Deconstructing the Metroidvania Genre

[@Rotog]

What are your favorite Metroidvanias and why?

[@MK_Dany]

For me, Hollow Knight is one of the best (if not THE best) metroidvania out there. I just love the characters, the world progression, the lore, the abilities, the combat, the insane details put in basically everything... This game will always have a special spot in my heart and I can't wait for the sequel. (anyway, you're criminally underrated and overlooked, dude. Keep up with these awesome videos!)

[@blindnezblon3581]

the messenger, that game mades part of my life and is one of my favorites games ever

[@niemand7811]

Since nobody made a good Metroid-Castlevania mix, I can not tell!

[@wickedspank]

God of War 2018

[@d00mnoodle24]

Ori stands above all in terms of movement, level design, visuals and audio. And the sequel is among the best in combat as well. For story and worldbuilding blasphemous takes the cake. Haiku the robot, grime and FIST are also very good entries

[@timothybogle1461]

Wait a second. You can morph ball under the Torizo to escape damage. This game is 30 years old and can 100% this in my sleep and never knew that.

[@Rotog]

Disclaimer: This video is a re-upload. I took the original down due to unsatisfactory image quality. I apologize for any confusion.

[@CRock-m1q]

Really well spoken and concise definition of the genre with great examples from the two classics

[@kukukachu]

wait, that was it? I didn't look at the how long the video was when I clicked this, but I was surprised when it ended.

[@meriotroid]

great video dude. You deserve way more subs

[@Rotog]

Thanks man, that means a lot!

[@slymbo2382]

Man... You deserve a lot more

[@Rotog]

Hey thanks, I really appreciate that!

[@kemsat-n6h]

I think you’re forgetting lore, world-building, and story; or did I zone out for that bit? Those are very important to metroidvanias (adventure-platformers), they set the vibe of the experience & exploration.

[@Levyathyn]

There is nothing in those three things that are specifically bound to the genre. Arguably, those are an important part of any video game, but they aren't part of what makes a game a Metroidvania. Those are just elements of a story.

[@hessenic6862]

The best genre

[@Virtualnerd101]

Kinda surprised to hear that from a fellow Sonic fan, but fair enough, lol

[@ghostlucian12]

coming from someone who never played metroid, and heard of the word meroidvania just recently, sounds weid to me, I think people who played metroid tries to make a genre out of it, to me it is just action adventure platformer, etc. Also I am not a fan of metroid franchise.

[@Cerylion]

Not really, Metroidvania is a label for games that are very strongly inspired by Metroid and Castlevania Symphony of the Night. Considering that this subgenre has a lot of fans that care about them but not about other types of 2D action platformers, the label very much serves its purpose.

[@niemand7811]

2:12 you describe every action adventure ever since Nintendo made them popular on their NES. Metroid, Legend of Zelda, Legend of Zelda II. And guess what? Even the game Kid Icarus was deemed an adventure title. Metroid, the two Zelda games and Kid Icarus are Nintendo's legendary Adventure Series on the NES. Though KI is rather linear, the elements of an adventure are well present, that is you know what you are doing in that game. So what makes Castlevania II and SotN a little bit different is that they allow to level up the character. In SotN even more than in CV2 as in CV2 you mostly improve your health meter. Then you have Hollow Knight that has no rpg elements at all. Just your classic side scrolling action adventure. Not a Metroid title. Not a Castlevania title either. But it is its very own IP. Hollow Knight. But given that most people can barely seperate a typical jump'n'run from a side scrolling action adventure anymore, calling everything metroidvania. Your video doesn't do a good job to help it.

[@Multienderguy37]

Cv2 is considered a metroidvania retroactively, through a process called reification. Zelda games aren’t metroidvanias because the progression system doesn’t rely on backtracking after gaining new abilities. Genre definitions cannot fully account for every variable, but they help people narrow down what they like about games. Kid Icarus is not an adventure game. Stop whining.

[@niemand7811]

@@Multienderguy37 Since Castlevania II predates your silly word "metroidvania" it is not so at all. And oh boy are you wrong on the Zelda games. Backtracking does happen even though the overall game laypout is more smoothly especially since in classic Top down Zelda games you do no platforming like in Metroid. But in later 3D Zelda games this changes drastically. So Metroidvania is not a genre as much as neither Castlevania nor Metroid are genre terms. Classic Castlevania games for the most are platformers. Later CV games like SotN are action RPGs. Side scrolling rpgs with lite platforming. The CV titles by Mercury Steam are action hack'n slash adventure games. I could do this all day long since I learned what genres are and the meaning of genres since I was a kid playing the Atari 2600 and early computer games. Nobody called a game title like a genre. People were smarter than that.

[@Multienderguy37]

@@niemand7811 By that logic, since Christianity predates the word religion, it isn’t a religion. Also, games can have multiple genres. Calling Sotn a metroidvania is faster and simpler than calling it a 2d sidescrolling action adventure non-linear exploratory platformer with rpg elements.

[@niemand7811]

@@Multienderguy37 The fuck about christianity? Calling SotN metroidvania is modern sloppyness and shows how much you care about actual game genres. "Side scrolling action rpg", Genres matter you lazy person.

[@niemand7811]

Metroidvania is NOT A genre. Metroidvania is a fusion of video game titles that alone are fusion of two words by themselves without even decribing the genre of game they are supposed to be. So for anyone not knowing what genre a Metroid or Castlevania game is, how do you people explain "metroidvania" to an outsider? You do not. 1. Castlevania games in their prime were platformer type games a.k.a. jump'n'run genre. Straight forward. Sometimes branching pathways. But that aside pretty straight forward from start to finish. 2. Metroid, like Zelda, is an action adventure. Only the presentation is different. First Zelda Top-down presentation while Metroid comes as the typical side view/scrolling game. Both games have the exploration, to find new items that open up new areas to the player one by one. 3. There was also Castlevania 2 on the NES. Go and ask anyone whether they called it "metroidvania" because it emphasised on the exploration similar to Metroid. Nobody did! Also Zelda II went into that side scrolling adventure presentation. So what would that be? Legend of Troid? Metroid of Zelda? You get the idea how dumb that sounds,not even giving an idea what the actual genres to the game(s) are? And hell, CV2 even had little rpg elements hidden in its mechanics. So now we got here, why call a game like Symphony of the Night a "metroidvania"? Or why call any other side scrolling actionadventure a "metroidvania"? Compared to SotN a game like Hollow Knight doesn't even have rpg elements like CV2 did have. Today people only know gameslike this: - Doom clone (now also labelled "boomer shooter") - metroidvania - soulslike - roguelike - roguelite That begs the question whether anyone of you really understands what a game genre really is and how that works. Little help for you: Legend of Zelda: Action adventure. Presentation/Orientation: top-down Legend of Zelda II: Action Adventure. Presentation/Orientation: side scrolling Metroid: Action Adventure. Presentation/Orientation: side scrolling Castlevania II: Action Adventure with light rpg elements. Presentation: side scrolling Crystalis: Action Adventure. Presentation: top-down view Symphony of the Night: Action Adventure with rpg elements. Presentation: side scrolling. Metroid Prime: Action Adventure. Presentation: Ego perspective. Yes it is not a FPS, shooting may be a tool but not the prime objective as it is in Doom or Quake or Duke Nukem 3D. Learn your genres. This is getting old.

[@Multienderguy37]

Labelling every game an “Action Adventure” is unhelpful. Metroidvania is a perfectly fine genre definition.

[@niemand7811]

@@Multienderguy37 I label an action adventure an action adventure. Metroidvania is useless since it is either a Metroid like game (action adventure) or aCastlevania game. But what type of Castlevania game? You must first learn what defines a genre before you come at me. I mean I wrote half a book there with that comment and you must have either not read it ot not understood what I said. Which one is it?

[@Multienderguy37]

@@niemand7811 The vania in metroidvania comes from the IGAvanias and Simon’s Quest. You are just being pedantic for the sake of being a pedant.

[@Neutrico88]

Bro shut the fuck up you are being annoying, next time try to be less annoying

[@thomasffrench3639]

@@Multienderguy37it’s more helpful than Metroidvania. It literally just means side scroller adventure game.

[@niemand7811]

2:24 NOT just like an adventure game. They are adventure games. Super Metroid itself is an adventure game. Side scrolling action adventure. Stop this metroidvania bullshit!