Kenri posted...
Yeah I agree. I can see the argument but Dark Souls doesn't really do movement upgrades and that's a pretty important part of the Metroidvania DNA. Not having a map is also fairly damning tbh
Concur with this. There's roughly three schools of Metroidvania and, amusingly enough, Dark Souls is closest to Hollow Knight's more than the other two (the other two being of course Metroid and Castlevania). Even then though, HK's Castlevania and Megaman Zero DNA is almost as pronounced in its gameplay as the Dark Souls influence is in its aesthetics, so it's not that similar.