LogFAQs > #909250889

The problem I have with the term is that ANY game with a sprawling map and free exploration is automatically called metroidvania based on nothing more than having a large map.

Alwa's awakening for example. RPG elements? Eh, not really, metroid style? Eh...again not really.
They literally only have a large map in common

Axiom Verge. Okay, this one's a lot more like metroid than anything we've seen in a while. But I don't see any RPG elements, so it's not like castlevania in that regard. So the term fails to fit.

Shovel Knight: Well, it's got big levels, but it's not an interconnected world. Hell, it even plays a lot like castlevania, what with the subweapons and MP (hearts) But honestly it feels more like a mishmash of mario 3, castlevania and megaman than "Metroidvania". So it doesn't really fit here either.

Rogue Legacy? While it's often called Rogue-lite by many, I've often heard it touted as metroidvania also. But it's not. We got the large map, and we have upgrades that give access to other areas of the large map, but it's procedurally generated, and there isn't much logic to the design, I guess because there is no design.

Fez: I've heard this one described as metroidvania too. But there's a huge glaring problem with that description. There are no enemies. It's just puzzle after puzzle in a 2/3d hybrid world.

The closest game I've seen that actually fits the description of "Metroidvania" since symphony of the night and the GBA castlevania games is CHASM. But then it has to go and mess everything up by being procedurally generated which could work, but the rooms you have to slog through are so shit, and boring, and repetitive that it takes more away from the game than it adds. Give me a well designed map that doesn't change over something that feels like a 3rd grader put it together in mario maker.
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