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METROID DREAD - October 8th!


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Yeah, Raven Beak (clone or real) has the potential to be one of Samus’s most versatile foes yet in the case of him returning and them mixing up his kit.

 

Came to post this because it contains some interesting techniques for his fight that most (myself included) didn’t know before, and makes all the phases much easier.

 

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

A boss rush mode, especially if stat tracking is involved, once added elevates Metroid Dread over Super Metroid for me. Having a mode that's pick up and play and is action oriented takes Dread to the next level. It offers more to experience than just going through the adventure again and again. If there are stats tied to the Boss Rush, even if it's just how many times an entire run has been completed, Dread enters the level where Federation Force and Hunters both are. They will no longer be the only games with accessible modes with an action-oriented focus separate from an adventure experience. For me personally, Dread could really take off with these updates as the traditional Metroid experience it has, that foundation, is very solid already. 

 

I'm interested in Dread Mode only because of it being an extreme. Every enemy being a one hit kill threat to Samus goes beyond and is more creative than the usual approach. I wonder if they'll tie this circumstance into the Boss Rush update. That would be cool and I would love in general besides stat tracking to be able to customize Samus's arsenal heading into a Boss Rush run, i.e. set a specific Energy limit and ammo limits. The more replay value the better. 

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Glad as I am about Dread getting a boss rush mode, makes me a bit more annoyed in hindsight that Samus Returns didn't have one, especially when Castlevania LoS: Mirror of Fate had one which SR ran under the same engine (a point I'd been repeating, but still). By nature of its repetitiveness, Samus Returns may have benefited from a boss rush most of all. You'd just fight one Alpha, one Gamma, one Zeta, one Omega, Diggernaut, and so on; fighting all the bosses without having to go through the repetitive adventure again of exterminating all 50 Metroids, thereby giving SR a bit more replay value.

 

Lamenting on what could've been there aside, I'm looking forward to Dread's nonetheless when it arrives. I did try a bit of the "Dread mode" difficulty in the meantime. Since I was rusty after not playing it again in awhile, embarrassingly had some deaths around the beginning parts of the game that I otherwise may not have had, and made it up to Corpius. Will probably try it more later when I have a day or week with more time available. Seeing strategies for how people get through this or that part on Dread difficulty will be interesting.

 

Although not announced, a version of Super Metroid was just added to NSO SNES. Basically starts you at the door before Tourian, giving you all the items and expansions. Random, but makes me see potential in something like a boss rush mode being added to an older game like that if Nintendo ever chose to go there. Fans that still play Super Metroid through the randomizer mods and such would be all over that.

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What I'm curious about is how Boss rush mode will handle item progression.

 

I never played Lords of Shadow, but Harmony of Dissonance and Aria/Dawn of Sorrow's boss rush modes just gave you full access to whatever equipment and Souls you had on your current save file.

 

Given all the terrible things speedrunners have done to poor Kraid, I can only imagine how many other bosses can be cheesed with early access to items.

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Oh, how do we figure which bosses will be included? Do the EMMI count as bosses for instance? I know they’re bosses in a sense but they’re not like the traditional kind. I personally would not want to mingle with them in a boss rush mode even with the Omega Cannon, but if the EMMI encounters are included, then so be it. Furthermore, will all of the Chozo soldier and robot encounters and such be included, or will some of them be left out to reduce redundancy?

 

How the boss rush is designed will pretty much determine how replayable it is for me.

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4 hours ago, Ridley Prime said:

Oh, how do we figure which bosses will be included?

 

I would've thought that the Boss Rush would be Corpius, Kraid, Drogyga, Experiment No. Z-57 and Raven Beak had I not seen any footage with the announcement. Based on the first spear soldier and the twin robots appearing during the announcement, I imagine certainly every unique boss encounter will be in the Boss Rush regardless of how involved they are. Dread doesn't distinguish between a mini-boss level encounter and a boss encounter. To avoid extra repetition, maybe they just have the first spear soldier encounter from Elun, the twin robot soldiers encounter from Burenia and then the golden spear/shield soldier right before going off to Itorash. The way it has been presented and with the way Dread labels encounters though, I imagine it will include all encounters labeled as a boss, so that would be 4 Mawkin soldiers and 4 robot soldiers (including the twin encounter). 

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I see. Would prefer just one or two Chozo soldier and robot encounters, but regardless of what we get from the boss rush, I can see it putting Dread above Fusion for me at least by that point. Fusion I rate higher than most have, so not something I take lightly. Dread was straddling the line between Super and Fusion for me to begin with, but with Fusion, aside from my 100% speedruns, my favorite thing to do with it was the attempted low % run, and now that Dread has an instant death mode, it competes with Fusion for me in that area. Fusion had some of my most favorite bosses overall out of the 2D’s, but with the linear adventure it was to get to them, I didn't get to replay against them all to my heart's content like I will with Dread's boss rush, which will be what puts Dread above it for me ultimately. Super Metroid though with its speedrun versatility, I never found the bosses that far apart from one another, so its pacing between action and adventure I find pretty perfect and don’t see a boss rush mode enhancing the experience that much like I would with some of the other games.

 

By the way, surprised no one commented on the Raven Beak quick kill guide I posted earlier from the top of this page. The knowledge from that will save on a lot of time with him when ending the boss rush experiences with him. I doubt everyone here knew of all the strategies for him within said video before I posted it.

 

 

I feel this person's pain. Dread mode difficulty is going to make players have to change a lot of their habits if they want to get through it. I think there'll be more deaths from the random trivial enemies than there will with the EMMI from this mode. People know how to deal with the EMMI at this point, but the non-boss enemies people will have to think about much more now.

 

 

Edited by Ridley Prime
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I don't like that I have to beat Hard Mode to unlock Dread Mode. I might be more willing to play Rookie Mode instead just to see how the game feels early, when progression feels the slowest, with twice the Missile fire power. I don't really like the typical easy and hard difficulty settings that much, but I do at some point want to get the full completion for Dread. Hard Mode really seems generic now that Dread Mode exists in the game. The update should've made all difficulty options available for new runs and tied gallery endings from Normal and Hard to Rookie and Dread respectively. Dread Mode being locked behind two runs of the game is poor implementation. 

 

@Ridley Prime I've seen the strategies for the Raven Beak fight, but didn't know the specifics when it comes to damage and damage in relation to Raven Beak's three phases. I didn't have anything to really add after watching the video regarding the battle. 

 

@Tyranogre I have Zero Suit Samus and Varia Suit Samus from Other M from Good Smile. I love the Dread Suit design, but I personally would have preferred Raven Beak. Samus doesn't need all of the attention. If they're not all bought out by the time I'm able to check availability, I think I'll get that figma. 

Edited by Ithrak Utopia
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I mean I would’ve liked an official Ridley figure that isn’t F4F levels of expensive (yeah, I ended up not getting their Meta Ridley because of the price), but what can ya do? The thought of a Raven Beak figure didn’t occur to me, but now I’d definitely like to see one made, whether by Good Smile or some other company. The regular Dread Suit having a figure by them was predictable based on previous history.

 

And that’s fair. The main things I myself learned from the video were,

 

Phase 1: Just shoot 9 missiles and then wait to be able to parry him while charging storm missiles, releasing them once you counter, and then when you’re back to neutral, shoot one more missile at him which initiates the cinematic melee for you to counter, getting to the next phase and skipping his golden form.

 

Phase 2: Do a running counter when he shoots from the air, allowing you to aim diagonally in a unique position, and most of his shots will miss you if at a corner. Now I’ll no longer be space jumping around him so much when he shoots. Also I guess ice missiles do more damage in this phase than storm missiles, so another reason to conserve ammo here. Laying a cross bomb while underneath him before he shoots for extra damage I never thought of doing before either. So much for cross bombs being considered useless.

 

And counting to three before charging Hyper Beam kills the X form quicker than when you charge it from the start. Who would’ve thought?

 

 

I wonder if boss rush will be possible in a Dread Mode file; basically a boss rush where any move kills you in one hit. :P If so, I’ll be getting even more out of it than I thought I would initially. Though yeah, you shouldn’t have to beat hard mode just to unlock it.

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  • 1 month later...

 

 

Almost forgot that 3DS servers becoming defunct soon would affect stuff like Federation Force. Have to wonder how active that game's online was at any point... Desolate during most of its life I imagine since it flopped.

 

This is kind of another reason for me to be iffy about multiplayer being shoved in Metroid games, because the core focus of those games will likely be multiplayer and with servers inevitably closing, the games become more barebones after. i.e. Hunters now and soon FF; not to take away from those who exceptionally enjoy Hunters' single player (I rank it above average) or whatnot, but just speaking for most who move on from such games once the online is gone. People usually want to play multiplayer with other people, not bots, and doesn’t help that Nintendo has the worst track record with server support for older games.

 

So I guess Dread's boss rush will be coming out this month. Do we have an idea on what day or week it will be?

Edited by Ridley Prime
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I'm sure that likely isn't much of a community now but when it first came out it wasn't difficult to pull other players for matches in FF.  Granted, that first launch window period is where most checking out the game would have dabbled in multiplayer and such.

 

That said, this along with Hunters had multiple as part of their experience but they were perfectly playable otherwise.  Federation Force solo was definitely more challenging as a result but the game's balance adjusted depending on how many players were actively playing. 

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That's fair.

 

I know the issue I addressed is basically the same problem with all online multiplayer games in general (once the servers go), but it hurts more with Metroid since we only get a game every 5 years or so on average, and only two of those games out of the whole series had online multiplayer, since Metroid was born as a single player series.

 

I just think if anymore Metroid games at all were to have multiplayer, it should be longer lasting. I would say leave multiplayer out of like the mainline Prime games (I know Prime 2 had a split screren multiplayer but it was an afterthought) but for another Hunters type of game, have at it. A Hunters esque game on Switch or any similarly successful system would be fairly successful on its own. With Dread having come out recently and Prime 4 still being in the works (far as we know), we shouldn't get a Federation Force situation again; a spinoff ought to be more welcome in that atmosphere than after Other M + a hiatus.

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Saw that the boss rush update released earlier. Practiced on it a bit while brushing off my rustiness, and then doing a full run under 25 minutes or so. The mode's alright. Not as repetitive as I thought despite having a couple of the Aurora Units for you to fight in between, but honestly, after seeing all the speedrun and sequence break tricks against the bosses in this game earlier on, the boss rush mode doesn't really enhance the experience with them at all. You have a set number of missiles & energy tanks and certain powerups for each fight, so no Screw Attack against Escue or anything sequence breaky like that, and if you're trying to get a good time record in your boss rush run, some like Drogyga and Escue will kill a lot of that time. Would've thought there would be a leaderboards for this kind of thing too, even though there's always taking a screenshot of your time.

 

But I do give props to them for having a Dread mode difficulty of boss rush. Of course you have to beat Dread mode in the first place to be able to unlock it, so will be awhile before I get to try that if I ever do.

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I don't think anything significant got lost when Hunters went offline and might have actually improved the overall game. Unless someone kept playing with a group they knew, the latter stretch of Hunters' online experience was frequented by either hackers or those exploiting the game to win. I personally was glad when my family updated to a router at the time that wasn't compatible, so that I could stop hoping for decent matches and wasting time and move on to enjoying the game more. I agree that bots aren't generally preferred if there's also the option to play against other people; however, having bots kept everything available online still perfectly playable offline. What was lost was nothing playable: text chat, voice chat and the hunter rankings (the cosmetic of them can still be gained, but I'm going to assume one system per person and no local interest). 

 

With Federation Force, I think the notion that it is best as a co-op experience needs to be put to rest. I'll go into what the game will lose though first before going into how much better the single player experience is. What the game will lose are the main functions of two MODS, being Team Storage and Guardian. I believe Team Storage still gives the solo player two extra weight slots to use for AUX ammunition, but that's pointless to use with the option of using the Capacity Boost MOD series with weight increases of 3, 5 and 7 slots. Guardian is one of the rarer MODS of the game, so wouldn't have wanted to use it playing with randoms online anyway...That said, I really don't think there's another MOD like it in functionality. Auto-Revive is there, and the game allows plenty to be obtained, but definitely not the same experience as the Guardian. Beyond those two MODS, the predetermined text/vocal lines assigned to the d-pad lose their purpose when playing solo. 

 

Everything else in Federation Force will remain intact, which includes arguably the most rewarding single player experience in the Metroid Series. If I were to go on a mission, explore and acquire eight MODS in both single player and multiplayer, the single player will provide much more reward for my effort and take less time to do so. Full lobby of 4 players with eight MODS ends up being six turns waiting for the other players to select the two MODS that they want. The reward for your effort, bringing in a load of eight MODS, is a quarter of that if everyone in the lobby picks a MOD per selection turn. Same situation in single player, you get everything you worked for. You explored and made the effort to acquire eight MODS, those MODS are all yours, and the only waiting you will have is for those MODS to be added to your MOD collection. If you happen to be experienced, there is very little incentive to play co-op online. 

 

I think it's even more appealing if there's any weight behind some of the core elements often associated to Metroid. The exploration, single player has more incentive to explore the areas of a mission as exploration likely gets divided up in a full lobby. There's no point in going to investigate an area if another player has already done so. The isolation and that lonely atmosphere, I think it goes without saying that this core element is completely gone playing co-op. I doubt that as core element personally though with how gravitated the fan base has been on Federation Force's multiplayer. Speedrunning, a major part of Federation Force's point system involves player efficiency. This is an element of the multiplayer still, but is it as rewarding to accomplish under a lower degree of difficulty? The challenge often praised and requested to be raised for Metroid games. I think Federation Force may be the only Metroid game adventure I've played where the entire arsenal feels fully used, and the challenge of the single player doesn't come from imbalance (like I experienced for Tri Force Heroes) but from the demand to be efficient and knowledgeable of your chosen equipment for a mission. 

 

When Federation Force does go offline, I will at least say that I don't feel it'll be as much of an addition by subtraction for the experience that I felt with Hunters. I have found the co-op experience enjoyable on the occasion that I've wanted a change in pace that wasn't playing Blast Ball. It has not even come close to how bad Hunters online got in my experience. That said, without online, Federation Force is not remotely close to being barebones. Before even getting to Federation Force or Hunters for that matter, the Metroid games with just an adventure mode would be first under that definition as, even without their online experiences, Federation Force and Hunters offer more than just an adventure mode. 

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Based on all the apparent strengths Federation Force has as a single player game, I know now I would've felt better about it to begin with had it been marketed that way; maybe have an option too where you're a solo Federation marine instead of part of a group of four, and as such would've been an easier decision on me getting the game (despite other things I was iffy on like the art style), compared to how conflicted I was on whether or not to buy at first with how it was presented; after waiting to see more of FF awhile, ended up not feeling interested enough to get it, but I genuinely wanted to like it despite everything. I try not to be insular about something I haven't fully experienced, but is good to know FF won't be losing nearly as much of the experience as I originally thought once the servers go.

 

The hackers and exploiters of Hunters online did making losing it more bearable at the time, but there's still the bittersweet nostalgia of something gone that one can no longer experience, and it's not like Hunters online was hated from day 1. There were still good times to be had for people who played it before it got worse from those other things. Of course, point remains that if we got a Hunters kind of game now, patches would fix most if not all of that stuff...

 

It's strange to look back on in hindsight, but I used to like the idea of co-op in Metroid, until I realized the series elements that would be lost with it. Back on the OG Nsider, I had made a thread talking about the idea of a spinoff game or mode involving co-op, and most of the replies I got were "Samus works alone", aside from me getting flamed for even suggesting the idea, which resulted in me being aggressive back. This ironically would foreshadow how Federation Force would end up being received and/or fought over amongst fans. That thread was before we had Prime 3 and Other M though that showed Samus can work with a group too even though she's more commonly proficient solo, but even with those two game examples, the isolation factor was lost to a not insignificant degree with her being part of a group.

 

Even now, I find the idea of Samus working with a fellow hunter or something more interesting on paper for a co-op experience than a group of Federation marines to be honest, but that's just me. For a Samus-less Metroid gameplay experience though, I think it would've been more bold if Federation Force didn't have her at all. Would've preferred that to fighting her as a mind controlled end boss or just her being there as an overpowered NPC. Her presence feels like half-baked fanservice at best when you can’t play as her, and with any spinoff where you don’t play as her, it’s okay for said game to be completely independent of her. If co-op is ever attempted with Metroid again though, I think it should mainly just be for an extra PvE kind of mode where you fight waves of various enemies together on different maps with fellow players, as opposed to it being part of the main adventure mode for a game. For multiplayer versus, aside from Samus and other hunters, I also see some potential with different variants of Federation marines vs different kinds of Space Pirates, where one could play and choose either side.

 

 

While I'm here and I guess to steer more back on topic, this was my first boss rush times. Not bad for not having played the game in months. Now that I know you can slide under a Chozo robot's charge shot and parry though, will shave some time off should I try the mode again sometime.

 

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Edited by Ridley Prime
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