The art of Metroid
An analysis of the composition of the franchise’s bidirectional games, from Super Metroid to the Metroid Dread.
at·mos·phere
the pervading tone or mood of a place, situation, or work of art.
Super Metroid
Art can provoke emotions, be it joy, fear, sadness… The tone of the piece is proposed by the one who creates it.
Metroid was first introduced to me in Super Metroid, the game undoubtedly brought me emotions and placed me in another universe. I could only understand its concepts and inspirations many years later, at first I could feel the fear, the tension, the isolation, then I could understand how the fantastic was created, and how it was possible to evoke these feelings on such hardware as limited as the SNES.
We play as Samus Aran, who is on a mission to retrieve a larva stolen from a space laboratory, these larvae are able to extract energy from an unknown source present in living beings and represent a threat to the galaxy.
The game starts with apparatuses that clearly resemble technology as we know it, even though it is advanced and in the distant future, we still distinguish it as a place inhabited by humans.
The hues of blue colors are very similar to those used in Christopher Nolan’s films, as the most obvious reference from the movie Alien, which also helps to give more organic shapes.
During the opening, we learned about the past of the series, the Metroid stolen from the lab, it was a specimen found in its egg stage by Samus who witnessed her transition to the larval stage, the Metroid immediately recognized Samus as her mother, in the same way as animals imprint.
A little further on, Samus arrives on the planet Zebes in the search of the stolen Metroid.
The contrast between the two scenes makes clear the change of tone, colors, familiarity, the planet’s bleak backdrop, its purple colors, working in the lower light spectrum.
Inside the crater, technology in contrast to an environment where life has gathered, covered part of a civilization, some structures stand out among organic soil.
The walls of the facility seem covered in some kind of moss.
Local technology evokes the unknown, beyond the comprehension of the station’s machines, caricatures emerge from the stones showing their teeth, causing strangeness even in artificial structures
Chozo composes the Metroid mythology, an ancient society with mysterious technologies due to its advanced knowledge.
Although it brings fear and evokes a song that causes chills, this is where the character acquires his powers.
The petrified alien has a certain similarity with the alien found in the Alien Movie, in a similar state, from which the series takes some artistic tricks.
The Chozos is one of the adventure’s themes. Its history and practices are shrouded in mystery, its petrified poses, positions similar to hieroglyphs or Sumerian drawings, constructions, and technologies, evoke shivers for what we are not able to understand, a growing culture shrouded in themes like biology, technology, and archeology.
Chozos are responsible for the fear created in the atmosphere, of what is to come, similar to “The Space Jockey” from the Alien series.
The scenarios seek to draw the ground as irregularly as possible, using organic shapes on its edges.
Geometric shapes are easy to recognize and already have a name associated with them, such as squares, triangles, and rectangles, these shapes are less common in nature and more present in artificial objects.
Organic forms are abundant in nature, and besides making the composition more interesting in general, it is fundamental when trying to create an environment that seems alive.
This attention to shapes is meticulous, they composed the scenarios thinking about the shading of blocks to the darkest parts.
Life on the surface where we came from is the most inhospitable given the planet’s climatic conditions, but apparently, the fauna expands as we go deeper.
Brinstar is all colored to reflect the plurality of life.
Areas closer to the energy source are more reddish.
Regions farther away are green.
Others are even pink with strands of spores floating in the air.
Fungi produce light from the electricity with a symbiotic relationship with the energy conductors as seen in the background. Life developed from the surface water and found its ways to prolong itself.
It’s a narrative detail, totally unnecessary to the main plot, but gives the background a consistency to make sense artistically and how the game surpasses its limitations giving a credible atmosphere.
From the caves of Crateria towards the heat of the machines, ancient technology gives resources to create a great greenhouse.
It is noticeable the abundance of micro bacteria life in different types of fungi. It is difficult to find a single space without detail, nothing ever is dull or boring.
Biology, and its relationship between regions, its sense of continuity, is another theme that, in addition to the Chozos, demonstrates its importance and helps to create an atmosphere in which we can believe it exists.
In addition to the series name being aimed at a larva, biology is one of the fundamentals if not, the most important foundation of the series.
(which the Metroid prime series has taken note of and works perfectly well)
Chozo chose to remain Maridia’s environment as natural as possible, demonstrating their respect for nature.
One of the pillars of this adventure is the “Unknown” and the satisfaction of the “Discovery”
The unknown can evoke the fear hidden in some of its mysteries, through monuments, statues, fauna, which cause strangeness, but it gives us the opportunity to go deeper and glimpse such mysteries and stirs us to imagine what we can achieve.
For this to work, it is necessary to make these elements dialogue with each other, so they can appear conceivable.
Within this abundant and diverse setting, the game uses a common narrative in literature in the form of pixels without using a single word, passages that stand out from the rest, frighten what may exist beyond, and pierce curiosity, using different forms, creates immediately a connection with the player of what’s to come, giving out baits to keep the player intrigued.
The unknown is evoking itself, changing its colors, its faces, demonstrating ancient, mysterious technologies, whose reasons there is not a single line of text to explain, but with enough detail to raise questions.
Super Metroid bosses are the only ones in the series to be inspired by monsters with a degree of detail straight from manga and horror movies.
The monster details seem to have been inspired by Hideshi Hino’s mangas
The ending
Metroid is about life, about biological nature, this theme has surrounded the opening and ends the same way. When the last boss is about to take the final blow to Samus
The Metroid intervenes and uses its abilities to absorb Mother Brain’s energy in an attempt to save its supposed mother.
The Metroid then uses the extracted energy to recover the damage done to Samus
In a heartbreaking scene, Mother Brain destroys the Metroid, its pieces fall over our hero
Samus despite belonging to another species feels the same empathy as Metroid. This causes her to awake in a rage by her mother instinct now with her newly delivered energy, which allows her to stop the game’s main villain.
This ending is highly emotional, as every human being can relate to maternal nature, it connects life to the responsibility of care, the same connection created between Metroid and the main character, the power to fight for life through empathy not only awakens in Samus but also the player, becoming one of the most epic moments in video game history.
In the end, Samus escapes Zebes alive and well.
Metroid Fusion
Metroid Fusion takes the series to a different narrative, there are no natural biomes, only greenhouses, each of which has its role in maintaining life in the Station, but it has a reason, the station is a labor research zone.
The biological theme remains, however, the atmosphere hasn’t held, there isn’t very rich attention to detail as seen in Super Metroid.
The Plot
Samus participates in an expedition to planet SR388, where she is infected by a parasite nicknamed X. Her armor becomes part of her body now infected by the parasite.
However a cure is found through the rest of the Metroid larva that was preserved after the encounter in Zebes, a vaccine is produced and applied to Samus.
Samus now has the help of an onboard computer named Adam.
In moments of greater tension, the audio diminishes and steps of the now villain are heard, the parasite SA-X, with muffled steps, makes it sound like heartbeats as if they were coming from within the character or the player itself.
X-Parasites can create a copy from its host.
Metroid Fusion presents an unusual perspective of creating tension, from the safety and familiarity of being in a bright and colorful environment in a disconcerting situation.
In Metroid Fusion, the sense of continuity from the background is found in the construction of fear.
It makes the player imagine a monster beforehand, builds his figure, the monster and the feeling of danger are subjective, so each player imagines it in a different way.
Metroid Fusion does everything correctly to create an enemy that brings fear and tension.
Meeting with SA-X makes you feel imposing, unable to face her, it cannot be stopped, damaged, delayed, hit, or destroyed, it leaves you powerless.
The sounds of footsteps and heartbeats, make you feel the tension, like a prey hiding from a predator.
Platform designs aren’t plentiful, leaving you vulnerable and feeling confined, It makes you want to hide and remain still until the nightmare is over.
The tension, the silence, the rarefied sound effects, the impotence in the face of danger, finally, the heartbeat sounds disappear in her absence, bringing a sense of relief.
A mistake that many games make is to turn a scary situation into a moment for fun, here the danger is a moment of caution, and to avoid prolonging the situation. It’s time to wait, and move as necessary.
Movies that make parodies of horror movies like to play with the possibility of the characters causing pain and even moments of shame for the entity that should impose danger, this is something many games strive for, but here it’s been made perfectly.
SA-X works like being in a trapped environment with a monster incapable of feeling fear or pain, and it doesn’t even show any humanity beyond its appearance which is a disfigured reflection.
The Bosses
Bosses are more colorful and comical, as the color composition that surrounds the entire look of the game, the highlight is on account of SA-X
The Ending
The Super Metroid narrative repeats itself, The doppelganger returns alive and tries to save Samus at the final blow against the last enemy, an artificially produced Metroid named Omega.
The X parasite present in the doppelganger when destroyed turns itself to Samus who absorbs it, acquiring a new strength, also recovering its original clothing.
Without all the maternal symbology and emotion involved, it loses a bit of meaning and becomes a trope in the series, a parody of itself.
The whole context of the work is driven by the SA-X plot, it’s a great game, but it doesn’t try to reach as high as Super Metroid did, opting for a more linear path, but works pretty well.
Metroid Zero Mission
The origins of the 2D series are retold to expand on its original form
The Plot
Space pirates get their hands on Metroids, they plan to use them as a biological weapon against those who oppose them, Samus mission is to destroy both Metroids and Mother Brain, the adventure happens in the Same Zebes from Super Metroid
The pixelated blocks in the background were replaced by images done by hand. For this, they used artwork pasted to the background that doesn’t blend perfectly in contrast to what is seen on the main layer.
Details in the background are repeated to fill the screen in the background, making a technical limitation clear, the images are expressed vertically and repeated in a horizontal line most of the time.
Despite using darker colors than Fusion, it is still clear that happier and more saturated tones have permeated the series, even in dark places, the colors are quite vivid, the background is more comical with exaggerated shapes, closer to children's cartoons in more cheerful colors.
They took the opportunity to pay more attention to the Chozo civilization and explore its aspects, where the game shines the most and uses resources similar to Super Metroid.
The Chozo buildings seem carved in stone, the glow on the specimen’s face reminds the statues scattered by the same Zebes in Super Metroid, which had the same reddish colors in their eyes.
We find a language similar to hieroglyphics, which matches the appearance of Egyptian figures.
In a meditative position, the statue demonstrates a little of the Chozo culture, always mixing technology with shapes and materials carved to resemble organisms, made up of simple materials.
We know a little about Chozo technology, acquiring some skills that appear in an unknown language, with them it is possible to interact with blocks drawn with hieroglyphics, reinforcing once again the mystery between high technology and the use of stones.
It is as if the Chozo have overcome the technological limitations contained in electrical conductors and the use of metals such as copper, yet the source of energy is always a mystery.
The Bosses
Zero mission has a nicer arrangement of colors compared to fusion, however, the game remains more cheerful and comic and this also reflects on the Bosses.
Metroid Samus Returns
The game Happens just after Metroid Zero Mission and a mission before Super Metroid.
The Plot
Samus is sent to planet SR388 to investigate missing Federation members while on the same mission, annihilate the Metroids present.
The game presents low poly visuals and very saturated colors, to the point of hurting the eyes at times, the distance of the darker colors is more than felt compared to Super Metroid.
The planet has sharp rocks on the surface and seems to suffer from strong solar radiation, the scenery is not very organic, limited to simple geometric shapes (squares and triangles), going in the opposite direction to what has been known since then.
The 3D transposition doesn’t seem to benefit much, the textures lack greater artistic attention, what the scene tells us here is that we are facing rocks and maybe some roots, little or nothing we can extract information about the life of the planet and its atmosphere, it is dull and boring to look at.
The new biome is similar, rocks, a background without much creativity, little organic in its shapes, predominantly triangles and squares.
Strong use of purple in several layers also limits the observation far beyond the main perspective.
After half an hour and everything is also very similar, the rocks and the biome do not say much different from what was seen, rocks similar to the same ones seen in the entrance, now with water lines and a blue hue.
Hours in, another biome, similar shapes, Rocks are similar but covered by a red overlay, the fauna is almost non-existent except for the existence of enemies, the overlay of saturated colors to make it difficult to appreciate the scenery comes back again.
The game misses the opportunity to make intelligent use of scale, angle, and perspective, present in the new approach to 3D elements, except for moments of battles and cutscenes.
The Bosses
The bosses mostly are, different kinds of Metroid, pretty similar between themselves, evolving little by little as the game progresses.
What happened?
The sets lack an art concept that has a minimum of ambition. We see rocks without any characteristics that make them unique and differentiate themselves from each other, they seem very artificial, saturation is sometimes used as an artifice to limit visibility, any peculiarity of any kind does not seem to exist between the beginning and the end, simple squares and triangles permeate the objects that make up most of the scenery.
There is no linking in between these scenarios, the change is sudden and the biomes do not make it possible to trace a story of the planet's fauna, which prevents us from engaging in a convincing atmosphere.
There are no mega structures of fungi, plant specimens or insects. Enemies seem to live in a cycle of cannibalism or their diet is mostly made of rocks, when any form of life exists, it looks like it’s been hand-picked like putting icing on a cake.
The game overall has a generic presentation, the scenario does not arouse curiosity, whether because of the richness of details, the fauna present, or the lack of a larger enigma of an anomalous nature.
They insist that video games are art, but when art is abandoned and money prevails, very few realize the difference between art and technical efficiency to meet tight deadlines.
As an example of comparison, a small region of Brinstar alone has a richer beauty than the entire Samus Returns.
Metroid Dread
It is the first game after Super Metroid to receive the attention and bigger budget, destined for a home console.
The Plot
After the events of Metroid Fusion, the galactic federation receives a call where the parasite X appears alive, the call came from a planet called ZDR, scout robots were sent but none came back, Samus is summoned to the planet because she is the only person that is now immune to the parasite.
Samus descends on one elevator, in the deep parts of the planet ZDR she encounters a Chozo who starts a battle against her.
A battle breaks out against a Chozo right away, Samus uses acrobatics and faces the supposed danger face-to-face, losing only because she doesn’t have enough fighting skills.
I felt an abandonment of the need to create tension and fear as in the series did before Samus Returns, also the need to create a plot less focused on the action alone.
The mysterious Chozo seems too tangible and a normal action movie villain.
After losing the battle, Samus wakes up on the ground in…
Artaria
Deep underground Caverns
The evolution from Samus Returns is very noticeable, the game starts in one of the most creative scenarios in the game.
The Chozo in the background gains an unnatural aspect, with a certain artificiality made of some kind of metal, proposed by this new artistic concept where the race embraces technology and weaponry, in the same way as humans and little organic materials will be seen, no more technology mixed with stones.
It is also one of the few scenarios where it uses a front layer to overlay vegetation is completely black colors.
I can’t help but notice these square edges with a blurry effect, maybe it’s some leftover from what’s underneath this object on the same layer.
From the point of view of a video game, polygon counting, and techniques related to graphics, its amazing, but unfortunately, it looks like an evolved version of the previous game, there’s still no life of any kind, the scenario is basically composed of squares and triangles, uninteresting in composition.
The sense of continuity is lost, where is the other half of the tree? And not another specimen of the same vegetation type or any other? How did the tree get there anyway?
Another thing I didn’t appreciate is how the scenery is cut by these black overlays, sadly it’s not a smoother transition as I demonstrated in Super Metroid, maybe it’s time to never expect anything similar again.
It is clear that they learned from their mistakes since Samus Returns, now the existence of springs occurs in more complex and interesting ways, water has a beginning, a destination, and interacts with the main layer.
Despite the almost absolute absence of life, the game creates very interesting structures visually, again we saw the water spread over the ground, an important detail to create a convincing scenario, missing detail that could have made all the difference in Samus Returns.
The game creates a great expectation with the beginning, I expected to see the structures become more alien, with organic forms, seeing the fauna proliferate and expand, but this is the view in the same area, also the most prevalent art.
Details often are just cables and metal plates forming cube angles at different rotations.
Visually it is much more interesting compared to the previous adventure, but far from Super Metroid.
The previous scenario dies completely, there is no interaction between all this technology and the external caves, this environment is full of heat and magma, which does not influence the amount of ice and water knocking on the door.
I don’t understand how magma is leaning against waterfalls with no correlation.
The game features the first scenario with chozo technology: a magma vacuum.
The Chozos use magma to operate elevators and doors, the alien technology is not very intelligent or even mysterious, there is no use of rocks that move on their own here, it also seems an inhospitable place in contempt of nature, the similarity with human technology is almost the same.
The rooms are clean and sophisticated, free of grooves, marks, and any symbology, it is not only artificial in its shapes, but it doesn’t seem to hide any culture, it is as interesting as observing a marble table for minutes.
As bizarre as it is, the statues where we acquire new abilities are here, but they don’t have any connection with the architecture of the scenario, a conflict between the tradition of old games and the new design.
The reverence of statues in Sumerian poses, Egyptian hieroglyphics die here, there’s none of that in environments that look like production lines for hospital supplies.
As long the game progresses it follows this principle of pressurizing magma, transporting, and pressurizing again to generate energy, the rooms all have the same aesthetic in most parts of the game, no mysterious energy or functioning, no faces cut into stones, no supernatural or appealing to the mystic.
The Chozo world is not very different from what was shown in Metroid Fusion, where there are human installations.
From this point on, I had already given up hope of the game would be capable of recognizing the topic of biology as an important issue, also the need to create strangeness, discomfort, and mystery around the Chozos.
Cataris
Circulation of energy-generating magma
Cataris has two key arts, the usual rocks, very similar to the ones in Samus Returns, but better placed, Columnar jointing in rocks is formed from cooling lava flows.
The second part is the pressurization of magma, nothing very interesting visually apart from primitive shapes, the scenario is mostly to give a context of energy extraction on the planet and its transport.
There is a similarity here with Metroid Fusion, where the atmosphere is all directed to a single purpose, details that do not contribute to the plot will probably not exist, how life would interact with these machines, the impact on fauna, details that could mark the Chozo history, civilizations that would live here or history and archaeological fragments do not exist.
The departures from Cataris has one of the best scenarios in the game.
Dairon
Biological Research
(It looks like another fabric)
It looks more like robot manufacturing and one more area where primitive forms predominate, an excess of gray makes the place even more inhospitable.
Here the game conducted most of the adventure, it’s 3 hours of similar areas, with steel plates everywhere and floors without great detail, no writings, or complex structures, different perspectives and more interesting proportions, it’s all very similar, the game becomes artistically dull and start to get repetitive.
Something I appreciate is the alternative paths seen in the background. However, it does not arouse curiosity as would find something similar to this:
The storytelling and artwork of the backgrounds are not interesting and meaningful, if it was replaced by Strider (2014) it would be made no difference at all.
But between square and lifeless forms, Burenia is located.
Burenia
water site
Burenia is the more organic and the most alive environment so far. With a local life dominated by fish, it is a relief to arrive in this place and be able to breathe in a visually beautiful environment, it is almost 3 hours of the game, more than half to see a little life in such an inhospitable environment.
The responsible studio loves to hide the more distant perspective leaving a very saturated color, it is only possible to appreciate the silhouette of marine animals in the background.
This art style reminds me of the game “Another World”, it's pretty cool but I don’t feel it fits in Metroid.
A scene in symbiosis with technology, corals, branches, and plants, one of the most beautiful scenery in the series since Super Metroid.
Here the Chozos decided to demonstrate their appreciation for nature, keeping animals and flora free, the scenery is more alive and organic.
Ghavoran
Caves near ZDR surface
The final stretch of the game is very interesting, beautiful, things get a lot better.
Ghavoran is richer in details, more diverse shapes, the foreground with a black hue returns to show its face, and tree trunks emerge from the bottom of the planet, the region where we are located seems to be crevices where huge trees narrow their branches.
Sometimes light enters the place and creates an atmosphere with cloudiness, it is the second most beautiful area in the game and one of the only ones that I believe has an interesting atmosphere, good use of lightning, objects of different scales, wavy and spiral shapes.
Elun
The home of a Chozo
We finally arrived at the most interesting place in the 2D series after Super Metroid, Elun
Elun is a tiny region and home to a Chozo, its entrance has the most beautiful image in the game.
The humidity, the stalactite shapes, the mosses, all seem believable to exist in a wet well.
The realism here is pretty different from all the game artwork, it has a more realistic look that scares for its beauty and grandeur.
It is possible to notice the greatness and how Samus is tiny compared to the immensity of nature.
Everything gets more life with a little change in perspective, an example of how the game could have more interesting views, with more natural shapes, rocks could be more deformed as seen here, reminding huge stalactites, which escape the basic shapes between squares and triangles seen in abundance that don’t resonate well with natural environments.
This region is perfect to exemplify how they miss the opportunity to use 3D perspective features to give more life, sense of scale, and interesting angles, neglected in both games, there are only 2 rooms like that, the next one is…
The other room is also very beautiful with the same richness of detail, perspective, and interesting proportions.
It seems an inspiration in the movie Prometheus, it’s a relief to see something like that, knowing the game have looked for inspiration in other corners.
But as we say here in Brazil:
poor people’s joy doesn’t last long
Soon and from now on the game goes back to the doldrums of using simple geometries and inhospitable environments, the Chozo house is basically composed of metal plates and absent from life, similar to countless other rooms in the game.
Each area of the game tried to tell a story of how energy extraction and general supplies work, but here it is just a home, a house, we can witness a Chozo artifact that reveres previous games for the first time, in the entire architecture we saw so far, the drawings show a Chozo commanding another less tall Chozos among some creatures.
Plot 2
Samus finds a Chozo who claims to belong to a tribe called Thoha his name is Quiet Robe, he says that who attacked Samus is a Chozo called Raven Beak.
Raven beak is a Chozo with superior intelligence and power among the Chozo race, which belongs to the Mawkin tribe.
All this intelligence and they only make metal, doors, ziplines and elevators, extract energy by pressurizing magma, he would be amazed by the technology of air conditioning here at my home.
The tribes united to eradicate the Metroid in SR388, the leader Raven Beak craves power and he plans to use Metroid and Parasites X to conquer the galaxy.
He is the only Chozo belonging to the Thoha tribe that actually lives, he is the only one able to control the Metroids.
Recon robots are being used to try to extract the Metroid DNA that lives inside Samus.
As he tells this story, he is murdered by a Chozo soldier, not very intelligent at all.
Briefly, the Chozos are divided into two tribes, one called the Thoha and one called the Mawkin, one longing for peace and the other for power.
A sad ending and a predictable conflict, an uninteresting scenario in all respects, to finally understand the story of the Chozos, Metroid seems to fall into the same mistake as the Midi-chlorians and Alien: Covenant
Explaining a mystery too much and the more you explain, the less interesting it becomes.
With a bad tale, the classic satan figure, and weak characters in supporting roles that exist to die, themes confused between its origins and its modern explanation.
Hanubia
The end.
Exterior with rain, triangular mountains as seen in SR388, it is possible to see the ships of the Chozo Soldiers that look like the insignia of the rebel alliance of Star Wars.
Enemy alien capsules we found in the game (a classic).
Bosses
The game has the best bosses of the series, they are not scary as Super Metroid (Except Kraid that was taken directly from it), but the cinematics and presentation are awesome.
However it is not possible to be afraid, in Super Metroid seeing Kraid, the bosses' music, and their screams, almost made me have a heart attack every time I saw a new one. Just like the fight against Chozo in the beginning, the scenes seem to be more oriented towards an action movie than a horror one.
I haven’t touched on the gameplay subject throughout this article, but here it’s important to say that this whole artistic design change makes sense when viewed from a gameplay perspective.
Samus is very fast, with skill and animations worthy of a Jackie Chan movie with Megaman maneuvers, we hardly see Samus as someone vulnerable, the same way she always seems to be running, we see the scenarios as mere obstacles to demonstrate skills, everything it’s very fast and action-oriented.
It’s hard to see Chozo from the beginning as someone who imposes fear, as powerful as he is, we only see him as an obstacle to be overcome, as a villain in a shounen anime, and Samus as the main character who must unlock her powers to overcome him.
EMMI
The EMMI rooms are saturated in white and all very similar, the EMMI robots change their skills and colors, but the model itself is the same.
From the very first encounter, we discover how the creature can be counterattacked.
Samus just do some kung fu moves on the threat right after seeing it
Just after, the game teaches how to kill it.
EMMI zones are a test to see who runs faster and repeats the same movements from the tutorial session, there are many obstacles, platforms, the environment is big enough with many shortcuts, hiding makes it easier for a while but the predominant strategy is to run and use the scenario in your favor, and when possible destroy the threat.
There is no need to hide and this doesn’t even work most of the time, the strategy encouraged is to keep moving and sweat obstacles to jump over the EMMI using shortcuts, the threat is easy to avoid and easy to destroy when the game allows it.
I don’t get why people tend to find them scary, only if your biggest fear is being chased by R2D2 trying to stick you a needle.
My biggest fear was getting another game over.
The game doesn’t create tension making you hide out in fear, the tension is just the need to overcome an obstacle, besides knowing everything about the villain from the very first moment, it’s the predictable and fragile enemy.
In addition, you are warned in advance when there will be a room with an EMMI and it is also visible on the map, destroying any surprises around the enemy, you know when it happens and chooses how to face it.
It could be EMMI or a goose, it wouldn’t matter, everything Metroid Fusion made right to create fear around SA-X Metroid Dread did wrong with the EMMI.
The Ending
Samus has its DNA altered in such a way that it is now the Metroid larva itself (looks human to me).
But Samus also has Chozo DNA from the Thoha tribe
But it also has DNA from the Mawkin tribe
As a Metroid, she now possesses a power called “killer instinct”.
Samus has the DNA of everything that has been presented so far, an excessive use of the same narrative resource.
It ends with a very youthful theme, a hidden power now sleeps inside Samus capable of giving her a “killer instinct” and fleeing from dangerous situations.
From now on, the narrative features used in shounen are all too obvious.
The pop culture references won’t stop, as in Alien 3, Samus is the threat of the galaxy for being a Metroid larva.
The Artificial Intelligence called ADAM that led Samus to the planet and guided her the entire time was nothing but Raven Beak.
Shortly thereafter, The Mawkin Tribe Leader makes the revelation: “Luke, I’m your father”.
Okay, now it’s getting ridiculous already.
It sounds like a series of more obvious pop culture clippings placed in sequence to explain mysteries of a dozen-year-old franchise, but that’s exactly it.
After the fight between father and daughter, the father explains that he wants to make an army of clones.
Well, I said it was literally obvious cutouts from pop culture.
Hanged, Samus begins a screaming sequence that culminates in the transformation of his armor awakening the Metroid “Killer Instinct”.
With that, she destroys the last Chozo and escapes in her ship.
Be a Sci-fi franchise eternalized by its mysteries or live long enough to become a joke trying to explain them 20 years later.
Conclusion
The Chozos and all their culture and mystery culminated in a non-extraordinary adventure, with scenarios mostly common to view, there was nothing interesting to see or learn about them beyond a character Chozo being good and another one being bad.
As a hollow shell, The remaining Chozo Statues do not dialogue to anything in the game similar, even inside a Planet habited by the same race that created those statues.
Last Chozo of the Thoha race died. After the tragedy, Samus discovered that she had become a Metroid, with unknown energy within her that could be discovered and reused in times of stress.
The main focus was totally an uninteresting and predictable plot, there was so little information under these steel walls, all they were saying is “General Chozo is bad”.
Biology is not the main theme, it is evoked only when we are in a region that needs it by an obligation, but there is no dialogue on these themes and they do not even prevail, the nature of the environment was not even mentioned during the adventure which was limited to a succession of plot twists ego-centered by the main character and the villain
Samus just doesn't seem to have fear, she’s just the regular anime character that has the urge to do poses in face of a greater danger.
The Metroid larva was just an organism whose greater power was its energy supply, this could be used in so many interesting and more mature routes, but it was reduced into being a living demon inside the main character for obvious tropes.
Samus unleash a power using her new awakened form to destroy the entire facility.
This is something far off from what people can normally feel any empathy or can identify with (unless it’s a brain-damaged otaku), the main conclusion is as superficial and artificial as the game background.
The worst end of a series is murdering its mythology
