8.1 For everything better it does than Prime it also does worse, I think I enjoyed Prime more but I do remember enjoying Prime 2 more back when, it's a more interesting game as a whole (but at the same time I find the world lacking) and further from the usual Metroid linearity than before but it just feels like it's different to be different at times. It emphasises exploration a bit more which fits it's genre more but also means a whole lot more backtracking where I found Prime 1 to be a lot more linear with lesser or more streamlined backtracking. Which I both like more and less for different reasons
I felt drawn to this game over the original despite being terrified of the dark world. Was real cool, and the multiplayer is a neat diversion when not playing the campaign. Remaster when?
A great sequel
Good sequel
This and the first game are some of the best fps games ever made
My favourite of the Trilogy because it's not as easy as the other Prime games. A great selection of upgrades, enemy and boss variety with a very dark and bleak atmosphere. Unfortunately the location variety has suffered a bit at the beginning of the game with very same-y looking areas, but i don't mind it that much. They still feel all different enough for me to not ruin my love for this game. What this game improves upon immensely compared to Prime 1 is the forced backtracking. It's basically non-existent here, making the experience much better as a result.
Hated this game. Do not get the hype at all.
I've always said that one of the most core pillars of Metroid is atmosphere, and the queen of atmosphere is Metroid Prime 2, here. It takes a notably drearier tone than Prime 1's already fairly dark mood did. And that definitely suits the mood of the game in general; Prime 1 felt like the aftermath of a post-apocalyptic disaster, but Prime 2 makes it feel like the apocalypse is still ongoing, in part because you're the final vanguard keeping the Luminoth from going extinct. And while there is certainly something dark in having a big Chozo city with nothing but the remnants of a dead civilization around, there's something a lot darker but also kind of badass about stopping the Luminoth from suffering the same fate at nearly the last minute, but also should you fail, the Ing will be successful in their eradication.
I complimented how much Prime 1 supported its atmosphere by having visual effects appear on the visor, but Prime 2 doubles down on this with effects like blinding lights, the visual of being enveloped in sludge as an Ing attempts to possess you, even up to rather amusingly having an enemy that causes the suit's system to hard crash, making you Ctrl+Alt+Delete to reboot it.
This game's ammo system is smart, in that it forces you to balance out which weapons you use and not JUST rely on what's good. Especially since this game has a rather binary light world denizens are weak to Dark Beam, and dark world creatures are weak to Light Beam system, and both these beams really wreck the enemies they're good against. Almost too easily, but they take it as an opportunity to ramp up the difficulty a bit. Being on Dark Aether saps your health quickly, and they introduce enemies like Space Pirates and Dark Pirate Commandos (basically Chozo ghost reskins) way earlier than in Prime.
They make some really inventive dimension-hopping puzzles, only really faltered by how going through a portal means looking at a loading screen. It really feels like it pushes the Prime engine to its limit, especially with how the levels are just as, if not more expansive than the ones in Prime 1. Prime 2 also asks for a lot less between-area backtracking, the only particularly stand-out moment being going back to Torvus after getting Spider Ball in Sanctuary. But they really tone it down a lot by making it so all the areas are more conveniently interconnected, with there being a shortcut to Torvus right there in Sanctuary so long as you look for it. This also makes the end-of-game Sky Temple Key hunt far more bearable, and even then it doesn't bother me that much. You should be able to get the keys so long as you know where they are and can get to them, but you'll need Dark Visor to acquire them first. Other than that, a victory lap around Dark Aether, an area that was previously difficult and hostile to traverse is earned. Just to flex that it's your stomping grounds now.
And see like, this is why I love Echoes so much. Prime 1 was so close to being up there as one of my favorites of all time if it wasn't for the handful of faults it had, almost all of which get addressed in Echoes. Because the bosses are far more active, fun, and interesting this time around. Even the minibosses kick ass, and I don't mind that much if Spider Guardian is a bit of an asshole, I just think it's impressive that they made a boss that's fought entirely with Morph Ball.
Amorbis is the closest to being a Prime 1 boss, with it largely being three phases of the same thing But More, but they amp it up by having the worms act more aggressive when there's more of them. Chykka and Quadraxis are both awesome multi-phase epics that both almost feel like they could've been final bosses in and of themselves. Quadraxis especially asking you to act fast and figure it out, since there's no save zones in its arena. And the Dark Samus fights are just killer. And the final boss, unlike Prime 1's absolutely delivers both in challenge and scope.
Metroid Prime 2 is the ideal sequel.
I complimented how much Prime 1 supported its atmosphere by having visual effects appear on the visor, but Prime 2 doubles down on this with effects like blinding lights, the visual of being enveloped in sludge as an Ing attempts to possess you, even up to rather amusingly having an enemy that causes the suit's system to hard crash, making you Ctrl+Alt+Delete to reboot it.
This game's ammo system is smart, in that it forces you to balance out which weapons you use and not JUST rely on what's good. Especially since this game has a rather binary light world denizens are weak to Dark Beam, and dark world creatures are weak to Light Beam system, and both these beams really wreck the enemies they're good against. Almost too easily, but they take it as an opportunity to ramp up the difficulty a bit. Being on Dark Aether saps your health quickly, and they introduce enemies like Space Pirates and Dark Pirate Commandos (basically Chozo ghost reskins) way earlier than in Prime.
They make some really inventive dimension-hopping puzzles, only really faltered by how going through a portal means looking at a loading screen. It really feels like it pushes the Prime engine to its limit, especially with how the levels are just as, if not more expansive than the ones in Prime 1. Prime 2 also asks for a lot less between-area backtracking, the only particularly stand-out moment being going back to Torvus after getting Spider Ball in Sanctuary. But they really tone it down a lot by making it so all the areas are more conveniently interconnected, with there being a shortcut to Torvus right there in Sanctuary so long as you look for it. This also makes the end-of-game Sky Temple Key hunt far more bearable, and even then it doesn't bother me that much. You should be able to get the keys so long as you know where they are and can get to them, but you'll need Dark Visor to acquire them first. Other than that, a victory lap around Dark Aether, an area that was previously difficult and hostile to traverse is earned. Just to flex that it's your stomping grounds now.
And see like, this is why I love Echoes so much. Prime 1 was so close to being up there as one of my favorites of all time if it wasn't for the handful of faults it had, almost all of which get addressed in Echoes. Because the bosses are far more active, fun, and interesting this time around. Even the minibosses kick ass, and I don't mind that much if Spider Guardian is a bit of an asshole, I just think it's impressive that they made a boss that's fought entirely with Morph Ball.
Amorbis is the closest to being a Prime 1 boss, with it largely being three phases of the same thing But More, but they amp it up by having the worms act more aggressive when there's more of them. Chykka and Quadraxis are both awesome multi-phase epics that both almost feel like they could've been final bosses in and of themselves. Quadraxis especially asking you to act fast and figure it out, since there's no save zones in its arena. And the Dark Samus fights are just killer. And the final boss, unlike Prime 1's absolutely delivers both in challenge and scope.
Metroid Prime 2 is the ideal sequel.
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes was definitely more challenging than its predecessor, and I'd go as far as to say it's the hardest Metroid game I've played so far.
There are a few reasons for this; firstly, the game's divided into dark and light areas, which the player can traverse between through portals scattered around the game world of Aether.
Dark Aether is essentially a remixed version of the game map, with certain areas that can only be accessed in the light world or vice versa.
Dark Aether also causes slow depletion of Samus' health, at least in the beginning, so there's a real sense of hostility and danger when you must travel there to progresss.
This can lead to some head scratching, as you must decipher how to reach parts of the (honestly quite convoluted) map via either traditional means - new powers or traversal abilities - or by manipulating the Dark/Light Aether mechanic.
For example, you may need to enter Dark Aether via a distant portal to open a certain door then return to Light Aether to continue your adventure.
Additionally, there are some tough and spongy enemies to deal with, as well as some mean enough bosses (nothing straying into Fromsoft territory or anything), and ammo for weapon power ups and missiles can be limited.
The game does outstay its welcome towards the end, with the completely unnecessary late game key hunt returning from the first Metroid Prime.
Despite these issues, I found Metroid Prime 2: Echoes to be a very enjoyable, and brilliantly oppressive, entry into the series.
The aforementioned health depletion, coupled with a dark and brooding atmosphere (so much purple!) and skin-crawling music, makes Dark Aether feel like a genuinely dangerous place to find yourself in, and this to me is the essence of a good Metroid game.
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes received a Wii update with more manageable controls and some boss nerfing, and undoubtedly will get an HD r-release at some point, so I highly recommend giving it shot if you're able.
There are a few reasons for this; firstly, the game's divided into dark and light areas, which the player can traverse between through portals scattered around the game world of Aether.
Dark Aether is essentially a remixed version of the game map, with certain areas that can only be accessed in the light world or vice versa.
Dark Aether also causes slow depletion of Samus' health, at least in the beginning, so there's a real sense of hostility and danger when you must travel there to progresss.
This can lead to some head scratching, as you must decipher how to reach parts of the (honestly quite convoluted) map via either traditional means - new powers or traversal abilities - or by manipulating the Dark/Light Aether mechanic.
For example, you may need to enter Dark Aether via a distant portal to open a certain door then return to Light Aether to continue your adventure.
Additionally, there are some tough and spongy enemies to deal with, as well as some mean enough bosses (nothing straying into Fromsoft territory or anything), and ammo for weapon power ups and missiles can be limited.
The game does outstay its welcome towards the end, with the completely unnecessary late game key hunt returning from the first Metroid Prime.
Despite these issues, I found Metroid Prime 2: Echoes to be a very enjoyable, and brilliantly oppressive, entry into the series.
The aforementioned health depletion, coupled with a dark and brooding atmosphere (so much purple!) and skin-crawling music, makes Dark Aether feel like a genuinely dangerous place to find yourself in, and this to me is the essence of a good Metroid game.
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes received a Wii update with more manageable controls and some boss nerfing, and undoubtedly will get an HD r-release at some point, so I highly recommend giving it shot if you're able.
Oh Nintendo! Dark and Light worlds uh? That is an innovative mechanic I've never seen anywhere else!
I think about this game on a daily basis.
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is a worthwhile sequel to the original Metroid Prime. It’s great in all aspects. But in all aspects, there’s always something holding it back.
The level design benefits from an “open-zone” approach. Its an element I never minded from the original Metroid Prime, but the lack of backtracking in Echoes allows each main area to linearly build tension - whereas at its worst, Prime 1 could feel meandering rather than awe-some. Each area is more complex, not only in how you solve puzzles and traverse them, but also in the fact that we have a parallel “Dark Aether” to traverse, with its own unique challenges, mostly based on traversal (physical and dimensional). This is all quite good, but I think leaning into this structure would have benefited the game. The open-zones are great. Like I said, they build tension and awe moreso than the original Prime did. In nearly all three main areas, I had to leave midway through my excursion. I found that I’d get halfway through an area, get stuck, then the hint system would guide me to an upgrade in the Temple Grounds hub area. In the latter two of three areas, this happened, and the hint system is not nearly quick enough to activate. I would have much rather had the game send me on a hunt for this upgrade in order to unlock the area’s they’re first used in, so I hadn’t made progress, only to be whisked away from an area’s self-contained narrative. I like these new areas for how invested you get in them, but Echoes takes you out of that experience when you really start to get going.
As for the story, it starts with a lot of intrigue, and throughout, it’s a great motivator to explore the world. It is very repetitive, though. The Space Pirate and Luminoth Warrior Logs are well-written, but they failed to capture the same kind of awe I had for Tallon IV in this game’s predecessor. A war between forces of light and darkness, a world caught in “transdimensional flux” - that’s cool! I’d be quicker to forgive how quickly the Space Pirates get written off if the Ing were explored more. How I see it, For the latter two-thirds of Echoes, the Space Pirates are radio silent, which I think was done to show how the Ing are a big threat. I like this idea, but I think the Ing aren’t explored enough, and their presence is to dull. They can certainly be threatening though, even if most of their physical appearances are through the posession and mutation of other enemies. They’re very similar to Phazon in that regard - which I think is by design, they seem related to or made from the substance. Ultimately, I just wish the narrative had better payoff, because it sets up an intriguing mystery, and lots of different parties in the conflict. Its contemplative tone is similar to Prime 1 however, which I think is to its detriment. I’m shown great potential, but left disappointed by these aspects by the end of the game, which is never good.
The combat is unique! It controls similarly to its predecessor, but this time I found it spellbindingly clunky. The moments where its clunkyness is most obvious are the main area boss fights, but those moments are also the game’s most intricate mechanically and cinematic. The new enemies make good use of Samus’ abilities; the different takes on resource management made me play a little more cautiously; and overall I’d say has very little sore-spots. My beloved scan visor got a facelift I didn’t know it needed until now, it’s so much more convenient to use. The enemies don’t require these beams and visors as much as the first Prime did, and while I love the first Prime’s combat, I certainly didn’t mind this new approach - especially when there’s still plenty incentive to switch your mode of combat.
Overall, I liked Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, a lot. More than things that take me out of the experience, things that fail to get me invested in the first place are what hurt it the most. I wanted more moments like every appearance of Dark Samus; I wanted to see Space Pirates get decked in real time; I wanted to see the Ing as a bigger threat than I did; I wanted a more active story. The commonalities between Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2, are where Metroid Prime 2 fails. It experiments with the Metroid Prime formula, but I think it needed to stray further away from it than it did, to truly stand out as a riveting, unforgettable experience. As it stands though, I had a lot of fun with its increasingly complex environments, and encounters.
The level design benefits from an “open-zone” approach. Its an element I never minded from the original Metroid Prime, but the lack of backtracking in Echoes allows each main area to linearly build tension - whereas at its worst, Prime 1 could feel meandering rather than awe-some. Each area is more complex, not only in how you solve puzzles and traverse them, but also in the fact that we have a parallel “Dark Aether” to traverse, with its own unique challenges, mostly based on traversal (physical and dimensional). This is all quite good, but I think leaning into this structure would have benefited the game. The open-zones are great. Like I said, they build tension and awe moreso than the original Prime did. In nearly all three main areas, I had to leave midway through my excursion. I found that I’d get halfway through an area, get stuck, then the hint system would guide me to an upgrade in the Temple Grounds hub area. In the latter two of three areas, this happened, and the hint system is not nearly quick enough to activate. I would have much rather had the game send me on a hunt for this upgrade in order to unlock the area’s they’re first used in, so I hadn’t made progress, only to be whisked away from an area’s self-contained narrative. I like these new areas for how invested you get in them, but Echoes takes you out of that experience when you really start to get going.
As for the story, it starts with a lot of intrigue, and throughout, it’s a great motivator to explore the world. It is very repetitive, though. The Space Pirate and Luminoth Warrior Logs are well-written, but they failed to capture the same kind of awe I had for Tallon IV in this game’s predecessor. A war between forces of light and darkness, a world caught in “transdimensional flux” - that’s cool! I’d be quicker to forgive how quickly the Space Pirates get written off if the Ing were explored more. How I see it, For the latter two-thirds of Echoes, the Space Pirates are radio silent, which I think was done to show how the Ing are a big threat. I like this idea, but I think the Ing aren’t explored enough, and their presence is to dull. They can certainly be threatening though, even if most of their physical appearances are through the posession and mutation of other enemies. They’re very similar to Phazon in that regard - which I think is by design, they seem related to or made from the substance. Ultimately, I just wish the narrative had better payoff, because it sets up an intriguing mystery, and lots of different parties in the conflict. Its contemplative tone is similar to Prime 1 however, which I think is to its detriment. I’m shown great potential, but left disappointed by these aspects by the end of the game, which is never good.
The combat is unique! It controls similarly to its predecessor, but this time I found it spellbindingly clunky. The moments where its clunkyness is most obvious are the main area boss fights, but those moments are also the game’s most intricate mechanically and cinematic. The new enemies make good use of Samus’ abilities; the different takes on resource management made me play a little more cautiously; and overall I’d say has very little sore-spots. My beloved scan visor got a facelift I didn’t know it needed until now, it’s so much more convenient to use. The enemies don’t require these beams and visors as much as the first Prime did, and while I love the first Prime’s combat, I certainly didn’t mind this new approach - especially when there’s still plenty incentive to switch your mode of combat.
Overall, I liked Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, a lot. More than things that take me out of the experience, things that fail to get me invested in the first place are what hurt it the most. I wanted more moments like every appearance of Dark Samus; I wanted to see Space Pirates get decked in real time; I wanted to see the Ing as a bigger threat than I did; I wanted a more active story. The commonalities between Metroid Prime and Metroid Prime 2, are where Metroid Prime 2 fails. It experiments with the Metroid Prime formula, but I think it needed to stray further away from it than it did, to truly stand out as a riveting, unforgettable experience. As it stands though, I had a lot of fun with its increasingly complex environments, and encounters.
Note: I used primehack and played with keyboard and mouse controls, widescreen, 60fps, and 1080p. Jealous? jk. Later I talk about the game being easy and stuff and that just may be because kbm controls are better. Supported by the evidence that i played dark souls 1 on ps4 and it took me 60 hours and i played dark souls 2 on pc and it took me just under 20. And furthermore, it doesn't really change my experience with the game I don't think. Without further ado let's begin the review. Enjoy.
Hey everyone it's me elkmane and i just finished metroid prime 2 echoes. Why do your other beam types have limited ammo? Do they want me to just use the normal one from the start? You get light ammo from killing enemies or boxes with the dark beam and you get dark ammo from killing enemies or boxes with the light beam. Tell me, retro studios. Be honest. Did you do that because you can’t have light without dark or whatever? Was it worth it? Was that shallow ass meaningless ass platitude ass harry potter quote ass white woman tattoo ass reasoning worth getting rid of the cool ass beams from prime 1? Was it worth me using normal beam for 99% of the game and only using the special beams to open doors? You can find max ammo increases just like for missiles but that’s not the point here. What purpose does this serve? I guess it's fine because I didn't really ever run out of ammo? because I was just using my regular beam on everyone? But the combat was kind of dog this time around. enemies disappear and fade into nothing so often. It’s annoying. Nothing’s worse than having a full charge shot super missile and they just martian manhunter the thing. “Oh they dont want you to spam charge beam” okay so I’ll spam normal beam for twice as much time, since the other beams are too expensive to be used on stuff that isn’t doors and portals. Why base a bunch of enemies on chozo ghosts from the first one? Didn’t you know Yahtzee from zero punctuation () didn’t like those guys?
() formerly! He is now from Fully Ramblomatic! By the way yahtzee, if you’re reading this, hi! I’m a big fan and I’m glad you enjoy my reviews, because I enjoy yours too! Please shout me out and donate to me! I’d really appreciate it!
And the bosses too. Most bosses are just giant versions of an enemy you've fought in the area and their name spoils what item they're gonna drop. Oh god I hope morph ball bomb mackenzie gives me the screw attack!!!!1!!!!!!! And these bosses are like prime 1 bosses. Long and uneventful. It's gonna take you forever, you're not gonna lose any hp, you're just gonna jump around waiting for the move they do that makes them vulnerable and then attack. It's torturous.
The other new thing is the dark world. Which, I always said I'd respect a swing and a miss more than sticking to what works, but this idea is on VERY THIN ICE. Every time you go into a portal to change your dimension, which you’ll be doing a lot- you’re gonna get the same cutscene, maybe two depending on what kind of portal it is. The cutscene is unskippable and boring. Do you know what I do when I hit a cutscene? I go on my phone. I text my attractive girlfriend. (Visual aid: She looks like Zendaya and Rihanna combined) I say hey, why am i waiting for this stupid cutscene instead of cuddling u sugar bear… she says ikr… i say come over.. She says ok… and I get off the game to prepare. Do you see why that’s not beneficial to the game’s longevity? It's just not satisfying in any way. These portals are put in strategic spots, yes, your trips in and out of them are all scripted and planned but it feels like such a pain. It's not even because you take damage while you're in there. Not only are there the fortnite storm beacons/baldurs gate 3 act 2 lamps/risk of rain 2 void field cells, but you get a suit really early on that lowers your damage taken from negligible to unnoticeable. Let's talk about the dark suit a little. It's the suit you're gonna be wearing for 99% of the game. This game has such a snail's pace level of upgrades, It's even worse when you're not upgrading your beams. You get the light and dark beam within the first hour, and you get your final beam an hour before you finish the game and you get your 2nd suit upgrade right BEFORE THE SCAVENGER HUNT WHICH IS STILL IN THIS GAME!!!!!!!! I'll talk about you later. Side note on the dark suit, it looks really cool. it looks like it was designed by travis scott. It’s nice, probably the only metroid suit i could see someone actually wearing in public.
Actually I don't wanna talk about the scavenger hunt. It's like the one in prime 1 but instead of getting rid of it they kind of bandaided it. Doesn't help the fact that the prime 1 artifacts you could sorta find like half of them just by regular exploration without even knowing what they're for. Ok I don't wanna think about it anymore. I'm gonna talk about the visors now. The dark visor is just the x ray vision but now you see into the dark dimension! not the dark dimension that you go into, just the third secret dark dimension that houses all the invisible platforms. And the other visor, I just don't see what they were going for. At all. You use it like three times. It's there I guess. The scan is still cool. Let me talk about the lore modules. When you scan, it doesn’t give you the module right there like prime 1. It sends it to your log book so you can read it later. I’m not a fan of this, because in prime 1 i would read whatever i scanned fully. I enjoyed the lore or the space pirate blogposts talking about how scary samus (me) is. But in this, it would just send it to your log book. Which is tough to navigate A, and B I have to go out of my way to go get it and find it and read it. It’s like, sure I’ll read an article on the history of can openers if it was shared with me on google drive. But if someone told me “go look up can openers for me” I’d be less likely to oblige because that’s more effort on my part. I’m doing you a favour by reading ur shit, yknow? Just like how u guys are doing me a favour by reading my reviews. This is my livelihood and you guys just won’t stop supporting. Appreciate y’all so damn fucking much.
Is that enough of a nitpick to let u guys know I'm done with the negative part of my review? Let me move onto the nice parts! :D
I like how there's more of a hubworld and travelling between areas is so much easier. No more going thru all of magmoor to head to phendrana or the mines, theres easily accessible elevators to everywhere now. Not that you'll get much use outta them, theres no real backtracking in this game. Its pretty similar to metroid fusion kind of. Oh, this and fusion both kind of have a evil samus. But this one was more intended to be a rival. Like dark link or dark sonic or dark mario. Usually these rivals are supposed to have the opposite personality to the hero. Vergil and Shadow are mean while sonic and dante are funny and nice. I think dark samus shouldve been a wisecracker, like she even does the evil laugh but seeing as how there's already talking moth people in this game having a talking rival couldn't hurt. We haven't gotten a stoic hero/silly villain combo like this since batman and joker. I just think it would've been cool.
Last point, the music. It was pretty sick. Metroid music always rocks, but I wanted to point out one specific song. This one: https://youtu.be/HA0svtSeG0I?si=pRzbgNZPhHiVCAM_
it sounds pretty cool right? a little familiar, maybe? that's right! It's a remix of this! https://youtu.be/U9FgsySskAA?si=fAcvJu8d8C1S9fYP&t=23 it's pretty cool. I like the music.
Now I'm really scared what prime 3 is gonna be like. And i'm even more scared cus i realized i gotta play other m... O_O
Hey everyone it's me elkmane and i just finished metroid prime 2 echoes. Why do your other beam types have limited ammo? Do they want me to just use the normal one from the start? You get light ammo from killing enemies or boxes with the dark beam and you get dark ammo from killing enemies or boxes with the light beam. Tell me, retro studios. Be honest. Did you do that because you can’t have light without dark or whatever? Was it worth it? Was that shallow ass meaningless ass platitude ass harry potter quote ass white woman tattoo ass reasoning worth getting rid of the cool ass beams from prime 1? Was it worth me using normal beam for 99% of the game and only using the special beams to open doors? You can find max ammo increases just like for missiles but that’s not the point here. What purpose does this serve? I guess it's fine because I didn't really ever run out of ammo? because I was just using my regular beam on everyone? But the combat was kind of dog this time around. enemies disappear and fade into nothing so often. It’s annoying. Nothing’s worse than having a full charge shot super missile and they just martian manhunter the thing. “Oh they dont want you to spam charge beam” okay so I’ll spam normal beam for twice as much time, since the other beams are too expensive to be used on stuff that isn’t doors and portals. Why base a bunch of enemies on chozo ghosts from the first one? Didn’t you know Yahtzee from zero punctuation () didn’t like those guys?
() formerly! He is now from Fully Ramblomatic! By the way yahtzee, if you’re reading this, hi! I’m a big fan and I’m glad you enjoy my reviews, because I enjoy yours too! Please shout me out and donate to me! I’d really appreciate it!
And the bosses too. Most bosses are just giant versions of an enemy you've fought in the area and their name spoils what item they're gonna drop. Oh god I hope morph ball bomb mackenzie gives me the screw attack!!!!1!!!!!!! And these bosses are like prime 1 bosses. Long and uneventful. It's gonna take you forever, you're not gonna lose any hp, you're just gonna jump around waiting for the move they do that makes them vulnerable and then attack. It's torturous.
The other new thing is the dark world. Which, I always said I'd respect a swing and a miss more than sticking to what works, but this idea is on VERY THIN ICE. Every time you go into a portal to change your dimension, which you’ll be doing a lot- you’re gonna get the same cutscene, maybe two depending on what kind of portal it is. The cutscene is unskippable and boring. Do you know what I do when I hit a cutscene? I go on my phone. I text my attractive girlfriend. (Visual aid: She looks like Zendaya and Rihanna combined) I say hey, why am i waiting for this stupid cutscene instead of cuddling u sugar bear… she says ikr… i say come over.. She says ok… and I get off the game to prepare. Do you see why that’s not beneficial to the game’s longevity? It's just not satisfying in any way. These portals are put in strategic spots, yes, your trips in and out of them are all scripted and planned but it feels like such a pain. It's not even because you take damage while you're in there. Not only are there the fortnite storm beacons/baldurs gate 3 act 2 lamps/risk of rain 2 void field cells, but you get a suit really early on that lowers your damage taken from negligible to unnoticeable. Let's talk about the dark suit a little. It's the suit you're gonna be wearing for 99% of the game. This game has such a snail's pace level of upgrades, It's even worse when you're not upgrading your beams. You get the light and dark beam within the first hour, and you get your final beam an hour before you finish the game and you get your 2nd suit upgrade right BEFORE THE SCAVENGER HUNT WHICH IS STILL IN THIS GAME!!!!!!!! I'll talk about you later. Side note on the dark suit, it looks really cool. it looks like it was designed by travis scott. It’s nice, probably the only metroid suit i could see someone actually wearing in public.
Actually I don't wanna talk about the scavenger hunt. It's like the one in prime 1 but instead of getting rid of it they kind of bandaided it. Doesn't help the fact that the prime 1 artifacts you could sorta find like half of them just by regular exploration without even knowing what they're for. Ok I don't wanna think about it anymore. I'm gonna talk about the visors now. The dark visor is just the x ray vision but now you see into the dark dimension! not the dark dimension that you go into, just the third secret dark dimension that houses all the invisible platforms. And the other visor, I just don't see what they were going for. At all. You use it like three times. It's there I guess. The scan is still cool. Let me talk about the lore modules. When you scan, it doesn’t give you the module right there like prime 1. It sends it to your log book so you can read it later. I’m not a fan of this, because in prime 1 i would read whatever i scanned fully. I enjoyed the lore or the space pirate blogposts talking about how scary samus (me) is. But in this, it would just send it to your log book. Which is tough to navigate A, and B I have to go out of my way to go get it and find it and read it. It’s like, sure I’ll read an article on the history of can openers if it was shared with me on google drive. But if someone told me “go look up can openers for me” I’d be less likely to oblige because that’s more effort on my part. I’m doing you a favour by reading ur shit, yknow? Just like how u guys are doing me a favour by reading my reviews. This is my livelihood and you guys just won’t stop supporting. Appreciate y’all so damn fucking much.
Is that enough of a nitpick to let u guys know I'm done with the negative part of my review? Let me move onto the nice parts! :D
I like how there's more of a hubworld and travelling between areas is so much easier. No more going thru all of magmoor to head to phendrana or the mines, theres easily accessible elevators to everywhere now. Not that you'll get much use outta them, theres no real backtracking in this game. Its pretty similar to metroid fusion kind of. Oh, this and fusion both kind of have a evil samus. But this one was more intended to be a rival. Like dark link or dark sonic or dark mario. Usually these rivals are supposed to have the opposite personality to the hero. Vergil and Shadow are mean while sonic and dante are funny and nice. I think dark samus shouldve been a wisecracker, like she even does the evil laugh but seeing as how there's already talking moth people in this game having a talking rival couldn't hurt. We haven't gotten a stoic hero/silly villain combo like this since batman and joker. I just think it would've been cool.
Last point, the music. It was pretty sick. Metroid music always rocks, but I wanted to point out one specific song. This one: https://youtu.be/HA0svtSeG0I?si=pRzbgNZPhHiVCAM_
it sounds pretty cool right? a little familiar, maybe? that's right! It's a remix of this! https://youtu.be/U9FgsySskAA?si=fAcvJu8d8C1S9fYP&t=23 it's pretty cool. I like the music.
Now I'm really scared what prime 3 is gonna be like. And i'm even more scared cus i realized i gotta play other m... O_O
Me perdí menos que en el 1, las zonas de oscuridad son muy disfrutarles y realmente necesitaba planear cada paso. Muy divertido y una manera de reinventarse sin salirse de su esencia.
I struggle to think as to why there was a period of time people hated this game, considering just how good in general this is in most aspects.
This is easily the Metroid game with the best atmosphere and its not even close, thanks to the music, area design and the like, absolutely insane how they pulled it.
While the sub bosses are a crime against nature, the main ones are incredible, and Quadraxis in particular is on a league of its own for boss fights, genuinely insane.
Its not better than Prime 1, but personally I can count the games that are with only 1 hand, and this is more than a worth follow up to that game, which is all that it needed to be.
Absolutely phenomenal experience.
This is easily the Metroid game with the best atmosphere and its not even close, thanks to the music, area design and the like, absolutely insane how they pulled it.
While the sub bosses are a crime against nature, the main ones are incredible, and Quadraxis in particular is on a league of its own for boss fights, genuinely insane.
Its not better than Prime 1, but personally I can count the games that are with only 1 hand, and this is more than a worth follow up to that game, which is all that it needed to be.
Absolutely phenomenal experience.
Worst out of the primes but still great. I like the dark vs light motif is cool but switching back and forth is annoying. The areas are kinda similar for most of the game but Sanctuary Fortress is amazing.
I fucking love metroid
HOT TAKE OF THE CENTURY - METROID PRIME 2 IS JUST AS GOOD AS THE FIRST ONE.
Now granted - this is assuming some stuff about the way you're playing. There's three pretty massive issues that can stop plenty of people from enjoying this one.
1) AWFUL save placement in Agon Wastes - I just used save states during that part, but if you don't use them this is probably so much more painful.
2) Dark World draining your health - Don't wait until your health is all the way back up!! There's health pickups everywhere!! Don't be a coward!!
3) Both starting areas are pretty gray - If you can't have me at my Temple Grounds, you don't deserve me at my Sanctuary Fortress. 😙
But aside from the above? My GOD I loved this game. There's so many little improvements from the first.
Big open rooms that make the planet feel less claustrophobic, while still keeping things tight and tense when the devs want to mix things up. Dramatically more unique area theming, meaning you get way more than just the "ice area" or "lava area" of Prime 1. World design that uses ESPECIALLY creative vertical and interconnected maps compared to the "hallway" approach of the first game. Different beams that actually require some on-the-fly strategy to mess with. World progression that's convenient to navigate AND avoids having the solution be a room you forgot about on the opposite side of the planet (most of the time). Tons more focus on kinetic movement! Making Samus feel so much more powerful at the end compared to the start!! The Dark World genuinely making you feel powerless and spooked!! Actually fun bosses!!! (most of the time).
Even the ability to use mouse and keyboard on PrimeHack was such an improvement for my overall immersion...I wish I could use this control scheme for the first game's remaster. It's SO good.
I think there's some totally fair points against Echoes, like the Dark World's areas totally blending together, dimension hopping being fairly underbaked, the love-it-or-hate-it implementation of Zelda elements, and some pretty tanky enemies here and there. I also can't ignore the fact that emulation and some minor cheats - like automatically skipping the world transition cutscenes - definitely impacted my time with it, and in a more "vanilla" play-through I probably would be much more annoyed.
But even with those in mind...I still think Echoes deserves way more love. It's easily the most underrated entry in the Metroid series, and with some minor fixes, it's JUST as fun as the first Prime entry. IMAGINE what this game could look like with an official remaster!!
I'm eating SO good as a new-ish Metroid fan wowwww.
Now granted - this is assuming some stuff about the way you're playing. There's three pretty massive issues that can stop plenty of people from enjoying this one.
1) AWFUL save placement in Agon Wastes - I just used save states during that part, but if you don't use them this is probably so much more painful.
2) Dark World draining your health - Don't wait until your health is all the way back up!! There's health pickups everywhere!! Don't be a coward!!
3) Both starting areas are pretty gray - If you can't have me at my Temple Grounds, you don't deserve me at my Sanctuary Fortress. 😙
But aside from the above? My GOD I loved this game. There's so many little improvements from the first.
Big open rooms that make the planet feel less claustrophobic, while still keeping things tight and tense when the devs want to mix things up. Dramatically more unique area theming, meaning you get way more than just the "ice area" or "lava area" of Prime 1. World design that uses ESPECIALLY creative vertical and interconnected maps compared to the "hallway" approach of the first game. Different beams that actually require some on-the-fly strategy to mess with. World progression that's convenient to navigate AND avoids having the solution be a room you forgot about on the opposite side of the planet (most of the time). Tons more focus on kinetic movement! Making Samus feel so much more powerful at the end compared to the start!! The Dark World genuinely making you feel powerless and spooked!! Actually fun bosses!!! (most of the time).
Even the ability to use mouse and keyboard on PrimeHack was such an improvement for my overall immersion...I wish I could use this control scheme for the first game's remaster. It's SO good.
I think there's some totally fair points against Echoes, like the Dark World's areas totally blending together, dimension hopping being fairly underbaked, the love-it-or-hate-it implementation of Zelda elements, and some pretty tanky enemies here and there. I also can't ignore the fact that emulation and some minor cheats - like automatically skipping the world transition cutscenes - definitely impacted my time with it, and in a more "vanilla" play-through I probably would be much more annoyed.
But even with those in mind...I still think Echoes deserves way more love. It's easily the most underrated entry in the Metroid series, and with some minor fixes, it's JUST as fun as the first Prime entry. IMAGINE what this game could look like with an official remaster!!
I'm eating SO good as a new-ish Metroid fan wowwww.
hopelessly biased because it's the first metroid i played as a kid, but i love this game to death and legitimately think it has some of the most fully-realized and unique locals the series has seen. also the artifact hunt is way less awful.
Another brilliant reimagining of the Metroid formula in 3D, just as the original Prime which leans a bit more into horror themes than other Metroids. I would absolutely recommend it to anyone who has played the first Prime, but keep a guide handy because the dimension-switching mechanic becomes tedious pretty quick. This is a game I play once every five to ten years, but I find it too frustrating and repetitive compared to the original Prime to play more than that.
I really enjoyed the game leaning into horror aspects, especially with the possessed soldiers at the start, which is a sequence that will always creep me out. I also love the soundtrack of Echoes, it sounds alien, scary when it needs it, and some excellent ambiance. Echoes has great environments and art for its major zones, however they are not as distinct as the environments of Prime.
Unfortunately I think Echoes suffers from people wanting the sequel to Prime to be more difficult. Quite a few of the bosses go beyond challenging to frustrating, either they are just too tanky or they feel like filler for a small upgrade. They attempted to make a few bosses easier in the Trilogy release, but, while better, there are still plenty of issues. The bosses in Prime were mostly unique, named enemies, in Echoes, there are multiple bosses just named some variant of “<Power up> Guardian” which could have been replaced with a puzzle or some other method of discovering new abilities.
Having to manage beam ammo is also a huge change from any previous Metroid installment, and I find it to be more cumbersome instead of being an interesting balancing act. The annihilator beam, which uses both ammo types for each shot, ends up rarely getting used in my play throughs because it feels so wasteful, which is such a shame because it is one of the coolest weapons in the franchise.
As said above, dimension-hopping is an interesting mechanic that quickly becomes tedious and repetitive. You’ll pick up an item in a room, have to back track a good amount to a portal, switch dimensions with the brightest light your screen has ever produced, and and then back track to the other dimension’s version of that room. I find myself aimlessly wandering until the hint system finally kicks in because I end up having no idea where to go next, an issue I don’t have in other Metroid games. They found a way to double the back tracking!
Some mechanics are cool to see in 3D, but feel clunky and inconsistent, such as the screw attack and wall jumping with the screw attack. These could probably be written off as the game is over 20 years old, but nothing stopped my progress and fun harder than a wall jump sequence, the timing never felt natural or obvious, and was not very forgiving, thank god they don’t have shinespark.
Lastly, I really do not enjoy the scavenger hunt before the final sequence, it really pads out the playtime and only really adds new areas specifically for the scavenger hunt. I do not think I would ever be able to find all nine keys on my own without a guide, and I would not recommend trying to for any player. It is an ok excuse to use all of your abilities before the game ends so you can grab all of the expansions you missed, but I do not think it is worth stopping the momentum dead for one last string of backtracking. It takes 1-2 hours with a guide, I’d guess closer to 4-6 without one because the keys are invisible with the regular visor, they do not make any sound or other indication, most move, and most are obstructed or hidden on top of being invisible. I hope any sort of remake would give you more help than just single text hints for each key, maybe highlight a set of rooms on the map, so the player knows where to look without completely holding their hand.
I really enjoyed the game leaning into horror aspects, especially with the possessed soldiers at the start, which is a sequence that will always creep me out. I also love the soundtrack of Echoes, it sounds alien, scary when it needs it, and some excellent ambiance. Echoes has great environments and art for its major zones, however they are not as distinct as the environments of Prime.
Unfortunately I think Echoes suffers from people wanting the sequel to Prime to be more difficult. Quite a few of the bosses go beyond challenging to frustrating, either they are just too tanky or they feel like filler for a small upgrade. They attempted to make a few bosses easier in the Trilogy release, but, while better, there are still plenty of issues. The bosses in Prime were mostly unique, named enemies, in Echoes, there are multiple bosses just named some variant of “<Power up> Guardian” which could have been replaced with a puzzle or some other method of discovering new abilities.
Having to manage beam ammo is also a huge change from any previous Metroid installment, and I find it to be more cumbersome instead of being an interesting balancing act. The annihilator beam, which uses both ammo types for each shot, ends up rarely getting used in my play throughs because it feels so wasteful, which is such a shame because it is one of the coolest weapons in the franchise.
As said above, dimension-hopping is an interesting mechanic that quickly becomes tedious and repetitive. You’ll pick up an item in a room, have to back track a good amount to a portal, switch dimensions with the brightest light your screen has ever produced, and and then back track to the other dimension’s version of that room. I find myself aimlessly wandering until the hint system finally kicks in because I end up having no idea where to go next, an issue I don’t have in other Metroid games. They found a way to double the back tracking!
Some mechanics are cool to see in 3D, but feel clunky and inconsistent, such as the screw attack and wall jumping with the screw attack. These could probably be written off as the game is over 20 years old, but nothing stopped my progress and fun harder than a wall jump sequence, the timing never felt natural or obvious, and was not very forgiving, thank god they don’t have shinespark.
Lastly, I really do not enjoy the scavenger hunt before the final sequence, it really pads out the playtime and only really adds new areas specifically for the scavenger hunt. I do not think I would ever be able to find all nine keys on my own without a guide, and I would not recommend trying to for any player. It is an ok excuse to use all of your abilities before the game ends so you can grab all of the expansions you missed, but I do not think it is worth stopping the momentum dead for one last string of backtracking. It takes 1-2 hours with a guide, I’d guess closer to 4-6 without one because the keys are invisible with the regular visor, they do not make any sound or other indication, most move, and most are obstructed or hidden on top of being invisible. I hope any sort of remake would give you more help than just single text hints for each key, maybe highlight a set of rooms on the map, so the player knows where to look without completely holding their hand.
Metroid Prime 2: Echoes is a sequel to the first Metroid Prime, developed on its engine in the span of a bit less than two years, though it apparently had to be rushed in a few areas to make that deadline (This caused it to release right after Halo 2 and right before Half-Life 2 which... ouch). Following up on the first game's success, the studio took inspiration from Metroid Fusion, wanting to make a more challenging and narratively-focused experience. The overall plot is still simple, though: Samus Aran follows an emergency message sent by a Federation ship to a planet named Aether, where she discovers the remainders of a war between the peaceful Luminoth and the Ing, a horde of aliens born from another dimension, Dark Aether. That's not to say that intended focus on storytelling doesn't come across, though. The first few hours of the game see you trying to piece together what happened to this Federation group, and the Luminoth's lore is discovered piece by piece through scanning the environment. This may be a wild guess but I feel Half-Life was an inspiration here, and it worked quite well. The Scan Visor (my beloved) returns in full force, firing on all cylinders to flesh out every part of the world, from the wildlife, to the Aether/Dark Aether war, to the fates of humans and space pirates who set foot on it.
Speaking of the worldbuilding, it's a pretty good improvement. The Luminoth are sort of akin to the Chozo, but them not being a franchise stable makes them feel a lot more fresh, and their struggle against the Ing is well fleshed out and detailed, with some interesting turns. That said, the Ing themselves are kind of boring. By this point in the franchise we already had Phazon and the X as all-devouring unknowable horror villains for the franchise, and a third one really feels a bit redundant. They also are just not that interesting compared to the more Lovecraftian Phazon and the more TheThingian X. The return of Space Pirates feels so token that it's kind of out of place, also. I love those goobers but they just don't really matter here. Same for the Metroid. Something that does matter is the art design- Aether is beautifully alien and every corner of it is a delight to look at, and much more interesting than Prime's lush but kind of standard elemental biomes. It does come at the cost, however, of a more generally drab color palette which fits the style super well but does make rooms feel just a bit more samey. As intriguing as the areas are, the fact that they're all yellowy makes entering a new one much less awe-inspiring than it was in MP1. The soundtrack, while still good, is also nowhere near the perfection of the previous game's. At least, Samus' two new suits both look fucking awesome.
Every time I begin to play a new Metroid(vania), there's one big question in my mind: What kind of world design are we dealing with? Metroidvanias come in all shapes and sizes. Some hold your hand pretty firmly (Zero Mission, Ori and the Blind Forest), some cleverly dump you right where you're going to be going next (Dread) and some just rely on you to figure things out (Super Metroid, Hollow Knight). In this case... none of those, sort of? Echoes is divided in three big areas (with a fourth, transitional one in-between), rather than several smaller ones, and instead of asking you to travel between them regularly to get more upgrades, they essentially act as massive Zelda dungeons, containing all the items you need to beat them. In paper, this is actually quite smart. It keeps the spirit of slowly unfolding a massive puzzle box, while limiting the slog of backtracking. In execution this system works really well when in place, but it is broken twice through the game (once in the second area, once in the third), and that is half of MP2's biggest mistake, in my opinion. If a player is conditioned to think all they need is in the area they're in, they will hesitate to look outside of it, wasting a lot of their time. Once they do, this conditioning will be flipped, and they will mistakenly begin to believe that they need to search the entire world for the next piece of the puzzle, despite the fact that all the ones they need are all in the same place. It happened to me, and I wasted some hours in complete confusion.
The central gimmick of Echoes' level design is the ability to travel to Dark Aether's version of the world. These areas are incredibly hostile, damaging you overtime and siccing very powerful enemies on you on the regular. It's used fairly well, getting some good mileage out of the levels while blocking off parts of them that would be unnecessary to this dark version. However this system compounds the issue I've mentioned already, because throughout the world there are several portals to Dark Aether that will be opened to the player as they gain more power-ups. Logically one would expect them to contain either a progression item or at worst some nice side thing, but in truth they contain invisible keys necessary to access the final boss. Metroid Prime's fetch quest was my least favorite aspect of it, but you could at least collect its Artifacts at any point, as long as they were accessible to you. In this game, they're invisible (Revealed only by a mid/late game item), and you have no reason to ever guess they're there before the fetch quest officially starts. What this means is that if you ever get the idea to backtrack, whether because you think finding the next plot item will require it or just because you want to check out a place you just gained access to, these apparent dead ends are likely going to be wasting a lot of your time. It's kind of baffling, honestly, making the keys not invisible would completely remedy this issue. Still, when the time for the fetch quest came around, I did at least have fun this time. The problem of incredibly annoying and tanky enemies jumping you during backtracking remains, but you do get a lot of traversal items in the late game and they let you breeze through early areas fairly swiftly. Another thing I want to praise is how almost every optional item has some very cool puzzle tied to it, rather than just being given to you.
The general discourse around Echoes is that it's much harder than its predecessor. I admittedly can't fully testify to that- I'm playing using PrimeHack, which gives the game modern PC controls. It's very fun and feels amazing, but I would assume it breaks the difficulty design just a bit (though so would the Wii's control scheme, I think). So take this all with a grain of salt, but I didn't find Echoes much harder than MP1, most of the time. Dark Aether's damage over time is punishing at the beginning but eventually becomes more of an annoyance, and almost all of my game overs were to a certain few infamous bosses. The first, the Boost Guardian, I actually thought was a really fun challenge, very frantic and tense, with no way to avoid damage over time and needing to quickly pile damage onto him after making him vulnerable. The second, the Spider Guardian, is truly awful. Essentially just a really hard Pac-Man boss, it takes a lot of time to get to and a lot of time to beat, and forces you to deal with Morph Ball physics at their absolute worst. There's a lot of Morph Ball fights in this game, actually, three bosses are fought entirely with it and about as many feature it prominently. I don't mind, it's kinda cool, just a shame that the worst one is so challenging. Some other bosses are also quite great, and while a lot of the mini-boss fights end up feeling like filler, others are actually very elaborate and on par with "main" bosses, which is always a pleasure to see (here's my tier list of the bosses btw). Well, when they don't kill you. MP2 is very stingy with save rooms.
As you can see, I had a lot to say about this game. There were very high highs and low lows in my playthrough, but I'm happy to say I did really enjoy it by the end. Definitely going to check out Metroid Prime 3 sooner than later, I've heard a few things about it that I'm quite interested to verify, both good and bad.
Speaking of the worldbuilding, it's a pretty good improvement. The Luminoth are sort of akin to the Chozo, but them not being a franchise stable makes them feel a lot more fresh, and their struggle against the Ing is well fleshed out and detailed, with some interesting turns. That said, the Ing themselves are kind of boring. By this point in the franchise we already had Phazon and the X as all-devouring unknowable horror villains for the franchise, and a third one really feels a bit redundant. They also are just not that interesting compared to the more Lovecraftian Phazon and the more TheThingian X. The return of Space Pirates feels so token that it's kind of out of place, also. I love those goobers but they just don't really matter here. Same for the Metroid. Something that does matter is the art design- Aether is beautifully alien and every corner of it is a delight to look at, and much more interesting than Prime's lush but kind of standard elemental biomes. It does come at the cost, however, of a more generally drab color palette which fits the style super well but does make rooms feel just a bit more samey. As intriguing as the areas are, the fact that they're all yellowy makes entering a new one much less awe-inspiring than it was in MP1. The soundtrack, while still good, is also nowhere near the perfection of the previous game's. At least, Samus' two new suits both look fucking awesome.
Every time I begin to play a new Metroid(vania), there's one big question in my mind: What kind of world design are we dealing with? Metroidvanias come in all shapes and sizes. Some hold your hand pretty firmly (Zero Mission, Ori and the Blind Forest), some cleverly dump you right where you're going to be going next (Dread) and some just rely on you to figure things out (Super Metroid, Hollow Knight). In this case... none of those, sort of? Echoes is divided in three big areas (with a fourth, transitional one in-between), rather than several smaller ones, and instead of asking you to travel between them regularly to get more upgrades, they essentially act as massive Zelda dungeons, containing all the items you need to beat them. In paper, this is actually quite smart. It keeps the spirit of slowly unfolding a massive puzzle box, while limiting the slog of backtracking. In execution this system works really well when in place, but it is broken twice through the game (once in the second area, once in the third), and that is half of MP2's biggest mistake, in my opinion. If a player is conditioned to think all they need is in the area they're in, they will hesitate to look outside of it, wasting a lot of their time. Once they do, this conditioning will be flipped, and they will mistakenly begin to believe that they need to search the entire world for the next piece of the puzzle, despite the fact that all the ones they need are all in the same place. It happened to me, and I wasted some hours in complete confusion.
The central gimmick of Echoes' level design is the ability to travel to Dark Aether's version of the world. These areas are incredibly hostile, damaging you overtime and siccing very powerful enemies on you on the regular. It's used fairly well, getting some good mileage out of the levels while blocking off parts of them that would be unnecessary to this dark version. However this system compounds the issue I've mentioned already, because throughout the world there are several portals to Dark Aether that will be opened to the player as they gain more power-ups. Logically one would expect them to contain either a progression item or at worst some nice side thing, but in truth they contain invisible keys necessary to access the final boss. Metroid Prime's fetch quest was my least favorite aspect of it, but you could at least collect its Artifacts at any point, as long as they were accessible to you. In this game, they're invisible (Revealed only by a mid/late game item), and you have no reason to ever guess they're there before the fetch quest officially starts. What this means is that if you ever get the idea to backtrack, whether because you think finding the next plot item will require it or just because you want to check out a place you just gained access to, these apparent dead ends are likely going to be wasting a lot of your time. It's kind of baffling, honestly, making the keys not invisible would completely remedy this issue. Still, when the time for the fetch quest came around, I did at least have fun this time. The problem of incredibly annoying and tanky enemies jumping you during backtracking remains, but you do get a lot of traversal items in the late game and they let you breeze through early areas fairly swiftly. Another thing I want to praise is how almost every optional item has some very cool puzzle tied to it, rather than just being given to you.
The general discourse around Echoes is that it's much harder than its predecessor. I admittedly can't fully testify to that- I'm playing using PrimeHack, which gives the game modern PC controls. It's very fun and feels amazing, but I would assume it breaks the difficulty design just a bit (though so would the Wii's control scheme, I think). So take this all with a grain of salt, but I didn't find Echoes much harder than MP1, most of the time. Dark Aether's damage over time is punishing at the beginning but eventually becomes more of an annoyance, and almost all of my game overs were to a certain few infamous bosses. The first, the Boost Guardian, I actually thought was a really fun challenge, very frantic and tense, with no way to avoid damage over time and needing to quickly pile damage onto him after making him vulnerable. The second, the Spider Guardian, is truly awful. Essentially just a really hard Pac-Man boss, it takes a lot of time to get to and a lot of time to beat, and forces you to deal with Morph Ball physics at their absolute worst. There's a lot of Morph Ball fights in this game, actually, three bosses are fought entirely with it and about as many feature it prominently. I don't mind, it's kinda cool, just a shame that the worst one is so challenging. Some other bosses are also quite great, and while a lot of the mini-boss fights end up feeling like filler, others are actually very elaborate and on par with "main" bosses, which is always a pleasure to see (here's my tier list of the bosses btw). Well, when they don't kill you. MP2 is very stingy with save rooms.
As you can see, I had a lot to say about this game. There were very high highs and low lows in my playthrough, but I'm happy to say I did really enjoy it by the end. Definitely going to check out Metroid Prime 3 sooner than later, I've heard a few things about it that I'm quite interested to verify, both good and bad.
Un bon traumatisme d'enfance, fait dans les règles de l'art
People really say Prime 1 is better... Foolish mortals. Where is the 6th star?
Beam ammo isn't a bad idea, you just suck
Now I've heard stories about this one. And by that I mean stories about how no one tells stories about this game, if that makes any sense. You'd think the follow up to one of the most critically acclaimed and influential titles in not only the series, but gaming as a whole, would garner more recognition. But no—it just sorta has this weird aura of neutrality around it. With that it meant that I had absolutely zero clue what to expect when jumping into Prime 2.
What immediately jumped at me was how massively the structure of the world and progression was changed. I remember Prime 1 felt a lot more... loose? What I mean by that is that the world never felt openly restricted. It created a wonderful illusion that didn't make the next critical path immediately obvious. It's admittedly very hit or miss and will definitely not jive with everyone, what with all the back and forth, but it added to the feeling of isolation.
Prime 2 decides to tackle this problem in a way that caught me off guard. It's totally a Zelda game. The world is very segmented, meaning that there are three main areas and each area is tackled consecutively. No need to backtrack, sorta. When backtracking is required, it's made blatantly clear and you just need to enter a teleporter. (with one exception!!!!!!that wasn't very fun).
What this means is that the game's pacing is much smoother, but weirdly makes the world feel smaller and less organic. Which is a shame considering that the backstory with the Luminoth and the Ing is so intriguing. Also did I mention the dark world I completely forgot about the dark world yeah that was pretty random. The dark world was definitely one of the aspects that was out left field for me, even though it seems like such a core element of the game.
I kind of like and dislike its implementation?? It's definitely not your typical dark world schpiel, i'll admit. The way it's handled is really cool, making it an actual hostile environment, with only a sparse amount of light bubbles offering respite. It really sells the feeling that the Ing are a legitimate threat. However, I still can't shake the feeling that the dark world is such an... afterthought?? Which is weird to say because it still feels fully realized even with the technical and time restrictions imposed.
Metroid Prime 2 is a peculiar case. The case of a quality sequel being so overshadowed by its predecessor is so... strange. People are asking for Prime 4 and they still haven't played this one!!!! Perhaps why people aren't as attracted to Prime 2 may be that it doesn't feel as grandiose of a revelation as Prime 1. It's more quality Metroid Prime!! Not a lot to be upset about, but also not a lot to be blown away by.
What immediately jumped at me was how massively the structure of the world and progression was changed. I remember Prime 1 felt a lot more... loose? What I mean by that is that the world never felt openly restricted. It created a wonderful illusion that didn't make the next critical path immediately obvious. It's admittedly very hit or miss and will definitely not jive with everyone, what with all the back and forth, but it added to the feeling of isolation.
Prime 2 decides to tackle this problem in a way that caught me off guard. It's totally a Zelda game. The world is very segmented, meaning that there are three main areas and each area is tackled consecutively. No need to backtrack, sorta. When backtracking is required, it's made blatantly clear and you just need to enter a teleporter. (with one exception!!!!!!that wasn't very fun).
What this means is that the game's pacing is much smoother, but weirdly makes the world feel smaller and less organic. Which is a shame considering that the backstory with the Luminoth and the Ing is so intriguing. Also did I mention the dark world I completely forgot about the dark world yeah that was pretty random. The dark world was definitely one of the aspects that was out left field for me, even though it seems like such a core element of the game.
I kind of like and dislike its implementation?? It's definitely not your typical dark world schpiel, i'll admit. The way it's handled is really cool, making it an actual hostile environment, with only a sparse amount of light bubbles offering respite. It really sells the feeling that the Ing are a legitimate threat. However, I still can't shake the feeling that the dark world is such an... afterthought?? Which is weird to say because it still feels fully realized even with the technical and time restrictions imposed.
Metroid Prime 2 is a peculiar case. The case of a quality sequel being so overshadowed by its predecessor is so... strange. People are asking for Prime 4 and they still haven't played this one!!!! Perhaps why people aren't as attracted to Prime 2 may be that it doesn't feel as grandiose of a revelation as Prime 1. It's more quality Metroid Prime!! Not a lot to be upset about, but also not a lot to be blown away by.
The Legend of Metroid: Twilight Princess
De longe o Metroid mais experimental de todos, com uma porrada de upgrades e ideias diferentes. Há itens clássicos da série que não apareceram aqui, da mesma forma que há itens daqui que nunca mais apareceram na série.
Mandando a real, na primeira vez que joguei, eu achei ele o máximo - de longe foi o meu Metroid Prime favorito. Mas rejogando, eu senti que a experimentação dele acabou deixando a gameplay bem maçante em vários momentos. Nem de longe é um jogo ruim, mas a experimentação dele, mesmo que seja bem interessante e divertida em alguns momentos, acaba sendo bem cansativa e irritante em outros.
As portas com trava de luz e sombra poderiam se tornar portas normais após serem desbloqueadas, o mapa poderia ter mais atalhos de uma área para outra, o menu de navegação de logs e infos poderia ser bem mais prático (pq, sejamos sinceros, mesmo que seja legal rodar as coisinhas, aquele menu é horrível!), alguns inimigos poderiam ser menos esponja de balas, etc.
Mas, de longe, o pior é a batalha contra o boss final. Não vou soltar spoilers, mas imagine que os bosses do jogo seguem um sistema de luta misturado com puzzle. Você precisa aprender como funciona o boss e o que fazer ou onde mirar para dar dano neles - o que torna a batalha dinâmica, mesmo dentro da alta quantidade de vida que alguns deles possuem. Há também os bosses que são puramente luta, mas essas lutas são equilibradas e mais rápidas. Agora o boss final... esse desgraçado zoa absolutamente todo o rolê do jogo INTEIRO! Ele tem ambas as partes de puzzle e de luta - as de puzzle são aceitáveis, mas a parte de puramente luta é a coisa mais chata e irritante que você vai jogar na sua vida. Pra começo, o boss tem apenas um ponto fraco, que é o único lugar onde ele toma dano e ele fica PROTEGENDO ESSE PONTO DIRETO! É o único boss que faz isso no jogo inteiro! Além disso a luta requer uma quantidade absurda de munições específicas que nem os upgrades de munição no máximo dão conta, te obrigando a ficar mendigando munição várias vezes durante a luta. A soma desses fatores faz essa luta chata dos infernos se estender pra caraaaaaaaaaalho. Você sai puto do jogo por causa dessa batalha final asquerosa...
Mas de resto, o jogo é muito bom e é uma ótima sequência para o Metroid Prime, tendo também um mapa repleto de áreas para explorar e itens para encontrar. Apenas entrem nele cientes desse fator experimental e que algumas coisas dele não estão na forma mais prática e divertida que poderiam estar.
Caso você queira jogar, eu recomendo usar o PrimeHack, que é um mod feito no emulador Dolphin pra jogar Metroid Prime Trilogy com mouse e teclado - e, acreditem, É MUITO BOM E FUNCIONA QUE É UMA BELEZA!
De longe o Metroid mais experimental de todos, com uma porrada de upgrades e ideias diferentes. Há itens clássicos da série que não apareceram aqui, da mesma forma que há itens daqui que nunca mais apareceram na série.
Mandando a real, na primeira vez que joguei, eu achei ele o máximo - de longe foi o meu Metroid Prime favorito. Mas rejogando, eu senti que a experimentação dele acabou deixando a gameplay bem maçante em vários momentos. Nem de longe é um jogo ruim, mas a experimentação dele, mesmo que seja bem interessante e divertida em alguns momentos, acaba sendo bem cansativa e irritante em outros.
As portas com trava de luz e sombra poderiam se tornar portas normais após serem desbloqueadas, o mapa poderia ter mais atalhos de uma área para outra, o menu de navegação de logs e infos poderia ser bem mais prático (pq, sejamos sinceros, mesmo que seja legal rodar as coisinhas, aquele menu é horrível!), alguns inimigos poderiam ser menos esponja de balas, etc.
Mas, de longe, o pior é a batalha contra o boss final. Não vou soltar spoilers, mas imagine que os bosses do jogo seguem um sistema de luta misturado com puzzle. Você precisa aprender como funciona o boss e o que fazer ou onde mirar para dar dano neles - o que torna a batalha dinâmica, mesmo dentro da alta quantidade de vida que alguns deles possuem. Há também os bosses que são puramente luta, mas essas lutas são equilibradas e mais rápidas. Agora o boss final... esse desgraçado zoa absolutamente todo o rolê do jogo INTEIRO! Ele tem ambas as partes de puzzle e de luta - as de puzzle são aceitáveis, mas a parte de puramente luta é a coisa mais chata e irritante que você vai jogar na sua vida. Pra começo, o boss tem apenas um ponto fraco, que é o único lugar onde ele toma dano e ele fica PROTEGENDO ESSE PONTO DIRETO! É o único boss que faz isso no jogo inteiro! Além disso a luta requer uma quantidade absurda de munições específicas que nem os upgrades de munição no máximo dão conta, te obrigando a ficar mendigando munição várias vezes durante a luta. A soma desses fatores faz essa luta chata dos infernos se estender pra caraaaaaaaaaalho. Você sai puto do jogo por causa dessa batalha final asquerosa...
Mas de resto, o jogo é muito bom e é uma ótima sequência para o Metroid Prime, tendo também um mapa repleto de áreas para explorar e itens para encontrar. Apenas entrem nele cientes desse fator experimental e que algumas coisas dele não estão na forma mais prática e divertida que poderiam estar.
Caso você queira jogar, eu recomendo usar o PrimeHack, que é um mod feito no emulador Dolphin pra jogar Metroid Prime Trilogy com mouse e teclado - e, acreditem, É MUITO BOM E FUNCIONA QUE É UMA BELEZA!
Prime 2 is such a spectacular improvement over the original in almost every way that I was at times surprised that Retro grew this much in just 2 years. I came away from the first game liking it but thinking that the prime series just wasn't for me. After trying Echoes on a whim I was hooked to it immediately. The environments are so much more engaging, the enemies more fun to fight, and the puzzles more intricate. The controls still suck though. Also Retro please stop with the Wind Waker level fetch quests at the end like come on. Anyway play this it's really good.
Finished this in 2023 after a few years of intermittently playing it. I'm mostly urged to play on by the soundtrack and atmosphere of these games, and this one didn't disappoint. Although the truly stellar OSTs and locations were fewer than in the first Prime, it was definitely a fun run. Still not sure if I really dug the dark world.
What were they thinking putting ammo in this game? Some really annoying enemies in this game. Not a fan at all.
At first I loved it, and the premise is great. However, I think they tried to go too big too fast. The world and navigation just end up being confusing. While I liked the idea of Dark Samus, trying to discern the map to find all of the collectibles just hurt my head.