seems like the new metroid went completely to shit. levels of slop beyond what anyone saw coming. i already knew about the mcu npc and the perpetual escort quests but additionally they were visited by the open world of emptiness, you have to buy an amiibo to hear music, they added fucking breath of the wild shrine puzzles. dire.
yes it has flaws but it's still-
you can dislike a game or Nintendo but there's no reason to make things up to say a game is bad you can just say you aren't interested.
I've been playing constantly since release and I think I'm like 2/3rds the way through. most of the stuff people are saying is just blatantly false.
first the amiibo is not required for music. none of the amiibos are required for anything. all of the amiibo unlocks are collection rewards (the Samus amiibo in question is the extra sound options from 100% scans. it just unlocks it early)
the thing it does is let you replace an environmental track with any track you like. and maybe it's just me but the sound design of the valley is amazing. hearing the GE storms and the wind and sand storms blowing and the birds is really peaceful and immersive. and I think unlocking that early and replacing that environmental track on a first play through is really weird.
there's no "total silence and nothingess like everyone says" the reason is because it's a barren harsh environment the lack of music and hearing just he wind storms and vulture like things is supposed to help immerse you in these ruins and waste lands.
the rest of the game filled with lush jungles and busy factories are filled with sounds music and environmental tracks.
and out of all the hours I played so far I've probably had like 20-30 minutes of npc interactions most of the game is still Samus alone to herself. there's no "perpetual escort quest"
I was worried I was gonna hate Myles too but he's not really a "mcu written character" outside of his intro dialogue about not being in a cubicle and it being a win he's not that bad. he's just a bit geeky being a tech expert.
after you drop him off at the base camp he stays there you are no longer escorting him. and any further dialogue is very rarely over comms (since 90% of the game they're unavailable) and he's no where nearas "MCU" just stuff like "new suit upgrade? I can tell it suits you" when you visit him at base camp.
the other NPC is a federation sniper he had like 2 minutes of an " escorts mission " and it's barely that. it's a mission where you are defending a point with him and he can hold his own pretty well. where you have to fight like 4 waves of enemies. after that he says he's gonna stay back and rest his broken leg as you go own to defeat the areas boss and leave him behind no escorting or babying him.
the next NPCs is Ezra Duka and the Samus fan girl. this is probably one of my favorite sections because Sargent duke can totally take on these enemies it's less so an escort but a team up where you both fight besides each other as you go to rescue the private.
even with all that that's a small fraction of the game and it's not that out of place for the Metroid *prime* series.
i genuinely have no idea what they are saying breath of the wild shrine puzzles are. I genuinely have yet to see a single thing similar to a Zelda shrine it feels like making something up to be angry about.
and alot of people are saying it's empty open world slop. it's not open world at all. it's not an open world game. it's pretty similar to how prime 1-3 are.
it's linear but it's vague on where to go and let's you go to areas you can't handle yet and discover for yourself that you need certain upgrades later.
there is nothing "open world" about it. it's a Metroidvania alot of exploring and backtracking but that doesn't make it open world.
the only thing I could think people are saying is empty open world is the desert valley but like. not really? that's like saying OOT or ALTTP is open world because they have the field in the center of Hyrule connecting different areas.
the desert is emptier than the lush jungles and factories but it's not that big. it takes like 60-70 seconds to get from the two furthest corners not using the boost and max speed on the bike. and even then it's not empty there's enemies 6 locations (4 on the corners. one in the center and the lady on the left side) and they're not really far apart from each other due to it not being that big of a map. but there's also enemies and ruins and upgrades in those ruins and wreckages.
and for whats in the tags. that's just pure speculation with zero knowledge of how the game actually plays.
the game is extremely close to prime 1-3 (infact it's what some people I know on discord are disappointed it's "just another Metroid prime" instead of something different that they might like instead of prime)
other than the basic concept of areas connected by one area (all the prime games do it and so do lot of other games like oot alttp or wario world) there's nothing remotely similar to botw or totks gameplay loops or style.
*again it is not an open world game I don't know why people keep saying it*
as for the restarting development we will probably be we know for sure unless they talk about it in an art book or something.
but according to some insider leaks. so take this with a grain of salt. but allegedly bandai namco was struggling to develop much and just couldn't get it to feel right for Metroid prime.
retro in the meantime was working on the remaster bringing back some new devs and hiring and expanding new ones.
Nintendo was really impressed with how the remaster came out and considering bandai namco was struggling to make progress on anything. they decided to let retro take the franchise back.
again it's not at all like botw it's extremely close to 1-3.
I feel like people need to play this game because it's insane how much misinformation and doomer posts are being posted to YouTube and Twitter by grifters and it gets repeated like it's fact.
even dexterio was saying the amiibo is the only way to unlock things but it's just not true.
