Hylianhero777
Shriekbat
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Who is the director for Prime 4? Didn't realize that info was out there anywhere
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Pre-Release Metroid Prime 4: Pre-Release Discussion Thread
- Thread starter Phendrift
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yes. though I wouldn't be surprised if they introduced another playable character. if there's one problem I have with the IP is that it's pretty much devoid of marketable faces beyond Samus and Ridley
Aether
Tingle
well, every time they tried it was baaad (sylux, adam, the best one yet would be raven beak, but that one is...dead.)
I don't care for "marketable faces", heck Halo has Master Chief and Cortana, and thats it. (and that meme guy from the e§ presentation back then). Just dont make them (for me personally) generic western scifi faces. A lot of effect or Halo just looks bland and generic scifi to me. Or lets not say generic, it is a specific flavor i just dont like, and dont want near my metroid.
Personally i would like more of the ridley scify, less space opera or Starship Troopers and more horror influences.
And while i love time travel stories or parallel worlds, this would not fit here.
Im more accepting for stuff like cube moon solaris, alien if its a space station, and full on body/creature horror if its down at an planet.
ItWasMeantToBe19
Manakete
This is just because Samus' lore is very bleak (she is the last Chozo and last Metroid and has no human family and her boss is pseudo dead) and the lore for the rest of the series is extremely bad.
Bringing back Ridley over and over and over and over again instead of introducing new villains has not been helpful in establishing characters. The other main villains in the series are Mother Brain (tough to be iconic) and Dark Samus (a clone of Samus). They tried to introduce more ally characters in Prime 3 and Other M, but those games have pretty horrible writing... And they killed off everyone in those games too, lol.
There's no real way to introduce another playable character in the traditional Metroid structure unless you basically do a TLOU2 where you divide the game into three parts and then restart the game around 40% in.
Mr Doggo
Anti oof
it's not as far as i can tell. The one that has gotten the most visibility is Dylan Jobe, the Director of Development who was from ID.
I mean, it makes sense that the director would be an older designer from the studio, but im really curious of who would it be.
AllEchse
Bob-omb
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I think Dread did pretty good with Ravenbeak.
He was a bit edgy but that works because he is also a really cool final bossfight.
We don't necessarily need playable characters, a good villain could also do a lot of good.
If they go through with using Sylux I hope they do good.
Thankfully he is pretty much a blank slate outside of "guy that stole a suit made from federation tech who is out to get Samus for some reason" judging by the end of Prime 3.
Luggage
Primed and Ready
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It just seemed different from the usual "Retro is hiring" posts from twitter. Either way, this doesn't worry me too much. I still believe the game is coming out in 2024.
Zeal543
Paratroopa
Yeah a lot of people assumed Jobe would be the general director. Going to be interesting to see who it is especially when the producer/director dynamic appears to be different for Nintendo
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Yeah, whether it be to truly cement Sylux as Samus' new rival, nemesis or "frenemy", what little we know about the creation about the dude seems to point at them building him up to be a big deal to the Prime franchise. To me, that kind billing always spelled out making Sylux playable.
Helps that Sylux was already playable before and has a full moveset that can be expanded upon further in a new game.
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In my opinion, they're going to have to do some work to make Sylux an interesting character, since of all of the Hunters they could have picked to focus on, Sylux is probably the most boring one.
And actually, if you want a hotter take from me, I think using Hunters to base the future of the series on at all is a bad idea and stifles the potential.
And actually, if you want a hotter take from me, I think using Hunters to base the future of the series on at all is a bad idea and stifles the potential.
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I didn't know the game had a director that we knew of. I know the "Design Director" has been there since 2005 though. There's also several other designers that worked on MP3 still there, and one from Echoes. No one from the original Prime on the design team though unfortunately.
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Bryan Walker was "Senior Development Director" from Donkey Kong Country Returns, but we know from the Kiwi Talkz interviews that that position is really more of a producer/project manager position, and less of a "game director" position. I'm guessing the same may be true of Dylan Jobe.
But yeah, with Nintendo it's kinda different. Even though, for example, Sakamoto and Aonuma are producers now, they're clearly the ones still running the ship. It could be the same with Tanabe and MP4 perhaps. It wouldn't be the first time Retro didn't have an equivalent of game director. Pacini is simply credited with Lead Designer on MP1, and DKCR didn't have one either.
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Well, at the moment, I'd say the fact Sylux is a blank slate beyond hating the Federation and fancies stealing Feddie property (including Metroids) is the best thing about him. They truly can go anywhere, and at time where both sides of the Metroid brand are pretty open what they can do next, that's exciting to me.
Ditto how Hunters and even Fed Force introduced so many other lore beats that they could opt to follow up on at any time. For example: how bad are the Kriken, if they're supposedly another empire that the Feds and Pirates can at least agree that they BOTH hate them?
Mr Doggo
Anti oof
I dont think so. I think we would have seen the same on the other subsidiaries, such as monolith. For example, NLG's LM3 credits Bryce Holliday as the game director.
Im sure each subsidiary has its own little quirks, i wouldnt look at what epd is doing and say "this probably applies to them". Especially after NST's mismanagement.
The lead design thing just feels like a bizarre quirk that retro had at the time, i feel like credits will be a lot more standard on mp4. Especially when there are now so many "directors" for everything.
Zeal543
Paratroopa
Tanabe's definitely in charge given his previous involvement with retro and the interviews we got from previous staff
LM3 was before NLG was first party so things can change
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How do you explain DCKR's lack of a director then?. And then we had Tropical Freeze which had a "Creative Director," which was a first for them. And then with MPR they got rid of that haha.
Mr Doggo
Anti oof
LIke i said, seems to be a bizarre quirk retro had. Idk all the answers people lmao we re just theorizing here. But i def think crrwtive director will return as well, for the reason i said above.
Strikers also has the game director role. And so does Metroid Prime Hunters, from NST.
MetalLord
Koopa
Director of Development is not the same thing as director,its a bussiness position not a creative one,theres no overall director like on Prime 1,DKCR,DKTF,Prime Remastered, the closest to a director is Bill Vandervoort,Design Director is in charge of all game design but not the other things like plot,art and music
Dark Cloud
Warpstar Knight
Bill is the Design Director. He’s the closest to a “Director” we know of. He was a designer on Metroid Prime 3
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This is my consensus as well until we are informed otherwise. Though Vince Joly was Creative Director on Tropical Freeze, so I think that counts as a traditional director of sorts - Sometimes games have a "creative director" without a "game director". Another example of this would be God of War 2018 with Cory Barlog. He was absolutely the face of that game and conceptualized and drove it's development from start to finish with the Creative Director title. Some games/studios have both, like Metroid Dread (Fumi Hayashi from Nintendo as "director" and Jose Luis Marquez from Mercury Steam as "creative director."
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MetalLord
Koopa
This 2002 interview explains the situation
Tanabe: American companies have a different system than Japanese companies, and they also don't often have people called directors. There are producers, and below them in the hierarchy are engineers and designers. Since there was also no director on location at Retro Studios who overlooked the entire project, he [Otani] was, of course, given the work of a director. Because this company is in Texas, we had to go there about five times.
Tanabe: American companies have a different system than Japanese companies, and they also don't often have people called directors. There are producers, and below them in the hierarchy are engineers and designers. Since there was also no director on location at Retro Studios who overlooked the entire project, he [Otani] was, of course, given the work of a director. Because this company is in Texas, we had to go there about five times.
Mr Doggo
Anti oof
basically what i said: it is specific to retro, since all other games by western studios at nintendo do have that position. I will keep pressing that we will see more standard credits on this game, tho. Retro is a vastly more complete studio now than they ever were.
and yes that's what we have been talking about.
Hell, another thing that supports what i said: the position of executive producer comes before any other, in prime it was steve barcia, post prime it was michael kelbaugh. That is specific only to retro.
Dark Cloud
Warpstar Knight
I think Next Level Games has 2 directors? And like 10 producers lol. Retro I haven’t seen anyone called Creative Director or Director in general, but they have a few Producers now
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I hope they do a Treehouse segment when we finally see this game, so we can actually see some people from Retro talk about their game haha.
Mr Doggo
Anti oof
Indeed, we will see when the game get's announced.
Im sure they will, unless the first look is like... a teaser. But the first real trailer will most likely have a treehouse or something.
Dark Cloud
Warpstar Knight
Treehouse almost feels dead. The one big negative of no more E3 is no more guaranteed days worth of Treehouse. It sucks because I loved the Treehouses. There were years that it was better than Nintendo’s E3 presentation. I don’t think we’ll ever get a treehouse for MP4.
Now, a video where a developer is playing MP4 like Aonuma did for TOTK I can see. That’s probably how it’s going to be now.
Now, a video where a developer is playing MP4 like Aonuma did for TOTK I can see. That’s probably how it’s going to be now.
Mr Doggo
Anti oof
but the games good!
thats not producer work,tanabe is the defacto diretor
MrGab
Boo
I now want Aonuma playing MP4.
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I agree with this - if MP4 is going more open world this is how I'd want them to do it. Something I've wanted for a very long time is a 3D game that has the courage to be somewhat open world, BUT ALSO have a lot of ability gating and places that block progress. I'm thinking of something like Hollow Knight but in 3D - In Hollow Knight, the beginning is pretty limited until you get a couple abilities, but once you do you can go to a TON of locations all over the map. There are so many places you can explore, but at the same time also lots of places you can't until you get certain abilities, and that's the kind of design I'd love to see in Prime 4. But maybe even a touch more open and adapted to be more Metroid-y, sort of along the lines you're talking about here.
space_dragon
Cunning Commander
ItWasMeantToBe19
Manakete
"Open world" Metroidvania is incredibly difficult to do unless the game is much more of a pure shooter.
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SmolSam
Executive Producer of nothing
I don't think it's possible to make an "open world" Metroidvania because what makes a game a Metroidvania is having locked areas that you can only access after getting an upgrade to unlock them. Playing an "open world" game would mean having no locked areas at all and being able to go wherever you want from the moment you start the game.
Supreme Overlord
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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Kind of the situation in the endgame.
Maybe the key is to make it feel open world. It's just that the ability gating is incorporated in a way that seems natural, that's obvious once you have the tools but doesn't feel artificially constrained otherwise. One might say the feel of an open world that just becomes larger and deeper.
I would agree, though. "Open world" carries with it certain concepts that don't fit the idea of "metroidvania." But I also wonder if people sometimes have something different in mind when they say "open world."
SmolSam
Executive Producer of nothing
well, open world could also mean "large interconnected areas without any loading screens", which would mean having no "elevators" in the case of a Metroid game
Stilt Village
GBA
This is what has always confused me when people talk about open worlds. I have little experience with the "genre", but I feel like BotW was notably obsessive about this and may have poisoned the term somewhat. Is it really the case in Bethesda games and stuff that you can immediately go anywhere? I would think that for the sake of a practical story campaign if nothing else, most would work more like older Zelda games where you can mostly wander freely but there's still a lot of stuff blocked off to you, practically or with hard locks based on story or item progression.
This doesn't feel right at all though, by this definition Jak & Daxter is open world, and that game is mostly canyons and hallways. ...Probably for the same practical reasons as Metroid Prime, I'd imagine. It even has equivalents of the elevator cutscenes that don't technically take you out of the world but are still obviously using careful camera angles to mask areas loading and deloading as you take a boat across the water.
I guess on the subject of open world Metroidvanias, what I wanted Zelda to do after BotW was actually to basically turn into open world Super Metroid. Have an intended path with a series of "required" items that the player can freely break from if they know the game well enough. TotK was sort of that, albeit without really doing the items, and not putting up all that much resistance to doing things out of the order they tell you to either. It had an intended path at least!
I remember looking this up and not being able to find any good consensus on what actually defines an open world game... I guess by the above metric my personal understanding of open world is just a big space that isn't "funneling" you when you traverse it. Wind Waker is open world, Xenoblade isn't because the areas are just a bunch of larger Hyrule Fields stuck together in a line.
lemonfresh
#Team2024
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So cgi trailer next or will we see actual gameplay on the reveal trailer
Mr Doggo
Anti oof
landscape teaser with criptic story shit.
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That's a true open world, but true open worlds are actually quite rare. Games like BOTW/TOTK where you can literally go anywhere after leaving the tutorial are few and far between, and I would argue that most games people call open world don't match up to that.
What I mean (and I think most people?) when we say open world metroidvania is more like... a game that looks and feels more like an open world, but still has the metroidvania-style ability locks and gating. The first thing that came to mind as a comparison is Elden Ring. Elden Ring is very definitely open world, but it's a more restricted open world: You can go to like 75% of the map right off the bat, but there are plenty of areas that are closed off until later: You can't enter Lleyndell until you beat two main bosses, for example. Or, you can't access the Haligtree (which is a pretty large area with a major boss in it) unless you gather two medallion halves and use them in the right place, that's literally the only way to get there. And another entire dungeon-type area is gated by story progress late in the game.
What I'm imagining is that kind of world design, but Metroid-ified and the limitations expanded a bit, and instead of being gated by bosses or keys or NPC quests everything is gated by Samus' abilities instead. For example, maybe you can explore like 50%-60% of the world immediately, but a lot of areas are still gated until you have the right ability or suit or something. So it's not true open world, but the large open areas that you can go to often have the feel of being open world even if they're more limited. Scatter the whole world with the usual missile expansions, health upgrades, and so on (many of which require certain abilities to get as usual) and boom, there you go.
Supreme Overlord
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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A shot of space debris
We see Samus floating amongst it
Federation voicover: Samus Aran died heroically as she saved the lives of civilians and scientists on PRM-4 Orbital Colony. They, and we, are forever grateful for her sacrifice. The perpetrator of the attack has yet to be identified, but the Federation pledges to protect its citizens from incursion and danger where it arises.
Close up on Samus, zoom in to the helmet.
Her eyes open.
"But I was too angry to die."
Mr Doggo
Anti oof
wow no offense but im glad you arent directing the trailers of this game lmao
SmolSam
Executive Producer of nothing
Probably both, the trailer starts with CGI first as an introduction and then it shows gameplay.
I doubt they won't show gameplay, it would be a big "fuck you" to all the people waiting for years
AllEchse
Bob-omb
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Funny thing is, many quests in Totk feel much more gated than in Botw.
Maybe I remember it wrong, but I didn't encounter as many quests in Botw where you first had to have done some prerequisite on the other side of the map first as in Totk.
I often times struggle trying to find a way to intwract woth some NPC until I notice they want me to a totally different place forst that starts the questline that lets me interact with them.
I still don't know I feel about a more open Metroid.
More open level design often comes together with RPG elements, and the more straightforwardness of Metroid is one thing that differentiates it from most Metroidvanias I feel.
On the other hand I picture Samus running around the landscaoe with the Speedbooster as of it was Sonic Frontiers.
But then again you'd have to populate the world with things to do and I'm growing tired of the Far Cry enemy bases.
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We're going to get a good amount of gameplay. It will be similar to Dread's first trailer, complete with a release date that's within 6 months of the trailer.
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If they were going to do cgi teases they would have been shown by now, it'll be gameplay and release date without a doubt
