Wayforward Issues an Update on Shantae: Half-Genie Hero

I really hope this comes to 3DS

It would be nice to have a physical copy of the game, so hopefully they can work out a deal with those publishers.

@NinjaAceTrainer It sadly isn't. They are creating it with HD graphic consoles in mind.

Can't wait to get this for my Vita. Physical copy would be best considering I'm pretty much out of storage space on my 64 GB.
Though I'm on my PC a lot, I don't game on it all that often and I very rarely ever play my Wii U, so those two are out.

Will be getting this on 3DS and Wii U. A physical copy would be nice too.

Ive become a Shantae fan the last few years and now own the first 3 on 3DS. Can't wait to support this one too!

I was already getting a physical copy of the soundtrack, which is one of the reasons that I donated over $75 to the project. I actually thought it included a physical copy of the game too...

@Nintendood : Anyone who pledged over $15 will be getting a Download Code, plus any physical extras (like the CD Sountrack). Unless I'm mistaken, if you want a physical box copy, you will have to pay more.

"WayForward is the game’s primary publisher, same as always. You’ll still receive your download codes from WayForward, along with all of the Backer Exclusive content."
"Please understand that WayForward is not the distributor of the physical versions, so we can't offer backers any boxed copies."

That does kinda suck, if that is the case. An option to upgrade from the Downlaod to Physical would be nice.

Thanks to those humble friends I FINALLY got to try this series out and I'm really loving it now. Shantae is a great character and the overall game design is awesome. I thought it would be just a standard sidescroller but fortunately I wasn't completely right on that one.

Did WayForward end up putting all the Kickstarter additional chapters in?

@ToniK Don't you mean "fortunately I wasn't completely wrong on that one."

Ahh, Shantae. I'm loving being a Tinkerbacker. <3

Apart from the noticeable downgrade in the character design/style overall in this latest entry, I think it looks really good. The entire series is generally of a very high standard.

Old Shantae (Disney quality)

New Shantae (Really not Disney quality)

But, that drop in the general artistry, particularly on the character designs and especially on Shantae herself, really makes we wanna punch the lead artist and director of this game for allowing that drop in visual design quality to happen in the first place—and I'm not accepting whatever reason they want to give for the change (downgrade).

This game could have been a Disney-cartoon-quality masterpiece, much like Cuphead looks like a genuinely awesome '30s animation brought to life in a video game, and instead we get a kind of "Flash"-looking game, but still a great looking "Flash"-looking game—BUT, not a "Disney"-looking game like we could have had (and I would have personally loved).

This frustration and anger you often see across the Internet: It's born of people feeling powerless when they see stuff like this, and whatever else in life, and yet they basically can't do anything about it. No one listens to you when you clearly know better. It makes you wanna shout all the louder. Although, some idiots also think they know better when they don't, and those people shouting make up a whole lot of the angry and vocal crowd on the Internet too. I, however, do know better.

But, anyway . . . yeah, the overall game still looks generally very nice, and I presume it's going to be up to the same high level of gameplay and fun standards as the previous games in the series. So that's good.

Yeah i agree with @Kirk the art direction on this game is worse than the previous ones. I liked the pixels more and the character designs, but at least this still looks good.

@Kevlar44 And I agree with you.

Q) What do you think?

A) If a physical release of this game is made available, I'd definitely purchase it. If possible, I always try to get a physical copy of a game over a digital one.

Q) Are you looking forward to this game?

A) I am looking forward to this game. I became interested in this game due to it's in game art style, and after trying out Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, decided to definitely get this game when it becomes available. It looks lovely, and having enjoyed the previous entry in the series, am confident that I'll have a good time with this game.

Q) What have you thought of the other Shantae games?

A) I first tried out the first game in the series, through the Nintendo 3DS. I did not like it very much; being given little direction and not knowing if the long trek I had started on was even the right way.

When Shantae and the Pirate's Curse went on sale on the Wii U though, I decided to give the series a second chance. I'm glad I did because Shantae and the Pirate's Curse was a ton of fun, and my 'maybe' thoughts on Shantae: Half-Genie Hero turned into a 'want'.

@Kirk I'm of the opposite opinion; I certainly prefer the newer look over the original game's look. That isn't to say I find the older look bad, I just find the newer look more charming and memorable, and I feel it will better translate into the in-game graphics itself. Though looking back to Shantae and the Pirate's Curse, I would probably say that game has the best overall style for it's artwork.

What I am most appreciative of though is the change of in-game graphics. Looking back on all three previous games, I can state that I'm not a fan of their in-game pixel graphics. I'm so glad that the in-game art and style has improved so much with this latest entry.

I absolutely loved Shantae and the Pirate's Curse.I couldn't stop playing it when I got it in the Humble Bundle and as soon as it was finished I was hungry for more.I'll be getting this one the day it's released,can't wait.

I like this trend of indies going physical, it's true its a weird trend, but there is something magical about getting something digital into your physical library to show-off and share.

@OorWullie Still playing it, even though I downloaded it to both my Wii U and 3DS, I'm playing it more at night before bed on my 3DS.

@Souldin Well, I'm not thinking about pixel vs high-res art here, because each genuinely has its merits. Good, clean pixel art can basically scale infinitely, as along as it's not aliased or that kind of thing, whereas even HD bitmap art will only look good up to a certain level of zoom. HD art does, however, look great on modern displays at its intended resolution, if it's done well. And vector art looks sharp as hell at whatever reason even using really smoother lines and curves, unlike pixel art, but it tends to look a bit "cut-out, cheap, or flat most of the time.

Regarding the old vs. new Shantae: You are entirely entitled to your opinion, but your opinion that the new character art/design is better than the old one is based on bad taste and a lack of understanding of what makes good looking art & design, in my [not at all] humble opinion.

You're looking at an image where Shantae's hair looks like it's some kind of angular cut out, her skin looks like it's been slightly bleached, the gold looks more like plain yellow, her boobs like they'd be kinda flat and saggy if they weren't strangely propped up by her bra-thingy, her hands are weird blocky shapes, her feet are tiny triangles, her wrist bracelets look like swimming armbands . . . and you think that's better than the other design.

Now, it's not the the new design is bad, per say, but it's nowhere near as artistically refined and well executed as the older one. Like I said, it's like comparing a classically trained Disney artist's artwork to some guy creating stuff for web-based Flash games; it's not even in the same league.

I think it all comes down to good taste, really, but, as I said, each person is entirely entitled to their own [misguided] opinion of what design they like better.

I'm simply saying what happens to be the objective truth, as would be appreciated by anyone who actually knows anything about what constitutes all the aspects of a piece of art and has a well developed eye for what is actually good art.

Even though, of course, the entire Universe is subjective, so it's obviously impossible for me to even claim it's possible to determine good art from lesser art in any meaningful and measured way--of course.

But, you are very right: It will certainly translate better into the current version of the in-game graphics, because they're going for that kind of "Flash" character look on 3D cartoon backgrounds. You wouldn't be right, however, if they'd actually tried to make the game genuinely look like some kind of high quality Disney animation come to life inside a video game--but, they haven't done that.

@Kirk I'm confused at you point, in the older games you never played Shantae in that art style, other then cut scenes she was done in pixels.

New art style she looks like that for the whole game and it doesn't switch art styles.

@ReifuTD I'm talking about the art and design of the character herself, not necessarily the exact images directly (although, they are the best way to see the design with graphical limitations like resolution or whatever) and not the technical/graphical way the character was displayed either. The old Shantae has flowing curves and lines, better colour balance, more natural and balanced proportions, more defined features on her hands and the likes, gold that looks gold, boobs that don't look kinda weird, feet that don't look like triangles, etc. The in-game art in both games is based on the high-res character art outside of the game, and I'm saying Shantae's actual design is better in the old version. And, now that they're actually able to create the sprite in HD, if they'd used that original art/design look and style, it would be an order of magnitude better looking than the more "Flash"-like design they ultimately went with in this latest game.

It's really simple to think about here: Imagine scaling both of the character images/designs above down to the roughly the size of an in-game character (but in super-HD and on an 80 inch screen, so that none of the detail is lost at all and everything is perfectly readable visually--this isn't a debate about seeing the sprite clearly on your TV that I'm having here), and see which one would look better. . . .

For me, this is not at all about pixel art vs. bitmap or vector art, or whatever; I'm purely talking about character design vs. character design. The old design is vastly superior, to anyone who understands good art and character design, and that has no real connection with the limitations of the consoles trying to display the actual in-game graphics.

Nice I hope they show a realease date soon

@Kirk

@NinjaAceTrainer I don't think this game alone can't come to the 3DS simply because its handdrawn and that might pixelate when on the 3DS.

@Auracle Good: It needed an image so all the simpletons would get it extremely clearly. Cheers.

@Socar @Marthian That's a shame. I liked the pixelated graphics more as well...

I do agree with @Kirk regarding the artistic style (although my personal favourite is probably the Risky's Revenge style). Half-Genie Hero looks too "young" and "cute" to be perfect. Like everything else nowadays, it seems terrified of sex appeal.

I played my first Shantae game thanks to the recent humble bundle and I thought it was fantastic. Great gameplay, great characters. Bran-son was a highlight for me. I'll be picking up this new title and Risky's Revenge too.

@MetalKingShield Yeah, I think I like the in-game overall look/style of Risky's Revenge the most, regardless of it being pixel art. The new game is cool in 2.5D, but with the Risky's Revenge general character design and art style in that 2.5D, I think it would look even better.

I love the series, so I just can't wait to play more Shantae

I'll be getting this on Vita. If 3DS version gets annoucned I'll change to that version. I prefer having games on portable consoles xD

I got Shantae and the Pirates Curse from the Humble Bundle and was surprised at how much I've liked it.
Should I be buying Risky's Revenge or is it a step down? If it's a step down I'll wait for Half Genie Hero, but if not I may grab it.

@Marthian See, I don't see what the problem is with creating it with handhelds in mind and then going from there. Would make it less technically challenging...then again I'm just spouting theoreticals.

@RadioShadow You're right, my mistake. I guess this is the only physical thing I'll get...
STANDARD EDITION: This tier adds a physical MUSIC CD containing the full OST & bonus tracks, plus exclusive CD cover artwork and an additional song found only on this CD! [includes all previous rewards]

You're right, that definitely sucks that we'll have to pay full price if we want the physical version, which I'm sure many backers will... Considering it's how the game was paid for in the first place, they should include a deal for us backers when negotiating with these top-tier publishers.

Hyped about that physical copy. I don't mind digital, but I always prefer a hard copy.

@retro_player_22

It's not coming to 3DS. It's an HD game with 3D.

I would give anything for a physical retail version of Shantae. Especially on 3DS. Somehow I'm more excited about hearing this then the Pokémon reveal. Hmm?

ALWAYS RETAIL WHENEVER POSSIBLE!!!!

@Dezzy Then Wii U it is.

Even if a retail version comes out,I'll probably still get the digital version,it just feels kinda weird having the digital versions of the first 3 Shantae games and a physical copy of the 4th one,but I digress. Its probably one of the 3 games I'm actually looking forward to this year,the other 2 being Kirby Robot planet and Pokemon Sun & moon.

@leo13
If it's not too late to reply to your question, then I say that Risky's Revenge is definitely less interesting than Pirate's Curse. I enjoyed the latter immensely, while the prequel left me rather unimpressed. It's still a good game, and if you like the main character or the series in general, you won't regret getting this one as well, but out of the three games in the Shantae series, Risky's Revenge would be my least favourite.

@Popful that'd good to know
Thank