Metroid Dread | The Completionist

[Music] dread the word is frighted with meaning it implies not just fear but fear of the future fear of the unknown when completing a new game especially one that was just released like metroid red i can't help but experience that feeling i've signed up to complete something without knowing what's ahead and that's always terrifying it was the same feeling i felt when i completed metroid samus returns this is the first brand new 2d metroid game in years one that was buried by the creator of the series only to be unearthed and revived by developer mercury steam almost two decades later its resounding success just may revitalize interest in one of nintendo's most niche franchises but that doesn't change the fact that i was completely terrified going into this completing any metroid game is a challenge but metroid dread might be the toughest one of all hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of the completionist where we don't just beat the games we complete them metroid dread came out just over one week ago and the hype for the end of the samus saga is at an all-time high i sprinted to complete this game because i love what this series represents for me and for many fans out there metroid and samus herself defined an entire genre and dread is a return to form for the series an exciting jumping off point for an entire generation and a perfectly penned love letter for fans newer and old but fans beware and as the completionist i'm about to break this game to my will so spoilers are in store in terms of secrets and exploits but not plot with that said we've all waited long enough so let's suit up as i complete metroid red yes [Music] all glory goes to the winner oh metroid dread by all accounts is a miracle of development it was a sequel that was announced but even forgotten about by some and for fans of the series dread has been in the back of our minds for almost 20 years there is even a mention of this game in metroid prime 3 through an easter egg scan project dread is nearing completion even still the game was basically vaporware yet this past e3 with just a short teaser trailer metroid dread made a huge impression and reminded everyone why samus is still our queen it is impossible to overstate how significant and impactful metroid has been on game design as a whole not just the mechanics where players control an avatar in a 2d plane exploring a space and finding secrets and items gradually growing more powerful as they geared up to face memorable bosses it's the mood and the tone that struck people too even in the original metroid on the nes but especially in super metroid for the super nintendo 2d metroid games have had an outsized impact on game design ever since which is why it's so surprising that there are only a small handful of them metroid metroid 2 return of samus super metroid metroid fusion somewhat considered metroid other m and now metroid red that's only five to six main story 2d entries here the original game and metroid 2 received fantastic remakes in the form of zero mission and samus returns respectively but a true from the ground up 2d metroid sequel has been a long time coming but it's not as though dread just dropped out of nowhere despite what a lot of people who watched the e3 2021 reveal might think metroid dread has been in the works for nearly 20 years producer yoshio sakamoto had the ideas for the plot and nearly every core mechanic of dread ready to go but he wasn't satisfied with the hardware available to him at the time to develop this game so they shelved it and they shelved it and they shelved it until such a time when the vision could be fully realized enter mercury steam and the 2017 remake of the former gameboy exclusive game metroid 2. mercury steam built this 3ds game from the ground up and introduced a distinct visual style as well as innovative mechanics like free aiming and a melee parry into the metroid cannon i thought samus returns was an incredibly smart remake hell i gave it a complete it and distinctly remember saying how awesome this game would look if it came out on the nintendo switch and it proved that mercury steam could be trusted with the metroid name and here we are now with metroid red fully developed by mercury steam and with the full support of yoshio sakamoto who trusted the team to realize his long time vision make no mistake metroid red is in fact a direct sequel to metroid fusion a game boy advanced game from 2002 metroid dread starts off with a short primer to clue players in there's text explaining what metroid's and the x parasites are and why they are both so dangerous we learned a little bit about samus iran bounty hunter extraordinaire and then we're off thrusted off into a new adventure fresh off of her harrowing encounter with the x parasites on a remote space station samus receives a video of what appears to be an x parasite on the planet zdr knowing it would basically be the end of life as she knows it if the x parasites was able to leave the planet samus is tasked with venturing to planet zdr and figuring out how and why this parasite is even here fortunately she's got metroid dna in her body now and is essentially the perfect vessel to take down the x parasite however when she and her ai companion adam arrive on planet zdr she's instantly ko'd by a mysterious armored chozo warrior she's wrecked so hard that her body experiences physical amnesia and she loses access to almost all of her core abilities but this is just another tuesday for samus who builds herself back up from nothing in practically every single metroid title even though she starts with just her blaster and some missiles samus is pretty damn capable at the start of metroid red she's faster than ever and smooth as can be she can slide under obstacles wall jump with ease and aim and fire in any direction but there are plenty of new and returning items to find and master in this latest adventure metroid games tend to have a very specific arc to completion and dread is no different metroid games always ask the player to consider them from multiple perspectives from that of an obsessed explorer to that of the viewpoint of a speed running tactician dredd follows steadfastly in this tradition completing dread takes several playthroughs and figuring out how i wanted to approach those playthroughs was a large part of the completion journey i know that i'll have to do at least one playthrough where i find everything in the game every missile expansion every energy tank every item and upgrade from the morph balls of the gravity suit i'll have to explore every corner of the map and defeat every single boss but that's just the start of it because it's the tradition of every metroid to have a speedrunning component where different rewards are bestowed upon beating the game under a certain time limit both zero mission and samus returns have unlockable hard mode difficulties and since mercury's team made this game too i know i'll have to conquer that as well and as much as i've talked about the history of metroid up until now i've left out one very important factor metroid games from og metroid to super metroid to yes metroid red are hard let me repeat that metroid games are hard it always has been and dred follows in those footsteps samus brought the heavy combat boots to kick our asses because this is easily the toughest metroid to date [Music] now i've mastered super metroid to the point where i can complete even a totally randomized playthrough without much of a problem at all if you've watched me stream in the last few years you know that i do this all the time but i fully acknowledge that i am an outlier in this regard because 2d metroid games are pretty relentlessly difficult especially for completionists the metroid red pulls no punches it's a bold step forward for a series that hasn't had a true successor in years and a forceful reminder that these games have always been truly difficult i remember thinking that the original metroid was scary and lonely as a kid but i also remember it being incredibly hard so much so that completing the remake zero mission felt like overcoming some kind of psychological hurdle but even zero mission is pretty straightforward compared to dread dread brings back something that i thought i'd lost when playing metroid games an air of mystery fear of the unknown in a knockdown dragout battle to the end from the very first boss to the final confrontation enemies in dread are no joke but it's not just that they hit harder and move faster than ever before it's that dread forces the player to master input commands in ways no other game in the series has up until this point by the end of this game i was using every single button on my switch pro controller in different combinations and configurations gone are the days of simply spamming misses to defeat bosses dread made me earn my victories with complicated controls that made me feel smart and capable now this concept of difficulty extends beyond simple combat encounters after all samus still has her melee parry from samus returns which renders almost all basic enemies easy to extinguish dred enforces the idea that samus is on an unknown planet she's a stranger in a strange land and planet zdr is maze-like this is one of the first metroid games i've ever played where i became truly lost and you know what i freaking loved it it is safe to say that the 2d action platformer is one of my absolute favorite genres i love exploring finding secrets and discovering the best ways to navigate a vast map but dread drew me in by being legitimately complicated at least during my first playthrough as you might expect from its title metroid dread feels claustrophobic and downright dangerous to move through even though samus feels better to control than ever before the areas she's exploring are absolutely hostile it feels like mercury steam went back to metroid's roots to create an atmosphere of oppressive apprehension nowhere is this more clear than in one of dredd's major new mechanics the emmys there are seven of these cold robotic enemies and any time they show up they add a burst of urgency as samus tries to escape their zones of operation emmys won't follow samus beyond a few rooms clearly demarcated by pixelated looking doorways but defeating them is absolutely necessary to her journey these bots were thought to be galactic federation's best bet to capture and contain the x parasite so the fact they are acting strangely and are dead set on taking out samus is not a good sign now i love these emmys even if i ended up watching more from them by the time i completed metroid red the first few times i encountered them was genuinely terrifying as adam makes abundantly clear throughout the game even at her full strength samus cannot defeat an emmy with her basic abilities she could only do so by besting and absorbing the energy of a central unit this big eyeball slash brain monstrosity coursing with omega energy once samus has omega energy which powers up her arm cannon to become the omega beam she can melt the armored face plates of the emmys and blast them to all hell it is thrilling to battle these emmys though after multiple playthroughs of my completionist journey i came to find them more annoying than scary emmys are also unique in that they can kill samus in one hit one extremely violent kind of disturbing hit there's a brief moment after getting caught where samus can encounter an emmy but the timing window is super weird and even after several playthroughs i never felt like i could hit that counter consistently and i think that's the point i feel like the emmys add something new and different to the metroid formula and inject a dose of novelty into the game so as i was racing through emmy territory sliding through gaps and clamoring up platforms in a mad dash to reach a safe zone i had my first inkling that metroid dread wasn't exactly welcoming to new players to me this is both the game's greatest weakness but also could be the source of its longevity if you're new to metroid dread will feel outright hostile it's a minor point but the game doesn't even include the wall jump in the tutorial sections the game just assumes that you're gonna figure that part out in fact there's a ton of assumed knowledge in this game if you're not in the habit of blasting every corner of the screen with missiles or charge beam blasts and you want to complete dread you'd better start doing that first for me it was second nature but i couldn't help thinking about the millions of people who have never played a metroid game before even though metroid is beloved by thousands of fans let alone nintendo fans the size of the fan base is a blip compared to mario and zelda combined think of it this way this is only the fifth true mainline 2d metroid story and that's with over 35 years of metroid compare it to mario games where lucky nintendo fans get remakes spin-offs sports games all kinds of stuff almost every year this year alone we got super mario 3d world plus bowser's fury and a new mario golf game and we still have a new mario party game coming out this month metroid red will be a ton of players first metroid game there is a lot to draw new players into this world the setting is incredibly evocative and the planet of zdr felt to me like it was full of history i loved the 2d movement with 3d backgrounds there were frequent moments where i stopped and gaped at something happening on a different plane the sound design has always been a highlight in metroid games and i think new players will find a lot to enjoy from a purely auditory perspective the aesthetics are absolutely top-notch a perfect showcase of why metroid endures from cold mechanical laboratory settings to densely rich underground forests metroid dredge shows off several incredible settings i will say that part of metroid's legacy of loneliness is in the music of the series which is sadly one of the weaknesses of dread the music never really reaches the heights of previous metroid titles but that could also simply be because this game is still new and it hasn't sunk into my consciousness yet i thought the music in samus returns was an amazing balancing act of nostalgia and novelty and with one or two exceptions i didn't really feel that here with metroid red and perhaps without notable melodies to back my traversal of zdr the more i explored the more i felt like these settings were very easy to get mixed up with one another nearly every part of the map bleeds into other sections making navigation frankly confusing if you don't know what you're doing it is extremely easy to get stuck running around from one end of an area to the next unsure of where to go for your next equipment upgrade but i don't think this is inherently a bad thing metroid forces you to slow down and pay attention it always has as a series it is at its best when it's equipping players to learn about and master their environment metroid dread does this to a team i would find a new item the game would give me an extremely basic example of what that item does and then i was left to my own devices to determine how best to make that item sing rather than hold my hand metroid red made me feel smart and that's rare my friends and not to toot my own horn and i say this in a way that uh i take with grains of salt to remind myself of what i do for a living but completing metroid dread reminded me that i'm pretty freaking good at video games now to be clear i'm not saying that i'm the best at this game by any means there are so many great speedrunners out there who are way better at completing games but considering how many different games i complete every single week metroid red reminded me that i love doing what i do because it made me feel good for completing it i originally had planned for this video to come out in a month's time because i was worried about the speedrunning aspect but as i mastered the systems in front of me my decades of metroid experience came to the forefront to put things in perspective about a week ago nintendo set up a speed running challenge with a bunch of other streamers that i was lucky enough to participate in the challenge was to make it to dairon the third area of the game completing various challenges along the way we had 90 minutes to accomplish these goals i was able to meet this criteria in 36 minutes this was a huge confidence boost going into my weekend of completing dread but as i made it through the game i couldn't help but think that the inherent difficulty is going to turn a lot of people away i've developed some skills with these kinds of games and there is an absolute thrill and high in overcoming the challenge before me but i think that dred's challenge combined with how previous entries in the franchise are basically inaccessible makes it pretty hard for newcomers i think there is a place for everyone in video games right i've always enjoyed playing and sharing that enjoyment with other people is one of my lifelong goals that i'm always working towards but i think that with dread there is a real opportunity here that feels a little squandered this has been the highest selling metroid game by an extremely large margin but i'm not sure how many new converts to this series there will be if they can't make it to the end of the game my only advice is that if the initial difficulty spike against bosses and emmys feels overwhelming stick with it i promise you you will get better now on that grandstanding aside metroid dread is actually the most completion friendly the series has ever been for those who are being introduced to what metroid has to offer for the very first time there are usually secret endings and rewards to be found for the most dedicated and skilled players metroid red is no exception but goes the extra mile to reward players who are already skilled in this genre more importantly i think there are even more incentives to make new fans out of not just the metroid series but fans out of the concept of completing games in general [Music] making it to the end of metroid dread is already a tough task beating every boss requires excellent timing and an intuitive read on their patterns but finishing a metroid is so much more than combat exploration is a major factor and of course there's also the speed running aspect which ties different bonuses to the in-game clock i prepared myself for a thumb-shattering weekend but i was in for some surprises as this game had tweaks that made me completely readjust my expectations all together my first run through metroid red was on normal mode and i focused holistically on collecting everything after i'd unlock all of samus's abilities i scrutinized every single corner of the map to see what i maybe have missed this is one of the ways that dread surprised me because as unrelenting as the combat might seem the way dread tracks progression is incredible every area has its own percentage meter of items found and the minimap itself is even used as an exploration tool areas on the map will flash white if there's a hidden item nearby on the map i still had to do the classic metroid thing of bomb or blast every corner but just knowing whether or not there was an item to find is a huge change completing an area felt great and even resulted in instant rewards i treated this first run as my 100 item playthrough where i would soak in everything and not stress out about speed in the main menu there is a tab dedicated to completion rewards i appreciated that dredd puts up a big flag right there and lets players know that hey there's going to be stuff to unlock it's a far cry from previous entries where i wasn't always sure what i was working towards the bonus archives related to completion are the chozo archives a set of nine images that are unlocked upon finding 100 of secrets in an area every area completed unlocks an image and there's an extra image unlocked after completing finding all items in all areas i was able to unlock the entire chozo archives on my meticulous first playthrough which took about 10 hours it feels really really good to find everything in an area even casual players will find a good amount of missile expansions and energy tanks but going the extra mile makes samus feel even more powerful veteran players will also encounter two additional collectibles missile plus tanks which let samus carry 10 additional missiles instead of just two and quarter energy tanks which guys okay so how do i explain this without coming off as pretentious or weird or just like an old guy who plays games now right but when it comes to the array of items that you find in metroid red the removal of the reserve tanks and the inclusion of quarter tanks just seems like a weird thing overall i love the missile plus tanks those are a great addition to metroid getting 10 for the price of one if you're doing something really cool is really worth it but whenever i got a quarter tank i didn't feel like i was really excited about getting one i understand the point and the methodology and the reason why and this is kind of a minor note overall some will say i'm coming off as complaining and that's fine but whenever i got an energy tank or a missile tank or missile plus tanks it always felt great when i would get a quarter tank i would just be like yay finding every item and ability is a given and it's interesting to see how mercury steam subverts expectations with dread which surprised me with its variations the game does a fantastic job of teasing upgrades that you will need later in the game in the way i earned familiar items in unique ways was really clever even though i knew i'd eventually come across greatest hits upgrades like the morph ball gravity suit and grapple beam i never thought i'd earn some of them from defeating emmys the choice to remove some of these items from the claws of chozo statues feels significant even though some of these upgrade hits were late i really liked how the item distribution was handled all told i found 23 core abilities and upgrades that gave me the ability to explore the entire map on top of that i found every missile pack power bomb and energy tank for a total of 275 missiles 15 power bombs and 12 energy tanks seeing that 100 complete status bar for samus is always thrilling now for many getting 100 at normal difficulty might be enough but for a metroid game there is more and i'm not simply speaking about being the game on hard difficulty i of course i'm talking about the speed running component and that's when knowing every inch of the map will pay off and where metroid red will truly test your metal or in this case most metroid games will test your metal for a good chunk of its run time especially during my first playthrough metroid red disempowers the player yes samus finds power-ups but she never feels all-powerful even at full strength the bosses in dread are no joke and can knock samus down a peg very easily which is why clearing the game under certain time conditions feels so freaking good metroid red made me feel like i had mastered samus's moveset to become the ultimate warrior using every tool in samus's kit to race through every environment to clear the game quickly is incredibly fun the requirements to unlock gallery images are still relatively difficult three images are unlocked beating normal mode at any given time another one under 8 hours and then one more under 4 hours it's the same with the unlocked hard mode once we're beating the game on any time under 8 hours to under 4 once again there is one additional image that unlocks after earning the other 6 for a total of 7 gallery images it seems daunting but it was much easier than i expected especially because these playthroughs can all be condensed very easily so as a refresher when i completed metroid zero mission i basically had to do eight playthroughs with samus returns 3ds it was three 100 playthroughs and seven speed run attempts clocking me over at 50 hours of play time so i had prepared myself with metroid dread for at least six playthroughs three on normal and three on hard amazingly i was able to complete this game in only three playthroughs and in under 20 hours for everything and just to kind of help myself out with all the nerosities of a hundred percent i did a extra fourth playthrough just to get my hard mode 100 file part of this is due to the fact that i could simply bring up the options menu to pause the in-game clock at any given time i was able to plan my routes and b-line towards specific items once i was plugged into speed running mode i couldn't stop even bosses that gave me trouble in my normal 100 play through gave me little to no trouble once i was locked into speed running mode i was able to complete a normal speed run in about 3 hours and 24 minutes and in my eyes that's plenty of time to spare but i was still pretty stressed out about doing the same thing on hard not only was i able to do it again but i somehow managed to shave off two minutes of my final time but i do want to add that there are way better performances out there online seriously shout outs to all the speedrunners out there who are putting in the good work to do great stuff i am not a speedrunner by any means but at the very least i was able to do this so if i can do this you could do this but the best part of all the speedrunning was that the rewards stack i earned the under eight hour and under four hour gallery images by beating the game in just under four that cut down the number of runs i had to do and that takes a lot of the fatigue out of the equation because even if i'm playing a game that i love like this one playing it six or seven or eight times through in the single weekend can be enough to kill that enthusiasm that wasn't the case here super metroid is always going to be my number one from a nostalgic perspective but dread earns its place as one of my favorites of all time it pays homage to its legacy and the gallery rewards showcase every metroid game to date the more work i did to complete dread the more i appreciated that nearly every aspect of this game honors samus's legacy and not just samus but metroid as a whole the community the fans once that momentum hits and the player gets in the flow of the game it's undeniable how significant this game is i love that the cutscenes didn't add to the in-game clock because i loved watching them seeing the crazy swings the story takes and then pays off really affected me metroid may not be known for its lore but it should be plot treads 20 years in the making are fulfilled at the end of this title and players paying attention to clues in the environment will find a lot to love it's a story that emphasizes the dread isolation and body horror that has always characterized metroid mercury steam are masters of evolving metroid overall while still feeling perfectly in line with samus's arsenal i love the phantom cloak and the flash shift and the storm missiles are incredibly awesome my favorite addition to this version of metroid dredd did a great job of teaching returning metroid fans something brand new and then let them experiment with these tools to sequence break and complete the game on their own the way they want to am i not outright say it but metroid dread absolutely encourages sequence breaking and rewards players for doing so secrets breaking into metroid game basically means finding items out of order which lets players reach areas that would normally be locked to them to find other items upgrades and push the plot even further even faster for example the average player will fight craig a few hours into the game it's a tough fight against a classic enemy and it forces players to use everything they've learned up to that point but if you're familiar with dread and pay careful attention it's possible to do things a little differently and find the grapple beam and the morph bombs real early on with a little backtracking samus can return to diron to collect the morph bombs and the grapple beam very early on tools that she wouldn't normally have until she defeated craid however if you get those items then backtrack to fight crait with the morph bomb it's possible to skip this entire second phase and just kill him in this awesome fantastic fashion another fun skit that you can perform is the fight with the experiment now this fight isn't that hard however there is one really cool speed running trick that you can do in the second phase of this fight the boss starts to attack the fans located on the right side of the screen the fans get powered up and suddenly samus is running for her life as fast as she can to dodge these braves that are being thrown at her if you somehow manage to maintain a shine spark during this fight at the very end of a section like this you can one hit ko the experiment now these are a fun bonus for sure but one of the most important things i learned in my speed running was that i had to learn to cut some of the fat that was going to inevitably make it hard for me to backtrack and whatnot this made me to find out that it's entirely possible to acquire the gravity suit early on via some clever strategies not through a glitch but with some well-honed skill when it comes to completing metroid red you're going to remember this one area where you have to perform a few tricky shine sparks to get this missile plus tank but what we don't really realize at this point is that if you're paying attention if you do this the moment you have access to this area you can shave some time off and get the gravities too early with a little foreign knowledge it's possible to shine spark chain your way through perennia and get the gravity suit a little bit early now i'm not saying it's easy to do but mastering this shaped plenty of time off the clock for my speed run so are all these gauntlets worth it is it worth collecting every item or perfecting a run to shave off a couple of minutes just to get some jpegs i mean look there's some pretty high quality jpegs but metroid has almost never been about the completion bonus the metroid franchise truly is about the journey not the destination and the journey to get metroid rated shelves is well worth it on its own at the end of the day where i come down on metroid it doesn't really matter the game has only been out for a week and has had absolutely stellar sale numbers even without including digital sales this game has made an incredible impact there's even a trickle-down effect of dread boosting the sales of legacy metroid titles hopefully an indicator to nintendo that yes despite their best efforts people still really really want to experience these metroid titles now i'd like to think that my experiences of completing nearly every metroid game on my channel and in my personal life give me some kind of authority to speak on what makes metroid such an impactful series at the very least i know what i like and i really like what dread brings to the table this game despite the initial difficulty curve for many single-handedly ignited a new generation of passion for a long dormant franchise and i think that's extremely cool and very special it is very rare that stars align and then i'm able to complete not just a brand new nintendo title but a game from a series that i absolutely love very quickly even rarer is when the game moves up to not just my expectations but the community at large metroid dread is it you guys it captures the terror of early games in the series with this relentless difficulty and rewards players who master its complicated control scheme for the patient you will be rewarded i think the gallery unlocks earned by doing the speed runs and finding all the items are a fine addition to a long and complicated legacy they might just be images for many but they feel like a celebration of metroid's entire legacy i expected a polished experience that would be tough and mechanically interesting but i didn't expect the story to be so satisfying and i didn't expect to feel so fulfilled by completing dread nearly everything about it just hit right for me personally so with that in mind guys i give this game my completionist rating of completed [Music] [Music] you

Channel: The Completionist

Views: 583,299

Keywords: metroid dread, metroid, samus, samus aran, metroid dread playthrough, metroid dread gameplay, metroid dread review, metroid dread walkthrough, gameplay, review, game review, game reviews, metroid dread trailer, IGN, gamexplain, completionist, jirard khalil, g4 tv, g4, g4tv, attack of the show, nintendo, nintendo switch, switch, metroid review, metroid dread switch review, new metroid, ridley, mother brain

Id: eybqgk5-w4I

Length: 32min 22sec (1942 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 16 2021