Shantae goes on vacation to rest but is not given too much time to relax. Her friends were kidnapped by a mysterious evil that is found in the depths of the sea, so our objective this time will be to rescue them and see what the secrets hidden by the sea hold for us.
Shantae and the Seven Sirens is the new title in the saga, and the fifth episode in a franchise that has earned a great reputation in the metroidvania genre. With their ups and downs, WayForward video games have always been great ways to reclaim retro, platformer, and classic exploration with a more modern twist. According to each game, the saga has been able to take the very interesting characteristics of other sagas and apply them creating very fun games. This case is no exception. Its duration is about eight hours, but it lasts longer if you want to complete it in its entirety, it is a very special game when you play it, and you don't want to stop doing it until the end. However, that doesn't mean that Shantae and the Seven Sirens is perfect or outstanding.
Like any game it has its problems. In this case, the problem is that it lacks that air of freshness from past games, and also the ways back from the game, are long and are repeated over and over again. Although boss battles are generally good, trash fights also end up repeating. Shantae and the Seven Sirens is a metroidvania too, and has reminded us of more elaborate new games in the genre like Hollow Knight for its commitment to top-down exploration. This is not exactly a problem, taking ideas is fine, but the thing is that it does not provide such marked concepts.
As in all Shantae, the story is nothing more than an excuse to enter an adventure full of secrets, secret doors and various abilities. With Shantae and the seven sirens the same thing happens. They invite Shantae and four other half-geniuses to an island where they are going to act like stars, but are suddenly kidnapped. And that leads to our adventure to rescue them and see what secrets the new location brings.
Shantae and the Seven Sirens is a metroidvania in a classic sense: we advance through a very large map with areas that we will not be able to access if we do not have the appropriate skill, power or object. Shantae's metamorphoses return, in this case arriving with fusion stones and coins. With these we can obtain the abilities of other half-geniuses and improve our effectiveness by exploring and fighting. We also have powers that we can obtain by dancing, without having to access any menu and that serve to interact in various ways with the environment.
With this base, Shantae and the Seven Sirens takes us from one place to another, but their way of forcing us to change zones or return is not very well designed. The game even ends with a town with civilians who tell us where to go. We will not always naturally understand where we should go. Sometimes there are doors that open just because they do, or others that close because the plot needs it, they do so without worrying that the exploration is fluid or a fresh discovery that makes us enjoy the experience more.
This makes the first trip to a new area a lot of fun, but not so much to discover where we will have to go. When we die, the game doesn't make you want to get everything you lost from not saving, and collecting cards or getting more hearts doesn't motivate as much as it should, other than the loading times between each major zone. Luckily, Shantae and the Seven Sirens adds a prize at the end of each journey, with excellently designed small dungeons combining puzzles, jumps and hidden objects.
Here the game works very well, when you forget the genre that it is and it becomes a platform with secret objects. Especially since these dungeons have very satisfying final enemies to defeat. In summary, Shantae and the Seven Sirens is a very fun game but one that does not know how to go beyond what is already established in the genre. When the game is a bit more linear, and it offers us challenges with a series of jumping phases and well-done battles, the game is very good.
Shantae and the Seven Sirens is a very fun but somewhat irregular game. It's great at times when we hit new dungeons with jumps, secrets, and cool ending bosses. It is highly recommended for fans of the saga and those who want to further explore the genre, which fortunately, its duration is well measured and the sympathy of its characters makes the experience very enjoyable.
