Easily the weakest Shovel Knight installment IMO. Starting with positives, while Plague Knight takes a while to get the hang of, he becomes incredibly fun to use once you do and his different weapon/cloak loadouts lead to a ton of customization, gameplay variety, and speedrun potential. I also like the story. I wouldn't say it's as good as Specter of Tourmet's, but watching Plague Knight and Mona's romance unfold was kinda cute in a evil way. I also like the few new levels we got, they make great use of Plague Knight's abilities and I wish we got more of them.
As I hinted with that last point, my biggest issue with the game is amount of recycled content. If you're willing to count the Hall of Champions minigame as a stage, there are only 4 new stages in the game. The rest are recycled from Shovel of Hope, just with a little sub area where you can farm Cipher Coins (And I'll admit these areas are fun, as they make good use of Plague Knight's controls, but they are over way too short). Don't get me wrong, these stages were and are fantastic in Shovel of Hope, but seeing them cheaply recycled just feels lazy. Most of the bosses are also recycled from Shovel of Hope, but the two new ones we get are really fun. Additionally, I wasn't a big fan of the Cipher Coins, this game's major collectible. And while they do have a use seeing as they unlock additional bomb/burst upgrades and the Pandemonium Cloak, they are not handled that well in-game. Most of the Cipher Coins are very poorly hidden or in fairly easy spots, and the few that aren't can be made piss easy thanks to how broken the Hover Burst and Vat Arcana are. This makes the challenge of collecting all the Cipher Coins pretty weak, and as such they aren't as memorable as the Music Sheets, Red Skulls, and Merit Medallions. And lastly, this is more of of a personal gripe, but I think Plague of Shadows has the weakest OST of any Shovel Knight installment. Most of the songs are recycled from Shovel of Hope, and the few new ones are mostly just ok-at-best remixes of either Flowers of Antimony or Spin Ye Bottle. There definitely are tracks I like from Plague of Shadows (Out of the Shadows, Art Through Adversity, and Waltz For One/Le Bouqet Magique are some of my favorites in the series), but those really good ones are few and far between.
Overall, Plague of Shadows is cool, but mostly just feels like Shovel of Hope with a different character, new story, and minor level design changes here and there.
As I hinted with that last point, my biggest issue with the game is amount of recycled content. If you're willing to count the Hall of Champions minigame as a stage, there are only 4 new stages in the game. The rest are recycled from Shovel of Hope, just with a little sub area where you can farm Cipher Coins (And I'll admit these areas are fun, as they make good use of Plague Knight's controls, but they are over way too short). Don't get me wrong, these stages were and are fantastic in Shovel of Hope, but seeing them cheaply recycled just feels lazy. Most of the bosses are also recycled from Shovel of Hope, but the two new ones we get are really fun. Additionally, I wasn't a big fan of the Cipher Coins, this game's major collectible. And while they do have a use seeing as they unlock additional bomb/burst upgrades and the Pandemonium Cloak, they are not handled that well in-game. Most of the Cipher Coins are very poorly hidden or in fairly easy spots, and the few that aren't can be made piss easy thanks to how broken the Hover Burst and Vat Arcana are. This makes the challenge of collecting all the Cipher Coins pretty weak, and as such they aren't as memorable as the Music Sheets, Red Skulls, and Merit Medallions. And lastly, this is more of of a personal gripe, but I think Plague of Shadows has the weakest OST of any Shovel Knight installment. Most of the songs are recycled from Shovel of Hope, and the few new ones are mostly just ok-at-best remixes of either Flowers of Antimony or Spin Ye Bottle. There definitely are tracks I like from Plague of Shadows (Out of the Shadows, Art Through Adversity, and Waltz For One/Le Bouqet Magique are some of my favorites in the series), but those really good ones are few and far between.
Overall, Plague of Shadows is cool, but mostly just feels like Shovel of Hope with a different character, new story, and minor level design changes here and there.