Search Action (Concept)

Search Action

CONCEPT

A style of action-adventure gameplay revolving around exploring a labyrinth with the necessity of locating new items and equipment to progress beyond otherwise impassable obstacles. The concept is named for its common usage in the Metroid and Castlevania franchises. While the term most commonly refers to 2D games, it can also refer to 3D games.

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Overview

"Search action" or "Metroidvania," as it is most commonly called in the West, is a style of gameplay that focuses on exploration of a contiguous (typically) 2D open world that is initially constrained by gated paths that become unlocked during the course of play. In Japan, the genre is still referred to as 探索型アクション (tansaku-gata akushon) meaning "exploration-based action."

"Search action" is the English derivation of the terms used in Japan to describe this style of game. The Japanese commercial for Metroid for the Famicom Disk System referred to it as「アクションアンド埋めるゲーム」which roughly translates to "action and uncovering game." In Japanese, umeru is often used to describe a level of achievement such as revealing the entirety of a map or unlocking every collectible. Though the term's origins are unclear, "Metroidvania" has been attributed to Richard Hutnik in the early 2000s and then popularized by Scott Sharkey and Jeremy Parish, and is a portmanteau of the two franchises that popularized this gameplay structure: Metroid (Franchise) and Castlevania (Franchise).

The game world in a Metroidvania game is designed in a non-linear fashion, allowing players to explore the world. However, there are usually limitations to a player's exploration, such as out-of-reach areas or areas blocked by an obstacle only destructible by a certain attack. Such limitations are subject to completing certain objectives or finding new tools, and backtracking to and revisiting older areas are hallmarks of this style of game.

There are other free exploration designs besides the Metroidvania, and it could be argued that the original Legend of Zelda had an incredibly similar design mindset. The primary difference is the camera view. Most games that allow free exploration use a 3D or overhead (a.k.a. top-down) view. In the case of a Metroidvania game design, the layout is that of a side-scroller. In addition to being a side-scroller, it is the first game type that allowed the player to explore both right and left in addition to climbing upward and falling down.

History

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Diagram showing roots of Metroidvania genre

The Metroidvania genre originated from Japan (Location). Some of the underlying elements of Metroidvania gameplay appeared in early titles such as Donkey Kong (Franchise) (1981), Tutankham (Game) (1982), Mr. Do's Castle (1983, Arcade), and Portopia Serial Murder Case (1983)

The side-scrolling Metroidvania style began on Japanese computer platforms. In spring 1984, Hiroshi Ishikawa (Person) began working on Brain Breaker (Game), a relatively obscure, sci-fi, open-world action-adventure with a Metroidvania style, eventually released in November 1985. In September 1985, Xanadu: Dragon Slayer II, developed by Nihon Falcom's Yoshio Kiya (Person), was released, as a Metroidvania-style open-world action RPG. Xanadu became a hit in Japan (Location), where "Metroidvania" style games were sometimes referred to as "Xanadu (Franchise)" style games. In October 1985, Zainsoft released Tritorn (Franchise), a side-scrolling action RPG inspired by Hydlide (Game).

In 1986, this style of gameplay was introduced to consoles by the original Metroid (Game), released for the NES in August 1986. The second Castlevania game, Vampire Killer (Game), released for the MSX2 in October 1986, also used a similar open-ended style of gameplay, which was further refined by Castlevania II: Simon's Quest for the NES in 1987, before later Castlevania games reverted back to a more linear style of gameplay. A later milestone for the search-action style was Super Metroid (Game) on the SNES in 1994.

The '-vania' half of the portmonteau was earned with the release of Castlevania: Symphony of the Night in 1997. In a 2020 interview with Limited Run, Castlevania series creator Koji Igarashi (Person) revealed that it was not Metroid that inspired Symphony of the Night but rather The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. However, the game's 2D world, gated progression, and in-game map were more reminiscent of the three games in the Metroid series that had preceded it. Its contribution to the term, as evidenced by later games bearing the Metroidvania moniker, is the inclusion of an RPG-like leveling and equipment/shop system.

Thus, games described as "Metroidvanias" bear family resemblance to the gameplay characteristics exhibited in both the Metroid series and the non-linear Castlevania games. The genre term has some utility as a shorthand, though the complexities introduced as these styles of games have evolved make it only so useful.

Design Considerations

Search action games eschewed the more common practice of designing distinct levels or stages so that the game world could be explored in a non-linear fashion. Instead, the game is broken up into areas or regions that are all seamlessly connected. Each of these areas typically have a unique visual style and/or musical score to give the area definition.

Even in early examples of the genre, the concept of a high-score as a demonstration of achievement was supplanted by a completion percentage and often a timer that kept track of how long the player took to finish the game. In the original Metroid (Game), for example, different endings were earned by finishing the game under a certain amount of time.

The concepts of a single large world, free exploration, and the obstacle-powerup-backtrack cycle were re-created in polygonal 3D for Metroid Prime (Franchise) and its sequels. Though it may not technically be considered 100% adherent to the style, given its first-person viewpoint and polygonal 3D world, critics noted that this was a very successful transposition of the style's core tenets into a different environment.

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