METROID DREAD - October 8th!

[Tyranogre]

I both love and hate the way the map is filled in.

 

On one hand it's fun to Space Jump around all those big empty rooms to fill in all the squares, but at the same time, it gives me terrible OCD. 

[Penance Fracture]

I am so glad that I forced down those tendencies a couple of years ago. It’s not like it didn’t still occur to me, but I said, “Nope! I am not going to ruin this for myself.”

[alienboyva]

Metroid Dread has been nominated for Game of the Year by The Game Awards. Hopefully it can win (GO VOTE FOR IT!). 🤞

 

 

Edited November 17, 2021 by alienboyva

[Ridley Prime]

The public vote only counts for like 10%, but Dread is GOTY regardless of what some elitist Oscar-wannabe award show says.

[Tyranogre]

Besides, the winner's just going to be some over-hyped AAA title whose publisher slept with the judges.

[Tyranogre]

Spoiler

 

Yet another way that Kraid can be sequence-broken to death!

 

[Destiny Hero]

The computer voices in Metroid Dread use the same program as Tomodachi Life and I will never get over this.

[Kezay]

On 11/15/2021 at 12:51 PM, Tyranogre said:

I both love and hate the way the map is filled in.

 

On one hand it's fun to Space Jump around all those big empty rooms to fill in all the squares, but at the same time, it gives me terrible OCD. 

 

I wish that the room would just auto fill if you've "painted" a certain amount.  If it's a room with expansions/items then the room should auto fill when you've gotten all of the items in that room.

 

I usually don't feel compelled to fill in each room but I definitely did it with at least two entire sectors in Dread thus far. XD

[Igneous42]

15 hours ago, Kezay said:

 

I wish that the room would just auto fill if you've "painted" a certain amount.  If it's a room with expansions/items then the room should auto fill when you've gotten all of the items in that room.

 

I usually don't feel compelled to fill in each room but I definitely did it with at least two entire sectors in Dread thus far. XD

 

That or the pulse scan should have revealed large portions as once, making it at least a bit easier for those who want to fill the entire room. 

[Ithrak Utopia]

I don't mind more options to make filling in the map easier, but I don't think I would have appreciated the detail of the game as much as I am currently had I just been given a filled room after clearing its items (if it has any). It's more tedious than I feel map fill in is in Dread, as I enjoy Dread's movement more than the action of Hunters' scanning, but what I do like about Hunters is that it tied its 100% to both items and scans. It somewhat achieves the same result in encouraging me to take in every aspect of each environment. I'm at 233 media taken with Metroid Dread, mostly photos, and it's growing in chunks as I revisit and fill in the more prominent Mawkin regions of ZDR. Ferenia in particular has great detail in its backgrounds. I've been feeling in that region as I do when I've made theories/discussions for Hunters before, taking in and making sure to highlight details that stand out in the environment. I'm glad that decided to put off getting best ending times. 

[Ridley Prime]

Since most weren't able to get their hands on the Dread artbook thanks to scalpers, I took at look at a couple things from it that were posted online. I don't know if there's anymore though, but still interesting.

 

 

Think this is the first time these drawings of NES Kraid and Ridley were ever shown to the public; the ones on the left that is. The Ridley on the far left is more along the lines of what OG Ridley's official art should've been to begin with, actually resembling how his sprite looks in-game.

 

Then there was this I saw posted, which I guess confirms that the Etecoons and Dachoras weren't necessarily forgotten, but were just not chosen to be in Dread for some reason.

 

 

 

If I see anything else of note posted from the Dread artbook, I'll try to remember to share at some point.

Edited November 29, 2021 by Ridley Prime

[Ithrak Utopia]

It'll take a moment, but it seems anyone can fully view the artbook over at the Metroid Database. The artbook is so heavily focused on Dread that I felt that it might have been better just to fully feature Dread. Super Metroid and Zero Mission felt like they barely had any showing, and Other M is a no show. I can understand why it is a no show and they basically put a massive art gallery as an unlock in Other M. Still, would've been nice to have parts of that gallery seen again in this artbook. 

[Ridley Prime]

Ah, did not realize the whole artbook had already been uploaded on MDB. Thanks for the link!

 

Agree though, the other games should've had more of their art shown, in addition to Other M being included, but alas. Far as the Dread section, one concept art that caught my eye was seeing a Torizo. With Dread of all games having some evil Chozo as the theme, part of me was expecting at least one Chozo statue to move and become hostile after acquiring an item, but with how sluggish the Torizo were in Super Metroid, I guess perhaps they figured the Chozo Robots would be more mobile and interesting to fight.

 

For Samus Returns, I still love the promo art for the Beam Burst. Other M had some equally cool art though like with the melee combat, despite it not being shown on there.

[DranSeasona]

I managed to play through Dread a couple weeks ago, and it was somehow everything I hoped it would be. Expanding the lore, difficult but fair bosses, fluid gameplay, gorgeous visuals, handling the “dread” aspect in a well-balanced manner… I really cannot believe how well they pulled this off.

 

The thing that stood out most to me though was the AI of the last few EMMI… that they broke what to me was one of the foundational unspoken rules of video games (i.e. the partitioning of rooms via barriers like blast doors) actually chilled me. Knowing that they could hear me opening doors even if they weren’t clearly nearby, and that they would inevitably and thoroughly investigate, absolutely helped the game live up to the decades old expectations around its name.

 

Also, the final boss was one of my favourite video game moments now. Metroid has always been somewhat of a less-favourite franchise of mine compared to Pokémon and Zelda for example, but the way this game brought everything from the other 4 mainline games together… not just by plot but practically in every way, was simply amazing…

[Ridley Prime]

 
Ohh!

[Tyranogre]

Considering how many different places we've seen the Chozo throughout the series, I wouldn't be surprised if there are other tribes that we haven't met yet.

 

Spoiler

*The Thoha are presumably the ones native to Zebes, and had a separate colony on SR388, where they discovered the X parasites and created the Metroids. Assuming the manga is canon, they were so pacifistic that they developed a mental block that causes them extreme pain when inflicting violence upon another living creature. Grey Voice was a Thoha.

*The Mawkin are the ones native to ZDR, but have a few families living on Zebes, hence the different statue designs. Presumably, they did not develop the same mental block against violence that the Thoha did. This also explains why Raven Beak had to donate some of his DNA to Samus; if Gray Voice were the only one, then Samus would presumably also become allergic to violence, which would be quite counter-intuitive for her career as a bounty hunter.

*Meanwhile the Tallon IV Chozo withdrew to their own planet and became Space Amish, but the Thoha probably still contacted them about raising Samus to be the ultimate warrior, so they left some power-ups lying around in case Samus ever needed them.

*The Elysian Chozo were mad scientists who developed sentient robots just for the hell of it, then got bored and fucked off somewhere else.

 

Edited December 4, 2021 by Tyranogre

[alienboyva]

HELL YEAH! ...

 

🤞 for GOTY!

 

 

[Tyranogre]

 

Entire thread is required reading for Metroid newcomers (and veterans, for that matter).

[Tyranogre]

 

Even Nintendo is making fun of that God of War guy. 

[Tyranogre]

Dread was so amazing that I'm actually kind of worried about Prime 4. When you think about it, there are a lot of things going against it:

 

*Having to completely restart development from scratch

*Retro Studios being called back and forced to continue the storyline when they presumably wanted Corruption to be the end of it (Sylux tease notwithstanding)

*Very few people currently at Retro actually worked on the Trilogy; everyone else either left for another company, retired, or died

*All these different people from different backgrounds being called in (i.e. character artist from Halo; writer from Jedi: Fallen Order), that it may lead to a "too many cooks" situation

*Possibly coming out so late into the Switch's lifetime that the Switch U will be out, putting a damper on sales