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| Vodacixi said: Debatable. Those games have a very linear and clear sequence of events from beginning to end. Of course, you can BREAK that if you know what you are doing (ZM more than Dread)... But you won't likely do that on a first playthrough. You'll follow the very much linear path that the game constantly points you too. As another user said once: the fact that you can sequence break a game means that there IS a sequence to break in the first place. To me a Metroidvania needs to have a truly interconnected and open map to explore where you are almost never expected to follow a certain sequence of events. You will have multiple paths accessible to you at almost anytime and you don't have to commit to a certain sequence in order to make progress. Zero Mission and Metroid Dread are linear games that can be broken, either with glitches or by exploiting the game's mechanics after a lot of practice and multiple playthroughs. That doesn't make them open (to me at least). That kind of thing it's required for me to be a Metroidvania. Metroid games (to me) are... That. Metroid games. They are not Hollow Knight. They are not Blasphemous. They are not Metroidvanias. |
I disagree with this take. "Linear games that can be broken" describes a lot of great Metroidvanias, even Super Metroid. On a first playthrough, that game has a pretty linear path - it only opens up when you have most power-ups toward the end of the game, or on a second playthrough when you know how to walljump from the start.
The Metroidvania genre is at its core based on the idea of keeping the player on a path, and opening that path up as it goes. Even Hollow Knight, a great example of a more open game, keeps you on a pretty tight path until you get to the City of Tears. Silksong is the same way until you get to the Citadel. Both of these games do allow for alternative routes before you get to those main story points, but most first-time players will be funneled into a similar path because the different routes are usually too difficult to find (or just... too difficult).
I would absolutely call Metroid Prime 1 and 2 metroidvanias, even though they're extremely linear, because their linearity is disguised amid a wide interconnected world you can and will get lost in. Prime 3, that I'm not sure, because it has individual areas that feel more like a straight shot than an interconnected maze, and there are no direct connections between separate areas. Dread treads that line thinly as well, but the individual areas feel metroidvania-y enough.
Either way, yeah. Most Metroid games have been largely linear, some are just better at disguising it (MP1/MP2/Dread) than others (Fusion/MP3). I've always wished for the Metroid Prime games to open themselves up to sequence breaks a bit more, but I'm okay with them staying linear.
