I beat it. An update had to happen, but I beat it. And it addressed most of my complaints from my prior review ( https://www.backloggd.com/u/battlehuntz/review/1061075/ ). Obviously, fundamental level design flaws still exist here. Knuckles got patched and is soooo much nicer, the Master King Koco stuff is consumable for a casual player, tower blocks respawn without reloading your game, yeah. Good. They fixed glaring issues. Should those trials still exist? No, or they should be far better. But it’s commendable to address severe issues with overhauls. The final boss is fucking awesome, let no one fool you. It’s still a bit difficult to figure out what goes on in the fight and the Supreme fight, but it is far better than the base game’s Ikaruga clone from a gameplay PoV, and makes Sonic look so damn cool. However, I do think the story has some issues. Sage loses a lot of her agency as a result of being put next to Sonic’s friends and forced to share screentime, and Eggman getting to fire the final shot, so a lot of her arc isn’t explored. While the final boss here is more fun, losing its epic, boastful monologue sucks. It was a bone chilling level of arrogance whilst it taunted you in the base game. Thematically it heightened a mediocre final boss, so it’s sad to lose it for an incredible one. But hey, this was a good patch that the update desperately needed. It should have been this way to begin with, but I commend any developer who cares about their product.

This game is DENSE. I didn’t used to like Joustus, but it’s a genuinely well made card game, and optional if you wish to ignore it, but rewarding if you engage. I appreciate smaller stages from a collectible PoV because you’re not punished for missing something by replaying giant stages, and that’s huge. The WarioLand esque control scheme and relic selection are so fun here too, I found myself using the flame sword a ton. If I had to needle a flaw down, there’s a pretty severe grind. 50k for all of the cosmetics, which aren’t armor, necessary for the game to consider you fully upgraded is WILD. It’s cool to get, but you do need to grind. And trying to get every Joustus card is RNG, which also necessitates a grind. The story here is genuinely excellent as a prequel. While a comedy, it is a tragic one, as you see how widespread the impacts of King Knight’s folly and treachery are. A peaceful kingdom descends into one with a deposed king, Cooper goes from sailing around in the Glidewing to having a limp after being betrayed, the Troupple King is forced to hide, etc. Specter of Torment tells a personal tragedy, but King of Cards tells the tragedy that befalls the world, how the arrogance of a people’s champ spits in the face of them all, leading to the state of the world in Shovel of Hope and Plague of Shadows. And yet, this is a tragic comedy, filled with witty dialogue and ample opportunity to laugh at King Knight’s buffoonery. It’s fun to laugh at the misadventures of such a manchild, but that manchild’s mistakes fall on everyone, not only himself. It’s what makes the ending, where after losing the support of his mother, the only person besides himself King Knight can muster care for, the game ends right before Shovel Knight gives him his pummeling, so satisfying. We watch one manchild’s descent into villainy, dragging the world to squalor with him. And though we know he’ll be deposed, that makes such an ending all the more satisfying.