New genre name for games like TUNIC and Fez

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Poll of the Day » New genre name for games like TUNIC and Fez
Someone on the youtube suggested "Metroidbrania" and I think that's funny
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Can't speak for TUNIC since I never played it, but I always thought Fez was just a straight up Adventure game. It really wasn't all that groundbreaking genre-wise.
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Adventure
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Metroidvania itself is already confusing enough.
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Nichtcrawler-X posted...
Metroidvania itself is already confusing enough.

you just gotta get the powerups
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I meant the meaning of the term, not the difficulty of the games.
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I can kind of see where the name could come from, but it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. "Metroidvania" is the name for that sub-genre because it was Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night that really established and popularized its conventions, but something like Tunic more clearly lines up with the conventions established by Link to the Past three years before Super Metroid came along (the same overarching concept of non-linear exploration where getting new abilities unlocks areas you passed previously, but more of a focus on puzzle-solving than combat). "Zelda-like" is a little reductive and not ideal because it opens the door to criticize a Zelda-like game for not being enough like Zelda (stifling the evolution of the genre), but it makes more sense than treating Zelda as a subset of Metroidvanias when, if anything, it should be the other way around (Super Metroid is a side-scrolling Zelda-like with a greater focus on combat).

But then genre names often don't make a ton of sense.
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Isn't Fez just a Puzzle-Platformer? That's already a thing.

Tunic's just an Action-Adventure game.
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The question is whether Metroidvania is just the Metroid-style progression, or also has to have other elements SotN introduced to distinguish it from Super Metroid.
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Nichtcrawler-X posted...
The question is whether Metroidvania is just the Metroid-style progression, or also has to have other elements SotN introduced to distinguish it from Super Metroid.

on the contrary, it's because SotN was so massively popular and just so happened to be a Metroid-like while also being different from the rest of the franchise.
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Nichtcrawler-X posted...
The question is whether Metroidvania is just the Metroid-style progression, or also has to have other elements SotN introduced to distinguish it from Super Metroid.

It's mostly the progression style: Non-linear exploration, with unlocks that open up new areas and let you find new stuff by backtracking. Any other elements don't stop something from being a metroidvania, but they aren't necessary.

Saying that, though, genre labels are often a bit of a crapshoot. You're better off looking at actual gameplay videos and other information about how the game plays than just trusting that you'll like a game because it's a metroidvania.
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adjl posted...
It's mostly the progression style: Non-linear exploration, with unlocks that open up new areas and let you find new stuff by backtracking. Any other elements don't stop something from being a metroidvania, but they aren't necessary.

Saying that, though, genre labels are often a bit of a crapshoot. You're better off looking at actual gameplay videos and other information about how the game plays than just trusting that you'll like a game because it's a metroidvania.

Exactly. The progression style I just call Metroid-like. When you tell me something is a Metroidvania, I expect that with some sort of RPG elements. Which is why I liked say Hollow Knight, but not as much as I might have if I had not been told it was a Metroidvania.
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You could easily argue that Metroid has some RPG elements: Your character gets progressively stronger over time, based on the tasks you complete and the decisions you make. Castlevania (at least SotN and onwards) has more , certainly, but "RPG elements" is a very broad term.

Regardless, if you believe you'd have enjoyed Hollow Knight more if you hadn't been told it's a metroidvania, you're perfectly demonstrating my point that people are better off actually looking at the games instead of just hearing the genre title and trusting that that genre means they'll enjoy it.
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If I was told Hollow Knight was just an action platformer, I'd have been shocked by the size of the game

Heck I was shocked even after hearing from people how big it was, even for a Metroidvania.

A lot of the best games are a blend of "genre" IMO
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Poll of the Day » New genre name for games like TUNIC and Fez