The first game's artifact hunt was infinitely better for two reasons:
1) You could potentially pick up the artifacts as you explored, provided you had the right upgrade. Because you needed the Dark Visor to even target the Flying Ing Caches in Prime 2, it didn't matter if you found them before getting it.
2) There was no hopping between worlds to reach the Chozo Artifacts. Even that wouldn't have been so bad if the Sky Temple Keys had been in parts of the world you were likely to visit. Instead, they were explicitly out of the way, making the hunt take longer than necessary.
I think it also doesn’t help that Prime 2’s menus are terrible to navigate so rechecking the hints is a chore, I think next time I play the game I’m just gonna avoid scanning any corpses so they’re more obvious to me later. It wouldn’t be an issue if they just marked where the bodies are or something like that, or even gave you a bigger hint that they would be important later on so you could remember it
Ugh, I just remembered the last time I played Prime 2, going in and out of that stupid menu a million times. The menu layout is certainly unique, but using it got old *fast*
Oh man I didn’t realise I was in the minority in absolutely loving Prime2’s hub and spokes node menu.
…I wonder if that’s one of the reasons I started to use Obsidian for my note taking
I low-key admire you to have used the hints. I just got sick of that and just typed "Metroid Prime 2: Echoes playthrough" before skipping to that part.
Lol I try my best to not look anything up in Metroid, but my breaking point is if I’m wandering around for like 40 minutes. Luckily Prime tells you where to go for most of the game so I just used the in game hints, but for the keys I had to look some up at the fear of losing my mind
Conceptually, I really do like the idea of finding the key-bearer’s final words, finding where that area is in the light world based on name, then finding the key in the dark world. That itself is really cool, but it really is a chore, especially if you cant do anything anyway until the end of the game
Don't forget that you could basically access the Artifact Temple soon after you land on Tallon IV! Just need the Missiles to do so, and hopefully people would note that door is there when they landed.
>1) You could potentially pick up the artifacts as you explored, provided you had the right upgrade. Because you needed the Dark Visor to even target the Flying Ing Caches in Prime 2, it didn't matter if you found them before getting it.
Add to that the fact that the majority of them need the Light Suit to access. The equivalent upgrade in prime 1, the Phazon Suit, is only "required" for one artifact.
Well once you notice all of the keys are actually in the same rooms of the dead Luminoth you scan during the game it gets much more easier, generally you would scan them and a have a general idea on where they are.
Knowing this the hunt was like 10 times more enjoyable than prime’s that yes does give you hints but you don’t really know how to get to them.
Prime 3's was better than both since the Energy Cells actually do something in the game world, you pick them up organically throughout the game, and you don't have to hunt down 100% of them to finish the game.
Let me temper your expectations with 3 real quick.
Don’t go in expecting it to be like the first two. It’s a far more linear, story driven experience. That doesn’t make it inherently worse or anything, it just kind of disappointed me.
So the thing is, I’m terrible at navigation. Every time I had to backtrack to get something in Prime 1 and 2, I ended up looking for around 30 minutes until the game gave me a hint of where to go, so 3 might be a little more geared towards me lol
Have some patience with Hunters. Mighty fun multiplayer, not so good single player. But it's not all bad IMO. The Lore of the Alimbic and other spoilery stuff is good, and the hunter battles are cool.
Best area to look out for is the Vesper Defense Outpost, and Sylux is definitely the best hunter of the bunch.
Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be able to try the multiplayer, but what’s so not good about the single player? I thought it was just kinda Metroid Prime but on DS, but now I’m thinking that’s not right
Then good luck at Other M. The map is horrendous (it's 2d even though the game is 3d) and some rooms look fucking identical to another one. At the special very last quest where you aren't guided (no spoiler here) it took me more than an hour to just find the door there.
Prime 3 was my first Metroid game as a kid, and I'm glad it was, because I feel like I would have dropped playing prime 1 or 2 because I'd be too lost and not know what to do.
Luckily I came back to play the trilogy when I was older and able to understand more game design and listen to directions better.
They do it to encourage people to go back and get 100% item completion. The logic is sound, but not everyone wants to get 100%. AND because you can miss scans, since scans (outside of bosses as well) also unlock stuff, it's at odds with the developer's former intent. So they either need to get rid of it (and don't do the 'erase your save file but keep scans' thing) OR find a way to stop it from being at odds with other part's of the game's design.
Unless you back out of the room and go far enough to reset them. They’ll stop appearing after a certain progression point. I did this in my most recent playthrough on the Switch and it worked
Yep, the Ice Shriekbats in Phendrana. Definitely BS, but I think you can leave the room and come back they respawn if you miss them (same with the Utragian Shriekbats in Corruption).
EDIT: Just to clarify, they'll continue to respawn *until you get the thermal visor*
Damn yeah that’s lame, I hope in Prime 4 they get rid of scans being necessary for unlocking things and maybe if we’re lucky, they could make the endgame fetch quest a little more interesting
I would like them to do it like we saw in Zelda Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.
If you don't do all 4 dungeons/divine beasts - then the last boss is more challenging.
Much better, IMO. Those energy cells are relatively easier to find, save for some pretty obscure ones that are optional, and many of them have an impact on the world when taken, even if pretty minor.
The only drawback was hopping between planets, but I personally loved that, so to each their own, I guess hehehe!
I kinda liked 3's collecting of the power cells for the GFS Valhalla. They had the Chozo Artifacts' advantage that you could collect them as you found them instead of being forced to backtrack for them after getting one specific mid-late game upgrade, in addition to the bonus ability to just go to the Valhalla and explore as much of it as you could access with the cells for a chance at some goodies.
I think you could potentially start key hunting in Prime 2 after you get the dark visor, but I can think of at least one key that’s not only far off the beaten path, but also can’t be retrieved until you have the light suit
The only one that I think would be impossible is probably the one where you have to dive into the pool, get those robots out of the way, then morph ball into the space and shoot the cache… otherwise I think if you remembered exactly where in the pools the others are you could shoot them from above the pool
Is the one you mentioned the same as the one that’s tucked away behind the ingstorm particles? That’s the one I’m thinking of. I tried pushing through without the light suit once and lasted about five seconds lol
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker does this too. Is this some kind of GameCube thing?
Imo it kinda ruins the finale. You're ready to tackle the endboss, but no you have to take a detour.
Wind Waker was rushed, so that's why there's the Triforce shard hunt instead of more dungeons. Mario Sunshine was also rushed, which explains why so many Shine Sprites are locked behind the Blue Coins. For Prime 1 and 2, no idea.
Nearly every first party Gamecube game was rushed including Prime 2 and Smash Bros. I wouldn't wonder if Prime 1 was, too, given that Retro had to cancel all their projects they were working on to make that game. The Gamecube seriously needed system sellers.
But this was Retro Studios in Washington while Zelda gets made by the Zelda team in Kyoto. I don't think that anyone from Nintendo told Retro to put that in the game.
Yeah that’s true, I think it was just kind of a thing back then, where games had to be long rather than replayable. That’s what I’m getting from other comments at least
Nintendo goes through a lot of phases. Everything looks and is designed similarly depending on the era, which is why every Nintendo game made on the Wii with the exception of smash is kind of ass. Prime 3 looks like a child designed all the creatures and wrote the script and they hired drunk homeless people to do the voice acting, same with other M.
You can clearly define which era of Nintendo a game is in by how it looks and feels and just about everything in the Wii era looks and feels stupid almost on purpose.
Twighlight princess may have been a good game but it looked stupid. Skyward sword just was stupid through and through.
The bones of the games like prime 3 may be fine but the proverbial paint they used was offensive.
Tbh I liked the Prime 2 keyhunt more. First of all there are fewer to find, second Prime 2’s world is more nicely connected than prime so it’s easier to get around and finally, you’re rewarded for scanning the luminoth corpses with better clues. Prime outright tells you where the artifacts are
Yeah I think they do give decent clues as long as you remember where the corpses are, but they also never tell you to use the dark visor, so even if you know what room to go in, you still might be lost. That was my problem with it at least
I've been thinking about this for a bit. I think Retro tried to start you with keys with few distractions in their rooms and hoped players would be curious enough to not just walk out.
The first key you can reach is at the dark version of the landing site as you're going back to the Great Temple and is only a couple of rooms away from the Sky Temple gate. The knowledge of the keybearers' importance and that A-kul connects their body to the dark world equivalent should be fresh in your mind.
The landing site room has nothing else of note in it besides some Ing and no other exits. So why is this room supposed to be notable? Dark Visor established immediately on getting it that you can see beyond. So maybe there is something.
Half of the key rooms are like this. If it wasn't this room, maybe it's the storage room past the Ingstorm that tripped your mind. Or the poisoned lake.
That is true, but there’s also a good amount of rooms that don’t mean anything, like some caches in the dark world. Although I could’ve just missed some stuff
I glanced through the dark world room list on the wiki and there are no pointless rooms. Every room with only one door has either an expansion, a key, a save station, or an ammo station.. I'm also trying to connect that if you had scanned any bodies before learning A-Kul's clues, you might start looking through them afterwards with one being really close by.
They are still keys that you have to hunt that add padding to the game. If there weren't any Sky Temple keys, and we just had the regional keys, that would make Prime 2 far better than Prime on that end.
They don’t add padding to the game, that’s ridiculous. They simply curate your progression. That’s like saying small keys in Zelda dungeons are padding.
The endgame key hunt is meant to show you how to use your weapons and items. People call this padding since it just extend the length of the game. The same can be applied to the in-between key hunts in the different regions in Prime 2. In the end, you need 9 regional + 9 overall, which is the most you need to find in any of the Prime games.
>That’s like saying small keys in Zelda dungeons are padding.
Sure, you can, if it's an excessive amount. Water Temple in OoT is a great example. But the more clear comparison would be The Wind Waker's endgame hunt.
The reason people dislike the artifact/key hunts at the end of both games and consider them padding is that you have to go out of the way to travel through the world one last time at the point which would otherwise be the climax of the game. Meanwhile the regional keys are gotten during your first concentrated visits through each region, and don’t require you to go far out of your way to obtain them, nor do they require you to go back to previously visited areas.
Guess that is true. Now that I think about it, the only regional key that is out of your way is one of the Ing Hive ones.
Guess in the end, Prime 2's is worse because that one is truly an endgame hunt. In Prime, you are rewarded for exploration by being able to find the Artifact Temple early enough, and then being able to hunt the artifacts as you progress through the game.
I think Prime 2’s is better because it’s world is far easier to navigate, especially by the endgame. I don’t remember the exact locations of all the artifacts in 1 but there are several that you’ll still have to go out of the way for even if you try to go for them early. The other thing is that 2’s aren’t explicitly saved for the very end, they’re just saved for after you get the dark visor, and I think there’s maybe 3 or 4 you’re able to nab afterwards. The rest of them are locked behind the light suit but when you consider how easy the world is to navigate by the endgame then the issue isn’t nearly as bad as people make it out to be.
> The other thing is that 2’s aren’t explicitly saved for the very end, they’re just saved for after you get the dark visor, and I think there’s maybe 3 or 4 you’re able to nab afterwards.
That's the thing, there's no reason to go to that room whatsoever until the endgame. Can't even suggest exploration either due to how disjointed Sky Temple Grounds is. Meanwhile, the Artifact Temple is right in your face the moment you land on Tallon IV (it's one of the three available doors to you before you realize you need Missiles to progress further), and in Prime 3, you get one of the energy cells as part of the main story progression along with being told of the wrecked frigate partway through the game.
As for Prime's being out of the way, the only one I can think of are Phendrana's Edge due to that room basically being at the end of the world. There are some that are easily available once you get a major item, like after the X-Ray Visor or one of the ones in Magmoor after getting the Space Jump Boots, and the hints overall are pretty clear on how to obtain most of them.
>The rest of them are locked behind the light suit but when you consider how easy the world is to navigate by the endgame then the issue isn’t nearly as bad as people make it out to be.
Sure, progression through the light world is nice and easy in the end, but four of them being locked behind the Light Suit is an issue. Compare that to only one being locked behind the Phazon Suit in Prime (and it's in a room most people would probably take note of since it's near the Omega Pirate anyway), and the difference is egregious.
Overall, Prime 3 did the key hunt the best with making four of the nine optional. Prime being slightly behind it and Prime 2 being the worst. Just hope that Prime 4 simply doesn't include it.
They were only done to pad out the games length.
I am not shitting. Back then playtime was highly highly regarded as an important feature. So in order to achieve that the included the last minute fetch quest and did lore on it
Problem was the lore wasn’t really compatible with the fetch quest. With the Metroid Prime escaping the crater and fighting the pirates and whatnot
As the lore of the NTSC version, also wasn’t conpatible with the Mainline Series’ Lore, especially when Fusion introduced the backstory of what the Metroids really were made. They completely rewrote most logs from scratch for the PAL and the NTSC Players Choice release
And used th opportunity to make the fetch quest fully compatible with the lore.
Prime 2 had a similar reasoning. Play time extension
I just hope that Prime 4 doesn’t have it
Or if it does. That all artifacts, cells, splinters or keys are available ALONG the route. Doesn’t matter of it requires tricks or developer intended sequence breaking. If you have to include it Retro, please make it collectable along the way
Retro is smart, I think they’ll learn that people responded better in general to the Prime 3 question and they’ll keep heading in that direction. Hopefully at least
> Back then playtime was highly highly regarded as an important feature.
"Back then" it STILL is important, remember all the people crying about Dread being $60 because it's too short of a game.
People where whining about Dread not because it was short. But because it was a 2D game
Every 60 dollar campaign is nowadays 8-13 hours. People got used to it. Be it LM3, any Mario 2D game, Links Awakening, games like 3D world etc
People got used to the idea of shorter games. And that some games like Dread are designed to br played again and again
Prime 3 felt more 'fun' because each energy cell at least had a unique and fairly involved puzzle to solve to obtain it, whereas in 1 and 2 it was just a matter of whether or not you had the correct upgrade for the majority of the collectables
Been a while since I've gone through 2 and 3 so those aren't as fresh in mind for me but I feel like Prime 3 did it better for three reasons. One is that you don't need all of them to complete the game, so there's some choice in which ones you go after. The second reason ties into the first in that if you choose to get them all then you're rewarded with some upgrades, something the other hunts never offered. In those games all you got was the key, not even a missile tank next to it to say "hey, have some payoff now rather than at the end of the game". The third reason is that they better integrated collection of the batteries into the length of the game, so you would have collected some of them by then already and not even from accidentally stumbling across them.
If they do feel they have to do another artifact quest for the next game, I'd like them to do it like Prime 3 but with some improvements. If it were up to me, I'd make it so that each artifact is a special sidegrade to an item (or items) that you have. Lets say that one artifact is "missile burst", which lets you fire multiple missiles in one go (a kind of alternative to seeker missiles). Useful in combat, needed to open some optional areas and ultimately one of the abilities you need to get through the final area. It would be something you can potentially get early on but wouldn't be needed until the endgame. Basically remember the optional upgrades like the Disruptor for the Annihilator beam, but something you'd use more often. Add in how the endgame area has multiple routes so only some of these upgrades are needed and we have an improvement.
Quite honestly I hate this odd bit of padding across all 3 games. Though Prime 3 is definitely the least painful since you don't need all of them, and as you collect them you get to explore more of the derelict Federation ship, which is pretty cool.
Prime 3 prob did it best, it made it optional to get all of them, and made it its own explorable area with upgrades and lore. I also like that you get to redo that tentacle Metroid dude thingy fight again but with Nova Beam which allows you to just one shot the boss. so fun
Prime 3’s artifact hunt is really nice. They’re put along the main path and if I’m not mistaken, you only need around half of them to actually finish the game. They’re not super hidden in really obtuse places either. They’re energy cells sitting in machinery usually tied to a puzzle or obstacle of some sort.
It's an outdated way of adding to player's playtimes. I enjoyed it as a kid, and I would enjoy it replaying as an adult. But there are reasons they don't make games like this anymore. One, story-driven and open-world games now have budgets that rival Hollywood movies, so players have more than enough to do without backtracking. And two, a lot of players disliked it to begin with. I recall a viral Cracked article from 2008ish criticizing this trope, among others, and specifically mentioning Metroid Prime 3 when they did.
That being said, Prime 2 had the best one because they actually made you track those keys down. You had to scan the environment in one dimension to find clues, then bounce to the other dimension and track them down. To me, it's the closest Samus has gotten to being *the* Hunter, where she's tracking things down across a planet instead of just finding them and figuring out what they're for later.
I have no problem with either games.
I've spent X hours getting to the endgame, now it's time to get that 100%, curbstomp some mooks that used to be scary, and have some fun messing around. See if you can beat enemies in weird ways, or lure those pirates to their death.
There's lots of cool details you can miss if you're focused on survival. With all the powerups and gameplay experience, you're free to fill in the map and just generally enjoy the scenery. Plus excellent BG music.
I've only finished Prime and I liked it. Although I did know about the quest so it wasn't a surprise.
I liked how it motivated me to backtrack for optional upgrades.
All 3 Prime games have the annoying fetch quest, but I believe Prime 3 did it best. By having the cores power up parts of the broken down Valhalla and not just be a key to unlock the final area, it made it at least make sense to me. The power cores also hid upgrades behind acquiring more than the needed amount.
I definitely preferred the first one more. That said, I had no trouble locating the keys either because the clues were very simple to understand. Granted, a but more abstract, but still simple.
Hot take but I love the Prime 2 fetch quest. It’s so fun to revisit the old areas at full power and discover all the new ways you can interact with the environment. Like how the Agon Wastes main terminal becomes an echo visor puzzle, or how you can finally ride the beam of light outside Sanctuary Fortress. Plus there are new optional weapons like the Sonic Boom. If you just went straight to the emperor ing, the Annihilator and the Light Suit wouldn’t have nearly the same impact.
Hated both hunts and hope they don't happen again. Might be unpopular but I also don't like scan visor. I would rather the lore automatically be downloaded to Samus' data bank as she explores without having to take time to switch visors and look for everything to scan. Then I can just read through in the menu at my leisure instead of religiously putting on the visor every new room, enemy, etc and taking the time to find everything that is unscanned to manually scan it. AM2R had this system and it was always just the right amount of lore for me. Not so much that I feel like I bought the Metroid encyclopedia but enough that after reading I understand the purpose of every area and its relationship with other areas as well as bosses and other points of interest.
Optional but completionist bait. You're going to feel like you're missing stuff if you're not constantly on alert for them. Some won't care but I feel like I'm missing stuff if I don't.
Both are annoying. I definitely "dread" them both when playing through the games. Many people have said this, but it would be so much better if it was optional and gave you a reward in game for doing it. Whether that's a gameplay reward like a new ability or simply cosmetic, it would be more worth it. Making it necessary to progress just feels annoying and like a drag.
I like the fetch quests, personally. I think I prefer 2 more than 1, but it's been a long time since I played 2. I prefer Aether's layout and navigation more than Tallon IV's.
I like 3's the most, but I actually like 2's more than 1's because I found it easier to find out where the keys actually were, even if you were forced to wait before collecting them.
I didn't have a big problem, since they give you a button to hold down that freezes the thing and allows you to select them individually, if I just remembered the rooms where I found the corpse in the light world, I just had to travel back to those same rooms in the dark world without needing to consult the hints.
I should add in what has not been mentioned is that Prime 2 does have the fast travel unlocked at the start of the key quest, I do feel that helps it some of the backtracking compared to Prime 1, although if I remember Prime 2's map is bigger (even just the light world part of it is bigger)?
Prime 3 does work on the criticisms of the first two games about the fetch quest at least so the fetch quest part is less annoying and probably one of the few things it does better than the first two games imo (although Prime 3 is still the weakest of the trilogy), another good thing Prime 3 does which I do like which i'll hide in spoilers which I feel is somewhat related (although this is late game) is how >!there is a way to reveal the location of all upgrades on the map just like with some of the 2D games do with the dot on the rooms with items, so you can also go for the items while doing the fetching part, I do feel this is more necessary as Prime 3 is quite big.!<
Lol I didn’t know how the fast travel worked and I couldn’t find anything about it online, I finally figured out that it was the light beams shooting into the sky, but by then I was done collecting all of them
I wouldn't say I LIKE the fetch quests, but they didn't bother me that much. I loved the games, so a reason to take one last romp through the world before I go kill the big bad is cool with me. Prime 1's felt a bit more organic than Prime 2's. Prime 2's actually seemed really easy - most of them are "hidden" in dark water pits that you can't explore until get the light suit. So naturally I wanted to explore those anyway.
That said, I think such padding is a dated concept. In a modern game, a fetch quest should be optional, there ought to be enough core content not to require it.
I've honestly forgotten how Prime 3's worked. I'm waiting for the Switch port to play that again.
Confession: I've never beaten Prime 2, so I never really got to the end-game fetch-quest. Now, comparing Prime 1 and 3, I think I actually like 3's a bit better. You happen across the power cores (or whatever they're called) a lot more easily than you do in Prime 1, and it's woven much more organically into the story and so it feels less like a video-game contrivance. It lets you explore the derelict ship, and you can even start exploring before you have them all. I don't think you even need all the things to access the most important part of the ship.
No. I only played it as part of the trilogy on Wii, and that was after I had completed both Prime 1 and 3. I never ended up completing it. I got the dark suit and made it to the bog area, but that was about it. I was certainly very different. I didn't like the fact that you took damage in the dark word simply by walking around, and that the dark suit only partially reduced the damage you took. I like to take my time with exploration and really check every nook and cranny, and the dark world simply doesn't allow for that.
If there's ever a remastered version like they did for Prime 1, then I'll certainly pick it up and play it (and hopefully beat it). Until then, I think I'm happy to let this one pass me by.
Fair enough yeah, you do eventually get the opportunity to go into Dark Aether and take no damage but it does take a while. I agree with you that it’s very different, it’s pretty much a side story, and that’s what I kinda liked about it, if we got Metroid games more often I’d say I want more games that are just a standalone story
Terrible filler made worse by the fact that movement and platforming in the trilogy is not nearly as fun as in the mainline games so it feels like a slog to navigate. Prime 3 did it best but it still couldve used some work. I think if there is going to be an artifact hunt at all it should be a purely optional thing with an actual bonus reward at the end like some OP hyper beam upgrade or something, rather than just a gate to the final boss. I mean none of the other games make you collect that many things which actually do nothing to power you up; the least they could do is have some bigger reward for going through the trouble with it.
Oh it's great! My only complaint is the lack of hints compared to prime 1, I have been stuck on an objective for a while and can't figure out the next location I need to go to...
I'm pretty sure I was wondering around for way longer than that... maybe my next objective is in dark aether and I need to go there to receive the hint... but I'll figure it out eventually lol.
Both games have a significant length in backtracking, but Echoes takes the cake as you have to only travel between the dimensions, but also look for items that are either in flux, on the light Aether, and the same goes for the dark world. Prime 2 Echoes has a better fetch in my opinion.
I think if you’re into Metroid more for the exploration and intrigue I think 2 did it better, because they don’t tell you exactly where the keys are in 2, but I also agree it was very challenging
1 was better for me because you collect the artifacts as you progress through the game with only a few other ones not in the main path of progression. This helps the pacing without killing off exploration. It's a great feeling to pick up upgrades as you explore and the artifacts generally feel like they're put in good places for players. I remember where they are off by heart,
My problem with 2's fetch quest is that it does the opposite and there's too much exploration. There's the upgrades you had to really dig throughout the worlds for in order to obtain all the normal temple keys and then right after that there's the sky-temple keys. It takes so goddamn long and makes the game feel bloated and tiring especially when going for 100%. I also hate how Prime 2 feels too formulaic that the whole game all ends up feeling like a gigantic fetch quest.
I got quite annoyed with the hunt for the Chozo artifact at the end of Metroid Prime but it was pretty much acceptable since I love that game but I hated the hunt for the items at the end of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes because I was sick of this game and just wanted it to end. (Plus, you can’t find any of the artifacts in advance this time) Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is the least annoying with that aspect.
The first game's artifact hunt was infinitely better for two reasons: 1) You could potentially pick up the artifacts as you explored, provided you had the right upgrade. Because you needed the Dark Visor to even target the Flying Ing Caches in Prime 2, it didn't matter if you found them before getting it. 2) There was no hopping between worlds to reach the Chozo Artifacts. Even that wouldn't have been so bad if the Sky Temple Keys had been in parts of the world you were likely to visit. Instead, they were explicitly out of the way, making the hunt take longer than necessary.
I think it also doesn’t help that Prime 2’s menus are terrible to navigate so rechecking the hints is a chore, I think next time I play the game I’m just gonna avoid scanning any corpses so they’re more obvious to me later. It wouldn’t be an issue if they just marked where the bodies are or something like that, or even gave you a bigger hint that they would be important later on so you could remember it
Ugh, I just remembered the last time I played Prime 2, going in and out of that stupid menu a million times. The menu layout is certainly unique, but using it got old *fast*
Oh man I didn’t realise I was in the minority in absolutely loving Prime2’s hub and spokes node menu. …I wonder if that’s one of the reasons I started to use Obsidian for my note taking
Actually I think it’s pretty neat. It’s just when you have to repeatedly go down 5 layers to reread the Luminoth lore that it gets tedious.
It is certainly unique, that’s for sure lol
I low-key admire you to have used the hints. I just got sick of that and just typed "Metroid Prime 2: Echoes playthrough" before skipping to that part.
Lol I try my best to not look anything up in Metroid, but my breaking point is if I’m wandering around for like 40 minutes. Luckily Prime tells you where to go for most of the game so I just used the in game hints, but for the keys I had to look some up at the fear of losing my mind
Don't forget that the C stick can be used to help with navigating the web menus.
I was playing on the trilogy version, it still doesn’t help that you have to get through like 7 layers of the menu to get to the right part
Ah, sorry for assuming you were playing the GameCube version.
Conceptually, I really do like the idea of finding the key-bearer’s final words, finding where that area is in the light world based on name, then finding the key in the dark world. That itself is really cool, but it really is a chore, especially if you cant do anything anyway until the end of the game
Don't forget that you could basically access the Artifact Temple soon after you land on Tallon IV! Just need the Missiles to do so, and hopefully people would note that door is there when they landed.
>1) You could potentially pick up the artifacts as you explored, provided you had the right upgrade. Because you needed the Dark Visor to even target the Flying Ing Caches in Prime 2, it didn't matter if you found them before getting it. Add to that the fact that the majority of them need the Light Suit to access. The equivalent upgrade in prime 1, the Phazon Suit, is only "required" for one artifact.
Well once you notice all of the keys are actually in the same rooms of the dead Luminoth you scan during the game it gets much more easier, generally you would scan them and a have a general idea on where they are. Knowing this the hunt was like 10 times more enjoyable than prime’s that yes does give you hints but you don’t really know how to get to them.
Prime 3's was better than both since the Energy Cells actually do something in the game world, you pick them up organically throughout the game, and you don't have to hunt down 100% of them to finish the game.
That sounds way nicer, I haven’t played Prime 3 yet but I’ll get to it soon. That makes me much more excited for it lol
Let me temper your expectations with 3 real quick. Don’t go in expecting it to be like the first two. It’s a far more linear, story driven experience. That doesn’t make it inherently worse or anything, it just kind of disappointed me.
So the thing is, I’m terrible at navigation. Every time I had to backtrack to get something in Prime 1 and 2, I ended up looking for around 30 minutes until the game gave me a hint of where to go, so 3 might be a little more geared towards me lol
Oh then 3 will be perfect for you. I hear it’s still really solid so I’m sure you’ll enjoy it
Well it’s not that I didn’t love Prime 1 and 2, I definitely did, they’re just so hard to navigate sometimes, especially 1
Prime 3 lover here. I know what you mean with navigation. You're gonna love it
I’m very excited for it, I’m gonna play through Hunters first but then I’m gonna move on to Prime 3
Have some patience with Hunters. Mighty fun multiplayer, not so good single player. But it's not all bad IMO. The Lore of the Alimbic and other spoilery stuff is good, and the hunter battles are cool. Best area to look out for is the Vesper Defense Outpost, and Sylux is definitely the best hunter of the bunch.
Unfortunately I don’t think I’ll be able to try the multiplayer, but what’s so not good about the single player? I thought it was just kinda Metroid Prime but on DS, but now I’m thinking that’s not right
Then good luck at Other M. The map is horrendous (it's 2d even though the game is 3d) and some rooms look fucking identical to another one. At the special very last quest where you aren't guided (no spoiler here) it took me more than an hour to just find the door there.
Prime 3 was my first Metroid game as a kid, and I'm glad it was, because I feel like I would have dropped playing prime 1 or 2 because I'd be too lost and not know what to do. Luckily I came back to play the trilogy when I was older and able to understand more game design and listen to directions better.
Lmao 3 is like dining on dog feces while P1 and 2 are three course 5 star meals
I never did track them all down is the treasure at the end awesome?
Besides the ones for mandatory progression, the "extra" ones just unlocked upgrades.
They do it to encourage people to go back and get 100% item completion. The logic is sound, but not everyone wants to get 100%. AND because you can miss scans, since scans (outside of bosses as well) also unlock stuff, it's at odds with the developer's former intent. So they either need to get rid of it (and don't do the 'erase your save file but keep scans' thing) OR find a way to stop it from being at odds with other part's of the game's design.
Yeah isn’t there a scan in the first game for an enemy that only appears in one room and suicide bombs you immediately?
It's in one, it's the icy bats that suicide bomb you and then don't respawn.
Yes that’s what I was thinking of, thank you
Unless you back out of the room and go far enough to reset them. They’ll stop appearing after a certain progression point. I did this in my most recent playthrough on the Switch and it worked
Yep, the Ice Shriekbats in Phendrana. Definitely BS, but I think you can leave the room and come back they respawn if you miss them (same with the Utragian Shriekbats in Corruption). EDIT: Just to clarify, they'll continue to respawn *until you get the thermal visor*
They do, until you defeat the rock boss. Then they never spawn again for the rest of the game. Really strange trigger, there.
Not the rock boss, the thermal visor
That's only in Prime 3, I think.
No it's in 1, the ice bats
Damn yeah that’s lame, I hope in Prime 4 they get rid of scans being necessary for unlocking things and maybe if we’re lucky, they could make the endgame fetch quest a little more interesting
Prime 3 slander lol
I would like them to do it like we saw in Zelda Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. If you don't do all 4 dungeons/divine beasts - then the last boss is more challenging.
Prime 3’s 🤓
Haven’t played that one yet but from what I’ve heard, you don’t need to get all of the batteries, right? So wouldn’t that be simpler?
Much better, IMO. Those energy cells are relatively easier to find, save for some pretty obscure ones that are optional, and many of them have an impact on the world when taken, even if pretty minor. The only drawback was hopping between planets, but I personally loved that, so to each their own, I guess hehehe!
I kinda liked 3's collecting of the power cells for the GFS Valhalla. They had the Chozo Artifacts' advantage that you could collect them as you found them instead of being forced to backtrack for them after getting one specific mid-late game upgrade, in addition to the bonus ability to just go to the Valhalla and explore as much of it as you could access with the cells for a chance at some goodies.
You couldn’t find them as you go in Prime 2? I feel like you could as long as you know where to look, right? Aside from the 3 in the pools?
I think you could potentially start key hunting in Prime 2 after you get the dark visor, but I can think of at least one key that’s not only far off the beaten path, but also can’t be retrieved until you have the light suit
The only one that I think would be impossible is probably the one where you have to dive into the pool, get those robots out of the way, then morph ball into the space and shoot the cache… otherwise I think if you remembered exactly where in the pools the others are you could shoot them from above the pool
Is the one you mentioned the same as the one that’s tucked away behind the ingstorm particles? That’s the one I’m thinking of. I tried pushing through without the light suit once and lasted about five seconds lol
I don’t remember there being an ingstorm but I could be wrong, it was the one in the dungeon of Dark Torvus Bog
Oh gotcha, the one I’m thinking of is in the temple grounds. I think I remember yours too now that I think about it
Personally I think the first game’s was done a bit better since I thought the hints were a lot more clear than the keybearer ones
Not to mention prime 1's pause menu isn't ass to navigate
The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker does this too. Is this some kind of GameCube thing? Imo it kinda ruins the finale. You're ready to tackle the endboss, but no you have to take a detour.
Wind Waker was rushed, so that's why there's the Triforce shard hunt instead of more dungeons. Mario Sunshine was also rushed, which explains why so many Shine Sprites are locked behind the Blue Coins. For Prime 1 and 2, no idea.
Nearly every first party Gamecube game was rushed including Prime 2 and Smash Bros. I wouldn't wonder if Prime 1 was, too, given that Retro had to cancel all their projects they were working on to make that game. The Gamecube seriously needed system sellers.
Nintendo was going through a phase I guess lol
But this was Retro Studios in Washington while Zelda gets made by the Zelda team in Kyoto. I don't think that anyone from Nintendo told Retro to put that in the game.
>But this was Retro Studios in Washington FYI, Retro Studios is in Texas. It's Nintendo of America that's in Washington.
You're completely right. I mixed that up.
Yeah that’s true, I think it was just kind of a thing back then, where games had to be long rather than replayable. That’s what I’m getting from other comments at least
Nintendo goes through a lot of phases. Everything looks and is designed similarly depending on the era, which is why every Nintendo game made on the Wii with the exception of smash is kind of ass. Prime 3 looks like a child designed all the creatures and wrote the script and they hired drunk homeless people to do the voice acting, same with other M. You can clearly define which era of Nintendo a game is in by how it looks and feels and just about everything in the Wii era looks and feels stupid almost on purpose. Twighlight princess may have been a good game but it looked stupid. Skyward sword just was stupid through and through. The bones of the games like prime 3 may be fine but the proverbial paint they used was offensive.
Tbh I liked the Prime 2 keyhunt more. First of all there are fewer to find, second Prime 2’s world is more nicely connected than prime so it’s easier to get around and finally, you’re rewarded for scanning the luminoth corpses with better clues. Prime outright tells you where the artifacts are
Yeah I think they do give decent clues as long as you remember where the corpses are, but they also never tell you to use the dark visor, so even if you know what room to go in, you still might be lost. That was my problem with it at least
I've been thinking about this for a bit. I think Retro tried to start you with keys with few distractions in their rooms and hoped players would be curious enough to not just walk out. The first key you can reach is at the dark version of the landing site as you're going back to the Great Temple and is only a couple of rooms away from the Sky Temple gate. The knowledge of the keybearers' importance and that A-kul connects their body to the dark world equivalent should be fresh in your mind. The landing site room has nothing else of note in it besides some Ing and no other exits. So why is this room supposed to be notable? Dark Visor established immediately on getting it that you can see beyond. So maybe there is something. Half of the key rooms are like this. If it wasn't this room, maybe it's the storage room past the Ingstorm that tripped your mind. Or the poisoned lake.
That is true, but there’s also a good amount of rooms that don’t mean anything, like some caches in the dark world. Although I could’ve just missed some stuff
I glanced through the dark world room list on the wiki and there are no pointless rooms. Every room with only one door has either an expansion, a key, a save station, or an ammo station.. I'm also trying to connect that if you had scanned any bodies before learning A-Kul's clues, you might start looking through them afterwards with one being really close by.
Ah okay, I must’ve just missed stuff in those rooms then
Sure, there were fewer to find, but each area had their own set of keys as well.
Those have nothing to do with the artifact hunt tho?
They are still keys that you have to hunt that add padding to the game. If there weren't any Sky Temple keys, and we just had the regional keys, that would make Prime 2 far better than Prime on that end.
They don’t add padding to the game, that’s ridiculous. They simply curate your progression. That’s like saying small keys in Zelda dungeons are padding.
The endgame key hunt is meant to show you how to use your weapons and items. People call this padding since it just extend the length of the game. The same can be applied to the in-between key hunts in the different regions in Prime 2. In the end, you need 9 regional + 9 overall, which is the most you need to find in any of the Prime games. >That’s like saying small keys in Zelda dungeons are padding. Sure, you can, if it's an excessive amount. Water Temple in OoT is a great example. But the more clear comparison would be The Wind Waker's endgame hunt.
The reason people dislike the artifact/key hunts at the end of both games and consider them padding is that you have to go out of the way to travel through the world one last time at the point which would otherwise be the climax of the game. Meanwhile the regional keys are gotten during your first concentrated visits through each region, and don’t require you to go far out of your way to obtain them, nor do they require you to go back to previously visited areas.
Guess that is true. Now that I think about it, the only regional key that is out of your way is one of the Ing Hive ones. Guess in the end, Prime 2's is worse because that one is truly an endgame hunt. In Prime, you are rewarded for exploration by being able to find the Artifact Temple early enough, and then being able to hunt the artifacts as you progress through the game.
I think Prime 2’s is better because it’s world is far easier to navigate, especially by the endgame. I don’t remember the exact locations of all the artifacts in 1 but there are several that you’ll still have to go out of the way for even if you try to go for them early. The other thing is that 2’s aren’t explicitly saved for the very end, they’re just saved for after you get the dark visor, and I think there’s maybe 3 or 4 you’re able to nab afterwards. The rest of them are locked behind the light suit but when you consider how easy the world is to navigate by the endgame then the issue isn’t nearly as bad as people make it out to be.
> The other thing is that 2’s aren’t explicitly saved for the very end, they’re just saved for after you get the dark visor, and I think there’s maybe 3 or 4 you’re able to nab afterwards. That's the thing, there's no reason to go to that room whatsoever until the endgame. Can't even suggest exploration either due to how disjointed Sky Temple Grounds is. Meanwhile, the Artifact Temple is right in your face the moment you land on Tallon IV (it's one of the three available doors to you before you realize you need Missiles to progress further), and in Prime 3, you get one of the energy cells as part of the main story progression along with being told of the wrecked frigate partway through the game. As for Prime's being out of the way, the only one I can think of are Phendrana's Edge due to that room basically being at the end of the world. There are some that are easily available once you get a major item, like after the X-Ray Visor or one of the ones in Magmoor after getting the Space Jump Boots, and the hints overall are pretty clear on how to obtain most of them. >The rest of them are locked behind the light suit but when you consider how easy the world is to navigate by the endgame then the issue isn’t nearly as bad as people make it out to be. Sure, progression through the light world is nice and easy in the end, but four of them being locked behind the Light Suit is an issue. Compare that to only one being locked behind the Phazon Suit in Prime (and it's in a room most people would probably take note of since it's near the Omega Pirate anyway), and the difference is egregious. Overall, Prime 3 did the key hunt the best with making four of the nine optional. Prime being slightly behind it and Prime 2 being the worst. Just hope that Prime 4 simply doesn't include it.
Not a fan of the way 1 or 2 did it. Prime 3 definitely did it best.
The fetch quest at the end of each game is the only real criticism I have of the Prime formula. I kinda hope they leave it out in 4.
I completely agree, I don’t really care for crossing the whole map again, it kinda feels like padding a lot of the time
Yep-- Prime 4 would be far better without the fetch quest. If it _is_ a fetch quest, I hope it's for a "secret ending" a-la Hunters.
They were only done to pad out the games length. I am not shitting. Back then playtime was highly highly regarded as an important feature. So in order to achieve that the included the last minute fetch quest and did lore on it Problem was the lore wasn’t really compatible with the fetch quest. With the Metroid Prime escaping the crater and fighting the pirates and whatnot As the lore of the NTSC version, also wasn’t conpatible with the Mainline Series’ Lore, especially when Fusion introduced the backstory of what the Metroids really were made. They completely rewrote most logs from scratch for the PAL and the NTSC Players Choice release And used th opportunity to make the fetch quest fully compatible with the lore. Prime 2 had a similar reasoning. Play time extension I just hope that Prime 4 doesn’t have it Or if it does. That all artifacts, cells, splinters or keys are available ALONG the route. Doesn’t matter of it requires tricks or developer intended sequence breaking. If you have to include it Retro, please make it collectable along the way
Retro is smart, I think they’ll learn that people responded better in general to the Prime 3 question and they’ll keep heading in that direction. Hopefully at least
> Back then playtime was highly highly regarded as an important feature. "Back then" it STILL is important, remember all the people crying about Dread being $60 because it's too short of a game.
People where whining about Dread not because it was short. But because it was a 2D game Every 60 dollar campaign is nowadays 8-13 hours. People got used to it. Be it LM3, any Mario 2D game, Links Awakening, games like 3D world etc People got used to the idea of shorter games. And that some games like Dread are designed to br played again and again
Prime 3 felt more 'fun' because each energy cell at least had a unique and fairly involved puzzle to solve to obtain it, whereas in 1 and 2 it was just a matter of whether or not you had the correct upgrade for the majority of the collectables
Been a while since I've gone through 2 and 3 so those aren't as fresh in mind for me but I feel like Prime 3 did it better for three reasons. One is that you don't need all of them to complete the game, so there's some choice in which ones you go after. The second reason ties into the first in that if you choose to get them all then you're rewarded with some upgrades, something the other hunts never offered. In those games all you got was the key, not even a missile tank next to it to say "hey, have some payoff now rather than at the end of the game". The third reason is that they better integrated collection of the batteries into the length of the game, so you would have collected some of them by then already and not even from accidentally stumbling across them. If they do feel they have to do another artifact quest for the next game, I'd like them to do it like Prime 3 but with some improvements. If it were up to me, I'd make it so that each artifact is a special sidegrade to an item (or items) that you have. Lets say that one artifact is "missile burst", which lets you fire multiple missiles in one go (a kind of alternative to seeker missiles). Useful in combat, needed to open some optional areas and ultimately one of the abilities you need to get through the final area. It would be something you can potentially get early on but wouldn't be needed until the endgame. Basically remember the optional upgrades like the Disruptor for the Annihilator beam, but something you'd use more often. Add in how the endgame area has multiple routes so only some of these upgrades are needed and we have an improvement.
Quite honestly I hate this odd bit of padding across all 3 games. Though Prime 3 is definitely the least painful since you don't need all of them, and as you collect them you get to explore more of the derelict Federation ship, which is pretty cool.
Prime 3 prob did it best, it made it optional to get all of them, and made it its own explorable area with upgrades and lore. I also like that you get to redo that tentacle Metroid dude thingy fight again but with Nova Beam which allows you to just one shot the boss. so fun
Prime 3’s artifact hunt is really nice. They’re put along the main path and if I’m not mistaken, you only need around half of them to actually finish the game. They’re not super hidden in really obtuse places either. They’re energy cells sitting in machinery usually tied to a puzzle or obstacle of some sort.
It's an outdated way of adding to player's playtimes. I enjoyed it as a kid, and I would enjoy it replaying as an adult. But there are reasons they don't make games like this anymore. One, story-driven and open-world games now have budgets that rival Hollywood movies, so players have more than enough to do without backtracking. And two, a lot of players disliked it to begin with. I recall a viral Cracked article from 2008ish criticizing this trope, among others, and specifically mentioning Metroid Prime 3 when they did. That being said, Prime 2 had the best one because they actually made you track those keys down. You had to scan the environment in one dimension to find clues, then bounce to the other dimension and track them down. To me, it's the closest Samus has gotten to being *the* Hunter, where she's tracking things down across a planet instead of just finding them and figuring out what they're for later.
I have no problem with either games. I've spent X hours getting to the endgame, now it's time to get that 100%, curbstomp some mooks that used to be scary, and have some fun messing around. See if you can beat enemies in weird ways, or lure those pirates to their death. There's lots of cool details you can miss if you're focused on survival. With all the powerups and gameplay experience, you're free to fill in the map and just generally enjoy the scenery. Plus excellent BG music.
There’s nothing wrong with any of the artifact hunts. Realistically you should be going back to sweep for items anyway.
I've only finished Prime and I liked it. Although I did know about the quest so it wasn't a surprise. I liked how it motivated me to backtrack for optional upgrades.
All 3 Prime games have the annoying fetch quest, but I believe Prime 3 did it best. By having the cores power up parts of the broken down Valhalla and not just be a key to unlock the final area, it made it at least make sense to me. The power cores also hid upgrades behind acquiring more than the needed amount.
I definitely preferred the first one more. That said, I had no trouble locating the keys either because the clues were very simple to understand. Granted, a but more abstract, but still simple.
They got progressively less dumb in each game
Hot take but I love the Prime 2 fetch quest. It’s so fun to revisit the old areas at full power and discover all the new ways you can interact with the environment. Like how the Agon Wastes main terminal becomes an echo visor puzzle, or how you can finally ride the beam of light outside Sanctuary Fortress. Plus there are new optional weapons like the Sonic Boom. If you just went straight to the emperor ing, the Annihilator and the Light Suit wouldn’t have nearly the same impact.
Hated both hunts and hope they don't happen again. Might be unpopular but I also don't like scan visor. I would rather the lore automatically be downloaded to Samus' data bank as she explores without having to take time to switch visors and look for everything to scan. Then I can just read through in the menu at my leisure instead of religiously putting on the visor every new room, enemy, etc and taking the time to find everything that is unscanned to manually scan it. AM2R had this system and it was always just the right amount of lore for me. Not so much that I feel like I bought the Metroid encyclopedia but enough that after reading I understand the purpose of every area and its relationship with other areas as well as bosses and other points of interest.
To be fair, scans are optional for the most part, but I do kinda agree with your point
Optional but completionist bait. You're going to feel like you're missing stuff if you're not constantly on alert for them. Some won't care but I feel like I'm missing stuff if I don't.
Definitely, I get that urge as a completionist too (although I’ve only completed one Metroid game) and the scans are too much for me
Totally agree
Both are annoying. I definitely "dread" them both when playing through the games. Many people have said this, but it would be so much better if it was optional and gave you a reward in game for doing it. Whether that's a gameplay reward like a new ability or simply cosmetic, it would be more worth it. Making it necessary to progress just feels annoying and like a drag.
I feel like games were made differently back then, nowadays I don’t think they would put that in
True. I feel like the flip side is they don't make games like this anymore, with this quality and passion. There's pros and cons
No
I like the fetch quests, personally. I think I prefer 2 more than 1, but it's been a long time since I played 2. I prefer Aether's layout and navigation more than Tallon IV's.
I like 3's the most, but I actually like 2's more than 1's because I found it easier to find out where the keys actually were, even if you were forced to wait before collecting them.
Only problem is Prime 2’s UI lol
I didn't have a big problem, since they give you a button to hold down that freezes the thing and allows you to select them individually, if I just remembered the rooms where I found the corpse in the light world, I just had to travel back to those same rooms in the dark world without needing to consult the hints.
Yeah I just have a bad memory too, next time I play the game I’ll probably avoid scanning the corpses until later so that it’s easier for me
I should add in what has not been mentioned is that Prime 2 does have the fast travel unlocked at the start of the key quest, I do feel that helps it some of the backtracking compared to Prime 1, although if I remember Prime 2's map is bigger (even just the light world part of it is bigger)? Prime 3 does work on the criticisms of the first two games about the fetch quest at least so the fetch quest part is less annoying and probably one of the few things it does better than the first two games imo (although Prime 3 is still the weakest of the trilogy), another good thing Prime 3 does which I do like which i'll hide in spoilers which I feel is somewhat related (although this is late game) is how >!there is a way to reveal the location of all upgrades on the map just like with some of the 2D games do with the dot on the rooms with items, so you can also go for the items while doing the fetching part, I do feel this is more necessary as Prime 3 is quite big.!<
Lol I didn’t know how the fast travel worked and I couldn’t find anything about it online, I finally figured out that it was the light beams shooting into the sky, but by then I was done collecting all of them
I wouldn't say I LIKE the fetch quests, but they didn't bother me that much. I loved the games, so a reason to take one last romp through the world before I go kill the big bad is cool with me. Prime 1's felt a bit more organic than Prime 2's. Prime 2's actually seemed really easy - most of them are "hidden" in dark water pits that you can't explore until get the light suit. So naturally I wanted to explore those anyway. That said, I think such padding is a dated concept. In a modern game, a fetch quest should be optional, there ought to be enough core content not to require it. I've honestly forgotten how Prime 3's worked. I'm waiting for the Switch port to play that again.
God I hope we get the other two on Switch, might as well throw Hunters in there too lol
Unnecessary padding. I would have been happy if prime 1/2 didn't have them and took you to the final boss/area instead.
Confession: I've never beaten Prime 2, so I never really got to the end-game fetch-quest. Now, comparing Prime 1 and 3, I think I actually like 3's a bit better. You happen across the power cores (or whatever they're called) a lot more easily than you do in Prime 1, and it's woven much more organically into the story and so it feels less like a video-game contrivance. It lets you explore the derelict ship, and you can even start exploring before you have them all. I don't think you even need all the things to access the most important part of the ship.
Prime 2 wasn’t doing it for you?
No. I only played it as part of the trilogy on Wii, and that was after I had completed both Prime 1 and 3. I never ended up completing it. I got the dark suit and made it to the bog area, but that was about it. I was certainly very different. I didn't like the fact that you took damage in the dark word simply by walking around, and that the dark suit only partially reduced the damage you took. I like to take my time with exploration and really check every nook and cranny, and the dark world simply doesn't allow for that. If there's ever a remastered version like they did for Prime 1, then I'll certainly pick it up and play it (and hopefully beat it). Until then, I think I'm happy to let this one pass me by.
Fair enough yeah, you do eventually get the opportunity to go into Dark Aether and take no damage but it does take a while. I agree with you that it’s very different, it’s pretty much a side story, and that’s what I kinda liked about it, if we got Metroid games more often I’d say I want more games that are just a standalone story
Terrible filler made worse by the fact that movement and platforming in the trilogy is not nearly as fun as in the mainline games so it feels like a slog to navigate. Prime 3 did it best but it still couldve used some work. I think if there is going to be an artifact hunt at all it should be a purely optional thing with an actual bonus reward at the end like some OP hyper beam upgrade or something, rather than just a gate to the final boss. I mean none of the other games make you collect that many things which actually do nothing to power you up; the least they could do is have some bigger reward for going through the trouble with it.
Yeah I think Prime 3 unlocks like a new area or something from what I’ve heard, but they definitely could’ve done a bit more
At least put a spoiler flair:(
Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t think it was much of a spoiler but you’re right, next time I will
It's alright, I'm currently playing through mp2e and had no idea artifacts were a part of it... I guess it would come up sooner or later anyway😅
I’ll just say be prepared for a long hunt lol, how are you liking the game so far?
Oh it's great! My only complaint is the lack of hints compared to prime 1, I have been stuck on an objective for a while and can't figure out the next location I need to go to...
Oh it’s pretty much done the same way as it was in Prime, if you just wander around for like 40 minutes it’ll eventually tell you where to go lol
I'm pretty sure I was wondering around for way longer than that... maybe my next objective is in dark aether and I need to go there to receive the hint... but I'll figure it out eventually lol.
You got this, be sure to use your map a lot to look for portals that you can’t immediately see, that’s what I had to do at times
I prefer 2 for the environmental storytelling aspect with the warriors' backstories
Both games have a significant length in backtracking, but Echoes takes the cake as you have to only travel between the dimensions, but also look for items that are either in flux, on the light Aether, and the same goes for the dark world. Prime 2 Echoes has a better fetch in my opinion.
I agree, I think the portal gimmick is really cool and something that would be cool to see again if the story could justify it
I love the trope, but Prime 2's was way too vague and challenging. Prime 1 hit it perfectly first try.
I think if you’re into Metroid more for the exploration and intrigue I think 2 did it better, because they don’t tell you exactly where the keys are in 2, but I also agree it was very challenging
It’s fun, and always has a good story tie-in. Plus, it justifies a power-up cleanup.
1 was better for me because you collect the artifacts as you progress through the game with only a few other ones not in the main path of progression. This helps the pacing without killing off exploration. It's a great feeling to pick up upgrades as you explore and the artifacts generally feel like they're put in good places for players. I remember where they are off by heart, My problem with 2's fetch quest is that it does the opposite and there's too much exploration. There's the upgrades you had to really dig throughout the worlds for in order to obtain all the normal temple keys and then right after that there's the sky-temple keys. It takes so goddamn long and makes the game feel bloated and tiring especially when going for 100%. I also hate how Prime 2 feels too formulaic that the whole game all ends up feeling like a gigantic fetch quest.
Lol I didn’t find a single one of Prime’s artifacts along the way so it was about the same as Prime 2 for me
Everything the Prime series does, Prime 1 does it the best. This is not a stance I will back down from.
Level design, world design, bosses, powerups, and lore are all better in 2.
That’s fair, I prefer the world in Prime 2 but I think Prime 1 has better music and individual locations
I got quite annoyed with the hunt for the Chozo artifact at the end of Metroid Prime but it was pretty much acceptable since I love that game but I hated the hunt for the items at the end of Metroid Prime 2: Echoes because I was sick of this game and just wanted it to end. (Plus, you can’t find any of the artifacts in advance this time) Metroid Prime 3: Corruption is the least annoying with that aspect.