Metroidvania: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

Your typical Metroidvania game is typically portrayed as a single large area or a set of large areas, broken up into many different rooms, corridors, and open spaces, with [[Respawning Enemies]] in most areas. As the player progresses through these areas and finds [[Video Game Tools]] (actions, abilities, inventory items), the ability of the player to navigate more obstacles in the play environment increases, allowing the player to explore a greater amount of the game, and in doing so progress through the game. This makes [[Back Tracking]] occasionally necessary, often made easier by opening [[Door to Before|Doors To Before]]. There are usually many secrets hidden around the game, some far more difficult to obtain than any item required to proceed.

* [[Sequence Breaking]] capabilities, even if not official.

* Highly interconnected areas.

* A focus on exploring one's environment.

 

Games in this genre tend to be a four (or three) on the [[Sliding Scale of Linearity vs. Openness]]. Competing terms include "Castletroid", "Castleroid", "Metrovania" and "non-linear action adventure platformer", with or without capitalization.

 

 

* All of the ''[[Metroid]]'' games and most of the recent (post-2001) ''[[Castlevania]]'' games, of course. Some people don't consider the [[Metroid Prime|3-D]] ''[[Metroid: Other M|Metroid]]'' titles to count, but even those games play out as if they were Metroidvania games with a first-person perspective. The main difference here is the environments are arranged in 3 dimensions rather than 2. ''[[Symphony of the Night]]'' isn't the first time that the ''[[Castlevania]]'' series experimented with the genre; ''Vampire Killer'' and ''[[Castlevania II]]: Simon's Quest'' shared many of the same gameplay elements, though the latter didn't have the closed complex setting typical of the genre (and the former had no [[RPG Elements]].)

* ''[[Dark Souls]]'' though not quite a true example, shares a lot of similarities with the Metroidvania genre, particularly with its world design. It is also a rare 3D, Third Person example.

* ''[[Pitfall]] II: Lost Caverns'' was probably the [[Ur Example]]. ''Super [[Pitfall]]'' as well, of course, and ''Pitfall: The Lost Expedition/The Big Adventure'' as well.

** Another likely candidate is Montezuma's Revenge, also released in 1984 on the [[Atari 2600]]; though the game world is a bit small, the gameplay is familiar.

* ''[[An Untitled Story]]''

* ''Albero and the Great Blue Emblem''

* Someone over at Griptonite Games seems to like Metroidvania, as it shows up in several of their games (some of which are better than others):

** ''[[The Legend of Spyro Trilogy|The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night]]'' (GBA)

* ''[[Aliens Infestation]]''. Quite fitting, considering the influence ''[[Alien (franchise)|Alien]]'' had on the original ''Metroid''.

* ''[[The Iconoclasts]]'' by Joachim "[[Konjak]]" Sandberg

* The first ''[[Red Faction]]'' is more linear than most examples, but allows you to backtrack to previous levels, which is sometimes required.

* [[Treasure Adventure Game]], a freeware pirate-themed game based around collecting treasures.

* The SNES game of ''[[The Addams Family]]'' is this, as well as having a quasi-[[Hub Level]] in the form of the entrance hall.

* ''[[BioShock (series)]]'' may qualify as a 3D example. RPG elements? Check. Backtracking and doors to before? Check. Obstacles requiring plasmid upgrades to pass? Check. Interconnected (albeit linear) areas? Check. Quick travel via bathysphere? Check.

* ''[[A Valley Without Wind]]'' has large elements of this, with the added bonus of being procedurally-generated at random.

 

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