Neo Ridley - Blog Posts

Happy Halloween!

Halloween has been my favorite holiday for as long as I can remember. Granted, that may be in part due to my birthday also falling on October, but nevertheless, I still love it. It’s a holiday of pure fun and celebrating the macabre. Alas, I haven’t been feeling it this year. Between politics (blech), quitting my current job, searching for a way forward in life, and a lack of new spooky content, I’ve just not felt drawn into the Halloween spirit. I’m also waist deep into the process of writing for my Metroid rewrite, and have very little to show at the moment. Still, Halloween is calling my name and I must not deny it, plus I really wanna get some more of my ideas out there. So here’s a quick post to at least get the ball rolling on some ideas for a rewritten Metroid Fusion, the game the cemented Metroid in the minds of many as suspenseful and horror adjacent.

1. Waking up

As opposed to the drawn out process of “go to SR-388, get infected, fly off, go comatose and crash into an asteroid field, get taken in and healed by the BSL station, leave the BSL, head BACK to BSL”, I’m simplifying it down. Instead of being called back to the BSL station due to an explosion on board, Samus wakes up on the operating table in the middle of the X-Parasite outbreak, similar in part to Doom 2016’s opening. However, she’s not thrust into action immediately from the onset, having some time to wake up and get a feel for the new/post surgery suit.

2. X-Parasites Science

I want to dive a little deeper into the details of the X-Parasites. Firstly, their scientific nomenclature is Anomalomimus Volans, roughly translating to “Strange Mimic which Flies”. Furthermore, I want to play more into the fact that it is an intelligent hivemind. Perhaps not Gravemind levels of intellect, but still enough to strategize and make complex decisions. However, their mimicry has a catch. They can only repeat phrases they’ve already stated. They can form new sentences, but it is difficult, and strains the limited mental capacity of each individual X.

3. X-Parasite life cycle

There is a variety of different levels of mimicry the X take on in the Metroid games. We have heard of them blending in with their prey, utilize the unaltered bodies of their prey, and even mutate into hideous new forms in order to gain an edge in combat. I have been able to come up with a few stages for a hypothetical Anomalomimus life cycle. First is the amoeboid stage, where we see their multi colored, amorphous forms floating through the air, searching for a creature to consume. This stage is temporary and, without food in time, they will disintegrate and die. Second is the mimic stage, where the X will attempt to blend in and retain its form, assessing the safety and viability of spreading in a given situation. The assessment is not exactly clinical, but it does take into account obvious factors like weaponry and escape routes… and, ya know, Metroids. If their cover is blown, they will react violently, killing all witnesses, and find a safe location to move onto their third stage. This stage can also be used in combat to aid in overwhelming and consuming a resisting population such as the Chozo. Lastly in their standard life cycle is the budding form, where their visage breaks down into amorphous slop as they begin to reproduce more X parasite offspring. I don’t have full details on this, or how the Core X fit into this, but this is where I’m at currently.

4. Scan Logs

Prime time, baby. We doing scan logs. In addition to the typical written logs and notices, I am going to be employing the Doom 2016 style holograms to relay events from the past. While I understand why they are not present in any of the Prime games, I do think they are a tool that make for some interesting storytelling opportunities, (especially in a show or movie, but that’s a discussion for another time). I will try to keep extensive scans sparse as it can be easy to oversaturate the inclusion of logs in a written story when the format already allows a window into how Samus deciphers situations around her.

5. Stakes

I will freely admit to not knowing a great deal about Metroid Fusion’s plot beyond the general outline of things. Some people may then find my reworking to be a bit dishonest in some ways to the source material. With that said, the stakes will be laid out from near the start, and the clock will start ticking. The X parasites have overrun the BSL Station, with near free rein over all of its systems. There are still some guard rails, but it’s only a matter of time until they find a way to send the station toward a well populated planet and spread. Samus, in addition to finding the truth of what was happening on board this station of doom, must ensure the X Parasites can never travel to another star system. If they do, all life in the galaxy is at risk.

6. The SA-X

The SA-X has been an extremely iconic villain due to its stalking behavior and sheer advantage in power over our recovering hero, in addition to being a demented, dark reflection of her. That being said, I think the mutated design for the SA-X feels a bit… uninspired? I simply feel that it just doesn’t add much to the design in its current form. However, the idea of the SA-X mutating is one I’ll keep. Instead of… whatever we have in canon, these mutations will come in the form of the SA-X attempting to keep cohesion with Samus’s spliced DNA and growing more Chozo traits, but deformed and uneven. Half a beak here, a featherless wing there, some mismatched eyes. It will exceptionally uncanny for Samus, given her relationship to both humanity and the Chozo.

7. Neo Ridley

There will be no Neo-Ridley… kind of. I feel like the years have really dulled the effect of having another clone of Ridley, so I will not be including one. Instead, BSL station will house the only other member of Ridley’s species known to the Galactic Federation, an individual named Neo, who provides insight into Ridley’s origins. His copy, Neo-X, will also feature some inspirations from Dread, including a ranged attack of black muck instead of fire, and mutating his wings into additional arms, alongside twisting its head 180°, allowing it to crawl along the walls and high speeds.

Hopefully, this turned out to be an interesting view into how I plan to bring my own spin on Metroid through a different storytelling format. My first project for this rewritten Metroid series is going to be a modified version of the Metroid Zero Mission manga. Stay tuned for updates on that! (If I ever get around to them>.<)

I have a (baseless) hunch as to why that may be. MercurySteam, the studio behind it, and subsequently Dread, first pitched Sakamoto on a remake of Metroid Fusion. Sakamoto turned the concept down, as he thought that Fusion needed no improvements at that age. Instead, he proposed that a remake of Metroid 2: Return of Samus would be more needed. Thus Metroid: Samus Returns was made. I am not too knowledgeable in game design so this may be fairly baseless, but I suspect that part of the initial pitch involved concepts and ideas for a Neo Ridley boss fight. If that were the case, it stands to reason that they may have attempted to utilize the work that they were proud of and Sakamoto liked in the game they ended up actually making. So they gave him a couple of cybernetics, sent him after the last Metroid, and called it a day. It would make the third phase of his boss theme, which has the tempo of Neo Ridley’s theme, a fun callback. Once again, I could be just way out there and overstepping.

what a weird way to end an otherwise great game. that ridley fight was there for no reason and makes super really weird, the metroid baby gets kidnapped by the guy samus killed like 20 minutes ago. samus returns is a really good game apart from that.