Errors have been made.
Right here’s my final takeaway from Shieldmaiden: Remix Version for the Nintendo Swap household of methods: I don’t perceive the way it made it to launch with a pair extraordinarily clear, extraordinarily irritating platforming points intact. You don’t need to play plenty of video video games to know each why this stuff are so unhealthy and the way they may very well be mounted. I don’t typically go proper into the issues on the high of my critiques, however I wish to make them completely crystal clear right here.
1. You possibly can’t see what’s beneath you. Oftentimes, you’ll know there ARE issues beneath you, however the digicam is positioned in order that Asta (the titular maiden) is on the backside of the display. You’re normally wanting on the sky above her. How do you discover out what’s beneath? Leaps of religion, expensive reader. Should you drop off a platform, you’ll both be greeted with blessed terra firma or, extra typically, a bottomless pit. Now this won’t be a problem should you weren’t inspired to dutifully discover each stage to seek out trinkets, however you are, and also you will discover trinkets beneath your speedy area of view. Or, extra typically, bottomless pits. That is virtually unforgivably irritating as a result of it’s such a easy treatment—simply place the digicam in order that Asta is nearer to the center of the display like each different 2D platformer on Arceus’ inexperienced Earth. Or, should you should tempt destiny, give the poor woman a means out of bottomless pits. Or, , no bottomless pits in any respect! That’s additionally an answer!
2. Asta’s wall-jump is shockingly unintuitive. There are primarily two sorts of wall-jumps in video video games: the Mega Man X kind and the Tremendous Mario 64 kind (also called the Ratchet & Clank kind). The previous means that you can climb a vertical floor. Within the latter, you zig-zag up two parallel columns earlier than finally touchdown on the high. Asta makes use of the Tremendous Mario 64 method, however the builders don’t typically add that crucial second column to encourage zig-zagging. As a substitute, to stand up any type of vertical floor taller than Asta’s customary bounce (which is commonly), it’s essential to have Asta bounce off the facet…away out of your route of journey, then maintain the other way and press A to sprint. The hope is that the peak of that wall-jump will clear the remaining peak of the wall, after which it’s essential to sprint to land on high of it. This results in nothing however frustration and unnecessary re-traversal. Hear, if you wish to put tall vertical floor in your sport, nice, however you’ll need the Mega Man X method. The mix of wall-jump, press ahead, sprint is difficult and imprecise. Be higher.
Okay. That’s out of the best way.
*deep breath*
Shieldmaiden: Remix Version is an attention-grabbing however largely by-the-numbers stage-based platformer with very attention-grabbing fight and intensely irritating environmental traversal (see manifesto above). You play as Asta, a heroine searching for solutions relating to the disappearance of her sister instantly earlier than a vaguely-defined cataclysm despatched the town of Modigard into destroy.
Fight is the very best a part of the sport. Asta has what’s primarily a Captain America protect that may soak up enemy photographs to construct up an influence meter that ends in a screen-filling particular assault. She will be able to throw the protect in just about any route and it’ll bounce again to her. She will be able to use it as a blunt instrument as properly, and even a “surfboard” alongside sure however sadly few surfaces. Utilizing the protect for its supposed function is a balancing act. It might probably’t soak up an infinite stream of power assaults, however that’s additionally the one approach to construct up her particular meter. It’s particularly efficient in opposition to the wide-beam assaults of boss monsters. The one actual hiccup in fight is that the sport depends closely a bit too closely on kill rooms.
Enemies reap the benefits of this balancing act, spitting out hard-to-dodge barrages of bullets which are greatest absorbed earlier than pummeling stated aggressors together with your protect. Boss fights are tense affairs at first, however like all retro-stylized platformer, have loads of telegraphed strikes to search for. Most bosses have to be surprised together with your particular assault earlier than they are often broken, resulting in an attention-grabbing combine between enjoying protection, utilizing bodily assaults, and hitting that particular assault at simply the fitting time.
The one considerably irritating factor about fight is which you can’t “lock” Asta in place whereas throwing the protect, however it truly wasn’t as massive an issue as I believed it might be.
The platforming, sadly, is the place Shieldmaiden falls aside. The fight is nice, however sadly, it’s essential to transfer by the atmosphere utilizing a moveset that isn’t as much as the duty. As I famous above, two issues specifically would have improved the traversal a hundred-fold, however a pair different issues would have additional solidified it: Asta is begging for a double-jump, which might be one other means to enhance Shieldmaiden’s verticality points, and you’ll’t use the D-pad to regulate her. I do know I’m not within the minority once I say that 2D platformers ought to have an possibility to make use of the D-pad for motion. It’s not getting used for anything.
There’s a narrative instructed largely by dialogue between Asta and her AI helper, whose title I don’t bear in mind. It’s largely background noise, however there are some good exchanges right here and there. The precise plot by no means rises to something above “I want to seek out my sister!”, however that stated, Shieldmaiden isn’t a very lengthy sport, clocking in at about two hours should you don’t trouble an excessive amount of with collectibles—which you’ll return for after beating the story.
One other unusual management problem has to do with dialogue scrolling. In each different sport on Earth, you’d transfer to the subsequent little bit of dialogue with the A button, however right here, it’s the R1 button. I initially assumed that was as a result of dialogue can be occurring throughout fight and also you’d want the A button free for dashing. Weirdly, that’s not the case—prolonged dialogue sequences happen in isolation, so I stay confused as to why it’s defaulted to R1.
The sport’s finish hints at sequel potential, and whereas I wasn’t overly impressed with Shieldmaiden, I may be focused on a second quest, assuming the builders handle the numerous platforming points that plague this sport.