Looking for similar games

[mpcgannon]

Hi! As the title says BUT what I'd like to focus on is
- interconnected world
- secret paths galore
- collectable items
- some type of power progression

What I'm NOT looking for
- the "soulslike" tag which just means it's "difficult"

I've played the ♥♥♥♥ out of the Dark Souls & ER, Hallow Knight, Arkham series... pretty much anything tagged metroidvanis and soulslike. I have Darksiders and Control in my backlog. Any other suggestions? Thanks.

[FRΛCTURΞD SOUL]

fez

[Kitten Shady]

I would say it is very similar to one particular Zelda (and, in my opinion, that Zelda is quite different from the others) - The Link to the Past. The difference is that TLttP's difficulty is almost inadequate sometimes, as is Tunica on medium difficulty (although in fact, both of them have this difficulty due to not good controls) - due to the very large number of enemies per centimeter of the map; to the point that they can jump out of cut bushes, and sometimes there are bombs in the grass! In terms of the setting, I would call LttP quite dramatic and dark; for example, Link's close relative is killed on screen, and this is the only Zelda in my memory, where some of the villagers are dangerous and set the guards on you when you meet.

[Mr. Roman_Drawings]

Have you tried chicory a colorfull tale? Its from the same publisher (finji) and has celeste's music composer. It's pretty unique as tunic.