After playing close to all of the Metroid series, I felt like I owed it to myself to try the other side of the "Metroidvania" coin. While it does have very ambitious pixel visuals melded with 3D models making a gorgeous-looking game, the heavy focus the game has on combat is not exactly the side of the titular genre that doesn't speak to me as much.
The base combat model and the variety of weapons available meant that I enjoyed finding new ways to fight the enemies throughout the game, but that kind of cuts into the platforming and movement side of progression. There are unfortunately only 5 major movement upgrades to help explore the castle, and once those are obtained there really isn't much change in the gameplay for the remainder of the playthrough. Because of this, rooms often don't feel as purposeful as those in a game like Super Metroid. The inverted castle in the latter half of the game truly stretches this problem even further; purely just a gauntlet of enemies and platforming made messy to where using the bat just becomes required to eliminate it entirely.
The base combat model and the variety of weapons available meant that I enjoyed finding new ways to fight the enemies throughout the game, but that kind of cuts into the platforming and movement side of progression. There are unfortunately only 5 major movement upgrades to help explore the castle, and once those are obtained there really isn't much change in the gameplay for the remainder of the playthrough. Because of this, rooms often don't feel as purposeful as those in a game like Super Metroid. The inverted castle in the latter half of the game truly stretches this problem even further; purely just a gauntlet of enemies and platforming made messy to where using the bat just becomes required to eliminate it entirely.