I haven't played a Metroidvania in a while and I'm looking for suggestions of some good ones to try. Some I would recommend:

Ender's: Lilies (Magnolias is good too, but play Lilies first. The setting and theme hits better.)

Ori and the Blind Forest / Will of the Wisps (Will of the Wisps did bring a tear to my eye)

Monster Sanctuary (a creature capture metroidvania)

Any system is good, interested to hear of other good ones that are out there.

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[–] 14 points 11 months ago (2 children)

Its my no.1 genre... i have played A LOT of them. People have already hit on the "big three" - hollow knight, super metroid and castlevania SOTN... heres lesser mentioned gems... sure, they're not as incredible as those 3 genre topping master pieces, but theyre super super good and worth a play.

  • alwas awakening
  • tunic*
  • hyper light drifter*
  • hob*
  • Another Metroid 2 Remake (AM2R)
  • Metroid Dread
  • castlevania dawn of sorrows/aria of sorrow
  • axiom verge
  • metroid prime
  • castlevania 3
  • metroid zero mission
  • SM: ancient chozo**
  • SM: Ascent**
  • 9 Sols

*yes, there could be called "zelda-likes" instead of metroid vanias, but i always felt those two game designs were kissing cousins.... if you like one you might like the other.

** these are romhacks...,very very good ones. You need a rom of super metroid and emulator to play em.

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago (1 child)

    Solid list!

    but i always felt those two game designs were kissing cousin

    I see them as the same genre. You have this "pushing the map's frontier" mechanic, along with some power or item progression to enable that. The rest is find-and-seek to connect all those dots. IMO, the only major difference is a side vs top-down perspective.

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  • [–] 4 points 11 months ago*

    Its true... i think the fundamental formula is that it makes you an explorer first- turns you loose with a very vague objective and lets you discover... map, traversal, sequence skips, w/e and gives you "clues" while letting you feel empowered to do things in your own order/way/time... thus making you feel clever.

    Zeldas, you could say, are more linear, more "adventure" in progression than exploration... but its not black n white and each title has varying degrees of freedom

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