#i was way too lazy to look at m*ds for this so I just used what i had in game

[windup-dragoon]

All Saints Wake!!!! Kiri as Vincent Valentine!!!

[ivycrossing0101010]

100 Days to Animal Crossing Challenge!

In the spirit of the countdown to New Leaf (remember when? :’) ), and to help  wile away the days, here’s 100 questions for every day until New Horizons is here! Enjoy!

1. Do you prefer making up a new name for your villager, or using your own name? I always name my villager after myself. I go for the immersion!

2. Do you use the first map you’re given, or do you reset for layouts? I used to reset for layouts, until I started hacking. In New Horizons, I'll just be resetting for fruit!

3. Do you use the face you’re given, or do you wait for guides and choose your favourite? I would look for guides. Even with hacking, it's easier to just start with the face you want.

4. Favourite town/island name?/Have you a name picked out for your town/island? My favorite town name that I've seen so far is Lunaire. I don't want to share my town name just yet. It's nothing revolutionary or anything but its personal I guess?

5. Will you be sharing with friends/family, or is your island going to be all your own? I will be having my own island! My husband will have his own island as well. He says we'll spend most of our time in my island though lol

6. What’s a new feature you’re excited about? T E R R A F O R M

7. Favourite fruit? Peaches!

8. Least favourite fruit? Pears!

9. Favourite area? (Beach, campground, shopping district etc, from any entry in the series.) My favorite place was the wishing well in ACPG. So cute and sweet. As much as I loved the plaza in ACNL, it's got nothing on the original!

10. Where do you like to like to put your house? Do you like that level of customization, or do you prefer to have some things decided, like in older entries? I like to put my house near waterfalls, its relaxing and good for fishing! I could never get my house near the water in older games, so it was a nice change in ACNL.

11. Favourite grass pattern? Personally, I never really notice the grass patterns!

12. Least favourite grass pattern? See #11 :v

13. Favourite villager/s? My fav villagers are Skye and Punchy 💕

14. Least favourite villager/s? I hate Elise the Monkey

15. Did you like doing Tom Nook’s chores, or did you find those to be a pain? I used to find them a pain as a kid but I miss them now. It was so much more engaging!

16. Favourite NPC/s? My fav would have to be KK. He's such a cool dude, he's just full of nostalgia for me.

17. Least favourite NPC/s? I don't really have a least favorite? I guess Katie's mom, her lipstick is tacky imo

18. Do you use paths? Are you excited about the new path tool? With hacking, I use clover paths so they're easier to see on the editor. I can't wait to have real paths, though!

19. Favourite feature from an older entry? The festivities! The neighbors were so much more engaged in ACPG, ACNL is sorta boring in comparison.

20. What was your first Animal Crossing game? My first was ACPG, the gamecube one!

21. Favourite activity (fishing, bug catching, fossil hunting, other)? Fishing was always exciting AND relaxing for me

22. Least favourite activity? Fossil hunting, but only because I don't get immediately results and I'm impatient lol

23. Favourite bug? Even though I don't like these irl, snails hehe

24. Least favourite bug? Scorpions and tarantulas, only because I've almost never encountered them in ANY game

25. A quarter of the way there! How’s the wait? Agonizing

26. Favourite fish? It's not actually a fish, but I like the softshell turtle!

27. Least favourite fish? The napoleon fish, that big blue one -.-

28. Favourite fossil? The ammonite!

29. Least favourite fossil? Don't really have one lol

30. Favourite furniture series? I've always liked the flower set you get from Leif and the mush set, so cute!

31. Least favourite furniture series? The holiday specific ones, they're so tacky and boring!

32. Favourite soundtrack? (Gamecube, DS/Wii, etc) Gamecube for sure

33. Least favourite soundtrack? Honestly, ACNL. Don't dig the steel drum

34. Favourite wallpaper? The ivy wall hehe

35. Do you have a nice memory of the games/community etc you’d like to share? I didn't really have too much interaction with the community until recently! I just gained a bunch of followers and it's super flattering lol I want to become more involved!

36. Least favourite wallpaper? Cheese...

37. Favourite carpet? I personally love the old board flooring, so simple and rustic!

38. Least favourite carpet? CHEESE

39. Favourite furniture item? The fairy bottle from the Welcome Amiibo update!

40. Will you be buying a Switch for Animal Crossing, or do you already have one? I'm trading in my old switch for the slick new Animal Crossing Switch!

41. Least favourite furniture item? The ultra things that you can get from Redd, so useless!

42. Favourite flower? Carnations!

43. Least favourite flower? Cosmos!

44. Favourite hybrid? Blue roses for sure

45. Least favourite hybrid? Any cosmos

46. Favourite shirt? The denim shirt, long sleeve

47. Favourite dress? I like the raincoat

48. Favourite accessory? Silver frames!

49. Favourite hat/helmet? The keroppi pins

50. Halfway there! How’s the wait going? Pretty numb!

51. Favourite shop? Dream Suite! So much fun visiting towns!

52. Do you collect amiibo cards/figures? Would you like to see them used in the new game? I have all the amiibo cards are all my fav neighbors, and about have of the total amiibo cards that exist. Idk if I'll use them right away and get all my favs or if I'll let my town naturally fill up and then switch folks out yet

53. Fishing Tourney or Bug-Off? Fishing Tourney, I like fishing more

54. Do you like making your own clothing patterns? I used to, but ACPC made me appreciate the already made in game clothes

55. Did you streetpass with many other ACNL players, or is it a feature you didn’t get much use of? I don't get much use out of it nowadays but I would always come back from conventions with a full showcase when I was younger

56. Favourite villager species? Cats!

57. Least favourite villager species? Monkeys

58. Favourite nickname from a villager? I don't really remember the nicknames I got

59. Least favourite nickname from a villager? I also always hated them!

60. Do you try to collect everything in the game, or just try to get your favourite bits and pieces? Bits and pieces for sure

61. Favourite villager personality? Normal and lazy

62. Least favourite villager personality? Jock

63. Do you “plot reset” for villager house placement, or do you let them move in wherever they want? During my first playthrough of ACNL, I didn't. Then I started doing it when I learned about it. Then I started hacking!

64. Are you excited to wear any of the new accessories (like the bags etc shown in the E3 trailer)? ACPC sorta spoiled that stuff for me, they're still very much appreciated though

65. What season are you most looking forward to seeing in New Horizons? Spring!! 🌸🌸🌸

66. What’s your favourite season? Spring again hehe

67. Least favourite season? Summer, kinda boring

68. Which game’s events/holidays do you like the most? Ones that are actually engaging with you and the neighbors

69. Which game’s events/holidays do you like least? Days like solstices, which just served as "Isabelle is unavailable" Days

70. Do you have another nice AC related memory you’d like to share (in-game, of the community, etc)? When ACPG came out, I was about 6. I had a DVD with those lame live action commercials and I was ENAMORED with them! Obsessed! I begged my parents for the game and they would hem and haw "well there's a lot of reading... you'll have to get better at reading... we won't always be able to help you read it..." and I swore up and down that I'd learn and practice reading. Obviously, nearly 20 years later, I'm still completely obsessed

71. Do you prefer the “live” versions of K.K. Slider’s Songs, or the airchecks? I like both but for different reasons. The live versions are nice and nostalgic and the air checks are closer to the aesthetic that they're actually trying to portray

72. An NPC you’d like to see more of? Farley and Serena!

73. An NPC you’d like to see less of? None in particular, everyone is pretty well designed imo

74. If you could have any piece of AC merchandise, which would it be? I once saw a cute bento box with pics from the movie, my soul died knowing I may never find it to buy anywhere

75. Only 25 days left to go! How’s the wait? Still numb!

76. Will you be downloading the game, or getting a physical copy? I'm getting a physical copy and my husband is getting a digital, so he can't be tempted to sell it!

77. Do you like coming up with your own town tune/flag, or using what the game gives you/something from a book/tv show/other game, etc? I like doing a sort of japanese "end of school" bell for my town tune, only for the town clock. Idk how I'm gonna do it in this game though...

78. Do you play every day, or every other day/when you feel like it/other? I used to play ACNL everyday, then it got a bit boring. I'm gonna play ACNH literally everyday forever lol

79. Are you the kind of person who starts over after leaving their town for a really long time, or do you try to get right back to it? I tend to restart a lot, but I recently decided to leave my ACNL town with no regrets so I hacked the crap out of it without feeling tacky or cringy

80. Do you remember how you got into the Animal Crossing series? It immediately caught my eye as a 6 year old and its had its grasp on me since

81. Do you like to make up a story for the town/character when you play, or do you just play as yourself? I play as myself but I sorta make a bunch of headcanons for myself and my neighbors and stuff to make it more interesting for me. Sometimes its embarrassing and sometimes I need to tell the people!

82. Favourite dream address / “theme” for a town (pastel, fairytale, forest, horror, etc)? My favorite town has always been Pastelia, although the mayor's name is escaping me atm >m<"

83. Do you like to have your house fully upgraded/paid off, or do you like keeping it smaller/having fewer rooms? I used to fully upgrade my house all the time but my current ACNL house only have 4 rooms and that's IT

84. Favourite hairstyle? The one with the middle split and it goes behind the ears

85. Least favourite hairstyle? The three ponytails, rip ACWW me

86. Favourite hair colour? I go either pink or my natural brown

87. Least favourite hair colour? That bright green...

88. Do you prefer wearing in-game clothes, or custom designs? In game clothes!

89. Favourite hourly track? 2 pm from ACPG

90. Just ten more days! How’re you feeling? Half paid off my new switch, so ready!

91. Least favourite hourly track? I don't think I have one!

92. Do you prefer to know all about the game before designing your town/island/house, or do you like to wing it? Bro, I've been glued to my phone since the direct came out

93.  Another nice Animal Crossing memory? ACNL came out around the time my husband and I started dating, almost exactly at the same time. Now its 8 years later, we're married, and we're gonna play another animal crossing game together finally!

94. Are you excited about same-system multiplayer? Its gonna be great for a lot of people, kinda useless for me though

95. Five more days! Are you going to trade/use amiibo to get your favourite villager, or wait for them to move in themselves/make a new favourite? I think I'll put in my 2 top favs, and then see what comes. Maybe after a few months I'll put everyone in

96.  Favourite emotion/Shrunk joke? I don't really like his jokes, but my fav emotions to use are the bashful ones

97.  Least favourite emotion/Shrunk joke? Not a fan of his dopey dance

98.  Is there a feature you’d like to add to Animal Crossing? I wanna be able to decorate for my neighbors so badly!

99.  Is there a feature you’d take away? It kinda seems like a lot of issues were solved in ACNH, I guess we'll see what's leftover as an annoying feature

100. Final day! Any more thoughts? Midnight release at my local gamestop! Gonna be there with a bunch of DOOM fans too! Can't wait!!

[bryyo-data]

Hunters, and how to make it better

I've been replaying Metroid Prime Hunters because it's a game I have a lot of nostalgia for, even if it isn't exactly a great Metroid game. There's a lot I still like about the game, not limited to the hunter concepts, atmosphere and music, but there's also a lot left to be desired. Just for fun, I've been thinking of ways one could spruce up the game and make it more appealing to fans of the traditional Metroid formula.

I'm inclined to say the game was designed to be simple, with evident focus on making a good multiplayer (arguably the one point they really succeeded on) and no real care put into the single player campaign. My train of thought is based around improving the single player storyline- though I'm not a game developer and I'm sure a professional could do much better than me.

The Hunters

I'm going to start off with the hunters because they are such an integral part of the game, to the point that they're literally in the title. The premise is incredibly cool- six enemy hunters, of varying backgrounds and moralities, have picked up the same signal as you and are now on the path to claim the Ultimate Power for one reason or another. In Hunters, Samus has to make her way through the Alimbic Cluster, occasionally encountering a hunter in either a scripted event (first-time meeting per each Hunter) or a random miniboss fight (one of the six hunters, in one of a set of specific rooms). If the hunter kills Samus, they take one of the octoliths she has collected, and she has to track them down to get it back.

Realistically, even if the rest of the story was mediocre, the hunters should've been the shining stars and had the effort put into them. In practice, they're not that exciting. They're generally not too hard to defeat, which I might expect on a first encounter, but they're actually easier the second time around when they SHOULD be more difficult. It should feel like they're hunting you for octoliths just as hard as you'd be hunting them if they had one. Some smarter AI might do wonders for them, because with their limited difficulty you're not actually that likely to ever get killed by them and need to go on a hunt.

The hunters have cool designs, but battle tactics aside, they're incredibly generic. In Corruption you don't spend too much time getting to know your fellow hunters but you still get the measure of their personalities and grow quite fond of them, and feel sad when you have to destroy them. In Hunters, the hunters are just time-consuming obstacles as much as a Guardian or something else.

They were scarier in Breath of the Wild.

With such varied personalities, some character interactions or indications of their motives and moralities might go a long way. No speech required- they could speak through actions. Like maybe have Trace, being the sneaky-sneaky stealth hunter he is, wait for you then lock you in with a bunch of enemies while he claims the prize at the other side. Whereas Sylux or Weavel might give in to vengeance and knock a bunch of things out for the sake of getting to kill you personally.

Not only would it be interesting to see more of their interactions with Samus, but with the environment too. These hunters are presumably picking up the lore as they go along, and supposedly finding their way to the octoliths. Some might realise Samus is doing well, and wait for her to beat the bosses so they can steal octoliths from her when she's worn out post-boss. Maybe some are actually competent enough to find artifacts or even octoliths for themselves.

Imagine situations like this: you stumble upon a boss portal with no artifacts in place. You get two, have to pass by the portal again, and surprise surprise- three artifacts already? Then you get shot in the back and frozen in place by Noxus; he knew you were coming and he'll be damned if you're getting that octolith before he does.

Presumably the game wants to ensure all the Hunters are your potential foes right up until the very end, but it might be interesting to see some of them actually take sides with Samus, if only temporarily. Spire and Noxus are arguably the "good guys" and if there was more in-game indication of their personalities, it would add a layer of depth in that you, a fellow "good guy" can pity their cause but still have to do your job- even if it means defeating them in the process. Maybe in places such as the very final level, there's room for one of them or even one of the "bad guys" to choose to help Samus- like shooting someone else to spare her from trouble once they realise she's doing the right thing, or something like that.

On that note, it would be interesting if we actually learned anything at all about these six hunters, since they're such noteworthy enemies. In the Prime trilogy, arguably the most significant and omnipresent enemies are the Space Pirates, and we learn LOADS about them and their thoughts through log scans.

It would be interesting if the other Hunters left similar things- at the very least, the option to stumble across their ships and read their last recorded logs, with their thoughts and feelings and a taste of their personalities. Perhaps new logs are added after their first encounter with Samus. The ships would also be a more sensible place to get hold of their signature weapons, rather than finding them across the Alimbic Cluster with no real explanation as to why they are there.

Overall, the Hunters represent a lot of missed potential, and I probably haven't covered it all, but as the titular characters they should have posed more of a threat while being more interesting and getting the player more invested in them.

Level design

Hunters is an incredibly linear game. It's not quite on Other M's level, and at least offers times when several planets are open to you and you have to go investigate a few before finding the right way. But the quest to find artifacts and octoliths is very straightforward, especially since the hunters etc. only provide generic battles and don't really change your environment or get in your way. A few more scripted events with the hunters nudging you off-course could've done some good. But with so few branching or interconnected areas, that isn't necessarily possible on the map as it stands.

I'm pretty sure the developers have actually confirmed by now- if it wasn't obvious already- that the game's single player was an afterthought to the multiplayer, and the room designs are all based on various repurposed multiplayer stages. In all fairness, it could be worse, and offers many points where you can encounter the other hunters and have a good fight. But it does lead to a very linear path back-and-forth to the boss portals. This does little for exploration, which is one of the Metroid franchise's core aspects.

Even in Fusion, where Adam pretty much told you where to go, there was exploration to be done and hidden places and items to find. In Hunters, the items are not incredibly well hidden, nor are there many of them at all, so the item hunt that has been a significant part of almost every Metroid game is non-existent. Typically you explore until you find an item which allows you to access a few more areas you couldn't get to before, opening up the ways to new items and bosses and such, but the capacity for this is limited here. You don't pick up power-ups as you would traditionally, and if it weren't for the weapon-specific force fields you need to destroy with the new beams you pick up, there's nothing really out of access to you from beginning to end. You can reach every ledge with your jump, go into hot areas with your varia suit, boost past instant-kill pistons with your boost ball, all without having the challenge of finding the relevant pickups first.

On the subject of the weapons, they come to very little use aside from some enemies with weaknesses, some buttons that need to be laser-sniped by the imperialist, and the aforementioned force fields. Maybe this is a minor gripe, but it would be cool if their uses were a bit more varied, like having to melt stuff with the Magmaul, energize or drain things with the Shock Coil, freeze a path with the Judicator etc.

Guard nodes: harder to beat than the actual bosses.

Overall in terms of level design I'd rearrange the linear paths to interconnect different rooms and make a less easy start-to-boss route, requiring the player to actually try and fail to get past certain rooms due to available power-ups (I guess this is attempted with the force fields and coloured doors but they just block you out of rooms altogether). I'd also try to add in more pickups, hiding them in new places- some of which are more easy and obvious, others which are hidden and hard, and require newly acquired skills to reach.

I will say this, the actual visual design of the worlds isn't badly done at all. It may not be as gloriously detailed as Tallon IV or Aether due to the graphics of the DS, but it's nonetheless quite nice to look at and does quite well with what it has. There is undoubtedly a scary abandoned atmosphere (that was one of the things that drew me into the game when I was a kid). It does well with what graphics it has.

I’m writing at 3am, so this thing genuinely has more brainpower than me.

Bosses

If Hunters weren't repetitive enough as it were, the bosses are literally copied and pasted onto every planet and space station four times over. This infamous fact is an obvious relic of lazy, last-minute single player campaign design. The bosses as they are aren't particularly impressive either- it would be fine if the first Cretaphid and first Slench were kept in place, but the second and third and fourth of each of those are just underwhelming in both their repetitiveness and their continually unimpressive tactics.

First thing I'd do, tear out 6 of the bosses and replace them with something new and interesting. At the very LEAST, have four boss types total and use each boss twice, but the same two bosses four times over is a bit much. Ideally each boss room would have a new and increasingly difficult boss, offering new challenges and new ways to utilise your newfound weapons aside from "this boss has a weakness to X weapon". This would be the perfect time to show off the secondary effects of your beams, like the Judicator's freezing or the Volt Driver's disruptive effects.

What I would do is pile together all copies of each Cretaphid and each Slench. Normally, the first Cretaphid gets down to 2/3 health and its lasers go a row lower, which isn't the most challenging change. So, I'd have the Cretaphid get to 2/3 health and then start using green blobs. Gets down to 1/3, starts using blobs AND lasers. Instead of spreading these abilities across four Cretaphids desperately trying to make each one seem different and advanced from the rest, have them all be stages of the same boss, allowing that boss to get slightly more challenging during the one fight and not needing to repeat it four times over!

(It doesn't need to be super hard anyway, it's only the first major boss of the game.)

Same with the Slench- 3/4 health it detaches from the wall, 2/4 health it starts doing the charge attack, 1/4 health it rolls around on the floor (and its patterns aren't so darn predictable while it's doing so). Something like that. Then we don't need a whole four of them, and the other six bosses can be brand new mechanoids which get more challenging as time goes along.

Kinda going back to a previous section here, but maybe since they're one of the most important things in the game, have the other Hunters intrude on the boss fights. Perhaps you could have an encounter where somebody else fills out the portal before you, and when you get in there you find a Hunter- maybe even one picked randomly by the game- who is fighting the boss but just can't beat it.

There's a variety of scenarios you could get out of this, which could help to show off the personalities of the Hunters. E.g. one might team up with you but get defeated at the end. One might team up with you, only to battle you for the octolith afterwards. If its your last octolith, one might actually just say "here, you take that, I'm done" and let you have it. Maybe one chickens out once you turn up, and they may or may not hang around outside the boss portal to grab you.

One final thing I think I'd do is make the Stronghold Void a more interesting place. Each one is ever-so-slightly visually different, to reflect the planet or station you came from, but they're all basically the same short, straight path down to the boss room. Personally I'd design them more like Leviathans, with a room or two between you and the boss, and the need to use a few of your newest power-ups to get to it.

As a side note, the cutscenes before and after bosses can go- though if they had eight different bosses, having the pre-boss cutscenes wouldn't be so bad since they could be a cool way to show off each new boss. The after-boss cutscenes are usually just the boss exploding, and you get that anyway when the screen whites out once you land the final blow, so unless something more significant can happen I would personally skip those cutscenes and go straight to getting the octolith. If there's gonna be cutscenes, save them for something else, probably something involving the other hunters.

Story and Final Boss

I'm gonna go ahead and say that while the story is totally a Prime rehash, I actually kinda like it. Yeah, fundamentally it's the same eldritch-abomination-crashed-into-our-planet-and-now-we're-all-dead. But there's something I find incredibly scary about the idea of Gorea, in a way. Based on the lore scans you get in game, it's clearly meant to be a REALLY overpowered big bad, even if the actual boss fight doesn't live up to the reputation.

The sense I get from the lore scans is that the Alimbic people were not quite like the Chozo or Luminoth- they're not all peaceful or wise. They're arrogant bastards who thought they were the best at everything until something very big came and knocked them down a peg or two, and wiped out their galaxy-spanning civilisation in the process. They repeatedly go on about how much their pride cost them, and that kinda ties into the hunters as well.

The lessons learned by the Alimbic people are ones the Hunters can take from. They conquered the whole Tetra galaxy with their supposedly unstoppable military force, like the greedy Kriken Empire from which Trace hails. But their pride was their downfall. They thought they were the best, their morals superior to all else, like Noxus and the Vhozon. But for all their faith in themselves, they lost the battle against Gorea. The last Alimbics desperately sought to save their kind, just as Spire seeks the Ultimate Power to save his. And Spire, like the rest, is falling into a trap- a lie put out by Gorea to lead to them to his prison so they can free him.

I think I would still centre the story around the hunters, with less focus on the Alimbic people than, say, Prime gives to its Chozo. But it would be interesting to see those hunters pick up the lore as Samus does and react to it. Perhaps have Spire give up on getting an artifact, and you wonder "why is that?" so you scan around expecting some kind of invisible force field but instead find a lore snippet left by one of the last Alimbics, telling of how they gave up trying to save their people and sacrificed themselves so they could protect other races in other galaxies from Gorea's path of destruction (or if you don't care about lore, you never have to load up the scan visor, just snag that artifact and be on your way.)

Some hunters won't learn, but maybe it will be their downfall. Maybe it is all their downfalls, that they refuse to learn and still go in search of this ultimate power on the Oubliette ship- meanwhile Samus knows what's up and instead of seeking the Ultimate Power, by the time she reaches the endgame she's just here to wreck Gorea's shit and make sure the other idiots don't unleash hell on the entire universe.

Maybe this next bit belongs in the previous section, but I'd have Gorea be a genuinely threatening last boss. I can kinda see why they went with the one-beam-at-a-time thing because the beams are literally the only power-ups in the entire game, but it still makes for an uninteresting fight. I did like the prophecy thing though, that was neat.

The first boss of Metroid Prime is scarier than the last boss of Hunters. What happened to “orgies of annihilation” Gorea?

Gorea can start out a little weak- it's fine, he's been stuck to this "seal sphere" for around two thousand years or so. But as the battle progresses, he needs to break through the walls, metaphorically and literally if needs be (think AM2R's Metroid Queen.) He needs to shape-shift, become a bit more unpredictable, get further and further away from the starting point as you desperately fight to contain him while he ploughs though the prison ship. He needs to be a boss as threatening as the Emperor Ing or worse, something that obviously wants to consume and destroy. You need to feel like you are the last line of defence between Gorea, cancerous swallower of galactic civilisations, and everything you care about protecting.

I think there needs to be an explanation for the Omega Cannon, too. It's clearly useful against Gorea, so why didn't the Alimbics use it? When you pick it up, you're told the consequences are too dire. So those consequences need to be seen. Maybe start out having it damage you when you use it, requiring skill to not kill yourself in the process (as long as it doesn't make the game unbeatable, it would have to be balanced well enough to seem powerful without being horrible to use.) Maybe the consequence is that it downright destroys the Alimbic Cluster- unfortunate for all the wildlife, but there were no Alimbic people left there anyway, and so the loss is arguably not as great as it would've been back in the day.

Alternatively, you being Samus Aran, you save the Alimbic Cluster by transporting the Oubliette ship back into the Infinity Void and then running back to your ship before the traditional endgame countdown finishes. Yay for you! You and your fellow hunters escape, possibly having gained a strange sense of camaraderie with all of them except for Sylux who you still need to hate for the purposes of Metroid Prime 4, and the universe is totally safe from Gorea because you annihilated him with a fate more brutal than even Phaaze got inflicted upon it. Also, if you have one endgame escape sequence you could cut out all the other post-boss escape sequences, which are kinda repetitive and annoying anyway.

Overall

On the whole, Hunters isn't necessarily a good game, but it's not an awfully bad one either. Everything I've covered above could make the game a lot cooler, but I'm not surprised that none of it was included in the game itself, because the game was basically designed around the multiplayer. If for some reason they ever remade Hunters, I'd hope to see at least some of the things I've brought up, or else any other good ideas that can spice the game up and bring it a little closer to the normal Metroid formula, gameplay-wise.

Personally, I still like Hunters a lot. Maybe that's nostalgia, maybe it's because I love the atmosphere and music a lot (as I've probably already said a few times) and maybe it's because I have a big imagination and can picture things as being better than they are, even if they aren't represented that way in-game. I can fully understand why many people have a neutral-to-hatred attitude towards the game. I didn't even mention the godawful hand-cramping control scheme which needs a SERIOUS revamp. But Hunters has the bare bones of a potentially fantastic concept for a Metroid game, and an improved version of it- one which treats the eponymous hunters much better for a start- could bring something brand new and brilliant to the table.

[mackinmacki]

Trading Partners

Rating: K

Word Count: 2892

Summary: Dia, Mari, and Kanan play Pokemon together.

Pairing: KanaMari (background)

Link: (FFN)

"Diaaa!" That loud, shrill voice was soon accompanied by a full-body tackle, and Dia yelped as she was taken to the ground by her enthusiastic friend. Grunting upon contact with the ground, she squirmed around to look up at the big smile on Mari's face.

"Wh-What do you want, Mari?" As much as she tried to sound stern, her voice never failed to drop to a more meek level when talking to Mari. It was the same with Kanan, if she was honest with herself. In their little group, she was the quiet one, the one who was in the background while her more boisterous and confident friends took center stage.

"Guess what I got last night?" Mari jumped off of Dia and stood in front of her, smiling even brighter if that was possible. At first, Dia didn't understand what she was talking about, but then it hit her. Eyes widening, she jumped back onto her feet and clasped her hands together.

"Y-You got a Houndour?!" At first, Dia hadn't been interested in getting involved in the Pokemon phenomenon. Though both Kanan and Mari had begun playing it, she had resisted, not wanting to get hooked. That all changed on her birthday, however. For a present, Mari had definitely surprised her with a DS and a copy of Pokemon Diamond. Though it was kind of cute that Mari had chosen the version that basically had her name as a title, she'd been hesitant to spend too much of her time playing. Then she actually started to play, and it didn't take long to get her hooked.

"Yup! You wanna trade?" For several weeks, Dia had been trying to get Mari to breed her a Houndour. The first time she'd seen its evolved form, Houndoom, it had been the most recent Pokemon that Mari had caught. She loved the design and really wanted one for herself, but of course it just so happened that Houndoom were only catchable in Pearl, the version that Mari had.

Originally, Mari had tried to trade Dia the evolved version, but she wouldn't take it. She couldn't just have the final form: she needed its previous form too. Plus, she wanted to add a Pokemon to her team that came from Mari. That seemed to make Mari happy, and she promised to deliver a Houndour, though apparently laziness had gotten the better of her. Well, better late than never.

"Y-Yes!" The two of them hurried back into the school to grab their backpacks, where their handhelds were stashed. Since their free time had just started, they had time to make the trade before they were ushered back to class. Fishing in her backpack, Dia grabbed her DS and flipped it open, turning it on and impatiently starting the game. She was really eager to get that Houndour.

Soon enough, the two of them had entered a nearby Pokemon Center and gone into the trading area, where a frustrated Dia had to catch Mari before they could start trading, since Mari was running around the small area. "C-Come on, Mari!"

"Sorry, sorry!" Mari laughed and finally stopped, allowing the two of them to begin the trade. In exchange for the Houndour, Dia had caught an Aron, which had been Mari's choice for a return Pokemon. According to her, Aron looked like 'a good friend', though Dia didn't know what that meant. She put up Aron first, only to be met with a pout from Mari. "Diaaa, why don't you ever name your Pokemon?"

"They already have names. The creators worked hard on them." That was one of the things that Dia remained stubborn about. She didn't want to name her Pokemon, since they already had names the creators thought were appropriate for the designs. Mari pouted some more, but if Dia went to rename it, they wouldn't have time to trade, so she just went along with it, putting up her Houndour in exchange.

Wait... That didn't look right. When she'd originally seen the evolved form in Mari's game, it had clearly been black. This one was blue, though. She stared at it in confusion, then inhaled sharply. When she'd been looking up information on the games, she remembered seeing something called a shiny. They were the same as regular Pokemon, but their color palettes were different, and they were incredibly rare. She'd never seen one before, even through breeding, but here one was, staring her right in the face.

"M-Mari, y-you got a shiny Houndour?"

"It's really shiny, isn't it?" Mari smiled proudly, pointing on Dia's screen where its name was: SHINY!!!

"Mari, this is really rare. It's almost impossible to get one of these." Dia's eyes were still wide in disbelief, unable to believe that Mari would just trade her such a rare Pokemon for some common Aron. Her morals wouldn't let her take it like that. "I-I can't take this. You should keep it. You're the one who obtained it."

"I got it for you, though." Rather than listening to what Dia was saying, Mari pushed A on the 'accept trade' option, looking at Dia and waiting for her to accept as well. "Dia deserves the coolest Pokemon!" The statement made Dia blush, but Mari wasn't backing down, so she had little choice but to hit accept as well. Was she really getting a shiny Houndour for her team?

When the trade was finally completed, and the congratulatory music declared her the proud new owner of a shiny Houndour, she couldn't stop herself from smiling. It was so cute, and it was even better because it came from a friend. "Th-Thank you, Mari!" She really wanted to show Kanan, since she knew that her other friend hadn't obtained any shinies either. As luck would have it, Kanan entered the room at that point, apparently having been looking around for them.

Excitedly, Dia rushed over to Kanan to show her what she'd gotten, while Mari followed with that prideful smile still on her face. Just as predicted, Kanan was shocked and ecstatic, and the three of them celebrated their first shiny together. They could only celebrate for a short time though, since class was going to start again soon. The two of them quickly saved and shut off their handhelds, stashing them back in their backpacks before heading outside with Kanan. Dia couldn't wait to get home and train her new Houndour.

From that birthday back in elementary school until their first year of high school, Dia kept playing Pokemon with her friends. She'd moved on from Diamond to Black and then to Y, but throughout each generation, she'd transfer a select few Pokemon to each new game. Even when she became forced to pay an annual fee to use the Pokemon Bank in order to keep transferring, she did it because she wanted her favorite Pokemon with her in each new generation.

By the time Pokemon X and Y came out, Kanan was no longer playing, leaving just Dia and Mari to keep playing. However, Dia's younger sister Ruby also began to play, so they still had a third person to trade and battle with. It still felt weird without Kanan, though. The only thing she had left as proof of Kanan's previous gaming was a level eighty-five Salamence with the OT name of Kanan.

Most of the Pokemon she had received from Kanan and Mari were transferred from game to game, but her absolute favorites were that Salamence and her trusty shiny Houndoom. He may have started out as a cute level one puppy, but by the time he was transferred to Y, he was a ferocious level one hundred beast of a canine. Though he was way too high-leveled to use in regular battling, Dia refused to leave him behind.

Even better, the new generation of Pokemon had introduced Mega Evolution, and both Houndoom and Salamence had mega evolutionary forms to go with it. Her, Mari, and Ruby all worked hard to collect every mega stone, and she very nearly squealed with joy the first time she mega evolved her Houndoom in battle.

However, there wasn't as much time for gaming as there was before. Her, Kana, and Mari had decided to finally start their own idol group, which meant more time was spent practicing. On top of that, Kanan didn't play anymore, so neither her nor Mari wanted to make her feel unwelcome by continuing to play while they were all hanging out. She still enjoyed playing when she found the time, however.

Things didn't truly change until after their first real performance, however. They'd been slated to compete in an event in Tokyo, but Mari had sustained an injury that made performing extremely difficult for her. She'd been prepared to gut it out, but Kanan wouldn't have it, and when it was their turn to perform, she just... didn't. Stage fright is what she had claimed, that the bright lights of Tokyo had paralyzed her vocal chords. She told Dia the truth, though: that she'd done it on purpose so as not to aggravate Mari's injury.

Dia hated lying to Mari, but she agreed with Kanan that it wouldn't do them - or Mari - any good by performing and having her worsen her injury. Besides, Kanan was her friend too, which only made it more confusing what to do. In the end, she chose to keep what Kanan had done a secret, a decision she came to regret on the day that Mari left.

Kanan had come to believe that Mari was wasting her time in their quaint little seaside town, when she could be out somewhere grander, becoming someone truly incredible. That was the reason why she pushed Mari to study abroad, and despite her great reluctance, she eventually agreed.

Watching Mari leaving in her helicopter was the worst moment of Dia's young life. She stood next to Kanan as the helicopter took off, barely able to make herself wave as they both watched their friend eventually disappear into the sky, perhaps forever. Neither she nor Kanan knew what to say, so they both silently went home, a gulf already starting to open up between them.

That night, Dia cried harder than she'd ever cried before, sobbing inconsolably into her pillow. It hadn't even been twenty-four hours and she already missed Mari enormously. It didn't take long for that sadness to turn into anger, though. She was mad at Kanan for making Mari leave, even if her intentions had been good. They had both considered Mari to be a best friend, and now she was gone. Dia blamed Kanan.

Before school one day, the two of them got into a heated argument over it. Kanan reiterated that she had done what she'd done because she wanted what was best for Mari, but Dia refused to forgive her for making their friend leave. Wasn't it Mari's choice whether or not she went? Things already felt lonely without Mari.

Of course, things became even lonelier without Kanan. Their friendship was, for all intents and purposes, done at that point, even if neither of them had said that they didn't want to be friends anymore. Friends usually talked though, and neither of them would break the wall of ice that had formed between them. It even strained Dia's relationship with Ruby. Nothing bad had happened between them, but one of the things that had been a bonding point between them was idols. Before the idol group, it was Ruby whom Dia had shared her love of idols with. The disintegration of their group had left a bad taste in her mouth though, and even the mention of idols made her internally recoil.

In a moment of angry petulance, she turned on her 3DS again. Without all the idol practicing, there was time now to play Pokemon, but seeing those creatures she'd gotten through trading made her feel ill. She felt intense sorrow looking at her strongest team because Mari's Houndoom was there, while also feeling a blood-boiling anger due to Kanan's Salamence being there as well. At that point, she nearly released all of Kanan's Pokemon in a fit of rage.

She couldn't do it, though. They were just creatures in a video game: they hadn't done anything wrong. Besides, even in her worst moments, she couldn't get herself to throw away the only remaining things that connected her to her friends. Well, former friends, it would seem. Instead of releasing all of them, she instead hid the Pokemon she'd gotten from Kanan away in the final box of her PC. Then she closed her 3DS and cried again.

Dia's third year in high school was a lot more eventful than her second. Out of the blue, Mari showed up again, claiming to be the director of the whole school. This was a claim that ended up being true, leaving Dia in stunned silence. If she'd ever believed Mari was going to return, this was not the way she expected it to happen.

Since her second year, Dia had taken over the student council roles at the school. They weren't getting many applicants - none, really - and the students didn't really want to deal with the work that came with being part of the student council. Dia took to it with aplomb, enjoying the fact that all the work helped distract her from the negative feelings she'd been having concerning Kanan and the departure of Mari. In a way, she was glad that she did all of it alone. It proved to her that she could do things on her own, and she didn't need anyone else to prop her up.

That all changed when Mari came back. When she returned, everything seemed to cycle back to their first year. The idol dreams were revived once more, successfully at that. Kanan returned and, after a big emotional blowup between herself and Mari, their friendship began to repair itself. It was like things hadn't changed at all.

Something had changed, though. At first, Dia had been upset that Mari returned without even telling her, but she eventually felt better because she was back. Then she was further delighted that Kanan and Mari resolved their feud and became friends again, because that meant they could all go back to being good friends as well. That wasn't exactly the case, though.

On the positive side, she and Kanan were able to become friends again. It was like their own feud hadn't even happened... and maybe that was the problem. With Mari back and a new idol group born, everything kept going like what had happened in the past didn't even occur. It wasn't that Dia wanted to reopen those old wounds, but it didn't feel right to act almost like newfound friends rather than what they used to be.

What was worse was that working out their problems brought Kanan and Mari closer. They started spending a lot more time together, and it was clear that they were becoming really into each other. That left Dia on the outs, and she would often find herself trudging along behind them, trying to not notice the way they stared at each other, or the way they seemed to forget that she was even there.

There would be times where she'd pull out her 3DS again, and boot up her copy of Pokemon Y. She hadn't even bothered to ask if Mari still played, since that would mean she'd have to stop looking at Kanan for five seconds to answer the question. Besides, the topic had never been brought up, so she felt justified in assuming that, like Kanan, Mari had stopped playing.

When the game loaded up, she opened the PC and went into the final box. There were all of the Pokemon that Kanan had traded her, hidden away due to her anger. She sat there staring at them for a couple moments, then she grabbed Salamence and dragged her into the party, right next to her shiny Houndoom.

Looking at the two of them together, she smiled a bitter smile. Right underneath them, in the third slot, was her Empoleon. She had picked Piplup as her starter all those years ago, and like the others he had followed his trainer from game to game. It seemed fitting that her starter would be in the third slot, since that was where she apparently was meant to be.

After exiting the PC, she looked up from her 3DS and out the window, sighing wistfully as she stared at the night sky. Everything seemed so peaceful outside, completely opposite of how she felt. Things had definitely changed, but they had made everyone else happy. Why did she have to be the only one who felt this way?

Looking at her team, it reminded her of elementary school, back when her, Kanan, and Mari were an inseparable trio, not a duo plus one. She wished so badly that things could go back to the way they were. Now all she had left was a team of Pokemon from a different time: a group of pixels that represented better days.

Resigning herself to her fate, Dia flopped down on her bed and took her old team to the Elite Four, allowing herself to drown in the memories. It was all she had left.