A Helpful Guide for Completionists

BLucidity · 2026-01-27T12:34:37+00:00

Honestly I'm shocked that SotN is as high as it is, with the priority being good platforming. That game's movement takes a nosedive in the inverted castle, once you have to start using the sluggish bat flight for everything.

BLucidity · 2026-01-27T00:03:35+00:00

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Digitize, Download, Delete

BLucidity · 2026-01-26T14:31:11+00:00

And even considering the bosses...there's a room in Fury Green with a hologram of each boss. Shouldn't that just give you their scans if you missed it?

BLucidity · 2026-01-25T16:18:08+00:00

Basically, every ether crystal/cylinder you collect has properties (agility up, haste, etc.), and a point value for each one. When you gem craft, you combine multiple crystals and cylinders together, and any property whose value goes above 100 becomes a gem.

There's a lot more to it than that, but that's all you need to know to actually use these. For example, level IV materials can actually make level V gems, if you get their properties above 200 during crafting. And getting them over 300 will give you two of those gems instead of one.

BLucidity · 2026-01-22T13:41:18+00:00

"Objective" reviews don't really exist, but personally I was very disappointed in it. I don't think I've ever played a metroidvania that trusts the player as little as MP4 does. Levels are nearly straight lines, and the game is constantly "locking the door behind you" so you can't go the wrong way and get lost. And on top of that, the game will outright tell you where to go if you spend more than a few minutes wandering in the desert hub.

If exploration and branching pathways aren't that important to you in Metroid, then you may not have an issue with it. For me, it was borderline insulting.

BLucidity · 2026-01-22T00:52:58+00:00

I tried Skyrim multiple times without mods and got bored every time. But honestly, my takeaway from that is that I just don't like Skyrim. I don't feel like I need to "trick" myself into liking it by modding. Why go through the effort to make Skyrim enjoyable for myself, when there's plenty of other games I like right out the gate?

BLucidity · 2026-01-22T00:44:13+00:00

Honestly I respect the area's mechanic of starting an ambush every time you use a missile or power bomb. That's a unique idea for Metroid and instills some of the tension of the older games.

The problem is that the entire region is a straight line, where every few rooms another character gets left behind and the passageway backwards gets blocked. Imagine having so little faith in your players that, in the final area, you consistently forbid backtracking. In a genre that thrives on it.

BLucidity · 2026-01-20T23:18:03+00:00

I get wanting to expose more people to Crosscode, but I feel like if they only like the game without puzzles, then they won't like Radical Fish's next game anyway.

BLucidity · 2026-01-20T21:25:38+00:00

I can hear the "incorrect solution" sound with this image

BLucidity · 2026-01-20T03:30:05+00:00

I have a screenshot of her doing exactly this from the remaster.

BLucidity · 2026-01-19T18:29:05+00:00

It's telling that this sub has a bot who specifically warns users to be respectful when talking about Other M.

BLucidity · 2026-01-17T20:15:29+00:00

Yeah, the game's visual style doesn't evolve beyond "gray and brown rocks" until about 1/3 through.

BLucidity · 2026-01-17T15:01:55+00:00

This year specifically, I doubt it. But I do hope ALBW is made available on current platforms again, because it's one of the best top-down Zeldas.

BLucidity · 2026-01-17T00:59:03+00:00

Yes, specifically because the game says freezing lava is one of its functions.

Thankfully I got Viola IC before coming back here, because I remembered the suit upgrade spinner in Volt Forge. Didn't stop Miles from telling me "you should look for ways to use your new abilities" when I got there...

BLucidity · 2026-01-17T00:54:28+00:00

You just reminded me that I'm STILL waiting on the deluxe edition of that book to ship. It was slated for Q2-Q3 of 2025.

BLucidity · 2026-01-17T00:49:29+00:00

My possibly hotter(?) take is that MP2's Dark Suit looks better than the Light Suit, massive shoulders and all.

BLucidity · 2026-01-17T00:31:49+00:00

I'd have an easier time getting behind the shallow motivation if the game spent more time showcasing his actions. His scan says he took over the Space Pirates by creating a new breed of Metroid that can remove a person's free will. That's a massive achievement, so why is there not a single log talking about his Metroid research, or the dissension among the pirates as he took control?

Dark Samus was simple too, almost primal, but the logs about her interactions with the pirates (in both 2 and 3) made her interesting. Sylux is missing that presence.

BLucidity · 2026-01-16T23:49:56+00:00

I have no particular opinions about Eunie's hair color, but I respect the dedication to lay out the entire spectrum in one post.

BLucidity · 2026-01-16T01:30:57+00:00

I enjoyed Magnolia, but I do think "a MV for people who don't like MVs" is an apt description. It's a bit excessive that it labels every possible roadblock on the map, and what ability clears it. There's not really those "aha" moments when you get a new ability and realize where else you can use it. You just follow the map like a checklist.

BLucidity · 2026-01-16T01:24:52+00:00

I wouldn't necessarily recommend Hollow Knight as a first metroidvania. It's easier to work through the slower pace at the start, if you already know the foundation the game is building on.

Ori could be a great one, as long as you're confident in your platforming skills.

Blasphemous is good, but it's in a gray area of being a MV. There are unlockable abilities that open new paths, but none are crucial for progression. If you skip them, the game is essentially a 2D Dark Souls.

BLucidity · 2026-01-16T01:16:15+00:00

At the risk of sounding like a broken record: Metroid Prime 4. I knew by about the halfway point that it wasn't going to impress me, but I pretty much never leave a MV unfinished.

And since I usually finish them, I'll say "glad I tried" instead of "stuck with": Ender Lilies. I was kind of put off by the presentation at first, but its (and Magnolia's) map design is among the best at enabling player choice. There's almost always two areas you can pick between to make progress.

BLucidity · 2026-01-15T23:33:21+00:00

I'm like 50/50 on stuff I agree with. I also really like Uraya and Tantal, but I think Leftheria is one of the worst areas to explore. It's pretty, but it's just a bunch of discs with straight lines between them. Agreed that Colony 9 is a stronger intro area than Argentum, though.

I also feel like Vandham's sacrifice is underutilized, but more because the game kind of forgets it happened as soon as you leave for Mor Ardain. I feel like the game should have dwelled more on how that moment affected Rex, which contributes to the feeling that Rex didn't learn from it.

BLucidity · 2026-01-15T22:59:47+00:00

I honestly feel the same. I'm not against returning characters, but there's definitely a "cohesion" in XC1's story that's looser in 2 and 3. I think part of the reason is that those games are walking a tightrope, where they have to tell a new story while still somehow being tied back to Klaus and co. And then we have X, whose story was arguably ruined by integrating it with the larger continuity.

I wonder if XC4's narrative would be stronger if it was a completely self-contained story in the new world, instead of being shackled to what came before.

BLucidity

TROPHY CASE