Topic: Metroid Dread

I countered the yellow E.M.M.I. three times in a row. I went into another area and it basically jumpscared me. Must've been right in front of me because I instantly went into the kill animation O_O I feel like the shock enhanced my ability to react because I countered it three times while getting away despite never countering an E.M.M.I. before. Good times.

@StuTwo Dying and losing progress still is a definite issue in Dread... (It happened to me once or twice), but only during the exploration segments. The insta-death EMMI and the bosses are areas you would save every time before you enter otherwise, since the chances of dying are so high. And having to run back over to the boss every time you want to retry isn't exactly the most thrilling gameplay.

@skywake Yeah, I've got 35 missiles, but it's easy to run of them if you spam them and miss..!

@Snaplocket
What sold you, out of curiosity?

We've kinda witnessed the whole turnaround from, "not interested" to "ok maybe it looks decent" to "definitely getting this".

Wow... this is absolutely sick.

I found this hidden room, too. But I couldn't figure out a way to cross the magma. If you do, you can sequence break to get grapple beam early, which lets you sequence break to get morph ball bombs early, which allows you to do a special insta-kill maneuver in the 2nd phase of a certain "boss who shall not be named"

The sheer depth of brilliance in the game design is mind boggling. Older games had sequence breaking unintentionally. But this game was intentional about it, as they knew it was something fans valued.

Didn't realise all the hoopla around the yellow EMMI until I'd long beaten it and had read all the comments here about it. Thought it was just my incompetence that kept getting me killed! Did think at the time that it seemed faster than the others, though.

Good early sales news from the U.K.

“Metroid Dread is the biggest launch for the franchise in UK chart history, beating Metroid Prime 3: Corruption on Wii by a good margin. And this is without digital downloads. Metroid is a smaller franchise for Nintendo. It is the fifth biggest Switch launch of the year, behind Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury, Zelda: Skyward Sword, Monster Hunter Rise and New Pokemon Snap.”

Mine finally arrived, I can't believe how smooth it feels to use Samus. It's been... What? Like 15 years since Fusions came out? Here's the next chapter right in my hands and it's still surreal. I was a little worried that my expectations might have been a little too high since I love Metroid more than any other thing from Nintendo, but in a couple hours this game has surpassed them. I really love how this game feels.

Serious question, I tried posting in another thread: What is the point of the EMMI fights? In playthroughs I've watched, when people die enough, the EMMI spawns in a different location so that the player can simply proceed without being hindered. What's the point of them if they get out of the way if you die too much?

@BloodNinja Eventually you have to fight them, as each one gives you a new ability. I can't speak to them "getting out of the way" as I never died more than a few times to each one, but their movement is somewhat randomized, so perhaps spawn locations are, too?

@BloodNinja
They don't. Its all random where they search. If they appear to "get out of the way" it's only because they randomly searched a different area. The AI in this game is incredible. They don't just patrol the same path loop over and over where you can learn how to get through.

And you better believe they will find you. Any sounds in their vicinity, and they're coming with the quickness.

@electrolite77
So, let's do some dubious extrapolation, shall we 😉

New Pokémon Snap managed to sell 2.07 million in the west from April to June 30th, about a 2 month period. It also sold about 150k in Japan it's first week. Let's play it safe and assume it only did another 30k in Japan in the following 7 weeks (highly unlikely, but let's be conservative).

That's about 2.25 million in 2 months. Let's call it 2.5 million today as that adds another 3.5 months of sales, so it should land somewhere around 2.5m sold as of today.

Metroid, at least in the UK, charted behind Pokémon Snap. IF that trend held worldwide, I would say we're looking at 2-2.5 million sold by year's end.

However.

Metroid is much stronger in the US than in the UK. I feel confident it will have outplayed Snap in NA. Maybe a bit less in Japan? Hard to say. Dread seems to be doing much better though so I'm hoping for around the same numbers in Japan as Snap.

The question is, how much better is it doing in the US, and what will its tail shelf life look like? Snap fell off pretty quickly, tbh. Yet Metroid has maintained its status in the Amazon charts as the #1 game for 3 weeks running with no sign of letting up. I suspect this game is going to have legs. And if it does. If this game can tail off into the holiday season... I think we could very well be at 3 million sold by New Years.

Now. Maybe it shatters all expectations in the US and does even more. But right now, I think it's a reasonable estimate to land around 3 million sold by New Years. But if the game gets perma-legs, we could see that inch up to 4 or 5 over the course of the remaining generation.

@JaxonH @Dr_Corndog It definitely sounds interesting. I hate what they did with the lore at the end, but that’s ok as long as the game part is fun. Plus someone else mentioned to me that you can skip cut scenes/dialogue, so as someone who is primarily interested in speed runs that sounds appealing to me. I’m also discovering a lot of information about sequence breaks, which is where the fun is in these games, for me.

I dunno. As outspoken as I have been about the game, I might end up actually grabbing it at some point soon.

@BloodNinja
Unless someone downright hates Metroid, I can't imagine anyone buying this game and not having fun. Its so good. Maybe even my GotY above Monster Hunter Rise, and I never thought I'd say that about a Monster Hunter game.

I just did a sequence break for the grappling hook because I couldn't figure out where to go. But then as soon as I did, I figured out where I was supposed to go, and it turns out I was like 15 minutes away from getting it naturally anyways lol. But it still felt good.

@JaxonH Yeah, I’m getting more confidence in it the more I watch. It looks especially fascinating as a speed game. I wonder if Zoasty will ever pick it up? He’s been grinding Super Metroid Impossible and trying to maintain his world record there, and he just got a few world records in various categories in standard Super Metroid. Have you ever seen the reverse boss order run? Seriously blows my mind.

@BloodNinja
No, I haven't really watched any Metroid speed runs. Only playthroughs here and there.

People are only just now starting to discover the sequence breaks though. There's 2 I know of. But I saw a video title that seemed to imply there's a third someone discovered.

The game is just so fun to play, I may replay it again once I finish. That or play through Samus Returns or Super Metroid. Or better yet, go through the entire series with Zero Mission on 3DS GBA emulator, then Samus Returns on 3DS, then Super Metroid on Switch, then Fusion on 3DS GBA emulator, and then Dread. I really want to replay the Prime games, but I'm desperately holding out in hopes of a Prime remaster. They're supposedly remastering/remaking the first Prime. That would be enough to hold me off til Prime 4. I don't wanna deal with the older control scheme.

@JaxonH I honestly think Prime should be on PC, with mouse and keyboard controls, but that's just me

That's reverse boss order. You start with Ridley, and work your way backwards. A lot of the beginning of the run is item-prep, so that you can survive the constant damage while in Norfair, but it's fascinating to see the game "broken" like that. The run through Norfair without the Varia suit always makes my butt clench, even if I'm not playing!

@BloodNinja
Eek, I can't stand using a mouse or keyboard for video games. Typewriter just wasn't designed with games in mind, and mouse doesn't work kicked back in the recliner (though I do like it's precision).

I've found dual analog aiming with Gyro to dial it in to be the best control scheme ever created. 90% of the accuracy of a mouse while retaining the flexibility and comfort of a controller. It's like having your cake and eating it too. And I'm fairly confident the Prime remaster will use such a control scheme.

Behold the Wonders of the Gyro Analog Hybrid Control Scheme

And that doesn't surprise me. People do a lot of crazy stuff with older games.

@JaxonH Jesus Christ, I couldn't watch that LOL

@BloodNinja
It's crazy accurate, right?! If I didn't tell you he was using a controller, you probably wouldn't believe it.

This is the future of video games.