It’s not Metroid without Samus losing her abilities, says Metroid Dread Director

Mercury Steam, the studio behind Metroid Samus Returns and Metroid Dread, has been reported to have several fans of the series amidst its ranks- a fact that led Nintendo to approve of them in the first place. Given their love for Metroid, in combination with the success they’ve found, we can assume that members of the studio have an eye for what works for Samus’ adventures and what doesn’t. Dread’s Creative Director José Luis Márquez shared some of that insight with Gamereactor recently, going into detail about what he felt was needed for not just an appealing Metroidvania game, but for a Metroid game that would meet the series’ standards of quality.

One of his nuggets of wisdom was that Samus losing her powers at the beginning of a Metroid game is “mandatory” to keep players from being dissatisfied with their in-game progression.

Márquez: “In the case of Metroids, yes, it has to be like that. You can’t start the game without losing things. It’s mandatory. Otherwise, I think you would be disappointed. It’s like, what? You get everything from the beginning? It can’t be!”

In Dread, the game opens up with a powerful Samus landing on Planet ZDR, ready to continue her fight, only for the imposing Raven Beak to disarm her of her weapons and upgrades mere minutes after arrival. Narratively, it establishes him as a threat to Samus’ survival- a source of dread if you will- but it also makes Samus seem weak, which can be frustrating to players. However, considering the series’ longstanding traditions of isolating players, forcing them to be vulnerable, and motivating them to grow, it can be said that it’s in line with its philosophy of empowering the audience through struggle and gradual payoff.

This phenomenon, which has sometimes been referred to as “physical amnesia” in the fanbase, has been a constant throughout the series, existing long before Mercury Steam joined in. Metroid Prime’s implementation of it, in particular, has been used to argue against it, due to how contrived and nonsensical it can seem. In Prime, Samus loses her powers after a relatively small explosion damages her suit and renders many of its parts in need of replacement. Unlike Dread, this instance of amnesia has limited (if any) value to the narrative, and is instead used to justify the game structure.

At least from his end, as both a fan and a creator, Márquez prefers that Samus lose her abilities- though opinions at large do vary on the issue. And on that note, he shared another of his opinions by revealing that he isn’t a fan of Souls-like difficulty in Metroidvanias, remarking that he’s “not one of those who likes to make it hard for the players.” Though anyone who has stared down an E.M.M.I in Dread might feel the need to dispute that, it’s still true that the difficulty there doesn’t exactly compare to something like Hollow Knight.

Metroidvania playtimes also came up during the interview, with him showing partisanship towards shorter, more compact games in the genre. To again bring up Hollow Knight, the first playthrough can take anywhere from 15 to 30 hours, whereas for Dread, the range is typically 5-10 hours. No doubt that some will argue in favor of longer playtimes, others in support of shorter ones, but the popularity of both these games reminds us that there’s a varied and diverse audience playing them, and that the minds behind these experiences have their own perspectives on what an ideal Metroidvania should be like.

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Kudos to Greatsong1 for sending in the news tip!