SM Redesign: Axeil Edition FINAL

[Zeke]

Peace in space revived! My final time was 19:45 with 92.5% completion. (Yeah, this was not a speed run.)

This was still v1.1. I'll try the current version next and go for more speed, but considering Tourian, I'm glad in this first playthrough I took the time to get almost everything.

Lots to say about the hack, but I'll wait till after trying 1.4. Don't want to waste my time describing problems or glitches that have been fixed. (Love that waterless room in Maridia. The fish don't care, they just fly.)

Meanwhile, another question for anyone who knows. Where can you get a speed boost to break the grapple Chozo? There doesn't seem any actual reason to do it, but I'm curious.

[Hitaka]

Meanwhile, another question for anyone who knows. Where can you get a speed boost to break the grapple Chozo? There doesn't seem any actual reason to do it, but I'm curious.

[spoiler]You can't in a normal game, but if you try the EPB route you just might find out![/spoiler]

[Zeke]

Ah! That makes sense. It's probably the explanation for some other oddities I've noticed, too.

[MetroidPeter]

Wow, it sure has been a while since anyone has mentioned anything here. Is Drew working on the 1.5 update?

[Quietus]

Is Drew working on the 1.5 update?

btw, 1.5 is still in progress, many many changes to flow with the new express elevators.

It's only been two weeks. Give the guy a chance. :^_^:

[SirAileron]

It definitely makes me wonder what 1.5 has in store. Drew got bombarded with flak about all sorts of things from just about everyone.

[Kitsune_Phoenix]

*deleted post*

[Zeke]

IIRC, Drew actually did talk with somebody from Retro when he was working on Redesign. This would've been about the time Prime 2 came out. There are definitely some similarities in approach (the most obvious being a big fetch quest before the final stage).

I decided to round out my game to 100%, and managed it with only a little extreme difficulty. This time I finished with 24:36 (and a cool time on the escape timer -- 0:47:74).

Then I started the EPB quest, and I've been hacking away at it ever since. It's a hell of a challenge, easily the hardest Metroid hack I've tackled since Super Zero Mission's hard mode. As I go, I'm writing a mini-FAQ like I did for that game. I just wish EPB played as fair (well, mostly fair) as SZM. I've been stuck several times in ways that I would never have figured out on my own. Getting through this hack requires not just reading the readme, but reading Drew's posts in this thread (you'll never understand the new damage boost mechanics otherwise)...

...and maybe more, because I'm now stuck in a spot nobody else has had to ask about yet. Can anyone clue me in?

[spoiler]I've beaten Ridley and the Golden Torizo and escaped from Lower Norfair. But I still can't get any further "up" than the right half of Brinstar. I can't get back to where high jump is; I can't get more than a room or two into any other areas. Worst of all, the one thing I was sure I had figured out was wrong -- the pattern of rocks shaped like Ridley's head doesn't collapse when you kill him.

All I have left is the faith that something somewhere must have changed now that I've done all that stuff in Norfair. What am I missing?[/spoiler]

[SirAileron]

Did you reach the elevator that goes to the dead-end in Crateria? You're in the right area if so, but the way up is back in Brinstar.

[Zeke]

Thanks, that was all I needed. (And it's rather galling that since you can get there without grapple, I could've done this before fighting those major bosses and picked up a lot more stuff...)

The lack of bombs makes a huge difference. Without other guidance, their block-revealing ability is absolutely essential. In this case, I quickly guessed what to do from the background clues -- once I knew the exit was somewhere in that area. But with hundreds of rooms where a secret might have been, it was easy to miss.

[Zeke]

Okay.

I've been very fair with this hack so far, even when it hasn't been fair with me. There are metric tons of BS in the EPB quest, but whatever, it's hard, I'll deal. Sometimes, though... sometimes...

Here is a door.



It's the door out of the falling-rock room in Crateria, to be specific. It's two rooms away from the elevator to Tourian.

See those 21s? Walk through them with a speed charge. I'll wait. (Normal/EPB doesn't matter. You can get the speed charge in the hidden room to the left, then bring it here using ramps.)

Yes. Those 21s turn off blue-suit. They just kill your charge like you never had it at all. They do it instantly if you're standing; if you're jumping, you can keep the charge just long enough to bang your head on the door frame in the next room. What you can't do is keep it long enough to spark up the shaft.

Drew...

There are a hundred organic ways to stop players from doing thing X in room Y. I know this because you do so a hundred times in this hack. Some look natural and make sense, others are annoying and arbitrary, but there are so many ways to do it so that the player knows what's going on and doesn't feel too cheated.

Instead, you rewarded my ingenuity with magic invisible fuck-you blocks.

WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?!?!

(Note: Yes, that's version 1.1. I checked 1.4; there's just one column of 21s now, but it still blocks the door, and still serves its unholy purpose.)

[MetroidPeter]

(Note: Yes, that's version 1.1. I checked 1.4; there's just one column of 21s now, but it still blocks the door, and still serves its unholy purpose.)

Why the hell is ANYONE still playing the older versions? Isn't the newest version supposed to be the best version?

I don't have anything to say about the invisible 21 blocks though.

[Zeke]

Easy explanation. I downloaded the hack and decided, "This will be the first hack I play on my new Vita." Unfortunately, the Vita's superb construction is paid for in jerkwad paranoia from Sony, and it ultimately took me months to get homebrew working. By then, my copy of Axeil was three versions behind, but I was pot committed and went ahead with the version I had.

I think I sort of prefer it this way anyhow. When I move on to 1.4, I'll get to appreciate the improvements instead of just hearing what they were. For one thing, I definitely won't be taking the reworked screw attack puzzle for granted. (OTOH, I had less frustration with Metroids than many people here because I quickly gave up on beams and stuck with the ice shield, which turned out to be accidentally freezing the Metroids longer than intended.)

[MetroidPeter]

Playing SNES ROM hacks on VITA? Teach me oh wise one you must!!

[Quietus]

I'll just drop this here, again. :neutral:

[Quote58]

Haha I was going to do that queitus  :lol: beat me to it

[Zeke]

Really, guys? When people ask for help, and they're not clearly grannies typing in all-caps or something, they've heard of Google and are hoping to get some actual guidance. If you just point them to Google (which they've probably already tried), they'll wonder why they respected you enough to ask. lmgtfy is the worst thing to happen to threads since Rickrolling and ending sentences? Like this.

MP, this blog and the associated forum are where I learned all I know about Vita homebrew. Poke around and pay particular attention to sticky threads, tutorials, and such. Unfortunately, figuring out homebrew for most consoles is like figuring out where to go in EPB or learning all the known tricks in a given game -- you have to gather bits of info here and there because no one seems to have it all. Shoot me a PM if you have trouble and I'll help if I can.

[Quietus]

I don't wish to completely derail this thread, but I disagree. MetroidPeter's reply gave no information about what he / she had already tried, and sounded very much like it was something that he / she'd never heard of before, hence the generic Google link. If MetroidPeter chose to offer some information, I'd be more than willing to help, or, if it's something I know nothing about (like this is), I'd refrain from replying.

[MetroidPeter]

Then it's probably my fault for not saying this:

I tried google, but it gave me no helpful results.

I clicked on the lmgtfy link, it told me I'm stupid.

I tried one of the results that both gave me, it said "fuck you and get a life."

I clicked on the link Zeke gave me, I actually found something.

Thanks internet.

[Quietus]

I tried google, but it gave me no helpful results.

I clicked on the lmgtfy link, it told me I'm stupid.

I tried one of the results that both gave me, it said "fuck you and get a life."

A quote from the first result of the lmgtfy link:

1. What you need

A variety of emulators exist for the Playstation Portable and the Sony PS Vita. Explaining to you how to install and run them is not the main goal of this article, but you will need to get your console ready first. Check the explanations below:

    If you want to run emulators on your PSP, you will in general need to run a Custom Firmware on your PSP. Installing a Custom Firmware on your PSP is a 5 minutes riskless procedure, and we explain how to do it here.
    If you want to run emulators on your Vita, you will need to run a custom Firmware or VHBL. The procedure to achieve that is described here

[theuprising]

What exactly was changed? I think I got to powerbombs before I got frustrated with the necessary save scumming. What I didn't like about it was that the hack just blows up vanilla SM to 3x the size and fills it with random tiles, almost all of which are red herrings. You have to completely change the way you see the world because a sign of a secret in a more normal hack would just be normal aesthetics of the level in this hack.

I simply can't make out what is different, other than the obvious changes to the physics and making advanced techs easier. It feels that simply parts of the room were deleted and spike pits removed, I'm at Super Missles atm, I suppose I need to go further in...

[Quietus]

The beginning has remained relatively unchanged. The first significant change comes when you hit red Brinstar.

[Xenesis]

And I'll be honest: The beginning was mostly fine outside of the murderspikes everywhere.

[Zeke]

EPB again...

[spoiler]Well, I almost made it. Twice I was stuck for a really long time, and twice I got unstuck on my own. But I'm out of ideas. Here's where I am:



This is in the left half of Maridia, right after the room with the tube that only opens when Ridley dies. I've explored the whole area, and I don't see any way forward except to somehow get up this shaft. But how do I do it? I can reach that first platform with the jumping enemy from Metroid II, but then what? Freezing it is no help -- the sandfalls are impossible to jump against. Damage boosts are useless underwater. You can't get a speed boost anywhere near here (and even if you could, I noticed in SMILE that there are more of those goddamn 21 blocks).

Other options for getting into left Maridia are no good. There's a landslide above the broken tube. The door in the roof of the big room nearby is gray, and not enemy-locked. Draygon is unreachable. I even tried all the express elevators to Maridia in case they were unlocked by my getting this far. Nothing![/spoiler]

[Daltone]

^ freeze the guy and jump up, then freeze the other guy too a bunch


Edit: oh I remember that half the time the samdfall makes you not jump at all, try leaving the room and try again