>>714211912
>Man it feels gay that the only metroidvanias I have fully enjoyed were Metroid games (and Aria of Sorrow). I've tried Hollow Knight, Blasphemous, Axiom Verge, Environmental Station Alpha to varying levels of enjoyment but nothing really reaches those heights for me.

did you try Bloodstained Ritual of the Night? i feel like Iga and his team put all of their best Castlevania idea on that one, lots of equipments, a soul system, quests, crafting, it even has the brilliant idea of adding respawning chests to areas youve visited, the rewards arent amazing but that, paired with the RPG elements and soul system (which are called shards in this game) makes it so backtracking never feels like a waste of time

theres also a hard more so the game is not totally a cakewalk like Symphony of the Night, its not dark souls, but it helps