SM Redesign: Axeil Edition FINAL

[zaphod77]

Having finished the hack Tourian was indeed my favorite part.  the murder death beam puzzles were creative, and i liked the fact that the metroids were a real threat. there was this huge buildup in the first game and it turns out tat unless you are missing ice beam, they are easy pickings, and inspire no fear at all. The ones in super metroid were no scarier.  But these ones were the terrors they were built up to be. I had to swallow my pride and retreat to save after clearing a metroid room many times. 

I'm VERY glad they stayed dead... :)

[GUZROCK]

Hey, guys. I sent a PM to Drewseph (I'm not sure if he'll see it), but here goes a glitch in Tourian with the version 1.52.

https://youtu.be/HyQJ7Xncqzo

I had found out a similar glitch in Brinstar, but found this one in Tourian now.

Plz, make it reach to Drewseph!

[CaRmAgE]

Well, that's one way you're expected to leave after disabling the laser.  I don't think he expected you to go back through it after re-entering the room, though.  That could easily be fixed by replacing the bomb blocks with crumble blocks that don't come back until you leave the room.

Also, I'm sure he'll see your PM (he replied to every one of my bug reports).

[axeil]

Well.

I suppose as the namesake of this mod, I should give it a shot, right?  Perhaps it won't be as embarrassing this time.

So glad to see that you got this up and running Drewseph.  :)

[GUZROCK]

What did you mean with "it won't be as embarrassing this time" ??

The first Redesign was a master piece, and this one is a master piece too.

[PonchGaming]

What did you mean with "it won't be as embarrassing this time" ??

The first Redesign was a master piece, and this one is a master piece too.

He is referring to his playthrough I believe.

[axeil]

^^^ That is correct.

[axeil]

So an update on where I'm at.

First off, wow this is incredible.  It's the outline of the same game I muddled my way through all those years ago but everything has been fixed up.  And I've still got some skills, although I am quite a bit rusty.  I can tell you put a lot of work into it, and it really seems to be paying off.  I'm only about halfway through (not counting the end game item hunt) and I'm excited to see what else has changed.

So far I've:

-Killed Spore Spawn, Kraid and Crocomire.  I tried heading to the right after Crocomire, but it looks like you need to IBJ horizontally and I'm terrible enough at IBJ to not even try that.  I assume this is early access somewhere?  Is this new?  I don't remember that from the original.
-When I got the Wall Jump Boots I nearly jumped (heh) for joy.  The new wall jump controls are wonderful.  My old foe wall jumping is now so much easier!
-Got the Speed Boost, X-Ray Specs, Grapple Beam and Hi-Jump Boots.  The Speed Boost escape seems easier than before, but maybe I just got better?
-Got the Ice/Wave/Spazer beams.  Not sure if I ended up doing a minor sequence break to get the Wave and Spazer early but I knew I could nab them once I had the Speed Boost
-Activated 2 Chozo Guaridans, which I'm pretty sure is early, at least I don't remember activating any until really late in my first playthrough.  I got the one that you see right in Crateria at the start but I also managed to snag the one right near the Grapple Beam
-Unlocked the puzzle for the Screw Attack.  I was so proud of myself for figuring out how to do it and I thought I'd end up getting it early, but alas it seems like you need to either IBJ or use the Space Jump to get it now.


Other Thoughts/Comments
-I wanted to try doing the Hell Run again but I couldn't find enough energy tanks before heading off to Kraid :cry:
-It'd be nice if the E tanks pre-Kraid were added to the hint system, in case people want to try the hell run their first time through.
-Some items don't give a dot on the minimap.  Is that intentional?  Can't remember if the original did that or not.  One thought on that is I know the AM2R guy made the dot filled in if you hadn't gotten the item yet and empty if you had.  Might make it easier to keep track of everything.
-The express elevator system is a really great change
-I love the graphics changes you made to the morph ball.  Looks real good.
-Thank you for changing the Ceres Station timer back to 01:00:00

And of course I have screenshots to prove I'm not just saying stuff!

Proof I can still Infinite Bomb Jump...even if it took me half an hour to do it



The SPIKES room from my avatar got changed up a bit it seems



I'm quite good at shinesparking now





I'm particularly proud of this shinespark as I remember it took forever and was really painful my first time through.




All in all I say it's a definite 5/5.  Excited to see what's been changed for Maridia and Tourian plus seeing if the item hunt is any different.  One question I had though:  do you need to IBJ to get 100% this time?  I remember there were 2 missile tanks that you had to get through that.  I'm still pretty horrible at it and can never get the timing down, so here's hoping I don't have to do it again.  :razz:

(Mod note: edited links to display images correctly, and a reminder that imgur links don't work.)

[Drewseph]

Great to hear from you Axeil! I am so glad to hear that you are enjoying this playthrough.  There are still a few items that require ibj.  Are you recording a playthrough this time?

[axeil]

Haha, yeah I've discovered a few of those IBJ items already.  No, not recording anything, but I am trying for 100% and taking screenshots of the items I get that I'm particularly proud of.  Just made it to Lower Norfair, so I'll save a more detailed review/update for after I beat everything!

[axeil]

I did it!  100% items and escaped!





So my thoughts on the second half of the game.

Maridia

This was just as hard as I remember it, although I think some of the long-distance shinesparks are now a lot easier to pull off.  The sand physics is also much easier to work with.  I will say though that this super missile is really tricky:



I think the combination of the wall jump spots being very precise and the extra gravity from the sand made it a real pain to get.  If the wall jump spots were a little bigger it wouldn't be so tricky.



Look guys I can machball!  :bounce:



I barely escaped with my life against Draygon.  Was he always this tricky?  I found the best strategy was to wait on that ledge to the left, hit him with a missile and then roll away.

Lower Norfair



I don't know if I'm just way better at the game now but Ridley was EASY!  Beat him my second try.  I just jumped over his head, shot missiles and repeated until he finally exploded.  Perhaps I'm still traumatized from the uh, dramatic readings I was subjected to last time.



I beat the Gold Torizo on my first try!  And unlike my original run, I didn't die after killing it this time.  Hooray!

Item Collection



It's really not apparent how you're supposed to get this missile tank since I believe this is the only spot in the game where you can shinespark up a sandpit.  Is there any way to make it a bit more intuitive?  Maybe replace the sand with a shinespark block?

I really wish there was an easier way to track items.  Maybe an indicator of how many tanks/missiles/super missiles/power bombs are still left in each area once you beat the Gold Torizo?  I ended up spending around 2 hours wandering around looking for items I missed because I knew I was missing a missile tank, a super missile tank and a power bomb but I had no idea where I should be looking, not even what section of the map.  Although, I will admit that the express elevators helped out a lot here.  The missing missile tank ended up being the missile tank that's almost right next to the start, which admittedly I found somewhat hilarious.




Proof I had all items before entering Tourian.



Tourian

I love Tourian.  Wow.  It's definitely the best part of the hack.  It took me a little bit to figure out what was going on but once I did I was grinning.  And the Metroids, while tough, are now much more fair than in the original version.  Honestly, by the end of Tourian I was getting to enjoy killing them since the health drain is fairly minimal and they're somewhat easy to get off you.  The challenge is getting them arranged in a pattern so you can kill all three in one go.  Makes fighting Metroids more of a puzzle and less of a slog.

I also really enjoyed the electricity puzzle.  You sort of set this up back in Maridia with the multiple gates you need to bomb by exploring the level.  The only suggestion I have is making it a bit clearer where there are hidden morph ball tunnels.  A lot of them had that blue circle on them, which I picked up on fairly quickly but not all were like that.  Might make navigation easier for newbies.

Mother Brain was well, Mother Brain.  Not much to write about here.

Escape Sequence



This felt a lot easier, but I'm sad I didn't make it with enough time to save the animals.  I tried to continue on past the ship and save them but every time I did I failed to make it back before Zebes exploded.  Oh well.


Final Thoughts

Despite my little gripes here and there, this is a really, really solid game.  A definite 5/5 and it would be a 6/5 if the small things I noted would get fixed.  I'm proud to have my name attached to this game, and I actually enjoyed it so much I've told some of my friends to check it out.  One of them is currently exploring Brinstar and is using me as a guide. 

Thank you Drewseph for all your hard work in putting together what I feel is the definitive edition of Super Metroid Redesign.  See you next mission!

[Quietus]

I barely escaped with my life against Draygon.  Was he always this tricky?  I found the best strategy was to wait on that ledge to the left, hit him with a missile and then roll away.

Like Torizo, Draygon is weak to bombs. A few well placed bomb jumps, followed by laying a load of bombs in his path, can significantly reduce his health before he becomes too much of a pain. :^_^:

[axeil]

I barely escaped with my life against Draygon.  Was he always this tricky?  I found the best strategy was to wait on that ledge to the left, hit him with a missile and then roll away.

Like Torizo, Draygon is weak to bombs. A few well placed bomb jumps, followed by laying a load of bombs in his path, can significantly reduce his health before he becomes too much of a pain. :^_^:

Huh, interesting.  I  never thought of trying that.  Thanks for the tip!

I did do one thing I've never done before, and that's crystal flash against Ridley.  It ended up giving me just a little bit more health right near the end.  If only I had known to do that my first run...

[PonchGaming]

As for ridley being easy, iirc, if you shoot him in ceres, he will have slightly less health in lowe norfair depending on how much you damaged him

[Zero Dozer]

Axeil, can you tell me how did you traverse this?



And can you even IBJ on this hack? The bomb timing got real different from Super Metroid or Zero Mission, and you're limited to three bombs, which messes things even more...

Edit: I discovered how. And now I have a FULL gist on how changed bomb jumping physics are here.

[CaRmAgE]

Axeil, can you tell me how did you traverse this?

[spoiler][/spoiler]

That's one of the places where you have to do a long bomb jump.  IIRC, place the bomb on the edge, roll back about the length of one block, then roll forward.  You should be hit by the bomb as you're rolling off the ledge, giving you mostly forward momentum.

And can you even IBJ on this hack? The bomb timing got real different from Super Metroid or Zero Mission, and you're limited to three bombs, which messes things even more...

It's similar to a DBJ, except the third bomb is placed halfway on the way down instead of at the peak.  Each subsequent bomb is placed at the peak of the previous jump.  But, yeah, the three bomb limit does require you to keep a good rhythm; if you're too fast, you'll run out of bombs.

[axeil]

Axeil, can you tell me how did you traverse this?



And can you even IBJ on this hack? The bomb timing got real different from Super Metroid or Zero Mission, and you're limited to three bombs, which messes things even more...

Edit: I discovered how. And now I have a FULL gist on how changed bomb jumping physics are here.

Sideways bomb jump.  Place a bomb, roll to the left and then quickly roll to the right.  The explosion of the bomb will translate into upwards and rightwards momentum and propel you across.

[Zero Dozer]

I figured this when I gave a rewind at some pages and saw someone mention "running space".

As for the IBJ, interesting.

[Beardy]

IBJ is cake in normal Super Metroid, but it seems almost impossible in this.
I did some frame advance testing and it seems like you only have a 4 frame window to IBJ and you have to do it many times to get high up.
To the people who can do this: how fast are you pressing the button?
With an LCD monitor and a USB controller, input lag makes IBJ seem RIP IMO. 3LETTERWORD!

[Zero Dozer]

Just so I know, how much is the frame window in Vanilla Super Metroid?

[Quietus]

I did a video of this a looong time ago, and for the original Redesign. The IBJ timings haven't changed much, however, so it should still apply. :^_^:

[Zero Dozer]

Okay, now I have real reasons to complain at how Drewseph messed up IBJ timing in Redesign. I need to climb that shit up, this is the only route (because I can't unmorph in the other route to shoot a Super Missile on the other side), and I can't get up because he had the idea of tweaking the Bomb Jump timing.

Was really that much of a problem to keep the original SM timing for Bomb-Jumping? It was already hard, but at least I could pull the maneuver off in the vanilla.



Also, these extreme exaggerated Shinespark sequences are making me tear my hair and resort to save states. Did I really need to traverse half of Maridia in Boosted state just to get a Power Bomb tank and a Super Missile pack? I like Shinespark challenges, but I guess you quite made them pretty much overkill in Maridia.

[Beardy]

The shinespark chains are pretty tough, but I can live with them, but the worst parts for me are the horizontal bomb jump and IBJ parts.
They are truly the least fun parts I've ever played in a Super Metroid hack.

[Zero Dozer]

The shinespark chains are pretty tough, but I can live with them, but the worst parts for me are the horizontal bomb jump and IBJ parts.
They are truly the least fun parts I've ever played in a Super Metroid hack.

I've had it way easier with Horizontal Bomb Jump than I'm having it with the IBJ tweak. The time frame for laying the bombs is too small even for Super Metroid standards.

Funny thing is, if it weren't for the bomb laying limit, for some reason I'd be able to DBJ.

[Steel Sparkle]

@axeil
It is possible to save the animals. I did it with 47 seconds left on the clock.