Lurker > Kenri

Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows (Switch)

Sooo this was an interesting campaign. Definitely harder than playing as Shovel Knight, definitely slightly more puzzle-y, definitely more frustrating in certain areas (on the other hand, you pretty much annihilate the bosses in seconds). For the first couple levels I didn't realize Plague Knight had a double jump and let me tell you. Some jumps were pretty tough without it!

Shovel Knight: Shovel of Hope (Switch)

Going to count each expansion separately because I'm not sure when I'll get to the others.

I wouldn't necessarily call Shovel Knight an all-time great action-platformer, but it's definitely quite good. Glad I finally played it!

Blasphemous (PS4)

Really good Metroidvania (with a couple bad parts, most notably the Bloodstained crossover...). Not nearly as challenging as I'd heard but maybe I'm just awesome at this genre? (This is not the case.)

I wasn't a huge fan of the setting, which is Catholic Guilt: The Video Game. It's definitely one of those games where everything is so bleak that it stops being sad and just becomes exhausting. The fatalities you can do on enemies also feel very gratuitous and out of place. I liked almost everything else though.

Historically, wars have been a good way to unite our bloodthirsty, bloodthirsty nation.

At least for the first decade or so of each war.

Rabi-Ribi (PS4)

Hard to say what counts as beating the game here, but I waited until I cleared the post-game and DLC bosses to count it. Just felt like a more natural conclusion to the story.

I liked this one a lot! It definitely has flaws, both in the presentation (bad character designs; terrible translation) and in the gameplay (the combat is pretty repetitive and can be a slog against the tougher bosses; a lot of the bosses are very same-y), but overall I think it's a really good Metroidvania. The obvious comparison is Touhou Luna Nights (Rabi-Ribi is *just* a Touhou game. Look at the characters. Look at Ashuri/Ashley's boss fight and tell me she isn't just Marisa. Come on.) and Luna Nights does a few things better, but as a whole package I preferred Rabi-Ribi. There's a lot more exploration and non-linearity and ultimately that's a big reason I'm playing a Metroidvania game.

I played this on normal difficulty and that was just about right for me. Once I started using healing items I felt pretty unstoppable, but the post-game and DLC areas and bosses sure put an end to that. I don't think I'd have wanted it any harder overall.

masterplum posted...

The point being the fact the senate is not proportional to population is being thrown around like some shocking fact when it is completely intentional

I can assure you that tens of millions of Americans are completely, 100% unaware of this fact, which is why it's thrown around like it's shocking

Katamari Reroll is a pretty short game if that's what you're feeling right now

That boss is the only big offender I could recall from Momodora, yeah. Though honestly I can barely remember the game's characters at all...

I don't remember Momodora being that bad?

But yeah a lot of Metroidvanias are weirdly horny for whatever reason. It even hits some of the bigger ones, like Zero Mission and Order of Ecclesia.

I can somewhat forgive Erina so the only truly vile one on the cover art is Ribbon, I think? So I knew it was embarrassing already based on that, but then I started playing and the scientist character was wearing nothing but a labcoat and panties and I was just like, "so it's gonna be like that, is it."

Is this the general Metroidvania topic now? I'm playing Rabi-Ribi now (I intended to start Blasphemous but the PS5 hit me with a _2 hour_ update for it, why are Sony's downloads so fucking slow?)

The gameplay is pretty fun but the character design is, uh, is there a harsher word than "unforgivable"? I'm also pretty upset about the amount of "I shouldn't go that way right now!" when I try to explore, but it seems like that might have only been in the very early game. We'll see.

You may know this already, but in Hollow Knight, you can save and quit to fast travel to the last bench you sat at (without losing progress). Definitely makes the backtracking a little less onerous, though admittedly it breaks up the flow of the game.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (Richter mode) via Castlevania Requiem (PS4)

I don't really count this as "beating a game" but I've surprisingly never done it before, because unlike the extra modes in later IGAvanias, it isn't fun. You die in a few hits, there's no story or character progression, and Richter is not fun to control. Also, Hydro Storm kills everything in a single use, including bosses, so like... it's just poorly thought out. But now I can say I've done it.

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood via Castlevania: Requiem (PS4)

This is better than some other Classicvanias that I've played (I don't think I've beaten any of them, though) but it's still just... kinda bad? These games just don't control well and the combat and platforming aren't fun as a result. Things did get better when I unlocked Maria, mostly because she's super OP.

I took the top route and only rescued two maidens (Maria and Annette, presumably the easiest ones to find? idk). My final completion was 64% with a somewhat embarrassing 9 continues.

I did enjoy the incredibly lame anime cutscenes. The cutscene where Dracula reacts to Maria beating him is especially hilarious, I highly recommend it.

I couldn't play more than like 30 minutes of Salt and Sanctuary. I think it was mostly the aesthetics that bothered me but I wasn't enjoying the gameplay either.

Glad you're liking it though!

UF8 posted...

Greak is probably the most notable one, and there was also Exorcist Fairy and Aeterna Noctis... also 1 other one i'd have to check from the last couple of months, and also a number of demo releases like Haiku The Robot and Lone Fungus

and there's also more stuff like Glimmer in Mirror (demo released last year, i tried it this year personally, half expected it to fully release by now but it got bumped to next year much like haiku and silksong lol) and Crowsworn (had a kickstarter) too...

Thanks! Glimmer in Mirror, Crowsworn, and Aeterna Noctis have been on my radar but I hadn't heard of the rest.

Luis_Sera89 posted...

Touhou Luna Nights is very good, feels a lot like the DS Castlevanias.

Luna Nights is great (especially the bosses), but for those who care, there's barely any exploration involved. It's broken into levels and each level leads directly into the next. You can backtrack but it's not interconnected at all.

UF8 posted...

there have also been a lot of hollow knight clones this year, that have tried ripping it off in varying capacities, some to the point of almost being straight up reskins and others directly taking its life system and little else frustratingly. i'll leave those aside especially since you mentioned not enjoying it >_>

You should post the HK clones anyway for those of us who did like it!

If you're not looking specifically for 2D games then Metroid Prime is easily the best Metroidvania you haven't played yet. For 2D only, Aquaria and Shadow Complex are my go-to recommendations, though Shadow Complex borrows heavily from Super Metroid. Different controls though, and the controls are easily Super Metroid's weakest area (even on a controller).

Edit: You should also absolutely play Metroid Zero Mission if you liked Metroid Fusion.