Metroid Leviathan

DEVELOPERS
Nintendo, MercurySteam, Studio Lillie
PLATFORM
Nintendo DSGo
RELEASES
August 5, 2022 (international)
GAMEPLAY
Metroid Leviathan is similar to past 2D Metroid titles. The protagonist, Samus Aran, traverses an open environment in her Power Suit, using numerous abilities to explore and fight enemies. As she continues to explore more areas, she fills out her map and can find new rooms, often finding upgrades to her suit that can allow her to explore even further. These upgrades also increase her fighting capabilities, letting her take on tougher enemies and even bosses that give her more upgrades. Although many upgrades are optional, some are required to finish the game, and nearly all of them are required to complete every challenge in the game.
Navigation is a key part of the game as well. As in past titles, Samus is able to fill in the map of each area via exploring; unlike prior titles, however, she has much more limited view of the map before filling it in. Reaching a map room, which also completely recharges her energy and saves her progress, will only show hints for a few important locations, rather than showing the entire area. This encourages filling in the map more, which is made more difficult as only parts of the room that have been visited are filled in, rather than the entire room at once. Secrets are also more varied and better hidden than in titles like Super Metroid.
One of the heavily advertised features is the addition of Exo-Suits, which can be found in three of the areas in the game. Before being used, they must be unlocked by fighting a mini-boss within those areas, then flipping a switch. Afterwards, Samus can summon the Exo-Suit at the entrances of the areas and at the place in which the Exo-Suit is activated. Once the Exo-Suit is summoned, Samus can enter and exit it at will, and while inside her controls are completely changed, with different control schemes for each Exo-Suit, designed specifically for the area they are found in. Exo-Suits cannot be removed from the area they are found in.
MOVEMENT
As with most platformers, Samus' ability to navigate the terrain is tied to her ability to jump. By getting a running start, Samus can do a special spinning jump that has a higher maximum height and lets her activate certain abilities, such as the Space Jump and Screw Attack. For the first time since Super Metroid, the game has a dedicated run button so that Samus can modulate her speed more easily, and for the first time she carries her horizontal momentum when jumping, meaning she can move with even more control and speed. Additionally, colliding with a wall while spin jumping and pressing the jump button will cause Samus to do a wall jump, allowing her to scale walls if she has enough skill and potentially bypassing some sections entirely.
Much of the game is focused on combat, with Samus having new melee attacks to broaden her combat skills. Most importantly, she has retained the ability to aim her shots from Samus Returns, but can now do it with the second control stick, allowing her to aim and move completely independently for the first time in the series. She also for the first time has a shield ability, summoning a shield from the tip of her Arm Cannon to protect her from shots, also utilizing the aim ability. Pressing the melee button while shielding will lead to a counter attack, also from Samus Returns, which can punish enemies for attacking up close if the player can react fast enough. Combining all of these new abilities allows for much more complex enemy and boss design that makes use of advanced combat tricks.
Additionally, Samus' abilities are now based on dream energy, replacing the individual counts for Missiles, Super Missiles, and Power Bombs. Now, all of those abilities and more come from a single count, which starts at 15 and drains differently for the ability being used. Missiles, for example, are cheaper and only take up a single point of energy, while Super Missiles take up 5 energy, and Power Bombs take up 10. All of these costs can be reduced in various ways, and both dream and health energy can be expanded by collecting expansions scattered throughout the game.
CUSTOMIZATION
Leviathan is the first title in the series to have a large focus on customization. One of the major marketing pushes was that players would be able to completely customize Samus' look. At first, Samus can choose between various combinations of legs, arms, chests, headpieces, accessories, and other pieces that were chosen from Samus' looks in previous titles, allowing her to mix and match from every previous suit. Later parts of the game then expand these abilities, adding more types and varieties of items to customize with. All of the Power Suit customization in this regard is completely cosmetic and does not enhance Samus' abilities. Some extra items would be added later in updates as rewards for, for example, buying and playing Metroid Prime Trilogy.
Samus is also able to customize her abilities directly for the first time since Super Metroid and in a more direct way. This comes in the form of Modules, which are unlocked just like upgrades but must be toggled on for a certain cost. Each Module requires an allotment of power that can be increased much like energy capacity, and so Samus must choose between certain Modules to decide which is most important. Some of these Modules are required or nearly required for specific areas, and so the player is forced to think about what they might need in an area before exploring it. 
CONTROLS
Vectorized graphic of the Nintendo DSGo console
X	The jump button. By holding down jump, Samus will begin jumping into the air, with her velocity determined by how long the jump button is held. Also used to jump in midair if the Space Jump module is active and Samus is spinning.
Y	The run button. Holding down Y while Samus is moving horizontally increases her initial and terminal velocity as well as her acceleration. If the Speed Boost module is active, this can also be used to break through certain walls.
A	The melee attack button. Press A to kick in the direction Samus is aiming, usually forward, to deal damage to enemies.
	Used to move Samus in various directions. Pressing up can be used to climb certain ladders in the background, while pressing down can put Samus into Morph Ball mode after it is unlocked.
DPAD	Used to move Samus in various directions, the same as Control Stick 1.
	Used to aim Samus' weapons. As long as it is not in neutral, Samus will aim her weapons in the direction it is held.
ZR	Pressing to shoot Samus' current weapon. Hold down after finding the Charge Capacitor to charge a more powerful shot. Press in Morph Ball form to release a Bomb or Power Bomb.
ZL	Hold down to activate Samus' shield, which appears at the front of her arm wherever she is aiming. Pressing ZR while holding ZL will activate a short range counter attack.
L	Hold down to active the Grapple Lasso or Grapple Beam if they have been discovered, then press ZR while holding L to use the Grapple weapons.
R	Hold down to activate Missiles or Super Missiles. Press ZR while holding R to shoot a Missile, or press R while fully charged to shoot a Super Missile.
 
STORY
"In the year 20X9 of the Cosmic Calendar...
The galaxy is at peace. Galactic bounty hunter, Samus Aran, had successfully purged the galaxy of all Metroids, and even the parasitic organisms they fed on. The Space Pirates, once worthy of fear across space, have been reduced to just a few individuals, and even they have began to fall. Samus, having completed her goal of revenge against the Space Pirates and even the Metroids, has taken up the offer of leaving to explore the vastness of space for the Galactic Federation.
Tragedy strikes, however, when a large Galactic trade ship is destroyed by marauders, causing tens of thousands to die. These mauraders, initially thought to be the Space Pirates returning, are confirmed to be an entirely new group. After they make another strike on the Galactic Federation homeworld, all resources are set to track them down. 
No one expected what would come next.
Galactic scouts track the mauraders back to FDS1986, a long abandoned planet, or so it seemed. Energy signals from within show that it is clearly alive, perhaps a giant piece of machinery, or something even worse. The Federation Force is not equipped for this type of dangerous exploratory mission.
Fearing a lack of manpower, the Galactic Federation calls in Samus Aran one last time to help them tackle the threat.
Samus Aran... Please help protect the galaxy once again. We're counting on you."
----
Approaching an oddly shaped planet in her gunship, Samus begins to recount her current mission. The Galactic Federation has known about the existence of this celestial body since the Federation was formed, but ancient regulations barred its officers from doing an investigation. The only thing they know is that its surface is biological, and that it is so dangerous that merely approaching it would have galaxy-wide implications. Unfortunately, multiple Federation vessels have recently been hijacked by beings that may have established a base on the body. The Federation has decided that, as contact has already been made there, the danger is likely overstated, and so Samus has been given the duty of surveying the planet for the first time while also taking down the maurauders there.
While she enters orbit around the planet, a large section of it begins to move, uncovering a gigantic eyeball. It slowly glows yellow, before shooting a tractor beam at her ship that she cannot escape. It captures the ship and keeps it still while bringing the ship closer to the eye. As it does so, the ship's lights flash on and off, and Samus goes unconsious while desperately mashing at the controls.
After the screen returns from a fade to black, Samus has crash landed somewhere inside the planet, with a dark sky above indicating that she is underground. Her gunship is nearby, completely decimated, and her suit is malfunctioning. She exits the suit in her Zero Suit and begins exploring. Although she finds no living organisms, she does find half-organic, half-mechanical objects that attack her, apparently a defense system, as well as numerous ruins suggesting a civilization once lived here. 
After some discovery, Samus finds a sparkling being that runs away from her. She can track it to an underground area, where the being starts to shake and release electricity before turning into her Power Suit. She reluctantly puts it on, revealing it to be entirely intact, other than missing some upgrades. As she puts it on, it quickly transforms between various looks from her past, before settling on a new look. Going further into the room allows her to unlock the first map, one of the area called Ikoria she is in. A screen in the back of the room also shows flickering images of a large brain.
Eventually Samus can make her way through Ikoria to a large building that seems to lead to another area. Inside, a deranged being resembling a Space Pirate attacks her, and she realizes that it fits the description of the mauraders she was supposed to destroy. After taking care of it, it has a brief moment of consiousness, telling Samus through a translater the following:
"We made a mistake. We provoked the Brain, and now it provoked us. Destroy it for the good of all. No longer do we control. The body of Leviathan holds the entrance. Follow the cords to repeat out mistake and finish it"
Disturbed but determined, Samus continues onwards through the building, passing through a giant set of teeth and seeing a large, cavernous area resembling the mouth of a fish, where her journey begins. 
----
After continuing to make progress throughout areas like the Mouth, the Stomach, and Heloz, Samus will inevitably find herself in the Hanging City, a giant city constructed out of bones and other biological matter. It is filled with dangerous robotic sentries and large turrets. Most notably, the background of the entire City holds three giant wires leading to a central spire. Reaching the spire and exploring it will reveal a large cannon pointed upwards. 
By finding the various Logs in the area, Samus can discover that the Mouth has four large sunpanels in the ceiling that provide light for the entire body, allowing other things to live inside. The creators of the Hanging City built large harvestors to extract this energy directly, which was more efficient. Eventually, an uprising in the Hanging City lead to a new leader, who decided to reverse the direction of one of the harvestors to shoot their accumulated energy at the roof of the 8mouth, opening a path to the brain, which they went on to destroy.
In addition this reveltation, Samus can also find the Charge Capacitor here by defeating the boss, an animated statue of said leader. This upgrade allows her to defeat the boss of the Lung and finally enter the Heart, a pitch black area with a constant, slow beating and no other music. At the center of the area, Samus finds the titular body part, taken over by dark energy. Using her weapons, Samus can free the heart, opening bloodflow back to the body and thus allowing her to access the rest of the areas in the game.
As hinted at by the Hanging Garden Logs, the only way for Samus to find the Brain is to repower the cannon. The three wires of the Hanging City connected to the roof of the mouth at various large lights, which each had cords going from them to other body parts. Trailing these cords leads Samus to the three bosses she needs to defeat to restore power: the ones at the Eyes, the Fin, and Snaev. Getting to these three areas also involves Samus unlocking and using the new Exo-Suits mechanic. Logs in Varma reveal that the Exo-Suits, along with Varma's defense force, were built to allow the inhabitants of the beast.
Finally, Samus activates the three lights in the Mouth, and returns to the Hanging City, where the Cannon has been powered on again, along with the entire city, which is now much more dangerous. Turrets and sentries at full energy can deal lethal damage in just one hit. Samus must also fight the guardian statue once again before activating the cannon and opening her way up into the Brain to finish the job. After proceeding through dangerous rooms with hazards from many prevous areas, Samus finally finds the cranial room, occupied by hundreds of beings like the maurauder she saw before.
They come together and form into one giant being, which then attaches the brain to its head, resembling the final boss of Super Metroid. Samus must defeat the boss while also avoiding detaching maurauders. Once she finally does so, the brain lets out one last blast before falling off of the maurauders, causing them to begin to disintegrate. 
----
Samus is now left alone in the cranial room, with loud warning sounds erupting around her. The door to leave opens. If she does not leave, she can find large glowng weak spots all over the brain stem, which can be shot with missiles to deal damage to the brain. If she manages to strike all the weak spots, the brain will be destroyed, killing the Leviathan forever. As Samus escapes the Leviathan on the rescue ship, she describes her experience, and her performance is reviewed. After showing her completion percentage for all the items collected, a cutscene begins, showing the ship flying away to a Galactic Federation outpost.
If Samus destroyed the brain, she is congratulated for finally ending the menace of the Leviathan. As the entire outpost celebrates with a large party, Samus is morose, mourning the loss of a large habitat and all those that lived on it for millenia, wondering if there was any alternative. If Samus did not destroy the brain, however, she is instead chastized for allowing the Leviathan to continue living as it has now blocked off entrance to its cranial room. However, if Samus collected all twelve Log Entries in the Leviathan, she can respond with an idea: by expanding the solar panel and refrigeration systems, the Galactic Federation can ensure that the Leviathan will never have to eat another planet, while also giving a way for them to control it for use in galactic peacekeeping. A final cutscene shows the contruction efforts at the Leviathan, ending with the Leviathan taking part in training with the Galactic navy. Samus gives a thumsb up to it before heading off in her repaired gunship.
 
SETTING 
The entire game takes place inside of the Leviathan, a giant space creature that eats chunks of planets for nourishment. Although nothing is even directly told to Samus, she can collect numerous Logs throughout the game that explain more of the Leviathan's history, as well as the history of those who resided within it.
The Leviathan operates much like a regular animal, digesting matter for nutritional value. It has all the standard organs of an Earth mammal, including a mouth, stomach, interstines, a heart and bloodstream, a lung, a brain and eyes, and even fins to allow it to move, although not all of these were normally found in the species of the Leviathan, which has not been seen in the galaxy outside of this instance for hundreds of thousands of years. Unlike most organic life, it can also digest various minerals, subsisting on the pieces of planet it bit off in addition to that which lives on it.
To maximize the value it extracts from what it it eats, it has numerous ways of providing from the species that live inside it, forming an entire ecosystem. It has artificial lights within the mouth so that civilization can continue, but will shut off the lights if not provided with food, forcing these civilizations to sacrifice their own to continue. Additionally, it can use its tongue to directly grab living beings from what it has eaten to bring them to its stomach without relying on offerings.
Many of its inhabitants have noted an interesting property of the Leviathan, in which it can seemingly calculate how much energy it will get from a planet and then only attempt to gain that much. As such, civilizations that can offer alternative methods of gaining energy are allowed to be set free. This encourages those that have lived within in the past to upgrade the Leviathan with new organs to make it more efficient so they can escape, also making it more difficult for those that come along later to do so.
As Samus discovers Logs, she finds numerous organs that are artificial, placed by prior groups. The first of these to be encountered, and the first built chronologically, is Heloz, a refrigeratin organ that can store matter for latter digestion. The species that built it originally was only able to survive in freezing temperature and thus created it for their own needs, but soon realized that the Leviathan was helped as well. As the Leviathan lacks other ways to store fat, this was determined to increase its overall energy generation, and so those that built it were freed. Their logs on doing so were left behind, inspiring others to try and appease the Leviathan with new body parts.
This led to the next group, who created Solaria and the Fin. They were proficient at machinery and were able to create a way for the Leviathan to propel itself in space by releasing air and then pushing against it. This provided another use for the Lung which was otherwise only used to keep civilizations breathing. Additionally, they added numerous solar panels to the Leviathan so it had an alternate way of generating energyh even without eating, although it was not efficient enough for the Leviathan to subsist on it alone. They were freed, but left behind Logs noting that more upgrades could be made to Solaria to appease the Leviathan, possibly for good.
Lastly, the species known only to Samus as the marauders were found, the most recent of the groups. They were militaristic, and so the only thing they could offer was Varma, place where the Leviathan could built protective robots and sentries that could act as white blood cells. Despite spending all of their resources on this task, the Leviathan did not free them. Angered, they put their remaining resources into the Hanging City so that their civilization could continue on indefinitely, using the sunlight more effectively, but they realized that they could not last long with their newly added sentries continuously coming to take sacrifices.
They secretly began plotting to build a large cannon using the extractor they built to get more effective energy out of the fake sunlight in the Mouth, but this was blocked by an elder, who realized it was dangerous. After more than half of their remaining civilians were taken by sentries, they overthrew the elder and fired the cannon off quickly before the Leviathan could realize what happened, opening a way to the Brain. They quickly ran to the cerebral chamber and disconnected the brain from the bloodstream, slowly killing it. In its dying breaths, the brain let out a "chaotic wave" that blew away the marauders that had come to destroy it.
Although they celebrated their win, they began to realize that the wave was corrupting them and their own brains, turning them frenzies and manic. They began worshiping the brain as it twisted their minds. The last of the marauders either sacrificed themselves or began serving the Leviathan, rebuilding the entrance to the Brain, abandoning the City, and manning the many Varma sentries they had created before. As the Mouth was now filled with the City, the Leviathan started to send out squadrons of marauders to get energy instead, leading to the first interactions with the Galactic Federation.
 
LOCATIONS 
Each area in the game has its own thematic identity, with unique graphical style, music track, gameplay elements, and even a specific color theme to identify it on the map. Every area besides the Bloodstream has at least one Boss, which usually reward Samus either with an important upgrade or module or with some change to the world that is required to progress.
BOSSES 
UPGRADES 
Throughout the game, Samus can collect various upgrades to her Power Suit that give her additional abilities and powers. They are activated immediately once they are collected and cannot be disabled. Most of them are required to make progress in the game and are a key part of forward progression.
In addition to the following upgrades, there are also collectibles that give permanent improvements to Samus but that are not unique, appearing many times across the game. They are:
Energy Tank: These permanently increase Samus' health point capacity by 25 each.
Dream Tank: These permanently increase Samus' dream energy capacity by 25 each.
Data Logs: Some areas in the game have between 5 and 8 Data Logs, with each containing a single page worth of lore about that area. The best ending of the game requires collecting all of the Data Logs in the game. Additionally, collecting all of the Data Logs in one area increases Samus' health point and dream energy capacity by 25 each.
Portable Battery: Unlocks one additional Module Pip that can be used to equip Modules (see below).
MODULES 
Modules are upgrades that can be found across the map but that are not automatically equipped. Instead, Samus has a limited number of Module Pips which can be used to equip Modules. Her Module Pip capacity can be increased by finding Portable Batteries, although she also starts off with two. Each Module has its own Module Pip cost, listed below.
Samus' Module loadout can only be changed in Data Rooms, which is also where Samus can save, restore her health, and unlock the map of the area it is in. Modules can also be equipped even if the requisite Module Pip cost is not met. This is called Overclocking, and it doubles the damage that Samus takes as well as the cost of her numerous abilities. In Expert Mode, Overclocking instead reduces Samus' health capacity to 1, meaning every hit instantly KOs her.
DEVELOPMENT
Samus Returns, the previous 2D Metroid title before Leviathan, was originally pitched as an original title in the series rather than a remake by its developer MercuryStream. Although this pitch was rejected, they went on to pitch a remake of Metroid Fusion that was adopted and changed to a remake of Metroid 2 by longtime series director Yoshio Sakamoto. After the incredible success of Samus Returns on the 3DS, Nintendo decided to revive MercurySteam's first concept, which had been planned for the Wii U and 3DS. 
As the Nintendo Switch had just launched, this project was to be developed for that console alongside the 3DS; with the Switch failing later on, however, development soon switched to focusing solely on the 3DS. After Nintendo's partnership with Studio Lillie was finalized and the Nintendo DSGo had officially started development, the game changed consoles for the last time, moving to the DSGo where it would eventually launch after several more years of work.
The development team, lead once again by Sakamoto, had been inspired by the release of Hollow Knight the year that development began, which led to the integration of the Module system, very similar to the Charms from that title. Other ideas, such as losing a type of currency upon death and more restrictive map access, were also considered according to an interview with the team at the Nintendo Treehouse, but were later scrapped after they were found not to fit the gameplay style of the Metroid series.
The idea of customizing Samus' abilities, along with many discussions about how to design Samus' suit for the new title, lead to the choice to allow for many different suit designs. After the success on social media of other games with light aesthetic customization, such as Super Mario Odyssey, further encouraged the team to add more ways to fine tune the appearance of Samus' Power Suit. 
RELEASE
The game was teased through an image posted on the official Nintendo twitter account on Friday, June 10th, 2022, in the week before their annual Summer Nintendo Direct. The teaser suggested the release of the first game since Samus Returns five years prior. The teaser's cryptic nature resulted in speculation leading up to its full reveal in the Nintendo Direct on the 14th of June.
Teaser image posted on the official Nintendo twitter on June 10th, 2022
The game's reveal trailer was one of the major reveals of the summer 2022 Nintendo Direct. It begins with a slow crawl over an empty corridor, later known to be in the Mouth, before reaching Samus' iconic Arm Cannon. As it zooms into her face, her suit starts to change quickly, adopting several different aesthetics. Finally, the camera snaps away and reveals her classic Super Metroid Varia Suit design. Various shots are then shown of Samus in many different areas, including Ikoria, Heloz, the Mouth, and the Stomach, all in different suits from past games. It also shows the menu screen, with Samus choosing different modules before cutting to the module in action, then back to a different module being selected, demoing the module system. It ends with Samus' Zero Suit form jumping off the screen.
After the trailer, Doug Bowser appeared to discuss the game. He announced that it would be titled Metroid Leviathan, and would launch on Aggust 5th, just as the teaser promised. He also stated that the game would appear after the direct at the Nintendo Treehouse. At the Treehouse event, the beginning of the game was shown, including the opening crawl and narration all the way to the entering of the Mouth. This showed off all Ikoria, including the Zero Suit, acquiring of the Power Suit, and the Morph Ball and Missile Launcher. It also allowed them to explain the new modules system, aiming controls, and shielding and melee attacks.
The game would receive another trailer in July, exploring more of the game. Alongside an explanation of modules and an in-depth look at the suit customization, the trailer was also the first time that the Exo-Suits were shown off. The main example was the Marine Scavenger, although the Ornithopter was also hinted at. To demonstrate the Scavenger's abilities, a longer clip of Samus in Snaev was played without the G.R.A.V., with a comparison between Samus' slow water movement and the speed of the Scavenger.
TRIVIA
The version of Samus' Suit depicted in the teaser is reminiscent of the P.E.D. Suit from Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (pictured on the right). Canonically, this suit was lost at the end of the game, as all Phazon was destroyed and it no longer served a purpose. It was later revealed that this suit is one of the many possible suits that can be made with the Power Suit customization option available in the game, even being used as the first example in the Nintendo Direct revea; trailer.
All of the defensive memories are based on the suit upgrades from previous titles, and are now formatted as abbreviations: V.A.R.I.A. (Versatile Atmospheric Resistance Integrated Armor), C.O.B.A.L.T. (Copper Obsidian Basalt Adamantium Lithium Titanium), and G.R.A.V. (Gravitational Response Armor Vector). It is unknown if the suit upgrades were always abbreviations previously.
The Ikoria region shares a name with a plane from Magic the Gathering.
The name of the Leviathan given by the Galactic Federation is FDS1986, which may be a reference to the original Metroid, releasing on the Famicom Disc System in 1986. Likewise, the name of the boss of Varma, OM-2011, is likely a reference to the Metroid series game Other M released in 2011, although the Varma Logs say that its in-universe meaning is Omega Machine.
The name of the boss of Snaev, the Crustaegon, may be a combination of crustageon and Draygon, a boss from Super Metroid. Given the boss' similarities in both appearance and boss fight, the reference to Draygon is possibly intentional. 
Category:Metroid Games
Category:Fan Games
Category:Games
Category:2022
Category:Nintendo DSGo Games
Category:Nintendo Games
Category:Studio Lillie games
Category:Metroid (series)
Category:Rated E10+ Games
Category:Rated 12 Games
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