Sector 5 - ARC - Part 3
an explosion caused by a dangerous creature that was being kept here as a bioweapon, and is now probably infected by the X... holy shit lol this place has so little security precautions against parasitic lifeforms, considering how many dangerous creatures are kept here.
many sections of this area are now blocked off due to the structural damage, and some parts are now flooded and have tougher enemies that shoot plasma beams... a new section is opened up.. there's some paths that I need the gravity suit to get through, and a boss door to a data room that I'm guessing contains the gravity suit data..
yikes.. this boss that warps gravity.. is really hard... your missiles are too heavy to reach him and you have to run under him to get a charge shot in while he's in the air, and then run away before he lands on you... and then his last phase he starts chasing you around and is really hard to avoid.. and whenever I stop to try and get some hits in on his face, he corners me... even using really careful space jump maneuvers I still can't keep him from cornering me, it's like you can't avoid getting hit most of the time.
there... I found out the best strategy for defeating that boss's final form was to lure him into going back to his "shooting at you while slowly moving toward you" phase by standing in the bottom left corner when he is at the furthest point away from you... and then hang on the ladder overhead and pour as many missiles into his face as you can (going rhythmically, so you don't waste missiles in between invincibility frames), and don't even bother to get off the ladder to avoid getting hit, just allow yourself to get hit and take advantage of those invincibility frames to get a few more shots in before he goes back into chasing mode...
then I found a path into Sector 4 by using the gravity suit and speed booster...
Sector 4 - AQA - Part 2
there's still a huge grey section not explored here yet... still sealed off by red doors... that's interesting I wouldn't have expected this game to let you be able to explore here before getting the red doors unlocked.
lmao that red herring for the power bomb tank... seemed like you needed the screw attack to get it, but actually there's a hidden morph ball tunnel you can easily get to.
aw shit... for a while there I thought I was stuck forever... after I found that power bomb, a save point, and a missile... it looked like every other path was blocked by a red door.... and you can't build up a shinespark to get back the way you came... then just when I was out of ideas, I randomly power bombed inside one of those (partly) glass corridors, and part of the ceiling revealed to be missile blocks... holy shit what a great SM reference...
green map... finally a way forward... then got stuck again for a while.. realized one of the hidden paths I found was a red herring and had to turn back...
oh shit and I found a passage from underwater in Sector 4 straight into Sector 6...
but before that, now that the red doors are unlocked I can easily go a bit back through Sector 4 now and possibly find some stuff and recharge/save...
oh and got to a data room that upgraded my missiles to diffusion missiles that I can charge up like the charge beam... now those enemies that I had to be crafty with ice beams to get around, and that blocked a few paths.. can freeze them now before they block it.. well some of them..
also went to check out the Sector 4 N room... not sure if that was a mistake or not before going to check out the Sector 3 path... the computer is like "I did not authorize the download of charge missiles, or unlocking the Level 4 Security doors"
was coming back to this N room... like an actual choice that alters the story or something? (nah, I doubt it)
the security robot Samus encountered earlier is now controlled by the X... it has gained a whole neural network from it... now it is in sector 6...
oh okay cool, the N room doesn't prevent you from going back the way you came this time... I'll take the alternate route into Sector 6 I guess...
or no... welp nevermind, that path is blocked off with a screw attack wall, and it's just a quick shortcut... I almost thought I outsmarted the game there and sequence broke a bit by using a diagonal missile to open the path into Sector 6 where I could avoid the Sector 6 N room, but no...
it's like... the green sections of the map are the only places where the computer doesn't control where you are able to go... once you're in the pink sections close to the Main Deck, where the grey doors are still in tact, is the only parts of the game where the computer can block you from exploration if he wants to... so in that sense it's as if the Federation itself is like a secondary nemesis of Samus, preventing her from being able to be in command of the mission...
It's like this federation dude in some ways an alternate villain of the franchise... the villain that tries to strip the series of what made it good...
just to be clear I still think other m sucks... it takes what I liked about the Federation/Samus relationship from Fusion but takes it too far and makes more of a movie adaptation than a game...
this concept worked well in Fusion because Samus has actual biological reasons why she is too weak to face the enemy, the SA-X... so going into a mission like this, blind, where the enemy has all of her full powered Super Metroid equipment... and in an area with a lot of dangerous creatures that could easily fall into the enemy's control... it would make sense to have Samus want someone's direction in that kind of mission...
Sector 6 - NOC - Part 2
oh shit... I recognize this part of sector 6... where I was being chased by SA-X... and how easily that thing could've killed Samus at that point...
ookay... found a missile tank I missed... not much else going on here... oh shit almost forgot to check out that one suspicious short dead end corridor that had no dot in it...
finally found a new green section in Sector 6... oh shit i'm like 90% sure I missed something before that one-way block dropoff...
I get to a security camera... oh yeah that's right... the X owns the entire neural network of this sector I think...
holy shit... It's a tunnel to a new area to the left... I don't know WHICH area exactly though.. it's low enough that it might be a whole new Sector at the corner of Sector 6 and Sector 4... Sector 7...?
WARNING. NO ENTRY WITHOUT AUTHORIZATIONit's putting it out clear as day, that this whole "authorization" concept represents the main antaganist of Samus at this part of the story...
damn... I thought maybe my charge missile could hit the button to open that big security door, but nope... it's a true one way door...
I think these security doors are controlled by the X with the neural network it absorbed...?
huh... I don't get this boss... it's walking around in electrified water... I can't damage it even with missiles most of the time.. can't get between the shields on both its sides...
Detonate a Power Bomb to reveal rungs running along the roof.oh... just you know a little non-optional hidden secret RIGHT INSIDE the boss room that makes defeating that boss even possible... shit this game is great...
I'm too high... had to take the safe and slow way to kill this security robot... wait on the sides until after he shoots missiles, then hang on the ceiling and get a couple missiles in when it runs into the wall...
defeating that robot gave samus the wave beam ability... now that security door won't even stop Samus... authorize this
now I just need the screw attack, and then not even the computer's locks are above Samus's level...
holy shit I totally don't remember this...
all the different Metroid forms from the M1 Metroids, to the Metroid II Return of Samus phases, are there inside tubes...
the X was keeping this Sector locked up for its own safety...
I get to a dead-end... an earthquake and glass breaking...
SA-X fighting the Metroids... the story is getting really interesting now...
while the Metroids and SA-X were distracted, Samus space jumps to safety and as the sector separates from the station... I didn't even catch what Sector that was...
now I'm in another green part of Sector 6..
I find... an N room, within this green area... a sector the computer was trying to hide from Samus this whole time... they've secretly been keeping the metroid species alive here...
Computer: "You shouldn't have done that... you learned that we were secretly replicating the SR388 environment in order to act as a breeding ground for omega metroids... that SA-X that fell out with them acted as a decoy to protect the rest of them, now one of the SA-X is on his way toward you."
Samus: "ONE...? There's more of these. fuck."
Computer: "The X reproduce by asexual division."
"The SA-X will destroy you unless you stick to the navigation rooms and follow my orders."
is what he's saying essentially.
"Is your objective clear?"
took an elevator back to Sector 1...
Sector 1 - SRX - Part 2
going through another of these 1-way paths... just leads to a dead end I need the screw attack for...
I can sort of tell i'm close to the end...
have to fight these nearly invincible yellow pirate alien things... can only damage them from the back, but they jump around a lot and take a lot of space...
it's kinda like a whole different unnamed sector I'm in now... a big green sector that crosses between the 6 other sectors... probably doesn't connect to the main deck...
and I'm getting the feeling I won't be finding any more hidden paths that aren't apparent on the green map... meaning that this sector with the yellow aliens is pretty much the Tourian of this game
well not quite...
fought Ridley... after all the tough and unique enemies this game has had up until now... this Ridley fight is disappointing... it's essentially the same as the Super Metroid Ridley fight, except much much easier... it's now a much bigger target, and its tail doesn't nearly block it often enough, so most of the time you can just stand there and pummel it with missiles, and you can either occasionally stop to dodge its sweeps and other attacks, or just keep pummeling it while not paying that much attention to dodging and win anyway.. both strategies work fine...
and now I have Screw attack... Samus is back to full power, and then some...
in fact, the screw attack makes this whole area such a cakewalk now, I have no reason not to backtrack a bit and save... taking these enemies out takes no time...
now there's two ways I can go... and no indications on the map to tell you which... I can go past a security door and go further down, or go the other way and further up... one of those seems more ominous than the other, so I'll go up first... oh wait lol that upper path was just to a save room that I could've went to before/after the Ridley fight...
finally made it back to the pink section of Sector 1... but before I go back to the N room and let myself back under the computer's controlled domain where I'll be restricted from exploring... first I fully re-explore everything I can in Sector 1 before going to the N room...
"Samus, we're done here. Leave the rest to the Federation..."
samus disagrees... knowing how dangerous this X species is... that can copy any organism that doesn't contain metroid DNA, and self-replicate... she can't agree to these orders...
yep, like I thought the Federation becomes another nemesis.. they want to keep the X alive... not only do they think themselves powerful/foolish enough to keep Metroids alive, but the X too... only a computer could be so fearless and cold hearted...
The reason the federation is surprised and disapproves of Samus finding new abilities that they didn't authorize.. is because they didn't want her destroying every trace of SA-X
samus explains her reasoning further... holy fuck this is some deep stuff..
I can't do anything else, so I just try talking to the computer again... samus suddenly calls the computer "Adam" for the first time...
"He'd know that the only way to end this is to start the self-destruct cycle. He'd know how important it is...
Computer: "When Adam decided who to live, he chose incorrectly."
...damn...
but wait... the computer turns tsundere... and gives Samus hints about how to achieve her own mission while pretending to still be against it...
Samus's eyes light up when she realizes she changed the computer's mind just now, and made him seem even more like Adam...
the computer gives Samus her next mission: "start the self destruct sequence, then return to your ship and escape."
"Move quickly, and stay alive.
That's an order. Any objections, lady?"
at this point, all of Adam's grey doors are opened up to you... and with the wave beam and screw attack being the last things you needed to be strong enough to overcome all obstacles... if you want you can go and backtrack everywhere to try and go for a 100% completion, or just head straight for the end and see how much you got without a cleanup run... I'll go with the latter for now but 100% later, I want to see how long this stretched out, analytical playthrough will take in total.
The computer finally realizes the difference between giving Samus "the objectives" vs. giving samus "her objectives"...
Samus is once again allowed on the operations deck... I think they were keeping Samus from here because the computer saw her and the X just other specimens that will need to be locked away... they didn't want but then Samus manages to find Adam's spirit in this computer, gives her a new mission to defeat the SA-X, activate the self destruct, and then escape...
died against the SA-X the first try... but then I quickly learned the pattern to dealing with him easily with barely ever even getting hit... then I fought its core form and realized that strategy is almost exactly the same as fighting the X core in a wide open room... get a charge shot in at it (now super easy due to Plasma & Wave), then high jump over it (usually don't need to space jump), and run over to the opposite side while charging, and hop in the air again because SA-X will probably try to shoot you at this point, and you can usually lure her to shoot diagonally upward and miss... then shoot your charge beam at her and start the cycle again... only trade the charge beam shots for charge missile shots... only with the shielded core form use charge missiles instead of charge beam.
it's actually super easy once you learn this strategy... and its last form is a joke.
hmm... I'm not able to absorb the SA-X's unshielded core for some reason... and it flies away... now's my chance to activate the self destruct...
turns out the SA-X wasn't the final boss... it's this Omega Metroid that escaped... Samus is no match against it in her current form... then suddenly the SA-X core comes in, regains its form and helps Samus fight against it... when it fails, the core then goes into Samus to help her take this thing out... now Samus is fully back in her original full powered Super Metroid suit, and has an Ice Beam to take care of this Omega Metroid... ice missiles did nothing against this thing, but the ice beam actually pushes it back and prevents it from being able to attack you... this is basically the "Hyper Beam" segment of the final boss battle.
I see... so Samus is like absorbing the spirits of all these X creatures inside her and turning them to her side... I really like the parallels between this game's story and Super Metroids... and the fact that the animals you rescued ended up saving Samus's life by piloting her ship so that the Omega Metroid wouldn't destroy it... such a great ending...
dat clear time... dankest playthrough ever
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