[MusicallyInspired]

I gotta waaaaiiiittt.

[jkas789]

My physical version of the game was canceled by amazon because of lack of stock. And the Special Edition is basically a ghost at this point.

[Ninety-Six]

jkas789, on 08 October 2021 - 11:03 PM, said:

was canceled by amazon because of lack of stock.

here we go again

[MusicallyInspired]

I've never seen scalping so bad as the last 5 years. It's really become an insane problem.

[jkas789]

So I said fuck it and bought it on digital.

As I said before (when I played the totally legit NSP on my hacked switch) the game fucking rocks. I think I'll buy the physical standard version later on.

[jkas789]

So, after 3 playthroughs I think I can give a opinion on the gameplay. And I'm going to go controversial.

This is perhaps the best gameplay ever in a metroid game. Yes, even Super.

Mercury Steam have done a damn good job on this one. The only disappointment I have is that there is no ending screen with Samus on her Zero Suit, however they corrected that with the unlockable art gallery. It's pretty fucking hard to get though:

[Ninety-Six]

So here's the thing I've been waiting on information for the most: is there any of that content-lockout amiibo bullshit in this, or did Nintendo corporate keep their slimy mitts off the dev team this time?

[MusicallyInspired]

Just download the amiibo BINs and flash them to cheap NFC stickers with your phone. I designed and printed some nice cards for mine.

[Ninety-Six]

gonna take that as a "yes there is"

[MusicallyInspired]

I actually have no idea so don't take my post as an answer. I'm saying if there is, use BINs. I get it, you shouldn't have to and all that and most people can't be bothered yaddayaddayadda, but it's not that difficult and it's dirt dirt cheap.

[Ninety-Six]

MusicallyInspired, on 15 October 2021 - 06:13 PM, said:

but it's not that difficult and it's dirt dirt cheap.

Even so. I just can't support a company that resurrects a beloved franchise and essentially holds it hostage because its fans are starved, forcibly tying its puppeteered corpse to one of the shittiest business practices in all of gaming. They are literally going "justify this business model that would have rioting in the streets if it were any other franchise and any other company, or never see your precious IP (that we never liked) ever again."


I realize the actual game developers aren't responsible for this, but corporate is the one that signs off on even using the franchise to begin with, and mandates the garbage practice to go with it. You can't support one without supporting the other, and with Nintendo rapidly rising to be as evil a company as the likes of EA, Activision, and Konami.... I'm sorry but I'd rather see Metroid just stay dead, rather than zombified just so some pathetic business exec can use it to experiment its underhanded monetary trick, presumably to use elsewhere.

Yeah you can get around buying the amiibo, but considering they keep that in short supply anyway, the quantity of the amiibo was always going to vastly be dwarfed by the game. But if the game sells, that tells Nintendo that buyers are willing to let that practice slide if it means seeing Metroid again.


And if you want to go do that, fine. I'm not going to stop you or hold it against you. But personally, I just refuse to give the company any money towards such a practice.

Now if Dread has none of that, then I will go out there and buy it as soon as I am able (assuming Nintendo doesn't remove it from store shelves the scumsucking bastards). Otherwise.... I'd rather wait a decade to pirate it. I know the developers will be hurt too, but it's damned if you do, damned if you don't.


I just care about Metroid a lot, and it's insulting to see it get treated like that by its parent company.

[MusicallyInspired]

Yeah man, do what you gotta do. I myself want to support my franchises and Metroid needs support. And this is the most Nintendo has EVER promoted the franchise in its entire 35 year run so far. I feel like I need to show up for this. I understand people who take the other stance though. My way of striking back is using amiibo BINs. It's small, yes, but those things fly off the shelves and they're way overpriced. I don't like Nintendo (corporate), but man I love Nintendo (developers).

I just looked it up and it looks like no content is locked behind amiibo this time around. All of the amiibo merely refill/restock Samus' missile ammo, health, and one amiibo actually permanently increases your maximum missile capacity count. That's like the worst offender but even that is not bad. If you wanna play the way the designers intended you won't be using any of this. Dread, like Samus Returns, just has checkpoints on important deaths anyway (like EMMI's and boss fights) so it's not a big deal if you die. amiibo are basically like portable cheat codes at this point. Nothing like locking a whole difficulty mode behind an amiibo for Samus Returns.

https://www.cbr.com/...-locked-amiibo/

[Ninety-Six]

MusicallyInspired, on 15 October 2021 - 07:04 PM, said:

I just looked it up and it looks like no content is locked behind amiibo this time around. All of the amiibo merely refill/restock Samus' missile ammo, health, and one amiibo actually permanently increases your maximum missile capacity count. That's like the worst offender but even that is not bad. If you wanna play the way the designers intended you won't be using any of this. Dread, like Samus Returns, just has checkpoints on important deaths anyway (like EMMI's and boss fights) so it's not a big deal if you die. amiibo are basically like portable cheat codes at this point. Nothing like locking a whole difficulty mode behind an amiibo for Samus Returns.

https://www.cbr.com/...-locked-amiibo/

Perfect, then I will support them for this. That's the proper way amiibo should be implemented. Still dumb that they keep them in low supplies but at least here it isn't locking away actual game content at the same time.

[jkas789]

Ninety-Six, on 15 October 2021 - 05:58 PM, said:

gonna take that as a "yes there is"

Just an extra health tank and extra ammo expansion. Otherwise it's all restore health or ammo immediately. No extra modes or difficulties and honestly witht he ammount of health and ammo the game gives you they are a non issue.

Quote

Even so. I just can't support a company that resurrects a beloved franchise and essentially holds it hostage because its fans are starved, forcibly tying its puppeteered corpse to one of the shittiest business practices in all of gaming.

Ahem cough cough cough you can always sail the high seas my friend cough cough cough

[Ninety-Six]

jkas789, on 15 October 2021 - 09:07 PM, said:

Just an extra health tank and extra ammo expansion. Otherwise it's all restore health or ammo immediately. No extra modes or difficulties and honestly witht he ammount of health and ammo the game gives you they are a non issue.

Yeah, Musically explained. The terms are acceptable so once I have the money I intend to support them because they didn't screw it up this time.

The way they handle amiibo in general is still terrible but at least they didn't lock actual content behind them this time. That's where I drew the line. Like I said in a previous post, on-disk DLC is already dumb but locking it behind something they intentionally keep in low supply is a step too far. Sure there are ways around it that mitigate the issue, but the fact remains that they intended for the extra difficulty to be played be a mere fraction of the players that was already going to be a fraction.

That kind of practice I just didn't want to support. But since Dread does not do that, then I have no issue with the game itself and so will be giving them my money. The fact that I am surprised about this though really speaks volumes on how Nintendo has been behaving the past few years.


I miss Iwata, dude. I know his record wasn't clean either, and some of his decisions were kind of dumb (In fact I'll say I disagree with most of them), but I feel safe chalking those up to a cultural divide as well as simple misguidedness. I never doubted Iwata's heart was in the right place, and was one of the few industry people I could believe actually was a gamer.

I'll take the eager yet misguided exec over the scummy and slimy one that knows exactly what they're doing.

jkas789, on 15 October 2021 - 09:07 PM, said:

Ahem cough cough cough you can always sail the high seas my friend cough cough cough

Yeah I was strongly considering it if Dread ended up like I was afraid it would. But it didn't, so I can stay clean.

[jkas789]

Continuing with the topic of the thread, I have recently rediscovered romhacks for Symphony of the Night, Super Metroid and even Metroid Fusion.

In fact, to stay with the feel of Metroid Dread, Metroid Fusion: Special Edition by LostGlaceon from the Metroid Construction forums is a really impressive rom hack for Metroid Fusion. Think Metroid Fusion +, with a lot of QOL improvements that while playing make a big difference. The game feels a hell of a lot more open than it was originally.

Some of the new features (taken directly from the OP on the MC forums) added are:

-Much of the game recolored to give it a less overly-saturated (but still colorful) look.
-Better map screen and HUD graphics.
-More compact font (with text tweaks to center better with the width of said font).
-Bomb-jumping and single-wall wall-jumping reimplemented.
-Many new sequence breaks added (early Power Bombs are the most important step).
-Faster door transitions and elevators.
-Optional (and slightly customized) hard mode.
-Many small level design tweaks.
-Some old/unused content restored.
-You can stand on most of the computers (yes, really).

I would almost, almost recommend others to play this romhack instead of Vanilla Fusion. Although I think people would not appreciate the changes if they have not played the original.

[MusicallyInspired]

That's pretty darn cool. Love the sequence break additions idea.

[jkas789]

This is probably the best time to be a Metroid fan. For starters, not only did Metroid Dread sold 850000+ copies in the US both digital and physical, but also Dread debuted as October's #3 best-selling game, while also ranking 1st on Switch. Metroid: Dread achieved the highest launch month sales of any Metroid franchise release in tracked history.

Metroid Dread apparently doubled the launch month physical dollar sales when compared to Metroid Prime!

Here is an article by IGN also talking about the success of the game.

Also according to industry insider Emily Rogers a port of Metroid Prime 1 has allegedly finished developement. According to her[1,2]:

Quote

Work on Metroid Prime 1 remaster started around 2017-18.

Original plan was to develop & release Prime 1 first. Then use Prime 1's foundation (engine, tools, assets) to re-create Prime 2 + 3 later.

Nobody knows if plans were changed/axed after Covid.

It would be cool if Nintendo sticks to their original plan and brings all 3 Metroid Primes to Switch. I'm rooting for the best possible scenario here.

Only thing I can confirm atm is Prime 1 exists. And it just wrapped up development over the summer.

And if that wasn't the icing on the cake, there is a motherfucking multiplayer mod for AM2R:



What a time to be alive.We live in the weirdest of timelines.

Splendid!

[MusicallyInspired]

Wow! Man I need to get a hold of Dread. I mean I've played it, but I don't own it myself yet. Super psyched about Prime remastered! Let's hope if/when it comes out it'll be better than the GTA trilogy.

[jkas789]

I want to get my hands on a physical version. It's doesn't have to be the special edition, just a physical version would be nice. I haven't been able to find it. (；￣Д￣)

[MusicallyInspired]

I haven't had a problem finding it. I see it everywhere. It taunts me. But we're trying to move into a house so budget is now super tight.

[jkas789]

Don't worry too much about it. Look at the bright side, at least you can play the Metroid Fusion Rom hack to get in the groove for when you finally play Metroid Dread. It comes with two patches (one si normal mode and one is hard mode) and hard mode is a real doozy.

[jkas789]

Keeping on with the Metroid theme (I'm on my like 5th playthrough now ), corpusc from the Duke4 discord posted and interesting to Kotaku news article titled A Fully 3D Version Is Hiding Within 2D Metroid Dread. It's basically a article about the newest Boundary Break video:



Honestly, the video is pretty great and it reveals a lot of behind the scenes stuff like

Spoiler

how the fucking EMMIs basically teleport

[jkas789]

Time to get hyped more Metroidvanias again bois!

In three days the The Game Kitchen, the devs behind Blasphemous, will be releasing the final expansion for the game: Wounds of Eventide!



They have also released some snippets of what seem to be boss fights on twitter.

AND THEY FUCKING TEASED A SECOND GAME.

Also the rogue-like metroidvania Dead Cells is also receiving what seems to be it's final DLC, called The Queen and the Sea.



This last one is going to be released in early 2022. God damn it guys! I'm a doctor, when am I supposed to find the time to play all this games! I'm still trying to get the Zero Suit gallery image in Metroid Dread. (×﹏×)

[jkas789]

Metroid Dread got updated today. The update contains two new difficulties. One is the Rookie mode which is basically the journalits difficulty:

• 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.

And the other is Dread mode which is in all honestly freaking unfair. In this mode if you take any damage you instantly die. Keep an eye on the speedrunning community who will probably do a sub hour run in this mode this weekend.

There is also a second update that will be deployed in April that will add a Boss Rush Mode.

If you want more info about check out this article.

Cheers and good hunting frens. I know what I will be busy playing now in my daily commute lol.

[jkas789]

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night's update status page has been (pardon the redundancy) updated to show that the change log for update 1.3.0 are being finalized. Reminder that update 1.3.0 is alleged to include a new character!

[jkas789]

jkas789, on 24 February 2022 - 02:44 PM, said:

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night's update status page has been (pardon the redundancy) updated to show that the change log for update 1.3.0 are being finalized. Reminder that update 1.3.0 is alleged to include a new character!

I'm retarded and I linked the wrong page accidentally. This is the link to the status page.

My bad dudes.

[jkas789]

I finally have in my possession the physical version of Metroid Dread and Record of Lodoss: Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth for Switch.

Feels good bros



As a side note, I also took the opportunity to buy some Metroid amiibo cards (^_~)

[jkas789]

A little late on the news but better late than never eh!?

So updates! Starting with the big guns, Metroid Dread got a second update. This include 3 new game modes: Boss Rush, Survival Rush and Dread Rush.

Here is a picture with a description of the changes.



Next Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night also got it's 1.3.0 update. In a bizarre but surprisingly cool move they added the main character of Ubisoft's (again, surprisingly good) RPG Child of Light as a playable character. I honestly recommend you guys to play it because Aurora is surprisingly fun to play to be honest. Anyways weird cameo, but yeah, more content.

If you want read upon the change log for Bloodstained you can check it out on this link.

The only downside is that the update is coming later down the line on Switch probably for technical reasons. After, it's pretty well known that the Switch version struggles at times to run consistent 30 fps. Hopefully we will get some engine fixes for the Switch when the update finally ships.

Anyway that is all on metroidvania news.

Cheers.

[jkas789]

I haven't updated lately, mostly because I have been busy. However we have had a lot of interesting stuff happening in the world of metroidvanias.

For starters Bloodstained:RotN has had 2 updates. One of them adds Aurora from the Child of Light RPG (which is pretty kino btw) as a playable character.



The other adds a new area to the game based on the game Journey.

If I had a peso of every time Bloodstained devs added crossovers with old games to their SOTN spiritual successor, I would have 2 pesos. Which is not much but it is weird it happened twice.

Not that I'm complaining but it's still weird crossover to include, specially because a Bloodstained crossover was added to Blasphemous. You would assumed they would have done the same for Bloodstained.

Also Dead Cells got another update: