'Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment' trailer puts the focus on Specter Knight

Yacht Club Games has offered the first detailed look at Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment, airing a new trailer at The Game Awards. The game casts players as the shadowy Specter Knight, one of the bosses featured in the original title.

Specter of Torment will act as a prequel to the 2014 indie hit, following Specter Knight as he sets out on a mission to assemble the villainous Order of No Quarter for The Enchantress. The studio previously released Plague of Shadows — a secondary campaign that starred Plague Knight — as DLC for Shovel Knight, but Specter of Torment is being billed as a “unique standalone experience.”

However, the campaign will be offered as a free expansion to Shovel Knight owners, just like Plague of Shadows. Given that the base game was released way back in June 2014, it’s a testament to the developer’s commitment to fans that new content is still being offered up for free.

Specter of Torment will feature a new story, new areas, new music, new enemies and bosses, and new items, but the biggest draw for fans will be the dramatically different gameplay that Specter Knight offers up.

Rather than simply rehashing the same mechanics that helped make the original Shovel Knight such a success, Yacht Club Games has endeavored to make Specter Knight a compelling character in his own right. He’s a quick, nimble fighter who seems to spend as much time in the air as he does on the ground in the midst of battle.

Specter of Torment is scheduled to launch in spring 2017. The studio also teased “even more amazing Shovel Knight experiences” for next year in its blog post accompanying an extended version of the clip that aired at The Game Awards.