Don't Skip - Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

It’s a show I created and am ultimately responsible for every month so that’s why the majority are from me. Any ally can do them at any time but it’s not something they are responsible for making sure happens each month like I am. - Ben

Easy Allies

Is there a reason the majority of these are written by Ben? Does he just play more lesser known games than some of the other allies?

Corey Swafford

It honestly doesn't feel that sexualized to me. The sprite art might be showing a lot of skin and she twerks when you crouch lol but I don't see how this has downright sexist undertones. I mean, wtf lol. The actual things that happen in the game are not sexual in any way and Shantae as a character is just a feisty go-getter girl. If anything I think she appeals to a lot of female gamers in her attitude.

Lunk

Great video Ben! <3

sirvorn

Now unrelated in particular to Ben's Don't Skip, before people's blinded hatred gets out of hand, I'm just going to quote Wikipedia on some basic history for the character and franchise that might surprise some: "The character of Shantae was created by Erin Bell, the wife of Matt Bozon, the game's creator. In 1994, during their engagement, Erin got a flash of inspiration while coming back from her camp counselor days, and created the character, naming her "Shantae" after one of the campers, as well as developed her dancing abilities. Matt later asked her what she would come up with if she was to create a video game character, and she introduced him to Shantae. Matt liked the idea and fleshed out the mythology and cast of the game. Erin imagined that the character could summon or charm animals by belly-dancing. This would later become the basis for the transformation dances. Matt has provided two contradictory stories about how the idea for the hair whip came to be; in one, he said he was inspired by the nine-foot-long hair of his wife, while in the other he claims that Erin's sketches already featured Shantae using her hair as a weapon when she showed him the original concept. Matt Bozon has stated that his main influences for the game series are Castlevania, Aladdin, Mega Man, The Legend of Zelda and anime, mostly Ranma ½ which he claims as a heavy influence, and others like Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water, Hayao Miyazaki's films, and Pokémon, as well as 80s cartoons like DuckTales or The Transformers, while Erin Bozon's main influence was I Dream of Jeannie. When asked about whether the Shantae series was conceived as pushing feminist values because of its strong female cast, Matt Bozon acknowledged that he liked to portray the Shantae world as having the girls "run the show" and not be defined solely by their appearances. While he admitted that most female characters had a deliberately sexy design to them, and the male characters often displayed a variety of weaknesses, he also said that he just liked depicting Shantae's world this way "for no precise reason", and that it was certainly possible that strong male characters could appear later in the franchise's future."

MBUN

Shantae herself is a belly dancer. These games always take place in tropical locations, so the outfits make more sense for the setting than seeing Aloy freezing in similar clothing in her colder environment.

MBUN

I have mixed feelings about this particular title but support you making Don't Skips on games you're passionate about Ben, and the Shantae franchise could definitely use more love! That said, coming into this game from Shantae: Risky's Revenge, it was a massive disappointment to me personally. One of the things the Shantae series is known for is the transformations, something this game decided to skip in favor of the Pirate Gear upgrades, which yes is justified in the story, but didn't feel as interesting overall by the end of the game. You mention the backtracking to previous islands making them feel like more of an interconnected world, and that strikes a serious sore spot with me. My biggest problem with this particular game and the lasting effect it has left on the franchise is that these games used to be actual interconnected worlds. This was dropped in favor of this current formula designed to be "more friendly to players". Even though this particular game hides it a bit better since you're going between islands, I definitely miss having a huge multilayered, interconnected world like past games to explore. You touched on this when you mentioned having to look up a guide, but having to find the twenty Twisted Cacklebats to reach the true ending was problematic when I played this, because the places a couple of them are hidden are beyond obscure. I'm talking about random walls you have to run into full speed with no hint or indication to do this whatsoever. It is quite frankly lazy and bad secret hiding, and that's made even worse when you're required to get them to finish the game proper. Luckily, they learned from this game and the next in the series has nothing this unfair. So honestly, this is easily my least favorite entry in the entire franchise, but all that said if this exposes some new people to Shantae games then that's a good thing right? So keep on keepin' on and ignore my seasalt.

MBUN

just imagine Ellie or Aloy in that light. Super weird. And people who enjoy these kinda games because of the looks creep me out. Sorry no love and respect in that case.

You're right. Those Heart Squids need to put on some clothes!

MBUN

Yeah there's something about the way they mix cutesyness and overt sexualization in these games that just creeps me out.

Gray Thomas-Sowers

This is not even close to being in the same boat. Also you are twisting his words. He didn't call anyone bad. If I say I'm taller than you, I'm not automatically saying you would be short. If he states his opinion that voting with your wallet against fan service games would make you a better person, he doesn't call anyone a bad person. The whole drama was created artificially in the comments by people with very thin skin twisting and misunderstanding an opinion on purpose. Copy pasting those claims won't make them any more reasonable. You could pretty much rename EZA to "shots fired! - The Show". I assumed most ppl got that by now. Instead we get overreactions of ppl taking those shots as a serious attack on their precious hentai. Like it's going to go away, because Damiani dared to have an opinion about it.

Snowcone Guy

What what does Damiani think of this game? There is a lot of sexualized females. Are you also a bad person for playing this?

FreeDoM

oversexualized ... and for that reason i quit after 15 seconds of the video aaaand I‘m out.

Great video from Ben Moore Video!

It is also available on the PsVita! 😁

Patrice Landry

The Shantae games are delightful ! I really really hope Wayforward is working on the next one.

Leif

All of the Shantae games are really good

Blade Kasper

I'm on the last part of half genie hero and this is the next game I'm picking up. Shantae is really fun!

Jason Rumsey