You may have heard the term “metroidvania” being used before to describe certain games. Games like Ori and the Blind Forest, Hollow Knight or Cave Story+.
What is a metroidvania? A post by user Grace Note sums it up quite nicely:
“Metroidvania” is a term used to describe a sort of exploratory 2D platforming game. It comes from the original games of the Metroid series and some of the middle-era of Castlevania games (most notably “Symphony of the Night”, which is what primarily gave birth to the term).
The most defining feature is usually the world. Rather than have set stages or a world map, the entire game takes place inside one giant map, which you must traverse about. Not just any map, but typically a very complex map filled with all kinds of secrets. The map is typically divided into sectors, more in an aesthetic fashion to denote that the denizens and dangers will be different. Sometimes you have teleports to assist you in travel, but other times you just have to remember where to go in the map.
There’s various elements at play in the exploration. There’s typically tidbits hidden in spots, or puzzles that have to be returned to when you find appropriate equipment. The exploration is also non-linear - your limits of progression through the map are by various tools or powerups that you need to acquire, but the order in which you must acquire some of these tools is not set. And in many choices, there are many paths to get those tools, or even get past obstacles without those tools.
Some of my favourite games are metroidvanias and I have become a huge fan of the genre. It helps that I have always enjoyed 2D platformers, since growing up on Sonic games and the like.
PC Gamer has a listed what they call The Best Metroidvania Games on PC and RPS catches some of the gems that they missed The 14 Best Metroidvania Games On PC. If you have any passing interesting in 2D platformers and enjoy immersing yourself in a cohesive and expansive world, why not give this genre a try.
It’s my absolute favourite genre! You should check out Duse: An Elysian Tale and (one I already recommended to you) Apotheon. I bought and finished Ori twice, got quite far in Guacamelee and I’m about 8 hours into Hollow Knight.
Dust was amazing. It started a bit slow, but it was well worth the time I spent in the game. I’m still hoping for a sequel one day. It had a nice and light feel to it, even though the story darkened up slightly towards the end.
Ori was a magical game. I will buy an Xbox when the new one comes out (cause fuck the windows store). Symphony of the night was also amazing but hard as nails. Loved Quacamelee as well. Such awesome games.
Another one I played recently after @Hiro wouldn’t shut up about it was steamworld dig 2. Can also highly recommend it.
No need to convince me, I was sold on it before I even finished the first game. Just waiting for el-cheap price before I stop playing everything I’m currently busy with to dive into the mines again.
That’s actually part of the appeal for me… I love the backtracking and gaining abilities to access areas you couldn’t previously. The constant enemy respawns sometimes gets a bit on my nerves, especially if the game punishes you with it’s difficulty (I’m looking at you, Hollow Knight), but overall I understand the necessity for the genre’s mechanics - if enemies didn’t respawn, you could just run through each area, clear it out and then the game would be boring after that when you need to backtrack to access previously inaccessible areas.
I understand the dislike for backtracking but I really don’t mind it. In some ways it is a natural consequence of creating an open and connected world. To eliminate backtracking the experience would have to be linear and you lose that sense of finding secret pathways, or attempting different areas if you’re having too much trouble in one.
The addition of fast travel and openable shortcuts certainly helps reduce the amount of needless backtracking.
