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 Metroid Dread comes out today. I am incredibly excited for it! Once I post this thread I'm gonna be headed off to play it (assuming it's arrived in the mail by the time of posting  ). However, 19 years ago, the stage for Dread was set by its much less assuming predecessor, Metroid Fusion. This game was an incredibly moody entry in the series, emphasizing mystery and story, and allowing Samus to speak and think at length to react to the events unfolding around her. We received some in-depth canonical backstory for her for the first time, and learned a bit about certain interpersonal relationships her character had had before the Metroid series even takes place. We all know by now that Other M kind of ruined a lot of what Fusion set up in terms of plot and cahracterization, but at the time of Fusion's release it was all received fairly well. And Fusion certainly stands on its own, even though it launched on the same day as Metroid Prime. In no way is Fusion any lesser of a game for being on the GBA. They pushed that little handheld hard and delivered an excellent entry in the series unlike any other, and placed us at the farthest point in the Metroid timeline for nearly two decades.In preparation for Dread's launch, I decided to replay Fusion, and brought along my old friend Faerie Fortune, who you may remember from our Metroid Primes 1 and 2 LPs a few years ago, to continue showing her more of the series I love so much. This is a casual playthrough, and we're recording the whole thing live on my Twitch channel, so there is some casual conversation with my chat as we play. We've already recorded about half of the game in one streaming session, since Fusion is not an incredibly long game. I'll be uploading videos with a rapid pace, when I'm not too engrossed in Dread to update my thread. You can talk spoilers about Fusion, but no spoilers about Metroid Dread in the slightest!             
FPzero fucked around with this message at 02:02 on Dec 8, 2021 |
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Oct 8, 2021 18:25
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Regarding the Metroid infusion, if Samus was half-human, half-Chozo before, then she got injected with 100% Metroid, that means that she's half-Metroid, 1/4 human, 1/4 Chozo. The numbers don't lie. Anyway, happy to see an LP of this taking off. Metroid Fusion is my favorite of the non-Prime Metroid games, thanks in large part to its atmosphere and storytelling. Before Dread, it was one of the first attempts at doing more of a horror vibe and I thought it was really cool as a kid.
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Oct 8, 2021 19:04
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Just watching this first video is making me want to replay AM2R again.
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Oct 8, 2021 19:22
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Oh, this should be fun.
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Oct 8, 2021 20:00
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Fun tech fact: This game is built on top of the Wario Land 4 engine. If you dig into the code you can even find just a few remainders of the Wario Land tileset. It's kinda crazy to me because the games seem so very different on the surface.
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Oct 8, 2021 20:06
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Carbon dioxide posted:Fun tech fact: Huh, never would've guessed. They do seem quite different, but looking it up, it seems that both Wario Land 4 and Fusion were both made by Nintendo R&D1, with a number of the same staff being used in each game. Given that the programming crew for Fusion has the same head programmer, I guess it makes sense they'd reuse code they knew. Looking it up on TCRF, apparently the Playstation mascot cat is also in the game's graphics for some reason.
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Oct 8, 2021 21:05
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This game is underrated in the Metroid franchise and Metroidvania genre IMO.
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Oct 8, 2021 22:02
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C-Euro posted:This game is underrated in the Metroid franchise and Metroidvania genre IMO. It gets a lot of deserved flack for its one big flaw (the narrative breadcrumbs being too close together and too simple to hide the route you're taking, other games in the series are just as linear in "proper" path but allow you to get lost along the way), but everything else about this game is solid.
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Oct 8, 2021 22:28
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It's fun to imagine everything that must've been involved in "found a cure." "Hey, let's rub some metroid on it. Not like it'll make her any worse."
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Oct 8, 2021 22:31
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Fusion rules. I think if you're just watching someone go through it in this LP format, it may seem like it's super linear and railroady, but honestly, when I played it as a kid, I got super lost and stuck a LOT. There's a lot of situations where it gives you a pretty large area to roam around in and basically tells you "figure out how to progress, have fun". Just because you know where the next goal is doesn't mean that the way there is at all obvious. The story cutscenes and all the text blow, yeah, but it's still a credit to the game that despite you talking to an overbearing rear end in a top hat all the time, you STILL have an insanely tense, lonely and oppressive atmosphere. Or maybe it helps because Adam is no help at all. Odd Wilson posted:Huh, never would've guessed. They do seem quite different, but looking it up, it seems that both Wario Land 4 and Fusion were both made by Nintendo R&D1, with a number of the same staff being used in each game. Given that the programming crew for Fusion has the same head programmer, I guess it makes sense they'd reuse code they knew.
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Oct 8, 2021 22:38
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 the suit is blue because that's what's underneath all the orange armour - it's the same blue jumpsuit that Samus is wearing when she's in the zero suit (like in Smash and stuff)
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Oct 9, 2021 00:31
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The Suit is weird-rear end Chozo biotech, sort of like how Samus is some kind of Chozo hybrid superhuman. She's incredibly tough without it, and together they're the most powerful thing in the galaxy.
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Oct 9, 2021 01:43
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wiegieman posted:The Suit is weird-rear end Chozo biotech, sort of like how Samus is some kind of Chozo hybrid superhuman. She's incredibly tough without it, and together they're the most powerful thing in the galaxy. The Metroid games have been a Buddy Movie this whole time.
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Oct 9, 2021 02:02
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Hi Ship-chan! I've never actually played Fusion but I feel like I know it well enough just from, like, discourse osmosis by this point. I'm a huge sucker for any decently established series pulling off an unflinching thematic examination of itself, the more on-the-nose the better. I feel like I'd be a lot more annoyed about Computer Adam if I hadn't played Other M and had it put into perspective how good we had it. Dread is On My List, but I'm busy, and always there are Too Many Video Games.
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Oct 9, 2021 03:00
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Me and a friend (who are deep into the randomizer by now) have concluded that with Samus gaining cold vulnerability and the ability to absorb X parasites, she is now the last living Metroid in the galaxy. This may be relevant for Metroid Dread, given that there are apparently a number of rogue DNA-extracting robots running around. PS: When you next get back to the main deck, be sure to check out that morph ball passage you walked by. There could be something good hidden there...!
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Oct 9, 2021 07:47
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Bruceski posted:It's fun to imagine everything that must've been involved in "found a cure."
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Oct 9, 2021 13:45
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Oh hey a new Metroid LP, neato. I should probably hurry up in TWEWY NEO so I can Dread.Carbon dioxide posted:Fun tech fact:  Fedule posted:Hi Ship-chan! Computer Adam is fine, since Samus calls out his bullshit whenever she smells it. E: 90s Cringe Rock posted:the metroid escaped and started causing havoc as usual when those nerds do anything, they just wrote it up as deliberate exposure. considering that the last Metroid imprinted on Samus back in 2 what probably happened is that the metroid bust out to save mommy and the researchers, as you said, pretended it was the plan all along. Omobono fucked around with this message at 14:01 on Oct 9, 2021 |
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Oct 9, 2021 13:59
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The Galactic Federation is in many respects the more benign version of Weyland-Yutani, constantly toying around with dangerous organisms that subsequently turn around and make them into lunch. Their only saving grace is that they have a dedicated one-woman cleanup crew on speed dial to deal with their mess-ups.
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Oct 9, 2021 14:09
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Blastinus posted:The Galactic Federation is in many respects the more benign version of Weyland-Yutani, constantly toying around with dangerous organisms that subsequently turn around and make them into lunch. Their only saving grace is that they have a dedicated one-woman cleanup crew on speed dial to deal with their mess-ups. And this is the game that launched all the discourse about the galfed being both secretly malicious and doing all of the chozo's mistakes but faster and without and complete knowledge of what they're messing with. I love this game and my memory of it grows fonder as time goes on.
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Oct 9, 2021 15:03
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Blastinus posted:Their only saving grace is that they have a dedicated one-woman cleanup crew on speed dial to deal with their mess-ups. I never played the game, but they also did try to duplicate that one-woman crew's armour, perhaps so she could take days off every now and then.
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Oct 10, 2021 16:11
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The X have invaded Sector 1 and are clearly too OP for this area.
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Oct 10, 2021 16:14
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You mentioned it as a theory in passing, but I think that the reason why Space Pirates are on the station is the same reason why they've got Ridley on ice. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to think that they could have acquired Space Pirate DNA and were keeping it in, like a desk drawer somewhere. After all, that first boss we fought, Arachnus, was an X version of a boss in Metroid 2. There's probably all kinds of test samples just sitting around that the X could have munched on and duplicated.
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Oct 10, 2021 18:45
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Blastinus posted:You mentioned it as a theory in passing, but I think that the reason why Space Pirates are on the station is the same reason why they've got Ridley on ice. It wouldn't be too much of a stretch to think that they could have acquired Space Pirate DNA and were keeping it in, like a desk drawer somewhere. After all, that first boss we fought, Arachnus, was an X version of a boss in Metroid 2. There's probably all kinds of test samples just sitting around that the X could have munched on and duplicated. I thought they would have been exposed to the X parasites when they first got hold of the Metroids from their home planet prior to the first game. Given what we know of the pirates' operational safety standards, it wouldn't surprise me. Unless I'm remembering wrong and the Federation discovered them first, then the pirates stole them for their own use.
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Oct 11, 2021 02:10
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Meaty Ore posted:I thought they would have been exposed to the X parasites when they first got hold of the Metroids from their home planet prior to the first game. Given what we know of the pirates' operational safety standards, it wouldn't surprise me. Unless I'm remembering wrong and the Federation discovered them first, then the pirates stole them for their own use. The best explanation we're ever given as to why that didn't happen is that the Metroid population was keeping the X population severely beaten down. Unfortunately, Metroids were the X's only natural predator, and well... this is what happens when a species with the ability to rapidly infect, kill and reproduce becomes the apex predator.
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Oct 11, 2021 02:36
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Materant posted:The best explanation we're ever given as to why that didn't happen is that the Metroid population was keeping the X population severely beaten down. Unfortunately, Metroids were the X's only natural predator, and well... this is what happens when a species with the ability to rapidly infect, kill and reproduce becomes the apex predator. From the Chozo Memories in Samus Returns. The X Parasites were originally deep underground were they were more or less harmless. The Chozo unsealing them made them a threat to the whole planet and possibly universe until they made the Metroids to counter them. Of course then the Metroid's started evolving into an uncontrollable form, so they were forced to seal and abandon them as well.
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Oct 11, 2021 04:43
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loving love Metroid Fusion, it’s an absolute blast to play every time I pick it up, I love the narrative elements at play with both the terror and fighting against the very shadow of its predecessor Super Metroid, and it’s actually a Metroid game that challenges me in the combat beats which helps keep me engaged with the flow of progression. As for the links to Other M, I don’t feel like it hurts this game in the slightest for the simple reason that the devs at Nintendo seem intent to ignore it as much as I do, so I’m cool with playing that game.
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Oct 11, 2021 04:51
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Blastinus posted:The Galactic Federation is in many respects the more benign version of Weyland-Yutani, constantly toying around with dangerous organisms that subsequently turn around and make them into lunch. Their only saving grace is that they have a dedicated one-woman cleanup crew on speed dial to deal with their mess-ups.
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Oct 11, 2021 07:24
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Faerie Fortune posted:I got stuck in the morph ball room because I can't read tutorials. I feel this with every fibre of my being. I wall jumped out of the morph ball room, got stuck because I didn't understand that certain blocks could be shot with a normal beam and then jumped back into the morph ball room thinking I needed to find morph ball bombs. Which I then proceeded to get stuck in for 10 minutes. (Also I presume the second video is meant to still be unlisted?) Natural 20 fucked around with this message at 13:46 on Oct 11, 2021 |
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Oct 11, 2021 13:35
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It wasn't, which is strange because I could've sworn I changed it to public when I published it here. It saved me adding it to the series playlist so  Metroid Dread update: Still hasn't arrived for me  It missed the initial delivery and FedEx just never updated the tracking Friday evening. Hopefully it arrives today because it's a new business day.
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Oct 11, 2021 13:54
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definitely a bit late on it, but yeah, people were weird about giving poo poo to fusion in terms of blaming it for other m's existence in terms of the commanding officer stuff, but fusion never gets into any of the insanely weird territory that other m did in the least so i never understood that. i guess people wanted something to blame as to what all had 'killed' the series for so long, but now that dread is out i'd say we've pretty safely broken the weird sense of malaise that had hung over it for the longest time. funnily, it reminds me of the silent hill series and how people tended to give poo poo to silent hill 4 (which i personally like a lot, for the record) for supposedly not living up to the first 3, but then all the games after it came out and a lot of people who had trashed it before came to realize that at least 4 was more of an actual silent hill game than they'd given it credit for.
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Oct 12, 2021 19:01
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One thing about fusion is that with almost 20 years without a sequel and fandom speculation on what her suit would become in relation to samus's metroidness has lead to quite a bit of speculative fanfiction and fanart. A lot of people had the three spikes on the left arm become metroid talons or something she would slash with and lifedrain with.
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Oct 12, 2021 21:12
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I finally got my copy of Dread and have since beaten it and it's absolutely amazing. Oh yeah and we fight a fast fish.
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Oct 14, 2021 03:30
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Nice thumbnail. That video's also unlisted, btw
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Oct 14, 2021 04:35
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I think there's zero good fish bosses in Metroidvania games and Serris is no exception. At least it dies in, like, four hits. Anyway, you're obviously blasting through the game, but I remember from playing as a kid, fully blind and not used to genre/series conventions, it's actually pretty hard to find your way sometimes? Like for example the pillars that rise from the floor when you bomb the spot they extend from - there's no indication they're there, and why would the bomb do that? I ran circles around TRO for HOURS until I discovered the mechanic by accident, then promptly forgot it for later puzzles (though those were optional and you can skip e.g. the one you show in this video by having a later upgrade). Also generally how to get around in AQA, lots of destructible blocks that you don't really know ARE destructible, it's definitely not clear where exactly progress will be so it's not like there's the one room where you obviously HAVE to find the one block you can shoot through... It's tough but generally pretty good, and awesome if you find progress of course. Way less overtly linear if you don't actually know where the path is, haha.
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Oct 14, 2021 15:19
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there were definitely some spots when i was a kid where i got stuck for a bit and endlessly looped back to places i had access to but couldn't do anything with. an unfortunate aspect of the game being built more linear is that you can't even make progress in another path and come back to what stopped you earlier, you basically have to figure out the one specific thing that will let you move forward or else you're going to be stuck. sector 4 definitely stumped me for a while since you have to take kind of a roundabout path to even get to where they want you to go at the serris enclosure.
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Oct 14, 2021 16:37
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I'm amazed Sora got into Smash but it feels a bit hollow that there's absolutely no Disney characters to go along with him, not even his important buds Donald and Goofy. Like, I get it, but it's still kinda sad.
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Oct 15, 2021 22:19
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I've heard that if you can get through all the Dune series then looking back it's got an arc and a purpose, but that requires getting through everything and even the fans agree that's not easy.
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Oct 15, 2021 23:09
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FPzero posted:I'm amazed Sora got into Smash but it feels a bit hollow that there's absolutely no Disney characters to go along with him, not even his important buds Donald and Goofy. Like, I get it, but it's still kinda sad. What do you mean? They're right here!  Also, the comment about getting Samus a coat reminded me I had this image of the greatest threat to the universe: 
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Oct 15, 2021 23:31
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Bruceski posted:I've heard that if you can get through all the Dune series then looking back it's got an arc and a purpose, but that requires getting through everything and even the fans agree that's not easy. I couldn’t get through the second, but apparently if you get through the first four you get the gist.
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Oct 16, 2021 01:37
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Youtube randomly recommended a video to me and it felt like an SA LP so here I am.
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Oct 16, 2021 01:38
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