You Need To Play Axiom Verge 

Same opinion here. In most reviews I see of this game the reviewer keeps saying how generic it is and fails to innovate, doomed to being lost among all the metroidvania clones. Playing it I found the entire opposite, always thought axiom verge was underrated.

This game is definitely up there in terms of good Metroidvania platformers. The story went a little over my head, but the atmosphere and gameplay design is incredible. It feels like you're wandering around in a fever-induced nightmare and trying desperately to find a way to wake up. I'll probably replay this sometime in the near-future.

I felt in love in this game at a specific moment. There's a part in the game when you find the body of the Rusalki (The giant heads designed for war) and Elsenova mentions that she was created to be a soldier. Not a weapon, a soldier. This gives the hint that she thinks of herself as a being, and not solely as a machine. It is a very small detail, but hey, It's in the small details where one falls in love.

and the best effect of the disrupter, turning an enemy into missingno

Axiom Verge is one of the best metroidvania type games I've played since Super Metroid or Symphony of the Night. It's just fantastic.

wow i love your game analysis videos, it really gives a lot of insight on how the games are designed with the elements in mind. This really makes me think that the developers actually have the players' fun in mind. I hope you will make more game design analysis videos (good or bad) in the future!

Yes. You do need to play this game.

This is my favorite indie game uve played yes more than celeste

IGN had a story about the guy who made axiom verge. He has been through a lot and is a very humble guy. I am definitely picking up the first one as soon as it goes on sale again.

I have only heard a few things about Axiom Verge in the past but after seeing it here I will be sure to check it out a some point, looks pretty great!

I didn't enjoy Axiom Verge a whole lot, even being a big Super Metroid fan, but it still was good and a breath of fresh air amongst all the other games these days. I loved the visuals, trippy themes, secrets, and the super clever upgrade abilities. But I just remember constantly feeling aggravated or exhausted trying to explore the world once it opened up more. Exploration and enemy encounters were just so cumbersome towards the end. The bosses were wildly inconsistent as well. I also didn't feel very accomplished by the end of it either. But, it is still a refreshing experience and I appreciate it. It has some great elements in it, and I'm glad I decided to try it out! Oh, and that little drone was one of the best parts of the game. Loved exploring and strategizing with that thing!

Excellent game. One thing that's interesting is I have not gotten 100% items in Axiom Verge, even though I've done that in most Metroid games. It turns out that 100%ing AV is so elaborate and complicated that I couldn't do it in one focused session; I'll have to come back and do the rest after a long break I think. The "glitch" areas (one of which you showed in the video) turn out that they can be in like 50+ different possible places, and are randomized whenever you start a new file. So you have to look very carefully for a subtle screen effect to try and figure out where they are. On top of that, there are "codes" that are hidden in rooms in very vague ways, that can only be learned if you disrupt certain parts of the screen or get certain translator items, which must be then brought to specific other places. It gets so elaborate that I think it would be next to impossible to 100% this game without looking some things up, but on the other hand, I do appreciate at this game has so much to give. It would be hard to blast through all the content of this game in just a few weeks.

Axiom Verge really caught me off guard with how much I loved it earlier in the year. It's awesome!

This games been on my list a while. I'll make sure to play it sooner than later now! Thanks again and keep it coming!

Love this game.. first played Metroid 2 on the GB as a kid in the 90s. Been a fan since

My favorite Metroidvania, and just one of my favorite games. The drone is one of the things that sorta let's you cheese things a bit too easily, but it's probably my favorite item in the game regardless. I remember waiting for a morphball equivalent, only to discover the twist and it's implications. From there, I predicted the upgrades it'd get perfectly, and it felt even better to make use of them than expected, the movement ends up truly unique, so snappy and rewarding. That point about cheesing, that's what made me question if i loved the gameplay at first, at least on hard difficulty, but then I discovered a BUNCH of ways to remain aggressive with good movement and complimentary weapon hotswap combos for constant maximized dps. I also accepted that I knew how to beat certain chambers anyway, so I instead tried just dodging my way through, which seems to have been designed around very nicely. Once you get into it, it feels fast and fluid. Pretty early, on and around the critical path, you'll get Kilver and Voranj, the destructive green combo that, with some dmg upgrades, is amazing in so many situations. Throw your basic Axiom Disruptor shots in there, Hypo-Atomizer for that one boss, and you're more than good to go. It also has a randomizer now, last game I got crazy lucky with a Flamethrower/Heat Seaker/Fat Beam setup, the holy trinity as far as I'm concerned.

I loved this game. The music was absolutely downright amazing! however, I have to say that getting around the areas was difficult and cumbersome. The one track called "inexorable" with that middle eastern aaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH was REALLY really annoying. Yes the story is disappointing and I found that grappling hook to be extremely hard to use, but you don't have to deal with that for too long since a better power up comes by soon enough. The bosses sprites are jaw-droppingly awesome! I'd give this game an 8.5/10. Loved it. I am a huge metroid fan and this game was great.

I'm playing Celeste right now, which I love by the way. Still doing the b-sides and then c-sides and pico-8 This is definitely the next game on my to play list

Well I'll probably make a rpg metroidvania that has either normal and hard in it with the easy mode being that you have all of the items nessararry but you'll still defeat all the bosses though, also the places where the items could be in EM could be replaced with 420 coins

i agree about how it doesnt give you a choice at the end. i wanted to join the villan

The upgraded teleport mechanic ruined the game for me. I would too often accidentally teleport during scenarios like dodging enemies. They really should have made it possible to remap the ability to something other than double-tapping in the direction (like a button). Even so, I prefer Environmental Station Alpha over this. :\

I love your work, some of the best gaming content ion youtube, cheers from Brazil!

I'm playing it now. It's good, despite the navigation being a bit of a pain at times. I've gotten lost about 2 or 3 times. Needs a quicker fast travel system as well. Kinda blows me away that one guy made this though.

got this in boxed format at indiebox- Its well worth getting btw axiom is fucking great

I have to agree, this game is worth playing. It is fun and creative, especially the use of "glitched" areas and enemies. It also has different spins on the usual Metroidvania staples, such as the little robot, instead of a morphball or other small transformation. However, I have a couple of complaints. First of all, the environments. They are eerie and cool, but I think they lack variety. Everything looks like a mix of a cave or an industrial complex, which can get boring quickly. Second would be how weapons outclass eachother. After you get the flamethrower, for example, there´s no use for the electric gun, and the same happens with other weapons. Now, maybe this is intended, since not every gun is mandatory to get, but in Metroid games, normally beams combine, so the normal Power Beam or the Wave Beam don´t get outclassed or useless. And finally, the movement. Not how Trace moves, but how there isn´t a mean to move really quickly and efficiently. Metroid has the Speed Booster and Space Jump, most Metroidvanias had some kind of dash and a transformation that allowed you to fly. Axiom Verge has the dash late in the game, which I found unweildy to use, the grappling hook, which wasn´t that great either, and the "robot/teleport" thingie. Overall, it made revisiting areas a bit of a chore. God, look at me. It looks like I´m ranting. I´m really not, though, they´re minor complaints. If you like Metroid, you´ll like this game. Also, snoMan, about the ending... SPOILERS Isn´t the playable Trace a clone of the real Trace? He struggles thinking that he´s the same guy that caused all the death and decay around the planet, so I personally don´t think it was out of character for our Trace to refuse to help the real Trace. He was trying not to be like him, and to be his own being. I think so, at least. Nice video, as always.

to whom it may concern: i HIGHLY recommend trying out "Hyper Light Drifter" and "Environmental Station Alpha"! Both are really good indie games, similar in quality to Axiom Verge

I said "YES!" out loud when I read the title. :-)

Axiom Verge is nice, good to see more people playing it. I'm just here to plug La-Mulana, Environmental Station Alpha and Rabi-Ribi. It's hard sometimes to roam "metrodivania" tag on steam and not get lost in sea of strange games, so i try to promote good ones anytime i can.

Axiom Verge is my 2015 goty

i very seriously doubt the music is better, and that's nothing against axiom verge, but a testament to metroid

hell there are so manny times i wish i had a reminder button in other metroidvanias

Have you ever played environmental station alpha? I've seen a lot of people compare it to this game and call it better.

This game is pretty awesome to me. My only gripe is with the bosses, I wish there were more, everyone with more patterns and using everything the game gives you to fight them (imagine using the drone, teleporting to dodge, the grappling hook). And a much better final boss (I thought I would fight Elsenova in an epic battle after Athetos). At the end, it feels lacking in the boss department, its a shame, because the controls and items scream to be made to fight bosses xP

I'm currently playing it and I I've beaten 2 bosses, its a very fun game and the only thing I dislike about it is how little you can do without power ups/weapons, an example ; in any Metroid game since Super, you could do walljumps from the very begining. Great video!

What do you mean the story is worse? I feel the story and setting are the best thing in Axiom Verge by far!

I agree. I'm finding more and more modern Metroidvanias to be enjoyable. Then again, I haven't played the original Metroid games on classic consoles.

I love Axiom Verge, great video by the way

I actually wanted to play axiom verge ever since i found out about it! But at that time it was only an announcement and i eventually forgot about it. But thanks to Yuo snowmaN I searched it and bought it yesterday! Thanks!

I love your intro so much its ridiculous

Sold. Thanks guy.

Environmental station alpha is also really really good

It's on my ever expanding backlog

Thank you for reviewing my favorite game... alongside undertale... And maybe AM2R but IDK I didn't finish it yet!

Awesome both 1 and 2

The one thing that really bugged me about the game, that a few people in the comments have already mentioned, is that finding the next way to progress is way too obtuse. I remember spending a loooong time trapped in one area because the only way back was a high jump and I couldn't find the way forward using the power up that area had given me. I seem to remember it happening multiple times too and getting frustrated. I never did finish it.

You can shoot the floating head with your drone!?

I recently bought this and Katana Zero, both very good games

Ya know, you should all check out Henry Hatsworth in the Puzzling Adventure on the DS It's hard though...

Great video, you definitely sold the game to me. Have you considered speeding up your little intro animation thingie? It's super neat, but doesn't really need 8 seconds - speeding it or parts of it up could really smoothen up your video starts.

I got stuck in a hole and softlocked.

I never liked Metroidvanias until I played through Guacamelee (twice). Now I'm playing through Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and I'm really enjoying it. I'll check this game out when I have money.

Lol, just realised I had guacamelee already. I thought it was a fighting game so never played it. I got it on humble bundle years ago!

I would argue having to go through an area to find a dead end is a time waster compared to colored doors, although the latter could feel more artificial, the former definitely feels less frustrating. Unless it's done right, such as Hollow Knight, where dead ends are clear without much backtracking and are varied. I never feel lost in Hollow Knight because the areas are clearly laid out, plus the map pins are the best. Then again, my point is probably moot considering I haven't play Axiom Verge and I already disagree with my first statement. The Disruptor sounds awesome, I can see why you like it!

Greetings you fabulous Earthlings! 👋👽 Happy Tuesday and I also bring thin crust pizza with Keto, Friendly cookies for everyone. Enjoy! 🍕 🍪

The one thing that made me look askance at this video was when you mention the lack of easy mode as a positive thing. Other than that I liked all the things you had to say about it, even though I've not played it yet. In fact, the one other video I came across on it (by a guy that normally does anime reviews) had initially turned me off to the game because of the way the video-maker described it. Firstly, he really, really concentrated on it being a "metroid-clone" and avoided calling it a metroidvania (also covered Xeodrifter in the same video), so that kind of turned me off in terms of thinking it didn't have much to offer that I couldn't get by replaying Super Metroid. Secondly I just think he doesn't have any business doing video game reviews because of the way he approaches them. I mean, he might have an audience that thinks about games the same way he does, but I don't think any of his views or criticisms of games have been particularly worthwhile. So, uh, point being is that you've got me interested in the game now.

I did. I have a physical copy of it. :)

You need to play Teslagrad. Its an AWESOME Metriodvania Puzzle game that has such unique way to tell its story its Super fun and Great Time. Its a Bit short but total worth it

DUDE you didn't need to spoil all the items to me!!

JUSTIN BAILEY works here too

Your an awesome youtuber Keep doing what your doing :)

What's the first game you've shown? It looks all sorts of cuhrayzee

You can actually see trace in a swimsuit

i fucking love this game i've completed it like 5 times already

The reason Trace changes his attitude with the final boss is because he feels crushed and betrayed that it was himself the whole time.

I actually really liked the story and found it really interesting. Great video btw :)

The story is so gud tho. Also everyone commenting about this game being hard 2 navigate must be real bad at navigation.

I'll check out this game! Ive never actually played these types of games. Are there any others I should play before getting this game?

What is this game at 0:10? It looks really good!

Just so you know, there is absolutely a Justin Bailey cheat code in this game.

I was right on board with everything you said... until you ripped on the story D: It was a fair while ago I played this (several playthroughs in sequence in fact, in order to get everything), and I can't recall my exact interpretation. But I do remember the ending being crucial to it all, so I think your reading of it might be a bit lacking if you didn't pay much attention to the logs and all that. I don't know if maybe you did, and actually constructed a theory for how everything fit together, what was real and what was not, etc etc. In that case, I guess we'll just have to disagree, because that level of intricacy is something I think I've pretty much never come across in gaming. A medium widely renowned for its ludicrously well-made plots. That was sarcasm.

I really didn't like having to use the glitch gun all the time.

The moment I saw its similarity to Metroid I bought it

U should have 10 mil subs

I got an e-mail that said this game was free on steam. It wasn't dissapointment

i actually found this game to be kind of boring. I felt like i was kinda just trudging through the whole game, and a lot of the game's challenges seemed to have a very straightforward solution that ended up being pretty boring to execute. Also the movement was a lot more boring to me than super metroid, and thats not a game i would consider to have an incredibly robust system of movement

I'm stuck at the bit where you kill the clone and can break glitched barriers

What is the game in which the video starts and is it available for switch?

How many hours of game time does this give you?

the best non-Metroid game of the metroidvania genre.

Your video spoiled me a puzzle! x'D

This feels like a sequelitis by the all powerful Egoraptor/arin hanson which is actually high praise. Great video

so much more like castlevania for the gameboy advance

I usually have better time with the modern metroidvanias than with the classics, but I still prefer Super Metroid over the modern games. It has better atmosphere than most of the modern games (the only ones that I think have better atmosphere than Super Metroid are Axiom Verge and The Swapper) and better level design (until now it's the only game with that formula that can work well without fast travel, the level design is so good that it's possible to navigate in the world fast enough just by using the short cuts).

fan fact, Tom Happ was part of the developers team of Super Metroid (so basically he copied himself lol) is not a "generic clone".

What is the game at 0:13?

I might have missed you saying this, but what console is this on?

Psssyyycchhhh it does have sideburns in a bikini 😳

I think, it's good, when there's also an easy mode. Maybe this mode would even have less content or no chance to unlock special content or something like that, but I woulnd't finish most touhou games, if there wasn't an easy mode.

I already played it, great game :D

Crappiest sound I've ever heared in a metroidvania game, not what I call a loveletter, it's more of a deathnote.

what is that gameboy looking one in the beginning?

you CAN play in a Bikini of sorts.

download game : anotepad.com/notes/awk6mc

Which game is the first in the beginning? 0:09

Whats that game at 0:09 to 0:13

Need to play? Not sure about that. Was great early but the more I played the more average and tedious it got. Eventually stopped playing, just before the lategame (about 7 hours in). Watching the rest was enough.

This game is kind of cool, but it is so confusing for me.

when I heard "the game will lock off certain sections so poor casual baby brain won't get lost and so the dev can show you a neat thing" I kinda got turned off by it.

Do you know what the game at 0:15 is?

had to get a refund on this game gave it a chance but just wasnt having fun