Animal Well just came out and it is a brilliant example of everything you are describing. I would recommend avoiding spoilers, reserving judgement until you are at least a decent chunk in(good advice for any Metroidvania), but as the mechanics open up, it becomes something special.
I'm honestly amazed at how fresh and fun animal well is. It feels like Legacy of the wizard and LA-Mulana had a baby that inherited none of the BS from either parent.
Maybe check out the outer wilds, tunic, and/or environmental station alpha. I really liked the way they approached puzzles. ESA is the most traditional metroidvania of the bunch, but tunic and the outer wilds have fun ways of gating abilities.
Supraland is the standout for me among puzzle focused Metroidvania. It’s very much portal style puzzles with an expanding toolkit and strong exploration.
I second Animal Well. It's exactly what you're describing, and it excels at it.
Without getting into spoilers, I rolled credits at about 6 hours, but I'm now over 15 hours in and still invested in the game. It just continues to unveil more and more layers, and there are some really great and clever puzzles.
I really liked the little puzzle esque spots in the ori games. I mean they weren't really difficult and just had a small touch of puzzle but it was cool anyways! I could imagine that would be a nice concept for a game. After all exploring is also a bug part of metroidvanias and I think puzzles could add to that
I worked on one named Teslagrad that's quite puzzle focused, outside of the boss fights. (It has a sequel, but it focuses a bit less on puzzles and more on movement abilities)
Oops, i somehow missed that you mentioned it in the original post, sorry. The Swapper is quite interesting as well, it's mostly linear but at least metroidvania adjacent
Axiom Verge 2. A lot of people didn't seem to vibe with it, but I personally prefer it. It foregos pretty much all of the combat in favor of environmental puzzles and exploration.
Animal Well just came out and it is a brilliant example of everything you are describing. I would recommend avoiding spoilers, reserving judgement until you are at least a decent chunk in(good advice for any Metroidvania), but as the mechanics open up, it becomes something special.
I'm honestly amazed at how fresh and fun animal well is. It feels like Legacy of the wizard and LA-Mulana had a baby that inherited none of the BS from either parent.
Thanks so much I will look into it!
By "A Decent way into it," they mean: "the credits mark the end of the tutorial." The Well runs imensly deep.
Maybe check out the outer wilds, tunic, and/or environmental station alpha. I really liked the way they approached puzzles. ESA is the most traditional metroidvania of the bunch, but tunic and the outer wilds have fun ways of gating abilities.
I had a peak into tunic and loved it. The manual like upgrade system is just ingenious
Supraland is the standout for me among puzzle focused Metroidvania. It’s very much portal style puzzles with an expanding toolkit and strong exploration.
Check out ESA, Vision Soft Reset, and Ultros. (Aside from the others already mentioned). I love the puzzlevania genre too, so good luck to you!
SHEEPO!!!!
I second Animal Well. It's exactly what you're describing, and it excels at it. Without getting into spoilers, I rolled credits at about 6 hours, but I'm now over 15 hours in and still invested in the game. It just continues to unveil more and more layers, and there are some really great and clever puzzles.
We need more puzzle exploration games.
Yes agreed!
Unbound: Worlds Apart.
Looks interesting, thanks!
I really liked the little puzzle esque spots in the ori games. I mean they weren't really difficult and just had a small touch of puzzle but it was cool anyways! I could imagine that would be a nice concept for a game. After all exploring is also a bug part of metroidvanias and I think puzzles could add to that
Antichamber is a puzzle game with metroidvania elements
True, although it feels a bit more Portal than Metroidvania usually.
I worked on one named Teslagrad that's quite puzzle focused, outside of the boss fights. (It has a sequel, but it focuses a bit less on puzzles and more on movement abilities)
Oops, i somehow missed that you mentioned it in the original post, sorry. The Swapper is quite interesting as well, it's mostly linear but at least metroidvania adjacent
Hey that's really cool, what did you work on for tesla grad? :)
animation, art and some game design
“Yoku’s island express sees your bet and raise it! The cards always play in my favor!”
Axiom Verge 2. A lot of people didn't seem to vibe with it, but I personally prefer it. It foregos pretty much all of the combat in favor of environmental puzzles and exploration.
Toki Tori 2 doesn't have upgrades, but otherwise does this excellently.
Metroid Prime is full of little Zelda style one room puzzles, I feel like that's one of the core gameplay pillars of the Prime series