Any good metroidvania recommendations?

[JarlFrank]

Metroid-likes are better than the -vanias and it's good that the genre term is getting usurped by pure Metroid clones

 

[BrainMuncher]

Metroid has equipment

 

[Valestein]

Metroid has equipment

And items!

 

[Vic]

it's not really rpg-esque equipment like in castlevania, and more upgrades like in megaman

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

Metroid-likes are better than the -vanias and it's good that the genre term is getting usurped by pure Metroid clones

SotN, Aria of Sorrow, and Bloodstained: RotN are better than almost every Metroid except maybe Super Metroid and Metroid Prime.

 

[Hell Swarm]

Metroid-likes are better than the -vanias and it's good that the genre term is getting usurped by pure Metroid clones

I like melee metroidvanias better but gun ones can be okay too.


Buy this if you don't own it. It's spectacular.


Couldn't put this down last year. It had a bad launch but it got polished up.


Best MV ever made? More than likely.


Enjoyable if repetitive.


You play as a mushroom. WHAT MORE DO YOU FUCKING WANT!? Another shitty game where you play as a little girl with giant eyes!? No! Buy this! Have fun! Be a MUSHROOM.

Edit : I made this post when the sale was on. I'd wait til they're cheap for most of these.

 

[Valestein]

Been playing through the Last Faith and it's a pretty dope game with challenging bosses and good exploration.

 

[Sukhāvatī]

New release.

 

[Valestein]

New release.

It's about time Carmen Sandiego: Symphony of the Night came out.

 

[Valestein]

Tempted to get Carmen Sandiego already, but gonna look up some vids on it.

 

[spekkio]

Played the demo of Gestalt last month, liked it very much. Give it a go if you're into combat+exploration -oriented 'vanias. Combat requires certain "rhythm", since you have to stun most enemies before you can kill them safely. Which becomes interesting if there are 2-3 of them in one place, of different kind (which one to stun and which one to outmaneuver / roll through).

Cons? It's not as movement-oriented like for example Hollow Knight. Also map is dogshit.

I see that some reviewers on Steam are butthurt about the game "being different / worse than Dead Cells" or some shit. I think their dads were baaawing about Tomb Raider / Thief being much worse 3D shooters than Quake back in the day... Both their dads.

 

[Lyre Mors]

Re-posting this video Ivan posted from the game thread.



So a fairly mediocre, 4-hour-long semi-metroidvania with some pretty pixel art. I'm not surprised in the least, though it's a shame.

 

[Valestein]

Welp, i'll get it when it's really discounted on Steam then. I can't justify the purchase RN given the amount of playtime I've gotten with 'vanias like The Last Faith and Rebel Transmute recently for less $.

 

[Lyre Mors]

Welp, i'll get it when it's really discounted on Steam then. I can't justify the purchase RN given the amount of playtime I've gotten with 'vanias like The Last Faith and Rebel Transmute recently for less $.

If you're looking for a new 'vania, I had a great time with the demo (about 1 hour of gameplay) of this and it's coming out tomorrow.


It's supposed to run around 16-20 hours. If the price is around $20 at launch, it's worth it to me. By the same guys that made Another Metroid 2 Remake (AM2R).

 

[Ivan]

Awesome. I'll be binging this tomorrow after work. I'm sure it will be range from good - to great.

Nine Sols I found better than average, but not particularly great. I have higher hopes for this one.

 

[Hell Swarm]

Lone Fungus is hard as balls, creepy and dirt cheap. It does a lot of things to subvert your expectations with power ups while still giving you close enough powers to feel familiar. Like your early double jump is a ball you can pogo off of. Highly recommend it.

 

[Machocruz]

Guys, Blasphemous 2 or Last Faith -which is the better dark fantasy, pixelvania?

 

[3 others]

I played Animal Well (but I'm not the Kodex Konsensus, so this is just like my opinion man). Got the first ending. Used a guide to get the second ending. Then I lost interest. Well, technically, I lost interest even before I got the second ending, but I wanted to see what happens. There is still a lot more content.

First of all, hating this game because of dunkey is retarded. Dunkey didn't make the game. Billy Basso did. Any hate should be directed at Billy Basso.

Here is a spoiler-free-ish overview of everything up to the first ending: The goal is to collect 4 flames which are marked on the map. This took me 5-6 hours. The game is mostly a puzzle-platformer at this stage. You don't have to deal with any of the cryptic riddles. There is no real combat other than occasionally scaring animals away with a firecracker. You'll find items that you can use as tools for platforming, hitting switches, solving puzzles, etc. They are all children's toys (e.g. a bubble wand), and each of them has multiple functions that you have to discover for yourself. Some of them are unique (or rare) for Metroidvanias. Not sure if this is considered a spoiler, but here are some abilities you won't get in Animal Well: Double jump. Wall jump. Dash. Hookshot.
If this sounds interesting to you, you can have a good time with the first part and be satisfied. Maybe continue and find out how much farther you can get without a guide. But the price is a bit high if you're only going to see a fraction of the game.

The goal for the second ending is

mild spoilers

to find all 64 eggs, and then ... do something.
Unlike the flames, the eggs are not marked on the map. There aren't even any hints that point you in the right direction (unless there is a trick I'm not aware of, which I wouldn't rule out in this game). When you are looking for the last few remaining eggs, they could be anywhere. It's like finding a needle in a haystack. And before someone mentions it: Yes, I know with the UV lamp you can see an egg symbol in rooms that have a hidden egg. But you still don't know which rooms to check, so it doesn't improve the situation much. The UV lamp is also probably the last item you will find and is not strictly required to get the eggs. So for the last 4 eggs, I decided to use a guide to show me in which rooms they were hidden to speed things up.
My total time: 13 hours.

New items later also have a tendency to practically force you to revisit every room because they may have potential uses everywhere. It's a pattern that repeats again and again.
There is a fast travel system, except I wouldn't call it fast. There are a few portals at the corners of the world that lead to a fast travel hub. But the path to the nearest portal and then from the exit portal to your destination is still a long way. You end up staring at the map for long times trying to find the shortest path. There is a trick that helps with fast travel, but it's also a riddle you have to solve, and you may not even realize that there is a riddle. I found it very late, so your experience may differ.
Then you may have to repeat puzzle sections again that you've already solved, which is boring. And since all your abilities come from the items (but you can only equip one at a time), you have to constantly switch between them. You can scroll through them with LB and RB, which isn't a problem at the beginning when you can still count the number of items on one hand. But that number keeps growing more than you'd expect. You often need item A for platforming, then item B for a different kind of platforming, but you also want to check every room with items C and D, and so on. Constantly scrolling left and right, trying to find the right item. It's so awkward to play. They should have copied Zelda and let you put multiple items on 3 or 4 different buttons for quick access.

Overall, this is an interesting game with some cool ideas. The first part is good. But I didn't find the later puzzles engaging enough to put up with all of these issues and continue. The later stages only work with a big community where there are always a few people that are autistic dedicated enough to spend over 100 hours with the game to search every pixel and share their findings. And there is at least one puzzle that is impossible to solve alone.

Seconded. Animal Well is a good puzzle platformer with some uncommon and refreshing strong points. The La Mulana comparisons that I personally looked forward to are misleading, though. The most obvious predecessor is Environmental Station Alpha with its minimalist aesthetics, environmental puzzles, restricted offensive abilities, and a massively impenetrable endgame if you're into that sort of thing. As for the last item on the list, I can't really vouch one way or another since my brain was too smooth to even notice there's any postgame content to begin with in both games.

+ Very fresh toolset
+ Nice moody atmosphere, highlighted by the eerie synth croaks and caws from the other animals
+ Generally well tuned secrets that are findable without being absurd
+ Suitable length, doesn't get stale at any point
+ No prefab engine jank

- Can't remap keys, and the presets are... not ideal
- Not a fan of overly esoteric postgame puzzling in general

 

[Tehdagah]

Metroidvania with Metal Slug gameplay

 

[Valestein]

Been playing through BioGun and this boss was a bitch.

 

[Abu Antar]

If you have never been into emulation, or owned a Nintendo DS, this is a solid collection. Stealth released, today.

 

[Valestein]

What'd they do to redesign haunted castle? The original was pretty bad.

 

[Jenkem]

What'd they do to redesign haunted castle? The original was pretty bad.

it's completely new and made by the ppl who made adventure rebirth

 

[Jenkem]

I grabbed the collection because I never played DoS, and only briefly played a friend's copy of PoE and I want to try the Haunted Castle remake. Only played DoS so far but it's pretty good. Some good options for display, the default allowing you to see both second screens at once (the map and the stats/enemy info screen) which is nice. The stylus mechanics in DoS can be used with a controller by pressing RT and then you control a cursor, or you can use your mouse. I believe the Switch version let's you use the touchscreen still if you are playing in handheld mode. The boss seals that you have to draw to defeat bosses in DoS can use the mouse as well, but they also now let you use controller buttons and do a QTE to seal them as well.

They aren't just ROM dumps and an emulator afaik, they are ports. Also let's you pick between USA/JP/EURO versions for each game and 4th one for OoE.

 

[H. P. Lovecraft's Cat]

If you have never been into emulation, or owned a Nintendo DS, this is a solid collection. Stealth released, today.

Does that have the Ninty DS games innit?