r/metroidbrainia

Case of the Golden Idol was half-off during the Cerebral Puzzles showcase and I picked it up because it's been on my radar for a bit and I thought why not give it a go? I sat down to play it a bit tonight, got through 8 cases in a little under 2 hours, and closed it down for the night (because I've got work in the morning). And that's when I realized that there are only 11 cases in the base game, which feels... short?

Granted, I had vague memories of the first two cases because I watched someone try the game out back when it came out and I'm playing with the recommended point-of-interest highlighting. However, that's still 15-20 minutes per case (probably closer to 5-10 minutes for some of them) and the only one I really had any trouble with was case 5 (due to misinterpreting >!the clue about the coded message in the letter!<).

Is it supposed to be this straightforward? Are all the tricky cases in the DLCs, which are otherwise looking a bit overpriced at the moment? Did I let the hype set my expectations too high?

I’m taking advantage of the Cerebral Puzzle Showcase 2026 discounts and I’ve decided to pick up a bunch of games that seem to fit the metroidbrainia vibe.

Right now my cart includes:

• Isles of Sea and Sky
• Sliding Hero
• Chroma Zero
• Grunn
• IFO
• Chronoquartz
• Öoo
• Linelith
• Leap Year
• EMUUR0M
• Paquerette Down the Bunburrows
• Toki Tori 2+

I already have played some of the obvious recommendations, such as Outer Wilds, Tunic, Blue Prince, Void Stranger, Antichamber, and The Witness.

Are there any other really good metroidbrainias or puzzle exploration games, games that I’m missing from the sale? I’m especially interested in hidden gems or games that are currently at a very good price.

Games chosen

I juat got myself a few of these gem on xbox rn

La-mulana 1 and 2

Ooo

Chroma Zero

Animal (as) well (again)

Chants of sinnaar (again lol)

And the demo for echo weaver

So i wonder which are the ones you suggest me beside these ones

To state where i situate myself, im having a outer wilds game started that i use as a daily expedition so i can start afresh and more intuitive

I played the witness (to a certain pointtho)

Im 18 fates in in obra dinn

I was on pc at my third section in chants and i loved it

I love also adjacents like talos 2 and just finished tunic

Also what is your opinion on echo weaver's demo? I did start it and personnally i think im really intrigued

I was very excited for this game as soon as I heard about it, I loved animal well, and this game looked do be doing something similar, So far it has exceeded what I expected, and currently I'd say it's a better game for me than animal well.

I have about 10.5 hours played, I beat the core game with about 6.5 hours, and I greatly enjoyed it, I would say if the game was just that experience I'd still recommend it. Although that initial playthrough felt quite linear and guided. But it's hard to really judge that without replaying. I think one mechanic means it will always be that way though.

But just that first 6.5 hours, the discovering of the world, the animals and plants that live there, the mechanics of scanning, how they all work together and how you can use them to explore and proceed, is really great. I just kept wanting to play and progress and see more. The boss encounters are really fun little puzzles, and the game is very forgiving throughout the story, you aren't dying, you aren't fighting, you're just learning and exploring. I would say the main story is easy enough anyone could beat it with enough time.

But that main story is absolutely just the tip of the iceberg, I have only played 4 or so hours of the 'endgame' and I am certain I have no idea how deep this is really going to go, but unlike animal well no part of me currently feels like I need a guide. With animal well, endgame puzzles felt like they got very obtuse very quickly. I am sure there are some of those here, without a doubt, but right now it doesn't feel that way. I will try as much as possible to not go into spoilers, I will not spoil anything you don't learn within the first 15 minutes.

The map is a 64 square grid and you will, by the time you beat the game, have of course been to most of the screens on that map. This is where the game really becomes a metroidbrainia, rather than a fairly linear puzzle game. Your explicit guide is gone, you have your full map, puzzle stones, 'dialogue' and creature profiles, and you are on your own to figure out what to do. And it's amazing. It's hard to discuss it without spoiling but you are throughout the game finding hidden animals and such, all clearly building to their own unique payoffs, you get cryptic clues about some special things in this world and then you start to find them and get holy shit moments. The map looks small, the game at a glance would seem to be pretty short, but there are things hidden in every fucking corner of every other screen that you have run past dozens of times without noticing.

I think this game might be similar, in structure, to blue prince. In that you have layer 1, the story and just beating the game, but then you unlock another layer of puzzles, and after getting through that layer you reach another deeper layer of puzzles. There are currently 9 achievements that have 0.0% completion on steam, of 20. I personally have a mere 2 after 10 hours (although 1 of them it seems 17% of people have, far more than who obtained the second achievement I have) with every other achievement I don't own having less than 2.5% completion.

I am thrilled to keep exploring this game and learning more, I want to see just how deep this game goes. how many layers are packed into this tiny 64 square grid with an install size of less than 4MB, just how many holy shit moments await me. If those first 10 hours are any indication of what is to come, I am very confident that I will not be disappointed one bit.

I am aware this post reads badly, I think it's a side effect of wanting to avoid discussing absolutely any spoilers, but the point of it all is one thing. If you're on this subreddit,
Buy this game.

Hey all! Just discovered this sub after tossing around ideas for a metroidbrainia style game for the better part of a year now.

The rough concept of the game is a top-down Zelda style action game which can technically be played front to back without really getting too deep into metroidbrainia aspects, and then only noticing the knowledge-based puzzles on further playthroughs and following those threads to get to the true meat of the game (a structure heavily inspired by Void Stranger).

The main hinge point of the knowledge puzzles center around the idea that you the player are in fact playing a video game- a lot of my ideas for early puzzles focus on abusing traditional quicksaves as a kind of time manipulation / foresight ability, and then later puzzles getting REALLY meta with local file manipulation a la Doki Doki Literature Club or even stuff like using code injection into textbox entries to "break" the game itself.

So my question for all of you is what are some things I should keep in mind while drafting further development- do these puzzles sound prone to being too cumbersome and/or too archaic to be fun? Is there any feature or methodology you've come across in metroidbrainias that always makes you excited to see (or ones that have made you frustrated)? What, to your taste, gives metroidbrainias the "hell yeah" factor? Should I just stop overthinking and commit?

For reference I have played most of the metroidbrainia "hits" (Outer Wilds, Tunic, Void Stranger, Blue Prince, Animal Well, The Witness) but I have not delved super far into the recesses of underrated/obscure entries.

So i know emuurom is the thing rn and i am late to the party cause of a pc problem, but since all i haveleft is a xbox and a bunch of recommanded games from here recently purchased ( [yes i went all the way down to Õoo and finished the descent but i dont know how to get out ] 😂💀 think i soft locked myself in or something 🥹 )

But today's topic is the echo weaver demo, i tackled it a bit yesterday night and wasnt sure until i had this weird conversation with the kitty, or is it? Idk but the game seems awesome and i cant wait to go trough it

(Help) im not really used to reddit cause i didnt know a nice community existed lol so how do i hide parts of my messages ill put in [these] the part i want to hide but idk how