Mercury Steam, the studio behind Metroid Samus Returns and Metroid Dread, reportedly has quite a few fans of the series in its ranks – a fact that prompted Nintendo to approve them in the first place. Given their love of Metroid, combined with the success they’ve achieved, we can assume that the studio members have an eye for what works and what doesn’t in Samus’ adventures. Dread Creative Director José Luis Márquez shared some of that insight with Gamereactor recentlygoing into detail about what he felt was necessary not only for an engaging Metroidvania game, but for a Metroid game that would meet the quality standards of the series.
One of his nuggets of wisdom was that losing Samus’s powers at the start of a Metroid game is “required” so players won’t be dissatisfied with their progress in the game.
Márquez: “In the case of Metroid, yes, it has to be. You cannot start the game without losing things. It is mandatory. Otherwise, I think you’d be disappointed. It’s like, what? Getting everything from the beginning? It can not be!”
In Dread, the game opens with the mighty Samus landing on Planet ZDR, ready to continue her fight, only to be disarmed of her weapons and upgraded by the imposing Raven’s Beak just minutes after arriving. Narratively, this presents him as a threat to Samus’ survival – a source of dread if you will – but it also makes Samus look weak, which can be frustrating for players. However, given the series’ longstanding tradition of isolating players, forcing them to be vulnerable, and motivating them to grow, it’s arguably in line with its philosophy of empowering its audience through combat and gradual payoff.
This phenomenon, sometimes referred to by fans as “physical amnesia”, has been a constant throughout the series, and existed long before Mercury Steam joined. In particular, Metroid Prime’s implementation of it has been used as an argument against it, due to how contrived and n onsensical it can seem. In Prime, Samus loses her powers after a relatively minor explosion damages her suit and causes many of its parts to need replacing. Unlike Dread, this instance of amnesia has limited (if any) narrative value, and is instead used to justify the game’s structure.
For his part, at least, as a fan and creator, Márquez prefers that Samus lose her abilities – although opinions generally differ on the matter. And on that note, he shared another opinion by revealing that he’s not a fan of the Souls-like difficulty in Metroidvanias, noting that he’s “not one to make things difficult for players.” While anyone who watched EMMI in Dread might feel the need to dispute this, it’s still true that the weight there doesn’t compare to something like Hollow Knight.
Metroidvania play time also came up during the interview, and he showed a bias towards shorter, more compact games in the genre. For the Hollow Knight reboot, the first playthrough can take anywhere from 15-30 hours, while for Dread the range is usually 5-10 hours. No doubt some will argue for longer playtimes, others for shorter, but the popularity of both these games reminds us that there is a motley and diverse audience that plays them, and that the minds behind these experiences have their own perspectives on what the ideal Metroidvania should be. .
Kudos to Greatsong1 for sending the news tip!
