A Shovel Knight Franchise Retrospective

[@srburp]

3:02:17 The True Ending rant is so extremely relatable because even in the footage you used from me I lose the big red bomb and only happen to salvage the run out of sheer luck lol. Great video, by the way :)

[@mateusfranco5938]

Love how everyone headcanons Plague Knight's victory in Plague of Shadows against Shovel Knight never really happened and was actually him making up a story latter. "Um, actually, I defeated him first and he got me when I was distracted!"

[@robertlauncher]

Mona: Of course he did, dear.

[@Optimal2ndChannel]

Its true tho, how does he have all relics? That proves the fight is uncanon also Plague Knights mask is smaller in pos

[@itsjustdewieman]

​​@@Optimal2ndChannelI cant explain the relics, but other than plague knight needing to match shovel knights hitbox, hes bigger in other campaigns because he wears a suit that artifically extends his height that he wears because of his self conciousness over his height. This is reflected when he fights his shadow in the end of his campaign, symbolizing his self hatred with the shadow using his previous height extended sprite.

[@Optimal2ndChannel]

@@itsjustdewieman fair enough

[@staxmccune]

I'm honestly shocked you don't have more subs! Shovel Knight was like the first real indie game I played, and it opened up a whole new love for these older style platformers and the like. Gungeon and Isaac hold my heart in their bony fingers, but the hours of Shovel Knight made it all happen. I really hope the algorithm picks you up soon, and I can't wait for more!

[@Gazpachooo1]

Aww thank you so much!

[@peromechus9806]

56:40 isn’t a battle against a female Plague Knight. It’s the Plague of Shadows, a silhouette of his boss fight form in Shovel of Hope. It’s a battle against himself. That’s why he says “You are steadfast in your resolve… Maybe there’s hope for us yet.” It’s effectively Plague Knight’s last test, but performed against himself. He sees himself as the strongest, so he fights himself. He’s either happy that he has the resolve to stand still against the “strongest fighter” or happy he has the resolve to beat the “strongest fighter.

[@whact]

1:21:34 the best thing here is that Terrorpin dies exactly like the enemies in Super Mario Bros when you shoot them with a fireball

[@Gazpachooo1]

I DIDN'T EVEN CLOCK THAT TILL NOW😭

[@MortimerSCrane]

In King of Cards, bubblefrog trivializes the final boss. You don't have to worry about falling. Just charge, bubble, charge, bubble.

[@Gazpachooo1]

Wish I thought about that 3 months ago when I recorded this

[@MortimerSCrane]

Plus King of Cards is my favourite campaign.

[@theStridingRebel]

I've commented this on another video, but Black Knight's second theme "The Defender" is perfection in a musical and storytelling point. In Shovel Knight's campaign, Black Knight has been backed into a corner, his last chance to protect Shield Knight by having to reluctantly accept the Enchantress' power, this song is his theme, his determination to protect Shield Knight, but it's Shovel Knight's theme too, his own determination to beat Black Knight and the Enchantress, to save Shield Knight, the epic and triumphant reprise of "Plains of Passage" is proof of that. In Specter Knight's campaign, Black Knight's motivation is the same, protecting Shield Knight, but now he's facing off against an absolutely furious and vengeful Specter Knight, full of rage at the revelation that the Enchantress is Shield Knight, the one who made him who he is now, who he had to swear undying servitude to, and he absolutely blitzes right through Black Knight to get to her. But my favorite version of this has to be in Plague Knight's campaign, at this point in Plague Knight's story, he believes that Mona has left him because of whatever lies Black Knight said to her. So now he's even more determined than ever to finish his potion, wholeheartedly believing that if he finishes it, it will make Mona love him again. Not caring what happens as a result of making it, as long as Mona returns to him, but he doesn't realize that she has loved him this whole time. So he smashes through the Tower of Fate entrance, just to find Black Knight, the cause of his misery, waiting for him. Where he then learns that Mona was trying to protect him this whole time. Blinded by his emotions from this revelation, Plague Knight attacks Black Knight relentlessly, he NEEDS to finish this potion now, no matter the cost, and no one will stand in his way. It isn't Black Knight's theme anymore, it's Plague Knight's.

[@ItsHumanBoi]

every campaign is so serious and then king of card is just "i want shiny castle >:)"

[@Iamsilly895]

Im 100% all of the shovel knight DLC right now and I played King Knights right after Specters and jumping from "I will keep my promise, even if I die" to "save my friends? nah" was certainly one of the things ever

[@SPYROSTSABOURIS]

1:42:24 There are multiple acolytes The cutscene in specter of torment showed the dark acolyte basically becoming a new recruit

[@DontWorryImNotImportant]

Yea I just spent 3 hours, 13 minutes, and 35 seconds listening to a guy talk about the entire Shovel Knight franchise. *And I'd do it again.*

[@MindGobby]

I’m doin it again rn 🙏🙏

[@anthonyoliver418]

Fun fact, if you hit the black hollow stump looking thing in based enough you can find puzzle knight’s secret room that shows a hidden picture of him and his family, and honestly that changed what I thought of puzzle knight playing this game blind and immediately finding it

[@robertlauncher]

King of Cards may be one of my favorite comedic stories just because of how unflinchingly cynical it is in an otherwise hopeful storyline that usually shows us the best of hearts in its protagonists and takes us through powerful, emotional journeys. Sacrificing everything to honor your found family, loyalty to the end, finding out what you wanted most was always there… “Pffffft, nah screw ALL y’all! I got a castle now, bye suckers!” 😂

[@robertlauncher]

I think the Explodatorium theme is one of the few composed by classic Megaman composer Manami Matsumae. The whole score is phenomenal. Jake Kaufman really knows how to capture that retro catchiness and infectious energy, and Matsumae’s contributions naturally fit right into that vision

[@kokorodachiofficialchannel5062]

Reminder that everything that happens in this series is because some golden dude stole Shovel Knight’s magic snowglobe

[@nicgreaves3484]

Brigandine is a real word. It's a type of armour made out of segmented plates and then covered by cloth

[@Madagascar_on_GameCube]

This was a very well made video. As someone who's obsessed with the Shovel Knight franchise amd has 100% the Treasure Trove and plans on doing so to the two spinoffs when the DLC is finished, this was such a fun video talking about my favorite 3 games of all time (technically 7, technically 8 favorite games of all time)

[@panosplays4297]

I have also 100% treasure trove and dig, I highly suggest you do dig first.

[@DrRichardEw]

Me watching the Shovel Knight Dig section: Yeah alright this seems really cool idk what the comments are talking about Me a bit later: Yeah this seems perfectly fine to me idk what everyone else is smoking Me hearing your criticisms: idk those dont sound too too bad I think I would enjoy it Me hearing its $25: OH GOD NO

[@rfurthegamer3412]

Female? That’s plague knights boss appearance design. He has a longer cloak and beak, but it was edited for like better hit boxes for his playable appearance

[@azogtheuglee4889]

I think the boss Sprite version of Plague Knight is canonically him on stilts to look taller as a result of his low confidence. Hence why that's the version of him he fights in the shadow duel.

[@rfurthegamer3412]

@@azogtheuglee4889 me too

[@thomaswoodworth3729]

i genuinely feel so vindicated with the shovel night dig slander DIG really rubbed me the wrong way when i picked it up, and i just boiled it down to not being good enough at base shovel knight to translate into a rougelike

[@venomasmark14]

It is actually confirmed that Plague Knight is an unreliable narrator. There's a handful of things that happen in his campaign that likely don't actually play out the way we see them, mainly things such as: The Battle Royale Boss Rush at the Tower of Fate (Shovel Knight definitely landed amidst all of them canonically, Plague Knight just being the "main character" there is required for his campaign, also it's up to the Player, but I feel like Shovel Knight would definitely help the Order up) Beating Shovel Knight at the Explodatorium (Bro took an L and said "Nah I def beat him, trust me") And a few of the ending scenes, namely (THIS IS PURELY SPECULATION, BUT, YKNOW-) Getting Knighted by King Pridemoore, stealing all of Treasure Knight's gold (Maybe??? He and Mona literally talk about how it's stupid to love gold when you can make it with two simple ingredients), and maaaaybe the Propeller Knight scene??? idk I personally believe that one's real, but the scenes I have a high amount of faith in actually happening are cloning slimes with Mole Knight, Tinker Knight helping with the lifts, giving Percy and the Magicist the Explodatorium, and OF COURSE: Specter Knight cursing Plague and vowing to cut him in half for stealing the locket he was given. In the end, it's up to player's interpretation, but it's for certain that Plague Knight is not the most reliable narrator for how things happened, and also- The order of the campaigns goes: King of Cards, Specter of Torment, and then either Plague of Shadows or Shovel of Hope in whatever order you want, personally I play Plague before Shovel, but that's me.

[@makesomething4093]

Great video. Especially because you understand King of Cards is the best one.

[@Madagascar_on_GameCube]

Also for the clearing 100 times in endless mode for Pocket Dungeon, it actually means beating the those Quandary Sage challenges. Each character can go into those portal rooms after you beat one or all four challenges (I don't remember) and if you walk to the top of the room and move up those stairs, you get a unique challenge where you have to clear waves of enemies while surviving for 100 waves.

[@Mr.-JBull]

It took me half a week to find the collective time to watch this all and honestly? King of Cards is my favorite too that card game slaps. 10/10 vid thanks for your sacrifice of sanity.

[@NOTACHARGESHOT]

Hell yeah! Im so happy to see this. Ever since I played Shovel of Hope, I was hooked on this series! Im so glad to see a long ass video. I can binge on my favorite game of all time. Mad respect and amazing video.

[@rfurthegamer3412]

People also don’t like… phase locket? It’s literally OP. Like it’s just the best relic

[@zackblade3856]

Liking the watch test, upload and re-upload, you better feel lucky mr Gaz 😅

[@borbborb9615]

predominantly dig was developed by nitrome and pocket dungeon was done by vine. I do agree with most of the criticisms about dig but I would mostly blame it on nitrome being mobile/flash game devs first

[@LeoxandarMagnus]

I love the Treasure Trove so much. Had a blast watching this and now I want to play that boardgame. I actually got my wife to play the co-op Shovel of Hope with me. I tend to carry, but it is a fun way to see skill difference from where I was when I first picked up the game in 2016. We still haven’t beaten the Enchantress stage 1 together, sadly.

[@gornrox7518]

15:25 My god that freakin took me out haha

[@johnny-0595]

Specter knight was mad that the locket was gone in plague of shadows because that’s the same locket luan gave to him

[@heheheiamasuperstarwarrior9281]

Actually, the goo garments don't give the screw attack, that's the burst you have selected, the goo garments just make you bounce off walls while bursting

[@SSFplayer2]

Ah yes, shovel knight most trusted weapon, the desert shovel

[@amazonen66]

I'm sleeping good tonight!

[@tophatgeo]

Banger video! Need to get round to playing Plague and King's campaigns

[@alestanealonraskin6155]

King Knight would ABSOLUTELY have a behelit

[@Muffin-j5t]

I have only played shovel of hope but I have an idea for a shovel knight game its called shovel knight and the mysterious world. In it shovel knight finds a apple tree with a gold apple, while struggling to grab it he falls in the hole in the middle of the tree sending him to a different dimension where he lands in a small town called Cropsivia where everyone is forced to farm by the villan who wants revenge against shovel knight that being....... KING KNIGHT! So he knocks you underground below Cropsivia and it it up to you to beat bosses and get your way back to the surface to end king knights rampage. the bosses are pirate knight, boxing knight, bookworm knight, dancer knight, doctor knight, blacksmith knight, music knight, guardian knight, sewing knight, tech knight, paint knight, mail knight, commander knight, collsus knight, and of course king knight! So please tell me what you think about my idea/ideas. Also this whole video is amazing!!!

[@16BitGamerCat]

Pocket dungeon also has Mod Support, and as an official example mod, Cruise Elroy gave us Annalynn. S-Tier, she gets to take what is essentially a free turn every 1500 or so gems she gets, that has the side effect of pushing entire rows, if my memory serves. Im not sure about her Quandary ability though, not really my preference.

[@zenloks_1735]

banger video, absolutely love the Scott the woz references

[@JustDenys1]

actually if you play treasure trove on steam, you DO get to fight battletoads

[@gollum6ix9ine83]

15:26 That Jirard jab was awesome 😂😂

[@abra_escaped]

About how they managed to make two games at the same time and release them so close together, pocket dungeon originally started as an entirely original game called Puzzle Knights made by that Vine2d guy mentioned on the title screen, which released as a teeny tiny game on itch around april 2017. He almost immediately started working on a deluxe version of the game, but then at some time around 2019ish I think, yacht club swooped in and had the game reskinned into shovel knight instead! As for Dig, it was primarily worked on by Nitrome, a decently popular flash/mobile game team rather than yacht club themselves. Basically both games just had different people working on them, which I think makes it funny that both are roguelites with similar looking 32 bit-ish art styles

[@VoxTek426]

13:48 cap the armor of chaos is goated and you cant convince me otherwise 51:50 also no the ghost were there for a while because the phantom striker trapped them in there so plague knight visited after shovel cleared out the ghost

[@Jlopezocasio]

You actually can attack upwards in Shovel Knight Dig. You need an item called the burrow horns which allows to hurt enemies with your horns by jumping into them.

[@Gazpachooo1]

That is true but the hitbox is extremely small, doesn't cover anywhere in front of you, and the ability to attack up really should not be limited to a random upgrade

[@gabrielstar777]

22:21 why am I expecting some video out there to be every outdoor seen out of context

[@Minosprime69420]

28:50 it's quite anti-climatic that if you don't catch her it just slightly changes her dialogue.

[@someguy-j2i]

I remember knowing about Shovel Knight but never playing it So you can imagine my shock halfway through Plague Knight's campaign when I saw Shovel Knight drop in and I heard an entirely new boss theme start to play (Best song in all of Shovel knight btw, Battling the Burrower is peak and every other song can go die... Jk all of the songs are good)

[@azogtheuglee4889]

If you think Dig's true ending was a faff to get you should take a look at Tower Climb. Sysiphian Task. Grueling Endeavour. Arduous Undertaking.

[@judasunchained4896]

This was really high quality. A hidden gem

[@darkbot081]

31:52 On PC you get a battletoads crossover, same as on xbox

[@Gazpachooo1]

@@darkbot081 Oh I thought that was an XBox exclusive my bad. I didn't check because I didn't want buy it for a 5th time

[@glennruark5932]

Feels so vindicating to see someone hate Dig as much as I do when none of my friends even know what a Shovel Knight is.

[@nickk3077]

I only owned the 3DS game, so it's good to know I didn't miss out on much by not having Shovel Knight Showdown.

[@wsla]

Watched zhis Video over the Span of 3 Days Just incredible what you Made. Way too underrated

[@gabrielstar777]

50:41 one thing that you forgot to mention is that Plague Knight has a terrible knockback industrial reason why I equip it I'm fine with less traction. [Luigi is my main you know]

[@MarcoAntonioColioGallardo]

17:07 OH, SO THAT'S HOW YOU USE THEM! (i'm so dumb fr)

[@michaelkowal3230]

Isn't Shovel Knight's weapon actually called the shovel blade?

[@DiceOL]

Plague Knight is literally me

[@necrostar0248]

Welp, I know what I'm watching for my last weekend day!

[@necrostar0248]

Man what is it with me and editing my comment just as I get a heart? 😅

[@Gazpachooo1]

Womp womp no heart for you

[@necrostar0248]

@@Gazpachooo1 fair nuff 🥲

[@peromechus9806]

Making another comment for engagement so this vid is boosted in the algorithm. I really like it. I love 3 hour ramblings because it’s basically all I do. And you just so happened to ramble about Shovel Knight, which is literally peak. I like your humor, and you’re pretty good. I can’t wait to see how your content evolves. Hopefully you’ll make a 16 hour video on Darkwood before Pyrocynical does to prove that he’s a punk bitch.

[@Cyan-Hoodie]

31:50 the pc version also gets the battletoads fight

[@mateusfranco5938]

Why do you not have more subs and likes again??? This video is being amazing till now (and I'm sure it'll deliver till the end), and I agree when you say that Showdown is lackluster. Imo they did what they wanted with the first 4 games and Showdown was just to appeal to those who wanted it. They'll probably do a sequel somewhere in the future, but until them, we can live with the fan made ones in Rivals of Aether.

[@Jdudec367]

Honesty Showdown has shallow fighting mechanics (Not all of it is that bad though) but with the party elements it can be pretty fun as a platform fighter tbh, even single player wise it can be pretty fun from my experience. I wouldn't really say it's a bad game but it ain't great.

[@owenbutitsthesequel]

39:47 okay but I as official Scrooge McDuck expert must tell you that the duck will easily 360 noscope Kratos and light purple shovel dude every single day of the week at the same time with his eyes closed.

[@Gazpachooo1]

YOU ARE A FOOL

[@owenbutitsthesequel]

2:03:40 like scrooge mcduck. Shovel knight is like scrooge. Becasue Scrooge jumping first changes the rotation of the earth. Logic tells that this means that scrooge is more powerful, mostly because taking the fact that Scrooge canonically f*cked very close to the beginning of the 20th century, and as shovel knight came out in 2017, that mwann that 17-20= 67 which is also when scrooge was born, which means that it all leads back to him, which means that shovel knight his powerscaling is not consequantial, because shovels are stuck between temporal time travel, as proven by the law of david tennant. You said it yourself. Scrooge takes this dub.

[@rfurthegamer3412]

Where was this when I was literally looking for a video like this

[@Blujay64]

The second you said you had a Gungeon video, I just had to watch it

[@moonielivee4836]

You love for the rogue likes is so cool

[@the_bulletyt]

Another great vid as always!

[@Gazpachooo1]

Thank you the bullet from the video game enter the gungeon 👉👈

[@minakoarisato1506]

Great video!🎉❤

[@mr.j3rs3y]

I’ll be honest I genuinely really liked King of Cards final boss, I saw a challenge and I accepted it!

[@Gazpachooo1]

Agreed. I felt a similar level of challenge when I was passing a kidney stone the other day!

[@mr.j3rs3y]

@@Gazpachooo1 Simply a skill issue smh /lh/j Jokes aside though it has been a while since I’ve played King of Cards XD

[@linguine4500]

Scepter of torment is my favorite because it is basically a modernised Mega man zero to me I got all the achievements and did all the challenges for the main 4, Showdown, Pocket dungeon, but I literally just haven't bought dig and I never plan to, it just didn't look appealing.

[@rfurthegamer3412]

One thing I noticed about Plague of shadows is that they kinda nerfed the relics… too hard. Like yeah, the invincible amulet was op but like… smoke bomb is utter shit

[@Shades-the-mouse]

This video needs more views

[@NathanDaws825]

Okay underrated af????

[@mafialuciano]

1:43:13 did he really say the burger kingdom

[@BluemateVA]

Who's your favorite knight? Mine's Plague knight

[@Gazpachooo1]

Black Knight

[@TGT30]

Hive knight.

[@BluemateVA]

@@Gazpachooo1 bold decision, I am pondering whether I like Specter or Plague more

[@bryceknowles1380]

Mine’s gotta be a tie between Mole and Treasure. Both stages got BANGER tracks, the relics you get from Chester are great, and the fights are good. Also there’s a lot to think about what they were like before joining the OONQ(Order of No Quarter)

[@TGT30]

@@bryceknowles1380 Good take.

[@donthousand3296]

it took me 3 days to finish this video, i loved it and you get a sub from me

[@9-VoltGaming]

You do know the Battletoads are also on PC right?

[@masonasaro2118]

the pc version has the battletoads fight too

[@brittoncominoli5348]

Glad we can agree that Mr hat has the power to be the stupidest power scaling character ever.

[@redmage777]

Sonic levels are made for Sonic, but Mario does speed better then Sonic does precision. You could have a Mario level that is built speed and its quite fun...

[@Jumppad_clips]

How do you only have 1.35k subs and make such good vids. What's your secret

[@Gazpachooo1]

Running, screaming, and crying

[@monganeo]

2:32:28 Good video (unbiased)

[@sandwichboy1268]

You get the battletoads content if you own the game on PC. Also dude showed himself skipping the part of the tutorial where you're supposed to use it on the lava pots as he said "it doesn't work on the lava pots." Clearly you haven't played the games to death and back.

[@hamachibeans4471]

I don’t know why people say mega man is shovel knights primary inspiration when it’s obviously castlevania with mega man second, followed loosely by all other classic 2d platformers

[@Mingodough]

I would’ve loved the all 4 campaigns. Except for whatever reason, they decided to make that stupid card game more important than it should’ve been, causing you to HAVE to play it for 100% completion. It fluffs game time so much and it’s so stupid, I wish it was a side thing

[@organicallymaz]

so based (again)

[@MaeIsOkay]

This video was great but for the love of god its not pronounced Trupple Chalice. The Troupple King literally tells you how it's pronounced and its not like that 😭 (Not a serious complaint just thought it was funny)

[@luilong3083]

anton

[@x2buller47]

41:04

[@sherylsivertsen-kuhn1255]

1:41:40

[@childmanmanreal]

Amazing video, loved every minute of it! …but please never sing again

[@Gazpachooo1]

At which part in this did I sing lol? sorry as you can imagine I don't remember everything how about this one

[@childmanmanreal]

@@Gazpachooo1lol that’s valid it was the lich yard in shovel of hope. also in case it wasn’t obvious it’s a joke and this is one of my favorite videos good job

[@Gazpachooo1]

@@childmanmanreal THATS IT TJANK YOU

[@otaconarcadia7372]

You really gotta work on your reading comprehension my guy.

[@rfurthegamer3412]

People find king knight hard? I beat him first try and like… I was terrible at the game. Like I must have died 20 times

[@redandtripple]

i hate this generation :(