I haven’t played a Metroidvania in a while and I’m looking for suggestions of some good ones to try. Some I would recommend:
Ender’s: Lilies (Magnolias is good too, but play Lilies first. The setting and theme hits better.)
Ori and the Blind Forest / Will of the Wisps (Will of the Wisps did bring a tear to my eye)
Monster Sanctuary (a creature capture metroidvania)
Any system is good, interested to hear of other good ones that are out there.
La mulana 1 and 2, animal well for puzzles.
Metroid dread, highly recommend for combat.
Dead cells and rouge legacy two for rouge lite bits
terraria for minecraft + metroidvania
time spinner, bloodsworn for more typical metroidvania
the old castlevania games are on steam, so there is that
almost metroidvania suggestion is Outer wilds. Progression based learning. just not in a 2d plane and no fighting.
This…shines a totally new light on a bunch of decisions that originally made me fairly upset and caused me to quit playing the game.
I played the game with nearly every free moment I had between the time I bought it in 2012 and the 1.2 release in October of 2013. Multiple worlds. Multiplayer sessions with players in several countries possibly requiring port forwarding and VPN tunnels if I remember correctly, and all of it stopped dead for me when I had to quit focusing on creating and exploring and was instead spending most of my time struggling to survive.
There were enemies before, and you could find one of the three bosses and just… Not go there, but 1.2 really made combat the forefront of the game and killed it for me entirely.
In the intervening 12 years. I’d be surprised if had more than a couple of hours into the game.
Viewing it through the lens of a metroidvania where you craft your own progression is not something I’d considered before.
I might actually go back to the game on the rare occasion I’m in the mood for something like that.
Thank you for the insight, while it probably sounds silly, it gives me some perspective into something that was so jarring it still causes me to panic when a game announces combat where combat was not previously the focus (I’m looking at you, Dyson Sphere Program 😄) and I really appreciate that.