Metroid Prime 2: Echoes - Official Thread

[Rocca]

I'm accepting tips and tricks for the final boss.


I got him to his third transformation, I'm guessing theres one more transformation after that since I have him scanned up to 80%.


Thanks in advance,

D

Did you scan him when he was a big shell? I didn't bother since you get to do it anyways on the last save. For his last form, which ressembles a spider shoot missiles in his mouth when it glows red. It should take 3 or 4 missiles to knock him out, then his mouth will change color. If it's Purple, use the light beam, if it's white, use the Annihalator, and if you got it, the super missile for the annihalator beam. I had 13 tanks when I went into this battle and he damaged me all up to about 9 of them, so that might be your problem. I didn't really have a method, I just tried to dodge everything.

[Opaque]

Also take note that Rocca can beat the boss in the first game, on hard or whatever, and only take one little unit of damage.

He is, and always will be, much better than all of us at these games.

[dyomides]

Yeah I scanned his bottom half as well as the top, I think I know what I might have missed and will verify it tonight. Thanks for the tips and if theres anything else don't hesitate to inform me.

D

[BioMechanic]

I'm not as far in as most of you, but I am far enough to tell that Echoes isn't better than Prime.

The main reason I say this is level design. While the environments are sharper and prettier than most of Prime's, they're more confusing to navigate, even with the map (as well as that's designed). I've even gotten stuck, literally stuck with no way to retrace my steps out of the room I've reached. An example would be the the seeker missile puzzle area. The first time you reach it, the only way out is to solve the puzzle. The areas feel overly convoluted in places, perhaps due to the light/dark thing.

There's more wondering where & how you're supposed to get somewhere, and the solution isn't always obvious, even after you discover it. I've blindly stumbled upon solutions more frequently than I'd like, which never happened in the original Prime. For that matter, I've also accidentally stumbled into power-ups much more often than before, rather than tracking them on my own. When this happens, the feeling of accomplishment is diminished.

Backtracking also takes much longer. There's less connection between areas as compared with the first Prime - there's more linear "unlock A to get to B" instead of the "unlock C to get back to A" stuff that happened so much in the last game.

The areas of Aether feel more separated than the cohesiveness of Tallon IV.

All this said, Echoes is still the best game I've played this year. As good as the Prime games are, I'd love to see what Retro would do with an original idea.

One more thing: I think this, and the first Prime, are definitely replayable, for the same reasons that people listen to favorite CDs and watch favorite movies multiple times: for the details, and for how it makes you feel.

I am planning to revisit the first Prime once I finish Echoes, and it'll be my fourth playthrough. I'm not interested in speed runs - I'm more interested in enjoying being in those places. It's a longish game, but I think it's that good.

[Rocca]

Also take note that Rocca can beat the boss in the first game, on hard or whatever, and only take one little unit of damage.

He is, and always will be, much better than all of us at these games.

Heh, I never meant to rub it in, chap. Thanks for the kind words.

Yeah I scanned his bottom half as well as the top, I think I know what I might have missed and will verify it tonight. Thanks for the tips and if theres anything else don't hesitate to inform me.

D

I think that's about all I could say about the last boss. That and whenever he starts to spew out white seeker beams or flying Ing, shoot them. Forget about the Ing King and just aim at his sides since the small buggers float around him. As for the white beams, just use a charged beam or better your Ann.Beam since it'll track most of it down and throw down alot of light/dark ammo. I really suggest you find at least one more ammo expansion for your Light and Dark beams, the fight gets much easier when you don't have to wait around for ammo. I had 150 on both and I was fine. Also, Energy Tanks are a big plus.

IRT Echoes, I stopped playing recently and went back to Prime. There's something that's been bothering me about Echoes. I don't find any source of info explaining the origins of Dark Samus. I mean everyone who has played Prime knows what it's doing there, but it's got to be confusing to a newcomer of the Metroid games to play Echoes and not get a thing. Just a random thought.

[Opaque]

Heh, I never meant to rub it in, chap. Thanks for the kind words.

You didn't rub it in, I just wanted everyone to take note that jut because you can do anything a certain way doesn't mean they will be able to, or that it's easy.

[Roufuss]

I don't find any source of info explaining the origins of Dark Samus.

It's just there to be cool.

I hope they give up on the idea though, because after a "Dark Samus" in both Fusion and Echoes, the idea (while cool) is played out now.

[Rocca]

I'm not as far in as most of you, but I am far enough to tell that Echoes isn't better than Prime.

The main reason I say this is level design. While the environments are sharper and prettier than most of Prime's, they're more confusing to navigate, even with the map (as well as that's designed). I've even gotten stuck, literally stuck with no way to retrace my steps out of the room I've reached. An example would be the the seeker missile puzzle area. The first time you reach it, the only way out is to solve the puzzle. The areas feel overly convoluted in places, perhaps due to the light/dark thing.

There's more wondering where & how you're supposed to get somewhere, and the solution isn't always obvious, even after you discover it. I've blindly stumbled upon solutions more frequently than I'd like, which never happened in the original Prime. For that matter, I've also accidentally stumbled into power-ups much more often than before, rather than tracking them on my own. When this happens, the feeling of accomplishment is diminished.

Backtracking also takes much longer. There's less connection between areas as compared with the first Prime - there's more linear "unlock A to get to B" instead of the "unlock C to get back to A" stuff that happened so much in the last game.

The areas of Aether feel more separated than the cohesiveness of Tallon IV.

All this said, Echoes is still the best game I've played this year. As good as the Prime games are, I'd love to see what Retro would do with an original idea.

One more thing: I think this, and the first Prime, are definitely replayable, for the same reasons that people listen to favorite CDs and watch favorite movies multiple times: for the details, and for how it makes you feel.

I am planning to revisit the first Prime once I finish Echoes, and it'll be my fourth playthrough. I'm not interested in speed runs - I'm more interested in enjoying being in those places. It's a longish game, but I think it's that good.

The thing about Prime was that it was seamless, and Echoes felt like puzzling backtracking. It's difficult to tell someone "Echoes is an excellent game, but it has problems" without them thinking that Nintendo sucks or I'm some fanboy. Echoes looks and plays a bit better but I found that there were several puzzles that really slow the game down, unlike Prime where it was always very constant.

No doubt, the MP games are replayable, but we were speaking of immediately replaying the game, right after finishing it, or a little later. It usually takes me 2 weeks minimum to be able to go back and restart the adventure. I find it hard to start all over when there are 100 rooms I just got the ways of opening. But to each his own.

The levels seem alot larger, that or confusing, which is why I like Echoes. The Dark World wasn't that bad but I'll admit that I was relieved to get out of the Dark areas when the opportunity arose. I'm already ahead of you Bio [nia nia] and it's also my fourth playthrough on Prime 1 [2 100%'s on Normal and one 98% on Hard]. And the Prime series are one of the few games this gen that I really want to take the time to admire the detail. It's pretty awesome.

[Victrix]

There was no introduction or explanation whatsoever, which was really jarring. Hi, I'm here, I'm your enemy, fight me!

The fact that they threw in the Space Pirates also felt sort of tacky. They went out of their way to develop a cohesive and impressive artistic world (if not cliched), and then throw in elements that just "have to be there" to make it Metroid.

Personally, I'm more interested in Samus' bounty hunting adventures and exploration than I am in "omg teh space pirates and teh metroidsoneone'.

I can't quite accuse them of rehashing... yet. Have to wait and see what they do with M3/MP3/gba M, etc.

[dyomides]

Well I finished it yesterday, thanks for the tips. Completely owned him this time. I lost like three tanks total.

I have a few tips of my own.


To get 100% scan on the emperor you need to scan the top half and bottom half in his first form. Then when you get rid of the tentacles the top half retracts and reveals a new top half. Scan that too. Then the second transformation and finally the spider form will give you 100% scan for him.

The other valuable tip is in the second transformation if you took major damage during the first battle. Take your time on the second transformation where you have to bomb the tentacles. Destroy the majority of the tentacle holes and leave two of them and then just wait near the top to avoid the toxic gas. The tentacles keep respawning and can be killed with one bomb and they always leave something so you can completely recharge your ammo and energy before moving on to the last transformation.


I also enjoyed the first one more, but this game was still fun as hell. Just goes to show how good the original prime was.

D