8 year old me when I first tried broccoli after years of protesting only to find out it’s delicious

All of this talk about queerness being "unnatural" in the modern landscape and not a single person is pointing out how utterly unnatural it is to rely on something like GPT to perform the natural role a parent has to their child. Fuck off.

The moral of the story is I really enjoyed my time with it.

*that’s mad

END OF THREAD
MISSION COMPLETE

I can only read into this *because* of the creative risks it took, wanting to step beyond what we remember and revere as a Prime game.

It really does help that it’s a good game, with a satisfying ending that doesn’t prophesize more. The wait is over. All those that’ve fallen in wait can rest now.

Maybe, Prime 4’s story had to be about the wait for Prime 4. In a world beyond what we hoped, Samus outlasts her friends, her past-obsessed enemies, and those who pray for her return. While the last threads of this self-contained past adjacent to the main series come to a close and she moves on.

And that’s the other thing I guess. Am I even right?

There’s not just less constraints compared to the GameCube on what kind of world you can realise in a Prime game now. This is also a studio over 20 years old still tied to Metroid Prime.

Can you blame them for wanting to try new things? I don’t.

But once again, this story is aiming for something bigger, wider, more emotional, and more like other movies.

The difference between this and… *shudder* Other M… Is that it does remember why it’s already special and well regarded in its own right. Prime 4 is at its best when it’s true to itself.

Sometimes there’s glimpses of *function*, of tombs, and of ancient worlds in their Rube Goldberg eras of technology. And sometimes there’s also dazzling analog machinery too, the generators and viola elevators for Volt Forge are a brilliant highlight. And all enemies are fantastically realised.

Meanwhile I do *like* H.R Giger’s works, but this falls into the Giger-inspired trap of just having some small airbrushed textures fill out large dark space, losing their appeal.

Once again, Prime uses it best when condensed down into detailed rooms. That goes for most art decisions here actually.

And its world… simply isn’t as captivating overall.

A pretty world for sure, like how a Chrome ball will always be pretty. But even if a chrome ball glides around on its own, you’re never curious about how it works, how it functions. You just assume it’s magic as much as you assume the ball is CGI.

And that’s made because these games have some of the best Sci-Fi concept art backing them up and even here, banger after banger. I’m half heartedly gonna juggle story with this too as I feel you can’t talk about one without the other. Its art direction is just as much a part of the world building.

RIGHT, so, the big one, the whole reason I am a fan of the Prime games; the art direction.

And it’s here where it becomes difficult to articulate any of the right words, or even to understand how I feel, other than one thing;

It’s not as consistent or interesting as the previous trilogy.

I’m also glad expansions are plentiful for missiles and beam ammo. Though, actually maybe they’re too plentiful. And the final big ability you get should be a bigger deal than it actually is. It just isn’t. The appearance tied to it is cool though.

Oh and accessing volt forge was needlessly obtuse.

And every gameplay item gets used in bosses which is great, including the grapple.

The best thing I can say about the psychic beam though is that it’s almost always the last resort option because it’s so niche and one-note, you always forget it’s there until you’ve burned through the other options.

Oh god I gotta refrain from art direction yet because it’s so tangled in with everything else. What else haven’t I covered? Let’s go with items.

All the reintroduced weapons here are handled the best in the Prime series. Charging your missiles for super missiles is such an obvious improvement.

Take my advice and don’t feel the need to scan absolutely everything in the game on your first playthrough. Smell the roses, take in the environment and let the path guide you. The flow state of following these well paced, well framed sequences is too good to ignore in favour of completionism.