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Any good metroidvania recommendations?

lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,158
Has anyone bothered with this one?


It seems rather new and rough around the edges, but the premise is unique, it's the closest thing to a spiritual sequel to the Reboot show we'll ever get.
Witness the birth of sapient AI in this sprawling atmospheric hacking adventure.
Combining Metroidvania progression with non-linear exploration and gameplay. Recompile challenges players to explore, fight, hack, and survive. Discover the many secrets beneath ancient digital landscape and prepare for system-wide reconfiguration.

The game’s entire narrative takes place within 1 second of real time.

Delve into the ancient, sprawling ruins of the Mainframe and discover a range of traversal abilities to help you on your journey towards attaining true sapience.

The game has multiple endings based on the players actions; you can repair systems, restore lost data, hack or destroy enemies, all whilst uncovering the truth about the Hypervisor and the original purpose of the Mainframe.

The story explores everything from machine sentience to the nature of choice.
Life and death. Chaos and determinism. Sentience and sapience. Intelligence exists in many forms. In this dying world, one must explore all possibilities. Observe and respect all perspectives. Only then, can we truly survive.

Games that inspired us:

Axiom Verge, Hollow Knight, Ori and the Blind Forest, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Rime
 

BLOBERT

FUCKING SLAYINGN IT BROS
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4,236
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BRO
Codex 2012
Has anyone bothered with this one?


It seems rather new and rough around the edges, but the premise is unique, it's the closest thing to a spiritual sequel to the Reboot show we'll ever get.
Witness the birth of sapient AI in this sprawling atmospheric hacking adventure.
Combining Metroidvania progression with non-linear exploration and gameplay. Recompile challenges players to explore, fight, hack, and survive. Discover the many secrets beneath ancient digital landscape and prepare for system-wide reconfiguration.

The game’s entire narrative takes place within 1 second of real time.

Delve into the ancient, sprawling ruins of the Mainframe and discover a range of traversal abilities to help you on your journey towards attaining true sapience.

The game has multiple endings based on the players actions; you can repair systems, restore lost data, hack or destroy enemies, all whilst uncovering the truth about the Hypervisor and the original purpose of the Mainframe.

The story explores everything from machine sentience to the nature of choice.
Life and death. Chaos and determinism. Sentience and sapience. Intelligence exists in many forms. In this dying world, one must explore all possibilities. Observe and respect all perspectives. Only then, can we truly survive.

Games that inspired us:

Axiom Verge, Hollow Knight, Ori and the Blind Forest, Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Rime


BRO I INSTALLED IT FROM FAGPASS MAYBE ILL TRY IT
 

ferratilis

Magister
Joined
Oct 23, 2019
Messages
2,224
So, this released on Steam, but the reviews are polarized. I'd like to hear Codex's prestigious opinion before trying it myself. Anyone playing?

 

Valestein

Arcane
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Haliask, North Ambria
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
Recently played through this which is like a combination of Zelda II and Lost Vikings. T'was pretty nice.



There's two other companions you can find/recruit during the course of the game too, one of which plays exactly like a classicvania Belmont.
 
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Valestein

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Been playing Death's Gambit: Afterlife and all i have to say is that it's one of the best Metroidvania's i've played with. It's Metroid spliced with "Souls".



Speaking of Metroid, there's an an area in this that's reminiscent of the wrecked ship in Super Metroid, which is pretty cool.
 

ferratilis

Magister
Joined
Oct 23, 2019
Messages
2,224
How's Sundered? The hand-drawn art is very nice.


Not great, not terrible. The art style is nice and the map is interesting enough to explore, but the combat gets repetitive and there are unnecessary roguelike elements that add nothing of value. Occasionally, you get attacked by hordes of enemies and those encounters lack clarity, you just need to mash through them usually. If you really want to get it, get it for the map and style, not for combat, story or gameplay.
 

toughasnails

Guest
So, this released on Steam, but the reviews are polarized. I'd like to hear Codex's prestigious opinion before trying it myself. Anyone playing?


Going by the user reviews, the game's difficulty comes from its precision platforming which honestly IS a turn off. Everything else seems to be p mediocre so whether or not one enjoys it seems to come to whether or not one cares about difficult precision platformer with metroidvania progression.
 

ferratilis

Magister
Joined
Oct 23, 2019
Messages
2,224
I already decided not to get Aeterna because the art style is so ugly. And because Hollow Knight's price tag makes most metroidvanias too expensive by comparison. Maybe I'll get it on a sale.

If anyone is looking to buy a metroidvania during Steam Winter Sale, S&S is the easiest recommendation, other than HK, of course. It also has ugly art style, but more than makes up for it with combat and exploration.


The Messenger is another easy recommendation. Beautiful pixel art, nice humor, great soundtrack, decent gameplay. It gets a bit annoying in the second half, but still worth a playthrough.


Blasphemous I didn't really like that much because platforming can be finnicky (especially with ladders), but it has enough content to warrant a purchase. And it's beautiful.
 

HansDampf

Arcane
Joined
Dec 15, 2015
Messages
1,471
The Messenger is another easy recommendation. Beautiful pixel art, nice humor, great soundtrack, decent gameplay. It gets a bit annoying in the second half, but still worth a playthrough.

And the game is a linear platformer until the "annoying second half". If the second half is annoying it's probably because the metroidvania part isn't as well executed. Still a solid game.
 

Visperas

Augur
Joined
Nov 5, 2013
Messages
509
Man, not a lot of excitement for Aeterna Noctis, huh? I haven't played it yet but I will soon for sure. I've watched a few gameplay videos of the first area and it looks amazing! Definitely hard platforming but still amazing.

I'm actually playing The Messenger now and it's cool and funny but it's a bit simplistic: one attack (horizontal sword swing), one special (horizontal shuriken) and only a few movement options. Granted, one of them kind of allows you to pogo but still the game feels a bit barebones compared to Hollow Knight and Salt and Sanctuary, my two gold standards in metroidvanias.

I also played and finished Death's Gambit and Blasphemous but not the DLCs. Do you think it's worth going back to played them? Is their content on the side? I don't want to retread old levels to find little morsels but I might consider it if it adds new levels and I don't have to replay the whole game.
 

ferratilis

Magister
Joined
Oct 23, 2019
Messages
2,224
Another interesting one that I haven't tried yet.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1286280/Pronty/

How do you embed the steam thingy?
image.png
 

El Presidente

Arcane
Joined
Nov 3, 2018
Messages
1,546
Location
Oval Office
Been playing Death's Gambit: Afterlife and all i have to say is that it's one of the best Metroidvania's i've played with. It's Metroid spliced with "Souls".



Speaking of Metroid, there's an an area in this that's reminiscent of the wrecked ship in Super Metroid, which is pretty cool.

Is this a sequel or an enhanced re-release of the original game? Can I pick just this one?


How's Sundered? The hand-drawn art is very nice.


I thought it was pretty bad unfortunately. Could've been a far better game if it was hand crafted instead of throwing you a bunch of procedurally generated rooms that end up being really poor and uninspired. Level design is fairly nonsensical, mostly because of that.

I wrote a very long post explaining why this game was bad on its own thread but the post got nuked alongside Spellcaster, sadly. Otherwise I'd quote it for you.
 

Visperas

Augur
Joined
Nov 5, 2013
Messages
509
Afterlife is an "Enhanced Edition".

That's what I feared. I already played the original release, and to be fair I had plenty of fun, so I don't know that an Enhanced Edition is worth it. Anyone played both version? Is it worth it to go back?
 

lightbane

Arcane
Joined
Dec 27, 2008
Messages
10,158
The EE adds 2 new endings, new content, and so on, dunno how it compares with the original.
 

Valestein

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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
Afterlife is an "Enhanced Edition".

That's what I feared. I already played the original release, and to be fair I had plenty of fun, so I don't know that an Enhanced Edition is worth it. Anyone played both version? Is it worth it to go back?
Decide for yourself with this new content overview.



Some of the new additions like double jumping are things i can't imagine playing this without.
 

Ulfhednar

Savant
Joined
Apr 29, 2017
Messages
809
Location
Valhalla
2021 MV games I played:

Astalon - Great exploration with roguelite/limited healing death mechanic with an upgrade store between plays. Controls like old mega-man games on a Metroid/Castlevania II: Simon's Quest map. Many doors/blocks once unlocked are persistent between plays, so traversal is simplified once you progress through an area (similar to Hollow Knight). You can unlock (through pickups on the map, not through the store) different movement capabilities for your knight, archer and wizard. Eventually, your wizard's attack is OP vs enemies including bosses, but spikes always take 10% or so of your health, and there are a lot of spikes. Attrition before you reach the next elevator or switch is the real enemy here. Has an elevator system for fast travel - could use a few more elevators, as you are always sent to the start of the map on death - and two-way portals between specific locations. Map does a decent job of communication to the player, but can sometimes be frustrating when trying to locate an exact room. First playthrough ~20hrs, probably ~10h if you pick it up a second time. Had a lot of fun with this one, would strongly recommend to anyone who enjoyed NES era Metroid/Castlevania/Zelda II/Mega Man.

Axiom Verge 2 - Pretty big departure from the first game... didn't really want to play as some rich billionaire. Replaced Metroid-inspired art style with more naturalistic environments, which was a disappointment. Also disappointed by new repertoire of combat weapons (melee axe and ranged boomerang) compared to wide assortment of guns in the first game. Soundtrack is still pretty good though. If you've played the first and really want more, you probably already have this one. If you haven't tried these, and are curious about them, just go play the first one instead.

Messenger - I played up to the crystal golem, then got distracted and put this one on the back burner. Fun game, but my experience so far is that it plays a lot more like the Ninja Gaiden series with an upgrade shop rather than a definitive metroidvania experience. From what I've read, seems like it opens up further down the line, and curious what other's experiences have been with it. Hopefully will get back to this one before too long.

Metroid Dread - Mostly positive experience. I imagine everyone is mostly familiar with it, so I'll drop what criticism I have without much of a review. Personally would have preferred a true 2D rather than 2.5D. QTEs are stupid. I'm mixed on the EMMI's - a way to trap them in the environment would have been nice, or limited use items to temporarily distract/disable them. Not really sure how I want them to improve those sections, but I don't necessarily want them cut either. The exploration is too linear for a big portion of the game, and it takes too long to be able to freely explore sections you've visited before. The difficulty spikes at the end are pretty big, and the game could have taken some cues from Hollow Knight where the most challenging stuff is optional. I cursed a lot, but had more fun with this than any of the metroid franchise titles since Super Metroid.

Pretty good year for me on MVs.
 

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