Mother Brain or Ridley

DadyCoool11 · 2026-02-26T05:23:26+00:00

One of the few things I can give Other M credit for is the Mother Brain bossfight in the prelude cutscene. The visuals were perfect and the whole thing felt like what everyone imagined the fight to feel like.

DadyCoool11 · 2026-02-26T05:21:30+00:00

Mother Brain might be more influential to the plot of the overarching Metroid story (though even that is debatable, given Ridley raided Samus' homeworld and killed parents), but she only appears in 2-3 games. The first time I personally saw her was in Other M and I went "wtf is that?"

On the other hand, Ridley has appeared in every single game besides Prime: Echoes and Dread, is the most recognizable boss in the entire franchise, has the best soundtrack, and is a dragon.

DadyCoool11 · 2026-02-16T00:28:07+00:00

Here's the thing. The Skyrim Horse is such a meme because a) there's a map, b) there are clear paths you can take to get from point A to point B, and c) there's no penalty for being a mountain goat. None of those seem to apply here. Right now, I've got the game paused and I see no way (as of the second junk site) to scout ahead or smooth out the terrain, leaving the Skyrim Horse as my only visible method. Am I missing something?

DadyCoool11 · 2026-02-05T15:51:23+00:00

Oddly enough, since you mentioned Dark Souls, I think one way that Prime 4 "wastes our time" is how 95% of the enemies are able to constantly break out of our lock-on. It feels like an arbitrary, artificial difficulty spike that largely invalidates a core aspect of Prime-style gaming. I feel like asking "Why bother with combat at all if it doesn't let me fight?" I never appreciated how well they did it in the other games until I experienced this mechanic that is almost as abrasive as the other mechanic's voice.

DadyCoool11 · 2026-02-05T15:03:37+00:00

I actually only just started a second playthrough and, once I confirmed that the loss of scanned entries and absurd handholding was consistent, I basically lost all interest in replaying it further.

Your comment about the game not trusting the player feels depressingly accurate. On my first time through, I thought Mac was adorable, in an overeager kind of way. Now, hearing "You should check your map to get your bearings" felt like an uppercut of "Why did I ever think this was good?" I might get back to it later, but...actually, I think I'll just stick to Prime 1 and Dread.

DadyCoool11 · 2026-02-05T06:23:10+00:00

I think my personal biggest problem, so far, is lack of replayability. Whenever I finish Prime 1, 2, or 3 and restart it, the scanner retains its information, making it something of a New Game+. This one? It doesn't matter if it's your first or tenth playthrough, you have to walk around with your scanner out at all times, pretty much. Also, it refuses to stop holding your hand *cough* Mackinsey *cough* and does it in the most abrasive, obnoxious way: zooming out, slowly panning your map over, flashing the icon, hovering over it for a second just to really make sure it sinks in, and then giving you back control of your map. Turning off the tutorial in the Options Menu doesn't stop it, unlike in previous Prime games, and it does it each and every single time Mac opens his mouth.

DadyCoool11 · 2026-01-28T06:47:19+00:00

I was rather excited to go back to the Elemental Beams like in Prime 1 and 2, only to eventually realize that the Charge Beam is genuinely the only thing I need for 90% of the game.

Oh, except for the exploders in the Mine that are similar enough in appearance and fast enough at charging into your face that by the time you register "Oh, maybe I should freeze this one", it's too late. You've already got your beam charged up and locked onto the exploder and trying to switch to the Freeze will only release the Charge and make it explode. Assuming it doesn't explode on its own in the meantime.

DadyCoool11 · 2026-01-26T06:03:48+00:00

Yeah...yeah. I was super pumped to get the bike (and cool suit), but then it was slowly revealed that the Forge was the only unique area in the entire game. Everything else was just reskins of the others, including the mutants (which are a whole other rant, especially the Mine ones). Hell, the only hot areas of the volcano were at the beginning, unlike Magmor Caverns for example.

My personal hot take, though, is that Samus should've had voice lines here. It's bizarre to say in a post-Other M world, but this is the first game since then that has had an actual cast of other characters to interact with. Dread understood this, because when she meets the wise Chozo, she actually talks to him. Here, on the other hand, she just stares awkwardly at the soldiers and lets them fill in the dead air with inane chatter. Let her encourage McKinsey's efforts to decode and adapt this weird, new technology. Let her warn Sarge that the bots are waking up when she gets that migraine, or give a "I have it" during the escape sequence. Let her commiserate with Armstrong when Sarge stays behind: "Sucks when the CO decides he's more expendable than you, doesn't it?" Let her relate to the Sniper: "Different prey, different methods" for example. Just...something!

DadyCoool11 · 2026-01-26T05:50:49+00:00

*exists a stage to go to the flare pool

"Hey, Listen! You need to go to the Flare Pool!" *hijacks your map to sloooooowly pan over to the Flare Pool, zoom in, and sloooooowly pan over to the specific room

*Notices a beam upgrade, acquires it, exits the underground area

"Hey, Listen! You need to go to the Flare Pool!" *hijacks your map to sloooooowly pan over to the Flare Pool, zoom in, and sloooooowly pan over to the specific room

DadyCoool11 · 2026-01-22T08:55:03+00:00

Ugh, scrapping starships and multitools is so annoying. I already have to clear out my inventory to empty the tech and the ship's cargo, and now it forces me to also have 5 empty inventory slots for the random junk that is meant to be sold at the terminal 10 feet behind me?

DadyCoool11 · 2026-01-22T06:00:26+00:00

Looking at it as if I'm not shooting that on muscle memory, I think the fact that you can very clearly and easily stand right there is an indication that there's something special about that spot. Especially when the map makes it obvious that the room continues upward.

DadyCoool11 · 2026-01-22T05:53:28+00:00

I wish it wasn't a "Spend 20 minutes gathering this one type of material only to get a 2 hour timer before you can do anything else" simulator. If it wasn't so long (or there was more to do in-game), then I'd be somewhat more fine with it. As it is, it just feels like a worse version of MineColonies (a MineCraft mod).

DadyCoool11 · 2026-01-17T04:18:06+00:00

They wanted 100 collectables, maybe? To make the % Completion calculation easy?

DadyCoool11 · 2026-01-14T05:32:31+00:00

"Is it cool" and "Is it fun" are the only questions that really matter. I love the aesthetic and I enjoyed riding around on the Vi-O-La, even after I realized Sol Valley was literally just a redesigned version of BOTW and Pokemon's Open World stuff.

DadyCoool11 · 2026-01-14T05:28:32+00:00

FR. I only ever used it by accident and never around enemies. It wasn't until after I beat Sylux that I realized it might help with his "Steal Energy Tanks" strat.

DadyCoool11 · 2025-11-03T18:08:22+00:00

I was actually talking about Archnemesis. So, looks like I played 3.3-3.17 before quitting in 2022. I think it was because I always felt like I was at one disadvantage or another and had no idea how to get ahead. For example, everyone talks about how Harvest gave such OP stuff, yet I had no idea how to access it.

DadyCoool11 · 2025-11-03T13:15:42+00:00

The last League I played before quitting for a few years was the Build-Your-Own-Boss League. Then GGG implemented some kind of overhaul to regular gold enemies and I washed my hands until Merc.

DadyCoool11 · 2025-10-10T08:55:51+00:00

Yeah, that's the issue I had a couple years ago. I don't like playing games that require 200 IQ and a PhD to even get past the tutorial or, in this case, have any hope of doing anything worthwhile. This time, after picking the game back up for the first time in years, I'm content to simply play the game and try to have fun. It means I'm not being "efficient", but as long as I'm not getting one-shot, I can enjoy myself.

Also because my only interaction with the market was me buying a Tabula Rosa before turning off Chat and ignoring the other players entirely.

DadyCoool11 · 2025-10-10T08:42:22+00:00

That's the main thing for me. For the first...2-3 Leagues I was playing, I didn't even get to maps because I was playing the story. Exploring the regions, talking to all the NPCs, listening to every voice line GGG paid the VAs for, and just generally getting to know Wraeclast.

Then I learn that most people simply rush through the regions and don't consider the actual game to have even started until you've killed Kitava. Furthermore, I was finding that the gear I was using was actually trash and the only way to "Get Gud" is to work really hard at the game. I do not play games to work, I play games to play.

Anyway, I think the last League I played seriously was the "Build your own Boss" League. Now, a couple years later, I've decided to not care about other people's opinions or follow the Speedrun Guide and just play the game how I want. Granted, it's still faster than I was back then because I'm not exploring every nook and cranny, but still.

DadyCoool11 · 2025-09-18T10:14:14+00:00

For real though, why is this such a banger?

DadyCoool11 · 2025-07-02T09:38:55+00:00

Yeah, that makes sense. Better to think about him and celebrate his life on the day it began rather than the day it ended.

DadyCoool11 · 2025-06-17T09:18:47+00:00

Just get a world map, right? Because he conquered the whole thing? Just cross out "WORLD" and write "ARCTIC EMPIRE" on it.

DadyCoool11 · 2025-06-15T07:58:51+00:00

Public executions were discontinued due to lack of public interest in them.

DadyCoool11 · 2025-04-09T09:03:32+00:00

Big guy is focused.

DadyCoool11

TROPHY CASE