persistent damage really should just be phased out altogether; it’s a stale trick gate or not
i’m actually wondering what the metroid series would look like if samus had a few discrete hit points instead of a pool of 9999 energy pips. i like that some games played with using energy as a resource for more than just taking hits (shinesparking in Super, the grapple voltage upgrade in Prime 3) but otherwise there doesn’t seem to be much justification for it as a fluid quantity
Samus having a bajillion hitpoints makes it possible so the player can effectively overlevel by exploring enough (this is good imo). Super does a very good job with this.
On the other hand, mid-to-late game bosses in Dread and SR (and Fusion, to a lesser extent) mostly have attacks that deal 1 or more e-tanks worth of damage, effectively turning them into discrete hitpoints. It’s kinda funny imo.
And having them everywhere because somehow BACKTRACKING became such a huge part of what is a metrovania. I’d really rather be making progress through the game with my final buildout than have the obligatory “victory lap” through the game’s entire map, picking up missle expansions I don’t need to max out that item collection percent.
I still really enjoyed the game, even the plot and how Samus reacts to the “I am your father” bit like Mr Beak’s “I am the mind master, look at how I played you at the comm rooms but I swear I’m not lying to you anymore” schtick as if she found it as tedious as I did.
within 24 hours of me posting this somebody found an invincibility glitch making varia and gravity skips possible lmao
a couple weeks ago people discovered that if you morph on a specific frame of a ledge animation, that you can travel wherever (within an area) and instantly warp back to the ledge by unmorphing. curious, but not very useful.
the invincibility glitch, then, is to activate the ledge warp by unmorphing right as you enter/exit an emmi zone (presumably because that transition provides a brief bit of invincibility for whatever reason). the invincibility applies to all damage sources (except for OoB instakills), including hot/cold rooms, and is only cancelled by emmi doors, cutscenes, and elevators.
using this to figure out how to skip varia was apparently not too hard, since apparently the map lies and Mr. Kraid’s room is not heated (and the room just after him become unheated after destroying an obstacle because ???).
now, to skip the gravity suit, someone found out that you could use the invincibility glitch to set up another glitch (previously known but thought to be useless) that lets samus run in place facing the camera to build up a shinespark, thus getting past the last obstacle that required the gravity suit
“this trick sucks so much,” saith the speedrunner here
as for me: 
I’m afraid to say this game is still pretty great, the fighting game-esque boss fights are deliciously meaty, and I’m enjoying the surprisingly understated enviromental storytelling tying this in with the other games.
Additionally, I know it’s a cheap trick to use old musical cues but damn the Chozo with the old Super Metroid weird ruins in brinstar music was a really cool touch that pulled off making a narrative connection without even being explicit about it. Loved it. To say nothing of the clearly mutated plant boss boss that was clearly the origin or mutation of the weird chestnut thing in Super. Or the weird doom sphere the X Parasites are quarentined in.
The Chozo robots being built in the background of one of the EMMI rooms were cool foreshadowing too.
This game is really, really good at funneling you into its desired path without ever explicitly letting you know it. The only times I’ve gotten lost have been when I see a teleporter or something and gone “hmm, I’m gonna go this way instead” and can’t find my way back.
Finally got the Gravity Suit and Space Jump, so now’s the fun part of these games of “yeehaw time to go everywhere” and, at least in this game in particular, “gonna paint all the corners of the map.”
I’m not actually gonna do that last one. But…maybe.
It seems the thread has changed direction, and the overall mood towards the game is growing. I am happy to see it.
this gets a lot better when it ‘opens up’ a bit but it has still taken me a month to play ~5 hours and leaves me with a desire to play sotn or something instead
yuzu is really impressive at least
I liked this game a lot. I am a fan of the Metroidvania concept, although (in my opinion) none of the Metroid games holds up today, compared to the best of the genre (Cave Story, Hollow Knight, La Mulana). Obviously the Metroid series has been extremely important in the history of videogames (especially Super Metroid and Metroid Prime), and I love it because of this.
Dread is really good, compact, has great graphics, feels good phisically (Samus feels hefty) and offers wonderful movement. Shooting feels great and almost all the boss battles are rewarding (although I found an underwater boss and the last phases of the final boss to be extremely tedious). I came to this game without many prejudices (having avoided playing Samus Returns in the past) and I enjoyed it a lot for what it is. It’s not memorable, somehow, and it flows very quickly, probably because it’s more linear than it would seem… somehow I will not remember much of it (apart from the boss battles and the emmi areas), but it felt great during playtime and I think it’s the best metroid game to this day.
Giving this a spin and it turns out my favorite thing is the overcomplex controls. Having to hold combinations of the four shoulder buttons is hard and difficult and I trip up on it but performing well feels good, and it generates an aesthetic that’s been present since Super Metroid – that Samus is halfway between a platformer character and a mech, and controlling her body should feel like working through a technical interface.
Her animation set is constantly teasing and prodding me to do everything faster and smoother in order to generate an endless room-to-room flow and I know I’m holding her back. It’s a good prod.
i too support the assaultsuitsification of two dimensional game protagonists
It makes my hands hurt tho
Standard practice is to implement toggle options for any held actions, but Nintendo still prioritizes menu simplicity over accessibility options… Do you think that would have helped in this case, or are there too many modifiers and thus the game is inherently too complex to be salved?
My lay fix is to simplify the aim controls to use the right stick to engage aim and aim. All that’s coming to mind as an example is Shadow Complex. I don’t see the utility in separating aim from engaging aim if you don’t need to double up on a directional input.
The worst pain is holding the shoulder button while also using the stick on the same hand with very demanding precision as in the EMMI encounters. I put it down on the first one, not worth it.
Ah, right, that’s a reasonable option. I think the game works a lot better with aim on the left-stick (and I’m a bit biased because we had a lot of fights around this issue on Galak-Z and we stuck with left-stick aiming for good reason), but there’s not a strong reason not to make that optional in this case. I think right-stick aiming damages the character feel, making it smoother and more like the weakly-embodied characters in a lot of twin-stick platformers, which always read to me as cursors attached to bodies – you have a problem with aiming behind the back that may be unsolvable – but it’s a reasonable non-default for accessibility.
Now, that being said, I’ve been emulating this and have played around with using the Elite controller’s back buttons. Index fingers on triggers, middle fingers on LB/RB on back. Much nicer.
From what I’ve heard you can double-map the left stick to both the left and right sticks in the system settings — it’s a terrible kludge, but IIRC some speedrunners use it to make a couple strats easier. (I’ve seen some defenders act like the system settings are a cure-all, but aside from the fact that it’s so inconvenient it doesn’t solve issues like having an action be hold vs. press vs. toggle (also it can muck up confirm/cancel, which is never fun).)
Anyhow, I can’t believe that in the amount of time it took to develop Dread that a ZSS cosplayer released 6 Metroid fangames in a self-made engine all with more control options than either of MercurySteam’s games.
New Modes Added
Three different boss rush modes have been added to the game. Press the R Button on the “Samus Files” screen to move to the Boss Rush selection screen.
Boss Rush
- A mode where players fight 12 continuous boss battles, and aim for the best time.
- Any damage received is carried-over into the next fight. Weapons are fully-restored between battles.
- If Samus is defeated, players may select “Retry” to continue playing from the start of the battle they lost. There is, however, a time penalty for being defeated.
- Bosses fought in Boss Rush can be fought one-on-one at any time by selecting “Practice”.
*Unlocked by clearing the main game a single time. (In the event that a player has completed the game before the update was released, they will be able to play Boss Rush immediately after updating).
Survival Rush
- A mode where players see how many bosses they can defeat inside of the 5 minute time limit.
- Any damage received, or weapons spent are carried-over into the next battle. Even if time remains on the clock, Samus being defeated will result in a game over.
- Defeating a boss will add a fixed amount of time to the countdown clock. Defeat a boss without receiving any damage to receive an even bigger time bonus.
*Survival Rush is unlocked by completing either Boss Rush or Dread Rush.
Dread Rush
- The basic rules are the same as in Boss Rush, but if Samus is hit by a boss, her energy drops to zero and she is defeated.
- Bosses fought in Dread Rush can be fought one-on-one at any time by selecting “Practice”.
*Unlocked by clearing the main game using Dread Mode. (In the event that a player has completed Dread Mode before the update was released, they will be able to play Dread Rush immediately after updating).
New Difficulties Available
- “ROOKIE MODE” has been added to the game. This is a mode suited towards new players, with the following adjustments:
- Dropped items from enemies now replenish greater amounts when picked-up.
- Damage received from Boss attacks has been lowered.
- Destructible Boss projectiles have been made easier to break than usual (excluding some attacks).
- Increased number of missiles available when beginning game.
- Made the finishing counters when defeating some Bosses easier to perform.
- Selected when starting a New Game, and choosing “SELECT DIFFICULTY”.
- “DREAD MODE” has been added to the game. This is an extremely high-difficulty mode, where any damage taken from enemies or traps will lead to an instant Game Over.
- Can be selected after clearing HARD MODE, when beginning a New Game, and choosing “SELECT DIFFICULTY”.
They tried, at least.
