LogFAQs > #956867964

"Search" in this context isn't "look for", definitely "explore". Like a search algorithm not a search party.

Leonhart4 posted...

You can, which is why they're categorized as "stage clear" games by Nintendo. The ultimate goal is still just to beat the level.

But this is a good point. We're just talking about the goal genre right now. There are plenty of other types of genre, and subgenres. So we can break it down like this:

Goal genres: Exploration, stage clear, arcade/highscore, race, battle royale
Action genres: platforming, traversal, shooting, combat, crafting, puzzle

Mario is a stage clear platformer, and Hotline Miami is a stage clear twin stick shooter. Robotron is an arcade twin stick shooter. Tetris 99 is a battle royale puzzle, and regular Tetris is an arcade puzzle.

(Another type would be narrative genre: Horror, thriller, fantasy, cartoon, adventure)

With Metroidvania, it seems to be trying to find the intersection of genres for Metroid and SOTN. So exploration is the goal, and traversal combat for the action. Leveling and shooting are not shared so they aren't part of it.

Lots of games have an exploration goal, like Outer Wilds. But that game's action is puzzle instead of combat. Though it still has traversal, and it shares the alien narrative genre, so it feels pretty Metroidy overall.

This is really the only way to make sense of genres, and why game databases use a tag-based genre system. Very few classic genres are broken down in this way which is why they're nonsense.

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