A lonely hunter
For those who have already played it, it will not be difficult to recall the emotions experienced with the first three Metroid Prime: the trilogy turned out to be an unforgettable experience, a way of refreshing the Metroid franchise while remaining faithful to its spirit.
In the shoes of Samus Aran, a beautiful and deadly size hunter, we have been exploring unknown and hostile planets, filled with natural beauties as well as mortal and insidious enemies. For those who are not familiar with the series, I would use the Legend of Zelda series, in particular Breath of the Wild, as the reference term (to stay in Nintendo’s home) for the importance of exploration.
It is impossible to forget the opening hours of the first chapter of Metroid Prime: the feeling of being alone on a planet never seen before, Tallon IV, without any indication of the path to follow or what to do. It is up to us to palm the palm to the planet to seize every secret, to discover the history of its inhabitants and understand how to address our mission.
In short, Samus is a born explorer, and just as our hero dressed in green has to travel long and wide for an unknown world. What changes, of course, is all the rest: Metroid Prime is a FPA (First Person Adventure, a term that, besides this saga, has few other applications), with a fantasy setting and with a great emphasis on the feeling of solitude. Of course, Link is only during his adventure, but he often has comrades ready to help him, so that the player never feels alone in the face of the impatient threat.
With Samus, on the contrary, you have an ineluctable feeling of solitude: the size hunter is not a hero waiting to accomplish his mission, but an explorer and fighter who moves alone along the universe. From Metroid Prime 4, therefore, we expect, above all, to maintain this dark and enigmatic atmosphere, in keeping with what we saw in the trilogy.
It is logical to expect the return of enigmas, imaginative and varied locations, grotesque and lethal creatures, claustrophobic tunnels, desolate landscapes that contrast with other life banners. Also, since the title (provisional or not) is simply Metroid Prime 4, we can assume that from a narrative point of view, it will fit into the framework outlined by the other titles. No doubt, however, given the years since the last release,
A free hunter
Breath of the Wild has turned Zelda’s franchise into the open world, so to say the least. Super Mario Odissey seems to want to propose something similar (we will see just how much it is in a few months yet) for the plump hydraulic, starting with the first trailer and the song that carries the theme for the game. Should we expect something like this for Metroid? It would almost be assumed to say yes. After all, the trilogy already provided a good freedom of movement to the players, proposing an open-world structure, albeit limited by time technology and the conservation of a linear structure of progress, albeit not always evident.
It would therefore seem natural to replicate with Metroid just how much it did with Zelda and Mario: make available to the player a vast and varied world to explore freely, perhaps without forcing the player to follow a specific path to advance the story. You can choose how to explore the planet, the order in which the bosses face, to be a few words totally free: Metroid Prime 4 could be the occasion to realize this fantasy science dream. You could also ask for more planets to explore (the road already beaten with Metroid Prime 3), but here it’s not a matter of quantity.
What we would like from Metroid Prime 4 is a vibrant, widespread world with its mysterious story to tell, with its peoples to know and with its adventure to live. We would like to feel lost and small as we have felt in the past, but enjoying the ten-year breakthrough. Whether it’s a planet or two, three, it does not matter. Obviously, moving to the open-world does not only mean more freedom in exploration, but also massive insertion of side quests, perhaps with important narrative solutions.
