Metroidvanias and Game Feel

In lead up to the new Castlevania entry; Belmont's curse, I got the Advanced Collection that contained all of the GBA Metroidvania entries. Those being Aria of Sorrow (AoS), Circle of the Moon (CotM) and Harmony of Dissonace (HoD). Being the fan I am, I also own the Dominus collection and beat those entries multiples times before already. The only new game to me here is Circle of the Moon, something I want to focus on given it's a fairly interesting game in the genre. 

'Norms' in the Genre

As the name suggests, the genre comes from Metroid, Super Metroid specifically and CV Symphony of the Night (SotN). Both of these games have the player pilot a character that is or eventually becomes really fast with frankly iconic movement. Double jump, screw jump, bat, morph ball, etc. Main point being, the player is fast and can maneuver around really smoothly given some practice and the quirks of each game. Much of the same can be said about later entries in both franchises and the genre as a whole. So CotM is interesting because you pilot Nathan. Who by all accounts controls like Classicvania character, think Simon or closer to Richter Belmont. Walks slowly, swings a fairly powerful whip and freezes in place while attacking... and has to get a relic to run. 

I find this interesting because I and many other people, yourself included (probably) come to expect speed in Metroidvanias. Maybe it's an unspoken tradition or something a bit strange to iterate on. But it was interesting for awhile, and strange given SotN had released already and had a template in Alucard that would be quite literally repeated for Soma (Aos & Dawn of Sorrow). On that note, Nathan still uses hearts and subweapons like Alucard which I found to be useful at time but also hardly saw. There's little reason to swing at every candle if you kill your momentum with just the thought of swinging Vampire Killer in the air. The usual suspects in terms of upgrades are present, double jump, wall jump and super jump. Though interestingly, the right trigger is used for 'special' moves that the game hardly elaborates on. Rather than being against a wall and clicking jump, you press right trigger and Nathan will slowly latch to the wall and kick off it. My read on this is that the game was pitched to have new mechanics, but primarily bridge Classic and Metroidvania into one game. Hence why Nathan pilots the way he does and the other systems present I will discuss later. Sadly, it did also retain being difficult in an annoying sense as the camera is at odds with platforming and combat. I understand it's a GBA screen but doing large bosses where I cannot see if I will fall into the loving arms of nearly triple digit contact damage is truly not fair. 

Progression in the Genre

When you think of these games, how do you expect to feel stronger? Could it be that you're reaching new places that were once inaccessible. Have you found/made/bought a new weapon or ability that makes combat a easier? Then the process by which you get stronger, via a boss, exploration, grinding, etc. CotM kind of has all of this and none of it. There are often light RPG elements in Metroidvanias in the form of a equipment and levels. Generally level award smaller upgrades to the player's stats and equipment providing more. Castlevania specifically does this the most, but locks the majority of equipment behind low enemy drop rates that can almost never be increased in any meaningful or intuitive way. 

This leads me to what I found rather interesting design wise in CotM, the game clearly values depth over breadth. There is still an equipment system only three slots that only provide stat bonuses but where you would normally get combat upgrades like weapons, there is the Dual Set Up System (DSS). This system uses cards named after the planets and creatures called Action and Attribute Cards. By selecting a combination in the menu and press left trigger Nathan casts the combination. This ranges from something simple like stat boost, applying an element to your whip or transforming Nathan. There are only ten of each, so then I ask, how would you go about pacing these? Maybe an enemy or two drops some, and others are found, or even found after a boss. Well... I have to sadly report they are all dropped by SPECIFIC enemies with below ONE percent drop rates. Admittedly, this can be affected by Nathan's luck, but that was very apparent during my playthrough. I had only acquired just a bit over half the cards, most I didn't end up using. Most of the combat ended up pointing the defensive spells at enemies with movement instead of whip combat because I had better control moving than attacking. Interesting, but definitely not Castlevania to me. 

Strangely enough, this is alleviated by the modes present in game available by naming your file a specific name. Which is a point for replayability, but strange because it almost goes against the spirit of Metroidvanias. FIREBALL makes Nathan a magician, heavily skewing your stats towards being frail and magic oriented along with ALL the DSS cards from the start. GRADIUS skews your stats for whip combat and strips your ability to gain cards, by extension the DSS as a whole. CROSSBOW places an emphasis on the subweapons and give you a homing dagger, along with more hearts to accommodate. DAGGER is the thief mode, dropping most of your stats in favor of giving you lots of luck to increase drop rates. Seemingly to great some kind of scavenger mode for the player. To me, this is novel, the extent to which game feel varies in a Metroidvania usually manifests in self imposed challenges or separate or multiple playable characters. Still, I find this to be annoying for a first time playthrough as a lot of the depth the developers worked hard on is potentially lost by RNG. This does mean that Nathan feels like a Classicvania character with a modern twist, slight movement upgrades and major combat upgrades. 

If I were to change the game, I would make every DSS card easily obtainable via exploration, replacing a few of the HP, MP and heart increases with them and rebalancing the bonuses to compensate. In doing so, I realize I'm also invalidating the modes, though I like to believe that is there to ensure the depth is explored by the player should they choose. 

Food for Thought

If it wasn't evident, I really do like Metroidvanias and would like to make one some day. In fact, I am working on at least a demo of one as of writing this entry. CotM has been an eye opening game because it made me consider how I want my player character to pilot. The things they can and can't do, justifying why and making that satisfying. Just like how Nathan isn't as nimble, he has access to magic that is potent. Then, why do Metroidvanias shy away from reducing speed? Is it disatisfying to traverse with more tradition platformer movement? Perhaps it is just the palette of the audience, players of these games love moving quick or figuring out how to. Freedom of movement might mean sequence breaks and more player ingenuity, therefore agency (to an extent). Still, I do think I could see myself playing the game again on something like magician mode to fully play with the DSS.