LogFAQs > #979516952

metroidvania and castleroid as a terms only came about in response to the castlevania gba games specifically for how they (and sotn) were like super metroid... so.

it's a funny matter since it really was a strict coincidence and igarashi seemingly didn't even know about metroid when sotn was made (he's said a lot of times that he was mostly inspired by zelda)

but it's because of that that the term has awkwardly landed into a very specific meaning for a very specific game with the design philosophy one associates with the phrase, because the term itself isn't meant to actually represent that design, as it's not meant to to be anything close to a genre to begin with. it's just a cute terminology for describing clones of a small handful of games, that's the reality

to a lesser degree the same goes for soulslike or roguelike (though the latter has certainly warped pretty far from, y'know, rogue at this point outside of pretty much just mystery dungeon)