YMMV / Shantae and the Pirate's Curse

• Anti-Climax Boss: The Pirate Master, if you didn't collect all the Dark Magic pieces. You'll only fight his first form, which doesn't have many attacks and plenty of openings to cause damage.
• Alternative Character Interpretation: Shantae, Sky, Risky, and Rottytops are all seemingly mistaken for the princess of Tan Line Temple — whom they don't even resemble at all — while she is out on a shopping trip. Are the people (especially the royal adviser) really that stupid, or are they taking advantage of the princess being out to "mistake" random passing girls as her so they can put them into "ceremonial garb"? It doesn't help that the chieftain says that this happens all of the time.
• Best Known for the Fanservice: One of the more-talked about parts of the game is Shantae (and her friends and Risky) being forced into the above mentioned "garb".
• Breather Boss: Steel Maggot. Its only attacks are to either walk into you, or to shoot a spread of projectiles if you shoot the wrong button on its back, both of which are easily dodged. It's a "guess the sequence" type of fight, but there are only three buttons to shoot and the sequence never uses repeat buttons, so you really have nothing to fear.
• Complete Monster: The Pirate Master is a feared pirate captain, and Risky Boots's former mentor. Back when he was alive, he personally assaulted Sequin Land, killing several genies before being imprisoned by the survivors. The Pirate Master would then swear petty vengeance on his former pupil Risky for mutinying against him, even though she played no part in his banishment. When the light magic of Sequin Land started to fade away, the Pirate Master turns Risky's Tinkerbats into Cacklebats, and begins to gather dark magic from the dens of evil, unleashing several curses on the nearby islands in the process. Upon his revival, he kidnaps Risky and personally tortures her for her mutiny, before proceeding to attack Scuttle Town, risking the lives of countless innocents. During his battle with Shantae, the Pirate Master taunts her about the genies who died at his hand, and proceeds to give her a Sadistic Choice of either giving up the dark magic and saving Risky Boots, which puts the world at risk, or watch as he personally kills Risky himself. A cruel, petty tyrant who would show no mercy to anyone who would dare defy him, the Pirate Master serves as one of the most vile foes that Shantae has ever encountered.
• Even Better Sequel: While Shantae and Risky's Revenge were definitely well-received games, Pirate's Curse was where WayForward was allowed to really cut loose and do whatever they want with improved technology included, and the results show.
• Goddamned Boss: Dagron has a really simple pattern: you use a dash attack on the switches to drop platforms, and you jump on the platforms to hit Dagron in the face. Unfortunately, Dagron's hitbox lurches back and forth so much that the "jumping" part of that sentence is liable to get you hit and knocked back.
• Growing the Beard: The original game and Risky's Revenge are both good games on their own, but a combination of how episodic they are along with the series clearly still trying to find its footing means that they aren't what they could have been. Many fans agree that Pirate's Curse is where the series really started to come into its own. The lore is given more focus, more characters get development and the stakes are raised. The games also begin to carry more elements over from each other, giving the games a better sense of continuity.
• Scrappy Mechanic:
  • Knockback. While other games featured it when attacked by certain enemies, Pirate’s Curse has Shantae receive knockback anytime she is injured, by anything, while in midair. This is especially irritating during the game’s several platforming segments, and while you can purchase a backflip maneuver that lets you control your fall, it's not exactly easy to use on short notice, can cause you to backflip over safe ground that you would’ve landed on otherwise, and usually brings you further from the spot you were originally trying to jump to.
  • Heart Squids, collectibles found throughout the world that can be used to extend Shantae's heart meter... but that’s only by using a service that's only available in Scuttle Town, meaning you’ll often have to backtrack there to receive the upgrades. While the squids are easy enough to find, and you can get them converted during the times when going back to Scuttle Town is needed to advance the plot, most of the time they do serve to add a needless extra step to the process, unlike in other games where collecting each individual Heart Holder was all that was necessary. Seven Sirens brings the Heart Squids back, but they are slightly less annoying as there is more then one Squid-Smith and the warp rooms make it easier to reach them.
• Sequel Difficulty Spike: Enemies start dealing a lot of damage around the time you get to Tan Line Desert, and the early-game Pike Balls are nerfed. On the upside, enemies drop healing items all over the place. The platforming sections in The Very Definitely Final Dungeon are brutal.
• Squick: Two vacationing ladies who turn out to be Ammo Baron's henchwomen try to have fun in the island's water reserve, which is all dried up. You eventually help them get water to the pond for them to get into the swimsuits and go wild in it. What they don't know is that the water that's falling from high above is actually an endless stream of drool coming from a giant lizard, hence the name Saliva Island.
• That One Achievement:
  • The "Run, Run, Rottytops!" segment may take some trial and error, but it isn't that difficult. However, the "Zombie Survival Guide" achievement requires you to clear the entire segment in one try without getting hit, which is far more challenging. You also get only one shot to complete it, so if you get hit, it requires reloading the entire game to have another chance. There's no Easy Level Trick, either — it just takes good timing, expert platforming, and memorization to go through it in one shot.
  • The "Squid Savior" achievement. It requires you to find all of the Heart Squids in the game, but not use a single one to increase Shantae's maximum HP. Towards the end of the game, having only eight hit points basically turns Shantae into a One-Hit-Point Wonder.
• That One Attack: The final boss can launch a row of gigantic bouncing cannonballs. There's almost no room for error in dodging the damn things since they have faster gravity than everything else in the entire series.
• That One Level:
  • Mud Bog island has a bunch of enemies that chop off large chunks of health, and lots of cramped tunnels where it's hard to evade them, and as if that wasn't enough they respawn much more easily than the previous islands. Things get even worse in the Village of Lost Souls.
  • The Pirate Master's Palace: it takes multiple platforming sequences to reach the top, none of which have any margin for error allowed. There is a way to skip it with some precise jump timing, but it can be tricky to pull off.
• Trapped by Mountain Lions: Pirate's Curse is dominated by a major subplot in which the Ammo Baron claims occupancy of Scuttle Town, gets Shantae fired and placed under house arrest, and proceeds to renovate the town to be more in line with his militaristic ambitions, up until he's forced out during the epilogue with minimal effort. This has zero impact on the main plot or gameplay, apart from using one of his cannons to enter the penultimate dungeon and then again when fighting the final boss. Otherwise, it's a completely superfluous side-story that you have to be reminded of every time you go back to Scuttle Town.
• Underused Game Mechanic: The magic lamp has an entire button dedicated to using it, which seems like overkill considering that it's only used to suck up the dark magic of the Cacklebats (which could have been replaced with the magic being automatically collected) and to carry scents to certain characters (which you only do twice in the game). In short, it's just a glorified way to obtain certain items, though you can also use it to pick up stray gems from across the screen if you're feeling lazy.

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