The 2D Metroidvania Renaissance Will Continue Into the Next Decade | A Media Heavy Look at 50+ Upcoming Titles
- Thread starter Dancrane212
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First I've seen of this! Getting a good hit of Hollow Knight vibes. Really looking forward to it now, thanks for the head's up!
They must be getting close to the end. It's been like 7 or 8 years now? 2022 at the latest I feel.
I hope they deliver with all that delay.
Been a lot of good metroidvanias with less dev time since then.
Looking forward to Heart Forth Alicia but yeah kinda crazy how long its been since the kickstarter launched.
Ofcourse the dev team is tiny, mainly one guy, but in comparison Hollow Knight was made by mainly two guys and was kickstarted a year or so after Heart Forth Alicia and launched in 2017 with a ton of content and to critical acclaim.
Personally I prefer the pixel art of Heart Forth Alicia but yeah, maybe it was just a little to ambitious.
Ofcourse the dev team is tiny, mainly one guy, but in comparison Hollow Knight was made by mainly two guys and was kickstarted a year or so after Heart Forth Alicia and launched in 2017 with a ton of content and to critical acclaim.
Personally I prefer the pixel art of Heart Forth Alicia but yeah, maybe it was just a little to ambitious.
It's also had a clear case of feature creep. Or improvement creep. The original vision of the game could have been released but then they switched it to higher resolution, widescreen, then had to go back and redesign some areas, then even more time had passed so even more upgrades could be done.
Not that I'm criticizing this, I can wait an eternity. There are a million games I have to play after all.
What I recall is that the developer had health issues way back when so he couldn't go hard on developing the game anymore. Also scope creep became an issue as well. I think one of the KS updates show how large some of the areas have become before and after.
I'm thinking of games like Crosscode and Owlboy that were in development for almost a decade, but seemed to turn out well. I'm hoping this is the case too.
if you wanna stick with the darker-style games, Blasphemous or Vigil: Longest Night.
Bloodstained Ritual of the Night, I also just started Axiom Verge.
Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom
Will also echo Blasphemous, Guacamelee series, Ori series, Axiom Verge and Bloodstained.
Don;t love Axoim Verge's controls, unfortunately. BRotN didnt click.
SWD2 is SO good, love that one. Played Guac 1 and really enjoyed it, is 2 just as good or better?
Which is better, Monster Boy or Blasphemous?
Blasphemous is a bit more punishing and methodical, in the Souls vein. Monster Boy is more "fun," which is not to say it's a total cakewalk. There some tough areas. I was struck by how densely packed it was with clever puzzles and things to find. I liked Blasphemous but I loved Monster Boy. There are surely people who feel the opposite, however.
Guacamelee 2 didn't hit for me as hard as the first, but in an objective sense it's probably at least as good.
Agree with everything here.
I'd say Guaca 2 is harder than 1 but only if you go for the optional challenges and 100% stuff (I didn't). To me it's still as good though, just less surprising.
Is this the catch all metroidvania recommendation thread now, cause I'd like to know if Salt and Sanctuary is actually worth my time. I've bounced off it once or twice but I'm still intrigued.
I'd say that's more a 2D Souls game than a metroidvania. I enjoyed it though.
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Depends what you're after. It is absolutely on the Souls side of things so if you enjoy a slow pace, learning an area to remember points of interest yourself, and building a character to fit your playstyle I'd say to give it another go.
Personally I enjoyed almost all of it, there was just those horrific Spindlebeasts that threatened to put me off the game.
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Blu by MyOwnGames
A 2.5D ninja metroidvania inspired by Dead Cells, Pandemonium and other cool stuff.
myowngames.itch.io
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I'm not sure how much of a metroidvania Smelter actually is, but it looks fucking good regardless and is almost upon us:
store.steampowered.com
Smelter on Steam
You are Eve, fresh out of Eden and armed with a living suit of armor, Smelter. Explore a dangerous new world, battle its bizarre denizens and expand your empire in a desperate journey to find Adam.
It's mostly ActRaiser, but with platforming bits and equipment/move unlocks. They don't come from beating enemies, as much as solving platforming challenges + time trials to unlock ores you use to buy upgrades in the overworld (where the strategy layer gives you access to more dungeons). The demo is pretty expansive and gives a good idea of the gameplay loop.I'm not sure how much of a metroidvania Smelter actually is, but it looks fucking good regardless and is almost upon us:
Smelter on Steam
You are Eve, fresh out of Eden and armed with a living suit of armor, Smelter. Explore a dangerous new world, battle its bizarre denizens and expand your empire in a desperate journey to find Adam.
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A month or two, it depends on how fast they finish the page and trailer.
Zapling Bygone Kickstarter is live: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/9fingergames/zapling-bygone?ref=card
Also, the Lone Fungus Kickstarter was extended for another week or so: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/620777061/lone-fungus?ref=card
Also, the Lone Fungus Kickstarter was extended for another week or so: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/620777061/lone-fungus?ref=card
Akatori, Grime, and more- demos to be featured in Steam's June festival
store.steampowered.com
Steam Store
Steam is the ultimate destination for playing, discussing, and creating games.
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Akatori, Grime, and more- demos to be featured in Steam's June festival
Steam Store
Steam is the ultimate destination for playing, discussing, and creating games.
Nice!
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Grabbed it on the Switch, and it's been pretty fun so far. I was worried it was going to be super heavy on the hard trials and focus more on the element of super hard platforming but glad to see there's different trial objectives.
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Yeah, love how it captures the vibe of the GBA Castlevania titles.
Slowly picking away at a bigger update for the list which will include this. Going to break the released titles into their own post to get some much needed room for the OP.
The pixel art is stellar. This one is now on my radar.
I don't think one can overstate how important and influential SOTN was/is. Twenty four years later, and homage is still being paid.
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Another screenshot for this unannounced title:
This looks like a still from the Silksong trailer with a new character inserted.
I don't know if this goes here, since game is more METROID-style than METROIDVANIA, but Astalon: Tears of the Earth launches on June 3rd.
Steam page here and new trailer:
Steam page here and new trailer: