Board 8 > Are metroidvanias actually an rpg subset?

(+) Yeah! (+)

The most delicious one yet

---

Clearly rpgs are actually a metroidvania subset.

You have to obtain powerups (stats/weapon upgrades) to make progress. Exploration is encouraged through dungeon chests and bs locked door puzzles. There is lots of backtracking to find all of the secrets. Maps help you figure out where the next location you need to go is. Different places have different music.

Yessir, there's no doubt that rpgs really did borrow a lot from metroidvanias, even before metroidvanias existed. How they did so remains a closely guarded trade secret.

---

Platformer / Action Adventure / RPG

---

What is up with the daily "Is X an RPG polls"?

ZeldaTPLink posted...

What is up with the daily "Is X an RPG polls"?

Gonna be doing a top 100 rpgs that I've played topic with the plan to do a yearly edition. So I'm eliminating B8 from bickering about XYZ I include by weeding out the complaints in these topics

Zelda: out (though botw maybe in?)
Souls: in
Metroidvania: currently split


---

I don't consider Monster Boy a Metroidvania at all. Something's only a Metroidvania to me if it's a game that's quite similar to Symphony of the Night, the original Metroidvania; a Metroid-like labyrinth of tightly and complexly interlocked hallways, and equipment/stats/leveling up. Yes, they are a subset of RPGs, but only if they're actually Metroidvanias. Otherwise, it's just a Metroid-like, or just some kind of other platforming action adventure.

If you're actually leveling up, then yes. So SotN and on, RPGs.

---

Paratroopa1 posted...

Symphony of the Night, the original Metroidvania

beautiful

---

He's actually right, the term "metroidvania" was invented to describe "metroid-like Castlevanias" before it expanded to cover all metroid-like games

---

Anyone who thinks any of the Metroid games are Metroidvanias should stop contributing to the discussion

Metroidvania is the worst term in games and that's including roguelike

---

I really hate the term Metroidvania for anything other than SotN, CotM, HoD, AoS, DoS, PoR, and OoE. And Bloodstained I suppose. Those are Metroidvanias. The term is awkwardly applied at best to any other video game

Paratroopa1 posted...

I don't consider Monster Boy a Metroidvania at all. Something's only a Metroidvania to me if it's a game that's quite similar to Symphony of the Night, the original Metroidvania; a Metroid-like labyrinth of tightly and complexly interlocked hallways, and equipment/stats/leveling up. Yes, they are a subset of RPGs, but only if they're actually Metroidvanias. Otherwise, it's just a Metroid-like, or just some kind of other platforming action adventure.

So you don't think definitions can change over time?
---

How about Timespinner?

It's the one game that feels actually 50% Metroid 50% Castlevania

---

Mac Arrowny posted...

So you don't think definitions can change over time?

Well the term "Metroidvania" is really terrible because the etymology of the word specifically refers to SotN, because it was the first Castlevania to use Metroid-style level design. There are some other games that do this but it's weird to call them Metroidvanias - a "Castlevania that is like Metroid."

foolm0r0n posted...

How about Timespinner?

It's the one game that feels actually 50% Metroid 50% Castlevania

I'm not familiar

There are probably a few other games that follow the formula tightly enough that "Metroidvania" isn't a weird term

Keltiq posted...

He's actually right, the term "metroidvania" was invented to describe "metroid-like Castlevanias" before it expanded to cover all metroid-like games

Few things make me feel older than realizing I was around for the beginning of certain etymologies that people today have forgotten the origins of. :(

As to today's question, I'd say some are but some aren't. SotN is as much of an RPG as any of them, but something like Hollow Knight clearly has no connection to the genre. (I do largely agree that people who call Hollow Knight a "Metroidvania" are using the term wrong, but as wrong as it is it's definitely the common parlance and is probably in the group this topic means to ask about.) Even then I'd say SotN itself is far more closely related to Metroid than to any more traditional RPG like Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, but it's quite clearly a fusion nonetheless.

---

Absolutely not

foolm0r0n posted...

How about Timespinner?

It's the one game that feels actually 50% Metroid 50% Castlevania

Timespinner is literally a Castlevania Sotn tribute, it even copies an area and has a song cover lol

---

Im old enough to remember when we just called them Action-Adventure games
---

Paratroopa1 posted...

I really hate the term Metroidvania for anything other than SotN, CotM, HoD, AoS, DoS, PoR, and OoE. And Bloodstained I suppose. Those are Metroidvanias. The term is awkwardly applied at best to any other video game

Personally, if I want to refer to those games, I use the term Igavania. The term Metroidvania has definitely expanded past that, if indeed it ever just referred to them.

Anyway I voted no, I think it's pretty silly to use a subscreen with stats or levelling as a genre divider (as mentioned, many sports games would qualify as RPGs that way); Metroid and Castlevania play way too similarly to me to think of them as separate genres.

---

Using the looser version of the term, I don't consider most metroidvanias to be RPGs, but I do consider Zelda games to be metroidvanias. Since I never had the word formally defined for me, I had taken it to mean a game where you earn progression items as your primary advancement and that heavy backtracking is typically require to leverage your new skills.

---

NeoElfboy posted...

as mentioned, many sports games would qualify as RPGs that way

Which is fine since they are

---