• Hey everyone, staff have documented a list of banned content and subject matter that we feel are not consistent with site values, and don't make sense to host discussion of on Famiboards. This list (and the relevant reasoning per item) is viewable here.
  • Do you have audio editing experience and want to help out with the Famiboards Discussion Club Podcast? If so, we're looking for help and would love to have you on the team! Just let us know in the Podcast Thread if you are interested!

Pre-Release Metroid Prime 4: Pre-Release Discussion Thread

ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
Sakamoto's Samus is basically DoomGirl now, but I wonder if Tanabe will keep the same characterization or go in some other direction.
Click to expand...
Samus was well revieved with the prime trilogy so probably something similar to that. Her character was likely set before Dread came out.
 
0
Aurc said:
When we finally get that Prime 4 trailer with an evil monologue narration from Sylux (and hopefully a cool redesign), we're all gonna do the Beyond Fried Chicken point at him finally having the role they've been teasing for him since 2007. Monumental Glup Shitto moment for the collective Metroid fandom.
Click to expand...
Let the audience think the person making the monologue is Samus, then make the audience unease with something Samus would never do/say and reveal it's actually Sylux talking.

This could work and would cement Sylux as Samus counterpart. Not a literally Dark Samus, but a evil twisted Samus.

They could even exploit the first person and let us play as Sylux for a bit, without us knowing (granted that would require to re-design Sylux's arm cannon).
 
I wonder if Retro has found a way to make Speed Booster work. They always wanted to implement it but it didn't work well. I think that if the game is "open world" that power-up would be ideal to go around the map quickly.
 
SmolSam said:
I wonder if Retro has found a way to make Speed Booster work. They always wanted to implement it but it didn't work well. I think that if the game is "open world" that power-up would be ideal to go around the map quickly.
Click to expand...

It's only happening if the game is third-person (and probably not then other than a toggle late game instead of the mechanic working like in the 2D games even if then).
 
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
It's only happening if the game is third-person (and probably not then other than a toggle late game instead of the mechanic working like in the 2D games even if then).
Click to expand...
I think they can figure out a way to make it work in first person.
But it's not like we don't have a power up that switches the view to 3rd person since Morph Ball already does that.
So speed booster switching the camera to 3rd person can work as well.
 
Marce-chan said:
I think they can figure out a way to make it work in first person.
But it's not like we don't have a power up that switches the view to 3rd person since Morph Ball already does that.
So speed booster switching the camera to 3rd person can work as well.
Click to expand...

I mean, they could, but it would involve creating a completely different camera system for one late game mechanic that would amount to a button press that is sprint but slightly faster.
 
Gingerbread Man said:
Let the audience think the person making the monologue is Samus, then make the audience unease with something Samus would never do/say and reveal it's actually Sylux talking.

This could work and would cement Sylux as Samus counterpart. Not a literally Dark Samus, but a evil twisted Samus.

They could even exploit the first person and let us play as Sylux for a bit, without us knowing (granted that would require to re-design Sylux's arm cannon).
Click to expand...
That would be cool, kinda like the twist in
Black Flag
 
0
SmolSam said:
I wonder if Retro has found a way to make Speed Booster work. They always wanted to implement it but it didn't work well. I think that if the game is "open world" that power-up would be ideal to go around the map quickly.
Click to expand...
Is the dash in Doom 2016/Eternal similar enough to the speed booster from a functional standpoint? I’d imagine Retro would build on that (in addition to a handful of other nu-Doom design cues from a control/handling perspective)
 
0
Retro in the last two months has started hiring for a bunch more contract positions, with this blurb added to the end.

Announced by Nintendo in January 2019, Retro Studios is currently in the midst of developing Metroid Prime 4 for the Nintendo Switch.
Click to expand...

In case you were thinking this would be cancelled for Switch 1 and be for Switch 2.

(Yes, they wouldn't cancel it via a job posting, but they don't need be so explicit with the "for the Nintendo Switch" part if they were going to cancel the Switch 1 version)

5 contract positions opened in the last two months.
 
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
Retro in the last two months has started hiring for a bunch more contract positions, with this blurb added to the end.



In case you were thinking this would be cancelled for Switch 1 and be for Switch 2.

(Yes, they wouldn't cancel it via a job posting, but they don't need be so explicit with the "for the Nintendo Switch" part if they were going to cancel the Switch 1 version)

5 contract positions opened in the last two months.
Click to expand...
I doubt many people thought it flat-out wouldn't release on Switch at all. Either it's a Switch exclusive or it's crossgen, but not a Switch 2 exclusive.
 
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
Retro in the last two months has started hiring for a bunch more contract positions, with this blurb added to the end.



In case you were thinking this would be cancelled for Switch 1 and be for Switch 2.

(Yes, they wouldn't cancel it via a job posting, but they don't need be so explicit with the "for the Nintendo Switch" part if they were going to cancel the Switch 1 version)

5 contract positions opened in the last two months.
Click to expand...
Probably 95% of people believe it’ll be switch exclusive or cross gen
 
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
Retro in the last two months has started hiring for a bunch more contract positions, with this blurb added to the end.



In case you were thinking this would be cancelled for Switch 1 and be for Switch 2.

(Yes, they wouldn't cancel it via a job posting, but they don't need be so explicit with the "for the Nintendo Switch" part if they were going to cancel the Switch 1 version)

5 contract positions opened in the last two months.
Click to expand...
in the last few months retro has hired more than ever if im not mistaken. Its interesting.
 
0
ILikeFeet said:
the retro hires are probably because they already have another project in development. gonna be a fun time for their tools and engineering team
Click to expand...

Seems unlike it'd be for a different project given they put up the blurb about Prime 4 for the new positions. And it was only about a month ago that they mention needing help for Prime 4 specifically on Linkedin.
 
I just hope it looks as good as the MP1 remaster. Although I don't know if the Switch 1 can run a game with these environmental details if it has larger "open world" areas.

digital-frontiers-92.jpg
 
SmolSam said:
I just hope it looks as good as the MP1 remaster. Although I don't know if the Switch 1 can run a game with these environmental details if it has larger "open world" areas.

digital-frontiers-92.jpg
Click to expand...

That's one of the reasons why I don't think it's going to be open world. Having self contained rooms allows for tons of detail while maintaining a rock solid 60FPS. There are too many concessions they'd have to make to do open world, and people would wonder why the game looks and runs worse than MP1.
 
TheSpaceBetween said:
Seems unlike it'd be for a different project given they put up the blurb about Prime 4 for the new positions. And it was only about a month ago that they mention needing help for Prime 4 specifically on Linkedin.
Click to expand...
And they can help on metroid. But beefing up for the long haul because they have another project is probably the reason for hiring new full time positions rather than finishing a game that was in development for 5 years already
 
ILikeFeet said:
And they can help on metroid. But beefing up for the long haul because they have another project is probably the reason for hiring new full time positions rather than finishing a game that was in development for 5 years already
Click to expand...

Theres no way to know really. But for now there's nothing indicating that it's not for Prime 4 other than fan assumptions that it's almost done because it's been four and a half years and some contracts ended. There's literally a post on LinkedIn from only 3 weeks ago by Retro's art outsourcing manager looking for talent to "help build the world of Metroid Prime 4."

I dont think you phrase it like that if you're near the endgame.
 
0
I thought the Last of Us was still hiring for the game only months before the completion. It doesn’t seem strange to me to hire people when the game is near completion. You’re going to promote the game everyone knows you’re developing. Metroid Prime 4 is a big headline you’ll want to include in your hiring.
 
SmolSam said:
I just hope it looks as good as the MP1 remaster. Although I don't know if the Switch 1 can run a game with these environmental details if it has larger "open world" areas.
Click to expand...
I hope it doesn't. Not because of "open world", but because the geometry is extremely basic. The ways you interact with the environment couldn't be more simple. These can and should be massively improved on, but will mean moderate graphical concessions, because prime 1 remaster only got where it did by being obscenely simple in every way when it comes to design.

The lessons they should take from BOTW/TOTK aren't that it should be open world, it's that you can now make tools that let you manipulate the world in interesting ways and design things to be more complex than "colour coded door" and "scan to find out which arbitrary explosive to use on this thing".
 
As a lifetime Metroid fan I don't think "open world areas" would fit a Metroid game. Just follow the Prime pattern but with bigger rooms and much more of them. I think it´s miles better to have contained "rooms" filled with atmosphere and details than larger and emptier areas. Just make the rooms more interactive, that's it. Imo open world areas would just dilute the gameplay for this concrete franchise, but oc I could be wrong.
SmolSam said:
I just hope it looks as good as the MP1 remaster. Although I don't know if the Switch 1 can run a game with these environmental details if it has larger "open world" areas.

digital-frontiers-92.jpg
Click to expand...
Man, I still can´t believe we got Prime, and that it looks like this. What a picture.
 
I think people forget that part of the reason Zelda had such a drastic shift was because the series had been so consistent for so long. Both in terms of formula, and in terms or releases, the series needed a shake up after Skyward Sword. I'd point out that even when 3D Zelda had duds said duds still were selling 4 million units. It's pretty easy to greenlight a ambitious open world game when that's the sales floor for it.

Metroid Prime however hasn't had a game in years, and the last one we got was Prime 3, which is rather different structurally to the other two. A new Prime game building off Prime 1 & 2 in the same way Dread did with Super/Zero Mission would still feel rather fresh in the current day. Not to mention making a open world Metroid game would be a rather expensive undertaking, and unlike Zelda it doesn't have the high sales floor to offset the risk such a project has.
 
ILikeFeet said:
I still think they're pushing for a new IP rather than make a new Donkey Kong
Click to expand...
When people say that i imagine they mean as a joke tbh.
James said:
I think people forget that part of the reason Zelda had such a drastic shift was because the series had been so consistent for so long. Both in terms of formula, and in terms or releases, the series needed a shake up after Skyward Sword. I'd point out that even when 3D Zelda had duds said duds still were selling 4 million units. It's pretty easy to greenlight a ambitious open world game when that's the sales floor for it.

Metroid Prime however hasn't had a game in years, and the last one we got was Prime 3, which is rather different structurally to the other two. A new Prime game building off Prime 1 & 2 in the same way Dread did with Super/Zero Mission would still feel rather fresh in the current day. Not to mention making a open world Metroid game would be a rather expensive undertaking, and unlike Zelda it doesn't have the high sales floor to offset the risk such a project has.
Click to expand...
As a reminder, open world is not the only change a series can do.

If retro changed samus's speed, improved combat and had an interesting villain that is very present through the game that would already require very drastic changes.

Its difficult to access on what "building on older games means", but the 2d games were meant to be iterative, while the primes were innovative.
 
Last edited:
Mr Doggo said:
When people say that i imagine they mean as a joke tbh.

As a reminder, open world is not the only change a series can do.

If retro changed samus's speed, improved combat and had an interesting villain that is very present through the game that would already require very drastic changes.

Its difficult to access on what "building on older games means", but the 2d games were meant to be iterative, while the primes were innovative.
Click to expand...
I would agree about the first game but the sequels?

I would say after Prime 1 the games got pretty iterative.

I'd argue the biggest changes were the map of the system that lets you select the next planet to fly to from Hunters and 3, and the motion controls in Prime 3 which won't be the default anymore in Prime 4.
 
Mr Doggo said:
When people say that i imagine they mean as a joke tbh.
Click to expand...
I'm not talking about my desires, but Retro's. I imagine most studios want to put something out that wasn't made by anyone else, but getting a new IP greenlit is harder than ever. Making a convincing pitch and vertical slice would require quite the number of people
 
AllEchse said:
I would agree about the first game but the sequels?

I would say after Prime 1 the games got pretty iterative.

I'd argue the biggest changes were the map of the system that lets you select the next planet to fly to from Hunters and 3, and the motion controls in Prime 3 which won't be the default anymore in Prime 4.
Click to expand...
echoes certainly is pretty iterative, as it was made on a whim. Even then it still had a lot of changes that were pretty important for its sequel, like

  • It was the first time we broke free from the usual metroid areas of lava, sand, water and ice, which would be expanded on Corruption.
  • The focus on collecting ammo for the light and dark cannons
  • The bigger focus on horror (fusion did tension) which would be expanded on Corruption.
  • The first time we encounter an NPC (U-Mos)

Buut corruption had several, several changes which points to what i said above about "drastic absolute changes arent the only way you can change something"

  • It added the Motion controls and (outside of a few minigames) they work exceptionally well
  • For the first time in the franchise we've had actual voice actors coming in
  • We continue to feature NPCS now, and expand greatly on this, voiced, actually do things now instead of just laying the plot in front of you.
  • We continue to break free from the established "metroid area formula" that is: lava, sand, water and ice. Corruption has the most creative areas in the franchise.
  • Added in the ship to be used in a few gameplay situations
  • While not the first time we have had a metroid game set in more than one planet (Hunters did it one year before) its absolutely the best game where that has been done.
  • Added in support for online features. While didn't have online play it did have its perks such as credits to be shared with friends.
  • Added a bigger focus on combat, giving you determined credits if you killed an enemy in a certain way.
  • Added achievements for mundane and cool things, such as killing all the Elysians in Skytown in a bridge in a determined way.
  • I would say that it is the first time a metroid game really did horror (you re free to disagree if you want) as Fusion did tension and Echoes was only there to do a few jumpscares, Corruption really embraced this, creating two areas of horror: The Xenoresearch lab in Elysia and the Valhalla, which was Dead Space BEFORE Dead Space lol.
  • A character added in the game doesnt dies lmaoooo (dane)

There are probably a few more im forgetting, but i think its enough to show that you dont need to change your genre to do a lot of changes. This game had more upgrades and changes going for it than Dread, for example.
 
ILikeFeet said:
I'm not talking about my desires, but Retro's. I imagine most studios want to put something out that wasn't made by anyone else, but getting a new IP greenlit is harder than ever. Making a convincing pitch and vertical slice would require quite the number of people
Click to expand...
no i mean about DK lmao. Of course, i believe Retro will try yet again for that so dreamed new ip, let's hope that with the new peepz at the studio they will manage this time.
 
0
The paths for Retro depend heavily on Prime 4's success, but much creative freedom seems completely out of the question after what happened between 2014 and 2019 and how absurd Retro's budgets seem to be becoming.

The likely paths are:

A): Prime 4 is a commercial success (>5m sold) and then Retro makes Prime 5
B): Prime 4 is a commercial failure (<3m sold), but is well received critically (like >90 Meta), and then Retro makes whatever sequel Tanabe is personally interested in.
C): Prime 4 is a commercial failure (<3m sold) and isn't that well received critically (like 80 Meta or less), and then Retro becomes basically NST and just does support work for EPD and doesn't make their own games moving forward.

Any Retro production should be assumed to be cost around $200m to $300m at this point (after promotion) and their poor track record of consistent releases and commercial success is going to make their future creativity more limited than it was in 2014.
 
ILikeFeet said:
And they can help on metroid. But beefing up for the long haul because they have another project is probably the reason for hiring new full time positions rather than finishing a game that was in development for 5 years already
Click to expand...

Almost all of their ads right now are for remote contract positions.
 
0
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
A): Prime 4 is a commercial success (>5m sold) and then Retro makes Prime 5
B): Prime 4 is a commercial failure (<3m sold), but is well received critically (like >90 Meta), and then Retro makes whatever sequel Tanabe is personally interested in.
C): Prime 4 is a commercial failure (<3m sold) and isn't that well received critically (like 80 Meta or less), and then Retro becomes basically NST and just does support work for EPD and doesn't make their own games moving forward.
Click to expand...
I know this is a game being produced by a studio in an expensive American city, but when the most successful entry in the franchise so far has only just scratched 3 million, why would Nintendo make that the minimum target?
 
OctoSplattack said:
I know this is a game being produced by a studio in an expensive American city, but when the most successful entry in the franchise so far has only just scratched 3 million, why would Nintendo make that the minimum target?
Click to expand...


I just don't know why Nintendo would give an expensive developer 5-7 years (and a ton of outsourcing support as well) if they expected the game to sell very little.

Just tell Retro to make something not that graphically impressive or large in scope if you think Metroid can't hit 5m or better in sales and you would have the game out in way less time.

Over 5 years and a lot of art outsourcing support suggests a really expensive title.
 
I mean metroid has always been on the lower side of sales for a Nintendo franchise but I find it hard to imagine that retro and Nintendo aren't hoping prime 4 is the one to finally break out of its somewhat niche bubble
 
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
I just don't know why Nintendo would give an expensive developer 5-7 years (and a ton of outsourcing support as well) if they expected the game to sell very little.
Click to expand...
SpaceGodzilla said:
I mean metroid has always been on the lower side of sales for a Nintendo franchise but I find it hard to imagine that retro and Nintendo aren't hoping prime 4 is the one to finally break out of its somewhat niche bubble
Click to expand...
No, I totally get that. Nintendo would obviously want the series to be more successful. They'd love for all of their series to break records with each new entry just as any other developer/publisher would. I'm just skeptical at the notion that their ground floor expectation is... the franchise's current ceiling. Like, that's insane expectations right? I just feel like we're overestimating how well Metroid has to do for Nintendo to deem the series worth it. I'm not saying Prime can sell a million and Nintendo will be all "good job Retro, you've been an asset to this company, here's a cookie." But rather that the floor of their internal projections is closer to two million, which is still very much the higher end of what the franchise has traditionally done, but not a demand that it needs to be the best-selling game in the series right out the gate.

Not saying that Prime 4 can't be the best-selling game in the series out of the gate. It absolutely can. Just that it feels unrealistic for that to be the requirement for Nintendo to greenlight a Prime 5 if Tanabe wants to do one.
 
OctoSplattack said:
No, I totally get that. Nintendo would obviously want the series to be more successful. They'd love for all of their series to break records with each new entry just as any other developer/publisher would. I'm just skeptical at the notion that their ground floor expectation is... the franchise's current ceiling. Like, that's insane expectations right? I just feel like we're overestimating how well Metroid has to do for Nintendo to deem the series worth it. I'm not saying Prime can sell a million and Nintendo will be all "good job Retro, you've been an asset to this company, here's a cookie." But rather that the floor of their internal projections is closer to two million, which is still very much the higher end of what the franchise has traditionally done, but not a demand that it needs to be the best-selling game in the series right out the gate.

Not saying that Prime 4 can't be the best-selling game in the series out of the gate. It absolutely can. Just that it feels unrealistic for that to be the requirement for Nintendo to greenlight a Prime 5 if Tanabe wants to do one.
Click to expand...

Nintendo absorbing losses of $50m to $150m (which is probably what Prime 4 would end up losing if it sells like 2m copies) after absorbing probably another $100m in losses from cancelling whatever Retro was working on + the original Prime 4 and then just turning around and doing Prime 5 would show some pretty extreme loyalty to Tanabe, lol.
 
0
TheSpaceBetween said:
Unless Prime 4 is going to have tons of voice acting, motion capture, and a fully orchestrated soundtrack, I don't see it costing 2-300 million to produce. This is not a Sony or Ubisoft production.
Click to expand...
Yeah very few Nintendo games go over the 100 million budget and it's really only for 3d Zelda and 3d mario
 
0
Dark Cloud said:
I thought the Last of Us was still hiring for the game only months before the completion. It doesn’t seem strange to me to hire people when the game is near completion. You’re going to promote the game everyone knows you’re developing. Metroid Prime 4 is a big headline you’ll want to include in your hiring.
Click to expand...

Pretty much all medium to big game studios are hiring at all times. I was commenting on how the ad was phrased.
 
0
You must log in or register to reply here.


Back
Top Bottom