Stumbling through Super Metroid - Part 8

[davidn]

This is a gentler part than most of the others! Instead of frustration and being stuck, the vast majority of it is just peaceful exploration through this new underwater world that I've just opened up. I attempt to read the game's language to discover some secrets, but do not do very well at it.

http://youtu.be/b41nw24t-ug

Comments

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

oh my god, how did I never notice that the little snails hide when you face them XD;

I would be more annoyed with your constant wall-jumpy showboating if it weren't so amazing to watch XD Am I just.... really deficient at that, or are you just somehow instantly really good? (Not that either of us can answer that question...)

A few more things to say, but I can't say them yet without spoiling...!

Even in a relatively uneventful stretch of the game, your commentary continues to be charming :)

[davidn]

Always bear in mind that you don't get to see the five or six failed takes of that wall-jumping show off section :) I can usually do it quickly to save myself, though (I didn't realize that you could climb up single walls with it until later in this video, hence using the misery-fish as a platform). And it's fantastic that I can lead you to discover more things about this game, as always :)

I can tell I'm going to be stuck, at this point - I've actually played about half an hour more than is in this video and I think I've exhausted all the possible routes...!

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

Even after reviewing the video? And at least one cardinal rule you expressed during it? :)

(Truth be told, I can't actually remember which is the correct way forward, though I think that's mostly because I stumbled onto it quickly enough!)

[dr-dos.livejournal.com]

Haha I was wondering if you'd find out you can crack the Maridia tube. Thank goodness for anger.

[davidn]

Yes, it worked out well for me there! I was absolutely astonished when it worked.

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

Even after the hint of passing through a similar-looking broken tube a few screens prior? :)

[rakarr.livejournal.com]

To think, you could have accessed Maridia well before you had the gravity suit. It wouldn't have done you much good, though! In fact, due to the slow, awkward movement in water without the gravity suit, bombing that tunnel before time only makes life difficult when you're trying to go back and forth.

You're doing very well, and you even found something that I missed (that solid wall of sand - I assumed you couldn't go through the crumbling grappling tether spaces, I think because I tried and failed once). Honestly, you're very good at the game, or I'm very bad, because you do at least as well as I do with far fewer resources. With that said, there are two important items (that aren't actually all that hard to find!) that would make survival and finding secrets at this stage of the game so much easier for you.

As you can see, they're starting to get more dastardly with the way they hide things - both the side items and the main route!

Those quicksandy rooms that impede your jumping were the primary reason I said you'd have fun with Maridia. In that I find them incredibly frustrating.

[davidn]

Yes, it occurred to me just how much of Maridia I could have got into much earlier, without going through the wrecked ship... I can't imagine how far I would have got without the gravity suit, though, or how annoying it would have been.

I'm beginning to exhaust the available routes in my current position (about half an hour ahead of this video), so I hope that the things that I've missed aren't too much of a backtrack away...

[rakarr.livejournal.com]

You wouldn't have gotten far, you'd just have had to deal with the slow, annoying water jumping every time you traveled through the pipe. Then you'd probably fall down further with each jump - as I did - and get frustrated - as I did.

That's what makes the Gravity Suit such an ingenious power-up. You don't just need it to progress; it makes you feel so happy to not have to deal with the damn underwater impediments anymore.

[(Anonymous)]

*JD here*

You got past the tube with ease, most impressive. That was the thing I was curious to see if you'd be able to figure out as it is both possibly necessary and (to that point at least) without equivalent in the game in terms of the solution. Of course I didn't respond to every situation with "let's see what the power bomb shows me" so perhaps that is on me.

Looking ahead towards the rest of the game I don't see many stumbling blocks in terms of not knowing where to go (only two jump to mind immediately), but I'm sure that you have the power to surprise me ;)

[davidn]

I got past the tube by accident, but it was nice nonetheless :) I'm glad that that happened, because I don't think I would have done it on my own - you're right that at this point it's unique. You do, however, get a subtle clue in the form of the broken pipe in the room where all the crabs are, just above it - it sort of points you towards realizing you might be able to break it somehow.

I always have the power to surprise ;)

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

ah, I should've kept scrolling ;)

Though while I think of it, I just realised that I've always been so eager to crack the tube just because I can, that I never even realised there was a second way into Maridia....!

[davidn]

Are you saying that you always broke through the tube and never realized the route beyond the wrecked ship that I took...? Because that's quite a gap to have filled...!

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

I can't remember if I ever took the Wrecked Ship route.... I'm almost certain that I didn't, though!

[davidn]

That's incredible :) So you would go to the wrecked ship, get the gravity suit and then go back to the pipe the long way around? Or... do you need the gravity suit at all...!

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

Of course you need the gravity suit! As you noticed (or suspected at least), you can't wall-jump underwater until you have the gravity suit -- you can't even make it up to that first door above the pipe without the gravity suit on.

[davidn]

Ah...! Once you have abilities, you quickly forget that you once didn't have them.

[ravenworks.livejournal.com]

If you want to feel REALLY weird, once you beat the game, go start a new save file and go "whoa!" as Samus wiggles around with a piddly little laser beam and hardly any jump. :)

[lupineangel.livejournal.com]

Throwing everything at that tube in frustration and then being surprised when something actually works is the highlight of this video. :P Also, I know it's just a small incidental detail, but I love the occasional puffs of air and clouds of bubbles that come out of Samus' shoulder pad vents when she's underwater. With the gravity suit on, you wouldn't know whether you were above or below the surface in some rooms, but I thought that was a nice little touch.

D.F.

[davidn]

It really is - it serves the function of reminding you that you're underwater, but it also really brings a feeling of life in a place that's mostly still, like the dust clouds when you land in certain other areas...