Shield Knight

Shield Knight is a secondary character in the 2014 indie platform video game Shovel Knight. Saving Shield Knight, who is possessed by a cursed amulet turning her into the evil Enchantress, is the main objective of player-character Shovel Knight.

Conception and creation
Shield Knight was announced on September 2, 2013 as Shovel Knight's "inseparable partners in adventuring." According to Shovel Knight programmer David D'Angelo, Shield Knight was originally supposed to be a princess, as the creators were using using "Roll, Peach, Zelda, and other Damsel in Distress models from the NES era" as inspirations. Originally, due to her lack of character, she was referred to as "Princess MacGuffin" within the development team.

Shield Knight was decided to become a strong hero so that, according to D'Angelo, "the connection between the player and Shield Knight would be even more powerful, as Shield Knight wouldn't be just an object—Shield Knight would be as meaningful as a loved one." Shield Knight was also originally supposed to die at the end of the game, where Shovel Knight had to bury his loved one with his own shovel. This was changed because the creators felt they hadn't developed the characters well enough yet for the ending to be effective; "it was hard to feel anything other than cheated by the death of Shield Knight."

After completing some levels in the game, a dream sequence starts where the player must catch a falling Shield Knight. According to creators Nick Wozniak and Sean Velasco, these were intended to emotionally affect the player in a similar way as Mother 3 does. Velasco described the thought process as follows: Another thing is in our game, and NES games in general, you have to be able to say something without saying anything. So it's like what has more charged meaning in it than a solitary knight at his campfire either reliving something that happened or just having a little moment of respite after a big battle? ... Instead of watching Shovel Knight being freaked out and trying to catch Shield Knight and having these recurring nightmares, you're actually experiencing it as it happens. And also just like a real nightmare after the stage is done you don't know what's going to happen necessarily. Velasco and Wozniac have stated their interest in a possible co-op mode, where both Shovel Knight and Shield Knight are playable, though since she wasn't conceived "until halfway through development," the creators haven't pursued this concept.

In the character's original reveal, she was characterized as "Confident, Powerful, and Tenacious," though occasionally reckless. Shield Knight wears a small shield on her wrist and a larger shield nearly the size of her entire body, with which she can "easily defend against melee and ranged attacks before counterattacking up close."

Reception
Her initial design was described by Destructoid as a "female warrior who wields two shields of comically different size." As one of the features promised in the stretch goals was a "gender swap mode," both Destructoid and Nintendo Life wondered whether Shield Knight would be the heroine of this mode. Furthermore, Nindendo Life editor Thomas Whitehead was glad that the Shield Knight wasn't in any way similar to princess Peach from the Super Mario series. Technobuffalo described Shield Knight's role as "one more excellent throwback to the classic days of 2D platforming, a daring knight out to rescue his lost love."

Kat Baily of USgamer praised the dream sequences in which the player as Shovel Knight needs to catch a slow falling Shield Knight. Inevitably, "as you're about to catch her," there is a flash of light and the titular character wakes up. Baily described this as "a moment that reflects the medium's continued trend toward expressing emotion through gameplay" and states that she "wasn't expecting to find it in a retro platformer like Shovel Knight."

Jake Muncy of Loser City describes the loss of Shield Knight as the major theme throughout the game. He argues that this is not only reflected by the dream sequences, but also by the "very presence of the shielded enemies, whose shields you can bounce on using the head of your shovel like a pogo stick ... as Shovel Knight undoubtedly bounced on Shield Knight’s," which he described as "a mechanical reaffirmation of Shield Knight’s importance."