this assertion is really confusing for me because I love the metroidvania genre and I’m struggling to come up with examples of hentai waifu garbage
Metroid isn’t. Castlevania isn’t. Cave Story isn’t. Hollow Knight isn’t. Axiom Verge isn’t. Ori isn’t. Bloodstained is only slightly hentai waifu trash. There’s a handful of actual 🔞 porn metroidvanias but they’re almost universally unplayable garbage and I would never call any of them “big”. Are you basing this on steam or something? Just turn off adult content in the steam store.
Can't say I completely see eye-to-eye with this assessment. I'd consider Bloodstained more gratuitous and sexualized than Lost Epic, Astalon, or particularly Momodora, which just gives me a kinda relaxed Touhou-ish "witches doing witch things" vibe. Lost Epic does have waifu bait-y character design. Lost Ruins is easily the worst offender of the bunch, but it's nowhere near as bad as any gacha game. When you said "hentai waifu garbage" I really thought you meant along the lines of F:GO or other horrible gachashit.
If you want good (mostly-)indie metroidvanias that aren't waifu bait and do weird things with the genre (one of them is a pinball game), give any of these a try:
The touhou one is pretty good, and they also made a record of lodoss war one that's supposed to be really good as well.
Momodora is good delete this please. Jk, you're not really wrong but only one boss is sexualized. Strange choice, doesn't bother me but makes it hard to recommend to people. I personally prefer the way momo plays to hollow knight.
You start the game with a ranged attack , roll, and double jump so the combat is more interesting off the bat. Level design is very good and encourages different ways to traverse / take down enemies. Backtracking is still there but not as bad as some metroidvanias. Game is easy but fun on normal mode - and feels good to play on hard mode without being too punishing - could actually recommend stating on hard mode for someone who is good at these games. Good ambience - too many games try the dark souls minimal / bleak thing - which this game does to an extent - but contrasted with the cute characters and interesting environments actually makes it feel kind of novel instead of boring for me at least. Top tier pixel art / animations.
When I tried it out I did not expect to like it so much but ended up playing through it twice back to back - rare for me. Its nothing game changing for metroidvanias but I think the pixel art and varied combat is what keeps me coming back.
Edit: It kind of feels like playing Megaman in a metroidvania style.
I was playing blasphemous and it seems to be pretty solid. I really like the spooky catholic vibe of the game.
The game is a B- but the vibe is so good it makes up for it. Seriously A++ vibes
vibes - i really liked how well Skullgirls actually showed you how to play it, unlike Street Fighter which intentionally hides how it works. But it's so fucking cringy
Metroid has always been anime styled, Castlevania too, it's in the name. It's a genre that's extremely attached to anime because it was created by and has the most popularity among japanese developers which took the inspiration for its gameplay from shonen anime -- a genre where a weak protagonist slowly grows in power over time in order to overcome larger and larger challenges ahead that contribute to their continued growth.
Honestly a bit confused by @wantonviolins saying Metroid and Castlevania aren't anime. They absolutely always have been, they just started out with grittier manga styles like Berserk.
The genre itself is basically 2d platformers adapted into shonen, and changes in shonen over time have reflected changes in what influences the genre.
I never said they weren’t anime??? Is “anime” being automatically conflated with “hentai waifu garbage”? Those are two totally different things.
- The Legend of Zelda — this is anime
- Senran Kagura — this is hentai waifu garbage
It would be like if you started talking about slasher flicks and included Godzilla. Technically monster movies do fall under the same horror umbrella as slasher flicks but they’re not the same.
Lmao well I translated "hentai waifu garbage" from OP to me "I don't want it to be anime", hence how I ended up where I did.
My favorite metroidvania is incredibly guilty of this which makes it impossible for me to recommend it to others :deeper-sadness:
Risk of Rain (the first one) if you also enjoy rogue-likes.
Ooh yeah it’s rough around the edges for sure. Having to kill everything to proceed is annoying more often than not.
Monster Sanctuary
Monster battling game with Metroidvania world navigation and really tight mechanics. So far, it's my game of the year for 2021.
Timespinner is a pretty cool indie game that really wears it's Chrono Tigger influences on it's sleeve in both style and gameplay.
Carrion is a little light on the exploration and backtracking of a traditional MV game, but it makes up for it with fairly unique set-up and game-play.
Iconoclasts has some lovely pixel art and more of a puzzle focus than other games in the genre, though I don't know if it's got too much of an anime vibe for your taste.
I really want to get carrion but I just haven't caught it on a good sale yet
