Topic: Metroid Dread

That final boss was a bit (a lot?) overwhelming at first. Took plenty of tries to finally get it done - which by that stage of the game, I knew would be the case anyway. Great feeling of satisfaction when it is done, though.

@skywake, yeah i gave up after my 43th, saw the end cutscene on YouTube and moved on to Dying Light😂

@Tendo64 I actually found him to be easier than the gold chozo warrior lol

The quality of this game really, really puts Capcom’s Mega Man 11 to shame

@NintendoByNature For me all the Chozo Warriors were easy since the same strategy worked with all of them. Wait for the melee attack, dodge by jumping and doing Flash Shift, use Missiles/ Storm Missiles, rinse and repeat. Oh, and evade the dark beam thing while charging even more Storm Missile damage. I think I lost once to one of them because I got distracted.

The last boss was similar once you learned his patterns, but his speed and different phases required more adaptability and more tools. For example, countering properly, Storm Missiles for doing damage and destroying dark orbs and Power Bomb for the fire orb. He destroyed me in my first 2 tries and even made me consider to search for more energy tanks.

@roy130390 hah! It's funny how people are all struggling differently. I think the final boss took me 7 or so tries if my memory serves me correctly. Really wasn't that bad.

The great thing about metroid games is that each boss usually has a way to gain back health and missiles. And the power bomb strategy made it a heck of alot easier.

Once it all clicked for me on the final boss, it was all pretty straightforward. The key for me was just overcoming that second stage (getting there became easy).

I would have knocked over the final phase on my first go of getting there had my game not glitched/thrown me under a bus... at least I think that's what happened. Used a power bomb for you know what, then it hard cut straight to a parry scene and I had no idea wtf to do in that split second, he knocked me on my arse and it was goodnight Irene.

So I did it all again straight after that, and finished him with several energy tanks intact. The black orbs and sun orbs are a godsend in a fight like that - you've just got to take advantage of them each time.

Have seen some walkthroughs on YouTube of that fight, and gee, some of those people really make it hard work, especially with those sun orbs. There is absolutely no need.

Getting what are traditionally late game upgrades, Space Jump, Gravity Suit, so I imagine I must be getting close now.

While I appreciate that they wanted to try something new, and they're novel enough the first few times, I ultimately don't think the game's better off with the E.M.M.I., and am enjoying it more during the more traditional gameplay.

@Tendo64
I definitely attempted him a few more times than others here have, clearly I'm not as good at games as some people. But yeah once it clicked on the first phase it became relatively easy. Not even bothering with storm missiles helped a lot, eventually I got to the point where I was consistently getting to the second phase with full health. Which is relatively easy given the amount of options for energy recovery you get

Then the second phase is just survival. Dodging the attacks enough that you don't loose all your health and getting enough hits in. The lack of health recovery is what makes this bit tricky, doesn't take many mistakes to die. Once I got past that the last phase was trivial, you already know the patterns by this stage and you can recover health again

I did get frustrated with it yesterday and went back and look for more energy tanks. In the end I'm not entirely sure I needed them because I got into the last phase with 3 left on my successful run.

Same here, especially the going back and looking for energy tanks. I wasn't successful at finding any as the only ones left to get I think were the shine spark ones... and after trying to learn that, I just thought f*** it, gave up and went back to Raven Beak. Didn't matter anyway as the 7 energy tanks I had were enough.

Wondering if it's worth going back now and learning shine spark for the sake of getting those items, but meh, I've never really been a 'completionist' and it seems futile anyway with the sting gone out it all, with the game finished.

Absolutely fantastic game.

3 criticisms

1. you get the scan ability a little bit to soon, I think. I like interacting with the world wondering where the secrets might be. One way you could do it well is by having it being a optional secret pick-up very late, for the diehards, to help you do a 100%. Also, I would like it more for it to be a real scanner, like in super Metroid, only not for it being cumbersome.

2. There's a little bit too much going back and forth between areas sometimes, without you knowing why really.

3. The game "talks" a bit too much for my liking and I'm not even referring to Adam only. I don't like the tutorials, with video capture and all. It takes me out of the experience. It's really the way designers do it lately, Spiderman and GOW are also guilty of this iirc. Let me get a new ability and force me to learn how to use it, in game, immediately.

@JoyBoy The Scan ability is actually not supposed to be obtained until near end game when you reach that area without the teleporter. There's a sequence break you can do to get it early though by reaching the teleporter, I'm guessing you did that? (I did too on my first playthough, but a lot of people I talked to completely missed it. You have to double back hard after the Varia Suit blocks you off and then fire at some unmarked rocks and do a slightly tricky jump. Definitely the easiest sequence break, but still most people don't get it that early.)

Wave beam!!!

I went back and got a TON of secrets, all kinds of shine spark challenges and other challenges, ones I thought were impossible before. There's still a healthy list of ones I haven't gotten back to yet that I still don't know how I'm gonna get, but... progress, right?

I've also found newer abilities made old challenges pretty trivial.

Oh, and I got that Purple EMMI on my first try. I was definitely feeling the dread though! Boy was I feeling it.

@JoyBoy
Kinda lost me with that 3rd one. The video tutorials are incredible and something I wish all games did. I can appreciate you personally wanting to figure it out, but I don't think that's a valid criticism for the game's design. Most ppl want to know what the thing they just got does. There are certain things that are best left in a bygone era.

@JaxonH Ofcourse, I, like everyone else, wants to know what the item or power up does. You can actually do that in-game though. For me, it takes me out of the game seeing it like that. So it's valid, maybe personal but still valid. To each their own.

Completed my second playthrough of the game over the weekend, and Dread got better, but not enough to really change my Top 5 Metroid games. My rankings would be 1. Hunters, 2. Federation Force, 3. Super, 4. Dread and 5. Other M. I was 9 minutes over getting the best ending for Normal Mode, but I know I can make the time considering I was practicing how to underwater bomb jump in Ghavoran and was confused on how to leave Burenia after getting the Gravity Suit early before the Space Jump. Once I get that ending, I'll try and get a clean sweep of the Hard Mode endings in a 4th run. I should have Metroid Dread fully completed before the end of the year.

This is one of the reasons why I still give the edge to Super Metroid over Metroid Dread as the best traditional Metroid game experience. It's a very little detail, but when discussing the best, that can be the difference. Dread would be even better if it did quickly teach the player in-game and kept it moving rather than briefly pausing a player's momentum.

@I-U I'd say an even better option would be to keep the videos for those who need them, but stick them in the menu. If someone goes to the Samus screen and clicks an ability, they can see the video and explanation.

@link3710 I would agree. In fairness to Dread, an ability like Speed Booster has evolved mechanically here with the ability to keep momentum via wall jumps and sliding. It would be difficult to teach all the mechanics with that in a single instance after acquiring the ability.

@I-U Wait was that in the tutorial? I had to figure that all out by accident trying to figure out the evil puzzles. Whiiiich goes to show how much I read those.

@link3710 I don't think it was? Which makes it even stranger because they make you think they teach you all there is to know.

Consistency is the thing here, because they do actually force you to learn certain things like the cross bomb trick.

I really really like this game though, so it's up there for me with super and prime. Super Metroid beginning is still one of the greatest intro sequence in gaming history in terms of storytelling and learning the mechanics, imo. It's really weird they never emulated that. And in dread... the intro is a bit meh: Adam talking way too much and telling you things the game already told you 2 minutes ago. Doesn't exactly flow nicely but the game becomes so good after that it's easy to forgive. And the attention to detail with how Samus feels and controls and reacts to its environment is next level good stuff!

Beat the game for the first time last night - 23hrs 17mins, having taken the time to colour in most of the map as I went, and getting stuck for a couple of hours. 69% completion. I was going to carry on exploring before going to the final part, but 69 had a nice ring to it. Actual time in game though is nearly 40hrs already. Enjoyed the ending, but even that took me two attempts at each phase.

Really good game, I couldn't give it a 10 but it's an easy 9. Playability was absolutely 10 (despite me struggling at crucial times with the space jump evasion/navigation, I enjoyed the EMMI aspect, and it's rare I play a game from start to finish without interrupting to play other games, but I felt the sound design, music and writing, while absolutely fine in the most part, weren't quite at the level required to make the game a 10 for me. And all the delays every time you stood on a travel pad and it showed you the map, then blinked a bit, then asked you if you wanted to travel... a bit tedious and made me avoid using the travel sometimes.