AM2R Random 1.5.1 Hard Run

The ADVENT Stun Lancer analysis post is taking long enough to iron out that I'm putting it off until next week. Have an update I'd originally intended to be a bonus Friday update, unrelated to x\XCOM 2.

Alternatively: the run that would've gone much smoother if I'd been a little more daring in the early game, OR the all-out offense run.

1.5.1 is primarily a visual update, updating some enemy graphics and incorporating widescreen support. It does make some actual mechanic changes, such as tweaking the modified Serris fight to be slightly less boring and bad. It's... still a bad, boring fight, and the electrical stuff added in isn't at all intuitive -you'd have to read the readme to have any idea the electrical things are meant to be something of a counter to Serris using its Speed Boosting behavior- but at least they're trying.

The addition of widescreen support necessitated new graphical stuff to various old rooms, as any one-screen-wide room was of course too small for widescreen. Wider rooms are generally unaffected. This is why I kept popping into small rooms without necessarily doing anything in them; to show off what they look like now.

Unfortunately, 1.5.1 has made the lag on Fusion mode worse than ever, hence why this run is on Hard mode instead of Fusion mode. Oddly, the Metroid Queen fight is arguably less laggy, in that it's actually much more laggy initially, but each stage you advance through sharply drops the lag. I'm not sure what to make of that.

I considered not doing a recorded run at all, honestly, but wanted to cover Serris just in case they modified it again.

Oddly, though I didn't notice any documentation to this effect, Alpha Metroids have clearly had their behavior or physics modified. I haven't played enough to have a good handle on their new behavior and so couldn't say whether they're more or less threatening than in prior versions, but that's a big part of why I took as many hits as I did from Alpha Metroids throughout this run.

Also odd is the larval Metroid rush at the end there. I'm not entirely sure what's going on there, as the way I updated to 1.5.1 inherited my prior saves/settings and so possibly this is some strangeness resulting from that, but 1.5.1 seems to have removed the menu option to have lots of Metroids in the Genetics Lab and yet I fought a whole lot of them anyway. More than in the prior version, I'm pretty sure. I think this means they've made that horde of Metroids standard on the higher difficulties, but I'm not entirely sure. That'd be a bit surprising, if so.

I do hope they modify the Power Bomb detonation effects at some point. I like it overall, but it's pretty unpleasant when doing random runs where you're depending on them pretty heavily for a while, and these recorded runs have made me particularly aware of how the Power Bomb obscures the screen pretty thoroughly for quite a while.

The run itself was amusing to me personally, with heavy firepower from very early on but more of a struggle to get defenses, most of the major mobility tools placed no later than the Hydro Station, the Gravity Suit in the right general area but not its proper location... and multiple cases where if I'd been a bit more daring the overall run would've ended up a lot smoother, such as a Power Bomb tank in Hydro Station I didn't collect right away because I wasn't sure I wouldn't end up trapped by going into the room. Less comedic but still amusing was the Bombs in Hydro Station, which I absolutely could have gotten on my first trip, but I didn't think to check. (Admittedly in part because I do try to avoid too much slow, boring action on the screen)

On a different note, this is in a number of ways one of my smoother recorded runs, with me pulling off several tricks I've historically had trouble with on the first attempt and a number of moments where I suddenly realized I could be just a little bit more efficient/faster with a slightly different decision. (Helping is that in a non-recorded run I finally discovered that AM2R does support diagonal Shinesparks, which I'd never thought to test before, and which is useful to know in a few specific places) Mind, I also have a fair amount of indecisiveness in the second video, and have a decent amount of derpy moments, but a lot fewer than I was expecting -the day I recorded this I was pretty under the weather, and was really going in expecting to, for one thing, die a lot at some point. Indeed, I was planning on, if Serris didn't have anything important behind it, just moving on if it killed me, and was quite surprised when I beat it in one try.

As with the prior version, I'm probably not going to do another recorded random run -nor an one I don't record, for that matter- until the next reasonably significant version gets released.

Comments

  1. Replies
    1. It's going to be the second-to-last regular enemy post, more or less. So a bit more than 15 posts away, if I'm calculating right.

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  2. Can’t say much about this. I like Metroid, but I’ve never played AM2R.

    I hope September is treating you better!

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    1. A little bit better so far, yes. We'll see for the rest of the month.

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