#Metroid Prime Beyond

[aki-t144]

New Metroid painting. I’m trying to do a new painting a month, it’s fun and so far I’m doing well but I don’t know what to paint next month. Im working my ass off on my original manga Diamond city mega dive so drawing fan art is kinda fun.

Any ideas on what I should paint next?

[funkylittlecrowboy]

THERE HE IS

THE FUCKER

[coldgoldlazarus]

Okay, mostly done screeching in excitement, now it's analysis time.

First point: That purple blast of the turret getting taken out looks great.

Looks like we're opening hot, a lot like Corruption's beginning. Hopefully won't be quite as protracted as the Norion battle, though, lol.

Also, I've seen some jokes already about how this section will end with Samus getting depowered like the openings of Prime and Echoes, but given how barebones her arsenal seems to be here, (missiles and morph ball, which sometimes she just starts with and keeps, maybe bombs too) I don't expect that to happen.

The HUD and helmet edges are a lot more dialed back this time, pushed as far into the corners as they can go. Probably better for visibility this way, but I am gonna miss the more wraparound feel of the previous setup, with the missile count and hazard meter along the sides. But this isn't a bad look by any means, and we still have a fair few items here.

A & B: My bet is this is the replacement for the old hazard meter. In addition to keeping it out of the way, putting it right next to the motion tracker is a good move. I may actually remember to use that more this way.

C: Health bar is obvious, of course, but I really like the move of tucking it away into the notch on the top of the Echoes/Corruption/Beyond(!) helmet visor. The lines around it suggest an empty row above, undoubtedly for the energy tank pips once those are picked up.

D & E: Minimap is present as usual, not really much to say there, but I love the addition of a compass direction scroll beneath it, which should be helpful for putting places in context of the broader map. (Tallon IV's elevator label system, anyone?)

F: Missile count has been shunted down from the side to the bottom corner. I'm interested to see if it will grow upward, or just stay in its present spot and scale accordingly, as you collect more expansions.

G: This is the one everyone's already pointed out, but it seems that we won't have a visor OR beam swap readout.

Scan Visor is still an option as shown in the next bit, but based on the lack of an indicator in the hud, it's probably just going to be a toggle between that and combat, without anything else like X-Ray or Thermal or Echo or what have you. (Or it could be that that would only get added to the HUD after picking up a third visor, but I won't hold my breath for it.) Kinda disappointing to deemphasize one of the cool new mechanics the Prime subseries brought to the table, on one hand, but I'm still grateful to have the Scanner, and the extra ones always did struggle a bit to see much use.

Similarly, a bit disappointed this means we're probably looking at a stacking beam like in Corruption and the 2D games, (unless of course beam swapping is still there and just being left off the HUD until relevant for the sake of cleanliness #copium) but not entirely surprising; I'll live.

But what is interesting is what's there instead. The D-Pad seems to be tied to non-Beam weapons or tools instead, with the missile launcher as the only one available at present. I'm really curious to see what the other items will be; I imagine this is going to be Prime 4's unique spin on things. I saw someone suggest affinity weapons like in Hunters, but given those all function like Beams, it feels weird to me to set them against Missiles instead, ammunition requirements notwithstanding. I'm not going to rule those out, of course, but I could see this being something completely different entirely.

Again, I am very glad to see the Scan Visor is still here at least. Even better is that it uses the full-body highlighting of objects like Echoes and Corruption instead of Prime 1's icons. Pretty minimalistic layout, all told; I like that the scanning bar is a ring now. And it doesn't reflect Samus's face by default like in Corruption, which makes sense since we're not liable to have the same kind of mutation shenaniganry happening here.

I forgot to snag a screencap of this bit on my computer, so forgive the lower quality, but this scene is interesting for a few reasons.

The Pirates' breaching charges letting them into this room just as Samus passes through a gap in the wall overhead is a nice touch, and also remniscent of some sequences from early on in Corruption.

The Federation guys in here seem to be wheeling away someone or something on a stretcher in a hurry. That could be important.

Energy tank up in the rail section, but blocked by a box. Are we just going to bomb through to get it right away, or will we drop down into the room, and have to come back from the other direction to pick it up? (Please be the other direction)

Samus looking spiffy here, even at a distance. And as some have pointed out, looks like she's walking out of a portal instead of a door, pointing to either more dimension-hopping shenanigans like in Echoes, or possibly the time travel elements I recall hearing Tanabe wanted to play with at some point. (This plus the black hole look of the logo makes me think this could be more likely.)

Whatever the nature of the portal, though, the interesting thing to me is the sort of circular structure in the rock around it, suggesting a doorframe almost. A lot of the portals on Aether seemed to actively cut into the environment at random, the rock carved out in perfect spheres with fucked-up edges, and interrupting the pre-existing architecture or geology. In contrast, this looks like it was put here on purpose, implying a more controlled creation. Potentially really fascinating implications in that.

I also kinda wonder if these portals will be replacing elevators as a way to get between regions.

Ignoring the big numbers in the middle, (though they do kinda mess with my prediction that Prime 4 was going to be a 2024 holiday title to avoid getting eaten by Switch 2's inevitable 3D Mario launch title,) a couple things stand out to me here.

Giant tree in the background is giant, and I love it for that. Also looks like it's not the only giant tree here, even if still probably the biggest. I hope we get to go there later.

But in addition, we have a bridge in the middle distance, and a tunnel opening in the foreground. I will eat my hat if we don't get to cross that bridge, and my bet is that they're going to pull a similar trick here as with Skytown, letting low-poly versions of other "rooms" be visible from the current one, but dividing them with interior sections for optimization reasons, allowing for amazing landscapes of all traversible terrain. I loved that there, it looks great here, I can't wait to go explore all this myself next year.

[takapuolikuu]

[incorrectsmashbrosquotes]

I like to imagine Ridley and Dark Samus are giving Sylux free advice on killing Samus

Ridley: Free? FREE?! WHAT KINDA CHUMP DO YA TAKE ME FOR! PAY ME FOR THIS SHIT!

Sylux: Why would I pay for advice from the idiots who lost to Samus multiple times.

Ridley: ...

Dark Samus: ...

Ridley: Let's kill 'im.

Dark Samus: Agreed.

Samus, eating popcorn: This is amazing.

[godly-feh-edits]

A little late for sharing my Samus but Yay for Metroid Prime 4 and Zero Mission 😆✨

[sepublic]

You know what would be really funny? If we saw one of the Federation Force mechs in Beyond. Apparently they’re around the size of an Omega Pirate, although I can’t find a source on this, plus the way they scale with Federation troopers in the game makes me skeptical. But it’d be fun to see them in a proper non-chibi art style. The fact that you’re piloting a mech is hard to really notice or appreciate because the Space Pirates you fight are also conveniently sized up due to ancient Bion technology, so there isn’t a proper reference to feel that size; The mechs themselves look too similar to Federation troopers too, so one would assume they’re just regular soldiers.

Maybe a Federation Force mech could be a boss fight, or an ally, or something you can find and scan. Getting to appreciate them from the perspective of a regular-sized Samus would be neat. It’d be a bit meta if you find the wreckage of one, given the fandom’s feelings about that game… And the scan could reference the Bermuda incident for Samus, too.

[actualbampot]

METROID PRIME BEYOND AAAAAAAHHH

I'm repeatedly astonished by how much performance they can squeeze out of a Nintendo Switch.

[sourcreammachine]

if this was an e3 live show everyone would’ve just cummd

[nov4-rocket5]

Oh hey, Zelda's the protagonist in a Zelda game. That's pretty neat, we'll see ho-

HOLY FUCKING SHIT METROID PRIME 4 BABEE

WE ARE SO BACK

[dappercritter]

THE METROID PRIME 4 IS REAL!

[aki-t144]

One of my latest Metroid paintings

[funkylittlecrowboy]

LETS. GOOOOOOO!!!!

[coldgoldlazarus]

I think if given the choice between Sylux being a guy or a girl I would definitely go for girl, but I'd be fine either way. Making Sylux be genuinely gender-neutral would be the riskier move and tbh I'm not sure I can see them committing to it, but that would be cool too.

But what I'm really invested in is whether or not Sylux will be secretly human or not, and I really really hope the answer is 'not'.

[hardcoregamer]

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond Finally Gets First Gameplay, Now Set For 2025

The trailer, which you can view at the link here, kicks things off by letting us know that this game takes place in the "Cosmic Year 20X9," at a Galactic Federation Research Facility. We then see Samus Aran arrive to a triumphant orchestral theme, before she immediately leaps into action. 

Go see!

[chaselocalyanderefan]

She Metroid on my Prime till i quadrilogy

She metroid on my prime till i Trilogy