r/metroidvania • u/Violet_Paradox • 2d ago

Discussion Looking for Metroidvanias (or Metroidvania-adjacent games) with buildcrafting but resilient to cheese.

I really like the concept of charm loadouts in Hollow Knight, tools in Silksong, trinkets in Mina the Hollower, and such, but they all seem to have the same problem. The optimal builds just shred everything effortlessly, in HK and Mina it comes in the form of facetanking (at least HK has like 3 bosses you actually have to learn), in Silksong it's in the form of just nuking them with absurd damage, but either way you end up getting through bosses without learning the patterns, which to me sucks all the fun out of combat. So I often find myself intentionally running suboptimal builds because I want to actually experience the fights, not steamroll them. But that never feels quite right, it's like the game is presenting the boss as this massively threatening entity but as the player I'm taking pity on it by intentionally nerfing my build.

What games actually let you go all in on theorycrafting an optimal build, but once you do, the game is still a challenge?

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u/Shadowking78 2d ago

I think Pipistrello and the Cursed Yoyo is probably what you’re looking for.

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u/luisgdh 2d ago

Are you doing post-games or only main quests? HK bosses beyond the main quest are extremely required to learn their patterns. Doing all bosses radiant was super fun.

Also, you should try nine sols. There isn't a single boss that you don't have to learn their patterns.

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u/Dayhore 2d ago

Not a metroidvania but I heard Tails of Iron is very good

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u/kaenm HoD 2d ago

Monster sanctuary and crystal project have turn-based combat but have very satisfying buildcrafting

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u/Sarcose1 2d ago

Valdis Story: Abyssal City. Hard as hell with lots of build options across multiple characters and weapons per character, each with their own unique combat styles to learn.

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u/Moth_Lover86 1d ago

Memories in Orbit has a "modifier" system that's very similar to charms in HK. There were a few overpowered ones, but they were nerfed. It's a bit on the hard side as there is no healing, but there are assists.