Shady Knight is an amazing game that might seem somewhat uninteresting at first glance, and there’s a significant learning curve when you start. However, the combat and movement are very well designed, offering tons of ways to use each weapon and even every object lying around. Essentially, your goal isn’t just to defeat all the enemies or finish levels as quickly as possible—it’s to style on your enemies as hard as possible by chaining together as many creative moves as you can. For example, throwing your sword on the ground, kicking the bouncing sword into an enemy which launches them into the air, then grappling them for a dropkick, then after picking up your sword again finishing them off with a sword throw while they are still airborne is just absolutely awesome.

That said, I think some of the enemies in the later levels feel a bit excessive, with ranged attacks, AOE attacks, stun resistance, and even teleportation all combined. I get that it’s hard to keep enemies feeling threatening as the player’s skill increases, but it can feel like overkill. Another issue is that the game feels more niche than it needs to be. If you’re not focused on achieving high ranks or styling on enemies and just want to complete the levels, the game is pretty uninteresting.

I feel this game has untapped potential, especially with its great movement system. A speedrun mode, where you need to kill all enemies but they all die in one hit, only time matters, could add a new layer of excitement—almost like a melee version of Neon White. In any case, Shady Knight is a fantastic game, and I really hope it gains more attention because it’s seriously fun and deserves it.

Shady Knight is an amazing game that might seem somewhat uninteresting at first glance, and there’s a significant learning curve when you start. However, the combat and movement are very well designed, offering tons of ways to use each weapon and even every object lying around. Essentially, your goal isn’t just to defeat all the enemies or finish levels as quickly as possible—it’s to style on your enemies as hard as possible by chaining together as many creative moves as you can. For example, throwing your sword on the ground, kicking the bouncing sword into an enemy which launches them into the air, then grappling them for a dropkick, then after picking up your sword again finishing them off with a sword throw while they are still airborne is just absolutely awesome. That said, I think some of the enemies in the later levels feel a bit excessive, with ranged attacks, AOE attacks, stun resistance, and even teleportation all combined. I get that it’s hard to keep enemies feeling threatening as the player’s skill increases, but it can feel like overkill. Another issue is that the game feels more niche than it needs to be. If you’re not focused on achieving high ranks or styling on enemies and just want to complete the levels, the game is pretty uninteresting. I feel this game has untapped potential, especially with its great movement system. A speedrun mode, where you need to kill all enemies but they all die in one hit, only time matters, could add a new layer of excitement—almost like a melee version of Neon White. In any case, Shady Knight is a fantastic game, and I really hope it gains more attention because it’s seriously fun and deserves it.