A new title of the popular franchise called Metroid Dread just got announced recently at Nintendo Direct E3 2021 and fans cheered for its return. And any fan would know how the series always has this sense of “oppressive creepiness” in it and Samus is the one that is fighting against it. It then somehow feels like a horror game.
Producer and Creator of the original game on NES, Yoshio Sakamoto insists it is not that kind of game.
In a recent interview, Sakamoto explained his stance of the game’s genre. “It’s really about Samus encountering fear, but she actually stands against that fear and fights it and beats it. That part of it is important,” Sakamoto shared. “As for where the inspiration came for wanting to take the game in this direction, it comes from what I said before about the tension surrounding the SA-X from Metroid Fusion and how we wanted to take that style of gameplay and put it into what is considered to be the normal Metroid gameplay to make for an exciting experience.”
While Sakamoto thinks this game is not about horror, the enemies, the E.M.M.I. does emit that kind of aura though. They constantly hound Samus in her journeys and could overwhelm her just like what we all saw in the reveal trailer. It is not a horror game, but the producer knows his stuff when it comes to horror elements and can easily include it into his games.
Metroid Dread launches on October 8 exclusively for Nintendo Switch.
Interview source: IGN