Half genie hero makes for a tough act to follow and Sirens reels things back in by returning to a more traditional action platformer / metroidvania experience.
The art style from the previous game is back but this time we've gone full anime with animated and voice acted cut scenes. I don't think it adds much but at this point they've really mastered the art so there's not many other directions to take things to add more polish.
The new music is fine, but lacks the insanely catchy score from previous games - though it's nice that they didn't just try a 2nd round of remixing. There's a host of new characters and enemies but sadly both the other genies and the sirens are pretty forgettable characters and feel very much like filler to pad the story and enable the adventure.
The gameplay feels like a return to Risky's Revenge as the levels are more linear and less challenging. There's a ton more backtracking than the previous two games and the animals forms and magic here are either remixes of what we've seen before or go back to acting as progress gates which is a little disappointing given how the ones in 1/2 Genie Hero expanded the game world.
It's unfortunate that Sirens ends up feeling like one of the weakest entries in the series so far if only because the bar was set so high by previous entries. It's an okay platformer with an okay story, but only really worth getting if you want more Shantae.
The art style from the previous game is back but this time we've gone full anime with animated and voice acted cut scenes. I don't think it adds much but at this point they've really mastered the art so there's not many other directions to take things to add more polish.
The new music is fine, but lacks the insanely catchy score from previous games - though it's nice that they didn't just try a 2nd round of remixing. There's a host of new characters and enemies but sadly both the other genies and the sirens are pretty forgettable characters and feel very much like filler to pad the story and enable the adventure.
The gameplay feels like a return to Risky's Revenge as the levels are more linear and less challenging. There's a ton more backtracking than the previous two games and the animals forms and magic here are either remixes of what we've seen before or go back to acting as progress gates which is a little disappointing given how the ones in 1/2 Genie Hero expanded the game world.
It's unfortunate that Sirens ends up feeling like one of the weakest entries in the series so far if only because the bar was set so high by previous entries. It's an okay platformer with an okay story, but only really worth getting if you want more Shantae.