Studio Trigger Reveals Its Stunning Opening Animation For Shantae 5

I cant play shantea I'm to young. from what i seen shantea as to many suggestive stuff in it thats not for younger kids but this one might be okay i hope so i can play it! And second comment dun,dun,dunnnnnnnn!

I like it cant wait to play this on my switch.

Just finished pirate's curse on Tuesday this week... I am totally ready for this one

Looks a little more angular than Shantae's artstyle usually is, but it still looks great, IMO.

Just need to see some gameplay.

Actually, with this opening (and the existence of River City Girls) it's actually really refreshing to see a western dev "Japanisizing" (for a lack of a better, real, word) their output. Not something you see often.

Nice. Shantae outfit should have eyes on it.

I agree with the assessment that it doesn't feel like the best fit with the property. But that's their call and it's not bad. The song, however, I could do without.

@legendcoworker it's just a platformer like mario games. nothing sexual about that

@Yorumi To be fair they have adjusted the artstyle every single game.

Gotta say, this is probably the most Studio Trigger that Studio Trigger has ever Studio Trigger-ed.

If nothing else, this should definitely raise sales in Japan

The singing is obnoxious and the animation is very angular as opposed to most shantae games. If the music/ singing wasn't so grating it might have been ok.

@xshinox except for all the scantily clad female characters and boobs so hugely disproportionate to the characters and the thong g strings visible outside of the clothing... Sure it's hardly sexualised imagery at all.

@Yorumi its just an intro man the designs will be different on the game itself.

thank you Vectorman its nothing like mario and plus in the third game risky boots traps shantea in a bath and calls it a boobytrap. SO i'm sure they have stuff in there thats not for kids if only capcom was doing it they did not put any of that stuff in there

@bolt05 sounds like someone is being salty and if you got a problem with scantily clad female characters and boobs then dont play it.

We need gameplay NOW! Or at least a proper trailer.

@bolt05 (Rolls eyes) Dude, we've been influenced enough by said imagery that it's become numb. I mean there are worse games out there, the Dead Or Alive Volleyball games, Senran Kagura and others. Get over it and embrace the insanity.

@legendcoworker

No, it's for all ages. You'll be fine.

@Vectorman thanks i will

I love almost anything Trigger so this one is another hit for me. I'm more interested about some people pointing out that window in the beginning that looks like the Smash logo, maybe a coincidence but if not it'll be awesome to have Shantae as a DLC character.

For a minute I thought they were making a Shantae cartoon show. Now I'm kind of disappointed that they are not.

I love Trigger and this was really nice but... that was REALLY short. I hope this is just a preview of something closer to 1 and a half or 2 minutes.

Also I'm sure the people whining about the so-called suggestiveness of Shantae and saying she wouldn't deserve to be in Smash are just trolls. They may be entitled to their opinions if they actually believe that - which I seriously doubt - but I'm in just as entitled to laugh at how ridiculous they sound. Shantae is an absolutely awesome character and it is so great to have a lead female character who is both cute and strong!

If you want to argue that a suggestive character or a mature character doesn't belong in Smash, that ship sailed when we got Bayonetta and Snake and later got that Persona character.

Am I the only one who likes the song?

Yep, that’s a Trigger animation. Man watching this brought a smile to my face. I think it goes really well with Shantae.

@xshinox uh, no there is some sexualisation going on in Shantae, not much but a bit hence the 12 rating.

Have you ever even seen some 12 rated anime? They can be surprisingly mature, with the 15 stuff being practically soft core pr0n and definitely not for kids.. Which is prob why they're on bluray/dvd and don't get aired in the UK.

With Shantae it's mainly just a bit of skimpy clothing and some suggestive text tho for the most part.

@Vectorman maybe because each person is and think different, so you don't have to like the same things that I like, and I don't have to like the same things that you like. That's the beauty of the world we live in.

Some people would like to have her in Smash and don't see or have any problem with Shantae's design or clothes. If Shantae is a problem for Smash because her clothes are to revealing, then I have problems with Female Pokemon Trainer's design because I see too much legs with that short skirt (no, I don't have any problem with that btw).

@Vectorman

Too suggestive? You do know they let Bayonetta in Smash right?

@Yorumi Even if it is used in the game too, this wouldn’t be the first time they changed the art style, Half-Genie Hero went with a much more cartoony art style compared to Pirate’s Curse. I think it would be kind of cool if each game experimented a bit with the art style.

@SakurabaNeku dude dont even start with that

@Heavyarms55 read bolts post he showing his censorship colors.

I know i can play the first shantea game but not the others

@Vectorman

So characters from suggestive games can get in, Bayonetta's clothes are made from her hair and so she loses clothing when she attacks, and Samus's bikini is clearly fine, so I'm really struggling to see what the problem with Shantae is. The suggestiveness in Shantae is mostly tongue in cheek and not nearly as overt as Bayonneta's is, and frankly considering her pants she's more covered up than Samus in a bikini, so neither her design nor her game's content are really any more extreme than what we already have.

@Vectorman perverts? I guess we'll leave it like that then. Not gonna start a discussion with a person that can't even get the point I'm trying to make.

Sometimes people really surprise me.

@arsoneycad I see were your comming from i can see shantea in the game i think she can be in there but nintendo is a bit iffy when it comes to stuff like that so idk if they could do it.

Yeah I'm really not digging this style at all, it doesn't fit the Shantae series in the slightest. With that said, this is just an opening trailer and not actual gameplay, so I still have high hopes that the game will look, play, and sound good.

@RiasGremory I'm sorry, I am not sure what you mean. Censorship "colors"? You mean he or she is in favor of censorship?

@Heavyarms55 This is wat he posted:
Bolt-except for all the scantily clad female characters and boobs so hugely disproportionate to the characters and the thong g strings visible outside of the clothing... Sure it's hardly sexualised imagery at all.

I just think that they could take out some of the suggestive text so it can be for kids.

@Vectorman LOL

LIke how in the world is snake/joker suggestive? ya there games are M but there cloths text are fine.

@Vectorman NO prob

Ok but can we get a dude with a speedo bulge doing the dance too

@Vectorman Okay, I'll play along. It's true, Snake isn't suggestive, in his games sex is openly talked about at times. Oh, and he is a literal murderer. It seems you only have issue with sexually suggestive characters. In Persona, there is a literal penis based enemy. Shulk, the main character from Xenoblade which happens to be my favorite RPG of all time, has an outfit where he doesn't wear a shirt. That's based on "armor" where he is just oiled up and wearing only his boxers and shoes. Ah, but he is a man, so that's okay right? And before you try to counter by saying "those things happened in their respective games and not in Smash" or something like that, you yourself called out the bathtub scene and the boobytrap line. Which happened in the game, not in Smash.

But Shantae, a character from a long running well loved series is just where you draw the line? Don't make me laugh.

I get it if there are other characters you'd rather see. To be honest, Shantae isn't my first choice either. But if there are just other characters you like more, please drop the charade and just admit it. Your arguments about her suggestiveness being any worse than other characters who are already in Smash doesn't hold any water.

And on a final note, the series has never been rated above T. With several entries being rated E for everyone. If indeed you aren't a troll, then I am sorry, I really am, because the internet must be a nightmare for you, if the occasional bit of "booby humor" is offensive to you.

@Vectorman She's wearing pants and a bikini top. A woman can walk around in public dressed like that in most first world countries... We'll just have to agree to disagree from here on because I don't agree with anything you've said on this topic.

But you have at least convinced me that you are not just trying to troll us. And for that, I apologize. I'm sorry for that insult there. Please have a nice day.

Oh and to answer your question, the Shantae series dates all the way back to Game Boy. That's a very respectable run.

@Vectorman

Half of Shantae's games have been rated E10, same as Smash's rating. Both for, among other things, "suggestive themes". You're free to disagree, but clearly the people making the decisions don't think her design is any more suggestive than what's in Smash. And again, I'd point you back towards Zero Suit Samus's bikini outfit that you already brought up, and Shulk's "even less than a bikini" outfit. If you've got a problem with Shantae's outfit, you should have just as much a problem with outfits already in the game. Thus my point about it being no more extreme than what they've already put in.

Heck, you wanna talk about something being too much for Smash? They gave Joker a flippin' gun. Like an actual for real straight-up gun. That seems like it should raise way more eyebrows than someone dressed like she came off the set of I Dream of Jeannie or Aladdin.

I don't care that you personally think Toon Link or Bayonetta don't fit in Smash. My point is that, given who's already in Smash, based on content and designs they've already let in, I see no reason to think a character like Shantae should be considered off limits or "too suggestive" for consideration.

Lastly, I also think it's abso-freaking-lutely hilarious that in one paragraph you assume I'm a dude (I'm not, btw) and in another you bust out this gem: "funny you assume something about a total stranger on the net you can't possibly know anything about."

We're done here. If you're a troll, enjoy knowing that you got a rise out of me. If you're not, I'm sorry, but you're just gonna have to make peace with the fact that you have much higher standards of what is and isn't "acceptable" in media.

So will Shantae stay 2D forever or will the series ever evolve into 3D? I love me some Shantae 5 but when the game series plays the same the last 5 times then it's getting old.

@Yorumi the first game had a more angular style. Though I expected something more like Little Witch Academia.

@bolt05 totally agree, the singing is terrible. Really spoils the rest.

It’s manic! I thought I was going to have a seizure!

Some people just need to be ignored. And now they have been. Good riddance.

@Vectorman dude just stop you are making yourself look like a fool.

@Vectorman i was replying to your comment and according to your past comments your acting like a troll so stop and heavyarms55 is correct.

@legendcoworker Have you never heard of a booby trap before? https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booby_trap

@Vectorman stop playing the victim card you did this on your own by being disrespectful to the people who disagree with you and try giving you actual facts on this matter but instead you resort to trolling so ill let the mods handle you.

@SlyPlayr09 they can always use her other design from pirates curse one.

@Matthew010 ya i have its a booby trap and your naked get it now?

@Vectorman enough clearly you need to read your posts again and find out why so many disagree with you but im done talking to someone who not listening.

@Vectorman your bluffing

@legendcoworker Last time I checked, Risky’s Revenge and Pirates Curse on 3DS were E10+. I think Pirates Curse was E10+ on Steam as well but I’ll have to check.

@legendcoworker wut? Last I checked I definitely was not naked.

@legendcoworker The Witcher 3 is much more appropriate for your age

@Matthew010 I was talking about shantea and I'm only 13

@legendcoworker You're joking right? Shantae is mainly E, and the only one that has actually pushed past that rating was 1/2 genie hero with a very mild Teen rating.

@Dakotastomp i know sorry I meant 1/2 ginie hero

The art style for Shantae has changed over the years, but the others felt like a refinement rather than a complete change. I'm not too keen on this one, with hard angles and outlines. This seems to be the style for cartoons now (TMNT, Ducktales, etc) and I'm not a fan of it there either.
As long as the game plays like a Shantae game, I'll still have a good time with it as I've enjoyed them all, I'd just prefer they'd stay with the softer lines and actual curves rather than angles.

I want a game that plays like wonderboy in monsterland 3 on Genesis. I'm still waiting for a proper next one. Sure these are almost like that one, but still isn't. I'm missing the great OST that makes you go back to the game and the game should start in a forest place to start light. Later with the dungeons going a bit dark that would be ok

I actually hope they put the suggestiveness back in. These aren't fanservice games - they're genuinely good games that happen to be a bit saucy at times. Half-Genie Hero was too shy about what the series used to be about. It didn't even have the beautiful genie statues.

@legendcoworker I don't know if I would call it "suggestive" but it's definitely more on the teenage-side of reference and humor. If you can't play them now because of your age, I really encourage you to remember them when you get a bit older because they're fantastic games.

@Cotillion other then her hair, I'm not sure where you're seeing a lot of hard angles. Granted, her hair is a major point of the game so I can see why it is a big deal.

I don't think her hair will really be that angular the whole time. I think they're hyping it up for the box art and overall celebratory nature of the release and success.

You can usually tell an art direction based on the logic of removal of elements. If you were to remove the "hard angles", this trailer would still carry exactly the same theme and emotional purpose.

Contrast that with Wind Waker, where the aesthetics define a lot of the identity.

Neither is good or bad. But I think the indicator here is dramatic flair and not full art direction

@FlyingFoxy Anime with visuals like that merit 14+ rating not 12.

@Yorumi I thought the new animation helps convey things like fast-paced movement and more emotion (like Pokemon Sun/Moon the anime) it makes sense. Kill La Kill did the exact same thing and it worked just fine!

@Reigestugatensho I haven't seen much 15 (UK rating) anime but i know for a fact there are some like Highschool DxD with that rating and from what i know they can be pretty pornographic.

I'm kind of surprised so many people loved this opening cinematic, though. I'm a big fan of the series but was kind of disappointed by it. Not a fan at all of the dime-a-dozen anime art style and not feeling the song either. Hope the game is better than that. Maybe I'm just too big a fan of the classic art style. Don't like the direction the visuals have been headed for some time.

@Yorumi THANK YOU. Agreed 100%.

@Dakotastomp Also Pirate’s Curse on Switch had a T rating.

@legendcoworker Also, replying to your first post, I think this game is gonna be T too, since a little glimpse in the Apple Arcade trailer shows that they’re still using the Half-Genie Hero character sprites.

thank you all I will

I'd love to see a full blown episodic Shantae series. But not this style. I like Trigger, but not for everything.

@Vectorman55 wow ok if your done then whey are you still here not to be rude.

@Yorumi Shantae's entire physical appearance and overall art style had changed in every game pretty drastically. There's huge precedent for it being whatever they want each entry. Also, even if that weren't true, just because something wasn't one way before isn't rational reasoning it can't be that way in the future. Final Fantasy didn't have active time battles until it did. Zelda wasn't a modern open world game until it was. Mario wasn't an RPG until they made it one.

All I'm saying is while this does look fairly different, it's still unmistakably Shantae and Shantae is what they want Shantae to be.

@RR529 Well. I mean. This opening was made by Studio Trigger, which IS a Japanese animation studio. A very popular one. And River City Girls is a Japanese co-developed game from a popular Japanese game franchise by Arc System Works, a Japanese company. Not really "Japanising" their output when it's made by Japanese people in Japan.

@Torakaka I mean, he responded to a little kid saying they didn't think they were old enough to play it because of suggestive themes. I don't think there's anything wrong with Shantae, but we don't know how young the kid is. And it does have a teen rating.

@Yorumi I don't really understand the wildly overblown sarcasm. You literally said in your PUBLIC COMMENT that you didn't understand why they were doing this and that it was a really strange decision, so I explained why I thought it wasn't strange and how there was precedent for why they were doing this.

I don't give a hoot if you have a different opinion. That's fine. But if you don't want feedback about your opinion, then don't go to a comment section on a news site and say basically "GEE GUYS I SURE DON'T KNOW WHY THIS IS HAPPENING, HMMMMMMM I WONDER WHY, OH BOY THIS IS SO STRANGE!"

It definitely invites a response to answer your musings.

@Yorumi That's not what I said at all. I said simply to say something couldn't be different because it wasn't already that way wasn't rational reasoning. It's just a basic logic concept. You're welcome to not want it to change. But saying it shouldn't simply because it wasn't already that way is very limiting. Many of the best games, shows, movies, books, etc came about from things changing their formula. It's why I made a few examples. Like Super Mario RPG. And you're welcome to disagree. I just don't know why you're being so rude and hostile. Apparently I'm not entitled to MY opinion and I don't have the right to comment on yours. That seems to be the real issue here.

@Deltath I'm just saying that he shouldn't judge something at first glance, I mean how many games or movies were hyped up only to be a disappointment later on? He's just basing his decision on a preconceived notion that just because something like Shantae which is set in a desert region that the character is dressed like a stereotypical harem girl doesn't mean anything as long as the gameplay and story is good.

@Torakaka The guy you responded to wasn't prejudging it. He was responding directly to another guy. The first comment was a little kid (who later said he was 10, I believe) said that the game had suggestive themes and he was too young for it. A second guy said that Shantae had literally no suggestive themes and was basically Mario. Then the guy you responded to just said that wasn't true, that it had a lot of sexual themes. That comment had nothing to do with quality. It was merely referring to the fact that it indeed does have some adult themes maybe not appropriate for a ten year old. It's irrefutably more sexual than Mario. It seems like you misunderstood what he was saying and assumed it was a complaint that Shantae was bad because of said themes. It wasn't.

The question remains: Johnny Chimpo DLC?!?

Hmm, looks just okay. I hope the game is better then the last one though.

and now I'm imagining an alternate universe where, I dunno, Atari pulled their head out of their butt in the nick of time, made a Shantae platformer in 1987, and competed with Nintendo before the console wars started.

I love that WayForward is treating Shantae like an old-school gaming mascot a la Mario and Sonic. Next up: Shantae breakfast cereal with little skull marshmallows. Yum!

Shantae: In the daytime, I'm Shantae, just a half-genie girl with a mostly normal life...