I won't hide that I have some issues with Dread, but most of them are more of an aesthetic personal preference thing (didn't like the OST much, would have liked an HD pixel or hand drawn style over 2.5D, miss Samus' internal musings from Fusion)
As far as the actual game itself and from a more objective quality standpoint, the game is fantastic and most people I know that I've introduced it to haven't been able to put it down. It may have not been exactly what I wanted from an enthusiast standpoint but as a game that's grown the appeal of the series, it's exactly what the series needed.
Well said, and I'm right there with you, in having preferred they'd gone with a different visual style. The thing about 2.5D is that, although it does allow for some really awesome camera angles and dynamic boss counters, the textures and 3D assets themselves are still fairly low fidelity, and it's not like it's reasonable to expect the Switch to crank out that graphical "wow" factor, as far as 3D visuals go. Hand drawn is obviously more time consuming, but as it stands, I think Hollow Knight is the better looking Metroidvania, and that was a $15 indie. Maybe someday we'll be fortunate enough to see a hand drawn, or HD-2D Metroid game!
Yeah, I'd largely agree with you. I think as its own thing it would be good, but as a Metroid OST the bar is just so high that it doesn't hold up. Hopefully we'll see those two new composers improve if they return, though!
Still better than Other M's random mishmash of ambient noise...
Ah yeah, Soshi Abe and Sayako Doi, two relative newbie composers at Nintendo.
I don't think their styles really suited Metroid in the way Yamamoto or Himano's styles did, but it'd be interesting to see them take another whack at it.
As for Other M, I really like this video that got recommended to me awhile back:
I thought to myself, "Huh, I don't remember Fusion's Sector 5 music being used in Other M! Cool!", and of course, I then see it's a mod. Actually trying to remember a single original track from OM would be an exercise in futility, I imagine.
That would be amazing! I apologize for not responding to your last big reply btw, that's actually kind of why I refrained. Felt a bit bad, like we were clogging up the thread too much with our own lengthy side dialogue haha. But with a general Metroid thread I'd have no qualms about it. Can't wait!
Don't worry about it!
Understandable. Assuming the community thread doesn't die immediately, there will be plenty of time for random convos and musings.
I’d go extreme too, but it’s out of love for the series.
If it was a series that had mid music normally it wouldn’t hurt as much, but there’s a very real downgrade to the point where I can’t picture in my head how Yamamoto was apparently the supervisor and went “yes this is good”
And unfortunately the music has tons of impact on the atmosphere, I’d probably rank Dread two spots higher (and thus my favorite 2D metroid) than I do in my series ranking if it’s OST was on par with others
I'm practically praying Yamamoto is on Prime 4, and not just as a supervisor. I imagine it wouldn't feel quite right, without him. His music is too foundational to the first three games, and Metroid's series identity, as a whole.
My bad if this is just me being too much of a hater, but I think a lot of Dread's music is firmly in that "royalty free stock music" zone of weirdness. It just gives me a cheapo vibe. I don't dig it! As ElisaurusWrecks brought up on the previous page, Chozo Laboratory from Samus Returns was actually a really neat track, and the one I latched onto, in terms of my hopes for Dread's OST. Alas, I don't think they were able to match up to even that.
Always happy to spread the word of great fan projects too, even though it probably means my days are numbered before the big N calls an ion cannon strike on my house. 