I am legit shocked this was considered a good idea. EMMI encounters in general have felt like a huge hinderance in an otherwise stellar game. Laser sponge, trial and error, gimmicky encounters, just awful.
This already exists for Switch on an OS-level so that's likely why they didn't bother
Sometimes this game is obnoxiously vague. I was just at a underwater part and the only reason I managed to get across the room was because I stubbornly kept trying over and over until Samus made it. So vague. No hint or anything of how to pass an area sometimes lol
It's not the same. That's a universal accessibility feature, not a solution when you want to remap controls for a specific game and keep your buttons functioning normally system wide.
You mean
the room where you have to cross an horizontal gap with the new double jump?
Assuming you're at the area I'm thinking of, the hint there is the line of glowing lights in the background that indicate exactly when you should jump to keep your vertical position steady.
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That's definitely the area lol took me a while to get it right
Yup that spot. Never occurred to me look at the background lol
If this is what I think it is, and you have the Spin Boost, its tutorial popup actually explains this. You can't conventionally gain height over your first jump underwater until you get another upgrade, so you use it to cross gaps horizontally in that context. Lines of underwater lights are present in places where you're expected to do this, and spin jumps still follow their rule of not letting you do another jump until you've passed the apex of your previous.
I don't know if it's because I played it in Spanish because a lot of people seem to have problem with this. The game just told me
that I can use my jump underwater but will not gain any height with it. And it just puts me on a room with a horizontal gap. I did it at my first try 🤷♂️
Something that stuck out to me is that the EMMIs weren't created by the Federation military, but by a private company called Exelion Star Corporation. And they're way beyond the tech we see from the rest of the Federation.
I get the feeling Samus will be fighting more of their creations in later games.
It was really surprising for me to watch streamers play through the game. As a general broad statement, most people don't seem to internalize written tutorial text. It makes me understand way better why ADAM tends to repeat information the tutorial boxes already explained. Obviously this was playtested and the devs realized many people need to be told stuff more than once.
Specific example:
- At 30:10, he reads aloud the text saying that the Phantom Cloak will start to deplete your health if you run out of charge.
- At 34:15, he's very surprised that the Phantom Cloak is depleting his health.
- At 41:15, ADAM explains it again. "Oh, now you tell me."
Finished it this morning. 12 hours, and 91% of items.
I think they nailed it with the difficulty overall. I died a handful of times to every boss but there never came a point where I felt like I was beating my head against a wall.
Raven Beak was tricky, but after learning how to dodge his moves for each phase, he's ultimately not that difficult. From the way some people have been talking on here o was expecting much worse. I think I got him after my 6th or 7th try.
What stands out the most for me is the controls. Just moving through this game feels fantastic. All of your movement options serve a purpose, and by the end of the game you can just tear through each zone.
It's pacing is great also. You're never far from a new boss or ability so the game always manages to keep its hooks in you.
The EMMI's were used well, and while some people can't stand them, I think they were a good addition that helped give the game character. Again, it never felt unfair or overly difficult - after a few trys they could all be overcome, and beating them was always satisfying.
If anything, I think I had the most trouble on some of the double robo chozo fights.
Raven Beak was tricky, but after learning how to dodge his moves for each phase, he's ultimately not that difficult. From the way some people have been talking on here o was expecting much worse. I think I got him after my 6th or 7th try.
What stands out the most for me is the controls. Just moving through this game feels fantastic. All of your movement options serve a purpose, and by the end of the game you can just tear through each zone.
It's pacing is great also. You're never far from a new boss or ability so the game always manages to keep its hooks in you.
The EMMI's were used well, and while some people can't stand them, I think they were a good addition that helped give the game character. Again, it never felt unfair or overly difficult - after a few trys they could all be overcome, and beating them was always satisfying.
If anything, I think I had the most trouble on some of the double robo chozo fights.
I'm trying to do normal sub 4 hours without any sequence/speedrun tricks so can anyone tell me if I'm still on track with 2h30 time at the start of the ice path to Screw Attack? If there's still an easy skip/trick here somewhere I'd take it because even though I'm pretty far upgrade-wise it could still take a while.
I'm a big fan of tutorializing through gameplay but a few text boxes shouldn't be a problem for anyone, yet if you watch streamers you realize they very much are.
That Hasanabi though, damn... He's the guy who ragequit Skyward Sword in the tutorial because he didn't read the flying controls and the first Loftwing section ended him.
This was made very clear to me when I watched streamers play Doom Eternal and a lot of them just clicked away the text boxes explaining a new power... which have some very useful info that they're now not aware of. Think this is a result of them being 'on' all the time, thinking they can't waste time on reading and often the chat will explain things to them anyhow. I love watching some streamers but I could never play games this way. They are so used to having everything spoonfed through chat that they're just not reading or learning how to play the game.
I'm a big fan of tutorializing through gameplay but a few text boxes shouldn't be a problem for anyone, yet if you watch streamers you realize they very much are.
That Hasanabi though, damn... He's the guy who ragequit Skyward Sword in the tutorial because he didn't read the flying controls and the first Loftwing section ended him.
You are definitely good.
Especially if you already have Storm Missiles and are on the "normal" route instead of getting Gravity Suit/Screw Attack early. One minor trick you could do is use the shinespark to OHKO the experiment boss when it does the fan attack.
The problem with Doom Eternal (for me) was that it felt like a never-ending barrage of "hey, look, this stuff goes here" and "hey, use this weapon like that" and it just never ended and I was like "dude, give me the shotgun and let me rip through demons, wth".
What I am saying is: Eternal had way too much of this stuff.
Dread is a little more conservative with the textbox-tells-you-what-to-do, but it's still not a good way to teach your players something.
And, yes, Streamers babyraging and yelling at the videogame for their own faults can be annoying as hell. However I think most of them do it because people like seeing them be "emotional" and stuff, so I guess it helps their entertainment value or whatever.
I was! And I even got that shinespark having failed it multiple times trying on hard. Final clear time 3:15. I was definitely short on missiles during some fights but on normal sub 4 hours is very easy without doing any seq. breaking. Only need sub 4 on hard now.
I finished the game yesterday (10 hours, 40% items) and I generally agree, some of those encounters were stressful but not in a fun way, to the point where I am dreading (lol) doing these sections again in another playthrough.
The underwater one where you had to first avoid him while moving at snail's pace, and then you had to build a path later to shoot him down was quite annoying. The yellow one that gave you the speed boost I felt was quite hard to take down, as you really had to be very precise. I watched some videos and some people managed to do it quite easily, so I guess I just have to learn.
I would have preferred if the game put more emphasis on the running away parts, a bit like in Ori, since Samus is such a joy to control. Or that escaping the EMMI once it got hold of you was more feasible, as of right now it's more of a hail mary move that you can pull off just 10-15% of the times you get caught, and mostly because of luck.
I would have preferred if the game put more emphasis on the running away parts, a bit like in Ori, since Samus is such a joy to control. Or that escaping the EMMI once it got hold of you was more feasible, as of right now it's more of a hail mary move that you can pull off just 10-15% of the times you get caught, and mostly because of luck.
At the very least the game is not punishing in the sense that dying barely sets you back. Anyway, other than that, I thought the game was pretty amazing, Samus has exquisite controls, making world traversal very enjoyable, and the feeling of continuously adding to your move set and becoming stronger is ever so satisfying. I am curious to see the sequence breaks people come up with, I'd imagine if you're good at shine-sparking there can be some pretty cool ones.
The first time I faced two of the robot Chozo warriors I really struggled, it was arguably harder that some of the other "main boss" fights. The second time I met them I kinda smoked them. This feeling of progression is great.
The final boss was definitely quite the challenge, I was scared because of the reviewer who claimed he needed 5-6 hours to beat him, and given how badly I got my ass kicked the first few times I thought I might go down the same route. Eventually though, as with the other bosses, learning his patterns led to a perfect first phase, though I needed a video to help me with the sun-thingy, didn't know you could just explode it with a Power Bomb.
The final boss was definitely quite the challenge, I was scared because of the reviewer who claimed he needed 5-6 hours to beat him, and given how badly I got my ass kicked the first few times I thought I might go down the same route. Eventually though, as with the other bosses, learning his patterns led to a perfect first phase, though I needed a video to help me with the sun-thingy, didn't know you could just explode it with a Power Bomb.
We need a speedrunner mode that automatically skips all the cutscenes. Keep adding the time to the playthrough to keep it consistent for the in-game timer, but just make it so we don't have to watch the opening cinematic, ADAM dialog, and automatically skips the cutscenes mid-game.
Things we'll actually see:
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Good suggestions, the other user with the speedrunning enhancements as well, but I don't see them supporting this any further unfortunately.
Yes I have it, too. I guess the update borked up something with the loading screens, because speedrunners are complaining that the loading screens take way longer now, too… I hope it gets patched again.
I just finished this last night, 11:25 with 100% items
4-5 hours of that is dying to bosses and the shinespark puzzles lol
Honestly overall I liked the game, but didn't love it.
4-5 hours of that is dying to bosses and the shinespark puzzles lol
Honestly overall I liked the game, but didn't love it.
The exploration and all that was fine, but the bosses and some puzzles are not fun when you don't have great motor skills, since they can be quite punishing like the second-to-last boss where every attack it lands drains like 3 tanks or whatever (also needing to complete counter sequences to actually progress and/or finish them is just terrible), or in the case of puzzles the shinespark one in Burenia where you barely have the space to run, so out of 50 attempts 40 was me running off the platform without storing it in time
And the EMMI were just completely annoying and the fact you were pretty much dead if they caught you made it worse, I would've probably liked them more if the window for the counter wasn't so fucking small. Also the fact you needed to hold like 3 different buttons to fight them when you get the Omega Blaster is just garbage
And the EMMI were just completely annoying and the fact you were pretty much dead if they caught you made it worse, I would've probably liked them more if the window for the counter wasn't so fucking small. Also the fact you needed to hold like 3 different buttons to fight them when you get the Omega Blaster is just garbage
I just came up with a theory as to why the X mimicking Quiet Robe (QR-X henceforth) "sacrificed" itself to revert Samus' Metroid Suit.
It didn't.
We know that Thoha DNA allows some level of control of the Metroids and the Metroid DNA within Samus. Her reversion from the Metroid Suit when she absorbed the QR-X is evidence enough of that. My theory is that this works at a cellular level and the QR-X is able to hide within Samus' body without harming her and without triggering the Metroid DNA within her that allows her to absorb normal, free-floating X.
QR-X did not sacrifice itself...it used Samus herself to smuggle itself off-world.
It would remain to be seen whether this is a permanent or semi-permanent situation, however. Presumably, the moment QR-X re-emerged from Samus' body, she'd be pretty pissed and would also likely revert to the Metroid Suit. Until such a time as it's either confirmed or debunked, my headcanon is that the QR-X continues to reside harmlessly in Samus' body keeping the Metroid DNA in check in order to prevent her from going "full Metroid" both from a self-preservation instinct on the X's part and the safety of the galaxy perspective on Quiet Robe's part.
One day, however, it may come to a point where Samus requires the Metroid Suit once again and QR-X emerges and explains itself as well as how it has bonded with Samus as it observed her actions from within all this time. In that moment, Samus' full power is once again unleashed and the QR-X either sacrifices itself in that it must remain behind or it escapes alone to rendezvous with Samus and ADAM in order to allow her to once again pilot the ship.
It didn't.
We know that Thoha DNA allows some level of control of the Metroids and the Metroid DNA within Samus. Her reversion from the Metroid Suit when she absorbed the QR-X is evidence enough of that. My theory is that this works at a cellular level and the QR-X is able to hide within Samus' body without harming her and without triggering the Metroid DNA within her that allows her to absorb normal, free-floating X.
QR-X did not sacrifice itself...it used Samus herself to smuggle itself off-world.
It would remain to be seen whether this is a permanent or semi-permanent situation, however. Presumably, the moment QR-X re-emerged from Samus' body, she'd be pretty pissed and would also likely revert to the Metroid Suit. Until such a time as it's either confirmed or debunked, my headcanon is that the QR-X continues to reside harmlessly in Samus' body keeping the Metroid DNA in check in order to prevent her from going "full Metroid" both from a self-preservation instinct on the X's part and the safety of the galaxy perspective on Quiet Robe's part.
One day, however, it may come to a point where Samus requires the Metroid Suit once again and QR-X emerges and explains itself as well as how it has bonded with Samus as it observed her actions from within all this time. In that moment, Samus' full power is once again unleashed and the QR-X either sacrifices itself in that it must remain behind or it escapes alone to rendezvous with Samus and ADAM in order to allow her to once again pilot the ship.
Eh.
X-mimics mimic the behavior of whatever they copy, as evidenced in Fusion, for example when the SA-X takes up the task of killing Metroids. QR-X was doing its best to be QR, IMO.
^I really like the ambiguity of that scene. Feels something that's a bit of a running theme in the series.
Just spent the last hour hoovering up the last shinespark puzzles. I would never have known that I could recharge them on inclines if it weren't for the Internet. Very unintuitive, but very satisfying when I cracked them.
100% items. Time for that final boss...
100% items. Time for that final boss...
That behavior can easily be explained by X having a natural instinct to try and kill their only predators though. It's told to us that the X deliberately adapted themselves to the cold environment on B.S.L. station specifically to deal with Samus and her Metroid DNA for instance.
If the X mimicked their hosts to their own detriment in all cases, the SA-X would have set the self-destruct itself and crashed it into SR388 without Samus' intervention from the start. At best, you could chalk it up to mimicking their behaviors when they have no other options (SA-X vs. the Omega Metroid and now QR-X vs. Metroid Suit), but at that point, is it mimicking or just a case of their host's instincts conflicting with their own?
We really don't know enough about the X to know exactly how they function biologically and psychologically. Does it matter if they are taken over by a X or if they only get some DNA as in Samus' case? If they take the full host organism, is it more like the Venom symbiote where they function together or does the X take full control? If they only have enough DNA to make a copy, does that copy even retain any semblance of the original organism or is it functionally pure X in terms of psychology? Is the X a hive mind that is connected across space or is it just that their gelatinous nature allows for them to merge and share information and DNA? Are the X some level of sentient or do they function on pure instinct in their free-floating forms?
If the X mimicked their hosts to their own detriment in all cases, the SA-X would have set the self-destruct itself and crashed it into SR388 without Samus' intervention from the start. At best, you could chalk it up to mimicking their behaviors when they have no other options (SA-X vs. the Omega Metroid and now QR-X vs. Metroid Suit), but at that point, is it mimicking or just a case of their host's instincts conflicting with their own?
We really don't know enough about the X to know exactly how they function biologically and psychologically. Does it matter if they are taken over by a X or if they only get some DNA as in Samus' case? If they take the full host organism, is it more like the Venom symbiote where they function together or does the X take full control? If they only have enough DNA to make a copy, does that copy even retain any semblance of the original organism or is it functionally pure X in terms of psychology? Is the X a hive mind that is connected across space or is it just that their gelatinous nature allows for them to merge and share information and DNA? Are the X some level of sentient or do they function on pure instinct in their free-floating forms?
Just finished, last boss was awesome. Felt so good taking a run or two to learn the patterns then just avoiding everything and taking it down.
Was really into the more old school experience that it had. From the chunky menus to the minimal exposition. I love huge story heavy games, but this felt like something you'd play on the snes or gba in a positive way.
Was really into the more old school experience that it had. From the chunky menus to the minimal exposition. I love huge story heavy games, but this felt like something you'd play on the snes or gba in a positive way.
OP
OP
At the final boss on hardmode with 2:55 on the clock. Gonna spend like 35 minutes gathering power bombs and e-tanks so I can at least tank some hits.
Getting Cross Bomb before Space Jump makes getting Space Jump early SO much easier. My hands can't do that wall jump morph bomb combo, but I can at least beat the Cross Bomb boss easily and make that part so much easier.
Getting Cross Bomb before Space Jump makes getting Space Jump early SO much easier. My hands can't do that wall jump morph bomb combo, but I can at least beat the Cross Bomb boss easily and make that part so much easier.
Which is funny in that my three additional playthroughs since launch (2 of which were yesterday and today), I've hated how many cutscenes and dialog I have to skip and especially the unskippable stuff at the start.
It was great on the initial playthrough, but I'd kill for an option to turn it all off and just play through the game again faster.
I did the pseudowave option for getting Screw Attack early and it is so unpredictable. If you could just aim it would be fine, but
I was stuck in the exact same spot, and was very close to pinging MS on Twitter to let them know about a bug in the game that let me get the spin boost before the gravity suit (which I assumed I needed to escape).
Oh, I've got the Space Jump and Screw Attack before Gravity Suit and there is a place that legit softlocks you except for a glitch that lets you escape...though it's hard to pull off. I opted for the shinespark method, but that requires you to know about the softlock ahead of time.
I also had to look online what to do even though I read the text tutorial, but I never interpreted it as "you can't go higher underwater, but you can go farther (wink wink)".
I don't think it's bad design though, the game consistently make you use any new ability straight away locking you out of any other possible option so I should've known better.
I just have no time/patience so whenever I get stuck for something apparently obvious I look it up
Some of the shine spark puzzles are devious. My total item percentage is up to 69% (heh heh heh), and one or two areas I have like 93% or so have a shine spark puzzle I can't quite crack.
I don't know what was in that stability update I just installed, but I was stuck on the final boss for two hours or so and after installing I beat him easily with almost all my lives left.
(Admittedly reading the power bomb trick helped a lot)
(Admittedly reading the power bomb trick helped a lot)
That's me finished. The final boss was quite a bit to learn but it was fun. Overall it's a pretty good game.
No joke. Didn't know that on my initial run and it took me dozens of attempts. Second play on hard mode knowing you could just nuke his energy ball attacks and I only died once because I missed a counter.
OP
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Hard Mode done in 3:22! With that I unlocked all the Hard Mode gallery images in one playthrough. So I'm totally 100% completed with the game at this point.
Took 3 playthroughs in total. 9 hours on my first ever run (100%), 3 hours any% Normal for the time bonuses, and then this Hard Mode any% run. I got my fill of this game in now lol. This has been consuming me since launch lol
Took 3 playthroughs in total. 9 hours on my first ever run (100%), 3 hours any% Normal for the time bonuses, and then this Hard Mode any% run. I got my fill of this game in now lol. This has been consuming me since launch lol
Another 100% run done at 3:15, kinda wonder if I'll ever get good enough to get below 3:00 on a 100% run.
Wish this game had a leaderboard or something to keep track of your best times, the only Metroid game to ever do this is Zero Mission in a hidden time trial mode.
Wish this game had a leaderboard or something to keep track of your best times, the only Metroid game to ever do this is Zero Mission in a hidden time trial mode.
Finally beat my first run. Only 66% item completion, but I suck at the shine spark "challenges".
I thought the bosses were overall pretty easy. I never beat one on my first try, but you can learn everything they're going to do, and react without needing insane parrying skills. That last boss took me the longest at 6 tries.
The EMMI and Chozo soldiers were annoying though, not really fun to play against and formulaic as all hell
The EMMI and Chozo soldiers were annoying though, not really fun to play against and formulaic as all hell
3 areas clear.
I dont like the shine spark. The analog stick is to imprecise and it ends up doing things I dont want it to do, which is very annoying. The puzzles are clever, but I don't love doing them.
I'm basically good to go for the final boss now - in fact I may have too many missles, so I hope I havent trivialized it lol. Do want to keep going and finish the other areas though, but maybe final boss first.
I dont like the shine spark. The analog stick is to imprecise and it ends up doing things I dont want it to do, which is very annoying. The puzzles are clever, but I don't love doing them.
I'm basically good to go for the final boss now - in fact I may have too many missles, so I hope I havent trivialized it lol. Do want to keep going and finish the other areas though, but maybe final boss first.
OP
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I got 100% items. First Metroid game I've ever bothered to do so. Just so much fun exploring all the areas and checking them off.
Now getting my ass absolutely handed to me by the final boss. Turns out all the extra energy tanks and missiles don't help all that much...
Now getting my ass absolutely handed to me by the final boss. Turns out all the extra energy tanks and missiles don't help all that much...