although I also have very special memories of Metroid Prime 1 as it was the first game I bought for myself with money from my job, I got a CRT tv and a gamecube on the same day.

also a factor for me is I was raised on the early games, I played Metroid on the NES (never got anywhere though) I played Metroid 2 nonstop for an entire summer on the original gameboy and Super Metroid is probably top 5 games of all time for me.

I do think the devs are stuck in a position where focus testing probably suggested being completely alone caused some people to not enjoy the games as much and as you say they got stuck trying to make these characters feel present while also letting your be the hero.

I will still get it and probably enjoy it but I am frustrated.

which I am not against if it's optional but negging me because I tried to do something that wasn't right is frustrating to me.

for my part I am not bothered by her talking so much as how she does and when she does, the metroid I grew up with let you explore and figure things out for yourself, Prime 1 even did mostly allow this but now we've moved in a direction where they try to hold your hand to keep from getting too lost.

does the MP work with this? lol.

oh I see what you mean yeah, and there is nothing worse then seeing someone miss something you spend ages making and tuning "OH DAMMIT LOOK LEFT!!!! LOOOOOOK!" "they never explained this, it's bad"

and interesting example is the newest Pokemon game Legends ZA, the literally first like 2 hours is entirely tutorialized and restricted and I've never had to fight so hard to keep myself interested but by the same token I remember being very frustrated about not knowing mechanics in a previous game.

this is from the perspective of a user who has often enjoyed initial direction but quickly become annoyed with too much of it.

I absolutely think there can be a middle ground and I also believe tutorials and on boarding is good but maybe ask up front for folks who do not want it anymore or ever (even if they might whine about it later lol)

I am 100% for anything that allows more people to enjoy things.

as someone with social issues and issues with personal space couches invite people to enter my personal space chairs usually do not.

confession, while I did not mind the story in HL2 it barely mattered to me, I was soooo much more interested in the gameplay.

this is entirely fair and I think quite rational.

Nice.

Fetaverse.