Metroid games have a very satisfying gameplay loop - you push forward, discover some new area, challenge, or boss, defeat it, and are rewarded with a new ability that allows you to push forward some more.
Metroid Dread is truly old-school in its approach, and so the game itself isn't that long. I'm already ready to go up to the Itorash and confront Raven Beak. But, naturally, I'm not doing so yet.
There are items to collect!
I can't recall how many playthroughs this is - whether it's my 3rd or possibly more. Back in 2021 I cleared it and then did it on Hard Mode... and I think maybe did another Hard Mode clear with 100% of items. Anyway, I think like my last 100% run, this time I surprised myself by doing what I generally think of as the hardest Shinespark puzzle in only two or three attempts. This one requires you to get up to speed on a platform that is basically as short as will allow you to build up the requisite speed (with a door in the middle, so you need to shoot it before you start running - not a major challenge, but psychologically tricky). Then, you have to slip through a gap, as you're falling shoot down through some beam blocks, activate the shinespark mid-air to go left and hit a slanted platform (and thus preserve the spark,) leap down, do so again going right, and then leap down into a pit where you have some blocks to hit on the right. I think you only get a normal Missile tank, but if you want everything, that's how you get it. It also lets you skip the ordinary path to the Gravity Suit.
I had heard that at some point the various teleporters become a fast-travel system, but after beating the Gold Chozo right before Itorash, I still can't use them that way. According to Reddit, you have to actually go to Itorash first and then come back. I need to test this (the TV is in use. Yes, it's a Switch game, but... shut up).
Anyway, there's a certain melancholy when you get toward the end of a game like this - the world opens up, yes, but there's also no new capability to discover. We're at full power.
Going back, the Wave Beam EMMI gives us our final challenge, where you need to speed through tight corridors with various barriers to deal with and find the tiny straightaway that gives you enough time to Omega Stream their faceplate off. While I had to abort my initial go (I think I actually parried out of a grab) the second time I got a nice clean stream-then-beam.
I both hate and love the EMMIs - I hate them in the moment, especially the latter couple where you have to flee them underwater before you get the Gravity suit. But they do exactly what they're there to do - instill a sense of dread (you know, like the title!) The nature of the Omega Stream also forces this very tense moment with each of them, where you need to make yourself vulnerable as they approach and hope you have the precision and the distance to melt their face shield. Getting off the beam shot right afterward takes practice - my first playthrough I think I always ran again after getting the faceplate off and had to set up again for the killing blow, but once you figure out that they start to stand up once you've done enough damage to the plate, you can switch to charging your beam and get off that final blow immediately.
I think for the first time I managed to get a Shinespark on Escue, which made that fight go very quickly. A few of the bosses gave me a fair amount of trouble - Experiment Z57 killed me several times, even though I thought I knew what I was doing (I managed to flub the parry the first few times and I also somehow missed one of the tentacles with my Storm Missiles once).
Anyway, I'll have to see if that teleporter thing works. I know there are a few really tough Shinespark puzzles, and even if I got the one in Burenia, I'm fearfully anticipating a few I remember (there's one in Hanubia where you have to stop, drop a bomb, and then shinespark down, and I genuinely cannot remember how you are supposed to get up to speed for it). I remember one in Artaria where you have to roll into a ball while you have the Shinespark to get through a narrow passage, one in Ferenia where you have to do a lot of slope-preservations, and another very elaborate one in Cataris with the same thing.
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