Yup. I wanted to make a game like Metroid, no rpg elements so everything you find is valuable. However the secrets are money so you can find what you want to find. However I wanted it to have a Castlevania like combat system. Throw in a bit of Zelda inspired puzzles and that basically sums up what I'm going for.
This one however was based more on Four swords puzzle system with barely any combat. You go around exploring this maze finding two different kinds of items and using them to interact with the environment to find more items that allow you to get to different places. The bosses were more like puzzles that can kill you. I just added the idea of different skins from playing Spelunky