@I-U The problem is that Metroid is an extremely atmospheric game series. Everything within the Metroid games (except for Echoes and Hunters' multiplayer) is in place to serve the atmosphere. And Metroid barely has any space for gameplay/story segregation, simply because every aspect of multiplayer modes fully contradicts Samus' general mindset of avoiding conflict. But in Hunters, she not only doesn't try to communicate with the other hunters (Sylux, Noxus, and Spire most likely would've listened), on some occasions, Samus even starts the fight.
The entire multiplayer has nothing that matters for Metroid. No secrets, no atmosphere, no exploration. Fights are a necessary part of the Metroid series, but exploration and context-sensitive atmosphere was always the absolute focus. But that stuff is obviously hard to place in multiplayer action.
By the way, I can explain how the "Metroid" name makes the multiplayer worse.
By being part of the Metroid universe (although not canon, as confirmed by Retro Studios), it demands comparison to other entries. This means it has to uphold certain aspects that identify a game as a Metroid game. But none of that exists in multiplayer. The only thing that identifies Hunters' multiplayer as a Metroid thing is the fact that Samus is in there. Nothing else. Fast-paced combat does exist in Metroid, but not as a way to dominate a fight. Combat is mostly self-defense-based in Metroid games. Only when to achieve something important, it's actually aggressive combat (Ridley, final bosses, Dark Samus/SA-X). But Hunters throws that out and goes Unreal Tournament.
If they were to remove the fact that it's Metroid, it wouldn't be a problem. It wouldn't clash with any rules, it wouldn't be compared to Metroid games - it would be compared to other games that employ a similar style instead.
And Metroid barely has any space for gameplay/story segregation, simply because every aspect of multiplayer modes fully contradicts Samus' general mindset of avoiding conflict. But in Hunters, she not only doesn't try to communicate with the other hunters (Sylux, Noxus, and Spire most likely would've listened), on some occasions, Samus even starts the fight.
Samus doesn't have a mindset of avoiding conflict during a mission. She knows it's something she'll have to go through to be successful. She wouldn't be a bounty hunter if she couldn't get pass that dread of conflict. The Battle objective plays right into her career probably more so than any entry in the series, tasking her with killing off a number of rival bounty hunters. Survival Mode plays right into the self-defensive combat you mention later, as well as other aspects of the multiplayer that I'll cover. Samus isn't going to say "no" to combat while being shot at. Capture, Defender, Bounty and Nodes all revolve around the idea of Samus securing a location or artifact, which again is something she'll enter combat situations over to accomplish the task. Prime Hunter is the only multiplayer mode that I would say potentially contradicts Samus, as I would expect her to let herself die than to survive on continually killing. I'm not sure if "Prime Hunter" status takes a hunter into insanity though which would allow contradiction.
Samus doesn't communicate with the other bounty hunters because her mission briefing states that the Galactic Federation believes their interests to be hostile. It's incredibly unlikely for Samus to even consider being buddies with this cast, in spite of some of their backgrounds, when the Federation has shown concern for their security in the briefing.
None of the hunters you mentioned were willing to listen to Samus at all, they all had their own interests that were leading them to pursue the "ultimate power." Both Spire and Noxus, background wise the best potential allies, are both hunters that start the fight with Samus. Spire's interests, solving the mystery disappearance of his race, the Diamonts, could gain a priority across the universe if he's threatening every major body with an "ultimate power" to assist in his investigation. Noxus, bringing the "ultimate power" back to the Vhozon, would have started a war between his race and the Kriken, implied by Noxus's battle with Trace at Sic Transit. I think Noxus may have a worse opinion of the Galactic Federation than the Kriken Empire though, or at the very least see them as more of an obstruction to the Vhozon's ideals. It wasn't out of a sense of justice that Noxus gave up his skirmish with Trace to go after Samus, in spite of Krikens being one of the most hated and feared races in the Metroid universe.
Why did you mention Sylux? Sylux as well as Weavel are the most unlikely to listen to Samus. Sylux is stated to hate the Galactic Federation and Samus by association, the bounty hunter shown to be killing Federation Marines in its intro. To me, you have to be very unfamiliar with Sylux's background to suggest that it'd communicate with Samus, unless Samus was trying to turn against the Federation which definitely isn't in her interests here.
The only scripted hunter encounter where Samus starts the fight is with Kanden. Kanden is the only hunter that runs from Samus Aran when they see each other, and will at times go away from Samus in Stinglarva form at the start of the actual battle. I associate that to questionable mental health, because Kanden actually intends to go after the "ultimate power" to be the top bounty hunter. I would think when faced with one of the best ever, he'd be all for the challenge. With that said, he'll eventually engage Samus which ultimately represents his threat potential. Kanden can be highly misunderstood with his mental state, and with his weaponry around, it's difficult for anyone packing weapons too to not go after him because if he gets set off he can be destructive. Look at his intro for evidence of that.
The entire multiplayer has nothing that matters for Metroid. No secrets, no atmosphere, no exploration. Fights are a necessary part of the Metroid series, but exploration and context-sensitive atmosphere was always the absolute focus.
I disagree. While the arenas are small compared to the scale of an entire region's map, there is a presence of secrets and exploration to them. I'm pretty sure there were a lot of players that were interested in finding out which weapons were present in an arena, where they were present, where the pick-ups were especially the energy orbs and what spots may make for good ambush/shooting locations. In my experience, I know I certainly was and it was that development of arena familiarity through exploration that made me a better player allowing me to come up with more advanced strategies per arena. The atmosphere in the multiplayer is not that unlike the atmosphere when facing a boss in the other entries or being locked in a room of Space Pirates. It's an atmosphere that's very valuable to the series overall offering atmosphere more extensively through gameplay than the usual push through the environmental details and history. It's an atmosphere Metroid could not be without and has always had.
Exploration and atmosphere are major focuses throughout the series, but I would never consider them as an absolute focus. If they didn't put a high degree of thought into the organisms and how Samus can eliminate or interact with them, the Metroid Series wouldn't be where it is today because its gameplay aspect would've been really watered down and less dynamic. The focus on all three aspects and more are what really bring Metroid titles into that high quality class that they're typically associated to. The development teams didn't spend over 2 decades completely focusing on two aspects.
First question and answer. That answer is coming from Tanabe who worked very closely with Retro Studios throughout their development of the Metroid Prime Trilogy, so I think what you just said is bull.
The only thing that identifies Hunters' multiplayer as a Metroid thing is the fact that Samus is in there. Nothing else.
There's more than just Samus around that identifies the multiplayer with Metroid. The concept of alternative forms in the design of the other hunters and a number of arenas having small tunnels that can be navigated is a fingerprint of the design that Metroid frequently uses throughout the series, considering that the Morph Ball is a core upgrade towards Samus' navigation of a setting. Additionally, with pick-ups like Double Damage, Death Alt and energy orbs being within those tunnels at several arenas, exploring where these alternative forms can go is encouraged.
Energy and ammo being present within the environment as opposed to following the concept of recovery over time also is another core of design present through the Metroid Series. It's a choice that leads to exploring locations, as knowing where those recovery items are can be a difference of survival and death while also allowing the player to be able to play off their preferred weapon. That combined with the scatter of weapon locations adds a reward element to the exploration of the arenas.
In modes like Bounty, Nodes and Capture, another core of Metroid gets emphasized: finding the quickest route through a location and taking advantage of the route to gain an edge on challenges while maintaining that desire to complete the objective fast. In Nodes, it gets more strategic than that as a player may want to take a quick route to the next node while also having a previously captured node in view to ensure it remains secure in their possession.
Really there are plenty of fingerprints of Metroid on Hunters' multiplayer, the execution of such just are more bite-sized being in an arena as opposed to a full-on region, where such elements are typically shown.
Fast-paced combat does exist in Metroid, but not as a way to dominate a fight. Combat is mostly self-defense-based in Metroid games. Only when to achieve something important, it's actually aggressive combat (Ridley, final bosses, Dark Samus/SA-X).
I'm pretty sure that overcoming the assault of another bounty hunter is self defense. Like I've said before about exploring these arenas for potential ambush spots, that knowledge can be applied to counter an ambush too. Speed certainly becomes a factor, and most of the alternative forms have that coupled with a decent attack. Environmental knowledge is the best counter for an ambush as it would allow an escape option to either survive the ambush or just to simply get calm following an attack and coming up with a quick combat strategy. Surviving a sniper is one of the better examples, which from a distance usually involves putting a structure between the target and the sniper and occasionally firing off from the cover. There's always just dashing away or coming at a sniper with an alternative form too, which itself is a solid strategy to protect against attacks as the decreased size demands adjustments from the shooter to the reduced hit box and increased speed.
I'm not sure how the combat is more self-defensive in most of the series outside of bosses when most of those encounters are avoidable in the first place. Many enemies, like the Ripper IIs and Geemers, that just happen to be doing their thing will be killed if they're between Samus and a door. Samus in my opinion seems much more of an aggressor than someone trying to defend their self from these creatures. I know that in a room in Lower Norfair, Samus basically does a buzz saw massacre of a group of Ripper IIs shortly after acquiring the Screw Attack. I guess it's a good way to see what it can do. With bosses though, where they are more of an aggressor and certainly pose more of a threat, I think the argument that combat is self-defensive there is more present but compared to the number of potential combat scenarios in a Metroid game I'd say these self-defense situations represent a minority.
If they were to remove the fact that it's Metroid, it wouldn't be a problem. It wouldn't clash with any rules, it wouldn't be compared to Metroid games - it would be compared to other games that employ a similar style instead.
I think Metroid Prime Hunters would be more out of place next to other first person shooters, like Battlefield, Call of Duty, Halo and so on, than it would be to the Metroid Series, because of the concepts from Metroid it maintains and lacking concepts that are present in other first person shooters.
Like Metroid Prime hunters but with a bigger more robust online multiplayer I mean there's so many FPS out there I don't see how Nintendo could get it wrong. Also Co-op on the main campaign would be the t**s!
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Topic: How would you like the online multiplayer to work on a New metroid title?
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