I started re-playing Shantae tonight - for fun, but also to get screenshots of things that are missing. I noticed something interesting on the pre-title screen: "Engine by Ministry of Thought"
I had noticed this before but hadn't given it much thought. If we're going to have articles for the companies that were involved with Shantae, this one is probably worth a mention.
The only thing I've been able to learn so far is that it was the same engine used in "Wendy: Every Witch Way", which I haven't played.
Perhaps the end credits will shed some light on who or what the company was. For now I'm going to guess that it is the company name of a single freelance programmer who licensed a platform engine he was working on to WF.