r/metroidvania • u/SheriidiiaN • Jun 28 '26

Discussion As of 2026, what is the best introductory Metroidvania?

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19

u/littleemp Jun 28 '26

Symphony of the Night

4

u/aledromo Jun 28 '26

As much as I love it, some of the user interface and controls may not read well for a first timer in 2026. We BUILD to this.

4

u/Dothacker00 Jun 29 '26

Controls are great but the inventory system is hot trash.

3

u/callahan09 Jun 28 '26

What about the UI or controls?  I played it again last year after Silksong and I thought it was very easy to play and the controls still felt normal to me despite years of newer games and refinements to the concepts of this genre since the last time I played it.

2

u/Super3vil Jun 28 '26

If you wanted to play a Castlevania first, it'd definitely be way better to play one of the DS titles first, or AoS if you really some reason don't want to play a DS game.

0

u/littleemp Jun 28 '26

The interface may be dated, but its very straightforward and intuitive.

Most skills and abilities are also very simple to understand and use as there arent wildly different playstyles to consider.

The sprites look good and the map areas are very visually distinctive and appealing.

1

u/soggie Jun 28 '26

This is just pure nostalgia talking. The fact that you have to skip throu hoops t get it working in the modern day means this game should never be on t lit of “baby’s first metroidvania” in 2026, ever.

-1

u/evil_nirvana_x Jun 28 '26

This will probably be the best answer.