Metroid Other ZM - A Metroid Zero Mission Hack

[biospark]

Biospark says that his editor will be able to add rooms and areas, but until then it would just be a hassle.

Actually, I never said that. I said that it will be an eventual feature, but it won't be a feature when I first release the editor.

[Luce Seyfarth]

Biospark says that his editor will be able to add rooms and areas, but until then it would just be a hassle.

Actually, I never said that. I said that it will be an eventual feature, but it won't be a feature when I first release the editor.

Oops, mistake on my part, sorry. I remembered rooms when you said doors:

The first release won't be able to add rooms, but you can add doors.

[MollyAncalime]

I'm really enjoying this hack, I must say! In my mind it's the SMRedesign of Zero Mission. I've done quite well, I've already picked up Wave Beam, Ice Beam, Charge Beam and early Power Bombs, and turned on the zip line and defeated Ridley. On my way to Kraid I managed to find that gauntlet that was being discussed earlier, and I (with copious save state abuse) got through.

But there's no reward?
http://m.imgur.com/sgoaOK2
I do not have Power Grip, Varia or any unknown item, so shouldn't that special Varia be there?

[Luce Seyfarth]

One question: How did you manage collecting Charge Beam without Gravity Suit?

Great wirk :)
Yeah, I did add another switch for that item to appear there, sorry. You may have to search
[spoiler]
in Kraid, item requirements are as always. After you activate said switch, the ichozo statue will appear.
[/spoiler]
I did that so you could at least use Power Grip on that gauntlet.

[MollyAncalime]

I believe it was in Norfair, yes? When the statue by the Ridley elevator collapsed, I recall a path that led to the tube behind Ridley's elevator. Going that way I found a Morph Ball Launcher (I haven't a clue if that's the proper name) that launched me into a room with purple Rippers, one next to a save room according to the map. I took a left and found myself in a green bubble room with the Charge Beam inside.
My memory of how I got there isn't exact but I don't remember any lava or anything of the sort that would require Gravity. That said, if there was lava I probably dived right in and tried to get out before running out of energy.

As for the switch in Kraid, would you mind letting me know in a PM or a spoiler what I'm looking for? I've already defeated Kraid but I don't want to have to do the gauntlet more than I need to  :blush:

[Luce Seyfarth]

I believe it was in Norfair, yes? When the statue by the Ridley elevator collapsed, I recall a path that led to the tube behind Ridley's elevator. Going that way I found a Morph Ball Launcher (I haven't a clue if that's the proper name) that launched me into a room with purple Rippers, one next to a save room according to the map. I took a left and found myself in a green bubble room with the Charge Beam inside.

Wow... The question to me is how you did that. I have a screenshot of the top part of the purple Ripper room here:



That missile block is the only way up there. There are no false blocks anywhere. How did you get up there?




Also, the missing switch is found
[spoiler]
Behind the Varia Suit room in Kraid
[/spoiler]

[MollyAncalime]

Is that really not how I was supposed to get it?  :whoa:
It could be my emulator. As I said, I play on my phone, and Provenance lags really badly when a text notification appears. I have to drop savestates often because if I get a text at a bad time, Samus will glitch into blocks and get stuck. I didn't think anything of it when I ended up there, though  :O_o:

I did finish the hack, and I have to say that was a very rewarding experience! I will definitely be coming back to it sometime, especially now that I know the solutions and where to go and what to do. Can't wait to see what features you're adding!

I will hopefully get add a full review soon.

[Luce Seyfarth]

Is that really not how I was supposed to get it?  :whoa:
It could be my emulator. As I said, I play on my phone, and Provenance lags really badly when a text notification appears. I have to drop savestates often because if I get a text at a bad time, Samus will glitch into blocks and get stuck. I didn't think anything of it when I ended up there, though  :O_o:

That settles it. And here I was waiting to be amazed by either your ingenuity or my own stupidity :P

As you can probably guess, you're supposed to come from the right entrance.

[Altheaas]

Hey man! I haven't forgotten about you. I wanna write a thing going into overall opinions on this hack but I haven't finished it and have been super busy with school and finals.

But I am very close to the end. I managed to get all the unknown items prior to getting the Fully-Powered Suit so I have everything except Power bombs! But I haven't really played since I got the suit, so I got stuff to figure out. Oh, I think I got the screw attack. Anyways, I low-key hated getting the Ice Beam but that's mostly because I was stuck for a long time, not realizing the hidden tube on the left side of a large room that lead to some missile blocks I could destroy to reach the switch for the ziplines.

But honestly I'm basically at the end and I can't say much I haven't already other than this hack is pretty awesome. The Ridley fight was a little underwhelming but I think that's because of my exploratory nature. I had like 7 health tanks or something by the time I got there. And a ton of super missiles. I totally rocked him.

Hopefully I can find more time to be able to play the next version through- maybe I'll try to get early power bombs and go through the gauntlet to get the suit. :)

UPDATE:
[spoiler=Took me forever, but I finally finished the game!]
Yeah I know. I'm slow :P
[/spoiler]

Took me a while but I finally found Power Bombs! I had a great time with this hack. It starts off a little slow, but you really do get that sense of power inflation. In retrospect, it was very much like Ori and the Blind Forest- willing to brutally kill you over and over again but by the end, you feel like a badass seasoned pro. Excited for the next version- if I can keep my saves, I might even play it in Hard Mode :P

[MollyAncalime]

Review time!

Let me start off by saying I've only played the original Zero Mission once. I've always been weird about Metroid and hacks of it; I only played up to Spore Spawn in the Super Metroid before I went off playing hacks. I beat Redesign, Digital Cube and several mini-hacks before I ever sat down and finished the original Super.

So, having only played through ZM once, I don't have the luxury of looking for paths that were in the original. Only by bombing/shooting around and looking for hidden walls was I able to progress. I had to abuse savestates constantly, although I don't mind doing so. I haven't a clue how anyone could play on original hardware without pulling their hair out just trying to get past heated rooms, minibosses and those Mellow hives.

I was really really against using Double Helix, but I ended up cracking it open just once to find the path to the Zipline Activator and accidentally found early power bombs in the process of combing through rooms (so ashamed!). So, I did play out of sequence. I was very set on earning that special Varia, so I went down paths that were harder than the 'intended' path. I learned IBJ and DBJ quickly enough to not be deterred on my task.

Had I gone down the 'intended' path, I probably could have saved myself a lot of tedium. My next playthrough, which will be when this new version comes out, I plan to go the normal route. Only reason I haven't on this version is those Mellow Hives, just can't motivate myself to do it.

In my experience, the game was quite well made. I would personally suggest more environmental clues that allude to a possible hidden path, a different tile or something. Those hidden missile blocks in Ridley kicked my ass. So did those missile blocks at the end of that bomb chain in Norfair I posted about. That made me put the hack down for a while because I just couldn't figure it out.

Really, though, this reminded me of wandering around in Metroid Prime as a kid, just gawking at the ingenious level design and cool puzzles. Even though some puzzles made me groan because the solution seemed dumb, some really made me feel accomplished once I figured it out.

This is definitely a hack worth trying and seeing through to the end. It's not something you'll regret. It's the first of its kind and a solid 8/10 at that.

[Luce Seyfarth]

Thanks again for your opinions :)

I will try to do the bulk of the work for next version as soon as possible, however this month has become chock-full of other duties for me. Right now I'm only coding some ASM functions while I have time waiting for an ACT-R test or something similiar to finish. The boring, but necessary stuff advances slow, but well. Can't wait to dig into the more fancy stuff, but I estimate that I won't find time for that until the beginning of June, because then, finally, my bachelor project at university will be finished.

That being said...

So, having only played through ZM once, I don't have the luxury of looking for paths that were in the original. Only by bombing/shooting around and looking for hidden walls was I able to progress. I had to abuse savestates constantly, although I don't mind doing so. I haven't a clue how anyone could play on original hardware without pulling their hair out just trying to get past heated rooms, minibosses and those Mellow hives.

You probably don't know, because you are not as familiar with the original Zero Mission, but skipping Long Beam and thus fighting the bug hives without it is a very common strategy to archieve the 15% ending, especially on hard mode. To be fair, at least you had some Missiles then, which is why the next release will have either those bugs weakened a bit or have them drop small health pickups.

I was really really against using Double Helix, but I ended up cracking it open just once to find the path to the Zipline Activator and accidentally found early power bombs in the process of combing through rooms (so ashamed!). So, I did play out of sequence. I was very set on earning that special Varia, so I went down paths that were harder than the 'intended' path. I learned IBJ and DBJ quickly enough to not be deterred on my task.

That leaves me to wonder, how does one go from exploring Chozodia via Double Helix to finding the path to early Power Bombs, which are in an entirely different area?
The special Varia Suit is just a bonus. I haven't calculated yet if it would be useful in a 100% speedrun or if it would be faster to skip it.

[interdpth]

Thanks again for your opinions :)

I will try to do the bulk of the work for next version as soon as possible, however this month has become chock-full of other duties for me. Right now I'm only coding some ASM functions while I have time waiting for an ACT-R test or something similiar to finish. The boring, but necessary stuff advances slow, but well. Can't wait to dig into the more fancy stuff, but I estimate that I won't find time for that until the beginning of June, because then, finally, my bachelor project at university will be finished.

That being said...

So, having only played through ZM once, I don't have the luxury of looking for paths that were in the original. Only by bombing/shooting around and looking for hidden walls was I able to progress. I had to abuse savestates constantly, although I don't mind doing so. I haven't a clue how anyone could play on original hardware without pulling their hair out just trying to get past heated rooms, minibosses and those Mellow hives.

You probably don't know, because you are not as familiar with the original Zero Mission, but skipping Long Beam and thus fighting the bug hives without it is a very common strategy to archieve the 15% ending, especially on hard mode. To be fair, at least you had some Missiles then, which is why the next release will have either those bugs weakened a bit or have them drop small health pickups.

I was really really against using Double Helix, but I ended up cracking it open just once to find the path to the Zipline Activator and accidentally found early power bombs in the process of combing through rooms (so ashamed!). So, I did play out of sequence. I was very set on earning that special Varia, so I went down paths that were harder than the 'intended' path. I learned IBJ and DBJ quickly enough to not be deterred on my task.

That leaves me to wonder, how does one go from exploring Chozodia via Double Helix to finding the path to early Power Bombs, which are in an entirely different area?
The special Varia Suit is just a bonus. I haven't calculated yet if it would be useful in a 100% speedrun or if it would be faster to skip it.

Long beam can suck it.

Also if you need asm help and i'm in the #metconst irc, I can help a bit.

And please put any info you found that's new in that thread I made :)

[Luce Seyfarth]

Long beam can suck it.

Also if you need asm help and i'm in the #metconst irc, I can help a bit.

And please put any info you found that's new in that thread I made :)

Yeah thats true. People just don't use Missiles enough in Zero Mission.

Maybe I'll do that, thanks. When I can't find the data/ functions I am looking for, that may come in handy. Coding itself is no problem :)

K, I'll see what I can find in my notes that wasn't found before.

[MollyAncalime]

I was really really against using Double Helix, but I ended up cracking it open just once to find the path to the Zipline Activator and accidentally found early power bombs in the process of combing through rooms (so ashamed!). So, I did play out of sequence. I was very set on earning that special Varia, so I went down paths that were harder than the 'intended' path. I learned IBJ and DBJ quickly enough to not be deterred on my task.

That leaves me to wonder, how does one go from exploring Chozodia via Double Helix to finding the path to early Power Bombs, which are in an entirely different area?
The special Varia Suit is just a bonus. I haven't calculated yet if it would be useful in a 100% speedrun or if it would be faster to skip it.

I, being the wonderfully smart person that I am, forgot to reply to this thread that I also was completely unaware that the Zipline activator was in Chozodia, so I ended up combing Kraid first then trying the other areas and looking at every door connection and hidden blocks to find it.

[Luce Seyfarth]

I, being the wonderfully smart person that I am, forgot to reply to this thread that I also was completely unaware that the Zipline activator was in Chozodia, so I ended up combing Kraid first then trying the other areas and looking at every door connection and hidden blocks to find it.

Ah... Well that makes sense. I don't think anyone would like this hack (including me), if I hid the activator where early Power Bombs are now :P

Don't mind the late reply - better late than never ;)

[MultiKoopa]

Hello. I'm liking this hack a lot. But I'm stuck in Kraid.

[spoiler]I got to the room that a few posts here mention, where you're supposed to clear out Missile blocks from the other side of the room before going down to Kraid's room and getting the speed booster.

The thing is... I did that, but now that I've entered the room from the left side, the Missile blocks have come back. I tested it again to be sure, clearing the Missile blocks and exiting to the left, and sure enough, as soon as I come back, the Missile blocks come back, too!

Is this some kind of glitch I'm encountering?[/spoiler]

[Luce Seyfarth]

Hello. I'm liking this hack a lot. But I'm stuck in Kraid.

[spoiler]I got to the room that a few posts here mention, where you're supposed to clear out Missile blocks from the other side of the room before going down to Kraid's room and getting the speed booster.

The thing is... I did that, but now that I've entered the room from the left side, the Missile blocks have come back. I tested it again to be sure, clearing the Missile blocks and exiting to the left, and sure enough, as soon as I come back, the Missile blocks come back, too!

Is this some kind of glitch I'm encountering?[/spoiler]

[spoiler]
If you're talking about that room with three entrances, there are both Missile blocks that come back and Missile blocks that don't.
[spoiler]

If your problem persists, please post a screenshot.

[MultiKoopa]

Hello. I'm liking this hack a lot. But I'm stuck in Kraid.

[spoiler]I got to the room that a few posts here mention, where you're supposed to clear out Missile blocks from the other side of the room before going down to Kraid's room and getting the speed booster.

The thing is... I did that, but now that I've entered the room from the left side, the Missile blocks have come back. I tested it again to be sure, clearing the Missile blocks and exiting to the left, and sure enough, as soon as I come back, the Missile blocks come back, too!

Is this some kind of glitch I'm encountering?[/spoiler]

[spoiler]
If you're talking about that room with three entrances, there are both Missile blocks that come back and Missile blocks that don't.
[spoiler]

If your problem persists, please post a screenshot.

I see. I was pretty sure I got everything. I hope I have a save before it... :\ I'll try again. Thanks for the advice.

[MultiKoopa]

Hello. I'm liking this hack a lot. But I'm stuck in Kraid.

[spoiler]I got to the room that a few posts here mention, where you're supposed to clear out Missile blocks from the other side of the room before going down to Kraid's room and getting the speed booster.

The thing is... I did that, but now that I've entered the room from the left side, the Missile blocks have come back. I tested it again to be sure, clearing the Missile blocks and exiting to the left, and sure enough, as soon as I come back, the Missile blocks come back, too!

Is this some kind of glitch I'm encountering?[/spoiler]

[spoiler]
If you're talking about that room with three entrances, there are both Missile blocks that come back and Missile blocks that don't.
[spoiler]

If your problem persists, please post a screenshot.

I see. I was pretty sure I got everything. I hope I have a save before it... :\ I'll try again. Thanks for the advice.

I got past it! thanks for the help :)

[MultiKoopa]

Hmm. I think I'm stuck again.

[spoiler] I just got to Chozodia really early on. As in, the "Stealth" section from Zero Mission. All I have are the Morph Ball, Bombs, Speed Booster, Long Beam, and Power Grip. Is there some way for me to escape here? Or do I have to reload a previous save? [/spoiler]

[Luce Seyfarth]

Hmm. I think I'm stuck again.

[spoiler] I just got to Chozodia really early on. As in, the "Stealth" section from Zero Mission. All I have are the Morph Ball, Bombs, Speed Booster, Long Beam, and Power Grip. Is there some way for me to escape here? Or do I have to reload a previous save? [/spoiler]

That's just fine. I think you're the first person in this thread to get there with Speed Booster instead of Super Missile :)

Chozodia may be difficult to figure out, but getting an upgrade there and then escape is very much possible. In fact, there is no point in the game where you can get stuck and can't escape, unless you count the lower area of Kraid, where there are no save points anyway. The game is very open ended anyway, so you could explore Chozodia now or wait until later to do it.

[MultiKoopa]

Hmm. I think I'm stuck again.

[spoiler] I just got to Chozodia really early on. As in, the "Stealth" section from Zero Mission. All I have are the Morph Ball, Bombs, Speed Booster, Long Beam, and Power Grip. Is there some way for me to escape here? Or do I have to reload a previous save? [/spoiler]

That's just fine. I think you're the first person in this thread to get there with Speed Booster instead of Super Missile :)

Chozodia may be difficult to figure out, but getting an upgrade there and then escape is very much possible. In fact, there is no point in the game where you can get stuck and can't escape, unless you count the lower area of Kraid, where there are no save points anyway. The game is very open ended anyway, so you could explore Chozodia now or wait until later to do it.

Really? I spent a few hours there bombing every spot I could think of. Eventually I was blocked by Fallaway Blocks with Bombable blocks, all of which regenerated too fast for me to get through. Any hints?


I also have another save in Ridley. I'm stuck again. I've explored what I can, but it seems there's no way for me to progress any further without Super Missiles. But the Imago boss fight that normally gives you Super Missiles in Ridley is blocked by... a Super Missile block???
I feel like I somehow missed something, but I'm bombing every spot I can reach through infinite bomb jumping and I'm not sure how I could have missed something. I feel like I'm getting stuck a LOT in this game. I would appreciate any advice :)

[Luce Seyfarth]

You won't be able to clear those passages with fallaway and bombable blocks, you need to find other routes. Don't just rely on bombing everything, though.

Ridley...
[spoiler]
You may have found a suspicious ceiling consisting of missile blocks by bombing it. While it doesn't lead anywhere, the very presence is a hint itself. Again, don't just rely on bombing everything.
[/spoiler]

[MultiKoopa]

You won't be able to clear those passages with fallaway and bombable blocks, you need to find other routes. Don't just rely on bombing everything, though.

Ridley...
[spoiler]
You may have found a suspicious ceiling consisting of missile blocks by bombing it. While it doesn't lead anywhere, the very presence is a hint itself. Again, don't just rely on bombing everything.
[/spoiler]

I see. But there's no real way to get ammo in Chozodia. I guess I'll have to save state abuse quite a bit. I'll give it another shot :-)

[Luce Seyfarth]

Space Pirates drop Missiles, but the droprate is relatively low. I'm experimenting with different droprates at the moment to make it neither too annoying nor too easy to just blast you way through. If you find it too difficult, you can always come back later with more ammo.

Bachelor Thesis is eating up my time, though. Next update will take a while.