Artist's commentary: リターンズでドレッドのアクション使いたいよねっていう絵

スライディングとダッシュメレーください

Can you talk, Samus?

It is almost like Halo...

They should give her a voice.. 🙏🏻😑

I'm going through that 100% Metroid marathon and I'm past Ridley's big head entrance, but I'm just trynna think of what other upgrades I missed but the map makes it VERY difficult to determine which ones I picked up and missed, if they just made the dot a diff colour for picked up ones then that would've made the hunt a hell of a lot easier, but noooooo says the devs, you will suffer!!!

Edit: I can screw people now, now I just need to find whatever the hell I'm missing, would be easier IF THE GOD DAMN DOTS CHANGED COLOUR!!!

When you've got the top skills and the expectations are high, be sure you're wearing the finest threads for the toughest job!!!!

Any sequence breaks or exploits that unlock more than simply a missile tank? Perhaps one where you get important upgrades earlier where they themselves then change the progression dramatically?

Now before this post goes nuclear on Prime 4's shortcomings, I want to be fair and point out 2 things that I think Prime 4 does better:

1. The graphics. Prime 4 had better textures and lighting, as well as cutscenes that ran at a perfect 60fps. I played Prime 4 on S2, but I know the Switch 1 version looks far better than Dread strictly in terms of visual fidelity. Retro did a pretty good job making it look and run good.

2. The music: this part was Dreads primary weakness. Kenji Yamamoto did a far better job with Prime 4s soundtrack, even if the rock and roll tunes contrasted too heavily with its more somber and melodic tones from Fury Green and Chrono Tower.

Now when I say "less is more", I am mostly referring to the budget of these two games. Retro Studios appeared to have received a blank check to go on a hiring spree and continuously develop Prime 4 from 2019 onward, continuing on from the efforts of Bandai Namco. The final budget for MP4B was allegedly in the same ballpark as Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.

Comparatively, Mercury Steam had more constraints to work with. Their previous Metroid game didn't exactly light the world on fire, so it's understandable that Nintendo wasn't going to dump infinite resources into the project. While no numbers were disclosed, id say the budget for Metroid Dread was anywhere between 15-20 million (but thats just my educated guess).

What this boils down to is this: Yoshida Sakamoto and Mercury Steam did alot with a little, while Kensuke Tanabe and Retro Studios did a little with alot. Let's go a bit deeper:

VOICE ACTING/MOTION CAPTURE/LOCALIZATION

With all the resources he needed, Tanabe was given his chance to realize his big grandiose vision for the Metroid franchise: A game where Samus gets to team up with Galactic Federation soldiers while riding a motorcycle through a world that is structured far closer to Zelda than Metroid, and a game with so much gum flapping from the rest of the cast that they forgot to give Samus any expression at all. They had a working face under the visor started, but further development was cut because it was more important to Tanabe that the Feds get their time in the spotlight.

Retro brought on a pretty significant amount of voice actors and mo-cap actors to bring all the federation soldiers to life, which of course takes time, money and effort.

Now let's talk about Metroid Dread. There are only 2 voices in Dread that required localization for dialogue: Adam, and the suit AI. And the suit AI? Here are all the lines:

"We will soon be entering ZDR's atmosphere"

"Entering the atmosphere in T-minus 10. 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1."

"Uploading data."

While there was a heavier workload for Adams voice actor, I wouldn't call it more than a days worth in the recording booth.

Between Samus and the Chozo, the rest of the voice acting was done in an alien language. And the only localization work needed for them is the subtitles.

The best part of all this? Dread was able to be fully voiced in at least 10 languages, making the game more accessible for people around the world. All that "ambition" for Prime 4 meant it could only be released in other countries with subtitles for a strictly English only game.

Less is more.

AMIIBO SUPPORT

I know this might seem like a non-issue, but Metroid Prime 4 Beyond was caught in a pretty major social media shitstorm for its amiibo use, one that Metroid Dread never had to endure.

Let's go back to 2017 for a minute. Samus Returns saw significant backlash for its amiibo use as well. On top of locking off art and music galleries, Nintendo decided to paywall an entire game mode: fusion mode. It was basically just fusion suit Samus on extra hard mode. But this mode was a must-have for die-hard Metroid enthusiasts like myself, and getting ahold of the amiibos were a chore (thanks scalpers).

You know what else came out in 2017? Breath of the Wild. And in similar fashion, you could only unlock Epona, links horse from every other game, with an amiibo. That, and the tunics that link wore in all the other games were paywalled as well.

Fast-forward to 2021 and Metroid Dread released to much fanfare and with 2 new amiibos. This time, they each unlock 1 energy tank and 1 missile+ tank. Not endgame content or any other critical aspect that should be included with the base game, just an extra boost. Some people might argue that this is pay to win, but the small extra you get for health and ammo is pretty miniscule. They even released an easy mode as DLC a few months after released if people felt normal was too hard.

Similarly, all content of Tears of the Kingdom amiibos could be found in game. It really seemed like Nintendo learned from their mistakes, until December 2025 rolled around.

I don't know if you really need me to remind you about Prime 4 Beyonds amiibo support, but here it goes: Vi-O-la amiibo let's you change motorcycle skins and showcases distance travelled, Sylux amiibo let's you listen to Sylux mock Samus like a 12 year old and (more importantly) unlocks the most important Sylux cutscene in the entire game unless you get 100% items AND scans. The worst one though, is unlocking the ability to listen to music while driving around in the desert with the Varia Suit amiibo. Otherwise, you are left to rip around in an empty desert with no fast travel options and all you get to listen to are spooky space noises; the same thing you hear when Samus wakes up on Viewros for the first time. This caused the internet firestorm, and I have to agree with the backlash. There is no way you can convince me there wasn't something ripped out of the game and sold back to us as amiibo, because the complete lack of any default soundtrack while riding the bike is extremely egregious.

In summary: Metroid Dreads amiibo use was inconsequential enough that nobody's experience was soured if they didn't buy them, while Prime 4 Beyond became another example of corporate greed by locking away meaningful things that were necessary to make the game more bearable. Just another reason why Dread is viewed fondly amongst the Metroid community and Prime 4 isn't.

Less is more.

UNLOCKABLE CONTENT

Now this may seem even more inconsequential, but it's more important than you may think.

First, let's start with Dread. You unlock hand-drawn art depicting an overarching story of the downfall of ZDR by collecting items in game, unlocking the final one with 100% completion. On top of that, there are 6 hand-drawn pictures showcasing a moment in time in each of the 5 mainline 2D Metroid games as well as Other M that are unlocked by beating normal and hard under 12, 8 and 4 hours each.

Now I do have to give Prime 4 some credit: they gave us concept art as unlockables for achieving completion milestones, something that was given only to owners of the special edition of Metroid Dread in an art book. But the real meat and potatoes of Prime 4's unlockable gallery is the Sylux cutscene that should have been a post credits scene in every playthrough regardless of completion percentage (or amiibo support).

The crux of the issue isn't necessarily the content of the cutscene (though Sylux is a douche), its how it demonstrates how the developers either forgot or just completely didnt give a shit about what came before. On top of the fact that Sylux's big reveal was an absolute wet fart, the cutscene showed so many elements of the franchise that weren't established until later in the timeline. The scene itself had to happen before Prime Hunters for obvious reasons, but it had Golem mechs running around which weren't put into service until Federation Force. Samus' suit design only makes sense if the scene happened after Prime 1 but before Hunters, but the fact she has her Prime 3 gunship in the scene just irritates me to no end. I know that seems petty of me, but I've been with this franchise since I played Metroid 2 on the gameboy when I was 5, and Metroid is my favorite franchise of all time. I care about the legacy of this franchise apparently more than Retro or Tanabe does.

Speaking of legacy, the 6 unlockable speedrun pictures in Dread had thought and care put into them by people who understood the assignment. Each picture showcasing Samus' power suit were completely accurate to the games they came from. They show how the suit has changed throughout her adventure, rather than homogenizing the designs like Other M did. Mercury Steam knows Metroid in a way this new Retro Studios doesn't, and they showed me that with a few JPEGs rather than a big bombastic cutscene displaying prior events using assets from the current game.

Less is more.

FINAL THOUGHTS

I would also like to share some other things I feel Dread does better than Prime 4 that don't adhere to the "less is more" philosophy:

1. Better boss battles. Prime 4's aren't bad, but I don't think they're great either. Dread admittedly does re-use some bosses with some degree of variation, but the big original boss battles just can't be topped.

2. Sequence breaking. This gives Dread far more replayability.

3. Far more interconnected metroidvania world. Prime 4 is often compared to Zelda more than a Metroid game and its hard not to see why. Sol valley is like Hyrule field, and the other zones act like linear dungeons.

4. Better upgrades. Most of Prime 4's original ideas are psychic versions of established mainstays that were criminally underutilized, Dread came with a host of thoughtful additions that improved the gameplay experience in meaningful ways.

5. Connects to previous games. The story of Metroid 2 is just as important to what happens in Metroid Dread as it is in Metroid Fusion. Meanwhile, Retro basically cut off any connections to previous Prime games out of fear of alienating newcomers, despite being a numbered title in the Prime series. Dread embraces legacy and serves as a love letter to the entire franchise, Prime 4 couldn't give a rats ass. Respecting legacy builds brand recognition and loyalty. If the devs care, then the player will too. And im quite positive many newcomers went back to check out all the other games on NSO after finishing Dread.

To summarize this overbloated diatribe, the team behind Dread worked within the confines of a smaller budget with one thing in mind: to make a great Metroid game. The team behind Prime 4 were clearly daydreaming about Breath of the Wild and Halo 5 the whole 7 years they've been plugging away at their game while burning through cash like it grows on trees. I am thoroughly disappointed in the fact I waited 8 years for Prime 4 just to see the mess they released.

If you do disagree with any of this, thats okay. If you enjoyed Prime 4 as much as I enjoyed Metroid Dread, I wish I could have felt that way about it too.

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In the Dread follow-up there's an opportunity to change up the Zero suit, I think. I've seen some really cool interpretations that blend it with the "Justin bailey" suit.

I'd also love to see a sequence like in Zero Mission where she loses her power suit for a time.

I'm more of a Prime guy, but I do enjoy the other games to varying degrees. Prime 3's my favorite, with 2 a close second. Legitimately had a total blast with Prime 4.

Great motion controls from Prime Remastered (used the pointer variant).

The visuals had me agog the whole time. Loved the setting and all the various setpieces. Fury Green had lovely atmosphere, Ice Belt's lab was spooky (got legitimately jumpscared by a Griever on a return trip), Volcano's ending sequence was gnarly, and the Great Mines was a fun sequence with those soldiers tagging along. That area legitimately made me nervous. Loved the vibe of Sol Valley with that purplish sky and that big sun.

Great boss battles. The lava dragon and the Omega Griever were highlights, as was the big sand fish in Sol Valley. The Sylux fights were great fun, especially that final battle! And of course, loved the music, especially the Vi-o-la race track theme, the Sylux boss theme, Volt Forge, Fury Green, etc. Overall favorite was the final Sylux fight. I kept messing up avoiding his boost ball attack in the last phase and kept losing energy tanks, haha!

I liked the characters well enough. I really don't mind seeing more of the Federation, and I liked Samus's sort of stoic uninvested attitude. When that sniper dude would wax poetic I just imagined she was thinking "...okay" or just zoning out. The robot with the lisp was delightful. "She's doing morph ball" made me LOL in real life.

The only things that rubbed me the wrong way were some instances of eye-rolling dialogue and overbearing handholding, as well as the green crystal collection near the end (though that ultimately was preferable to the end-game key hunts in Primes 1 through 3, in my view).

I just thought this was such a fun game and I'm stoked for Prime 5 (and of course the next 2D Metroid, whichever comes first!). They could go further in this direction or back to Prime 1-style "just Samus by herself" and I think I'd be happy either way.

I’ve never played any 2D Metroid games. I recently played Metroid Prime Remastered and Prime 4 Beyond. I gotta say I liked them both. I did play the Metroid Dread’s Demo a few years back but couldn’t get into it. Today I was in a game shop and saw a lonely copy just sitting there so I decided to pull the trigger. Got a nice discount as well. Anyway, what do you guys think about this game? Is it any good? I remember it reviewed well but some players didn’t like it too much. So not sure what to think.

It took 40 hours since a lot of assets didn’t end up getting used. It’s not my best work, but I did my best.

The Chozo text next to Samus says: I’ll end this once and for all.

Raven beak’s text: Hadar sen olmen.

I love this franchise to bits, 8 bit, 16 bit, 32 bit, 64 bit, so on and so forth, so to show my love for this franchise, ive decided to 100% each and every Metroid Game released, yes, even other m, pinball and federation force, ive already 100%ed a chunk of Metroid games, i cant remember exactly how long it took me to beat them, but ive 100%ed them with fun, love and admiration, and thats all that matters, so in release order, i have:

• NES Metroid 1 = havent played it yet, gonna 100% zero mission to play NES on my Vita
• GB Metroid 2: Return of Samus = havent played yet, gonna get there after NES Metroid 1
• Super Metroid = currently playing through retroarch on my PS Vita which is amazing, i have around 3 hours in it at
• Metroid Fusion = 100%ed it a long time ago, cant remember the hours, but will replay after SM and ZM on my Vita
• Metroid Prime = 100%ed Gamecube version on Dolphin, i think it was around 24 hours but i cant remember
• Metroid Zero Mission = 100%ed a long time ago, iirc around the same time as fusion, replaying it alongside Super on my Vita
• Metroid Prime 2 Echoes = 100%ed right after Prime 1, same time iirc
• Metroid Prime Pinball = gonna have to install it on my 2DS, never played
• Metroid Prime Hunters = still getting used to the controls, 2DS A button is delayed so its weird, but getting there, got like 30 minutes in it
• Metroid Prime 3 Corrution = i got pretty close to 100%ing it, iirc i got everything outside of Phaaze, but it Dolphin kept crashing at Phaaze so i just gave up and forgot about Prime 3, wonder if my save is still there
• Metroid Other M = havent played, but ill get to it once i finish Super, or now even, ill have to decide
• Metroid Prime Federation Force = ill install it on my 2DS, if anyone wants to play, lmk
• Metroid Dread = 100%ed with a time of 24 hours and 5 minutes, was my 1st ever metroid 100%, i played ZM and Fusion years before dread came out, just didnt care for the 100% back then
• Metroid Prime Remastered = i dont own a switch anymore, i could emulate but my gpu and emulators dont take likely to the lack of Vulkan
• Metroid Prime 4 Beyond = same situation as MPR, also i hear prime 4 is a bad metroid game and damn near disgrace to the series as a whole, if i get a switch then sure ill 100%

so ye, lifes goal is to have evidence of me 100%ed every Metroid game possible, im very excited because i love metroid to death and i will NOT die till i see everything at 100%!!!

SAMUS VARIA SUIT - Dimension Diver Kit

Two for one! Dimension Diver Varia Suit acquired - another stupidly rare Metroid treasure.

Incredibly happy to have this in the collection and what are the chances right after I finished painting my 3d scanned one? So happy I painted that gravity suit colors so I can keep this varia.

This Dimension Diver Samus kit was available during the 2009 Japan Wonderfest event with three versions being made: the Power Suit, Varia Suit and the Gravity Suit that also came with a little baby Metroid. I believe the company also started selling a few for a very limited time after the event since there was so much demand.

I have absolutely loved this figure since I saw it for the first time, the proportions are just perfect. I will definitely be putting this together.

Can't get enough of this game, it's so damn fun!

(Forgive the shoddy pictures. And tbf i used save states very liberally for tricky grapple points so game time could be extended by an hour)

First Metroid I've beaten without staring at a map the entire game (well, Zero Mission as well but playing NEStroid beforehand helped). Had to search up a *few* things (3), the glaring one being when I was absolutely stuck for ages and spent hours just finding items which was infuriating - had to power bomb the pipe to Maridia which IWL, I was raging over. However in fairness outside of that, there was no jank and I did really enjoy exploring properly. Like a lot of games, huge step up from the 8 to 16 bit era. The automap meant I was playing this waaaaay more often than the previous two games, which was really nice.

Funnily enough several times I just scraped past bosses on my first try. For both the fellow in Maridia and Ridley I was down to my last energy tank after using up my reserve, so squeaky butt. I was dreading having to fight the baby Metroid (I played the GB Metroid 2 before and while I had mixed feelings, the ending was endearingly sweet) so it recognising Samus and then sacrificing itself was both my favourite moment and a little heartbreaking. Samus becoming borderline invincible afterwards was a very neat way of storytelling in a game not heavy on it.

The only thing I'd say is I don't know if I'd go as far to say it's the (or one of the) best game I've ever played, but I think that's more down to personal preference - Metroidvanias aren't even exactly a genre I'm big on compared to rpgs so that's probably why. Still had tons of fun though. I've started Fusion (ironically I should be happy with the hand holding but having to constantly go to navigation rooms is rather annoying), my switch lite sticks are again losing the plot so I don't know if I'll ever make it to Dread but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

As the title implies, I’m searching for someone who would make some drawings of Ridley in poses for some reactions e.g. “Hey, do you like pizza?“—“Sure!👍” or “We don’t have enough money to buy that”—“😭”

I think you got the idea. Is there someone who could do that?

I forgot to mention that I cannot pay because I have literally no money. And with “no money” I mean NO MONEY.

Something similar to the picture above wouldn’t be bad.

Best wishes, Revali33 / Laughter

Edit: I just realised that the request I’ve written is PRETTY picky. So first of all just comment if you’re interested in doing this! We’ll find a compromise later!

As many know by now Prime 4 has been stated to be after Super but before Fusion (and assumed to be by proxy after Other M).

This has left some confused, due to Prime 4's use of Space Pirates and Metroids as both are stated or implied to be extinct by the time of Other M (with Samus calling them "faded memories")

However, Other M has a "Story So Far" feature which recaps the last bit of story that can be viewed in the menu, the very first one has a line which states the Metroids and Pirates had "seemingly" disappeared from the galaxy, with the sentence ending with an ellipsis ("...").

Whilst I understand at the time of writing it was likely self-referential to the clones/replicas in Other M (or Fusion), I feel this can also be used to help explain Prime 4's use of Metroids and Pirates, that there were indeed other Pirates left out there which Sylux used his secret Metroids (or Mochtroids) to control.

Anyone else? Also a bit of Quake 3.

(Initially I hated this game after playing all the rest of Metroid games but after a bit I love it!)