[SM] Super Metroid: Eris

2009-08-13 12:19:53 am

Seems like now's the time for somebody to send this to Hacksterpiece Theater, Kotaku, etc.

(user is banned)

2009-08-13 01:55:31 am

Breathe in the Future, Breathe out the Past

I've fixed the ending glitch, the fixed patch is in the initial post.
Thanks everyone for your kind words. I'm glad to hear it.

Tyjet66

2009-08-13 02:00:54 am

What'd you say?

Quote from DMantra:

I've fixed the ending glitch, the fixed patch is in the initial post.
Thanks everyone for your kind words. I'm glad to hear it.

Welcome back DMan, great hack by the way! Still haven't beaten it though. laugh new

Gaius_4

2009-08-13 10:56:15 am

Finished, 9:54 82%

I really took my time playing this, with working (the prior week) 7 days in a row, and 2 or 3 other side projects I'm having to complete... And I'm glad I didn't rush through.

Welcome back DMan, even if it's for a little while...? Eh?

Definitely one of the BEST hacks ever.

Tonski

2009-08-13 02:41:26 pm

Quote from DMantra:

I've fixed the ending glitch, the fixed patch is in the initial post.
Thanks everyone for your kind words. I'm glad to hear it.

I will have to say that I am very much furious about the rooms that have the most beautiful feelings and backgrounds (layers used/music/all) and are filled with enemies that do 100 damage on your bloody ass. I wanted to watch the beautyness while wandering on Eris in this masterpiece, then some fucks came and killed me. That left a permanent mark on my heart.

No other hack has put so much soul into the rooms and areas as this one, you can actually feel the tension in the air when going towards Spore Spawn with the music and all... I guess I just wanna say good job, the enemies and their.. Damage against you kinda force you to use savestates one way or another.

Lucied Unlimited

Edit history:

Lucied Unlimited: 2009-08-15 06:35:52 am

2009-08-15 06:28:29 am

All aboard the soul train

Well, I might as well give my review on this as well. I was harsh on the difficulty, but only the bosses need to be rebalanced IMO. Phantoon was pathetic but others were brutal. My thoughts:

The environments were drop-dead beautiful, it blew my mind that this could run on a SNES cartridge. I'd pay good money if this was ever an official game. The later environments, while they didn't look too knew compared to an area like the Reservoirs, were done extremely well, the "leap of faith" was genius. The Phazon Gardens were unlike anything I have ever seen. An extremely enjoyable hack, and it gets better every time. Best hack ever? Quite possibly.

EDIT: Also, DMantra, have you played Xenogears or what. Ethos from this hack? Eldridge from Cliffhanger? I know they weren't coined by Xenogears, but it got me wondering.

EDIT 2: And "Melkabah" which is obviously derived from Merkabah, chariot of God. Xenogears has Merkavah.

You went in deep with the hacks. I like that. I loved Xenogears. ;)

Well, I might as well give my review on this as well. I was harsh on the difficulty, but only the bosses need to be rebalanced IMO. Phantoon was pathetic but others were brutal. My thoughts:

The environments were drop-dead beautiful, it blew my mind that this could run on a SNES cartridge. I'd pay good money if this was ever an official game. The later environments, while they didn't look too knew compared to an area like the Reservoirs, were done extremely well, the "leap of faith" was genius. The Phazon Gardens were unlike anything I have ever seen. An extremely enjoyable hack, and it gets better every time. Best hack ever? Quite possibly.

EDIT: Also, DMantra, have you played Xenogears or what. Ethos from this hack? Eldridge from Cliffhanger? I know they weren't coined by Xenogears, but it got me wondering.

EDIT 2: And "Melkabah" which is obviously derived from Merkabah, chariot of God. Xenogears has Merkavah.

You went in deep with the hacks. I like that. I loved Xenogears. ;)

Kriole

2009-08-15 09:52:11 am

Meri Kurisumasu! ^_^

Quote from Lucied Unlimited:

I was harsh on the difficulty, but only the bosses need to be rebalanced IMO.

Nothing needs to be rebalanced >_>
If anything, the bosses should be harder. Since Samus is spoiled with refills on all of them but Botwoon and Ridley. I hear people crying about GT, but that's because they use fudging charge beam on him. You get way too many SMissile refills from him, and he only takes 15 to die.

Derakon

2009-08-15 12:48:00 pm

Botwoon is the hardest boss if you don't skip fighting Draygon; Ridley's the hardest otherwise. Draygon is straightforward if you've ever had to fight him without Gravity, which is something many hacks love to throw at you. The rest were comparable to their fights in Vanilla.

Botwoon's hard mainly because it's very difficult to use Evasion against him due to the room layout. Even if he provided refills they wouldn't be able to extend the fight by long given the amount of contact damage he deals. Of course, the main issue with Botwoon is that the careless player can get to him with no E-tanks.

Even if you do use charge beam, GT can still be cheesed with careful positioning. But you wouldn't do that, right? Of course not.

XtraX

2009-08-15 12:52:58 pm

As someone who prefers to approach these hacks without Tool Assistance, or rather only at moments where they seem appropiate (unbalanced & bad design choices, frustration or intented use of Tool Assistance), here's my take on the difficulty:

After my first playthrough, I was inclinced to critizice and agree with Lucied Unlimited that the difficulty of the bosses need to be rebalanced. But after playing the game some more, and aiming to collect all items, I feel like I have to reform this statement:

The bosses do *not* need to be rebalanced and seem perfectly fine for a playthrouh without Tool Assistance as long as certain requirements are met.

These requirements, as in items, however, which all are perfectly fine and *in reach for the player*, can be missed easily.

Considering Eris was an attempt to let the player focus on exploration, searching thoroughly for Energy Tanks and Missiles seems appropiate though. You can get your first Energy Tank without coming across any enemy after all.

As for more in-depth opinion on each boss:

The Bomb Torizo was easy. So was Kraid much later in the game aswell as Croco.

Spore Spawn: I died here. I had no Energy Tank.
But once the player notices that it is much preferable to get hit instead of falling into the "acid", discovers that
there is an Energy Tank in the room *right* before him, and if the Evasion was collected already, he is perfectly fine.

Botwoon: This one seemed like a disaster. I relied on Tool Assistance here, yet it was very hard.
Botwoon does very much damage, but it is possible to leave the fight and refill your Energy & Missiles.

Which doesn't help if you've got zero or one Energy Tank, which I think simply isn't enough for him.
The obvious solution is: Search, and *find* them. There are four Energy Tanks avaible at this point, *not* counting two
more which are somewhat avaible, but very difficult to get. Three should be fine.

This, and use your Missiles. I didn't even bother to try them on him. With like 10 of them after searching for
Energy Tanks, you might have enough to kill him.

Golden Torizo: The next Tool-Assisted boss. Again, with enough Energy Tanks & Super Missiles collected, he should be very doable.
Not to mention you can kill him the cheap way, like in the original.

Ridley & Phantoon: Very difficult. I used Tool Assistance for Phantoon. Ridley was only doable because I knew his AI somewhat.
The reason for that is that I didn't collect The Chozen Suit and Plasma Beam.
*Both* these items, however, are overpowered. I would have changed the Suit's damage reduction from 75%
to maybe 50% so everything isn't too easy anymore.

Never fought Draygon under normal circumstances.

The bosses still are unbalanced because they differ in their difficulty, but they might not be unbalanced in the sense that they are way too difficult.

------

By the way: I * love* how Samus visor changes colours in the hidden Ruins with the Suit upgrade.

As someone who prefers to approach these hacks without Tool Assistance, or rather only at moments where they seem appropiate (unbalanced & bad design choices, frustration or intented use of Tool Assistance), here's my take on the difficulty:

After my first playthrough, I was inclinced to critizice and agree with Lucied Unlimited that the difficulty of the bosses need to be rebalanced. But after playing the game some more, and aiming to collect all items, I feel like I have to reform this statement:

The bosses do *not* need to be rebalanced and seem perfectly fine for a playthrouh without Tool Assistance as long as certain requirements are met.

These requirements, as in items, however, which all are perfectly fine and *in reach for the player*, can be missed easily.

Considering Eris was an attempt to let the player focus on exploration, searching thoroughly for Energy Tanks and Missiles seems appropiate though. You can get your first Energy Tank without coming across any enemy after all.

As for more in-depth opinion on each boss:

[spoiler]

The Bomb Torizo was easy. So was Kraid much later in the game aswell as Croco.

Spore Spawn: I died here. I had no Energy Tank.
                    But once the player notices that it is much preferable to get hit instead of falling into the "acid", discovers that 
                    there is an Energy Tank in the room *right* before him, and if the Evasion was collected already, he is perfectly fine.

Botwoon: This one seemed like a disaster. I relied on Tool Assistance here, yet it was very hard.
              Botwoon does very much damage, but it is possible to leave the fight and refill your Energy & Missiles.
              
              Which doesn't help if you've got zero or one Energy Tank, which I think simply isn't enough for him.
              The obvious solution is: Search, and *find* them. There are four Energy Tanks avaible at this point, *not* counting two 
              more which are somewhat avaible, but very difficult to get. Three should be fine.

This, and use your Missiles. I didn't even bother to try them on him. With like 10 of them after searching for 
              Energy Tanks, you might have enough to kill him.

Golden Torizo: The next Tool-Assisted boss. Again, with enough Energy Tanks & Super Missiles collected, he should be very doable. 
                    Not to mention you can kill him the cheap way, like in the original.

Ridley & Phantoon: Very difficult. I used Tool Assistance for Phantoon. Ridley was only doable because I knew his AI somewhat.
                          The reason for that is that I didn't collect The Chozen Suit and Plasma Beam. 
                          *Both* these items, however, are overpowered. I would have changed the Suit's damage reduction from 75% 
                          to maybe 50% so everything isn't too easy anymore.

Never fought Draygon under normal circumstances.
[/spoiler]

The bosses still are unbalanced because they differ in their difficulty, but they might not be unbalanced in the sense that they are way too difficult.

------

By the way: I * love* how Samus visor changes colours in the hidden Ruins with the Suit upgrade.

NintendoKid64

2009-08-15 02:25:09 pm

Okay, is this thing important. I just want to know if this is important.

Thane

2009-08-15 02:34:33 pm

^/_\^

Quote from NintendoKid64:

Okay, is this thing important. I just want to know if this is important.

No it is not.

There is something there but I believe you need power bombs and even so it is not required

Lucied Unlimited

2009-08-15 02:55:17 pm

All aboard the soul train

Quote from Kriole:

Quote from Lucied Unlimited:

I was harsh on the difficulty, but only the bosses need to be rebalanced IMO.

Nothing needs to be rebalanced >_>
If anything, the bosses should be harder. Since Samus is spoiled with refills on all of them but Botwoon and Ridley. I hear people crying about GT, but that's because they use fudging charge beam on him. You get way too many SMissile refills from him, and he only takes 15 to die.

Some bosses were pathetic and some were overly-hard. That's my point. Phantoon was easy no matter what. I've never seen a hard Phantoon (I've never played Impossible and Cliffhanger so :P) but Ridley and Botwoon made me rage. The Golden Torizo made me *facepalm* at myself for not exploring the room with 8+ FREAKING SUPER MISSLES.

Thane

2009-08-15 03:41:03 pm

^/_\^

I think the difficulty was pretty good.
I'd say most of the bosses were too easy and only draygon/ridley proved to be a challenge.
Just remember dmantra put more then enough power ups before the bosses, if you don't explore and find these before the bosses it is somewhat your fault.

Tyjet66

2009-08-15 03:55:15 pm

What'd you say?

I'm still playing through this, haven't killed any bosses yet, and I FUCKING HATE SUITLESS WATER SEGMENTS!!! I feel better now. laugh new

Derakon

2009-08-16 02:51:53 am

I'm not a huge fan of suitless water, but it only really pisses me off if I'm expected to do significant fighting or remotely difficult jumping in it. And aside from Draygon, that doesn't happen -- and by Draygon, you should have enough resources to put him to bed even if he spikes you regularly.

Gaius_4

2009-08-16 03:03:35 am

Just a comment on some of the areas...

Quote from Lucied Unlimited:

EDIT: Also, DMantra, have you played Xenogears or what. Ethos from this hack? Eldridge from Cliffhanger? I know they weren't coined by Xenogears, but it got me wondering.

EDIT 2: And "Melkabah" which is obviously derived from Merkabah, chariot of God. Xenogears has Merkavah.

You went in deep with the hacks. I like that. I loved Xenogears. ;)

I haven't played Xenogears, but some of the environments reminded me a bit of a game called Chakan. Particularly the large room with the purple/grayish? metroids, and some of the rooms with the "lights" in them. Or maybe it was because of the dark, creepy atmosphere. And GTs room (and the area he was in) made me think of Castlevania. :P Perhaps due to the spike chandelier.

MetroidMst

2009-08-16 10:48:08 am

Go ahead. Stare.

This video in the spoiler is for anyone who wants to beat Botwoon without even getting a single E-Tank. I have one for insurance, but I didn't need it. This is easily done in real time without TAS conditions involved. Enjoy.

Derakon

2009-08-16 12:31:11 pm

Bah, he only shot projectiles at you once, and that once you didn't manage to dodge them successfully. I've routinely had fights where he went on a shooting spree.

MetroidMst

2009-08-16 12:35:26 pm

Go ahead. Stare.

Probably because you were moving too much. I have never had him shoot more than twice at me crouching in that spot. Or maybe my skills scare it...

Derakon

2009-08-16 02:01:55 pm

My strategy basically looked like yours, except that I didn't realize that crouching/morphing would get me out of the way of his flight path more reliably.

Has anyone investigated Botwoon's AI? I don't think it's reactive at all (that is, he doesn't base his actions on your movements, except insofar as your movements change the RNG and his shots are always aimed broadly at your location), but I could be wrong.

MetroidMst

2009-08-16 02:15:25 pm

Go ahead. Stare.

I have never checked his AI, but I think it is slightly affected by your movement because he has always seemed to do his looping course without really spitting at me, whereas moving around seems to make him angry for some reason. I could be, and probably am, wrong though.

Lucied Unlimited

2009-08-16 03:01:22 pm

All aboard the soul train

I did that my first time through and he punished me with tons of projectile attacks.

Saturn

2009-08-16 05:18:03 pm

Here is my 2nd playthrough on Eris, this time going pretty much straight to the key items without any unnecessary exploring delays. Tried to minimize the Missile collection either, as they're not that important over the entire game.

Game completion is 1:33 with 48% of items, recorded on Snes9x 1.43 v12 as usual.

Enjoy!

attachment:

SM Eris - 2nd playthrough in 1.33 by Saturn.zip

Kriole

2009-08-17 10:17:36 am

Meri Kurisumasu! ^_^

Quote from Derakon:

Has anyone investigated Botwoon's AI? I don't think it's reactive at all (that is, he doesn't base his actions on your movements, except insofar as your movements change the RNG and his shots are always aimed broadly at your location), but I could be wrong.

Shooting forces him to either change pattern or cancel his projectile attack.

Derakon

2009-08-17 12:35:09 pm

By that do you mean that if you hit him, then he won't shoot you on his next pass? Or just that the act of shooting prevents him from shooting back?