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I think it’s best not to fully use Tanabe’s old interviews of what he’d like. That was some time ago and maybe Retro brought some other ideas to the table.
Very true.
Considering Tanabe was involved with both LTTP as well as OoT, I'm sure there's probably some leftover ideas from those games that he could probably mine for ideas, not to mention whatever Retro themselves might bring to the table.
The main thing I hope is that it's not simply another excuse for a "dual world" mechanic. If we're going to be screwing with timelines, and Sylux ends up being something akin to Metroid's answer to a "Hero of Time" figure with a darker twist, let's go balls to the walls with the idea.
One of the more interesting things I've read are some theories about Sylux actually being Samus' brother. I think along with time travel shenanigans it could make finor an extremely interesting experience bevoth in terms of narrative and gameplay. Just give us something, even a 30 second teaser. Pleeeeease...
I think it'd be interesting if the Prime series officially ended up amounting to a divergent timeline, with this Samus never sent on her mission to eradicate the Metroids on SR388. As a result, there is no infant Metroid, the X Parasites never see a resurgence, Samus is not administered the Metroid vaccine, and Raven Beak is successful in making a second expedition to SR388, fulfilling his plans in using Metroids to establish a galaxy-spanning apocalypse.
It would free the Prime series from many constraints of continuity and timeline adherence, while still enabling Retro to explore an alternate, darker reality where Raven Beak's plans actually came to fruition, should they so choose. The inverse of the 2D saga, where instead of Metroids being effectively extinct, they're horrifically ubiquitous.
I'm just spitballing. I have near total confidence that it won't end up anything like this. Fun to think about, though.
Not gonna lie, I actually kind of want the time travel thing to be true because it would be an easy way to separate the Prime series from the main timeline, and thus not have any restraints on what it could be moving forward. It's already kinda weird how much has happened between M1 and M2 at this point.
You may hate this, but I also view the idea of the next couple Prime games leading into the events of Metroid 2 to be equally as compelling of an idea, haha. Samus going from the events of 1, straight into the genocide of an entire species in 2, makes little sense to me, if you only take into account the 2D saga. I think the Prime games serve a purpose of painting a more gradual picture of what occurred. That being, a series of escalating galactic crises involving Metroids at the forefront, rather than the events on Zebes serving as the primary catalyst for their demise. The Federation's last resort, rather than an initial measure rooted in panic.
Ultimately, I think there's a lot they can do with Prime 4 that will either add further texture to the overall saga, or see Retro finally split off from any association with Metroid 2 onwards. I think both possibilities are compelling for different reasons, and I'd be cool with either of them, provided they're done well.
Though I admit you make some compelling points here!
The prime series is the most popular and acclaimed part of the franchise, it shouldn't serve as some kind of stool for the 2D games like a few fans keep saying recently. It's not that the trilogy didn't have things that added to the overall narrative ofc, but it wasnt the focus; Phazon was. And it was much more interesting than Metroids.
This is all is highly debatable. Dread is the best selling game in the franchise, and Super is the most influential and revered (though Prime 1 is very close in reverence). And two decades of discussing the Prime series I personally see a lot more people call the Phazon arc pretty boring, though they tend to praise the lore aspects of Prime. It also seems like people genuinely love how Samus is depicted in Dread, and there has been mostly praise for how it's narrative was handled as well. And like it or not, scenes like encountering the baby in M2 are forever burned into people's brains, and no story moment in any of the Prime games is iconic as the baby saving you in Super. I think the intrigue for narrative sides with the 2D games overall.
I'm almost certain Metroid Prime 4 is renamed to something that drops "Prime" from the title as Metroid Prime herself is extremely dead and all Phazon is gone too, lol.
They're not going to drop the Prime name, it's the name of the subseries. Unless they decide to ignore what happened at the end of FF, Sylux is obviously going to create the new Metroid Prime. Honestly I doubt they'll even drop the 4. They'll add a subtitle for sure though.