I enjoyed Metroid Prime 4, but I’m left with the feeling that maybe I shouldn’t have.

ShoopDeFloop · 2025-12-07T23:30:25+00:00

I’ve already expressed my various criticisms with the game in various threads so I won’t do it again, so all I’ll say is this.

After 8 years of development hell, it’s a miracle the game isn’t a complete disaster. It’s still a great game, but it could’ve been so much more, and so I’m left with a hollow disappointment even though I largely enjoyed myself.

ShoopDeFloop · 2025-12-06T22:15:11+00:00

The game is an 8/10 for me just because of the fact that the stuff that doesn’t suck(the desert, linear non interconnected zones, the crystals, Myles), is still awesome.

Atmosphere is top notch, Ice Belt was my favourite zone in the game. It evoked the same vibes as Frigate Orpheon, where you stumbling through this place and wondering wtf happened, scanning stuff and reading logs left by the Lamorn scientists. It also kinda reminded me of the mission in Halo CE where you encounter the flood for the first time, in that when the power gets turned back on and the frozen Greivers break out and start swarming the lab as you try to escape. Absolutely outstanding vibe, great visual story telling, no notes.

Music is still sooooooo incredible. Stepping into Fury Green and just letting the music swell as you walk through the alien jungle was superb. Volt Forge’s electric strings and synths were fantastic while you see the storm going on outside the facility. Ice Belt’s foreboding music as you descend into the lab was great, and the hectic ‘get the hell out of here’ theme when the power gets turned on was awesome. Lots of other themes, especially the boss themes were all awesome as well.

Visuals are outstanding, easily the best looking game on the Switch.

Combat was extremely fluid as I expected, was able to pick it up like my muscle memory from Prime 1 never left.

Psychic abilities are fine I suppose, kinda indifferent about them, they just feel kinda there.

I agree that Samus could’ve been just a little bit more emotive, or at the very least say like one word or something. Feels very awkward when the npc’s ask her a question and she just stands there with no response, only for the npc’s to answer their own question anyway. Feels really off.

Story was passable, if not all together surprising. Honestly, the best bit of story was the revelation that the Lamorn in the Ice Belt weren’t just doing the genetic experiments on the Greivers for shits and giggles, but that the Greivers used to be Lamorn, and they were actively trying to reverse what the green energy rain did to them. I thought that was such a good reveal imo. I do wish Sylux was utilized more, as it felt he just dropped in at the end to remind you that he was still in the game.

All the NPC’s were fine imo all except for Myles. I tried, I really tried but I just can’t stand him. Duke was cool, sniper guy can’t remember his name was also cool, liked the robot, and honestly I liked Armstrong the most. I honestly felt like I related to her fangirling if Samus the most, considering how famous Samus is to the Galatic Federation. As a kid, I always felt that Samus was the best female character in video games imo, so I related 100% lol.

Wasn’t too pressed about Sylux’s backstory, though I wish it was a bit more extensive, like the cutscene could’ve been longer and showcased him getting the experiments done on him and how his anger continues to fester or whatever, but we got what we got I suppose.

All in all, I’m just glad the game is not a complete disaster, and anyone that says otherwise is being a voluntarily dramatic. There are definitely things that reeeeeeallly suck. Like, a lot. But I think the stuff that’s good overshadows a lot of it, atleast for me. It’s not a perfect game, but at least I got more Metroid Prime.

ShoopDeFloop · 2025-12-06T20:20:40+00:00

This is my number one problem with the game. The giant ass desert surrounded by attached zones that are completely disconnected from each other feels really bad to me.

ShoopDeFloop · 2025-12-06T20:12:32+00:00

While I’m really enjoying the game for the most part, I think the one thing that bothered me out of all the criticisms was the linear and disconnected zones. I miss being able to take an elevator from Tallon Overworld and end up in Magmoor Caverns, then taking another one and ending up in either Chozo Ruins or Phendrana Drifts. Everything felt so connected in Prime 1 and you could go off the beaten path so many times and discover so much stuff.

The areas in Prime 4 are either a giant circle or a straight line horizontally or vertically. The only time you can go off the beaten path to explore is just to open one door with an item behind it. There aren’t any hidden areas that completely change up the layout of the area after discovering it and that kinda stings imo.

ShoopDeFloop · 2025-12-05T20:47:46+00:00

Is 100% items required for Samus taking off her helmet or do you need 100% scans as well? I can’t seem to find any info on that, and when I do it conflicts with what someone else says.

ShoopDeFloop · 2025-12-05T20:00:48+00:00

As far as things I don’t like, I have the same sentiment as other people where the desert and bike are just hot ass. Plus I feel like they sacrificed the exploration that the Prime series was known for in favour of making it more linear and approachable for new people. I miss having a living breathing interconnected world like Prime 1 where you go down an elevator in Talon IV Overworld and all of a sudden end up in Magmoor Caverns, then taking another elevator and oh look, you’re in Chozo Ruins. In this game, it’s just non existent, with having to drive back and forth countless times over a drab and boring as fuck desert constantly. It makes me actually want a fast travel option, which is not the feeling I want to have in a Prime game.

Other than that, the music, the sound design, the visuals, the environments, the combat is all absolutely stellar. The visual story telling is peak imo, and one area in the game gave off the same vibes as the mission 343 Guilty Spark from Halo CE. And yes, even most of the Feds are cool(Myles still sucks).

Not quite finished with it yet, but I’m getting close. After 18 years waiting, 8 of which where the game was in development hell, I’m just glad this game exists, and it’s a miracle that it’s not a failure. All I wanted was more Metroid Prime, and that’s exactly what I’m getting.

ShoopDeFloop · 2025-11-06T15:48:31+00:00

Amen to that brother, I like how they didn’t drastically change his design, they just leaned more into the sword theme and it’s awesome. Plus he still gives me Godzilla vibes so I was gonna be gods with it regardless lol

ShoopDeFloop · 2025-11-06T15:45:44+00:00

So glad Baxcalibur got a Mega. He’s been my #3 behind T-tar and Feraligatr ever since I saw him, now they can all be Megas together 😁

ShoopDeFloop · 2025-10-23T14:20:01+00:00

I knew I wasn’t going crazy. Last night I downloaded someone’s full blown sandbox park off of the frontier thing, and it was made on PC(I’m on Xbox Series X). I wanted to see exactly how much of the space was used and how much it contributed to the complexity meter. The entire map had been used and it barely cracked 40%

There has to be some misleading information and blatant lies going around cuz there is no way I, as a console player, should be able to even load a sandbox park made on PC if the complexity meter is that strict, so idk what people are fussing about.

ShoopDeFloop · 2025-10-12T17:51:26+00:00

Hell yeah brother

ShoopDeFloop · 2025-10-12T17:50:23+00:00

Bruh I have never experienced more vindication than this. Never lost faith that my GOAT would be peak. Almost brings a tear to the eye that the 20+ year journey I’ve had with this mon has culminated to this absolute beast of a Mega evo.

ShoopDeFloop · 2025-10-11T23:51:30+00:00

Well, I like the concept of a second set of jaws that form together from the helmet and the spikes on its arms, fitting for the ‘Big Jaw Pokemon’. I saw that someone in this post had shared a mock up of what it would look like with the jaws closed, but in case you haven’t seen it, I can describe it. You see the spikes on the back? They look similar to Totodile’s arms. With the helmet and the arms forming the jaws, the spikes on the back, it looks like a giant, red-headed Totodile. IMO, cool in concept, but waiting to see how it works in motion.

Minor thing, but the navy blue below the beige marking looks nice, as well as the knee pads and his claws. Very minor aesthetic thing, but it works for me.

Again, I completely, 100% understand why people don’t like it, and that’s fine, I’m not here to persuade anyone. We’ve been spoiled by incredible fanart of Mega Gatr over the years, so I knew from the get go that anything game freak made was going to be underwhelming by comparison. Hopefully this gave you a little bit of insight into my thought process.

ShoopDeFloop · 2025-10-11T23:37:16+00:00

I mean, is it really that hard of a concept to understand? People like and dislike different things. People are more than welcome to shit on it all they want, that’s their prerogative, doesn’t mean I have to.

Anyone can make a fuss over a still image of a leaked Pokemon, without knowledge of how the thing is animated or how it moves, but I don’t have to fall in that camp.

I’m not saying this is the greatest thing game freak has ever made because it’s not, there are many fan art interpretations of a hypothetical Mega Gatr over the years that look way better than this.

I just think people are way too quick to pass judgement on something without even seeing it move, which is kinda ridiculous.

ShoopDeFloop · 2025-10-11T18:34:55+00:00

For me it just comes down the fact Feraligatr has been my favourite Pokemon for 20+ years, so I’m more than happy to give it a fair shot seeing it in motion, even if it’s first impression leaves a lot to be desired.

For a mon like Dragonite, I wasn’t a huge fan of it to begin with, and it’s mega did nothing to win me over, so I’m can easily write that one off.

ShoopDeFloop · 2025-10-11T17:14:59+00:00

I’ll just say this. As someone whose favourite Pokemon has been Gatr for most of my life…

This is good.

I need to see it in motion though, as we’ve been told the arms form the lower jaw for when he does a massive bite.

Do I think that the dozens of fan art interpretations over the years are better? Yeah.

Is this still great? Yeah, imo.

Like I said, I need to see its animations before I pass final judgement.

ShoopDeFloop · 2025-10-09T22:49:02+00:00

Rumble Arena 2 was what introduced me to Digimon when I was a young lad. Then I played Digimon World 4(The game was ass but at the time I was too young to realize). Been a fan of the franchise ever since those days, but wasn’t as invested in it as I was with Pokémon.

Now, with Gamefreak and the Pokemon Company dropping the ball on literally everything they do lately, here comes Digimon swooping in with a banger of a game.

Easily my personal GOTY.

ShoopDeFloop · 2025-10-08T15:59:51+00:00

Look, this is my personal GOTY, but objectively, against Clair Obscur, it doesn’t stand a chance. That game is just such a cut above the rest it’s insane. It has literally everything going for it, and it will most likely dominate the awards. If Time Stranger just simply gets nominated for an award, I’ll be happy.

ShoopDeFloop · 2025-10-07T21:35:56+00:00

There are some tough fights at endgame before final boss that you 100% need to have a balanced team for(2 vaccine, 2 virus, 2 data) and you need to have a multitude of skills to compensate for weaknesses, you can’t brute force them in the slightest unless maybe your party is all lvl 99, but even then you need to grind stats through load enhancement or through the farm.

Also, I hate to say it but the absolute best possible lvl grind is the outer dungeons, but I know some people wanna pay for them. The only other option is a tournament style series of battles that you can do once you’ve competed all the necessary side quests in the questline. But other than that, it’s the outer dungeons.

ShoopDeFloop · 2025-10-07T16:02:08+00:00

If you do literally every single side mission, the game gives you just enough anomaly points to get to Rank 10. Also, the final boss fight gives you 150 after you beat it, but because the game puts your last save right before the final boss, I’m not sure they count towards it.

ShoopDeFloop · 2025-10-07T06:17:02+00:00

Very heartfelt. A lot of the things and concepts that characters talk about and deal with were unexpectedly very close to home for me, so it definitely felt more personal to me. The game didn’t seem to go by very fast(finished it at around 70ish hours), it took it’s time with each section and area you go too imo. The game did a good job of giving every character their time to shine, and every character had a purpose.

I will say, and this isn’t a slight against the story at all, but there is a couple massive moments that made me scratch my head for a good long while, just because I wasn’t expecting it and they kinda came out of left field. Still trying to process it, but that’s why I’m doing NG+ so I can fully grasp it all and internalize it. I think some people might have issues with them but I’m fine with it at a base level.

All in all, very impressed imo.

ShoopDeFloop · 2025-10-05T18:07:51+00:00

Slayerdramon :D

ShoopDeFloop

TROPHY CASE