For the past few years, I’ve begun to wish that more developers would adopt the metroidvania level design philosophy. It has all the benefits of linear and open-ended structure, where the player is able explore on their own and discover things for themselves in a tightly controlled environment that can be gradually expanded over time to allow for more possibilities, all the while lacking “filler” spaces and content. Unfortunately, there just aren’t that many games that truly take advantage of this style. I’ve played a decent chunk of some of the more recent metroidvanias from the past decade, as well as playing the first two Prime games on the GameCube, and based on those experiences, I’d argue that Hollow Knight is somewhat innovative in its approach. The majority of indie metroidvanias are linear adventure games focused primarily on telling a set story, rather than on having intricate worlds for the player to work out on their own. It’s hard to call it “exploration” when there’s only ever one path that the player can go down. Metroid does a great job of making it feel like you’re on a journey in a strange world, but there is still the problem of secrets feeling underwhelming. Where Hollow Knight has mask shard, vessel fragments, various charms, lore rooms, and even entire optional boss fights hidden all over its map, every time you find something off the beaten path in the Prime games it ends up being another missile expansion, or energy tank, or some kind of beam upgrade. Those sorts of collectibles stop being exciting to come across once you’ve found 3 or 4 of them, and you end up finding dozens by the end of the game. And it’s largely the same with each new entry, the only difference being the upgrades related to the game-specific gimmick (like the Light / Dark ammo upgrades in Prime 2). Overall, I just wish that we had more developers experimenting and pushing new ideas forward like Team Cherry, instead of everything having to be either on-rails or an open world. But hey, at least we’ve got Silksong to look forward to… someday…
Really great comment! As someone who loves metroidvanias (and roguelikes) I wish these well-known genres would have more examples of great execution, but unfortunately there's only a couple of standout games each it seems. (I'm sure there are hidden gems but I don't have time to find or play them sadly) Unfortunately, we failed to sacrifice mossbag, meaning Silksong will remain a myth
Take it from someone with experience in that realm. I played about 7-8 other metroidvanias after Hollow Knight, hoping to get a similar experience, and found myself disappointed. They weren’t necessarily bad games by any means, in fact I did enjoy a few of them. But if you go into it with the mindset of wanting something that’s as good as Hollow Knight, you’re setting yourself up for disaster. For me, the one other game that I did enjoy almost as much as Hollow Knight was Salt & Sanctuary. It most closely matched the aspects that I loved the most about that game, namely the exploration and challenging boss fights. I feel it’s the closest we’ve got until Silksong eventually arrives.
I’d also recommend the Metroid Prime series, especially now that Prime 4 has been given a release window. They’re more linear when compared to Hollow Knight, but they still greatly emphasize exploration in a way that I feel a lot of indie metroidvanias don’t really prioritize. You can read my comment I posted earlier, but basically a lot of the more popular games in the genre, from smaller developers, focus on telling a fixed narrative through cutscenes and dialogue, and that significantly restricts how much freedom the player has to venture out on their own. It’s why the vague storytelling style of Hollow Knight actually plays to its strengths as a metroidvania, in my eyes.
For the past few years, I’ve begun to wish that more developers would adopt the metroidvania level design philosophy. It has all the benefits of linear and open-ended structure, where the player is able explore on their own and discover things for themselves in a tightly controlled environment that can be gradually expanded over time to allow for more possibilities, all the while lacking “filler” spaces and content.
Unfortunately, there just aren’t that many games that truly take advantage of this style. I’ve played a decent chunk of some of the more recent metroidvanias from the past decade, as well as playing the first two Prime games on the GameCube, and based on those experiences, I’d argue that Hollow Knight is somewhat innovative in its approach. The majority of indie metroidvanias are linear adventure games focused primarily on telling a set story, rather than on having intricate worlds for the player to work out on their own. It’s hard to call it “exploration” when there’s only ever one path that the player can go down.
Metroid does a great job of making it feel like you’re on a journey in a strange world, but there is still the problem of secrets feeling underwhelming. Where Hollow Knight has mask shard, vessel fragments, various charms, lore rooms, and even entire optional boss fights hidden all over its map, every time you find something off the beaten path in the Prime games it ends up being another missile expansion, or energy tank, or some kind of beam upgrade. Those sorts of collectibles stop being exciting to come across once you’ve found 3 or 4 of them, and you end up finding dozens by the end of the game. And it’s largely the same with each new entry, the only difference being the upgrades related to the game-specific gimmick (like the Light / Dark ammo upgrades in Prime 2).
Overall, I just wish that we had more developers experimenting and pushing new ideas forward like Team Cherry, instead of everything having to be either on-rails or an open world. But hey, at least we’ve got Silksong to look forward to… someday…
Really great comment! As someone who loves metroidvanias (and roguelikes) I wish these well-known genres would have more examples of great execution, but unfortunately there's only a couple of standout games each it seems. (I'm sure there are hidden gems but I don't have time to find or play them sadly)
Unfortunately, we failed to sacrifice mossbag, meaning Silksong will remain a myth
You are going to love Elden Ring
I've got about 30 hours, and I do!
Just haven't been able to get through Raya Lucaria
I know that playing hollow knight as my first fully completed metroidvania is gonna really skewer my view on other (worse) metroidvanias
Yes, it definitely will... But it also gives you appreciation for the genre because you see what it's capable of
Take it from someone with experience in that realm. I played about 7-8 other metroidvanias after Hollow Knight, hoping to get a similar experience, and found myself disappointed.
They weren’t necessarily bad games by any means, in fact I did enjoy a few of them. But if you go into it with the mindset of wanting something that’s as good as Hollow Knight, you’re setting yourself up for disaster.
For me, the one other game that I did enjoy almost as much as Hollow Knight was Salt & Sanctuary. It most closely matched the aspects that I loved the most about that game, namely the exploration and challenging boss fights. I feel it’s the closest we’ve got until Silksong eventually arrives.
I’d also recommend the Metroid Prime series, especially now that Prime 4 has been given a release window. They’re more linear when compared to Hollow Knight, but they still greatly emphasize exploration in a way that I feel a lot of indie metroidvanias don’t really prioritize.
You can read my comment I posted earlier, but basically a lot of the more popular games in the genre, from smaller developers, focus on telling a fixed narrative through cutscenes and dialogue, and that significantly restricts how much freedom the player has to venture out on their own. It’s why the vague storytelling style of Hollow Knight actually plays to its strengths as a metroidvania, in my eyes.