Metroidvania is a long held passion of mine ever since Castlevania: Rondo of Blood handed to me by my cousin when I was much smaller, it forged a lifelong love of the series even prompting me to jump back and play the older games. Although I have looked around a touch I can’t seem to find books yet made in this setting, though technically they CAN be LitRPG – as based upon the level system in Symphony of the Night, Portrait of Ruin and a few other more modern iterations. Are there books out there within the world setting of a Metroidvania? If not, how would you think it best to go about writing one?
There are some that the dungeon is constantly changing, which makes sense for a Metroidvania. To go about it, I've have a few set areas for the adventurers. Maybe a world connected to other worlds by dungeons. Those dungeons constantly shift and change to adapt to their performance or to unlock new paths to new worlds in an effort to separate parties so they can't reach the top of the world.
That's a good way to go about it, though perhaps a little too close to portal books, not that it's a bad thing many portal books are fantastic! That said an iteration of that could be used by saying "The castle/complex shifts every week/month at this time/date" the area may keep the theme (cellars and dungeon = cellar and dungeon) but completely change up the floor set up aside from special locations. Hmm I suppose the hard bit would be to not become repetitive "I broke the 10000th lamp once more a glistening heart glided to the floor below shining in the gloom"
As much as it bothers me, I would reference The Dungeon and Those that Dwell. For all its faults, it does the randomized dungeon well. I will never get over the potential it had and didn't use.
That, my friend is where we come in as writers (or aspiring in my case) I will check them out never heard of Those that Dwell, so this should prove interesting!
I actually liked that book. Not enough to write a CheshirePhoenix Trademark Review of it, but it did things that were completely unique to the genre. I was especially fond of the angelic references in it, because holy hell - angels, as described in the Bible, are fking terrifying and make perfect monsters, or badass character transformation abilities. It also drew inspiration from one of the better isekai anime in recent years - Is It Wrong to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?
Yeah. There’s a series on YouTube called Extra Credits. It’s all about game design, and they put out a list of games they think people should play. Every one of those lists is prefaced with a disclaimer about how they don’t mean the games are necessarily the BEST games - or even really good games at all - but they all do something unique or worthwhile, that makes them worth playing. The Dungeon and Those Who Dwell Within is like that. It isn’t the best book EVAR OMGSQUEEEE, but it does take risks. And in a sea of sameyness, those risks are what make it stand out and, I think, contributes a lot to that feeling of missed opportunities.
