...fuck, I just realized that the zelda games are basically metroidvanias
they follow the formula of finding items to enable new movement options and bypass obstacles, and there's a lot of backtracking to previous areas
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@IceWolf that's how metroidvanias work
maybe you should try playing metroid or the Igarashi castlevanias sometime!
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@Felthry This is why we don't like the term Metroidvania and prefer calling them Action Adventure games.
@pillowcat honestly we really dislike the term action-adventure game, personally!
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@Felthry Point is, they need to go by a title that highlights the key element of exploring a space. Just naming the genre after two titles ignores the overlap between those titles and a host of other games.
@pillowcat yeah i don't think metroidvania is that great a word for it either
but action-adventure just comes off as.... incredibly generic
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@Felthry Valid.
Exploration games? Discovery games? There's gotta be some alternative.
@pillowcat I feel like a good name would have to capture the idea of gaining items or abilities that enhance your movement options, though
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@pillowcat that and the large amount of returning to old areas with new abilities are the defining characteristics of the genre to us
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@Felthry @pillowcat Backtracking Game?
@pillowcat @Felthry World unraveling games just sounds SO /dramatic/. :3
@pillowcat @IceWolf maybe! i dunno
i'm too sleepy for ideas
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@Felthry I mean... you're describing an adventure.
Generic as it may sound, it may just be the word for it.
@pillowcat i think my gripe with "adventure" is that so many games of very different types have been described with the word that it's kind of lost meaning in the context of video games?
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@Felthry I guess that's fair, but, like...
It so fits what genre Metroid, Zelda, and certain Castlevania games fall under.
@pillowcat @Felthry But lots of other games are adventures too, right?
@IceWolf @Felthry Not really. Exploration isn't really that common in games (it's not even in every Metroid, Zelda, or Castlevania game). Lock and key systems are more common, but still are usually artificial and could just as well be replaced with linear progression.
A lot of games may be an adventure in the sense of the journey the characters go on, but that doesn't make them adventures for the player.
@pillowcat yeah, and there's the problem I suppose
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@Felthry Yep yep.
I remember saying "are Zelda games metroidvanias" once and getting a lot of people very enthusiastically explaining how wrong I was and why. I am still not convinced.
@Felthry ...wow, that like.
PERFECTLY describes Ōkami.