The game at

Hollow Knight ruined all metroidvanias for me, it's so good that playing any other game from the genre feels like a significant downgrade

The best part about that specific ledge in Hollow Knight is that you actually can reach it early if you figure out that you can make a flying enemy nearby notice you, guide it to the ledge, and then bounce off it. Of course not many first-time players will do that, but it's the fact that this option exists for you that makes the world a bit more open.

Basically, just go play hollow knight already.

I know it's not technically part of what your saying but music plays a huge role in any game. A beautifully crafted metroidvania with horrible music is a game 99% of the time I wouldn't play. Music and atmosphere is a huge thing in these type of games. SoTN is a good example of a good game with excellent music etc.. It makes a difference. Hollow Knights music is good and the atmosphere is great. If both these games had horrible music and atmosphere I highly doubt they would be as regarded as they are. Just my opinion though.

The answer is hollow knight. Hollow knight makes a good metroidvania

Hollow knights brilliance knows no bounds

Its weird how Symphony of The Night still looks better then most modern indie games.

While the "just another missile expansion" fatigue eventually sets in for everyone in Metroid, the reason that there are so many missile expansions is so that you

The thing I love most about hollow knight in particular, is that the illusion of choice is sometimes actually choice, with all the ways you can go after greenpath it's insane, I've heard some people actually got the tram pass before even the mantis claw.

One of the things that impressed me the most in Axiom Verge was the "stealth tease": A blocked-off path that you

Step one: be Team Cherry

The cliff in Hollow Knight is actually a very good example as it shows that you actually can deliver the message without requiring the player to backtrack. Requiring much backtracking is generally considered to be a negative aspect of a Metroidvania; it can fun the breeze through parts to give them a feeling of how much more powerful/skilled they become, or to go "secret hunting", but requiring from the player to do the same part over and over again to advance the main quest is not good.

About Castlevania and Swords... there's a lot of unique weapons there. Greatswords with massive hit range but slow, spears that strike longer, knives that strike fast but short. And fists which have giant DPS but very short range. I defeated a lot of bosses using Holy Water and Fists/Baselard.

I can't believe its not butte- *a metroidvania*!

Game maker's toolkit talked about that one critique you had on Hollow Knight, but actually had it a something the game did well. The "stumbling into something important" scenario was an important and purposeful piece of the game. In the video he explains that with the true open world of Hollow Knight, they simply scatter things everywhere, some unimportant, some integral. whenever you get a new ability or "key" of sorts there are many places you can go, a few will lead to charms, shells, or other non important items, but at least a couple are important and very little signposting is used to lead players to those important discoveries. This may sound bad but it only contributes to the (in my opinion) good feeling of stumbling. Team Cherry said that they trust their players to be smart enough to be able to explore on their own, the game already has committed to a it's high difficulty which does make it to hard for some players, but this game was made with more experienced players in mind who probably also have the game knowledge to play the game. (please watch Game Maker's Tool Kit's video on this, he explained it way better)

"It's an illusion of choice conveyed through gameplay, rather than poorly written dialogue options."

It's structure. That's the one essential part of any Metroidvania, because the genre is so tied up with exploration-based gameplay. Super Metroid does it so well that it practically substitutes for a story, by separating your experience into dramatic arcs defined by level design rather than plot progression. And yeah, the items you acquire to expand your horizons are closely associated with that, so having interesting ones (hopefully with more than one use per item) is a big deal.

Good Metroidvania Games not mentioned in the video for those looking for something to play (in no particular order and based upon personal opinion):

It's not rare that I have to pause your videos to open one of my game design document and add a few notes. Thanks for that!