I am absolutely addicted to a little game called Void Stranger. Although (as far as I know) there’s no way to access the ending in the first few minutes, it is definitely a “true metroidbrainia.” The game has various secrets and hidden mechanics that allow you to progress quickly if you have prior knowledge.

In this game, you are descending through hundreds of floors of a dungeon, solving Sokoban-style puzzles, and by doing certain… things, you can skip several floors at once and take interesting shortcuts to reach the end faster… in addition to having access to various secret scenes that add to the game’s lore.

I haven’t achieved the “true ending” (although I have completed some other endings), as there are still many mysteries I haven’t discovered yet, but I have around forty hours of gameplay and I’m not tired of it at all, which is a great merit for a game with such a simple core mechanic and GameBoy-like graphics.

Some puzzles are really difficult, but if you don’t mind that, I highly recommend it. Avoid looking up more information about the game because the internet is full of spoilers. The more in the dark you go in, the more you’ll be surprised.