In this essay, I will explore the history and enduring popularity of the Metroidvania genre. Specifically, I will look at the creation and reception of the genre’s namesakes, Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, as well as another game in the Metroid franchise, Super Metroid. I will also look at the genre’s characteristics in a couple modern examples, Hollow Knight and Axiom Verge, and discuss some of the reasons why the genre has had so much success.
Metroid and Castlevania
The Metroidvania genre is a subgenre of action-adventure platformer games that utilize certain characteristics of games in the Metroid and Castlevania franchises. Specifically, these games usually take place in a single large space, with more focus being on navigation and exploration as opposed to pure action. Usually, progress is made by opening up more and more of the map. In order to do that, you usually have to acquire new items or abilities in order to get past obstacles. Often there are also optional items or abilities. These games are often very physically non-linear, and require you to backtrack to spaces you’ve previously traversed. They also tend to be non-linear in plot structure as well, often allowing you to fight multiple bosses or access other events in any order.
Metroid was the first of the two namesakes of the genre to be released, coming out in 1986. In it, you play as the bounty hunter Samus Aran, who attempts to retrieve the titular Metroids from the planet Zebes. As you begin the game, your path through Zebes is very constrained, and you pass by doors you can’t open and areas you can’t get to. However, as you acquire more power-ups, you have access to more and more of the maze-like planet. Because the player ends up with such a large space to explore, and very little instruction on where to go to complete game objectives, there is a lot of wandering and backtracking involved in playing. Combined with the simple game art, this can make getting around difficult. According to Metroid developers Yoshio Sakamoto and Hiroji Kiyotake in an interview with Nintendo in 2016, differently colored backgrounds in different areas had to be added late in development so players would have a sense of where they were. This lack of guidance extends to the rest of the gameplay as well, and the two sub-bosses, Ridley and Kraid, can be fought in any order. More than anything, Metroid’s non-linearity ended up defining it and is why it is one of the namesakes of the Metroidvania genre.
The other half of the genre’s name comes from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, a platformer released in 1997. Despite being so heavily associated with Metroid now, it was actually inspired more by the Legend of Zelda series, according to a talk given by Koji Igarashi at GDC 2014, titled There and Back Again: Koji Igarashi’s Metroidvania Tale. Despite typically being RPGs and not platformers, the Legend of Zelda series often has dungeons that involve a lot of backtracking, similar to Metroidvania-style games. The designers of Castlevania hoped that by making the game less linear and requiring the players to explore and double back, they could get more playtime out of their game. In Castlevania, Alucard begins with all of his abilities, but they are taken away soon after you start and you have to regain them through travelling around the castle, giving a justified reason for why you are constantly gaining new powers over the course of the game. In typical Metroidvania fashion, the beginning of the game is very linear, but opens up as you get back your abilities. Castlevania was the game that truly brought the idea of the Metroidvania sub-genre into being. Even though I couldn’t find a specific source for who coined the term or when it was created, the sources I looked at agreed the term ‘Metroidvania’ came into being soon after Castlevania’s release.
Super Metroid is the second sequel to Metroid after Metroid II: Return of Samus, released in 1994, and added several major changes to make the game easier. It is the first game in the series to include an inventory screen and multi-directional firing, and most relevantly to this essay, it’s the first to include a map system. Specifically, it automatically shows you a small map of the surrounding rooms that you’ve already visited, and then shows you a map of the entire area once you access a map terminal. I think this hits a nice medium between the older games in franchise, which were incredibly difficult to get around in, and the approach by games from other genres which may just automatically show you the entire map upfront.
Because of the heavy focus on navigation in Metroidvanias, finding a good balance between it being a punishing chore or being completely trivial was really important. Many newer Metroidvania games have something similar, with little information being presented upfront, and more detailed navigational aids being unlockable through some means. Another feature of Super Metroid that inspired modern indie games is that it had more sections of linearity to better guide the experience at certain points. These more cut-off sections usually are there to help the player find and familiarize themselves with some of the more crucial upgrades, so they don’t end up being completely unprepared and confused if they need them later. In my experience, almost all modern Metroidvanias use this tactic at some point.
Modern Metroidvanias
Two popular modern examples of Metroidvanias that aren’t related to Metroid are Hollow Knight and Axiom Verge, both of which were created by independent developers. From what I’ve personally experienced and gathered from others, there are significant differences between modern and classic Metroidvanias. Aside from the obvious technical updates like better graphics, modern Metroidvanias tend to have a more even pace and more linearity. For an example, looking at Metroid and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, those games open up really quickly once you start getting new abilities, whereas newer games tend to open up more slowly over the course of the game.
Of the two games, I think Axiom Verge displays its influences much more openly. In the game’s press kit, the game’s single developer, Tom Happ, explicitly cites the Metroid franchise as an inspiration for the game. The setting also has many similarities to Metroid, being a sci-fi platformer with pixel art focused on exploring an unsettling, sometimes even downright creepy alien world. It even has an almost identical map system, with a Super Metroid-inspired automap feature, and terminals in different areas that show you larger sections of the map. However, it does allow you to fast travel between certain points, unlike earlier Metroid titles.
However, it does distinguish itself in other ways. Its story diverges wildly from the Metroid series, focusing heavily on time travel. In terms of gameplay, Axiom Verge forgoes directly Metroid-inspired power-ups in favor of its own ideas, such as a laser drill which allows you to cut through solid rock, and an address disruptor which allows you to glitch out enemies and the environment to your advantage. Even these relatively small changes give it its own unique playing experience. Aesthetically, the game also has much more detailed pixel art and a bit of a horror influence, with glitchy, visceral backgrounds and sprites and some disturbingly humanoid enemies types.
I think of the two modern games we’re looking at, Hollow Knight diverges most obviously from its Metroid inspirations. In terms of aesthetics, it takes place in a dark fantasy world, as opposed to a science fiction setting, and uncommonly among indie Metroidvanias, doesn’t use pixel art. Like Axiom Verge, it has vastly different gameplay from its inspirations. While all Metroidvanias have a lot of power-ups, Hollow Knight takes this to another level by having three different types of power-ups, charms, spells, and abilities. Charms generally tend to increase your passive attributes (like increasing your HP) but can also add new powers, spells tend to give you new tools for fighting enemies, and abilities usually help you navigate. You can also upgrade your main weapon over the course of the game as well, which can help with both combat and navigation, although this is optional. All of this results in much greater gameplay complexity than older Metroidvania games could allow.
In terms of its map, the areas you can traverse form a massive labyrinth, with a lot of hidden content. In an interview with Kotaku in September 2018, Ari Gibson and William Pellen, two members of Hollow Knight’s development team, stated that they wanted players to feel like anything could be around the corner. They also stated they wanted players to feel like they were discovering something new on their on, without being led to it.
However, I feel like Hollow Knight really differentiates itself in its navigation. The game has a pretty comprehensive map of the entire space, but you have to unlock it area by area, which is pretty typical in the sub-genre. However, all of the area maps start off unfinished and the player needs to purchase another item in order to complete them. Even with that, you can’t see your location, or useful locations like benches and shops, until you buy upgrades for them. Like Axiom Verge, it also has a fast travel system between certain points, but you have to find a station yourself first and then pay in-game currency to unlock it. As a result of this, the game starts you off very disoriented, but gives you more and more navigation options as the game opens up, like most Metroidvanias. More importantly, this system gives you multiple choices between paying in-game currency to use a tool, or saving your money and continuing on using only your own memory or mapping skills. I think the map system in particular reinforces the common theme of Metroidvanias of allowing you to choose your own experience through the game instead of funneling you through a specific path.
The Author’s Hot Takes
I think the reason this sub-genre has had such success despite being inspired by a few older games is because of the amount of options and freedom it gives players. The defining characteristic of video games as opposed to other forms of media is its interactivity. Many other action-based games have a linear structure, and you only really get any interactivity during gameplay sequences. Even then your choices usually don’t lead to anything or change the experience at all. While Metroidvanias may not allow you to affect the story very much compared to more narrative-based or choice-based games, I feel like the design of the genre allows you to shape your own experience in a very unique and subtle way.
This also may be more of a personal opinion, but I feel like this genre tends to simultaneously empower and disempower the player in an interesting way. One on hand, I feel like Metroidvania-style games give the player more agency in how they experience the game due to their non-linear nature, and tend to be more hands-off. On the other hand, this same philosophy causes the game to be more constrained in other ways. Usually, in this genre, the player character starts out weak, disoriented, and completely lacking in direction. In the end, you still have all these abilities and have found out how to get around so you still end on a very triumphant note, but I feel like games in this genre allow the player to feel small and helpless at the beginning. To get to the final goal, you really have to work for it, so the games aren’t straight power fantasies. At the end of a Metroidvania-style game, you really feel like you’ve been with the character as they’ve grown.
In Conclusion
Overall, Metroidvanias have had a fairly consistent set of characteristics since the games the sub-genre is named after were released. Even though there have been comparatively few industry games that fit the genre, it has had a wide influence, and many indie games continue to follow the mold set by the Metroid franchise and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. However, modern Metroidvanias seem to take more influence from Super Metroid than the earlier Metroid games, having more sections of linearity and usually including some sort of map or navigational tool, features that were absent from the original Metroid and its immediate sequel. While it’s definitely subjective why this sub-genre has experienced so much success, I personally feel like players are drawn to the non-linearity and corresponding ability to define your own experience that the genre allows.
