Board 8 > Must Play Metroidvanias Humble Bundle

(+) Yeah! (+)

Probably the best Humble Bundle in a long time.

https://www.humblebundle.com/games/must-play-metroidvania

15 dollars for:
-Hollow Knight
-Rain World
-Bloodstained
-Blasphemous
-Haiku the Robot
-Lost Ruins
-Lone Fungus
-coupon for Rain World DLC discount
-coupon for 50% off Zapling Bygone

First five things listed there are all good or great games

HB has been so shit with how a majority of their bundles are all or nothing these days.

Yeah this is an insanely good deal if you don't own all of these already. For me it would just be Rain World, Lone Fungus, and the Zapling Bygone coupon so that's more questionable value but still maybe worth it.

I loved hollow knight but don't know anything about any of the others.

https://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-4/rain-world
https://www.metacritic.com/game/pc/lost-ruins

Must play huh

PeaceFrog posted...

I loved hollow knight but don't know anything about any of the others.

Blasphemous is a straight up Metroidvania in a setting that could be described as like, Dark Souls with Catholic guilt. It's very good and not as hard as people say. Excellent game but the setting is going to be a deal-breaker for some people.

Haiku the Robot is short and plays a lot like Hollow Knight. It's great while you're playing it but kinda forgettable IMO.

Lost Ruins is a Metroidvania with some of the cruelty you'd expect of a Souls-like, e.g. instant death traps and overwhelmingly powerful enemies. However once you're a couple hours in it has a sharp drop in difficulty. IMO this is the third best one in the bundle that I've played, after HK and Blasphemous. Has a little anime grossness but that can be mostly ignored.

Bloodstained is like Symphony of the Night if it was ugly, soulless, and not fun to play. Okay I'm being harsh because people generally really like this game but my takeaway really was "this is just Castlevania but bad".

I also think bloodstained is overrated. It has way too many mechanics jammed in. Like kill 15 wolves side quests. Why are those in the game.

I found Ritual of the Night to be pretty mid across the board, so I have been confused about its overly positive reception. The Curse of the Moon games are the far superior titles in that franchise.

I own nearly all of these games but have only played two, Ritual and Rain World. If Zapling were included, I would probably still get it for that and Haiku.

If you are thinking about getting a must play metroidvania, I would just buy Astalon Tears of the earth.

That game is awesome and I dont see it mentioned very much at all

Seconding Astalon.

Astalon or Ender Lilies.

I'm playing Afterimage right now and like what I've encountered thus far.

Regarding the bundle, HK is amazing, Blasphemous is meh, Bloodstained is bleh, and I haven't played the rest. I've heard people talk positively about Rain World, but it doesn't sound like my thing. Lone Fungus is pretty new, but I'd be willing to play it and Haiku. I feel like I'm better served buying those a la carte, though.

I came here to say Ender Lillies. That game is fantastic

Lone Fungus ultimately gave me a headache, but to the (solo) dev's credit they were still taking feedback and laboriously adjusting the controls and physics, among other things, after I had stopped playing.

I would say play Transiruby.

I'm currently playing through Aeterna Noctis and really enjoying it.

Some tough platforming but so far it's really good.

Aeterna Noctis is fantastic. One of the most satisfying games I've ever played.

There's one area that can absolutely go to hell but the rest I loved.

NBIceman posted...

Aeterna Noctis is fantastic. One of the most satisfying games I've ever played.

There's one area that can absolutely go to hell but the rest I loved.

I was reading some reviews before buying since the game seems so polarizing and I think I read about that area. Assuming it's endgame though and I just unlocked double jump so I'm guessing I'm a ways away!

remember trying out the demos for haiku and lone fungus before. former's completely a HK clone and latter is... also, but it also had a major bug at the time too

lost ruins is very bad lol. anyone who shits on rabi ribi should really be directing their hate at that game instead because it's way worse about fanservice and especially actual game design (also has terrible performance too). also not a fan of blasphemous

have only heard overwhelming praise for rain world and also don't have bloodstained on pc but would probably need one more game to get me to commit. wish they'd thrown in something like ender lilies as mentioned, or even transiruby so i'd have an excuse to gift it to someone lol

Rabi Ribi is actually pretty good as a game though.

maybe in the future there can be an anime-themed followup bundle with like... Rabi Ribi/Glimmer in Mirror/Alice Escaped/Transiruby/Ender Lilies/Touhouvania/(one of Luna Nights/Deedlit/Pharaoh Rebirth)/Bunny Must Die and whatever other ones i'm forgetting that are all better than lost ruins

Never Grave might be out by then too which could be neat

paperwarior posted...

Rabi Ribi is actually pretty good as a game though.

oh yeah to be clear it's also my favourite metroidvania ever so i'm not saying that's bad at all, i just know it gets tons of flack for its content (that is barely present compared to most examples...)

looking forward to TEVI and the love bunny metroidvania spiritual sequels a lot too

bought the bundle just because Hollow Knight/Bloodstained/Lost Ruins look cool

welp onto the backlog pile they go

If were now using this as a general talk about Metroidvanias topic, Ive been playing Rusted Moss. It adds the one thing thats always been missing from the genre: Umihara Kawase-style rubberband physics grappling hook.

i think there have actually been a few games in the genre with hookshot powerups, like environmental station alpha. still though yeah i think rusted moss is the first one i can think of that focuses on it as much as kawase does pretty much, and it even seems to have pace more like hook girl which i like. if it wasn't also a twin stick shooter i'd have probably picked it up, just seems too difficult for me tbh

I'm using KBM, playing it on controller seems like it would be a nightmare.

WazzupGenius00 posted...

Umihara Kawase-style rubberband physics grappling hook.

interest piqued

FL81 posted...

bought the bundle just because Hollow Knight/Bloodstained/Lost Ruins look cool

welp onto the backlog pile they go

At least play HK for when Silksong eventually arrives.

that gives him at least a year so no rush

But he has to be waking up in a cold sweat, wondering when it will finally come out, like the rest of us.

azuarc posted...

At least play HK for when Silksong eventually arrives.

"when"?

Just jumping in to say Bloodstained was awesome and ya'll are crazy.

UF8 posted...

"when"?

Hey, it might be a wait rivaling Duke Nukem Forever, but it'll come out some day!

Update on Afterimage: This game is HUGE. I didn't realize the full breadth and scope of it until last night. The map areas feel larger than other games because they're seamless rather than having rooms; the only metroidvania I can recall off my head that I've played with seamless rooms is Ori, and they're bigger than Ori 2. Probably bigger than HK, on the order of Sundered -- except that only has a few total areas. Afterimage has at least a couple dozen. I don't actually know yet.

It's very slow with handing out upgrades. You gotta explore the world and eventually find them, rather than just assuming "oh, there's an upgrade in this area. I'll stay here until I find it." It is absolutely a game for patient exploration, if that's your thing. But the moment that really got me is when I was 8 hours in and found a whistle to call a friendly sea creature...AND GO TO A GD WORLDMAP. The area I'd been in the whole time connected to like 5 other locations. (I later realized they are, in fact, part of the same continuous map, just far apart.)

If you enjoy playing metroidvanias for the sheer thrill of looking around and finding stuff, Afterimage is definitely worth a try. Just be warned that you will use lots of map pins for all the places you can't get to yet.

neat, had it on my radar but opted to prioritise other releases that month, will definitely be thinking about picking it up more heavily now

there really should just be a general metroidvania topic tbh

Okay, I'm not sure if I'll even get around to playing these games, but there are a couple I've wanted for a long time and this is a cannot pass up bundle.

Thanks for pointing it out.

azuarc posted...

Update on Afterimage:

22 hours in. At level 70 with an achievement at 99. It seems I've got all the ability upgrades at this point since there's slots for them on a screen like there are in Ori. At this point, I need to head to the farthest corners of the map to do...something. The game is implying that will bring about the endgame, so I'm choosing to liken this to killing the dreamers in HK.

Bosses are getting a bit more challenging, but that might be a lack of exploiting all the game systems on my part. I'm basically never using magic, the same two weapons, and I just learned all the food I made had to be selected from the inventory and eaten before it gave the permanent stat buffs. Apparently you can upgrade items, but since I periodically find stronger weapons, I don't want to invest into something that will be replaced.

Can't really say more without spoiling. Outside of finding the enemies in one of the most recent areas infuriating, I've been very happy with the game. There's a lot of running when you want to backtrack, which some people complain about, but I don't think the system is a big deal as it is currently.

I played a good chunk of Bloodstained on my PS5.

I still remember how I unintentionally glitched to a point behind one of the bosses, and was able to fight it at it's blind spot, so it couldn't hit me at all, which meant it was only matter of time before it's HP went to zero from my attacks.

Hollow Knight and Blasphemous are top tier Metroidvanias

plasmabeam posted...

Hollow Knight and Blasphemous are top tier Metroidvanias

Hell yeah they are!

Afterimage finally beaten at 35 hours. Well, I reached an ending at 26, but it took another 9 hours to figure out how to get the ending. 9 frustrating hours spent periodically breaking down and checking guides...and there isn't a ton of good guide material out currently. The writing is definitely the low point for this game. The story doesn't make a ton of sense and trying to figure out how to progress through sidequests or some of the objectives for the true ending are kinda ridiculous and I would have never figured out on my own.

But the first 26 hours were mostly enjoyable.

ok i'm playing rusted moss and it's pretty dope

No La Mulana 1 or 2? Weird exception for indie Metroidvanias.

It's not like Humble can choose whatever they want and force publishers to provide keys

NBIceman posted...

Aeterna Noctis is fantastic. One of the most satisfying games I've ever played.

There's one area that can absolutely go to hell but the rest I loved.

yeah I'm now at end game because I can only play this game for like an hour or two at a time because I'm too busy

but this. game. is. brutal.