Metroid: Dread - October 8th

[jonamok]

And finally arrived at the last boss. Tried once and lasted seconds. A fight for another day, I think. 
 

My save file says 11:35 on the clock. But it clearly doesn’t count times when you repeatedly try and then die, to either bosses or EMMIs, as I’ve played it for 3 hours a day since launch, and have easily clocked 20+ hours on it.

 

I assume before I go back up the lift to face ole Beaky again that I can just go explore the maps for stuff I’ve missed?

[MikeBeaver]

38 minutes ago, jonamok said:

 

I assume before I go back up the lift to face ole Beaky again that I can just go explore the maps for stuff I’ve missed?

 

Yep, that's what I've been doing for the last cuople of hours, just mopping up collectables

[mechamonkey]

I am absolutely crap at this, not a problem though as I'm loving every second, what a fantastic game.

[Gambit]

Well the final boss is done and dusted.

 

Spoiler

What a load of bullshit to end with a QTE that if you fail, you lose health, and if you die you have to start the whole fight again. Abysmal piece of design, a blemish on an otherwise fantastic game. That alone knocks it down my GOTY list.

 

[jonamok]

It’s not going to trouble the top of my GOTY list, and that final boss choice mentioned above won’t be doing it any additional favours. An excellent 8/10 nonetheless.

[MikeF]

With regards to that boss choice

 

Spoiler

It was clearly signposted in my opinion, all the chozo type mini bosses required the same QTE move to kill

 

[Number 28]

21 hours ago, Jamie John said:

@Number 28 - I also just realised that re. Z-57, ha.

I just read that Z-57 is actually...

Spoiler

the first boss in its X-parasite form. 🤯

So those machines in the interim were maybe just chopping him up for the bin and then X-parasite came along and revived him.

 

[Jamie John]

9 minutes ago, MikeF said:

With regards to that boss choice

 

  Hide contents

It was clearly signposted in my opinion, all the chozo type mini bosses required the same QTE move to kill

 

 

Yeah, I agree - by the time you get to the final boss, you've already fought several which require you to finish them off with the counter move, so it didn't come as a shock, and it's a pretty generous window.

[Popo]

23 hours ago, jonamok said:

Fed up of this now.

 

All day stuck on Z-57, even watched Slo-Mo YT videos, and despite repeating exactly what they do he never enters the 3D scene after I parry his bite in phase 2. Most videos seem to get that scene after one or two parries.

 

When I’m doing it, it just loops the flappy bird bollocks (shite choice that is btw) and the same spew, swipe, bite attack cycles until it eventually chews through my health. I’m hammering the cunt with rockets and volleys, such that I sometimes run out of 100+, but ultimately the loop just does too much cumulative damage.

 

What am I doing wrong? Does the 3D scene spawn automatically after an eventual bite parry, or do you have to do something else to prompt it, like jump onto one of his tentacles or something?

 

Assume I’m near the end, thankfully, but on the verge of binning this.

I beat Z-57 earlier without countering him. Took a couple of rounds, but no, doing the counter wasn’t essential. 

[MikeBeaver]

1 hour ago, Popo said:

I beat Z-57 earlier without countering him. Took a couple of rounds, but no, doing the counter wasn’t essential. 

I'm on the final boss, besides QTE parries, I might have done 2 throughtout the entire game, just can't be dealing with them 😛

Definitely not essential for Z-57.

[Alex W.]

Is it just me or is the backdrop in the Ghavoran-Ferenia transport just a whole lot of 2D paintings turned in to parallax layers?

 

Gorgeous.

[Alex W.]

Love a boss fight that takes about 30 seconds once you understand it.

 

Spoiler

 

 

[the_debaser]

Nice. Don’t think I used missiles on any of the robots. 

[Strafe]

3 hours ago, Gambit said:

Well the final boss is done and dusted.

 

  Hide contents

What a load of bullshit to end with a QTE that if you fail, you lose health, and if you die you have to start the whole fight again. Abysmal piece of design, a blemish on an otherwise fantastic game. That alone knocks it down my GOTY list.

 

 

Spoiler

Which QTE? Shooting him with the mega laser once he’s a huge monster?

 

[Alex W.]

I don’t understand why more games don’t have

 

Spoiler

painting multiple targets with a laser then unleashing a barrage of small guided missiles

because it always looks and feels amazing. Put that shit in Dark Souls even, it’ll work.

[Number 28]

Mechanically similar to Rez and Zelda Wind Waker's boomerang. Visually like FF7's enemy skill 'Matra Magic'. 

[Giles]

RE: the music

If a game can be more than the sum of its parts, this is it.

The lack of melody looks like a severe and daring design choice to me. It makes the EMMI zones pop.

I'm reminded there was no music in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds."

[grungekid]

Does anyone know the purpose of the group's of glowy blue fireflies you are here and there?

[Yiggy]

Had the short flurry of bosses last night followed by the gravity suit acquisition. 
 

Game changer. 
 

I know it’s a Metroid thing but I love how you grow in power throughout the game just as you’re feeling a bit overwhelmed by how hard enemies are getting then suddenly your diving all over the place like a god. 

[Yiggy]

10 hours ago, Alex W. said:

Is it just me or is the backdrop in the Ghavoran-Ferenia transport just a whole lot of 2D paintings turned in to parallax layers?

 

Gorgeous.

After seeing most of the game I can’t really understand those saying all the areas look the same. There’s a good amount of variety and some of the areas are stunning imo. 

[dataDave]

I’ve only used the cloaking device three times, once when trying it out, then two times for each of the doors that require it. Seems a bit pointless really, and that energy bar it uses even more pointless.

[Triple A]

7 hours ago, Giles said:

RE: the music

If a game can be more than the sum of its parts, this is it.

The lack of melody looks like a severe and daring design choice to me. It makes the EMMI zones pop.

I'm reminded there was no music in Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds."

While I love a hummable melody for sure, yeah I agree with this - it's a conscious decision I feel that dare I say comes across a bit more grown up.  Similar was done with the soundtrack for Castlevania Lords of Shadow (another MercurySteam-developed game), which dialled down 'Vania's earlier anthemic stylings and positioned more towards a film score-like mood-setter - and scooped a ton of awards for it.

[dataDave]

I’ve come around to the soundtrack as well, but I hope this isn’t the start of the death of traditional themes in games, just like what has happened to Hollywood cinema over the past ten years. Everyone wants to be like Zimmer/Marvel now.

[Triple A]

Yeah I agree with that too.  There's room for each style.  And personally speaking, Williams over Zimmer any day 😉

[Alex W.]

Not to take us too far off topic but the only reason Marvel movies don’t have themes is because most of their scores are just quick redos of the temp track. When they do actually get someone to write a soundtrack from scratch it’s always strongly thematic.

[Jarik]

Final boss was rock hard but then surprisingly simple once I had the pattern down, just like all the others.

 

Ending thoughts.

 

Spoiler

Well.  If there was ever a response to PTSD Samus in Other M then Rage-fueled Metroid Samus is it. I love watching that cutscene over & over.

 

Escape sequence? Love it. It had to be in there somewhere.

 

I also loved the X Quiet Robe part. Either the X had come to realise its own threat via absorbing Quiet Robe's Wisdom or Quiet Robe himself had managed to regain control of himself even while an X. Either way, he then chooses to give his power to Samus allowing her to gain control over her Metroid state to the point of turning it off.

 

I'm also very glad that I copied my almost-complete save file to a new slot before starting a new game, as the unlocked teleports will make 100-percenting the items much easier.

[smac]

1 hour ago, grungekid said:

Does anyone know the purpose of the group's of glowy blue fireflies you are here and there?

 

Yeah, I was wondering the same - early on there's a group of similar creatures that attack, but these just seem to congregate around light panels in the ceiling.

 

I have a question of my own - what does it mean if a room is flashing white on the map?

[viewtiful jim]

Just now, smac said:

 

Yeah, I was wondering the same - early on there's a group of similar creatures that attack, but these just seem to congregate around light panels in the ceiling.

 

I have a question of my own - what does it mean if a room is flashing white on the mini-map?

To be honest, I thought the blue fireflies where just visual signposts to where you should go.

 

 As for the flashing white areas on the map… it just means there’s a secret somewhere in that area.

[smac]

Cheers; thought I had checked/shot everywhere I could, but probably an unreachable corner in the two that are flashing.

[Jarik]

The white glowing area means that there's a secret that hasn't been discovered yet, it'll go away when you can actually see the item & it becomes marked on the map.