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

@Tyranexx The limited beam ammo adds to game's "horror" atmosphere, at least before you get to expand it. Like grabbing your first shotgun in Resident Evil (the charged Light Beam is even basically a shotgun blast!), you now have a weapon that can really hurt the monsters you've been facing up until now, but you also have to be mindful of when and how you use it. Though, it's mitigated by the fact that pickup containers are EVERYWHERE, so it's not too difficult to hold enough ammo for times that it is needed (if you DO run dry, you can charge to fire a basic shot for door-opening purposes). The logic for getting opposite beam ammo is to keep you from continuously blasting enemies with lucky drops, and eventually have to either search for weaker things to kill in order to find more or fall back on a weaker beam.

I personally liked this as it encouraged different approaches across different scenarios, instead of just always using the most powerful beam at the given moment (you pretty much never had to switch off of the Plasma Beam in Prime 1 for anything other than colour immunities or the odd super-long distance shot).

@Tyranexx Did you 100% Prime 1 and see the secret ending? It shows something about Dark Samus that you might not be aware of...

For anyone interested in where the former retro employees are now:

After seeing that I'm not so sure I would want Retro working on the new Prime lol. Reminds me too much of what happened to Rare. There is a good reason why Nintendo let them go.

@Spoony_Tech Keep in mind there's like 70 people working at Retro and that all these are people who left the company between 2001 and 2017. If the last DK titles are anything to go by, they still have talent in spades. Can't wait to see what they've been working on, personally.

That's what I've been saying for years. The current team can make an amazing DK game, but they have little experience with Metroid. So I never understood why anyone wanted Retro to make another Prime game.

I think the situation is a bit different from Rare however, since Nintendo actually owns Retro.

@Octane The same is true of every game studio though, and Ubisoft can still make almost the exact same Assassin's Creed games over a decade, across a global array of studios, lol. I think a lot of it has to to with existing assets and code.

@Haru17 they can just remake the first me triode with hi rez graphics and multipleya
i would be fine with that.@octane

Team deathmatch anyone.

@meleebrawler: Fair enough, I guess. What you're saying (or posted) does make sense. I'll probably adapt to the mechanic, but my first impression of it wasn't very positive. The thing was, at the time I was trying to conserve ammo and was still having a tough time. Thanks for telling me that the doors at least can still be opened with depleted ammo.. I haven't played much since my last post, but I did find a beam expansion that will definitely help out.

@MarcelRguez: I finished Prime 1 at 95% (missed a couple of scans and missile expansions, at least from what I've gathered), but I have watched footage of the best/secret ending (I think). My ending showed the Phazon suit being forcibly ripped from Samus as Metroid Prime "died". However, the supposed "best ending" showed a hand rising from a puddle of Phazon on Tallon IV. I'm assuming Prime's conscience, or sentience, etc. used the high-powered suit that it stole from Samus to give itself form again, continually evolving/powering itself up with Phazon (as evidenced by scans that I've done in Prime 2). That still doesn't really explain how it/she traveled to Aether. It may have been shown in that "best" ending, but it's been some time since I've seen it. My best guess though is that Dark Samus hitched a ride somehow. shrug

@Tyranexx Ok, you have the basics down. That's what the ending shows, yes. Keep playing Echoes and don't worry about it.

Oh, didn't see the "intentionally" part of that statement.

Meh, I wasn't super impressed with that room. I did like the buildup to activating the portal but the room itself wasn't much to write home about.

I'm more interested in exploring that area in the cutscene where the Ing steal Samus' gear. It really bugs me that that entire section of Sky Temple Grounds where you fight the Dark Troopers in the Light World is completely inaccessible in the Dark World, they have cut rooms from the Dark World but not entire sections. I have a sneaking suspicion that was actually intended to be in the game but they cut it.

Yeah, that's annoying. It's pretty much impossible to fill both up without an ammo station (or Samus' ship which serves as one).

Don't worry, you'll see her again. She's like Bowser in 64/Galaxy, you fight her several times throughout the game (although unlike Bowser, she's not the main boss of the area).

And yeah, they don't really explain Dark Samus' origins any more than you already know.

You know, all this talk about Echoes's horror and dread elements... yet ironically, it's probably the most light-hearted of all the Prime games, or even the entire main series (barring Federation Force). The music in the light world is rather upbeat for the most part (perhaps to contrast Dark Aether), and a lot of it consists of remixes from classic 2D games to tickle nostalgia bones (not to mention Super Metroid's colored doors). Phazon and it's corruption takes a backseat, and for once Samus ISN'T too late to help the natives. It says a lot when this game's ending is almost unambiguously positive, while 1 and 3's were more bittersweet than anything.

I never thought about it like that, you make some good points.

I really did enjoy actually being able to save the planet and inhabitants before it was completely corrupted/split in 2. As opposed to just seeing the remnants of an advanced civilization in the other games.

@Operative2-0 In Aether's case, it was on the verge of exploding spectacularly rather than being corrupted.

Samus saves a lot of planets over the course of the trilogy, probably just as many as she's much more known for destroying. Just not the people who lived on them, and she certainly can't do much about anything they might have done to mess up their planet prior to getting slammed by Leviathans (like Bryyo and even the Pirate Homeworld).

The Elysian's case was especially cruel: not only were they closer to the Chozo than any other race, they died off/were corrupted mere WEEKS before Samus got there.

Great! I can't wait to see her again. While it's not the first time we've seen an alternate Samus in the series (SA-X), I find Dark Samus to be a curious entity. She has a wicked design at any rate.

Very true. Early signs/corpses in the game seemed to point to another extinct race, but I'm glad that's not the case in this game.

I finished all 4 Metroid Prime games with 100% items and 99% scans. Yeah it sucks that I'm always missing one or two missable scans. I think those 99% is why I hate scanning. I hope Metroid Prime 4 gets rid of that.

Oh I hope scanning comes back! Maybe make it so you don't need to put your gun away to scan, though. I loved the feeling of satisfaction from scanning everything in a room. Plus of course, the lore. I guess they could stand to make it less tedious, though

@SKTTR Was Prime 4 any good, mr. future man? It would save us a lot of discussion and maybe money.

@DarthNocturnal The demolition troopers are NOT stupid, always using cover. They're just very frail, especially on high difficulties. Nothing a little Hypermode aggression to take the heat off of them can't fix.

As for scanning, it's fine, though Corruption did start getting carried away with having logbook entries for every random container and door. And a lot more permanently missable entries, particularly on Olympus and Phaaze.

I took the scanning as more of a nice way to get info more then anything. Never felt I had to scan everything to 100%. Sorta like Koroks, no way I'm finding them all but for those that want to they're there for them to do. I would feel more inclined to 100% things if the reward for doing so was worth it.