Kinda a big problem I have with Dreads power ups. In other Metroids I always felt the missiles and energy tanks were good rewards. Not in Dread. Finding 1/4 tanks just spaces out the rewards for no good reason too. Bosses that use moves that have plenty of opportunities to refill your health and missiles also take away from the power ups you aquire along the way. The balance of rewarding the player with going off the beaten path to find the extras is not well done.
Just came in here to complain about this one lol. I like difficulty in games, but the EMMI sections just are not fun. It feels like it's missing at least one mechanic. I can't believe those sections made it into the game in this state. Other than that I'm mostly enjoying the experience.
Late January/Early February 2022 when nintendo reveals sales figures for Oct-Dec 2021
God damn, the boss fight against Experiment Z-57 is truly kicking my ass right now. Even when I recognize every single attack, the timing for dodging them is what's fucking me up. That attack with the wind pushing me against the wall and forcing me to spin jump out of all those patterned shots is what's pissing me off the most. Even the guides are just like "jump good lol". Bah!
Edit: beaten! Simply had to git gud.
Edit: beaten! Simply had to git gud.
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It helps to focus on the right of the screen and jump earlier. There are also only two jump heights you really need to worry about
Also, during that fight, if you manage to build up enough speed using Speed Booster and crouch to store Shinespark energy, can dash into the boss to instantly finish it off
I suppose that could only be pulled off during a wind tunnel attack, eh?
Anyway, I beat it, so I don't have to worry about that shithead no more.
yeah, at that spot. There's just nearly enough time to pull it off.
Are they really trial and error though? You have all the tools needed to detect when one is nearby and then hide from them.
I feel like the problem is just that they're a new mechanic, so people don't know what to expect.
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yes! so many things are done wrong. I can't believe the ratings this game got. it's average at best
- let's stay linear, well we can't connect environments from here, slap a teleporter there!
- missiles being the only thing to hurt bosses is annoying except very few otherwise scenarios
- enemies were varied somewhat but weird in that they conveniently shot laser beams etc. detracted they were not believable
- environments were not doing it for me. maybe i've been there fone that sort of deal. or maybe they weren't very interactive. water puzzles in beginning were sorta fun. then NOTHING. change lava flow … to just follow the linear path . turn on electricity… stupid.
bosses are the only thing they seemed to give love to.
Really glad I played through Fusion before starting Dread.
The X being on ZDR was not a ruse and we accidentally let them run amok again. 🤣
The X being on ZDR was not a ruse and we accidentally let them run amok again. 🤣
You pretty much described a Metroid game...hell, that pretty much covers most Metroidvania games in general. Seems you don't like the genre, but that doesn't make it bad.
This is hard to disagree with. I finished the final boss with 40% items (around 10 health bars and 115 missiles), but given that bosses do so much damage, the emphasis is more on learning their move set and avoiding their attacks than trading damage as in previous Metroids. Also, I think once you get to 100+ missiles, even somewhat less, it's hard to you're actually going to run out of ammo during a fight. I however don't know how this can be solved, the boss fights I feel are pretty good, I guess at most you could get improvements for some weapons, though I think this would go against the Metroid philosophy.
What part are you having trouble with? The last boss is a giant pain in the ass but it's possible to avoid all the attacks.
Yeah that's the genre.
- let's stay linear, well we can't connect environments from here, slap a teleporter there!
---Symphony of the Night had teleporter rooms to get around the castle and progress in these games is routinely blocked until you get %upgrade%
- missiles being the only thing to hurt bosses is annoying except very few otherwise scenarios
---Been like that since Super Metroid the game calls it out too.
- enemies were varied somewhat but weird in that they conveniently shot laser beams etc. detracted they were not believable
---Not sure I agree here, I think the enemy variety is the best a 2d Metroid has had and the attacks were everything from charging enemies, laser beams, and a giant flying whale with a death ray in its shadow. As for believability it's a game about aliens?
- environments were not doing it for me. maybe i've been there fone that sort of deal. or maybe they weren't very interactive. water puzzles in beginning were sorta fun. then NOTHING. change lava flow … to just follow the linear path . turn on electricity… stupid.
---agreed on environments, lots of here's the lava zone, here's the ice zone, here's the plant zone thing from pretty much every platformer from the 90's (same for other Metroid games too) but the puzzles were more about unlocking shortcuts like in Super Metroid up through Dark Souls to make traversal and backtracking much easier.
I don't mean to pick on these and if you're not having fun then I get why you're baffled at the reviews but this hits all the major points of the genre and the series and does them very well. The boss design is incredible and the movement is sublime. The moment to moment gameplay is arguably the best in the series (it is for me). The biggest downsides I'm seeing is the music is either not great or mixed so low that it's inaudible and the EMMI stuff is firmly in love it or hate it territory.
I can't get past the second part. I've tried for hours, I just feel like I can't consistently jump to avoid the attacks here the way the game wants me to.
It's not like I don't know what to do or anything, I just can't execute it. I dunno, maybe I'm getting old, I may just give up.
He's not that hard once you figure out some tricks:
-Are you shooting that ball or dark energy? You can destroy it with four missiles, and it replenishes a lot of health. Just by abusing this you can get through phase 1 with full health;
-Phase 2 is the hardest, but it's manageable once you learn how to optmally avoid his attacks. The vertical plunge is easy enough, the horizontal one you can avoid with a slide. The mega cannon thing can't hit you if you stick to one of the sides of the room, and it gives you plenty of time to pummel him with missiles. The laser missile barrage is the hardest, you have to circle around him closely with the space jump. The missiles seem like they're faster than you, but you can gain advantage when you get to the side or the circle and drop down directly.
-In phase 3 the biggest problem is the sun thing, but you can destroy it with one power bomb, which makes it trivial.
-Phase 2 is the hardest, but it's manageable once you learn how to optmally avoid his attacks. The vertical plunge is easy enough, the horizontal one you can avoid with a slide. The mega cannon thing can't hit you if you stick to one of the sides of the room, and it gives you plenty of time to pummel him with missiles. The laser missile barrage is the hardest, you have to circle around him closely with the space jump. The missiles seem like they're faster than you, but you can gain advantage when you get to the side or the circle and drop down directly.
-In phase 3 the biggest problem is the sun thing, but you can destroy it with one power bomb, which makes it trivial.
I got to
last night and had to walk away. I think I got to its "melee and then pummel with missiles" animation 3 times and it still wasn't dead. So either I am missing something or this one just goes on a bit too long.
experiment z-whatever
You are probably letting it recharge its health. There is a part on the fight when it attaches four arms into the walls, and it absorbs energy. You need to lock the four arms with the Storm Missiles quickly so it won't have time to heal.
This fight is a pain in the ass. Just beat it last night on hard, I think I restarted 10 times. It feels like it was buffed a bit vs normal, but could just be that Samus is a glass cannon/fragile speedster on hard.
nail him with storm missiles, especially when he's recharging with the 4 arms on the walls/ceiling. Prevents it from healing and you get health/ammo.
Destroy the arms on the second phase, either use storm missiles on all of them at once or use a charge shoot and a single missile on each to stop it from recovering health
The other option is to use a shinespark on its face right after the fan attack which is a guaranteed kill.
The other option is to use a shinespark on its face right after the fan attack which is a guaranteed kill.
Oh I definitely was not hitting the
arms with the storm missiles
Ok here's a breakdown for each attack
Phase 1 - Armor
The black hole takes 4 missiles to destroy an drops missiles and energy
The 270 degree beam wave thing has a safe spot near him, either morph ball or crouch to keep distance. Then get ready for the three hit melee combo.
The charge up beam that looks like it hits the whole arena can be dodged by morph balling under it.
His dash attack can be countered but I never got the timing right on it.
When his armor is gold only a counter sequence (his taunt) will progress the phase
Phase 2 - Flying
Fights pretty similar to the robo chozo
The laser spam attack just requires you to circle him via space jump as he fires to stay out of the attack
The ground pound is pretty well telegraphed but flash stepping can save you in a pinch if you miss it.
The horizontal dash can be baited to go higher so you can safely be under it but I think you can also dash slide under it.
The black hole takes 4 missiles to destroy an drops missiles and energy
The 270 degree beam wave thing has a safe spot near him, either morph ball or crouch to keep distance. Then get ready for the three hit melee combo.
The charge up beam that looks like it hits the whole arena can be dodged by morph balling under it.
His dash attack can be countered but I never got the timing right on it.
When his armor is gold only a counter sequence (his taunt) will progress the phase
Phase 2 - Flying
Fights pretty similar to the robo chozo
The laser spam attack just requires you to circle him via space jump as he fires to stay out of the attack
The ground pound is pretty well telegraphed but flash stepping can save you in a pinch if you miss it.
The horizontal dash can be baited to go higher so you can safely be under it but I think you can also dash slide under it.
Phase 3 - Wingless
basically phase one with like 2 new attacks
Sun orb can be blown up by a power bomb for missiles and energy and makes the dodging WAAAAAY easier
Shinesparks go in a straight line when he goes blue
His charged laser beam tracks you until it fires, just don't be where it is.
Counter when the prompts occur
basically phase one with like 2 new attacks
Sun orb can be blown up by a power bomb for missiles and energy and makes the dodging WAAAAAY easier
Shinesparks go in a straight line when he goes blue
His charged laser beam tracks you until it fires, just don't be where it is.
Counter when the prompts occur
I love this fight but it's definitely no joke.
Make sure you are using Storm missiles when it attaches it's legs--during that, it's healing, and if you don't knock them down, the boss will last forever. Also, be sure to counter when you see the flash, it does a ton of damage.
If it helps at all...
The second part has a lot of health, but you can chip it down with storm missiles while you focus on dodging.
Using the flash step in addition to the space jump will help with dodging the circular fire.
Using the flash step in addition to the space jump will help with dodging the circular fire.
Just adding to it
Phase 1
270 degree attack: You can stand close which makes it easier to go into a jump > flash shift above it (at least for me), he always goes for the first attack of the three hit combo, but depending on how early you dodge he may not commit to the rest
The full arena attack can be dodged by crouching too as shown by the opening fight with him at the start of the game. Whichever is easier works here
Phase 2
For the horizontal dash, sometimes its hard to go above it or bait it when its between attacks, however if you remain on the floor as much as you can it makes dodging the dash super consistent with a slide
270 degree attack: You can stand close which makes it easier to go into a jump > flash shift above it (at least for me), he always goes for the first attack of the three hit combo, but depending on how early you dodge he may not commit to the rest
The full arena attack can be dodged by crouching too as shown by the opening fight with him at the start of the game. Whichever is easier works here
Phase 2
For the horizontal dash, sometimes its hard to go above it or bait it when its between attacks, however if you remain on the floor as much as you can it makes dodging the dash super consistent with a slide
Phase 3 - Wingless
Shinesparks: Ocasionally, depding on your position and where the shinespark ends, he can chain an upwards shinespark to try to catch you, keep an eye on that, ive mosly seen it happens when he charges the shinespark from across the room and your flash shift puts you too close to the end of his shinespark.
For the big laser. He tracks you and fires when you stay in his line of sight for a second, so if you just want to bait it space jump in front of him and then drop down.
Shinesparks: Ocasionally, depding on your position and where the shinespark ends, he can chain an upwards shinespark to try to catch you, keep an eye on that, ive mosly seen it happens when he charges the shinespark from across the room and your flash shift puts you too close to the end of his shinespark.
For the big laser. He tracks you and fires when you stay in his line of sight for a second, so if you just want to bait it space jump in front of him and then drop down.
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So let me get this straight, aliens with lasers are not believable? :P
I get that how this type of game design may not be your thing, but to say the bosses were the only thing to get love is reaching. Dread OOZES love. From the moment I started playing until the time I put down the controller, was pure bliss. Dread has earned its place as one of my favorite games of all time, and I am far from the only one that feels this way. I feel bad as a gamer that you couldn't get that same satisfaction.
Just have to say going back through this game for the fourth time, hard mode this run, I'm still loving it. I'm gonna finish out two more runs on hard to get a few things then boot Super and Zero Mission back up, I'll need to buy a copy of Fusion at some point too. I want to see where Dread ranks, at the moment I've got it *just* below Super with some standout parts where it's just flat out better, particularly Samus' movement.
It took me a good 6-8 tries before I beat him, but those attempts taught me things…
Every one his his attacks is avoidable, but dodging some of them requires your twitch reflexes to be on point.
Giant AOE ray - Get close to him while he does it, pummel his ass with missiles, and be ready to jump/dodge the moment it finishes.
Swooping charge - Slide or roll.
Black energy ball - It can be destroyed with four storm missiles and will drop health orbs.
Mega laser blast - I've never seen him shoot it at a wall, so if you can get him to float towards one side, he'll shoot it the other way and you can barrage him with missiles while he does it.
Machine gun barrage - Space jump in a circle around him until he stops.
Supernova ball - Charge a power bomb the moment it spawns and the blast will destroy it.
Full-screen laser blast - Bait it and space jump out of harm's way. He will follow you with his aim during the charge.
The hardest part is timing the counters which will give you a window - during a cool ass cinematic moment - to blast the shit out of him with your beam cannon or missiles. These are key during the second phase when your attacks don't make him flinch. If he stands still for a moment or taunts you, get in his face and be ready for a counter prompt. I don't think they are necessary to beat him during the first and last phase, other than the final one I mean.
Giant AOE ray - Get close to him while he does it, pummel his ass with missiles, and be ready to jump/dodge the moment it finishes.
Swooping charge - Slide or roll.
Black energy ball - It can be destroyed with four storm missiles and will drop health orbs.
Mega laser blast - I've never seen him shoot it at a wall, so if you can get him to float towards one side, he'll shoot it the other way and you can barrage him with missiles while he does it.
Machine gun barrage - Space jump in a circle around him until he stops.
Supernova ball - Charge a power bomb the moment it spawns and the blast will destroy it.
Full-screen laser blast - Bait it and space jump out of harm's way. He will follow you with his aim during the charge.
The hardest part is timing the counters which will give you a window - during a cool ass cinematic moment - to blast the shit out of him with your beam cannon or missiles. These are key during the second phase when your attacks don't make him flinch. If he stands still for a moment or taunts you, get in his face and be ready for a counter prompt. I don't think they are necessary to beat him during the first and last phase, other than the final one I mean.
I've gotten my item % up to 82. I stand by my assertion that some of the shine spark puzzles are devious. Thankfully some videos on YouTube have cleared up confusion about how to solve a few of them.
I see all of the complaints about the boss fights. Multiple times I have gotten my ass handed to me in this game. When it happens, you get frustrated and at that point the game has won. When you are frustrated you are going to make costly mistakes. When I get to this point I pause the game and walk away. Usually to bitch to my wife that the game is kicking my ass. I take a deep breath, head back in and show the game that I am no one to be trifled with. Seriously though, it is so fulfilling to take down a boss on the first try after having struggled with it just 5 or 10 minutes before.
EDIT: I'm sorry, I was being rude. What I mean is, basically every boss in the game is weak to stuff besides missiles. For example, the first boss is weak to regular beam shots when invisible. And many late-game bosses take more damage from beam spam than missiles. Many bosses take a significant amount of damage from the shinespark and provide opportunities to use it as well. Even the Screw Attack, an upgrade that traditionally does nothing to bosses, can severely damage a few. I think the game does a good job of balancing Samus's weapons in combat.
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This isn't useful since you already beat it, but the thing about the wind attack is that you need to treat it exactly like Flappy Bird—namely, don't touch the ground. If you let Samus touch the ground it messes up the rhythm of the attacks. Stay in the air and repeatedly jump. The only thing you should be doing at that part is pressing A with the right timing; if you're fiddling with any other part of the controls you're doing something wrong.
Yeah, the boss fights are cool. Sometime you need to walk away or just shitpost on a forum to blow off steam and get back to it.
Grats!!! That was my least favorite part of that battle although overall I really enjoyed all of the Metroid bosses. Some really stumped me though
Those Golden Chozo warriors almost ended my journey though but after them rest of bosses felt much easier
One thing that massively helps in the robot Chozo battles (especially on hard mode and in low% runs) is that they're super weak to the shinespark. The first one has enough space to build up a shinespark in the boss arena, and all the others provide a runway into the boss arena to get off one shinespark.
Just finished the game. Got my first 100% item clear in a metroid game and all I can say is I loved every second of it. What a wonderful game. The fact every attack can be avoided from every boss by decision is such a fantastic decision and I wish more games did that.
Don't get me wrong, some of the attacks are very difficult to dodge, but just the fact you can dodge them is so good.
Don't get me wrong, some of the attacks are very difficult to dodge, but just the fact you can dodge them is so good.
So one of the things I think Bloodstained did as a development task was force the boss designer to beat their boss without taking a single hit using a dagger.
Bloodstained's designers had to defeat the bosses they made without taking a hit
And with just a dagger.
This is a really neat idea and I wonder if something like this influenced the boss design in Dread.
So one of the things I think Bloodstained did as a development task was force the boss designer to beat their boss without taking a single hit using a dagger.
Bloodstained's designers had to defeat the bosses they made without taking a hit
And with just a dagger.www.pcgamer.com
This is a really neat idea and I wonder if something like this influenced the boss design in Dread.
Yeah, this design philosophy is great. It certainly didn't make the boss fights easy in Dread, but it's the first time in the series I felt like all the boss fights I could reliably or realistically defeat them without taking damage. I don't really want to go back to awkwardly getting bumped around a tiny arena as the boss flies from off-screen at seemingly random angles ...
I'm experiencing that in Fusion right now. The general strategy for its bosses so far seems to be "React fast to hit it in its weak spot with a missile whenever it unexpectedly rams into you from offscreen. Trade blows until you win."
Yeah, the bosses here felt like a clearer executed take on the boss design present in Fusion.
Which is why I raise an eyebrow every time I see someone say the series has never had punishing boss design prior to Dread. I guess that's what happens when the only commercially available re-release of a nineteen year old GBA title is on the fuckin' Wii U.
Here's a video of it in action.
So one of the things I think Bloodstained did as a development task was force the boss designer to beat their boss without taking a single hit using a dagger.
Bloodstained's designers had to defeat the bosses they made without taking a hit
And with just a dagger.
This is a really neat idea and I wonder if something like this influenced the boss design in Dread.
Thanks to a new exploit to dodge the 360 degree rotating attack, you can beat Raven Beak with 0% using nothing but the counter and the default beam.
Few hours in.
I fucking love this game, my first proper 2D metriod (if you don't count Other M).
The controls, down to simple things such as movement, are soooooo good. You really do feel like you're controlling the galaxy's best bounty hunter.
Samus is so so so bad ass in this. Love that for her.
I fucking love this game, my first proper 2D metriod (if you don't count Other M).
The controls, down to simple things such as movement, are soooooo good. You really do feel like you're controlling the galaxy's best bounty hunter.
Samus is so so so bad ass in this. Love that for her.