I realize now my post was convoluted lol, but yes it doesn't seem like Mochizuki's misread his earlier Japanese tweet or anything odd like that, and it appears to be the plan to release the three games this Spring/Summer.
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Rumor: Metroid Prime 4 developed with Bandai Namco Singapore & Ridge Racer 8 exclusive to Switch
- Thread starter Cinemikel
- Start date
I realize now my post was convoluted lol, but yes it doesn't seem like Mochizuki's misread his earlier Japanese tweet or anything odd like that, and it appears to be the plan to release the three games this Spring/Summer.
Cool thanks.
But you're fuzzy on what kind of 3 games? He said it's exclusive to Switch. You're saying that doesn't mean they're new games? Like they could be a collection of old games? Because I wouldn't consider Dragonball FighterZ an exclusive, but something like Baten Kaitos Collection I would.
I just mean that in that tweet he only says they have three titles planned, they're only for the Switch, they're "big" (at least to him, we as consumers may feel differently, lol), and they're planning to release them worldwide over the Spring/Summer.
I guess how "big" these titles really are depends on what you think they're willing to announce and release within 1-6 months. Given all this, Ridge Racer 8 seems like it should give us a good idea of what kinds of games they have in mind: it's the next entry in an established franchise and there should be some built-in demand given the history of the IP, but it hasn't been an "active member" of Bamco's product line in years, with 7 releasing over a decade ago followed by a few middling/bad games.
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What?? Metroid open world? How is that going to work? No everything has to be open world.
They did it with Zelda. Metroid should benefit from bigger world with many hidden secrets and areas to discover.
Like Xenoblade X but in Metroid world with Metroid gameplay.
Well, beyond the open world part being silly (Metroidvania open world is an oxymoron) we actually have some suggestions in this thread that they ramped up development for this in mid-2016, since this studio started to do a lot hiring then.
The Japanese tweet quoting the president says "Switch専用". I'm not really sure how else to interpret that beyond it meaning that the games are only for the Switch, and that was Mochizuki's interpretation as well.
If the world design is exactly the opposite of XBX it could work, lol. With the "open world" being an extremely condensed underground labyrinth.
Actually Metroidvania has the same roots as openworld.
It's basically a map you can explore however you want except parts of it are gated by abilities.
Think of it like Zelda 1, you can go "anywhere" but some areas you can't access without the correct tools.
The size of the "anywhere" you can go may vary depending on interpretation.
Even in 2D, making Metroid openworld you wouldn't need to change much.
Heck sense of growth for firepower is generally muted in Metroid games, enemies will do much more damage depending on where they're found but their health won't generally increase all that much.
You won't see the kind of scale you see in BotW where enemy health range from something like 5 to 7500.
Make the next Metroid with an openworld hub at the center and gate areas with specific skills and said areas are more like your regular Metroid level and you won't see that many people complain that it ain't Metroid.
Again not saying that's the only way forward, just saying that this way wouldn't lose the core of what makes Metroid its own thing.
Metroid Prime 2 is around halfway there already.
But the quoted part is this one:
「3本ビックタイトルをワールドワイドに展開」
It doesn't say "only for" there, correct? The part where it says 'only for' is not in quotes and is apparently the journalist writing his own words.
Ever play Prince of Persia Warrior Within?
Metroid games are essentially open world once you have unlocked everything. It wont be that hard to tweak the system.
I think there's a difference today in what open world means. Or rather is billed as.
You're right of course that having an interconnected map in which you can go to any location you want is, semantically speaking, an open world. But the modern open world "genre" basically always includes a large area map that is not constricted by certain entrances or exits from place to place, or at least not majorly constricted in that way. You can't really have a metroidvania game with that level of openness.
The point is that while Samus is the powerful hero she's still for the most part a regular human. She has to fight to survive and usually just barely makes it out alive, yet keeps plunging back in because she's the only one who can or the only one willing. The other hunters clearly aren't humans and they have these magical powers that give them an edge in a lot of situations.
And making Samus more powerful than regular characters isn't the same as saying that she's "the one," the super important person holding the whole universe together. The chozo were the most advanced species around and Samus benefits from being the last living user of their technology. Samus Returns even hinted that a corrupted version of them might still be around, and that could easily pose a huge threat to her in future games. The fact that she's more capable than other humans doesn't have to make her an invincible savior more powerful than anyone else in the universe.
I'm fine with the idea of other characters being able to rival her, but again, not with such a Western superhero overtone to it.
I don't really care if what happened in Other M was the focus of the game or not, my point is that if you're going to bring other human characters into the story then it has the potential to really change the tone of the game, since Metroid is usually about isolation and Samus on her own against tall odds. Corruption handled it in a way that turned the game into a cartoon, and for all the mistakes Other M made, it at least had the anxious/sinister tone to it.
Nah, they're perfect for giving a sense of place to the game they're in.
As for the style, Metroid generally goes with a way more cartoony look anyway
Metroid II for example
That cartoon style never really manifested itself in any of the actual games, though. The concept art started in a goofier place, but I think it's pretty clear that the games themselves quickly went darker and more realistic, and I consider the look of these enemies in-game to have defined Metroid's style much more than the concept art.
Super Metroid is the first game in the series technically mature enough to really have a defined art style to judge, and it's much more like an Alien movie than the early concept art. There's nothing cute about any of it, expect maybe the etecoons:
_(En,Fr,De)-14.jpg)
We've gotten way sidetracked, so to try to get back on point, I think everyone should be able to agree that Retro was much better at handling environments and traditional Metroid gameplay than human characters and dialog. Which is why I want Prime 4 to stay away from those things, even if another developer is doing the job. There's almost a direct correlation between the amount of interaction with NPCs and the quality of the games, and Corruption's hunters and troopers were one of the weakest parts of an otherwise really fantastic Metroid game.
Ohhhhh, now I get what you're talking about, haha.
Before he writes out his bullet points in the tweet he writes "Bandai Namco President Oshita:", which I took to mean that everything following were quoted/paraphrased statements from the President. If only that portion in the quotes is actually from the president, then I'm not sure what's going on. Maybe I could dig around in their investor relations slides/documents later and see if there's more clarification.
Yeah, that's what's throwing me off. If everything is from Namco's president, then why is there a separate sentence in quotes. It makes it seems as if that's what the president literally said, while the other is what the journalist thinks or assumes.
Yes it would, considering the entire point of the game is unlocking everything. If you already can access every part of the world, what point is there to the collect upgrade->use upgrade to open path system?
And the hunters still died in the end.
The regular grunt humans were dying left and right in the opening and ending sequence of the game.
In the end the other Hunters are only there as boss fights.
And thank god for that.
Although I would be more than thankful if they droped the whole Samus goes rogue and bad chozos try to take over the universe because that's beyond cliché and we all see that coming.
The other NPCs didn't seem in any kind of danger outside of the "deleter", they survived quite well and there is literally no tension till around we get that horrible midsized Ridley boss fight.
No one was in any kind of danger and the game's story made it quite clear that the stake were low when you have a small squad dealing with that and the only danger they face is a traitor in their rank.
Corruption didn't turn into a cartoon, it established new characters and sent them off.
If the 2 lines and 3 cutscenes they feature in to give them personality is a cartoon, Zero Mission is that Sonic slapstick cartoon.
I don't really agree,
Metroid I has some really weird 80's designs.
Metroid II on the other hand have some really good designs ingame and outside
They're actually very close to what you see ingame and rather representative of the game.
Not reallySuper Metroid is the first game in the series technically mature enough to really have a defined art style to judge, and it's much more like an Alien movie than the early concept art. There's nothing cute about any of it, expect maybe the etecoons:
Super Metroid is basically using a more refined style but it's rather similar
It's just that pixel art of around the SNES generally age fairly well and are really good at sparking the imagination.
I choose the small criters because they usually have way less work dedicated to them and shows that regardless a ton of work went into them.
I don't think there's any big creature design that is outright bad in Metroid II/Metroid III/Metroid IV/Prime 1/Prime 2/Prime 3.
I tend to prefer the ones in the Prime games as the artists really shined
Heck in the gallery you can even see some cut contents like the original last boss of Prime 2
https://www./proxy.php?image=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FlFcgj.jpg&hash=2f2c5ab196b9c52e03dfd499218940a7
Hey don't get me wrong, Humans weren't Retro's forte and I'm not gonna defend that part of the Prime game.
I guess that's why we saw so little humans in the 1st 2 Prime games (and they were better for it).
I don't NPCs as long as they're bosses, otherwises Prime 2 had the right balance :
1 guy and cadavers everywhere.
Prime doesn't need a BoTW/Odyssey style reinvention. It's been over 10 years since Prime 3 that style is far from being tired out yet. The only thing you all are allowed to hope for is it leans more towards Prime 1's openess than Prime 3's linearity while also not having the shit light/dark world structure that Prime 2 had. So basically just make Prime 1 again.
Funny, I never felt that way about the MP3. To me they felt like an expansion of the Metroid Universe, being the introduction to other sentient species that are part of the federation. It would be one thing if they were just NPCs, but the fact that you face them yourself later in the game it is a payoff for the initial "superhero" introduction.
I am not going to lie, I love the concept of other Bounty Hunters in Metroid Prime games. First because I feel like that they are a very interesting concept for Boss Battles without impacting the sense of isolation. Rundas is by far one of the best boss battles in the entire franchise, and it would be hard to justify such boss as a native species of the planet or a one of a kind Space Pirate.
I don't want to keep arguing this forever but I do have to point out that Lyle got his face eaten off right at the start of the game:
And Samus just happened to show up in time to stop Anthony from getting tossed into lava by this guy:
...moments before he got tossed into lava again by Ridley. They weren't exactly safe and sound.
Dark souls is an example of a open world metroidvania i would say
So you can go anywhere you want to from the very beginning in Dark Souls?
Nope. Like half of the game is gated behind story progress.
EDIT: Actually, like 95% of the game is gated behind story progress when you start in the Undead Asylum. Around half when you get to the Firelink Shrine.
I totally forgot about that guy.I don't want to keep arguing this forever but I do have to point out that Lyle got his face eaten off right at the start of the game:
And Samus just happened to show up in time to stop Anthony from getting tossed into lava by this guy:
...moments before he got tossed into lava again by Ridley. They weren't exactly safe and sound.
But still up till that point they were totally safe and really Ridley is the only threat to the squad.
He's the one that ate that guy's face and tossed the other guy.
Ridley is the threat, the rest of the time they might as well be Mayweather fighting McGregor in a boxing ring.
Darksouls is not really openworld in the traditional sense but this is the kind of template that works perfectly for Metroid type games.
Why's that? Because of its PS roots?
For me, a massive fan since the first one, Ridge Racer peaked with the two PSP games. So I think more fondly of it as a handheld game than a console game. But hey, this is the Switch, so it's now both.
I would have though that development costs for a new RR game would be far lower than bringing any other franchise to Switch. There is no way that RR8 would be all new assets, cars and tracks. I'm expecting it to be mostly tracks and cars from existing games with a smattering of new ones, and more available as DLC. It wouldn't be a modern Bamco game without money grubbing and a shit load of DLC.
Metroid was always open world.
Except corruption, FF and Hunters.
Open world doesn't mean sandbox design. It means you dont have any levels and as such have a persistent unified map.
Sandboxes are a KIND, of open world design, not the ONLY kind of open world design. Its not a binary concept.
Absolutely. I've only ever played RR on PlayStation systems ever since the PS1 days, so it just feels like a game i'd play on a Sony console. Not that I mind if it's on switch. I very much plan on getting one anyway. And it'll only take a few minutes to get used to.
But like I said, i don't really care what it's on. I'll just be happy that one of my favorite franchises is back.
So as an update on the conversation earlier today for ReyVGM , I went through Bandai Namco's Investor Relations documents from November.
The only mention of the Switch in their presentation slides and summary is that they state that they have original titles in development for the system, so not much there. In the Investor Q&A they're asked about their development plans for the Switch, and their response is that while they're currently releasing ports of existing titles, they're improving their development infrastructure, and next (fiscal) year plan to release several original new titles for it (I'm not sure if the Q&A document is complete or just highlights, btw). There's also a videoof the presentation (~15:50), which is pretty much a repeat of the aforementioned statements.
I only did a quick scan through these documents and the video, but there wasn't any explicit confirmation of them being exclusives that I could find. Of course I can only go by this stuff, Mochizuki was reporting on this and may have heard/been told more than what's just in these public releases.
The only mention of the Switch in their presentation slides and summary is that they state that they have original titles in development for the system, so not much there. In the Investor Q&A they're asked about their development plans for the Switch, and their response is that while they're currently releasing ports of existing titles, they're improving their development infrastructure, and next (fiscal) year plan to release several original new titles for it (I'm not sure if the Q&A document is complete or just highlights, btw). There's also a videoof the presentation (~15:50), which is pretty much a repeat of the aforementioned statements.
I only did a quick scan through these documents and the video, but there wasn't any explicit confirmation of them being exclusives that I could find. Of course I can only go by this stuff, Mochizuki was reporting on this and may have heard/been told more than what's just in these public releases.
At this point, I think that it is quite likely that MP4 is developped with the UE4. (BN, FPS...)
Could be. There were over 20 Japanese UE4 games being made for the Switch as of last summer, and I'm pretty sure we still don't even know half of them.
Thanks! Well, 'original games' doesn't mean exclusive as the journalist said.
Also, from what you translated, nowhere did it say "THREE" original titles, instead they said several. So what the journalist quoted was wrong then. I really doubt "several" means 2 in this case, it could be 3 but it also could be more.
To those who doubted......no more!
Jokes aside, if Eurogamer is willing to put their name on the line for this.......well let's just say where there's smoke, there's fire.
Jokes aside, if Eurogamer is willing to put their name on the line for this.......well let's just say where there's smoke, there's fire.
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This misuse of the terms "metroidvania" and "open world" makes my head hurt.
Doesn't matter what their record is for this piece of news as this is just corroboration of other pieces of evidence (like the linkdin stuff). No one corraborated the Pokemon Stars bit, and look how that turned out
You've never heard of the six point sliding scale of linearity vs openness?
You can start getting open world designs at level 3, modern western rpg's and sandbox designs are level 6.
Good 'metroidvanias' are high level 4's.
Although I think we agree on the misuse of terms like 'open world' makes our heads hurt, but I think for different reasons.
If there are no levels, and you've got one solid connected map, as in you can traverse the entire thing from opening area to boss's lair by in game traversal mechanics, ie not picking areas from a menu, you've got an open world game mate.
Super metroid is open world. Castlevania Order of Eclessia, is not.
Metroid prime is open world, Metroid Prime Corruption, is not.
Past that, what you're arguing is what KIND of open world game it is. You can say metroidvanias are not open world sandboxes, and its true, they are not, but they are a kind of open world game, just not that kind, people really need to stop treating a single open world design that's gotten popular recently as the ONLY kind of open world design.
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It's not very clear
One staff member in particular, a lead designer, described themselves as working on an "unannounced IP (first person shooter/adventure exclusive to the Nintendo Switch)"
Unannounced IP, means something we didn't ear about, while Metroid 4 has already been announced.
One staff member in particular, a lead designer, described themselves as working on an "unannounced IP (first person shooter/adventure exclusive to the Nintendo Switch)"
Unannounced IP, means something we didn't ear about, while Metroid 4 has already been announced.
according to some people, the posting was made before MP4's announcement. and LinkedIn accounts have a habit of not being updated regularly (not much point unless you're looking for a new job), so I wouldnt read into it
There is no dates on Eurogamer article
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-02-08-yes-namco-bandai-is-working-on-metroid-prime-4
Perhaps it's really Bandai Namco.
Metroid is an important Nintendo IP, let's hope Nintendo won't let them make a mediocre game, like Metroid Federation Forces.
Surely if true, Retro aren't what they were anymore. End of an era. I guess the Donkey Kong franchise is their baby now.
regardless, I wouldnt read too much into it. I've seen people still refer to the XBO/PS4 and "next-gen consoles"
They let them make Smash, which is by a considerable amount more important. Much more important.