Recent Posts

Remember that English fan cover of "Reincarnation" from Tokyo Mirage Sessions (a few posts up)? I just discovered that the person who made it, Nicki Gee, also did an English cover of "She is..." from TMS Encore earlier this year.



I kinda think that the person singing Tsubasa's part doesn't quite fit the character, but otherwise, I think this is a really good cover!

The RPG podcast Axe of the Blood God (formerly part of the now-defunct US Gamer) recently released an episode with a discussion on the original Dragon Slayer and Xanadu. It also goes into bit of the history of series creator Yoshio Kiya. It's an interesting listen.

The actual discussion is nearly an hour into the episode, so skip ahead to the 59-minute mark.

OK, I've finished the game. The in-game clock is at a little over eight hours (not counting reloading after deaths), and my item collection rate is less than 50 percent. I didn't expect a Metroid game to be very long, but I still thought a casual playthrough would be more in the 10-15 hour range. Or maybe I was just rushing through it a bit.

I did end up looking at a video for the final boss.

EDIT: I didn't get too specific, but I'm hiding this paragraph in case it's considered a minor spoiler. Apologies.


But I've spent enough time complaining about Metroid Dread. I'll focus on some positives for a change.

As I mentioned before, the atmosphere is excellent, and definitely lives up to the high standards of the series. Samus is very cool in this game, and even though I wish she was a little more vocal, when she does speak, it is memorable. It's hard to go into anything else too specific without spoilers, but there is one turning point in the game that was pretty neat, and I think it's the part that people are referring to when they say they realize that Dread is a true sequel to Fusion. And overall, after having heard the rumors about it so long ago, it's pretty cool to finally be able to play the actual Metroid Dread.

It does have me questioning, though, my feelings about the overall series. It's been a while since I've played any of the other Metroid games, and while I have positive memories about them, I wonder how I would feel revisiting them now. Are my issues really specifically with Dread, or have my tastes in gaming just changed? I may revisit Super or Fusion just for comparison.

I've also been thinking of Dread in comparison with Other M. While Other M is a very flawed game and a very mixed experience with high peaks and low valleys, I've never hated it. Looking back on it after playing Dread, I have to say I kind of appreciate its grand ambition, even if it never reaches it. Dread, on the other hand, is a far more consistent experience in terms of quality, but as I mentioned before, it feels very safe and conventional.

But maybe that's exactly what the Metroid series needed at this point after experiments like Other M and Federation Force failed to provide the experiences that people really wanted. Dread is just straight up Metroid with an extra gimmick or two to spice things up, and it's bringing the series back into good standing.

Personally, I think I prefer it when a series is willing to try new directions (which is why I think Fusion is a better game than it gets credit for), but in this case, I can understand how Dread would be the right game for the right time.

So yeah, overall, my experience with Metroid Dread has been... interesting.

I'll probably keep messing around with it for a bit more, looking for items I haven't found yet, but I don't intend to get 100%. (The shine sparks required for some of them would just drive me crazy.)

OK, so apparently, the (*ahem*) "penis"-shaped ship from the new DLC stage is being censored on Switch in NA and EU (and on PlayStation in NA). I actually find this... hilarious? Curious to see what the altered version will look like.

But that also means the DLC has been delayed on those platforms/regions.

So, I've been playing Metroid Dread for the past week, and I wanted to post some thoughts about it.

Honestly, I don't want to come off as overly negative. I'm happy that 2D Metroid is back, and I'm glad it's doing well. I really want to like this game, but I don't think it's been clicking with me. I'm not sure if it's the game or just me. (I was looking forward to playing it, but I admit, I wasn't super hyped for it.)

To begin with, I understand that it could be thought of as a re-introduction of the Metroid series (although Samus Returns was relatively recent), but it feels... overly conventional. It does try to subvert your expectations for when you find certain upgrades, but it doesn't really change the game much, and in some respects, makes it tedious. (I understand that they want you to experience sluggish underwater movement before they give you the Gravity Suit, but they really drag it out.) It's not that I was expecting Dread to be the Breath of the Wild of Metroid games, but it feels like it's just going through the motions.

The main gimmick are the zones in which you're stalked by the E.M.M.I. robots, but even that just feels like, well, a gimmick. I get that they're trying to make you feel the "dread" the title suggests, but it's just not working for me. The "instant Game Over" for getting caught isn't much of a punishment since you respawn just outside the room with virtually no penalty (thank goodness). They are part of the story, but gameplay-wise, I find them forced and annoying. Personally, I don't like stealth-gameplay, and I especially don't like it when it's forced into other genres (they're my least favorite part of any Zelda game). Not every E.M.M.I. zone segment relies on using stealth, but I just don't enjoy these parts.

Also, the bosses are a really disappointing. It's fine that they're hard, but Mercury Steam decided it was a good idea to make them last forever. Some bosses require you to figure out some trick in order to defeat them, and again, that's fine, but you have to keep repeating a long sequence of phases before you get back to the one you have to do the "trick" for, so you only have this short window of opportunity to figure out the trick and then do it. Add to that that the bosses feel like damage sponges, and the fact that you'll probably have to repeat them several times due to the difficulty make them incredibly tedious and frustrating. I feel virtually no satisfaction once I do beat them. (Same with some of the mini-bosses.)

On the more positive side, the story is good so far, and does feel like a true continuation of Fusion's story. (I wish the intro labeled the game "Metroid 5" the way Super Metroid and Fusion titled themselves 3 and 4, respectively.) The atmosphere (especially the sound design) is excellent, as I would expect for a Metroid game. However, while the graphics are very detailed, I do feel that they can make the geometry a little hard to comprehend.

As for Samus, herself, this game almost seems like an apology for Other M. This is the Samus we really wanted to see in that game. It almost feels like they've gone a little too far in the other direction, though. For a while, I was afraid that they made her an entirely silent protagonist, but there was a point where she did speak, and when she did, it was not what I was expecting and it was pretty cool. I'm not saying I want to hear droning monologs, but I do wish she was just a bit more vocal in the game.

Anyway, yeah, I do wish I was feeling more engaged with Metroid Dread. I often find myself bouncing off of it to play other games. Like I said, it could just be me. I've been in a very poor mood lately, and it might be affecting my attitude towards it. But I do not regret getting the game so far. Good or bad, a brand new Metroid is something I wanted to experience for myself anyway. I will see it through to the end, and maybe I'll have a different perspective on it after the fact.

So, Sora from Kingdom Hearts.

I don't have strong feelings about this one, but I know it made a lot of people happy. Sora has been highly requested, apparently since the character poll for Smash 4. (Now we know why they didn't have another one: they lied about the results for the first one. ) Interesting how they went out of their way to include almost only exclusive Kingdom Hearts material, and avoid as much Disney material as possible. (I wonder how much Nintendo had to pay just for the Mickey Mouse symbol on the key blade.)

I sorta wish there had been a first-party character as the final Smash character, but to be honest, I can't think of any first-party characters with the kind of broad appeal appropriate for a grand finale that aren't already included. So, I guess a big third-party character was the way to go.

And I got my Xenoblade 2 rep months ago, so I'm good. Even though I don't play the game, I might still want the amiibo.

Granzella's latest stream has updated the DLC roadmap since they didn't stick to their schedule for the previous one.




Everything is still due by the end of the year, but I wouldn't be surprised if things slip into next year.

There's already an update rolling out that includes 10 more ships. (As of now, it's not yet available on Switch.) That brings the total up to 72.

The next DLC stage pack will include stage 2 of R-Type II and stage 3 of Image Fight (rotated horizontally). Here's a trailer.

With the inclusion of a stage from Image Fight (which is considered part of the R-Type universe), I would like to see other "deep cut" stages added, as well. Maybe a stage from Armed Police Unit Gallop/Cosmic Cop. I would like one of the original stages from Super R-Type (Stage 6 would be my choice.) Maybe even the secret stage that was exclusive to the Master System port of R-Type.

Anyway, I'm still really into R-Type Final 2. I guess it's just one of those games that happened to be the right game at the right time, but it's really grabbed me more than I ever expected it would.