Metroid Dread

Dread Day 1
-this map fill-in is triggering me
-Movement is really fast and fun
-I'm bad at controls
-Why is the omega cannon Y to fire instead of release R?
-Getting blocked when I want to backtrack and explore previously visited rooms in Artaria is annoying (right after beating the first emmi too)
-I'm bad very at timing :bepDead:
-Ok maybe I'm getting better at controls, big boss dead
-Etank part! Noooooooo!!
-These environments are really cool looking
-Why not Spazer?
-I'm liking the Wide
-Yellow guy is faster :bepS:
-I keep finding secrets that I'm still locked out of :bepRee:
-Oh got my first (lucky?) timing on the green guy
-These eye thing fights are kinda weird
-Green guy first try ezpz
-Woooo Morph Ball
-Woooo Varia
-Heck yes I am lava diving for these 10 missiles
-Ok that Kraid fight was sooo much fun. And the cutscenes omg so good. Loved every bit of it.  My only wish is that it was longer.
-Bombs, water area, this game just keeps things moving.
~3 hours total

The story so far
-Looks great, feels great, died a fair bit, probably need to use the physical attack more.  Some things I got the timing down and it feels great to pull off, especially if I miss I'm dead.  Other enemies I can't ever seem to get the timing (always birds :bepRee:).
-I like the mix of the classic metroid stuff with the new.
-The EMMI stuff I didn't like at first, but now that I know how to get through stuff it seems fairly easy and kinda fun. I was worried there would be too much of it, but its nice knowing you clear them out and open(?) up the area.
-One thing though is that there is no real backtracking to pickup items, at least not yet? There is some backtracking, but it's been designed in so far. You get to see items and then get locked out of access after you get the item to unlock getting it.

Dread Day 2
-Still annoyed by being blocked from backtracking.  Would have rather done that than this water area.
-Hah, just parried the yellow guy 3 times in a row. For some reason he seemed easier.
-Finally, I can go fast.
-Oh nice, shinespark.  Kinda weird doing it with the analog. Not sure about the L3 button to activate either, but guess its not too bad.
-and finally some real exploring
-I think you should be able to go through these stealth doors with speed booster.
-Grapple. So far I like the feel of it. There are so many buttons to remember now though.
-Keep forgetting I have this A dash thing. I really should be mashing it to fly through rooms.
-More collecting, must get all the things.
-I like how there are shortcuts opened.
-Found Orange teleportal to a new place.
-Pulse Radar, huh. Seems like an optional thing, but nice for finding. Guess this is this game's x-ray. Cool to find it, only now I've done most of the exploring and collecting that I wanted.  Will use it the next time through.
-105 missiles, 5.75 etanks, time to go where they were obviously pointing. Was nice to collect some stuff finally.
-Whoa, cutscenes. Interesting. I'm happy its not in english and is subtitled, keeps the feel of the game better.  Also they have been doing a great job with Samus' body language on cutscenes.
-Boss killed me a few times, but not too bad. Round and round we went. Only got the parry like once.

Dread Day 3
-Either I am really bad or going between grapple ceiling blocks is impossible.
-Interesting puzzly boss.
-Super missiles are nice
-X is back huh, I never liked their random movement as you try to collect them.
-Plasmaaaa
-I like the atmosphere of this area
-That was a fun mini-boss fight. I'm sure the timed hits to finish got everyone the first time.
-Why does the game let me get upgrades for things I don't have yet?
-Nice one Samus, released the X.  Guess we'll have to blow up the planet... again.
-Why did Adam blame the bad guy? Samus released the X?
-This room with the disappearing platforms is the worst room in the game.
-ehhhh I guess double jump is ok, but it feels like such an incremental powerup at this point. Would have been better earlier.
-Super missiles sure didnt last long.
-Ah now you are intended to get the xray, guess I didn't get it that much earlier.
-Just now figured out how to do shinespark in ball form, and I am still blocked from getting these missiles.

So far thoughts:
Still love the movement.  Bosses and minibosses have been fun for the most part.  Trying to remember all these button combos has gotten me damaged and killed multiple times.  Some of the upgrades seem like they should have been in a different order.  This double jump thing and supers most notably. Not sure how I feel about X returning yet. After figuring out shine spark ball, I wonder if there are some other things I didn't realize and have missed upgrades because of.

Dread Day 4
-Purple EMMI
-Storm missile, now these doorway things make sense
-The game spoils bosses with the black screen loads
-Oh Space Jump, that was unexpected.  Especially so soon after the double jump.
-Game has gone back to being pretty linear, but tried to disguise it.
-Just noticed that there is no EMMI in this water place.
-So many etanks now 999
-Gravity suit, finally the slow walking is ovah
-Seems kinda weird ice missiles work well on these ice enemies.
-Holy shit this boss fight. This is no kids game. Kept throwing new stuff at you forcing to use everything to get through it. Was intense, but fun.
-Screw attack
-Doing a bit of exploring, screw attack is pretty nice for getting around easy.

Dread Day 5
-No clue why I had so much trouble with this 3 stage transform thing. Feels like I was missing some key thing.
-Cross... bomb? Not something I was expecting, but now some of these missing missiles make sense now.
~Wavey Beam~
-Kinda glad the last EMMI was nothing, they weren't really adding much anymore.
-Power bombs. I guess it makes a little more sense now that I picked up extras of these along the way, with so few.
-There are way too many of these chozo boss fights, and they don't change all that much either.
-Finally all the upgrades? I think?
-Time to hundo
-Really glad they connected all these travel gates for this.
-Man some of these shinespark ones are not easy to get, especially handheld


Dread Day 6
-Finally got the last few.  I had no clue about this slope shinespark thing and apparently I was supposed to know from previous games that I hadn't played?  They should have at least said it was a thing, like the ballspark in the loading screens.
-I wouldn't say its the best story, but explains alot of things I guess. Satisfying enough.  Actual story was never Metroid's strong point anyway.
-Man this final boss fight.  Just like the main issue with other metroid games, I don't know whats the best way to damage him.  Using mostly lock on missiles, but beam seems to be better during the quicktime cutscenes?
-Well guessing this is the usual experience with this boss, probably an hour of deaths.  Finally decent at the first 2 phases though.
-Ok well that just became easy once I figured out you can poper bomb the sun thing. GG
-Died to this cutscene thing, of course.
-Fun escape sequence, 37 seconds left.
-I wondered what happened to that guy, guess the earlier stuff was a setup for the ending here.
12:22 finish time
-Gallery is pretty cool, I kinda want the rest of these pictures.
-Maybe I'll poke at Hard Mode a bit, but not sure if I will continue or not.

Dread Thoughts
Gameplay
Was extremely fun running around the map, probably this game's biggest strength. Especially once you get more movement options. There were so many buttons to try to remember though. I took damage/died multiple times because I would press the wrong thing. Even up to the final boss I was still doing it.
Boss fights were for the most part pretty fun, Z-57 and Kraid were my favorites.  However (for good or bad) they were extremely 'memorize the patterns' bosses, so almost every time it was: die until you see all the paterns, and then beat the boss with close to full health.

Game Structure
This is the game's weakest part.  My biggest complaint was how it constantly blocked me off from backtracking.  One of the best things about a metroidvania is getting a new upgrade and going back to earlier areas to get those items that you couldn't get before.  I think it was about half the game before it would let me fully backtrack to the earlier areas to get items, which really bothered me.
Also, there were a bunch of upgrades in the game, which can be fun to get, but the timing of some of them made them seem like filler instead of a significant upgrade.  Most notably was that double jump came right before space jump, making me ask why didn't I get double jump way earlier, or maybe just remove it altogether. I felt the same about super/ice missiles.

Story
Typically there isn't a whole lot of story in Metroid games, and with the ones that do have more it tends to be not so great? As odd as some of it was, I think this one did pretty well with story and cutscenes, keeping them to a minimum but pushing things along.

Music
Was fine I guess? Nothing stood out to me much tbh, which is kind of disappointing for a Metroid game.  Wasn't a fan of some of the boss music, maybe because I heard it so much.

Final Thought
Despite my complaints about the game, I kept playing because it was just fun to play. Will probably play it again.