Topic: Are other people as sick of "Metroidvanias" as I am?

[Dongled]

Despite Simon's Quest being my favorite Castlevania, I much prefer the "Classicvania" style with laid out linear progression. I tend to notice that the SOTN "Metroidvania (Absolutely loathe that term) is the preferred style of gameplay for the majority of fans. With that said, are we sick and tired of the plethora of newer ripoff Castlevania games that just focus on making the gothic non-linear style action games akin to SotN?

The reason I ask is, there was a recent classicvania release called Lords of Exile which seems to scratch the itch I have for the more linear progression style in Castlevania titles. There's a few games like this that have been released or are coming soon that harken back to the more straightforward gameplay.

I'm curious on everyone's thoughts.

[VladOfWallachia]

I can relate, but I've been burnt out on the formula for much longer. I did not play SotN when it first launched, but I did get all six of the portable Metroid style GBA and DS games on launch... but to be honest, by the time I made it to Dawn of Sorrow, I had already played the previous 4 games of that style so many times... that combined with the fact that Dawn reuses a lot from Aria, it was the first game in the Metroid style lineup that I never finished due to formula fatigue.

I did end up finishing Portrait of Ruin, but I also never finished OoE, I just felt too over the formula, even if OoE did try a lot of new things.

I needed a really long break from the formula, and the time between OoE and Bloodstained was enough, because I enjoyed my playthrough of Bloodstained when it first launched.

All that being said, I think the fatigue comes more from having so many of those games come out back to back in those days, I don't think there is anything inherently wrong with the formula. And its also easy to understand why someone would prefer the Classicvanias, as what they offer is completely different than the Metroid style ones.

I've got a whole lot to say about Classicvanias, in the form of our game releasing at the end of the month.

[Aceearly1993]

The problem is, at that time, the frequency konami pulls out the GBA and DS vania games being a bit, if not too steady. Reminds me something similar to a phenomenon what would be better described as "Mega Man syndrome" on Mega Man's side. With the steady frequency it's common to see people fed up with the overuse of one game design formula, even though I myself did not carry the fed-up problems.

That said, if Portrait and Ecclessia could use 128M of cartridge size instead of stuck with 64M of cartridge, we really could've seen much better result than what we eventually got.

[EstebanT]

Classicvanias have always been superior.

The Curse of the Moon games proved that

[crisis]

I’ve recently played this Switch game called After Image, very VERY SotN inspired and very long/difficult. I still enjoy metroidvanias but in limited amounts. Ori & the Will of the Wisps is a beautiful game but I had to take a break, and it’s been a few months now since it does get kind of repetitive after a while. It’s a shame we’ve never gotten a fusion between the 2 gameplay styles in a Castlevania game; like the journey to the castle could be linear classic style, then once you reach the castle it turns into a metroidvania.

[Bloodreign]

Been long tired of the Metroidvania style of CV games, I still go back to the linear stage for stage CV's if I get the rare itch to do so. I don't particularly like backtracking in games (a reason why I never played much Blaster Master for NES, played through Super Metroid and the GBA Metroids without much issue, but have not gone back to any games in the series since), it's also a reason I didn't fall in love with RPG's until much later in my gaming life, I grew up on games where you had to keep going forward, even if the early games I played were simplistic as hell, but you kept moving forward even in those, trying to get the high score.

[Belmontoya]

Naturally, when you have a series that hasn't had a serious console release in a decade, you are going to have many different smaller developers who loved the game and want to make a game to scratch the itch for themselves, as well as for other fans. Some express this hunger through fan games and others through original stories.

Metroidvania is a very broad term, and yet a crucial term/hashtag for any smaller developer trying to get their game seen, be it a fan game or original. There is a wide variety of open world action games that prioritize and blend elements in different ways and it would be a mistake to assume that all of these games simply aim to mimic symphony of the night.

Although they are fan games, the very purpose of The Lecarde Chronicles games was to blend classicvania challenge and gameplay style with open world elements because we love every style of castlevania game.

That being said, there really is no shortage of any genre of game these days especially when fan games are considered.

[LuxKiller65]

Yes, I also prefer linear. Going back 10 times through the same area just because there's a chest or a something gets really old. But that's how a lot of games have been for a long time. And that's one more thing CV64 does right

[PFG9000]

I played the original Castlevania when it was new, and I've been a fan ever since.  I love the Classicvanias and the, erm, Castleroids, and I can't really say which I like better when they're so different, and they have so many highlights.  There are days when I want to play the old Vanias, and there are days when I want a good Castleroid romp.  I've played all of them multiple times, even Legends and Vampire Killer MSX (still haven't beaten that one though).

Castlevania Rebirth was a dream come true, as we hadn't had a new classic CV in years at that point, and most of us assumed we'd never get another one.

[crisis]

And now Castlevania ReBirth is inaccessible, since it was a WiiWare exclusive & hasn’t been ported to anything else since. Not even included in any CV collections, nothing. I don’t understand why.

[LuxKiller65]

I'm no expert but I'm guessing they can't slap ReBirth in a ROM with an emulator and release it twenty five million times on two hundred and fifty collections on eighty five different consoles over the next thirty years, like they can with all the other older games, where they go to freeroms.com and make you pay for it coz there's a Konami logo on the box.

I think they would re-release it if the porting costs were below 5 dollars, but it's probably a bit more work, which is why they don't. Just my guess.

[Kamirine]

I’m pretty neutral when it comes to which I prefer, though lately I’ve absolutely been burned out on Metroidvanias—or rather, the ones that keep incorporating elements of the souls games.  Stuff like Bloodstained, Infernax, Team Ladybug games and the upcoming Adventures of Simon Quest are fine but otherwise, I’m pretty over them.

I’m super happy so many classicvania titles have been and are emerging lately.  I just wish they’d port Remake to new consoles or something.  It sucks to have to break out the Wii from storage every time I get a wild hair up my ass to play it.

[VladOfWallachia]

It definitely sucks that Rebirth is locked onto the Wii... I still have my Wii with Adventure Rebirth on it, but that hardware was outdated on launch, was made to work with tube tvs that nobody has anymore, and I remember the lag being pretty bad when trying to play it on a more modern tv. Even though I have a copy of this game in my closet, its too much of a hassle to play now. I hope it gets ported to something more modern eventually.

[crisis]

Well the obvious answer is the Switch. It would run perfect on it & I can’t imagine it being that difficult to port it.

What WOULD be difficult however, are the DS trilogy. Only because they depend so much on the DS’s control scheme & dual screems, it would take considerable effort to make it work somehow.

[JR]

Despite Simon's Quest being my favorite Castlevania, I much prefer the "Classicvania" style with laid out linear progression. I tend to notice that the SOTN "Metroidvania (Absolutely loathe that term) is the preferred style of gameplay for the majority of fans. With that said, are we sick and tired of the plethora of newer ripoff Castlevania games that just focus on making the gothic non-linear style action games akin to SotN?

The reason I ask is, there was a recent classicvania release called Lords of Exile which seems to scratch the itch I have for the more linear progression style in Castlevania titles. There's a few games like this that have been released or are coming soon that harken back to the more straightforward gameplay.

I'm curious on everyone's thoughts.

Yeah, kind of. I'm not tired of the Metroidvania formula per se, but I'd love to see a more classic game that's not a remake or reimagining or whatever. I like that Curse of the Moon tried to bring the CVIII feeling back, but I wish Konami would do that.