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.
No comments:
Post a Comment