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Supposedly Hollow Knight is best metroidvania game. BUT give me some runner ups, before I play the best of the best.
- Thread starter kiphalfton
- Start date
- Opinion
kurisu_1974
is on perm warning for being a low level troll
The best Metroidvania is Symphony of the Night.
I also really liked Bloodstained. The Ori games are nice too.
Another one I really enjoyed was The Mummy Demastered.
Disclaimer: never played Hollow Knight (don't like the look) or most of those other indie games.
I also really liked Bloodstained. The Ori games are nice too.
Another one I really enjoyed was The Mummy Demastered.
Disclaimer: never played Hollow Knight (don't like the look) or most of those other indie games.
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Portugeezer
Member
Blasphemous was pretty good.
GHG
Member
nightmare-slain
Member
i didn't even like Ori but that is the better game. Hollow Knight is severely overrated.
Touch fuzZy. get BizZay
Member
I really enjoyed Hollow Knight when I played it recently.
It's an excellent Metroidvania game to be sure, but I didn't regard it quite as highly as its reputation calls for.
It's very good, with an emphasis on creating a beautifully sad, tragically dark world for its story, and on incorporating Soulsy elements like a single currency that you drop at the place where you die and highly challenging boss fights. But despite Dark Souls basically being my favourite series these things didn't make Hollow Knight my favourite Metroidvania. If you want high challenge and a deep, sorrowful tale it might become your favourite though. It certainly was hard, at least for me - it took me more tries to beat the final secret boss of Hollow Knight than the final boss of Sekiro, for example. But I just didn't dig it that much.
For one thing, I would often beat a boss or uncover a hidden path and get excited about what new power-up I was about to be rewarded with, and then instead I would get like... lore. Or money. But in this game there aren't enough things to spend money on so you're stuck carting it around paranoid about losing it by dying even though it's useless. At least that's how it is for the 2nd half of the game. And I know wandering around lost is part of the Metroidvania experience, and then you get a thrill when you figure out some new way to open up exploration paths... but I think there was just a bit too much time spent being lost in this game, which made uncovering those secrets that were just lore or worthless money instead of new powers extra frustrating.
As for recommends, my all time favourite is Wonderboy 3, which was recently remade with gorgeous graphics by the same people behind Streets of Rage 4. Monsterboy and the Cursed Kingdom is a title mimicking it that is also very good. I also personally love Aria of Sorrow and Order of Ecclesia. And if we're allowed to count 3D Metroidvanias, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Metroid Prime 1 and 2 are awesome.
And of course you can't go wrong with the famous classics like Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night from whence the genre takes its name, although I'd like to point out that Wonderboy 3 is both better than and predates these 2 titles.
It's an excellent Metroidvania game to be sure, but I didn't regard it quite as highly as its reputation calls for.
It's very good, with an emphasis on creating a beautifully sad, tragically dark world for its story, and on incorporating Soulsy elements like a single currency that you drop at the place where you die and highly challenging boss fights. But despite Dark Souls basically being my favourite series these things didn't make Hollow Knight my favourite Metroidvania. If you want high challenge and a deep, sorrowful tale it might become your favourite though. It certainly was hard, at least for me - it took me more tries to beat the final secret boss of Hollow Knight than the final boss of Sekiro, for example. But I just didn't dig it that much.
For one thing, I would often beat a boss or uncover a hidden path and get excited about what new power-up I was about to be rewarded with, and then instead I would get like... lore. Or money. But in this game there aren't enough things to spend money on so you're stuck carting it around paranoid about losing it by dying even though it's useless. At least that's how it is for the 2nd half of the game. And I know wandering around lost is part of the Metroidvania experience, and then you get a thrill when you figure out some new way to open up exploration paths... but I think there was just a bit too much time spent being lost in this game, which made uncovering those secrets that were just lore or worthless money instead of new powers extra frustrating.
As for recommends, my all time favourite is Wonderboy 3, which was recently remade with gorgeous graphics by the same people behind Streets of Rage 4. Monsterboy and the Cursed Kingdom is a title mimicking it that is also very good. I also personally love Aria of Sorrow and Order of Ecclesia. And if we're allowed to count 3D Metroidvanias, Batman: Arkham Asylum and Metroid Prime 1 and 2 are awesome.
And of course you can't go wrong with the famous classics like Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night from whence the genre takes its name, although I'd like to point out that Wonderboy 3 is both better than and predates these 2 titles.
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SEGAvangelist
Gold Member
Both Ori games do it better than any but the classics that founded the genre. Save those for last.
nightmare-slain
Member
lol same. it's such a fun game and a really good "souls scroller" but the faces annoyed and pissed me off. wtf were they thinking?
Shadowstar39
Member
Wasn't fan of hollow knight, don't know where the hype comes from.
I like metroidvania with lots of weapons, armors and items, SOTN style. I wasn't really getting that from hollow knight. Maybe it gets there, but i put it down after a few hours.
Salt and Sanctuary - amazing game - dark souls meets SOTN.
Bloodstained - great game.
Dead Cells - tons of variety, smoothness, lots of builds and enemies, and powers that are needed to open passages. Yeah it is also a rougelite but its a metroidvania too.
Awesome game.
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Shadowstar39
Member
They add character. You guys really stopped playing a game due to faces? (faces which at least express some emotion and variety, plus they are small, put on a helmet).lol same. it's such a fun game and a really good "souls scroller" but the faces annoyed and pissed me off. wtf were they thinking?
Salt and Sanctuary was way underrated and was my top metroidvania since the castlevania games.
Shadowstar39
Member
Another underrated game. Very good, game that most people probably never played. Like salt and sanctuary it had little attention. Glad i found it.
Chasm is another, although it had problems with how it did set precedural level design, it made it a bit boring after a while, but was another little know metroidvania.
SuperGooey
Member
I didn't enjoy Hollow Knight. It takes way too much for the game to dish out meaningful powerups, the map is too big for its own good, and most of it looks the exact same making exploring pretty boring. It's a game I just "don't get"m I suppose.
I highly recommend playing something like Blasphemous which evolves the Metroidvania formula, making something that is new and fresh. Or if you are looking for a 2D Metroid game that is likely better than what Nintendo is even capable of now, play Axiom Verge. I can't recommend these two games more.
I highly recommend playing something like Blasphemous which evolves the Metroidvania formula, making something that is new and fresh. Or if you are looking for a 2D Metroid game that is likely better than what Nintendo is even capable of now, play Axiom Verge. I can't recommend these two games more.
nightmare-slain
Member
please show me where i said that i stopped because of the faces?
while you're at it you might as well show me where
skit_data
also said this?
GHG
Member
The magic in hollow Knight comes from hunting down charms and discovering charm combinations rather than new "weapons" or "abilities". The main weapon can be upgraded as you progress through the game but once you unlock a few charm slots and start finding them (along with figuring out the various charm synergies) the focus on how you deal damage becomes based around your charm load out.
This thread reads like a lot of people here didn't get to the point in the game where you realise the charms are what you should be focusing on. Certain charm builds are more suited to platforming heavy areas whereas others are more focused around combat scenarios. Picking the correct load out for the right scenario/area is key.
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PeterBazooka
Member
Ive tried to get into Hollow Knight twice and its just not clicking with me. Not a fan of the artsyle either...
Criminally overlooked Metroidvanias:
Criminally overlooked Metroidvanias:
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skit_data
Member
I just think the art style clashes with the rest of the scenery and tone of the game.
I probably would have continued playing if the controls were remappable on PS4. Using R2 as a dodge simply feels strange and too ”spongy”.That was my main gripe with it.
I’ll probably try to finish it at some point though. I’ve only beat the first boss so I’m really not far enough into the game to judge it. I bought it when having Souls-cravings and then decided to clean and fix my PS3 and buy the original Demon’s Souls instead which made S&S pale a bit in comparison.
Edit: I should add that I actually went in to accessibility settings and started swapping button mapping for the whole system for this one game, but it only made it more confusing since I wanted to use circle as a dodge button, instantly making it a chore to even navigate the homescreen and OS. It would have been a lot easier if they added the option in game instead.
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22:22:22
NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
Hollow Knight never clicked for in such a sense I felt driven to complete it.. And I adore the metroidvania genre. Gameplay felt tight enough though (very, very important aspect) If I remember correctly I liked how bare bones and pure it was but maybe that was the same reason I disliked it and became boring instead. Especially aesthetic wise. Reminded me of a flash game.. I prefer the Metroid games, Castlevania (GBA/SotN) ofcourse, Ori, Axiom Verge, Blasphemous, Monster boy and some Shantae titles.
That one 360 game, shadow something.. wasn't it developed by epic? Soldier shoot stuff.. Was pretty cool back in the day.
That one 360 game, shadow something.. wasn't it developed by epic? Soldier shoot stuff.. Was pretty cool back in the day.
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nemiroff
Gold Member
I usually tend to love Metroidvania games but I gave up on Hollow Knight after trying multiple times to enjoy it. The game basically doesn't make much sense to me at all, and above all the map is incredibly barebones boring, thus I struggle finding out why the game lives in some people's minds as "one of the great ones".
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NeoIkaruGAF
Gold Member
Hollow Knight is quite simply unbeatable as bang-for-the-buck. Its price is an absolute steal for the amount of content the game has, and the game itself is arguably a 10/10 all things considered. Yet, it’s the best Metroidvania I feel no hurry to replay. I didn’t enjoy many of its design choices, even if the gameplay is excellent.
My recommendations:
- Both Ori games.
- Super Metroid, of course. And Metroid Prime, because it is the most accomplished 3D Metroidvania ever.
- Castlevania SOTN and the DS trilogy. The GBA trilogy is inferior and you can skip it.
- Monster Boy in the Cursed Kingdom. One of the best of the last few years, beautiful and fun.
- Guacamelee! Both games. More action-oriented, lots of fun.
- Batman: Arkham Asylum.
- Yoku’s Island Express. Very different approach, quite relaxing and cute.
- Cave Story.
- Touhou Luna Nights. Interesting contamination of Metroidvania and bullet hell, short but very sweet.
- The Shantae series from Pirate’s Curse onward. Avoid the first two games.
- The Mummy Demastered. Metroidvania-lite and pretty short, but quite fun in the end.
- Gato Roboto. Baby’s first Metroidvania, but it has a certain charm.
BONUS: you can finish at least a couple of the above in the time it’d take you to get to Hollow Knight’s bad ending. Yes, HK is that fucking long.
Special recommendation: La-Mulana 1 and 2. Possibly the best adventure games ever made, but they contain heavy graphic adventure elements and are a nightmare if you expect a “classic” Metroidvania. Recommended only for people with an iron will. Not your everyday Metroidvania, for sure. And each of the two is easily longer than HK.
Avoid:
- Axiom Verge. Seriously, avoid it.
- Knytt Underground.
- Unepic. Barely a Metroidvania, and it’s balanced so badly.
- Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. It’s completely derivative, and doesn’t get better than its source material a single time throughout the whole game.
- Momodora: Reverie under the Moonlight. Not really bad, but not worth it at this point.
My recommendations:
- Both Ori games.
- Super Metroid, of course. And Metroid Prime, because it is the most accomplished 3D Metroidvania ever.
- Castlevania SOTN and the DS trilogy. The GBA trilogy is inferior and you can skip it.
- Monster Boy in the Cursed Kingdom. One of the best of the last few years, beautiful and fun.
- Guacamelee! Both games. More action-oriented, lots of fun.
- Batman: Arkham Asylum.
- Yoku’s Island Express. Very different approach, quite relaxing and cute.
- Cave Story.
- Touhou Luna Nights. Interesting contamination of Metroidvania and bullet hell, short but very sweet.
- The Shantae series from Pirate’s Curse onward. Avoid the first two games.
- The Mummy Demastered. Metroidvania-lite and pretty short, but quite fun in the end.
- Gato Roboto. Baby’s first Metroidvania, but it has a certain charm.
BONUS: you can finish at least a couple of the above in the time it’d take you to get to Hollow Knight’s bad ending. Yes, HK is that fucking long.
Special recommendation: La-Mulana 1 and 2. Possibly the best adventure games ever made, but they contain heavy graphic adventure elements and are a nightmare if you expect a “classic” Metroidvania. Recommended only for people with an iron will. Not your everyday Metroidvania, for sure. And each of the two is easily longer than HK.
Avoid:
- Axiom Verge. Seriously, avoid it.
- Knytt Underground.
- Unepic. Barely a Metroidvania, and it’s balanced so badly.
- Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night. It’s completely derivative, and doesn’t get better than its source material a single time throughout the whole game.
- Momodora: Reverie under the Moonlight. Not really bad, but not worth it at this point.
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GHG
Member
Yerd
Member
It's probably my favorite genre and most of the games I would recomend have already been listed.
I dont think anyone listed Dead Cells. It's one of the best.
Foregone is a recent one I liked.
Chronicles of Teddy is a sequel to Finding Teddy. I own both but only played the sequel.
Rogue Legacy 1
Rogue Legacy 2 is in early access.
Dark Light another early access.
Carrion is one I only played the demo a while back, recently bought it but have yet to play the full game.
The Messenger is a really good one.
Shovel Knight
Chasm
Dandara
MO: Astray
Vessel is one I got stumped on a boss and never went back. Couldn't figure out how to beat the boss.
I dont think anyone listed Dead Cells. It's one of the best.
Foregone is a recent one I liked.
Chronicles of Teddy is a sequel to Finding Teddy. I own both but only played the sequel.
Rogue Legacy 1
Rogue Legacy 2 is in early access.
Dark Light another early access.
Carrion is one I only played the demo a while back, recently bought it but have yet to play the full game.
The Messenger is a really good one.
Shovel Knight
Chasm
Dandara
MO: Astray
Vessel is one I got stumped on a boss and never went back. Couldn't figure out how to beat the boss.
Javthusiast
Banned
Currently playing The Messenger and having a blast. Didn't expect it to be so funny.
Belmonte
Member
Metroid-like Castlevanias which are not SOTN are ridiculously underrated. Many people dismiss them because they are portable and it didn't have the impact of the PSX game but you really should not skip them.
Aria of Sorrow (GBA) is outstanding, perhaps my favorite Metroidvania in the series, Dawn of Sorrow (DS) is a very good follow up.
For more challenge and tight gameplay see Circle of the Moon (GBA) and the beautiful Order of Ecclesia(DS).
Portrait of Ruin (DS) and Harmony of Dissonance (GBA) are not my favorites but they are damn good games also.
Aria of Sorrow (GBA) is outstanding, perhaps my favorite Metroidvania in the series, Dawn of Sorrow (DS) is a very good follow up.
For more challenge and tight gameplay see Circle of the Moon (GBA) and the beautiful Order of Ecclesia(DS).
Portrait of Ruin (DS) and Harmony of Dissonance (GBA) are not my favorites but they are damn good games also.
SF Kosmo
Al Jazeera Special Reporter
I think people underrate them simply because none of them ever managed to best SotN or step out of it's shadow. But they're mostly quite good. The Sorrow games and OoE probably being the best.
Circle of the Moon I always found a little overrated, but that might be because I accidentally sequence-broke that game really bad and totally fucked up the difficulty curve.
Belmonte
Member
Can't agree with this. SOTN is great and all of that but the other games evolve the formula. More interesting skills and specially, better challenge. SOTN is so easy it is almost trivial.
Astral Dog
Member
Dude, Ori and the Will of the Wisps, best of the best 
LavitzSlambert
Member
I played Symphony of the Night for the first time last year, and it’s still better than any of its successors. I loved Dawn of Sorrow and missed out on Aria, though I will go back to play it some day. I had the same experience with Bloodstained, the controls just felt off and sluggish, and the rest of it was too generic, like a not quite B movie spinoff.
To OP, I’d recommend the following (in order):
Metroid: Zero Mission
Super Metroid
Axiom Verge
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night
Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow
Ori and the Will of the Wisps
SF Kosmo
Al Jazeera Special Reporter
All of them are fairly easy to my memory. Circle was so easy I got legit confused by it and beat one of the later bosses super early.
Belmonte
Member
Comparing to Classicvanias, all of them are very easy but not at SOTN levels. Even discounting OP equipments, SOTN is the easiest Castlevania of all time. Richter must have beaten Dracula too much in the head in Rondo of Blood so the castle wasn't in its best form!
Circle of the Moon and Order of Ecclesia have the best challenge of them all IMO.
Danny Dudekisser
I paid good money for this Dynex!
Monster Boy was such an outrageously good game. One of the very, very few games I actually bothered to 100% and get all the achievements for.
Ge Os
Member
Blasphemous is the best, IMO. Gorgeous pixel art, great challenge, satisfying combat, beautiful soundtrack, insanely interesting and in-depth lore. I think it's on sale right now on Steam, too.
This game is amazing. A bit jank, but amazing.
The music is GODLIKE and the pixel art is top tier. They added so much content since launch (NG+, Extra Areas and Bosses, Bloodstained crossover, Boss Rush, Spanish dub, etc.) and I do believe there's plans for more.
Right now it's 60% off on Steam, you should definitely give it a try.
What are the various opinion on Axiom Verge?
I played it, liked it a lot. Liked the atmosphere. It felt a lot like OG Metroid in some respects. Story was a bit wacky but fun.
But I recommended to to a friend who likes Metroidvania games and he didnt like it. I was surprised.
I see some people here also didnt like it. Can you explain why?
I played it, liked it a lot. Liked the atmosphere. It felt a lot like OG Metroid in some respects. Story was a bit wacky but fun.
But I recommended to to a friend who likes Metroidvania games and he didnt like it. I was surprised.
I see some people here also didnt like it. Can you explain why?
NeoIkaruGAF
Gold Member
The graphics are pretty raw, the world is not interesting, the progression is very badly designed, the difficulty is all over the place. The game is very poor at explaining itself, and the overall map design is simply bad in too many instances. I've started AV three times, never really enjoyed it, and each time I got stuck without a clue where to go next. At one point I had many places where I thought I'd finally progress, only to find a dead end with a half-useless item each time. Since I completed my fair share of Metroidvanias, I think I'm used to find my place around a game's map, but AV had me completely stumped and neither the gameplay nor the story are fun or interesting enough to keep me going.
The accolade for this game is completely incomprehensible to me. It's s a nerdy engineer's idea of a Metroidvania, which is saying something as the genre is nerdy enough as a whole compared to the mainstream genres.
LavitzSlambert
Member
Wow, I strongly disagree and would say Axiom Verge is the best 2D Metroid game (maybe tied with Super Metroid). I had no problems with progression at all, it seemed really intuitive where to go next and how the powers could unblock your way. Difficulty spikes, certain bosses in particular, has always been a weird problem in the genre and the most frustrating ones I’ve experienced have all been Metroid games.
Story was a bad? Seriously, that is just inaccurate. Axiom Verge has more story and lore than all of the 2D Metroid games combined and the mystery is interesting (won’t go into detail because spoilers). That’s not saying much since the style is very minimalistic with a focus on atmosphere.
The only thing that is poorly done is how unbalanced the weapons are. There are 3 or 4 worthwhile weapons in the game and the rest is filler. That said, it’s not much different than upgrading Samus’ beam cannon except you swap between them rather than them stacking.
Spukc
always chasing the next thrill
if i had to scratch off axiom of my worth a play list,
it would be because of the lack of color
Yes this was my main issue. Lots of weapons but I only used a couple. Besdies that I liked the game.
DragoonKain
Neighbours from Hell
I absolutely loved Hollow Knight. I rank it among the top of all the games I listed. It has a little souls in it too, yes, but I loved the music, area designs. And I loved exploring and mastering the bosses. It depends on if you like platforming or not. If you do, Hollow Knight won’t appeal to you as much as others. But I thought the game was so freaking good, it was my favorite game from that year.
GHG
Member
Personally I struggled to get into it due to the art style/graphics.
I don't know how to describe it but's almost too retro. There are plenty of modern "retro style" games that I like the look of but this came off as being too messy for my tastes.
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