Ah, Samus-sama! (Metroid Prime Review)

[lord_morte]

As a slight preface, I'll say that reading the FAQs to something that you're logged on to is a very good thing: the LiveJournal FAQ has enabled me to no longer take as much space on my friends' Friends pages, which might be met with much acclamation. That, however, shall remain to be seen.

Comments

[lord_morte]

The problem with that in Metroid Prime is that, with a 3D environment, you have so many different obstacles/monsters/traps to bypass that it gets very tedious by the end of it. I present, as an example, the Fire Mollusks. You have to hit them while they're open, then jump on them while they're flipped upside down, then jump off again before they flip over and dump you into the boiling magma. You have (by my count) about five seconds to do so: it gets even better with multiple versions. Now, I could stand doing that once or twice: however, I've had to do so no fewer than four different times, due to backtracking back and forth.

Symphony on the Night, by contrast, had a more linear style to it, and I could actually remember where I needed to put each item, and how to bypass them. Metroid... just seems more difficult. I just hope that it's not because I'm getting older in video-game playing. >_Oh, and do you have the GBA port-type thing to go with your Metroid Fusion? If so, I'd like to port it over to the game, since I've heard there

[lord_morte]

I get the original Metroid? Er... yay? Guess we'll have to hook it up anyway, then, to see what happens. Actually... if you could bring it to the Wayne party bash (as I am now calling the event tomorrow,) we can go ahead and transfer it then, and see what happens. Perhaps at one of those critical "Let's break for food" moments? :)

...even if I'm not going to have beaten the game at that point. :-/

And to move up the other discussion... A Headband of Intellect would actually be somewhat helpful, since I don't have one. The problem, however, is that it will only be boosting my Int skill modifiers: Intelligence otherwise doesn't help me out that much.

Wait... that skill infusion creates a circumstance bonus? If so, it would stack with my Spellcraft lense (+5 competence bonus to Spellcraft,) which would make the total modifier +40... And if I made it Persistent

[procyonid]

Backtracking is what makes these games interesting, in my opinion... a single, long winding corridor would make for a very dull game. Backtracking encourages you to familiarize yourself with the layout of the game world, and constantly reinterpret even 'familiar' places as you gain new items and ways to explore. And each locked door or inaccessible area adds a little mystery to the game, as does the possibility when finding a new area that you may or may not actually be where you're "supposed" to

[lord_morte]

No problem at all, Procyon: I knew that you had a livejournal (via your comments in Wayne's,) but didn't know if you'd want to bother with the "little brother." *adds you to the Friends list*

To clarify, though... I don't really mind the large, somewhat sprawling style of dungeons (that's one of the things that made me happy with SotN, for example,) it's the fact that there are so many blasted instances of having to go back and forth across landscapes that don't get any easier. For example, how many Chozo ghosts could possibly respawn in any one room? To put it another way, I don't mind the backtracking, it's the fact that I have to do the same thing over and over again. (I know, it doesn't make too much sense, but

[procyonid]

Speaking of comments in Wayne's journal, where in the world has he gone this week? Our little discussion kind of came to an abrupt end there...

And... come on, now, the game doesn't have to explain everything. I'm very impressed that the designers went to the lengths to explain everything they did (rarely do action games take this step; earlier Metroids certainly didn't) but there are limits... does the game really have to explicitly say that the Pirates in Magmoor have heat-shielding, or that certain limited technologies the Chozo apparently found acceptable

[lord_morte]

He's been... not feeling the greatest. :-/

And I don't ask for games to explain every event that happens (most RPGs/action games/FPS/etc. certainly don't, for example,) but when the information that's given out in one part of the game conflicts with other information already received... Just seems a bit sloppy to me. The biggest violator of this is, as I mentioned, the Chozon "giving up" their technology, but then building massive solar-collection grids, movable statues, magnetic tracks, etc.

For me, the largest challenges (outside boss fights, mind,) were large groups of airborne pirates. Their missiles do a great deal of damage, and the fact that you can really only target one at a time really hurts. Not to mention the fact that their suicide dive can knock off quite a bit of your health.

As for artifact collecting... >:E

Managed to get the Truth and... Lifebringer, I think? The one in the Sun Chamber. Let the record show that I detest the collection of any one item, and when the hints are so vague (and for the ones that are

[procyonid]

The flying pirates can be annoying, yeah... until you get Plasma. (The Ice+Missile trick also does the job pretty well, though.)

I kind of wish they have left the artifact-collection segment out myself. It's not really necessary, and some of the artifacts are in tremendously obscure places (I had to resort to a FAQ for Artifact of Elder). Fetch-quests were never really Metroid's style in the first place; the designers here seemed to be trying to squeeze more play time out of the game without having to actually add anything to it. It give you an opportunity to search for powerups, though, which is (kind of) fun.