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Any good metroidvania recommendations?

Momock

Augur
Joined
Sep 26, 2014
Messages
644
Alwa's Awakening: very good, full of puzzle and secrets, but slooow movement and garbage bosses (but few of them).

Rabi Ribi: good level design and very good bosses (and a lot of them) but normal enemies are shit and it has a weird level scaling system that motivates either collecting absolutely every upgrade (completionist) or not touching a single one and going full sequence-breaker (if your in between your're fucked, at least in hard). If I remeber correcly it was patched latter so you can choose to desactivate it, I think.

Knytt Underground: not exactly a metroidvania (no upgrades) but it's one the best games I`ve ever payed. Great exploration, dialogs (you're mute and you select witch of your two companion fairies will do the speaking), world building and atmosphere, lots of tricky platforming and puzzles, interesting themes explored in a no-retarded way (it's mostly about faith vs no faith, and individuality vs comunity).

Momodora 4: fun little game, very charming. Nothing special to say about it.


PS: Metroid Prime 1 and 2 are of course the pinnacle of the genre, Hollow Knight it's best representant from the 10 last years, and OP is a retard.
 

Lutte

Dumbfuck!
Dumbfuck
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Everything else feels off or try-hard, as in super hard platform segments
This is why I love Hollow Knight. I'm tired of trivial games. Every time I killed a boss past the first third of the game or when I went past the White Palace I felt like it was earned. The level design is very thoughtful too and allows for a lot of freedom as to how you tackle challenges. Many areas and challenges have an "obvious" way to do it (go from platform to platform once the timing is right between obstacles like saws) or.. learn to consistently do down slashes and jump onto said dangerous obstacles regenerating your air jump by slashing at them. Once you fully understand the possibilities of the basic controls you realize you can actually access plenty of areas that were meant for specific power abilities which elevates freedom and ability to complete the game however you want on a second playthrough.

Still I wouldn't call any of that "super hard". Hollow Knight at its hardest platforming is more like baseline level difficulty of latter Super Meat Boy, and wouldn't compare to dark world (postgame) levels. Most of the game isn't even at the baseline of SMB, which is fine because it's a metroidvania and not a dedicated platformer.
It is easily the most interesting, well balanced (in that every element of the game supports the others well. It has good levels, good atmosphere, good combat, amazing abilities to gain, decent upgrade system that allows various builds to deal with the challenges of the game, amazing soundtrack, and what surprised me the most, even the platforming kept getting better and better by the end of the game) and fun game the genre has ever produced and the only weakness I see to it is the pacing of the first hour or two of the game. I did have to force myself to play it at first, like deama it didn't do anything to me during the first bits of exploration. On a first blind playthrough it's hard to find the appeal because the character starts very barebones and the encounters too are very barebones. I was hooked once I encountered Hornet as a boss and gained dash.

Hollow Knight has become the bar by which I will judge any further game released in the genre. What makes it the most of a landmark in the genre is just how much exploration feels rewarded. So much of what you gain from exploring is useful and opens new possibilities.

Rabi Ribi: good level design and very good bosses (and a lot of them) but normal enemies are shit and it has a weird level scaling system that motivates either collecting absolutely every upgrade (completionist) or not touching a single one and going full sequence-breaker (if your in between your're fucked, at least in hard). If I remeber correcly it was patched latter so you can choose to desactivate it, I think.

Yes! Rabi Ribi at its core feels like a touhou game, despite not being set in the same world. Like most touhou and touhou doujins, the meat of the game is boss fights. Stages (in this case, world areas) are just a calm change of pace until you reach the next climax. Like Touhou games, it has very aesthetically built bullet hell patterns that show enough variety to keep you going until the end. It's not that great if you look at the game as a metroidvania, but for a bullet hell fan it's the most well thought implementation of the core mechanics in a game that replaces shmup controls for platformer controls. The closest there is to have achieved this without feeling like the patterns were really meant for a shmup (feeling like you're fighting against the platform controls) is the two Touhouvania games, Koumajou Densetsu, and even so Rabi Ribi features a lot more diversity and quality to the boss fights imho.
I wouldn't recommend Rabi Ribi to someone who's not already into that genre of game (bullet hell), because the metroidvania bits aren't that interesting despite the sequence breaking stuff and the latter boss fights will make a lot of people ragequit. And let's be honest, the game world is garbage, there is no atmosphere to it, the writing is typical weaboo shit and the cast of characters is cute girls. The art is also very mehhh. If you're not already deep enough into this to the point of being able to put blinders to that stuff..

Iconoclasts - Kodex Konsensus seems to be that this one is average.

Below average. Game reads like final fantasy fanfic that takes itself too seriously (the game tries very hard to go for tragedy and fails so hard because the characters are such terrible fanfic material of borderline disorder style personalities and over the top idealism) and the gameplay is made around very simple puzzles. There's not much finesse in the platforming, the character doesn't have much in the way of fun movement controls, the boss fights are essentially like QTE because they're mostly invulnerable until you understand what sequence of motion you need to go through to make them vulnerable, there's not much risk taking involved once you understand how the fight is supposed to go and there's only one way to do everything. Game is linear as fuck too, backtracking to collect things (the only thing that getting new powers unlocks, as you can't really sequence break, the only thing to do is gain access to chests you couldn't before) is pointless because the upgrades are mostly pointless and don't affect gameplay that much.
 
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Grauken

Gourd vibes only
Patron
Joined
Mar 22, 2013
Messages
12,738
Some good freeware ones

Lyle in Cube Sector, has one of the most unique attack mechanics I've seen
Within in a Deep Forest, this one has a bouncing ball as the main character, so pretty unique controls, also the game is quite hard
Soldexus, I didn't like the graphics much when I started out, but the gameplay is pretty good, also on the more difficult side
Plasma Warrior, very short, but solid gameplay
The Power, another very short but stylish metroidvania
 

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
14,952

Completely agree on hollow knight, it's definitely at the top of the genre. I'm actually trying to do steel soul (ironman) playthroughs right now, despite being nowhere near good enough to pull that shit off. The early game is a tad dull until you get the dash, but after that it opens up completely. My last attempt I went for crystal peak right after the dash and my heart was in my throat half the time (I didn't even remember why it was worth going there, I thought it would be good cash but was dead wrong and got a hugely important upgrade instead.) Sadly ended up dying to the fucking brooding mawlek of all things because I just suck at that boss apparently. I always freak out and get hit by shit I know how to avoid easily. Anyways, no way I'd put myself through this torture for any other metroidvania, but HK is just so damn fun to play. Even basic movement and fighting is satisfying to execute, and doing minor skips by bouncing off flies to reach a ledge or finding false walls feels awesome and often give powerful unique rewards.

Sad to hear about Iconoclasts, was on my wishlist. Really sick of people making completely linear metroidvanias. What the fuck is the point of enabling backtracking if there's nothing to gain by doing so? What is the point of having upgrades that unlock new paths if you only get them in a certain order? May as well be playing any linear platformer without an open world instead.
 

deama

Prophet
Joined
May 13, 2013
Messages
4,347
Location
UK
Alright then guys, I'll try hollow knight again, this time I'll try to play it for longer.


Rabi Ribi - yeah I played this a while ago. It was alright, until I found out about bosses being level scaled, then I just rage quit.
 

Ocelot

Learned
Joined
Feb 21, 2018
Messages
363
Alright then guys, I'll try hollow knight again, this time I'll try to play it for longer.

I'm playing Hollow Knight for the first time and I'm amazed at how wrong my first impressions were. It may appear easy, boring and shallow but it's actually filled to the brim with things to do and it's difficulty increases gradually.
 

Damned Registrations

Furry Weeaboo Nazi Nihilist
Joined
Feb 24, 2007
Messages
14,952
The best part is when you get to the later parts of the game and realize all the shortcuts you missed earlier just by not exploring well enough. "Son of a bitch, I could have gotten this upgrade 12 hours ago!"
 

deama

Prophet
Joined
May 13, 2013
Messages
4,347
Location
UK
Alright so, for the curious, here's an update on my hollow knight playthrough:
I didn't finish it, it was ok. It got better as I went along, but it still wasn't enough to keep me hooked. This time I made it to the part where I had to fight some ghost boss on top of some ancient underground city. I had about a 10 charms, I had the dash upgrade, I got the wall sliding upgrade, and I found a smithy to upgrade my needle. I don't remember how many bosses I fought, I think 3/4? So I guess that's about 5-10 hours of gametime I spent?

Anyway, I'm probably not going to continue it. Again, I just can't put my finger on what the problem is, it looks good, the controls are good, even the upgrades seem fine. I don't think its the story, it seems similiar to dark souls and I was fine with that.
 

SCO

Arcane
In My Safe Space
Joined
Feb 3, 2009
Messages
16,320
Shadorwun: Hong Kong


Castlevania fansequel of a fansequel. Video has spoilers because fuck you
 

Grauken

Gourd vibes only
Patron
Joined
Mar 22, 2013
Messages
12,738
Finished the Mummy Demastered. It looks deceptively like a GBA/NDS Castlevania, but plays different with a much faster pace. I liked it, although it's not great by any measure. Funnily enough, the only boss I had to redo more than once was the dino, everything else I pretty much roflstomped.
 
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sullynathan

Arcane
Joined
Dec 22, 2015
Messages
6,473
Location
Not Europe
Metroid prime -- hahahahahahha, controls were so dog shit, wtf.


Believe it or not one of the few games to play better with the wii's waggle controls. (trilogy version)

Or better yet, with mouse+keyboard on the Dolphin emulator.

I never understood why the Prime trilogy isn't more popular. I've played every Metroid game, and the Prime games are my favorite along with Super Metroid. You have to play them in high-res with m+k though to really appreciate them.
Was it easy to set up the the mouse?
It actually is. I might have the mouse + keyboard config file somewhere
 

deama

Prophet
Joined
May 13, 2013
Messages
4,347
Location
UK
Metroid prime -- hahahahahahha, controls were so dog shit, wtf.


Believe it or not one of the few games to play better with the wii's waggle controls. (trilogy version)

Or better yet, with mouse+keyboard on the Dolphin emulator.

I never understood why the Prime trilogy isn't more popular. I've played every Metroid game, and the Prime games are my favorite along with Super Metroid. You have to play them in high-res with m+k though to really appreciate them.
Was it easy to set up the the mouse?
It actually is. I might have the mouse + keyboard config file somewhere
If you find it could you post it? Also, is this for the wii emulator or gamecube or which one?
 

sullynathan

Arcane
Joined
Dec 22, 2015
Messages
6,473
Location
Not Europe
Metroid prime -- hahahahahahha, controls were so dog shit, wtf.


Believe it or not one of the few games to play better with the wii's waggle controls. (trilogy version)

Or better yet, with mouse+keyboard on the Dolphin emulator.

I never understood why the Prime trilogy isn't more popular. I've played every Metroid game, and the Prime games are my favorite along with Super Metroid. You have to play them in high-res with m+k though to really appreciate them.
Was it easy to set up the the mouse?
It actually is. I might have the mouse + keyboard config file somewhere
If you find it could you post it? Also, is this for the wii emulator or gamecube or which one?
I Have a config file for both but the Wii version is better with mouse & keyboard. There is one annoying thing of the mouse getting outside the display window if you don't play fullscreen
 

Grauken

Gourd vibes only
Patron
Joined
Mar 22, 2013
Messages
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More or less recently finished AM2R, which is mechanically a good upgrade on the original GameBoy game, but completely misses the brooding claustrophobic mood the original had and I'm loathe to recommend it. It's nice if you already played the original, but sadly not an overall improvement.

Also finished Salt and Sanctuary. This one I'm still a bit ambivalent about. Not because it's too hard, the only boss I really had problems with was the first one, after that I pretty much carved my way through the game. I just don't like that a game that wants you to explore and at the same time includes fall damage and basically punishes you for exploring. Kind of counter intuitive. Also the metroidvania elements are pretty slight and the upgrades don't really supplement the core gameplay and feel more like added on as if somebody realized that they needed it. I did like the overall mood and monster design though.

And also finished Hollow Knight, at least the main campaign and first ending, from what I gather. Wow, that was a great ride and probably one of the best metroidvanias of the last years, and given how many good ones we had, that's saying something. Probably one of the most non-linear games of its kind (as most metroidvanias mainly have fake non-linearity), as this was actually my second attempt after a pause of a few months, and I took a completely different path this time and it really changed the experience in which order I did the areas. It's almost perfect, art, controls, difficulty, amount of content.

Maybe the only flaw (IMHO) is that its too fucking oblique which giving you the lore of what happened. Even after getting through all the areas, talking to everyone, hitting them with the dream nail, at the end I still had no idea what was going on, even up to after killing the boss. I read the background plot up on wikipedia and I didn't remember most of the stuff it was talking about. Sure, you can infer a lot just from the area design, there was a fallen kingdom, something imprisoned, the seal, etc., but the exact nature isn't explained enough and I would have liked to find that out in the course of the game. But again, the game is so good, that it is incredibly fun even without knowing all that stuff, just wish I did find it out.
 

Valestein

Arcane
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Vatnik
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PC RPG Website of the Year, 2015 Codex 2016 - The Age of Grimoire Make the Codex Great Again! Grab the Codex by the pussy Insert Title Here Strap Yourselves In
More or less recently finished AM2R, which is mechanically a good upgrade on the original GameBoy game, but completely misses the brooding claustrophobic mood the original had and I'm loathe to recommend it. It's nice if you already played the original, but sadly not an overall improvement.

Also finished Salt and Sanctuary. This one I'm still a bit ambivalent about. Not because it's too hard, the only boss I really had problems with was the first one, after that I pretty much carved my way through the game. I just don't like that a game that wants you to explore and at the same time includes fall damage and basically punishes you for exploring. Kind of counter intuitive. Also the metroidvania elements are pretty slight and the upgrades don't really supplement the core gameplay and feel more like added on as if somebody realized that they needed it. I did like the overall mood and monster design though.

And also finished Hollow Knight, at least the main campaign and first ending, from what I gather. Wow, that was a great ride and probably one of the best metroidvanias of the last years, and given how many good ones we had, that's saying something. Probably one of the most non-linear games of its kind (as most metroidvanias mainly have fake non-linearity), as this was actually my second attempt after a pause of a few months, and I took a completely different path this time and it really changed the experience in which order I did the areas. It's almost perfect, art, controls, difficulty, amount of content.

Maybe the only flaw (IMHO) is that its too fucking oblique which giving you the lore of what happened. Even after getting through all the areas, talking to everyone, hitting them with the dream nail, at the end I still had no idea what was going on, even up to after killing the boss. I read the background plot up on wikipedia and I didn't remember most of the stuff it was talking about. Sure, you can infer a lot just from the area design, there was a fallen kingdom, something imprisoned, the seal, etc., but the exact nature isn't explained enough and I would have liked to find that out in the course of the game. But again, the game is so good, that it is incredibly fun even without knowing all that stuff, just wish I did find it out.
You ought to get back on the Hollow Knight saddle and get the true ending, the true final boss is quite the spectacle, and if you haven't already, do the grimm troupe DLC and face off against the superboss.
 

Grauken

Gourd vibes only
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Probably gonna skip this, not playing metroidvanias for platforming, WP was annoying as fuck and didn't fit well with the rest of the game, just saws and spikes, no combat
 

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