Shantae: Half-Genie Hero

Man, the series really fell apart with this game. Loved Pirate's Curse, but couldn't believe some of the design decisions in this game: No map, an unbearable amount of backtracking through the same small levels, the ability to get practically 1000 gems after a single level and thus being able to buy most power-ups very early on, inconsistent boss fights (the second last boss in particular was arguably the most boring last level boss fight I've ever played), WAY too many transformations (some of which are hilariously underused) and a plot that felt like nothing but fan service.

It guess all these problems had to do with its Kickstarter nature, as I adored the last two games in this series. At least the visuals were great and the Kaufman soundtrack was good as usual, but here's hoping Shantae 5 pretends this game never happened.

Huh, that's funny; I actually didn't have any of those problems with the game (except the last boss fight, which was pretty boring, and any of the buyable magic transformations, which are actually useless).
I kinda like it more than the Pirate's Curse because it feels more like a full game compared to that one yet it still retains the stuff I like about that game (great visuals and OST, fun platforming and collecting, a blast to speedrun, etc.).

My favourite Shantae game. Although I haven't played another Shantae game lmao