Topic: Metroidvania games

[JonLeung]

You know what I love?  "Metroidvania" games!  While we have most of the Metroid and Castlevania games (though we're still missing the Castlevania games on DS), I'm also interested in those of the same genre that aren't in the series that spawned that term.

As my Steam wishlist falls into a backlog that may never be caught up on, there are some games on there that might be cool to have maps for, if I ever get to playing them... in the meantime, consider these my requests.

Alwa's Awakening (PC / Switch) - definitely NES-inspired, I can't help but love the look of this game.  Though it came out in early 2017, somehow I didn't hear of this until sometime last year, and immediately fell in love with its look.  Haven't played it yet, though...

Iconoclasts (PC / PS4 / PS Vita / Switch) - if a Super NES or GBA game had more pixels to work with, and bigger sprites and fancy effects, it might look like this game.  So colourful, it almost hurts.

Timespinner (PC / PS4 / PS Vita) - see how I described Iconoclasts, but with a more subdued palette.  Also Castlevania-ish.

Odallus: The Dark Call (PC) - this might have comparisons with Castlevania, which is not an issue at all.  It's a little dark and not as vivid as the above two games, but I would welcome maps of these just the same.

Bloodstained: Curse Of The Moon (PC / PS4 / PS Vita / Xbox One / 3DS / Switch) - this very-obviously 8-bit Castlevania-inspired game was put out while we're all waiting for Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night, which itself is a spiritual successor to Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night, and made by a team led by former Castlevania series producer Koji Igarashi.  I heard of a guy who's bought and rebought Bloodstained: Curse Of The Moon for every platform it's available, because he loves it so much.  It sounds like it's more in the style of Castlevania III: Dracula's Curse than Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night, so if that is indeed the case, it's just a platformer, not a "Metroidvania" (which would involve more upgrading and backtracking), but, sure, whatever, I'll just keep this on the list.

Monster Tale (DS) - I apparently requested this before.  Not sure how much demand there is, since as a DS game it's not as easily accessible as the Steam games listed above.  Still, my request still stands, but priority is a bit lower.  I did notice that The Spriters Resource has maps of these (under the "Backgrounds" section), however, these are ironically foregrounds (the actual platforms, walls, obstacles) without backgrounds at all but pure green, which is just not appealing to me - it'd be nice to have them look closer to how they look in-game, with items marked, etc.

I am sure there are more I could request, but for now this will probably do.

[TerraEsperZ]

I love Metroidvania games as well, but they can be such a pain to map properly, otherwise I would dedicate my life to mapping as many of them as I could.

Most of the time, you first need to have a good to great understanding of the game as a whole before even starting, otherwise you might run into unforeseen obstacles further down the road (like the Pirate Mothership in Metroid: Zero Mission where most/all of the rooms overlap slightly along their borders, making assembly a nightmare).

It's even more difficult if they're on a modern system where you don't have the many benefits of a fully-featured emulator (like disabling layers, viewing tiles and sprites, writing LUA scripts, editing memory) like on the PC or all modern consoles. The only games that are reasonably mappable correctly in those cases are very primitive looking ones with little or no lighting effects and no parallax scrolling.

About your list, I started mapping Alwa's Awakening on PC but never really got far before losing interest. I was still suffering heavily from sleep apnea at the time and had little mental energy for mapping even though I wanted to map something, *anything*. Looking back now, I think it attracted me more because it looked technically simple to map rather than because the game seemed fun so I doubt I'll be going back to it before finishing some of my other projects.

Also, let me add a few more games to your list:

The Messenger (PC / Switch) - This is another one that would be so good to see mapped, especially since every area exist in both 8-bit and 16-bit versions. The maps would spoil the reveal that it *is* a Metroidvania (which isn't apparent until several hours into the game) but they would still be fun to compare.

Shantae (GBC) - It's dated and nowhere near as fun as the following games, but I'd love to see this one fully mapped (I'm currently trying to restart this project).

Shantae: Risky's Revenge (DSi / iOS / PC / PS4 / Wii U) - Looks a lot better than the previous one but is a lot harder to map because of that blasted parallax scrolling and lots of waving effects in the underwater areas. I managed to map a few areas years ago but it's taking so long to handle the backgrounds... Give me a few extra years of life and maybe I could get it done but I'm not sure I'll have the patience as it is .

[JonLeung]

I'd heard of The Messenger, but thought it was like any other deliberately-retro-style indie platforming game.  I wasn't aware of the switch from an action-platformer to a Metroidvania.  Reading more about it, I'm intrigued.

I guess that was a spoiler, but you know what?  I think I'm glad I know that now, because I probably wouldn't consider playing the game otherwise.  Assuming I ever have time to get to it...

Ah, and you mentioned Shantae.  Guess I didn't think much of it since I think I played each one already.  Though Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero looks the best for sure, I feel it might be a partial step down from Shantae And The Pirate's Curse, which, if memory serves, felt more challenging as a platformer and as a Metroidvania.  Unless the retro-style of graphics of The Pirate's Curse reminds me of Super Metroid or even Castlevania: Symphony Of The Night, unlike the cartoon graphics of 1/2 Genie Hero, cute as they are.

I guess that's why many of the games in my original post (assuming I don't edit it later) are recent releases on the PC (or modern consoles) but deliberately try to look like they are from the 8- or 16-bit era, or at least hand-drawn raster graphics sprites in a tile-based environment.  I suppose retro-style is popular among many indie games, but the overall feel and gameplay of Metroidvania somehow feels more authentic than, say, a run-and-gun game that you find on an app store that doesn't feel like a Super NES game even though it has 16-bit graphics.  Am I rambling?

I get what you're saying about the difficulty of these, particularly since I've asked for a lot of PC games here.  Like any request, I'm just putting these ideas out there, not going to hold my breath for maps of these anytime soon.  But if someone does send in maps of these, I would probably drop whatever I'm doing and put these up right away!  Not that I don't put them up timely these days, but I mean I'd be really tempted to leave work early to get home to put maps of games like these up even sooner, maybe...

[TerraEsperZ]

I'd heard of The Messenger, but thought it was like any other deliberately-retro-style indie platforming game.  I wasn't aware of the switch from an action-platformer to a Metroidvania.  Reading more about it, I'm intrigued.

I guess that was a spoiler, but you know what?  I think I'm glad I know that now, because I probably wouldn't consider playing the game otherwise.  Assuming I ever have time to get to it...

I think it was initially advertised as a linear, stage-based retro-platformer in the style of Ninja Gaiden and that held no interest to me whatsoever. It was hearing about the twist that made me buy the game, and that sucks a bit for the developers.

In the regards that there's a major twist to the gameplay that shouldn't be spoiled before playing the game, The Messenger feels like Undertale. It's supposed to be this major reveal that completely baffles you after playing for a while but I honestly wouldn't have played either game without knowing in advance what those games were really all about.

[JonLeung]

Last night we got maps for Blasphemous (PC) which wasn't mentioned earlier.  It's also on the current consoles: the Switch, PS4, and Xbox One, so I made links for the latter two on the directory page since we didn't have them yet.  Thanks, eishiya!