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Any good metroidvania recommendations?

Wunderbar

Arcane
Joined
Nov 15, 2015
Messages
8,809
Hollow Knight is awesome. Best metroidvania I ever played.

Fuck White palace though.
 

Okagron

Prophet
Joined
Mar 22, 2018
Messages
753
Fuck White palace though.
Try Path of Pain, it's even more fun than the White Palace. And fun as in, even more painful.

But yeah. Hollow Knight is a pretty great Metroidvania game.
 
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Okagron

Prophet
Joined
Mar 22, 2018
Messages
753
I saw it. Not even gonna bother trying.
I decided to watch a youtube video after failing miserably the first section for like 15 minutes. Then saw the whole thing and just went: "Welp, i'm not doing that."
 

JDR13

Arcane
Joined
Nov 2, 2006
Messages
3,930
Location
The Swamp
I'd also recommend checking out Hyper Light Drifter even though it's not technically a metroidvania. It's described as a 2D action-RPG, but it's very metroidvania-like in its level design. The only difference is that you're playing from an isometric view rather than side-scrolling.
 

BLOBERT

FUCKING SLAYINGN IT BROS
Patron
Joined
Jun 12, 2007
Messages
4,236
Location
BRO
Codex 2012
BROS DONT THINK ANYONE MEBTINED WAKING MARS

VERY DIFFERENT NOT MAYBE STRICT MEYROIDVANIA
 

RoSoDude

Arcane
Joined
Oct 1, 2016
Messages
727
I liked Axiom Verge. It was very much a Super Metroid clone, from the basic gameplay design to the visuals, though it did have some differences. For one, its suite of upgrades gets very different, to the point that I actually got stuck because I forgot I could interact with the environment in a crucial way and was so used to the puzzle language of Metroid with the morph ball and so on. Its world design is pretty good, though I found the signposting and use of landmarks to be inferior, leading to a few hours of backtracking in the middle of the game trying to remember where I hadn't been and might be able to go. The beam weapons are all sidegrades with only moderate puzzle usage, and there are a ridiculous number of them with different use cases and overall a lot of entertainment value. The creature designs are good especially when they're not just copying Metroid's wall crawlers and often feature more puzzle-like design where you have to exploit certain behaviors or use one of your early game powers to change their form -- every (?) enemy has a normal and a glitch phase, which gets pretty creative and leads to some interesting gameplay scenarios. Some enemies are also quite aggressive, and are less of a pushover than what you find in Metroid. Most of the bosses are pretty mediocre, just some big floater with a firing pattern with a few exceptions. Music is catchy and pleasantly reminiscent but also unique, and the visual style can be quite compelling and strange. Story is hard to follow or care about. Overall, recommended if you're a big Metroid fan and don't mind a fairly derivative fan work -- oh yeah, did I mention the whole thing was made by one person? Quite impressive as such.
 

Ventidius

Arbiter
Joined
Jul 8, 2017
Messages
552
Thanks for the info. Yeah, I was aware it was a one-guy endeavor, which is definitely impressive, especially if it is as good as you describe it. Shame about the bosses, but I guess there had to be some weak link in a one-man project like that.
 

sullynathan

Arcane
Joined
Dec 22, 2015
Messages
6,473
Location
Not Europe
Dead Cells
Dead Cells is fun for very different reasons than pretty much every Metroidvania I've played because it isn't really a metroidvania. It's a rougelike with randomly generated loot/levels/enemies where if you die you restart the game but retain certain items you unlocked with money. There's no backtracking, or much of finding items to progress into the game. Combat is good though and that's why you should play
 
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Grauken

Gourd vibes only
Patron
Joined
Mar 22, 2013
Messages
12,786
The fighting in Dead Cells is extremely satisfying, has a really good crunchy feedback loop
 

oldbonebrown

Arcane
Joined
Jun 2, 2017
Messages
841
Location
TELAH
Hollow Knight is awesome. Best metroidvania I ever played.

Fuck White palace though.

White Palace should have been four times longer, it felt like the introduction to a level. Big cock tease, for a moment I thought the game would explore all the possibilities of your abilities.
 

Jezal_k23

Guest
I actually did the whole path of pain and then died to the 2 enemies in the end like a fucking idiot. Didn't try again.
 

Grauken

Gourd vibes only
Patron
Joined
Mar 22, 2013
Messages
12,786
I've been playing Chasm, which comes out on the 31st, and its pretty fun so far. While in theory it's, like Dead Cells, a fusion of randomized dungeons and metroidvania elements, it basically just feels like a well-executed highly polished metroidvania. Unlike Dead Cells, which is more about doing lots of run in quick succession, Chasm allows you to save and play more like a conventional one. If I didn't knew that the world of Chasm is somewhat randomized, I would have never guessed, it really feels like most of the places and levels are designed by hand. This could mean it uses lots of large crafted sections and does feel repetitive on replay, or it just has a well done level-building algorithm. But so far, definitely worth it.
 

CryptRat

Arcane
Developer
Joined
Sep 10, 2014
Messages
3,548
Aggelos got released recently. I haven't played the full game yet but I enjoyed the demo they shared some time ago.
 

deama

Prophet
Joined
May 13, 2013
Messages
4,352
Location
UK
I've been playing Chasm, which comes out on the 31st, and its pretty fun so far. While in theory it's, like Dead Cells, a fusion of randomized dungeons and metroidvania elements, it basically just feels like a well-executed highly polished metroidvania. Unlike Dead Cells, which is more about doing lots of run in quick succession, Chasm allows you to save and play more like a conventional one. If I didn't knew that the world of Chasm is somewhat randomized, I would have never guessed, it really feels like most of the places and levels are designed by hand. This could mean it uses lots of large crafted sections and does feel repetitive on replay, or it just has a well done level-building algorithm. But so far, definitely worth it.
I played a demo of it like 2 years ago I think, I remember having fun with it.
31st of this month I assume?
 

Grauken

Gourd vibes only
Patron
Joined
Mar 22, 2013
Messages
12,786
So I played a bit more, and my reaction has become more subdued. The biggest problem so far is that the game is far too easy (there's a higher difficulty you can unlock once you've completed the game, but I would have preferred to play on that difficulty from the start). Controls are fine and every new area has novel creatures with different and unique attack patterns, but once you've seen them it's easy to avoid their attacks. Even most bosses I've killed on the first try.

The more you play the more you can also see how the randomizer for the levels works. Mostly long horizontal and a few connecting vertical corridors that make for a sprawling level structure, where its easy to plug in the various hand-crafted elements. But the maps look kinda samey and feel less appealing than the hand-crafted areas in say Hollow Knight, where you had areas with a dense, complex, intricate structure as well as sprawling levels and everything in between.

The problem is, unlike say Rogue Legacy or Dead Cells, the randomized nature of the world doesn't add much to the gameplay and isn't really integrated into the core gameplay loop, it's just there as another feature. In theory you could, once you finish the game, play again and see some variations, but so far it looks like most of the major elements (the town people you can save, the fetch quests, items, skills, even the one puzzle in the catacombs) are basically the same in every run, which makes replaying it afterwards more a chore.

It just feels that despite how well it controls and how nice the pixel graphics looks, there's not too much memorable substance below the surface. It's fun to play and shows a high level of polish, but at the same time it also feels somewhat empty and small. I've killed King Trell and are at roughly 80% after around 7 hours, so probably 8 to 9 for the whole game if I'm lucky and I don't see myself getting back to it for more. At 20$, I would say you have better choices.

Also, just for deama, the upgrades are pretty conventional (wall jump, diving, a lamp, claws to hang from ledges, etc.).
 
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Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
14,980
I'd recommend Robot Named Fight if you're looking for a randomized metroidvania. The difficulty is pretty up there, and it actually randomizes the abilities you'll see each run. It's also a lot more focused on the platforming and exploration than something like dead cells where you're just constantly fighting and the platforming is all trivial. I haven't played it in a while and it's still getting a fair bit of development, so hopefully it's main flaw that I can recall (being mostly linear in regards to one power up leading to the next) got fixed up.
 

Alex

Arcane
Joined
Jun 14, 2007
Messages
8,750
Location
São Paulo - Brasil
Hollow Knight is awesome. Best metroidvania I ever played.

Fuck White palace though.

White Palace should have been four times longer, it felt like the introduction to a level. Big cock tease, for a moment I thought the game would explore all the possibilities of your abilities.

To be honest, I didn't even think the area was bad, per se. Just that it was monotonous and didn't mesh well with the rest of the game. If the area was larger, but didn't focus so much on just one kind of challenge, I think it could have been much better.
 

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