#metroidvanias

[prokopetz]

I confess every time I see one of those jokes about how estrogen lets you double jump, there's a gremlin voice in the back of my head that assumes we're talking about a metroidvania and tries to figure out the full transition-milestone-based upgrade tree. Laser hair removal grants an iframe dodge. Using she/her pronouns in public for the first time confers +50% fire resistance. Bottom surgery lets you breathe underwater.

[astraopines]

I've been playing MIO: Memories in Orbit recently and it's made me want to talk about difficulty and assists in video games. First, because I've heard an increasing quantity of "difficult = inaccessible" in fandom spaces in general of late, I'd like to establish that accessibility features are those which allow people who physically cannot otherwise play the game to do so, and assist features are those that make the game easier.

I love metroidvanias, but I'm not very good at video games. My hand-eye coordination and reaction time are relatively poor, so I struggle with precise timing a lot- this does not mean games reliant on that, like metroidvanias, are inaccessible to me, it just means they're hard and I'm not very good at them. And it's something I am actively improving.

MIO is a pretty hard game- I'd place it somewhere between Hollow Knight and Silksong. It has three assist features, and WOW are they fantastically implemented. The first one is "eroded bosses," which slightly decreases boss health each time they defeat you- which might be the best assist feature I've ever seen. The amount of health removed is small enough to not instantly trivialize the bosses but large enough to make a difference, and it doesn't change attack patterns so the skills involved in the fight are the same, you just don't have to sustain them as long. On top of that, it means that easily frustrated players like myself don't get discouraged, because you're rewarded for trying again and again.

The second assist is "pacifist," which makes it so regular enemies won't attack you unless you attack them first. I haven't played around with this one much, but I imagine it helps remove some of the frustration of arena fights and enemy-dense exploration segments.

The third is "ground healing," where you gain a non-refillable layer of protection after standing on the ground for a certain time. This is extremely helpful for platforming segments, but again, it doesn't trivialize anything. I still have to actually make the jumps, and enemies and bosses won't let you stay down long enough to gain the benefit in combat in almost every case (though it has happened a couple times for me).

I just wanted to express how much I love these features and their design- the balance between frustration and challenge is a difficult one to strike, and these let players adapt MIO to their own skill and patience without removing core challenges or making the game trivially easy.

[space-wizards]

Metroidvania where all of your upgrades take up storage space on your suit's computer, but they also take up space on your actual computer. You get a better optics visor, and it'll unzip the HD textures for you, and rezip them if you uninstall it. If you want to equip every item in the game at once, it'll take up exactly 1 terabyte of storage, so you'd best start making some hard decisions, bucko.

[dieuwt]

Welcome to the Void.

Nothing Beyond This Point is a unique take on the Metroidvania genre: you are made from pure fire, and must navigate a sprawling Void to power up and leave. Find new abilities and upgrade them, absorb Sigils to gain permanent strength, and find your way in the darkness. In highly dynamic combat in a completely empty landscape, anything that may grant power is worth dying for.

Uniquely, your Rods are both offense and defense - throw them as fireballs or spend them on powerful explosions, but taking damage makes you lose them as well, and you don't want to run out. You have infinite regeneration, so don't save up your firepower - just fire.

Free demo available now! Full game will release March 24th 2026 at 5 USD. Don't get lost!

[rainlightsystem]

Alright, I need some life on my dashboard. Like or reply if you post about any of the following! Also, pinning this so people know what sort of stuff I'll be reblogging.

Fandom or fandom-adjacent content:

Soulsborne

Hollow Knight & Nine Sols (and metroidvanias in general tbh)

Fantasy books

Xenofiction (dragon and gryphon especially)

Wings of Fire

Gryphon Insurrection (Is there a fandom for this outside of Vale's discord server and her blog? If there is please let me know I am here.)

Outer Wilds (again is there like a fandom for this? If so let me know)

Horror media, espeically films and stuff like Resident Evil and Silent Hill

Pokemon

How to Train Your Dragon (very old fandom of mine and not nearly as interested now but might as well right?)

She-Ra

Furry

Identities:

LGBTQ+ / Transgender / Transfeminine / nonbinary

Therian/Otherkin/Fictionkin (dragons especially!)

Plurality

Autism/ADHD/Neurodivergence

Others:

Communism/leftist politics and activism

Film & Animation

Dragons & Gryphons & Fantasy creatures in general

Horror

Writing

TTRPGs

Memes/Shitposting

[kiwoa]

I got to play a little bit of pre-alpha Mariachi Legends today, and y'all. It is GOOD. It's fun and flowy like the best of the SotN-style Castlevanias, and the combat has enough complexity to it that I can't wait to see what different playstyles everyone comes up with. Oh, and the art is BEAUTIFUL. Such good colors and flourishes! This is one to watch, my friends.

[deluzzzchester]

Games I've played and completed. Part 1.

I tasted everything now I want more.