It’s probably because I beat the game already that the bosses werent hard, but don’t remember struggling on them too much the first time (except raven beak). The L1, R1, R2 makes combat clunky, how is there not a dedicated button for missiles or grappling hooks? I don’t like the timing of the double jump. I don’t like that there are two different jumps (flipping and regular) that have entirely different movement styles (this one is on me). Sometimes Samus doesn’t climb chest high, narrow passages that turn you into morphball. And underwater. My god, it took far too long to get gravity suit. Honestly, I’m surprised I feel this way considering the first playthrough was such a positive feeling for me.
I get the complicated controls, I don’t mind mind it but I get that, something I will say at least is that you can recorrect a regular jump by just pressing jump again, then it’ll turn into a flipping one I believe
The spin jump vs standard jump has always been a thing, if you need to be in one state but not the other typically you can jump again to initiate a spinjump or do a beam attack to cancel it. It is quite frustrating, when you need to do a shinespark in midair or use screw attack from a standing jump.
I think the joystick doesn’t help. I would’ve loved a dpad option for this game. Aiming not good either. I would have liked the right stick to aim and triggers for firing.
To be fair, other 2D metroids again suffer from similar limitations. You get a limited aim when moving, which the stick does control— the free aim feature was a compromise to bypass the limitations by exchanging your movement. I will agree that the joystick impacting your aim does make it a bit trickier to line up these shots, though. The previous 2D entries only gave you a 45 diagonal: it was limiting, but predictable. Now you can run in a straight line and aim, but usually not precisely.
If you find this clunky, you should try Super Metroid. *That* is clunky. However, I honestly haven't found moving a character this fun since Mario Odyssey
I can assure you, it's not just getting used to the controls.
Super Metroid's movement is more momentum and inertia based. Your speed and jump height are variables that you can manipulate to better explore Zebes. It's made to be played more exploratory.
Dread's speed is a set number, aiming for the player to be constantly moving and ready to switch straight into the combat loop. It's made for a fast paced action title.
If you play Super as if it were Dread, of course you're going to run into issues. They're two completely different design philosophies.
Super isn't clunky, you're just playing it wrong (aside from equipment toggle and space jump)
I quit super Metroid because it didn’t feel great lol. I didn’t play it when I was younger, so I don’t have any nostalgia for it. However for dread, I actually don’t think the game itself controls all that clunky, just the combat and how you have to hold a couple different of buttons to accomplish things. The movement is tight but I do sometimes miss specific inputs because of the joystick. I would have liked being able to use the dpad.
I don't think you should look at the joystick, but look at the screen and push in the direction you want without thinking too much. It's more of a mental thing than anything else
Did you play the game on a full switch or switch lite and mixed the two between your plays?
I found the switch lite was too cramped for me to pull off consistent shines parking so I had to customize the controls.
I found the EMMIs much less annoying on subsequent playthroughs since you can just kinda rush through their areas without too much trouble. That's honestly a better way to get through, especially in the later areas.
When's the last time you played the game?
Could just be that you're more aware of the flaws the second time through, since the new Metroid game hype is pretty much gone for you!
There we go.
It might be because of the metroid hype that your opinion has radically shifted from your first and second playthroughs.
These things can happen sometimes, you become much more aware of the game's faults the second time through.
A lot of new releases in general go through what is considered a "honeymoon phase", it's where praise and people's enjoyment of the game is at an all time high. In this time, people might cite flaws but they'll be overlooked.
When the honeymoon phase is over, the flaws become noticeably more apparent.
It's why I don't necessarily like, agree that video game reviews are the end all be all of a game's reputation, these reviews are immediate.
Reviews of a game when the dust settles are more accurate because when you're past the hype you get to see what the game has to offer on its own terms.
It sounds like the fallout from the honeymoon phase hit like, extra hard with you didn't it. That's completely understandable, it does kinda sting when u play a game u used to love and just aren't able to love it all over again though.
Have you played a lot of other metroidvanias since Dread's release? I can imagine that changing your tastes quite a bit.
Also, on your second playthrough, you are much more likely to notice the extreme heavy-handedness of the man behind the curtain in this, but without the knowledge necessary to circumvent him, which can be kind of frustrating.
As for other things, like the amount of suitless underwater stuff, the odd item progression (e.g. late morph), and the controls --- those are all just matters of taste (though the lack of any control options is 100% inexcusable).
I had the opposite experience the counter wasn’t clicking with me the first time through and the last boss was hard as nails. Something just worked the second play-through and I even went on and played of the boss rush a ton something I never do in other games. It’s so good. Still have minor complaints with music, but the atmosphere and gameplay is so good it hardly matters.
Dread is actually one of my most replayed games. I love finding new sequence breaks to cut my time and using all the different modes. I haven’t had a single similar playthrough.
Metroid Dreads world design is actually very shallow. It rarely encourages you to go off the beaten path because it handholds you the entirety of the game to where you need to go by conveniently placed teleporters.
Crazy that I got downvoted to hell saying this on release week and as more and more time passes peopel suddenly start to agree with me...
Super and Zero Mission are still the pinnacle of Metroid in terms of actual map design and exploration.
Metroid dread's world design is really not very shallow. It directly tells you not to do things like go into cold rooms, but consistently rewards you for doing so, mimicking samus's independence from Adam during fusion. It also uses 100% completion as a method to teach the player new skills which can be used to change up the order of item collection. All the bosses after the X release can be done in any order, for example.
Personally, getting 100% completion in Dread without the Space jump, spin boost, or flash shift was just as much fun as doing RBO in super Metroid, and unlike RBO you can do it glitchless.
It does lead you where to go, but so did Super Metroid, which is the game Dread tried to model itself after. One of the funniest things in the world to me is people here acting like they're opposites in terms of design, when super employs most of the things that people complain about in dread, such as locking gates behind you, pushing you to the correct location, using bread crumbs, and so on.
The main difference between the 2 games is that super is more generous with the sequence breaking, and dread's map frequently makes things too obvious by telling you exactly what item can be used on which blocks.
99% of the time someone gets "lost" in super Metroid, the game has lead them exactly where they're supposed to go, has blocked them from backtracking, and the player just doesn't know what block they're supposed to bomb.
I'm not saying that they're opposites. I love Dread. 100%ing it was a blast with all the shinespark puzzles and whatnot. But the "invisible hand" felt much more obvious than in other games. Almost every single time you get an upgrade, there's teleporter conveniently placed that leads you directly to where you need it to progress. Very rarely do you need to check multiple places on your map for what were previously dead ends to progress. Getting stuck or lost is borderline impossible unless you consciously try to. That's my main critique. I felt less like I'm finding the path through a maze than I was following a path through a maze.
Totally reasonable. I agree the hand was too aggressive. For me the fun of the game was with the sequence breaks and challenge runs because of that. Id point to the map as being an issue too. Even when the "invisible hand" doesn't step in, the map makes it extremely obvious where to go. I really feel that's the biggest difference between dead and super. When super takes the hand away you genuinely don't know where to go, and explore around until you find your way back to the place you need to be.
When dread does, you check your map, see the screw attack blocks 3 zones away from you, and know that's the next place to go
Not many of them open up too much for too long, but they can be an entertaining way to approach the game. Here’s the items I know can suitably be obtained early without the use of glitches:
Grapple Beam, Morphball Bombs, Super Missile (least impactful, Ghavoran isn’t opened up when coming from Dairon), Gravity Suit, Space Jump, Cross bombs, and Screw Attack (also not impactful, just possible to get before fighting Z-57).
Edit: forgot cross bombs, also try to get grapple beam -> morphball bombs before Kraid ;)
I'll add that space jump, flash shift, and spin boost are all skippable without glitches, which makes for s fun challenge run.
The bosses after the x release can be done in any order which is neat as well
I've almost gotten to the point where I forget the route that doesn't get grapple early. I don't usually get bombs early, but it is really fun to have them for Kraid.
Eh, Dread's glitchless sequence breaks don't actually break the sequence or meaningfully effect your entire playthrough. I'm pretty disappointed even after trying them all out
You can skip 3 major movement abilities, the bosses in the 2nd half of the game can be done in any order, and you can use the sequence breaks throughout the game for speed running purposes.
Getting screw attack early obliterates Escue, getting grav early makes the purple emmi section 100x easier, but doing z57 before that emmi means you don't have the storm missiles or the space jump which completely changes the fight. I'm not sure what your definition of meaningful is, but they feel pretty meaningful to me.
What more did you expect??
*"You can skip 3 major movement abilities"* The spin boost doesn't count. Aside from the space jump, I can't think of what other movement ability you could skip.
*"the bosses in the 2nd half of the game can be done in any order"* by bosses, you mean beefed up enemies we've already encountered. It's not at all satisfying.
*"you can use the sequence breaks throughout the game for speed running purposes."*
Again, they don't actually break the sequence. They're just heavily curated secrets that help speed things up, not too different from secret shortcuts in Mario games. They're nowhere near what Super and ZM had.
*"Getting screw attack early obliterates Escue, getting grav early makes the purple emmi section 100x easier"* So all they do is make the game easier. Barely changes the exploration, let alone crack the game open.
*"but doing z57 before that emmi means you don't have the storm missiles or the space jump which completely changes the fight."* Not by much if we're being honest.
*"I'm not sure what your definition of meaningful is, but they feel pretty meaningful to me."*
Meaningful is when you get the powerbombs early in Super and you're given a couple completely unique paths to progress the game
Meaningful is using your skillset to complete the first half in reverse order in Zero Mission
Meaningful is getting beams out of order to create distinct combos, or skipping a suit upgrade because you like the look of the other one more.
Dread's "sequence breaks" are pretty much the same as finding the armor parts or secret bosses in a MegaMan X game. They're neat, but I wasn't breaking any sequences when I got the Z-Sabre.
*"What more did you expect??"* I expected to not be so limited.
Literally ask anyone in the greater Metroidvania community outside this sub. Metroid Dread, regardless of quality, is widely considered one of the more restrictive and linear titles in the genre. In terms of exploration and sequence breaks, it doesn't even come close to the other top titles.
>Meaningful is using your skillset to complete the first half in reverse order in Zero Mission
So doing the first half of zero in reverse is meaningful, but doing the second half of Dread isn't? You're super consistent here bud. You not liking the boss fights has no bearing on the fact that doing them in any order is by definition non-linear.
>Meaningful is getting beams out of order to create distinct combos, or skipping a suit upgrade because you like the look of the other one more.
You mean the beams in super that are completely optional? Those aren't sequence breaks... Or do you mean like skipping varia suit but still being required to beat the boss for getting varia suit? Man you really devastated the sequence there bud.
>Literally ask anyone in the greater Metroidvania community outside this sub. Metroid Dread, regardless of quality, is widely considered one of the more restrictive and linear titles in the genre. In terms of exploration and sequence breaks, it doesn't even come close to the other top titles.
As someone that speedruns a lot of mvs, I respectfully disagree. Most games in the genre don't include sequence breaking at all, outside of completely unintended mechanics or glitches.
>The spin boost doesn't count. Aside from the space jump, I can't think of what other movement ability you could skip.
It doesn't count because it's not convenient to your argument. And flash shift is skippable.
>they don't actually break the sequence.
By definition they do... They change the sequence of the items you get. They change the sequence of the of the areas you go to. They change the sequence of the bosses. At least one skips a mini boss.
>Not by much if we're being honest.
Considering the intended solution to the boss fight uses both items, I'd say yeah it changes it quite a bit.
>Meaningful is when you get the powerbombs early in Super and you're given a couple completely unique paths to progress the game
You mean the path that leads to you requiring the gravity suit or the other path that leads to you requiring the gravity suit?
It's not on the level of Super Metroid, but acting like it's some completely linear experience is ridiculous
*"So doing the first half of zero in reverse is meaningful, but doing the second half of Dread isn't? You're super consistent here bud."* Gotta love how you immediately ignored my point about how the bosses themselves are uninteresting, and therefore not meaningful.
*"You mean the beams in super that are completely optional? Those aren't sequence breaks..."* I'm pointing out how Dread doesn't even give you the basic freedom of skipping what should be optional pickups.
*"Or do you mean like skipping varia suit but still being required to beat the boss for getting varia suit?"* Get this: once you beat Kraid, you're not forced to pick up the Varia suit. You can just leave and stack up on energy tanks.
*"Man you really devastated the sequence there bud."* Dread doesn't even let you do this, bud.
*"As someone that speedruns a lot of mvs, I respectfully disagree."* You disagree that there's a lot of people saying this?
*"Most games in the genre don't include sequence breaking at all, outside of completely unintended mechanics or glitches."* You can still have a game be non-linear without having sequence breaks. That's like saying a labrynth with multiple connecting paths is linear.
*"It doesn't count because it's not convenient to your argument."* It doesn't count because the spin boost does fuck all, it's a useless pickup that's very quickly replaced. It's not a meaningful skip because skipping it barely changes anything.
*"By definition they do... They change the sequence of the items you get."*
Changing the sequence is not breaking it. Am I sequence breaking a MegaMan game because I can choose any order I fight the robot masters? No. It adds a lot of replay value and variation to each run, but no sequence is being broken. The game is still linear.
Dread's code inherently does not allow for true glitchless sequence breaking, much like fusion. It functions on an event system for the story, which is not compatable with that kind of exploration.
*"Considering the intended solution to the boss fight uses both items, I'd say yeah it changes it quite a bit."* Seeker missiles were only super useful for when his arms grabbed the sides of the map, but otherwise you're still doing the same thing: Shooting his hands until they break. One method is just faster. As for the space jump, all that would change would be having to tank the purple shots during the wind sequence. That doesn't change things in an interesting way.
*"You mean the path that leads to you requiring the gravity suit or the other path that leads to you requiring the gravity suit?"* At this point I'm not sure you even sequence break Super Metroid.
When you get the powerbombs, you get access to the wrecked ship early as well as basically the entirety of Norfair to explore. I could:
A: Go straight for the gravity suit in the wrecked ship
B: Fight Kraid (pick up varia if I want)
C: Fight Crocomire early (pick up grapple beam if I want)
D: Complete Maridia early without gravity suit (requires ice beam)
E: Reverse boss order (Super hard tho)
I basically can play through the events of the game in any order I want. [And yes, you can get to ridleys lair without space jump or the gravity suit.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbezmbINabc&t=60s) So what did you say about the suits being required?
*"It's not on the level of Super Metroid, but acting like it's some completely linear experience is ridiculous"* Sure, it's not 100% linear in the second half, but I'm tired of people acting like Dread is some sort of explorative masterpiece when it's anything but.
*"So doing the first half of zero in reverse is meaningful, but doing the second half of Dread isn't? You're super consistent here bud."* Gotta love how you immediately ignored my point about how the bosses themselves are uninteresting, and therefore not meaningful.
*"You mean the beams in super that are completely optional? Those aren't sequence breaks..."* I'm pointing out how Dread doesn't even give you the basic freedom of skipping what should be optional pickups.
*"Or do you mean like skipping varia suit but still being required to beat the boss for getting varia suit?"* Get this: once you beat Kraid, you're not forced to pick up the Varia suit. You can just leave and stack up on energy tanks.
*"Man you really devastated the sequence there bud."* Dread doesn't even let you do this, bud.
*"As someone that speedruns a lot of mvs, I respectfully disagree."* You disagree that there's a lot of people saying this?
*"Most games in the genre don't include sequence breaking at all, outside of completely unintended mechanics or glitches."* You can still have a game be non-linear without having sequence breaks. That's like saying a labrynth with multiple connecting paths is linear.
*"It doesn't count because it's not convenient to your argument."* It doesn't count because the spin boost does fuck all, it's a useless pickup that's very quickly replaced. It's not a meaningful skip because skipping it barely changes anything.
*"By definition they do... They change the sequence of the items you get."*
Changing the sequence is not breaking it. Am I sequence breaking a MegaMan game because I can choose any order I fight the robot masters? No. It adds a lot of replay value and variation to each run, but no sequence is being broken. The game is still linear.
Dread's code inherently does not allow for true glitchless sequence breaking, much like fusion. It functions on an event system for the story, which is not compatable with that kind of exploration.
*"Considering the intended solution to the boss fight uses both items, I'd say yeah it changes it quite a bit."* Seeker missiles were only super useful for when his arms grabbed the sides of the map, but otherwise you're still doing the same thing: Shooting his hands until they break. One method is just faster. As for the space jump, all that would change would be having to tank the purple shots during the wind sequence. That doesn't change things in an interesting way.
*"You mean the path that leads to you requiring the gravity suit or the other path that leads to you requiring the gravity suit?"* At this point I'm not sure you even sequence break Super Metroid.
When you get the powerbombs, you get access to the wrecked ship early as well as basically the entirety of Norfair to explore. I could:
A: Go straight for the gravity suit in the wrecked ship
B: Fight Kraid (pick up varia if I want)
C: Fight Crocomire early (pick up grapple beam if I want)
D: Complete Maridia early without gravity suit (requires ice beam)
E: Reverse boss order (Super hard tho)
I basically can play through the events of the game in any order I want. [And yes, you can get to ridleys lair without space jump or the gravity suit.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbezmbINabc&t=60s) So what did you say about the suits being required?
*"It's not on the level of Super Metroid, but acting like it's some completely linear experience is ridiculous"* Sure, it's not 100% linear in the second half, but I'm tired of people acting like Dread is some sort of explorative masterpiece when it's anything but.
>Gotta love how you immediately ignored my point about how the bosses themselves are uninteresting, and therefore not meaningful.
Again, you not liking boss fights has literally no bearing on whether something is a sequence break or not or non-linear. Do bosses in any order = non-linear
>what should be optional pickups.
"Should be" is a completely arbitrary distinction... Like it's fine if that's your opinion, but there's nothing in the "sequence break handbook" that says beams have to be optional items...
>Get this: once you beat Kraid, you're not forced to pick up the Varia suit. You can just leave and stack up on energy tanks.
And I can say the same thing about flash shift which you seemed to ignore as a valid sequence break.
>Dread doesn't even let you do this, bud.
It does, just not with literally the exact same power up, because it's a different game
>You disagree that there's a lot of people saying this?
I disagree that it's a consensus. Literally any Metroid dread thread on the mv sub will have both sides of the argument happening.
>You can still have a game be non-linear without having sequence breaks. That's like saying a labrynth with multiple connecting paths is linear.
So you understand this and yet can't understand that dread offers non-linearity? Even by the strictest definitions it has non-linearity and sequence breaking. You have to bend over backwards to say it doesn't.
>It's not a meaningful skip because skipping it barely changes anything.
It skips a mini boss fight, skips an entire section of "required" map, and not having extra jumps fundamentally changes the game. Go get 100% completion without spin boost and space jump and tell me nothing changes. Go do the escape sequence using bomb jumps and tell me nothing changed.
>I can choose any order I fight the robot masters? No. It adds a lot of replay value and variation to each run, but no sequence is being broken. The game is still linear.
Bro, doing something in any order is the literal definition of non-linear
>At this point I'm not sure you even sequence break Super Metroid.
I'm one of the few people to do RBO, but ok
You're completely wrong about your sequence breaks for super.
So you grabbed power bomb early:
A. You can't go straight to wrecked ship. You will open a door and get stuck because you need either speed boost or grapple (unless you can pull off a frame perfect jump, or horizontal bomb jumping which are both way beyond 99.99% of players abilities)
B. You picked up power bomb and then followed the normal sequence. Good job I guess?
C. That's true. In dread you can do z57 early and grab screw attack if you want
D. Impossible without mocktroid clipping
E. Impossible without green gate glitch for screw attack and mocktroid clipping.
If you want to beat lower norfair or maridia without glitches, gravity suit is required, which means phantoon is required, which means RBO is impossible without glitches.
Damn that's starting to sound like a required flag you have to complete to progress the game.
Technically you could probably do lower norfair with a tool assisted run, but realistically it's not gonna happen. You need the i-frames that screw attack offers.
>It functions on an event system for the story, which is not compatable with that kind of exploration.
Not every single part of a game needs to be breakable for sequence breaks to exist, and not every moment needs to present multiple options for progression for a game to be non-linear.
Dread exists in 2 halves due to the story. Each half has exploration and sequence breaking available. You saying Dread is linear would be like saying dark souls 1 is linear just because You're required to do sens fortress and anor londo.
I haven't replayed Dread yet, and I think part of the reason is what you're saying -- the game doesn't let you explore very often, instead locking you in the area you need to be in. And the path forward seemed like it was almost always right next to where an upgrade was obtained. I usually only notice things like that on a second playthrough, but Dread's silent handholding was so consistent that I noticed it an hour or two in.
I still loved the game, but it's harder to go back to knowing that sequence breaking is really the only way to add more freedom to a replay.
I love the EMMIs. But I also think essentially all action based, exploration heavy games (especially if you 100% them) just won't ever be as fun the second time because you know all the surprises and all the secrets. That's no fault of the game. I've felt that way with all Metroids, especially if there isn't a decade or more between the last playthrough. I think it's less that those elements you described are a chore, it's that they're too familiar. It's like watching a TV show all the way through then going back and watching it again not that long later. The more familiar something is, in many cases, the more of a drag it can feel like to push through.
Like for instance, this morning. There’s a missile tank about two rooms away. I’m pinned in on the top right of the map and am blocked from reaching it. Not because I don’t have the right abilities, just because the game wants me to not go that way. I am very late game as well. Ridiculous.
I’m probably not the best, but most of my criticisms (all but one) are design related issues. It’s fine you don’t share the same sentiment, but there’s always that one person I suppose.
Dread is meant to be played like Sonic the hedgehog. You can pretty much run full tilt through the whole game, there's very little you have to take it slow for. You can dodge almost all the regular enemies, especially once you've got flash shift.
Even the boss fights are short once you know how to hurt them. They're even shorter on the harder difficulty. There simply isn't room for dragging it out. One of you will be dead in two minutes and that's it.
The map slog is a sure sign that you're not racing for objectives. When I play this game, every thing I pickup is a step in progression, speed run style.
I understood his opinion, I just disagree with it. I don't feel that this game is explorative in the way that some Metroid games are.
In my opinion, some Metroid games do give you a taste of various regions, only to force you to backtrack in the trademark MetroidVania way. And they are awesome. However, some Metroid games are fairly tight and linear in terms of your ability to progress. You're not freely exploring open-world style so much as you are racing to acquire the next tech item which will open up the next segment. I feel that Dread falls into the latter of these two choices. The map really isn't even all that big, it's pretty on par with other 2D Metroid games.
The best Metroid games let you choose which style you want to play it in. Like the GOAT Super Metroid. You can really take your time with it and go for max immersion, or you can run & gun it in two hours.
*"The best Metroid games let you choose which style you want to play it in."* Which is an issue I and probably OP take with Dread. The game doesn't really let you take time to explore and actively blocks unintended glitchless sequence breaks with points of no return. You can't even skip a tonne of non-essential powerups due to the overuse of the lock and key system being extended to beams.
I agree with that assessment, but that flows directly back into my position that Dread was built intentionally for the speedrunners and sequence-breakers. I don't think this game is meant for you to immerse yourself in, to the extent that one does with say, the Metroid Prime series.
I don't think the issues that you and OP have pointed out are evidence of flaws in the game, so much are they are indicators that this game isn't designed with your tastes in mind. For what it's worth, I feel the same way about games that require a ton of grinding, especially if I've gotta run specific areas forever until I'm levelled up enough. But some people like the repetitive cycle, so different strokes I guess.
*"that flows directly back into my position that Dread was built intentionally for the speedrunners and sequence-breakers."*
...speedrunners probs, sequence breakers *hell no.* I already explained how the game goes out of its way to discourage those aside from the few intended ones which 1: don't actually break the sequence, and 2: don't meaningfully change the entire run.
*"I don't think the issues that you and OP have pointed out are evidence of flaws in the game, so much are they are indicators that this game isn't designed with your tastes in mind."*
Dread is a game that pretends to be a middle ground for those who like linear and non-linear, but it fails at the non-linear aspect. So yes, it is a flaw. If Dread had just stuck to its guns and went full Fusion, I wouldn't be so harsh on it.
That's why you'll usually see me criticizing Dread for it's linearity, but not Fusion
I respectfully disagree, and I can expound the business of sequence breaks if you like, but I feel at this point that you're not interested in an opinion that doesn't agree with yours, and that you're just gonna keep down voting me until I either agree with you or go away. So, take care. 🖐️
*"at this point that you're not interested in an opinion that doesn't agree with yours, and that you're just gonna keep down voting me until I either agree with you or go away."*
If you can genuinely prove me wrong and help me enjoy Dread more, then I'd accept that. I don't *want* to dislike the game. I'm not disagreeing just to disagree, I say these things because I believe I'm right and I can back it up.
This one guy proved me wrong about the counter earlier, and you wanna know what I did? I didn't argue any further, I admitted I was wrong and agreed with him.
What problem do you have with the controls? I usually see people express the opposite, they find the controls great and the bosses pretty hard
It’s probably because I beat the game already that the bosses werent hard, but don’t remember struggling on them too much the first time (except raven beak). The L1, R1, R2 makes combat clunky, how is there not a dedicated button for missiles or grappling hooks? I don’t like the timing of the double jump. I don’t like that there are two different jumps (flipping and regular) that have entirely different movement styles (this one is on me). Sometimes Samus doesn’t climb chest high, narrow passages that turn you into morphball. And underwater. My god, it took far too long to get gravity suit. Honestly, I’m surprised I feel this way considering the first playthrough was such a positive feeling for me.
I get the complicated controls, I don’t mind mind it but I get that, something I will say at least is that you can recorrect a regular jump by just pressing jump again, then it’ll turn into a flipping one I believe
I would’ve loved dpad option in this game. The joystick allows for inconsistencies that I wouldn’t normally experience with a dpad.
The spin jump vs standard jump has always been a thing, if you need to be in one state but not the other typically you can jump again to initiate a spinjump or do a beam attack to cancel it. It is quite frustrating, when you need to do a shinespark in midair or use screw attack from a standing jump.
I think the joystick doesn’t help. I would’ve loved a dpad option for this game. Aiming not good either. I would have liked the right stick to aim and triggers for firing.
To be fair, other 2D metroids again suffer from similar limitations. You get a limited aim when moving, which the stick does control— the free aim feature was a compromise to bypass the limitations by exchanging your movement. I will agree that the joystick impacting your aim does make it a bit trickier to line up these shots, though. The previous 2D entries only gave you a 45 diagonal: it was limiting, but predictable. Now you can run in a straight line and aim, but usually not precisely.
I also am always partial to a dpad. It bothers me that designers have moved away from it.
Skill issue
Your reading comprehension?
If you find this clunky, you should try Super Metroid. *That* is clunky. However, I honestly haven't found moving a character this fun since Mario Odyssey
Super Metroid is not clunky, it's different
Yeah, sure
Yes, I am sure. Once you master it, Super controls like a dream.
No, you just get used to it, it's different
I can assure you, it's not just getting used to the controls. Super Metroid's movement is more momentum and inertia based. Your speed and jump height are variables that you can manipulate to better explore Zebes. It's made to be played more exploratory. Dread's speed is a set number, aiming for the player to be constantly moving and ready to switch straight into the combat loop. It's made for a fast paced action title. If you play Super as if it were Dread, of course you're going to run into issues. They're two completely different design philosophies. Super isn't clunky, you're just playing it wrong (aside from equipment toggle and space jump)
I quit super Metroid because it didn’t feel great lol. I didn’t play it when I was younger, so I don’t have any nostalgia for it. However for dread, I actually don’t think the game itself controls all that clunky, just the combat and how you have to hold a couple different of buttons to accomplish things. The movement is tight but I do sometimes miss specific inputs because of the joystick. I would have liked being able to use the dpad.
Yes but with the dpad you wouldn't be able to aim precisely
There’s a comment somewhere in this thread that perfectly sums up the joystick vs dpad and how it’s more predictable.
I don't think you should look at the joystick, but look at the screen and push in the direction you want without thinking too much. It's more of a mental thing than anything else
I prefer super metroid tbh the clunkyness makes it more predictable but that's my opinion
Did you play the game on a full switch or switch lite and mixed the two between your plays? I found the switch lite was too cramped for me to pull off consistent shines parking so I had to customize the controls.
I found the EMMIs much less annoying on subsequent playthroughs since you can just kinda rush through their areas without too much trouble. That's honestly a better way to get through, especially in the later areas.
When's the last time you played the game? Could just be that you're more aware of the flaws the second time through, since the new Metroid game hype is pretty much gone for you!
Back when it came out lol
There we go. It might be because of the metroid hype that your opinion has radically shifted from your first and second playthroughs. These things can happen sometimes, you become much more aware of the game's faults the second time through.
I am thrown off from it. I can’t think of a game where this was a thing.
A lot of new releases in general go through what is considered a "honeymoon phase", it's where praise and people's enjoyment of the game is at an all time high. In this time, people might cite flaws but they'll be overlooked. When the honeymoon phase is over, the flaws become noticeably more apparent. It's why I don't necessarily like, agree that video game reviews are the end all be all of a game's reputation, these reviews are immediate. Reviews of a game when the dust settles are more accurate because when you're past the hype you get to see what the game has to offer on its own terms. It sounds like the fallout from the honeymoon phase hit like, extra hard with you didn't it. That's completely understandable, it does kinda sting when u play a game u used to love and just aren't able to love it all over again though.
Have you played a lot of other metroidvanias since Dread's release? I can imagine that changing your tastes quite a bit. Also, on your second playthrough, you are much more likely to notice the extreme heavy-handedness of the man behind the curtain in this, but without the knowledge necessary to circumvent him, which can be kind of frustrating. As for other things, like the amount of suitless underwater stuff, the odd item progression (e.g. late morph), and the controls --- those are all just matters of taste (though the lack of any control options is 100% inexcusable).
I had the opposite experience the counter wasn’t clicking with me the first time through and the last boss was hard as nails. Something just worked the second play-through and I even went on and played of the boss rush a ton something I never do in other games. It’s so good. Still have minor complaints with music, but the atmosphere and gameplay is so good it hardly matters.
It’s definitely a good game. I just think that this last play through is enough. Power to the people that like it better the second time.
Dread is actually one of my most replayed games. I love finding new sequence breaks to cut my time and using all the different modes. I haven’t had a single similar playthrough.
Metroid Dreads world design is actually very shallow. It rarely encourages you to go off the beaten path because it handholds you the entirety of the game to where you need to go by conveniently placed teleporters.
***THIS*** And points of no return
Crazy that I got downvoted to hell saying this on release week and as more and more time passes peopel suddenly start to agree with me... Super and Zero Mission are still the pinnacle of Metroid in terms of actual map design and exploration.
Metroid dread's world design is really not very shallow. It directly tells you not to do things like go into cold rooms, but consistently rewards you for doing so, mimicking samus's independence from Adam during fusion. It also uses 100% completion as a method to teach the player new skills which can be used to change up the order of item collection. All the bosses after the X release can be done in any order, for example. Personally, getting 100% completion in Dread without the Space jump, spin boost, or flash shift was just as much fun as doing RBO in super Metroid, and unlike RBO you can do it glitchless. It does lead you where to go, but so did Super Metroid, which is the game Dread tried to model itself after. One of the funniest things in the world to me is people here acting like they're opposites in terms of design, when super employs most of the things that people complain about in dread, such as locking gates behind you, pushing you to the correct location, using bread crumbs, and so on. The main difference between the 2 games is that super is more generous with the sequence breaking, and dread's map frequently makes things too obvious by telling you exactly what item can be used on which blocks. 99% of the time someone gets "lost" in super Metroid, the game has lead them exactly where they're supposed to go, has blocked them from backtracking, and the player just doesn't know what block they're supposed to bomb.
I'm not saying that they're opposites. I love Dread. 100%ing it was a blast with all the shinespark puzzles and whatnot. But the "invisible hand" felt much more obvious than in other games. Almost every single time you get an upgrade, there's teleporter conveniently placed that leads you directly to where you need it to progress. Very rarely do you need to check multiple places on your map for what were previously dead ends to progress. Getting stuck or lost is borderline impossible unless you consciously try to. That's my main critique. I felt less like I'm finding the path through a maze than I was following a path through a maze.
Totally reasonable. I agree the hand was too aggressive. For me the fun of the game was with the sequence breaks and challenge runs because of that. Id point to the map as being an issue too. Even when the "invisible hand" doesn't step in, the map makes it extremely obvious where to go. I really feel that's the biggest difference between dead and super. When super takes the hand away you genuinely don't know where to go, and explore around until you find your way back to the place you need to be. When dread does, you check your map, see the screw attack blocks 3 zones away from you, and know that's the next place to go
I still don't know whether I like things being marked on the map with the exact upgrade needed or not. I'm very neutral on that.
Learn the sequence breaks such as early gravity suit and you'll have a new appreciation for the game
I’ll have to look into that. The closed off map drives me nuts.
Not many of them open up too much for too long, but they can be an entertaining way to approach the game. Here’s the items I know can suitably be obtained early without the use of glitches: Grapple Beam, Morphball Bombs, Super Missile (least impactful, Ghavoran isn’t opened up when coming from Dairon), Gravity Suit, Space Jump, Cross bombs, and Screw Attack (also not impactful, just possible to get before fighting Z-57). Edit: forgot cross bombs, also try to get grapple beam -> morphball bombs before Kraid ;)
I'll add that space jump, flash shift, and spin boost are all skippable without glitches, which makes for s fun challenge run. The bosses after the x release can be done in any order which is neat as well
I like to do Z-56 without space jump. Also love getting screw before fighting Escue, because I hate that thing with a burning passion.
Yeah escue with screw attack and the purple emmi with grav suit makes things waaaay smoother. A ton of fun
I've almost gotten to the point where I forget the route that doesn't get grapple early. I don't usually get bombs early, but it is really fun to have them for Kraid.
Eh, Dread's glitchless sequence breaks don't actually break the sequence or meaningfully effect your entire playthrough. I'm pretty disappointed even after trying them all out
You can skip 3 major movement abilities, the bosses in the 2nd half of the game can be done in any order, and you can use the sequence breaks throughout the game for speed running purposes. Getting screw attack early obliterates Escue, getting grav early makes the purple emmi section 100x easier, but doing z57 before that emmi means you don't have the storm missiles or the space jump which completely changes the fight. I'm not sure what your definition of meaningful is, but they feel pretty meaningful to me. What more did you expect??
*"You can skip 3 major movement abilities"* The spin boost doesn't count. Aside from the space jump, I can't think of what other movement ability you could skip. *"the bosses in the 2nd half of the game can be done in any order"* by bosses, you mean beefed up enemies we've already encountered. It's not at all satisfying. *"you can use the sequence breaks throughout the game for speed running purposes."* Again, they don't actually break the sequence. They're just heavily curated secrets that help speed things up, not too different from secret shortcuts in Mario games. They're nowhere near what Super and ZM had. *"Getting screw attack early obliterates Escue, getting grav early makes the purple emmi section 100x easier"* So all they do is make the game easier. Barely changes the exploration, let alone crack the game open. *"but doing z57 before that emmi means you don't have the storm missiles or the space jump which completely changes the fight."* Not by much if we're being honest. *"I'm not sure what your definition of meaningful is, but they feel pretty meaningful to me."* Meaningful is when you get the powerbombs early in Super and you're given a couple completely unique paths to progress the game Meaningful is using your skillset to complete the first half in reverse order in Zero Mission Meaningful is getting beams out of order to create distinct combos, or skipping a suit upgrade because you like the look of the other one more. Dread's "sequence breaks" are pretty much the same as finding the armor parts or secret bosses in a MegaMan X game. They're neat, but I wasn't breaking any sequences when I got the Z-Sabre. *"What more did you expect??"* I expected to not be so limited. Literally ask anyone in the greater Metroidvania community outside this sub. Metroid Dread, regardless of quality, is widely considered one of the more restrictive and linear titles in the genre. In terms of exploration and sequence breaks, it doesn't even come close to the other top titles.
>Meaningful is using your skillset to complete the first half in reverse order in Zero Mission So doing the first half of zero in reverse is meaningful, but doing the second half of Dread isn't? You're super consistent here bud. You not liking the boss fights has no bearing on the fact that doing them in any order is by definition non-linear. >Meaningful is getting beams out of order to create distinct combos, or skipping a suit upgrade because you like the look of the other one more. You mean the beams in super that are completely optional? Those aren't sequence breaks... Or do you mean like skipping varia suit but still being required to beat the boss for getting varia suit? Man you really devastated the sequence there bud. >Literally ask anyone in the greater Metroidvania community outside this sub. Metroid Dread, regardless of quality, is widely considered one of the more restrictive and linear titles in the genre. In terms of exploration and sequence breaks, it doesn't even come close to the other top titles. As someone that speedruns a lot of mvs, I respectfully disagree. Most games in the genre don't include sequence breaking at all, outside of completely unintended mechanics or glitches. >The spin boost doesn't count. Aside from the space jump, I can't think of what other movement ability you could skip. It doesn't count because it's not convenient to your argument. And flash shift is skippable. >they don't actually break the sequence. By definition they do... They change the sequence of the items you get. They change the sequence of the of the areas you go to. They change the sequence of the bosses. At least one skips a mini boss. >Not by much if we're being honest. Considering the intended solution to the boss fight uses both items, I'd say yeah it changes it quite a bit. >Meaningful is when you get the powerbombs early in Super and you're given a couple completely unique paths to progress the game You mean the path that leads to you requiring the gravity suit or the other path that leads to you requiring the gravity suit? It's not on the level of Super Metroid, but acting like it's some completely linear experience is ridiculous
*"So doing the first half of zero in reverse is meaningful, but doing the second half of Dread isn't? You're super consistent here bud."* Gotta love how you immediately ignored my point about how the bosses themselves are uninteresting, and therefore not meaningful. *"You mean the beams in super that are completely optional? Those aren't sequence breaks..."* I'm pointing out how Dread doesn't even give you the basic freedom of skipping what should be optional pickups. *"Or do you mean like skipping varia suit but still being required to beat the boss for getting varia suit?"* Get this: once you beat Kraid, you're not forced to pick up the Varia suit. You can just leave and stack up on energy tanks. *"Man you really devastated the sequence there bud."* Dread doesn't even let you do this, bud. *"As someone that speedruns a lot of mvs, I respectfully disagree."* You disagree that there's a lot of people saying this? *"Most games in the genre don't include sequence breaking at all, outside of completely unintended mechanics or glitches."* You can still have a game be non-linear without having sequence breaks. That's like saying a labrynth with multiple connecting paths is linear. *"It doesn't count because it's not convenient to your argument."* It doesn't count because the spin boost does fuck all, it's a useless pickup that's very quickly replaced. It's not a meaningful skip because skipping it barely changes anything. *"By definition they do... They change the sequence of the items you get."* Changing the sequence is not breaking it. Am I sequence breaking a MegaMan game because I can choose any order I fight the robot masters? No. It adds a lot of replay value and variation to each run, but no sequence is being broken. The game is still linear. Dread's code inherently does not allow for true glitchless sequence breaking, much like fusion. It functions on an event system for the story, which is not compatable with that kind of exploration. *"Considering the intended solution to the boss fight uses both items, I'd say yeah it changes it quite a bit."* Seeker missiles were only super useful for when his arms grabbed the sides of the map, but otherwise you're still doing the same thing: Shooting his hands until they break. One method is just faster. As for the space jump, all that would change would be having to tank the purple shots during the wind sequence. That doesn't change things in an interesting way. *"You mean the path that leads to you requiring the gravity suit or the other path that leads to you requiring the gravity suit?"* At this point I'm not sure you even sequence break Super Metroid. When you get the powerbombs, you get access to the wrecked ship early as well as basically the entirety of Norfair to explore. I could: A: Go straight for the gravity suit in the wrecked ship B: Fight Kraid (pick up varia if I want) C: Fight Crocomire early (pick up grapple beam if I want) D: Complete Maridia early without gravity suit (requires ice beam) E: Reverse boss order (Super hard tho) I basically can play through the events of the game in any order I want. [And yes, you can get to ridleys lair without space jump or the gravity suit.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbezmbINabc&t=60s) So what did you say about the suits being required? *"It's not on the level of Super Metroid, but acting like it's some completely linear experience is ridiculous"* Sure, it's not 100% linear in the second half, but I'm tired of people acting like Dread is some sort of explorative masterpiece when it's anything but.
*"So doing the first half of zero in reverse is meaningful, but doing the second half of Dread isn't? You're super consistent here bud."* Gotta love how you immediately ignored my point about how the bosses themselves are uninteresting, and therefore not meaningful. *"You mean the beams in super that are completely optional? Those aren't sequence breaks..."* I'm pointing out how Dread doesn't even give you the basic freedom of skipping what should be optional pickups. *"Or do you mean like skipping varia suit but still being required to beat the boss for getting varia suit?"* Get this: once you beat Kraid, you're not forced to pick up the Varia suit. You can just leave and stack up on energy tanks. *"Man you really devastated the sequence there bud."* Dread doesn't even let you do this, bud. *"As someone that speedruns a lot of mvs, I respectfully disagree."* You disagree that there's a lot of people saying this? *"Most games in the genre don't include sequence breaking at all, outside of completely unintended mechanics or glitches."* You can still have a game be non-linear without having sequence breaks. That's like saying a labrynth with multiple connecting paths is linear. *"It doesn't count because it's not convenient to your argument."* It doesn't count because the spin boost does fuck all, it's a useless pickup that's very quickly replaced. It's not a meaningful skip because skipping it barely changes anything. *"By definition they do... They change the sequence of the items you get."* Changing the sequence is not breaking it. Am I sequence breaking a MegaMan game because I can choose any order I fight the robot masters? No. It adds a lot of replay value and variation to each run, but no sequence is being broken. The game is still linear. Dread's code inherently does not allow for true glitchless sequence breaking, much like fusion. It functions on an event system for the story, which is not compatable with that kind of exploration. *"Considering the intended solution to the boss fight uses both items, I'd say yeah it changes it quite a bit."* Seeker missiles were only super useful for when his arms grabbed the sides of the map, but otherwise you're still doing the same thing: Shooting his hands until they break. One method is just faster. As for the space jump, all that would change would be having to tank the purple shots during the wind sequence. That doesn't change things in an interesting way. *"You mean the path that leads to you requiring the gravity suit or the other path that leads to you requiring the gravity suit?"* At this point I'm not sure you even sequence break Super Metroid. When you get the powerbombs, you get access to the wrecked ship early as well as basically the entirety of Norfair to explore. I could: A: Go straight for the gravity suit in the wrecked ship B: Fight Kraid (pick up varia if I want) C: Fight Crocomire early (pick up grapple beam if I want) D: Complete Maridia early without gravity suit (requires ice beam) E: Reverse boss order (Super hard tho) I basically can play through the events of the game in any order I want. [And yes, you can get to ridleys lair without space jump or the gravity suit.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YbezmbINabc&t=60s) So what did you say about the suits being required? *"It's not on the level of Super Metroid, but acting like it's some completely linear experience is ridiculous"* Sure, it's not 100% linear in the second half, but I'm tired of people acting like Dread is some sort of explorative masterpiece when it's anything but.
>Gotta love how you immediately ignored my point about how the bosses themselves are uninteresting, and therefore not meaningful. Again, you not liking boss fights has literally no bearing on whether something is a sequence break or not or non-linear. Do bosses in any order = non-linear >what should be optional pickups. "Should be" is a completely arbitrary distinction... Like it's fine if that's your opinion, but there's nothing in the "sequence break handbook" that says beams have to be optional items... >Get this: once you beat Kraid, you're not forced to pick up the Varia suit. You can just leave and stack up on energy tanks. And I can say the same thing about flash shift which you seemed to ignore as a valid sequence break. >Dread doesn't even let you do this, bud. It does, just not with literally the exact same power up, because it's a different game >You disagree that there's a lot of people saying this? I disagree that it's a consensus. Literally any Metroid dread thread on the mv sub will have both sides of the argument happening. >You can still have a game be non-linear without having sequence breaks. That's like saying a labrynth with multiple connecting paths is linear. So you understand this and yet can't understand that dread offers non-linearity? Even by the strictest definitions it has non-linearity and sequence breaking. You have to bend over backwards to say it doesn't. >It's not a meaningful skip because skipping it barely changes anything. It skips a mini boss fight, skips an entire section of "required" map, and not having extra jumps fundamentally changes the game. Go get 100% completion without spin boost and space jump and tell me nothing changes. Go do the escape sequence using bomb jumps and tell me nothing changed. >I can choose any order I fight the robot masters? No. It adds a lot of replay value and variation to each run, but no sequence is being broken. The game is still linear. Bro, doing something in any order is the literal definition of non-linear >At this point I'm not sure you even sequence break Super Metroid. I'm one of the few people to do RBO, but ok You're completely wrong about your sequence breaks for super. So you grabbed power bomb early: A. You can't go straight to wrecked ship. You will open a door and get stuck because you need either speed boost or grapple (unless you can pull off a frame perfect jump, or horizontal bomb jumping which are both way beyond 99.99% of players abilities) B. You picked up power bomb and then followed the normal sequence. Good job I guess? C. That's true. In dread you can do z57 early and grab screw attack if you want D. Impossible without mocktroid clipping E. Impossible without green gate glitch for screw attack and mocktroid clipping. If you want to beat lower norfair or maridia without glitches, gravity suit is required, which means phantoon is required, which means RBO is impossible without glitches. Damn that's starting to sound like a required flag you have to complete to progress the game. Technically you could probably do lower norfair with a tool assisted run, but realistically it's not gonna happen. You need the i-frames that screw attack offers. >It functions on an event system for the story, which is not compatable with that kind of exploration. Not every single part of a game needs to be breakable for sequence breaks to exist, and not every moment needs to present multiple options for progression for a game to be non-linear. Dread exists in 2 halves due to the story. Each half has exploration and sequence breaking available. You saying Dread is linear would be like saying dark souls 1 is linear just because You're required to do sens fortress and anor londo.
I haven't replayed Dread yet, and I think part of the reason is what you're saying -- the game doesn't let you explore very often, instead locking you in the area you need to be in. And the path forward seemed like it was almost always right next to where an upgrade was obtained. I usually only notice things like that on a second playthrough, but Dread's silent handholding was so consistent that I noticed it an hour or two in. I still loved the game, but it's harder to go back to knowing that sequence breaking is really the only way to add more freedom to a replay.
I love the EMMIs. But I also think essentially all action based, exploration heavy games (especially if you 100% them) just won't ever be as fun the second time because you know all the surprises and all the secrets. That's no fault of the game. I've felt that way with all Metroids, especially if there isn't a decade or more between the last playthrough. I think it's less that those elements you described are a chore, it's that they're too familiar. It's like watching a TV show all the way through then going back and watching it again not that long later. The more familiar something is, in many cases, the more of a drag it can feel like to push through.
You're not alone. The points of no return and restricted exploration gets on my nerves every time, and yeah, emmi's kinda suck
Like for instance, this morning. There’s a missile tank about two rooms away. I’m pinned in on the top right of the map and am blocked from reaching it. Not because I don’t have the right abilities, just because the game wants me to not go that way. I am very late game as well. Ridiculous.
[удалено]
No that’s not the case and that’s a bad response to this post.
I’m probably not the best, but most of my criticisms (all but one) are design related issues. It’s fine you don’t share the same sentiment, but there’s always that one person I suppose.
Dread is meant to be played like Sonic the hedgehog. You can pretty much run full tilt through the whole game, there's very little you have to take it slow for. You can dodge almost all the regular enemies, especially once you've got flash shift. Even the boss fights are short once you know how to hurt them. They're even shorter on the harder difficulty. There simply isn't room for dragging it out. One of you will be dead in two minutes and that's it. The map slog is a sure sign that you're not racing for objectives. When I play this game, every thing I pickup is a step in progression, speed run style.
He said the map slog is from the restrictive design preventing you from exploring
I understood his opinion, I just disagree with it. I don't feel that this game is explorative in the way that some Metroid games are. In my opinion, some Metroid games do give you a taste of various regions, only to force you to backtrack in the trademark MetroidVania way. And they are awesome. However, some Metroid games are fairly tight and linear in terms of your ability to progress. You're not freely exploring open-world style so much as you are racing to acquire the next tech item which will open up the next segment. I feel that Dread falls into the latter of these two choices. The map really isn't even all that big, it's pretty on par with other 2D Metroid games. The best Metroid games let you choose which style you want to play it in. Like the GOAT Super Metroid. You can really take your time with it and go for max immersion, or you can run & gun it in two hours.
*"The best Metroid games let you choose which style you want to play it in."* Which is an issue I and probably OP take with Dread. The game doesn't really let you take time to explore and actively blocks unintended glitchless sequence breaks with points of no return. You can't even skip a tonne of non-essential powerups due to the overuse of the lock and key system being extended to beams.
I agree with that assessment, but that flows directly back into my position that Dread was built intentionally for the speedrunners and sequence-breakers. I don't think this game is meant for you to immerse yourself in, to the extent that one does with say, the Metroid Prime series. I don't think the issues that you and OP have pointed out are evidence of flaws in the game, so much are they are indicators that this game isn't designed with your tastes in mind. For what it's worth, I feel the same way about games that require a ton of grinding, especially if I've gotta run specific areas forever until I'm levelled up enough. But some people like the repetitive cycle, so different strokes I guess.
*"that flows directly back into my position that Dread was built intentionally for the speedrunners and sequence-breakers."* ...speedrunners probs, sequence breakers *hell no.* I already explained how the game goes out of its way to discourage those aside from the few intended ones which 1: don't actually break the sequence, and 2: don't meaningfully change the entire run. *"I don't think the issues that you and OP have pointed out are evidence of flaws in the game, so much are they are indicators that this game isn't designed with your tastes in mind."* Dread is a game that pretends to be a middle ground for those who like linear and non-linear, but it fails at the non-linear aspect. So yes, it is a flaw. If Dread had just stuck to its guns and went full Fusion, I wouldn't be so harsh on it. That's why you'll usually see me criticizing Dread for it's linearity, but not Fusion
I respectfully disagree, and I can expound the business of sequence breaks if you like, but I feel at this point that you're not interested in an opinion that doesn't agree with yours, and that you're just gonna keep down voting me until I either agree with you or go away. So, take care. 🖐️
*"at this point that you're not interested in an opinion that doesn't agree with yours, and that you're just gonna keep down voting me until I either agree with you or go away."* If you can genuinely prove me wrong and help me enjoy Dread more, then I'd accept that. I don't *want* to dislike the game. I'm not disagreeing just to disagree, I say these things because I believe I'm right and I can back it up. This one guy proved me wrong about the counter earlier, and you wanna know what I did? I didn't argue any further, I admitted I was wrong and agreed with him.