Super Metroid: Arrival (fixt 0.4)

[RealRed]

Beat fixt 0.4.
2:13, 68%
This is a pretty solid. Provided a tough challenge in minstrane. Very consistent levels with solid visuals for each unique area. Item requirement was a little jittery... in almost every case, I feel like you've decided "okay I'm just gonna give you this item" rather than giving me a reason to need first. That is nice though as it makes the hack more exploration oriented. It is a quick play, but the world is a nice mid-size, so I never felt overwhelmed by the amount of areas I had left to check/explore to find chozo keys.

This a pretty good hack. I like it more than Phazon hack and Z-factor, and those are pretty esteemed hacks apparently. You've drawn the curtains this year for hacking, jefe963, and I like what I see.  :D!:

EDIT: I also forgot to mention... Space jump essentially enables SA-X mode. That's fun.

[GoldenTorizo]

All I gotta say about this hack is I love the 16-bit rendition of Brinstar from the original Metroid.

[DonnyDonovan]

I only wish it were a little bigger in places, a little harder in places, and had a proper ending.  Add those things and it would, for me, be in tier-1.  It's not quite there but it's really close. 

[GoldenTorizo]

You actually managed to make the Kraid fight the other way around? Wow! I'm impressed.

[Quietus]

Metaquarius kindly provided us with a nice patch for that. :^_^:

[bobisadrummer]

I'm loving the hack so far, specially the music in that green mist place. I don't know if it was mentioned before, and this might be because he's mirrored, but there were some weird graphical tiles in Kraids room when I re-entered.

I do think I'm lost though.

Beat it, though I am confused.

[spoiler]So I beat Ridley and got the gravity suit and I managed to bomb jump up a little hole in the room with the Mochtroids which lead me to that area with the Chozo Key gate (have two keys so far) and I got space jump, but then I got stuck as I don't have power bombs.
I noticed quite a few power bomb doors in Ridley's area as well, so I'm guessing I missed them, but I've gone back and I can't find them.

Never mind, totally forgot about that water part to Kolpruz, found the p-bombs. Though I am curious about the two speedblocks under the save room in Green Mist Kolpruz, not quite sure how I can get a speed boost there. There's also an area where I noticed a gate in the wall near the fake item and power bomb item below it. Also... are Botwoon and Draygon optional? Because I'm assuming the p-bomb is supposed to be Draygons reward, but I already picked up a few of them before I fought him. I'm not sure what Botwoon's reward was supposed to be besides a super missile. So far, I've collected all the Chozo keys but I haven't found Charge Beam, I assume that's located in a room beneath the save room with the Mochtroids and the two speed blocks. Shame, cause Golden Torizo is giving me hell.

So, I decided to explore what was behind the Chozo Key gate and uh... Are those Metroids supposed the be the last kind of bosses or something? I ended up with 65% completion with out Screw Attack and Charge Beam.
[/spoiler]

[spoiler]
So when I was testing an early version, the intention was Power bombs are meant to be obtained at draygon, but you could do a sequence break that involved shinespark echos and a gate in order to obtain them early. Has this changed? I know Jiffy wanted to make it possible to do a no boss run.
[/spoiler]

This is exactly what I intended. Originally...
[spoiler]Draygon would give Power Bombs as the prize, which meant you could collect the Chozo Key for the area. If you wanted to skip Draygon, you'd have to do a Chain Shinespark, then do a Green Gate Glitch to the gate on the right. If you defeat Draygon though, these Power Bombs would be available through a small passage.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]I ended up getting power bombs but I didn't have to defeat Draygon or do any kind of shinespark chaining. I simply got the space jump after getting gravity suit, went back down to the bottom water filler part of Kolpruz, explored and ended up find at least 2 power bombs.[/spoiler]

[Omegatroid]

I like what I'm seeing in this hack and it's fun too. I got the Ice Beam and other stuff.

[Quietus]

Is there any news on the final product yet?  I think I'll have to just give in before long. :^_^:

[Jiffy]

I should be done in a few weeks time. Started work on it again today.
[spoiler=bobisadrummer]In 0.4, Grime did a thing making Power Bombs collectable before Draygon/Botwoon, iirc. Normally, Botwoon opens a door to Draygon, who gives you Power Bombs.[/spoiler]

[Omegatroid]

I completed the game today and it was fun.

[spoiler]Time: 4:24[/spoiler]
[spoiler]Items: 77%[/spoiler]

[Quietus]

I should be done in a few weeks time. Started work on it again today.

Whoop, whoop. :cheers:

[JAM]

Jefe962
I've found few errors in 0.4 and already fixed them privately. I will send the patch to you. Could also help with fixing the broken rooms if you wanted to add any.

I can also make Phantoon activate the escape timer. Just add the room with him to the game, but this hack IMHO deserves a good escape section. Better than
[spoiler]blow the floor and fall to the landing site[/spoiler]. Would be also great, if it will fit with existing areas as puzzle pieces.

[Jiffy]

Thanks, but no thanks. Recently I've fixed Phantoon and been working on an escape myself. Things are looking good. What would eb nice though, is you gimme a list of the Bugs you've found. If there are some I can't fix, I'll request further assistance from you. :^_^:

[JAM]

Alright. Here you go:

1. Exit in the last metroid room located incorrectly. 5 tiles from above. Should be 6.
2. If you kill Metroid and exit (and not opening the grey door) you'll never progress from now on. Door became forever closed. Because of wrong Enemy Pop pointer. [spoiler=Solution]$8000 is no good. It should points to "FF FF 00". $80E5 is a good pointer, for example[/spoiler]
3. No text area names at map (I could make them).
4. No Wall Jump item in the menu (same here).

[Jiffy]

Goodie. I had already noticed and fixed the first one. Not sure what you mean by the 2nd one, since I tested the final area myself in Quickmet and it seems alright. Same for the 3rd one. For the 4th one, the Walljump Item in the menu, I'll send you the ROM to do that when I've fixed everything else. :^_^:

[MetroidMst]

I tested the final area myself in Quickmet and it seems alright.

Word of advice, never rely on quickmet for a good testing. It is great for making sure your room works, and for getting around easier while you're making the hack. But for actually testing if something breaks, always load the game normally.

[JAM]

Jefe962
First of all, I'm glad that you will not abandon such a good project.

Not sure what you mean by the 2nd one, since I tested the final area myself in Quickmet and it seems alright.

Kill Metroid and don't open the grey door, just quit using blue door you've entered. Now you can't open the grey door ever. Of course, it was in v0.4fixt. If you relocated the rooms so there is only one exit, it wouldn't be a problem.

Same for the 3rd one.

Better watch one time than say 100 times.


I can change that pink text to Kolpuz, Prometeus X etc. As much in every area, as you want. Size of text isn't problem too, so PROMETEUS X icon is possible.

For the 4th one, the Walljump Item in the menu, I'll send you the ROM to do that when I've fixed everything else. :^_^:

Alright, I'll be waiting. =)

[Lazymoth]

I went ahead and played this because I was impatient for the full version. ;p It is a very good hack, I'm glad you didn't give up. Clear time 03:27.

Some notes:

♥ I really like the personality of each area. I think you did a good job keeping themes.
♥ Lower Minstraine in particular has an extremely oppressive, killer atmosphere. The music choice is perfect.
♥ Those are the scariest Mochtroids I have ever seen, to say nothing of the normal Metroids... jesus. Those were intense. For some reason the final boss room was empty for me, but I'd say the Metroids were sufficient enough of a last challenge for my run of this pre-final copy. ;p
♥ I think the Power Bombs are the best foreshadowed item. Once I finally found some it was really satisfying. Also, I don't think I've ever been more excited for the Screw Attack or Gravity Suit.

Some suggestions for your consideration:

♥ I feel like the world could do with a couple more shortcuts; it would be nice to get into the top-right portion of Fever Swamp from the starting location, but you're blocked off from going up into there by the one-way gray door. Maybe replace that with a Super Missile door? Then later on it can be a shortcut to upper Kolpruz. It would also be nice because then it wouldn't be an enormous diversion to go use the ship to refill munitions... at endgame, I stuck to the enemy spawners in Upper Kolpruz to refill in lieu of making the long journey back.
♥ In the lower half of Warlus towards the right, there's a sort of "hub room" and on the right is a Super Missile gate that you can only activate from the other side. I would propose turning this into a normal beam gate, then you could open it from the left half of the room once you have the Wave Beam and it could serve as another shortcut to Upper Kolpruz that you can utilize later on. (At least I think this is the case, if I'm remembering the map right.)

I feel with those extra shortcuts the hack would feel a little less circuitous when you needed to go somewhere else. The Speed Booster shortcut in Minstraine is very handy, for instance. Shortcuts can be a lot of fun to use, add nice texture to world traversal- breaking down the feeling of reptition when you need to backtrack- and they really help foster the sense of progression as your inventory grows.

Anyway, this is really great. The map design is great and organic, the shape of the areas themselves are really interesting to me and I just think everything is solid and well-done. It was a lot of fun to play, so kudos on making such a nice and tidy Super Metroid adventure! I'm glad other people helped out too, it's nice to see you guys work together to help put finishing touches on the hack and stomp out bugs.

[Riffman81]

Finally completed this one today! I really wish I had done so sooner as there are a lot of pleasant surprises to be seen, and heard here!! :yay:

Looking forward to seeing a final, more polished version of this hack and very glad to see everyone here pulled together to "fine tune" this and get it out there. Job well done to everyone involved!

[Jiffy]

Alrighty. Arrival is outta my possession for now, while JAM fixes the Walljump Item in the Pause menu, and the Area Names on the map. When those are done, Arrival will be 100% finished (unless some game-breaking bug appears, but I doubt it.)
Changes:
- Phantoon has been added, along with an escape timer and a couple of rooms to escape through. For that, I'd collect a load of E-Tanks.
- Various shortcuts have been created, such as an Elevator from the Bottom Right of Ministrane to the Bottom Middle of Kolpruz.
- Hub Room with the Backwards Super Missile gate has been replaced with a Standard gate.
- Power Bombs are back how they were, where you can either Power Bomb through to get them, or do a Chain Shinespark.

Just a few more days now.

[Quietus]

Finally, Arrival Arrives. :^_^:

[JAM]

Quietus
What else did you expected after redesigning Redesign? =)



On-topic: most of work I promised is done.
Text area names drawing: 100%.
Text area names tilemap creating: 0%.
Text area names placing: impossible without having the current version.

Wall Jump in the menu: 100%, but untested.

Ridley vulnerabilities instruction wrote: 100%
Ridley vulnerabilities fixing: 0%

[thedopefish]

Arrival's release date has arrived!  Yay!

Wait, where is it?   :pale:

[JAM]

thedopefish
In the "polishing" state. Don't worry. Completed and polished hack is better than "what I did before release date".

[advancedpillow]

Finally finished Arrival. Very easy and fun. 2:48 was my clear time.; 66% item collection. (Is there a charge beam? I never got it.) The new music was interesting but, overall, I didn't think they worked so well--except the remixed maridia theme, which I think is even better than the original. The areas were designed well but I didn't like the item progression; it didnt feel particularly planned out to well. And I missed the Gravity Suit the first time around--that really annoyed me. My facorite area was the final area; it was awesome. I wish there was more to it. Overall, solid work and I'm excited to see more from you, Jefe.