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News Metroid Prime 4: Beyond new trailer, coming to Nintendo Switch in 2025

Sin & Punishment said:
In the sense that you want the Prime story wrapped up, or you want something that plays differently?
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Absolutely both.

I never liked where the Prime storyline ended up going - "Dark" versions of a character are comic book nonsense to me, and I also think Metroid is at its weakest when the Federation is involved. Opening in Prime 3 with having to go speak to some goofball "Admiral Dane" was just the worst. Take it away.

Secondly, this trailer didn't show the evolution in movement and shooting I was looking for. If it takes the retirement of the "Prime" series name to free up the series for bigger changes, I'm all for it. I said for years that I wanted Prime 4 to be like a BotW moment for the series. (Where that doesn't mean open-world, just that all game design foundations are rebuilt or reconsidered.) Now I think it might have to happen outside of the Prime series.
 
What if Sylux is Anthony Higgs and he was punished for helping Samus and experimented on by the Galactic Federation into becoming Sylux, it would definitely explain the hatred Sylux has for the Galactic Federation.
 
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I would have really liked more horror and stealth elements for this series, even if that meant going third-person (which I think probably would have helped sales as well, lol).

Landing on an alien planet and having to avoid enemies at first because you're too weak before powering up to be able to easily destroy them would have been great. The environmental puzzle solving could have been about how to avoid enemies at first.

These mechanics look nearly identical to the Prime 3 mechanics which would be very hard to add legitimate stealth or horror elements to.
 
I kind of hope if they do reveal Sylux's backstory and who they are, they are either a new character entirely or someone Samus is familiar with from her past that isn't necessarily someone we (the players) know. It's a great opportunity to expand the world outside of what we already have.

Additionally, I do wonder how critical this game will be against the Federation. Typically, anytime the Federation does something bad, the game usually makes a point of "Oh, don't worry, it was a rogue faction..." Obviously, Samus continues working with the Federation following the events of Prime 4, so it isn't like she can learn something that shakes her convictions enough to stop working for them. But, clearly they wronged Sylux somehow. Curious to see how that goes.
 
Heron said:
Secondly, this trailer didn't show the evolution in movement and shooting I was looking for. If it takes the retirement of the "Prime" series name to free up the series for bigger changes, I'm all for it. I said for years that I wanted Prime 4 to be like a BotW moment for the series. (Where that doesn't mean open-world, just that all game design foundations are rebuilt or reconsidered.) Now I think it might have to happen outside of the Prime series.
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Yeah I'm with you there.

I think it was a bit underwhelming to see the trailer and it looked identical to the game from 20 years ago.

Maybe they will unveil new elements later, but yeah the trailer just highlighted scanning and morph ball... where's the innovation?
ItWasMeantToBe19 said:
I would have really liked more horror and stealth elements for this series
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I'd love to see more horror elements in the franchise too. It's a natural fit.
 
StretchNStripes said:
I kind of hope if they do reveal Sylux's backstory and who they are, they are either a new character entirely or someone Samus is familiar with from her past that isn't necessarily someone we (the players) know. It's a great opportunity to expand the world outside of what we already have.

Additionally, I do wonder how critical this game will be against the Federation. Typically, anytime the Federation does something bad, the game usually makes a point of "Oh, don't worry, it was a rogue faction..." Obviously, Samus continues working with the Federation following the events of Prime 4, so it isn't like she can learn something that shakes her convictions enough to stop working for them. But, clearly they wronged Sylux somehow. Curious to see how that goes.
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And to be "fair" to the Federation...having a naughty faction adds some much needed nuance to something that otherwise (at least by Sakamoto's direction) is largely a force for good in the universe, in the classic, Roddenberry-style Star Trek tradition.

Having said that, however? I'm all for developing even more in that vein. And the good thing about Prime 4 being possibly positioned sometime after Super (and Other M), but before Fusion, means that said faction can and should be still at large. Maybe they discovered some bird magic-powered time travel device, thanks to the remnants left behind by yet ANOTHER Chozo remnant. Or hopefully, there's more than one ancient civilization that had spiffy technology besides the space wizard birds we know and love, and that's what they're using.

Couple that with Sylux likely having poignant reasons for their hatred of the Feds, and we could have a nice yarn to unravel here. And again, I would believe Tanabe and Retro would probably handle this type of thing better than Sakamoto, himself, would.
 
mazi said:
kyle bosman does a pretty good job of explaining why the trailer wasn't great

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In my heart it's peak fiction.

walter-white-nonono.gif
 
Xbro said:
This one is actually 100% false. DQ can barely crack a million outside of japan and it sells millions in Japan alone. But DQ is an exception and not the rule
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My mistake, I realize I got some faulty info on that one. I'll edit it out of my post. Thanks.
 
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Heron said:
I never liked where the Prime storyline ended up going - "Dark" versions of a character are comic book nonsense to me
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I've always hated how they decided to call Dark Samus, Dark Samus. Like, the concept of the Metroid Prime itself taking over the Phazon Suit and evolving is raaaad. "Dark Samus" is duuuumb. Yeah I know Echoes in general went with the dark thing, Dark Aether yadda yadda I don't care. The name sounds plain silly and naming such a prominent character that does the series a disservice. Especially when most everything else is so heavy on the sci-fi terminology.
 
mazi said:
kyle bosman does a pretty good job of explaining why the trailer wasn't great

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I think the nature of the trailer we've seen is linked to its specific function. When Dread is revealed, everyone is excited, no one thinking it's just more 2D Metroid that looks like any other 2D Metroid. Why not? Simply because the trailer strongly emphasizes the game's own identity, its specific features, its atmosphere, some new mechanics and so on. It's not just another Metroid, it's an exciting proposition in its own right.

What we saw for Prime 4 is nothing like that. We're not talking about a game that's coming out in 3 or 4 months. As far as we know, its development is probably not even completely finished. Doing the one more thing on Prime 4 wasn't intended to show why the game will be cool, but simply to show us that the game exists. This was probably the last Nintendo Direct dedicated entirely to the Switch, so Prime 4 had to be there.

Given the time and resources allocated to the game, I'm sure it will be far more ambitious in terms of innovation than simply "another Metroid Prime". But this simply wasn't the time to show that off.
 
majesticfailure said:
I've always hated how they decided to call Dark Samus, Dark Samus. Like, the concept of the Metroid Prime itself taking over the Phazon Suit and evolving is raaaad. "Dark Samus" is duuuumb. Yeah I know Echoes in general went with the dark thing, Dark Aether yadda yadda I don't care. The name sounds plain silly and naming such a prominent character that does the series a disservice. Especially when most everything else is so heavy on the sci-fi terminology.
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It's simple, and straight to the point is how I look at it. Sure, when Adam interpreted the X Parasite mimicking Samus, and called it "SA-X," it has more of a scientific name to it, even if in long form, it translates to "Samus Aran - X Parasite."

I think calling Dark Samus as "SA-P" wouldn't have the same ring to it as SA-X personally. I guess I'm not sure what else I would called Dark Samus besides just Dark Samus. Phazon Samus? Samus Phazon? Metroid Samus Phazon? Omega Phazon? Phazon Prime?
 
Heron said:
Secondly, this trailer didn't show the evolution in movement and shooting I was looking for.
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Maybe this game, unlike the previous ones, has many small suit upgrades that can be obtained as the game progresses, which add more speed when shooting and walking and different movements or things like that, we can't know. Like I said a million times, we can't judge the game until it comes out.
 
I'll be the first to admit Prime 4's trailer wasn't great, but I also think it's a difficult game to make a good trailer for at this point in time. It is, presumably, a year away from completion (give or take a few months), which means it's quite possible that a lot of it just isn't polished enough for public portrayal (especially since Nintendo knows they bungled the announcement already; a game announced 7 years ago showing up with visible flaws is just not a good look).

For an easy point of comparison, Metroid Dread was perhaps one of the greatest reveal trailers Nintendo put together in the Switch era, right up there with Breath of the Wild's E3 2016 trailer. But it was also only 4 months out and was able to showcase a lot from over the first half of the game - like Quiet Robe and a few new abilities (chiefly the dash counter). It also benefitted from the building hype of what exactly the game was over the first half of the trailer (new Metroid project -> Metroid 5 -> Metroid Dread), an experience ironically only dampened by Metroid Prime 4's public existence necessitating a disclaimer before the trailer that Prime 4 was doing fine despite the fact that it was not about to be shown.

For this trailer, Prime 4 was an already-announced project, so the hype that it's being shown is somewhat dampened compared to a total surprise. It also appears to be confined nearly entirely to the tutorial - a la the Frigate Orpheon from Prime Remastered. Why that call was made is anyone's guess, but that decision combined with the game seemingly staying strongly rooted in Prime's existing ethos meant that the most they could do is emphasize "yes, this will play like Metroid Prime", which is exactly what they did.

Now, while I do think Prime 4 will have plenty of great new powerups and potentially a gameplay loop that makes it feel bigger and better than any other prior Prime title (I adore that last shot of the lush alien world, and it looks expansive compared to past games), I also feel shoving the very Prime 1-esque elements in our face first was no accident. New abilities may enhance the combat, but at its core it will probably be pretty similar. This is the first time that dual sticks are being prioritized, so I imagine it won't be as slow, but still; I imagine they're sticking to their existing strengths here.

On the flip side, regarding marketing pacing - if they blow the lid off of everything now, it would be pretty difficult to sustain momentum until release. Over the next year, they need to periodically tell us something new and interesting without it being boring. A necessary part of accomplishing that is holding back right now. They trusted that simply showing Prime 4 would get people excited, and on that end, they were largely correct.
 
Jersh said:
I'll be the first to admit Prime 4's trailer wasn't great, but I also think it's a difficult game to make a good trailer for at this point in time. It is, presumably, a year away from completion (give or take a few months), which means it's quite possible that a lot of it just isn't polished enough for public portrayal (especially since Nintendo knows they bungled the announcement already; a game announced 7 years ago showing up with visible flaws is just not a good look).

For an easy point of comparison, Metroid Dread was perhaps one of the greatest reveal trailers Nintendo put together in the Switch era, right up there with Breath of the Wild's E3 2016 trailer. But it was also only 4 months out and was able to showcase a lot from over the first half of the game - like Quiet Robe and a few new abilities (chiefly the dash counter). It also benefitted from the building hype of what exactly the game was over the first half of the trailer (new Metroid project -> Metroid 5 -> Metroid Dread), an experience ironically only dampened by Metroid Prime 4's public existence necessitating a disclaimer before the trailer that Prime 4 was doing fine despite the fact that it was not about to be shown.

For this trailer, Prime 4 was an already-announced project, so the hype that it's being shown is somewhat dampened compared to a total surprise. It also appears to be confined nearly entirely to the tutorial - a la the Frigate Orpheon from Prime Remastered. Why that call was made is anyone's guess, but that decision combined with the game seemingly staying strongly rooted in Prime's existing ethos meant that the most they could do is emphasize "yes, this will play like Metroid Prime", which is exactly what they did.

Now, while I do think Prime 4 will have plenty of great new powerups and potentially a gameplay loop that makes it feel bigger and better than any other prior Prime title (I adore that last shot of the lush alien world, and it looks expansive compared to past games), I also feel shoving the very Prime 1-esque elements in our face first was no accident. New abilities may enhance the combat, but at its core it will probably be pretty similar. This is the first time that dual sticks are being prioritized, so I imagine it won't be as slow, but still; I imagine they're sticking to their existing strengths here.

On the flip side, regarding marketing pacing - if they blow the lid off of everything now, it would be pretty difficult to sustain momentum until release. Over the next year, they need to periodically tell us something new and interesting without it being boring. A necessary part of accomplishing that is holding back right now. They trusted that simply showing Prime 4 would get people excited, and on that end, they were largely correct.
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While this series is hard to make good trailers for if they can't do a good story, a trailer that shows bad shooting sound effects, bad animations to enemies being shot, and a seemingly bad opening that has nothing to do with Metroid is not really encouraging. Maybe they couldn't show much or anything of the game, but what they did show raises some serious questions about animation quality, gunplay, sound design, opening, art design, and story to me.

I would have preferred a story trailer... If the story was more intriguing than what they seem to have set up here, lol.
 
So here's an idea to introduce Sylux to everyone. Make Metroid Prime 2 remastered, and in the multiplayer mode add the hunters from Prime Hunters as playable characters.
 
I just want Sylux to somehow be another Samus at this point if only to continue the increasingly absurd notion that so many of Samus's biggest threats are in some way, somehow, a copy of herself.
 
Hailinel said:
I just want Sylux to somehow be another Samus at this point if only to continue the increasingly absurd notion that so many of Samus's biggest threats are in some way, somehow, a copy of herself.
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On the flipside it would be awesome to have another villain not being a clone of herself be a very legitimate threat. Like Raven Beak
 
Luggage said:
I don’t know much about Skylanders, but calling something a Bionicle is a huge compliment in my book
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THANK YOU

StretchNStripes said:
Additionally, I do wonder how critical this game will be against the Federation. Typically, anytime the Federation does something bad, the game usually makes a point of "Oh, don't worry, it was a rogue faction..." Obviously, Samus continues working with the Federation following the events of Prime 4, so it isn't like she can learn something that shakes her convictions enough to stop working for them. But, clearly they wronged Sylux somehow. Curious to see how that goes.
Click to expand...
TreIII said:
And to be "fair" to the Federation...having a naughty faction adds some much needed nuance to something that otherwise (at least by Sakamoto's direction) is largely a force for good in the universe, in the classic, Roddenberry-style Star Trek tradition.

Having said that, however? I'm all for developing even more in that vein. And the good thing about Prime 4 being possibly positioned sometime after Super (and Other M), but before Fusion, means that said faction can and should be still at large. Maybe they discovered some bird magic-powered time travel device, thanks to the remnants left behind by yet ANOTHER Chozo remnant. Or hopefully, there's more than one ancient civilization that had spiffy technology besides the space wizard birds we know and love, and that's what they're using.

Couple that with Sylux likely having poignant reasons for their hatred of the Feds, and we could have a nice yarn to unravel here. And again, I would believe Tanabe and Retro would probably handle this type of thing better than Sakamoto, himself, would.
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Yeah, this is at once my biggest fear and biggest hope about the game. I feel like diving into the Sylux-vs-Federation concept is inherently sailing into some risky waters, thematically speaking; if they mess it up it could be pretty dang messy, but if they pull it off it could be amazing. I'm feeling optimistic with Retro at the wheel, but still kinda nervous, so we'll just have to see how it pans out.
 
BozPaggs said:
I could be misremembering but I'm pretty sure there are scan logs stating/implying that the Space Pirates are made up of multiple species, which makes sense as they're depicted as the opposing force to the Federation.
I know it would be a bit of a retcon and it's maybe a bit too deep for Metroid story-wise, but given how many shady sections of the Federation there are I'd love to see a group of Space Pirates who aren't "bad guys" and simply don't want to be governed by the Federation.
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Reposting this from the other MP4 thread and extending some of it to Sylux.

I don't know how well it would be handled, and yeah probably a bit much for Metroid, but I hope they make Sylux a sympathetic villain. We've had plenty of megalomaniacs, dispassionate consumers and agents of chaos. A compelling villain that you can say "they've kinda got a point" would be impressive for Metroid.
 
There's one sore spot in the trailer I hope gets updated during development before release.
The morph ball transition.

In the original game you had a smooth transition from samus to ball. The ball fades in around samus, enclosing around her and becoming solid. (She also starts rolling before she is fully ball)

MCqfnRe.gif


In the Prime 4 trailer, Samus just...suddenly is ball. They've added cool electricity effects and lighting, but there's no actual transition anymore. Samus drops forward and ball just appears. No spin/roll, no fade, it's jarring. Please give me a little fade.

Hl5f9n9.gif


But I know anything in a first trailer is still in-progress.
 
Koren Lesthe said:
Liam Robertson did an analysis video !
He did note that at one point, in the room where the pirates explode the door and one human is seemingly escaping with an important object, there are numerous computers with an hologram, and one of them is the hologram of a black hole.

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Very cool analysis. I especially like the "that time travel level from Titanfall 2" pull. If they could manage a seamless "dual worlds that interact with each other that you can shift between at the press of a button" mechanic, that'd be a very cool hook that would be pretty different from Echoes' light world/dark world gimmick

(less related to the video, but after playing Titanfall 2 last year, that level and the beacon level towards the end had me thinking "if a Prime game ever had to be made by a studio that wasn't Retro, Respawn wouldn't be a half-bad option")
 
ColdGoldLazarus said:
Yeah, this is at once my biggest fear and biggest hope about the game. I feel like diving into the Sylux-vs-Federation concept is inherently sailing into some risky waters, thematically speaking; if they mess it up it could be pretty dang messy, but if they pull it off it could be amazing. I'm feeling optimistic with Retro at the wheel, but still kinda nervous, so we'll just have to see how it pans out.
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I mean, sure, there's always a risk.

But I think the way to do this well is to keep the focus on Sylux and Samus, while keeping things relating to the Feds as more a secondary thing. Because in the end, how well they build up Sylux as a character, and also as a foil to Samus, is what will inevitably determine how much of a mark Sylux will leave on this series.

I keep referring back to DMC's Vergil, but I do so because I can't think of any better examples of taking a character that was largely a blank slate in his initial appearance, and giving him an immense glow up some games later, to be what I consider the best example of a "rival" character in gaming, both from a narrative and gameplay angle. That is the kind of thing I want for Sylux so badly.
 
I can't wait to see the Switch 2 reveal and it open up with Prime 4 gameplay on the TV. Although in all honesty I really can't wait for a full on Switch 2 trailer next year. Because let's face it, once the Switch 2 is announced they'll really want to push 4K trailers. I know we're not getting any massive upgrades since the lighting is mostly baked in (maybe we can get improved particle effects, shadows and reflections if there's budget for it), but will be nice to see how much crispier the textures are with DLSS. Especially if they use Quality Mode which is usually better than native quality.
 
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Joe said:
Reposting this art from another thread:



I've been predicting Sylux to be a woman for over 15 years now. It would just make too much sense as a villainous mirror to the Samus reveal in the NES Metroid game. The fact that the games go out of their way to avoid specific pronouns for Sylux as well as keeping their backstory deliberately vague is what tipped me off to this direction. I have a strong feeling that's where they're going and that they've been planning it ever since Hunters.
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unfortunately Kensuke said Sylux is a male

Tanabe reminded us about the ending of Metroid Prime 3: Corruption. After Samus’s ship flies off into the distance, another ship suddenly appears. He said that players Metroid Prime Hunters should recognize that the ship belongs to a bounty hunter called Sylux. "He’s actually chasing after Samus, and that’s where that game ends," Tanabe said. "There’s still more I want to build around the story of Sylux and Samus. There’s something going on between them. I want to make a game that touches upon [it]."
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I mean, if this is supposed to be another "Samus is a woman" twist, he wasn't going to spoil it in some random interview lol. And it's pretty notable that pretty much every in game description seems to avoid gendering him. Even Smash trophy don't gender him.
 
I have, by extensive deduction (often at the risk of my own safety), uncovered the true identity of Sylux.

I can now officially reveal that Sylux is, in fact...

Six angry, stacked ferrets
 
Joe said:
I assume he was speaking through a translator, who probably specified "he" where Tanabe didn't. I don't know much about the Japanese language, but I do know that pronouns work differently in the language, so unless Tanabe spoke English in this interview, I wouldn't take this as hard evidence.
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R.D.Blax said:
I mean, if this is supposed to be another "Samus is a woman" twist, he wasn't going to spoil it in some random interview lol. And it's pretty notable that pretty much every in game description seems to avoid gendering him. Even Smash trophy don't gender him.
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That's fair and I understand, just saying I wouldn't get your hopes up is all.

Who knows what'll happen, I sure don't. But I'm down for either.
 
Sylux is a clone of Samus.

Sylux is Samus' long lost brother, Solomon.

Sylux is Ian Malkovich, presumed dead, hell-bent on revenge due to his brother's sacrifice.

Sylux is just Sylux, and there is no mystery to it's identity, and it will never be revealed.

Sylux is just a tin of skipjack tuna that received a nasty dose of Phazon poisoning, became sentient, and went on a rampage in the name of marine life across the galaxy.

One of these statements is true.
 
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The supposed time travel concept and the mysterious identity of Sylux makes me think Sylux could be Samus from the Future. If that's it, I'm not crazy about it but I'm fine with it, even if I really don't want another 'bad version of Samus'. It beats 'Dark Samus is back ... in Bionicle form'
 
I do wonder if the Sylux pronouns thing seems to be a weird mistranslation issue in general tbh.

I found the old Japanese Metroid Prime Hunters website and here's its bio on Sylux:

9983165774e41eac787f21e43798e53c.png


"Bounty hunter who is an expert in stealth operations and tracking, and also a sharpshooter. He fiercely despises the Galactic Federation and its ally, Samus Aran."

I used both DeepL and Google Translate and they seem to default to "he".
 
All of this has also whetted my appetite for a 'Metroid: Mercenaries' type mode, where you are able to control various Bounty Hunters from the Metroid Universe and compete in Resident Evil-style 'Mercenaries' mode, but with arena deathmatches as well.
 
I don't know if this has been pointed out by anyone, but during the Morph Ball sequence there's a blink-and-you'll-miss glimpse of an Energy Tank being blocked out by ventilation grates. Either the game will start giving you them early (Prime 3 had one already at the GFS Olympus) or we'll be returning to this area later in the game.

p3VglCz.png
 
Dinoman96 said:
I do wonder if the Sylux pronouns thing seems to be a weird mistranslation issue in general tbh.

I found the old Japanese Metroid Prime Hunters website and here's its bio on Sylux:

9983165774e41eac787f21e43798e53c.png


"Bounty hunter who is an expert in stealth operations and tracking, and also a sharpshooter. He fiercely despises the Galactic Federation and its ally, Samus Aran."

I used both DeepL and Google Translate and they seem to default to "he".
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My Japanese is pretty shit, but this doesn't include a pronoun I think. It's pretty easy to leave those out in Japanese
 
Sylux is most likely male.

There's no pronoun listed there but... I mean... he looks male. The suit armor looks very masculine. Mannerisms etc also seem masculine?

It would completely surprise me if he turned out to be female instead. I doubt it. I don't think they are trying to do the same thing they did with the original metroid. It was hard to tell because it was 8 bit. You can tell with her modern suit.
 
Seems like the more doubtful 3rd party translations put Sylux as male and the official in-house ones very deliberately, even pointedly, avoid gender. I'm going with 'still unknown' for now (happy to be corrected tho!).
 
I just realized, if the "Samus appears" fanfare sounds that glorious, imagine the glow-up the item fanfare got.
 
To copy another post of mine...

Richard Vorodi (story designer for Hunters) said this during an interview with Shinesparkers, four years ago:

SHINESPARKERS : Sylux is one of the more memorable hunters from the game, with the presence of his ship and an air of mystery around him. Years later, Sylux has made appearances at the end of Corruption and Federation Force. Did Tanabe indicate at the time that he had greater plans for Sylux in the future?
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RICHARD VORODI: We have a great backstory written up for Sylux. There’s a lot of threaded storytelling in there, that made using the character in other games a good fit. I would love to tell you what’s going on under that suit…
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Even though the interviewer used "he" in the original question, Vorodi seemed to be much more careful with his answer. It's enough that I say, when it comes to Sylux's gender, or anything else about the character, it's still very much anybody's game.
 
Sylux is going to end up being another version of Samus that exists Beyond the confines of space and time. A Samus from a timeline where the Chozo were never brought to near extinction and continued their advancements in technology, eventually creating a machine that allowed for time travel and the traversal of multiple universes. Sylux is just an alter-ego to hide her true twin identity from Samus and others.
 
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