I didn't find this to be as "profound" as most fans specifically do, and the gameplay suffers from attaching RPG mechanics onto what could have been a fantastic combat system with those beautiful animations you come to expect from Platinum. Still, this is unforgettable thanks to EXTREMELY brave story decisions, a very fitting soundtrack (if not personally my favourite), and god-tier character design to elevate the occasionally stilted dialogue.
I'll probably not come back to this one but it made a very strong impression. Took me a few attempts to stick with it, though.

Lovely environments and soundtrack, and a very good translation of Metroid into a 3D space. Definitely feels more like a first-person Metroid game than an actual FPS. This does leave the gameplay feeling a little rough though, but I suppose this was necessary to keep it distinctively Metroid (you aren't supposed to be able to dodge every shot), even if the responsiveness doesn't match up to the Metroid design philosophy all of the time.
Easily made worse by the poor backtracking and then having to do that all again to get any of the Chozo runes or whatever that you missed. At least has a cool final boss.

Basically follows on from Zero Mission's gameplay and progress design, but with Fusion's story approach, but told WAY better. They even made the "Any objections, Lady?" thing seem less forced by giving ADAM an extremely monotone, robotic voice while saying it, highlighting how strange it is for a literal AI to be essentially reciting something from it's RAM once said by a real human.
Gameplay is great for the most part. Still a little too linear but an improvement on Zero Mission. FAR too many enemies though and very little time allowed to soak up the atmosphere. Needed more quiet/empty areas.
As an action game though, it's a great time and a great return for Metroid, especially after I bounced off Samus Returns.

Still unmatched. Worlds that actually feel alien, gameplay that feels just good enough to be engaging, excellently told story with environmental design and zero dialogue, THAT soundtrack.
For the most part the exploration/progress ratio is done well, but there were a couple times where I felt like I was bashing my head against a wall for hours, finally caved in and checked a guide for where to go next, and being in disbelief at how I was supposed to figure that out.
Still, this is probably the only Metroid game to have it all. Highly regarded for a reason.

Absolutely love the open world and how the gameplay has a perfect balance between complexity and streamlining, abstracting real-world survival concepts just right.
Unfortunately you need to spend a huge portion of your playthrough mucking about in shrines to ensure you aren't getting one-shotted in later areas. They have some great puzzles in there, but the lack of variety in visuals and sound (I believe there is only one song for all the shrines) make the jarring disconnect between the over & underworld even worse. The 'dungeons' have this same issue, too.
Still, I can understand the immense extra work it would have taken to implement all this variety and the actual gameplay is good enough that it's not too distracting. I just wish more of the puzzles were integrated into the overworld - they already do this at points, just not enough IMO.
Absolutely gorgeous game, though. The rolling hills and valleys and the way the light bounces off the grass will never leave my memory.

I was completely blown away by the open world even after already being impressed with Breath of the Wild for similar reasons.
Sadly it's a slow but sure decline after Limgrave. I have completed almost every Fromsoft ARPG since Dark Souls and this game is basically just Dark Souls III but open world. It's cool for sure, and they did a great job since this seems like a natural fit for a series with gradually bigger levels as time went on, but by the end I just wanted it to be over. The worst offender for this is the re-used content and poorly-designed bosses that just become a game of 'guess the animation length' until you remember them well enough to win.
RPGs usually have what are essentially stat checks serving as bottlenecks for progress. This game doesn't feel much different, it's clear when you are supposed to go off and explore to get some better stats before trying again.
However, the Souls games rely a lot on their satisfying combat to carry them. When the progress is as nonlinear as this they have to resort to intentionally inflated health bars, damage output, and combo lengths to force you to go off and level up first. This does not work for a combat system based around responsiveness compared to it's contemporaries.

At least this time they give you more options to spam your way through if you don't feel like grinding but I do miss the more considered enemy design and pacing from earlier games.

I suppose this was the compromise needed to transfer this formula to an open-world. It's still a compelling open world at that - I couldn't pull myself away from start to finish. Though when looking back at my time with this it's not one I'm going to be itching to come back to any time soon. Those first few hours were brilliant though.

I did not get to play this for the first time until recently and after years agonizing over not owning a Nintendo console since the Wii, I finally got to give this a try and to be honest I was quite disappointed. The first game is my favourite game ever made so I may be biased. There is honestly not a lot here that I would say I prefer over the original, hell I even prefer the original muted colour scheme as it gave Bayo 1 a defined colour palette and sold the idea of being in a heavenly place.
Playing on the highest difficulty was torturous, and the fact that you have absolutely zero penalty for using items tells me they knew this would be the case. This is thanks to a lot of small gameplay problems that add up to make a significantly worse experience than the original.
At the end of the day though, this still a great time and I would still absolutely recommend, if only because they -mostly- manage to carry over what makes Bayo so unique and special, even if it's been sanded down a bit. Please play the first beforehand, though.

I want to live inside this beautiful cel-shaded world of echoey synthesizers and deranged screams. A masterpiece of visual and audio design.
The gameplay could do with a little polish, most notably with how long some animations seem to take (offset slightly with the PC port allowing you to change characters without a menu), but it's so unique and still achieves it's survival-horror goals (at least when using a controller) that I can't help but give it a bit of a pass here, especially when the rest of the game is as profound as it is.
The story doesn't always make sense even after multiple playthroughs and reading the accompanying story document, but that honestly adds to how impenetrable this thing is - it has a life of it's own. Completely unforgettable experience that everyone deserves to play at least once.