u/Mindless_Tap_2706

Being able to tag twice is so fundamentally strong that I don't even know how you could nerf it. But since everyone's talking about it now with teamfight nerfs getting announced, I was kinda thinking about it

Make burst faster

• If it's unreactable, you can still guess to bait burst if your assist is on screen, but you can't just go "oh a green flash I'll tag now" like you currently can

Longer cooldown

• 6 seconds is already noticeable, but it's obviously not a massive drawback if you can get a hit with freestyle, do a 3 second combo, and then do a short blockstring and get it back.
  • Maybe they could make it so blockstrings post-freestyle don't let your assist recharge immediately? (like using assists in combos)

Add a bit of damage scaling after a second tag

• I don't think the benefit of freestyle was ever supposed to be combo damage, especially when double down is right there. But it still lets you hit 3 bar ToDs and stuff
• It would obviously need to be more thought out than that, but maybe it could make supers have more scaling? They already did this for double down, so I think it'd be pretty reasonable to do the same thing with harsher scaling.

Damage increase on freestyle assists before they leave

• this would make using freestyle in neutral a bit riskier. Just clipping a freestyle assist with something could do like 1.5x or 2.0x damage to encourage people to use it a little more safely.
  • Especially if they just boosted the first hit by a huge chunk - that way you don't get a random ToD or anything, but if you get a stray hit in on the assist it'll do like 20% or something
  • That's kinda how skullgirls works and it does a good enough job keeping stuff like H Brass in check

I wanna start off by saying, I have played literally every metroid game except return of samus, pinball, federation force, and other M. I liked this one a lot, and I think it's a pretty cool game.

Atmosphere: 8.5/10

• Pretty cool, lots of great sections, but the highlight is for me is probably the >!ice lab. It leaves you on edge the whole time even though there's not any huge threats!<. By FAR the coolest part is >!in the room with the cryopods when you open the scan visor and see that there's literally hundreds of grievers frozen in there. Also there's a cool detail where if you look directly at their face before you leave the ambient sound swells up and gets really intense. !<
• Other areas like fury green are pretty cool, and the graphics being as good as they are is a huge benefit, especially for the lighting.
• Not actually ruined much by NPCs. Miles is a bit grating, sure, but he's actually with you for like 15 minutes of a 12 hour game. Other npcs are pretty quiet and one or two of them kinda add to the vibes actually. I can honestly say I didn't mind 3/5 of them at all.

Music: 8/10

• Pretty okay all around, but aside from some highlights, it isn't on the same level as something like the other prime games or Super Metroid. There are a couple hits on the soundtrack though (volt forge my beloved)

Combat/Bosses: 10/10

• Unironically second only to Dread as far as combat in the series goes imo. They just let you have a 360 degree dash in this game, and put some more thought into the enemy attacks, and boom suddenly it feels way more fun and interesting. As a bit of a game designer myself, (Norman Osborne reference) I think the combat is actually really good for once.
• Boss fights are really fun as well, and there's a lot of them. There is legit maybe one unfun boss fight out of like 12 or so.
• It's worth noting that it is an easy-ish game, though. If you've played the other prime games you probably won't die much, and unfortunately you can't start the game on hard mode. If you've played the other Prime games I would reccomend skipping e-tanks on purpose if you want a challenge, but that goes for prime 1 and 3 as well tbh.
• The weapons in this game are all really fun to use. Also all of the charge/super upgrades are awesome and for once you can actually get a few of them relatively early if you know where to look (hint: >!look around the desert, also don't wait to get some green crystals because you DO get upgrades for it!<)

Exploration: 3/10

• Yeah, this game is barely a metroidvania. It's very linear, and if you take too long to find which area to go to next, >!myles !<just chimes in over the radio and tells you. It isn't AS overbearing as it sounds, he's really just a more talkative hint system who tells you what to do a biiit too fast.
• There also aren't any >!real secrets !<in this game. >!It doesn't have any optional bosses or huge sub-areas!<, and the puzzles for hidden items and stuff in this game aren't anything super special.
• Going across the desert isn't that bad, and I will say the >!bike is unironically kinda fun to drive!<. I like it a bit more than magmoor caverns as far as hub areas go tbh.
• Only reason it gets a 3 is because the environments are actually really cool and legitimately fun to play through, and 100%'ing it is exactly the same experience.
• For some reason, they actually DID go to the trouble of making each area change a bit when you go back through it (eg >!fire area has crumbled and filled with robots, ice area is darker and infested with ice grievers!<), so returning and exploring around just for items is still pretty fun.

Story: 5/10

• The GF troopers are okay. They're likeable enough, but they're pretty shallow for the most part and not all that interesting. The voice acting is surprisingly good though, >!and I cared enough when like two of them died so that's cool I guess. !<
• The Lamorn (chozo equivalent) aren't all that interesting imo. There's a cool twist when you learn >!the grievers are actually transformed Lamorn, but it's not very subtle at all and you can probably figure it out as soon as you scan a tablet in the ice lab. !<
• Game has a good enough story I guess, but some plot points are a bit contrived. >!For example, in the great mines, 3 separate characters make a big show of sacrificing themselves to hold back the grievers (which samus can easily kill dozens of at this point in the game). After you leave them behind with no route to get down to you, they all show up later with a "what, you thought we'd die to a couple aliens?" YES DUMBASS I REVIVED YOU LIKE 4 TIMES IN ONE FIGHT (WHEN THERE WERE 3 OF US) YOU CLEARLY CAN'T HOLD YOUR OWN AGAINST MORE THAN TWO OF THESE THINGS AT A TIME!<
• Same thing with the ending. >!Sylux shows up, samus and friends kick his ass twice, and then right as they're about to teleport home, he shows up a third time and all 5 of the troopers gang up on him so you can teleport out before the teleportation thingy explodes. Realistically there was no reason all of them had to do that, but whatever. Also, why have some of them sacrifice themselves earlier just to come back and die again? Literally what was the point of that? Idk man it could've been written better.!<
• TL;DR story is pretty predictable if you've ever seen an action movie before, and the dialogue is pretty meh 90% of the time, but it's not the main focus of the game anyway so it's fine.

Puzzles: 7/10

• They aren't that hard most of the time, but they're pretty fun, they've got some good setpieces, and a couple of them are pretty clever. Pretty much the same as other prime games, maybe even a bit better if I'm being honest.
• Throughout the entire game, I had exactly one (1) puzzle solution spoiled by an npc. Say whatever you want about them, but they're actually surprisingly good about not doing that.

Overall: 7.5/10

It's a fun game with some cool areas, solid puzzles, good music, and really good combat. It is NOT a great metroidvania, though. I really can't understate how little backtracking and meaningful exploration there is in this game compared to the others in the series.
As far as the spooky and concerning new stuff goes; the desert section at the end of the game - frankly - sucks butt, but it's not very long, and otherwise the desert isn't that bad. You can cross it very quickly and there are some actual, meaningful things to find in it if you want to look around.

The troopers actually don't talk much at all except >!myles!<, so they don't mess the atmosphere up much, and the moments when you're left completely alone stand out by contrast.

Overall it's fun, but it plays more like a zelda game than a metroidvania**.** You go to a dungeon, solve a few puzzles, get some items, kill a boss, repeat a few times, the end. The boss fights, general combat, puzzles and atmosphere are good enough that I think it's still worth playing if you like metroid, but if you just want a full-on metroidvania, you should probably play other games.