Metroid: Return to Zebes

[alexman25]

2.5 is here!

I know I said it last time, but THIS is going to be the final major release of Return to Zebes. Probably the biggest overhaul the hack has seen since the initial 2.0 release.

Find the hack page here: https://metroidconstruction.com/hack.php?id=393

I'd appreciate anyone play-testing. I think I know most of the issues that still need to be fixed, but it would be nice if you'd tell me them anyway, just in case! I'd also appreciate if you recorded it. Not because I'd use it for anything, but I just enjoy seeing people's reactions to my work. There's a lot of new stuff!

This spoiler contains the old post.

[spoiler]2.4.6 is here!

This is going to be the final major release of Return to Zebes.

Find the 2.4.6 download here: https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/662836361606201377/691479842310455377/RTZ_2.4.6.zip
Also, please leave a review on the hack page when it's approved. I would greatly appreciate it! http://metroidconstruction.com/hack.php?hack_id=393

This spoiler contains the old post.
[spoiler]Hello, everyone!

I'd like to announce to you all that release 2.4 will likely be the final version of Metroid: Return to Zebes (besides bug fixes and general polishing).

For anyone that's played this hack before, expect a lot of changes and new content. For those who haven't might wanna wait until I release 2.4 so you can have the best possible play experience.

I'm very excited that this hack is almost complete, and I'm very happy that you have all taken this journey with me. When I first booted up MAGE three years ago, i never expected to actually finish a hack, yet here we are.

I'm very grateful for all of your continued support on the project, even if it isn't a very good hack.

The latest version 2.3.1 can be found here: http://metroidconstruction.com/hack.php?id=393

I appreciate any reviews you all leave on the hack page, whether positive or negative. I'll admit, it boosts my ego a little bit.


This spoiler contains the old post.
[spoiler]Release 2.2 out now
http://metroidconstruction.com//files/hacks/393/RTZ_2.2_release.ips
Hello, everyone. It's me again! You know, one of the dudes that's never released a good hack. Well I have some news for y'all, this one may actually get completed. I've been working on RTZ for nearly a year now, and I think it's about time I made a forum post about it!

This isn't another "Super Metroid in Zero Mission" type hack, though that's what it started as. But I ended up taking it in a different direction (for the better). I aim to take ideas and locations from all 2D Metroid games. I like to imagine it as sort of a "Metroid 1.5". It will have areas of Zebes reminiscent of Super Metroid, Zero Mission, and even some NEStroid inspiration.

Planned features
[spoiler]-Mostly new map
-Some new art and palettes (Mostly done)
-4 areas of Zebes to explore (Half way done)
-Many speedrunning short cuts (Not started on for the most part)
-Extreme sequence break potential (Check!)
-Custom music (Mostly done)[/spoiler]

Here are some screenshots

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1qnFJ9N_xdEVUwcHjdYBrP0YZF1kTmYCl?usp=sharing


I'm not ready to release an IPS just yet, so hold out!

Side note: If anyone would be willing to take some time to help teach me ASM, I would greatly appreciate it. If you don't want to or don't have the time, that's okay too! Alternatively, if you'd be so kind as to link me to a good tutorial, that would be great as well!

Thank you all of reading, and I hope you're as excited for this hack as I am!
If I had an estimate, I'd say this hack is a little over half way done.[/spoiler][/spoiler][/spoiler]

[Tower]

That seems intresting.What will be the post game new area?Will you be able to go there after getting most of the upgrades or will you have to play a game 2 times?As i understand the plot will be pretty much metroid 1/zero mission.Could you make long beam into spazer.And turn wave beam into wave beam instead of split whatever it was in metroid ZM.4 Areas will be crateria brinstar norfair and maridia/chozodia right?I will be waiting for this hack just for custom music.That will be intresting.

[alexman25]

The post game area will be a chunk of SR388. The only thing required to get there is to beat the final boss.

The plot? It's not the same as ZM. It's even more watered down. It's pretty much just "Kill Ridley again".

The long beam replaced with Spazer and Wave Beam split may be a bit much for me at my skill level, but I do know that other people have worked on similar things in the past so it might happen.

The 4 main areas I intend are Crateria, Brinstar, Norfair, and Ridley.

I'm glad you're somewhat excited, makes me happy.

[Tower]

Sorry but i quite didnt understand.How will you be able to access the post game area?Wouldnt killing the final boss just end the story?

[PonchGaming]

Seeing as the goal is to kill Ridley, it is similar to the original where even tho the final boss seems to be Mother Brain, there is stuff after that. Just replace Mother Brain with Ridley and Chozodia with SR388. At least that's what I understand.

[alexman25]

Sorry but i quite didnt understand.How will you be able to access the post game area?Wouldnt killing the final boss just end the story?

Seeing as the goal is to kill Ridley, it is similar to the original where even tho the final boss seems to be Mother Brain, there is stuff after that. Just replace Mother Brain with Ridley and Chozodia with SR388. At least that's what I understand.

Actually, the way you'll get to the post game area doesn't occur during gameplay. Captain Glitch said they'd make some ASM for it if I ever get the hack to a finished state. Though, I'm having second thoughts about this, as it would prevent 100%. I have a few options to fix this, but I'll have to think of a really good one. Otherwise, I'll just let Glitch know I'm going with a different idea as to not waste his time.

[alexman25]

I'm considering adding a maze. What do y'all think?

[Tower]

What type of maze?

[00kraken00]

ohhhhhh, this sounds really good, most metroid zm hacks are really short or just cancer (metroid other zm is a good balance, mainly puzzles that make it hard, not just enemy spam) But if this goes thought, its gonna be a super metroid level of hack and ohhh boy.

[alexman25]

ohhhhhh, this sounds really good, most metroid zm hacks are really short or just cancer (metroid other zm is a good balance, mainly puzzles that make it hard, not just enemy spam) But if this goes thought, its gonna be a super metroid level of hack and ohhh boy.

Eh, I don't think it's gonna be that good. Maybe about average. Thanks, though.

[alexman25]

Here's some gameplay, if that's y'alls thing.

[spoiler]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djuh0G_1f88[/spoiler]

[NicoleC]

It looks really good from what I've seen, there's (seemingly) a lot of polish and I can't wait to play the demo!

[alexman25]

Sorry for the wait guys, demo should be out by the end of the week!

[JumZhu]

 :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[alexman25]

Alright so apparently I lied. I'll have one out by Christmas.

[alexman25]

I attached a demo IPS to the main post. The hack isn't beatable yet, have fun, and post any criticism. Apply to a US ZM ROM.

[caauyjdp]

Holy shi... this is awesome.

You might want to make morph path in the 2nd room more obvious. Maybe it was bad eyesight/lighting on my end(although those revealed bomb blocks draw attention away too), but I literally did not see it and at first thought this was a very short 10 rooms demo.

My favorite part was definitely the charge beam room, purely for the visuals. Mario 1 styled(?) fast travel system is close second. Surprise Baristute is probably third. There was no shortage of good things.

Won't mention minor glitches since this is a demo, but there were some rough edges that seemed worth mentioning at the time of play:
[spoiler]
Enemy placement inside the door exits is not ok imo. Luckily this is the only case this bad that I recall, but exiting from first missiles is pretty bad too.


Don't have a screenshot, but from the spot in the image above(I think at least, if door to the left leads to pb behind speedblocks), go up and right. In that room you can shinespark through the ceiling into kraid's room, and he'll be alive even if killed before.

This morph path seems to lead to out of bounds.


Super secret power bomb blocks at bottom right, that aren't revealed by bombs, lead to vanilla norfair(camera won't follow but you can find at least two doors down there).

[/spoiler]

Charge beam worm didn't spawn in the place that looked like where it spawned in the video.
Didn't find screw attack so couldn't go past imago cocoon. Couldn't get back up after killing imago - end point for the demo?

The hack isn't beatable yet, have fun

[spoiler=Well played]You can get to vanilla chozodia(seemingly only after beating "phantoon", room to the left of vanilla glass tube room changes it's right exit) and fight super nerfed mecha ridley, but worker robots, without mecha ridley to rein them in, have upgraded into insurmountable obstacle.
[/spoiler]

note: played with my sram file from vanilla(for exploration purposes), although everything mentioned here was done on a new save, but if something is not reproducible it can be blamed on that.

PSA: don't leave emulator running on title screen. In my case it crashed during demo, and seemingly managed to corrupt a save slot(loaded stuck in geometry in wrong room, unable to even change pose. save room itself worked fine before after soft resets)

[alexman25]

Thanks for the criticism, caauyjdp. I'll address things you said in this reply.

[spoiler]With the morph tunnel thing, that's a good idea. Thanks for pointing that out. I'll fix that right away.

Yeah, the enemies inside door exits is a pretty bad problem. The one shown in the screenshot was a result of an event triggering the room to load a different sprite set than normal, that's already been fixed. But the one at the missile door was completely intentional and just bad design on my end.

Yeah, being able to shine spark into Kraid's room was unintentional as well. I didn't place the door connection to the room that door leads to yet.

That morph tunnel actually isn't supposed to be there. I'll fix that right away.

Oh, those power bomb blocks are a massive no-no. Thanks for finding that.

The charge beam boss's location got moved since the trailer.

That path to imago was unintentional. I was gonna link the door to another room, thanks for pointing that out.

And yeah, I didn't place the screw attack down yet.[/spoiler]

Thanks again for the help!

[andlabs]

The fight with the bee-like thing where you have to break the eggs to start the fight is a permastuck; you only have access to that room and the room before it once you get to it. Since there's a lot to this demo, I can imagine someone putting it down once they reach that point, assuming it's done. I almost did.

Kraid's Maze is a permastuck if you get to it right after getting Morphing Ball, if you didn't get Missiles (and even if you did get Missiles, you won't know about the one Missile Block if you guessed your way through).

[alexman25]

The fight with the bee-like thing where you have to break the eggs to start the fight is a permastuck; you only have access to that room and the room before it once you get to it. Since there's a lot to this demo, I can imagine someone putting it down once they reach that point, assuming it's done. I almost did.

Kraid's Maze is a permastuck if you get to it right after getting Morphing Ball, if you didn't get Missiles (and even if you did get Missiles, you won't know about the one Missile Block if you guessed your way through).

Neither of those were intended to be accessible, I just forgot to block them off ;p

[caauyjdp]

Found a really odd block behavior, in left bottom corner, where the bomb(and me) is. It's not revealed as anything special by bombs/pb. It acts solid...
Except and only if you've just broken speed block to the right from here(at the very least top left one of the 2x2), with a ball spark, then you'll shine right into the wall here.
If you leave this spot, it'll act solid again, can't get inside with another ball spark until you've reset the room.
If you just run through the speed blocks up to the wall and try to jump/bomb inside, or break the blocks by running and immediately ball spark left, it'll act solid.
Really weird.


And missing a ceiling leads somewhere, probably oob, although you can seemingly safely enter back the same way:
[spoiler]
In this "definetly a map room"

ceiling a bit to the left(and up)
[/spoiler]

[alexman25]

Hey guys! I'm heading for a New Years release date! But don't get your hopes up, as I've never been good at hitting deadlines  :pale:

[alexman25]

It's released, guys. Though I'll add more in future updates. http://metroidconstruction.com/hack.php?id=393

[elol]

alexman25 I cant download "Error 404 - Not Found"

[alexman25]

alexman25 I cant download "Error 404 - Not Found"

Thanks, I'll try to get this resolved