@Zero
I dunno man! It's like a beloved game makes a stupid decision and developers assume the decision is good because the rest of the game is. RE2make was good despite its stupid run button, not because of it!

Plus, there are fairly few straight hallways in this game compared to bumpy terrain, so I don't see any real downside to having it activate automatically a la MF/ZM.

nate38 said:

Also, having to hold down a button to charge a shot is the shameful enduring legacy of Mega Man 4. Unless there's some advantage to NOT charging your shot (there never is), it should just be automatic, in all games, always.

It's about the feel, man!

The shot thing I can see. Like, in theory if someone is capable of a charged shot, it might take them some effort to charge it, right? Maybe?! It at least emotionally makes sense to me.

Secret_Tunnel said:

nate38 said:

Also, having to hold down a button to charge a shot is the shameful enduring legacy of Mega Man 4. Unless there's some advantage to NOT charging your shot (there never is), it should just be automatic, in all games, always.

It's about the feel, man!

Yeah, it feels bad!

Despite the cramped wrists I have right now, I have officially beaten this thing! I can come in this thread now, lol. I loved the game. Wow. I figure I'll give it a 9.8 only because I wish it had slightly more music/memorable tunes, but it was a fucking hoot from start to finish. The exploration was dense! The puzzles were fun! The combat was fierce. The bosses are the best in the series for me. I know Kraid got spoiled in that fucking trailer by Nintendo but it was still an exciting riot.

So pleased with this game. I cannot believe we didn't even know about it a half a year back. What a way to end this storyline.

Almost finished my second playthrough! Did a bunch of things out of order this time and it really let me notice the more open parts of the map. Its still more linear than I would like but thats a super minor issue.

My big problems with the game is how disconnected the areas feel, and how similar they feel to each other. The majority of the rooms are well designed, but they don't come together to make as cohesive or interesting of a world. In that sense, its a lot like Fusion. Also those Emmi rooms suck ass. they are fine when you are running from Emmis, but once you deal with them they are just...all the same??

Have people seen any of the speedruns for the game though? Its so much fun to watch, with some crazy shinespark strats.

Pokefreak911 said:

My big problems with the game is how disconnected the areas feel, and how similar they feel to each other. The majority of the rooms are well designed, but they don't come together to make as cohesive or interesting of a world. In that sense, its a lot like Fusion. Also those Emmi rooms suck ass. they are fine when you are running from Emmis, but once you deal with them they are just...all the same??

I agree with this sentiment. It's definitely a lot like Fusion where the areas are segmented, they're designed to be run through linearly, and then there are secrets off to the side that you come back to later to pick off. And the way that each area really feels far apart doesn't really allow for ZDR to have its own identity as a planet. It's what really separates a game like Super where, sure, areas are connected via elevators and that's more or less your doorway in and out. But the areas still have that real sense of belonging to the greater whole; you can see Maridia right there all around you as you pass from Brinstar to Norfair.

That said, it's still a lot better than Samus Returns in that regard. The areas in that game really blur together in my mind, and most of them don't stand out either in terms of art, level design or the events that took place in each region. At least in Dread I can look back on each area and go, "Yeah, that's the one that was mostly water" or "that's the one where I redirected the lava". Each area in Dread is mostly memorable in at least one significant way whereas I don't think that was ever the case in Samus Returns. But your point about the EMMI rooms is well put. Once you've cleared them, they're all very interchangeable as far as which one belongs to which area.

@TheBigG753

It would have been nice if like, enemies and over growth took over a bit once E.M.M.Is were out of the way. Perhaps like some fast-growing foliage or something. I dunno. Or maybe they just shouldn't have been the way they were from the start. Like random factories strung about.

@TheBigG753@DrFinkelstein
I really like the idea that nature could have tried to take over the areas. The world lacks that dynamic feeling that most of the best Metroids have. My favourite moment of the game is when the X parasites take over all the creatures of the planet. Even Fusion had areas that changed slightly or new obstacles. Early game of Dread made me think we were going to get environments that changed depending on our actions, but most of the time the changes are temporary.

I really liked this game. There's a lot of thoughts on it swimming around in my head that I'll have to write down at some point. I'm still confused on that ending though.

I beat the game on Sunday morning. It felt like such an amazing accomplishment, especially after getting decimated by Raven Beak dozens of times.

I agree with a lot of the assessments here. The music is almost non-existent and barely memorable. I couldn't hum a tune in my head despite playing the game for ten hours.

Awesome game but obviously not perfect.

I actually really enjoy the atmospheric music for the most part but it's also not really blowing my mind at the same time.

The credits music was fucking shit though I think. Crazy disappointed they didn't stick the landing on that. The tone not only felt off but then the instrumentation was really cheap midi. Such a shame.

Burenia, Elum, and other areas have excellent music though. The EMMI theme and EMMI areas once cleared also have awesome music, no complaints there.

Ending was a bit abrupt, would have preferred a bit more of some kind of reflection somehow. With Samus not really being a talker in this game I guess it woulda been hard to avoid.

The finale was incredible though. Awesome last boss.

Kinda wish they had stuck with the story bit instead of negating it and reverting what they'd done.

Who knows, maybe it'll remain an important beat for the future.


Anyways I am beyond happy this game exists. It makes me feel great knowing I can play this game anytime, that it feels so damn good, and that generally they did a bang up job here. I look forward to the next 2D game and Prime 4 more than ever.

OH AND NINTENDO GIVE US SOME DREAD DLC, and EMMI/Raven Beak for Smash!!!

carlosrox said:

Kinda wish they had stuck with the story bit instead of negating it and reverting what they'd done.

Yeah, I had a problem with this too, especially after all the rumblings of this being the end of this particular story thread. *ENDING SPOILERS* Why exactly does this have to be the end of the Metroid story? All that really happened in Dread was basically the same thing that happened in Prime 1 and 2--an isolated planet contains a threat to the galaxy, Samus shows up and destroys it and/or the planet itself, nothing really changes in the grand scheme of things. Having Samus stay more Metroid-like with Metroidy powers would've been a cool thing to carry over to the next game but I guess they didn't want to alter one of Nintendo's most iconic characters that much.

In other words, I don't know why Dread's ending has to be final any more than, say, Fusion's ending was. Feels like the last major thing that happened in the Metroid story was Samus being injected with Metroid DNA at the start of Fusion. Everything after that was just eradicating the baddie of the week.

TriforceBun said:

In other words, I don't know why Dread's ending has to be final any more than, say, Fusion's ending was. Feels like the last major thing that happened in the Metroid story was Samus being injected with Metroid DNA at the start of Fusion. Everything after that was just eradicating the baddie of the week.

I feel exactly the same. This game didn't feel like the end of an arc at all, it actually felt more like the beginning of a new series of Metroid games with more self-contained stories that will come out at a quicker pace. They didn't even call this Metroid 5 in-game!

Metroid Dread is up for the Game Awards GOTY! I don't see it winning, but interesting nonetheless.

@TriforceBun
@Secret_Tunnel

I wouldn't go so far as to say it wasn't AN end to AN arc, there was some resolution. Samus is now officially the last Metroid, and can apparently turn into Metroid Samus. She also took in the last of the X. For me it wasn't really clear if Raven Beak cleared Samus of her Metroid status entirely or if he just fixed her Metroid Samus form.

The strange thing to me is I don't see how this closes the book entirely on the arc when really it's just continuing it. It would be weird if the next game somehow didn't involve such a major plot point as Metroid Samus is kind of a big deal.

@TriforceBun Is the takeaway supposed to be that Samus no longer has Metroid DNA in her at all? That’s the only way I could see this storyline having an ending. Otherwise the next game would obviously just be that more foes want to clone Samus or get the Metroid DNA or something. If this is the end of the “Metroid” story, then I suppose it makes sense. Each game is about someone trying to take advantage of the Metroids, or destroy them outright (Metroid 2). If Samus doesn’t have Metroid DNA anymore, then this story can’t happen again.

Then again, if there’s no Metroids anymore, maybe they should just start calling the games Samus, lol.

I didn't really have any problems with the controls, but for those that did and thought it was old school control setup for the sake of being old school and keeping tradition, and would have liked remappable controls, I mentioned this on Discord, but remember that you can go into the Switch options and remap controls there. They will be universally changed for every game, so you'll have to change them back when you're done playing Dread, but still it's something.

As for the ending, my takeaway after reading theories online is that after Samus absorbs the Quiet Robe X, his Thoha genes allows Samus to better control her Metroid DNA since the Thoha could control the Metroids (until they couldn't...), and that's why she reverted back to the Gravity Suit from the Metroid Suit. So she still has Metroid DNA, but now is maybe able to control it better. Perhaps that is where the next game will go, having Samus learn to use new Metroid abilities.

PogueSquadron said:

Then again, if there’s no Metroids anymore, maybe they should just start calling the games Samus, lol.

Remember Metroid is derived from the Chozo term for "Ultimate Warrior". Samus has always been a 'Metroid'. They can keep going with the title purely for that reason alone.

When this game came out, I actually played Samus Returns for the first time, instead. I was a bit leery, due to MercurySteam's previous track record. I played it on Hard Mode, and GOD DAMN, was it hard. A few hits from a boss or even normal enemies could put Samus out of commission. But the stakes elevated the thrill. And it felt truly rewarding to master the boss encounters. Aside from being a bit counter-heavy, being slightly repetitive due to its source material, and running at 30fps, it was surprisingly good! I liked how it kind of shuffled up the item order. Kind of crippling to play on the ol' 3DS, though, even with a grip.

A few weeks later, I played Dread. And it sure is a sequel to Samus Returns, gameplay-wise. Almost ALL of the above applies. So much so that I feel that people really slept on Samus Returns, due to all of the A2MR talk and it launching after the Switch. I'm not sure that Dread is that much better. Not that that's a bad thing. Both are great. The action definitely feels different with the free aim, but it's still good. And the stakes remain high, throughout, which is not something that you can say about previous 2D Metroids. Exploration and puzzles seem a little de-emphasized, but what's there is still fun.

At least on the first playthrough, Dread felt quite directed. It felt almost like a follow-up to Fusion, where the critical path was clearly laid out.

I wish the connections between different areas were a bit more organic. Even at the end of the game, I didn't feel like I could traipse around as freely as I'd have liked. There was often only one circuitous route from Point A to Point B.

The movement itself, though, felt outstanding, aside from the use of the goddamn stick button to initiate a dash. (Really, Nintendo?) Combat was really fun, too, and the bosses were fantastic.

I'm so happy to see the Metroid saga finally start moving forward again. And the payoff was amazing, definitely worth the journey.

I read that MercurySteam needed to cut out a bunch of areas in order to ship the game, and it kind of shows. Although I appreciate the briskness of the pacing, certain power-ups barely got a chance to shine. I actually liked the length of the game, though. Samus Returns did overstay its welcome a bit.

The animation in Dread was fantastic, but it did bother me to see slowdown in a few spots. And, while the overall art direction and attention to detail is nice (especially in Samus Returns, considering its source material), I would like to see more alien, otherworldly environmental art (read: Where are my fucking BUBBLES?!). Some of the enemies and backgrounds felt a little generic.

So there are improvements to be made, but both games were great, overall. I never thought that I would say this, but I'd be perfectly happy with MercurySteam (under Sakamoto's stewardship) as the shephard of 2D Metroid going forward.

Man, it's so exciting that 2D Metroid (and The Beatles) are in the spotlight again.

No more remakes! Let's keep carrying this ball down the field!