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Comment on Why We Love to Get Lost in Games: The Enduring Appeal of Metroidvanias

Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago

I’ve seen video essays about metroidvanias that talk about “getting lost”. The real point is to follow clues, feel immersed in a world, learn to find your way, and make interesting decisions.

In Hollow Knight, it’s no problem to use the compass if you find that aspect too burdensome. I really enjoyed my time with Axiom Verge, and I seem to recall it came with a compass as standard? Perhaps that’s wrong, it’s been a few years since I picked that one up.

More to the point, which metroidvanias did you like and what did they do differently?

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InternetCitizen2@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Hollow Knight is pure art!

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- Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  It’s one of my top five all timers, and my kid’s. Raising em right. I was just trying to figure out where this other fella was coming from.
  
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ampersandrew@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
Axiom Verge had a lot of hidden passages through walls and otherwise same-y environments that just made getting back to where I wanted to go a chore. I don’t remember a compass, but if it had one, it didn’t help.

With Hollow Knight and Symphony of the Night, the maps are so large and contiguous, and they give you so little information as to why you didn’t fully explore a corner of the map, that you end up either easily missing a thing that you needed in order to progress or you get there and say to yourself, “oh, that’s right, that’s why I was stuck”, wasting a lot of time traveling there to come to that realization. In most Metroid games, the map is broken up into chunks with lots of entrances and exits connecting to the other chunks, which can keep the map screen small and easier to read. Plus, if there’s an ability that the game wants to make sure you get before you leave, they make sure you’re trapped in there with no option except to find it and make sure you know how it works first.

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- stringere@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  Ori and the Will o’ the Wisps is an amazing sequel, just as beautiful and just as smooth to play.
  
  Moon Studios also has a new project, No Rest for the Wicked. It is very different from the Ori games but just as well crafted.
  
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  - ampersandrew@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    Will of the Wisps fell through the cracks for me. It came out at a time after I had switched to Linux and before Proton was a thing. I ought to make time to get around to it someday.
    
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    stringere@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    How timely a comment.
    
    I just got pop_os up and running to replace windows 11 on my alienware aurora. Still working on a sound issue in Helldivers 2 but overall has been a smooth transition.
    
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- toomanypancakes@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I wanna second a robot named fight, that game was fantastic.
  
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- Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
  I’ve never heard of B: AA described as a metroidvania… How do you figure that one?
  
  I still haven’t gotten to Ori yet (a glaring omission I know). Never heard of the other one but I’ve wish listed it.
  
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  - ampersandrew@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    
    I’ve never heard of B: AA described as a metroidvania… How do you figure that one?
    
    It is a metroidvania. It fits the definition exactly. You backtrack over a space as you get more and more upgrades to unlock parts of it that were gated. The sequels weren’t really that so much, because they were open world games that gave you access to the entire map, give or take a few interior areas.
    
    A Robot Named Fight is a fairly obscure indie game, but if you wish you could get that experience of playing Super Metroid for the first time over and over again, this is as close as you’ll get.
    
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    Gradually_Adjusting@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨year⁩ ago
    I suppose you’re right, I guess I had a blind spot there. Haven’t played it.
    
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