Made a topic about the new Lords of Shadow game, and a replier mentioned they hate the term 'Metroidvania'. I got thinking about it, and I do wonder if it's really that useable a term these days. It refers to such a specific group of games, primarily the portable Castlevania titles, and it's hard to tell exactly where the line's even 'drawn' these days. Cave Story and Iji, for instance, are often called metroidvania, but they're much more linear than the 'codifers' to the term, and I do find myself wondering how relevant the term is anymore. Anyone else have thoughts on this?
I'd say so.
To me it indicates a large maze-ish non-linear level design that encourages exploration.
Though the term does seem to be used a lot with 2-D applications, I believe it extends to 3-D games as well.
The whole thing is basically a puzzle(a very very light one granted) with tons of things to kill, things that help you kill things more effectively and other goodies all wrapped up inside.
As I understand the term it's more a non-linear world where the player gains powers/equipment which allow access to other parts of the world as they progress.
It is a very useful term when used correctly but like a lot of gaming terms it is misapplied, usually by the designers themselves.
It suggests that the game is a mixture of linear and non-linear, featuring a set order of events to complete in order to finish the game but allowing the player to more or less explore to their heart's content until they find what they need to continue. It mostly applies to games that are two dimensional, due to that being the format Metroid and Castlevania used back in the day.
I think it is a very usable term, but I don't really like it on a personal level.
Vampire Killer was pretty open, Castlevania II was pretty open but the franchise was pretty much strictly linear all the way up to Symphony of the Night ('97). The space between Simon's Quest and SotN was a decade or so.
Now the Castlevania bit of the term irks me because...
Zelda had a format featuring hybrid linear/open exploration from conception and hasn't really strayed from it. Much like the original Metroid, you needed to find and utilize specific items to proceed. Zelda II preceded Simon's Quest (both featuring the same style of gameplay), and I doubt many people in the west played Vampire Killer (proto-Castlevania, where you largely destroy wall bricks to find keys to continue through locked doors). The term was likely coined after people played Simon's Quest and Symphony of the Night (plus subsequent Castlevania titles).
Thus, I am somewhat surprised that the term "Zeldoid" isn't more popular.
Yeah, I've never gotten the difference between it and Zelda-style really. Other then Metroid/CV were 2d scrolling and Zelda was (mostly) top down before the 3d era.
LoS1 wasn't it, anyhow. As you didn't free-roam amongst the levels at all, you could just go back and replay them with your new abilities like some half-NG+ thing.
Its a bit of an antiquated term, as open world more or less covers the style of game, with Metroidvania mostly being distinguished by having a more direct focus on action based levels instead of sandbox play. Dark Souls is probably the closest to evoking it in recent major titles.
The core of a Metroid game is that it takes place in a freely traversable (player can choose to move backwards and forwards in the area, revisiting any part of it at any time), nonlinear (even though there might be a linear path through the game, the path through the gameworld is not, and includes much crossing over itself and backtracking), and severely constricted environment (the feeling that one is in a limited environment is actually quite important, the more you feel the limitations of the environment the more you feel the freedom of each new upgrade which allows you to overcome them), which gradually expands as the player character gains more abilities.
NightmareExpress said:
Now the Castlevania bit of the term irks me because...
The term "Metroidvania" originally specifically referred to Castlevania games which were structured like Symphony of the Night, as opposed to Classicvania which referred to Castlevania games which were linearly structured platformers. LoS is more of a classicvania game, but with the platforming mostly replaced by spectacle fighting.
Cave Story is considered a Metroidvania game? I would like to meet the people who say those things.
Anyways, I think the Metroidvania label is a perfectly valid and precise descriptor of games. It relates to a specific type of progression in games which affects how a player interacts with and thinks about the game environment.
Well the name of a set of systems is usually faster then writing up the entire description every time, if you feel somehow offended by it then come up with a better term.
Would Dark Souls be a Metroidvania? While it has the "non-linear world with linear paths" aspect down and even has some sequence-breaking in the form of short-cuts like the Catacombs drops, power-ups aren't present except for the Orange Charred Ring. Paths are instead usually "unlocked" by your gear, skill, and grabbing a specific key or item.
Would Dark Souls be a Metroidvania? While it has the "non-linear world with linear paths" aspect down and even has some sequence-breaking in the form of short-cuts like the Catacombs drops, power-ups aren't present except for the Orange Charred Ring. Paths are instead usually "unlocked" by your gear, skill, and grabbing a specific key or item.
Since 'Metroidvania' most often refers to 2D-sidescrolling-platformers with non-linear world I don't think Dark Souls can be called a Metroidvania. But that is my opinion!
Imo are some of the former explanations of the term 'Metroidvania' not entirely correct.
While it is right, that a non-linear world and exploration are a key element, a linear path to win the game or acces more parts of the world is not necessarily needed.
Even when a linear path is planed into a Metroidvania a lot of fans of this genre will try finding ways to break it,
resulting in various ways for speedrunner to plan own paths.
The possibility to break the linear(most obvious) path can even be considerd and supported by the designers.
This can be observed in great titles like 'Super Metroid' and 'Metroid: Zero Mission'.
Imo the word 'Metroidvania' describes a 2D-sidescrolling-platformer with open world, in which the player needs to gather powerups (doesn't matter if metroid-like or rpg) to enable him reach parts of the world he couldn't reach before. There may or may not be a linear path planed to the game to support the player and or story.
Would Dark Souls be a Metroidvania? While it has the "non-linear world with linear paths" aspect down and even has some sequence-breaking in the form of short-cuts like the Catacombs drops, power-ups aren't present except for the Orange Charred Ring. Paths are instead usually "unlocked" by your gear, skill, and grabbing a specific key or item.
Since 'Metroidvania' most often refers to 2D-sidescrolling-platformers with non-linear world I don't think Dark Souls can be called a Metroidvania. But that is my opinion!
Imo are some of the former explanations of the term 'Metroidvania' not entirely correct.
While it is right, that a non-linear world and exploration are a key element, a linear path to win the game or acces more parts of the world is not necessarily needed.
Even when a linear path is planed into a Metroidvania a lot of fans of this genre will try finding ways to break it,
resulting in various ways for speedrunner to plan own paths.
The possibility to break the linear(most obvious) path can even be considerd and supported by the designers.
This can be observed in great titles like 'Super Metroid' and 'Metroid: Zero Mission'.
Imo the word 'Metroidvania' describes a 2D-sidescrolling-platformer with open world, in which the player needs to gather powerups (doesn't matter if metroid-like or rpg) to enable him reach parts of the world he couldn't reach before. There may or may not be a linear path planed to the game to support the player and or story.
The problem with limiting Metroidvania to 2D sidescrolling games is that the things that really define the genre for most people are the non-linear aspects. Compare Metroid Prime to Metroid Fusion; Metroid Fusion is an extremely linear game with only two known sequence breaks while Metroid Prime is less linear and allows for more sequence breaking. By your definition, Metroid Prime isn't a Metroidvania while Metroid Fusion is because Prime is 3D and Fusion is a 2D sidescroller, even though Metroid Prime's general structure has more in common with games like Metroid Zero Mission or Super Metroid that are commonly accepted as Metroidvanias.
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