Any good metroidvania recommendations?

[Momock]

Thanks for the review, Grauken . Would have surely bought this at some point I was in a Metroidvania slump, and would have surely been disappointed. Off the wishlist it goes!

Nooooooo! This game is awesome, buy iiiiit!
Okay you walk slowly/have a stick up your arse and the bosses are garbage, but all the rest is very good.
Good dungeons with puzzles involving your powers, and secrets that require a bare minimum of brain power to figure them out (it's not La-Mulana, but still), beautifull soundtrack.
Play it NOW!!!

 

[Grauken]

Thanks for the review, Grauken . Would have surely bought this at some point I was in a Metroidvania slump, and would have surely been disappointed. Off the wishlist it goes!

Nooooooo! This game is awesome, buy iiiiit!
Okay you walk slowly/have a stick up your arse and the bosses are garbage, but all the rest is very good.
Good dungeons with puzzles involving your powers, and secrets that require a bare minimum of brain power to figure them out (it's not La-Mulana, but still), beautifull soundtrack.
Play it NOW!!!

This is game where a demo would have been really helpful for people to see whether this would be their thing or not.

Also I wouldn't call anything in the game puzzles, just using your abilities (making a block to step on, a floating bubble) to conquer heights and the occasional simplistic block pushing onto plates to open doors thing, there was one room in the last dungeon where I was stumped for a few seconds until I realized there had to be a secret wall, and there was

 

[Grauken]

I played some metroidvania demos on Steam

Spoiler

Dark-fantasy metroidvania, where you turned into a monster with weird abilities like walking on the ceiling, acid spits and bile bombs. Verbatim pitch from the Steam page for this demo, which looks nice on screen but suffers from unintuitive controls, slightly unwieldy combat where your best strategy is to attack, jump back and attack again. You’re a kid from a children’s home who has been turned into a monster and now has to find a way to turn back. I played the demo until I killed some boss sea creature monster and returned to the children’s home. Apparently, you can explore further, but due to the wonky controls and overall feel of the game, I was less enthusiastic to do more and deleted this.

It’s not terrible, the visual style is neat and the overall story has potential, but in its current form, it’s just not fun to play. I really hope the creators work on the controls scheme and better feedback for whether your hits connect to monsters, as well as in general to give a better idea about your and your enemies’ hitboxes.

Spoiler

This was one of the more enjoyable games I tested out where I wasn’t really expecting much and after playing the demo can’t wait to play the full version. You play either as a male or a female barbarian who falls into a cave together with his trusted bat, go around collecting stuff, finding secrets, having multiple-choice talks with the locals, save wandering wizards, kill the local wildlife and try to find a way out.

Lots of opening doors via throwing stones at switches or fruits at places so that your bat follows and lights the way. Well-done pixel graphics, good and often amusing writing, and just overall clever level design with multiple ways to explore.

Spoiler

While I love metroidvania games in all their variations, it’s always nice to see a game doing something else than another riff on science fiction (Metroid) or fantasy (Castlevania). The Lore Finder demo gives us a bit of horror instead, roughly Lovecraftian inspired stuff. You’re called to an abandoned house and once you’ve entered can’t leave again. It begins pretty harmlessly, just your father talking to you on the phone telling you to distrust anybody, another voice via loudspeakers (the librarian) helps you to get around as well and anonymous men in robes rush you with knives to stab you.

The game really gets interesting once you get your first ability, which allows you to see into another dimension, see secret paths and items and also attract dangerous entities from those spaces. I’ve seen something similar in other games, but it really fits well here, showing that the underlying reality of the world is starting to crack and fester with horrific things. It’s still retro-based pixel-animation, so the horror is quite limited, but nonetheless, it’s fun to explore the house, get around, kill the two bosses you meet and overall enjoy your time.

This one is where the demo really made me want to play the whole thing right now.

Spoiler

Another demo I found under the metroidvania section of the Steam Game Festival, which uses a similar gimmick as the Lore Finder DEMO, the ability to look into a second dimension to get around obstacles and see secret paths. That said, where Lore Finder felt like a proper metroidvania, this one feels more like a puzzle platformer with a slightly open world, where you can visit previously visited areas but where this actually won’t ever be really needed. Given how short the demo is, it’s hard to really gauge the metroidvania credentials, but I have my doubt about the focus of the game.

It does look nice and controls really well, but overall feels a slightly bit generic and forgettable, like a variation on something you have already seen a couple of times and which will have a hard time distinguishing itself from other, similarly focused games.

Spoiler

I expect the reaction to Anew to be either hate or love, as its unique visuals and the physics-based control scheme is very much an acquired taste. This game feels less inspired by Metroid (as it is another metroidvania demo on Steam that was highlighted during the recent Steam Games Festival) and more like 1988’s Exile on the BBC, where you explored a strange world with a somewhat physics-based control scheme as well (for those who aren’t quite clear on what that means, you actually have momentum here, which makes getting around and even simple jumps more cumbersome than in your average platformer where this isn’t a problem).

While it’s billed as a metroidvania and based on the glimpse of the whole world map shown I think this is very much true, for demo purposes you play what is very much a linear 2d action slice of the game where you have to learn the controls and then beat various sections to show off the games capabilities and unusual visuals. You even get to control a massive mech and drive a buggy, swim in deep waters, and escape from a strange monster trashing everything around you.

I’m not sure I would call the visual style good-looking, it’s weird and strange which really helps to create an otherworldly atmosphere. Not sure whether this is fun for a very long game, but it really looks distinctive and like nothing else I’ve played recently.

 

[Grauken]

to

Spoiler

Demo for another metroidvania that has some nice visuals, mostly good controls, and overall plays rather comfortable and slick. The demo allows you to either follow a small prologue or directly start at a later point where the gameplay really starts, although to me that seemed like a rather arbitrary distinction. The biggest stumble here is really the overall plot and setting, from the prologue it throws some stuff at you, then you do some exploring, transport to another world (that seems to be Earth, or maybe they just use Earth as a shorthand for another world, not quite clear) and it feels like the creators have some grand design for the plot that just doesn’t translate into the game at all.

That said, the game, or rather the demo, is fun. You can do some exploring, there are a lot of secret paths to discover, you get skill points to upgrade various abilities and you have a rudimentary level up system. There are two boss fights in the demo, nothing really challenging but fun enough and many minor enemies throughout that are well animated and have distinct behaviors.

Overall nothing revolutionary, but solid and engaging gameplay. Hopefully, the full game is less confusing with its story or does a better job of explaining where you are and what you’re supposed to do except go out and explore.

Zordak (this is only on itch.io -> https://apapappa.itch.io/zordak)

Spoiler

Zordak is a game that carries its influences on its sleeves, easily recognizable as being heavily inspired by the Metroid series at large and by Super Metroid from the SNES specifically. Unlike Axiom Verge that hewed more closely to the original NES Metroid in design sensibilities (and with visuals that looked like someone upgraded the original Metroid to 16bit) and still managed to create its own unique look and visual style, Zordak tries to look very much like Super Metroid. Control- and gameplay-wise your main character seems to move with the more deliberate pace you see in cinematic platformers. There’s still lots of room for action, but it feels a tad slower-paced than Super Metroid.

As there’s isn’t much game yet, you have a couple of areas, a few secrets upgrades, and one boss fight (who poses a good challenge), it’s hard to get a good read on this. It controls mostly well and is reasonably fun. I think independent of whether the full game really manages to create a distinct identity apart from its inspirations, or just goes with them and then tries to do Super Metroid bigger and better (or just a good repeat performance), it should be an enjoyable game either way. So far, a pretty good impression overall.

 

[V_K]

How much tricky jumping in these two?

 

[Grauken]

How much tricky jumping in these two?

Not much, these are definitely on the easier scale from what I played, though as these are only demos it could get harder later on

 

[DJOGamer PT]

How much tricky jumping in these two?

Why are you even posting in a metroidvania thread if you don't want to deal with challenging platforming?
Verticality and advanced movement are a big part of this "genre".

 

[Damned Registrations]

How much tricky jumping in these two?

Why are you even posting in a metroidvania thread if you don't want to deal with challenging platforming?
Verticality and advanced movement are a big part of this "genre".

Wut. SotN has trivial platforming rendered even more trivial by like 10 different upgrades that make everything easier. The hallmark of the genre is exploration rewarding you with OP shit that changes the game.

 

[V_K]

How much tricky jumping in these two?

Why are you even posting in a metroidvania thread if you don't want to deal with challenging platforming?
Verticality and advanced movement are a big part of this "genre".

I'm just bored with regular RPGs - I've played everything relevant to my interests, so I'm checking adjacent subgenres. I made a similar post about general JRPGs some time ago, if that makes you sleep better.
Plus I like the progression of exploration in metroidvanias, with character upgrades unlocking previously inaccessible areas. And there are quite a few non-jumpy ones out there, like e.g. Aquaria.

 

[Ash]

I think you're all right. Yeah the OG don Symphony has not too testing platforming (it does get involved at times -- see clocktower with medusa heads), a lot of games in the genre do, and even the easier ones still feature very frequent platforming. If you don't like platforming it's questionable to be playing this genre, but at the same time asking if platforming is light like Symphony, or heavier like Hollow Knight is a legitimate question to ask.

Also as an aside: if you don't like platforming you're a faggot.

 

[Grauken]

I would say in general most metroidvania are on the easier side, many of them don't even have fall to your death pits or one-hit kill spikes.

 

[V_K]

if you don't like platforming you're a faggot.

How interesting, it never occurred to me that the two are connected.

 

[Valestein]

I started following this upcomming one that reminds me of Blasphemous.



Here's an upcomming metroidvania-ish game that's split in separate zones that you can explore and return to.



Early access title that's VERY reminiscent of SOTN.

 

[DJOGamer PT]

How much tricky jumping in these two?

Why are you even posting in a metroidvania thread if you don't want to deal with challenging platforming?
Verticality and advanced movement are a big part of this "genre".

Wut. SotN has trivial platforming rendered even more trivial by like 10 different upgrades that make everything easier. The hallmark of the genre is exploration rewarding you with OP shit that changes the game.

That's because Igavanias are more focused on combat.
The ones that truly focus on exploration like Metroid and Hollow Knight have alot of platforming.

 

[Lutte]

The skill level standards of the average gamer have really fallen if Hollow Knight is now a 'heavier platforming' type game. There's some late game content - mostly queen's garden and white palace - that have more involved platforming but the latter is actually 90% skippable through breakable wall shortcuts and bouncing off spikes, blades and stuff. Not only is 90% of it skippable but failure always throws you to the last segment of platforming rather than restarting a level (DLC added another layer to this stuff but it's basically ignorable bonus content only there for people who beg for it) and HK gives you the ability to regenerate health or have a ton of it so it's basically infinite retry possible in between very short segments. I found doing these parts a fun distraction and one of the points that make HK a more interesting metroidvania than average but they're nowhere near filling a platforming fix for those who actually like this stuff. The comparison to a game like Super Meat Boy will only stand on the most superficial level - it references it by having nonsensical rotary saws everywhere - but that's about it. In the end it's still a metroidvania and the developers don't dare challenge their audience too much - that's something I've only seen in Rabi Ribi, a boss encounter focused vania with extremely high quality bullet hell with platforming controls content.

 

[Damned Registrations]

What part of White Palace is skippable? AFAIK the only breakable wall in the whole area leads to the PoP, which is even worse.

But yeah, Hollow Knight has a lot of platforming, but it's pretty easy unless you're doing some really obtuse shit like trying to get the king's brand before the monarch wings or farmed up to do Crystal Peak before getting any upgrades.

My bar for platforming would be megaman games (only the secrets in the newer ones, but NES had some nasty stuff) and spelunky and it's clones.

If you want a platforming challenge, try Spelunky (the original is free and it's great) and if you've got to have stats and bosses mixed in try Avante or Catacomb Kids. Guaranteed you'll get squished, impaled, or fall to your death very quickly and frequently, and it won't let you shrug it off and try the exact same test again.

 

[Lutte]

What part of White Palace is skippable? AFAIK the only breakable wall in the whole area leads to the PoP, which is even worse..

Dude...

Almost every bad section. Do you even pogo jump? Most of the "obvious" routes of the palace don't really need to be taken if you understand the simple fact of downward slashing spikes and saws and trying to get straight to your destination rather than following marked routes/'safe' platforms. There's also a few background decoration like lanterns looking thingies that can be bounced off to skip a few routes like in 1m30s in the vid which is not immediately obvious and allows you to skip an entire platforming segment.
As for breakable stuff locations :
breakable platform at 32s
breakable wall at 2m20s (allows you to skip the corridor with the moving spike alignement that requires the most precise timing of movement in the entire game)

Vid contains two glitches which were patched but most of the skips shown are legitimate and still doable.

 

[Damned Registrations]

Eh, aside from the glitches and the broken walls (which are really fucking well hidden, holy crap) most of those barely qualify as skips. Making a razor thin jump instead of 3 easy jumps IS a 'bad section' for anyone that would actually need it. I bounced off plenty of shit when doing my runs and it skipped maybe 20%. And my first run through it added another 20% by accidentally going backwards a few times. Even with the stuff in the video it's not anywhere near 90%, you made me think you could skip the whole thing without ever getting close to a spike.

 

[Grauken]

I wanted to try a couple more metroidvania demos, but alas the Steam Game Festival has ended (at least in my time zone) and most of the demos have been removed again. So instead one last metroidvania demo, a 2d action-adventure and a cinematic platformer

Spoiler

This is another metroidvania demo that eerily reminds of the one I tried previously, The Guise, not just the art style (although The Guise had a bit more variation) but also the slightly wonky controls. This one was a rather short demo with zero plot and just a few obstacles to jump over, a few enemies to avoid, a few abilities to collect, and to open some gates. It’s even described as a metroidvania-type game, but not much of that was present in the demo, so it’s really hard to get a good feeling for how the final product will look like or rather play like, but so far I’m not impressed nor interested.

Oh yeah, the game also has a double jump that only works when you load it up with some energy, which gives me the impression it will be used for environmental puzzles, which I’m not a big fan of. Some puzzles in metroidvania games are ok, but once it becomes a defining aspect of a game I have little enthusiasm as the overall level design usually suffers from that approach.

Not a metroidvania, more a 2d action-adventure

Spoiler

While this is mainly billed as a platformer, Renaine is really a 2d-action-adventure that is somewhere from in-between the vast categorical space of pure metroidvania and exploration-driven platformers that aren’t metroidvania. While the level-progression is purely linear rightward, meaning you move right and once you’ve left a section can’t go back to it by moving left, there are various save points that allow you to warp to earlier places.

The game sports a quest system, you can talk to villagers or other NPCs you meet and get a quest from them, or rewards once you finish one. In the non-village levels where you go to kill various enemies or discover secrets, you can collect money to spend in the various shops back in the village, either to buy weapons, potions or other stuff or spend it on various people you meet during your quest, like building your own save points. Furthermore, you can collect various emblems you can equip at save points and which grant extra abilities.

While the graphics use a very limited color palette, the art direction is impeccable and really shows that limited colors by no means have to look bad and the game really showcases some impressive visuals coupled with somewhat cutesy but effective character designs. It might not be to everyone’s taste, but it’s quite well done IMHO.

Not a metroidvania, but a cinematic platformer

Spoiler

Demo for a cinematic platformer with an unusually small character sprite for this type of game, although it makes sense given how dense every screen is, packed to the brim with stuff to do. Unlike other games of this type, that stretch puzzles over a couple of screens most of the time, in Inmost you get to do multiple tasks on each screen often leading to somewhat cascading puzzles where one task is the preparation stage for the next and so on. Most of those “puzzles” are about avoiding death by some black glue that is seemingly everywhere, somewhat sentient and upon contact instantly kills you. You also switch between characters a couple of times, with different movement speeds and abilities, while in-between an offstage voice (well voiced at that) tells you something about the larger story, although at this point in the game (or rather demo) the plot remains rather inscrutable.

Besides the gameplay, which often is about brute-forcing solutions to what to do next by trial and error (involving many deaths, but you respawn immediately in the same screen) and thus up to whether you like this kind of thing or not, the game sports some really great-looking pixel vistas.

 

[Ivan]

cinematic platformer

the last thing I want to see is a "walk sim" platformer

 

[Grauken]

cinematic platformer

the last thing I want to see is a "walk sim" platformer

That's a bit dishonest, while you're technically correct that cinematic platformers puts more emphasis on improved walking animation and thus walking simulation to a degree, they usually contain lots of gameplay, something usually absent in walking sims

If you don't like them, fine, but for me cinematic platformers are adjacent to exploration-driven platformers, that's why I mentioned the game here, as I guess some others shares similar interests

 

[Damned Registrations]

for me cinematic platformers are adjacent to exploration-driven platformers

They seem like opposed concepts to me. A cinematic game is by it's very nature on rails, preventing exploration. There's nothing cinematic about backtracking for 20 minutes and looking under every rock, battering every surface and being an asshole to every NPC in sight in case something is hidden that way.

 

[Grauken]

for me cinematic platformers are adjacent to exploration-driven platformers

They seem like opposed concepts to me. A cinematic game is by it's very nature on rails, preventing exploration. There's nothing cinematic about backtracking for 20 minutes and looking under every rock, battering every surface and being an asshole to every NPC in sight in case something is hidden that way.

BlackThorne, Prince of Persia, Flashback all have their fair share of exploration, which obviously is not as expansive as a typical metroidvania, but still more than your usual platformer

 

[spekkio]

:slamdunk.gif:

Pro: fun to play, charming as always, 'vania'd (incline compared to previous one, which had sequenced levels)

Contra: way too easy, final dungeon is decline, "new" powers work almost exactly like the old ones.

 

[deama]

Just tried carrion, pretty decent so far.
It's a reverse horror side scroller where you're some sort of blob that consumes and gets bigger etc...
It also has a bit of metroidvania, I wish it was much more metroidvania, but maybe that's for a sequel.