Topic: Metroid Prime 4: Beyond [Insert thinly veiled Back to the Future reference here]

[Evan_B]

Hi. I’m giving my volcanic opinions the audience they deserve, which is…

*Tumbleweed.gif*

So, Metroid Prime 4 is here, or at least, it will be here momentarily. For some reason, the only gaming podcast I listen to has no hype for it, so I’ve got to build that hype myself. For a while, I was very hesitant- I don’t think Nintendo has done a stellar job promoting this one all that well. I am resigning myself to the reality that it probably won’t be getting a Nintendo Direct, especially with the recent overview trailer. Then again, maybe Nintendo wants to keep the budget pretty tame when it comes to marketing, since apparently the game will never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever ever make a profit.

With that said, this latest overview gives us what I think is the most comprehensive look at the game yet, and while I’m surprised by some specific details in both good and bad ways, I’m coming away feeling very positive. Let’s discuss.

The Good:

• The music. I had heard some people worrying about the butt-rock-y guitars used in the earlier, and I was kind of in the same camp. But the music in this new overview sounded very in line with classic Prime tracks from Kenji Yamamoto and Kouichi Kyuma. Some might argue that this is one-note. I have been listening to the original game's OST on Nintendo Music and I say, "yeah, it is, kinda." I still think Talon IV's OST is very subdued in a way that the series moved away from in Prime 3, but the original managed to add subtle color in between those subdued tunes that the series hasn't always been able to recapture. Still, the orchestration did feel a bit more in-line with those earlier games and not merely high-intensity and sort of forgettable like in Dread.
• The marines. This is one genuine surprise from this trailer and I personally think its a welcome one. Yes, they're all probably going to die horrible deaths, what with how much they talk about getting back home. But I do like that Samus is using them to open complex locks, deal with machinery and terrain outside her prowess, and the like. It feels a bit more authentic than the lock-and-key nature of previous Prime games and they also boast some pretty good animations and faces. It's... sort of weird seeing realistic faces in a Nintendo game.
• The environments. They look nice.

The Bad:

• The theming. The electric spire place looks nice and electric-y. The jungle looks very jungly. The volcano looks very magma-y... but man, it feels a bit odd to go from the very wild environmental theming of Prime 3 to "pick your extreme biome... and a lab!"
• The bike. I was also sort of hoping that the Desert wouldn't be the only Vi-O-La free roam area (and to be fair, it very well might change/evolve or not be the only place where you can use it), but I find it a bit funny that the big hook here is "let's have an Ocarina of Time Hyrule Field." Using it to roll around in limited speed mode is a bit odd too, I wonder how that's going to work in gameplay. Hoping that we'll get at least a Vi-O-La sequence in the biomes themselves, and maybe a nice spectacular Vi-O-La fight.
• The marines. I don't really love the over-specialized nature of these goofs, since the Federation gear was much more standardized before this and I find it odd that the Federation seems on track to match Chozo tech in the near future. The dialogue seems a bit on the nose also, but I'm willing to keep an open mind.

I adore Metroid Prime, and I loved replaying it in the remastered version three (?) years ago, and to be perfectly honest, I'm on the fence about playing it again before Beyond comes out. I think I'm going to hold off though, because I want this to feel very fresh. I'm just incredibly excited to play another Prime game and I hope it sticks the landing. Please, feel free to share your own, likely far more reasonable thoughts.

EDIT: I have learned that there is an abundance of dialogue and hand-holding. Everything is terrible.

[broodwars]

I had a preorder on the Switch 2 version, but cancelled it after the footage IGN released of all the (bad) hand-holdy, cringy NPC dialogue that kinda betrays the game's age as having been announced in 2017. I'm just not in the mood for that nonsense in my Metroid experience. The hand-holding was bad enough in Fusion, Other M, and even Dread to an extent without having persistent NPC helper characters as well. I get enough of that annoying **** in every Sony game made these days. I was also extremely uncertain about the whole "large desert hub area" as it was.

Maybe I'll change my mind once the reviews hit, but I have other games to play right now anyway. I'm working my way through Xenoblade 3 right now, and the physical version of Yooka-Replaylee comes out in a month.

[Evan_B]

Ah, but of course. No longer being on the pulse of gaming discourse has foiled me, as I’m sure there’s plenty of discussion of the previews in other waters. Ah well, the curse of not being in the loop constantly.

[broodwars]

Ah, but of course. No longer being on the pulse of gaming discourse has foiled me, as I’m sure there’s plenty of discussion of the previews in other waters. Ah well, the curse of not being in the loop constantly.

To its credit, the IGN Preview is hopeful when, after a point in their demo, the helper left to camp out in a particular area, so they were back to the usual Metroid rhythm. I just wonder "for how long" when it comes to that sort of thing, and while the character was with them they WERE responsible for keeping that NPC alive so it was an escort mission of sorts.

I'm hoping the game is good. Dread was alright, but 2D Metroid really isn't my thing and it's been a very long time since Prime 3. I'm just going to wait and see if we have an Aloy/Atreus 2.0 situation going on here.

[Evan_B]

I am trying to train my brain from knee-jerk, inflammatory sentiments like those I made above, which I think is a symptom of me being always primed to assess new info coming my way and part of the reason o stepped away from most all social media platforms. I’m going to reframe my perspective and try to be generous.

I totally get that most people want Metroid to be isolated, contemplative, and moody, and for the most part, I think the series has accomplished that in both its 2D and Prime branches. I say this even with the existence of Prime 3, which was a much more focused game with a lot more character dialogue and world building, not to mention Dread’s sort of culminating plot threads with a very mustache-twisting antagonist. And, I know, this is a hot take from the guy who hated Super Mario 3D Land, but I didn’t mind the larger universe aspects of Other M’s narrative and actually like that game on the whole.

My understanding is that this threatened Federation base is an experiment-oriented facility, which might explain some of the more unique Federation armors and… personalities. I’d like to think Retro has enough world building under their belt to explain it in that way. And to be maybe a bit too optimistic, I have to wonder how many more times we can encounter Samus on an abandoned, lifeless planet with layers of lore to be peeled back via scanning. I’m not saying I fully understand or like the inclusion. Of more talkative soldiers, but as I mentioned before, I like the organic locks they put into place is a nice way of not simply retreading the same ground. I really don’t want to watch a great deal of footage,  it I’ll definitely temper my hype moving into these final few weeks.