Current Events > the chozo artifact hunt in metroid prime is souring my opinion of the game

(+) Yeah! (+)

this shit SUCKS

Genuinely knocks a point or two off by itself

I agree that after you're done finding all the power-ups, the artifact hunt isn't a very gratifying final task before getting to the game's finale.

However, I still find it very preferable to Wind Waker's triforce shard hunt.

[LFAQs-redacted-quote]


eh, not really. all the phendrana ones you need lategame power ups to acquire

and some of these are just so fucking stupid. the hints basically tell you where to go, which is nice, but in the case of the phendrana tower one, the solution is so obtuse i had to look up a guide. these things are just not fun to collect in any capacity, this shit is nothing but padding in a game that really didn't need it

Delirious_Beard posted...

in the case of the phendrana tower one, the solution is so obtuse i had to look up a guide.

Pretty sure walking around with the scan visor in that area will reveal what you need.

I went to the temple asap this time, scanned all the hints and took notes. Came across a lot of them naturally this time just being more aware of the power up sound in a room.

Also doesn't help this is like my 6th time playing the game in 20 years so I kinda have an inkling

I loved it, and it's still much better than he second game. Third does it best though where you're forced to collect some of the thingies and doesn't even need all of them to complete the game.

Yup, TC, I just acquired that artifact, and it's just as I said. Using the scan visor in that area will give you the solution.

Reminds me of the triforce hunt in wind water. Never made it past that segment though. Despite probably playing up to that point twice up till now.

Worst part of one of my all time favorite games. Absolutely LOVE playing through Prime, been doing playthroughs of it every year since I was a kid. Absolutely dread the artifact hunt everytime lol. Luckily there are a good handful of them that you can randomly stumble upon before you even need to do the hunt.

honestly just don't think i'm gonna finish this. it's just a couple boss fights, right? no other significant new areas unlock when you get them all?

The game literally tells you exactly where they are...
>_>

On my most recent playthrough that's where I stopped. That and a combination of my map being bugged out so that it makes it scroll extremely slow was just too annoying to deal with.

And it's worse in the second game? I only played through that once when it first came out so I forgot there was an item hunt in that one too

Darkninja42 posted...

And it's worse in the second game? I only played through that once when it first came out so I forgot there was an item hunt in that one too

The trick with finding all the Sky Temple keys in MP2 is that whenever you find a dead Luminoth key-bearer, the key itself is in the Dark Aether version of that room. Once you figure that out they're not hard to find at all.

Delirious_Beard posted...

honestly just don't think i'm gonna finish this. it's just a couple boss fights, right? no other significant new areas unlock when you get them all?

I mean sorta but also you'd be doing yourself a disservice not to fight the Impact Crater bosses >_>

Be a gamer and beat the god damn game!

Ha ha ha ha, welcome to the early 2000's.

We learned to pick them up as we went to avoid this bullshit pace stopper.

2 was absolutely horrendous with this, 3 still had it, but was a lot better with it, both in what you used it for being interesting, and being able to pick them up as you went.

I remember playing MP1 on the Prime Trilogy release on the Wii. Was hooked on the game and then got to this part and never went back. I always planned on it, but it's such a momentum killer.

It's really not that bad.

I guess if you didn't think to check past all the doors in the literal first room of the main game, and access the impact crater and scan the locations, maybe?

Also, the Tower one can be easily acquirable early so you never have to go through that section of the map ever again. Jump into the barrier, fire a missile at the tower base.

Same for 2, the keys are where you find the key bearer corpses, just in Dark Aether. Can't be more straight forward.

Honestly 3 might be the worst in this regards cause you have to collect those energy things and you get stuck planet hopping.

Prime 1 can easily be a 5 hour or less game to 100% casually if you know where everything is. 2 is 7 hours or less. I've always had 3 take at least 10 hours casually.

But the whole game play design is supposed to encourage you to be thorough, use the tools at hand. The non-tower Phendrana artifact is found with the X-ray visor at the ass end of Phendrana. The game encourages you to be liberal in your use of visors.

wackyteen posted...

It's really not that bad.

I guess if you didn't think to check past all the doors in the literal first room of the main game, and access the impact crater and scan the locations, maybe?

Also, the Tower one can be easily acquirable early so you never have to go through that section of the map ever again. Jump into the barrier, fire a missile at the tower base.

Same for 2, the keys are where you find the key bearer corpses, just in Dark Aether. Can't be more straight forward.

Honestly 3 might be the worst in this regards cause you have to collect those energy things and you get stuck planet hopping.

Prime 1 can easily be a 5 hour or less game to 100% casually if you know where everything is. 2 is 7 hours or less. I've always had 3 take at least 10 hours casually.

But the whole game play design is supposed to encourage you to be thorough, use the tools at hand. The non-tower Phendrana artifact is found with the X-ray visor at the ass end of Phendrana. The game encourages you to be liberal in your use of visors.

Nobody fucking knew that shit the first time they played the game, fuck off with this condescending shit.

Disengaged posted...

Nobody fucking knew that shit the first time they played the game, fuck off with this condescending shit.

Not really trying to be condescending.

I'm not telling people to simply git gud.

The tools are readily available at hand to rather easily find all of the artifacts, if you care to use them. None of them are so obtuse as to be unfair or designed to be literal guess work. As long as you're being reasonably thorough with checking your map, accessing every door, and being liberal with your visors not a one is truly missable. Which is what the game designers intended.

Even one that you might reasonably miss (the only one you need the final suit for), can be seen if you're backtracking through the room (at least in the remaster).

Yeah, mentioning how fast it can be done casually with knowledge can come off as condescending but it's more a demonstration that none of the artifacts are behind lengthy, in-depth obtuse puzzles.

I'll admit that it can kill the pace of the game going in blind but it's no worse than other games of the Era, like Wind Waker.

I'll most likely drop this too lol

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You definitely can, but first time players obviously wont know that lol

I can see this sort of thing being difficult for the Instant Gratification crowd of today to get around.

No, you can't get the artifacts as you play through. Every one of them requires backtracking, most of them require an item you didn't have the first time you passed near them. Only three can even be acquired before Gravity Suit, and five require Plasma Beam and beyond.

I've been playing through the game again after having not done so for years and I've already gotten 4 of the artifacts so far by just proceeding with the game normally. If I remembered the game better, I bet I could have more. No backtracking involved, aside from the backtracking the game literally forces you to do just to progress on the critical path.

You're obviously not meant to be able to get ALL of them the first time you come across the rooms they're in, but you definitely can get a good chunk of them out of the way if you know where they are.

I liked it. What I hate still is that run through the Phazon Mines, that shit is brutal.

Yeah I think a lot of people don't really like the Artifact hunting part. Having one last mandatory "explore the world for key items before the final encounter" is an obvious padding choice. That said, in Prime 1 you can get around half (or more) of them as you play the game if you can figure out where to look. It's Prime 2 that takes it to its worst extreme, you literally can't get any Sky Temple Keys until you get the final powerup (Light Suit).

At least in Prime 3 they toned it down and even made it so that you don't need all of them.

The artifact hunt was easily the worst part of Prime, and then they made it worse in Prime 2. Honestly the whole Prime series would've been better if they just dropped the whole thing and relied on player abilities and boss kills to gate progression instead. I think the Prime Randomizer even has a setting where Impact Crater automatically unlocks after you defeat the 3 major bosses, just so you don't have to deal with the artifact hunt.

BakonBitz posted...

It's Prime 2 that takes it to its worst extreme, you literally can't get any Sky Temple Keys until you get the final powerup (Light Suit).

Uh, the fuck you can't.

I played Prime 2 a little over a week ago and I'm pretty sure I had keys before Light Suit.

All you need is Dark Visor in order to see the Cache

Either the hints helped or I used a guide, I don't remember

Back tracking and collecting stuff with new abilities is literally patented Metroid. If anything its nice to have an excuse to go find some secrets. Or in reverse, have some upgrades while macguffin hunting. The one negative Ill give the experience are that the Chozo ghosts keep coming back.

wackyteen posted...

Uh, the fuck you can't.

I played Prime 2 a little over a week ago and I'm pretty sure I had keys before Light Suit.

All you need is Dark Visor in order to see the Cache

Guess I misremembered. I could've sworn all or at least a lot of them couldn't be gotten without the Light Suit.

BakonBitz posted...

Guess I misremembered. I could've sworn all or at least a lot of them couldn't be gotten without the Light Suit.

It's a small handful at most. That's not what made 2's mcguffin hunt the worst, it's the sheer number of things you had to collect that gave you jack shit. On top of the final areas key hunt, each temple had you hunt down 3 keys, it was just so god damned tedious.

What's extra mind boggling is why this is even a fucking thing. It's very obviously a take on the statues from Metroid and super Metroid, yet those didn't have you irritatingly hunting down stupid mcguffins that didn't give you a power up. You just beat the bosses, and moved forward.

It really was a staple of Gamecube Era first party nintendo, wasn't it? Fantastic game, ruined by a late game collection slog.

Just like Wind Waker.

BakonBitz posted...

Guess I misremembered. I could've sworn all or at least a lot of them couldn't be gotten without the Light Suit.

Top of my head, all I remember needing the Light Suit for was the ones you need to go into the Dark Aether water for. 1 in Agon, 1 in Torvus. I think there might be one you need Light Suit for to go through the Ingstorm thing, in the Dark Temple Grounds. Its an artifact or an expansion/e-tank. Oh and 1 in Sanctuary Fortress that you need use a light teleport for.

It is technically easier to opt for Light Suit before doing the collection simply for the fact that you can teleport around to Energy Collectors but beyond that, it isn't super essential.

so a solid 1/3 maybe 4/9

The artifact fetch quest was what made me stop playing. After I saw how many there were to collect I was like "uhhh who has time for this?"

wackyteen posted...

Top of my head, all I remember needing the Light Suit for was the ones you need to go into the Dark Aether water for. 1 in Agon, 1 in Torvus. I think there might be one you need Light Suit for to go through the Ingstorm thing, in the Dark Temple Grounds. Its an artifact or an expansion/e-tank. Oh and 1 in Sanctuary Fortress that you need use a light teleport for.

It is technically easier to opt for Light Suit before doing the collection simply for the fact that you can teleport around to Energy Collectors but beyond that, it isn't super essential.

so a solid 1/3 maybe 4/9

The teleporters are probably why I thought the Light Suit was needed because I thought that was a pretty helpful thing to utilize.

Most of them are along the way to something else, or a short detour from the rooms you end up going through all the damn time anyway.
The annoying ones are the two out-of-way rooms full of chozo ghosts that you otherwise don't have much reason to go back to. Possibly a third one, if you didn't nab it the first time you were there.

It sucks I just use a guide and get it over with lol

Can't memorize it for some reason

Oh yeah, the one on the way to Omega also sucks. You gotta take the long way back around to get to it (i think).

Questionmarktarius posted...

Oh yeah, the one on the way to Omega also sucks. You gotta take the long way back around to get to it (i think).

No, you can just go back the way you came. It sucks having to go back that way, though. Does add some visual/environmental storytelling though, the area that precedes the Omega room is now without power.

wackyteen posted...

No, you can just go back the way you came.

Oh good. It's been awhile, and I'm procrastinating before Omega right now.

HudGard posted...

Back tracking and collecting stuff with new abilities is literally patented Metroid. If anything its nice to have an excuse to go find some secrets. Or in reverse, have some upgrades while macguffin hunting. The one negative Ill give the experience are that the Chozo ghosts keep coming back.

there's enough backtracking in Prime already, there's really no reason this shit exists other than to pad the game. if nothing else they should have reduced the amount of artifacts by at least half.

at least in other metroid games you feel insanely powerful at the end of the game, in prime you still have to do annoying shit like changing beams to fight those annoying space pirates in the mines, and you don't really get any movement upgrade that makes traversal more fun

Backtracking is a staple of the franchise. You knew what you signed up for.

Delirious_Beard posted...

there's enough backtracking in Prime already, there's really no reason this shit exists other than to pad the game. if nothing else they should have reduced the amount of artifacts by at least half.

at least in other metroid games you feel insanely powerful at the end of the game, in prime you still have to do annoying shit like changing beams to fight those annoying space pirates in the mines, and you don't really get any movement upgrade that makes traversal more fun

Good points. If youre ready to finish the game and experience the resolution its a real mood killer. I can see that. Im biased because I like wrapping up the odds and ends, looking for secrets, etc, before I tackle the final challenge. So Im already doing in a Metroid game what the Prime games end up forcing you to do.