The Brilliant Animation in Metroid Dread 

This is one of the most barrenly researched videos on this topic. Embarassing to say the least.

No need to apologize for being a family man. Your daughter needs you more than RU-vid ever will

Writers: Samus has no character in Metroid Dread Animators: Samus has the most character in Metroid Dread

I love how they chained kraid so that they could replicate his original battle and movements without it seeming odd that he doesn’t just lean down and eat samus lol

Fun little detail: Samus actually doesn't go to her relaxed stance when in the EMMI Zones. (At least, until the corresponding EMMI is no longer paroling.) She's dreading its arrival at any moment and knows she can't relax, always visually tense.

You know, the EMMI freezing to determine which action to take actually makes perfect sense in-universe. They're robots. Not bio-computers like Mother Brain. Robots. It makes sense that their internal CPU needs a brief moment to determine the optimal course of action. It's just brilliant, really.

My absolute favorite animation is when she notices Kraid. She looks so ready, then sees Kraid, then literally relaxes. It's hilarious how she doesn't raise her arm cannon to charge the beam up. She just waits till he opens his mouth and shoots him

I cannot get over the pose Samus takes when standing still in an elevator. It has all the attitude and confidence the game wants to give her in just that one pose.

I absolutely love that there are content creators that TRUST their audience to gleefully watch 40 minutes of video from start to finish and enjoy every single moment. Thank you for not dumbing it down or shortening it to some lightning quick 5 minutes in order to appease folks with no attention span! Some of us LOVE the long format, thanks for giving us the goods :)

I love how you break down the fact that the E.M.M.I.s' animation looks complex, but actually isn't. After watching the animations in slow motion, I'm pretty sure that the fact that the E.M.M.I. inverts itself to turn is precisely why it looks so complex. When an E.M.M.I. walks upright or on all fours, our brains can clearly code their movement as humanoid or quadrupedal, respectively. However, when they invert, their movement suddenly and unexpectedly defies that coding, making it difficult to follow exactly what the animation is doing because we have no reference for that motion. Unlike humans, who have a definite front and a back, and quadrupeds, which have a definite top and a bottom, E.M.M.I.s are symmetrical. If you were to T-pose an E.M.M.I. and have it look straight up, it would be impossible to determine which side is its front or back because they are identical, both its body and its limbs. At 26:54, the E.M.M.I. keeps its body in the same orientation, but inverts only its limbs. At 26:56, the E.M.M.I. keeps its limbs in the same orientation, but inverts only its body. Our experience with quadrupeds tells us that if something inverts itself like that, we would end up with an obviously inverted quadruped, but the E.M.M.I. still looks exactly the same, and our confusion makes the action out to be more complex than it actually is.

I love the ankle armor on her boots and I think it's part of how they made her feel more "bottom heavy" as you put it. It's an aesthetic I really like in Transformers and it helps to make a character look large and solid. For Samus it's a great balance to the big shoulders on her armor

I can't believe when talking about Raven Beak you didn't mention the anime gut punch when you fail a counter. So cool. Also every attack he throws at you in phase one appears in his introductory cutscene.

A small little animation I love is during the Raven Beak fight, when he does his 3 hit combo. After the 3rd strike, his claw hand hits the ground, and he violently drags it across the surface, with his body arching to pull it back, and his entire arm is shaking as it pulls back, showing just how much force he is using to pull his arm across the ground and how much resistance there is. It's subtle, but I love it.

Personally I'm thankful they had the restraint to not bring Ridley or Metroids back on this one. Ridley is SUPER gone at this point (His remains were absorbed by the X, and that X was then absorbed by Samus, so there should really be absolutely nothing left of him) and as of the end of Fusion, Samus herself is the last Metroid due to the effects of the gene therapy she got to save her from the X. In terms of favourite animations, there are a lot ot chose from, but I kind of like the end of the Raven Break fight where Samus is absolutely done with his bullshit and just goes all out with unbridled rage. 'The Last Metroid is choking a bitch.'

My favorite cutscenes are the pre and post Kraid ones, because they have the most attitude out of all of them. Like you mentioned, she goes from alert to casual as soon as she sees Kraid like "Oh. It's just *you*" Then in the post fight cutscene she doesn't even acknowledge his last ditch effort to kill her with a spike. She just casually sidesteps, not even looking at it.

The way they designed Kraid in this game is straight up eye candy. In older models he was a massive orb with a head on the top. In this game Kraid has a significant S shape to emphasize his beastly silhouette, leading up to a hunched neck occupied with a throat pouch to support the idea of this swollen, gargantuan creature. And the cherry on top is the elaborate yet grizzly structure of his jaws with how gnarled and somewhat canine in appearance it was designed. And of course to contrast all of these features are the deceptively frail looking T Rex arms he holds up in a fidgety manner, as though he is about to pluck his next snack.

I like when Samus squats next to a core to absorb its energy. Something like squatting or kneeling is very easy to make look standard, but Samus does it in a way that emphasizes her fitness and flexibility, even outside of her toolset.

Samus's first reaction to Quiet Robe is my favorite moment in the game. Such incredible and stylish subtlety to her animation. Thanks for the great video.

In Dread, I noitced Samus's animations are a bit more aggressive. Be it the counters or in-game scenes. Shes not messing around, esepcailly when starting to learn how to use her new SUCC power. Tho thinking now, it makes sense why shes acting more aggressive. Given the reveal at the end of the game.

I love how naturally feminine Samus looks nowadays. The suit fits to her body to facilitate movement and doesn't try to add any unnecessary masculine body shapes. (Or any superfluous traditionally feminine bullshit like her suit having knee high boots or a pencil thin waist compared to the rest of it.) She is a woman who is also a badass calculating bounty hunter who has committed genocide twice. She doesn't need to be any less of woman to do or be anything she is or does in these games or their story and they don't need to add excessively "feminine" so you can tell she is one. EDT: yes i know they keep the knee high boots in the dread design but they're inclusion is so much more understated and serves as a nice homage to her older designs. also its clear she just likes boots and good for her.

One cool thing about the chozo soldiers, how it switches holding the pole on different arms. It literally hands it to the other hands behind it’s back. Nice little cool touch

Hey, I don’t know if you read your comments to older videos, so I’ll put it here instead: Your video about why old games still look great, where you go in depth about the importance keyframes, That video helped me find my passion for animation. Because of your little passion project (at the time likely) you’ve opened my mind to a whole new world of art that I knew little about before hand, and have inspired me to pursue a career that I will love. After that video, I started looking at techniques like smear frames, started little projects of my own, and absolutely fell in love with the medium. I owe it in large part to you. Thank you. This is one subscriber that will check in regularly.

Don't forget how Samus will always attempt to counter the Emmy even if you press the button at the wrong time. Those animations really brought her to life.

I think it’s really worth noting how they designed her suit overall this time to accommodate for her movements and how this affects her animations. For instance it’s long been known that Samus’ actual physique doesn’t matchup with her power suit’s proportions. This has always affected her animation cycles. The big shoulders and unnaturally angular form of her hip armor used to mean that her arms and hips were further away from her center of mass, leading to unnatural and stiff running animations that always felt off. Dread fixes this by changing the layout of her armor. The center of mass of her shoulder armor is no longer connected to her actual joints, allowing them to bring her physical shoulders closer in to her torso and make a more agile and compact run cycle even with those huge pads. Likewise, her waist, hips and thighs being bulked up gives her a lower center of mass alongside making her hips pivot more like actual human hips instead of some weird robotic rotation, which helps stabilize her body language. But this means her hips are actually narrower than they were in the traditional Power Suit, so when it comes to the Gravity Suit, they added armor plates that flare away from the hips, recreating the iconic proportions without interrupting her mobility. Another thing to note is how her foot armor is actually elevated at the heels to make up for the height difference she has in and out of the suit this time around. This has the added effect of keeping her on her toes, hence the extra bounce and the front leaning sprint. At the same time, it looks like they wanted to hide the fact that she’s on heels, so the shin guards at the front of her ankles help to achieve this the by masking the angle of her feet’s arches and tricking you into thinking her heels and soles are closer to the ground from where they actually are. But what I find interesting is how said shin guards aren’t actually connected to her forelegs. The joints are only really connected to her ankles, allowing them to pivot forward and partially break away to give her a greater range of movement. I think that’s why it sometimes looks like they flop around or seem to break in certain scenes. It’s the same as the shoulder armor in that they’re not actually connected to her physical joints. When they break away, I think they’re not actually an instance of the models and their animations themselves breaking, but rather the parts moving to accommodate the current forces applied to them by the stance Samus takes. That’s not to say that the modeling and animation is perfect. For instance the head of the suit is a bit too small in comparison to her body proportions, even with the heels and such taken into account. But it’s pretty damn good. TL;DR They basically took the design philosophy of modern Japanese Tokusatsu suits from things like Kamen Rider and applied them to Samus’ design.

The highly intellectual discourse between yourself and your well-qualified daughter at the end was quite an enlightening back and forth that absolutely put a smile on my face. I'll have you know, Metroid Dress is also MY favorite Samo!

Today I learned that you can jump over the experiment's head to dodge the laser attack. I always assumed that you had to wait for the break in the laser and pass through underneath. Love the actual analysis btw, that IS what I came here for. All of the little details in Samus' animation really help me believe that there's a real person in the suit.

*GODNESS GRACIOUS* when you said that you would be analyzing Metroid Dread's animation I didn't think you would make a *40 MINUTE VIDEO* , that must have taken you so long to edit! Like seriously, instant like, and if I could give this video multiple likes I would, amazing work! Keep up the good content! :)

So excited for your daughter to make an entire game about designing new suits for Samus and call it "Metroid Dress."

One thing I'd love to have seen in the "Cinematics" Segment is Samus behaviour when the Experiment Boss turns into the X-Form and then falls into the Lava. Holding on with one hand and the arm cannon focused on the Parasite, just to make sure that there's no unwanted surprise. And with the clipping, the suit design helps immensely with avoiding it. The neck region armor is very wide so no accidental clipping there - and then the shoulders? Well, the pauldrons cover a lot, much easier to hide any accident or mess that way. Not sure if that was intended or accidental but it probably helps a lot from my point of view (as a consumer, never did more than giving a mesh some bones in blender years ago)

I'm glad you took a little extra time to discuss the moment Samus meets Quiet Robe. That's probably some of my favorite characterization in the game! The way that she immediately shifts into a relaxed position instead of cautiously and slowly lowering her guard just oozes that laidback brand of confidence that I love.

Just got at the part where you talk about the climbing and I wanted to say: as someone that has done a lot of free climbing, the turning maneuver where she pulls and (JUST BARELY!!!) swings herself up by one arm without any leg push is really cool and really sexy 😳 I know, powersuit, but the sheer pulling power and core stability is insane she must be so ripped oml

Fantastic video. I love all the extra steps you took to make sure the viewer understands what you're talking about, like blocking out (is that what you call it?) appendages or showing directions with arrows etc. I really appreciate it. I was wondering why this was taking so long until I realized that the video is actually like 40 minutes instead of 15, I don't even wanna imagine all the planning and editing this must've taken. And yeah, I agree. This is the best Samus has ever been portayed and I think the animations are such a huge part of while the game looks and feels amazing to play. I think Samus floating for a second while getting a new suit is my favorite animation. I also really like the sliding and the various elevator animations. Overall, Metroid Dress has some of the best animations in recent years. I stopped and looked and thought about them all the time while playing, which is something I don't do particularly often as I'm not an animator. I really hope Mercurysteam is the studio that continues working on the Metroid games from now on. They've already done a great job with Samus Returns and this is where they've really shown their true potential. Their games have their own identity, despite fitting neatly into the series and I don't think that was an easy thing to achieve. I really hope they focus on new upgrades and stuff instead of using so many of the older ones. It's just a bit disappointing when you see all those things and know exactly what item you'll get to continue there and I think the new power ups are great, especially the flash shift and storm missiles. I sadly doubt it'll happen but I really hope they patch the game so the credits include everyone who worked on the game. It's a bit disappointing that the things the game achieved are a bit overshadowed by the controversy and leave a negative aftertaste. I also just think it's common decency to include everyone who worked on it. Anyway, I really loved this video and I'm looking forward to whatever you make next. The 2D animated Mega Man remake you work on looks fantastic, by the way. I can't wait to see how it'll turn out.

12:20 I like how the fire trail from the shinespark actually starts to appear ahead of Samus before we even see her take off, and then her model "catches up" to the trail. It gives the impression that she's moving faster than the naked eye can see.

On Samus eyes, I really like how they incorporated her visor into her expressions, like sometimes its transparent so you can see her eyes, but sometimes it's opaque and we can't tell what she's thinking at all. The most noticeable moment when this happens for me is during the meeting with Quiet robe when she tells him she's going to bring Raven beak to an end and then again after he's killed. It's like showing that she's nonpulsed or determined. Or like a resting neutral expression maybe? One I don't like is how similar the Robot Chozo Soldiers' blue swipe and red spark slice attack animations are. It's not really a crime against how they look, and I know that the animations are different, but the way that the miniboss winds up for them is similar enough that it can be really hard to tell the two apart which can lead to some hesitation over whether the player should dodge or counter which in turn often leads to either getting hit, or missing an opportunity. Edit: I also really like how the armor on her feet was designed. It looks a little out of place when you first see it on her basic suit, but I really like how it articulates on the joint between her feet and legs. O-oh, and the video was really good too! Thanks for all your effort!

The emmis alone are enough to prove to me that the artists knew what they were doing, this game really makes samus returns look primitive in compairason, not that I really hate how that game looks

I really liked Raven Beak’s slam down attack that made him look like Ridley. Good bit of character design. I also enjoyed pressing the elevator/tram plates down with one foot and seeing they animated it separately only shifting one leg and not moving the whole model.

Samus actually genuinely feels like a hyperathletic woman in a suit made just for her. The animations feel femenine despite there being a whole ton of armor between Samus and the camera. Heck the devs even managed to give an effect kind of like a high heel to the boots without actually making them heels.

Nice animation analysis. Can't wait on the "How Metroid Dread creates dread". Also Phantom cloakagator 🤣

Yaaay! Animated Dan is back!

Yknow, the demo had me worried I was going to beat the game too quickly, but this video helped me appreciate just *how* cool the content packed into it really is. Might pick it up after all, cheers :)

Been looking forward to this! Had to rewatch the “animation of Samus” video the other day in anticipation. Let’s goooo

A lot of people questioned the pricing for Metroid Dread, but I say the level of detail, polish, high production values and performance (all things kinda absent in _a lot_ of Nintendo-published games *but that people don't even question the $60 price as much)* totally justify it. P.S.: Nice new version of the animated Dan 🤩

finally when the world need him the most he returned. welcome back buddy

One thing I love in both of this and samus returns is how the cutscenes portray samus, especially compared to the similarly combat focused other M. They both turn her into a complete and utter badass and both also show how she’s feeling. For example, in the cutscene before fighting kraid(this was somehow autocorrected to Lewis on my phone) samus has her arm cannon raised up ready to fight, up until she sees kraid when she then eases her cannon as if to say “you don’t scare me, just get out of my way”. In a similar manner, during the samus returns fight against Ridley, they both instantly see each other and instantly start fighting and conbining that with the lack of dialogue and brutal cutscene animations where she and Ridley brutally attack each other, you can tell just how much they hate each other. There’s no need for dialogue on either end, the animations convey just how much they despise each other

Just finished watching and good lord, there's a lot of little animation details I picked up on my first playthrough but you just unpacked a whole lot more! Amazing video, Dan! I still have high hopes for Metroid Dread winning GOTY. For my beloved franchise since childhood, 19 years was worth the wait. P.S. That little section with your daughter at the end was wholesome.

Great video Dan!

I still love Samus's reaction to Kraig, it got me laughing when I saw how she was like "Welp. Here we go again."

35:26 It took me a moment, but I think I know exactly what's missing here. With the ship is flying toward the screen, just as it's about to pass, it freeze-frames and shifts to black and white with the "Mission accomplished" text, like it does in Super and Zero Mission.

Fun fact: when Samus goes into the idle pose, there is an animation for her returning to her aiming pose. You can see this by going into a safe room and waiting for about 30 seconds. When the hud goes away and she goes idle, hold down the missile button to see her ready up again without the running animation overriding it.

i absolutely love how animations in dread potrayed samus' personality, where otherwise she would seem like a really stiff and boring character, thanks to her movements in the cutscenes alone she was given this certain calm but elert feeling, along with her absolute badassery that really makes you feel like shes the space hero that she is said to be

I'm only 6 minutes in and already my love for Dread has deepened. And this already is my favorite game of all time.

The Shinespark is my favorite animation, but I think some amount of that also comes with the sound design for it. The whirring sound during the windup is immensely satisfying in a way that is difficult to describe.

When playing through Metroid Dread, I did noticed a lot of animation details for the game on how they smoothly transitions some of the animations. In fact, I didn't know that Samus's hand would adjust accordingly if she has the morph ball when touching crevasses (I knew she would touch the crevasse normally, but never knew it changes if you get the morph ball). It is unfortunate that Mercury Steam have poor work culture, especially saying a lot since this game was in developmental hell before Mercury Steam was involved. But in the end, they still did a great job, and work culture aside, it was worth it. I even tried to learn speed running this game even though it's my first time completing a Metroid game (I've played previous Metroid games like Fusion, Zero Mission, and Super Metroid, just never finished them). Also, I love the ending, just hearing you talk to your four year old reminds me of talking to my niece whenever I tell her what she likes about my character design.

The chapter title cards in this video are super aesthetically pleasing. Also at 30:40 I love how the lighting and shadows look when Samus jogs up those stairs, a really satisfying detail in an already beautiful game.

This ending was so cute and the video was also good like everytime :D

23:50 I love the creatures in the background of Burenia, like the ones that try to break the glass.

Omg I'm so glad to see a new Metroid video from you, I'm so happy!

A very minor one, but the way raven beaks talons curl up when he walks, alluding to his bird-like biology.

One little detail I just found yesterday: If you perform a counterattack from the Morph Ball, Samus will do a powerful upward kick instead of swinging with her arm cannon; she uses the de-morphing spin for centrifugal force and turns it into a strike with the strongest possible body part. It's one of my favorite details. Same thing happens if you counter while sliding; Samus springboards up off the ground with a powerful kick, and then uses the momentum of it to land in her shooting stance. Really cool stuff.

It's so easy for Metroid fans to dismiss Other M, but it's so clear how revolutionary that game was to the series in terms of Samus' design and animations. You can clearly see there are so many references in Dread.

One thing someone may not know, is that in the opening cutscene with ravenbeak, he does a series of attacks you WILL see in the boss fight, and how Samus dodges them DOES work in the boss fight. I love little things like that.

Ooh, this is a wonderful way to start off another Monday! 😍

I love how samus' head is the only part of her body that is kept steady when firing, even when rapid firing or with the huge omega shotm, so she wouldn't loose her aim at any time.

I notice the transition to morph ball could use another frame or 2, but otherwise, this is some of the best animations I've ever seen.

Samus has always been my favorite game character. As soon as I saw the animations from Metroid Dread, I was stunned. Finally they've depicted Samus correctly!!! As soon as I saw this video, I had to watch it, thank you!!!

I found the way they made models "out of focus" by blurring their edges (easy to notice in the Corpius kill cutscene). I haven't noticed many other games using it

Wow, your quality of presentation is turbocharged. Yes! I was really hoping you'd mention the moment at 30:11! Such a small thing, but it stood out to me so much. That moment of tension relief was so smooth, I love it!

Have been waiting for your analysis on this. 👌👌👌 This game was such a delight to play through because of its fluent animations.

That was a superb video! You went over everything I enjoyed animation-wise in the video. My favorite is has to be the Shinespark, I waited so long to see it come back and they did it justice!

I’d love to see her dread iteration incorporated into smash. Have phase shift as her air dodge. Swap her tilts or parry animation with melee counter. Change her charge shot to the omega cannon. Etc.

Now that I've finally finished Dread, I can finally appreciate this big video you've dropped out of nowhere. Because Samus is mostly a silent protagonist, I usually focus way more on her movements, especially in cutscenes. And the animation absolutely lived up to my expectations. On the game feel side of things, the animation never felt like a hinderance to the snappy movement, and everything flowed so well. Basically, I agree with everything you said except for the cut frame rate stuff. When the game cuts the frame rate for a quick cutscene, it's very obvious and it looked kinda odd to me. I understand why you still appreciate it, with the idea that it feels handcrafted, but it felt like it was more for resource management, which it probably was since the game can drop a few frames even in gameplay. But either way, it's nothing more than a nitpick to me, since everything else is just so good.

What I really love about how Samus is characterized is that she doesn’t just come off as a “badass” she comes off as lethally efficient. She doesn’t move in a way that conveys effortlessness, every movement feels calculated to get her body into the best position as quickly as possible. But after she knows she’s already won, she visibly relaxes and takes a second to enjoy the final kill. It’s incredible how well her body language conveys her character.

I'm so glad to see you covered this. My favorite video on youtube was your Metroid Fusion "Fear" video, I didn't realize how much I wanted to see you discuss the sequel.

I had just found your channel yesterday, watched your video on Samus' animations as I just played Dread for the first time over the weekend, loved it and wondered if youd release an update. I came at just the right time!

Fantastic video! One thing I really love is how well it all translates between handheld and docked modes. The poses and animations really help you to never lose track of things even when the game is on a small screen, and putting it on a larger screen only makes the details look better

Dude I noticed the little details like for example the repositioning when shooting a rocket or the little parkour elements really shows you that they CARE for the series love stuff like that man

Great video as Always dude!

I know Samus Returns was a bit divisive (although part of it was thanks to Nintendo's aggressive legal actions, not just because of Mercury Steam themselves), but I hope they've proven their passion for the Metroid series to everyone with this game. I'm certainly convinced they have what it takes now. Although yeah, they could definitely improve in the overall corporate morals department. But I don't want that to detract from what every individual dev did either. Most of those devs most likely have no say in corporate decisions and their work shouldn't be undermined just because their bosses are possibly being jerkasses. Man I love Metroid Dread... easily in my (personal) Top 3 Metroid games. And this video made me love it even more.

I'm always impressed by how clearly you manage to convey your thougts about all these aspects of a game's animations without needing to be wordy or redundant. Great scripting and editing!

Awesome!!! Really excited for this!!!

My oh my your videos keep on getting better and the editing must have been hard as hell!Outstanding work and keep it up!!!

Haha, I love how crusty Samus Returns footage looks when upscaled. I always love seeing your animated avatar too, so bubbly and fun. I think Dread is a fantastic game, absolutely jawdropping amounts of attention to detail and Samus' character is again well reflected by the way she's animated, even with (almost) no voice lines. I think my favourite bit of knowledge is that each cutscene is rendered in-game rather than seperately. Shesez Boundary Break episode on the game helped me get a good grasp of just what Dread's cutscenes looked like at a different angle, and in general how they were handled. It's really cool stuff, especially how they worked with the foreground and background in tandem. I think my favourite area was the entrance to Burenia just off the shuttle, absolutely beautiful detail with the water and rain, and the camera panned out to show how impressive it was was the icing on the cake. I'm no animator or artist, but I love every Metroid game for its animation and art, and Dread is no exception. Great video as always Dan, hope you're having a great day.

I love your videos, I always feel as though I've learned something when I watch them

What a great video. I just found this channel and I am looking forward to binge-watching all of your videos. This is so fascinating. Great analysis of a great game.

Another superb video. Your channel has quickly become one of my favorite treats to have pop up on my subscription feed. I love videos that give me a deeper appreciation for something that I already love and this video does precisely that.

When I played the game, one of the first things that struck me was the responsiveness of the game, and as I played it I realized how much the animation of this game was excellent... And this excellent video analysis proves that this game is an animation nugget.

Hello! Honestly, your videos are so good and pleasant to watch. It's so well structured and your manner of speaking is agreeable too, it render a relaxing atmosphere and the editing is really well done. About the video it self I really enjoyed it it was great! I'm happy you mentioned the more effeminated movement on which I was a bit sad you didn't talked about it in your previous video about Samus😂. Anyway I think that new suit design play a big part in that "effemination" of Samus. The animations in Dread are a big good point because they are perfectly corresponding with that action gameplay. btw my favorite animation is the running animation with his speed booster equivalent :)

Always loved your work, thank you. 🤗

Another amazing video breaking down animation used in Metroid. I love your videos! I can't wait to play the games you and your friends are working on.

I am extremely impressed by the animations, so many Animation Rigging, smooth transitioning and IK manipulations used it makes quite satisfying

Favorite animation? Probably when you stop the speed boost. The way she slides forwards a bit and you see this snap effect forward from the energy that was surrounding her a moment ago.

Dude I've been watching your channel for years, and seeing the upgrade in quality astonishes me! Love this!

This is a wonderful video! I absolutely love the little details like Samus placing her hand on the top or bottom of a ledge, it’s perfect. This was 40 mins of excellence, thanks for the analysis Dan.

My body is ready.

Great video, I agree with almost every single thought. I stared at all the animations for hours. It makes Samus Returns, a game I really liked, look like a simple prototype/proof. I was very glad they gave any effects at all to the wall jumping and space jumping. Both look very strange in SR since there’s zero work to make them look better. I was very surprised that there is no flash of energy when Samus morphs, maybe it was too distracting or unnecessary. I always knew making Samus somersaulting in 3D could never look as good as it does in the more abstracted 2D titles but I really like what they did here and the Screw Attack looks perfect. I thought you might’ve mentioned more about how Dread works with its more realistic 3D presentation to sometimes emulate the abstract 2D presentation. Like why Kraid is chained up. In Super/ZM you just accept that Kraid as big as he is just stands there and lets you bully him. In Dread it would be very, very hard to believe Kraid wouldn’t just throw himself at Samus, they work around it by having him literally chained to the spot. Glad there’s no Ridley, it’s kind of embarrassing that people missed him so much, worried he’ll show up in future 2D titles. Could talk about and point out things in this game for hours and hours, the fact that you squeezed so much concise information in such a short video is credit to yer work. Love this

Bro this is an amazingly well-done video! You have an incredible eye for detail for the littlest nuances, and you really brought a lot of cool stuff to the surface for me. I just (finally) beat Raven Beak last night (albeit with the help of the Dread amiibos I got as a Christmas gift) so now I can watch all the videos about Dread without spoilers, and yours has been the best so far. I knew that this game had life to it, but you brought it alive even more. Much thanks for a well-narrated, well-edited, awesome video!

Binging your videos after i saw you add animations to them! Very cool indeed, i really like the way you go through and explain the game's design, the parts that teach you, how they compare to other members of the same series, etc.... and family always comes first mate! Ik im late to the party but still wanna throw that in there, no need for sorries when it comes to putting family first! Keep up the great work m8!

First time viewer here. Absolutely amazing video! I love how you broke down the different animations, from Samus to the bosses to the average enemies, etc. I agree with you that Samus moves and feels more fluid than ever before. New abilities like dash and double jump helped a lot in this aspect. My favorite animation is probably the grapple beam: I already liked it during Samus Returns, but it's so fun to fly thru the air and water with the grapple beam. I also love how Samus turns around when pulling grapple blocks, like you can feel the full weight of her movements. It's a great detail that adds to the overall impact of making the player feel like they're part of this world. My only critique is that you didn't talk about the cutscenes of Samus Returns, which added the "real time quick events" aspect already. Samus could counter Metroid and bosses for a quick time event, interactive cutscene. You could fire beams or missiles in these events, as controlled by the player. I also think that Samus Returns captured her personality and attitude well, from her badass moments to her softer, tender interaction with the baby Metroid. Mercury Steam really set the tone in Samus Returns and then built upon it further in Dread. You compared the animations to Samus Returns, so I was surprised that you didn't talk about the Samus Returns interactive cutscene aspects too. But that's my only critique here.

When I was playing through Metroid Dread I was impressed by Samus's fluid movement, it showed that she was at the top of her game and not one to take lightly as an enemy. What Mercury Steam put together was solid package, sadly marred by the working environment of said studio though (uncredited workers being one of many issues).

Great video as always. Your attention to details is so refreshing!