Axiom Verge has been released for PS4 and with it, Metroidvania is suddenly one of the most talked about genres. Still, it's not just praise that Axiom verge is harvesting. Having put in a delightful 10 hours so far, I kind of get where everybody is coming from and wrote that down at rllmukforum. Here's a copy of the text in question explaining how I feel about Axiom Verge within the Metroid legacy.
With conflicting views all over the web, I think some form of explanation is in order.
This is not Super Metroid 2. Not many things are. Zero Mission kind of comes close, lacks a certain mystery, then overcompensates on the climax. (Itâs bloody brilliant btw.)
Axiom Verge is Metroid 5 in that it evolves the template a bit again. Fusion (Metroid 4) caught a lot flack for taking away the perception of freedom by locking you into the various sectors of BSL, while shifting focus to (initially) rock hard boss battles. It got mixed reviews (for a Nintendo title) and it took a few years before people started to appreciate it for it was and did. It didnât help that stablemate Prime came to the dance in their grandmotherâs 3D-printed dress.
Now Axiom Verge is very similar to Fusion in that respect. It breathes Metroid in everything. Weapons, enemies, environments, map layouts, you name it, itâs probably in there. Just different. You wonât find the Morphing Ball, but you will be able to summon a drone. You wonât find an all penetrating Wave Beam, but youâll have an all penetrating shotgun blast. Thereâs no Space Jump, but youâll pick up a teleport skill.
Itâs very fresh. Itâs Metroid remixed to the point that youâll constantly see, hear and feel familiar things, but itâs alien enough to get you excited and fearful at the right times. This, in my opinion, is the gameâs triumph.
Still, I do have some doubts when compared to Super Metroidâs template or the dizzying depths of Zero Mission. Abilities and weaponry donât always gel together in a way that seem to allow for sequence breaking. But every time this feeling becomes too strong, the game manages to surprise me again.
Thereâs a particular secret in KurâŠ
[SPOILER]at the far right of the top of the main entrance shaft, where you have drill away part of the top wall, deploy your drone into it to remove more blocks, grapple yourself to the top to swing into the corridor, excavate it further, teleport past the wall, hack the enemies beyond into platforms to jump to the top while shooting down fleas, and then deploy the drone again to venture through a hidden path to pick up a new weapon.[/SPOILER]
The entire sequence described is not exactly âshinesparkingâ, but it still floored me with the effort involved. It does this often (though maybe not always to the extent of the above example): at times youâll feel trapped and still try a combination of abilities to get beyond, and then it works.
Every ability is one that enhances your options in exploring and might be used differently as well. The hacking gun youâll pick up rather quickly, seems to be the most arbitrary key for the in-game locks. The equivalent of Adam unlocking sectors in Fusion. And yes, it is used like that, but at the same time it allows you to corrupt enemies and change their behaviour. Turrets become healing stations. Deadly lasers suddenly open up passageways. The fast become the slow. The cute become lethal.
Again, thatâs Metroid: having options that give you mastery over your environment through the things you do, rather than getting a password or a specific key. So no, I havenât found the complexity of Zero Missionâs final Chozodia Energy Tank shinespark sequence, but I have found inventive use for my gear anyway and itâs enhancing the way I play. It has this Metroid-feel of finding items with the idea that you've cheated and somehow shouldn't have been able to get it yet.
There are shades of Metroid II in this. Like Fusion, it seems to want to provide a more battle ready template. Super and Zero Mission stack all weaponry, here youâll get an infinite supply of Contra-style weaponry that allows for experimentation. Not all of them manipulate the environment, but it turns every new enemy into a puzzle. It only adds to the feeling of exploration, experimentation and mastery in my opinion.
One of the things that I donât like ties in here: the boss battles. So far theyâre easy. Think Mega Man boss patterns in slow-mo and youâre not far off. I donât like this personally (a bit of a challenge to showcase the weapons wouldâve been nice), but for most itâll mean the bosses wonât form these giant insurmountable objects of hatred (looking at you, Nightmare).
The graphics might also not be everyoneâs cup of tea. Theyâre distinctly 8-bit. The opening area alone looks like 8-bit Brinstar and Norfair had a baby, while later areas remind me of demaked Maridia and Rygar, The Battle of Olympus, and Ufouria amongst others. Then you get these humoungous 16-bit sprites and modern day graphic effects. It helps the setting and story in that respect (the glitching truly seems to be on a higher plane), but people appreciating Samusâ breathing animation in Super or the lavishness of Zero Mission Crateria will probably feel left out. In fact, you might feel that everything looks the same, and its only after a few hours that youâll start to notice the now suddenly huge cues that set areas apart even though it does recycles sprites.
The music has a similar feel to it. Distinctly 8-bit with 16-bit, 32-bit and other influences seeping through. Some sound effects will make your memory jolt back to specific games, while the music is an eclectic collection that somehow still feels coherent. It a mixture of the old and the new. Again.
And taking all of that into consideration, I canât help but feel that itâs overshadowed by one thing: one person made all of this. It makes a lot of its shortcomings into tiny marvels.
So yes, Metroid 5. Unlike Ori, itâs rough around the edges, wonât hold your hand and rewards exploration. Its tale feels a bit predictable and unlike Metroid, itâs not as polished, nor as subtle in its storytelling (what do you mean, âTeam Ninjaâ?). But itâs made by one man, itâs Metroid, and it makes me hopeful that in the future we may not even need Nintendo any more for this particular genre.
PS Trace keeps reminding me of the apprentice from Oglaf (VERY NSFW).