Indie Metroidvanias

[EcoHound]

Metroidvanias are my favorite genre of game (though ironically I still haven't played the original Castlevanias or most of the Metroid catalogue) due to just how alive their worlds can feel when done right.

While I've already made a thread on Nine Sols, I found it to be less of a Metroidvania and more of an action platformer (still lovely though, play it). I've also played Hollow Knight of course (I do not care, I'M STILL HOLDING OUT HOPE FOR SILKSONG)

Due to how much effort it the world and the controls take in this genre, they can be pretty hit or miss which makes the indie scene harder to parse through. What indie metroidvanias have you guys played and recommend?

[Enbyeon]

Blade Chimera is a short and sweet Metroidvania. It's around 10-12 hours long, looks good, feels good and just overall has a good vibe to it. It doesn't do anything exceptionally-well, but I'm the opinion that not every game needs to be groundbreaking to be fun.

[Ivy-IV]

I'd also check out Touhou Luna Nights by the same developers, similarly pretty short but some of my favourite boss fights in the genre. Mechanically it revolves mostly around your time slow/stop abilities and the way different obstacles/enemies interact with them

I've gushed about Psuedoregalia around here before and I'm doing it again! Nearly all of your key upgrades are traversal tools and nearly every path is only gated by your ability to get to it, so you can brute force a lot of situations even if you don't have the expected tools for it. This makes the map feel REALLY open from very early on in a way I haven't experienced before. Also you play as a goat-cat with a big butt, and who could say anything against that

A Robot Named Fight is a roguelite metroidvania, with very heavy emphasis on the Metroid part, very evocative of Super Metroid in particular. It makes great use of the procgen nature of runs; the potential item/ability pool has a ton of redundancy in what problems it can solve so you end up with wildly different loadouts in any given run.

Magicians and Looters is a dinky lil search action with 3 different playable characters you can swap between at any given save point, which all have wildly different playstyles: one is very platforming-focused, one has a shield and stronger magic than the others; one can dual wield and has like a time slow/adrenaline mechanic. The writing is very early 2010s (not in a problematic way but it's very much a snapshot of the era's comedy stylings) but overall it's a very charming lil game imo.

[DJAtomika]

Ah, one of my favourite topics. Let's see, I can vouch for:

Axiom Verge; a great pixel-art Metroidvania that also has a sequel that I haven't played yet.

Blasphemous 1 & 2; an absolutely superb Metroidvania influenced by the Spanish Christian iconography, given a twisted, horrible new form.

Sundered: Eldritch Edition; a stylish game about eldritch horrors and choosing to help or harm them.

Nine Sols; another artistically stylish Metroidvania that I haven't checked out yet, but sources say it's very good.

Bō: Path of the Teal Lotus; in the same vein as Nine Sols but with a little less polish, still pretty fun though.

Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet; where you are a spaceship on an insanely twisted shadow planet that is exploring and destroying evil things. Also a Metroidvania.

[Moot]

Blade Chimera is a short and sweet Metroidvania. It's around 10-12 hours long, looks good, feels good and just overall has a good vibe to it. It doesn't do anything exceptionally-well, but I'm the opinion that not every game needs to be groundbreaking to be fun.

also check out Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth too as well as Touhou Luna Nights, its by Team Ladybug again (who are really, really good at metroidvanias), that one has got some kind of ikaruga-esque polarity switching going on in addition to looking really, really good

[JarylGaren]

Blade Chimera is a short and sweet Metroidvania. It's around 10-12 hours long, looks good, feels good and just overall has a good vibe to it. It doesn't do anything exceptionally-well, but I'm the opinion that not every game needs to be groundbreaking to be fun.

also check out Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth too as well as Touhou Luna Nights, its by Team Ladybug again (who are really, really good at metroidvanias), that one has got some kind of ikaruga-esque polarity switching going on in addition to looking really, really good

I can vouch for Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth too, I played through that one on the Switch and liked it a lot! I'm actually considering getting it on Steam again and replaying it there too...

Blade Chimera looks interesting, and it does have that distinct Team Ladybug look. I did hear good things about it, so I might get it once I'm in the mood for indie metroidvanias again!

[StarlightNecromancer]

I need to finish it but, I liked its combat and the artstyle was absolutely wonderful


This was sold to me as "what if Soulslike, but also metroidvania". Its got a good few endings (including one you can get by just leaving and going home at the very start), and even a hard mode where you refuse Death's deal and you only get one life. I liked it, very fun,


Another "Soulslike Metroidvania" but more Bloodborne than Dark Souls, haven't finished it but I really like its combat so far!

[CyanSorcery]

I know Axiom Verge has already been mentioned but I wanna double up on mentioning that it's really good, and also, I want to mention that its sequel Axiom Verge 2 is also really good. Tom Happ doesn't miss it seems

I'm also sure that everyone already knows Pseudoregalia, but I'm bringing it up just on the off chance that people don't know about it

[Flint]

Recently finished Laika: Aged Through Blood, a metroidvania with a somewhat unique control scheme (for the genre). Your character is always on a motorbike and therefore you always need to watch out both for your momentum, physics and orientation as you traverse, but also everything is tied to those same mechanics: you block enemy shots by rotating your bike between the bullet and your flesh, you reload by doing 360 degree flips, one of your biggest maneuver tools is your shotgun because the kickback effectively allows you to jump, etc. It's both excitingly tricky and genuinely frustrating in equal measures and sometimes you feel like the metroidvania aspect is slightly tacked on, but at its best it's a really atmospheric, enchanting experience where you can genuinely feel your skill grow. Immaculate art direction and soundtrack, as well. It definitely feels different to most metroidvanias I've played. Steam has a demo, for anyone curious.

[Mandrake]

I'll give a shoutout to Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition. It takes a lot of inspiration from lucha libre and Dia De Los Muertos to create a really colourful game with an excellent moveset (double jump, wall jump, running up walls, switching between planes of reality) and robust combat system. It's the perfect length, has great music, and a really satisfying True Ending. Plus you can turn into a chicken.

[Teacyn]

Some of the games I've played that haven't been posted here yet:

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night: Taking most certainly from the "vania" part of metroidvania, this is an insanely deep and well paced metroidvania. One of my personal favorites in terms of being castlevania spiritual successors. It's good to see that Igarashi still has a good sense of design.

Environmental Station Alpha: This one is a bit harder to recommend because it is for a very specific audience, of which I'm only partially in. To get the elephant out of the room, this game is hard as balls, and I don't mean the combat.

The combat is quite fair and fun, and platforming generally is too. This game's difficulty comes from very esoteric puzzles, lack of indication or tracking (you are expected to notice very minute details and physically write them down in many cases), unclear progression in lategame, and similar things. As such, I can only really recommend this game if you like a head scratcher as part of your metroidvania experience. It's very solid if you do.

Iconoclasts: This game is one I have a lot of conflicted thoughts on. Overall I would recommend it because it's very pretty and the story is cool, but the gameplay often left me a little disappointed.

Islets: Extremely well paced steamlined metroidvania with satisfying movement and combat. Very easy recommend.

No corpse runs, no currency loss, no spell meter management, no skill system or RPG stats, just basic swordfighting and a recharging bow with HP, damage, and ammo upgrades. Difficulty on Normal is engaging while not ever feeling unfair, and difficulty can be changed in either direction at any time. Platforming challenges are quick and flow well.

If you're tired of how sluggish and bloated a lot of modern games in this genre can feel, Islets is an amazing relief with a beautiful art style.


I can easily recommend both Ori games as well. It's been ages since I played them so I don't have a detailed review, but they're both extremely solid games, especially Will of the Wisps.

Supraland and its sequel, Supraland Six Inches Under: Both of these are absolutely amazing 3d puzzle metroidvanias. I would put these closer to something like "what if Portal puzzle design but metroidvania" rather than anything standard.

At its core, they're puzzle games. You will spend the majority of your time trying to solve puzzles. These puzzles are sometimes clearly marked, other times navigating a specific environment is the puzzle. Puzzles consist primarily of attempting to either reach difficult-to-access areas to press buttons (which will permanently open the way, you almost never have to re-solve puzzles), or finding a way to activate various special switches that require more than a press to use. Puzzles are solved primarily using your tools that you receive throughout the game (most of which double as weapons).

They do feature combat as well, but the focus is weird platforming and puzzles. Writing in these is certainly subpar unfortunately, but if you don't care about that these are extremely solid games.

Yoku's Island Express: This is a pinball metroidvania. How cool is that? Game's super neat and fairly compact, can probably beat it in 1-3 sessions. I really enjoyed this one even if some "platforming" sections could feel a bit finicky.

Also signal boosting Psuedoregalia, both Blasphemous games, both Guacamelee games, they're all amazing.

[RueAzure]

I'd be remiss if I didn't mention these:


I really enjoyed Timespinner, feels like SotN to me a bit? Lots of backtracking. Can be a turnoff for some people with just how much backtracking there actually is compared to others in the genre.


This one is by the same devs as Record of Lodoss War: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth. Team Ladybug just smacks out hits, tbh.


I drop this one here with a lot of asterisks. The comedy is kinda dudebro tongue-in-cheek? It definitely does not always hit. And it's very setpiece-y too. Lots of segments where you get railroaded into doing something a very particular way instead of getting to explore like your usual Metroidvania.

[scratchingway]

I hadn't played UnEpic, but I did play UnMetal by the same developer. While I would also have to add the disclaimer that the humor is Dudebro-type (it's pretty funny at points but it's hit-and-miss), it's a pretty solid take on MSX Metal Gear. Not really a metroidvania/search action (I guess you could argue it kinda is), but it came to mind.

Seconding Timespinner, Luna Nights, Deedlit, and especially Iconoclasts. It's an extremely well-rounded game and especially remarkable for being a largely solo work, though it's a bit more run-n-gun than search action. Several characters left a hell of an impression on me. I would recommend it to anyone.

[ElTipejoLoco]

Nifflas made several little(?) Metroidvanias(?) in Clickteam Media Fusion:

• #ModArchive Story 2: Operator Status is a sequel to a difficult platformer that is also a spiritual predecessor to Within a Deep Forest, but this one has collectibles and significantly larger screens and puzzles than its prequel.
• Within a Deep Forest made the collectibles actual power-ups and further expanded the whole map layout. I recall spending a lot of time playing it.
• Knytt does not star a bouncing ball but rather the titular monkey-like climbing creature tasked with collecting ship parts and maybe power-ups?
• Knytt Stories is both game and miniature Knytt game making tool, and therefore its narrative changes quite a lot depending on author. Popular enough to get a newer forked version subtitled Plus.
• Knytt Experiment is a collaborative Knytt game where each screen was made by a different developer but just feels like a smaller semi-more-exclusive Knytt Stories.
• Saira is free on Steam and you can go peek at it there. It feels way more ambitious than the Knytt titles that came before it both artistically and mechanically.
• Knytt Underground actually made it to consoles. It's essentially a marriage of both the #ModArchive/Within a Deep Forest series and Knytt's, and features gameplay and elements of both, though somehow it feels smaller than either series' previous largest free titles (though with Stories having user submissions even to this day, that might be an unfair comparison).

The following are games I have yet to play, unfortunately, so I can't really be sure if they're good to recommend or not:

• The Great Work looks like it switches up the upgrades for an inventory and crafting recipe system paired with Knytt-typical platforming, and it looks interesting.
• Affordable Space Adventures is a Wii U exclusive title for one to three players controlling a spaceship or its systems as they essentially play something that might be reminiscent of Insanely Twisted Shadow Planet. The Wii U's eShop is gone now and no port has been made available of the game to a different platform at this time.
• Uurnog Uurnlimited puts the responsibility of whether or not you lose all your collected power-ups on you, the player(s). No longer is it the fault of the plot, but you might destroy your entire collection because you didn't plan ahead for what you decided to bring into your Save room. It's a pretty interesting take on the thing, where the game's world will remember the damage done to it up until you die. The idea that you could be the actual person responsible for losing your Varia/Gravity Suit or Alucard's Whole Fit is amusing to me if only for the novelty of it.

[Serpentsaurus]

A Robot Named Fight is a roguelite metroidvania, with very heavy emphasis on the Metroid part, very evocative of Super Metroid in particular. It makes great use of the procgen nature of runs; the potential item/ability pool has a ton of redundancy in what problems it can solve so you end up with wildly different loadouts in any given run.

Came here to make sure Fight got some recognition. The soundtrack fucks, the gameplay is spot on, and the progression manages to be meaningful without getting in the way. You will have the odd run where very little goes your way, but like... that's roguelikes for you lol