Board 8 > My Metroidvania kick continues.

(+) 1 Yeah! (+)

Corrik7 posted...

Dead Cells is a Metroidvania?

I've heard some people call it that. I know it's much more strongly a rogue-lite, but I haven't played it myself, so I can't say how accurate the terming is.

I mostly fell off of Hollow Knight when I reached the last 1/3 "explore the map fully" phase. Moving around areas you've already cleared gets tedious, and the fast travel parts are way, way too few and far between.

If there's a mod that increases the number of fast travel points, I might try it again.

You may know this already, but in Hollow Knight, you can save and quit to fast travel to the last bench you sat at (without losing progress). Definitely makes the backtracking a little less onerous, though admittedly it breaks up the flow of the game.

Seanchan posted...

And now at about 25% map coverage. Game seems pretty open, from what I can gather, unless I just managed to pick the "right" direction each time. The animation priority takes some getting used to as you can't just spam attacks and dodges. There's a lot of flowery language and needless esoteric-ness but I'd say I'm enjoying it so far!

Not finished yet, but 75ish% for the map and around 70% overall. I'm prepared to call Blasphemous a very good game. Yes, the controls aren't silky smooth and you really do need to keep the animation lag in mind, but I'm having a tremendous amount of fun exploring the map and seeing all the weird shit this game has on offer.

Seanchan posted... Not finished yet, but 75ish% for the map and around 70% overall. I'm prepared to call Blasphemous a very good game. Yes, the controls aren't silky smooth and you really do need to keep the animation lag in mind, but I'm having a tremendous amount of fun exploring the map and seeing all the weird shit this game has on offer.

I just beat the first 3 bosses and am heading across the bridge now. Loving Blasphemous to death.

The SotN aesthetic drew me in, but the tight combat and cool gameplay mechanics are what won me over. I honestly don't have a problem with the controls, especially after getting the one Rosary Bead that lessens the lag time after a dodge.

Also love that the game allows you to explore without any "Go here" markers or environmental hints that suggest where to go first. I ended up beating first three bosses in a scrambled-up order.

KamikazePotato posted... I mostly fell off of Hollow Knight when I reached the last 1/3 "explore the map fully" phase. Moving around areas you've already cleared gets tedious, and the fast travel parts are way, way too few and far between.

If there's a mod that increases the number of fast travel points, I might try it again.

Kenri posted...

You may know this already, but in Hollow Knight, you can save and quit to fast travel to the last bench you sat at (without losing progress). Definitely makes the backtracking a little less onerous, though admittedly it breaks up the flow of the game.

Haven't played HK yet, but I will keep that save & quit trick in my back pocket for when I do.

And that "explore the map fully" phase sounds like Metroid Prime's "find all the stupid keys before the final battle" phase. Yuck.

Mac Arrowny posted...

One last thing - Pirate's Curse is the only true Metroidvania Shantae, so that's probably the one you want to go for if you try the series. I played about 10 minutes and fell off it, but lots of people love it.

Glad I read this because I bought Risky's Revenge and Pirate's Curse together and hated RR because the gameplay felt archaic. I'll have to give PC a shot one of these days.

plasmabeam posted...

I just beat the first 3 bosses and am heading across the bridge now. Loving Blasphemous to death.

The SotN aesthetic drew me in, but the tight combat and cool gameplay mechanics are what won me over. I honestly don't have a problem with the controls, especially after getting the one Rosary Bead that lessens the lag time after a dodge.

Also love that the game allows you to explore without any "Go here" markers or environmental hints that suggest where to go first. I ended up beating first three bosses in a scrambled-up order.

On the bridge, did you have a fight with the brother or...not?

I've spent the last few hours cleaning up the map, getting the various collectibles, and trying to figure out what the heck is up with a lot of the weird rooms and NPCs. Had to look up a thing or two to avoid wasting some time but I'm having a lot of fun still.

I FINALLY got the power that lets you interact with the wooden vine things. So many spots that need that... Still haven't found something to let me jump higher in water/mud, though it's possible I have it and just don't know it.

I like how the death penalty is more annoying than anything else. You don't lose currency/souls, instead you just lose part of your (I'm going to call it) magic bar.

I've brought this up elsewhere, but can someone explain to me why Pirate's Curse is considered a metroidvania, but the same people don't count Half-Genie Hero? The games play practically the same, except that HGH has more backtracking.

Finished with Blasphemous! Really great Metroidvania, definitely worth playing.

One major issue I had is that you can very easily lock yourself out of the "true" ending. You need to NOT have fought the brother on the bridge...which I happened to do. But then, you need to beat the 2 optional bosses, and bring the eyes to this NPC, and beat all these combat trials, and equip a certain Heart...BEFORE you fight Cristana near the very end of the game. If you fail to do that, then you're fucked and have to use NewGame+ if you want to get the "true" ending. Or, you can watch it on YouTube because who the fuck has the time to play through the game again.

I looked up how to get the Blasphemous true ending out of curiosity, and according to the wiki it's not nearly that complicated.

Mega Man ZX
Mega Man ZX Advent

KamikazePotato posted...

I looked up how to get the Blasphemous true ending out of curiosity, and according to the wiki it's not nearly that complicated.

Of course you'd say that if you look it up first! And yes, I wouldn't say it's complicated. It's more that there's 2 "points of no return" where if you haven't met the requirements you can't get that ending. And I think it's very easy to miss if you're just playing naturally.

KamikazePotato posted...

I mostly fell off of Hollow Knight when I reached the last 1/3 "explore the map fully" phase. Moving around areas you've already cleared gets tedious, and the fast travel parts are way, way too few and far between.

If there's a mod that increases the number of fast travel points, I might try it again.

There is a mod, it's called benchwarp and it does what it says. Huge QOL if you do randomizer or if you're just tired of walking around. Not sure if it can be modded natively through Steam though, I have GOG and have to do it manually.

Seanchan posted...

On the bridge, did you have a fight with the brother or...not?

I just beat the brother last night and got to the part in the library where the one NPC gives you a Rosary Bead for stopping the noise (it's the Rosary Bead that speeds up movement). I believe I'm close to another boss battle. We'll see.

plasmabeam posted...

I just beat the brother last night and got to the part in the library where the one NPC gives you a Rosary Bead for stopping the noise (it's the Rosary Bead that speeds up movement). I believe I'm close to another boss battle. We'll see.

Well, good news/bad news, since I'm not sure you'd read some of my spoiler blocks. I'm now 99% sure you can't get the true ending.

You likely haven't yet gotten one of the most useful Rosary Beads for me, which was the one that greatly speeds up fall recovery.

So I know I mentioned the game Dandara earlier in this topic. Turns out, it's on Apple Arcade. So if you've got that and a controller, it's free to play. (I suppose you could play using touch screen but that sounds like a disaster.)

Seanchan posted...

Well, good news/bad news, since I'm not sure you'd read some of my spoiler blocks. I'm now 99% sure you can't get the true ending.

Hmm. I've beaten six of the guilt statue challenges. From what I understand you need to beat all those to get the true ending.

You likely haven't yet gotten one of the most useful Rosary Beads for me, which was the one that greatly speeds up fall recovery.

Got it, just haven't used it. I have 5 bead slots, and 4 are occupied with ones that help health/defense and the slide lag.

Tonight I beat the lounging archbishop boss, which was one of the oddest and coolest things I've seen in this game loaded with odd and cool things.

Really digging how open this section of the game is. You don't clear areas; you commit to them while wondering what you passed off along the way. Love this game's map design.

Only gripe I have is that the difficulty has softened a tad too much.

I'm assuming you haven't been to the ship area yet. That area is a major pain.

Seanchan posted...

I'm assuming you haven't been to the ship area yet. That area is a major pain.

So far the only frustrating area was the snowy mountains. Lot of vertical platforming and those obnoxious "birdman with the bell" enemies.

plasmabeam posted...

So far the only frustrating area was the snowy mountains. Lot of vertical platforming and those obnoxious "birdman with the bell" enemies.

Haha, oh yes, I remember that frustration. No, the ship area is worse. Those flying enemies get a little less annoying once you get some Mea Culpa upgrades so you're killing stuff in 1-2 hits instead of 3-4.

@KamikazePotato

I notice you don't have Order of Ecclesia on your list. Game is a must-play. It gives SotN a run for its money.

@Seanchan

Survived the first part of the ship area last night. What a rush. It was miracle (pun totally intended) that I made it to the save point. Those electric balls coupled with those impassable statues that take 1,279 hits to kill are indeed the worst part of the game so far.

plasmabeam posted...

Survived the first part of the ship area last night. What a rush. It was miracle (pun totally intended) that I made it to the save point. Those electric balls coupled with those impassable statues that take 1,279 hits to kill are indeed the worst part of the game so far.

Yeah, I tried to jump over and slide through those statues to no avail. And lets not forget the guys throwing those "homing" axes. And then you get animation locked attacking them and they roll right into you, knocking you off into the muck, where you move too slow and there's infinitely spawning guys that rush at you...

There are some Prayer Beads that give some electric protection which helped a little.

That area was apparently part of the recent free DLC, which explains a little why it's so goddamn hard and every enemy takes 4x the number of hits as anywhere else.

Seanchan posted...

Yeah, I tried to jump over and slide through those statues to no avail. And lets not forget the guys throwing those "homing" axes. And then you get animation locked attacking them and they roll right into you, knocking you off into the muck, where you move too slow and there's infinitely spawning guys that rush at you...

There are some Prayer Beads that give some electric protection which helped a little.

That area was apparently part of the recent free DLC, which explains a little why it's so goddamn hard and every enemy takes 4x the number of hits as anywhere else.

I wore two separate "magic resist" beads, which helped with the electricity and the homing magic.

Totally makes sense that it's DLC. The area felt disjointed from the rest of the map and didn't lead anywhere important (unless I overlooked something).

Last night I beat the Fire Sword boss. Great fight, felt like something out of Mega Man.

I believe I'm at the very end of the game now, but we'll see.

UltimaterializerX posted...

Order is good but practically impossible to find.

Yikes. Best price I see is $70 on eBay (cart only). $100+ if you want it CIB.

Finished Blasphemous. 85% completion, 92% map, got the true ending.

Final boss was an asshole yet reasonably challenging. The game's overall challenge was right at the sweet spot for me: kicking my ass often, while still creating momentum with smooth stretches of exploration and platforming. Quite similar to Metroid Dread's difficulty, which IMO was perfectly balanced between challenging and fair.

Can't recommend Blasphemous enough to fans of SotN. It reminds me of the pre-Aria of Sorrow Castlevanias, where the focus was strictly on combat and platforming rather than collecting spells from enemies. I love that Blasphemous doesn't distract you with 42,838 different attacks/weapons/spells and instead focuses on a few attacks you can power up over the course of the game.

Top-tier Metroidvania in my book. I'd only rank Super Metroid, Dread, SotN, and Order of Ecclesia above it. To be fair I haven't played Ori or Hollow Knight, but still... Blasphemous gripped me and reminded me why I love this genre so much in the first place.

10/10 from Plasma.

Is this the general Metroidvania topic now? I'm playing Rabi-Ribi now (I intended to start Blasphemous but the PS5 hit me with a _2 hour_ update for it, why are Sony's downloads so fucking slow?)

The gameplay is pretty fun but the character design is, uh, is there a harsher word than "unforgivable"? I'm also pretty upset about the amount of "I shouldn't go that way right now!" when I try to explore, but it seems like that might have only been in the very early game. We'll see.

Rabi-Ribi's pretty weak IMO. Kinda surprised you wouldn't know the character designs before playing, since they're in the cover art.

I can somewhat forgive Erina so the only truly vile one on the cover art is Ribbon, I think? So I knew it was embarrassing already based on that, but then I started playing and the scientist character was wearing nothing but a labcoat and panties and I was just like, "so it's gonna be like that, is it."

I looked up Rabi-Ribi... Very odd marketing decision to use that design style when Metroidvanias are typically either sci-fi/horror or dark fantasy.

Momodora has some pretty awful character designs too and Shantae is really over the top with it's weird horniness.

Shantae games always seem to include some scene where all of the female characters end up in skimpy outfits.

So yeah maybe "Horny" is also a sub-genre of Metroidvania games for some reason

Rabi-Ribi was pretty successful AFAIK. It got like 5 years of post-launch updates. It's also a Japanese game.

What's wrong with the Momodora designs? Do you not like that the girls are fat or something? I never had a problem with that part.

I don't remember Momodora being that bad?

But yeah a lot of Metroidvanias are weirdly horny for whatever reason. It even hits some of the bigger ones, like Zero Mission and Order of Ecclesia.

Okay maybe it was just the giant witch boss where you're fighting her boobs the entire fight. The other character designs aren't so bad I guess.

Spoilers for early boss in Momodora but I mean come on what is this:

https://youtu.be/Z67HubibT9A?t=139

I never even noticed that while I was playing. You've got a dirty mind...

That boss is the only big offender I could recall from Momodora, yeah. Though honestly I can barely remember the game's characters at all...

skullbone posted...

So yeah maybe "Horny" is also a sub-genre of Metroidvania games for some reason

Hahaha fair point.

Kenri posted...

But yeah a lot of Metroidvanias are weirdly horny for whatever reason. It even hits some of the bigger ones, like Zero Mission and Order of Ecclesia.

The Zero Suit is at least practical, but you've got a point with ZSS and Shanoa.

Mac Arrowny posted...

Rabi-Ribi was pretty successful AFAIK. It got like 5 years of post-launch updates. It's also a Japanese game.

uh no it's taiwanese

Kenri posted...

I'm also pretty upset about the amount of "I shouldn't go that way right now!" when I try to explore, but it seems like that might have only been in the very early game. We'll see.

also yeah this is really just a very early game thing and also it's deliberately designed to be circumvented through secret paths

once you finish the prologue the game stops pretending to be linear

How is Sundered?

Saw it's $4.99 on PSN

Started Ori & the Blind Forest.

Playing on hard mode. Just got the wall jump, and I feel like I've adjusted to the controls, interface, and "feel" of the game. It's got a floaty feel to it that reminds me of Little Big Planet.

The game was literally giving me a headache, but thankfully I just learned about turning off the motion blur under the settings. Hopefully that will make it easier on my eyes when I get back to it tomorrow.

I turn off motion blur in every game I can. No idea why it's considered an industry standard now.

Ori started to click for me once I got the double-jump.

Up till then I was almost ready to drop the game. It's beautiful, but early on it handles like a boat.

I have super mixed feelings on Ori. Even the art style isn't a full win for me.

First Ori game is good. Haven't played the second yet.

If you're looking for a single sitting Metroidvania, try Super Skelemania.

Ori handles fine. The thing that bothered me was not having solid control over the bash skill. Like, it's well-programmed, but the game also is finicky about what it expects you to do with it, and aiming projectiles back the other way is frequently awful.

I mean, they give you all the time in the world to aim bashes, since time freezes when you use it. Makes it pretty easy to aim wherever you want.

You'd think that, but then they expect you to point projectiles at targets pretty far away, and you can't tell precisely where you're aiming because your cursor is pointed the other way.

Also, time doesn't completely freeze, so it's not like you can get out a protractor and perform computations or anything. If you catch the very tail end of the timing window, you can still lose the bash.

I found projectile aiming to be second nature after a few tests