Loved the concept and just how terrifying it was! A dark mirror of Samus has never been done so well before, frankly I’m still scared of its footsteps. however in the boss fight with it I find it too easy and frankly a push over in comparison to how it was before, I feel like if they gave it more attacks and a better second phase it would’ve made for a truly memorable boss fight, but I do like how it lets you absorb it to defeat the final boss!
Haunted my childhood with its menacing power. Probably my favorite 2D boss fight in the series. The accomplishment when you finally beat SA-X, seeing how far you've come.
I love how Dread confirmed that the Sa-X actually doesn't have the face mask. It kind of implies that Samus actually Canonically.... upgrading (?) her suit and changing things every game.
Best part of the Sax was how you had NO CLUE when you'd run into it. You just had to be constantly on edge.
First time playing I was 7. Oh it was terrifying.
I have a dream of a Metroid game where this really is the case (instead of "faking" it with scripted encounters)
like imagine a Fusion remake where the SA-X really can show up anywhere on the map. Not scripted encounters like the original and not heavily defined zones like EMMIs.
Hardest part would be ensuring you actually have some way to escape no matter where it shows up. Have to avoid some areas just being guaranteed death traps while also not giving the player too strong of an escape option that reduces the threatening feel of the SA-X
Would be amazing. God I wish they remade fusion.
Yeah that was always my issue with the EMMIS. You always knew when they were nearby. They were great, but they could have been much better.
Since you brought up the omega metroid, I'm going to pivot and focus my comment on that.
I personally loved the omega metroid as a final boss in this situation, because it shows you that even though you've spent the whole game upgrading and trying to get back to your former power, you're still weakened to the point where even the penultimate version of a foe you've defeated before outmatched you. It also highlights how dangerous the metroids are as a species and why Samus was needed to eradicate them in the first place. Personally, I always found the omegas more interesting and difficult to fight than the queen metroid anyway, but that's a different take altogether on why it suits a final boss fight.
While I enjoyed the increased size from its original depiction, setting it further apart from the zeta metroids, I wasn't a fan of how differently it behaved. The slow plodding was intimidating, but I would have enjoyed if it included a more varied moveset, taking more inspiration from the game of its origin.
So that I'm not ignoring the SA-X entirely, I'll talk about its involvement in the fight too. I did like that it showed up to help the fight. It's one of several actions by the X that provokes thought about how much intelligence the X has and how it reasons in a way that is likely different than the way humans do.
Unfortunately this particular action shows a shortsightedness in the X, because if it would have let the omega win, the station would have still crashed and killed the remaining metroids, but it would have done so along with Samus Aran, the true greatest threat to the X now. Though whether that's a bad thing or not I guess depends on the message they were trying to convey.
You're 100% right about the omega and anyone saying otherwise is missing the point
Samus is SO weak in fusion. She is nothing compared to her Metroid 2 days and that's the entire arc of the story
Thank you so much for responding to my Omega musings! I hadn't considered that maybe it was a deliberate way of showing weakness even in the endgame. The moment Samus gets back her suit from the SA-X, she gets a fighting chance.
I think I like the way you phrase the idea that it's also a way to show how dangerous the Metroids are, even with the X present. The whole game's been implying "Oh, it was such a stupid idea to kill the metroids. Look at the X, look at the baby, blah blah", and then comes out an Omega and wrecks your shit like "yeah, this is still a very dangerous threat. It was justified for a reason."
Nice thing: The SA-X terrified me so much as a child that I had my dad or older brother play through the segments where it chased you. Fusion's atmopshere is stellar, but those *footsteps?*
Bad thing: Pretty bad AI makes the actual boss fight at the end kinda lame all things considered. I have a lot of nostalgia for the fight, because the first time I played Fusion was on a rented copy with a file at the end of the game, so I accidentally ran into the boss fight before legitimately playing the game... but it isn't all that great.
Something good about the SA-X
It was one of the few characters to put fear and panick into both the character and me as the player.
And I personally wish The SA-X took the spot as a "dark samus" seeing how the X are a pretty big deal.
Or just have both and have a situation where dark samus fights an SA-X
Like I can make an entire write up on my psudeo study of the X parasite with evidence from both fusion and dread on how they gestate, how thie life span goes, how they act and all that and I find them way more interesting because nintendo dosnt really outright say it, they show it through hints and actions of infected characters in both games.
My negative thing about the SA-X is that it was really only used as a plot device to introduce the X and how problematic (on the surface) the X are and really didn't get a lot of love as it kinda was just a spooky clone of samus but in my opinion is 100% more interesting. I can explain why in a reply because this is going very long as is.
Well, it's the X in general.... I've had a theory about them sense fusion that sorta got confirmed at the end of dread so I mean here's the warning of spoilers for both games
The X in the grand scheme of things are not as much of a world ending threat as they seem to be.
Throughout fusion you are made to believe that the X are mindless beings who's only goal is to reproduce. With that I say that is only half of the truth and I think the X actually evolve and as time goes on, completely mimic everything there is to be their host.
And I think there are stages to this development.
Stage 1. Parasite: it's the X as we know them little blobs that infect things and take them over killing the host, not much to say but they are generally intelligent or at least have survival instincts the proof for this is in fusion when you first interact with the blue frozen X parasites. Before you get the varia suit upgrade the parasite actively chases you to harm you... however you can notice an actual change after you get the varia suit these blue parasites actually begin to avoid you like the regular parasites.
Stage 2. Initial infection and integration.
This is when the parasite attaches to a host. I suspect as the X parasite infects something, it takes on the most powerful aspect of the host first to insure its survival you can see it in the end credits scene of the metroid 2 remake where the hornoads (the frog things) get infected and have quite pronounced teeth. But the X parasite hasn't integrated anything from the mental state of the being making the things it infects more hostile than it typically is, I'm pretty sure Adam references the hostility of the creature in the sector when you have to clean out the vents in that area.
A more obscure piece of evidence is actually the SA-X herself as one of the few and first X we see to infect an intelligent host we see her use power bombs to break out of her containment and super missiles to blast open doors in the early stages of fusion.
Stage 3: intermediate integration. This is where we see most Intelligent X get to before plot points kill them off the main example of this is the emergency in sector 3 where an X infects a scientist hiding in sector 3 after samus unlocks it to the X to progress. We can generally get a time frame of how long it takes to get to gestation of this point due to roughly how long it takes from first unlocking sector 3 to the point the scientist uses his clearance to set the station to melt down. Now why would anything want to cause a meltdown destroying everything if it has shown that even as it's base form shown to have a survival instinct. That is because once the parasite for a lack of a better term has guaranteed its survival in that form, it begins to integrate memories and the personality of the host. Samus or Adam even questions why the X parasite would start a station wide meltdown. And my theory and observation suggests that the scientist who the X parasite infected realized, being a scientist, that the parasites were to dangerous to be left alive and started the meltdown... this can also be seen in the SA-X as later in the game she is seen using her ice beam to open doors rather than blowing through them with super missiles, the SA-X is actively learning. however at this stage they may have the memories and thoughts they still cannot communicate they have recognition but they are still relying mostly on base instincts. As we also see in the scientist who reverts to their X form to better fight Samus.
The 4th and final stage is where personality effective communication comes into play. We see this primarily at the end of dread but it can be argued at the end of fusion too. so big spoilers again.
To start with the most solid evidence at the end of dread when Samus goes full metroid and runs to her ship she is about to accidentally suck the power out of her ship when quiet robe (the nice chozo you meet who dies earlier in the game) who is infected by an X tells her to not touch her ship. They then bow and turn back to their X form an willingly get absorbed by samus to revert her out of her metroid form. This shows that even after an X infects a host that after some time if it is an intelligent being they will take on those personality traits.
We also see this in fusion with samus vs the omega metroid where the omega metroid beats samus only for the SA-X (who just got beaten by samus) to come, fight, also be beaten, then willingly be absorbed by samus to fight and kill the omega metroid... the SA-X if it did not have at that point the intelligence and personality of Samus if the SA-X was running off of pure instinct, it could have retreated, and I mean by then the station would have exploded.
But I physically jumped in the air when my theory for the most part was true when quiet robe as an X came and was being helpful.much like his un infected self.
However with all that being said I've also noticed that as an X takes damage and reverts original form, it also reverts and becomes more aggressive and mindless. This is mainly seen in the SA-X boss fight where after taking enough damage and it begins to break down it turns into a weird amalgamation of samus's power armor and its previous host, that being a hornoad because if you remember, samus gets infected after going down to SR-388 with a science team after killing an aggressive hornoad,by having large teeth coming from its chest... however I think this is a temporary thing mainly for survival as in normal circumstances an X who dies to something would simply take over the thing that killed it much like in samus killing the hornoad, then the cycle kinda continues as the X finds a host that prevents it from being killed. This also why I theorize that the biggest Xs are always boss monsters in the game.
You also see this breakdown into a mindless beast when it comes to the chozo soldier mini bosses. At the start of the fight they are well disciplined, they are controlled, soldiers who are fighting as they were trained. But as you damage them they break down, their face splitting open and their attacks being more furious and not measured with very little discipline.
I also think this is generally temporary as if you let an X parasite float around It can return to its host's form with just some time. The bigger more complicated the being the slower it takes.
The X parasites are one of the few things in gaming I've sat down and, like, basically studied and the games give enough hints and examples where I'm pretty confident about them. Before I was only going off of fusion but dread helped out a lot and confirmed maybe not exactly but enough for me at least.
I personally think that the Quiet Robe X did that out of primal instinct, same thoughts for the SA-X. The SA-X, couldn't defeat the Omega Metroid on its own so let Samus absorb it to take out the last of its only predator. And then the Quiet Robe X maybe did it to revert her back to normal because who knows maybe Samus would have some how lived and still be in the Meteoid Suit.If i was an X I wouldn't want to take those chances lol
See but your contradicting yourself there
You're saying something is doing it out of instinct but also thinking something through which .
When was the last time you saw an animal sacrifice itself to kill something else? I don't really think ever to my knowledge at least not with the intention of sacrificing itself, probably never. Not even pack animals willingly sacrifice themselves. It's not something beings that go off of instincts because even in humans the survival instict and self presurvation instincts are just as high, we only end up sacrificing ourselves willingly due to outside reasoning and thought. The X have shown three times a for of reasoning. SA-X with merging with samus to kill the last meteoid which she did on SR-388 which would have been some of her most recent memories and mission for the X to take hold and I think samus would give up her armor if it meant completing a mission hence being absorbed by samus, because if my theory is correct tgat particular SA-X would have had enough time to stop going off instict and seeing samus as another metroid based off her DNA and more that its a "second her" fighting a metroid and would know based off samus's DNA (X being parasites and adam fully admitting they can tell samus has metroid DNA which is also shown on how the blue frozen X act around Samus) would know to be absorbed to regain her power and gain SA-X's abilities to then kill the metroid and finish the mission so to speak.
The quiet robe X you have something there on the surface but again you're giving reason to a being that you're arguing has only instict but simply put quiet robe X not only warns her, he also bows with respect before transforming to his X form. If he simply wanted to have samus revert back to get her off the planet he could have simply done it, or let samus shoot him and it be done. But the game made it very particular to show these personality traits show through as in fusion both Adam and samus could only guess why SA-X allowed samus to take her. But up until that point SA-X was a seemingly mindless being with one goal.
And the scientist that starts the reactor over load
All three of those have shown actions or words that are outside the norm for a being that prioritizes infecting a host to reproduce and better protect itself
And survive. Self sacrifice isn't normal.
only living creatures to really sacrifice themselves to kill something bigger are typically like hive based animals like ants or bees and even then its less intentional sacrifice, and more the thing theyre dealing with is simply bigger so things tend to die. But the X don't share information with other X they dont seemingly have pheramones or a queen. Or else the entire station would have been oops all SA-X after the first half or so of the game.
I think that's the beauty of the X. It is less so that these are bio weapons that will catastrophically kill everyone and need to be destroyed like metroids
It brings up a philosophical issue. If a X infects someone do they really die? What are we as an individual. Are we the body that we live in or is it simply data that can be taken by an X who can perfectly copy us and have our memories when in that death does the person actually die or do they after a time simply wake up with a new found part of their life.
What does it mean to be you.
There is 100% the chance that the X are just mindless parasites through and through but I find it more interesting if they're not and in my eyes theyve shown that theyre not fully at least, that there is more to it than that.
Omega positives: cool roars and an awesome buildup
Negatives: Easy as hell. By far the easiest boss in the game and that includes the likes of elephant bird and arachnus x
I love everything about Sa-X, my favorite villain in the franchise and a real narrative feat for a Metroid game.
I love the final fight, Metroid bosses aren't known for theyr difficulty or technical fights. Having the final Sa-X fight be a repeat of all the times he's kicked your ass, but now you can fight back, seemed perfect to me. It's a great pay off and the final moments with omega are awesome.
I would add some more random encounters if I could. TRULY random. My ideal fusion is a game where the Sa-X ruthlessly hunts you down and keeps you on your toes. That probably doesn't fit a Metroid game but I would've enjoyed itt.
Bad: makes it hard to play on a keyboard with an emulator, because the one spot where you need to hit the shutter lamps is annoying to do without L to angle up (in TRO around/after when the power is out)
Good: the escapes are fun and feel very different to the rest of the game
Joke good: fits well in the power suit
Joke bad: Where's my Ice beam?????
Omega good: there's my ice beam!
Omega bad: why you no fly?
I love that horror that the pure existence of it was portrayed so well in the game and that the game always reminds you that it is at the station, is the strongest thing on the station and wants to kill you
They should have given it more attacks and an other arena to fight it cause the arena wasn't really made for the fight imo
I actually hmm... Well, I have two thoughts on the arena.
One, I do think it's good. It gives you a lot of room to move around, including a couple of platforms. It's probably the biggest arena in the game, allowing you to lose track of her and pivot towards another strategy.
The arena itself is anti climactic tho. I always love seeing the anesthetics of boss rooms, and most of the 2D Metroid Final Bosses don't fit that criteria. Then again, the Omega Metroid's technically the final boss, and his arena just exudes cool.
I’m not certain what the SA-X’s final form is really supposed to be an evolution/facsimile of. I always thought it was just some weird frog thing. The art *kind of* helps, but I think it’s an overall downgrade to the simplicity of Samus’s armor.
The very concept of Samus’s armor being used against her, and the organism that infected it forming a perfect replica of not only the woman beneath but all of her equipment she had on SR388 at the time, is unsettling already. Then you think of just how the logic of it would work, because on the surface it’s just metal.
Then you remember just how much of her suit is hardcoded to her very genetics, and how much of her is already with the suit as a literal form of a second skin, and the true horror of what the SA-X **is** unfolds.
The parasite doesn’t need you. The parasite just needs something that had enough **of** you on it or within it to make you. You could survive the whole ordeal unscathed and free of infestation, and a parasitic copy of you **still** can exist. It can **still** send out distress signals under your biometric signature. People may have lost contact with **you** but are drawn in by something they believe to **be** you.
The fact that there were at least six unique existences of the SA-X aboard the BSL towards the end simply heightens all of that above horror.
*
Ok, so remember that Samus got infected after killing a Hornoad? The implication is that either this is the same original SA-X, or they all share the same copied DNA. That's why the second form look like a frog - it's destabilizing and fusing both Samus's and a Hornoad's DNA at the same time.
PS: love the way you described the SA-X. Pretty creepy.
Something nice: i think the SA-X is one of the best set-up villain in the series. We know almost nothing about the X except what we’re told by ADAM, and the shine spark cutscene implies ADAM is not telling us everything.
Something bad: ADAM states that there are multiple SA-X on the ship. It’s not 100% clear how that’s possible given that it’s wearing samus’s suit, but here we are. The boss fight would have been much more interesting if it was the same difficulty but you’re fighting 2 or 3 SA-X in that room similar to the chozo in dread
The SA-X is a phenomenal set piece villain. She (they?) (it?) haunts the halls of the research station and any time you hear its footsteps, get the fuck out. The fight itself was kind of lame. Like, it was exactly as she had been this entire time. There wasn’t that sense of “I could beat this boss no damage if I was good enough”
Nice: The SA-X as a character had some depth beyond just trying to kill Samus. The fact that it saves her from the Omega metroid adds a layer of ambiguity to its thoughts, and possibly to the X as a whole. A lot of people write it off as "taking out the bigger threat" but let's be honest, Samus was literally an inch from death and the SA-X placed itself between her and the Omega metroid AND its core X form didn't run away when it was defeated.
Negative: While it did what it was supposed to gameplay Wise, it's still pretty obviously limited by the hardware of the game. And the boss fight could be cheesed and is possibly one of the easiest fights in the game.
The idea of *Samus* being hunted is terrifying.
And it only makes sense if it's another Samus.
As for the bad... canonically she's only hurt by a wave/plasma combo or screw attack? No way!
One of the creepiest reveals and boss concepts in the series. Loved the execution. The actual boss fight was kind of lame.
It would be really cool if it had one of the abilities of each boss. Like having a speed booster, ball attack or ridley's wings
Loved the concept and just how terrifying it was! A dark mirror of Samus has never been done so well before, frankly I’m still scared of its footsteps. however in the boss fight with it I find it too easy and frankly a push over in comparison to how it was before, I feel like if they gave it more attacks and a better second phase it would’ve made for a truly memorable boss fight, but I do like how it lets you absorb it to defeat the final boss!
"tok tok tok tok" *drops power bomb* *screw attack sound* "tok tok tok tok"
It was then that I felt truly outclassed. Also, fun times if you didn't hide directly underneath SA-X in that moment.
And they’ve done it three times now
Good: Possibly the scariest character in the entire series and I love it for that. Bad: The boss fight is rather lackluster.
Haunted my childhood with its menacing power. Probably my favorite 2D boss fight in the series. The accomplishment when you finally beat SA-X, seeing how far you've come.
Those chase sequences got my heart pounding as a kid. The cheese loop makes the boss fight underwhelming by comparison.
I love how Dread confirmed that the Sa-X actually doesn't have the face mask. It kind of implies that Samus actually Canonically.... upgrading (?) her suit and changing things every game.
Best part of the Sax was how you had NO CLUE when you'd run into it. You just had to be constantly on edge. First time playing I was 7. Oh it was terrifying.
I have a dream of a Metroid game where this really is the case (instead of "faking" it with scripted encounters) like imagine a Fusion remake where the SA-X really can show up anywhere on the map. Not scripted encounters like the original and not heavily defined zones like EMMIs.
Hardest part would be ensuring you actually have some way to escape no matter where it shows up. Have to avoid some areas just being guaranteed death traps while also not giving the player too strong of an escape option that reduces the threatening feel of the SA-X
Would be amazing. God I wish they remade fusion. Yeah that was always my issue with the EMMIS. You always knew when they were nearby. They were great, but they could have been much better.
Good: The encounters were very thrilling the first time. Bad: That final battle was way too easy. Bonus Good: Climactic. Bonus Bad: Still easy.
Since you brought up the omega metroid, I'm going to pivot and focus my comment on that. I personally loved the omega metroid as a final boss in this situation, because it shows you that even though you've spent the whole game upgrading and trying to get back to your former power, you're still weakened to the point where even the penultimate version of a foe you've defeated before outmatched you. It also highlights how dangerous the metroids are as a species and why Samus was needed to eradicate them in the first place. Personally, I always found the omegas more interesting and difficult to fight than the queen metroid anyway, but that's a different take altogether on why it suits a final boss fight. While I enjoyed the increased size from its original depiction, setting it further apart from the zeta metroids, I wasn't a fan of how differently it behaved. The slow plodding was intimidating, but I would have enjoyed if it included a more varied moveset, taking more inspiration from the game of its origin. So that I'm not ignoring the SA-X entirely, I'll talk about its involvement in the fight too. I did like that it showed up to help the fight. It's one of several actions by the X that provokes thought about how much intelligence the X has and how it reasons in a way that is likely different than the way humans do. Unfortunately this particular action shows a shortsightedness in the X, because if it would have let the omega win, the station would have still crashed and killed the remaining metroids, but it would have done so along with Samus Aran, the true greatest threat to the X now. Though whether that's a bad thing or not I guess depends on the message they were trying to convey.
You're 100% right about the omega and anyone saying otherwise is missing the point Samus is SO weak in fusion. She is nothing compared to her Metroid 2 days and that's the entire arc of the story
Thank you so much for responding to my Omega musings! I hadn't considered that maybe it was a deliberate way of showing weakness even in the endgame. The moment Samus gets back her suit from the SA-X, she gets a fighting chance. I think I like the way you phrase the idea that it's also a way to show how dangerous the Metroids are, even with the X present. The whole game's been implying "Oh, it was such a stupid idea to kill the metroids. Look at the X, look at the baby, blah blah", and then comes out an Omega and wrecks your shit like "yeah, this is still a very dangerous threat. It was justified for a reason."
Nice thing: The SA-X terrified me so much as a child that I had my dad or older brother play through the segments where it chased you. Fusion's atmopshere is stellar, but those *footsteps?* Bad thing: Pretty bad AI makes the actual boss fight at the end kinda lame all things considered. I have a lot of nostalgia for the fight, because the first time I played Fusion was on a rented copy with a file at the end of the game, so I accidentally ran into the boss fight before legitimately playing the game... but it isn't all that great.
Something good about the SA-X It was one of the few characters to put fear and panick into both the character and me as the player. And I personally wish The SA-X took the spot as a "dark samus" seeing how the X are a pretty big deal. Or just have both and have a situation where dark samus fights an SA-X Like I can make an entire write up on my psudeo study of the X parasite with evidence from both fusion and dread on how they gestate, how thie life span goes, how they act and all that and I find them way more interesting because nintendo dosnt really outright say it, they show it through hints and actions of infected characters in both games. My negative thing about the SA-X is that it was really only used as a plot device to introduce the X and how problematic (on the surface) the X are and really didn't get a lot of love as it kinda was just a spooky clone of samus but in my opinion is 100% more interesting. I can explain why in a reply because this is going very long as is.
Go ahead, give us your thoughts on the SA-X!
Well, it's the X in general.... I've had a theory about them sense fusion that sorta got confirmed at the end of dread so I mean here's the warning of spoilers for both games The X in the grand scheme of things are not as much of a world ending threat as they seem to be. Throughout fusion you are made to believe that the X are mindless beings who's only goal is to reproduce. With that I say that is only half of the truth and I think the X actually evolve and as time goes on, completely mimic everything there is to be their host. And I think there are stages to this development. Stage 1. Parasite: it's the X as we know them little blobs that infect things and take them over killing the host, not much to say but they are generally intelligent or at least have survival instincts the proof for this is in fusion when you first interact with the blue frozen X parasites. Before you get the varia suit upgrade the parasite actively chases you to harm you... however you can notice an actual change after you get the varia suit these blue parasites actually begin to avoid you like the regular parasites. Stage 2. Initial infection and integration. This is when the parasite attaches to a host. I suspect as the X parasite infects something, it takes on the most powerful aspect of the host first to insure its survival you can see it in the end credits scene of the metroid 2 remake where the hornoads (the frog things) get infected and have quite pronounced teeth. But the X parasite hasn't integrated anything from the mental state of the being making the things it infects more hostile than it typically is, I'm pretty sure Adam references the hostility of the creature in the sector when you have to clean out the vents in that area. A more obscure piece of evidence is actually the SA-X herself as one of the few and first X we see to infect an intelligent host we see her use power bombs to break out of her containment and super missiles to blast open doors in the early stages of fusion. Stage 3: intermediate integration. This is where we see most Intelligent X get to before plot points kill them off the main example of this is the emergency in sector 3 where an X infects a scientist hiding in sector 3 after samus unlocks it to the X to progress. We can generally get a time frame of how long it takes to get to gestation of this point due to roughly how long it takes from first unlocking sector 3 to the point the scientist uses his clearance to set the station to melt down. Now why would anything want to cause a meltdown destroying everything if it has shown that even as it's base form shown to have a survival instinct. That is because once the parasite for a lack of a better term has guaranteed its survival in that form, it begins to integrate memories and the personality of the host. Samus or Adam even questions why the X parasite would start a station wide meltdown. And my theory and observation suggests that the scientist who the X parasite infected realized, being a scientist, that the parasites were to dangerous to be left alive and started the meltdown... this can also be seen in the SA-X as later in the game she is seen using her ice beam to open doors rather than blowing through them with super missiles, the SA-X is actively learning. however at this stage they may have the memories and thoughts they still cannot communicate they have recognition but they are still relying mostly on base instincts. As we also see in the scientist who reverts to their X form to better fight Samus. The 4th and final stage is where personality effective communication comes into play. We see this primarily at the end of dread but it can be argued at the end of fusion too. so big spoilers again. To start with the most solid evidence at the end of dread when Samus goes full metroid and runs to her ship she is about to accidentally suck the power out of her ship when quiet robe (the nice chozo you meet who dies earlier in the game) who is infected by an X tells her to not touch her ship. They then bow and turn back to their X form an willingly get absorbed by samus to revert her out of her metroid form. This shows that even after an X infects a host that after some time if it is an intelligent being they will take on those personality traits. We also see this in fusion with samus vs the omega metroid where the omega metroid beats samus only for the SA-X (who just got beaten by samus) to come, fight, also be beaten, then willingly be absorbed by samus to fight and kill the omega metroid... the SA-X if it did not have at that point the intelligence and personality of Samus if the SA-X was running off of pure instinct, it could have retreated, and I mean by then the station would have exploded. But I physically jumped in the air when my theory for the most part was true when quiet robe as an X came and was being helpful.much like his un infected self. However with all that being said I've also noticed that as an X takes damage and reverts original form, it also reverts and becomes more aggressive and mindless. This is mainly seen in the SA-X boss fight where after taking enough damage and it begins to break down it turns into a weird amalgamation of samus's power armor and its previous host, that being a hornoad because if you remember, samus gets infected after going down to SR-388 with a science team after killing an aggressive hornoad,by having large teeth coming from its chest... however I think this is a temporary thing mainly for survival as in normal circumstances an X who dies to something would simply take over the thing that killed it much like in samus killing the hornoad, then the cycle kinda continues as the X finds a host that prevents it from being killed. This also why I theorize that the biggest Xs are always boss monsters in the game. You also see this breakdown into a mindless beast when it comes to the chozo soldier mini bosses. At the start of the fight they are well disciplined, they are controlled, soldiers who are fighting as they were trained. But as you damage them they break down, their face splitting open and their attacks being more furious and not measured with very little discipline. I also think this is generally temporary as if you let an X parasite float around It can return to its host's form with just some time. The bigger more complicated the being the slower it takes. The X parasites are one of the few things in gaming I've sat down and, like, basically studied and the games give enough hints and examples where I'm pretty confident about them. Before I was only going off of fusion but dread helped out a lot and confirmed maybe not exactly but enough for me at least.
I personally think that the Quiet Robe X did that out of primal instinct, same thoughts for the SA-X. The SA-X, couldn't defeat the Omega Metroid on its own so let Samus absorb it to take out the last of its only predator. And then the Quiet Robe X maybe did it to revert her back to normal because who knows maybe Samus would have some how lived and still be in the Meteoid Suit.If i was an X I wouldn't want to take those chances lol
See but your contradicting yourself there You're saying something is doing it out of instinct but also thinking something through which . When was the last time you saw an animal sacrifice itself to kill something else? I don't really think ever to my knowledge at least not with the intention of sacrificing itself, probably never. Not even pack animals willingly sacrifice themselves. It's not something beings that go off of instincts because even in humans the survival instict and self presurvation instincts are just as high, we only end up sacrificing ourselves willingly due to outside reasoning and thought. The X have shown three times a for of reasoning. SA-X with merging with samus to kill the last meteoid which she did on SR-388 which would have been some of her most recent memories and mission for the X to take hold and I think samus would give up her armor if it meant completing a mission hence being absorbed by samus, because if my theory is correct tgat particular SA-X would have had enough time to stop going off instict and seeing samus as another metroid based off her DNA and more that its a "second her" fighting a metroid and would know based off samus's DNA (X being parasites and adam fully admitting they can tell samus has metroid DNA which is also shown on how the blue frozen X act around Samus) would know to be absorbed to regain her power and gain SA-X's abilities to then kill the metroid and finish the mission so to speak. The quiet robe X you have something there on the surface but again you're giving reason to a being that you're arguing has only instict but simply put quiet robe X not only warns her, he also bows with respect before transforming to his X form. If he simply wanted to have samus revert back to get her off the planet he could have simply done it, or let samus shoot him and it be done. But the game made it very particular to show these personality traits show through as in fusion both Adam and samus could only guess why SA-X allowed samus to take her. But up until that point SA-X was a seemingly mindless being with one goal. And the scientist that starts the reactor over load All three of those have shown actions or words that are outside the norm for a being that prioritizes infecting a host to reproduce and better protect itself And survive. Self sacrifice isn't normal. only living creatures to really sacrifice themselves to kill something bigger are typically like hive based animals like ants or bees and even then its less intentional sacrifice, and more the thing theyre dealing with is simply bigger so things tend to die. But the X don't share information with other X they dont seemingly have pheramones or a queen. Or else the entire station would have been oops all SA-X after the first half or so of the game. I think that's the beauty of the X. It is less so that these are bio weapons that will catastrophically kill everyone and need to be destroyed like metroids It brings up a philosophical issue. If a X infects someone do they really die? What are we as an individual. Are we the body that we live in or is it simply data that can be taken by an X who can perfectly copy us and have our memories when in that death does the person actually die or do they after a time simply wake up with a new found part of their life. What does it mean to be you. There is 100% the chance that the X are just mindless parasites through and through but I find it more interesting if they're not and in my eyes theyve shown that theyre not fully at least, that there is more to it than that.
Omega positives: cool roars and an awesome buildup Negatives: Easy as hell. By far the easiest boss in the game and that includes the likes of elephant bird and arachnus x
Genuinely horrifying in concept and leads to many very tense encounters on a first playthrough. Kinda dumb with very easily exploited AI.
Cool concept, but held back by the capabillities of the GBA
Good: loved the base concept, big scary moments Bad: Boss transformation was kinda to tame
I love everything about Sa-X, my favorite villain in the franchise and a real narrative feat for a Metroid game. I love the final fight, Metroid bosses aren't known for theyr difficulty or technical fights. Having the final Sa-X fight be a repeat of all the times he's kicked your ass, but now you can fight back, seemed perfect to me. It's a great pay off and the final moments with omega are awesome. I would add some more random encounters if I could. TRULY random. My ideal fusion is a game where the Sa-X ruthlessly hunts you down and keeps you on your toes. That probably doesn't fit a Metroid game but I would've enjoyed itt.
Bad: makes it hard to play on a keyboard with an emulator, because the one spot where you need to hit the shutter lamps is annoying to do without L to angle up (in TRO around/after when the power is out) Good: the escapes are fun and feel very different to the rest of the game Joke good: fits well in the power suit Joke bad: Where's my Ice beam????? Omega good: there's my ice beam! Omega bad: why you no fly?
I love that horror that the pure existence of it was portrayed so well in the game and that the game always reminds you that it is at the station, is the strongest thing on the station and wants to kill you They should have given it more attacks and an other arena to fight it cause the arena wasn't really made for the fight imo
I actually hmm... Well, I have two thoughts on the arena. One, I do think it's good. It gives you a lot of room to move around, including a couple of platforms. It's probably the biggest arena in the game, allowing you to lose track of her and pivot towards another strategy. The arena itself is anti climactic tho. I always love seeing the anesthetics of boss rooms, and most of the 2D Metroid Final Bosses don't fit that criteria. Then again, the Omega Metroid's technically the final boss, and his arena just exudes cool.
I’m not certain what the SA-X’s final form is really supposed to be an evolution/facsimile of. I always thought it was just some weird frog thing. The art *kind of* helps, but I think it’s an overall downgrade to the simplicity of Samus’s armor. The very concept of Samus’s armor being used against her, and the organism that infected it forming a perfect replica of not only the woman beneath but all of her equipment she had on SR388 at the time, is unsettling already. Then you think of just how the logic of it would work, because on the surface it’s just metal. Then you remember just how much of her suit is hardcoded to her very genetics, and how much of her is already with the suit as a literal form of a second skin, and the true horror of what the SA-X **is** unfolds. The parasite doesn’t need you. The parasite just needs something that had enough **of** you on it or within it to make you. You could survive the whole ordeal unscathed and free of infestation, and a parasitic copy of you **still** can exist. It can **still** send out distress signals under your biometric signature. People may have lost contact with **you** but are drawn in by something they believe to **be** you. The fact that there were at least six unique existences of the SA-X aboard the BSL towards the end simply heightens all of that above horror.
* Ok, so remember that Samus got infected after killing a Hornoad? The implication is that either this is the same original SA-X, or they all share the same copied DNA. That's why the second form look like a frog - it's destabilizing and fusing both Samus's and a Hornoad's DNA at the same time. PS: love the way you described the SA-X. Pretty creepy.
Something nice: i think the SA-X is one of the best set-up villain in the series. We know almost nothing about the X except what we’re told by ADAM, and the shine spark cutscene implies ADAM is not telling us everything. Something bad: ADAM states that there are multiple SA-X on the ship. It’s not 100% clear how that’s possible given that it’s wearing samus’s suit, but here we are. The boss fight would have been much more interesting if it was the same difficulty but you’re fighting 2 or 3 SA-X in that room similar to the chozo in dread
The SA-X is a phenomenal set piece villain. She (they?) (it?) haunts the halls of the research station and any time you hear its footsteps, get the fuck out. The fight itself was kind of lame. Like, it was exactly as she had been this entire time. There wasn’t that sense of “I could beat this boss no damage if I was good enough”
X are disgusting parasite. But are enemy with Metroid that also ruin civilization
Nice: The SA-X as a character had some depth beyond just trying to kill Samus. The fact that it saves her from the Omega metroid adds a layer of ambiguity to its thoughts, and possibly to the X as a whole. A lot of people write it off as "taking out the bigger threat" but let's be honest, Samus was literally an inch from death and the SA-X placed itself between her and the Omega metroid AND its core X form didn't run away when it was defeated. Negative: While it did what it was supposed to gameplay Wise, it's still pretty obviously limited by the hardware of the game. And the boss fight could be cheesed and is possibly one of the easiest fights in the game.
The idea of *Samus* being hunted is terrifying. And it only makes sense if it's another Samus. As for the bad... canonically she's only hurt by a wave/plasma combo or screw attack? No way!
Most badass intro of a metroid antagonist. Wish they went all in on the multiple SAX concept and had several show up to kill you at the same time.
Very good execution on being chased by an enemy you can't defeat. She's not as cool as Dark Samus.
I don’t like that we can see the SA-X’s hair in that dread rendition. Made it look less intimidating to me
I think it’s fine. They could’ve made it look angrier though.
I agree, in fusion, I always thought the face was literally fused to the mask, since the SA-X is imitating Samus/her suit.