Topic: Metroid Prime 4: Beyond

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Tl;dr - I beat Prime 2 last night, it was frustrating yet awesome. I'm covering the final moments of the game and my general impressions after playing it.

[Warning: The following post is a monster post. Viewer discretion is advised.]

I decided to forget about those missing Missile Expansions for now, but I may go back at a later time and hunt for them. Instead, I made my way to Sky Temple Gateway and turned in all of the keys. I walked through the beam of light that appeared, saved my game in the convenient save station at the top, and moved Samus towards her impending doom.

Emperor Ing was a big guy. Very reminiscent of a Greenwich horror, tentacles and all.

Phase 1 - This was probably the hardest phase for me, and one that I had to repeat a couple of times. No matter what I did, this guy's tentacles are hard to dodge, and it was difficult for me to get down the timing just right to damage his eye. The tentacles were the main problem; Annihilator Beam ammo worked out on these just fine, but I ran out before I knew it despite going in with full ammo. I had to rely on pickups and some well-placed Power Bombs to take these out. I used some charged shots and quite a few missiles to attempt to take out the eye.

Phase 2 - I only had to do this phase once, though it about killed me with the poisonous gas until I realized that I could use the Spider Ball on the cocoon. I figured out that I could farm the Inglings that kept appearing for health and other goodies, so needless to say I intentionally prolonged this phase for a while once I found out how to destroy the tentacles properly (which didn't take long).

Phase 3 - I also only had to do this phase once, though it took a lot of patience. Points here to Retro for a wicked-looking final form. It took me a short time to figure out how to damage its mouth (Super Missiles), then classic video game logic came into play here with dark/light. That said, I still had a heck of a time causing damage sometimes. At least this form's attacks were easier to dodge than in phase 1, IMO.

After Emperor Ing bit the dust, a classic Metroid trope appeared: The "timer appears, get out fast!" trope. I was quite happy to oblige. What I wasn't happy about was what happened next. Remember when I remarked in a previous post that I was sure I hadn't seen the last of Dark Samus? Turns out I was right. Further points to Retro for another wicked appearance, though I slightly prefer her appearance from the previous fight.

I had to repeat this battle 3-4 times. Not because I ran out of health. Nope! Because the timer ran out. Brief pet peeve moment: Do NOT slap a varied timer on a final battle. Some may enjoy this, but this stresses me out/hampers my thinking a bit since I'm thinking about the remaining time on one level, and trying to focus on the fight on another. At least the game was considerate enough to phase me back in AFTER the Emperor Ing fight. Because of this, the second Dark Samus fight in the game is still my favorite encounter with her. That one didn't leave a slightly bitter aftertaste.

The actual fight was great. Scanning her told me that the Dark Visor wouldn't work, so I resorted to using the Echo Visor. This part of the fight wasn't bad at all since I found her somewhat easy to dodge. The difficulty really ramped up, however, when she raised her (almost) permanent Phazon shield. To be fair, my first death was more as a result of not understanding a crucial element of causing damage here. While I was charging the Power Beam almost constantly during this (second?) phase, I found that I had to be closer to the Phazon emitted (unlike with normal power-ups). Really, I first discovered this by accident during my second try. I almost won the second time (or third, it was pretty late by then), but the timer kicked me in the knees there.

After finally taking her darker half down, Samus escaped back into Light Aether. The Ing tried to follow and impeded Samus's progress at first, but they comically fell along with the rest of their world [insert evil laughter]. Samus returned to the Sky Temple, presumably returned the Luminoth's technology (since she was in the Varia Suit), and bade the respectfully bowing Luminoth farewell. Before leaving Aether, Samus "suited down" to her Zero Suit (slightly weird character model here, but it wasn't bad, I guess. Just a product of the times, I assume, since this was originally a GCN game), and left Aether.

I'm guessing the best ending involves another element of some sort. Not sure if I'll just catch it on YouTube somewhere, or if I'll find those final Missile Expansions and properly access the best ending.

Personal Impressions/Thoughts

Overall, I quite enjoyed my time with Echoes. There are some ways where I feel that it trumps MP1, and vice-versa. I can easily see how this title is polarizing for some, and why they might prefer the first game.

In terms of world design, I feel that Echoes, overall, blows MP1 out of the water. There were more elevators between the different zones (I think), and I feel that most of the zones were well-designed in general. It got a bit linear near the end, but I found that I didn't mind that very much. Unlike in the first game, I didn't get that sick of any one zone/area from having to traverse through it five million times (coughMagmoorcough). A lot of care was clearly put into the game's environment, and I found it more aesthetically pleasing than its predecessor. The Luminoth architecture was well-done, and I've already went on at length about how much I love the Sanctuary Fortress area.

I'm rather neutral to Dark Aether's concept. Some online clearly like it, while others hated it. At first, I didn't like how it could deplete your health and the fact that you had to rely on beacons to regenerate your health (which hindered the pacing somewhat), but this was remedied by suit upgrades. Basically, as the game wore on, Dark Aether became less of a pain.

The story was also a nice change of pace. I learned a lot through scanning, and as discussed before, the story isn't forced on you; barring a little dialogue when talking with U-Mos or the Luminoth holograms, the game's story can be experienced as little or as much as one likes. Plus, the Luminoth are still living. You don't need to rely on the writings of an extinct race to provide guidance. They seem like a respectable, wise race.

There were some touching little moments, too. Near the beginning, Samus respectfully closed the eyes of one of the dead Galactic Federation troopers. Another time, near the end, I scanned the remains of two Luminoth who had died together. One was the father; the other was his daughter. Something hit me there, giving me an inkling of what sort of horrors the Luminoth have been through at the hands of the Ing.

Dark Samus is an interesting character. I wasn't sure how I would feel about her at first, but I feel that Retro did a good job of presenting her character. She seems quite...unstable due to her constant Phazon absorption, and it's neat to see how she changes throughout the game.

Overall, I think I had less fun with some of the bosses when compared with MP1, though some of that was down to the difficulty present here. Crazily enough, Echoes on MPT was apparently nerfed, so I can only imagine how...erm...FUN some of these battles were beforehand. I've already disclosed my thoughts on these fights previously, so to make this post slightly less monstrous, I won't go into detail here. XD

I've also went on about how I generally dislike how a lot of the beam ammo in this game is limited. While I understand why (previously disclosed reasons), it still drives me crazy when I don't have any of it maxed out. Even with all of the Beam Ammo Expansions (and learning how to better manage my stores), I still found myself running out of it in fights that mattered.

In terms of music...no contest here. There are some tracks from MP1 that I like, but I gotta say that Echoes has more tunes that I really like. The Hydrochamber/Torvus Catacombs, the Title Theme, the Splinter Hive Theme (didn't realize it contained heartbeats until I bought the tune in the Soundtrack Extras last night), and more.

It'll be a little bit before I start Corruption, I think. Like after when I finished MP1, I'll take a brief break so as not to get worn with the series (I generally do this with other franchises, too). I'm expecting Corruption to have some interesting changes, particularly since it was built for the Wii to begin with.

(Again, sorry for the book)