I just noticed Wikipedia consistently describes most Classicvania games as "action-platform" games. How would /vr/ define this label as opposed to a "normal" platformer?
There's no one correct answer. My logic tells me action platformer is a game where you jump (platform) and also perform any kind of action, generally meaning attacking, which Castlevania has.A game like Super Mario is more of a pure platformer but has action elements when you consider Fire Mario who can attack without jumping.I believe in Japan they just call any sidescroll game as just "action", they don't brother with the platforming part of the label for some reason, at least that I know of.
>>12121267That it isn't "pure" platforming, but has some form of combat or other actions that take equal importance rather than incidental uses. Personally I see "Action" as one of the top labels, like Edutainment, RPG, ADV, Table, etc. so I don't use it like that. You sort genres under those and specify further in those genres if you care to do so.
>>12121267There's a lot more focus on hitting things with your whip and sub weapons than platforming, that's literally it.
Atmospheric
>>12121267A plain platformer is defined by the jumping. Gameplay is focused on the act of jumping, which usually involves momentum or at the very least different kind of jumps. Dealing with level hazards and enemies is usually done with jumps. Now, that other means of dealing with enemies (like projectile based weapons) may also be a thing but it's secondary.Example: Super Mario Bros or Adventure Island. The jumping, projectiles are secondary.In an action platformer, other means of action besides jumping have a more important role. Examples: Castlevania, the focus is on the whip and subweapons, jumping is very limited (fixed arc) and more often than not using it in combat puts you at risk, the platforming (moving platforms, pits etc) exist but they are not the main focus.Other example: Mega Man, in this case both the shooting and the jumping have equal importance. So it's like>SMB80-90% platformer / 10-20% other action>Castlevania10-20% platformer / 80-90% other action>Mega Man50-50%
>>12121316Those ratios are arguable at best for any given classicvania, specially since midway through them the main cause of death will be pits. Granted most of those deaths will come, in turn, from getting hit by enemies and losing your increasingly precarious footing.>>12121267Wikipedia being wikipedia, the action-platform label and its "consistency" across the articles related to this one series are most likely a matter of editorial style for an user or group of users. The games in a series that I'd argue is similar in a number of ways for example—Ghouls 'n Ghosts—are labeled simply as platformers and in GnG games you WILL die more rarely from pits and tricky platforming than from the much more likely cause of enemy contact/projectiles. Not to mention that series' projectile-based gameplay would make it a candidate for a third platformer label, "Run and Gun", but you can find that one applied to non-platforming games as well like fucking Shock Troopers.My point is that genre labels are loose and subjective at the best of times, even without Wikipedia's built in inconsistency factor complicating things.
>>12121267you have weapons and there's a focus on combat and killing things by using weaponsinstead of bing wahoo on their headstend to be darker/more realistic protagonists instead of cartoonish kiddie mascots but idk you have megaman in the middle
>>12121267It's a sliding scale between how Willy-like and how much of a Quacktroidvania it is.CV4 is more of a Quacktroidvania-like-lite than full on Willyvania IMO.
>>12121430>Those ratios are arguable at best for any given classicvania, specially since midway through them the main cause of death will be pits. Granted most of those deaths will come, in turn, from getting hit by enemies and losing your increasingly precarious footing.The pit deaths are memorable, but platforming really isn't the focus of the game. Of course it varies from game to game, I was talking about the first one. Some have more, some like Rondo have even less.
Action, along with adventure, is a theming: when the player is acting you can change the way he acts by making it more passive or active. Horror games are just adventure games with sections of action that prioritize a different outcome of aesthetic engagement (what it wants you to feel)
>>12121430Also Yusuke never a samurai too
>>12121267in the video store they were under action, therefore they are an action game zoomer
>>12121519Posts like this are why willyvania is never gonna catch on
>>12121267>>12121274Action platformers are games like Castlevania and Ghosts 'n' Goblins where there is platforming, but the focus is more on combat with melee weapons and there are constant threats, but usually not as many bottomless pits.Run 'n' guns are different in that they have gunsPure platformers are just about jumping and usually don't have that arcade difficulty of the GnG-likes. You can usually control your jump in the air.All these genres necessarily have some overlap.
>>12121267>you have attacks and projectiles>these attacks are mapped to a dedicated button>enemies are killed by attacking them and not necessarily by jumping or dashing into themit's that simple.>>12121316>>Mega Man>50-50%mega man is comfortably in action-platformer territory, the weapons are a big part of the game and very few of them are platforming-related. the platforming stage hazards are ultimately compounded with enemies that you have to shoot.something closer to a 50-50 game would be wario land because even though you do have straightforward attacks, they're mostly body slams and ground pound attacks where you can be still be hurt on contact. simply jumping on enemies in wario land doesn't kill them, but your "attacks" are not too dissimilar.
>>12121267I thought peopled called post SOTN games ''Metroidvanias'' because it got the exploration part from Metroid but then I started playing Classicvanias and some of them already had exploration and big areas before SOTN. So now I dont know what ''Metroidvania'' really means anymore.
>>12121316anon gets it right reallyplatformers = more platforming and avoiding than some sort action ie sonic, smb, donkey kong countryaction = castlevania, shinobi 3, stuff like thatand then like he said megaman really does a 50/50 split
>>12123607SOTN was baby's first 2d adventure game on their first childhood console. They don't know any better. Probably from 3rd worlders as well since all they knew was Sony.
>>12123607well it's not just exploration, it's also items that recontextualize previous areas such as the leap stone and flight.
>>12123607metroidvania doesn't just mean exploration, it means areas are locked off by impassable obstacles and exploring lets you find new abilities that allow to you pass through those obstacles. this in turn allows you to explore new areas, and rinse and repeat.
>>12123607Literally just Simon's quest
castlevania is a metroidvania
>>12121267My first thought is that Mario's first action as a platformer is to jump on the enemies, it's the main way to defeat them. Fire flower and starmen are secondary attacks, bonus powerups. Mario's main attack is the jump, a tool from platforming itself.Castlevania and contra for example, jumps are not your attack. They're for platforming and evasion, your main attack comes from a weapon you always have.
>>12123476you're a fuckin willyvania bitch ass cunt faggot retard grrr
>>12121267Anyone else find it hilarious Simon is simply walking on by as the bridge before him is collapsing and bats are literally chasing him? I wonder if the devs were even aware how funny this could look.
>>12121267Always saw normal platformers as mascot type of characters you may find on a cereal box or some sort of early childhood cartoon. Usually these platformers have you jumping on top of the enemy to defeat them and they are more focused on the actual jumping aspect of the genre.An action platformer kind of has more edge to it. Usually for an older crowd or meant to especially appeal to young teenagers and their idea of what cool is. Often you have a weapon or weapons and there is much more emphasis on defeating enemies with these weapons. Platforming is still a big thing but combat is much more strongly emphasized with these games unlike the more true platformer games.
what about "action adventure?" i almost always see those paired, but what would be just pure "adventure?"
>>12123476The term Willyvania has been a thing on /vr/ since around 2019 according to a search on desuarchive
>>12124509*Willyvania
>>12126762Adventure games are primarily about problem solving, and it's mostly another name for point-and-clicks. Action-adventure adds attacking with weapons into the mix, so think Zelda.
