Have you 100%'ed the game yet Craig? If so, did you use a guide or find it all yourself?
You should take up speedrunning the game! I’d watch you on GDQ.
I did 100% the game, my first file. No guides, except for the 3-4 ‘impossible’ shinespark puzzles.
I just watched a speedrun of the game that was any% under 1:24. It is insane how optimized the runs are for the current sequence now.
I think I’ve hit a brick wall where I just don’t have the dexterity and/or presence of mind to deal with the combat any more. Just came to a section where I had one ridiculous EMMI section immediately followed by a ridiculous boss some of whose attacks I usually couldn’t dodge even when I knew the pattern immediately followed by a fight with two Chozos at once. I died at least 20 times at each stage of that, and still haven’t even taken down one of the Chozos. This just isn’t fun for me any more.
Use homing missiles for the chozos.
Doesn’t really help if I can’t survive long enough to kill them. I’m just constantly jumping into their shots, or dashing into their bodies. I suck, in short.
You can charge the missile shot before targeting them to do max damage. This way you aren’t trying to target them standing still, but can get a full salvo in 1/4 second. You can also counter their white dash attack.
Keep moving around the arena, and try and isolate one at a time. Generally try to avoid being in the low pits, or the middle of the large center platform.
If you see them charging a red dash, jump and flash shift over them. Flash shift is crucial.
Those are general tips, once you recognize their attacks they can be quite easy. It is just that if you get caught out in the middle of both at once things go sideways in a hurry.
But storm missiles and flash shift are your friends.
Also screw attack, if you have that, is super helpful too.
Edit: my first time through it took me at least a dozen tries as well. My second and third tries? First try less than a minute.
It’s not the specific fight that’s the issue (I’ve got past it already). It’s that EMMI zones, bosses and mini-bosses are my least favourite part of the game. If it’s just going to keep chucking them at me more and more frequently and making them harder and harder, I really don’t think I want to keep playing. The last hour or so of playing was miserable.
Uh, just started this. It’s pretty cool that the Switch has a 2x setting just like YouTube or podcasts, so you can speed through games, but I’d really love to set it back to 1x so I can actually play this game. Where in the settings can I do that?
I was really excited for this until I played the demo and noped right out. Way to fast and precise/demanding for me, and that’s saying something. They need a mode for people that played Metroid on the NES at age 14!
So I just wrapped Metroid Dread up and… I didn’t really enjoy it overall, I’m sad to say.
It’s the first Metroid I’ve played where the controls never really felt intuitive and the finger gymnastics to do basic things like aiming a missile (L stick, LB, RB and Y!) still seem crazy to me. But the bigger problem I had with the game is the countering system. Good grief. I said elsewhere that failing counters was about as fun as failing parries in the Souls games and I stand by that. Some standard enemies were tedious to deal with without countering so that meant I avoided them or just stood there waiting for the flash, neither of which is great. The mere existence of counters made the already tough boss fights even harder because I was looking out for counter opportunities which often resulted in me eating big attacks that I would otherwise have evaded. It just messed up the flow of the game for me.
I also never really got comfortable with how the shinespark charge controls worked and often messed it up, despite knowing how to do it. The ‘spin boost’ or double jump I found a little bit too fussy compared to other games, this resulted in me messing up a lot of jumps. And I’m surprised how fussy wall jumping was too. I got clobbered numerous times against the last boss because I didn’t hold the direction quite long enough against the wall to wall jump.
I note that several folk had difficulty with the dual robot fights but they were among the easiest fights for me (all done first time) because a) I had space to move and b) I knew the enemies and their attack patterns/counters. Contrast that with each boss where I had so little space to move and new attacks that often hit like trucks. I don’t recall ever dying and retrying so much in other Metroid games but it was pretty miserable here to be honest.
Then there’s the EMMI segments which I adore the concept of. These were the bits of the game that made Dread standout but I’m not convinced they lived up to their promise. Nine times out of ten the first time I entered their areas, I ended up in a dead end, totally unable to escape. Retry. Other times I’d stay still as to not alert them and they’d eventually find me. Retry. Other times I’d use my phantom cloak and they’d bump into me (even when I used the spider magnets on ceilings, they’d go along the ceilings). Retry. When I ended up just legging it I was always astounded by how grippy Samus was with ledges when I didn’t want her to be or vice versa. Grab the spider rail! You just banged your head on it! And don’t get me started on those little robots that zap you, or the X-ray vision and stun orbs. What started as legit dread and tension ended up becoming ‘ah shit, not these things again’. I felt like evasion was rarely about playing smart and more about luck. Oh, hey, I did manage to counter two EMMIs though!
Then there’s the world design. Usually I’m very good with mapping spaces out internally and getting around unguided but with Dread the environments just resisted understanding and felt like a confusing mess of areas linked by lifts, trams and teleportals. Which is amazing given how relatively linear it felt. The areas were so confusing in fact that I could never be bothered to go back to get upgrades so ended up finishing the game with a pitiful 46% item collection. I usually go for 100% in Metroid games!
It’s been ages since I played Super and Fusion, but in the Prime games I remember there being a kind of logic and sense of place to different areas. They made sense and connected intuitively. Perhaps that’s a product of being in first-person but it went a long way.
And I think that’s perhaps the crux of it for me: the sense of place. I never got that with Dread unlike other Metroids. It seemed to be so focused on throwing confusing labyrinths at me full of awkward to get collectibles, tedious enemies, tough bosses and annoying counters that it forgot to slow down and remember that Metroid (to me, at least) was always about connecting with the environment and place. I think it needed more space to breath and settle in. It also feels weird to come out of a Metroid without remembering any new music associated with a new area. There’s no Phendrana, Torvus Bog, or Sky Town here. They’re big shoes to fill I know but the feeling’s there!
All in all Dread felt workmanlike to me. Polished, snappy and fluid but lacking the… I dunno, soul or heart of the Metroids I’ve loved in the past. Maybe I’ve just moved on from the series or genre.
That’s exactly how I feel. Super Metroid is one of my all time faves. I was surprised at how much I loved Metroid Prime back in the day since I didn’t care for first person games. But that’s because it captured the essence of Super Metroid perfectly: that sense of place and isolation, and the environment and navigating it being central. Super Metroid/Prime was Alien, while the newer games are more Aliens.
That’s not a bad thing as it worked for Fusion (and I loved Aliens), but it’s a different experience that only superficially resembles the original, and it keeps getting further away from the original concept with each subsequent release.
I put about two hours into Return of Samus, and one hour into Dread and lost interest. I plan to give them another chance at some point (it will be my third attempt for Return), but at this point I have little interest in the series.
I did finish Dread, but I third the sentiment of the game, while being polished, snappy and really good in many ways, lacking something of what I liked from Super Metroid an Prime.
Pacing and sense of place (including the linear but convoluted level design) where the big red spots for me. Controls and combat I was ok with.
But a lot of people did love it. Maybe it makes sense for the genre to move in this direction.
Meanwhile I’m stoked for the Hollow Knight sequel.