Sorry to burst your bubble, dear hateboy, but it looks like you just do not understand the meaning of the term "Metroidvania". These is not just "side-scrolling/exploration etc".
I will try to stimulate your thinking activity: guess, why this term is not used, for example, to Super Mario, who is also a "side-scrolling/exploration etc".

...But not Castlevania! ;)

Is that true? The screenshots and video looked very interesting to me, but the way you're describing it is very off-putting.

Yes, try the Steam forums if you want more specifics details. I would rather not cause another debate, by going into detail.

There's some LGBT characters and apparently that is a political agenda of some sorts.

Thanks for the heads up.

At first I thought that the writing of this game could be bland and could have resorted to the lazy practice of hiding behind an inclusion checklist, which might be bearable or even okay. On Steam forums, some people happy with the inclusion tend to concede that the dialogue feels a bit forced or cringy.

Then someone linked to the website of Silverstring Media where they blatantly express their intent of shoving politics into their games. They have an article called "Politically meaningful games under neoliberalism" and they start talking about "Trump" and the "far right" and "resist fascism with games".

Woah.

why are you quoting some website rather than the game itself?
The writing of the game isn't special, it's your typical common folk fighting against some powerful evil force obviously based on the Nazis story.
The dialogue is average by video game standards.

Here's a quote from Destructoid: It looks like the only ostensibly straight people in the game are the bad guys. Looks a little too hamfisted. It's a Destructoid review so who knows how trustworthy it is. To be honest I would've avoided the game anyway due to its short length.

Actually:

* I remember there being at least one straight character who isn't a villain,
* I remember there, at one point, being a lesbian who is a villain.

There seems to be a double standard here: Straight characters are very common (perhaps too common, I might add) in all sort of media, going back at least as far as Romeo and Juliet (and probably millenia before that; ancient Greek theater probably has plenty of examples), and nobody complains about it being political, yet once you introduce a single gay couple, people start complaining about it being political.

With that said, I note that Timespinner's plot does involve fictional politics; there's a kingdom where there's an upper and a lower class based off a trait that doesn't exist in real life, another nation that claims independence, and a war between them.

I presume it's down to "videogame journalists". It's the same with people calling everything roguelite when they mean games with generated levels and objects.

...

@Spectre Well, in the case of Rogue(likes/lites), it's credit being given where it's due, since Rogue was the game that started it all, something for which both Metroid and Castlevania don't hold any bragging rights.
Also, judging by how many (oversensitive) individuals down-voted my original comment, it would be safe to assume that those very same persons are oblivious to some fundamental parts of gaming history.
Oh well. :]

Pretty much. Also when a straight character talks about their relationships, its just that. But when a gay character does the same thing people claim they're talking about sexuality not romance.
I don't think the games story is good, few games actually have a good story. But there seems to be this idea going around that a game with a bad story with LGBT character is less forgivable than a game with a bad story with only straight cis characters.

TIL you can vote on ("rate") comments in GOG's forums.

There's a ton of talk about the story, but what I really care about is: is the game play fun? I'll wait until this goes on sale, given the game's apparent length, but it still looks like a cool game to play, no matter what the story/dialog contains.

Wait, why did my "TIL" comment and "story vs game play" comment get merged into one edited comment? Will this comment also be merged into that same comment as well, or will it actually come through as its own comment, which the "story vs game play" comment should have done?

Huh. So apparently, if you make comments back-to-back, they automatically become edits of the initial comment? That's... weird. I can see that being used to prevent spam, but I really don't like it. :-P