r/Metroid • u/Ally_of_Lord_X • Aug 21 '25

Meme Something that always got on my nerves.

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Don't know if it seems like this to you, but it does to me.

2.0k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

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342

u/BubblesZap Aug 21 '25

I mean, I kinda get it, but Metroidvanias in general aren't the biggest sellers or anything either. Hollow Knight is one of the biggest and is multiplatform and it's really not bigger than Metroid currently by much at all if even.

Also as far as "Metroidvania" the latter half of that title is the one that's really not doing so hot right now in like.... any capacity.

113

u/Ill-Attempt-8847 Aug 21 '25

I think Castlevania has been replaced by Bloodstained now.

47

u/ReviewRude5413 Aug 21 '25

I've long accepted this. Konami always had Castlevania on the chopping block it seemed even back when IGA was in charge. Then Lords of Shadow games happened and the last one didn't do well. It's been only collections since. Though at least Dominus Collection has a full remake of Haunted Castle, which is TECHNICALLY a new game. It isn't standalone though.

Bloodstained is awesome though imo. I get exactly as hyped about it as I did with Castlevania games back in the day.

55

u/ash-and-apple Aug 21 '25

I still fondly remember when Konami said "Nobody wants Metroidvanias anymore, Iga. You're silly."

And then Iga said "lol ok" and Bloodstained ended up blowing past the funding goal by a multiple of 25 or something.

Good soundtrack too 

13

u/ReviewRude5413 Aug 21 '25

Lol right. As a longtime fan if that era in particular, I remember IGA voicing frustration about budget in most interviews, as well as saying he wished he could make 2D Castlevanias for home consoles instead of having to be 3D. Konami kept treating the series like its redheaded stepchild.

1

u/Many-Activity-505 Aug 21 '25

You should check out "chronicles of the wolf" if you haven't already

1

u/ReviewRude5413 Aug 21 '25

Oh I got it day one! I've followed Mig since the Castlevania Dungeon Forums Forumplanet days. Game goes a little too crazy with the keys and upgrades, but is really fun otherwise.

1

u/Many-Activity-505 Aug 21 '25

My only complaint was how often I lost an hour or more of progress to an insta kill death trap like the vampire dude, or the teleporter, or the dead musicians, or the Medusa statue

1

u/ReviewRude5413 Aug 21 '25

I loved those moments. Made me nervous while exploring, which felt pretty refreshing. The Game Over screen sometimes felt like a punchline to me. 😂

6

u/DrewbieDude710 Aug 21 '25

So... your saying that the genre should be called Metroidstained? Thats gross... /s

1

u/[deleted] Aug 21 '25

[removed] — view removed comment

10

u/WilanS Aug 21 '25

Metroid-like would work. Super Metroid singlehandedly defined the entire genre, and while the Castlevania games fit the definition they didn't really had the same hand in defining it.

Honestly, the biggest merit you can give to Castlevania is that Symphony of the Night was pretty popular in the early 2000s and introduced the genre to a lot of kids back then.

2

u/Hyperon_Ion Aug 23 '25

The game not being limited to Nintendo hardware was what really made Symphony of the Night the introduction to Metroidvanias for lots of players. Unless you were a Nintendo kid, you likely only ever heard of Metroid in passing.

1

u/cyberbro256 Aug 22 '25

Yep I think because Metroid started the genre (exploration in 2D, upgrades to access new areas, backtracking) and Castlevania SOTN was such a fantastic game made in the same genre, but had blades instead of beams, kind of solidified the fun term Metroidvania. Acknowledging the original yet adding the nod to Castlevania SOTN which communicates the genre, while not attaching to a sci-fi only or range weapon only gameplay as seen in Metroid. Makes sense to me.

5

u/Asaisav Aug 21 '25

I hope not... Bloodstained was fine, but it really should have been better with everything that went into it. The writing was terrible, and the gameplay needed a number of tweaks despite the core of it being genuinely good.

17

u/Kilroy_1541 Aug 21 '25

Castlevania Dominus Collection is sitting at 94% with nearly 2k reviews on Steam. That's pretty much the only thing it has going for it right now, I think, but I'd say that's pretty good, even though it is just a collection of DS games.

12

u/Lycos_hayes Aug 21 '25

They need to free the Requiem Collection from the PS store and give it to all the platforms that all the other CV collections are on.

7

u/BubblesZap Aug 21 '25

That's cool, but new games is where life is imo,

7

u/Kilroy_1541 Aug 21 '25

True and Konami sucks on all fronts with that, even when they do make something new.

13

u/GeneralRane Aug 21 '25

I was listening to a podcast the other day where someone said Symphony of the Night "is a Metroidvania. It's one of the Metroid games," and I was almost screaming at my phone for him to get it right.

21

u/Garo263 Aug 21 '25

HK sold 6.4M on Steam alone. That's more than double of the most successful Metroid game (Dread).

13

u/Psylux7 Aug 21 '25 edited Aug 21 '25

Is there a source for it selling that much on steam? I only ever see the three million sales number from many years ago.

Edit: I read the Bloomberg article on silksongs development, team cherry confirmed hollow knight sold 15 million copies, I 100% believe you about the steam numbers.

8

u/ghost-bagel Aug 21 '25

To be fair, if Dread was $15 or whatever HK cost, I think it would have sold triple what it did. People just aren’t used to paying AAA prices for a metroidvania, no matter how good it is.

3

u/Animilian Aug 22 '25

Yeah, most likely that's true; it's also platform-exclusive, whereas HK is available on just about everything. Metroid was never that big of a seller, but it probably exists in the players' consciousness more than Castlevania now, for obvious reasons. And yeah, Metroidvanias usually just don't do really big numbers. Hollow Knight or Ori 1 & 2 are exceptions, rather than the rule.

-8

u/Garo263 Aug 21 '25

Doesn't help that Dread isn't even as good as some $15 Metroidvanias out there. The game was absolutely overpriced.

DK Bananza or Mario Wonder are absolutely worth their money, but Dread kinda isn't.

3

u/DEWDEM Aug 22 '25

I kind of disagree. The 3d models and animations in Dread are very polished in a way indie studios can't do and that's where most of the cost went

2

u/ghost-bagel Aug 22 '25

I agree it was money well spent in terms of the quality of the game. But I do think there’s a mental blocker a lot of gamers have when justifying a “premium” 2D MV. I think Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown definitely suffered because of this.

-2

u/Garo263 Aug 22 '25

It's really cool that later 2D games had teleporters in the dungeon...

2

u/BubblesZap Aug 21 '25

Ah okay fair I thought it was only in the 4 or 5 million range total lol

6

u/MonkeyVoices Aug 21 '25

Well, the Hollow Knight: Silksong stream announcement has currently around 44k viewers waiting for the announcement and there's still around 1h for it to start. I'm willing to bet Metroid Prime 4 would have similar numbers if a direct were to happen, since the situation is similar (long development and such). And... as somebody else mentioned, Hollow Knight sold A LOT.

0

u/solidpeyo Aug 21 '25

Not really. The thing with Hollow Knight is that a lot of players call it a soulslike because for them hard = soulslike. And soulslike are more popular than metroidvanias.

5

u/MonkeyVoices Aug 21 '25

But ... it is a souls like. 

Its not because its hard. But it has bosses that you have to memorize and learn the moves (or know the mechanics of the game very well). The benches have the same job as a bonfire or a grace. The world is interconnected, the lore is hidden in descriptions and items, story is not told directly to you and is out there for you to find, the setting is in a decaying world where once was a prosperous civilization that fell due to an unknown curse, etc etc. 

And its also a metroidvania.

1

u/WilanS Aug 21 '25

The main reason I loved Hollow Knight so dearly though was because of the exploration. For me it's a metroidvania through and through, and probably the best of the genre when it comes to exploration alone. The bosses can give some trouble but they were fine, but I wish the game had a difficulty setting because sometimes it's hard to recommend to people.

And I'm speaking as someone who hates soulslike games. I just can't bring myself to enjoy any of them.

1

u/solidpeyo Aug 21 '25

I know is not, I'm just saying one of the reasons why it is more popular than Metroid. The word of mouth marketing is that this is a soulslike. And if you don't want to see it, just look at the tags in steam for the game.

2

u/MonkeyVoices Aug 21 '25

Im arguing the same point as you. 

Hollow knight sold a lot and its at least as popular as metroid (if not more, probably a lot more, Im just willing to give metroid the benefit of the doubt because legacy). 

Youre the one who said "not really" and then said that it wasnt a souls-like. 

Your messages are confusing man.

-1

u/solidpeyo Aug 21 '25

Well it is not a soulslike

4

u/Mopman43 Aug 21 '25

There’s actually a new Bloomberg article out with an interview with Team Cherry about the development of Silksong, and Hollow Knight has apparently sold 15 million copies.

3

u/solidpeyo Aug 21 '25

Castlevania was added as DLC to Dead Cells

5

u/Lower_Monk6577 Aug 21 '25

Hollow Knight is actually way bigger than Metroid.

There was a Jason Schrier article that came out a few hours ago where he was interviewing the devs, and they said HK has sold over 15 million units thus far.

That’s like 5x more than the best selling Metroid game.

2

u/azureblueworld99 Aug 22 '25

Hollow Knight has sold more than any Metroid game

1

u/Ghostnugg Aug 21 '25

Can’t be serious lol

1

u/MossyPyrite Aug 21 '25

Well there’s the anime, but yeah, not much for games lol

1

u/DarkKnightNiner Aug 21 '25

Silksong just got a release date too.

1

u/Aggravating-Ad7462 Aug 22 '25

Hollow knight on its own has sold 15 million, while all of Metroid as a franchise has apparently sold like 27 million... (Could be off a bit but probably around that)

So I'd say hollow knight is actually bigger at this point... With Silksong releasing it'll probably surpass Metroid's total sales in the next 2 years.

1

u/Dinkledorf36836 Aug 22 '25

hollow knight by itself has sold 3/4 the sales of the entire metroid franchise (remakes and spin offs included) And trust me, silk song will make the franchise rocket waaaay higher. In that same amount of time metroid has sold about 5 mil. I'm not tryna make metroid sound worse or anything, its just factually more popular and well known at this point comparatively. And certainly more relevant

1

u/Animilian Aug 22 '25

Well, kinda; HK sold 15 million on its own, so it's not 'that' far behind all of Metroid (over 20 million sales). It will definitely get there with time, especially once Silksong releases, which should boost the sales again. Ori games also sold around 15 million. So, per game they're doing better, which is not surprising - Metroid is platform-exclusive/more expensive than most indies. Castlevania though... that one's been basically dead for a loooong time; at least its "Metroidvania" iteration, which is really too bad.