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

@subpopz It;'s obvious what's coming - Metroid Anthem - always online, open world pew pew shooter. Calling it now!

@FragRed I can see Reggie now; “in Metroid Prime 4; Federation Wars, it’s 4 times the fun. We’ve taken the critically acclaimed fan favorite Federation Force and expanded the universe into an always connected living world.”

@Dezzy I might be wrong but aren't people usually more interested in exploring the world than focus on side missions? My anecdote here is that usually I just wondered around in Hyrule and usually found some new places or ended up in fight. Obviously that is just my experience, but I think it's not bad to give freedom of choice to do anything to the player even on a Metroid game.

I want to chime in in the discussion about open world or restricted world. A true open world would deter me from the actual game and the mission at hand. It happened at so many games already and I'd rather would love the game slowly guiding me through the world.

That said I am not against having three or four sections at once where one could progress in any order with more being available so there will be a lot more freedom.

Warframe is a good example of having corridor levels on planet surfaces or in orbital spaceships, but also a wide openworld area that adds so much to the world's atmosphere (and there's exciting stuff like rng missions and even a nearby town - not to mention it's an mmo.) I don't think all of this needs to be in Metroid (especially not the farming for materials), but is it too much to ask for a new Metroid Prime game that can showcase at least some of the modern features and technical highlights that, of all things, a third party F2P Switch game did months ago?

Can we talk about Metroid Prime Trilogy HD here as well?
I already have the Trilogy disc on Wii, and the 3 games separately on Gamecube/Wii, but a HD treatment is long overdue! (I kinda wish they saved the trilogy for Wii U so we could have all three games in HD already). Thinking about the heavily rumoured remaster I got some suggestions and wishes:

First off, let me say that I think that Metroid Prime Hunters had the potential to be Nintendo's fps eSport game long before Splatoon! That was before hackers took over the Nintendo DS online scene.

So, I would add a fourth game called Metroid Prime Hunters X and make it the main attraction!
An online multiplayer fps that builds on Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, Metroid Prime Hunters, and Metroid Prime: Federation Force, but especially on the framework of Hunters (with Echoes' multiplayer stages as a bonus and Federation Force's extra modes). I'd do everything to bring Metroid into the online eSports market again.

Other than that people wanted the friend vouchers from MP3:C to be gone. I didn't like them either. I missed a bunch of content that couldn't be unlocked without sharing vouchers with other people playing through MP3:C. You just hoped the few online friends with MP3:C had the extremely limited vouchers in all the colors you needed. I'd change that facebooky mess and make all of its content regular unlockables.

@SKTTR I prefer a good game over a couple of "technical highlights" to be fair. More open environments also means less detail and less room for "modern technical highlights", so it just depends on your point of view.

@Octane

Technical highlights never make a (good) game worse. They would make them more exciting for people that aren't already the 1 million hardcore Metroid fans. Technical highlights would boost its popularity.

Seeing all new graphics in Smash instead of it being a quick Wii U port boosted its popularity.
Zelda openworld graphics boosted its popularity.
Technical highlights aren't just neccessary, they are expected, especially from big franchises.

It seems you want Metroid to be a one million seller, but is 1 million enough for Prime 4? Isn't it time to elevate the series to its full potential so it can sell as much as Zelda, Smash, Pokémon, or at least other fps games like Halo and Call of Duty? Metroid is better than them, isn't it? It just is not reflected in its sales!

I know that open environments need more graphical power, though that does not mean that games (BoTW, Warframe) can't shine in both territories at the same time. Why do you expect less from Metroid?

In the end the only differences that open world Metroid makes is removing doors from environments that shouldn't have any in the first place.

@SKTTR It depends. If you consider ''open world'' a technical highlight, then yes, it can make a game worse if it has no business being an open world game. We get so many open world for the sake of being open world games these days, we don't need more of them.

Who says it's only going to sell one million though? Games on the Switch seem to outsell their predecessors. The Switch is like the Wii in terms of numbers, but with an audience that's actually interested in games other than Wii Sports. The Metroid Prime games never received the marketing a Mario would get, they were all released in an era when mainstream internet news coverage was hardly a thing. GameCube didn't have the numbers, and the Wii didn't have the audience. So I don't think you can compare them 1-to-1 and conclude that a sequel won't sell a lot without doing something radically different.

No, in my example I considered open world + rng missions + roaming wildlife + day/night cycle + nearby town + mmo a technical highlight. I consider having tons of exciting stuff to do and find in an open world a technical highlight.

I want underground labyrinths, and unlocking new paths with permanent powerups just like anyone else. And the only way an openworld area would work is as a hub. You could unlock paths/shortcuts from the underground to the overworld, and maybe even vice versa. No one would miss their Metroid experience, but you still get a nice Tallon IV / Zebes-like hub to explore.

However, if it's just "another" Metroid Prime it will sell like just another Metroid Prime. Maybe it will sell double because it's on Switch. And while that may be enough for many, that's still far from Halo, CoD, or even Splatoon sales numbers, which is poor for a game that's the namegiver for an entire genre.

Have a multiplayer Metroid with different cosmetic armors akin to Fortnite or Halo 3. Or have a PvE multiplayer akin to Mass Effect. In the world, but separate.

1. Another attempt at online multiplayer Metroid Prime would be cool, but only if zero resources are taken from making the actual single player Metroid Prime team. (read: don't make the mistake every other 360 era shooter took)
2. Open World has a specific meaning in triple A games to mean an open world that actively exists specifically to impress people with the large size and relative ease to go to the vast majority of the game ASAP, and other such things that would be questionable to terrible ideas for Metroid. The fact that open world doesn't have to mean that doesn't mean that isn't how it's generally used by most big companies who make games. And Metroid Prime's appeal is partially because it is not like other games and at times is anti-AAA games, so unless people know exactly what they're doing, they shouldn't bother and just make the best Metroid possible instead of changing it in ways solely to appeal to people whose entire understanding of a good and successful video game are current-day buzzwords.

Also, while trying to get your game series more successful is admirable, if you take away what it makes it unique, it's a huge risk. One that often doesn't work out even in terms of sales, and even more often doesn't work for people who have actual artistic integrity or respect for their audience. Which considering they cancelled a version of Prime 4 just because it didn't seem to be a good game, probably not the direction they'll take it. Making a good Metroid is also a better idea than failing to get Halo fans to play a game they'll never actually play by being a poor man's Halo (even ignoring lololololNSOlolololol)

Innovation is also good but only if it's actually...done well. Paper Mario: Sticker Star, end of sentence.

btw: did people consider mario odyssey open world, it's really not, it's banjo kazooie-like, banjo kazooie is not open world so i hope that's not what people said it is. mario didn't go open world so why would metroid, that would be the dumbest ideaaaaaaaaaa

I agree that having 3 to 4 areas would be good for Metroid Prime games. Also I would like to have larger areas but without excessive freedom.

here's what i want to see

1. NO MORE PHAZON!
let it die. it wore it's welcome out long after metroid prime 2 and metroid prime 3 just got silly with it. use a different plot device if you want, but just stop with the phaozn. Phazon has been a mcguffin for all 3 metroid prime games honestly i think its had more time in the spot light then metroids have.

2. bring in more of the old school creatures.
like Sidehoppers and its big brother Baristute, Waver, Geruta, Ripper, have later stages of metroid besides metroid larva. It would be real neat to see alpha, Gamma, zeta, and omega metroid have there debut in a mteroid prime game.
let bosses like, Kraid and Crocomire have a chance in the spot light. lets see the return of torizo.
it would also be nice to see the speed boost using Dachora and wall jumping Etecoons again.

3. Other hunters
despite how much i think prime hunters was the worst metroid game to date (yes i disliked it more then people hate other m shocker.) i did like the idea of having more intelligent alien species that were not 1. dead like the chozo and 2. space pirates and g feds (yes i know g feds are not exclusively humans, but they are the only ones we've seen in game. can't speak for metroid federations as I've not played it.)

4. samus moving like actual samus.

No more snail speed tank suit samus. Give me speed boost give me the actual space jump( since the last 3 metroid prime games space jump worked more like high jump then space jump.) we live in times where we have games like DOOM 2016 and Bright Memory (not to mention Mirrors Edge that came out 11 years ago.) lets do away with the broken legs FPS games already. i shouldn't have to spend 90% of the game using boost ball to get around in a timely manner. Samus has traditionally ran faster then her morph ball mode. mrophball should be for small spaces not a car. Also she should be able to grab onto all ledges. wall jumps should be a natural thing not tied to screw attack.

5. weapons working the way they should.

make plasma beam green and pierce through enemies. stop making it just fire beam
wave beam should go through the environment. not be just electric beam.
add in old beams like spazer beam/wide beam. we have plenty of games with shot gun patters. pretty sure its not that hard to implement.
let her beams be mixed and matched like in super metroid.
screw attack should be the attack it was in the metroidvania games. in the prime games it has the damage output of spin jump from the 2d games which was basically charge beam and jumping at enemies.

6. Bigger maps and more of them.

with the expectation of Echoes. i found that hunters, prime 1 and 3.
had depressingly small and few maps.
(and yes i know echos basicly had 4 areas, not counting the dark worlds.) but counting the dark woulds thats still 3 more levels then the first game which had
talon overworld, chozo ruins, magmoor caverns, phendna drifts phazon mines
and don't get me started on. prime 3
total of 4 locations not counting the tiny derelict ship.
and SkyTown was basically one giant gimmick level with the grapple hook to grind around.
(not counting final areas since those aren't really exploration based.0

7. please let it take place after fusion.

after super metroid (which is my 2nd most favorite game.) fusion was one of my all time favorites. it would be nice to see a continuation after it left off.

seeing metroid the mother of single player metroidvania games devolve into another generic esport multiplayer vs game is the last thing i want to see metroid become. i would rather have metroid other m 2 then that.

Bump

It's only a rumor, but word round the campfire is that Armature Studio (a development studio built by former Retro Studios staff members) is assisting Retro Studios in order to fast-track Metroid Prime 4 development.

@Magician Have you been listening to a certain youtuber?

I can't deny that his content is compelling, and his facetious attitude equally entertaining.

@Magician Lol, yep, we are talking about the same person. I do like his content. Surprised his channel hasn't blown up yet.

I remember following the first few games they did and whilst they weren't bad, they weren't great either. The main ones I remember were ReCore & Batman Blackgatewhich seemed could have been great but were just executed poorly.

Interesting to hear. Assuming it's true, I totally wouldn't mind. The more people that worked on the original Metroid Primes, the better, IMO.

So now there saying there's going to be 4 new metroid games coming soon . I think I'll go and by a switch now