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▲ 248 r/Metroid

Metroid 40th Anniversary Dev Spotlight: Minako Hamano

I hope to do a series of posts celebrating the developers who worked on the Metroid series.

I'm pretty much just going to randomly select who I'll make a post about, and because there's so many, I'll likely not showcase them all.

The song examples I used in this post are only from Super, Fusion, and Brawl because they were the only ones I know which specific tracks from those games she worked on.

u/xXglitchygamesXx — 4 days ago
▲ 94 r/Metroid

Metroid Prime: Tallon Overworld. Ambient Cinematic. (No HUD/UI/Music)

Accomplished by turning HUD opacity to zero, using pointer controls to aim all the way down, then cropping the bottom to not show the reticle.

u/xXglitchygamesXx — 5 days ago
▲ 8 r/scifi

Metroid Lore: Chozo's Legacy. The Galactic Federation & Space Pirates Arms Race.

The Chozo, who had expanded throughout the galaxy, were noted for their highly advanced technology, greater than most every other civilization.

A group of Chozo who would colonize planet SR388.

Though the Chozo would wane as a species and practically leave galactic society, they left behind many of their inventions. Perhaps the greatest being their Power Suit, one of which was left in the care of Samus Aran, their chosen warrior.

A Chozo warrior compared with the Power Suit Samus will use.

The Power Suit can manifest from the user at will, but requires unfathomable mental energy and concentration.

A demonstration of Samus manifesting the Suit via her will.

In addition to its existing powerful arsenal, its malleable nature allows for the integration of many additional weapons and upgrades, even utilizing non-Chozo technologies. It's even capable of self-regeneration, should the user will it.

The peace keeping Galactic Federation and the marauding Space Pirates had been at war, and both were trying to collect technologies to wipe out the other.

The Federation and Pirates at war.

When using her Power Suit in the war, Samus had demonstrated the immense power of Chozo technology, becoming the biggest ally to the Federation and the worst enemy to the Pirates.

A young Samus Aran when she was enrolled in the Galactic Federation Army.

Both parties took notice of this, and wished to replicate the Chozo Power Suit.

The Pirates attempted to reverse engineer Samus's Suit based on data from prior battles with the Hunter.

The Space Pirate Beam Troopers

The results were mixed. Although the Pirates replicated the various beam functions, albeit to lesser potency than the Chozo originals, they could only equip one type at a time.

They couldn't, however, recreate the Morph Ball; any attempt to do so resulted in the volunteer's body becoming broken.

Although not ideal, these Troopers served the Pirates well for a time.

The Federation's attempt was much more ambitious, putting significant funding into Project Golem after the Phazon crisis ended.

The results differed from the Pirates', instead of suits sized for an ordinary soldier, they were giant bulky mechs meant to be piloted by marines; and they allowed for weapon types.

The Golem Mech.

The MK. 99 Heavyweight Class Golem Mech.

Where the Pirates' version had separate suits for either Power, Ice, Wave, or Plasma beams, the Federation's allowed for Power beam, as well as Freeze, Flame, and Shock shots.

On top of this, the Federation had built in Charge beam and missile capabilities, as well as capacity for other equipment.

Though arguably superior to the Pirates' Troopers, there still were drawbacks when compared to the Chozo's.

Unlike the Ice, Plasma, and Wave beams of the Chozo's Power Suit, the Freeze, Flame, and Shock shots were finite and had to be reloaded with auxiliary ammo. The storage capacity for missiles was also less.

The Charge beam took longer to reach full power, and charging it would slow the mech during movement.

Like the Pirates, they did not replicate the Morph Ball nor the self-regeneration feature.

Operation Golem was successful in aiding the Federation in many missions in ending the war against the Pirates, and despite their faults, proved to be the far superior attempt at recreating the Chozo Power Suit.

Even after they won the war, the Federation continued this research and found ways to condense certain Chozo-based weapons to smaller sizes for ordinary soldiers.

Plasma was adapted into a heavy Cannon and after that Ice was adapted into a pistol

Anthony Higgs wielding the Plasma Cannon. Adam Malkovich wielding the Ice Pistol.

They managed to evolve this technology to the point they could remotely send Samus data based on these weapons to be downloaded into her Suit.

In collaboration with the Excelion Star Corporation the Federation created the Extraplanetary Multiform Mobile Identifier (E.M.M.I.) a research robot designed to extract DNA.

E.M.M.I. blueprint

The E.M.M.I. seemed to contain the Federation's answer to the Morph Ball, as they have the ability to reconfigure their structure to fit into, and quickly move through, tight places that Samus would ordinarily use her Morph Ball for.

(The Federation may have actually made a Morph Ball equivalent years earlier with the prototype Lockjaw before it was stolen by the Bounty Hunter Sylux)

The E.M.M.I. can also contain a beam weapon like Ice or Wave (ala Pirate Troopers), though it's unclear if they were incorporated into them by the Federation or when the Chozo Raven Beak hacked them.

Though still a ways behind Chozo technology, there's no doubt the Federation had come a long ways in their weapons manufacturing.

The question is, how ethically did they get there?

There are suggestions some of their research used banned technologies, such as the Shock Coil which was also stolen by Sylux.

Sylux with his stolen Federation prototype power suit and the banned Shock Coil

Other areas of their research, such as the development of bioweapons, had been questionable.

Is this necessary? Or a power hungry overreach of those in power?

Perhaps there was a reason the Chozo developed their Power Suits to only be wielded by those with incredible willpower.

reddit.com
u/xXglitchygamesXx — 9 days ago
▲ 2 r/VirtualPhotographers+1 crossposts

Metroid Prime 4: Tanamaar. Ambient Cinematic

No HUD, UI, or Music.

Captured on Switch 2 handheld mode (video recording maxes at 1080p/30FPS, natively the game runs 1080p/60FPS or 720p/120FPS in handheld)

youtube.com
u/xXglitchygamesXx — 9 days ago
▲ 124 r/Metroid

The Star Fox remake made me recall this quote, and how I'm appreciative Metroid tries new things

https://web.archive.org/web/20100918223257/http://www.gamestm.co.uk/interviews/yoshio-sakamoto-discusses-metroid-64-metroid-dread-and-the-unwritten-future-of-the-warioware-series/2

For the record, I'm a huge Star Fox fan, and though still looking forward to the new release (visuals look amazing and the new cutscenes are cool) did wish we'd get another brand new game that wasn't based on 64 (which could also be in development for all we know).

This just made me appreciate how diverse Metroid is: I'm glad Fusion was more narrative and linear than Super, I'm glad Prime 2 wasn't about the Chozo, I'm glad Samus Returns added the melee counter, I'm glad Federation Force exists, etc.

It's nice to look at the series as a whole and see a wide variety of experiences to be had.

u/xXglitchygamesXx — 11 days ago
▲ 38 r/Metroid

Prime 4's 1+ mil is series norm, not a flop, Dread's 3+ mil is an exception.

Metroid 1, Prime 1, and Dread are the only ones in the series to breach 2 mil (Dread being the only 3 mil seller).

But something not talked about is Prime 1's sales were inflated a bit by a console bundle.

Ordinarily, the series averages 1-1.5 mil, but some games like Zero Mission, Federation Force, and Samus Returns didn't even sell 1 mil.

By Metroid standards, Prime 4 is not a flop nor a major success.

It sold the norm of the series.

And remember, the game has only been out for half a year, while the data for the previous games are their lifetime sales.

For the record, I think people are too obsessed with numbers instead of just enjoying or not enjoying something, just form your opinion regardless of data. People will say "it's a flop!" "it sold millions !" as if that means anything to the individual forming their opinion.

I really hope this doesn't become a contentious talking point here....

reddit.com
u/xXglitchygamesXx — 11 days ago
▲ 872 r/Pragmata+1 crossposts

Saw the boxes next to each other and spontaneously thought to make this post.

Dunno if it qualifies as "low effort" and isn't allowed.

u/xXglitchygamesXx — 14 days ago
▲ 73 r/Metroid

Taking it at face value, you'd assume the flashback scene is Sylux's origin story, showing why (at least in part) he began to foster a hatred for Samus and the Galactic Federation, and that it takes place before Prime Hunters.

Me and others would note the issues with this, most obviously the presence of the Golem Mechs which should not exist until years later after Prime Federation Force.

I've discussed this with some users, like u/Round_Musical, who brought up the possibility the scene actually takes place after Federation Force, and Sylux goes back and forth between his Federation Sergeant and Bounty Hunter identities, and that this is just one of many incidences that fueled Sylux's hatred.

This would explain the Mechs.

Something I've not seen discussed is the fact the Federation power suits used by the marines in Prime 4 are stated to be the latest design, and has a thruster attached. This same suit design and thruster are seen on Sylux and the other marines in the flashback scene.

This would seem to strengthen the interpretation the scene takes place after Federation Force.

However, this does not seem to be the intent of the creators (unless I'm misunderstanding the following quote), with them referring to the scene as the backstory of Sylux that happened in the past, seemingly before Hunters:

Development Team: "And although the endings of Metroid Prime 3 and Federation Force included some foreshadowing, it is only with this game that, for the first time, we decided concretely what happened in the past. These events occasionally appear to Samus, like flashbacks, when she resonates with Sylux’s mind. Due to his self-righteous and narrow-minded personality, Sylux came to bear a grudge against Samus and the Galactic Federation."

If this is the case, then we'd have to again question the Mechs and the modern Federation power suit.

Perhaps they were prototypes, similar to Sylux's original gear from Hunters? But if that's the case, then why would they wait years before mass producing them? Could time travel be involved as many speculated with Prime 4's plot? Is there some other explanation?

Or is it a simple continuity issue?

Elsewhere in the game there's proof of great attention to detail for the Metroid universe, such as Samus's face design (including the mole), the mention of Norion and Talvania, the deleted reference to the Metroid Manga exclusive currency Seguru, etc.

They even gave a lore reason for Sylux's suit appearing differently.

"Also, while keeping the original colour and look as a base, Retro Studios’ artists redesigned his suit. Lore-wise, we justified it by him modifying the suit using nanotechnology belonging to the Galactic Federation. We think it resulted in a more refined and cool-looking design."

In the past, like with Other M, when there was a flashback cutscene we'd see the devs having attention to detail for continuity, such as the blink-and-you-miss-it cameo of Samus's original, pre-Chozodia, Power Suit

So, was this simply an error?

It appears the cinematics were outsourced, so perhaps the alleged error occurred outside of Nintendo and Retro?

"We also outsourced the creation of background models and cutscenes to other companies, with the backgrounds in particular requiring a lot of outside help, so we first had to select those companies, and manage the collaboration throughout."

But even then, Nintendo would still supervise these scenes:

"The Progress Management staff helped a lot to supervise both the scheduling and quality, and we are very thankful. Likewise, we are extremely thankful to everyone in the many studios who created these assets."

If the interpretation the scene could be after Federation Force is indeed incorrect, then perhaps it is simply an error.

Kensuke Tanabe, writer and producer, did mention, due to him being so swamped with work, he made some errors in writing the logbook entries.

Tanabe: "To be honest though, I was so swamped with work that I ended up making some mistakes in the fine-tuning stages. It was fun, but I shouldn’t have taken that on."

It's also possible this was a budget/scheduling issue, with the resusing of assets from the main game to more quickly or cheaply make the flashback scene, as Tanabe mentioned time constraints a few times, such as when he wanted more scenes with the Federation, but had to cut them.

"I actually had even more events planned to deepen those bonds, but due to time constraints, they had to be cut. That is my one true regret."

This would not be the first time a Prime game had a continuity issue, the very first one had an issue pertaining to the titular Metroid Prime and the Artifacts.

Later releases of the Prime games would make amendments to the writing and even some changes to cutscenes.

Though I think the Sylux cutscene is too expensive to make changes to.

I feel there's 3 ways to interpret the scene:

  1. It takes place before Hunters, as the devs seem to imply, and the continuity breaking elements are errors and should simply be ignored.

  2. It takes place before Hunters but there is no error and there's actually some in-universe explanation (which may be elaborated upon in the future).

  3. It takes place after Federation Force, seemingly going against the devs' words, and we haven't seen Sylux's true origins yet.

u/xXglitchygamesXx — 15 days ago