Topic: Metroid Prime 4: The Long(er) Wait

@Octane I'm just glad we know it is in active development as we speak. I am sure Reggie was getting tired of being asked the usual variations of, "where's Metroid?" questions whenever he turned up at public events.

Speaking of which:

“You know, for us, we believe that having hands-on opportunity married to an announcement is really the best way to do it,” Fils-Aime told IGN. “And so let’s take Super Mario Odyssey for example. We could have announced it months ago, but we weren’t yet ready, the team wasn’t ready, to show it and to let the consumer really understand visually how the hat mechanic works, how the capture mechanic comes into play. And so that’s how we think these through.”

“For certain games, games that will be in development for, let’s call it a decent amount of time, like Metroid Prime 4 — also, given that it’s a franchise that we know people have been very eager to get some news — that’s when, fine, we’ll share it. We’ll share it early,” Fils-Aime added. “Others, we want to hold closer in and reveal it when the gameplay is going to be available. It literally is game by game, title by title, how we make that decision.”

Here's the source: - http://www.ign.com/articles/2017/06/15/e3-2017-why-nintendo-r...

The only slightly troubling thing is that Nintendo announced Shin Megami Tensei X Fire Emblem in January 2013, and it was finally released (as Tokyo Mirage Sessions) in June 2016. I just hope that Metroid Prime 4 doesn't suffer the same fate...

@Peek-a-boo 3.5 years. That's holiday 2020 for Metroid...

@Haru17 Y'know, after playing Prime 3 for a bit, Federation Force doesn't seem like such a big departure from the series. Rather, it merely pushed certain burgeoning aspects of the game (the high-action sequences and the Federation in general) to the forefront, stuff Metroid fans were just not used to.

Federation spotlight was one of my favorite things about Corruption. Just being able to talk to them and see them in action helped them grow beyond a vague organisation that sends Samus to do everything for them.

As for optional bosses, sure, just don't make them either tedious annoyances or zero-effort.

I have only finished Metroid Prime 3 which I loved. I didn't get twilight princess so it was the first AAA game I got on my Wii and it blew me away as I was coming from PS2 I had barely touched in years.

Going back to Prime 1 does feel like a step back. I have tried it on game cube and MPTrilogy on Wii.

I had heard Prime 2 wasn't as good as Prime 1 but hearing some contrasting opinion in this thread has me wanting to soldier through Prime 1 so I can get to Prime 2.

I hope Prime 4 builds on Prime 3 and doesn't step backwards to be more like the most loved Prime 1.

When the heck is Switch going to be readily available on shelves......

I'm surprised Nintendo didn't announce a remake/remaster of the original three games as a single cartridge/download with updated controls for the JoyCons and graphics etc. Would have made so much sense and would have created a lot of buzz following from the Prime 4 announcement.

Who needs Samus to beat Metroids when you can just eat Metroids?

@meleebrawler Maybe in premise alone. I haven't played Federation Force but the level design was very divorced from what I know Prime to be. However, Corruption was the end of a trilogy and it made sense that it was more populated in setting than other Metroid games. Bringing the Federation in only made sense with the lore they established, regardless of the Halo comparisons drawn. I liked having Norion semi-civilized, while the four other planets and the wreck feel wild the majority of the time.

This is the biggest spoiler for Corruption but no game does environmental storytelling in combination with a main plot as good as that moment when you see the Aurora unit stolen from the GFS Valhalla, and later when you fight it on Phaaze.

And in Echoes...

@Haru17 Actually, Prime 1 has something like that right at the very beginning. You can see a crushed Parasite Queen soon after entering Orpheon, and another one in stasis. Grantedly, it's not as memorable as the example you mentioned, but it's there:

Edit: Oh, and there's a similar example in Corruption. If you look around the Genesis Chamber on Phaaze, you can see Metroid Prime husks. It's not used to foreshadow anything, but it's a cool detail of environmental storytelling:

Man, this series.

If you are thorough in your Pirate hacking, Thardus is also foreshadowed. And Prime 2 has a second occurrence of that Amorbis thing, you see Quadraxis parts in Sanctuary Temple.

@MarcelRguez The whole sequence on Phaaze is honestly unbelievable. I know some people expected it to be an entire planet, but I think it was the perfect length with the venting energy tanks thing. With how most games just peter out and end, Phaaze's budget and unique assets are incredible, working in references to both previous games in the husks you mentioned and the Phaz-Ing.

I'm totally going all 'fanbunny' over here!!

@meleebrawler True about Thardus. Also happens with the Omega Pirate (gets described in detail after a long series of scans about elite pirates, and gets named by its experiment code, IIRC). Not sure about Flaahgra.

@Bass_X0 Is that a Shark Decepticon transformer? Those came out with the original animated movie right?

@MarcelRguez The Chozo lore describes Flaahgra in one piece.

@Haru17 If you ask me, the Prime series has a chronic problem with FINAL final bosses being rather disappointing.
Metroid Prime Essence is a boring shockwave fest, Dark Samus 3 & 4 have only a single easily dodged laser in the former and tedious catch and return for the latter, and Aurora Unit 313 is mostly just target practice, though it is a step up from the last two.

@meleebrawler There you go, then. Every single major boss in Prime is foreshadowed in at least one logbook entry.

About Prime 4, these are the subtle details that can get overlooked when a series changes dev teams. I really hope Tanabe got a large budget and the best of the best for this project. Don't rush it, either. If it isn't ready before 2020, then it isn't ready. Just don't screw up.

Well if we're counting just text scans, then all of the major bosses in Corruption are 'foreshadowed' by the time you leave Norion. And not just in writing either: Bryyo definitely bears Rundas' mark.

My point was the foreshadowing for Amorbis, Phaaze, and I guess Metroid Prime itself was special.

@blaisedinsd yes.

So far, I've only played the first Metroid Prime. I loved the game, but I gotta agree that Magmoor Caverns was a huge pain. My least favorite room was the one with those annoying defense turrets that seemed to respawn on every trip through. Some of the environments got a bit same-y as well due to backtracking. However, the game's positives far outweigh the negatives in my book.

Reading the feedback on Echoes in this thread has me more excited about starting it now. The internet in general seems to consider it the weakest entry in the series.

@Tyranexx It's by far the most difficult Prime game, which is why people hate on it / don't complete it I think.

@Tyranexx
I found travelling between worlds in Echoes a pain in the backside. In particular when you have to go through several in the space of a few minutes. The first is definitely my favourite.