This is the first time I actually dropped a game of my own fruition

I want to like this game, I really do. I enjoyed the first game and was excited to get into the sequel. While I was optimistic for the first 2 hours, the next 5 were just filled with apathy and indifference. I really do want to continue and find out what happens next in the story, but I just don’t care about it anymore.

The combat is definitely more layered and complicated than the previous game and I do actually like the gameplay quite a bit. My problem with the gameplay is a combination of 3 things: complexity, pacing and exp distribution. Individually, these things wouldn’t be a problem, but because all 3 of these things are an issue simultaneously, it becomes a major issue for me. I like the increased complexity, and I don’t mind the slower paced combat or the splitting of exp among party members…but…there are times in this game where I had to grind. The increased complexity led to a much slower paced game, plus, if you got 1000 exp, it would split that 4-ways to 250 exp each. It takes ages to level up. Because of this, I got annoyed and bored really quickly.

Now…I’m not sure if I missed an area or anything like that, but there were a few times where I was suddenly going up against mooks that were way more powerful than anything I was previously going up against. To put this into perspective, I went from doing roughly 80-90 damage to about 20-30, and on some characters, I’m doing less than 10 damage. Honestly, was I missing something?

If my issue wasn’t necessarily my levels, but equipment, that just means I needed to grind for money and items to sell…which also takes a bit of time. Speaking of equipment, the way you get skills in this game is pretty dumb if you ask me. If you played something like Final Fantasy 9, think of that, but more convoluted; you need to equip certain pieces of equipment and then do a bunch of killing to get those skills. In FF9, you just needed to equip one piece and then do a bunch of quick killing and you got your skill or spell. In Valkyrie Profile 2, not only do you need to make sure that the correct runes in your equipment slots are placed next to each other, but you also need to make sure it’s the correct color as well, making you fiddle with your inventory way more than you should.

The short version is this: If you want any of the good stuff, or if you want to get anywhere in this game, you need to do some serious (and tedious) slow-paced grinding. Unnecessary complexity is what killed my enjoyment of this game.

Just because something is more complex doesn’t make it better.

No. I’m not even gonna waste my time giving a 5 page thesis about this game.

Here’s the short version: “Crap story. Dropped sub-plots. Forgettable characters. Lifeless voice acting from Samus. Retroactively hurts Fusion. Gameplay has a lot of potential, but came out with lackluster execution. You’re moving in a 3D space with a D-pad (wrap your head around that for a sec). Getting power ups is retarded in this game. No Metroid soul. No real sense of exploration. Even more linear than Fusion. Dodge roll + Charge Beam = OP. Looks and sounds great. Worst soundtrack in the entire franchise.”

I’m not mad; I’m disappointed.

With the release of the Nintendo Wii and with how Prime 2 took the standard Prime gameplay and pushed it to its limits, this was the perfect opportunity for the 3rd Prime game to be even better while also improving on certain aspects from Prime 2. To those who have played the game, you probably understand to a certain extent that Prime 3 represents “The Price of Accessibility.” Whether or not the accessibility ends up being a net positive or a net negative or neutral depends on you and you alone.

For me, I still had a fun time with this game, but I enjoyed playing Prime 2 more. The changes Prime 3 brought to the table for the most part ended up being a net neutral for me.

To start…somewhere, the game is pretty damn easy, and there are multiple reasons for that. Hyper Mode, the ease of finding energy tanks, Hyper Mode, enemies being less intelligent and annoying than previously on top of getting a damage nerf between Prime 2 and Prime 3, Hyper Mode, the higher emphasis on shooting things and Hyper Mode.

I might be crazy, but I found it super easy to find energy tanks throughout the game. I think there were about 2 or 3 I really had to go out of my way and actually search for, unlike the first two Prime games where there was more of a balance between ones you found along the way and ones you had to search for. On top of that, the enemies are nowhere near as hard to deal with as the enemies from Prime 2 with the sole exception being the enemies who enter Hyper Mode (more on that later). Since that really doesn’t happen often, they might as well be non-existent. Even the non-Hyper Mode enemies don’t deal that much damage to Samus and I’m guessing that’s to accommodate the higher emphasis on shooting on top of getting no suit upgrades for the entire game. I don’t think it really works because of the existence of Hyper Mode.

Ok…so Hyper Mode…is the absolute reason this game is pathetically easy. What Hyper Mode does is dramatically increase your firepower on top of making you invincible for a short period of time. If you stay in Hyper Mode too long, you end up dying from corruption, but that can easily be circumvented by just shooting the phazon out of you. Bosses? Just use Hyper Mode. Mooks that can take a hit? Hyper Mode? The last few bosses of the game. Maybe you use X-ray Visor…and then use Hyper Mode. I tried my best to not abuse Hyper Mode, but because enemies themselves could also use Hyper Mode, you are essentially forced to use Hyper Mode yourself if you want to get it over with quickly. It’s almost as if Hyper Mode was some kind of last second inclusion for the sake of accessibility.

To continue, the worlds you explore are nowhere near as interesting or exciting at Tallon IV or Aether. Norion is…the prologue/tutorial planet, so it’s not big in the slightest. Bryyo is too segmented for my liking until you get the grapple hook for your ship about ⅔ into the game, but by that time, you’re likely never visiting that planet again. Elysia is the most aesthetically and visually pleasing planet to look at, but actually traveling through that place can get really tiring and tedious really fast with the amount of back and forth you have to do. The Space Pirate Homeworld is mainly a bunch of shooting with some stealth sequences here and there.

This is probably the easiest game in the entire franchise to 100% and that is not an exaggeration. On Elysia (I think), there is some kind of machine or something like that which shows you where all the collectables are on every planet…which makes getting 100% incredibly easy. The Energy Cells (this game’s Chozo Artifacts/Sky Temple Keys) are needed as usual, but you only need 5 out of the 9 in order to get to the end of the game. I have no idea why it took them until the 3rd game to do this, but I’m glad I don’t have to meticulously hunt through every single room on a planet just to get to the end of the game.

Yeah. I’m out of ideas this time. The game itself is solid and fun, but a large portion of that “Metroid feel” was missing the further I got into the game. On top of the missed opportunities involving the ok story, underdeveloped characters and somewhat interesting lore (that I stopped reading about 3 hours into my playthrough), this game is extremely easy thanks to Hyper Mode, the straightforward nature of exploration and easy puzzles, Hyper Mode, a perpetual hint system you can never turn off, Hyper Mode, you yourself being more powerful from the start and Hyper Mode. Despite all of this, I really enjoyed my time here because…you know…Metroid.

I’m kinda outta gas chief. The short version is, “The game is really easy and therefore, easy to get into for those who haven’t played Metroid yet. For veterans, you may or may not like this compared to the previous 2 games.”