Board 8 > The Metroid Dread Topic (marked spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

LinkMarioSamus posted...

So looks like Dread is considered one of the best Metroid games? Guess Nintendo should have waited a while or something.

Definitely Top 4.

I would put Prime, Super, and Prime 2 above it, but I'd say Dread is still top tier

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Yeah by wait a while I mean instead of pumping out subpar games.

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plasmabeam posted...

Definitely Top 4.

I would put Prime, Super, and Prime 2 above it, but I'd say Dread is still top tier

Agree with this ranking!

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plasmabeam posted...

Why can't Metroid crawl

This is undeniably the best part of the story

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Got my in game clear time down to 2:17, but it took longer than yesterdays run as I stopped to practice a couple things(Mainly trying to quick kill Golzuna which is really a massive time save).

Grown really fond of how early grapple has a small tutorial before the hidden block to indicate that it is doable, and the speed booster run to the missile+ immediately after getting speed booster. Neither of which are particularly hard to do but had really well designed placement.

Not a great fan of all the mashing though. The end of the game gets real painful.

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Got my actual clear time to 2:11 and my in game clear time to 2:10(The way the clock keeps time is weird to say the least).

I really messed up at the end and had a long Golzuna, died a couple times to purple EMMI and then my fingers gave out mashing on gold chozo and I ate another death. Fudged the run to the gravity suit a couple times too, which I don't think I'd messed up since I learned it.

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Game done
Saw a lot of complaints about it being "too hard" but I never felt it
Some bosses were tough but they have a very good learning curve so in a few retries you can almost evade them completely
EMMI segments were very annoying but not "hard" either. But I hated them and they sucked
Map was kind of annoying, being all over the place.
I did like how they made you unable to go back in some "hard to figure out how to proceed" parts, preventing you from wasting plenty of time backtracking the whole game
Bosses were super good

Overall 7/10ish experience I guess

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"Too hard" usually comes from people who expect to never die. Same thing happens with Dark Souls which also isn't that hard.

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Got my actual clear time to 1:58:57 and my in game clock down to 207:15. Was glad to finally get it down to under 2 hours and below the in-game clock. Kind of had a big mistake of bypassing a missile+10 I needed and got to Raven Beak knowing I was short missiles. And for some reason my hands forgot how to water bomb jump despite being something I don't think I'd ever messed up. I blame someone telling me to switch the pro controller to wireless mode for lower latency(Apparently it allows for slightly easier mashing? Not sure it made a difference).

Starting to not run the wrong direction but still have a few dumb moments.

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Got 100% on my normal save file and finished Hard on 04:43 first time (without trying to speedrun)
Kinda liked this run more, EMMI were less of a pain in the ass this time around and I got the boss patterns down (although some of them were still a pain because they hurt so much)

But I have new complaints - The loading screens are too much. The animations for saving and all that sucks. This is a fast-paced game, those things are immersion breaking

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There really aren't that many load screens. If you aren't going fast you have a lot of time between loads.

Also the save animation is less than 5 seconds.

The checkpoint system also means you dont really need to save unless you are turning off the game.

Leafeon13N posted...

There really aren't that many load screens. If you aren't going fast you have a lot of time between loads.

From the moment you step on a elevator/shuttle, until you reach the destination and can move again, it takes 40 seconds

Now granted 40 seconds is not a long time for AAA games. But in this type of game..I feel like it hurt it quite a bit.
There are some games that must minimize the loading times as much as possible. Roguelikes especially, for example

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The maps are huge. You trade one above average load for seamless gameplay.

Nanis23 posted...

From the moment you step on a elevator/shuttle, until you reach the destination and can move again, it takes 40 seconds

It is definitely more than 40 seconds for me. Is it that short for people who have the physical copy? Takes way longer if you have a digital copy on an SD card. Maybe less if you have it on internal Switch storage.

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TomNook posted...

It is definitely more than 40 seconds for me. Is it that short for people who have the physical copy? Takes way longer if you have a digital copy on an SD card. Maybe less if you have it on internal Switch storage.

My intitial load from game start to control of Samus is about 33 seconds on a physical copy. Which is about 10 seconds longer than a digital copy on the internal storage and over an optimal amount of loads run ends up about 5 minutes of load longer than a digital internal copy.

Also I got in game clear down to 2:03:17, not going to talk about what that was in real time. But at least I learned why I couldn't get purple EMMI into the right spot for a quick kill. The trick is oddly...go slower. Need him to move slightly further away before I come out of the bomb launcher.

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TomNook posted...

It is definitely more than 40 seconds for me. Is it that short for people who have the physical copy? Takes way longer if you have a digital copy on an SD card. Maybe less if you have it on internal Switch storage.

I have digital
The area I used my stopwatch for was the area before the area of the final boss, which is kinda smaller
Maybe it takes more time for bigger areas

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The loading definitely needs to be shorter. The areas are large but a lot of it could be streamed after loading just the important bits. I hope they optimize it later.

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Beated.

MP1 > SM >= MD > AM2R >> M1

This game has the most alove and evolving world of a Metroodvania I can think of. Sure, HK's world had more personality and we've seen unique takes on existing paths before like Symphony of the Night, but backtracking's never felt so varied before to me. Solid game.

And agreed that the loadscenes were too long for a game that will clearly be popular to speedrun.

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HaRRicH posted...

And agreed that the loadscenes were too long for a game that will clearly be popular to speedrun.

At the very least the load screens seem to be very consistent in timing(Minus the physical/digital split). Would suck if they were variable between consoles.

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Got in game time down to 2:01:55. Should be able to get that under 2 soon with a lot less dumb.

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Ok shaved that down to 2:01:01 game and 1:56:27 real with some real stupid stuff at the end because I got tired. Probably like 4 minutes trying to cross the water for screw attack twice which I generally have down pretty well. Plenty of other dumb I'm forgetting at the end too. Had my best Raven Beak fight I guess, though I'm still not comfortable mashing hard enough to one counter him.

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Red, I want to get my time down. What are your biggest tips?

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its mostly just learning the route and the skips needed to do it. watch a speed run and copy it pretty carefully, learning where you can boost and such.

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Something that weirds me out every time. Early on in the game there is a switch you press to raise the water to lift a platform so you can slide under. It is the first switch you press to progress in the game, so it feels like a tutorial. But unlike every other switch in the game you need to stay on it to keep the water flowing or else it will stop and you have to do it again. This is still very much a tutorial portion of the game and feels like it is teaching you something. But unless I am forgetting something, this mechanic is never used again. Just some very strange out of place game design. Also the visual on it is weird, despite it looking like you need to sit on it for something like 5 seconds as it spits out water, you only need to sit on it for maybe 2.

This bothers the heck out of me every time I go through that area. One of those things you shouldn't think about but cant stop.

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yeah I really don't like that spot. I always have to circle around because I don't have the timing down.

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I think the underwater boss use those buttons too..
I did make that same mistake too tho
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htaeD posted...

I think the underwater boss use those buttons too..
I did make that same mistake too tho

Nope he uses those red/green switches that you see a couple times messing with the lava flow.

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transcience posted...

its mostly just learning the route and the skips needed to do it. watch a speed run and copy it pretty carefully, learning where you can boost and such.

i can't

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Got my in-game to 1:59:41. Now to wonder if in-game time continues during load screens or not.

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Plot question

For how long people have known about Samus being a Metroid? like, was it a common knowledge? I thought this is something new that was revealed in this game but it seems like it didn't surprise anyone

I dunno I just feel like it's funny that all the years people called Samus "Metroid" by mistake and it turns out that they were technically correct and it's kind of funny

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Nanis23 posted...

Plot question

For how long people have known about Samus being a Metroid? like, was it a common knowledge? I thought this is something new that was revealed in this game but it seems like it didn't surprise anyone

Spoiler's about the first 5 minutes of Metroid Fusion: Samus gets infected by X, she almost dies, but scientists save her by injecting her with Metroid DNA, which is really powerful against X DNA. This is why she is able to absorb X parasites, for the rest of Metroid Fusion. This is all re-explained in the first 5 minutes of Dread, in case you skipped Fusion.

So yeah that joke technically worked before Dread, it just wasn't as common.


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It's a fair question thought because in Fusion, she was only injected by Metroid DNA. I don't think they ever intended for her to BECOME a Metroid, even slowly. That doesn't make any sense really. She certainly wasn't a Metroid at the time or even at the end of the game.

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Is it just me, or does Raven Beak seem ready-made for the next Smash game?

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Prime 4 gonna try to boost the case for Sylux but I think Raven Beak's the rep we've been waiting for.

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This game got updated today.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/11/metroid-dread-version-1-0-2-is-now-available-here-are-the-full-patch-notes

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GOGZero posted...

This game got updated today.

https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2021/11/metroid-dread-version-1-0-2-is-now-available-here-are-the-full-patch-notes

Lmao that first one is definitely the final boss, considering that exact thing happened to me.

Surprised there's still no remappable controls. I personally don't care at all as now I think they're perfect, but there was a point I wanted to swap the R with ZR and L with ZL. Now I highly doubt I would. But options are good anyway.

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StartTheMachine posted...

Surprised there's still no remappable controls. I personally don't care at all as now I think they're perfect, but there was a point I wanted to swap the R with ZR and L with ZL. Now I highly doubt I would. But options are good anyway.

This is already doable with a pro controller.

Leafeon13N posted...

This is already doable with a pro controller.

I am aware of this and even did it at one point. The problem is it changes all the map controls too. I think I made missiles ZR but never swapped L and ZL and all the map controls had the wrong button prompts and it was just confusing. Changed it back fast.

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StartTheMachine posted...

Lmao that first one is definitely the final boss, considering that exact thing happened to me.

Uh
I fought the final boss like 50 times and it didn't happen
Guess it's just rare

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Nanis23 posted...

Uh
I fought the final boss like 50 times and it didn't happen
Guess it's just rare

Yeah, it happened to me on hard mode. When I played on normal and also died a ton on him it didn't do it. It's very odd. But yeah, there was over a 30 minute difference when I replayed the final boss on hard and beat him first try versus playing and losing, well, just over 30 minutes worth of time.

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oh damn, I just realized the Hyper Beam and Metroid Suit at the ending of this game is a super direct reference to the Hyper Beam at the end of Super Metroid. Like it's the same scene but in 3D.

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Just beat this yesterday. Clear time 9:40:14, 76%. Left it idling at the map screen a few times-- not sure if clear time counts that?

I liked the game overall. The EMMI sections were kinda neat, but I don't like how they caused the map to be full of large, mostly uninteresting sections after you beat them. Also I expected each EMMI to have a new mechanic, but it seemed like only the yellow and blue EMMIs had that?

One related issue I had-- I feel like the early game has you taking so many elevators/teleportals/trains that you never get a sense of the structure of the map until late game. Or at least that's how it was for me. It felt like the game kind of funneled me forward in a way that felt much more like a guided tour instead of exploring. The EMMI sections kind of exacerbated this feeling since they feel like their own distinct part of the map rather than a part of the areas they're in, making the map feel a little more disjointed.

But despite that, I had a lot of fun. The boss fights felt like the right amount of difficulty, where I'd gradually piece together how to fight the boss with each death. It felt very satisfying to go from getting wiped out on the first phase of the end boss (and others), and then being able to quickly blast through the boss phases while barely losing any health.

I think the game is probably less forgiving to people who haven't played many (or any) search action games though. From what I can remember, other games in Metroid or (modern) Castlevanias have the opportunity to find more upgrades or power up your character-- to the point where you can make a lot of mistakes during a boss and still win. I didn't get the sense that you could do that in this game, since it seems like your access to health tanks is limited early on, and bosses end up doing a ton of damage to the point where one or two extra tanks don't help a whole lot.

Also, I really don't get how Chozo-X makes everything okay at the end?

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Presumably, it's because the x having the chozo DNA in it helps repress the metroid DNA that's running rampant in samus's system. It helped samus in that moment because Quiet Robe's personality was still somehow in control, or otherwise influenced the X to do that.

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VintageGin posted...

From what I can remember, other games in Metroid or (modern) Castlevanias have the opportunity to find more upgrades or power up your character-- to the point where you can make a lot of mistakes during a boss and still win. I didn't get the sense that you could do that in this game, since it seems like your access to health tanks is limited early on, and bosses end up doing a ton of damage to the point where one or two extra tanks don't help a whole lot.

Shout outs to the first boss after you get the "great damage reduction" gravity suit still doing a whole tank of damage on a hit.

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VintageGin posted...

Just beat this yesterday. Clear time 9:40:14, 76%. Left it idling at the map screen a few times-- not sure if clear time counts that?

Map times does not count into in-game time.

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First normal speedrun at 3:06:28. Didn't look up any strats or anything. Didn't do any skips.

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https://twitter.com/Finalizer14/status/1457090835212816387?s=20

Metroid DNA makes you jacked

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ninkendo posted...

https://twitter.com/Finalizer14/status/1457090835212816387?s=20

Metroid DNA makes you jacked

When was it used?

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When you die

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She always should have been jacked.

I'm a little put off by that thigh gap though.

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