First, I'll read through some of the lore in the Trilogy Collector's Edition artbook. and in the instruction book.
Phaaze
No one knows when Phaaze was born.
A planet completely unique in an infinite universe, unlike any that came before it.
Phaaze was alive. A conscious, sentient being.
Like all living creatures, Phaaze did its best to ensure the continued survival and prosperity of its race. Every 100 years, seeds, similar in form to meteors, would be fired from Phaaze to planets far away. These seeds, these children of Phaaze, were called Leviathans. Leviathans had the ability to generate wormholes, allowing them to travel to
galaxies unbelievably far away.
When a Leviathan strikes a planet, it creates a Phazon Core which emits a strong toxin called Phazon all over the planet. Phazon is a powerful substance with the ability to completely corrupt living beings through genetic mutation. Over the course of a couple years, Phazon corrupts the entire planet, at which point the planet is reborn as a Phaaze clone.
Samus Aran, Bounty Hunter Samus lived with her parents on the planet K-2L, a human colony in the Galactic Federation domain. When Samus was three years old, K-2L was attacked by a band of Space Pirates lead by the brutal ruffian Ridley. When the Space Pirates left and the smoke cleared, a single figure remained standing. It was Samus Aran, the sole survivor of the attack on K-2L.
Samus was rescued from the charred ruins of K-2L by the Chozo, a race of beings who resemble giant birds. They had received the colony's distress signal during the attack, and came to assist. The Chozo took Samus back to their homeworld, Zebes.
Being a highly technologically advanced race, the Chozo crafted a power suit for Samus that gave her incredible strength. They trained her to become a fearsome warrior. Once her training was complete, Samus parted ways with the Chozo and became an intergalactic bounty hunter.
Samus carried out countless missions. Many that other bounty hunters deemed impossible. She became the most famed and capable bounty hunter in the universe, yet she was not fulfilled. Samus didn't become a bounty hunter to achieve fortune or fame. Her purpose was to avenge the death of her parents by slaying Ridley and the rest of the Space Pirates.
Before long, the opportunity to fulfill her purpose would arise.
The Battle Begins Having established a reputation as an unstoppable warrior, Samus is summoned by the Galactic Federation, the sovereign government of a group of civilized planets.
Zebes, the planet where Samus was raised, has become the Space Pirates' base of operation. The Federation gives Samus orders to infiltrate the planet and eliminate the Space Pirates, along with the mysterious floating life-forms called Metroids. Metroids are reported to absorb energy from other creatures, and the Space Pirates are trying to use them as bioweapons. After battling her way through countless creatures and Space Pirates, Samus defeats Ridley, then demolishes Mother Brain, the central computer of Zebes' ecosystem and leader of the Space Pirates. Mother Brain's destruction causes the
Space Pirates' base to explode. Samus narrowly escapes.
Prime (just the first part of it)
As fate would have it, some of the Space Pirates also escape the explosion on Zebes. A group of them leave in search of a power source to reinforce their soldiers with. They find Tallon IV, a planet struck by a Leviathan 50 years ago. The Space Pirates immediately begin using the mutagenic properties of Phazon to experiment on living things.
Three years after Samus's battle on Zebes, Samus is once again summoned by the Galactic Federation. After being briefed by the Federation, Samus travels to Tallon IV to investigate the reports of the Space Pirates. Nearing the planet, she intercepts a distress signal belonging to the Space Pirate ship Orpheon, which is in orbit around Tallon IV. Samus enters the ship and quickly discovers the cause of the distress signal: the Parasite Queen, a giant mutated creature born from the Space Pirates’ Phazon experiments. Samus defeats the creature, but it falls into the ship’s reactor, causing the ship to burst
into flames. Samus loses almost all of the functions of her suit while escaping from the Orpheon. During her escape, Samus spots her nemesis, Ridley, genetically rebuilt following their fight on Zebes. Ridley flies off towards Tallon IV. Samus gets back to her ship and follows him to the planet’s surface.
I didn't even know about this Metroid 1 backstory, it's really interesting...
Starting a new file on Veteran mode... I've played through all the Metroid Prime games before on normal and hard, but never played the Trilogy version. I heard that both difficulty modes in the Trilogy version are a bit easier than the normal and hard modes in the original. Hint system off, I don't care if I get 100% or not, I'm just gonna get as much as I can during this high playthrough.
I dunno about these controls, gonna take a bit to get used to... Pause button is on 2... minus and plus are both used to switch visors/beams... I think Advanced sensitivity mode is probably the best way to go... the camera follows your aim much more closely, so you can turn around a lot faster and don't have to worry about the edge of the screen at all. hmm, I don't know whether I want Lock-on Free Aim enabled or not... having it disabled would certainly make it more like the GC games... I'll try it disabled.
Oh yeah, a thing they added to the trilogy version is credits and friend vouchers... friend vouchers idk about I think it's obsolete now, but credits of different colors can be obtained in the 3 different games by completing certain condition, so it's like an in-game achievement system... so there's a whole other layer to getting true 100% in this now.
This first area of the game has a ton of interesting small details...
Orpheon Frigate - Entry
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Samus lands on the outside of the Frigate, and steps outside It looks like you should be flying off into space, but there's this weird barrier around the edges of the platform that I guess makes it so this whole area has artificial gravity.
Looking around with the scan visor with Wiimote controls feels way cooler than I remember it being on the GC version.
I love this atmosphere... you can see the entire exterior of this huge ship before you go exploring it... although it looks kinda dark in these screenshots.
Now I'm spending a lot of time just admiring the indoor aesthetics of this place.
All of the doors in this ship can be scanned to show what room they lead to. The door you came in through leads to "Exterior Docking Hangar". Although you could just look at the map screen to get that same information, so there's really no point in scanning the doors.
The scans in this first hallway give you a bit of insight into all the main areas of this Frigate and their purpose.
Deck Gamma - Reactor Core and Propulsion
Deck Beta - Biohazard Research
Deck Alpha - Emergency Evacuation Area
That last one has the status "Environment Unstable"
The door to the next room, Emergency Evacuation Area, is locked until you scan a thing to repressurize the room.
Oh, I see what they mean by unstable environment.
Here you get to see the bodies of the Space Pirate enemies close up.
They've all been fatally wounded by whatever happened here. It's kinda funny that Samus is the one who responded to their distress signal. There's some Parasite creatures nibbling on one of their bodies.
Indigenous to Tallon IV, a single Parasite is harmless to larger life-forms. However, they tend to travel in large groups, swarming over potential prey. Such swarms can be dangerous.
That big dead creature in the middle of the room that is partially on fire... The scan visor has no information on it, other than that it has high levels of radiation. You can also scan these containers of biohazardous materials that are labeled "Phazon", and were supposed to be transported to Deck Beta. Also one of the space pirates in this room is still barely alive, and starts shooting at you.
According to the scans in this room, all the Escape Pods were used up about 6 hours ago.
Escape Pod launch coordinates: Tallon IV 110L.30L.Research Command Center
This is so insanely immersive, it really feels like I'm figuring out the story from Samus's perspective.
Orpheon Frigate - Biohazard Research Areas
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In the next hallway, a cutscene shows these Parasite creatures go into a crawl hole which leads to the map console, giving you a reason to test out your morph ball ability. And there's a bunch more scans in here.
Two Parasite Queen specimens have become volatile on Deck Beta. All security personnel should report to the Biotech Research Area.
Parasitic infestation has been detected in the ventilation systems of Decks Gamma and Beta.
This level design is a bit confusing already. I'm sure it'll be more straightforward when I go there, but just looking at this map wow it looks confusing.
Then took an elevator up to Biotech Research Area 1.
lol... it teases you with some screens that look scannable in the morph ball tunnel, but you never actually get to scan it... like it's getting you to believe there's info there that you're not getting, even though there probably isn't.
A scan in this hallway says
Specimen containment breach on Deck Beta. All crew report for lockdown.
Biohazard Containment... so this must be Deck Beta... The broken containment tubes correlate with what the scans were saying earlier.
The lore in this room is too good... Here you find out that the pirates have been experimenting on a bunch of different Tallon IV creatures by infusing them with different batches of Phazon, It's pretty obvious that this whole thing backfired on them big time. And there's also a bunch of hologram pictures of various creatures, with some info scans on them.
Next hallway, leading to Biotech Research Area 1.
I'm surprised about all the little interesting aesthetic details here that I never noticed before (probably because I used to only play this on small CRTs through a crappy composite connection, as opposed to now where it's upscaled onto a big HDTV)
There's a bunch more info here about how they kept trying with different Phazon batches on different creatures, and in different amounts, until they started finding success.
Phazon Infusion Stage 3 Mutation initiated. Larva Status: Stable.
Phazon Infusion Stage 4 Larva diagnostic: Mass 14.5, Length 40.3, Cell structure failing.
Specimen cell structure failing. Batch 0732.C does not match DNA. Terminating infusion sequence.
Specimens exhibit incredible strength and body mass increase when exposed to Phazon Batch 0732.C.
Phazon Batch 0003.H increases the acid production in the saliva ducts of Parasite Larva.
Biohazard waste removal may begin in 3 hours. Phazon radiation readings must be reported to deck commander before batch disposal.
Experiment 435.8: Bioform pain tolerance levels at 13% and holding.
It's pretty obvious by now that this whole Phazon experimentation thing did NOT go well for them.
This logbook scan in this room is especially interesting. Here's where the game itself confirms that this story takes place immediately after Metroid 1.
Zebes has fallen. All ground personnel are presumed dead, either killed by the Hunter clad in metal or in the subsequent destruction of the underground facilities. Our research frigates Orpheon, Siriacus, and Vol Paragom were in orbit at zero hour and managed to retreat. Frigate Orpheon is now docked at Vortex Outpost. Orpheon's cargo appears to have a 100% survival rate. Metroids are healthy but on restricted feeding schedules due to uncertain supply status. We are ready to begin research on the Metroids and other promising life-forms. Security status remains at Code Blue: no signs of pursuit from the Hunter.
The combat in this room starts to get a bit more serious, but still nothing hard at all. There's a turret shooting at you that can be killed with a single missile, and some pirates that are only partially injured and can still walk around and pose a threat.
There's also a bunch of Tallon IV specimens in stasis pods here. You can scan them for info, but you don't get a logbook entry on them yet because they aren't in their normal living condition.
Morphology: Parasite Larva.
Info: Harmless unless encountered in large numbers.
So I guess those giant creatures from the earlier rooms were the big, mutated version of these parasites.
Cargo Freight Lift... this room immediately greets you with a turret. And then there's some more cool looking stuff to look around at as you leisurely go through this elevator room.
"Insert metallic sphere to open door"
Then there's the first save station of the game, right near the door to the next area.
Orpheon Frigate - Escape
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Reactor Core... this is the last big room of the Frigate. After that, looks like just a bunch of hallways.
Some more foreshadowing right before you get to the boss.
These creatures still contain a heat signature. They have not been here for very long.
Analysis detects large amounts of blood missing from the carcasses. These bodies may have been used for nourishment. Pattern consistent with predator behavior.
Scans indicate the presence of a potent mutagen, origins unknown. Creature exhibits the ability to fire weapon-grade blasts of energy from its mouth, a trait not present in the standard parasite genome. It appears the Pirates have begun a bioengineering program, with considerable results.
Epic escape sequence time.
Of course, I'm still gonna take the time to look at all the small details in the environment.
Back in the Biohazard Containment room, you see some Space Pirates fighting another mutated Parasite that escaped its containment, and a blast destroys them all before you even have a chance to scan anything. This is in the bottom part of the room that you couldn't access earlier.
Next is a linear run through the tube-shaped ventilation area... this is what those boring scans in that one hallway were foreshadowing.
These must be the non-mutated version of the parasite creatures. They're swarming all around the place and do minimal damage to you on contact. There's so many that it's pointless to try and kill them.
Passed through the Cargo Freight Lift room, and into another ventilation tunnel.
There's this one part where it looks like you could get crushed by a horizontal piston, and as the piston is moving back you need to follow it up to the next part of the tunnel.
Samus meets some sort of mechanical copy of Ridley. Meta-Ridley flies away just as Samus encounters him.
It seems like Ridley just keeps cloning himself or something, cuz Samus kills him in every game and he always comes back again in some form.
Before crossing over the convenient grapple beam hooks, there's some scans showing info/blueprints on Meta Ridley.
After this, Samus gets hit by electricity that is so powerful it somehow disables all of her Power Suit's functions that she had at the end of Metroid 1.
More unique rooms/details along the rest of the path back to Samus's ship.
Samus chases Ridley towards Tallon IV.
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