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[injurai]

Shadow of the Colossus.

 

[encephalon]

Plenty of Survival Horror games have this kind of approach. Classic Resident Evil, Silent Hill, Haunting Ground, Clock Tower, etc, if on a smaller scale. I really miss it.

 

[umop_3pisdn]

If I remember correctly, Super Adventure Island 2 fits this subgenre.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slFQhGcP8hc

The game is amazing to boot.

I used to be obsessed with this game as a kid, I never really see it mentioned anywhere.

 

[steveovig]

I tried out the demo of Knytt Underground the other day and I really like it. Seems like it just puts you in the middle of nowhere with no objective and you must explore to progress.

 

[Myriadis]

Knytt Underground

And Kyntt Stories.

By that definition, we can also say that Zelda 1 is actually such a game. After all, you barely got any hints and the ones you get are fairly strange, you get items that help you finding secrets and the next dungeons and it's fairly non-linear, though not too much (like, you can only get to the first three dungeons right from the beginning, and the second quest iirc even moreso).

 

[Corleth the Fey]

I also love this term, pathfinding. In that sense Metroid would essentially be a mix of pathfinding and arcade shmup action.

Have you ever played Endless Ocean 2?
That game gave me serious Metroid vibes, so much that I wanted Arika (the dev) to make a Metroid game for Nintendo. The game isn't about action at all, but in terms of exploring a huge and disorientating environment, getting lost only to accidentally discover hidden horrors or secret wonders, it has such a magnificent atmosphere.

spoilers ahead:
From discovering

Spoiler

the cave with beautiful wall paintings of an ancient civilization in the Ciceros Staights

to figuring out the location of the

Spoiler

entrance to the hollowed out iceberg in the North Sea

and so many other secret locations ranging from the Amazon river to hundreds of meters below sea level in pitch-black ocean crevices, just felt so good and gave me goosebumps all over.
end spoilers.

Not only that, but discovering the hundreds of species in the game, from the bizarre to the majestic to downright terrifying, many of which hidden in secret niches and accessible only during certain times of day added even more to the glorious sense of discovery.

The way the team implemented some of these niches artistically was both beautiful and reminded me of a more 'organic' take on scanning and zooming in the Prime games.

If you haven't played it and own a Wii or Wii U, I really think you should. Just imaging a game that copies Endless Ocean 2's blueprint but switches the aquatic setting for an alien world gets me hyped to hell and back!

The day they announce Endless Ocean 3 is the day I ready myself to buy a Wii U.

Where does that Sega Saturn classic Exhumed (Power Slave?) fit in the metroidvania family tree?

 

[Darkangel]

I've always thought of Metroid's overall gameplay as "Using new abilities to unlock new areas in old locations", not necessarily "path finding".

There are a lot of games that force the player to figure out where to go that are nothing like Metroid/Castlevania. Shadow of the Colossus places the player in a big open world, but has pretty much nothing else in common with those games.

 

[Green Mamba]

Man do I really want a new Shadow Complex.

 

[Jotamide]

Dark Souls is a pretty good example on how it can be done in 3D. Saying it's a 3D Symphony of the Night is pretty true. Metroid Prime is a awesome 3D Super Metroid. Retro and Miyamoto nailed its design.

Also Shadow Complex is great. Then there's Monster Tale for the DS which is a highly underrated gem and a fantastic 2D game.


Never played this. I want to check it out now! Did some research. Had no idea it used the Castlevania Aria of Sorrow engine.

Wait what!? Brb, gonna play this ASAP.

 

[DesertEater]

Metal Gear 1, 2 and Solid.

 

[The Awesomest]

"Pathfinding". That's a good name for a genre. I like that.

 

[Doc Holliday]

VVVVVV

 

[Ocaso]

I also love this term, pathfinding. In that sense Metroid would essentially be a mix of pathfinding and arcade shmup action.

Have you ever played Endless Ocean 2?
That game gave me serious Metroid vibes, so much that I wanted Arika (the dev) to make a Metroid game for Nintendo. The game isn't about action at all, but in terms of exploring a huge and disorientating environment, getting lost only to accidentally discover hidden horrors or secret wonders, it has such a magnificent atmosphere.

Haven't played it, but now I want to! Maybe I should hunt it down.

Zelda. :3

Actually a lot of Nintendo games tend to fall into this sort of ability based puzzle solving exploration adventuring. Pikmin, Paper Mario, etc.

It's not all that unreasonable to say that the NES Zeldas fall into this genre somewhat as well. Later titles focused on dungeons, puzzles, and quests, but at its origin Zelda and Metroid had quite a bit in common. However, it's quite clear Pikmin, Paper Mario, and truthfully pretty much every Nintendo game outside of the Metroid franchise does not emphasize pathfinding, even if they have other Metroid-like elements.

I've always thought of Metroid's overall gameplay as "Using new abilities to unlock new areas in old locations", not necessarily "path finding".

There are a lot of games that force the player to figure out where to go that are nothing like Metroid/Castlevania. Shadow of the Colossus places the player in a big open world, but has pretty much nothing else in common with those games.

Well, unlocking new areas through new abilities is obviously important, but if you think about it obtaining those abilities is not what distinguishes these games and a big reason why titles like Arkham Asylum, Cave Story, and Dust: An Elysian Tale really aren't proper Metroidvanias. Proper Metroidvanias, the ones we could really call pathfinding games, have their path towards completion deliberately obfuscated so that correctly discovering/deciphering where to go is part of the reward of playing them. In that sense it's clear Shadow of the Colossus, despite having a huge world, is not one of these games.

 

[PaulExcellent]

SO GOOD

I love this post so hard.

 

[Winterfang]

came to post this. It is an excellent game and you donot need to be a fan of the manga to enjoy it. Highly recommend it. A++

I love this post so hard.