another. But even in my own personal experience, it's one of the best ways to fight Propeller knight, because if you time the attacks JUUUUUUUUST right, you can attack each time he thrusts, and not take damage or get knocked back, which is VITAL since Plague Knight's knockback distance is RE-DICULOUS!

Instead of items you could've called them what they're called in Castlevania: Sub-Weapons. Also, I think you forgot to mention another group of people: People who are both skilled at combat AND platforming, thus are not particularly biased toward a specific relic to help them with either. They can literally just use whatever they think is the most fun, which is exactly what I did. And that is why Chaos Sphere, Staff of Striking, and Dread Talon are my most used relic in each campaign. Dread Talon once upgraded is just a nice way to instantly delete a troublesome enemy if you're trying to pass through quickly since it one-shots most everything, ignores defenses, and gives you super-armor so you can't be prevented from doing so. Also you can kind of use it to help you platform a little bit if you're too lazy to swap weapons since it pauses your vertical movement, and then nudges you forward a little bit. It also tends to reap a fair bit of darkness per hit against tougher enemies.

Just subbed, you are completely underrated

Great video! I completely agree with you on everything but personally I never used the phase locket during boss fights, it just never occurred to me and I just didn't use any curio often, so I ended up having a blast fighting each boss and learning their patterns and over coming them. Also, thats a very interesting fact about the mobile gear. I literally never used it and I think that was really funny that it could 1 shot tinker knight.

You say the fun comes from winning, but something that helps you win detracts from the fun for you? I think you REALLY find the fun from playing, and thus it is your fault that you aren't having fun because you can choose to not use items. It's only your "it's all about winning, NOT playing" mindset that prevented you from having fun.

It took me way to long to realise you could spam items like knuckle dusters to break through the row of dirt

I just recently bought Shovel Knight Treasure Trove, and while I am seasoned gamer, Specter of Torment had me raging because of the Specter Knight's movement. The wall climb felt like it happened whenever it wanted to, and the ability to fling yourself off of objects and enemies, was at times locking onto the wrong targets. Nothing like throwing yourself into a bottomless pit over and over again because of a random projectile or Specter not wanting to let go of a ledge the right way. I was so happy to get the hover and judgement skills.

I will go ahead and mention that the arcana I remember using the most were the following Bait bomb: good early game tool for fighting basic knights as I find most bomb powders struggle to best them until sparkler cascade and cluster Vat: I use this to take full advantage of plague knights aerial capability Big boom: another useful range tool for damaging enimies in ways the bait bomb or casings struggle. Also useful for specter knight. Beserkers brew: I use it in one scenario with the attacking platforms right before the enchantress Smoke bomb: ehh really only for spikes Life essence: I only use it in new game plus as it’s a lifesaver once you get the pattern down

A much more mature video than the first one but a little bit exclusionary. I demand speedrunner mode! :D No, I mean like for real, I guess a countless number of people already told you that the Staff of striking may be the most useful Arcana from a speedrunner standpoint. It is the only one used in the current most populat route of Plague of Shadows. Also, I agree about the gear...mostly. Also from a speedrunner's standpoint I could say that it offers a few very interesting skips and I do not even mean the big ones but instead small skips worth a few seconds and it also hits for 1 damage instead of 0.5 which makes it pretty useful in boss battles. Of course speedrunners are a minority but still, I think it was worth to have another point of view. Oh...you wonder what the worst item is for me? Hmmm, well, the Caltrops. Hahahahaha. No, really, all of the items could serve you well. It totally depends on your playstyle and the way you want to play. I totally abused the Locket, Knuckles, Propeller Dagger and Hover Plume as well as the Staff of Surging and Vat. However, I think that even the Chronos Coin (of Specter) and the Coin (which is already proven to be truth by TAS Bot and a few runners) could be very useful if they fit your mentality well.

When I first played shovel knights campaign I didn’t realize the phase locket being overpowered most of the items I didn’t use because I was trying to save Mana I really only used it when I got in a serious challenge even durning the final boss fight I kind of forgot some of the items existed I really enjoyed the video good job.

Since shovel of hope was spoiled for me I flat out refused to use the phase locket pretty much all the time. except when it was required and yes that means I beat plauge knight,s timed rematch in challenge mode without a phase to my name.(I still remember my brother screaming at me) Same goes for the smoke bomb and sorta the will skull (I only rarely used it).

Great video! It really brought a new perspective on things, that I never thought about. I really hope you make a video on the best/worst boss in this style! Here are MY oppinions, and remember, this is ONLY from a gameplay and game design perspective, no story /design or anything like that. Anyway, here we go! BEST: Treasure Knight - Shovel of Hope. Bet you didn't expect that one! Treasure Knight from Shovel of Hope is in my opinion the best designed boss in the game. His SoT counterpart is a little worse with its new attacks being a little weird and specific to dodge, but he's still great! What makes him so good is that it's a reactionary battle; for both of you! You can manipulate TKs attack patterns by standing in certain places but you still have to react fast and be on your toes, because he might surprise you with his multiple approaches to your acctions! WORST: Polar Knight - Shovel of Hope. Oh boy. Story? Visual design? Top freakin' notch. But, as I said, we're not talking about that. While Propeller Knight is just a bit bland, this guy seriously doesn't know what he's doing: too paternized, AND too unpredictable at the same time. The first phase is... okay... but there are so many ways to fail, and unlike Plague Knight where every hit feels (mostly) justified, this guy loves to trap you into a corner, litteraly and figuratively. Then, the kaizo, golden reflex crap you have to dodge is outright bad, getting new players and veterans alike! I see what they where going for, but, as hard it is for me to say this, noone ain't perfect, not even Yacht Club. SPECIAL: Plague of Shadows - Plague of Shadows. SPOILERS (obviously). I just had to mention this guy: he's just goddamn GOLD. I don't know what it is about him, I just LOVE IT - yet it is a guilty pleasure. Remember Plague Knight? Well now he's stronger, and his arena more accurately matches him (it's crazy)! Now, remember Plague Knight? Well now you're playing as him! And he's just as spaztic to control as he is to fight! It all just leads to a glorious golden mess I had to mention. NOTES: SoH and PoS: Black Knight is... Good... I guess. King Knight is great! Not much to say there... Specter Knight is good, but a way to paternized. Plague Knight is... weird... he's a... GOOD spaztic boss?! (Yes. Yes he is.) Mole Knight is mostly good, but sadly destroyed by that fire droplet attack. Tinker Knight could be better, but... Eh. Propeller Knight is pretty crap... few attacks, and even then, they're not all that good: too specific... Polar Knight is just like Propeler Knight The Big Creep is surprisingly good! Black Knight (Tower of Fate) is another really good one! Enchantress is pretty great, even if I hate her. Remminance of Fate: A bit too boring, only one or two attacks, and admit it, the hole Shield Knight gimmick gets a little old after a while. Plague of Shadows: HA! Just no. Corrupted Essence: I admit it: I LOVE this boss! Every attack is greatly designed and extremely fun to dodge! Except for that downward swipe of projectiles. It catches me off guard, and he seems to use it while I'm in the air, making me fall on it immediatly. SoT: again... procrastination... ( And I have quite a bit of homework to do...) KoC: King of Pridemoor seems really good, similar to TK and CorruptedE!

I went into shovel knight first time and started only using phase locket when I needed to

Mole knight in shovel of hope is my favorite shovel knight boss because it utilizes the stages item, the dust knuckles, in such a way that you can punch through his projectile attacks making the fight more interesting and time based along side the timed jumps on top of him when he dove from wall to wall

Funnily enough, I'm psyched for the Mobile Gear's application in Rivals of Aether, where it's going to be an amazing Neutral tool for Shovel knight where he forces foes to jump over it or such.

There’s no “No Curio Run” achievement for Spectre Knight because you will get a curio once you start the flashback levels. The Caltrops, while an optional pickup in the first flashback, is given to you during the second one, and since you can’t skip the flashback levels it would be impossible to not have any curios at the end of the game.

When I was playing with Shovel, I thought that the locket was - A - not usable mid-air and - B - stoppable while its ghost animation was playing. I felt really stupid firstly, but now I think I might've done myself a favor by that.

First off, amazing video! I enjoyed listening to your argument and it really got me thinking about the items in Shovel Knight and made me realize that they definitely do fall into those 2 categories you mentioned. It wasn't until I started trying to speed run the game (for the achievement and for fun) that I really got an appreciation for the level design and how intricate some of the platforming can be without skipping the difficult parts via propeller dagger or phase locket. Honestly to me my favorite item ended up being the chaos orb, which I find is a semi-decent medium between useless an overpowered. My first play through I never bothered to use it and didn't think much of it. It wasn't until speed running that its potential really became clear. Although its use can be very niche, when it becomes useful it's extremely powerful, especially in boss battles. Honestly it's a bit too good on bosses, but there are a lot of parts in levels where a well placed Chaos Orb can take care of 2-3 annoying enemies. I don't know. Just my two cents. Either way I think you're correct. Shovel Knights fun can definitely be undercut by its items if you let it. (That's not to say it isn't fun at all, I extremely enjoyed my first play through of the game, but to say it withholds it from its max potential).

Honestly, the Leeching Liquid and Berserker's Brew were very well-intentioned attempts at the "Phase Locket" type item. The Leeching Liquid can reward you with potentially HUGE amounts of health, but you need to hit your bombs. It's a real risk-reward item, but it is limited, as you said, by how many heals Plague of Shadows throw at you. Berserker's Brew is extremely cool, because it is a phase locket that ONLY works on contact damage, and not other sources, which means that it doesn't just shred bosses. It even offers a fun risk-reward by allowing you to damage enemies by touching them, which can turn fights into a question of "should I go in for another hit, or stay back so my brew doesn't wear off at a bad time". TLDR, Plague of Shadows has my personal favorite spread of Sub weapons.

It's interesting that most of the reasons you dislike the items, I feel in love with them. Most items I've found have a specific level or instance where they make gameplay slightly easier for the player, but not outright so. If you're a newer player who finds platforming games difficult, you may rely on them (Which I don't believe you focused on enough in your video), but if you're an experienced player, then you can breeze through without the items. It's the perfect balance. At the very least, I greatly appreciate you never using the term objective throughout your review, and that you kept things very opinionated and allowed room for others opinions as well! Thanks for the video

When I first used the phase locket I didn't have that much mana, and I got scared of using it, so I ended up ignoring it, even when I could bear the cost. Also I found out recently that I was using it wrong, activating it a second to early, leaving it mostly used up by the time I did what I wanted to do with it.

I actually had to use Phase Locket to traverse a gap where the enemy that gave me a boost wouldn’t appear for some reason, since I didn’t have the Propeller Dagger. (I was in Propeller Knight’s stage on the screen after the second point.)

I went through my first playthrough not knowing about the power of the phase locket. Huh, geuss im better than I though I was.

I never really used the phase locket, I instead opted to spam the gauntlet on bosses whenever there was an opening.

Please do more shovel Knight videos, I find them very interesting and fun to watch. Good video BTW.

I didn't use the phase locket at all in my first playthrough of shovel knight, because it thought that the cost was too much. I didn't really use the items in shovel of hope that much and went mostly vanilla, despite buying or finding all of them. It was a pretty great experience anyway.

Thank god I didn’t manage to discover phase locket the first time I played shovel knight, I managed to study patterns of the bosses and know how they work. I actually played shovel knight without any item and it was actually challenging.

Came back to this video after a year, and just now realized you still only have 4k subs. wtf? These are all so well done, you definitely deserve more.

Good analysis - I like how you touched on your opinion of how items could have been handled better, but also that you recognized the possible reason behind why it was done the way it was, to be a more accessible game to the largest audience. From my perspective I'm not a very skilled gamer so the items are helpful for me for the platforming where I don't have to worry as much about being attacked, but at the same time I'm a spaz so I'm not as coordinated at using the items and end up just doing without them in boss fights where I need to worry about being targeted. Interesting. Also "opined" lol.

At first, I missed the Phase Locket, and RIGHT BEFORE I had to battle the Enchantress, I went back to the Lich Yard and got it

I think the point you made at around 10:00 is the best case for the items in the game. Without them, it would be hard for some people to beat the game. I didn't use the phase locket much, but you better believe I used a bunch of other items.

"by that logic it would be okay to put a button that one hundred percents the game in the menu" has it really been so long people forgot what cheat codes are?

Make an hour long documentary about the Float Burst and how it makes Plague Knight boring in EVERY possible way

What if the phase locket didnt let you attack?

Shovel knight has 1 platforming item Plague knight has 2 Specter knight has 1 King knight: GUYS I CAN EXPLAIN

Shovel Knight is my favorite game so i just had to watch this video. I like that you mentioned that the items being this way is fine, but you'd have more fun if it were more challenging - that's straight up good presentation. Also i like how you separated the video in chapters. And yea, the gear is the worst item.

For boss fights in Shovel of Hope I mostly used the green bouncing weapon and used the phase locket for Frost knight, and the Enchantress (or when I was on low health). But the real problem with that item is that the fish god has a juice that makes you invincible for ten seconds and it is made useless because of that locket.

Personally, I didn't have many problems with items being overpowered for the simple fact that I sort of "challenged" myself to not use them that much. With Shovel, I often just used the fire rod to attack a bit from a distance, and that's it With Plague, I found myself often using the big bomb for double damage and outrageous range With Specter, I spammed the skull at first (remember tough that specter's campaign has less food than the others) and, when I got familiar with the controls, I started using the Spider sickle for how strong it is when upgraded (but it still requires a bit of skill for good placement, or you won't get more than 1 hit with it) For King, I often used the glove for fast damage, the horns when i didn't know what to use but still wanted some extra damage. Having said that, I can see how some items aren't well balanced and become too powerful, but it's really just an easy getaway to avoid rage-quitting because of harder parts.

7:15 And that’s why we used to have cheat codes

Certain items are actually REALLY good, but your standard loadout is just way better. The Staff of Striking actually has insane DPS if you can get close enough.

Alright, so here's the Heirlooms that King of Cards brings: - *Healing Hammer:* A slow hammer attack that draws out a heart - *Propeller Jousteed:* A conveniently cheap piercing projectile. - *Rat Bombardier:* A rat that carries a fairly strong bomb. Can be redirected or bashed away. - *Dueling Glove:* Fast close-range attack with a cheap cost. - *Turn Coat:* Barrier that blocks attacks and in turn fires projectiles. - *Bubble Frog:* Suspends King Knight in a bubble that he can bash out of. - *Scepter of Swiftness:* A strong rushing attack that can go a long way. - *Scorching Saber:* A rising attack that slams down with a fiery shockwave. - *Gyro Boots:* Makes King Knight spin for a while, hopping up against walls on contact. - *Horns of Heralding:* Shoots confetti that damages foes and reclaims lost gold.

I didn’t even realize there were so many items I just suffered through most and probably will continue

It’s interesting to see this. I honestly almost never used the phase locket or any of the other similar items in the other campaigns. I think it’s because as an item and as a utility, I wasn’t nearly as interested in it as I was the other items. I always favored the ones that offered some new form of mobility or an attacking item with a unique range or attribute. I understand now that I probably made the campaigns much harder on myself for not exploiting the phase locket or will skull, but I played in a way that made the most sense to me.

I loved the bouncy ball and considered him a battle companion for Shovel's story, I never realized how easy it was to manipulate the gear but would use it to give higher jumps at times. For Plague, I relied on the Leech Liquid a lot, as I typically only used the potion things when I couldn't collect more. As for Specter, well... I guess I used the float feather and rush attack more often than others. I hated using the Dust Knuckles, the staff attack, and the wall bouncing soul.

The phase locket is a difficult situation for me. While I see that it is very overpowered, I absolutely suck at using it, and usually refer to the flare wand and chaos orb instead. The alchemy coin doesn’t exactly seem like an item to use conventionally. I personally found it very useful for grinding in Plains (which I did quite a bit. To the point that I have all three Plains memorized quite well) Another item that kinda sucks is the war horn. While it seems useful on paper, it costs so much magic that I never used it, except for the duet in the airship. In terms of plague knight, the staff of striking it useless in the main stages. But I found it damn near essential for the final boss. Also the potions. They just suck. Specter knight’s will skull didn’t exactly ruin the experience for me. But that’s probably cause I suck at games. And I didn’t realize how stupidly OP the skele sentry was until after I beat the main game. Let’s just hope that king knight’s heirlooms are useful, but not too OP.

The phase locket has a good way to counter balance itself. If you phase through enemies, your attacks will too. It becomes a nice safety button, but doesn't resolve the issue of a boss as you can't progress while using it. ...Though saying that, I remember there is a platform trial using the locket, so maybe have a way to switch it off prematurely if you need to bounce off an enemy and reactivate before touching more spikes?

I personally enjoyed figuring out what situations certain items are very useful in. For example, I rarely ever used the Horn with Shovel Knight, but it absolutely tears through his last dream sequence and that earns you a ton of money. Figuring out that interaction requires the player to be paying attention to what items do and resourceful in how to apply them, and it rewards you for doing so. By the end of the game I had certain sorts of situations in which I'd use certain items, such as the claw on annoying enemies with shields so quickly deal with them or using the bouncy orb on a boss in a way that deals a lot of damage. It's satisfying in the same was as figuring out and countering a boss' pattern is, only this relies on the player actively using the correct item rather than reactively responding to a boss' pattern with your own attacks. Also, I think the Smoke Bomb/Phase Locket should be counted as platforming aids since they let you circumvent instakill spikes as well as other damaging environmental hazards that hinder platforming.

12:05 ... tinker knight: did you just killed me with my own attack? tinker knight: this doesn't count right/ *surely this doesn't count.* tinker knight: that's does it *TIME TO DIE!* *mech intesefy*

When I first played new game plus and beat the first boss in the boss rush stage and opened the food tray and saw a bomb, I knew I'd be spamming the phase locket and smoke bomb a lot.

I think the phase locket would be better if you couldn't attack while using it and costed more mana

I didn't know the Mobile gear could one shot Tinker knight.

Phase locket doesn't break Shovel Knight, it improves it.

To be honest, I ended up never using the Phase Locket and using extremely rarely the Will Skull. I see them as items created to help you go through parts of levels or boss fights that you just can't understand, to avoid you raging for hours because you don't understand the timing etc. It never really occurred to me that you could use them to cheese entire levels, and I think that they were intended to be so obviously powerful that players, by themselves, could understand that they were not meant to be used as regularly as the Anchor, the Boomerang Scythe etc.

I actually agree with some of the stuff you said. I think this game compares to castlevania 4 where you don’t actually use items. In Castlevania 4 you mainly just use your whip cause you get 8 directions to choose from, so there’s really no certainty to use that knife or axe to use hearts on because your just as powerful.

2- This means freedom of player choice. Do you really want to be forced to wield 7 or 8 spells and understand their mechanics? Oh, OK. That was just to preface 3... 3- There's also ShK's Mobile Gear, which is much faster than the PD. Super useful for running through towns, or for navigating spikey rooms carefree. It could even be used to get through most of the forest of phasing. It's true that the shovel/scythe/bomb gets the job done, but magic makes things faster, more dynamic, and more fun.

i used the smoke bomb twice during the whole campain i only used the will skull when i was at like 1 health and sometime just to get to max health for bonuses the phase locked i used the most, but still i only used it in rare situations where, for example, last fight with the enchantress where she does the atack that goes through the entire screen while shield knight is on the other side of the room i think i neglected most of the items because i felt like running out of magic was way worse than it actually is

What if for the Phase Locket, for like 10 seconds after you use it, you can't use it again and you take double damage? Or triple? And I think that a much longer wind-up for the will skull would work as well, but what if the health you get from the Will Skull would drain by 1 HP every 5 seconds and you had to use it again to keep that HP? Or maybe it could punish people who use it to tank and make it so that for maybe 10(for level 1)/5(for level 2) seconds after you use it if you take damage, you take damage to your maximum will and darkness until the next time you die?

i only used the vat for Plague Knight, ooooh boy i was falling into cliffs like nobody's busyness till i got the Ward Guard (no pushback when taking damage) plus the Vat (instant platform to charge the burst jump) and the Floating feature on the burst jump just in case XD

have ya played gunvolt? i personally didn't like it but this video reminded me of it. the starting equiptment they give you in that game is passive invincibility, don't even have to pause the game during boss fights and combat is just tagging the holding a button.

The Striking Cane Arcana is a true Boss Melter. Believe me on this one. The amount of damage that you can do to a boss is crazy if you set up correctly.

Fish-bomb and fishing pole give you endless health--- super powerful. The Alchemy Coin does double-damage and can be re-shot at the enemy endless times for no extra mana-cost. SUPER-POWERFUL!! The digging-gauntlet may be hard to land a shot with, but since it grants you invulverability, it means that it can allow you chain combos. It is SUPER POWERFUL. The staff of striking gives PlaK a melee attack that is faster than any other knight's! SUPER USEFUL!!

I don't get why you use the items then all the time? If you want the challange and you recognise the item takes it away you could just not use it. Speaking for myself I tried beating the bosses without items or use them rearly. After a couple tries i'd make it easier with more items.

I find the Staff of Striking to be very useful. I use it quite often in Boss Battles. It attacks super fast and is just several free hits. Also, how did you buy the Phaze Locket in the village?

Not the Bees you should check out the Amiibo Relics in the 3DS, Wii U, or Switch versions of Shovel of Hope! They are pretty cool relics. If you do decide to check them out, be sure to get the Shovel Knight Amiibo. Also, Yacht Club Games is going to release a Plague Knight, Spector Knight, and King Knight Amiibo when King of Cards releases.

I actually found most bosses besides Propeller Knight and Tinker Knights mech round really can't hold up to the Chaos Orb. You can even cheese some cheap hits on Enchantress with it.

I haven’t played this game that much (only the base campaign, and only up to Plague Knight’s stage), but I found the Throwing Anchor and Chaos Sphere items way too difficult to use compared to the Flame Wand. I only remember using the Anchor once to get rid of one of those knight-with-shield enemies on a lower platform during Treasure Knight’s stage (and barely damaging it due to the anchor flying far enough through the air that it was hard to keep my horizontal distance so it would hit), and I don’t think I ever used the Chaos Sphere in actual combat; why would I prefer that to the Flame Wand? Speaking of items, why would you ever want an Ichor of Fortune? The ability to attract money to you doesn’t sound very useful; if it let you retrieve money bags that fell into pits which you can’t retrieve without falling into the pits again (one of my biggest headaches in this game), that would be nice, but I haven’t tried it. And even if it did, I’d still probably take the health and mana refill (Renewal) or temporary invulnerability (Boldness).

Is it bad that I almost never used any items that weren't ranged attacks when I was playing shovel knight. And used almost no items as Specter Knight?

I can't remember using the phase locket more than a couple times. It wasn't a fun way to play the game, so I stuck to things like pattern memorization up until the end because that was what was fulfilling for me. Saying a game expects you to use every tool it gives you seems flawed; take recent Mario games, for example. They often hand you a broken power up if you're struggling, but many players don't use them because it's not the way they like playing the game. The locket is the same sort of deal, in my eyes

I think the reason why the will skull/locket are strong is intentional. Shovel knight is supposed to be a modernized version of mega man that is meant to be more approachable to new players. About the mobile gear, you don't get it until fairly late in the game, and it doesn't trivialize some platforming challenges such as those involving wide chasms without a lot of ground. Designing a game really is a balancing act. You can't please everyone which is why some features (i.e., easier difficulty) are favored over the enjoyment of a much smaller number of players. This is why games like the Kirby series are very popular, because Kirby is a platformer without platforming (cuz you can fly indefinitely).

12:07 for that reason i can't hate that item But really it did really help me because you get that extra block on your jump so when i sometimes killed an enemy on accident i use the gear to get up to those places

Seems like the video was a rant on the phase locket and such with a small tidbit about the actual topic of the video at the end. I don't think the video was written well, however I do agree with his views on the phase locket.

Everything you describe in this video - including your ideal Will Skull mechanics, the necessity of items, and the challenge of boss fights - is an improvement made in Hollow Knight (no relation to Shovel Knight). You should check it out.

I never actually used the phase lock. I just didn't notice that it was overpowered. That was probably the right choice. I abused the float jump in Plague of Shadows tho.