As you make progress through each level, there will be an NPC at your camp who you can pay with gems to unlock shortcuts from the plains to the chromatic caverns. There’s even another ten characters to add to your team, encouraging replays. Learning the other character’s abilities is a learning curve all its own. Swap out the Shovel Knight for an early boss like the Specter Knight, or maybe the Treasure Knight who attacks for more damage below enemies. With Shovel Knight, he has fatal blows that do more damage to chains and finds potions more often. Defeat them, and they’ll return to your camp and will be playable for future runs. This makes the game more approachable than its platforming predecessor.Īs you play through the game, you’ll come across bosses which offer a great challenge and unique encounters. If you alter the damage and health values, then feats (achievements) will be disabled. The fact that you level have this level of control over your experience is to be applauded. Or with infinite lives, but the caveat is that you can’t let the board fill up, or then it’s game over. You can choose whether you have a single life, making the game like a roguelike where death means the end of the run. When starting the adventure mode for the first time, you’ll be asked to pick one of two options. You can even turn off items and relics if you desire, and these changes can be made at any time, as much as you like. There’s sliders to control choice of how many lives you get, how much health you have, and how much damage you’ll do. Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon gives you a surprising amount of choice in how difficult (or not difficult) you want the game to be. This is the gameplay, and this is the loop, and none of it ever feels monotonous due to the randomization from level to level and run to run.
Upon exiting through the door, your time in that level is done and you’ll rush to the next area. As you progress and the enemies become more difficult, seeing a chest, a key, or a door is a sign of hope. Repeat this process three times, and a door will begin to fall, as will the associated key to open it.
Every level has the same sort of cadence where you’ll attack and defeat enemies to collect gems, vanquish enough enemies for a chest to drop a corresponding key and once you unlock the chest with the key, the process repeats until the next chest. Gems are the currency that unlocks just about everything, and expands your possibilities for equipping powerful items during any given run. If you get a game over, all the gems you’ve collected go back with you to camp and accumulate a moderate wealth. Keep the chain going, and you’ll be screen clearing and collecting a lot of gems. Hitting enemies linked together in a row either vertically or horizontally allows you to chain your attacks and fatal blows against them, building up a combo meter. Combat puts you on the defensive just as much as the offensive, you’ll have to think on your feet. This gives you information to strategize when to attack, back off, heal, and finish them off. When you move to attack, you’ll get information about how much the enemy will hurt you back. If you choose to stand still, this gives you time to think, but time moves forward slowly. When you first start a run, each move advances the dropping blocks, which can be just a block, an item, health, or most likely an enemy. It’s apparent that the art style has changed and more refined, evoking the 16-bit era this time around. Being somewhat new and unique, the game teaches you all the mechanics in a tutorial sequence. After meeting the Puzzle Knight, you learn that the Pocket Dungeon Master is the ruler that needs to be dethroned. You first play as the eponymous Shovel Knight, the hero of the 2D and 8-bit platformer from several years ago. There’s so much to love about Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon, because no matter little or much time you have to spend, you’re always rewarded for your efforts. This is an equally great game for those who know Shovel Knight well from his previous adventure, or have yet to meet him as this is a great introduction who may not enjoy platformers.
The result is an endlessly entertaining and challenging experience that’s also highly customizable to tailor to the way you want to play. It takes the concept of falling block puzzle games and wraps in the confines of movement like a classic dungeon-crawler. Which stands to reason how Shovel Knight & Friends use this as their primary form of attacking in this Dr Mario meets Wizardry mash-up of genres with Shovel Knight Pocket Dungeon. Bumping into people is seen as discourteous or even offensive in most circumstances.
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