My third run through the game just came to a conclusion, where I've played one more time in Normal Mode. My goal was to clear the game under the magic four hour mark to unlock the artwork for Super Metroid and this goal has been accomplished, where I've managed to beat the game in three hours and 38 minutes. That's certainly not the best time, but not too shabby for my first attempt of going through the game faster. I wouldn't call it "speed running", obviously, so the focus was solely on keeping the pace up and taking some shortcuts.
This wasn't a 100% run, so I avoided unnecessary power-ups. Nicely enough, the game puts the majority of Energy Tanks and Energy Parts right in the main path, so you don't really have to worry about your health that much. It's a little bit lame, because you don't have to remember where to find any of them, but it's also very convenient. As for the rest, you don't really need all those Missiles or Power Bomb expansions anyway, because they usually get replenished during boss fights. But I also made use of the Metroid Dread amiibo for the first time, where it's nice to get 10 more Missiles and one more Energy Tank early on.
The other rule was to avoid unnecessary fights, so I would move through the environments expeditiously and only take care of enemies that get in the way. Always keep the pace up. That's much easier once you have the Screw Attack, where you can just jump through everything and of course I was getting this one earlier again, like in my second run.
I didn't use the same route as last time, however. Getting Bombs before Kraid is very cool for the different sequence, but it's also a huge detour, where it costs a lot more time than it would save during the boss fight. I still went for the early Grapple Beam after Kraid, though, which provides some very useful shortcuts.
The next big shortcut was going for the Gravity Suit early again, right after obtaining the Pulse Radar. This then leads to the Screw Attack, as already mentioned, but I didn't use any special tricks here, so I've beaten the Experiment boss and then took the blue Teleportal back to the Screw Attack.
Afterwards I was somewhat lost, though, because I didn't know what the fastest route back to Ghavoran would be. The best answer is probably taking the red Teleportal, which then leads to the orange Teleportal right back to where you need to be, but I completely forgot about the latter, because it's hidden in one of the many optional magma rooms. I was just going by what I had on my map and this made me actually go through Dairon and do that wall jumping speed boost to the Energy Part in the upper left, which then leads to an elevator back to Ghavoran. This scored me another Energy Tank, but it also cost a lot of time to go this way.
At least I've gotten a lot better with the Speed Booster. I even got the Missile Tank+ in the center of Dairon right after obtaining the ability from the yellow E.M.M.I. just by going fast naturally. So far I had always used the more complicated method by speed boosting from the tunnel above the item, where you have to get through some bomb blocks first, but it's amazing how effortlessly the Speed Booster can let you flow.
Anyway, to save some time after my detour I did take another shortcut in Ghavoran, where I got the Cross Bombs next. From there you can actually already go to Hanubia and then back down into Ferenia, completely skipping the shuttle between Ferenia and Ghavoran. Here you can now "quickly" collect the Storm Missiles, Space Jumps and Wave Beam without leaving the area before going to the finale.
Again, with the Gravity Suit equipped the purple E.M.M.I. can't even touch you, because you can traverse its water areas very swiftly. Purple beats purple, I suppose. And in general I don't mind the E.M.M.I. as much any longer as I did during my first playthrough, because these sections are usually over quite quickly.
Curiously, the golden Mawkin soldier gave me a lot more trouble than Raven Beak himself, who I can beat on "first try" now. It's a still a lengthy battle, where the second phase keeps going for way too long. And when the final sequence happened, I forgot that you have to do the quick time Melee Counter to finish the fight. It's annoying how some of the battles end in these weird "cutscenes", where you still have to press the X button at the right time or else the battle gets prolonged. My mind had already entered the cutscene mode and was getting ready for some rest, only for the game to say "no". Not a good design choice...
Well, overall I'm happy how things went and now I only have to replicate this in Hard Mode to unlock the remaining three gallery pictures. Considering that the bosses don't allow for many mistakes anyway, where you truly have to master them in Normal Mode already, I don't expect this to make a big difference, but let's see.
And it's not taken for granted that I go all the way to complete a Metroid game like that. I've never done this with Zero Mission for example, which has some tough requirements to complete all of its gallery. And while I've beaten Samus Returns on all three difficulty modes, I never went for the best times there. So, needless to say that I like playing Metroid Dread a lot. I'd even go as far and call it my new favorite Metroid game now, outranking Samus Returns.
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