Okay, so I finally beat Specter of Torment mode. it took me so long because I wanted to do no death/no checkpoint body swap of shovel kngiht first to reintroduce me to the universe. will probably see about a plague of shadows playthrough, but for now...
Specter Knight. Uh... I can tell they put a lot more effort into Specter of Torment, but for all of that, I feel like Plague of shadows is still better on both the narrative and gameplay end of things. even if you spend a TON of time in pause menus in Plague of Shadows.
Specter Knight I think bothers me because his hit box is kinda ambiguous because of the way he stands and moves sometimes, and the wall climb and his homing attack take some getting used to. the homing attack in particular, while it functions as advertised with you dashing through the foe at the angle of their little spark, sometimes the window to activate is pretty razor thin and your positioning as well as the object you're homing attacking into play a huge role in where Specter knight ends up at the end of his dash, and that sometimes lead to death. It's a very flow oriented gameplay style, and it looks INCREDIBLY Flashy when you hit a rhythm and just nail everything.
Unlike with Shovel Knight's Relics or Plague Knight's Arcana, the Curios that Specter Knight wields are almost all useful and feel powerful, and I was cycling through them regularly. standouts include the orb, the feather, and the coin for their platforming bypassing powers, the rebounding souls for collecting money after a death, and the skull because holy **** Skeleton minion rips bosses and tough enemies to shreds and is a far more efficient tool for fighting anything that takes more than one hit than Speccy is on his own.
I appreciate what they tried doing with the story, but I feel it falls flat.
Donovan is kinda a dick and deserves everything bad that happens to him. I get that him and Luan are supposed to be these thick as thieves bros that are trying to keep Luan's kid safe, but Donovan lets his lust for treasure consume him when confronted with the amulet and attacks everyone, ignores Shield Knight's direct warning, and even attacks his own friend. He shows that he's weak willed, and perfect for the enchantress to manipulate and even toy with him using Rieze.
Speaking of that, I find the prominence of Rieze and Phantom Striker in the narrative to be a bit of a head scratcher, given that both of those characters were by-products of the 'director for a day' stretch goal. Both of these characters had no context in Shovel of Justice other than other folks who challenge shovel knight to a duel for... reasons, but they get highlighted here, with Phantom Striker being the defender of the Lich Yard and recognizing Donovan, and Reize being a central part of Donovan's backstory just feels... forced? I dunno.
I did enjoy the cameo from our favorite Zubaz-wearing street fighter reject, and Mr. Hat is at least in the credits... I could see Mr. Hat being a bigger part of King Knight mode. some of the new NPCs were neat too, but overall I felt that Specter Knight's betrayal of the enchantress being sparked on by the fact that she's Shield Knight and not the fact that the enchantress has been using Reize to **** with him a little... weird. It made it hard to grieve for what was supposed to be a show of his tragic fate of being cursed to undeath to not have the impact it should have. the most standout thing here is the new tracks that Kauffman provided to the soundtrack. all of them are AMAZING, and quite a few outshine the original composition that appear in the other campaigns!it makes me really wish they had put the effort to do the remixed music and boss redesigns into Plague of Shadows.
Overall, I liked this, but it disappointed me in comparison to the base game and Plague, but only slightly. I like that they took the time to rebalance bosses, even if Skeleton Minion rocks them.
Heck, Skeleton minion is the real hero of this game, not Specter Knight!