In search of the world's most generous metroidvania

King of Posters
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I got covid a few months ago and my life continues to be decimated by long covid symptoms and the accompanying despair. So I took an arguably heroic dose of mushrooms and starting playing hollow knight bc it felt like some kind of comfort food as I feel my entire sense of agency in my life is being peeled away layer by layer until there’s nothing left but pure sensory misery.

Anyway, I love hollow knight, I really do, but playing a fresh new game is a deeply frustrating reminder of what is in my opinion it’s worst flaw: what I have taken to calling “nickel and dime” design philosophy. The game is downright stingy with giving you any basic quality-of-life-level amenities. It even costs an upgrade slot just to see your location on the map – which is a concession I appreciated on my first playthrough but is just annoying on what I think is my third or fourth attempt.

Anyway, I’m not here to talk about Hollow Knight. And forgive me for being unusually wordy but I AM on a lot of drugs right now.

But something I’ve been thinking about a lot lately, and something that feels particularly urgent right now, possibly bc of the shrooms or possibly just because I keep having this feeling that my life is going to end prematurely no matter what I do, is the idea of a “giving metroidvania” or search-action or call it whatever you want. Like, I’ve played a million of these games already. Please, let me play one that dispenses with the formalities and just gives me the air dash, wall jump, and whatever gimmicky movement ability you’ve decided is cooler than a double jump. just give me all that shit from the outset. max out my health and stamina too. and max out whatever other build options I have – be it charm notches, experience points, heart containers, I don’t fucking care, just give it all to me.

and still give me a large branching non-linear world, too! just make it difficult enough to where it’s still an engaging, interesting challenge despite all the overpowered movement and stats you just gave me. let me enjoy an entire game with my full moveset.

does this game exist? is there anything that comes close? because honestly I’d rather play that than hollow knight for the umpteenth time. I’ve played so many similar games this year – some of them really great! (personally I recommend grime, which I feel is unfairly ignored/slept on, but is a very solid, entertaining, and bizarre take on the format)

If it doesn’t exist, can we make it?

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gato robato pares down a lot of excess stuff and comes close to a metroid fusion kind of deal

or just metroid on NES with max health/missiles password

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just give me all that shit from the outset. max out my health and stamina too. and max out whatever other build options I have – be it charm notches, experience points, heart containers, I don’t fucking care, just give it all to me.

Quake was originally imagined as this but for RPGs!

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yea see metroid fusion — tho I love it — is the opposite of what I want here. the original quake design doc nails it. just give me the fucking power fantasy if that’s what this is about. go all in. don’t fuckin’ cock tease me for 12 hours with that shit.

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I feel like @vincenttoups would be with me here

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Have you played Zelda: Link Between Worlds? That game has a “borrow” system that I experienced as functionally similar to what you’re describing. You can go ahead and borrow the entire suite of Zelda junk right off the bat and then do dungeons in any order.

If you ever die, as I dimly recall, you have to gather a lot of rupees to pay it all back and the punishment scales with the number of items you borrowed, which is supposed to encourage you to be cautious and calculated. But I just swung for the fences and simply never died since I’m experienced at 2d Zeldas and I had so many combat options. (The ice dungeon was a real nail-biter but I squeaked through.)

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I don’t think Dandara has any ability gating… though it’s a weird one

I’m quite fond of all the extra modes from Igavanias (Maxim mode, richter mode, albus mode, Old Axe Armor mode etc) They feel empty and weird without all the item pickups but that’s part of the charm IMO. Order of Ecclesia and Portrait of Ruin extra modes offer a more linear classical experience while Symphony of the night just lets you go wild and meet Drac in 10 minutes if you want

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the Ori sequel

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Kirby and the Amazing Mirror lets kirby be kirby… on a metroidvania map. It’s pretty good! The traditional metroidvania keys are unlocked with different copy abilities. So you don’t have to go unlock moves, you just have to find the right enemy, steal their power, and walk it over to where you need it. It does suit the power fantasy desire, as like most Kirby games it’s generally pretty easy. The one caveat is that this is the metroidvania I’ve found easiest to get lost in, by far. I eventually got to the point where I had to quit because I just had no clue at all where I was supposed to go. It really gets inscrutable eventually! Great game though.

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im having a hard time even thinking of games in general where you start with your moveset maxed out including all your stats and stuff except for platformers where youre only power ups are temporary

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Toki Tori 2

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yeah link between worlds owns! I don’t know what happened to my copy but I owe that game another playthrough. really smart decision in particular bc it’s assuming many players will already be familiar with the lttp world map. I love how that link is modeled after the derpy NES zelda link too. before they yassified him. such a great game.

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not quite what I’m looking for here but it is close!

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So this is a bit unorthodox and probably stretching what you want but Morrowind is the closest example of a game that can start with your moveset close to maxed out. Literally a minute after character creation you can jump all the way to Red Mountain if you so desire. Or do some quick alchemy to have more strength than the in-game demigod. Or make your own collectible system by turning said demigods into soul gems. Even becoming God is fun because the world design has a lot of thoughtful friction with different types of transport and geographical details that reward knowledge and honest exploration. To be honest I can’t think of a more generous game than Morrowind.

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Oh! Any one of Quest for Glory II to IV if you import a maxxed out character from a previous game

Those games are truly wild hybrids of adventure game and CRPG. They have a lot in common with the Metroidvania spirit, especially in its unformalized earlier days when devs were just throwing in whatever ideas felt coolest and gambling it synergized rather than clashed with the rest

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I mean you’re not wrong, I just want all the broken shit that morrowind gives you without all the fuss of even installing, let alone playing morrowind

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Rain World.

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yeah, something like maxim mode in harmony of dissonance is very close to what I want. I just want the game to actually be designed around it. maxim mode is fun, but it’s a mess and is totally broken. but, thanks for reminding me of this

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This was a huge part of why I felt like Knytt was so incredible: explore a vast 2D-platforming world, find your missing collectibles, you’re always at 100% of your power level. Knytt Stories levels where you start with all your stuff also work, although it’s been too long for me to remember or bother looking up what those would amount to. Obvious downside to all of this is that there’s still obstacles and enemies, yet you don’t have any real way of fighting back, so it’s not exactly a power fantasy.

…oh! Bangai-O? Not really about exploration, but otherwise…?

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Unhundred % is a mostly vanilla hack in which the player starts with every item in the game and must place every item back in its original position! This means you get weaker as you go.

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god harmony looks and sounds so awesome

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