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

I like my Metroid games on focusing on solving the puzzle of "how the fuck can I get there".
It's what makes it different to all these souls-like Metroidvanias these days. And I love Prime for that heavy emphasis on exploring and scanning and
puzzleing. So please let Prime be Prime and a contrast to the fast-paced and very good Dread, and let me explore a world in a slower matter and do some actual backtracking, again unlike Dread.
Both concept work so well and it would be a shame if one mimicks the other.

In terms of combat well... you could give Samus a bit more abilities and speed like say a Titanfall 2, but then again, fighting shouldn't be the focus. Videogames in general should focus more on not always you having to fight someone or something.
 
I agree Prime should be more slow paced and exploration focused, but I also can see why some people want combat that feels better.

It’ll be a delicate balance I wonder if they can achieve

and yeah the speed booster in Prime would be headache inducing though I guess they could pull the camera out into third person for it? Either way I can’t imagine it not being extremely limited relative to its 2D counterpart like the Screw Attack was in Primes 2 & 3. And doing shinespark puzzles in first person sounds like hell.

Hopefully retro thinks up some cool new abilities for Prime 4 that are more suited to first person but can still give those satisfying puzzles like the Shinespark
 
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Metroid Prime 4 is my moet anticipated videogame atm. I think more agile movement and a more diverse moveset in combination with the exploration in the previous Prime games will be the sweetspot for me. Samus kinda controls like a tank in the Prime games 😅
 
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Well the Lead Producer left. They moved on to Epic Games. I figured something was up when Retro put up a new hiring for a Lead Producer.
 
takriel said:
What is the role of a lead producer I wonder? How much is the game development affected by this?
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Im not sure. Looking at Retro’s history Metroid Prime 1-3 had a Producer. DKCR and DKCTF didn’t have a Producer. I know they’ve done interviews with the producer of MP 1-3 and it seemed like he had ideas and stuff too. His job should be too communicate with the director, but I don’t know what all they do.


I think Tanabe is considered a Producer too on everything.
 
Dark Cloud said:
Im not sure. Looking at Retro’s history Metroid Prime 1-3 had a Producer. DKCR and DKCTF didn’t have a Producer. I know they’ve done interviews with the producer of MP 1-3 and it seemed like he had ideas and stuff too. His job should be too communicate with the director, but I don’t know what all they do.


I think Tanabe is considered a Producer too on everything.
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Going by the job listing: https://careers.nintendo.com/job-openings/listing/2100000067.html?src=CWS-10000&loc=retro

This is more of a company-wide position centered around communication and organization.
 
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I think the new DOOM games are a good comparison for how Samus can control in a 3D space, especially with the shared pedigree of the developers. Do I want the moment-to-moment gameplay of DOOM?-- Of course not, but the MP 1 and 2 style of slowly strafing around a locked target isn't going to cut it 20 years later. It's not bad, in the sense that it works for the games, but it's not interesting or especially fun most of the time, and people's expectations of what's possible in 3D combat have been dramatically raised in the past 2 decades. Faster and more intense combat is a great fit for Samus thematically, and the games were already moving in that direction with MP3. Anyway I have a lot of thoughts on the potential controls for MP4, might make a thread sometime.

Also, I would like the new game to have an auto-scan system in the normal visor-- the original MP pioneered the idea of the scan visor, but people have gotten sick of being forced to use "ugly graphics mode" in multiple games since then, and for good reason. The fidelity is good enough in modern games to not require that; just have Samus' crosshairs indicate a scannable item, and simply pressing the targeting button begins a scan. The dedicated scan visor can still exist, of course, but make it optional: something you only need to pull out if you're lost, or you're a completionist.
 
I’m worried about the music for this in multiple ways

1) First barrier is getting Yamamoto back at all. I don’t think Dread’s composers really cut it, and the series is consistently at its best with Yamamoto at the helm

2) secondly, I want the music to maintain the atmospheric moodiness of the first three games instead of going in the sound direction of Fusion and Dread

3) even if those first two points happen, there’s still the fear in me that lots of modern game music falls into - over orchestrating. Prime’s musical identity is EXTREMELY unique - the low haunting choirs, moody electronic sounds. I don’t know how much of that was hardware limitations but I really really don’t want them to orchestrate the fuck out of Prime 4. It needs to maintain that unique soundscape.
 
ILikeFeet said:
Metroid will probably go third person, while Prime stays first person
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If we're expecting the Sakamoto games to be anything but sidescrollers I think we might be waiting a while on that one

Metroid 6 being a third person-style game, like Other M but good, could be pretty interesting...
 
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Prime should stay first person. That’s not going to change. That’s what the series is. I could see them putting more third person segments in the game. Morph ball stuff is great. I hope we get a lot of morph ball puzzles.
 
Lady Bow said:
Yea hoping they explore interesting ways for combat like this gif from a cool tech demo.

m2FMDRT.gif


The counter from Dread is the one thing I think that would transfer perfectly to Prime with it being first person and all. Before you had to awkwardly backup or shoot if you had something like a War Wasp in your face so the melee counter as a "get off me" or parry mechanic would be neat.
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I can watch this clip all day. It's such a good example of how to do Metroid action in first person.

I agree, at the very least, they have to bring some form of close quarters attack and defense into Prime 4.
 
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Phendrift said:
I’m worried about the music for this in multiple ways

1) First barrier is getting Yamamoto back at all. I don’t think Dread’s composers really cut it, and the series is consistently at its best with Yamamoto at the helm

2) secondly, I want the music to maintain the atmospheric moodiness of the first three games instead of going in the sound direction of Fusion and Dread

3) even if those first two points happen, there’s still the fear in me that lots of modern game music falls into - over orchestrating. Prime’s musical identity is EXTREMELY unique - the low haunting choirs, moody electronic sounds. I don’t know how much of that was hardware limitations but I really really don’t want them to orchestrate the fuck out of Prime 4. It needs to maintain that unique soundscape.
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Yamamoto still works for Nintendo, right? I remember reading he hasn't been the lead composer for any game in a while, so I'm also wondering about if he comes back or not. Fingers crossed that he does!

I'm optimistic though because they know how big of a deal this game is. I'm sure they want it to live up to (and even surpass) the standards set by the trilogy.
 
Gengar said:
Yamamoto still works for Nintendo, right? I remember reading he hasn't been the lead composer for any game in a while, so I'm also wondering about if he comes back or not. Fingers crossed that he does!

I'm optimistic though because they know how big of a deal this game is. I'm sure they want it to live up to (and even surpass) the standards set by the trilogy.
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he does, he just “supervises” which isn’t really enough imo
 
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People at Retro on LinkedIn are asking for this Lead Producer for Metroid Prime 4 specifically. I’ve never seen so many employees from Retro post a single job on LinkedIn like this one.
 
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Maxrunner said:
What do you mean? Are there more than these two?
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No. It’s one person saying on their LinkedIn “hey we’re looking for a Lead Producer for Metroid Prime 4”. Then a bunch of other employees “re-tweeted” it on their LinkedIn profiles. It was just ive never seen so many people “retweet” a position before. I guess the lead producer is a big deal lol.
 
Dark Cloud said:
No. It’s one person saying on their LinkedIn “hey we’re looking for a Lead Producer for Metroid Prime 4”. Then a bunch of other employees “re-tweeted” it on their LinkedIn profiles. It was just ive never seen so many people “retweet” a position before. I guess the lead producer is a big deal lol.
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Most likely they really want someone they know to fill the job position. Usually - but not always - that’s a good sign.

Note that it’s a good sign about the work culture, which doesn’t say much about the game.
 
oldpuck said:
Most likely they really want someone they know to fill the job position. Usually - but not always - that’s a good sign.

Note that it’s a good sign about the work culture, which doesn’t say much about the game.
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good work culture at Retro is just as important to me.
 
Phendrift said:
I’m worried about the music for this in multiple ways

1) First barrier is getting Yamamoto back at all. I don’t think Dread’s composers really cut it, and the series is consistently at its best with Yamamoto at the helm

2) secondly, I want the music to maintain the atmospheric moodiness of the first three games instead of going in the sound direction of Fusion and Dread

3) even if those first two points happen, there’s still the fear in me that lots of modern game music falls into - over orchestrating. Prime’s musical identity is EXTREMELY unique - the low haunting choirs, moody electronic sounds. I don’t know how much of that was hardware limitations but I really really don’t want them to orchestrate the fuck out of Prime 4. It needs to maintain that unique soundscape.
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Yeah I have the same concerns, Yamamoto hasn't composed in like a decade and his music was perfect on the prime trilogy
 
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Yamamoto moved into a supervisory position years ago. Pretty much around the time DKC Returns came out.

He was the music director for both Samus Returns and Dread, so the more ambient approach was probably his idea. Funnily enough, he seemed to go with this direction for DKC Returns as well.

Daisuke Matsuoka went on to compose for Bowser's Fury after Samus Returns, so I don't think there's an issue with the composers being assigned onto the games.
 
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I’m not worried about the music. I think whoever is doing it they understand what the music in the Metroid Prime series should sound like.
 
Dark Cloud said:
I’m not worried about the music. I think whoever is doing it they understand what the music in the Metroid Prime series should sound like.
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Normally, I'd be inclined to agree with you, but the composers for Dread had a very poor grasp on what Metroid is "supposed to" sound like. In light of that, I can't help but feel at least somewhat apprehensive. If you look up Soshi Abe and Sayako Doi (the pair that worked on Dread), they have very sparse composer's credits, with the latter only having joined Nintendo in 2019.

Now, I'm not saying you can't give new blood a chance, because obviously Yamamoto or Hamano aren't always going to be around to do the OST for every single new Metroid game, but it's a bit of a shame that Abe and Doi in particular clearly weren't the right fit for the series. It's not because Dread went for "ambient", either, despite that being the common, straw man rhetoric people (usually fans of Dread's OST) generally like to employ. There are, in actuality, many ambient, or atmospheric tracks across the whole of the Metroid series, and they don't sound anything like Dread's glorified, royalty-free hotel elevator music. Rather, they're of a much higher quality, and far more memorable, to boot.
 
Quoted by: N75
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It might not be called Prime 4.

They avoided using the term ‘Metroid 5’ in the release version of Metroid Dread because they didn’t want to overawe new players.

To be honest I’d like a new title without ‘Prime’ being included and for the story to take place at a different point in the timeline. The Prime/Phazon story was wrapped up perfectly with 3 apart from a run in with a certain bounty hunter.
 
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