Why do you play Metroidvania games, and what keeps you engaged?
Is it the thirst for discovery, your curiosity driving you to see what secrets the world has to offer? Or maybe you're a completionist seeking all the upgrades and filling in every corner of the map just to get that 100% rating?
From a game design perspective, players can be classified by their behaviour and motivations: the reasons they play games. Similarly, games can be categorized by the forms of fun they provide and the types of players they appeal to.
Metroidvania games combine several different motivational hooks at once, for example: exploration, achievement, progression, challenge, immersion, experimentation, and narrative discovery. Some players are driven by the excitement of unlocking new abilities and realizing how they interact with the world. Others enjoy overcoming difficult bosses, sequence breaking, optimizing routes, or uncovering hidden lore. Two people can enjoy the same game while valuing completely different experiences.
I personally enjoy exploration and sense of discovery more than fighting enemies and challenging bosses. I prefer games like Super Metroid or Haiku the Robot over Blasphemous or Hollow Knight, not to say one game is objectively better than the other.
What aspect keeps you coming back to the Metroidvania genre?