Back in March, WayFoward announced Shantae would be making a return "later this year" on the Nintendo Switch and multiple other platforms. Tentatively titled Shantae 5, the new game has now been officially revealed as Shantae and the Seven Sirens.
This action-adventure-platformer sends the belly-dancing, hair-whipping, half-genie hero to a tropical island with her friends, where they encounter other half-genie allies. Everything appears to be fine until they discover there is trouble in paradise. Shantae gets caught up in the island's sinister secrets and learns all-new dancing abilities and "instant-transformation Fusion Magic" to explore this new non-linear inconnected world filled with towns, treacherous labyrinths, and dastardly bosses.
Interestingly, this entry will also include a collectible card system, granting players the freedom to augment Shantae's power to suit their own style of play. Below is a full list of key features:
- Explore an interconnected world using new Fusion Magic creature transformations, including a newt and other aquatic forms!
- 4K-resolution hand-painted visuals (on 4K devices only)!
- All-new characters and returning favorites like Rottytops, Sky, Bolo, and the nefarious Risky Boots!
- Collect and power up with monster cards!
- Enjoy minigames, acquire magic and items, and uncover secrets!
- Gorgeously animated TV-style cutscenes!
While we have some screenshots to share, unfortunately, there's no trailer, release date or price. Keep an eye out for all of this in the future.
Yesterday, WayForward announced Vitamin Connection exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. And earlier this week, we spoke to the director of River City Girls - a WayForward-developed title due out early next month.
Are you excited for Shantae's next adventure or any of the other upcoming WayForward games? Leave a comment below.
[source wayforward.com]
Comments 57
WayForward has always done a great job with their games and this is a very high quality series.
Now with even more waifus to fight? Sign me up!
ShantaeFanboySquee.mp3
This is fantastic! It looks like some assets are being recycled from Half-Genie Hero, but who cares? It's Shantae, it's WayForward, it's more likely than not going to be an absolute winner. Bring on the Seven Sirens! <3
Looking great. Definitely a buy on Switch for me.
Hey cool, I haven’t played a Shantae game since Risky’s Revenge on DSiWare. I think I’m ready to play another one now, haha.
@JR150 SLAP THE CUFFS ON 'IM BOYS
Yes! This is exactly what I wanted: a game more in line with the GBC original, featuring various towns and dungeons in a big, interconnected world.
This will be the game I wanted Half-Genie Hero to be.
Alright. Another Shantae game. Another must buy.
Yes! Count me in!
Oh baby, oh baby baby, baby baby baby
There was a time several years ago when I was wanting more Metroidvanias but now there is a surplus. Glad this is a trend as there have been some truly great ones lately and the shantae series has been consistently good to great. I’ll definitely be picking this up.
Looking forward to it!
This game is looking great. It actually makes me want to play Half-Genie Hero on Wii U again. So far all the WayForward games I've played I've really enjoyed.
I need this!!! Pirate's Curse and HGH were great!
@N00BiSH Risky Boots is an adult though XD
I was hoping for gameplay video
Instant transformation magic? That's an incredibly promising thing to hear. Wonder if it'll work as well as it sounds though...
1/2 Genie Hero was pretty disappointing, so hopefully this is a step up.
Looks great! I look forward to playing this at 60fps on my Switch! I wonder if the mini games will be multiplayer?
Hahahahahaha, after the Backer Enemies and Giga Mermaid love (both legit and, um, from "scientific research"), seems WF went full-steam ahead with the monster girls!
But that's not even the part I'm excited about! Minigames' glorious return, instant magic, FUSIONS WHAAAAAT, and SatPC-detail character portraits! As long as the collectathon is scaled back to reasonable amounts, there's nothing keeping this entry from being Ret-2-Go!!!
I love me some Shantae, this is a day one buy easily.
Yay!!, Great! ^.^
Now, we need a little gameplay sample, I hope that soon, but, maybe some more important:
release date, when?!, I hope also that soon, but, better that they develop the game calmly, and that it looks good, as they know how to do it. ^.^
ah, and one thing more:
Shantae for Smash!!!!!
Please!!
someone have that say it, XD
I wish I could get into the series... I just don't get it I guess. I know people who have the same opinion about Smash Bros., which I think is the best game in the world. I've never played nor watched footage of a single Shantae game. If someone could maybe like explain the appeal of it, that might help me to understand. I'm not saying I'm against it or anything/I'm not saying people are wrong for liking it. This is merely my opinion and thoughts.
I'm glad they're returning to the Pirates Curse/Metroidvania format, I wish that they would have used a 16 bit pixel art style though.
Those screenshots are enough for me. I’m in.
@SakuraHaruka Right on! #shantae4smash
@Reigestugatensho I have no other way to explain this, so bluntly will have to do. I'm pretty picky about my game quality and being light-hearted, which is why I play largely Nintendo's stuff (with Capcom and other fare here and there). If you're a platforming enthusiast or appreciate games/design, then I recommend the games, because they're definitely on that level. Not the same level of polish as a 2D Mario, but certainly as enjoyable as 2D Metroid. The main reasons I look forward to each entry are watching Shantae's uniquely innocent and determined personality unfold and the Futurama-quirky humor that is so lacking in today's world. It's consistently above-average in terms of being entertaining, so, maybe think of these games as being made by the Michael Bay of the video game world (explosions and all!).
Shantae and the seven wafus.
Wow this is awesome soon there will be more Shantae games than there are Metroid. Nintendo you need to keep up, don't let Samus down.
@TempOr Sounds like more Risky's Revenge. One large, non-linear location. Assumedly larger and longer than Risky's Revenge, though.
@Reigestugatensho It sounds like the biggest barrier to you not being able to get into it is you haven't tried. At all. You need to play one, mate!
@Reigestugatensho As far as the appeal.. the exploration and back tracking is a lot of fun, like a Castlevania game. They usually have fun, but light-hearted stories. They have interesting dungeon and level design with some solid bosses. The combat is fun and sometimes tough, particularly on the harder modes. They're great games for people who like to explore big worlds and find a lot of hidden secrets, very much like hunting down things in a Zelda game. The writing is funny and snappy. The animation is good and so is the music.
I need to get into this series, is there a good one to start with? Is there an overarching story between the games that I need to be aware of?
@Deltath which game do you recommend? I heard 1/2 genie hero wasn't good.
@Reigestugatensho Shantae and the Pirate's Curse is the biggest, longest and most complete experience. If you don't mind heinous Gameboy graphics with big, kind of awful sprites.. the original Shantae is available for cheap on the 3DS. Risky's Revenge is a FANTASTIC game and it's the second one in the series, but it's only about 5-6 hours long. It was originally meant to be a trilogy of DSi Ware games, so it ends abruptly at a key plot twist moment in the story. Instead of finishing the trilogy of short games, they took the story ideas for the remaining two and rather than making two more 5 hour games they made Pirate's Curse. It picks up RIGHT where Risky's Revenge leaves off and is a 15+ hour game that has a ton of great design and fun elements to it.
If you just want to buy one game to try it out, Pirate's Curse is the best value, if you don't mind getting a bit spoiled by the story. If you don't mind grabbing a few, starting at Risky's Revenge is a great duology with Pirate's Curse and will give the best feel for what this new game will be like, based on descriptions so far.
And again, if you don't mind the very old school handheld charm, the original is still a good game. And decently long for a Gameboy game. 10-11 hours.
Half Genie Hero isn't a bad game. It has a cute story and fun characters and some solid bosses and gameplay. The main issue is that Shantae and Risky's Revenge were full blown Metroidvania games with fully interconnected worlds. Pirate's Curse had a sweet hub world and then very large islands that were like many somewhat smaller interconnected worlds with lots of exploration and backtracking. Half Genie Hero is more like Super Mario World. You pick stages from a world map-like menu and run to the end of them, left to right. The levels can be pretty big and do have a lot of hidden secrets, but they're definitely a lot more linear and straight forward. Depending on how much you like Metroidvania and exploration, it felt like a step back. Still a good game and worth playing though but it's definitely my least favorite.
@Reigestugatensho
Pirates Curse is the better game but Half Genie Hero is still a great game in its own right. People unfairly hate on it IMO.
I'm also glad they're using the HGH assets because the overly pixelated look of the older games was getting kinda old (like over using the old Morrigan sprite from Darkstalkers, lol).
Will be getting it on PC for 4k and on my Switch for physical (and to match the collection).
AAAAAAAH! Can't wait! Played the other 2 games on switch the past few weeks and I'm hooked! And Risky Boots is in it! Yay!!!
@MasterGraveheart Profile picture checks out.
I’ve only ever played one Shante game. I didn’t enjoy it.
Everyone keeps recommending these different Metroid games to me, and I still rather just play Metroid.
So we're going from giant mermaid waifu to giant plant waifu? I'm not complaining
Gonna have to revisit the previous games before I pick this one up day 1!
Bravo!
Looking forward to more genie action!
Sirens hmmm, it would be great to have Shantae with Greek mythology in an upcoming game!
Gonna be awesome. Pirate's Curse is my favorite game of the franchise, but I do like the transformations as well, so I'm glad we're getting a new game that includes both the (best version of) old-school Shantae Metroidvania action and the thing that makes her stand out.
And all the other features listed here like the animated cutscenes. I'm a bit worried how much it will cost, though.
Shantae is in my top three platformer franchises because:
1. Tight game play/feel
2. Hilarious writing
3. Super fine level design
4. Killer music
5. good mix of exploration/combat/puzzles
I look WAYforward to this game!
I'm glad they went back to the Metroidvania styled gameplay. I personally didn't like Half-Genie-Hero much. Not a bad game, but it was just a simple 2D-Platformer.
@MasterGraveheart combined with the profile gif, that "mp3" is now a line I can hear.
On topic... what's there to say? More Shantae is awesome, more interconnected worlds in Shantae are even more awesome and THEN there's a new upgrade system on top of everything else? COUNT ME THE HECK IN.
@AnnoyingFrenzy There is one storyline arcing all the games, but if I recall, you could play each installment independently without missing out on too much. If I recall, most of it is returning characters that the games seem to assume you already know from their introductions in previous games.
If you have a 3DS, you can get the first 3 from the eShop. I binged them all back-to-back a while ago and quite enjoyed them all.
If you only start with one, I'd have to go with the general consensus that the 3rd (Pirates Curse) is the best one thus far. But if you have the time/money, all of them are worth a play through in my opinion (dependent on how tolerable you are of Game Boy graphics for the first two).
The 4th one, Half-Genie Hero, is a fine game and I enjoyed it, but wouldn't be a good start point because it deviated from the series Metroidvania play style, so doesn't represent the series as a whole very well.
@TurboTEF @Deltath Thanks for the info! I'll be checking out a few games (Gameboy, Pirates Curse, etc.).
@Reigestugatensho I've only played Half Genie Hero and wouldn't recommend it. It's not a particularly good game. It's a kickstarter and it feels like it. Unfortunately the more the game goes on the worse it gets as the levels become less inspired (after a pretty good opening 1 or 2 levels) and you have to keep visiting them over and over. I suspect a lot of the people that loved the game went in after having played other games in the series and thus had more investment in the character and world.
Not to write the series off though, just start with Pirates Curse or one of the others which seem to be more highly rated, even by those that did enjoy HGH. If you enjoy those I think that high will carry on and elevate HGH a bit if you decide to eventually get into that one.
@Cotillion Thanks for the info! I think I'll start with the original Game Boy game then and move on from there. Game Boy graphics don't bother me a whole lot.
Cool, it's Metroidvania style again. Didn't mind the break in the action, but this was how the series cut its teeth. Shantae for me is like family now (like Mario, Zelda, Smash, MK, etc) where it's almost a given I'll play it, so I'm looking forward to it. And as for Wayforward in general, well I'm a follower of those guys cause they do nothing but put quality out there, so River City Girls can't come soon enough.
More WayFoward is always good
More Shantae is always great
The math just solves itself
Really hated that opening cutscene so I'm sure I'll hate the others. The animation was just so cheap looking and I feel betrayed the feel of the series. The official art looks cool though so I'm not sure why they don't match. And I'm still not a fan of the 1/2 Genie Hero gameplay art style... just kinda let down by this game so far but I'll withhold judgment until I try it.
@JR150 Tell it to the judge kid.
Yet again NintendoLife, not quoting their information sources in the article. For #$%^ sake, it's not hard to $#@%ing quote the actual source of the information. So why in hell are they not doing it?
Lazy? Ignorance of good journalism? Or intentionally pissing off those who actually read the articles.
Here's the source.
https://wayforward.com/wayforward-reveals-official-title-and-new-details-for-shantae-and-the-seven-sirens/
@TempOr I loved HGH but the overworld setup took it away from it's roots too much and felt less like a metroidvania. Gameplay was still solid though.
Yessss, no more seperate levels. Interested!
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