Summary
Nothing in this world beats the feeling you get when you find your groove in a good metroidvania. From games on theMetroidside, like Axiom Verge, to more gothic,Castlevania-inspired titles like Bloodstained: Ritual Of The Night, we’ve got a lot of good stuff to choose from in pretty much any flavor you’d like, and that includes the rich cultural ajiwai of the land of the rising sun.
Whether these games come from Japan outright or they’ve been heavily inspired by the rich culture and history of the country, these are the best metroidvanias to check out if you can’t get enough of Japanese aesthetics.
As an honorable mention, I’d like to recommend 8 Doors: Arum’s Afterlife Adventure. Its inspirations hail from Korean folklore rather than Japanese, which is why it didn’t make this list, but if you like any of the games listed here, you’ll probably like 8 Doors, too.
6GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon
Like A Playable Wood Block Print
Konami’s 35-year-late sequel to their Famicom exclusive title Getsu Fuma Den was long overdue, and just one look at the incredible ukiyo-e style visuals and fluid gameplay animations make it clear that the team behind Undying Moon did their best to ensure that the title we got was worth the wait.
Taking a Dead Cells style approach to the metroidvania format and incorporatingroguelike elementsinto the tried and true genre patterns we’ve come to expect does GetsuFumaDen: Undying Moon a lot of favors. As a result, you’ll find that it’s easy to spend countless hours enveloped in this gorgeous world.
Although the game itself is quite enjoyable, it has unfortunately been plagued with issues regarding controller compatibility on Steam as well as a baffling always-online requirement. Consequently, we recommend going with the Nintendo Switch version of the game.
Red Candle Games made metaphorical tidal waves in the horror space with their previous games Detention and Devotion, but with their latest release, the Taiwanese studio has made it clear that horror isn’t the only genre they can take on; they’re apparently quite adept when it comes to making action games, too.
With heavy inspiration in lore and visuals taken from Japanese culture and folklore, Nine Sols is avisually gorgeousexperience that’s a perfect fit for you if you’ve played more than your fair share of Sekiro and want more of that kind of experience.
Bo: Path Of The Teal Lotus is an absolutely incredible experience on par with some ofthe best the genre has to offer, and chances are, if you’re a fan of metroidvanias, you’ve already played Bo at least a handful of times and have some wonderful things to say about it yourself.
The sense of motion and control at your fingertips from the moment you start the game makes Bo: Path Of The Teal Lotus feel more like a beautiful action platforming playground than a finished game. The only problem is, when you’re having this much fun moving around, stopping to talk to certain mandatory NPCs can feel like a chore rather than a choice.
Vanillaware’s Japanese-style metroidvania has unfortunately fallen to the wayside a bit when it comes to accessibility, having only ever been released for the Nintendo Wii and the PlayStation Vita. The most unfortunate part of that is that the Vita version is far and away the best one, featuring the enhanced texture quality that the non-HD Wii version of the title so sorely missed.
Art aside, Muramasa is bursting at the seems with engaging content, featuring not one but two main campaigns which intertwine with one another throughout the game, and hordes of swords and playstyles to choose from as you make your way through Vanillaware’s Japanese masterpiece.As hard as it might be to track down a copy these days, Muramasa: The Demon Blade is absolutely worth the price of admission.
Touhou isn’t exactly synonymous with the metroidvania genre, and considering most players would describe the series as being among the best examples of the “bullet hell” genre, that lack of association is far from surprising. That being said, Touhou Luna Knights is both a metroidvania and an incredible time, chrono-pun completely intended.
Aside from the jaw dropping fluidity of the pixel art in Touhou Luna Knights, the ability to stop time temporarily provides the game with a variety of exciting gameplay challenges, from transforming water into a solid to stopping time to survive more difficult attacks during boss fights.
Originally released for free as 洞窟物語 (doukutsu monogatari), Cave Story has been delighting players all over the world since 2004 with its charming visuals,engaging story, and fantastic gameplay. The level up system for weapons in Cave Story is especially unique, but it’s the branching story and high difficulty endgame that really make this indie darling worth revisiting again and again.
While you can still obtain the original version that Pixel madeall on his own, we recommend going for the Nintendo Switch version, Cave Story+, for its customization options and two-player co-op mode. It may not be the flashiest or most visually unique, but Cave Story remains among the finest examples of Japanese game design in metroidvania format.
