Today I have finished my second 100% run of Metroid Dread, where I don't think that this will be my last. I might even try to go for all the different gallery pictures, which require you to beat the game on both Normal and Hard difficulty in under four hours...
And that I'm willing to go for this is a good sign. Replayability is an important aspect of Metroid games, where the ones that did it best for me so far were actually Super Metroid and – you might not believe it – Metroid: Other M. For very different reasons, however. With Super Metroid it's the general possibility for sequence breaking and with Other M it's simply the fact that I was tremendously enjoying how the game played, despite all its flaws with story and progression. Also, its boss battles were quite addicting, especially in Hard Mode. (Samus Returns was also quite close to these qualities, but I didn't play through it as often.)
Metroid Dread manages to capture both of this. It plays and feels so smooth, the movement is very swift and slick (aside from the Grapple Beam, which is still a pain to use), and the game just flows. It flows very well and this alone makes it a joy to replay, especially once you've mastered many of the fights and mechanics.
The bosses are also pretty well done, for the most part, where it's fun to apply what you have learned once more. If it weren't for the Melee Counter quick time events, which are sometimes necessary to beat the bosses, they would be pretty much perfect. But it was a good feeling to be able to beat some of these bosses on my first try now.
And while Metroid Dread is overall quite linear, there are some intended sequence breaks in this game, which can be very rewarding, in one case even with a special scene. On my second run I was doing two of them, where I wanted to talk about them a little bit...
Early Grapple Beam & Bombs
After obtaining the Varia Suit in Artaria the game conveniently funnels you back to Kraid's lair via the Red Teleportals, but if you actually take a detour to Dairon you can gain some good extras before the big boss battle.
You want to go to where the Purple Teleportal is found and get into the low level here via the destroyable blocks on the floor. From here you can now proceed to the right into some heated areas. This is the tricky part in all of this, where you want to cross the long lava room. And in order to do so you have to pull off some perfect jumps out of slides through small gaps. If you screw up, you will fall into the lava and most likely die, so this can be somewhat frustrating...
But once you've mastered this, you can take the elevator down back to Artaria, right to where the Grapple Beam is found. Normally, you wouldn't get here until much later, when you've already obtained the Speed Booster.
With the Grapple Beam in your possession you can now move forward in Dairon through the E.M.M.I. Zone to the second dark area, where we can get access through a Grapple Beam block, which normally would be blocking the way here. Alternatively, you can also do a tricky slide jump inside the E.M.M.I. Zone to get a wall jump done, which allows you to access said dark area from the right side. This way you can even skip the Grapple Beam in this, but having it early is quite useful in any case and it's not that big of a detour.
Anyway, once you're in the dark area, you can just activate the generator normally and then get the Bombs. Once you're back to Kraid, you can now use the hidden Ball Launcher during his second phase to finish him off quickly. It will shoot you right into the infected stomach hole, where you can lay some Bombs to end the fight. Take a look:
Early Gravity Suit & Screw Attack
This is arguably easier to pull off, but even more rewarding than the early Bombs. After obtaining the Pulse Radar in Ghavoran, the game basically funnels you to Ferenia, but there is a way of escaping this. You want to be speed boosting towards the Energy Recharge Station, store a Shinespark, then drop down and use it to cross the water, which will get you to the Green Teleportal.
Back in Burenia you just bomb the floor to the right of the portal. Here you now have to do that multi-Shinespark-parcours that nets you a Missile Tank+ at the end, which you will have to do anyway for a 100% run. And from there you can make your way right to the Gravity Suit. Simple.
You will now still have to go the frozen Artaria and face Experiment No. Z-57 without the aid of Storm Missiles and Space Jumps, but it's doable with Shinesparks. You might even be able to beat it quickly with that Shinespark trick, where you hit its head with it after the stormy wind attack. I tried, but failed, because I wasn't fast enough, but I still managed to complete the fight anyway.
So, there is a downside here, but the reward is that this completely trivializes Ferenia from now on. You can go get the Screw Attack afterwards (you can even take the shortcut via the blue Teleportal) and this will deal with all the electrical enemies right away. And the Wave Beam E.M.M.I. will have a hard time chasing you, because you can just run through the water without any effort.
You can also get the Storm Missiles, Space Jumps, Cross Bombs and the Wave Beam all one after another, so you don't have to go back to any of the lower areas from now on, unless you want those 100% items. You're ready for the finale right away.
So, overall this was pretty fun. The E.M.M.I. can still be a pain and are probably the main reason why I don't consider this to be my favorite Metroid game. But it's bearable, because the E.M.M.I. sections are usually rather short. And with additional help like the early Gravity Suit, you can make things much easier for yourself here.
In Metroid: Zero Mission you have a similar part with Chozodia, where Samus has lost her Power Suit and is left in her Zero Suit. But this part is gigantic and takes quite a while to get through, where this is the thing that I dread the most about the game, so it kills any motivation to play it more often...
Metroid Dread doesn't really have the same issue. The E.M.M.I. are still a problem and overall the game would probably be more fun without them, don't get me wrong, but with the very nimble and smooth movement, as well as the short length of these flight sections (it's hardly ever "stealth") it's a challenge I'm willing to take in order to enjoy the rest of the game.
Next time I will be going through Hard Mode.
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