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curl-6 on 15 June 2021
mZuzek said:
curl-6 said:

Good, hopefully they're self-aware enough to realize how poorly received her portrayal in Other M was and keep her the way we loved her in prior entries. She's one of those characters that just works better as a silent protagonist.

I mean, there's that Development History video with Sakamoto talking about how Dread's been an idea for over 15 years and stuff, and he kinda goes over the whole mainline Metroid series... and just happens to not once mention Other M.

It does seem Nintendo understands everyone wants that game written off history.

That's encouraging. God I hate that game with a passion haha. This seems like quite the return to form in terms of looking like the first actually good new Metroid game since 2007. It seems to be doing just about everything right so far.



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AngryLittleAlchemist on 16 June 2021

Hate to be that guy but Fusion is a pretty awfully written game too to be honest. Even as text, the monologues in that game suck ass. The "twist" near the end is bad. SA-X's final fight is disappointing as hell (which sort of counts as story-related given how Metroid as a series operates), and the retread of Super's ending isn't nearly as clever or interesting as the developers probably thought. 

I mean, I still like it about as much as the other 2D Metroid games, but even that story kind of sucks. Which is sad because it has the best concept for a Metroid game yet. It looks like Dread is taking some of the elements that worked in Fusion though and delivering on them more thoroughly, so that's neat. 



AngryLittleAlchemist on 16 June 2021
mZuzek said:
AngryLittleAlchemist said:

Hate to be that guy but Fusion is a pretty awfully written game too to be honest. Even as text, the monologues in that game suck ass. The "twist" near the end is bad. SA-X's final fight is disappointing as hell (which sort of counts as story-related given how Metroid as a series operates), and the retread of Super's ending isn't nearly as clever or interesting as the developers probably thought. 

I mean, I still like it about as much as the other 2D Metroid games, but even that story kind of sucks. Which is sad because it has the best concept for a Metroid game yet. It looks like Dread is taking some of the elements that worked in Fusion though and delivering on them more thoroughly, so that's neat. 

That's your opinion, so you're free to be "that guy" all you want.

Personally I think Fusion has a fantastic story, the way it creates and retains tension throughout is awesome, love some of the foreshadowing with certain late game bosses, and I love how it starts all very robotic and structured with you making routine visits to each numbered sector from the same hub area, but ends with everything going to shit and you're just finding your way wherever you can survive amidst an insanity of boss fights and SA-X chasing you everywhere. However, I agree with you on the ending being bad, the final SA-X battle is underwhelming and the Super Metroid callback at the end felt very forced. But everything up until that point was fantastic.

Given how Samus Returns handled open-ended exploration (not well), and how Sakamoto hasn't made a Metroid with really good exploration since 1994 (and then he wasn't exactly the only head of the series), I'm putting my hopes on Dread delivering a good story again. Already lots of promise on that front.

I don't really disagree with any of the positives you're listing of the game. Those are all great parts of the game. My issue with it, and again it's just my personal opinion like you said, is that that's probably 50% of the game's story, and only like 25% of how it's presented in in-game length. The monologues just don't seem well written to me - and that's a lot of the story. The A.I. dialogue tends to be bad, and again that twist is awful. The parts that are good are the parts that Metroid always did well - the narrative through gameplay - and even that is somehow fucked up with both the final boss and the final SA-X fight. 

Maybe calling it "awfully written" is a bit far but that's kind of the issue. The concept is so amazing and yet it feels so poorly delivered on, except for the narrative through gameplay stuff that other games already delivered on. It's like they added an extra layer of depth to the series but didn't even do it that well. I will say that the SA-X stuff before the final encounter is very inventive, I definitely give the game credit for that, that's one new element they did well. It's certainly a game of peaks and valleys story-wise. Not gameplay wise though, it always has great gameplay. 



curl-6 on 16 June 2021
Marth said:

Also by now I would rate the software library of the Switch as the best of any Nintendo console. Even if you only look at Nintendo IPs.

At this point I'd say if all currently announced games for Switch live up to expectations it will be giving the Wii and SNES a serious run for their money in my book and those are my top two Nintendo systems. And there's probably plenty more games we don't even know about yet.



AngryLittleAlchemist on 16 June 2021
mZuzek said:
AngryLittleAlchemist said:

I don't really disagree with any of the positives you're listing of the game. Those are all great parts of the game. My issue with it, and again it's just my personal opinion like you said, is that that's probably 50% of the game's story, and only like 25% of how it's presented in in-game length. The monologues just don't seem well written to me - and that's a lot of the story. The A.I. dialogue tends to be bad, and again that twist is awful. The parts that are good are the parts that Metroid always did well - the narrative through gameplay - and even that is somehow fucked up with both the final boss and the final SA-X fight. 

Maybe calling it "awfully written" is a bit far but that's kind of the issue. The concept is so amazing and yet it feels so poorly delivered on, except for the narrative through gameplay stuff that other games already delivered on. It's like they added an extra layer of depth to the series but didn't even do it that well. I will say that the SA-X stuff before the final encounter is very inventive, I definitely give the game credit for that, that's one new element they did well. It's certainly a game of peaks and valleys story-wise. Not gameplay wise though, it always has great gameplay. 

How are the monologues "a lot" of the story? I only remember there being like 3 or 4 of them over the course of the game. The first one sure didn't strike well, but I warmed up to them over time. I can agree with you that those are a weak part of the story but I didn't find them that bad. I don't agree with your distaste of the A.I. and its twist, though, I thought that stuff was great. Maybe not amazingly written but "awfully" is quite harsh, I thought it was really great how the game made you suspicious of Adam throughout and how that paid off was nice.

It's 3-4 monologues in a game that's only 4 hours, in a series which is known for basically no dialogue or monologues whatsoever. And I don't think it really matters too much if we consider that as not "a lot" of the story, because when you combine those with the A.I. conversations, the final SA-X fight and the final encounter, that is a lot of the story ... pretty much the most important parts of the story even, give or take a few moments (like the first encounters with SA-X). And those are all fairly poorly done. Great concept, bad execution. Just my opinion though. 

Regardless, it doesn't matter too much if we agree on Fusion. The point is, I hope that Dread doesn't suffer from some of the same issues as Fusion (which kind of led into Other M honestly). I'm excited to see where it takes us.



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AngryLittleAlchemist on 16 June 2021

Huh that's strange, my first playthrough of both Zero Mission and Fusion were about 4.5 hours long. Fusion being 10 hours long is strange.

It did take me about 6.5 hours to beat Super for the first time though (I was REALLY poorly equipped against Ridley).



AngryLittleAlchemist on 16 June 2021
Mar1217 said:
AngryLittleAlchemist said:

Huh that's strange, my first playthrough of both Zero Mission and Fusion were about 4.5 hours long. Fusion being 10 hours long is strange.

It did take me about 6.5 hours to beat Super for the first time though (I was REALLY poorly equipped against Ridley).

People plays their game differently.

I mean, Samus Returns took me about 15 hours to complete (Ok it took me 30+ min. to beat Diggernaut lol) but I remember people posting as they did it in less than 10 hours. 

Exploration based games tend to vary playtime more than other games in my opinion

I still need to get to Samus Returns. I'm a fraud! I hope I like it since it's a bit divisive and it's by the developers of Dread. I'll do it soon. 



IcaroRibeiro on 16 June 2021

I never really beat Samus Return, I think I was over halfway through when I just stopped playing and never went back (I give away my 3DS some time later if you wonder), my save was over 10 hours, but the fact is I suck hard playing video games, so always take me 20-40% more time to beat a game than any common person

If Dread takes about 18 hours to beat for a common player, that's over 26 for me, it's a long enough playthrough for me 



KLXVER on 16 June 2021

Just saw that Donkey Kong came out July 9th 1981. Wonder if we get a DK Direct on July 9th. That could explain why it wasnt at E3 if it exists.



curl-6 on 16 June 2021

Is it me or does Mario Party Superstars look like, stupidly beautiful for what it is, visually speaking, just super polished and clean, almost Pixar-like? Maybe even one of the best looking Switch games?