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Shovel Knight is out.

I don't THINK you can get a third burst in there before falling back to ground level? But I haven't messed with it that much yet.

Got this, idk if I like it, once the hovering kicks in it slows down your forward momentum. Might use it for certain areas but in general I don't like it cause it's slower.
Of course you can get a third burst in, the only caveat is that most terrain doesn't give you enough vertical space to actually do that unless you combine it with the Vat item. You can stay airborne for a ridiculous amount of time. I actually managed to do most of the boss rush in NG+ staying in midair alternating between bursts, raining down bombs, vat, and the leech potion.

Also Hover Burst is kind of awful because you can't charge more bursts nearly as efficiently since you have to cancel out of the float first. When it comes to speed, the default burst and the screw attack burst are the best ones, horizontal burst gets some work done for bosses until you realize how utterly insane the Staff of Striking is at whittling down health bars if you have the magic to sustain it and having the horizontal projectile rather than a centered explosion doesn't exactly help with destroying blocks directly above your head.

Out of the four campaigns, I'm actually least excited for Spectre strictly because I'm more hyped up for King Knight's combat mechanics that YCG was nice enough to stream the development of a while back, sadly with no VODs to be found anymore. Of the two we have now, I'd definitely take Plague's over Shovel's because I like to go fast and who doesn't like themselves some explosives?

This game its so much fun, give me vibes of 90s games a la Rareware with the puns
If you're playing on the Xbox version, there's a hidden bonus stage that allows Shovel Knight to challenge Rareware's Battletoads and unlock Battletoads-themed armor that changes how his attacks work. Similar thing for Sony platforms but with God of War's Kratos.
 
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Just beat the game for the first time.

I was hoping I would get to play as another character or get a new power after, but I guess that's what the DLC is for.

I think Dust Knuckles is really OP?
Relics in general are really strong but Dust Knuckles just murder bosses unless there's another strat that does it too.
I'd rate this game an 8/10.

Is Plague Knight the first DLC?
Should I play that now?
 
Is Plague Knight the first DLC?
Should I play that now?

Plague Knight is the first and only DLC out right now. The story is really cute and he has a lot of fun mobility stuff. Play it!
 
Is Plague Knight the first DLC? Should I play that now?
Yep! There's also New Game+ and the Challenge level DLCs of course.

And Relic runs aren't really that hard in general. That's kinda what they're there for. The Phase Locket is literally like the game's Casual Mode if you opt to abuse it like some people do.

If you want to explore the game some more, I highly recommend trying a No-Relic, No-Upgrade, (& No-Checkpoint if you want) run with Shovel Knight in Normal Mode. Yeah, it sounds like an obvious way to challenge yourself, but I really think that's where the game's balancing shines the most. It's harder, but it never feels close to unfair, or impossible. It made me appreciate how purposefully the game was designed around those limitations, and that the Relics were really just there for added spice.
 
I think Dust Knuckles is really OP?
Relics in general are really strong but Dust Knuckles just murder bosses unless there's another strat that does it too.

No you pretty much have it right. There are several ways to wreck bosses I think, but Dust Knuckles really are one of (if not already) the best relics overall.
 
So if you are pressing a direction 1F before landing / as you land, Shovel Knight will land and walk one character space in the direction you pressed and you can't interrupt him even by turning around.

When you compare this to tapping the direction for 1F on the floor where his sprite barely even jiggles, this is really dumb?

If you're doing platforming where you have to land on 1 tile, he walks off it if you don't release a direction just before you land...

Just something I noticed during my no upgrade no checkpoint no relic run.
 
No relics sounds really boring. The only thing that made Shovel Knight tolerable is later in the game when you get relics that give him movement abilities. He's so painfully slow by default.
 
No relics sounds really boring. The only thing that made Shovel Knight tolerable is later in the game when you get relics that give him movement abilities. He's so painfully slow by default.
A Relic-less run is on-par with Megabuster-only runs in the classic Megaman series. It's a deliberate self-imposed challenge but by no means is it the only way to play. Instead it highlights what Shovel Knight at his very core is capable of. The Vs. boss strats for speedruns tend to all use a tactic that absolutely tears through health bars and only uses the shovel itself, so it's not as if his base toolkit lacks depth, just that it lacks mobility.

Plague Knight's parallel to the relic-less run is a lot more engaging though due to how his mobility is ingrained in his base weapon kit.
 
I didn't even think about enemy patterns when I played with relics I just mashed relic till they were almost dead then smacked them a bit to win.

I'm able to a appreciate all the levels / enemies / bosses doing this run, even if Shovel Knight is the slowest piece of garbage ever.

Ending up in the same situations against the same enemies due to breaking all the checkpoints lets me develop strategies to get past them that matter and rely on spacing and timing rather than picking the relic that is perfect / broken for each situations.

The only thing I would have done is include charge Shovel hit, but I want to do it completely basic first.

Also, fuck the under water ship stage.
 
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So if you are pressing a direction 1F before landing / as you land, Shovel Knight will land and walk one character space in the direction you pressed
Hmm, I'm surprised I never noticed that before. Maybe my D-Pad was bugging at the time I played, and I would confuse it for that.

Obviously it didn't bother me much, but it's weird that they'd leave that in. YC's talked about movement a lot in their articles, so you figure they must know about it by now, especially after so many patches. Maybe they felt it helped people do multiple running jumps? Maybe they just wanted jumps to feel less sticky than MM? Now I'm curious.

At least it's not as dumb as those terrible stumble animations in MN9 though, that you can't jump or shoot out of.
 
Beat Plague Knight. Man why is knockback on hit in that game so OD. It's huge, you get hit by anything and go flying half the screen backwards into spikes or a pit. It was consistently the most frustrating shit.
 
propeller knight was unkind as shovel knight but as plague knight he was the most rude, every hit bonked you in the pits like a steve nash free throw and the angles you had to attack him from were no good.
 
Shovel Knight – Specter of Torment Campaign Coming Spring 2017

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Yacht Club Games has been hard at work on Shovel Knight’s next campaign. Today, the studio shared an update as to when it’ll be available.

The campaign is still quite far off actually.
In an image posted to Yacht Club Games’ Twitter, a release window of Spring 2017 was announced.

We also have a final name: “Specter of Torment”.
 
King Kight mode its out?

Nope or I would have updated about it releasing.
 
Oh I haven't posted in here since July. Well since my last post itt I've decided Plague Knight is actually one of my favorite games of all time and I play it almost every day now. I'm excited to learn there's a release date (release season?) for Specter Knight.
 
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My favorite part of Shovel Knight was playing Plague Knight and the love story with Mona.
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Also loved all the little easter eggs, like him not being able to practice dancing in front of her and... some other stuff I don't remember. I have no idea how Specter Knight is going to one-up my Plague Knight experience.
 
My favorite Knight's getting an expansion? Hell. Yes.
 
Since they did tease about the title promo being important I feel that it's already more-or-less figured out.

7:22 PM - [FAUCeT] Psychopath: not that complicated
7:22 PM - ΘSaniblues: lay it on me
7:22 PM - [FAUCeT] Psychopath: the heart locket is direly important to spectre knight, as seen in plague knight's credits
7:22 PM - [FAUCeT] Psychopath: spectre knight lacks a healthbar, and instead has a will to live
7:23 PM - [FAUCeT] Psychopath: the color gradient between spectre and the locket in the title card are opposing colors in a heat sense
7:23 PM - [FAUCeT] Psychopath: without the locket he'll lose his only grip on what keeps him staying alive
7:23 PM - [FAUCeT] Psychopath: etc
7:23 PM - [FAUCeT] Psychopath: someone precious to him or something I dunno
7:23 PM - ΘSaniblues: makes sense
7:24 PM - ΘSaniblues: or maybe, it's lich rules
7:24 PM - [FAUCeT] Psychopath: shovel knight isn't exactly reknowned for having a deep storyline
7:24 PM - [FAUCeT] Psychopath: but in spite of that it can still tug at you with the execution
7:25 PM - ΘSaniblues: a lich ties its soul to a phylactery so that its spirit can remain in the world of the living
7:25 PM - ΘSaniblues: could be that the locket is such an item
7:25 PM - [FAUCeT] Psychopath: in shovel knight's campaign he explains that he remains living through the enchantress's magic
7:25 PM - ΘSaniblues: it never really explained how, though
7:26 PM - [FAUCeT] Psychopath: shit's magic
7:26 PM - ΘSaniblues: no, i mean like
7:26 PM - ΘSaniblues: it never explained if his life is tied to hers, or if her magic was simply responsible for reviving him with no other ties
7:27 PM - [FAUCeT] Psychopath: he's still alive after the enchantress is dispelled and shield knight is active
7:27 PM - [FAUCeT] Psychopath: so I'm assuming she enchanted the locket and its his source of longetivty now

If Spectre's story arc is more deep than this then that's a bonus. I can say with certainty that a lot of people saw the earlier arcs coming a mile away but the way they pulled it off made it really resonate.
 
Wow, Spring huh? That's surprisingly far out. The Japanese release and Gunvolt 2 publishing must have taken some of the wind out of them.

I guess as long as it turns out the way they want it to, it should be worth the wait.
 
New trailer for Specter Knight:

Brief observations of the above trailer:

0:17 - Specter Knight has a "darkness" bar which looks like Plague's magic bar. I like Plague's magic system a lot more than Shovel's, so if that's what this is I'm glad it's coming back. There's also apparently two currencies: you have gold, but there are also skulls? Wonder what you use those for.

0:19 - He's got his own hub world like Plague Knight's, neat. Looks like there are 4 NPCs who look like they sell you things although maybe more are off screen. Guy at the top looks like a tailor, maybe you get new armor from him? The other guys... hm. Really not sure.
Also Darkness can apparently be upgraded to 5 ticks. 1 more than Plague's bar.

0:20 - So Specter Knight charge slashes through a uh, it looks like a lamp with a human soul in it, or something, idk. The important thing is these are set up around hub world to let him move around. I wasn't totally sure if Specter Knight needed a target to do his dash strike or if he could kind of just do it; this pretty much confirms it's the former.

0:27 - Man what stage even is this? Doesn't really look like Lich Yard but it's got a ghost and those plants from Lich Yard. More importantly there's some cool synergy here between the wall climb and the charge strike. Specter can't wall climb all the way from the bottom of this wall to the top, but by hitting that plant and then dash striking through it after it rises he can get higher on the wall, climb that, and then get to the ladder. I realized a while ago these two abilities had natural synergy but only if the stages were designed around them. Looks like YCG is doing that, so that's encouraging.

0:35 - Another instance of using a dash strike to reach a wall you couldn't otherwise reach. Game is probably full of this. Cool.

0:37 - Damn, Black Knight is not fucking around this time

0:41 - There have been a few clips where Specter had a relic equipped but this is the first time I think we've seen him actually use one. It's a purple lantern that follows him around. What does this do???

0:43 - Oh cool new miniboss for Stranded Ship. It's like one of those statues that spit out rainbow bridges when you hit them, except it's a boss. Those things didn't spit rainbows for Plague, only for Shovel, so the fact that Specter can make them spit rainbows is definitely EXTREMELY important for lore reasons, maybe.

0:49 - This looks RADICAL

0:55 - Looks like this armor lets Specter Knight be RADICAL anywhere, even when there aren't railings for him to do sick grinds off of. Looks like he goes way faster while being RADICAL, possibly useful for speedrunning?!??!!?

1:10 - Specter has normal magic in the flashback and doesn't collect skulls. Also has a relic we haven't seen before. Probably has different relics in the flashback sequences.

1:17 - Looks like you can use Death Claw 3 times before you run out of darkness (until you've upgraded your darkness). Also looks like it does 2 damage.

1:22 - Can't tell if Specter hovering like this is an effect of the relic, the armor he's wearing, or the wind in the room. I don't think it's the wind cause it's just going horizontally. I don't think it's the relic either since his darkness isn't going down. Must be the armor then?

1:34 - OK being able to straight up cut cannonballs in half is hype.

1:41 - Woah, Polar Knight learned a new move. Looks like you'll have to use wall climbing to beat him.

1:44 - Mole Knight is different too. You can cover him in the green bouncey stuff. The stage is covered in it too. I don't think they'd give you all this green stuff unless you were supposed to use it. Mole maybe has a new pattern where he stays at the top of the screen and you gotta bounce up there to hit him.

1:46 - Wow even Tinker 1 got a new move. He's a joke fight for the other characters but I wonder if he'll be a real threat this time around. Tinker 2 has a new pattern too, looks like it becomes an autoscroller.
 
looks pretty neat, but spring feels so far away right now.

My favorite part of Shovel Knight was playing Plague Knight and the love story with Mona.
Shovel Knight and Plague Knight's stories really are about short guys and the tall ladies they love. :PUN:

I assume Specter is going to be a bit heavier than those the previous story lines.
 
I assume Specter is going to be a bit heavier than those the previous story lines.
Tall skinny guy with short heavy girl, yeah.
 
It looks like Specter Knight and his adventure pal ran into shield Knight sometime in the past. Could that glowy thing in the background be the amulet that turned Shield Knight into the Enchantress?
 
I should play Shovel Knight, huh?
I didn't expect to see a spoiler for a 2 year old game oops
What the-
Yes! Yes you should! Why would you come here otherwise?

I thought this game had Undertale level status where everyone has at least played it once or thrice.
 
I should play Shovel Knight, huh?
I didn't expect to see a spoiler for a 2 year old game oops
It's actually really bad. Just enter the code to play as Plague Knight. Shovel Knight can be skipped completely.
 
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I should play Shovel Knight, huh?
I didn't expect to see a spoiler for a 2 year old game oops
Play both it and Plague Knight.
 
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Lots of things

zzzzz can you give me a TL;DR?

It's actually really bad. Just enter the code to play as Plague Knight. Shovel Knight can be skipped completely.


Unironically, while I don't think Shovel Knight is bad, I'll take a direct buy of Plague Knight any day of the week.
 
zzzzz can you give me a TL;DR?
It looks good, is the TL;DR. Specter Knight's abilities have a natural synergy to them (dash strike to a wall you couldn't reach then wall climb to a thing you couldn't reach) but the stages in Shovel Knight wouldn't have given players many opportunities to use them like that. Rather than slight tweaks to the Shovel Knight stages like they did for Plague Knight, YCG threw everything in the garbage and made new stages from scratch. The new stages are designed around Specter Knight's abilities in interesting ways. The good magic from Plague Knight is back instead of the terrible magic from Shovel Knight. The scope of the changes looks immense; I thought YCG did a lot of work for Plague Knight but this game makes Plague Knight look like a palette swap in terms of effort and scale.

Man even my TL;DR is really long. Sorry.

Unironically, while I don't think Shovel Knight is bad, I'll take a direct buy of Plague Knight any day of the week.
I mean that's basically what buying Shovel Knight is anyways. It's annoying to have to enter a code but it takes 2 seconds to Google it.
 
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when ur stuck on the castle levels on your first playthrough and just want to play plague knight but can't
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