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 About the Game Metroid Dread is the 2021 installment in the world famous Metroid series of games. Metroid Dread, technically also Metroid 5 is the sequel to the 2002 game, Metroid Fusion and represents what is said to be the end of the Metroid saga as well as the first new Metroid game in its signature 2D style in nearly two decades. Samus must wander into the depths of the planet ZDR as she uncovers the mysteries of the civilization that lay there and pursued by the menacing E.M.M.I set of robots. Following our forays through all forms of Metroivanias, starting with Symphony of the Night but getting to Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion and Hollow Knight, Tea and I are incredibly excited to be able to tackle this on release and I will attempt to bring my own brand of (high?) skill and complete idiocy to this new Metroid installment. To what extent does Dread learn from its predecessors. How much has it taken on from the imitations and kings of the past decade's Metroidvania revival? Will it stick to the linearity of Fusion? Will it lean into the freedom of Super? Can it indeed evoke its titular dread in us as we play through? All these questions and more will hopefully be answered as we lend our ever critical eye to this hopefully excellent new game. From the Desk of Yorkshire Tea I’m sure Nat was expecting some lengthy essay here, painstakingly scribed out into the small hours of the morning, wherein I would seek to establish the significance of this LP and what it represents by delving into all manner of topics – the weight of time that’s come and gone since the release of Fusion in 2002, the evolution of the genre since then, the emotional resonance the Metroid series has for us, that kind of thing. All to explain our hopefulness, our expectations, our apprehension and worry at whether Metroid itself still has a place in the world of metroidvanias. This is not that kind of introduction. For one thing, anybody who’s reading this LP has almost certainly mused on those matters enough since Dread’s unveiling earlier this year. More importantly, Metroid Dread feels like the sort of game where we’re going to be thrown right into it, sink or swim. A game that almost doesn’t want to us to dwell on it beforehand too much, but to go right in and get down to business, to approach it on its own merits and let it speak for itself without the baggage of history. The fact that this is supposedly the end of the Metroid saga shouldn’t be entering into our heads at the moment. It doesn’t even really feel like it’s important right now who made it. I guess what I’m trying to say here is that this game, the story it wants to tell and the feelings it wants to evoke, had to exist. It feels like we’ve been asked to go in and help Samus finish things for good. We’re here to do a job. Maybe Hollow Knight wasn’t the culmination of our road trip into metroidvania country. Maybe Dread is… or maybe it’s an epilogue where we walk away feeling like anything could happen next. Maybe it’s a new beginning, both for the genre, and for the series. Not an end. About the LP This is, by necessity, initially a completely Blind LP but I imagine over time Yorkshire Tea will race ahead of me and thus be able to offer guidance to prevent me from wandering around in circles for too long. Art and banners, will, as ever, be handled by the amazing Bifauxnen. Episodes                         Links The LP Beach Cross Post Thread - In case you don't feel comfortable posting on the SA forums or need to view this outside of a paywall. Our Patreon! - In case you want to support our LPs and see episodes early! Natural 20 fucked around with this message at 20:17 on Sep 14, 2022 |
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Oct 11, 2021 23:04
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 12:25 |
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Reserved just in case: Also it's my birthday! 
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Oct 11, 2021 23:12
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Happy Birthday and Happy Thread
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Oct 11, 2021 23:18
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Happy Birthday and Happy Dreadday! 
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Oct 11, 2021 23:21
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Happy birth- and dreadday!
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Oct 11, 2021 23:26
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Happy birthday Nat! ...That said, it's going to be at least a little while before I can start following along with the LP. I've managed to remain unspoiled thus far but probably won't get my hands on the game for a week or so yet. I'll be back once I've finished it, though.
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Oct 11, 2021 23:46
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Happy birthday! Also + is the map button. The Switch doesn't have a D-pad, after all, just separate directional buttons.
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Oct 11, 2021 23:46
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Having finished the video, I am already very very confused, but also interested. It looks like the E.M.M.Is are going to be puzzle bosses encountered throughout the game that you are going to have to get past to get to a temporary buff to be able to kill them?
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Oct 11, 2021 23:49
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Very excited for this
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Oct 11, 2021 23:52
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Happy birthday, Nat! I've spent most of today playing Dread, and it is very much a sink or swim experience; sad to say I've been doing a lot more sinking than swimming. Hoping you and Tea have a better go of it than I've been having. Edit: that's not to say I haven't been having fun, I have, it's just the game can be a bit brutally unforgiving at points, and I just haven't been playing a lot of Metroidvanias recently, so I've got a lot of rust that needs to be shaken off on top of getting used to the controls.
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Oct 12, 2021 00:17
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Congrats Nat on learning to jump on his birthday https://twitter.com/devtesla/status/1446653995808866306
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Oct 12, 2021 00:20
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Nat you're going to have to learn to use the analog stick to aim or else you're going to be in for a rough time.
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Oct 12, 2021 00:32
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I really want to read this thread but this game is gonna be my entertainment next week on my vacation flights. Ugh! Oh well, I'll be back in the thread in a few weeks to see how you guys progress!
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Oct 12, 2021 01:47
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Happy birthday, Natural20!
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Oct 12, 2021 02:07
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Happy Birthday, enjoy Dread. I too am getting my rear end kicked but have made some good progress.
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Oct 12, 2021 02:31
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Happy birthday. Now if you could tell us your mother’s maiden name, your elementary school, the last four digits of your Social Security Number….
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Oct 12, 2021 02:54
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here we go here we go here we go 
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Oct 12, 2021 04:17
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I will also be back for this once I finish the game myself. Echoing the happy birthdays!
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Oct 12, 2021 07:25
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CRIP EATIN BREAD posted:Nat you're going to have to learn to use the analog stick to aim or else you're going to be in for a rough time. I will aim up over my dead body. If jump fire was good enough for Fusion it's good enough for this. Also thank you everyone for the wonderful Birthday wishes!
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Oct 12, 2021 13:54
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Natural 20 posted:I will aim up over my dead body. If jump fire was good enough for Fusion it's good enough for this. Alles Gute zum Geburtstag!
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Oct 12, 2021 14:43
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Yas Queen (of Metroids). Let's start with the important questions, is Space Jump in the game and will Nat curse its existence again? E: actually watched the episode, that was not a Chozo, that was a Chozo in a power suit. Reminder that Samus' Fusion suit (even after absorbing the SA-X) is weaker than Chozo-tech. I'm fairly sure the tutorial for opening the full map told you to use the plus button, not the d-pad. Omobono fucked around with this message at 18:06 on Oct 12, 2021 |
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Oct 12, 2021 17:34
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Omobono posted:I'm fairly sure the tutorial for opening the full map told you to use the plus button, not the d-pad. To be fair to Nat, this got me too. I was extremely confused until I figured it out. And yes it is the plus button.
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Oct 12, 2021 21:42
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Oct 13, 2021 22:48
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your panicked screams are exactly what I felt
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Oct 13, 2021 23:18
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drat, I didn't expect you to successfully pull off a counter on an E.M.M.I so soon. Also whoever designed the map fill in system here is a war criminal and deserves a special place in hell.
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Oct 14, 2021 01:04
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I'm just grateful that Nat doesn't feel compelled to jump around filling in every pixel of map like the other people I've watched play the game. I swear one of them spent a good 25% of their total playtime just filling in the map. Frustrating to watch.
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Oct 14, 2021 01:15
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Marluxia posted:drat, I didn't expect you to successfully pull off a counter on an E.M.M.I so soon. On the other hand oh man speedrun planning can like just say "here's the path"
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Oct 14, 2021 05:23
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I love the map design, but I can imagine it'd be hell for people compelled to fill out literally every pixel, yeah. The advantage is that it literally shows you 'You haven't been in this part of the room' which was a problem for Nat in Hollow Knight because he peeked in a room and later thought he'd explored it already.
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Oct 14, 2021 11:27
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Zurai posted:I swear one of them spent a good 25% of their total playtime just filling in the map. Marluxia posted:drat, I didn't expect you to successfully pull off a counter on an E.M.M.I so soon. girl dick energy fucked around with this message at 13:38 on Oct 14, 2021 |
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Oct 14, 2021 13:12
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Hollow Knight has improved Nats parry skills at least.
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Oct 14, 2021 13:30
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I'd say cutscene Samus seems quite on the ball for now. Meeting an EMMI? Couple cannon blasts right in the weak spot followed by a missile without hesitation. When that clearly didn't work, time to make like a Geococcyx Californianus* and burn the road, her current armor even has the vaguely correct coloration for that. *  ^^^This guy's actual real world species Thinking back on the first video, did she Metroid drain that Not_Hyper_Beam_can't_remember_actual_designation from the remains of that Brain? Because it made me think on how she gained her abilities back from X-cores in fusion.
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Oct 14, 2021 15:48
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the brain gives the omega cannon, yes
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Oct 14, 2021 15:51
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Maybe it's just me, but I think there's two separate parry windows when the EMMI shows up: once when it's about to pin Samus, and the second time when it's about to spike her.
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Oct 14, 2021 16:17
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Quackles posted:Maybe it's just me, but I think there's two separate parry windows when the EMMI shows up: once when it's about to pin Samus, and the second time when it's about to spike her. That is indeed the case. However, the timing on both of them are extremely tight (3-5 frames apparently) and the timing isn't consistent, meaning that you essentially have to predict it rather than react to it.
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Oct 14, 2021 16:26
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CRIP EATIN BREAD posted:the brain gives the omega cannon, yes No, I meant, instead of how she normally gains abilities she drained the omega cannon out of the brain through her new-ish* Metroid biology, but the brain didn't look X-infected. *how much time has passed since Fusion?
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Oct 14, 2021 16:33
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Could be Metroid-Drain, could be her Chozo-suit working with other Chozo-tech. It's not unlikely that the Chozo had a larger interstellar empire than previously believed, and the fellow we've just met is the remnant of a hold-out colony.
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Oct 14, 2021 19:30
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I just interpreted it as like Prime Series Hyper Beam being tied to sitting in Phazon and running out when the goo drains. Except this time mercifully the beam only turns off once you kill the jerk rather than after a given number of shots.
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Oct 14, 2021 20:15
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I believe the conjecture from Prime is that the Chozo disappeared from Tallon IV because they reached enlightenment and let go of their corporeal forms before the Phazon dragged them back. It would be interesting if this is the guy who had no interest in being enlightened.
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Oct 14, 2021 20:32
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Some general combat tips that might be helpful and not immediately intuitive. I'm putting these in a spoiler block in case you'd rather not read them now, but they're here if you feel you want them: -Missiles are your primary damage dealers. Regular beam shots are for small fry, charge beam is for backup when you run out of missiles or for jumping through weak enemies. -No, seriously, I do mean primary. This isn't like Super or Fusion where depending on your point in the game the Charge Beam is as good or better than missiles. You get oodles of tanks and oodles of pickups: shoot missiles like crazy. -Stuff hurts in this game. You're not expected to facetank damage like you can in other games. You're expected to dodge or parry everything accordingly, with energy just being your margin for screwing up with that. -Accordingly, the more obvious an attack, the more damage it will deal as punishment for ignoring the windup. Put another way, some enemies will jab, and some enemies will Falcon Punch. The second one will hurt like hell, to a far larger degree than other Metroid games. (For example, Mother Brain's hand beams in Super do 100 damage while the far harder to dodge mouth rings do 20 damage. It's a much more vicious ratio in Dread, with a higher baseline too.) -Aiming can seem kind of strange. You can freely aim, but you stop when doing so, right? Not quite. You can basically always freely aim while on the ground and jumping. Free aim just stops you from moving (and removes the autocorrection for around ten degrees off the horizontal in case you don't have Monkey Ball-honed precision for keeping an analog stick perfectly straight). Use Free Aim when you need complete precision or you're fine with not moving. -In short, keep moving and don't stop shooting. Enemies in this game can feel like hard hitting bullet sponges, but that's because you're meant to constantly be doing both. -I'm serious. Use missiles. You'll be surprised how rarely you'll run out. -no really i'm not joking on the missiles thing
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Oct 14, 2021 21:15
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| # ? Apr 24, 2024 12:25 |
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Rosalie_A posted:Some general combat tips that might be helpful and not immediately intuitive. I'm putting these in a spoiler block in case you'd rather not read them now, but they're here if you feel you want them:
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Oct 14, 2021 22:00
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