Any good metroidvania recommendations?

[Neuromancer]

Edit: It's so badly implemented, that it's hidden in that one part of game where you can only get with speed run if I recall correctly and those cutesy aliens "teach you" to do it, and in fact when I played the game for the first time I escaped from that pit with morph-ball bomb-jumping which takes fucking ages to do, but still easier than the shitty wall-jump.

Aren't you supposed to escape that pit by using the Spineshark?
That is what the animals teach you. You already have to know who to use the Speed Booster before that to get into the pit.

As far as I know, you don't need Wall Jumping at all for the whole game.

 

[JarlFrank]

Man, Environmental Station Alpha is breaking my balls. Some of those bosses are fucking hard.

 

[Ghost Goat]

Man, Environmental Station Alpha is breaking my balls. Some of those bosses are fucking hard.

This is another solid one. It has outstanding exploration, an interesting scenario, simple mechanics and decent combat.

I stopped after defeating the main game boss. I found the the post-game content to be inaccessible without a guide.

 

[Grauken]

Recently finished Lone Fungus, which is heavily inspired by Hollow Knight, but looks and plays worse. Pros are a large map and a moderate difficulty (which you can adjust upward from normal to hard to nightmare, so for those looking for some challenge this should pass to some degree), cons is basically everything else. Every new area looks like just a colored variation on caverns, getting from any points to another even with the terribly placed teleports is a chore. Rooms are sprawling with lots of boring tiny enemies and spikes. Since its easy to replenish health this isn't really difficult, just cumbersome. Bosses are difficult without really being all-that interesting or even memorable. Some look just like large blobs with different colors that rain bullets on you and once you figure out the gimmick to beating them, well they stop being even difficult.

You character moves rather sluggish in the beginning but once you get movement upgrade, the situation gets worse in a different way. The game is overdesigned with movement options, two buttons for two different kinds of jumps, two buttons for two different kinds of dashes, various combinations of buttons to do stuff and sometimes you just forget what button-combo did what. You get relics (basically Hollow Knight charms, though most of them are useless and you don't really have lots of points to activate enough and create unique builds), you have parry options that are rather useless and overdesigned spells that just aren't worth using most of the time.

The game is also really bad at teaching or explaining you stuff even with stuff teaching sections.

Also if you enjoy games like Celeste with really challenging platforming sections, the game throws countless of optional challenges at you. That said, while I enjoy Celeste due to its excellent controls, I can't say the same about Lone Fungus. Your mileage may vary.

Overall I was rather happy to see the end of this and never touch it again.

 

[CryptRat]

Thanks, it's part of a bundle on itch, which might still be worth it in the improbable case where you don't already own half of the games and want to get them DRM-free, which is my case actually, I might buy it : Metroidvania Bundle
Contains :
- Lone Fungus
- Zapling bygone
- Super win the game
- Alwa's legacy
- Haiku the robot

Unless I'm mistaken Lone Fungus, Haiku the robot and Zapling bygone are not available on GOG.
Obviously for someone who buys Steam Keys it's not a good deal especially a few months after a much better one on Humble Bundle.

 

[Grauken]

Unless I'm mistaken Lone Fungus, Haiku the robot and Zapling bygone are not available on GOG.

No, but both Lone Fungus and Haiku are DRM free on Steam (just need to install them and then they work without needing to use the Steam client), no idea about Zapling as I don't have it and only played the demo.

 

[spekkio]

BROs, Cookie Cutter may be relevant to your 'vania-related interests. P. 'dexian game too.

I mean:

- Fat Body-positive Tattooed Lesbian Android protagonist + racially diverse cast:

- Complex combat with weapons & combos:

- Abilities + upgrades:

- Prestigious "show, don't tell tutorials":

- A map that's actually useful:

- Panty shots:

- And last but not least, good ol' violence:

Cons? There are still some technical quirks (buttons stop working, sound disappears, etc) plus Derp Souls syndrome (rolling >>> blocking). But it looks promising. Esp. in action:



Verdict after short play:

 

[Arthandas]

Spoiler this shit motherfucker, I'm gonna puke

 

[spekkio]

BROs, another one of THESE videos:

 

[gabel]

Where the hell is Silksong!? What is taking these fuckers so long?
(Not that I expect it to be even half as good as Hollow Knight, should it ever release.)

 

[spekkio]

My current wishlist, if somebody's interested:

Spoiler

TBH my gaming currently consists exclusively of:

• replaying games I already completed and loved in the past (why waste time on newshit?),
• playing japtacticals - new and good games in this genre are sadly very few, so it's mostly replaying as well,
• 'vanias - the only genre that still feels alive to me; a lot of crap OFC, but there are still 2-3 good ones being released every year.

I mean, just look at some of this shit:

Spoiler

 

[Machocruz]

This is all fine and dandy, but any good Rondo-likes out there? Linear with alternate paths, solid difficulty, sweet jams.

 

[spekkio]

The only "classical" Castlevania-likes on my list are this one from 2022:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/1872040/Toziuha_Night_Draculas_Revenge/

And its upcoming sequel:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2112750/Toziuha_Night_Order_of_the_Alchemists/

Demo of the first one acquired, will report.

 

[Arthandas]

This is all fine and dandy, but any good Rondo-likes out there? Linear with alternate paths, solid difficulty, sweet jams.

You may want to try Volgarr.

 

[Great Deceiver]

This is all fine and dandy, but any good Rondo-likes out there? Linear with alternate paths, solid difficulty, sweet jams.

You may want to try Volgarr

Volgarr is nice, but it's inspiration is Rastan, there isn't much platforming and it's really not like Rondo at all

 

[Arthandas]

Volgarr is nice, but it's inspiration is Rastan, there isn't much platforming and it's really not like Rondo at all

I disagree, it's close to a classicvania and it even has two main paths just like Rondo. You won't find another game exactly like Rondo.
I also highly recommend The Curse of Issyos if you want a good classic Castlevania game.

 

[Machocruz]

Volgarr is one of my favorite indie action games of all time. I'll also take a game that has labyrinthine levels but without the loop of getting powers to access new areas to get more powers to... . I don't want to have to go back to previous sections of the world.

 

[TripJack]

cant be bothered to scan through 31 pages recommend a few of your favorites to me bros i already played and enjoyed hollow knight

 

[Great Deceiver]

Volgarr is nice, but it's inspiration is Rastan, there isn't much platforming and it's really not like Rondo at all

I disagree, it's close to a classicvania and it even has two main paths just like Rondo. You won't find another game exactly like Rondo.
I also highly recommend The Curse of Issyos if you want a good classic Castlevania game.

Curse of Issyos is awesome. In fact I recommend pretty much all of Locomalito's games. He fucking rocks.

 

[REhorror]

I like Tails of Iron, it's a charming game with some grim and some cartoony gore.
Story is narrated by Witcher Geralt's english VA so...breddy gud.

 

[Halfling Rodeo]

Playing Haiku the robot now. It's got a very confusing map and progression. It's not bad, just weirdly paced.

It's a shame metroidvanias are full of OC DO NOT STEAL fetish characters. Red haired anime women or obvious child characters ruin so many games with potential. I don't want to play as the creator's stronk womyn fuck toy. Are there any decent ones with non-human characters except Haiku and ESA? Ignoring furries too obviously.

 

[Modron]

Anyone try Biomass?

 

[Machocruz]

I also highly recommend The Curse of Issyos if you want a good classic Castlevania game.

Curse of Issyos is awesome. In fact I recommend pretty much all of Locomalito's games. He fucking rocks.

Looks cool. Updated my .txt

 

[Sukhāvatī]

New Momodora just released.

 

[Valestein]

I didn't think this game was going to be a Metroidvania but it actually is. There's an overworld to explore with abilities to gain that give you access to previously inaccessible areas in true form of the genre.