Metroid Dread | NSW | Demo now available on the eshop

Godzilla wrote:Peak Nintendo would be making it a limited use demo, accessible only through using an Amiibo that has sold out everywhere.

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Years ago, back in the micro computer days, game demos were very common; mags often contained loads on a cassette every month. This continued when the PS1 arrived and demo discs were popular. However... IIRC game publishers later did some research and discovered that, in most cases, demos turned off players from making purchases rather than encouraging them to buy the games. I believe that is why we generally now see far fewer than before. They became comparatively uncommon and it's only in more recent times they they've made a little bit of a return; albeit often in the form of beta tests and time-limited demos.

Now we get to pay for our demos, by preordering the game and getting it badged as a beta! Hooray!

Any tips for raven beak as the colours seem to matter somehow? Brutal boss.

I guess I feel that a day 1 demo (or certainly in the first week maybe?) would be good for customers though, the demo is certainly a good length (just up to the first proper boss I believe) whereby anyone on the fence would get a feel whether it was a game for them or not.

Memento Mori wrote:Releasing a demo for a game which has been out for weeks and is a massive seller is peak Nintendo.

I think this is a better way of doing it, basically for the reasons Orange said.

I've not finished the fight yet but don't try to damage in the first phase would be my tip.

The 2 counter chances let you do massive damage, so focus on survivability.

Robbo-92 wrote:I guess I feel that a day 1 demo (or certainly in the first week maybe?) would be good for customers though, the demo is certainly a good length (just up to the first proper boss I believe) whereby anyone on the fence would get a feel whether it was a game for them or not.

Day 1 demos are definitely better for customers which is why they're rare now.

Green Gecko wrote:Any tips for raven beak as the colours seem to matter somehow? Brutal boss.

initially you can damage him, and he'll gradually get redder, finally when you've done enough he'll fire a big shot and you can parry him to move to the next bit. When he's gold, only a parry can hurt him

There are more phases to I'd after that, but it's a good start.

Alright so that's what gold means. Cheers guys.

I still can't get over how good a boss Raven Beak is, just pure *chef's kiss*

Thoughts on the ending:
So Samus goes full Metroid and gets a spiky suit upgrade in the process which looks cool, but then X infected Old Beak donates his X parasite to her to counteract the Metroid DNA in some way so she turns back to "normal"? Doesn't really seem to make a huge amount of sense - Samus' DNA must be such a bloody cocktail at this point!

Jenuall wrote:I still can't get over how good a boss Raven Beak is, just pure *chef's kiss*

Thoughts on the ending:
So Samus goes full Metroid and gets a spiky suit upgrade in the process which looks cool, but then X infected Old Beak donates his X parasite to her to counteract the Metroid DNA in some way so she turns back to "normal"? Doesn't really seem to make a huge amount of sense - Samus' DNA must be such a bloody cocktail at this point!

Good look at how Mercury Steam designed the game to draw you along the "correct" path.

Great channel in general as well.

Rik_ wrote:

Jenuall wrote:Thoughts on the ending:
So Samus goes full Metroid and gets a spiky suit upgrade in the process which looks cool, but then X infected Old Beak donates his X parasite to her to counteract the Metroid DNA in some way so she turns back to "normal"? Doesn't really seem to make a huge amount of sense - Samus' DNA must be such a bloody cocktail at this point!

It counters the Metroid DNA because Quiet Robe is a Thoha, the tribe of Chozo who had the genetic ability to control the Metroids. It's explained earlier on that her Thoha DNA is why Samus didn't turn into a Metroid immediately upon getting the vaccine in Fusion; Quiet Robe's X parasite basically gave her a booster shot of Thoha DNA to get her Metroid side back under control again.

As to why Quiet Robe X willingly did that, it's a bit more unclear. The two possibilities I see are that either he managed to regain some control (as hinted by him repeating his bowing gesture) because of his Thoha DNA offering some natural ability to control other beings, or the X inhabiting his body saw no other choice for some level of survival than to be assimilated by Samus and fly away to safety.

Re; the second bit, I think it might be that the X parasite saw an opportunity to neutralise a superpowered Metroid. In that respect it mirrors the ending of Fusion, which established that "humanoid" Xs are intelligent enough to make that decision. So I basically saw it as a nod to Fusion and thought that was pretty cool.

Re: the ending, did anyone else hate the metroid samus look?. It made me feel queasy

I was relieved when she got changed back and didn't leave like that

Also, given Dread is a critical success and almost certainly a commercial one too, what do people think Nintendo will do next with Mercurysteam, assuming they're happy to keep the paternship going despite the bad press around their working practices?

Dread DLC?
Metroid 6?
Another attempt at third person Metroid?
Another IP entirely?

I’d like they to do a bit of free DLC for it really.

I know it goes against a lot of what Metroid players enjoy but every time I finish a Metroid game I can’t help but wish I could go through the game again, but with Samus fully powered up from the off! They could take it one step further in this and allow Samus to use her maxed out Gravity Suit throughout normal gameplay and when you enter the boss fights you’d have an option to toggle her Metroid Suit and hyper beam to rain damage on them This alongside being able to use a second run to get the missing items you didn’t get on your first run too!

So basically what I want after every Metroid game, NG+ Of course it’d be entirely optional but it’d throw in another style for speed runners as well alongside the various other runs people enjoy doing.

Tomous wrote:Also, given Dread is a critical success and almost certainly a commercial one too, what do people think Nintendo will do next with Mercurysteam, assuming they're happy to keep the paternship going despite the bad press around their working practices?

Dread DLC?
Metroid 6?
Another attempt at third person Metroid?
Another IP entirely?

my guess would be dlc

site23 wrote:

Rik_ wrote:

Jenuall wrote:Thoughts on the ending:
So Samus goes full Metroid and gets a spiky suit upgrade in the process which looks cool, but then X infected Old Beak donates his X parasite to her to counteract the Metroid DNA in some way so she turns back to "normal"? Doesn't really seem to make a huge amount of sense - Samus' DNA must be such a bloody cocktail at this point!

It counters the Metroid DNA because Quiet Robe is a Thoha, the tribe of Chozo who had the genetic ability to control the Metroids. It's explained earlier on that her Thoha DNA is why Samus didn't turn into a Metroid immediately upon getting the vaccine in Fusion; Quiet Robe's X parasite basically gave her a booster shot of Thoha DNA to get her Metroid side back under control again.

As to why Quiet Robe X willingly did that, it's a bit more unclear. The two possibilities I see are that either he managed to regain some control (as hinted by him repeating his bowing gesture) because of his Thoha DNA offering some natural ability to control other beings, or the X inhabiting his body saw no other choice for some level of survival than to be assimilated by Samus and fly away to safety.

Re; the second bit, I think it might be that the X parasite saw an opportunity to neutralise a superpowered Metroid. In that respect it mirrors the ending of Fusion, which established that "humanoid" Xs are intelligent enough to make that decision. So I basically saw it as a nod to Fusion and thought that was pretty cool.

Hadn't thought of it that way, that's a good theory too!

Tomous wrote:Re: the ending, did anyone else hate the metroid samus look?. It made me feel queasy

I was relieved when she got changed back and didn't leave like that

I actually really liked the design, kind of wish there was a bonus option once you've cleared the game to choose between different skins when you replay so that you can play the entire game looking like that (without the extra powers to avoid breaking game balance obvs). Could add in stuff like the Fusion look and other old suits as well.

Robbo-92 wrote:I’d like they to do a bit of free DLC for it really.

I know it goes against a lot of what Metroid players enjoy but every time I finish a Metroid game I can’t help but wish I could go through the game again, but with Samus fully powered up from the off! They could take it one step further in this and allow Samus to use her maxed out Gravity Suit throughout normal gameplay and when you enter the boss fights you’d have an option to toggle her Metroid Suit and hyper beam to rain damage on them This alongside being able to use a second run to get the missing items you didn’t get on your first run too!

So basically what I want after every Metroid game, NG+ Of course it’d be entirely optional but it’d throw in another style for speed runners as well alongside the various other runs people enjoy doing.

There was actually a video I saw the other day where someone hacked the game to have the metroid suit and hyper beam from the start, however it kind of broke the game because you couldn't use the grapple beam or do triple shot locks, and it also caused some game crashes in EMMI sections. Obviously that doesn't mean it's impossible, just means it'd take some work from MS to re-tool how those powers work.

I think I've said it before but personally if they do DLC (which I think might be doubtful) then I'd much prefer a boss rush or score attack mode of some sort to new game+, put the emphasis on getting some more gameplay out of the fantastic movement and combat on show in Dread.

I’ve seen that video too (or a similar one anyway) and having that power all of the time would be incredibly broken and unbalanced even if they got the issues worked out such as grapple beam and the like, which is why I’d say that would be locked for an option in boss fights, also having the Metroid Suit on all the time would make it impossible to get through the cold sections with Metroids being vulnerable to the cold.

A boss rush mode would be neat as well though, tough to get through but would be neat to try!

site23 wrote:

Rik_ wrote:

Jenuall wrote:Thoughts on the ending:
So Samus goes full Metroid and gets a spiky suit upgrade in the process which looks cool, but then X infected Old Beak donates his X parasite to her to counteract the Metroid DNA in some way so she turns back to "normal"? Doesn't really seem to make a huge amount of sense - Samus' DNA must be such a bloody cocktail at this point!

It counters the Metroid DNA because Quiet Robe is a Thoha, the tribe of Chozo who had the genetic ability to control the Metroids. It's explained earlier on that her Thoha DNA is why Samus didn't turn into a Metroid immediately upon getting the vaccine in Fusion; Quiet Robe's X parasite basically gave her a booster shot of Thoha DNA to get her Metroid side back under control again.

As to why Quiet Robe X willingly did that, it's a bit more unclear. The two possibilities I see are that either he managed to regain some control (as hinted by him repeating his bowing gesture) because of his Thoha DNA offering some natural ability to control other beings, or the X inhabiting his body saw no other choice for some level of survival than to be assimilated by Samus and fly away to safety.

Re; the second bit, I think it might be that the X parasite saw an opportunity to neutralise a superpowered Metroid. In that respect it mirrors the ending of Fusion, which established that "humanoid" Xs are intelligent enough to make that decision. So I basically saw it as a nod to Fusion and thought that was pretty cool.