YMMV / Metroid Dread

• Alternative Character Interpretation: Even though the story here is relatively elaborate and important in comparison to most of the earlier entries', Dread still remains very minimalist when delving into character motivations, especially considering that the game doesn't have much extensive dialogue and Samus's only monologue is her opening narration:
  • The ending features a quite surprising twist that seemingly questions the nature of the X Parasites. Was the red X that sacrificed itself to allow Samus to escape somehow benevolent, proving that the Chozo were wrong in considering the whole species "evil"? Or was Quiet Robe somehow able to influence it through memories and willpower despite being dead, possibly leading to a case of Humanity Is Infectious? It's also possible that the X thought being absorbed by Samus's DNA was a better outcome than being left to die in ZDR. In any case, it's very clear that it was not acting through some primal instinct like the SA-X did regarding the Omega Metroid at the end of Fusion, since it bothered to bow down to Samus in respect and then performed a self-destructive action that had little potential benefit to its survival.
  • Quiet Robe's actions once revived by an X Parasite. Did Quiet Robe X reactivate the E.M.M.I.s and sic them on Samus acting as the X and therefore an enemy of Samus, or did Quiet Robe still have a degree of control and reactivated the E.M.M.I.s due to trusting Samus to destroy them for the rest of the suit upgrades, which would help her take down Raven Beak? It depends on whether Quiet Robe's words — "I am counting on you." — were addressing the E.M.M.I.s or Samus, but it's not made clear. Quiet Robe X's Heroic Sacrifice at the end of the game would lend more credence to the latter theory, but it could easily just be that Quiet Robe wrested back his consciousness by then.
  • Have the X-infected Mawkin Chozo that Samus encounters in the latter half of the game been completely assimilated by the X and are operating purely on instinct? Or are they still following Raven Beak's orders, either due to Raven Beak discovering a means to control them, or because they were able to retain their sense of self and identity due to their loyalty and devotion to their leader? Evidence to suggest the latter lies in how the Elite Chozo Warrior was seemingly guarding the entrance to the transport shuttle leading to Itorash, as though it was deliberately acting as Raven Beak's Dragon.
  • Raven Beak's past decision to donate his own DNA to Samus' adaptation. Was it an altruistic desire to help this girl protect herself? Was it a Long Game gambit, knowing that Samus may eventually become his perfect soldier? Or was it on a whim, with consequences he didn't even consider at the time?
  • When Samus used the Hyper Beam to completely obliterate the X Parasite that had infected Raven Beak, was she acting on her own personal hatred for him? Or was it more a result of her Metroid DNA running rampant as it was at that time? It was stated that Metroids react particularly violent to the Mawkin and given her state at the time, it's more than likely it was also influencing her mind and thoughts. It's also possible both her own hate and the Metroid-born hate were both in-effect, leading to her... thorough extermination of Raven Beak's remains.
  • The exact relationship between the Thoha and the Mawkin tribes is not elaborated deeply upon, since most of it is relegated to the entirely visual Chozo Memories and Quiet Robe's brief Infodump that only dwells on the SR388 incident at a surface level. A particular detail that sticks out late in the game is that the Thoha deliberately made the Metroids aggressive against the Mawkin, despite the fact that the Mawkin were aiding the Thoha during their stay at SR388. Was there previous bad blood between the Thoha and Mawkin that motivated the former to bioengineer a possible method of defense in case of a falling out? Or were both tribes always at peace, but the Thoha knew not to trust Raven Beak specifically, so they made the Metroids impossible for him to control? As for Raven Beak, did he authorize his soldiers to aid the Thoha because he was planning to steal something they had, like the Aeion research (meaning he was going to betray the Thoha anyway)? Or was he just following a colonizing deal that was meant to benefit both parties, only changing his plans the moment he heard about the Metroids? Or maybe he just wanted to aid fellow Chozo because they were all Chozo to begin with, but had to kill the Thoha because they were getting in the way of his personal ambition?
  • The fact that Samus only speaks audibly in Chozo, to a friendly Chozo while not speaking out loud to any other characters (including the English-speaking ADAM, who she freely conversed with in Fusion). Is it a sign that she values her Chozo upbringing over her time spent in human society/the Galactic Federation, to the point that it's one of the few things that can get her to open up to others? Or does it merely mean she was suspicious of "ADAM" from the very beginning and therefore shut herself off to him a bit more than she did in Fusion?
  • After the battle against Raven Beak, the purple X Parasite that appears out of nowhere and assimilates Raven Beak after his ship crashes. Could it have been one that simply chanced upon him and simply followed its nature as an X, or did it actually have another motive to seek him out? Considering the X's capability to assimilate its victims' memories and that one of the purple X's assimilated victims was Kraid, whom the Mawkin captured and abused like a slave, this memory might have driven the purple X to specifically seek out and target Raven Beak in revenge. The purple X Parasite possesses the other previous bosses that Samus has killed in Dread as well. They may have specifically sought out Raven Beak in revenge, but it's entirely possible that the memories of absorbed bosses cause the X-Parasite to also want to kill Samus, especially Kraid. Even Raven Beak's motivations are there, since you can hear his statement "hadar sen olmen/power is everything" really closely during the Hyper Beam's charge-up.
  • To what extent was ADAM actually being impersonated by Raven Beak? ADAM constantly reminding Samus about her low odds of survival against Raven Beak and never addressing her as "Lady" after the intro cutscene are both seen as subtle foreshadowing; however, both are also true about much of ADAM's dialogue throughout Fusion and, to a lesser extent, his living self's dialogue in Other M. On one hand, shortly before revealing his true nature, Raven Beak tells Samus that she has been following his instructions faithfully so far, which would seemingly confirm that he has been impersonating ADAM throughout her mission on ZDR. On the other hand, when Samus boards her Gunship at the end of the game, ADAM is already aware of Samus's transformation into a Metroid, which would suggest that he had not been Locked Out of the Loop by Raven Beak, and therefore most (or, at least, some) of the Network Station conversations were with the real ADAM. Note that the first interpretation is outright confirmed by the internal files, such as the filename for the first Network Station conversation (0003firstcomunicationfakeadam.dspadpcm) and Japanese text for the final Adam conversation, but most fans will be unaware of these details and free to interpret it either way. However, a possible third interpretation may be that ADAM did indeed receive Samus' data uploads at most or all of the network stations Samus visited, but was unable to contact her in turn due to Raven Beak's interference.
• Award Snub: Although it won Best Action/Adventure Game, quite a few fans were miffed that the game lost Game of the Year to It Takes Two (2021) during the 2021 Game Awards.
• Breather Boss:
  • The Central Units are purposefully very easy to beat, as the bosses themselves don't move around and the turrets and Rinkas are easy to dodge. They also don't increase much in strength/defense over time like the other Recurring Bosses do outside of turret arrangements, meaning the last one that isn't killed in a cutscene (more with sequence breaking) gets fried with one Screw Attack once its plating is destroyed. Defeating the E.M.M.I. after the Central Unit goes down, however, is another story. Funnily enough, the Boss Rush includes the Ferenia Central Unit, said final unit, as one of its twelve bosses (it also includes the Artaria Central Unit, which at least poses a mild threat due to the low statistics Samus is given for it), for no reason other than to be a joke fight preceding the Final Boss.
  • Drogyga is a fairly simple boss, especially coming after a Robot Chozo Soldier. Despite having your mobility limited by water and going through a gauntlet of areas and enemies beforehand, its attacks are fairly easy to avoid and counter, its initial weak point takes damage from uncharged beams, the puzzle to make it vulnerable is very simple (consisting of shooting a switch, using the Spider Magnet to get to the other side of the arena, then shooting another switch), and while Drogyga's uvula-eye-thing is well armored, it goes down in a few hits, especially if you countered its tentacle and pumped its weakspot with even more ammo.
  • For a late-game fight coming shortly after Experiment No. Z-57 under normal conditions, Golzuna is fairly easy. Samus has nearly all mobility and firepower upgrades at this point, letting her avoid the boss's cluster bombs by jumping and dashing over it, and Storm Missiles can lock onto its backside multiple times and will also destroy its Core-X form with one full volley. However, Golzuna can be fought early via Sequence Breaking; while still simple, it's noticeably harder in the mid-game without the Space Jump and Storm Missiles.
  • For E.M.M.I. models, 05IM (blue). Not because it's less trouble in a chase, but because you barely have to deal with it. You only encounter it once before getting the one upgrade that precedes the kill sequence. Also, its entire domain is the length of a good three Flash Shifts, so once you know where to go and remember you can do that, avoiding it is a piece of cake.
  • The Elite Chozo Soldiers, especially when compared to the Chozo Robots. They move slowly, have highly telegraphed and easily avoidable attacks, and can even be damaged with regular beam fire in case you should come into the fight low on missiles. They do gain That One Attack later on, a fearsome blast of black bile that can shave off multiple energy tanks with a glancing blow, but it's pretty simple to dodge it with a single Flash Shift.
• Catharsis Factor:
  • Destroying an E.M.M.I. with the Omega Cannon always brings an almost-tangible sense of relief.
  • After dealing with the first six E.M.M.I.s, many players were probably worried that the very last one would be something else entirely. In a surprising twist, it gets taken out by Samus herself in the very same cutscene it's introduced in. Not only is it a huge relief not having to deal with it, but it's a reward in itself to see Samus take down perhaps the strongest of these One-Hit Kill mechanical monstrosities so easily after all the hell the previous ones put her through.
  • After all the crap Raven Beak puts you through, combined with learning what he did to his tribe and Quiet Robe and his constant Evil Gloating, Samus managing to get her Heroic Second Wind and finally get in contact with his face to absorb his life energy with her newfound Metroid abilities is immensely gratifying, as he loses his composure and tries to shake her off to no avail while the station ends up crashing thanks to Samus being strong enough to suck all the energy out of it at the same time. While they both survive the crash, Raven Beak is barely standing, unable to make even a single quip before being infected by an X and turned into a mindless monster that Samus promptly destroys with her new Hyper Beam.
  • Weirdly enough, anyone who's still upset about how Adam was last portrayed as a controlling force over Samus will probably feel a tinge of satisfaction towards Samus' response to "ADAM" seemingly ordering her to submit to his will. As in, pointing and shooting in his direction without even flinching. Yes, it's made clear within mere seconds to both Samus and the player that this is Raven Beak impersonating ADAM, but the feeling is still there, if nothing else.
  • In a weird way, Ridley being completely absent from the game is this, as it reinforces that after Fusion, the dragon's Joker Immunity has finally run out and the sick bastard is gone for good.
• Common Knowledge: During the return trip from Elun, where it is seen that all of the X parasites have been unleashed onto ZDR, ADAM upon being briefed states this must be Raven Beak's work, whereupon many players argue this was Samus's doing. These players seem to miss that the bulkhead doors to the region sealed behind her, and they were already open again when she made her way back to the entrance.
• Complete Monster: Raven Beak is the Chozo leader of the Mawkin tribe, and the architect behind the entire franchise. Once a mighty warrior who fought alongside his Chozo brethren, Raven Beak began to desire the Metroids for their power, hoping to use them to conquer the entire galaxy. When the Thoha tribe sealed them away with plans to exterminate them all, Raven Beak had the entire Thoha tribe slaughtered, only sparing Quiet Robe to act as his pet scientist, which allowed the Space Pirates to gather information on them, and the X Parasites to roam free. As ruler of the planet ZDR, Raven Beak has Kraid imprisoned as an abused slave, and keeps his men in line by killing those who disobey him. Upon discovering his metaphorical daughter Samus is near, Raven Beak lures her to ZDR with hopes of obtaining her Metroid DNA to create an army of Metroids. Having Quiet Robe killed for giving away information to Samus, Raven Beak later decides to instead create an army of Samus clones after seeing no use in her anymore.
• Continuity Lockout: While the opening provides a recap of the series, it is still the end of a story arc 35 years in the making. As such, parts of the game can be confusing for those who haven't brushed up on the backstory and prior installments of the series, especially for those who are coming in new to the franchise.
  • The opening video's recap is very sparse on details. Most of the information contained in the recap is largely limited to a brief overview of the events of Metroid: Samus Returns and Metroid Fusion, leaving out all the other games. There is no mention of Space Pirates (only that the Metroids sparked "several crises"), no mention of the Baby Metroid (thus no explanation of how the Federation had a DNA sample to cure Samus's X infection), no explanation why Samus was even on SR388 when she got infected by the X (she was hired to escort a research team), and no information on who or what ADAM is and why he's significant to Samus (an AI copy of her former commanding officer and the only human who truly understood her).
  • Samus receiving a Chozo DNA blood transfusion at a young age is an absolutely crucial part of the plot, but playing the prior entries won't help with understanding this, as this aspect of her Interspecies Adoption isn't covered in any of them. While this title does mention it, it only does so once - right before the final boss - and depicts it in a way that's very open to misinterpretation. Beyond this, it's only been shown in supplementary materials; namely the 1994 American Super Metroid comic^note an otherwise non-canon comic in which Samus's backstory was first revealed, the Metroid (Manga)^note Samus's Broad Strokes canonical backstory, which was never released outside of Japan and only available in English through a fan scanlation, the Metroid Prime instruction manual^note Samus's backstory is quickly relayed in the section on the Space Pirates, Volume 5 of the "Dread Reports" released in the build-up to this game's launch^note a series that some players avoided due to wanting to go into Dread blind, and her Classic Mode trophy in Super Smash Bros. Melee^note a game released nearly two decades ago by the time Dread came out, which isn't playable on the Switch or Wii U. It's not unusual to see players introduced to the Metroid franchise with this game, and even longtime series veterans who enjoy the games but aren't knee-deep in the franchise lore, take Raven Beak's words to Samus at face value and believe he's her actual father, when it's meant in a metaphorical sense due to being one of her two Chozo blood donors (her actual adoptive fathers, Old Bird and Grey Voice — the latter being the other blood donor — are hidden in the shadows during the scene).
  • The presence of the Central Units on ZDR has thrown off fans who are only familiar with the games and wonder why the Mawkin would have multiple copies of Space Pirate leader Mother Brain, despite them having no other meaningful relation with the Pirates beyond keeping Kraid captive. Those fans who are familiar with the Metroid (Manga), in contrast, would know that Mother Brain was herself created by the Chozo and only later turned against them to lead the Pirates, so it's only natural that the Chozo would have similar brain units on other planets.
  • Part of the ending loses much of its significance for those who have not played Metroid Fusion. That being when the Quiet Robe-X willingly sacrifices itself to save Samus's life, as this directly contradicts her own stated beliefs about the X being nothing but soulless killing machines.
• Demonic Spiders:
  • The Shakernaut, a Walking Tank-like robot enemy introduced in Dairon that is incredibly powerful for even an uncommon mook. It hits really hard and far with its frontal shockwave attacks, has a nasty ranged laser that can hit Samus with pinpoint accuracy (it will even try to reposition itself to keep shooting if the player tries to hide behind a favorable angle on higher ground) and is capable of taking a ton of punishment. Even if you try to take it out quickly with a melee counter, there is no guarantee that it will use its melee attack when you are right next to it, as it will sometimes use its laser at pointblank range.
  • The Nailong is a wasp-like enemy that loves to ruin your day. Its method of attack is taken from the Cacatac from Super Metroid as it shoots spikes out in 45 degree angles... except while the Cacatac was grounded, the Nailong is flying, so it can also fire in all eight directions at once. Free Aim won't help you much, since the Nailong will quickly align itself in midair so you're in the path of one of its spikes. The Nailong has a surprisingly large healthpool, guaranteeing it will fire off at least one round of spikes before you can finish it off. To make matters worse, multiple Nailongs can appear together in the same room. And if that wasn't bad enough, get ready to meet Nailuggers: X Parasite Mix-and-Match Critters which replace the Nailong's spikes with the Slaaga's Acid Attack.
• Difficulty Spike:
  • E.M.M.I.-04SB (the yellow one) is the point where the game stops coddling the player with the E.M.M.I. Zones and forces them to plan around their routes and keep track of hiding spots, while also demanding better accuracy and positioning when the time comes to take them down, lest they get repeatedly killed by a hyper-fast Killer Robot.
  • The game undergoes a massive one once the X Parasites escape from their confinement in Elun. From that point on, every non-mechanical enemy on the planet is turned into a stronger X-infected version, with a single X itself being able to mimic multiple creatures before Samus can be allowed to absorb them (and if Samus neglects to do so, they will simply respawn, possibly further ahead on her path).
• Disappointing Last Level: Despite the gallery implying it to have once been the Mawkin's military stronghold, Hanubia is a very short area with only two Chozo Soldier minibosses and an E.M.M.I. that is killed in a cutscene, and only three expansions to collect. It's followed by Itorash, which is a Boss-Only Level. The final boss fight and ending sequence definitely makes up for it.
• Ensemble Dark Horse: Quiet Robe has gotten love from the fanbase. His role as the remaining Thoha Chozo stands in perfect contrast to Raven Beak's malice, his design is a fitting Creepy Cute Gentle Giant, and through his Heroic Willpower, he is the first person to remain benevolent after an X Parasite's corruption, thus helping Samus escape ZDR. Quiet Robe is also the character that introduces the player to the full Chozo language, another praised story aspect.
• Epileptic Trees: In the western Dairon elevator in Ferenia, a fresco depicting Zebesians can be seen in the background (the raw textures include Mother Brain too). This indicates that the Mawkin interacted with our old Space Pirate adversaries at some point, but the circumstances are left totally vague. Were they manipulators, forcing the Pirates to attack the Chozo on Zebes? Or were they too enemies, simply annihilating Pirates foolish enough to attack ZDR?
• Even Better Sequel: Dread is considered a much improved effort in comparison with MercurySteam's previous Metroid entry, Metroid: Samus Returns. While Samus Returns had some great gameplay and quality of life features that its source material didn't, some felt it was held back both by the original game's structural flaws (more linear world design and search-and-destroy gameplay that resulted in some repetitive boss fights) and the Nintendo 3DS itself. Dread uses many of the features introduced in Samus Returns, but in an entirely new game on much better hardware that allows for more creativity and a chance to better flesh out and improve gameplay mechanics like the melee combat.
• Evil Is Cool: Raven Beak may be an absolutely vile and despicable being, but his intimidating design, his playing the perfect physical Foil to Samus, the fact that he is responsible for causing the events of the series to unfold, and his three-stage boss fight in the game’s final act has quickly made him one of the most popular villains in the series next to Ridley, Dark Samus and the SA-X.
• Fandom Rivalry: Gained one with God of War, first for a comparison post with God of War (PS4) made in response to the game being done with a Side View, then after David Jaffe (the series' creator) played through the game and had a difficult time getting past an early room.
• Fandom-Specific Plot: Following the shocking reveal that Raven Beak was one of her genetic donors, making him biologically one more father in her genepool, a lot of fanfic writers and fanartists have taken a shine to various Alternate Timeline scenarios involving Raven Beak and Samus genuinely acting like family, everything from including him in her life as a child adopted by Old Bird and Gray Voice, acting as the corruptive but affectionate influence to contrast those two's gentle and positive teachings, to him going through with his cloning plan and getting a bunch of Bratty Teenage Daughters out of the ordeal.
• Fan Nickname:
  • "EMMIBO" for the amiibo of the E.M.M.I.
  • "Dread Suit" for this game's rendition of the Power Suit - officially, it's also just the Power Suit.
  • "Brendan Chozo" (courtesy of Nintendo Life) for Raven Beak, prior to his real name being revealed.
  • In the Metroid Community Discord, it became common for users to refer to spoiler content using code-names to not ruin the surprises for users who want to go in as blindly as possible. Here are a few that were used, and what they refer to:
    • Frank ^AnswerRaven Beak
    • Henry ^AnswerQuiet Robe
    • Whoosh ^AnswerFlash Shift
    • G-Mode ^AnswerPulse Radar (referring to an obscure Super Metroid glitch involving the X-Ray Scope)
    • PG13 ^AnswerGravity Suit (Purple Gravity in a T rated game, for players 13 and up)
  • After David Jaffe complained about a particular room in Artaria (the one with breakable Beam Blocks in the ceiling, accessed through the Charge Beam Door of the Network Station that has four doors in it), a video about it dubbed the room... "The Room" (capitals optional), which is used by some when discussing the area. Some fans, and even Wikitroid, call it "the Jaffe Room" to be more specific. Others have referred to it as the "Noob Ceiling" in reference to the infamous new player trap in Super Metroid.
  • Thanks to a certain gimmick of the Experiment Z-57 boss battle, the fandom have collectively named him "Flappy Bird".
  • Quiet Robe's X-mimicked form is frequently dubbed "QR-X", taking after the naming scheme utilized by the SA-X (Samus Aran X). For the same reasons, Raven Beak's monstrous X form is also often dubbed "RB-X".
  • Before his name was revealed, many fans referred to Quiet Robe as "Flat Egg." This nickname stuck and is sometimes still used.
  • From the moment the name "Dread Mode" was revealed in the February 2022 Nintendo Direct, the nickname "Samus Must Die" caught on immediately.
• Fans Prefer the New Her: The Metroid Suit was very well-received among fans, looking almost like a light variation of Dark Samus, and being the next logical step in exploring how Samus has to control her new Metroid DNA after Fusion laid the foundation. Unfortunately, thanks to plot-relevant reasons, Samus is unable to keep this new look that fans latched onto.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • With the DOOM fandom, which is not surprising considering the similarities between Samus and Doomguy/Doom Slayer, like their lack of dialogue, prowess in combat, and relationship with a friendly animal that would later be killed (the Baby Metroid for Samus and Daisy the rabbit for Doomguy). The official DOOM Twitter account even congratulated Dread's release by depicting the Doom Slayer in an image similar to Dread’s cover art. It helps that both series are highly influential Trope Codifiers for two different genres (First-Person Shooter for Doom and Metroidvania for Metroid) which eventually suffered from decade-long sequel gaps following the release of a polarizing game (Doom³ and Metroid: Other M respectively).
  • With the Devil May Cry fandom; both Dread and Devil May Cry 5 are the first original entries in their franchises following long hiatuses brought on by extremely polarizing installments. They also serve to move their franchise timelines forward for the first time in nearly two decades, instead of being an interquel or reboot.
  • Per usual, fandoms of Halo and Metroid enjoy the other's company with the former's release of Halo Infinite; both receiving a title serving as redirections from an Audience-Alienating Era (namely Halo 5: Guardians and Metroid: Other M), specifically with Character Rerailment for their respective protagonists after a controversial lack of iconic presence or being rather out-of-character for the majority of their runtime, instead returning their heroes to a more familiar presentation while allowing for a downplayed introspection to move them along rather than conflict with their established characters.
• Game-Breaker:
  • Storm Missiles are one of the strongest pickups in Samus' arsenal. They do monstrously high amounts of damage, can be fired while dodging once they're already locked-on, and ignore invincibility frames on enemies that normally possess them (such as Core-X), letting them burn through foes. While the tradeoff is clearly meant to be its use of three missiles per lock-on, the player has a pretty high ammo cap with even moderate secret-hunting and the game is liberal with drops from countered enemies and refill stations, so running out of ammo is extremely unlikely. With that in mind, the only other drawback is that if Samus takes any damage, she will lose her lock-ons, so dealing maximum damage also requires avoiding getting hit while aiming at the target(s), but even this is comparatively simpler than the alternative of trying to maintain aim for normal missiles or shots while dodging.
  • While Shinesparking is quite difficult, if the player can master it, it breaks the game. It's been buffed to allow wall jumping and sliding without losing the charge, allowing for a lot of sequence-breaking opportunities. Additionally, it's now possible to use the technique against bosses, where it does massive damage; skilled users can completely wreck several major foes in a minute or less thanks to some boss arenas being just big enough to activate a Speed Boost, or otherwise having methods to enter them with a charge ready to go.
  • The Screw Attack. While getting this pickup requires some rather difficult sequence breaking, if you don't want to wait until near the end of the game to get it that is, any enemy fights outside of the Chozo bosses become a breeze.
• Goddamned Bats: The Ply can be a pain to deal with. They are small, aerial, quick, come in big numbers and attack Samus from inconvenient angles, especially when she has to ascend anywhere by Wall Jumping or Wall Crawling with the Spider Magnet since one hit will knock her off the wall or ceiling.
• Goddamned Boss:
  • The Central Units are far from hard, but they are very repetitive, since you fight them multiple times and there's not much strategy in taking them down besides just spamming missiles while you dodge slow projectiles, which leads to some tedious encounters. The later ones are less tedious thanks to you having more upgrades that can make short work of them in both phases (the ones connected to the blue and purple E.M.M.I. provide enough room before their chambers to build up a Shinespark to instantly shatter their armor and the Screw Attack instantly kills the latter of the two once the armor is broken).
  • The Omega Cannon sections aren't great. Having to blow off the E.M.M.I.'s armor with the Omega Stream is a slow and difficult process, made more so by the finicky and unintuitive aiming controls of the weapon, and often boils down to figuring out exactly which section of the designated battle arena has a long and straight enough track to actually shoot it in time. Being caught means having to beat the difficult quick time event sequence. The green and yellow E.M.M.I., who have an unintuitive battle arena and a high run speed unless the Omega Stream is actually hitting its armor respectively, are the worst offenders here.
• Good Bad Bugs:
  • There's a bug that allows Samus to sometimes shoot through walls without the need of the Wave Beam by sliding, jumping out of the slide and shooting, or clipping a shot through a ceiling via proper timing when doing a wall jump. This can immensely help in Sequence Breaking and skip certain segments entirely, such as the first E.M.M.I. encounter and Drogyga. This same method can also help Samus use the Grapple Beam on Grapple Blocks from the wrong side.
  • The "Water Bomb Jump" bug allows Samus to Bomb Jump mid-underwater. Normally, trying to Bomb Jump underwater while not on the ground will provide Samus with very little lift, usually making it impossible to get higher without the Gravity Suit. However, if Samus does a Bomb Jump underwater on the ground and uncurls before touching the ground again, a bug occurs where they will be affected by mid-water Bombs as if they were on the ground. By doing this, one can Bomb Jump and quickly uncurl before landing to initiate the bug, jump + Morph Ball + Bomb to place a bomb mid-water and uncurl again before landing, then jump + Morph Ball to mid-water Bomb Jump with much greater height than normal. This allows the player to access a good number of areas that they would not have been able to normally without the Gravity Suit.
  • There's a bug that allows Samus to get extra jump height at the water's surface with the Space Jump. Normally, the game tries to limit the height of an underwater Space Jump to the max height of your first jump. However, Space Jumping near a ceiling without hitting your head on it allows you to gain a little bit of height. This seems oddly specific, but if used correctly you can exit a water area with a small overhang leading to the Screw Attack to obtain it much earlier, and thus skip not only the entire frozen Artaria sequence, but also the fight with Experiment Z-57.
  • There's a bug that allows you to fire off charge shots much more quickly than normal, due to some mechanics that accelerate the Charge Beam when you execute a somersault.
  • The "Shine Sink Clip" bug. This allows Samus to clip through a 1-block floor if she uses a Flash Shift on a wall, then Shinespark at the right time. Normally, the game would kill Samus via Tele-Frag if she happens to be inside the ground, but if the player presses certain commands that involve sliding and using the Grapple Beam, she will clip through the 1-block floor unharmed. This of course leads to several ways of Sequence Breaking, including getting the Screw Attack much earlier by performing this trick in Cataris to get to the teleporter leading to Artaria. It also can lead to odd glitches such as making the Blue E.M.M.I. passive and unable to harm Samus.
  • The "Teleporting Ball" bug involves morphing into a ball at the right moment when Samus gets up on a ledge. If done correctly, it saves her position on the ledge and moves her there as soon as she un-morphs. This can help to save time when needing to backtrack from an area, as long as Samus keeps in her Morph Ball form until then. However, the biggest boon of this is that it is one of two ways to trigger the Invincibility bug.
  • The "Invincibility" bug makes Samus invulnerable to damage (including extreme temperatures) until she enters a cutscene or another zone. This is triggered with either the "Teleporting Ball" bug, or by using the Morph Ball and unmorphing at an E.M.M.I. zone door at a precise moment. While this is active it also prevents Samus from bouncing off a boss with Screw Attack, resulting in ludicrous damage when the Screw Attack hits multiple times. This bug has since been patched as of version 1.03, however, and it no longer works.
  • The "Camera Lock" bug is performed by triggering the Melee Counter tutorial cutscene against the Muzby, then loading the last saved checkpoint upon entering Corpius' room. This reactivates the Melee Counter tutorial cutscene, and when Samus returns to the Muzby later it will play out. If Samus kills the Muzby from behind before triggering the cutscene from the front, the Muzby will disappear from the cutscene and the camera will lock, keeping all entities in other rooms from loading. With some skill, a player can then maneuver themselves to any other part of Artaria with enough equipment and abilities, then use a Shinespark to deactivate this camera lock, allowing them to obtain the Screw Attack far earlier than normal.
  • The Z-Axis bug allows Samus to end up facing the screen if she's cornered between an enemy and a wall while using the Melee Counter, allowing her to shoot towards the screen or "run towards the screen" to charge up a Shinespark, among other things. It can be used along the Invincibility bug against the Purple E.M.M.I. and a destructible wall to reach its Central Unit without the Gravity Suit.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • In November of 2008, DeviantArt user Demmmmy posted three fanart images (first here, second here, third here) for a potential Metroid Dread that portrayed Samus Aran's new armor as predominantly white below the helmet and chestplate — which ended up being the case for her armor in the official Metroid Dread 13 years later.
  • The age old meme of calling Samus "Metroid" ends up becoming true at the end of the game when Raven Beak reveals that Samus has been mutating into a humanoid Metroid over the course of the story.
  • In February and March of 2021, Tumblr user Guilherme RM produced fan art of concepts for a possible Metroid game set after Fusion ("since nintendo never will"). A few of these ended up predicting several plot elements from Dread, such as Samus's Metroid DNA beginning to manifest, allowing her to drain energy from objects with her left hand, and even evolving a Metroid-like exoskeleton as armor.
• I Knew It!:
  • Samus turning into a Metroid as a result of the Metroid vaccine she received in Fusion has been a fairly popular idea within the fandom since that game's release, with fanfiction authors and fan artists playing around with the concept over the 19-year gap between it and Dread. Sure enough, one of Dread's key plot points is the revelation that Samus is undergoing a gradual metamorphosis into a humanoid Metroid, with said metamorphosis being complete by the end of the game.
  • Fans who paid special attention to Samus' Chozo upbringing have long suspected that she speaks their language. They were right!
• It's Hard, So It Sucks!: A major complaint from some players and reviewers is the game's brutal difficulty, possibly the most difficult game in the series. In particular, it's felt that bosses and E.M.M.I. are too reliant upon Trial-and-Error Gameplay. Also, gaining 100% Completion requires a lot of tricky Shinesparking and is a major turn-off for some. However many also find the challenge extremely rewarding while finding those difficult parts the best part of the game, and importantly, the increased difficulty is accompanied by various frustration mitigating measures, such as the addition of checkpoints to make getting right back into the boss fight as quick and painless as possible, to take some of the edge off. The game added an easy mode in a later patch for those who still struggled to complete the game.
• Jerkass Woobie: Kraid may have been a prominent Space Pirate commander who has battled Samus many times, but in no other game is he this pitiable. Captured in Cataris as Raven Beak's slave, he's kept in horrible condition that left him covered in scars and filth, with his middle belly button badly infected and his neck painfully swollen. Besides suffering a particularly gruesome death by Samus (falling into lava and burning up from the inside), he later gets assimilated into an X Parasite and eventually becomes part of a monstrous abomination comprised of Raven Beak and the other bosses of the game. Poor thing.
• Love to Hate: Raven Beak quickly became almost as popular as other Metroid villains like Ridley, the SA-X, and Dark Samus for his cool boss fight, intimidating design, and sheer unapologetic evil, particularly given his mind games with Samus and turning out to have unintentionally started the main conflict of the franchise. There's also the sheer novelty of his being an evil Chozo, as well as the way he spoofed ADAM: both ADAM's fans and his detractors seem fond of this plot point for different reasons.
• Memetic Badass: Thanks to ADAM being spoofed by Raven Beak and hyping up Raven Beak to be the ultimate opponent for Samus (and this is no exaggeration), to the point of demeaning her chances of defeating him, fans have decided to join in on the fun and make out Raven Beak to be the ultimate badass that no one can beat. They go as far as saying that Raven Beak is utterly shredded and handsome-looking, has no weaknesses, killed Ridley permanently in one shot, can beat games at 0% item completion faster than the fastest speedrunners, and will always have a higher item completion than Samus even if she gets 100%, etc.
• Memetic Loser: Poor Kraid finally gets his chance to shine in the game after 17 years of absence (and with no Ridley to steal his spotlight), and the only thing fans remember is that Samus is unfazed by his roars and attacks, as if Kraid is just a minor annoyance rather than one of her biggest recurring adversaries. The fact it's the polar opposite to Samus' infamous Heroic BSoD reaction towards Ridley in Other M only made fans mock Kraid as the Space Pirate who wants to be like Ridley yet fails at every turn. Him being in chains as Raven Beak's pet prisoner doesn't help his reputation, although it does make him pitiful and when he gets assimilated by an X Parasite and later returns as a Post-Final Boss X monstrosity only to be obliterated by Samus's Hyper Beam, many fans feel sorry for him. Then there's the fact he has multiple unique reactions if Samus attacks him with items obtained from Sequence Breaking, such as the Morph Ball Bomb and Flash Shift, making him into a punching bag reward for sequence breakers.
• Memetic Mutation: This game has more memes associated with it than any other game in the Metroid series, to the point where it has enough for its own page.
• Memetic Psychopath: Near the game's conclusion, Samus gains the Metroid ability to absorb power and abilities from any form of creature — both biological and mechanical. In addition, it's shown in-game that she constantly feels an overwhelming urge to do so (just like a Metroid), and ADAM (or Raven Beak) states that she is now technically a danger to the galaxy. This has spawned a series of memes where Samus goes around absorbing any creatures she can — including crossing genres or franchises to do so. What's even funnier is that many memes keep it ambiguous whether Samus is absorbing them intentionally, innocently forgetting she has this power, or feigning ignorance and pretending to forget.
• Moral Event Horizon: The massacre of the Chozo on SR388 (now revealed to be the Thoha tribe) seen in the Chozo Memories from Metroid: Samus Returns is explained in greater detail here, showing just how irredeemable Raven Beak and his Mawkin tribe are. It turns out Raven Beak desired the Metroids for their power, wanting to use them to conquer the galaxy, and had his soldiers murder the entire Thoha tribe, sparing only Quiet Robe just to have the means to control the Metroids they planned to collect. The genocide of the Thoha left SR388 unguarded, enabling the discovery of the Metroids and the crises that would follow in the other Metroid games. Tellingly, Samus has nothing but contempt and hatred for Raven Beak, despite not personally knowing him like her other adversaries such as Ridley and Mother Brain.
• Narm:
  • The game's intro has Samus describe the E.M.M.I. robots as being made out of the "strongest stuff in the universe", which earned some mockery online as sounding too informal (for what it's worth, this is also a word-for-copy of how the Dread Report Vol. 1 describes them, and it wouldn't be too out-of-character for Samus). Other translations use a more serious term (for instance, the German translation uses the word for "material" instead).
  • For some people, the name "Raven Beak" doesn't really sound very threatening, even though it follows the Chozo naming standards of the main series (not that "Old Bird" or "Gray Voice" are great names either, but at least you can say that those were names given to aliens by a literal child). A few fans actually prefer using the character's name as pronounced in the original Chozo language ("Ashkar Behek") because of this.
• Nightmare Fuel: Just the trailers alone gave this game its own page. What were you expecting of a game called "Dread"?
• Older Than They Think:
  • Samus being able to slide while running created some buzz at its novelty, but this isn't the first time such an ability was demonstrated in the franchise: it was first done in Metroid: Other M in its Playable Epilogue when playing as Zero Suit Samus to get past fallen debris. That said, this is the first time Samus has been able to slide while in her Power Suit. A few other concepts in Dread, such as the explosive Diffusion Beam and four-part Energy Tank upgrades, were also taken from Other M and translated into the 2D gameplay style.
  • Samus beginning the game deep underground far from her ship and unable to use it to resupply isn't new to the series. The original Metroid is structured as such, with the player never even getting a glimpse of her ship, not even in the game's manual; these things were only added in the remake Metroid: Zero Mission. That said, the structures of both games are still different, with Metroid 1 having Samus journeying deeper into Zebes, while Dread has Samus journeying upward to reach the surface of ZDR.
  • While the concept of evil Chozo that act as Samus' opponents is treated as a shocking twist for the game's plot, the Nintendo Power Source interactive online story Blood of the Chozo already featured an evil Chozo faction (albeit in a non-canon work that was largely a collaborative fanfiction).
  • Dread's development was shelved due to the hardware of the Nintendo DS (and DSi) being too weak to execute Yoshio Sakamoto's ideas, but this isn't the first Metroid game that had its development shelved due to underwhelming hardware. The 2016 Nintendo 3DS game Metroid Prime: Federation Force was shelved for the exact same reason, with producer Kensuke Tanabe originally conceiving the idea around 2009 for the Nintendo DSi.
  • Samus's suit being able to slowly regenerate itself from severe damage has never been shown or mentioned prior in the games, but the concept first appeared in Volume 3 of the mid-2000s manga Samus and Joey.
  • While Kraid's previous lairs on Zebes were located in rocky ruins and/or a jungle area, Dread shows Kraid's ZDR lair as a high-tech room with lava at the bottom — which had already been done with the "Brinstar Depths" stage from Super Smash Bros. Melee and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
  • The sequences where Samus has to use stealth to evade the E.M.M.I. and her being killed by them if she is caught were done previously in Metroid Fusion with the SA-X, albeit with much simpler mechanics in comparison to the E.M.M.I.^note The SA-X encounters are scripted and it's easy to find a place to hide. The SA-X can do a ton of damage to Samus, but it's not a One-Hit Kill unless the player is going for a low item run.
  • The E.M.M.I.s are described as being made of "the strongest stuff in the universe", but this isn't the first time that term has been used - Prime 2 describes indestructible crates in the Temple Grounds with a similar phrase albeit with slightly different wording ("strongest materials in the cosmos").
  • After defeating Kraid, much cheering was had at Samus's impressive Nonchalant Dodge when he shoots his final spike at her. The first time she pulled off a move like that was at the end of the intro to Metroid Prime 3: Corruption when she coolly dodges a shot from Dark Samus. Although the reason why a lot of people don't seem to remember that scene is probably because immediately after that, Dark Samus immediately kicks Samus's ass with a single attack.
• Pandering to the Base: The inclusion of Kraid, a popular Space Pirate who first debuted in the original Metroid but has minimal focus compared with Ridley, seems more like an inclusion for the sake of servicing the fans who enjoy the reptile and felt he was underutilized. Especially since there is no elaboration whether this is the original Kraid or a clone/offspring, or even how and why he's on ZDR in the first place, making his appearance feel very random. The reward image for 100% completion in his region at least explains his presence, by showing the Mawkin capturing and enslaving him.
• Paranoia Fuel:
  • The game isn't titled Metroid DREAD for nothing! The E.M.M.I. robots are relentless killing machines against whom your options are limited to "evade detection" and, failing that, "RUN LIKE HELL". The fact that they can one-shot you instead of just constantly firing at you until you die as the SA-X did makes it even scarier because it means one slip-up and you're dead, no questions asked. The 2nd "Dread Report" even notes that this is why the E.M.M.I. are limited to certain regions of the world; in their own words, it would make the game far too tense to be constantly having to deal with them.
  • The game introduces a retroactive example for Metroid II: Return of Samus and Metroid: Samus Returns. The beeping sound effects of the E.M.M.I. are nearly identical to the ambient sound effects heard in certain areas of SR388. Given that the E.M.M.I. were reprogrammed by Raven Beak to hunt down Samus, who's to say that you weren't already Being Watched during that previous mission?
• Player Punch:
  • Meeting Quiet Robe, the first friendly living Chozo ever seen in the main series, and hearing Samus promise to end things, in Chozo is a very beautiful, sweet moment. Which unfortunately ends with Quiet Robe being killed and, after defeating his killer, Samus merely giving one final look at his body before continuing with her mission. Many players have pointed to Quiet Robe's death as being the moment where they personally gained a sense of loathing towards Raven Beak.
  • As the player travels through ZDR, you get the sense that unlike most of the cold, dead worlds that Samus has journeyed to in previous games, ZDR is a lush, beautiful planet that, albeit dangerous (especially in the area colonized by the Chozo) is teeming with life. This is especially the case in Ghavoran, where Samus can see many forms of life going about their business in the background. Which immediately turns to horror once the X-Parasites escape from Elun. As they backtrack through the same areas, the player is "treated" to a horror show as all the diverse life they once saw is slowly consumed and destroyed by the X until, within minutes, the X are the only form of life that remains.
• Rescued from the Scrappy Heap:
  • Despite being a classic tool, the Grapple Beam has always been a contentious gameplay mechanic for being overly clunky and situational, not being useful for anything else but puzzles and platforming that specifically require it. Dread fixes this by making it workable alongside the Spider Magnet, giving Samus a quick, snappy way to reach climbable walls and ceilings that otherwise would take some work or be impossible to reach through normal jumps. It also has optional uses in combat that, if the player picks up on the subtle clues, can greatly speed up encounters with certain otherwise annoying enemies and midbosses.
  • Even though he's being impersonated by Raven Beak, ADAM is generally found to be better implemented here than he was in Fusion, as he's much less intrusive and handhold-y while still being helpful to Samus.
• Salvaged Gameplay Mechanic:
  • The melee counter from Metroid: Samus Returns was the safest option to take out various common enemies, but speedrunners of other Metroid games weren't fond of the "stop-and-go" nature of the mechanic (in most instances, Samus needs to remain stationary to perform it) taking away from the series' traditional fast-paced gunplay. Dread introduces the dash melee, which allows the melee counter to be used while moving and can even kill some weaker enemies without the need for a follow-up attack, resulting in a better implementation of the mechanic that does not disrupt the pacing. To answer the criticism of the melee counter being the safest option for dealing with enemies, some enemies now have much trickier timing on their counters and some can even fake you out to throw you off.
  • A common complaint against Samus Returns was that enemy variety was pretty small, with only a dozen or so different enemy types. Dread has a more diverse menagerie of hostile fauna to test yourself against.
  • People who enjoyed the Metroid series for its Sequence Breaking and non-linear design were dissatisfied that the series' increased linearity resulted in it largely avoiding including any notable sequence breaks since Zero Mission. Dread is the first game since Zero Mission where the developers give the player a litany of ways to progress through the game, with the developers even awarding you for going off the beaten path to grab upgrades and power-ups you normally wouldn't have: the best example of this being Kraid, who can be quick killed in his second phase by using a hidden morph ball launcher, which has its own dedicated cinematic. In fact, several bosses boast secret methods to instantly kill them in the second phase, or just end the fight quickly overall, much to the joy of speedrunners.
  • One of the contentions in the series starting with Fusion is when the story seems to break the flow of the gameplay, and outright unskippable cutscenes in Other M (only being skippable after beating the game once). This game allows players to skip cutscenes after viewing them once like in Samus Returns.
• Salvaged Story:
  • As one of the original Space Pirates, Kraid has always had his reasonable share of fans, who lamented that the big lizard hasn't seen many repeat appearances, unlike his fellow commander, Ridley, who would not only become a staple boss but also receive the honor of becoming Samus's Arch-Enemy. Here, Kraid finally makes his long-awaited 3D debut, and Ridley is nowhere to be seen, with no clone or robot to speak of.
  • After Metroid: Other M disappointingly offered no insight into Samus's past with the Chozo, even ignoring it completely, fans found its refreshing that Dread once again has Samus exploring a Chozo planet rather than a Federation space station, and that the story gives us more information about the mysterious race of bird-people that adopted Samus. We even get to hear them speak the language with Samus responding in kind, something she doesn't even do with the Adam AI (effectively demonstrating how important Samus' Chozo upbringing is to her).
  • Fans got a chuckle over the Adam AI explicitly advising Samus to avoid high-temperature areas in the Cataris section of ZDR until the Varia Suit is accounted for. One of the most infamous segments of Other M had Samus refrain from using the Suit, despite needing to traverse through multiple high-temperature areas, until Adam dramatically authorizes it. It's later revealed that Raven Beak was pretending to be the Adam AI, possibly from the moment Samus first connected to ZDR's communications network. While it was for the ultimately selfish reason of not wanting his "daughter" to die before he can make use of her, the Big Bad of all people giving Samus a heads-up about the heat difference compared to the human Adam's belated authorization makes it even more amusing to the fandom.
  • The Zero Suit's role has been decreased even further, becoming the complement to Samus' character that it was supposed to be rather than the source of Fanservice and flanderization that it was criticized as. As usual, it only appears in gameplay during Samus' death sequence, but the only way to get a good full view of Zero Suit Samus is to complete the Harder Than Hard objective of beating Normal Mode and Hard Mode in less than 4 hours each, unlocking an ending image featuring the Zero Suit where Samus is shown to have the same athletic physique she had in Samus Returns posing confidently. Ripped models from the game show that Samus in fact reuses her Zero Suit design from Other M, only with a more pronounced muscular build and more reasonable looking Combat Stilettos. This was after complaints that Other M looked for excuses to focus on Samus' backside in her Zero Suit during the main story even in emotional and/or inappropriate moments.
• Scrappy Mechanic: The Shinespark is both loved and loathed by the fans. Whilst incredibly satisfying to pull off and heavily improved from the previous time it was available, the controls are notoriously unreliable in Dread — entering the "surge" mode requires pressing the B button, which also doubles as the "jump" button (and, if already in mid-air, as the "spinjump" button). You often need to fire a shot or press the aim button in midair to leave spinjump position so you can do an aerial Shinespark. This means the player never has 100% control over whether Samus will jump or get ready to Shinespark when they need a specific response, so she may jump/spin when trying to surge and surge when trying to jump. Given how incredibly precise the Shinespark puzzles are, this just makes them all the more potentially frustrating.
• Sequel Difficulty Spike: Coming off from the already difficult Samus Returns, Dread is somehow harder. In addition to enemies being just as aggressive and the bosses just as difficult, if not more so, there's also the E.M.M.I. Zones, the game now having a far less linear structure with no explicit telegraphing of where your next objective is, and the return of the difficult Shinespark puzzles from the GBA installment that will need to be tackled if you want to get all the upgrades for 100% Completion.
• Shocking Moments: The return of the X Parasites are foreshadowed as a plot hook at the beginning of the game for why the E.M.M.I.s and Samus investigate ZDR, but few players actually expected them to break out and change the entire second half of the game as a result, complete with all their respawning and absorption mechanics from Fusion.
• Signature Scene: Quiet Robe's Exposition Dump halfway through the game to Samus about Raven Beak's plan and Samus' short, but powerful Badass Boast that she will stop him which she says in Chozo while her Leitmotif plays. For longtime fans of the series it's the defining moment of the game that represents Samus' Character Rerailment after Metroid: Other M and is just a powerful and memorable scene in general.
• Spiritual Adaptation: While the E.M.M.I. patrols are natural evolutions of Fusion's SA-X encounters, it has also garnered comparisons to Mr. X and Nemesis from Resident Evil thanks to those sections briefly transforming the game into a Survival Horror. It's also been considered the most Alien Metroid game of the series (many comparisons were made to Alien: Isolation in particular), with the franchise already being known to take inspiration from the Alien franchise.
• Stuck in Their Shadow: The bosses in Dread are popular thanks to having dynamic, almost choreographic cinematics associated with them. And then there are Escue and Golzuna who lack any of this. And they have no plot-relevance or backstories as they are just X taking the forms of common enemies albeit stronger. It's easy to see why the fans care so little about them.
• Suspiciously Similar Song: The theme for the fight with Escue is clearly inspired by Rimsky-Korsakov's "Flight of the Bumblebee".
• That One Attack:
  • Escue's "missile" attack is a barrage of seeking projectiles which follow Samus and are very difficult to dodge. Of all the boss's attacks, that one trips up players the most. On the plus side, they will get to do this to everyone else afterwards, when they absorb it as the Storm Missile ability.
  • In their second form, Mawkin Chozo soldiers will attach to a wall and spit goo at Samus. It covers the length of the screen instantly, lasts several seconds, can be aimed anywhere onscreen, and deals a ton of damage per hit.
  • Chozo Robot Warriors have an attack where they form a red energy blade and rush at you for heavy damage. Doesn't sound too bad right? The problem arises in the attack letting out sparks that have a huge hitbox that can hit you after you jump over it. What is just about as bad is that the windup on this attack is erratic and changes every time. Oh, and this move cannot be melee-countered. And speaking of which, it's almost easy to confuse with its actual counterable move. Annoying on normal mode, but nightmarish on hard where it can do more than two energy tank's worth of damage.
  • From the last phase of the Final Boss battle:
    • One attack summons what appears to be a mini-sun that releases shockwaves continuously, which can only be dodged through gaps within those same waves. This is very difficult to manage when you're already dealing with the boss repeatedly firing his Wave-Motion Gun at you. It is possible to destroy said sun with a well-placed Power Bomb, but the only indication that you can do this is that they are orange, similar to Power Bomb blocks and the barrier before the final boss. However, as Power Bombs have rarely been used against final bosses in the series aside from dealing with mook spawns and dealing massive damage to weakpoints that need to be bombed, and the Power Bombs are the last upgrade you will get, it's a clue very few players have picked up on their own.
    • The Speed Booster attack, which you need to be ready to react to very quickly or suffer massive damage, and he can course-correct into an upward "shinespark" if you jump too early. It's also possible for him to begin the attack after firing a black sun, making it even harder to avoid.
• That One Boss:
  • If you count the E.M.M.I. as bosses, then they definitely fit, especially the later variations that are equipped with a variety of weapons and abilities built to track Samus down more efficiently.
    • E.M.M.I.-04SB (yellow) is a nightmare due to its high speed. It activates if it's alerted, so you have seconds to put up the Phantom Cloak and hide in a corner even if it's a room away. Even killing it is more difficult than later E.M.M.I. models, perhaps because, while 05's and 06's abilities are just as broken, theirs are shut off during the kill segment so the player can actually kill them, while 04's is not. The Omega Stream can slow it, but only so much; even if you succeed in training the stream on it the second it's in position, it still drags its way through the blasts faster than other models, so success isn't guaranteed.
    • 05IM (blue) and 06WB (purple) are also remembered for the trouble their unique features caused. 05's (very long) scanning light will freeze Samus, which is particularly bad news and lets it close the distance easily. 06 has a stun shot it can fire through walls, which is less accurate, but not only can it spot you through walls, it can hear you anywhere in its zone without the cloak up, meaning you have to know your way around or you will likely get caught. And from 04 on, each E.M.M.I. has an underwater segment, and you won't have the Gravity Suit until it comes time to kill the last one.
  • Kraid is the point where most players realize the game will not be easy, especially if you stumble into him relatively early without finding some upgrades before. The first phase is already surprisingly hard as Kraid endlessly spams fireballs and flying nails at Samus, who has little room for dodging. However, it's the second phase that tends to trip people up, as Kraid keeps shooting even trickier projectiles and his belly takes up half of the screen. At that point, it becomes a matter of running back and forth through an even smaller space in order to not get hit while somehow finding a way to get up to his head level and then shoot him and his boomerang nails down during the third phase, which is easier said than done as taking any damage while clinging to the wall with the Spider Magnet will drop Samus back to the ground, starting the quite bothersome second phase once more. He does have a secret "quick kill" method that can be done at the start of his second stage, but doing so requires the player to sequence break and retrieve the Morph Ball Bombs prior to the fight. Even then, there aren't any strong clues that you can bomb the floor to reveal a Morph Ball Launcher that will allow Samus to finish the job within seconds.
  • Experiment No. Z-57 is an insanely long boss battle. It takes a ton of punishment and has many different attack patterns including some difficult-to-dodge swipe attacks, and a healing move in the second phase of the fight that requires shooting all its latched tentacles off to stop. Even scoring the counter hit when you can lay on the damage will still take several to put it to rest. Just like Kraid, Z-57 does have a quick kill method during its second phase (charge the Speed Booster during the last seconds of its fan attack, then quickly nail it with a Shinespark), but this still involves surviving to said phase and then thinking to try that in the first place. And even then, you may have some trouble making use of the opportunity for this quick kill, as the boss tends to follow up the attack that prompts it with a barrage of hard-to-dodge swipes that make holding onto a Shinespark for the duration a challenge. Additionally, if you sequence break to get the Gravity Suit early, the game will railroad you into this boss fight meaning you might not have other useful items like the Storm Missile or Space Jump.
  • Players tend to have a lot of trouble with the Robot Chozo Soldiers, and it's not hard to see why: they're incredibly fast, surprisingly precise with their plasma shots and have a pretty nasty blade attack with an insanely large hitbox. Fighting them boils down to circling around the arena and spamming as many missiles at them as you can while making liberal use of Flash Shift; a tactic that is mitigated by the fact that they tend to fight in pairs during later encounters, meaning the player gets cornered by them more often than not.
  • Escue is a rather hard boss when fought the "normal" way due to its rapid movements, erratic patterns of its Macross Missile Massacre attack and very limited windows of vulnerability. However, charging up the Speed Booster and Shinesparking into the boss takes off the majority of its health, and the Screw Attack makes the fight a joke if the player has gotten it via Sequence Breaking as not only does it allow the player to inflict damage through merely making physical contact, it also renders you immune to all of Escue's projectile attacks. It's even nastier on Dread Rush Mode. Not only do you die if you take so much as a single hit, all of the above shortcuts are no longer available, meaning you have to beat Escue the "normal" way.
• That One Sidequest: Collecting items for 100% in a Metroid game can often be frustrating, but like the GBA games, the absolute worst collectibles to grab are those gated behind "Shinespark puzzles". There are multiple collectables that demand incredibly precise applications of the Shinespark ability, requiring full knowledge of how to keep and store your boost charge while sliding, wall jumping, and even Flash Shifting. The most infamous of these is a Missile+ tank in a set of rooms hidden behind bombable blocks in the room with the Green teleportal pad in Burenia. The game requires the player to navigate a winding course full of obstacles that spans three screens, using and storing Shinespark charges before using the final one in a horizontal charge to blow through a wall of Speed Boost blocks in the way. The entire gauntlet is a nightmare on par with the Chozodia Energy Tank from Metroid: Zero Mission, with the first Shinespark especially requiring expert timing; however, if you do it early enough in the game, you'll find that the gauntlet is also a backdoor to the area with the Gravity Suit, rewarding you with that valuable upgrade earlier than intended.
• That One Level:
  • The E.M.M.I. Zones. All of them. They're filled with dead ends, puzzle doors and split paths, plus the invincible death robot that spawns randomly and quickly comes for your head.
    • The Yellow E.M.M.I. zone in particular is a bad experience no matter how you play the game, since you have to spend a lot of time passing through its zone before you kill it. Coming back post-Diffusion Beam is the worst, because your way in will take you to a labyrinth with no less than five paths that all lead to dead ends, meaning unless you have the game memorized, you're doing a lot of trial-and-error with a murderous robot breathing down your neck.
    • The Purple E.M.M.I. zone is the absolute worst. The E.M.M.I. can hear you from anywhere, meaning that it will always start homing in on your location if you move without using the Phantom Cloak. Not only that, but it has a very long scanning range that can see through walls, shoots a projectile that freezes you in place and can also go through walls, and you're forced underwater where escape is extremely difficult while using the Phantom Cloak, and nearly impossible if the E.M.M.I. has seen you since you can't outrun it. Even if you manage to hide, the E.M.M.I. has a habit of camping around the area where you last were, which makes getting past it even more difficult since the Aeion gauge doesn't start recharging until you've moved, which attracts it again. The only thing that makes this easier is that it's possible to get the Gravity Suit early by Sequence Breaking which almost completely trivializes this segment.
  • Burenia tends to be a very torturous experience without the Gravity Suit, as Samus moves like molasses underwater without it. Unfortunately, the player will need to explore a good chunk of the region and is likely to fight its resident boss before they even get close to where it's found. Burenia's saving graces are that it does not have an E.M.M.I. zone inside of it, and that Samus doesn't have to worry about drowning.
  • While Metroid Dread has a habit of blocking the path that you come out of to prevent the explorable area from becoming too overwhelming, Ghavoran takes this idea a few steps too far and becomes extremely frustrating to navigate. On top of having an even more confusing and maze-like layout than previous areas, there are 2 sections (the door to the Pulse Radar and the Grapple Beam Block & Screw Attack Blocks next to the train to Ferenia) of the region where, once you pass them, it's impossible to go back without either looping around through Ferenia and Dairon, or getting the Power Bombs. The area itself thankfully doesn't have too many enemies that should give you trouble by the time you reach it, but navigation is way more confusing and tedious here than it really needed to be.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: A vocal set of fans express displeasure at the Morph Ball and Bombs being found close to the middle of the game rather than at the beginning (thus making searching for hidden nooks nearly impossible).
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Plot: Other M and Fusion had established a plot thread of a conspiracy within the Galactic Federation to exploit the Metroids and the X Parasites for their own ends. In particular, the ending for Fusion implied that Samus would face repercussions for destroying the Federation's Metroid research lab on the BSL station and preventing them from capturing the SA-X. None of this is followed up on in Dread as Samus is seemingly back on good terms with the Federation. Granted, part of this is due to Fusion having an overly-simplified English translation that failed to emphasize how factionalized the Federation Army is, thus meaning Samus is still held in high regard by the majority of the government, but the rogue faction going completely unmentioned in Dread is still viewed as a missed opportunity.
• Ugly Cute:
  • Raven Beak's unmasked Chozo head has the same avian charm as any other Chozo and is almost cute, even. Nearly makes you forget he's a narcissistic, abusive megalomaniac.
  • For instinctually-destructive and infectious lifeforms, the X-Parasites' weird gooey gelatinous forms of Fusion have been reworked as translucent, colorful blobs that more easily show off their nuclei inside. They also sometimes emit a squeaky screech (similar to the infamous Metroid "skree") that sounds more adorable than intimidating, making them sound like angry little rodents. The result is what looks like flying candy creatures rather than primordial alien ooze monsters, especially since Samus (and by extension the player) can literally eat them.
• Underused Game Mechanic:
  • Cross Bombs and the Diffusion Beam have very specific uses, with limited utility outside of the obstacles designed around them. In combat, Cross Bombs do deliver more damage than normal ones, but a player is rarely going to be using bombs as their first option in a boss fight; meanwhile, the AOE spread and mild piercing from the Diffusion Beam's charge shot are only situationally useful for killing enemies through floors and are both replaced by strictly-better beam upgrades later on anyway.
  • The Spin Boost is meant to act as an intermediary for the Space Jump of series tradition, but there are only two other upgrades on the intended progression path between the Spin Boost and the Space Jump itself, rendering the former obsolete in no time. However, the Spin Boost can see a lot more use through some Sequence Breaking that delays gaining the Space Jump in favor of other late game upgrades that are normally gained after it.
  • Power Bombs are the last upgrade you receive and are used to get through a few obstacles leading to (and within) the final area, and that's about it. Outside of secret-hunting, their only other purpose is to negate one of the Final Boss's nastiest attacks.
  • The Aeion meter is mostly superfluous, with the exception of the Phantom Cloak's duration. The other two abilities that use it, the Flash Shift and Pulse Radar, use the entire bar and refill instantly seconds later. Thus, the main purpose the meter serves is making the three abilities mutually-exclusive in a manner similar to a global cooldown (though you'll rarely find yourself needing to Pulse Radar and Phantom Cloak at the same time, for example).
• Unexpected Character:
  • The Chozo. Long time fans were absolutely floored when the trailer showed Samus facing against one that was actually alive, since they were more or less considered extinct before the events of the first game and never appeared in the flesh until now. Even though Samus Returns hinted at their inclusion in this game, many probably thought it would be a flashback explaining more of the lore instead.
  • After having been absent from the series since Zero Mission (a remake of the original Metroid), Kraid returns.
• The Woobie:
  • Quiet Robe's backstory is filled with nothing but tragedy. He and his fellow Thoha Chozo had created the Metroids in order to stop the X Parasites from ravaging the galaxy, only to be forced to seal them underneath SR388's surface after they went berserk, where they would eventually be discovered by the Federation and the Space Pirates, setting the entire Metroid crisis that has plagued the galaxy into motion. Then, he is left as the sole surviving member of the Thoha after they were slaughtered by Raven Beak and the Mawkin, with him being forced to aid the mad Chozo's schemes. Then, after meeting Samus on ZDR, who is likely the first friendly face he's seen in years as well as a chance to finally redeem himself for the suffering caused by his creations, he is killed on orders of Raven Beak who no longer has need of his expertise. All of this is enough to make the player wish for Samus to give the poor guy a hug.
  • Samus herself is taken through the wringer even more so than in Other M. First, her body is undergoing a metamorphosis into a humanoid Metroid and she has no idea on how to stop it. Then Quiet Robe, the first friendly living Chozo she's seen in years since the deaths of Old Bird and Gray Voice, is killed in front of her. Later, it's revealed that ADAM, Samus' AI companion, had been impersonated by Raven Beak ever since she arrived on ZDR, who then proceeds to arrogantly proclaim himself as her father due to being one of her Chozo genetic donors. Finally, on the brink of death in her battle with Raven Beak, Samus completes her transformation into a Metroid, causing her to snap into uncharacteristic rage as she fully embraces her Metroid powers and begins clawing ferally at Raven Beak.

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