How does the animation in Metroid Dread compare to previous entries?
Let's take a deep dive!
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Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
01:38 Samus
13:26 Enemies
14:28 Bosses
20:00 Effects
24:47 EMMIs
27:39 Cinematics
34:28 Stray Thoughts
#MetroidDread
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.
Hey, that's great to hear, I'm really pleased I was part in helping ignite your passion! I hope it goes well! (and I check all comments that appear on any video 😎)
Anyone notice how Super Metroid hasn't a remake yet ? I'd LOVE to see that done with the same engine as Dread :D
eye, hullo fellow animator.
100% agreed, I LOVE that keyframe video! Right now the main character of my current project jumps with a spin as a partial tribute to that video and the bit about little samson.
@@nunyadambidniss my personal opinion just make it play like dread polish up the graphics don't change much else because Super Metroid is practically perfect if they made it that remake would be my favorite Metroid game beating out dread
No need to apologize for being a family man. Your daughter needs you more than KZhead ever will
Facts. Family > Money
@DDRUTOU I love your comment and agree wholeheartedly.
Writers: Samus has no character in Metroid Dread Animators: Samus has the most character in Metroid Dread
Sums it up
As a writer, I can tell you that body language can be the best method of establishing character. Granted that this is because in written works you HAVE to describe how someone moves since there's no pictures to provide a visual aid, but the reason why this game works as well as it does is because the animators were able to visually describe her character as well as a good author can use words to showcase their protagonist's character.
@@shinigamimiroku3723 I said this in another video and I'll say it here. My favorite example of how well this game is animated is my Sister's reaction to it. For reference, before this game her only experience with metroid or Samus was Smash Bros and Occasionally hearing me or her fiancee nerd out on the series. And just watching her fiancee play the game she immediately understood everything she needed about Samus as a character from her animations during the Phantom boss and Kraid fight. "She has sass, she's experienced, she's awesome, and she is just DONE taking the kind of BS she's been through." She fell in love with this character on animation alone. That is a powerful thing.
Samus is over all these "people" bullshit, and I'm like....same
@@shinigamimiroku3723 The face close ups dont hurt either.
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.
When was it ever established in-universe that bio-computers have less lag? I would assume those would need a brief moment to adjust as well. Just curious about this comparison out of nowhere. If you had just said they need a little bit time to re-assess the situation, I would totally agree (and I do like that part about their movements), but comparing them to the bio-computers feels....?weird?.....I guess. XD
@@Pit1993x I think they meant that bio-computers, as living beings, wouldn't stop completely while calculating the next move, because they still need to breathe, or they have blood or other fluids flowing through them, or they're made of soft cells instead of hard metal... Those things cause a little bit of movement even when staying still. But robots, if they stop, they stop completely.
@@DamonDraven That's a lot of "mays". A robot "may" also have mechanisms that don't make it stop immediately. And a bio computer doesn't necessarily mean that it has muscles or anything externally visible that's biological. It could very well come to a full stop and you wouldn't even realize that there's anything biological going on. The thing is, he claimed it "made sense in-universe", but "in-universe" none of those things were ever explained, so while you can head-canon that of course, it's got nothing to do with what was actually shown "in-universe". That's what I was getting at.
@@Pit1993x I understood perfectly what you meant, and I tried to make explicit what I thought could have been more clear. I have no interest in convincing you about what was said and it wasn't my intent either.
@@DamonDraven Ok, thx for clarifying. Btw, no offense meant and none taken. :)
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.
Yeah that's right! Great detail!
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.
Very smart
So yeah they definitely knew how to make them look unnatural
love this explanation, you hit it right on the nail. the fact that the E.m.m.i move so unpredictably & have many traversal options, speed, tracking etc. you know that if you get caught it's over unless you're lucky, is exactly what creates the "dread", and don't even get me started on the purple E.m.m.i lmao. if you told me a year ago that Nintendo would give me a lingering fear of humanoid robots in a metroid game, i would have laughed in your face.
👁👄👁
Their inversion is also what helps them look so uncanny.
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 :)
Thanks so much!
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy anytime! You and Isaac Arthur are the two KZheadrs that consistently seem to respect that your audience will go along with the journey and take the time to get there, however long it takes lol :)
I too am a fan of the long format (especially since I find it hard to make short gaming videos. Lol)
Didn't even feel like 40 minutes to me. Very entertaining all the way through.
Games like Dread deserve longer videos to truly appreciate the fine details that were added.
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
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.
Totally, even the sitting pose for the second-to-last elevator oozed of confidence. It was so cool.
It reminds me of Donald Draper lmao
It’s crazy how she can look both relaxed and on guard at the same time
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 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
A lot of people have pointed out how Mercury Steam seems to have taken inspiration from Gundam with Samus's design, the key smoking gun being the large square chin piece that several gundam designs have. Transformers itself has borrowed much from the Gundam in general, so that comparison is pretty apt.
Her new boots was the first thing I noticed tbh. 😎
Aww, yeah, true! X3
I think I would appreciate it more if the legs were more beefy overall. As is they look cumbersome.
@@Cri_Jackal Truthfully I dont see the inspiration from Gundam on that.
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.
I like these cutscenes, but I dislike one thing. I’m the post fight cutscene, it kind of makes you feel like it wasn’t you who killed him. Samus took control, and finished him off, and it doesn’t feel like it was you who killed him.
@@BenSchappacher That may partly be intentional, as Kraid has to be absorbed by an X offscreen for that same X to transfigure Raven Beak in final moments of the game.
@@Cri_Jackal Kraid's in the lava, the X just get his thorn he left behind.
@@Drewseph0011 No, he has an infected hole on his belly, he was already infected during the whole fight, his spikes decay rapidly after being fired, you can see that in every game he's in, the X couldn't have absorbed them. As for how he got infected, well, in the timeline, the Mawkin HAD to have had their X outbreak occur BEFORE Metroid 2, and Kraid can't have gone to ZDR until AFTER Super Metroid, and what do you see in one of the new Chozo Memories? Mawkin Soldiers chaining up Kraid. By process of deduction, every chozo in that image HAS to be an X clone, and you see one _falling into the lava_ off to the right, as shown against the Z-57 boss, when an X finds itself rapidly approaching lava, it reverts back to its base form to try and fly away. The Mawkin chozo in that image were all X, but like Quiet Robe, they had overpowered the primal mind of the X replicating them, remaining loyal to Raven Beak, but for that one Mawkin X, the moment it reverted to its base X form, the grip the mind of that Mawkin had on the X was removed, at which point it infected Kraid. Kraid took quite a while to overtake the same way it took an X a good couple hours to overtake Samus in Fusion, they're both hardy enough to temporarily resist, far longer than other creatures, Kraid is naturally lava proof after all, you need to have a TOUGH hide and physiology for that.
@@Cri_Jackal That's an interesting theory but it's wrong. As proven once the X escaped quarantine they took over the planet in a matter of no time at all if kraid was an x-parasite or even infected, the planet would already have been overrun. so I'm sorry but A for effort
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.
A similar deal for me is during the counter hit quicktime events in the same boss battle. The way Samus twists and jumps to avoid Raven Beak's attacks is very fluid and looks great, but what truly impresses me is how she does it all while keeping her arm cannon trained on Raven Beak to keep firing for nearly the entire duration.
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.
That brief pause followed by Samus shooting into the wall 👌 Just incredible! That fight ruled SO hard! I hated dying but I couldn't deny how awesome it felt fighting Raven Beak. Incredible final boss 👍
And then Samus does the gut punch right back at the end of the first phase, with enough power to break Raven Beak's power armor. That was awesome.
It took me a while to notice that, myself
@@jomogaming2 lightning armor
@@jomogaming2 Well I mean, she doesn't really punch him, more like shoot him in the chest point blank, but yeah it was pretty cool.
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 feel kind of sorry for him in this game. He's been detained like a wild animal, chained up and probably experimented upon. He looks angry, but like.. angry as if he's a confused beast who wants to break free, and then spots this temporary target for his anger and rage (Samus). He's not a worthy opponent for her like this, and in some way I think there should be a way to just not fight him. Like something breaking during the fight, allowing you to leave without having to undo him. That would match Samus's hero status I think. In the end, the x parasite gets him anyway, which then mixes with the last boss. Probably his last "canon" appearance as well, because of the x.
@@ikmor actually, if you skip him and then try to fight him after you release the x, you can see an x flying away as you enter his room, and you won't get to fight hi
@@andrewallen1881 That's very cool!
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.
Very well said! Even the storyline is very relatable from a feminine perspective-- the idea of mysterious changes happening to your body that also happen to coincide with increased emotions like anger; while people keep trying to manipulate you, expect subservience, and tell you you're not good enough; is something I can *very* much sympathize with as a woman lol. You can explore things that are relevant to women without having to awkwardly shoehorn in stereotypically "feminine" themes like motherhood (cough cough Other M cough cough), just like Samus can be visually feminine without needing any stereotypical, superfluous visual elements.
I think that’s a bit of a weird thing to focus on. Samus has always been all business, and the suit is a tool. Like a combination of a hazmat suit and plate armor. There’s always kind of been an understanding that function over form was the whole point, and “overly masculine” seems like a strange way to refer to the utilitarian design.
Maybe it's because in _ye olden days_ lots of tough jobs were undertaken by blokes and thus anything industrial naturally has a more masculine appearance? *shrugs* Just one idea towards the discussion.
I feel it doesn't need to be stated at all. This isn't an exception for samus, this is the status quo (Other M was the exception imo.)
@@Fluffkitscripts I love that perspective. It's really cool how, like pre-fusion, her suits tended to be big and clunky--as you say, a sort of hazmat-armor sort of working equipment kind of thing. However, with the advent of Fusion, and this game following after, it's a lot more part of her body, and I like how that's reflected in something more agile and form-fitting. It really feels like a big technology upgrade, like going from those big blocky telephones to the sleek iphones we all have in our pockets, that are far more powerful at a fraction the size. One thing I love about this game is how experience and professionalism radiates from everything Samus does, from how she moves with her weapon first to new threats and follows with her body, to the way she relaxes in encounters when she knows there isn't any danger. Her every move conveys that she is at the absolute peak of her profession, and her suit fits with that in the way it seems optimized and miniaturized compared to, say, her earlier days in the Prime series, and now it's something she works with fluidly and perfectly. At the same time, our understanding of Samus has moved on too. I think the original comment is spot-on as well--there's been an emphasis on Samus being a woman as a surprise or something that's glossed over because it "doesn't matter," or a sort of fixation on it with stuff like Other M, but now it really feels like she just gets to *be* a woman, and that's part of what was so awesome about playing the game. I really want to spend more time studying her body language in this game and thinking about this more, because it is totally a departure in a way I could feel immediately while playing, but can't easily describe.
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.
There had to be mocap for this. I hope someday soon, Nintendo may release said footage. It is marvelous the amount of movement, and flow that Samus has
yea but metroid can’t crawl tho
Cos metroid can slide
@@Kramway99 Metroid had to crawl in order to infiltrate the SPMS.
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.
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.'
"The last Metroid is choking a bitch The galaxy is at peace"
I mean, they could always pull another Other M, nobody says they didn't encode backups of Metroid and Ridley genomes, and if the Fed has the resources to run a top secret Metroid Farm, odds are they have material reserved Does this mean we should have had them in Dread? Nah fam
Ridley's remains were destroyed when Zebes blew up. The corpse in Fusion was the clone from Other M! Double super gone!
@@syrelian The biggest irony is that if the federal shadowy faction has a digital copy of his genome, they don't even know that they do. Ridley's cloning in Other M was a total accident and none of the researchers even knew the Little Birdie was Ridley's infant stage, so they probably have that genome classified as "cute bird creature" and not "Ridley." The only people who know the truth at this point are Samus, Anthony Higgs, and Madeline Bergman, and none of them have any reason to tell anyone else about that.
Dangit now I want a DLC Ridley fight, ya know for reasons
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.
So excited for your daughter to make an entire game about designing new suits for Samus and call it "Metroid Dress."
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
Yeahhh I noticed that, really cool!
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.
Yeah, when you play through the game again with that knowledge, it becomes obvious that she's struggling with something deep within her, but even she's not sure of what exactly. I guess "unhinged" might be a good word to use here? The first few times it manifests she tries so hard to keep it together and stay in control since she doesn't understand what is happening. And once she finally understand it, that's when she fully embraces it. That was a perfect way to humanize her without downplaying her character. Doesn't matter how much of a badass you are. Any human being would freak out at least a little bit when not understanding what's happening with their own body. I'm sure the Chozo made it perfectly clear how the Chozo DNA would affect her body, but for the Metroid's, she didn't have that luxury.
You really feel that the killer instinct truly activated
There's that, and I think she's just in general really *angry* in this game. She's had to put up with a lot of shit, and now she has to deal with the X *again,* not to mention Birdgil having the balls to call her his daughter given the circumstances... I don't think her blowing a gasket at the end of the game was purely the Metroid's killer instinct. There was some *very genuine* rage behind that.
She ain't taking no shit, because she knows that she's dealing with a dangerous organism that could destroy the entire universe. That's why she took the mission, despite the "risk outweighing the reward"... On top of that, she almost got murked by a mysterious Chozo warrior, a race that she thought was long dead. I'm sure it surprised her, because that's the race that took her in after she was orphaned by Ridley! So, yeah. She gives _no_ fuccs.
@@esmooth919 One of the few things more dead then stuff Samus gets her hands on, and woop its back, thats a far nastier shock then Other M where it should have beem "Oh my, Ridley's back, I'm mildly shocked he was a fluffy chicken as a teen", by the timing of Other M, Ridley's risen from the grave like... four times? Cause its what,, Samus Returns, Super Metroid, and then Prime, Prime 3, yeah OM would be 5th
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.
Wait you can jump over its head?
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.
Fantastic break down, thanks!
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy I should be the one thanking you! The breakdown was only possible thanks to your previous videos. When Dread was announced there was a plethora of aesthetic details I noticed thanks to what I learned from your work on this channel. And quite frankly I wouldn’t have enjoyed the reveal or the game itself anywhere near as much if I hadn’t found your videos.
Just love it
*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! :)
Thank you! Yeah, it's.....it's taken ages to produce 🤪
I just got here from a Mekkah video and thought the comments were bugged
How do you mean?
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy Armourslayer here is a very frequent commentor on videos of another favorite KZhead of mine, Mekkah. Mekkah is a lot smaller, so when I jumped from one of his videos to this one, I was surprised to see Armourslayer here haha
@@runaway74 I had the exact same reaction lol
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
No doubt she'd still be able to pull that off without her power suit on
Thanks to her Chozo genetics, Samus in general is insanely athletic. I also wonder if her Chozo DNA took effect into her actual growth, as she is really tall, and I'd suspect she wouldn't be so tall without the Chozo DNA. One interesting thing I saw stated that without her power suit, Samus can jump roughly 13ft into the air. She's insanely acrobatic and assumedly incredibly physically strong for a human. Makes you wonder how much work the powersuit is doing for her in those melee counters. That being said, it's evident she needs all the physical strength she can get, especially against foes like Raven Beak who VASTLY outsize her and is incredibly strong. I'd wager her in that power suit is really heavy, yet Raven Beak picks her up with little force. The Chozo are clearly very strong to say the least.
@@Genasidal Assuming that the Zero Suit has minimal physical enhancement capabilities(its just durable) due to being almost skintight and intended as a medium to connect user and machine, yeah she can hop like 13ft unassisted since your average vertical jump is two Samus Lengths vertically and she maintains those leaps in the Zero Suit in Zero Mission and Other M, both of which lack the RAD ROCKET BOOTS that Smash ZS Samus picked up
@@syrelian Hell yeah! That's rad! Speaking of, you think it's far-fetched to hope that Nintendo incorporate her Rocket Boots from Smash into Metroid canon in some way? With the mainline story now at a close, I really hope we get a mini spin-off series of sorts that focuses on Samus without her power suit, so we can truly see what she's capable of without it (I'd imagine a Metroidvania styled spin-off series all the same!) I dream that she'd have the Rocket Boots in such a hypothetical mini series, maybe as a "power up", though, Idk if they would ever include Smash original content in a Metroid game! Speaking of power ups, I'd imagine, instead of literally becoming part of the power suit, they would be actual items equip onto Samus herself, giving major aesthetic differences as she suits and boots up with more gear. Her Paralyser could work similar to the arm cannon where it gets different ammo types too. Would love to see a "Prime Hunters-esc" take on the system here, with all other weapons being consumable ammo types that she must gather as resources, but they'd all work mechanically for puzzle solving and optional stuff too (similar to the Missiles/Super Missiles and power bombs). It'd probably emphasise less combat encounters but tougher enemies. Zero Mission's last segment is obviously a big inspo, but I hope they would go further than what was explored there!
@@Genasidal I imagine if we see the Zero Suit again we'll probably see the dope boots, as they were added to her in Smash after Other M had happened
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.
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 feel like if Samus Returns had the same amount of staff that Dread did, that game would have the exact same polish. Because let's be honest, there are better looking games on the 3DS.
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)
Yesss sirrr facts
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.
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.
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.
Thanks for the kind words! Yeah I think that's why Metroid Prime 2 was a bit of an underdog is because it had a whole bunch of new items for people to enjoy!
Yeah, possibly. I'm also honestly not as fond of Prime 2 because it often feels needlessly inconvenient when travelling from one place to another, as you constantly have to switch between light and dark world, where you also continuously take damage. It's still a great game, just feels a bit like a hard mode for Prime 1. I don't even remember that many upgrades, except for the beams, which were pretty fun, actually.
@@lucas_lipp I keep calling Storm Missiles "Seeker Missiles" because of Metroid Prime 2 (and Wide Beam "Spazer Beam" because of Super Metroid).
@@MegamanXGold Bro SAME! I keep catching myself saying "Spazer Beam" instead of Wide Beam because I'm so used to Super 😭
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 thing about the robo-soldiers is their swipe attacks can both be dodged in the same way. It’s a risk-reward thing. You can hop over their head when you see them first commit to a swipe to guarantee an escape, or if you’re confident you can wait for the cue to counter or dodge. The counter is a little reward for anyone who can manage it.
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 🤩
Yeah I think people are more annoyed that games cost a lot in general, but games haven't really increased in price that much in 35 years, so they're getting a _better_ deal really
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy I suppose the big difference with those Nintendo games vs. Dread is that there are plenty of games like Metroid in the indie scene (and offer a great value for incredibly low prices) whereas there's nothing remotely like a Mario Golf or Party outside of the Switch, _no matter how low-budget they clearly are_
Mm yeah, that's a good point!
I almost never buy a game full price (before Dread, it was Deus Ex: Human Revolution), but I was gonna do it anyway because I love Metroid, but Dread made me feel GOOD about it.
Absolutely worth the price of admission. Here’s hoping it doesn’t take another 19 years to get the next numbered 2D Metroid.
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.
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
Kraid corrected to Lewis because Kraid is obviously his surname, he’s Lewis Kraid of the Space Pirates
Nice animation analysis. Can't wait on the "How Metroid Dread creates dread". Also Phantom cloakagator 🤣
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 :)
It’s a decent challenge as well it’s taking me a little longer than I was expecting to beat it
The game is definitely worth your time. The demo feels really short and quick, but that's just the really great pacing of the game. You'll be finding new locations nonstop, and you'll probably take around 10 hours to beat the game. At least, that's how long my 100% playthrough was.
@@Technonova323 that seems about right for first timers playing the game as 100% glitchless is about 2 hours and 100% no major glitches is about 7-8min faster. Yeah you can see how fast a person who is skilled at the game can do it if 100% glitchless is near the same time as using glitches due to routing and movement optimization alone. Though routes change drastically if playing on a higher difficulty such as Expert and Dread
finally when the world need him the most he returned. welcome back buddy
Yaaay! Animated Dan is back!
I'm only 6 minutes in and already my love for Dread has deepened. And this already is my favorite game of all time.
Been looking forward to this! Had to rewatch the “animation of Samus” video the other day in anticipation. Let’s goooo
Additional note, you mentioned Raven Beak having similar abilities to Samus (Shinespark, flash shift, etc) but a neat detail is that he also has some of Samus's abilities from Samus Returns. He employs both the Beam Burst and Lightning Armour in that battle, which were two of that game's Aeion abilities, but it doesn't feel out of place since we know Raven Beak was one of the Chozo on SR388. Thought you might find that cool. This video turned out great. Love this channel to bits.
Ohhhhhj of course with the additional Aeion availabilities! Makes so much sense! Thank you!
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 still love Samus's reaction to Kraig, it got me laughing when I saw how she was like "Welp. Here we go again."
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.
I meant to add in the bit where she vaults over stuff, that's from Other M.
Agreed, while the story writing is hoooie, the combat and navigation anims are great, and you can see the beginnings of that same brutality Dread shows in boss counters with some of the execution sequences on larger foes in OM
The story isn't even _that_ hooie, it was just translated badly!
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.
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.
Thank you!
I really like the game but GotY is questionable to me. As much as I enjoyed the game at the end of the day it didn´t even take me 12 hours to 100% the game on my first playthrough. It´s just a little short for 60 bucks. But what really holds this game back in my opinion is that it semi-railroads you. Not once did I feel lost or needed to search for where to go next. One great example is the Varia Suit. Right on the way to Kraid you get led to the Teleporter which brings you right next to the room you need to go. Then once you obtained the Varia Suit it blocks your way with debris so that your only option is to take the teleporter back. What even is the point of having the upgrade in a different area when you get teleported there? They might aswell just put the Varia segment there without the tp and save us two loading screens. Oh and after obtaining the Morph Ball all doors get closed except the one leading to Kraids lair. They designed a linear section with three upgrades there. They masked the linearity but it could just aswell have been a series of hallways leading to both the Varia and Diffusion Upgrades in the same room.
@@JBasilix What sells it for me is the sheer production quality of the game as a whole, notably in its attention to detail as Dan did a great job of showing in his video. The progression is weird in some cases, as you stated. I would often find myself lost and ending up in places I thought I shouldn't be but yet somehow I should be, which is a double-edged sword really. It depends on how long you've been with the franchise and one can't help but recognise this as quite a fundamental part of Metroid. Even Super Metroid has done this in a few sections, for instance when you drop down into Red Brinstar for the first time, you're effectively stuck with only a few places to go, being Norfair and to fight Kraid. Metroid Fusion is also extremely narrow and linear too but still allows room for the player to explore a finite number of areas in their playthrough. The teleporters are quite an odd way of doing this, I agree, but I believe without, would new players have the same experience if they weren't there? I think it's mainly due to accessibility among all players that this was an option. One thing to consider is the roster of games we've gotten this year. You could argue that it's due to not as many "good" games being released this year, but I personally think all things leading up to and during Metroid Dread; anticipation, impact, being able to draw in a plethora of new comers to the franchise, the challenge and just overall production quality, it should come to no surprise that it was nominated as GOTY. This is not at all against you because I can agree with a lot of what you said. I think it's worth analysing the franchise as a whole up to this point, during its setbacks and during its triumph. While it may not win, I'm more than happy it got a nomination as this surely was a win for Metroid in my books. :)
I totally get the length but replayability is where it claws that back. I don't think GotY should be necessarily dependant on game length of value. I think it's worth £50 for the amount of production that's gone into it.
@@benjaminadams9607 Yeah it´s true that Dread definitely carries its legacy with it. Which is exactly why I am kinda bummed out. I hoped for more of a progression forward in more than just graphics and controls. As it stands it is a great game and deserves a lot of praise. I have beaten it in less than 3 hours on hard mode at this point so I have played my fair share of the game. But not because I enjoyed the subsequent playthroughs so much but because I wanted more Metroid. What it boils down to is that the game doesn´t fullfill what I personal want out of a metroidvania type game. They went the action route instead of the exploration route. My hope now lies in Prime 4 to give me a nice big world to thoroughly explore.
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.
"especially saying a lot since this game was in developmental hell before Mercury Steam was involved." Game was apparently first known about in 2005 due to rumors. I believe it was not so much development hell but rather the technology just wasn't there for it.
It was hinted at in Metroid Prime, one of the Chozo Artifact rooms in the Phendrana Drifts.
What was hinted at in Metroid Prime?
@@VideoGameAnimationStudy Metroid DREAD was.
I think you're thinking of Metroid Prime 3, on the pirate home world.
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.
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.
A very minor one, but the way raven beaks talons curl up when he walks, alluding to his bird-like biology.
Great video Dan!
Thanks Jacob!
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.
23:50 I love the creatures in the background of Burenia, like the ones that try to break the glass.
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
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 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.
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).
My body is ready.
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.
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
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.
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.
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!!!
Omg I'm so glad to see a new Metroid video from you, I'm so happy!
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.
The Omega Cannon could also work as a Final Smash, either that or the Dread version of the Hyper Beam given it's visual similarities to the Zero Laser. Honestly, I would love to see the Dread suit and the Fusion suit as proper alts rather than just recolors of the base Varia Suit. The Fusion Suit color alt is the one I usually go for when playing Samus, since up until Dread's release it was my favorite of her suits.
Ooh, this is a wonderful way to start off another Monday! 😍
Enjoy!
my favorite animation is the sudden realization that kraid is in the room, and she gets a “ugh really?” kinda look, before casually shooting him in the face, remembering zero mission and super.
one of the things that makes Metroid Dread easily my most favorite game I've ever had the Joy of completing Samus's animations The personality they give is incredible, her actions aren't just calculated, bad-ass, and intentional, *they're professional* She is a high skill bounty hunter who Everyone knows how good she is and how strong she is, **And She shows it!**
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.
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.
Honestly, my favourite animation detail is if you get nailed by Raven's counterable dash attack; how the entire game slows to a crawl and then Samus rockets into a wall, her limbs flying outwards after the intital impact of her back. Just beautifully shows the pure power you just got hit with
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!
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!
31:37-- where Samus slams the mini-boss's head to the ground, stomps the bottom jaw, rips its mouth open and shoots the finishing beam down its throat-- was one of the most hype things I've ever seen in a videogame. I was already sold by that point, but that's when the game became legendary to me. It didn't have to go that hard, but I'm so glad it did.
My favorite animation is when Samus has accepted her metroid abilities and when she defeats the Chozo X in the quicktime event, instead of yanking the mouth open and shooting it, when she crushes it to the ground, she simply absorbs it. What is notable is if Samus is Damaged, you'll see her HP tick back up and when she clenches her fist, her ammo and health suddenly jump to full. Though as with you, I'm partial to her sitting on the floor looking at Quiet Robe.
By doing some sequence breaking you can skip over some of the Chozo X warriors, for instance the one you fight when everything is frozen. If you go back and fight it after Samus has her metroid drain she'll use it on those too. I thought that was a nice touch
I didn't realise that! That's awesome!
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.
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
Great point about Kraid!
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.
Yeah I think maybe an extra one or something, but it's hardly noticeable
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
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!
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
I also like that when you shoot an ice missile into a wall, it leaves an icy spot on the wall, like normal shots, but a cold one instead of a hot one, lovely stuff.
Dread has some of the best loading screens, something I never would of been ok with looking at, a loading screen.
Have been waiting for your analysis on this. 👌👌👌 This game was such a delight to play through because of its fluent animations.
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!
one of my fave bits of animation in dread is when you use the rapidfire setting of the omega blaster to melt off the shielding on the boss room doors and the emmis. the way the melty metal expands from the center is real nice
"the crowning jewel, the cinematics." Say no more. I'm liking the video. (but also please, continue.)
I am extremely impressed by the animations, so many Animation Rigging, smooth transitioning and IK manipulations used it makes quite satisfying
The difference in how the EMMIs and the Phantom boss reverse direction compared to other actors that do so really sell the fact that this game is a side-scroller _because_ it's a series of corridors. What do the EMMIs and the Phantom boss have in common that set them apart from other actors that can reverse direction? They're wider. If you think of the game as a series of actual corridors where there would be limited room to move left or right in a behind-the-back or even first-person 3D perspective, they take up the whole width of the space.
Something I like that I recently noticed is how, in cutscenes when Samus loses the Omega Cannon, the way she poses always hides the arm cannon completely behind her for a moment so that it can switch models without it being noticeable. Small but really neat technique.
My favorite moment in the game (outside of the incredible cutscenes and story beats) was when I tried using the grapple beam on a point below me when climbing a wall. Samus has a unique rappelling animation where she kicks off of the wall, then smoothly drops down to the point that she grappled to. This is when it really clicked for me just how much effort they put into her animation. The fact that an animation exists for such a niche situation that a good chunk of players won't even see speaks volumes on its own, and the fact that it's fluidly animated and fits in so well with all of Samus' other powerful yet nimble animations is just the icing on the cake. I have no doubt this game will be remembered for its amazing 3d animation the same way Metal Slug is remembered for its equally amazing pixel animation.
I hope it's remembered well!
There's the inverse of that shown in the video, where she rappels up the wall in a bound if you grapple up a segment of magwall, its such a clean motion , so pretty
I love your videos, I always feel as though I've learned something when I watch them
Thank you!
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 :)
32:40 " Oh, *it's you* "
That lil step she takes @3:08 to steady herself is so cool.
Awesome coverage of Dread. So many layers, motion, dexterity, flow, feel, and power. My favorite part of the game, is when you have access to the teleporter. The light lifts her up, covering her from part way, with Chozo language hovering close to her, the shimmer, and sparkle. Until you reach your destination, she lands, grounded, studying her surroundings. +Vibes to your ongoing projects. Cannot wait to play them