I agree but speaking those syllables causes me physical pain (even past the polyphonic ugliness, the implication that Castlevania is a major influence on this subgenre rather than a follower is just obnoxious) so I tediously trot out Metroid-like as though we still call them Doomlikes
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somewhere in this topic?
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everyone on this forum is an asshole except RT-55J
you could all learn a lesson from them!!
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It was Castleroid.
icebergvania was a term for somethingelse, that actually didn’t have anything to do with castlevania
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sounds like something you get from sitting on too much 14 century furniture
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The Princess and the Pea was actually about hemorrhoids who knew.
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I think I remember the term Sykel is asking about. It called to mind action and exploration in the metroidvania context but it was more clever than metroidvania. I want to say it had something to do with lock and key somehow, like a phrase.
It was keyring and I remember because I wasn’t fond
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i am so mad about keyring, its patting itself on the back for being clever while not COMMUNICATING ANYTHING!!!
zuma is more of a keyring game because the way you have to shoot bubbles between shit on a ring evokes the mild dexterity of putting a literal key on an actual keyring
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A keyring is a place you collect keys. Which is what you do in these games. Perfectly descriptive to me.
I mean if what you want is a kinesthetic description, you’re already outside what you want the term to describe. There are 2d and 3d and all other kinds of metrovanias. The thing that links them isn’t any particular manner of moment-to-moment play but the “large map, collect ability keys to open new sections” structure.
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backtracklevania
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‘Keyring’ just makes me think someone should make a metroidvania that is literally just about someone who lost their keys and has to go through a whole rigmarole of retrieving other items before eventually finding the keys in “the last place you’ll look”. Then you have to use them to key cars to set off the alarms so that the security guards stop blocking the exits
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the major issue people seem to have about the term lately is that its meaningless for people who dont play games without further explanation, and i dont know if “keyring” communicates anything about a game to people who dont play games without being explained either
it only makes sense after you explain it, which makes it just as useful as metrovania except less so because you have to explain it to everyone instead of just non gamers
too smugly clever
like i get it NOW and im not going to throw a fit if someone used it here, but i will never use it myself because the person im talking to will go ‘WAIT WHATS THAT’ and throw off the entire flow of the conversation
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I think it’s also too vague, because it doesn’t distinguish between the (very similar) structure of Zelda or any number of lock-and-key gated progression systems that don’t share the contiguous world, emphasis on backtracking, and sprawling level design that characterizes these games.
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This is basically true of all genre signifiers. It’s going to be even more true when this particular “genre” is more like a structural format. It’s not always possible to express any given concept in a single self-executing word or phrase. Jargon can often be a cover for mystification, but there’s a reason it exists: for people with prior knowledge to speak more quickly and compactly with each other, and to easily draw analogies.
When it comes to this particular term it’s just a fun thing a person made up for use among us friends, chill out
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but everybody who knows the term knows its not about Zelda
*I’m talking about metroidvania/metrovania
Clarifying: I’m referring to ‘keyring’