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Start with Hollow Knight. It is the closest available match for what Crowsworn promises: a large interconnected world, ability-gated exploration, hand-drawn darkness, and difficult boss fights. Choose Blasphemous if the grim, violent combat matters most; Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown if movement and accessibility are your priorities; Ori and the Will of the Wisps for expressive traversal and emotional atmosphere; and Nine Sols for another modern challenge.
Crowsworn has no announced release date. Its Steam listing says “To be announced” and that the game is not yet available, while developer and publisher Mongoose Rodeo’s official site asks visitors to wishlist it. The wait is therefore open-ended, but these five released metroidvanias cover the parts of its pitch that players are most likely anticipating: exploration, combat, mood, traversal, and difficulty.
What Crowsworn is promising—and why that shapes the recommendations
Mongoose Rodeo describes Crowsworn as a hand-drawn 2D action game set in a giant interconnected world. Its Steam description lists more than 120 unique enemies, more than 30 unique boss encounters, rune customization, side quests, and a souls-like story. The official site summarizes the central structure directly: “In Crowsworn you will explore a giant interconnected world that is inhabited by vicious enemies and monsters.”
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsThe announced combat identity is unusually specific. The three named weapons are a scythe, pistols, and Corvian magic, suggesting a character who can switch between close-range attacks, ranged pressure, and supernatural abilities. The world is designed around ability-based backtracking, so areas that initially seem inaccessible should become reachable as your movement or combat options expand.
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Those details are a useful filter. A game can be excellent and still be a poor substitute if it offers linear stages, little backtracking, a bright tone, or forgiving combat. The list below is ordered by overlap with the announced Crowsworn formula, not by a universal quality ranking.
The five best choices at a glance
| Game | Best match for | Exploration and movement | Combat and difficulty | How it differs from Crowsworn |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hollow Knight | Closest overall substitute | Vast interconnected world with ability-driven backtracking | Demanding bosses; more than 130 enemies and 30 bosses listed by Team Cherry | Different setting, protagonist, and weapon identity |
| Blasphemous | Grim, violent, souls-like combat | Metroidvania structure with upgrades | Brutal hack-and-slash, executions, and difficult encounters | Its gothic nightmare tone is harsher and more explicitly gore-focused |
| Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown | Movement-first exploration | Exploration and precision-platforming emphasis | Action RPG structure with a more accessible presentation | Mythological Persian setting and time manipulation replace Crowsworn’s horror premise |
| Ori and the Will of the Wisps | Fluid traversal and emotional atmosphere | Highly expressive movement and polished presentation | Less direct tonal match for grim, punishing combat | Colorful fantasy contrast rather than gothic horror |
| Nine Sols | Another modern challenge | Action-metroidvania exploration | Challenging modern design | Detailed weapon, world, and release comparisons are not stated in the cited storefront material |
1. Hollow Knight: the closest overall match
Why it belongs first
If you want one game while waiting for Crowsworn, play Hollow Knight. Team Cherry’s official Steam listing calls it “a classically styled 2D action adventure across a vast interconnected world.” That sentence aligns almost point for point with Mongoose Rodeo’s description of Crowsworn: both center exploration in a connected map rather than a sequence of isolated levels.
The listing also highlights new skills and abilities, a hand-drawn 2D style, more than 130 enemies, and 30 bosses. Those figures are from Team Cherry’s 2017 listing, so they describe the game’s published scope rather than a current marketing estimate. They make Hollow Knight especially useful for players who are waiting for Crowsworn’s promised density of enemies, bosses, and unlockable routes.
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What to pay attention to
- Map logic: notice how a new ability changes the meaning of previously visited rooms. The pleasure is not only reaching a new area; it is recognizing routes that were visible but unusable earlier.
- Boss learning: encounters reward pattern recognition and repeated attempts, making them a practical stand-in for the difficult boss emphasis in Crowsworn’s pitch.
- Presentation: its hand-drawn 2D look and ruined-world atmosphere provide the strongest available parallel to Crowsworn’s dark visual promise.
Who should choose it—and who should not
Choose Hollow Knight if your ideal Crowsworn includes wandering without a fixed route, returning to old regions after gaining abilities, and fighting a large roster of bosses. It is also the safest recommendation for someone asking what to play after Hollow Knight, because it reinforces the same exploration habits without requiring an entirely different genre.
Do not choose it solely because you want the exact scythe, pistol, and Corvian-magic loadout. Hollow Knight is a thematic and structural comparison, not a reproduction of Crowsworn’s weapon system. Its value here is the overlap in world design, visual language, and challenge.
2. Blasphemous: the best grim combat match
Why it fits the darker side of Crowsworn
Blasphemous is the strongest choice for readers drawn to the violent, dark-fantasy side of Crowsworn. The Game Kitchen and Team17 describe it as “a brutal action-platformer with skilled hack’n slash combat set in the nightmare world of Cvstodia.” Its Steam tags explicitly include Metroidvania, Souls-like, Dark Fantasy, Gore, Difficult, and Gothic.
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That combination maps closely to the mood many players infer from Crowsworn’s souls-like story, vicious monsters, and difficult bosses. The emphasis is not merely on reaching the next room. Combat, survival, and the oppressive setting are central reasons to continue.
What makes it a different kind of substitute
Blasphemous is a better tonal match than a mechanical one. Its defining description stresses hack-and-slash combat, upgrades, and savage executions; the available information does not establish that it uses the same three-weapon arrangement as Crowsworn. If your priority is testing how a scythe, pistols, and Corvian magic might feel together, this is not evidence of that specific system.
Instead, use it to answer a different question: do you enjoy a metroidvania where the world’s horror is expressed through brutal fights and a gothic nightmare setting? If yes, Blasphemous is a natural bridge to Crowsworn’s darker promise.
Best fit by player profile
- Pick it for atmosphere when gothic imagery, gore, and a nightmare world matter more than colorful exploration.
- Pick it for combat when you want deliberate practice with hack-and-slash encounters and difficult progression.
- Skip it for a lighter experience if you want the emotional warmth or visual brightness associated with a more colorful fantasy game.
3. Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown: the movement-forward choice
Why movement players should start here
Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is the best recommendation when the part of Crowsworn that excites you is traversal. Steam records an August 8, 2024 release and tags the game as Metroidvania, 2D Platformer, Exploration, Precision Platformer, and Action RPG. Those labels make its priorities clear: movement, timing, and route-finding are not side activities but part of the core proposition.
Its mythological Persian setting and time-manipulation premise provide a deliberate contrast to Crowsworn’s horror-leaning world. That contrast is useful if you want to practice the movement and exploration side of the genre without committing to the bleakest atmosphere on this list.
How it compares with Crowsworn’s announced structure
| Question | The Lost Crown | Crowsworn |
|---|---|---|
| World structure | Tagged as a Metroidvania with exploration and precision-platforming elements | Officially described as a giant interconnected world with ability-based backtracking |
| Movement emphasis | Precision-platformer tag and movement-focused positioning | Traversal is tied to abilities that open previously inaccessible routes |
| Setting | Mythological Persian adventure | Dark, hand-drawn world with vicious enemies and monsters |
| Release status | Released August 8, 2024, according to Steam | Steam currently lists release as “To be announced” |
Choose this game if you enjoy learning a route through repeated movement attempts, adjusting your timing, and using mobility to make the map more legible. Choose something else first if your main requirement is gothic horror or souls-like brutality; those are contrasts rather than direct matches here.
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4. Ori and the Will of the Wisps: the expressive traversal alternative
Why it is on a waiting list for Crowsworn
Ori and the Will of the Wisps is the contrast pick. The official Steam storefront confirms it as a current metroidvania product page, and it is best positioned for readers who value fluid traversal, visual polish, and emotional atmosphere more than a direct grim-combat match.
That distinction matters. A recommendation list that treats every metroidvania as interchangeable would miss why someone is waiting for Crowsworn. Ori and the Will of the Wisps can satisfy the desire to move elegantly through a connected 2D world while offering a notably different emotional and visual register from the announced horror tone of Crowsworn.
When the contrast is an advantage
- You want movement to feel expressive: choose Ori when the act of traversing the world is the main source of satisfaction.
- You want a polished visual presentation: choose it when atmosphere means beauty and emotional staging rather than gore or dread.
- You want a break from punishing combat: choose it when you are waiting for Crowsworn but do not want another game defined primarily by grim difficulty.
It is not the closest answer to “What game is most like Crowsworn?” That answer remains Hollow Knight. Ori earns its place by covering a different need: an elegant, emotionally expressive metroidvania that keeps the exploration framework while changing the tone.
5. Nine Sols: a modern challenge pick
Why it belongs on the shortlist
Nine Sols is a concise recommendation for players seeking another modern, challenging action-metroidvania. The official Steam storefront confirms its current listing. It belongs near the end of this guide because the available storefront information establishes the genre and challenge positioning but does not provide a reliable basis here for assigning detailed mechanics, review statistics, weapon comparisons, or a precise tonal match.
That limitation should not be mistaken for a negative verdict. It simply means you should choose Nine Sols for the broad experience it is identified as offering: a modern action-metroidvania with a meaningful challenge. If your main requirement is a documented parallel to Crowsworn’s giant interconnected world, named weapon trio, or boss count, Hollow Knight and Blasphemous offer clearer evidence.
Who gets the most from this choice
Pick Nine Sols when you have already played the obvious classics and want a newer challenge in the same broad action-metroidvania space. It is also a sensible option for someone who values difficulty more than a specific setting. Avoid treating it as a confirmed one-to-one substitute for Crowsworn; the published information available here does not establish that level of similarity.
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Which game should you choose?
Use this decision guide instead of trying to rank every game on one scale:
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- You want gothic horror, gore, and brutal hack-and-slash: choose Blasphemous.
- You want precision platforming and movement expression: choose Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown.
- You want fluid traversal and emotional visual atmosphere: choose Ori and the Will of the Wisps.
- You want a newer action-metroidvania challenge: try Nine Sols.
If you have time for a sequence rather than one game, play Hollow Knight first, then use your reaction to it as the fork. Players who wanted a darker, harsher version should move to Blasphemous. Players who wanted more movement and less oppressive atmosphere should move to The Lost Crown. Players who loved graceful traversal and visual emotion should choose Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Players who simply want another modern challenge can add Nine Sols.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Comparison by the six things Crowsworn players are likely to care about
Exploration and backtracking
Hollow Knight has the clearest documented match: a vast interconnected world and new skills and abilities. Crowsworn is explicitly described in similar terms, with ability-based backtracking across a giant interconnected world. The Lost Crown is tagged for exploration and Metroidvania design, while Blasphemous is identified as a Metroidvania with upgrades. The available listing information does not establish equivalent map details for Ori and the Will of the Wisps or Nine Sols beyond their storefront positioning.
Combat feel
Blasphemous is the clearest match for the brutal side of the target, with its official description emphasizing skilled hack-and-slash combat and savage executions. Hollow Knight supplies the strongest boss-and-enemy density comparison through Team Cherry’s published counts. Crowsworn’s own combat pitch is broader but distinctive because it names melee, ranged, and magical weapons. No game on this list should be presented as confirmed to replicate that exact trio.
Atmosphere
For gothic horror and dark fantasy, choose Blasphemous. For a hand-drawn ruined-world feeling, choose Hollow Knight. For mythological adventure, choose The Lost Crown. For colorful, emotional fantasy, choose Ori and the Will of the Wisps. Nine Sols remains the least documented tonal comparison in the available storefront description.
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Traversal and mobility
The Lost Crown is the movement specialist because Steam explicitly tags it as a 2D and precision platformer. Ori and the Will of the Wisps is the expressive alternative, recommended for fluid traversal and visual polish. Hollow Knight is the better choice when traversal is inseparable from a large map and ability-gated route planning.
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Difficulty
Blasphemous is explicitly tagged Difficult and Souls-like. Nine Sols is positioned as a modern challenging action-metroidvania. Hollow Knight is the broadest all-round challenge recommendation because its published roster includes 30 bosses. The available material does not support assigning a precise difficulty scale to every game, so treat these as emphasis points rather than a numerical ranking.
Availability while you wait
The five recommended games are presented as available storefront products. Crowsworn is not yet available: Steam currently shows “To be announced” for its release and Mongoose Rodeo’s site asks visitors to wishlist it. A wishlist is therefore the only concrete action supplied by the developer while the date remains unannounced.
What to expect from Crowsworn when it eventually arrives
The announced feature set points toward a hybrid experience rather than a single-game clone. Expect exploration built around a large connected map and ability-gated returns; a combat kit divided among scythe attacks, pistols, and Corvian magic; customization through runes; side quests; hand-drawn 2D animation; and a souls-like story. The advertised scale is more than 120 unique enemies and more than 30 unique boss encounters.
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Final recommendation
Play Hollow Knight first. It provides the most complete overlap with Crowsworn’s announced exploration structure, hand-drawn presentation, and demanding boss focus. Follow it with Blasphemous for darker combat, The Lost Crown for precision movement, Ori and the Will of the Wisps for expressive traversal, or Nine Sols for another modern challenge. That order lets you spend the waiting period exploring the full range of experiences that Crowsworn is trying to combine.
Quick Recap
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