[silent-circuit]

It's unusual, you have to give them that.

 

[SilverEars]

 

[SilverEars]

 

[SilverEars]

What a fantastic Souls-like platformer! I like that the game has lots of loots. This one stands along side the great like Hollow Knight and Ender Lilies. I like this one better than Grime.

 

[SilverEars]

After playing all the Soulsborne games (Dark Souls series, Elden Ring, Bloodborne, Sekiro), I realized my interest lies in similar games which are in the souls-like genre or like similar.

Metroidvania would be like-similar to souls-like genre. I find that FromSoft games are genre that has diverged from Metroidvania. Metroidvania are technically 2D games, but I find that FromSoft games do what metroidvania games do, but in 3D. 2D vs 3D would be one of the main differentiator, and another would be that Metroidvania would require backtracking and gaining access to area with new skills/tools. Soulsborne games doesn't have this.

Aspects that they overlap are discovery of shortcuts and the saving system (bonfires, save rooms). Both genres highlight boss fights and have good varieties of enemies, and involve platforming.

So, it's reasonable to say Soulsborne grew out of Metroidvania genre. The way I see Dark Souls is, it's the game that should have been the 3D Castlevania. That's how I feel that the genres overlap.

Latest game I'm playing that has the Soulborne feel is Blasphemous. It's considered a Metroidvania, but I consider it similar to Soulsborne, but in 2D with Metroidvania aspects like backtracking with new skills to gain access to new areas to progress forward (Which is a key differentiator of Metroidvania genre).

It's difficulty is unforving like Soulsborne. So, newbies are expected to die many times to figure out how to get through new areas or get past new types of enemies. For this reason, I find the game tedious at times. The ways the enemies are laid out in the platforms makes it so that you are guaranteed to get hit. And groups of enemies becomes difficult to kill without getting hit. This makes health potion management tricky, and gives it a similar feel to Dark Souls games where you are looking for the next bonfire while your estus flasks are running low.

In general, I found that they tweaked the difficulty balance just enough to give the feel of uncertainty and frustration of not reaching the next bonfire that you get from Soulsborne games.

In this respect, the games feels very Souls-like, and challenging. So, it's an interesing 2D platformer if one is looking for similar challenges as in Soulsborne games. I like games where I'm overcoming challenging obstacles and this game provides that. But, I will admit that dying many times to get through an area is very tedious and not the most fun. The reward is the overcoming of it.

 

[SilverEars]

Started on Aeterna Noctis. I got real bored of Blasphemous. Starting out it's tough, but it gets manageable once you progress. Matter of learning from mistake early on. It's quite telegraphed so it's easy to figure out.

Aeterna Noctis seems much more engaging of a game. It's purely a metroidvania, and doesn't try to be a souls-like. It has heavy emphasis on platforming, which makes it seems like Ori in design.

I really like the level designs of this game. It's very metroid-ey, which is why I find it really engaging. I've read that it's a really difficult game, and I can't imagine how hard it's going to get at some point. But, I do like the level designs better than Hollow Knight. The visuals are using the same technology as Hollow Knight so it's quite polished. It seems to be a well thought out game. I will see if the difficulty gets too much later on.

Edit: I think visuals of this game is even better than Hollow Knight

 

[SilverEars]

Started on Aeterna Noctis.

Oh my god, this game is super challenging. There's a lot of "it's impossible!" stuff, but I just keep grinding to overcome it. It's just fun to get over the challenging humps in this game. Platforming is just excellent. Very tedious and will make you rage hard, but it's very addicting!

It's one of those games that makes you realize that you can do things that you thought was impossible. This is what I like about these games. You overcome challenges to keep getting better at the game.

 

[SilverEars]

Got bored of Aeterna Noctis. I would say Aeterna Noctis is the most engaging Metroidvania I've ever played. Most challenging metroidvania game, and I got gud, and it wasn't challenging anymore, so I moved onto another 'supposed' challenging game,
La Mulana 2. I hate the controls. Worse controls ever! I think the main thing going for this game is the exploration and puzzles. Also the unforgiving nature of the game considering it's awful controls. It's controls are like the first Castlevania games. Terrible.

It's highly regarded by Metroidvania community. They must have focused a lot on level designs. And I luv well designed level designs with good puzzles. You get a good feel of how Japanese Dark Souls series is, and where it's roots really are. La Mulana has traps, etc.. you find in Dark Souls games. You are in lookout for bonfires in areas as well.

 

[SilverEars]

Celeste might my venture into hard metroidvanias This steam review got me -
"Makes Me want to kill Myself. 10/10" lol. God I luv punishing games. Make me feel alive! When I get an understanding of the difficulty, gets easy is when I move onto something else. No challenge, no engagement.

We currently live in a great times of indie developers with great game platformer game designs.

 

[SilverEars]

so I moved onto another 'supposed' challenging game,
La Mulana 2. It's highly regarded by Metroidvania community.

Yeah, I gave up on this game. Too difficult. It's not difficult in the sense that the combat is difficult, but it's really easy to get lost and go on loops of doing the same thing over and over again for an hour. This is probably the most time wasting game ever. It's easy to get stuck and not be able to figure out how to progress. There are guides out there, but playing with a guide just defeats the purpose of this game. This game is about satisfaction from discovery and overcoming puzzles.

This is why it's so hard. This guy wasted 260 hrs on the game. Nope, I cannot do that on a metroidvania.


And then I played Celeste, but it just wasn't engaging enough to be interesting. It's missing something to be engaging.

I'm currently playing Blossom Tales which is a 'Zelda: A Link to the Past' clone and I really like it. This game belongs in the jrpg thread although it's not made in Japan.

 

[SilverEars]

This is so funny. The La Mulana guide says players learn this game as they die over and over, and many people give up. lol

 

[SilverEars]

This is so funny. The La Mulana guide says players learn this game as they die over and over, and many people give up. lol

A thought occurred to me how much of a metroidvania Dark Souls is. How Japanese the game is. It's very old school japanese gaming convention to make the game challenging enough that you die over and over again to chip away in how to actually get through the challenge. Dark Souls is a very Japanese game in this respect. It's obtuse secrets are old school as well. Zelda: A Link to the Past was more obtuse because required abilities were obtuse to aquire.

Anyway, something not so ruthless (on first playthrough as Dark Souls becomes a cinch after a playthrough) that I've played recently, and is generally considered a 3D metroidvania done like nothing else out there is Supraland. Suprland is an amazing game. People say it's mixture of Portal, Zelda, and Metroid, but I think it's it's own unique genre. Although I haven't dabbled into Portal much, Zelda's exploration and Metroidvanias are what I think of what gaming should be.

This game feels more like 3D mario, but much better. This is the game I feel that Zelda and Mario should be. This game is more about solving puzzles, and puzzles are brilliently designed! Puzzles are cleverly designed that it's not obtuse and gimmicky like Nintendo's games (I think traditionally due to them coming with guides). By not obtuse, I do not mean easy either. It's the kind of puzzles you will likely eventually figure out over time, and only way of not figuring them out is not exploring enough.

Latest 3D Zelda games hasn't aged well, and it's refreshing to see indie devs being so creative with ideas. I feel that you can find indie games that surpasses Nintendo's quality these days. A lot of the new games with great ideas like these makes Nintendo's games look dated, and out of ideas.

This game is rated 85, and 8.7 in Metacritic. It really deserves it's praise, and I see why the reviews are overwhelmingly positive on Steam! If you are luver of puzzle games, this should be a fun game for you.



To me, this game's puzzles feels like 'Incredible Machine' which was an excellent puzzle game.

 

[SilverEars]

 

[SilverEars]

I'm playing Ghost Song at the moment, and I enjoy it. Although it's no Hollow Knight when it comes to level design and boss fights, I like the art design and atmosphere of the game. Also, bosses arn't too difficult. Hollow Knight bosses just feels like a chore, dying over and over again to just learn how to beat them.

The only real issue I have with the game is that it's kinda short, 10 hrs. Other than that, I actually enjoy it. I know there are a lot of negtive stuff about not enough check points, and hp penalty when dying, but it's not so bad because the game isn't that hard. Also, I see complaints about run to bosses, and it's not bad, less than 1min at most so far for me. Those people complaining haven't played the worst runs in Soulsborne games. lol