Thoughts on Metroidvania, Part II

Incidentally, while building up to SotN I decided it was a good idea to revisit the Metroid Series. I replayed Metroid and Metroid: Zero Mission. I couldn't find my copy of Metroid II, even though I had it specifically set out not many months ago, but I finally played through Samus Returns, which I had got a couple of years ago for the 3DS. I also replayed Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion. I got all the endings on the two GBA games for the first time, and did bare minimum percent runs for both of those games, which I ended up enjoying.

Besides revisiting a favorite series and finally playing the latest entry, I wanted to replay them as a preliminary step to learning more about Metroidvania in general, and to see how Symphony of the Night compared and contrasted to its counterpart series in the genre moniker. I've also read quite a few articles on a variety of popular indie games that have adopted the Metroidvania term to describe themselves, and downloaded a demo for Ori and the Blind forest (which I've since learned a few relatives have played and liked). I've been looking for a fresh gaming experience, and these games seem to fit the bill.

I've started playing one of the early indie games called Cave Story. The freeware version comes in Japanese only, and although there are unofficial translation patches, I decided to try my hand at translating the language myself. Because of that, it's artificially slow going, and I haven't really made it past the first town, but the game looks promising.

Aside from the Castlevania games, I have a host of other Metroidvanias now that I've had recommended to me which I'm eager to play through as quickly as I have capacity to. I am finding it to be a great complimentary style of game to play alongside the more intensive RPG's I've been playing, to keep me from getting burned out on any one game. I probably can (and I guess really already have) finish two or three of these in the time it takes me to get through one big console RPG, and they seem to be very engaging in their own way.

Thoughts on Metroidvania, Part I

 I have to start this article off by saying I'm not a particular fan of arbitrary portmanteaus, and the name "Metroidvania" fits the bill. However, it seems to have become the standard gaming term for a subgenre of games I've long been interested in learning more about, and have finally started getting into more.

The type of game is an offshoot of 2-D side-scrolling adventure games, which I was rather fond of back in the day. By "adventure" I mean games that were more focused on exploration than on a stage or level based design. In particular, it's usually meant to refer to games similar to the iconic games Super Metroid and Castlevania: Symphonia of the Night, which games form the basis for the portmanteau.

I was a fan of certain 2-D side-scrolling games like Faxanadu, Rygar, and Castlevania II: Simon's Quest back on the NES, and I've always been a fan of the Metroid game series. Simon's Quest seems to be considered a progenitor of the Metroidvania style, but not an actual Metroidvania. It has some clear influences on Symphony of the Night, but it's still very different in a lot of ways.

I've long wanted to try SotN, but I like to play game series mostly in release date order, so it seemed far out of reach. I had never played beyond the NES games, with a brief trial of Super Castlevania IV. But when Simon and Richter Belmont were announced for Super Smash Bros, and the Netflix anime based on Castlevania III were released, I decided I was interested in revisiting the series. When I was part way through replaying the NES games, they announced the Castlevania Anniversary Collection, which I got for my birthday the following year. Even so it took a while to start working the games into my queue.

I really enjoyed revisiting the classic Castlevanias, and playing many for the first time. I also purchased Castlevania Chronicles digitally, as well as Castlevania: Requiem which contains Rondo of Blood. I had a great time with all of these games, which evoked a certain degree of nostalgia for game types I haven't played a lot of since the NES days.

I was excited to finally work my way to Symphony of the Night. I purchased this digitally as well (it's included with Rondo of Blood, but I wanted to play the original Playstation version, and it wasn't very expensive). I've always heard a lot of praise for the game, and always thought it would be up my alley. It turns out, not only was it up my alley, it's one of my new favorite games.

The game well deserves its reputation. It has a compelling mix of Metroid-like level design and RPG game mechanics that I just loved. It has excellent music and some compelling, unexpected, and memorable plot turns. It's not really a plot heavy game, but one particular turn was so cleverly implemented that it still blew my mind, in such a way that I was surprised I had never had it spoiled.

I have also since completed Legends, which is the last classic Castlevania, and Circle of the Moon, this game's first real follow-up. Circle of the Moon is nice, but not really on the same level. It's a solid game, and a great game for Game Boy Advance. In some ways it feels a little more like Super Metroid than SotN did, as far as level design, and the game is probably on a similar level to GBA Metroid games. But it's not as impressive as its progenitor.

I'm holding off on moving further because I'm still fleshing out my game files on both of those games, but I think I'll be ready to move to the next game soon. I've momentarily skipped the first 3-D Castlevanias for the Nintendo 64. But I'll get to them as soon as I decide I'm ready to pay for both of them. The GBA ones are available digitally, but neither of the N64 games are. And at least one of those is fairly pricy for a used copy.

Thoughts on Final Fantasy

 I've really been wanting to get back into the Final Fantasy series for a long time now. I claimed it as my favorite game series growing up, and still think of it as one of my three favorite. But I don't have a lot to add to conversations about the modern series, and I'm not sure I really stack up well as a true Final Fantasy fan. I realized recently that I've only played 4 of the 15 mainline games more than once (the ones that existed when I was growing up). And I haven't played hardly any of the spinoffs or side games that have come out in the last decade and a half. Even though I got a copy of Final Fantasy XV many months ago, I've yet to play it past the tutorial.

Five years ago, I made a five-year goal for myself to catch myself up on my three favorite game series: The Legend of Zelda, Dragon Quest, and Final Fantasy (in no particular order). I wanted to not only have played the main games, but to have really fleshed out my game files and make sure I'd done the bulk of what each game had to offer.

I had started with the Zelda series, knowing they were less time intensive and I could get through it better. I finished my goal more or less with that one. (I still have a lot unfinished on Breath of the Wild, but that's fine with me since the game is still a current generation game and I have plenty of time to revisit it before whatever next Zelda game comes out.)

The Dragon Quest series is still in progress. It's taken my longer than I thought because I got sidetracked some with doing a variety of challenge quests on the early games that weren't part of my original goal; some of which were fairly time-intensive. I've had a few burnout periods, too, where I had to take a break from large scale RPGs.

Since I was doing Dragon Quest before Final Fantasy, this means I've left my Final Fantasy goal largely unaddressed. But every few months I go through a stronger desire to come revisit it.

I booted up my NES game file, which is about 19 years old now. I want to replay the original, but I don't want to erase my current game file yet. I've decided to bring my characters up to max level on that file before restarting it, to give me stronger closure on my old file. I've gone from about level 39 to level 43 after a few nights at it this week.

I don't think I'm going to go strictly sequentially on this series, as it will take far to long to get to newer entries I still want to try. But I haven't decided just how I'll go about it. It's hard to think about starting a big name RPG I haven't played until I finish my Dragon Quest V playthrough, but I can redo some of the earlier games I've played during that time.

I'm also wanting to reboot my Theatrythym and try to ace the last handful of songs and series that I don't have SSS rank on. I think its just about half a dozen battle scores and their respective series modes I need to finish off.

Blog Reboot?

 It's been a long several months. I was debating myself on whether to stop keeping this blog altogether given how infrequently I post on it. But maybe I just need a format change.

I don't have time to record all my thoughts on every game I play. So I think I need to abbreviate my format here in general. I would find it easier to post more often if I posted less, anyway.

Some games I've played since last September: every game on the Castlevania collection (except Kid Dracula; I'll play it some day probably, but I see it as more of a side game and less an actual Castlvania game). Also the Castlevania games Rondo of Blood (now my favorite "Classicvania"), Symphony of the Night (at long last), Legends, and Circle of the Moon.

I did challenge runs on Metroid Zero Mission and Metroid Fusion, and replayed Super Metroid.

I played through indie games Fairune and Fairune 2. I also replayed Braid on my XBox 360.

I'm nearing the end of Pokemon Picross.

I'm also finally playing Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne, I'm near the end of Dragon Quest V, and I've started the game Cave Story.

It's probably not an exhaustive list, but I'll start from there.

Best game on all this list that I hadn't played before is Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, which was every bit as good as I always heard it was, and better in some ways.

Although most of my gaming (and my blog name) is somewhat old school, I've been feeling a lot lately like I want to try some newer games. Both new-to-me games and newer games in general, so I can follow conversations with my friends a bit better. But I haven't decided yet what games those will be. More on that to come, I suppose.