They were originally known as Bothtec, which had developed The Scheme, a Metroidvania-style open world action role-playing game featuring music by Yuzo Koshiro, that same year.
Starting with 1997's Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, the Castlevania series of video games borrows the backtracking and weapon upgrading elements from Super Metroid, leading to the term "Metroidvania".