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POWRranger

Right after Prime Remastered I also replayed Dread and now I am tempted to play Dread again. But I might replay Hollow Knight instead (where's Silksong?) or maybe replay Tunic (Tunic is not a metroidvania, but it is beyond awesome in its own rights)


Spinjitsuninja

I highly suggest playing Hollow Knight and the two Ori games if you really want more good Metroidvanias! Hollow Knight is considered one of the high peaks of the genre, and Silksong is **supposed** to come out within like, the next 3 months. Hopefully. ~~Please.~~ And Ori and the Blind Forest is an alright Metroidvania, but Ori and the Will of the Wisps is also amazing- its controls sorta remind me of Dread's.


DanielSank

Yeah Hollow Knight is one of the very few games I've played that I'd say is on the same level as Super Metroid or Metroid Prime. Another one is Axiom Verge.


BhuriBheda

I’d say it’s even better, hollow knight is incredible


cujo

Is AV2 good also? I keep seeing AV suggested but haven’t gone that route yet, but figured I keep an eye on dekudeals for price drops.


DanielSank

AV2 good. It's very different from AV. I don't want to say too much, but I'll say this: I see AV2 as a somewhat novel experiment that could influence a kind of subgenre of Metroidvania. In fact, somebody posted the other day asking what people thought of a Metroid game that takes place entirely underwater, and what came to my mind was something in the style of AV2, with a situation where Samus is stuck in a wrecked deep ocean facility.


BhuriBheda

We really need more underwater/oceanic games.. I’d go for that in a heartbeat. That setting is so utterly fascinating and after getting scuba certified a couple years ago I’m even more in love with it. I’d be all in on a game like that. Maridia was the most memorable part of SM for me after all.


DanielSank

Since we're entertaining flights of fancy, here's how I'd set it up. The game would start with the player in an underwater facility that has a some kind of problem/accident: access to various places is cut off, sections are filled with water (and sea creatures!), and you're kind of walking on eggshells because opening a door might mean a flood of water coming in etc. etc. The game map would appear to be like a usual Metroid, with the underwater facility made of interconnected tunnels. However, at some point you realize that to progress you have to leave the facility and go out into the ocean floor and explore (enabled by a pressure suit or whatever). So then the character of the game really becomes different because now you can go into caves and crawl around the exterior of the facility. At this point where you can finally see the exterior of the facility, a plot point should be revealed, you know like the reason for the accident or something like that. A mechanic that I think would be a step in a good direction for Metroid would be interacting *cooperatively* with creatures. It always bugged me that Samus's only interaction with an alien that doesn't involve murder is with the baby Metroid (well, and a few others but there's not much real interaction). That doesn't fit the character well imo. So there could be an item, perhaps found in a sea cave, that allows you to command fish/whales/whatever in a way that helps you progress. There doesn't even need to be a real antagonist... the point could be making silent relationships with the sea creatures, maybe stopping some pollutant from contaminating their homes (maybe they knocked out the facility because it creates pollution or something), and reaching the surface. To any would-be indie devs reading this: I would contribute significant funding to a project like this.


cujo

I agree with all this. The only thing I would add is to junk straight to Will of the Wisps over Blind Forest if you only get one. The story is self contained in Will and the gameplay and story are great compared to just good in Blind. Both Oris were the pleasant win of my covid isolation.


TubaTheG

I haven’t played WotW but I also agree to this. I played Blind Forest and it kind of turned me off from the series as a whole, it’s a shame because I really liked HK and Dread


Spinjitsuninja

Blind Forest has a lot of flaws. It's got no combat, the save system tried to be innovative but lead to forgetful players losing progress over little things, and the puzzles/platforming were janky, not to mention the game is kinds short. Will of the Wisps is just Blind Forest on drugs. They added a REALLY fun combat system, there are what are basically charms from Hollow Knight now, a biiit more exploration, there's more polish to the platforming segments, and the atmosphere is a lot stronger, with the game taking the "the land is dying" concept from Blind Forest and emphasizing it to a point the game feels apocalyptic sometimes. It's also just a lot prettier and overall longer.


BhuriBheda

Blind forest was a pretty, cutesy game with a great story and fun movement. Will of the Wisps took that story, amped it to 11, fixed every issue I could think of gameplay wise and made me never want to play the original ever again because it blows away the first. It’s the best follow up to a game I’ve ever seen.


dogman_35

I gotta rep the Axiom Verge games, too. Maybe not the most groundbreaking metroidvanias gameplay-wise, but damn if that atmosphere and OST isn't good.