Calling all Metroidvania fans: which game do you think really makes the genre sing?

I randomly picked this up a long time ago and forgot about it, I should give it a go. I’ve never seen Lodoss War, though, do you think that matters?

I have never seen Lodoss war either and it didn’t matter for me.

It has good gameplay overall.

At the end of the game I was curious about how the ending fits in with the broader Lodoss universe and looked it up online but that didn’t affect the game enjoyment at all.