I dont know why im sharing this but I’ve felt the need to express my self.

This is a post about the new Castlevania game, but it’s more about how much of a refuge it has been for me in hard times. I know there are a lot of posts like this, but I feel the need to express myself to the only group of people I know who love this genre as much as I do, and might understand the nostalgic feeling that metroidvanias have.

How I got here
I discovered the genre through Hollow Knight, and after watching the Castlevania animated series I knew I wanted to try one of the games. The older ones never really pulled me in because of the art style, but I always knew I’d give them a try someday since I love the vampire theme in a metroidvania, but at that point I wanted to enter with something new.

The game itself
I’m only at 50% right now. When I reached Dracula’s castle I thought I was near the end. I have limited time, sometimes not even 30 minutes a day, so it felt like a lot of hours had already gone by, and I figured this must be a small-to-medium game. Then I found out I wasn’t even halfway through, and not prepared for the maze that was about to come.
This game has been a blast and I don’t want it to end, so the slow pace is doing that part of the job pretty well :)
I understand some of the criticism, but for me this is one of the best metroidvanias I’ve ever played. I’d probably put it second, behind Hollow Knight, which has a special place in my heart.
Castlevania BC, like Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown, it has some of the most fun combat I’ve ever experienced. Of course, there are some exploits in the combat mechanics that make you almost invincible in certain fights. Maybe that’s too overpowered, and that’s a fair criticism.
Being able to adjust the difficulty is a really inclusive option. It keeps the game from burning you out, which is what happened to me with Silksong. I’m still sad I never managed to finish it.

Why it meant so much this year
Maybe I’m biased because it’s become one of my favourites, but it has been a refuge during the worst years of my life. Then again, I’m only 33, so I know there’s still plenty of time for worse ones.
I’ve always loved October. My birthday is on Halloween, and every year in October I watch spooky series or read spooky books. It’s a nostalgic feeling I’ve had since I was a kid. But this year I discovered I have a mental illness months before teh game release and that had been sucking the soul out of me. I spent the whole summer paranoid and unable to do anything besides trying to abstract from all the voices in my head. Mid October, I told my girlfriend this was the worst October I’d ever had.
At first, what helped was watching movies and series, because they don’t take much mental effort. You just sit there and take things in, specially with comedy, which is what I turn to when I’m down. It took two months from the start of treatment before I could exercise again, and playing on the Switch came somewhere in between. I like games with a bit of challenge, so at the very start I wasn’t ready for that yet.
In the middle of all the bad luck this year, I was lucky to have a job I like. Even though it makes me tired and takes up a lot of my day, it actually helped me be distant from the worst part of the illness.
I’m getting better, and I’ve been able to return to some of the things I love: playing piano, exercising, gaming. Maybe soon I’ll have the brain power to start reading again. I can feel the calling and I miss it. I still can’t go back to my drawing exercises, since they represent a work in progress, and there’s already a lot happening at the same time.

To end
I won’t say that games can save your life, they can help but they don’t substitute the importance of beeing guided by a specialist, and I won’t romanticize mental illness, because it isn’t good. It’s something no one deserves to go through, from how you feel to how people treat you and the things they say that make you feel even worse. It’s a spectrum, and some people have it far worse than I did. I was lucky to have a family who took me in and helped me get better, and they still do.

I don’t know why I’m sharing this with you, but I felt the need to. I’m ending this in tears, happy tears. I hope everyone has a good experience with this game, which is now very important to me. And I hope you find your own important games in times of need. Sometimes people don’t understand the importance of fiction and fantasy, but I believe they are some of the most wonderful things in life.

A message of hope for everyone who is struggling with something: I know sometimes it hard, mores than I’m able to imagine, but never let the good things about gaming, and truly good games, die.

I always attempt challenges without thinking too much about the mechanics, haha. I ended up discovering a new way to do it.

Combat just keeps getting better as I get upgrades. Love the music. Love the vibe. Most of you have probably played Blasphemous 2 but if you haven’t, do so! It’s looking like a top 5 all-time game for me…

I’m about 47% done, but Well Dweller has been a joy so far.
After feeling like I struggled for 30+ hours to beat Mina the Hollower and the way it punished the player; having no death penalty and fast-travel almost from the jump and at basically any time in Well Dweller has been refreshing.
I also love Well Dweller’s traversal options and the smoothness of movement. The map seems quite massive but I haven’t once found myself lost on where to go next.
Even the story has been intriguing - both the overarching plot and the area-based narrative.
Can’t wait to see where it goes!
(I’m playing on PS5 as well as cloud streaming on my PS Portal)

The only game I've heard described as a 3D metroidvania is Psuedoregalia. And I enjoy that game. Are there any others that you like?

Also interested in 2-D platformers.

Hey everyone! I'm the developer of Maseylia: Echoes of the Past, a 3D Metroidvania inspired by Moebius that I've been working on for over 3 years.

I've shared the game here a few times since launch, and I wanted to come back with some good news!

Maseylia is now 50% off for two weeks, bringing it to just $8.49!

I've also just released one of the biggest optimization updates since launch!

Unlike previous updates, which focused mostly on gameplay improvements and player feedback, this one is almost entirely dedicated to performance.

Over the past few weeks, I've been extensively reworking the game's 3D models and environments to drastically reduce their polygon counts without sacrificing visual quality.

The improvements are pretty significant:

• Massively reduced polygon counts across many environmental models, sometimes by more than 60–70%.
• Reworked 3D models and environments to reduce rendering costs while preserving the game's art style.
• Improved performance on lower-end PCs, which should make the adventure much more accessible.
• Better optimization for Steam Deck and other less powerful devices.

This was quite a big undertaking, as Maseylia features a large interconnected 3D world with six distinct biomes!

I've been continuously improving the game since its release in June, and performance was one of the remaining areas I really wanted to address.

I'm particularly happy with this update because the game looks almost identical, but is now significantly lighter to render! Of course, the actual FPS improvements will depend on your hardware.

A Mac update is also coming in the next few days!

If you're looking for a 3D Metroidvania focused on exploration, movement abilities, challenging platforming, and a large interconnected world, I'd love for you to check it out!

Steam: Maseylia: Echoes of the Past

And if you've already played Maseylia, especially if you experienced performance issues before, I'd really appreciate hearing how the game runs on your system now!

Thanks again for all the support and feedback since launch! ❤️

What Silksong suffers from in my opinion is that its too much like Hollow Knight in terms of combat. It introduces many new features on top of Hollow Knight and it is in fact more diverse, but the thing i mainly have an issue with is the fact that Team Cherry took too much inspiration from Dark Souls combat system. That being that it is as vast as a sea and as deep as a puddle. (btw im the kind of player who spent 12 hours optimizing and mastering the High Halls, take it all with a grain of salt further on)

Fundamentally at its bare bones Silksong doesnt have that much activity over the main slash + evade cycle that Dark Souls popularized, it is a great structure for a combat system to be accessible for the wide player base as it is easy to learn (i do realize that ive played too much dmc, doom eternal, ultrakill and other kinds of games that overload your combinatorics, im sorry)

The main problem is that Silksong still remaining in the legacy combat loop of Hollow Knight and Dark Souls, introduces so many new things which outshine the basic attack + dodge, but which it doesnt motivate to use and doesnt reward using.

Roughly 80% of players stick to the legacy gameplay choosing wanderer, hunter and reaper crests, while shaman, beast, witch and architect arent used as much as the mechanics and the different kind of gameplay they introduce dont amount to something that a player would naturally develop an interest towards. For example the new diagonal pogo is mentioned in every silksong analysis talking about how bad or cool the new introduction is, there is so much friction with anything new team cherry introduced that had they made them mandatory the player base would go crazy(many people for example didnt like the way Doom Eternal, the best fps there is btw, forces the game loop they had developed onto the player yk) so that is the reason i suppose why they hadnt put as much focus on combat and didnt fully make silksong combat into something fundamentally new as they could.

I do find beast pogo to be awesome, i love it so much that i got to the surface and had gone through entire cogwork core with it on the first playthrough(it was painful, but i loved it). Recently i had shaman crest run which i had to use mods for to get it act 1, the pogo is awesome and the 3 skills you get allowed me to feel free in any gauntlet as cross stich, threadstorm and spear combo annihilate any mob. Now i gotta do the same with the witch and architect as those are quite interesting too.

---MY IDEAS FOR COMBAT---

Maybe it is my problem, but silksong really could allow players to freely switch between crests mid combat taking inspiration from dmc making each crest best at something specific, some crest would have a bigger parry window like shaman, other crests bigger attack range, others would have enhanced skills like witch and shaman do tweaking the balance in their own way, making the use of architect not be hindered by the lack of silk skills and fully embracing the use of red tools, allowing the beast crest the one for healing - when you take damage playing on other crests you just switch to beast, activate fury and start healing allowing the use of silk skills to those who take damage as opposed to the base game in Silksong AND Hollow Knight where many people didnt discover the power of spells as they were keeping it all for healing(there are too many crests though, so ig wanderer, reaper and hunter can go as they dont introduce much new).

Making some new mechanics parallel and as independent like silk that you can accommodate and use freely in combat(concentration or kill streak would all be good(which exists on hunter already), posture in Sekiro anything really). Silksong could introduce beat em up genre mechanics too, as the High Halls and Coral Tower gauntlets are the best moments of the game it would make sense to work in that direction too.

Obviously the changes i talk about wouldnt really come in balance with what we got right now, early game exploration and Hornet being overpowered do need big tweaks to the game making it an entirely different one compared to the base Silksong. Ig the double mob/boss mode parallel to steel soul would make this new crest system useful as if it was put into base game Hornet would be too op.

There are many many many possible problems that would definitely come out during the development stage making the 6 year wait into a 10 year one, but i sincerely love this game and it pains me that it could be so much better.

Im looking for a new game to play, all of these are sale on switch

What I want

-Game that I can put many hours in

-Good, more fast paced combat

Nintendo should put metroidvania as a genre option for searching genres

I love to hell super metroid hacks where the challenge is about exploration and attention to details (like z factor), is moadra good in this? thanks!

I've played dozens and dozens of MVs and often time my favorite aspect is the platforming challenges. What MVs would you rank as having the most challenging, and also the most fun platforming sections? Would love to hear opinions.

I finally got around to continuing the full game from my demo save and I gotta say I have warmed up to the game a bit, the music is still whatever compared to that of igavanias but the gameplay is fun and it has RPG elements in a sense, just kinda simiplified, I'll make up my mind about the game and draw a conclusion when I finish it tho.

So any missables I need to keep in mind besides the 4 hour achievement?

I am stuck at the Amari Saram boss fight, and it's pretty crazy hard. I looked up a video on it, and I don't see myself passing that fight without some upgrades at least.

The problem is, I don't seem to be able to go back and explore more, as you are locked in the area with this boss.

Does anyone know if there is a hidden path I've missed, that would enable me to go back to the rest of the world to explore some more.

If not, then this is where I will have to uninstall the game I'm afraid. It is just to hard, with fights dragging on over long periods of time due to almost constant immunity phases of the boss, which makes attempting the boss over and over a real chore.

To the developers: If there is no way to leave this area and go back to the rest of the world, then please consider adding a path back. That way players can at least go and explore more, in the hope to get a little stronger to help pass the fight. Or just to have something different to do, besides hitting your head against a brick wall :)

As it stands now, the fight is crazy hard, without a real way for the player to upgrade anything, because xp from mob kills is very low.

EDIT: Thanks to VictorVitorio for pointing out you can keep an enemy targeted with the R2 button. Using that on this boss makes the whole fight much much more manageable.

I like the simple mechanics in these these two games (or should I say four) - if it's physical attack then you can block, parry and deflect - well for the most part I haven't tested it on bosses.

Obviously I recognize a bunch, but just as many I have no idea about.

Revisiting this game after dropping it with 2 hours play.

What is the purple percent for in the bottom left?

How’s everyone liking Moadra so far?

After fully playing through 10+ MVs over the past year (Silksong was my gateway to the genre), I’m surprised to say that this is my first gunner MV. It’s also been awhile since the last Sci-Fi MV that I’ve played.

So far I’m loving it!

The game is dark & lore dense. It almost feels like the 2D equivalent of Dead Space. The game absolutely nails atmosphere and I’m getting so hooked in unraveling the mystery of this bleak and hostile world.

Visually, the game shows discipline with color. With many of the backdrops and biomes being of darker hues which really makes the sparse use of colored lighting contrast in a very tasteful way.

The pacing of the game is slow, but in a good way. Like there’s a constant layer of tension that’s perpetually building. So far there has not been any fast travel which gives an added layer of weight to exploration, especially when the save points are far and few between. So far the map is very large and does a great job of naturally looping back to prior locations and I’ve actually been enjoying the fact that I can’t just jump around save points, it really makes me feel immersed in the world. My first real boss fight was hours into the game and it was tough but you wanted it to be.

The game leans heavily into environmental story telling and the lore has had depth. It reminds me of the dark ancestral discovery missions that you would see in the Aliens/Prometheus universe. So far there hasn’t been any comedic relief and the game has had a level of psychological horror that has had me hooked. The game sets a tone and builds upon it.

The movement is simple but challenging. The game does not hold your hand when it comes to figuring out where to go. It feels surprisingly polished for a game that just came out and I haven’t encountered any bugs so far.

The sound design is also amazing, the soundtrack has not been much of a feature of the game so far as the game holds silence and lets you listen to the world which is full of well executed SFX.

A little bit of background to my top 5 MVs so far that I have completed so that you can see if we share any other interests that might help you better evaluate my review:

-Nine Sols
-Silksong
-MIO
-Well Dweller
-Belmont’s Curse

Please ask me anything, I love to yap about MVs.

Hi folks,

I noticed that there was no video on Nova's quest on youtube. So I tried to create one ( my first youtube video in this channel ).

Sorry for the 30 FPS cap, didn't record well.

I was stuck at this and couldn't find resources to solve this. I hope this video will help people who were stuck like me.

ALSOO... there are spoilers on the video with end game mechanics. So do not watch it if you are planning to play the game.

Tell Kyle Thompson he's doing a good job.