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

The Caretaker Class Drone? Yeah, that fight wasn't really that great, but it's more of a miniboss than a proper boss battle. You don't even really get anything for it, it defeating it just opens up a path to the final areas of Sanctuary Fortress. You're only about halfway through the mission.

I played through Echoes quite extensively yesterday evening. I'm just going to list everything out since I've done a lot of RL stuff since then. There's a rough chronological order to all of these points.

• After some puzzling and Dark/Light Aether jumping, I obtained the Screw Attack. As happy as I was to see a power-up that I've enjoyed from the 2D games, the execution of this took some getting used to. I've found it difficult sometimes to keep Samus moving when doing this. I've found that some of it has to do with barely hitting anything. A bit of it may also be the Wiimote I'm using.
• I did a LOT of further exploring, which turned up an Energy Tank, some Missile Expansions (I think I'm up to roughly 130 right now), a welcome Power Bomb expansion, and an even more welcome Beam Expansion.
• I found the other two keys for the Ing Hive Temple through more exploring, a ton of combat with (mostly) Dark Pirate Commandos, and more portal jumping. Retro definitely seemed fond of spamming this mechanic in Ing Hive/Sanctuary Fortress. It's kind of lost its luster for me at this point.
• I also found an ammo station, which, quite frankly, I really needed. The nearby Save Station was also convenient.
• Why was that nearby Save Station convenient? Because Quadraxis was a pain. Thankfully, the fight only took me three tries. I probably could have managed it in two tries, but I realized during the second try that I had forgotten to scan the head in phase 2. I was VERY close during the first try (only had to bomb the head one more time), but Dark Aether's atmosphere did me in during the third phase. Third time's the charm, I suppose. I just wish that the fight wasn't on the longer side. That made repeating it more painful. Plus, this battle also has my "no light zones" complaint.
  Phase 1: My only big complaint here was that, near the end of the phase, the glowing joints seemed to move around almost constantly. I blew through a lot of missiles just because I was a millisecond too late in some cases. At least the health drops from the feet were generous.
  Phase 2: I've voiced my displeasure with Quads quite extensively before, but at least I'm almost used to handling them at this point. Even from using Z, the camera still hated me at times, though. There's a lot to keep track of here, which led to my relatively low health for phase 3 in my first try.
  Phase 3: Weirdly enough, the phase that I found to be both the shortest and the easiest. This wasn't bad at all once I equipped the Light Beam.
• After all of that "fun", I became the proud owner of the Annihilator Beam. As cool as it is, I'm reluctant to use it much since it blows through a lot of the limited ammo. At least I have all the beams now.
• I repossessed the energy from the Ing Hive and returned it to the Sanctuary Fortress on Aether. I have the option at this point to go back to U-Mos, but I think I'll do more exploring first. I'm only at 60% for items, so I'd like to get that number up a bit.
• I achieved 80% of scans last night.
• Those mechanical things that hang from ceilings are annoying, and they're nearly as bad as Quads.

@Tyranexx Mekenobites? The ones in the temple might be troublesome due to their numbers if you fall down, but otherwise can mostly be ignored. And blasting their legs with Seekers is a cinch if you keep your distance and give them time to home properly.

The Annihilator beam's true power lies in supercharging the various beacons and crystals in Dark Aether in order make Ing (not darkling creatures, though) run to their deaths. It's also useful if you're in a hurry and can't be bothered to aim at fast-moving enemies. Just mash A until they die .

Yeah, the Annihilator Beam is very useful for dispatching Hunter Ings. They have a stupidly long invulnerability period, but super charging the nearest Light Crystal/Beacon will lure them to instant death.

Also I highly recommend going back to U-Mos and continuing to collect items afterwards. You'll be glad you did.

This is off topic, so apologies, but I'm replaying federation force and playing it on 3DS makes me wish they could do a sequel or remake for the switch without the awkward controls / art style. The foundation is there, they could totally improve that type game in the future

@Operative2-0 It's not off topic to be honest, this thread is pretty much going to be the general Metroid thread for about a year (E3 2018 seems like a reasonable time to show first footage of MP4).

@Operative2-0 I really liked the controls, they didn't feel weird at all to me. I agree on the artstyle though, but I doubt we will see any other attemp to expand and expriment with Metroid any time soon, much less anything related to this game.

Also, if you're going for all of the scans, you should know that some of them are limited opportunity, such as bosses. If you haven't gotten them, you'll have to restart to collect them all.

Here are the limited run scans:
Samus' Gunship- Samus' ship stays there the entire time, but at some point (I can't remember when exactly, either after visiting Great Temple or after beating Amorbis)
GM-42 "Growler" Class Turret- The Federation Turret found in Trooper Security Station in Temple Grounds.
Alpha Splinter- Make sure you scan its non-possessed form before beating it, this is a separate scan.
Dark Alpha Splinter
Alpha Sandigger- Likewise for the Bomb Guardian battle
Bomb Guardian
Lightbringer- The wallcrawling creature that generates light found in Duelling Range in Dark Agon Wastes (funny thing about this one, the logbook entry implies that you can kill it with the Annihilator Beam but it disappears long before you get it, it's gone by the time you get the Dark Suit).
Jump Guardian
Dark Missile Trooper- Make sure you go back to Hive Chamber A aft
Pirate Trooper
Dark Pirate Trooper
Vigilance Class Turret- The space pirate turrets that you can hop into to blow stuff up. They can only be scanned when someone else is using them, namely the Space Pirates you fight on your first trip through their base.
Dark Samus 1 (Agon Wastes battle)
Webling- The web obstacle in Feeding Pit Access you have to shoot to get back to Doomed Entry. Make sure you scan one before destroying them all.
Ing Webtrap- This one is easy to miss. During the Warrior Ing fight in Battleground to get one of the Dark Agon Keys, web creatures will be blocking the doors. Make sure you scan one before finishing the fight.
Amorbis
Dark Amorbis- There's a second scan for Amorbis when it attaches to the black ball and grows horns
Shredder- One of the first creatures you encounter in Torvus but disappears pretty quickly
Pirate Commando
Boost Guardian
Alpha Blogg
Grapple Guardian
Dark Shredder- Only encountered when fighting Chykka Larva
Chykka Larva
Chykka- Chykka's adult form
Dark Chykka- Chykka's form after it falls into the poisoned water
Chykklings- The mini Chykkas that come out of Dark Chykka's abdomen which serve as fodder during that phase.
Dark Quad CM- You only have two opportunities to scan them, in the Sanctuary Temple your first time through and during Phase 2 of the Quadraxis battle
Dark Quad MB- You only have two opportunities to scan them, in the Sanctuary Temple your first time through and during Phase 2 of the Quadraxis battle
Spider Guardian- Since you're in Morph Ball during the actual fight, your only opportunity to scan it is right before you enter the arena. You'll see it rolling around behind transparent glass.
Power Bomb Guardian
Ingsmasher
Dark Ingsmasher
Dark Samus 2 (Sanctuary Fortress battle)
Caretaker Class Drone- This is the drone you find in a tube on the Screw Attack mission. Again, since it's Morph Ball only you have to scan it before you enter the arena. You can scan it before going in the Dark Portal.
Quadraxis- Phase of the Quadraxis battle
Damaged Quadraxis- Quadraxis' damaged body during Phase 2
Shielded Head Module- Quadraxis' head during Phase 2, when its body is still transmitting data
Stunned Head Module- Quadraxis' head during Phase 2, when its body isn't transmitting data
Final Head Module- Phase 3 of the Quadraxis Battle

And for after you see U-Mos:

Speaking of which, anyone think they should change up the way scanning works in Prime 4? It is extremely annoying having to know to scan something in a very specific moment to achieve 100% completion. I wouldn't mind seeing an approach similar to AM2R, where certain data is automatically downloaded without needing to scan. At best maybe a proximity based system where you need to stay within a certain distance of the target to download the data but you don't need to actively scan them and render yourself nearly defenseless.

@roy130390
Getting used to it, I think it's a great control scheme, especially for having only one stick to work with. Though given the choice I'd prefer twin stick or wii remote controls Haha

@Bolt_Strike I find the "arbitrary logbook scan" is only really a problem in Echoes. Corruption strikes a happy medium for the most part by only having one logbook entry for every boss, but also still having different scans for different phases, in case the player is stumped by something not covered in the logbook. Though, I think they could do away with scanning every type of door and box.

The best thing they could do with it in my mind, is simply make the colour coding more consistent, about what things are logbook entries or not, as well as things that need to be scanned but are also not logbook entries.

Well it's not just the arbitrary scanning that's the issue, it's that some of the logbook entries disappear making it impossible to 100%. Making the logbook entries more visible would help, but they really should come up with a system that lets you still go back and collect anything that needs to be collected even at the end of the game.

I don't think I've gotten 100% for the logbook for any of the games.

I've got 100% logbook in Prime 1 a few times but not the other 2. I got close with Prime 2 but missed the Ing Webtrap.

I stalled out on a Metroid Prime Trilogy 100% scan playthrough at the start of the Sanctuary Fortress of all places. I have every single missable scan up to that point, I'm just waiting to get back to it. The Metroid Prime 4 title screen wasn't enough to do that, lol.

@Grumblevolcano Try E3 2019. This is the new Zelda U thread.

@DarthNocturnal That's probably just raw life energy, which is actually pretty useful to those who know how to use it.

@Bolt_Strike Creatures disappearing after a certain point is one thing, but there's pretty much always going to be missable scans in the form of bosses and/or things in tutorial/endgame sequences. The only game I've seen do something to address this is Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door, dumping all missable tattles in a wastebasket. It works for that game since it's just an optional pastime that doesn't give much, but I feel it would kill some of the tension in trying to get a logbook entry against bosses who are scanned slowly.

Is scanning bosses really that crucial to the gameplay though? It's not really a core part of the formula and there are multiple other ways to create that tension without needing to stop and scan. They could have you get within a certain range of the boss (thus making yourself more vulnerable to attack) while it scans automatically. They could just not have a logbook and create tension with other, core gameplay related methods. There could be ways for bosses to show up through other methods so they're not missable. Prime 1 had some bosses replace regular enemies in certain areas, such as the Plated Beetle and adult Sheegoth. They could do some sort of training simulation system that allows you to rematch bosses. There's any number of ways to handle this without requiring you to actively scan the boss while you're fighting it, that is far from a necessity for the gameplay.

@Bolt_Strike Well, I don't see much difference in spending a few seconds getting in-game info on a boss, going in blind for a few more minutes trying to find a weakness, or pausing the game and looking up a guide. Scanning abilities always take time in video games, including stuff like Libra in Final Fantasy, spending a turn to learn of weaknesses.

The logbook's main use is keeping important data like lore and creature weaknesses stored for later reference. Not just something that exists to make 100% hard. Many players couldn't care less about finding every detail for 100%, only using the Scan Visor for things that need it or stump them. The rewards for logbook completion also aren't as significant as item-finding; concept art isn't all that exciting to the average player compared to ending bonuses.

@meleebrawler: I found that the Screw Attack works against them, which normally wasn't too problematic other than the fact I was trying to eliminate them from a corridor in order to work on an Echo puzzle (which yielded a Missile Expansion). I did also try the Seeker Missiles since I thought that's what the scan entry was implying, but for some reason I couldn't get those to lock on just right.

I found out the hard way that the Annihilator Beam doesn't work on darkling-possessed creatures, unfortunately. The Dark Pirate Commandos weren't amused. XD

@Bolt_Strike: Thanks for the comprehensive list! I'll need to double-check on some of those when I get the chance. I know I have a few of those off the top of my head. I've tried to use the scan visor quite often. I'm trying to get as close to 100% as possible, but I won't reset the whole game if I missed something.

And I may go visit U-Mos now. I was afraid end-game stuff would initialize and I wouldn't be able to collect some items at this point.

Nope, there's still one more thing before you get to the final battle, and it's a task that requires you to backtrack anyway so it's a great time to go back and collect the items you missed.

But that's where a system like AM2R's is more effective. It automatically provides you with crucial data when you need it instead of making it time limited. This is just more and more reason to de-emphasize scanning.