Topic: Favorite Metroidvania

[Gunlord]

Dawn of Sorrow, for me. The animu artwork sucks, but the game itself and its music as great IMO. So many good memories...

[Sumac]

It's a tie between COTM and OOE.
But I vote for COTM after all, because of the old school flavour and really difficult bosses.

[Alutwon]

I'm really surprised how much love CotM and HoD are getting, especially HoD. They deserve it tho 

[X]

I also forgot to mention that CotM was and is the only CV Metroidvania out there to support a lot of replay value in terms of the different modes of play; Fighter, Magician, Thief, etc. It's like something out of D&D

-X

[Maedhros]

I found CoTM extras to be very boring at all, I've finished the games several times, but never finished the extra modes. =/

[Dark Nemesis]

CoTM extras, gives you the opportunity, to play the game from a different view, making it more easy to complete the game or the arena, except from the magiacian mode, which i find it very weak!!! Fighter mode is the best by far for me!!!

[JBoc973]

Circle of the Moon holds a special place in my heart. It's the game that actually got me hooked on this series. Everything about it is just awesome. Dawn of Sorrow comes close, though. Especially with its Julius mode which kinda channeled Castlevania III with Julius and his allies. But really, each 'metroid-vania' has been superb.

[K.G. Morder]

Thats another thing I dislike about Dawn of Sorrow.

Julius.

Let my clarify: I like Julius mode itself, but Julius is so watered down compared to how awesome he was in Aria. ESPECIALLY his Grand Cross. in Aria it was fuckoff big and had a vacuum effect that sucked enemies in.

In Dawn, it is average looking, has a watery transparency effect, and just doesnt sound or feel anywhere as awesome. :\

Julius' Moon jump was taken away in favor of giving it to Alucard, and gone is Omni Varitas.

Granted, Aria Julius was broken, but still...

[Munchy]

It's a tie between COTM and OOE.
But I vote for COTM after all, because of the old school flavour and really difficult bosses.

I'd agree with this. Though all the games have their own things that I like about them.

[Lisa Fahrenheit]

Circle of the Moon holds a special place in my heart. It's the game that actually got me hooked on this series. Everything about it is just awesome. Dawn of Sorrow comes close, though. Especially with its Julius mode which kinda channeled Castlevania III with Julius and his allies. But really, each 'metroid-vania' has been superb.

I feel this way about Harmony of Dissonance <3 It was the one that got me hooked. Aria of Sorrow was my pick, though -- I have so many good memories attached to the game and it's music. Every time I hear Ruined Castle Corridor, I get all happy.

Circle of the Moon was one game that I just could not get into. :/ no idea why, it just never clicked with me. More for you guys, though!

Although I did like Portrait and Dawn a lot too. I loved being able to play as Alucard in the latter.

*still needs to finish Ecclesia, but it has irritated her too much for now >>*

[Odile Kuronuma]

It's a tie between Aria and OOE. I finally choose Aria because of the story, and because you play as Dracula.I always wanted to play as the main villain

[Grim_Creeper]

The term metroidvania is new to me.

What exactly does that mean?

[crisis]

"metroidvania" is a term coined by the community to differentiate between the SotN-style games & the classic, stage-based games.

the metroid part comes from the fact that Symphony borrowed several aspects of its gameplay from Super Metroid (map, exploration, etc.)

[Grim_Creeper]

If I understand you rightly the term is used to differentiate the games in which there is a single, linear path of level advancement over time, and the games in which you can go to any 'level' you want to, and do them in whatever order your good enough to do them in, provided you have some basic items, (in SoTN's case, the cube of zoe, jewel of opening, and others).

Wouldn't Simon's Quest be a metroidvania? You are technically able to run around and do the levels in any order you want.

[crisis]

there has been some debate whether SQ could be considered a "Metroidvania," but I guess you can classify it somewhere in the middle. However it leans more towards the "classicvania" side, considering the nature of it's development at the time.