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

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Diddy64

@EvilLucario In other words, it is possible that the next 2D Metroid would be like a reboot of the X-Parasites story? That's certainty interesting. I'll be up for that to see how they handle those overpowered lifeforms.

Undergoing games:
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EvilLucario

@Diddy64 If by reboot you mean Metroid 5, then that's been teased in the secret images in Samus Returns but it had nothing to do with the X parasites. I was saying that they were planning to remake Fusion, but they scrapped that idea to remake Metroid II instead.

Also, the X was wiped out in Fusion so I don't think that would work for Metroid 5.

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Cotillion

If there's a Metroid that takes place post-Fusion, I sure hope they add in some way she gets the bulky Varia suit back. I am not a fan of the Fusion suit design at all.

Cotillion

kkslider5552000

I'd be surprised if the X came back, just because they were a new threat in a "less popular than the most popular" Metroid game more than anything. Ridley and Metroid were there from the beginning and in all the most popular games. (even ignoring that Ridley in Smash confirms Ridley will never die ever now :V)

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I-U

The X-Parasite threat was nicely wrapped up in my opinion. It took the destruction of their home planet and the B.S.L. to get rid of them. If they were brought back, Nintendo might be in another situation where they have to write them out like Phazon. The X-Parasites also are no where near Ridley's level, so I don't know how one returning is comparable to the other. Ridley is iconic, tied to a broad, organized threat and is a better match up for Samus. X-Parasites are wild and are an OP threat that Samus herself would not be able to defeat. X-Parasites are the one OP threat that the series did right.

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Grumblevolcano

Phazon and Dark Samus is probably going to go the way of Halo's Flood, you think it's gone but some very specific situation means it's not gone and will return someday. Given how much Prime 4 means for the future of the Metroid franchise, I'd guess it returns in Prime 4 to be safe.

Grumblevolcano

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Diddy64

@EvilLucario True. I got confused by the ending where an X-Parasite infected a creature, but completely forgot about the secret images where (SPOILERS AHEAD) the chozo that arrived on the planet, annihilate the ones in SR388. If they choose to put these as the new villains in Metroid 5, what will happen with the (MAJOR FUSION SPOILER) corrupted side of the Galactic Ferderation?

Undergoing games:
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

Ninfan

I know people told me to just listen for news about Metroid 4, but has anyone heard anything about it lately, I mean its been nearly 2 years since Nintendo started working on it....you would think they would have said something by now. I hope i hear something soon.

Ninfan

Spoony_Tech

It's been barely a year since they said they we're handing it over to Retro Studios. We probably won't hear anything till next year at the earliest.

Edited on by Spoony_Tech

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MERG said:

If I was only ever able to have Monster Hunter and EO games in the future, I would be a happy man.

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Dezzy

I'm guessing a christmas 2021 release. They'll release the Prime Trilogy HD first though. Either later this year or early 2021.

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NintendoWiiDS

I think we could see it launch around spring/summer of 2022. It’s a large game with a massive scope so Retro will need time to do the series justice

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Justifier

We don't know if it is "a large game with a massive scope". But I would think that they need at least 3 years. Let's just hope that we see it on Switch.

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Bolt_Strike

So I was watching Arlo's video on his wishes for Prime 4 and it got me thinking about what I want out of this game again.

So as he was saying, and as I think we're all aware of, this game needs to knock it out of the park and sell well for this series to continue. To do that, I think this game should put emphasis on being as ambitious, widely appealing, and personalized as possible. Those are the kinds of experiences that people really gravitate towards on the Switch. BotW, Mario Odyssey, Smash Ultimate, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, many of the top selling Switch games are top sellers because a lot of different people can enjoy them a lot of different ways for as long as possible. It should still stay fairly faithful, but at the same time it shouldn't be afraid to make some changes that actually improve the game in those ways, that's why BotW and Odyssey in particular have been praised to high heaven and raked in millions of sales and numerous awards and accolades. Here are a couple of ways I think they can do that:

-Keep the traditional corridor-esque Metroidvania design, but make the rooms and areas larger. Also put emphasis on encouraging players to sequence break and experiment with Samus' abilities, if players can find their own way to navigate the game, let them.
-Give players more options for customizing their weaponry. The missile combos were nice optional powerups, and Prime 2's beta saw they were experimenting with doing the same for the Power Bombs. Why not just go wild with it and allow players to customize all of their weaponry like that? Beams, Missiles, Bombs, hell maybe even the Boost Ball or Screw Attack! It would give the combat and maybe even the exploration a lot more depth.
-Add a sidequest system. Metroid's extra content and replay value is fine with the extra expansions and logbook entries, but I feel they could take it a step further. Samus is a bounty hunter, so having optional bonus missions makes a lot of sense. They could do things like have you defeat X amount of enemies, defeat a really tough enemy, find a particular item, escort missions, etc. Think like Pokemon Mystery Dungeon's quests. Rewards could be expansions, or maybe a currency system that you could use to purchase expansions, upgrades, and customization options.
-Multiplayer. Even though Metroid is traditionally a very single player experience, multiplayer offers tons of interaction and replay value, so anywhere you can add it where it fits the core gameplay is a plus. Bring back Prime 2's multiplayer, and maybe update it once and a while with new maps. Arlo mentioned a co-op mode like Salmon Run or Scarescraper, maybe you could team up on side missions and take on raid bosses and things like that.
-Fast travel should be a must, especially if they go for a more eclectic and natural map design like Prime 1. I still have bad memories of Prime 1 from where you got the Boost Ball in Phendrana, then had to backtrack ALL the way to the other side of the map to Tallon Overworld to get the Space Jump, then go ALL the way to the other side of the map again back to Phendrana to get the Wave Beam. Let's have none of that in this game, please.
-Also, they should provide a way to get logbook entries you missed in some way. Nothing's more irritating in a Prime game then going through the game then finding out you didn't scan a boss or some enemy that disappears later in the game and needing to start the entire game over to get 100%. They could do something like have a simulator where you could rematch bosses you already defeated or have them show up again in sidequests or something.

Well, that's about all I can think of. There are some somewhat drastic changes here that I could see causing some controversy because it changes the experience somewhat, but I think it's necessary. Metroid needs to evolve for it to be more than just a several million seller and gain enough popularity to be a more regular part of the lineup. The series could easily still retain its identity as a mazelike shooter in a hostile alien environment where you use powerups to grow stronger and explore, but I think some aspects of the formula are too limiting for this series and they need to be more flexible to make the series more broadly appealing.

Bolt_Strike

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Spoony_Tech

How about they just market the game better and call it a day lol. Even if they give it 25% of the Animal Crossing marketing it should sell well.

Will that make the game good no, but if they had marketed the last 3 better who knows what the sales would be.

Edited on by Spoony_Tech

John 8:7 He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.

MERG said:

If I was only ever able to have Monster Hunter and EO games in the future, I would be a happy man.

I'm memory of @Mr_Trill_281 (rip) 3-25-18

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Bolt_Strike

DarthNocturnal wrote:

Retro actually pitched bounties for Prime 3. It was shot down.

They shot it down because Samus' job as a "bounty hunter" is an inaccurate translation and she's more of a military contractor. Side missions fits Nintendo's vision for Samus' job description.

DarthNocturnal wrote:

And finding secrets that lead to power ups or expansions is more satisfying then “Kill 50 Zoomers“.

Who said anything about the latter replacing the former? They should really have both, with the missions providing more opportunities for upgrades beyond traditional expansions hidden in the map. And they shouldn't really implement it in such a mundane and tedious way as "Kill 50 Zoomers" anyway, the mission objectives should be something that requires effort and exploration to find. I imagine more along the lines of having a handful of enemies scattered throughout an area or section of the map and you would have to go from room to room hunting them or make it to secluded portions of the map. In that way, it'd fit the spirit of the gameplay a little more by having you wander around looking for your objective instead of making it a tedious grind.

DarthNocturnal wrote:

Prime 3 and Trilogy had a NG+ of sorts where you could bring your logbook into another playthrough. It's not as ideal as a simple “go here to retrieve any missed logs“ like TTYD, but then Metroid games aren't very long anyway.

NG+ doesn't quite solve the problem because you still have to go through the tedium of replaying the entire game just to find the handful of scans you're looking for. Usually NG+ works best in games where you want to rechallenge the game using abilities you've obtained in your first playthrough, like maybe if you wanted to go through the game all over again with all of Samus' abilities unlocked and make the game open world with tougher enemies or something that would be a good use of NG+, but starting over with your logbook entries saved is kind of pointless and doesn't have much impact on the gameplay, it's just a band-aid solution for poorly thought out log entry placement and guidance.

Also, you might not know which scans have logbook entries and the logbook isn't always helpful in what to look for. For example, when I played Prime 1 I completely ignored Ice Shriekbats because I couldn't tell they were a different species of Shriekbats only to find out they were later after they disappeared. Other players might also have trouble telling if certain forms of bosses are a separate scan (Prime 2 is especially guilty of this, with the Temple bosses having several scans each and it's not always easy to tell when a certain state change for the boss is a separate entry).

Bolt_Strike

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Grumblevolcano

Prime 4 has the same kind of problems facing it as Halo Infinite. Highly anticipated game that was announced a few years too early and still has no gameplay yet, some people want the gameplay to evolve while others want to gameplay to be the same as it was in the classic trilogy (Halo 1-3/Prime 1-3).

I think what happens with Halo Infinite may be an interesting insight into how Prime 4 will turn out.

Grumblevolcano

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Bolt_Strike

@Ninfan Nothing significant, no, just random mentions of the development. Nothing really seemed to prompt Arlo to make that video, I guess he just felt like talking about it.

@DarthNocturnal Never really played Doom Eternal but hearing the word "gauntlet" makes it sound unappetizing. Gauntlets tend to be linear slogs with almost nothing but enemies, and IMO that doesn't fit Metroid super well since they're almost pure combat and not really fun to explore. I always hate when they make the later game areas more gauntlet-esque like Maridia or Phazon Mines or Pirate Homeworld. Speaking of that, can we not have an area like that at the end of the game? I'm sick of them flanderizing the exploration to make the later game areas feel more challenging.

Edited on by Bolt_Strike

Bolt_Strike

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Bolt_Strike

@DarthNocturnal It's not so much that those areas were hard, as much as they were boring. You just go through a linear string of rooms fighting enemies until you reach the next powerup. No real exploring or figuring out where to go, it's just go to the next room and fight more enemies.

Those sound like the gates from Astral Chain. Which I guess is kind of close to what I'm suggesting, except there's no real need to teleport you to a different area. Just go to the area and there's one or more enemies waiting for you.

Bolt_Strike

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Bolt_Strike

@Grumblevolcano Forgot to respond to this one.

Yeah, trying to figure out how much to change can be tricky business, because they can easily change too much (Federation Force, Sticker Star) or too little (NSMB). But again, the most well received changes tend to be the ones that make the series more ambitious and widely appealing while sticking with the series' roots. This is why BotW and Mario Odyssey were so insanely successful. If Prime 4 is just a by the numbers Prime game, it'll probably mildly disappoint and sell just okay like other Prime games. A decade and a half since the last Prime game, with a console capable of so much more than the Wii, and they can't modernize the gameplay? That is a surefire way to keep Prime as a relatively low selling series that isn't worth Nintendo's time.

Bolt_Strike

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