Nintendo Metroid Dread - A Game 15 Years in the Making [10/08/21], update: Patch Ver. 1.0.1 released

[Xbob42]

The EMMI sections giving them trouble strikes me as the game being played very poorly. They're really not very hard at all. Whether you're just passing through on your way to something else or are actively fighting the thing, they're quite easy, and failure is super forgiving. 

[Ghost_MH]

3 minutes ago, Xbob42 said:

The EMMI sections giving them trouble strikes me as the game being played very poorly. They're really not very hard at all. Whether you're just passing through on your way to something else or are actively fighting the thing, they're quite easy, and failure is super forgiving. 

 

Yeah, complaining about the EMMI is weird. Your first time through a room might very well kill you, but the punishment for death is back outside the room with all your health and ammo intact.

[Anelk]

I'm about halfway through this.

 

It's passable. I'm annoyed by the 2.5D art style and the melee counter combat. All the areas look the same and they're too repetitive.

 

My main impression is that I could make a better Metroid game than this using the same assets.

[Biggie]

30 minutes ago, Anelk said:

 

My main impression is that I could make a better Metroid game than this using the same assets.

Then do it

[Paperclyp]

1 hour ago, Anelk said:

I'm about halfway through this.

 

It's passable. I'm annoyed by the 2.5D art style and the melee counter combat. All the areas look the same and they're too repetitive.

 

My main impression is that I could make a better Metroid game than this using the same assets.

That’s certainly a take! Coming in hot. 

[Ghost_MH]

And there's a the game. Finished with 80% in 10 hours. That was a great game and a pretty fun ending. The final boss was really kicking my ass for a while there, but once I got used to his timing it was pretty a breeze.

 

I'm looking forward to where this is going next and, judging from the game's reception, maybe we don't have to wait another fifteen years.

[best3444]

8 hours ago, Ghost_MH said:

And there's a the game. Finished with 80% in 10 hours. That was a great game and a pretty fun ending. The final boss was really kicking my ass for a while there, but once I got used to his timing it was pretty a breeze.

 

I'm looking forward to where this is going next and, judging from the game's reception, maybe we don't have to wait another fifteen years.

 

Nice job. I'm actually happy it's not a very long game so I will be playing this shortly. 

[Kal-El814]

Apparently there’s a bug that will crash your game at the very very end if you use map markers, specifically a map marker on a particular door. Doesn’t fuck your save file or anything, but the crash is consistent. They’ll patch it out by the end of the month. But if you’re near the very end, clear your map markers in the last area if you have any and you’ll be fine.

[Anelk]

20 hours ago, Biggie said:

Then do it

Doing exactly that. Working in grey block out as I have no art skills.

[eventide11]

Well I beat it. Roughly 14 hrs and about 80% completion. Had about 205 missiles and I'll be honest I needed all of em. I used to multi lock on attacks for the last boss and had 8 energy tanks. The last boss was a little intimidating at first but after a few tries and learning attacks and patterns etc it wasn't bad at all. (parry, parry parry) On my last attempt I still had most of my health afterwards and relied on missle refills in certain attacks. If anyone needs or wants my strat on him let know and I'll spoiler tag it. 

[Ghost_MH]

2 hours ago, eventide11 said:

Well I beat it. Roughly 14 hrs and about 80% completion. Had about 205 missiles and I'll be honest I needed all of em. I used to multi lock on attacks for the last boss and had 8 energy tanks. The last boss was a little intimidating at first but after a few tries and learning attacks and patterns etc it wasn't bad at all. (parry, parry parry) On my last attempt I still had most of my health afterwards and relied on missle refills in certain attacks. If anyone needs or wants my strat on him let know and I'll spoiler tag it. 

 

The best tip for every boss should be to not care if you die. Just figure out the timing you need to parry every attack that is...parry...able? Once you've done that a the rest of your time should be spent focusing on dodging. Done. That normally took me from getting my ass handed to me on a boss to finishing them at pretty much full health.

[Ghost_MH]

One thing I don't think anyone has brought up yet is where this series goes next, so end game spoilers here...

 

Spoiler

Cool. Samus is now a full on new evolution of metroid. That said, the number one subject this game doesn't really seem to explore is her relationship with the Galactic Federation. I don't recall if it was explicitly said if the Federation sent Samus to ZDR or if something else was calling out to her. She wasn't exactly on the friendliest terms after Fusion. That said, we also know that Raven Beak could totally have faked the call from the Federation since he was specifically trying to lure Samus out to him.

 

I'd love a bit more clarity on how the two feel about each other. The Federation keeps fucking around with things beyond their control and they now have the ability to build robots that are stronger than Samus...well, pre-metroidification of Samus. Only the power of those Mother Brain clone things were able to beat the EMMI. What are they even up to?

 

I can't believe I'm saying this, but it's love a Metroid game that dove a little more into the politics of the universe. Maybe not even a proper Metroid. It's settle for a spinoff. We've had Metroid pinball games. Give me a Metroid CRPG starring some person that's trying to uncover corruption within the Federation. For a 35 year old storyline, the games don't indulge themselves enough in the world building.

 

[5timechamp]

Well finally finished 10hr completion, 139 missiles 8 E-tanks…. the music just never created that classic trinity of harmony of nintendos best games where music, gameplay and graphics are all top notch… that being said it is quite a formidable game…

it has great combat..

 

lore complaining below

Spoiler

Its disheartening to see the Metroids become forgotten here at this conclusion… in the end it seems the X parasites were the true “Ultimate Warriors”… I wish they would have thrown a Ridley battle in there too, I know its redundant at this point but i wanted to take all these moves for a fight with that jerk

 

I too hoped they would expand upon the “federation is creating Metroids” thread from Fusion..

 

the end was very abrupt, more questions than answers..

 

guess im going in for Samus Returns next..

not sure where to rate this…. 

[Xbob42]

I'm still not done and have like nearly 200 missiles and 9 e-tanks, you guys just rushing to the end!

[Ghost_MH]

7 hours ago, Xbob42 said:

I'm still not done and have like nearly 200 missiles and 9 e-tanks, you guys just rushing to the end!

 

Don't watch this.

 

 

[Bjomesphat]

In-game time for me at 100% was 11 hours. I think actual time is probably 13.

 

I definitely took my time though and immediately started hard. Which has actually been.... hard. That first boss you fight, you really need to be on your game. Very little room for mistakes.

[Xbob42]

6 hours ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

Don't watch this.

 

 

I should hope you're not trying to speedrun your initial playthrough. 

[Xbob42]

Finished this up morning. Fun little end, wish more of the bosses in the game had proper phases and strategies like the final one.

 

Spoiler

Very disappointed you can't unlock the hyper beam as a post-game sort of thing or a cheat. Those are my favorite kinds of weapons in games, hands-down. Oh well.

 

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Nintendo's First Patch For Metroid Dread Is Now Available, Here's What's Included

WWW.NINTENDOLIFE.COM

---

The crash error has been resolved - Last week, Nintendo issued a notice on its support website stating how it had been mad...

 

General Fixes

• Fixed an issue where, if a map marker is placed on a specific door on the map screen (the door destroyed with the beam obtained at the end of the game), destroying that door at the end of the game would cause the game to forcefully quit with the message "The software was closed because an error occurred”.
• Fixed several other issues to improve overall gameplay experience.

 

[Xbob42]

Just in time for me to be done with it. A shame hard mode is just enemies doing double damage rather than some fun randomizer or at least remixed upgrade locations or something.

 

Anyway, was half-asleep when I wrote my last post. I really feel like they try to cram 25 hours' worth of upgrades into a 10 hour experience and it makes the pacing extremely weird, you never get to settle in with new items unless you explicitly go out of your way to explore all the other maps as soon as you get a single upgrade. But exploring isn't very rewarding since the rewards are just more resources that you don't need since you're so ridiculously strong the entire game.

Some upgrades are presented that don't even seem to really serve a real purpose.

 

Spoiler

What the fuck is with the wave beam? I can shoot through walls... but there's almost nothing to shoot. Not very useful for killing enemies, since you just one-shot almost everything with Screw Attack at that point in the game. The Power Bomb makes its return right at the end of the game, and if you take it all around the world you can use it to... unlock extra power bomb capacity. For what? It's really strong (except in boss battles... so, it's actually almost useless.) at killing trash mobs, but again, you can one-shot everything.

 

From the beginning to the end, the only tools that're consistently useful against bosses are missiles for offense and phase shift for defense. The storm missile upgrade really makes missiles deal insane amounts of damage to bosses, and I wiped the floor with the final boss once learning his fun-but-simple patterns.

 

I think it's a great game, but it needed like twice the areas with some more focus on organic level design to really spread out the upgrades, and make more of them optional so that they can be super cool rewards for REALLY exploring! And I say organic level design because almost every inch of the game feels super artificially created to fit into a Metroid mold. This isn't as damning as it might be in a lot of other games, but it's still not a good thing. I get that Metroid games are always kind of like that, but perhaps don't make it be a sacred cow? I think the Prime games did a great job hiding this kind of thing.

[5timechamp]

On 10/20/2021 at 12:06 AM, Xbob42 said:

I'm still not done and have like nearly 200 missiles and 9 e-tanks, you guys just rushing to the end!

I dont feel as if I rushed, but the game does lead you forward more so than past games… in older games you had a new item and had to traverse across the world to use it… this game is much more streamlined so you just follow the flow…

The one time I did decide to go clean up areas in the map with a new powerup I was met with a collapsed section of map that blocked my passage (happens a lot in this game)..

[5timechamp]

So narratively the Metroids are no more (until they decide to make a game where theyre not)..

 

Spoiler

but Samus is basically a Metroid according to Dread… so we cant get upset if they call Samus Metroid?..

 

Actually if the X parasite “fixed” Samus (how the hell)… is she a Metroid/X hybrid

 

[Ghost_MH]

8 hours ago, 5timechamp said:

So narratively the Metroids are no more (until they decide to make a game where theyre not)..

 

  Hide contents

but Samus is basically a Metroid according to Dread… so we cant get upset if they call Samus Metroid?..

 

Actually if the X parasite “fixed” Samus (how the hell)… is she a Metroid/X hybrid

 

 

Spoiler

The end of Dread was a Snickers commercial. Samus wasn't Samus when she's hungry.

 

The Galactic Federation can bring back Metroid whenever they want. They had Metroid DNA to break Samus, so they can clone more whenever they want.

 

[Brick]

Finished it last night. I've waited 19 years for the sequel to Fusion, and it was worth the wait. Can't wait to see Metroid 6.

[Xbob42]

13 hours ago, 5timechamp said:

So narratively the Metroids are no more (until they decide to make a game where theyre not)..

 

  Hide contents

but Samus is basically a Metroid according to Dread… so we cant get upset if they call Samus Metroid?..

 

Actually if the X parasite “fixed” Samus (how the hell)… is she a Metroid/X hybrid

 

Spoiler

I ain't no Metroid lore expert, but I figured since she absorbs the X parasites and that heals her/fills her weapons, technically her Metroid DNA "awakening" or whatever would not be her natural state, and so the parasite that was based on Stinky Robes or whatever his name was gave her more control over the DNA, since isn't his murder the one that could control Metroids?

 

[Brick]

Spoiler

I had to read up on theories on what happened in the ending, because it confused me too. The theory being that since Quiet Robe was a Thoha and that tribe had the ability to control the Metroids (I guess until they started to change and metamorphosize), the X Parasite copying the corpse of Quiet Robe then gained that ability, and therefore Samus absorbing that X the gained the ability too. What I really don't get though is why the X let itself be absorbed by Samus. Sure we know X gain the memories of their hosts, so it would know all of Quiet Robe's memories and his care for Samus, but Samus herself says in Fusion that even though they gain the memories of their hosts, the X are still heartless creatures driven only by instinct to multiply and infect. Unless she was wrong, and the Quiet Robe X did in fact learn to care for Samus, and that's why it saved her instead of attacking her. 

 

[Ghost_MH]

7 hours ago, Brick said:

  Hide contents

I had to read up on theories on what happened in the ending, because it confused me too. The theory being that since Quiet Robe was a Thoha and that tribe had the ability to control the Metroids (I guess until they started to change and metamorphosize), the X Parasite copying the corpse of Quiet Robe then gained that ability, and therefore Samus absorbing that X the gained the ability too. What I really don't get though is why the X let itself be absorbed by Samus. Sure we know X gain the memories of their hosts, so it would know all of Quiet Robe's memories and his care for Samus, but Samus herself says in Fusion that even though they gain the memories of their hosts, the X are still heartless creatures driven only by instinct to multiply and infect. Unless she was wrong, and the Quiet Robe X did in fact learn to care for Samus, and that's why it saved her instead of attacking her. 

 

 

Spoiler

I'm pretty sure Samus is mostly wrong and underestimating the X. By the end, it seems pretty clear that the X are working with Raven Beak. I don't think it's actually working with him, though. I rather guess that it's just taken on the desires of his soldiers that had been devoured. Maybe the instinct that the X take on is that of those they absorb. Without very strong convictions, those just wind up being base desires to feed and multiply.

 

[Brick]

5 hours ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

  Hide contents

I'm pretty sure Samus is mostly wrong and underestimating the X. By the end, it seems pretty clear that the X are working with Raven Beak. I don't think it's actually working with him, though. I rather guess that it's just taken on the desires of his soldiers that had been devoured. Maybe the instinct that the X take on is that of those they absorb. Without very strong convictions, those just wind up being base desires to feed and multiply.

 

 

Spoiler

I thought about that, but then it wouldn't explain why the SA-X wasn't like, "oh hey let's go protect the galaxy together, sorry for almost killing you earlier, my bad, but we're good now right?" 

 

[Ghost_MH]

9 minutes ago, Brick said:

 

  Hide contents

I thought about that, but then it wouldn't explain why the SA-X wasn't like, "oh hey let's go protect the galaxy together, sorry for almost killing you earlier, my bad, but we're good now right?" 

 

 

I'm now going with SA-X being all Samus is a threat to the galaxy right now, must destroy.

 

Spoiler

If that were the case then SA-X was totally right because she is totally a threat to the entire galaxy right now. Like WE trust her, but nobody else in the universe right now should.

 

[Brick]

2 hours ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

I'm now going with SA-X being all Samus is a threat to the galaxy right now, must destroy.

 

  Hide contents

If that were the case then SA-X was totally right because she is totally a threat to the entire galaxy right now. Like WE trust her, but nobody else in the universe right now should.

 

 

Spoiler

Which is why I'm really interested in seeing where Metroid 6 will go. Samus is technically the last Metroid (which makes it funny that now the old meme of people thinking Samus is Metroid based on the title aren't all that incorrect haha) so maybe the Federation will label her as a threat, and she'll be on the run from them. That's where I thought this game would go for years given that she defied orders from them in Fusion, and even with Other M we see they keep trying to breed Metroids, and seems to be full of corruption. Sakamoto did say that Dread would be the end of this particular saga in the story of Samus and the Metroids, so I'm assuming he has plans on where to go next. 

 

[Nokt]

On 10/23/2021 at 5:04 AM, 5timechamp said:

So narratively the Metroids are no more (until they decide to make a game where theyre not)..

Metroids have technically been no more since Metroid 2 with the exception of the baby metroid, but still appear in every game after except for Dread. The federation seemingly just can't let them not exist.

[Ghost_MH]

58 minutes ago, Nokt said:

Metroids have technically been no more since Metroid 2 with the exception of the baby metroid, but still appear in every game after except for Dread. The federation seemingly just can't let them not exist.

 

The Federation are the only ones that have managed to successfully clone a Metroid. In Super Metroid, the Space Pirates failed to successfully clone them. The Federation totally has the ability to bring more of them back. We also know they have more metroid DNA sitting around.

[Brick]

2 hours ago, Ghost_MH said:

 

The Federation are the only ones that have managed to successfully clone a Metroid. In Super Metroid, the Space Pirates failed to successfully clone them. The Federation totally has the ability to bring more of them back. We also know they have more metroid DNA sitting around.

 

They didn't fail. Tourian had Metroids. 

[Ghost_MH]

14 minutes ago, Brick said:

 

They didn't fail. Tourian had Metroids. 

 

It's been so long since I've played it. I remember the mochtroids, but I completely forgot about there being real metroids on the planet as well.

[Anathema-]

I was honestly just nodding along with xbob but after playing a bit on hard I have some to add. 

 

Increasing the damage for the enemies has made the game feel very different. The enemies all feel distinct and challenging in a way that they weren't in normal mode. In normal it's far too easy to barrel your way through the zones and you're never really in any danger. On hard I've been surprised many times and been forced to slow down and really adapt to the attack patterns. It's more than it just seems on paper, I play the whole game differently. 

 

Also I've been playing around with sequence breaking and it really feels like it's giving the game that variability to playing that shuffling the power ups would have. I got the grapple beam and bombs early then later got the cross bombs, varia suit, gravity suit, and screw attack early. Right now I have only spin boost and screw attack, not space jump; being limited to double jumps totally changes the screw attack dynamic and the game plays very different as a result. 

 

Boss spoilers:

Spoiler

The Kraid battle is actually designed with the early bomb sequence break in mind. The second phase can be essentially skipped with a bomb in the lower left. 

 

I also had to fight Experiment Z-57 without storm missiles or space jump. You have to take out all four arms to beat him and without storm you can't auto aim them down, and there's only a limited time to attack them per sequence. 

 

I've actually had to do a few bosses now without storm missile where I had it on normal. 

 

It seems like all this extra challenge is well thought out, especially since you have to pull off some pretty tricky maneuvers to sequence break and these maneuvers are designed as part of the game.  The bosses are also dynamically more challenging in ways that feel intentional.  I highly recommend trying it.