• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Supposedly Hollow Knight is best metroidvania game. BUT give me some runner ups, before I play the best of the best.

kiphalfton

kiphalfton

Member
It has been said Hollow Knight is the best metroidvania game, hands down.

Instead of playing it first though, give me some other top-tier metrodivania games. I've only played Ori and the Blind Forest, so it's pretty much all new to me.

I would just play Hollow Knight, but I don't want to play the best metroidvania game out there and then go backwards in quality from there. That's no fun.
 
Golgo 13

Golgo 13

The Man With The Golden Dong
Steamworld Dig 1 and 2 are both great. Guacamelee 1 and 2 as well. If you have some older platforms or have access to an emulator, the GBA Metroid games are really good - Metroid Fusion and Metroid Zero Mission. The DS Castlevania, which is called Dawn Of Sorrow is one of the very best as well.
 
RetroAV

RetroAV

Member
capsule_616x353.jpg
 
P

Pidull

Member
Guacamelee games are fantastic, I highly recommend them in terms of modern Metroidvania.

WayForward has developed quite a few solid, but not excellent, Metroidvanias. Their Shantae games are good enough and The Mummy Demastered is a solid Metroidvania that's also on the shorter side (less than 5 hours).

Axiom Verge is a game developed by a single man and is really good in a lot of ways, it leans towards being harder than other Metroidvania games from what I recall.

The Messenger is another recent one, but it's very linear for the first half of the game and not very strong in terms of backtracking. Even so, it's only behind Guacamelee for me in terms of what I have suggested due to it's tight gameplay and stellar writing.

You could also return to source material, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is available on a lot of consoles, Super Metroid available on Switch if you have an online subscription.


Edit: forgot Bloodstained! This one was a slow burn for me, I didn't have very good impressions in my first couple hours playing, but eventually I was hooked on it and couldn't put it down, collecting every achievement before I was done with it.
 
Last edited:
.Pennywise

.Pennywise

Banned
Hollow Knight is blown out by pure hyperbole. Game's great, but far from being the best Metroidvania. Being one of the core mechanics of a Metroidvania game the map and its traversal, HK has one of the worsts traversal, map, and awful backtracking that becomes more and more tiresome as the game advances, which should be the other way around.

More subjectively, its non-story ala Dark Souls makes nothing for me.
 
SF Kosmo

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
Hollow Knight is super overrated. I found it dead boring to be honest.

In recent memory my favorite is probably Monster Boy in the Cursed Kingdom, which really leans hard into clever level design and puzzles to exploit the new abilities more than any other game in the genre that I've played. Bloodstained, the last Shantae, Owlboy, and (if you want to play loose with it) Control were all stand outs as well.

Going for all time, Wonder Boy 3, Castlevania SOTN, and Cave Story all rate.
 
Last edited:
Moonjt9

Moonjt9

Member
Play Super Metroid, it’s arguably still the best metroidvania.

For modern games, I would very highly recommend Axiom Verge and Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. Both are excellent modern takes on each style of metroidvania, the Metroid and the Castlevania.

They are all really good so don’t hesitate playing Hollow Knight. It’s the best, but the top tier are all really amazing games.
 
Dthomp

Dthomp

Member
SOTN is GOAT, Guacamelee games are close behind it.

Time to raise the flame shield up:

Hollow Knight was barely an average game for me. Too much backtracking, too much trying to be a knock off Souls game for it to be even good. I wish people would stop using Metroidvania to describe HK, because it lessens the worth of being a Metroidvania by being in the discussion. Trash game.
 
J

JeremyEtcetera

Unconfirmed Member
Some would argue A Link to the Past is a Metroidvania with dungeons.
 
S

SoulChamber

Member
  • Both Ori games
  • Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom
  • Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
  • Super Metroid
  • Guacamelee 1 and 2
There are a lot of good metroidvania games, to be honest.
 
Last edited:
skit_data

skit_data

Member
GHG said:
Salt and Sanctuary
Click to expand...
I really want to love this game, but the artstyle of the main character clashes with everything else IMO. I usually don’t care that much but it sticks out like a sore thumb, enough to irritate me. Also not having remappable controls on PS4 makes dodging feel very unnatural. I want to love it though, as it is a mix of many things i like.
 
Last edited:
SpiceRacz

SpiceRacz

Member
I think if you go into most of the modern metroidvanias expecting greatness, you'll be disappointed. Especially when held up to Symphony or Super Metroid. I found OwlBoy, Iconoclasts, Guacamelee, Timespinner, and most of the others to be mediocre. The real standouts from the past decade are Axiom Verge, Hollow Knight, and Bloodstained.
 
Northeastmonk

Northeastmonk

Gold Member
I didn’t get into Hollow Knight either. The backtracking and the map were not good IMO. I prefer Aria of Sorrow, Dawn of Sorrow, Circle of the Moon, Portrait of Ruin, SOTN, Bloodstained, and etc. I wouldn’t call Hollow Knight the best or even in the top 10. Granted, I understand why some people like it. I played The Messenger far more than I did HK. Same with Axion Verge. AV felt like a very watered down Super Metroid. I think what Hollow Knight does good at is having a very artistic world, decent combat, and good bosses. I find the way they tied it all together was bad. That type of game felt like it could have been better. It almost had that rogue-like world structure to it in the way it felt, looked. Castlevania on the GBA and DS could be brutal at times if you got lost, but there was always something on the map to go figure out. So no, I would not say Hollow Knight is the top of its class. It’s shortcomings make it too different for its own good.

After a while, I’ll just go back to an older style game. If the new game attempts to capture something that I know far too well and it fails. I would much rather have that old feeling than something that is just frustrating.
 
luffie

luffie

Member
Don't listen to all the Hollow Knight haters, it's just not their game. One may not like HK, but one cannot deny that the game was very very well crafted. The controls are fantastic, after you play HK, playing most 2d scroller feels like controlling a puppet on string.

I am not a metroidvania fan, nor a 2d scroller fan, but trying out Hollow Knight made me understand why there's so much praise to it. It's not perfect, the backtracking is tiresome, but boy I'm lying if I'm not hyped to the roof for Silksong

Ori 1&2 are also great, as well as most metroid games. Haven't tried Bloodstained, and please avoid Narita Boy at all cost.
 
Spukc

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
Hollow knight was as fun as sticking a crayon up your nose.

overated colorless flash game.
if that would be my first metroidvania game.
I would have never played another.

anyway here is the good list

Super metroid
Metroid fusion
Metroid zero mission
AM2R

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Castlevania: Circle of the Moon
Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow
Castlevania: Portrait of ruin

Bloodstained
Timespinner
Chasm
Gato Roboto
Axiom Verge
Steamworld dig 2
Ori and the blind forest
Ori and the will of the wisp
Blasphemous
The mummy demastered
 
Last edited:
namekuseijin

namekuseijin

Banned
Hollow Knight is more Dark Souls than Metroidvania - though of course Dark Souls is a Metroidvania.

I loved Sundered, best spiritual sequel to Super Metroid ever.
 
Holammer

Holammer

Member
Everyone already suggested the obvious and me being the insufferable snob that I am, had to dig deep and came up with hipster alternatives.

The 95% user score is deserved with strange atmosphere and world building.
Available on PS4, Xbox & Switch (often sold with deep discounts).
Highly flawed metroidvania inspired by MSX era platformers. I still love it.
Available on PS4, Xbox, Switch and older systems.
 
KungFucius

KungFucius

King Snowflake
SoulTas said:
Hollow Knight is the best Metroidvania? When did that happen?
Click to expand...
It's bizarre. The game has nothing over the classics and isn't even all that good to look at. It's not a terrible game, but it's nowhere near the best anything.

You need to play the GBA greats. The Metroids and the Castlevanias. Obviously Super Metroid and SoTN before them.

I need to play Bloodstained. I backed it on Kickstarter and seem to never play games I back.
 
Last edited:
Spukc

Spukc

always chasing the next thrill
Most people in this thread shit on Hollow knight.
Must be some wank opinion from influencers that rightfully so gets ground pounded on gaf. I can't for the life of me understand what was good about that game.
 
Last edited:
S

scydrex

Member
I played Hollow Knight. In the beginning it was fun and i liked it but then i stopped playing. Didn't know where to go next or constantly not knowing what to do now. The platforming get worse the more you advance. Hated some of the enemies design.
 
Last edited:
DGrayson

DGrayson

Mod Team and Bat Team
Staff Member
Hollow Knight is one of the best indie Metroidvanias.

For those hating on it yes the map was the worst part, too confusing, but besides that the game, lore, combat are all top notch.

For the best Metroidvanias of all time I would start with Super Metroid, then play SOTN.

After that you can branch out. All of the Castlevanias on GBA/DS are great.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

[RTTP] Hollow Knight | In the wait of Silksong
RTTP 2
58
3K
GymWolf replied
Haiku the Robot is a solid "metroidvania"
0
553
reektann replied
  • Poll
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown | Review Thread
Analysis Review 2 3
112
7K
Ogbert replied
The changes introduced with Season 2 of Diablo 4 are pretty fun but man, that battle pass shit just makes me want to find something else to play
2
73
4K
MMaRsu replied
Do you consider Returnal as Sony's best first party game released so far on the PS5?
Opinion 2 3 4
165
7K
Hohenheim replied
Top Bottom