Game of the Month: July 2025 - Shapeshifter

[geise]

Shapeshifter

Sorry for missing last month. Had some major personal family stuff going on as well as my wife losing her job, but things are back on track. So, time for me to finally sit down with some gaming. This month is Shapeshifter. Icom has made some stinkers, but this is a game that I actually like. It kinda reminds me of Wrath of the Deamon on Amiga and ST which is a Shadow of the Beast clone, but this has more action/platforming mixed in. It even has some light role playing mixed in. Much of the game consists of traversing hostile areas, fighting regular enemies on the way and defeating bosses. The town area where Lykos can replenish his health and buy any of the three available weapons (axe, mace, or bow). These weapons can be upgraded by enchanting them or picking up power-ups. After Lykos rescues a wizard he gains access to a transformation power. Transformations require special gems and cannot be performed if Lykos runs out of them. There are four transformations in the game: the panther can jump over large gaps; the shark can swim; the golem can jump higher; and the golden dragon can fly. Each of these forms can also collect power-ups that unlocks a few other attack abilities. The game's stages are interconnected, but usually a new form must be acquired before Lykos can access a new area. Lykos has eight lives consisting of smaller health units (hearts). The game can only be saved in the town. I have never given the game enough time back in the day and never put this on my clear list. Hopefully I have the time to get through this one. Hope you all enjoy!

[Mathius]

I have tried and tried and tried to get into SS since acquiring the game 16 years ago. The SotB-esque multi-plane scrolling is breathtaking, but like with many Amiga titles the gameplay just kinda suffers here and there. The Brothers Duomazov had a great review on their site along with a superb interview with the a dev team member that I would always read before going back in for another go. I miss that site so much!

Geise, did your wife find re-employment?

[Necromancer]

I, too, really like Shape Shifter.  It's a nice looking game, though it plays a tad clunky.  I've never been able to be at it, but maybe nows my chance?

Pity about your wifu.  Hopefully things are good now.

[geise]

My wife found a job within 2 weeks before she was even fully let go from her company. So now she gets to fully work remote and makes even more than her previous job. Her new place is amazing. Now she also gets to collect 8 weeks severance pay on top of her paycheck. Lol! So we bankin'. Anyway. I have actually been enjoying Shapeshifter this time. I was also not a huge fan back in the day, but I have been enjoying it this time around.

[Mathius]

My wife found a job within 2 weeks before she was even fully let go from her company. So now she gets to fully work remote and makes even more than her previous job. Her new place is amazing. Now she also gets to collect 8 weeks severance pay on top of her paycheck. Lol! So we bankin'. Anyway. I have actually been enjoying Shapeshifter this time. I was also not a huge fan back in the day, but I have been enjoying it this time around.

All around good to hear, brother.

[majors]

Can't say I ever played SS before, nor did I have any interest until being GotM. It does have a lot of voice acting and some of the characters in the shop screens have interesting art. (trying to be positive)

I'm not a fan. Maybe it was rushed by Icom or they just didn't have game design chops on the TG-16, but the game play is rough and graphics on the side scrolling action look ugly to me. Was this game a port from a computer? And how the heck did it get a JP release?

At least now I know after 30 years that I wasn't missing much.

[Naniyue]

I tried to get into this one, as there are nice things about it, but I just couldn't.  Yeah, it does feel like an Amiga platformer.

[Necromancer]

I failed again to beat this one.  It's never been an easy game, but holy fork did I struggle this time.  Will the 1cc be forever out of reach?!?

Probably.... but I still like how this game plays (a bit clunky) and looks good.

[seieienbu]

Sigh.  I got all set to make a belated post for last month's game only to realize that the game I played this weekend, Shadow of the Beast, was NOT in fact last month's game of the month, Shapeshifter.  The two games aren't exactly Super similar, but I guess close enough that I don't feel like a moron?  Anyway, after realizing my mistake from Saturday I figured I'd give it a go last night for a bit, but then I find that my Shapeshifter case was empty.  That's disconcerting to say the least.  I went through my games and couldn't find the CD.  Perhaps I listened to it as an audio CD at some point?  I always did enjoy the soundtrack to this one more than I did the actual game.  The graphics are nice with some neat paralax and voice overs are also pretty cool.  The gameplay, however, just feels rather clunky.  The game is somehow less than the sum of its parts.

On the scale of best to worst in the Barbarians-Walking-Around-Fighting-Stuff genre, I like this game less than the Legendary Axes or the first Rastan in the arcade but more than Rastan 2 or Altered Beast in any form.  Fuck Altered Beast, as always.

Congrats to you and your wife on the sweet new gig, Geise!  Working from home while making more money is the dream.

[Keith Courage]

I love this game. It's basically a metroidvania and one of my favorite games on the console.

There's only one major flaw that frustrates new players of this game. The slip mechanic. It's not so bad when you are a Human, but when you become the Panther, you basically have a 50% chance of falling off of any platform. This is where most youtubers complain about the controls and then turn the game off.

Now here is your tip to help with this issue.
If you need to platform in panther form, turn on rapid fire for the jump button and hold it down. Just don't push any direction when you don't want to move in a direction and the panther will just jump straight up in the air, instead of falling off of whatever platform you are on.

Get passed the panther platforming, and the rest of the game is a fun time.

[_joshuaTurbo]

Hey guys!

I actually DID play this one and beat it just in time for the end of the month! I feel about the same as all of you, the panthor transformation is an awful obstacle as the platforming parts are insane. It gets a little easier with the shark areas, and then even more when you get the flying creature as you can just fly over most everything. The crazy moon/sun cycle has you sitting there watching the screen for 10 mins until you can get healed, similar to leaving a dungeon in Ys to heal up in the sun, however the amount of time it takes in SS is stupid.

So how do I feel about it after having played it? I don't know. It definitely deserves more attention than most would give it, the world is pretty unique and has lots of pretty visuals to offer. The soundtrack is awesome and the voice acting is fun. It's not on any other console that I know of (outside of the Wii VC) IIRC. So it's not a port of an Amiga game even if it REALLY feels like it.

Of course if you know my annoying ass, you know I streamed it- here's the let's play video of it, there's 3 parts, it took me about 5 hours (ish) to conquer it. I would say I had a fun time, but the two parts that are the hardest and worst struggles are the amoeba boss/machine and the final boss. What a slog, absolutely horrible. I couldn't figure out any good methods and save-stated through both..

https://youtu.be/2w6S18MlWNA?si=e16EtZEwSwJvW0hy