“all work and no play makes vismund a dull boy”
Exorion's Ratings and Reviews
Metroid Fusion Master Quest V2 by Gameringly [
Exploration],
rated by Exorion on Mar 12, 2024 (
)
Exploration],
rated by Exorion on Mar 12, 2024 ( )
100% in 8:57
(Played on Version 2.0)
Overall this was a great hack and I can say way more positive then negative things about it.
True to the description it feels like a vanilla+ hack. It adheres to the rules established for normal players taught in the base game and simply expands the game to offer a higher level of challenge as well as variety when it comes to pathfinding, puzzle-solving and fighting. The constant balance between all elements as well as changes made to rooms and paths made for a fresh and fun experience. For the most part Adam will remind you of important mechanics or tell you which advanced stuff you'll never have to do so throwing your head against a wall should almost never happen. I only had one moment during my first visit in Sector 2 in which I feel the solution is a bit too obtuse to find (I only found it by accident and after learning that the solution is almost always near your current path at all times).
I also like the level of difficulty for the most part. The main path, whilst absolutely being more challenging in every way than vanilla, still is rather forgiving and not too demanding. And if you want a higher challenge you can go for 100%. On that note I felt the level of challenge of some of those to be a bit weirdly placed. The ones after you obtain Screw Attack felt way easier than a specific one on Main Deck for which you need Speed Booster. This one requires many tight shinespark to speedboost transitions in quick succession, about as demanding as the vanilla secret message. No idea why this one is available that early when it is harder than most other.
In terms of bugs/glitches I encountered none on my playthrough. The developer took great care to account for many potential tricks to spotentially skip sections or get items earlier than intended. I also only had two true softlocks.
The Wave Beam E-Tank in Sector 6 (NOC) can be reached way earlier once you have both Speedbooster and Varia Suit. You can start from two screens to the left to barely get a shinespark stored, then have to get past the two caterpillars and flying gas thing, get behind the Screw Attack blocks and let it rip. If you store it on the slope you can set up a second shinespark to clear the way to the E-Tank. This trick at this point in the game is heavily reliant on enemy movement RNG as you do not have the firepower (nor reach) to blow enemies up in time (and having to do more than two jumps or even a pause takes too long) so I get why it was not caught during development. However if you do so you have no way of setting up another shinespark, therefore being softlocked. Adding a bomb block followed by a fake one to escape the big shinespark block barrier from the right could be a solution if one wants to keep that "sequence break" available.
Special shoutout to the SA-X chases. Those were really cool, short but enjoyable. It's rather nice to have the "potential" of the original game's dialogue finally be realized in a hack. It was great.
So far I only had high praise for the hack so why only a 4 out of 5? Sadly it is because of the finale. In my opinion the finale was fumbled hard. The true battle against the SA-X is a frustrating mess. Yes I know in vanilla this was a total pushover but I feel this is the only boss which was made worse. The arena is way too small to proberly fight in. The levitating platforms are breakable by everything so it is no good for combat. And the left side is really short. Those things would be ok to handle if not for the random nature of the SA-X when it comes to Screw Attack movement. Despite looping her she sometimes can break out by doing different patterns/attacks. And your own character is simple not fast enough to properly evade all of them, coupled with the fact that one's own Screw Attack offers no protection and is slower.
A returning gimmick are pits which teleports you to a different part of the map if you fall into them. It was used once before and was a nice little addition to an otherwise boring boss. Here however the developer decided to let it act as the ultimate punish. If you ever fall into it you can basically turn your game on and off again because it resets the whole fight with the SA-X, including restoring her health. This is such a disproportional punishment and I have no idea why it was turned into a worse gimmick. Also Phase 2 can be softlocked. If you kill SA-X whilst it's at the left side: congratulations! The X-core will now be stuck and you have no way to get it out of there so happy resetting. The last part of annoyance is the escape sequence. In theory it is really cool that the remaining SA-X still try to stop you. But after such a difficult fight it is absurd. Coupled with the fact that they are positioned in such a way that you simply can't freeze them on reaction because of the angles you have to take. Their shots will hit you but your missile will miss.
The absurd difficulty of the finale is also a reason why I doubt Hard Mode or 1% runs would be doable. Some of the later bosses seem hard enough with the changes as is but the finale truly feels impossible to do damageless. Collecting enough upgrades feels like a must.
In the end I still can recommend this hack for the most part. Outside of the very, very end you can enjoy a great and fun hack which offers a truly fresh experience.
Overall this was a great hack and I can say way more positive then negative things about it.
True to the description it feels like a vanilla+ hack. It adheres to the rules established for normal players taught in the base game and simply expands the game to offer a higher level of challenge as well as variety when it comes to pathfinding, puzzle-solving and fighting. The constant balance between all elements as well as changes made to rooms and paths made for a fresh and fun experience. For the most part Adam will remind you of important mechanics or tell you which advanced stuff you'll never have to do so throwing your head against a wall should almost never happen. I only had one moment during my first visit in Sector 2 in which I feel the solution is a bit too obtuse to find (I only found it by accident and after learning that the solution is almost always near your current path at all times).
I also like the level of difficulty for the most part. The main path, whilst absolutely being more challenging in every way than vanilla, still is rather forgiving and not too demanding. And if you want a higher challenge you can go for 100%. On that note I felt the level of challenge of some of those to be a bit weirdly placed. The ones after you obtain Screw Attack felt way easier than a specific one on Main Deck for which you need Speed Booster. This one requires many tight shinespark to speedboost transitions in quick succession, about as demanding as the vanilla secret message. No idea why this one is available that early when it is harder than most other.
In terms of bugs/glitches I encountered none on my playthrough. The developer took great care to account for many potential tricks to spotentially skip sections or get items earlier than intended. I also only had two true softlocks.
The Wave Beam E-Tank in Sector 6 (NOC) can be reached way earlier once you have both Speedbooster and Varia Suit. You can start from two screens to the left to barely get a shinespark stored, then have to get past the two caterpillars and flying gas thing, get behind the Screw Attack blocks and let it rip. If you store it on the slope you can set up a second shinespark to clear the way to the E-Tank. This trick at this point in the game is heavily reliant on enemy movement RNG as you do not have the firepower (nor reach) to blow enemies up in time (and having to do more than two jumps or even a pause takes too long) so I get why it was not caught during development. However if you do so you have no way of setting up another shinespark, therefore being softlocked. Adding a bomb block followed by a fake one to escape the big shinespark block barrier from the right could be a solution if one wants to keep that "sequence break" available.
Special shoutout to the SA-X chases. Those were really cool, short but enjoyable. It's rather nice to have the "potential" of the original game's dialogue finally be realized in a hack. It was great.
So far I only had high praise for the hack so why only a 4 out of 5? Sadly it is because of the finale. In my opinion the finale was fumbled hard. The true battle against the SA-X is a frustrating mess. Yes I know in vanilla this was a total pushover but I feel this is the only boss which was made worse. The arena is way too small to proberly fight in. The levitating platforms are breakable by everything so it is no good for combat. And the left side is really short. Those things would be ok to handle if not for the random nature of the SA-X when it comes to Screw Attack movement. Despite looping her she sometimes can break out by doing different patterns/attacks. And your own character is simple not fast enough to properly evade all of them, coupled with the fact that one's own Screw Attack offers no protection and is slower.
A returning gimmick are pits which teleports you to a different part of the map if you fall into them. It was used once before and was a nice little addition to an otherwise boring boss. Here however the developer decided to let it act as the ultimate punish. If you ever fall into it you can basically turn your game on and off again because it resets the whole fight with the SA-X, including restoring her health. This is such a disproportional punishment and I have no idea why it was turned into a worse gimmick. Also Phase 2 can be softlocked. If you kill SA-X whilst it's at the left side: congratulations! The X-core will now be stuck and you have no way to get it out of there so happy resetting. The last part of annoyance is the escape sequence. In theory it is really cool that the remaining SA-X still try to stop you. But after such a difficult fight it is absurd. Coupled with the fact that they are positioned in such a way that you simply can't freeze them on reaction because of the angles you have to take. Their shots will hit you but your missile will miss.
The absurd difficulty of the finale is also a reason why I doubt Hard Mode or 1% runs would be doable. Some of the later bosses seem hard enough with the changes as is but the finale truly feels impossible to do damageless. Collecting enough upgrades feels like a must.
In the end I still can recommend this hack for the most part. Outside of the very, very end you can enjoy a great and fun hack which offers a truly fresh experience.
