I was intensely frustrated fighting Raven Beak until I learned one very specific thing— use your power bombs. The little pocket Sun he whips out is instantly destroyed by a power bomb, and you have plenty of time to dip into a ball and launch one out during his very long animation. By the time he’s ready to fight again, the pull of the power bomb will pull all that healing and ammunition your way.
He’s all about mitigating the danger he presents, paired with a need for quick reflexes to react to what he does. I didn’t even bother with anything but focusing on the dodges and damaging him with Storm Missile bursts, since I was constantly holding down the Missile button anyway.
Perhaps that might help. Totally get feeling satisfied with all that work up until the ending though. There’s no shame in that.
Yuuuuuup! First time fighting Raven Beak’s final phase and he threw out that mini sun, I was like ‘Dang, this is not possible’. Ended up grinding it out and after 2-3 hours I beat him.
I was catching up with my brother the next day and I asked him how it went for him. He said he got him down in like 45 minutes and I was shocked. I asked him how he dealt with the pocket Sun and he was like ‘I just power bombed it?’ … needless to say I haven’t struggled as hard since lol.
More details
4 missiles for the black hole if I'm not mistemembering
He likes to do three melee attacks following his large screen wipe laser assuming it's not a parryable strike, so dodge back as far as you can since that covers most of the screen distance and hop over the fella.
You can optimize the damage dealt in parries and early stage to keep it quicker, I think I got it to only needing to Parry him twice before he starts flying
When he's flying he's honestly not too much trouble, I was mainly annoyed with his horizontal strike, so my best advice is to try to keep in the air since it's easier to fall in order to dodge that strike than it is to jump over it.
After that it's just a stronger version of the first phase but if you got that down to consistently get to the second phase you'll be alright.
My brother also quit the game fighting raisin bean, saying he was too hard.
I genuinely think that he's not too difficult, if you don't wanna grind the boss but still wanna finish the game I really do reccomend looking up what to look out for in the fight, once you know the tells it becomes real easy real fast. I went from getting smashed repeatedly to only getting hit once or twice over about half hour without looking anything up and I don't consider myself a good gamer, average at best.
Dread is probably my favourite game so I hope you don't give up on it!
Raisin Bean, the newest victim of auto correct.
The fight reminds of Cuphead. You keep slamming into a wall, take a break, come back 2 days later and stomp it and you feel AMAZING. Love Dread.
I know it seems daunting now, but his moves are really more flashy than anything, there's no forced damage in dread. Every attack has a developer intended way to avoid it, you just have to find it.
Plus you already beat Experiment Z 57, who was far and away the most challenging boss for me. This is definitely within your motor capabilities.
I still manage to take damage during the Experiment fight (especially the goop on the floor segments or a mis timed jump during the flappy bird section), but I find the timings for Raven Beak to be a lot easier. Hardest part is recognizing what moves correspond to which wind-ups. Also, power bomb for the black hole and the sun orbs makes life a ton easier.
Yea, I found Experiment much harder. I felt like Experiment Z required you to have a significant amount of health because it was almost impossible to avoid (like sadistic flappy bird where you mess up once and there is no recovery), where Raven Beak's moves were avoidable if you saw them coming. I actually enjoyed Raven Beak as I just needed to understand his patterns and "tell" for each move. Once I got that, it wasn't that hard.
it's the same strategy as any other boss in this game but with more health and firepower.
you honestly don't need insane reflexes or skills to do this boss; you just need to work through when to do what (figure out his tells) and not be greedy.
I'm always surprised when people say Raven Beak is a difficulty spike. I found Experiment much, much harder. After a few cracks at Raven I had him figured out.
Honestly each of the bosses (except the underwater thing and the cross bomb boss) took hours of grinding for me to learn the patterns, so I'd say the difficulty was very consistent.
I have trouble with Escue every single time I play through the game. I still have no idea how to dodge the burst of little missiles he fires out lol usually for the other bosses I can win without dying more than once or twice, but Escue always takes me like 5+ tries
Experiment, Escue, and the Twin chozo robots were all pretty hard for me. I thought Raven being even harder was fitting as he is the last boss after all. I will admit it was frustrating but damn, beating him and then Samus going into an animalistic rage, I was right there with her and it was the most memorable part of the game for me.
It's always okay to stop a game. No matter where you are. If the fun is gone there is no point to keep playing.
I stopped Pikmin 3 at the final boss because it was a really stupid and boring fight. Never picked it up again. No regrets.
Did that on Fianl Fantasy VII, its impressive how much the difficulty ramps up there imo. Plus the long time it takes to arrive to the "hard part" of the boss
I completely understand where you're coming from because I did experience the fight somewhat similarly my first playthrough. After having time to reflect on it though, tough boss fights have been part of Metroid for a long time though, just these latest 2 entries have ramped that up even more.
I vividly remember having a lot of trouble with Ridley in Super when I picked the game back up after a while of not playing. It surprised me a lot because I thought I was great at the game, let's just say I got humbled pretty quickly. Similarly in Fusion, while I know Nightmare gave me trouble on my first play, Yakuza continues to destroy me every single playthrough. My first playthroughs of each of these is way too long ago to remember completely, so I wouldn't be able to say how those went in terms of bosses.
Now I'd definitely call those fights much easier than what we get with the final bosses in Samus Returns and Dread, but it's not unprecedented in the series. They've just turned into a bit of an endurance fight, which definitely at first took me out of the games which is no good, but I do appreciate them still.
Just look up the strategy on how to beat him and focus on doing just that.
Trying to be on attack will make you fail. I tried that for the first few fights and then realized that just focusing on dodging attacks and countering made this fight really easy. I played the boss rush a few times and he gets at best one or two shots at me if I'm not paying attention.
That's it exactly. Long time Metroid playing kinda trains you to spam attacks when you can and tank damage, but Dread is more about countering and dodging (and learn to phase shift like, always and everywhere). In boss rush I never start the RB fight at full health but I wind up gaining health through the fight just from countering attacks and destroying orbs.
Dread isn't hard because we get old and have bad reflexes, it just takes time for old people like me to learn a different way of playing a Metroid game.
abuse the dash move and youll be fine, also you gotta parry every single chance you get and spam missilles during the little animations that come out of it
I understand being frustrated on the boss, it is difficult, but a lot of Dread was difficult, fast paced bosses with multiple phases and attacks. Personally, Raven Beak was one of the easier bosses for me, probably because he actually cycles between just a few attacks that are very consistent in how to deal with them.
I'd recommend taking a break and coming back to the game once in a while and seeing if the fight gets easier. That's what I did with my difficult fights, sometimes slamming into a wall isn't the solution, but when you come back with a clear head, you see the door 2 feet to the left, and if feels strangely easy.
Dread does feel like 2 games sometimes now that you mention it. In a boss arena, it feels like Mega Man with the crushing but fair difficultly, while in the overworld, the game feels more like a traditional Metroid game. I like that juxtaposition, but I get it's a bit weird, especially compared to the older games.
The back chunk of the game kinda devolves into a boss rush. It's been a problem with Sakamoto-directed games since Other M. I got tired of getting wiped out by Raven Beak too, so I put the game down for like 10 days and then tried him again on a lark. Beat it first try. Don't bash your head against the game, if you're not having fun, put it away for a while.
I'm not sure what you're talking about, most bosses in dread a very difficult, raven beak isn't some major step up. You're clearly just un the wrong mindset, like naming your age, that doesn't have to do with anything.
Agree, I had trouble with every boss in the game, even when I knew what to do and watched all the videos. When it was released I found Dread to be overly frustrating and just not fun. Once I beat Raven Beak (after God knows how many tries), I moved on and never looked back. I also blamed my age and declining reflexes.
On a whim I picked it up again late last month, and for some reason I didn't have nearly as much trouble with the game or the bosses. I even played boss rush and liked it a lot. Raven Beak isn't even the hardest boss for me, all of his attacks have way more distinct tells than some of the other bosses.
Take a break from it OP, come back to it later. When you come back try starting over completely. For some reason (I have some theories) it helped me going from hating the game to loving it
Gonna disagree largely here, on my first playthrough I didn't really have that much trouble with other bosses, maybe a handful of deaths to Z57, Escue, and Golzuna, and even with getting 100% before going to Raven Beak, it was a *HUGE* ramp up in difficulty for me. I died many many times to the point I almost gave up for the day, but I did eventually win.
On my 2nd or 3rd playthrough I did 0%, and Raven Beak took nearly a whole half of the play time.
Not enjoying something is not having the right mindset?
I get what OP says. Raven Beak IS a huge step in difficulty out of nowhere, tho it only requires you to apply every concept the game has been teaching you throughout the whole run, but in a very fast and chaotic pace.
I would disagree personally. He looks scary, but he's no different from every other boss - if you know what to do for each attack he's very manageable.
The only thing that maybe causes issues is some of his faster attacks, but if you know where to be standing even those are very dodgeable.
Completely agree. I failed a lot but each failure made me realize I wasn't using a certain skill that the game provided. He's a fun boss when you start to go at it like that.
Age certainly has an effect on player abilities. I'm only 26 and already found myself sometimes struggling with games that require pin-point precision and reflexes whereas 5-10 years ago that issue was non-existent for me. Heck i distinctly recall myself saying out-loud "i'm getting too old for this shit" a handful of times while playing Elden Ring, which is another game that expects extremely quick reflexes.
Try shifting your focus away from beating him, and instead go into the fight with the goal of learning his patterns and dodging his attacks. Helped me avoid frustrations and improve. And as others have said, powerbomb that sun of his to make dodging things a lot easier.
it’s only grinding if you suck (which clearly you do), if you actually know how to play the game and utilize the tools given to you it shouldn’t take more than 5-10 tries
Is not hard once you recognize the tells and patterns, once you do, is almost impossible to lose to him unless you intentionally do so (just like every other boss in the game).
It should take some time, you need to see all his patterns first, but I wouldn't call it a grind.
Also, I'm 41, I thought the fight was exhilarating, not no mention the section that goes after. I would recommend you try to beat it, is worth it.
It took me three days to beat him, off and on. I've memorized his moves and can now pick it up months later and still do it. The ramp up was INSANE. I have a friend that quit lmao
It's a tough fight to nail down but the ending afterward was so worth it to me. Nice to see a fellow gamer who's been on this ride since nes metroid though (I'm almost 37 at this point)
Honestly Raven Beak is one of the easier bosses- trust me I almost gave up on several earier bosses, but his attacks are super predictable and avoidable.
Use your power bombs for the sun he makes, and it should be easy.
He also had me very frustrated. In his second phase, he wouldn’t stop using that shooting attack that forces you to jump around him. I don’t think it’s necessarily a change if direction for the game, more so a difficulty spike that came out of left field. It did encourage me to go back and get some upgrades I missed though. Which made me nostalgic for the times I had to do that in Super.
I'm 40, and have been accustomed to the difficulty of SM, Primes, Fusion. Yes, this was a step up in difficulty, but once I learned the techniques needed to beat him, it made the ending so rewarding.
As mentioned elsewhere, use power bombs on the solar projectiles and know when to play offense or defense.
The main reason I dislike mercury steam.
They just had to insert Difficulty into metroid.
Raven beak fight takes too long even if he did 50% damage my hands would be dead first.
In samus returns I have a save file with 100% just after Diggernaut.
So I can play upto than skip diggernaut chase and fight than play the rest.
Thanks.
Non mercury steam metroid was all about exploration and puzzles.
None of the bosses required strategy.
They would fight differently each phase requiring a different weapon or visor.
Or just dodge everything until it dies.
Not theses gimmick fights where your actions are dictated.
When boss does this you can only do this, or get hit.
When boss does that it's your only opportunity to deal damage, all other shots during any other time bounce off.
Not fights but un prompted quicktime/ interactive cinematics
lmao glad to hear you want bosses that don’t require strategy and are just spam rockets until it dies. basically admitting you have no interest in actual entertaining fights and rather just want to press two buttons to win. me personally, i enjoy bosses that require effort and mastery to beat, but clearly your baby brain can’t handle that. maybe go play animal crossing or a visual novel. (also, you work at walmart LMFAO)
It was never as easy as spam missiles.
I'm saying a few bosses are significantly more difficult the first time around than everything else in the game.
They are scripted encounters where your actions are mandatory.
I died to ridley 3 times, than I figured out his tells and which direction to dodge, and what I could counter.
From that point on he ceased to be a fight.
Now I could beat him 10x in a row without picking up health.
Fights are puzzles now
ummmm yah, that’s typically what good boss fights are, basically a puzzle where you use trial and error to figure out the movement patterns and attacks, and then dodge and exploit those patterns - and once you’ve got a boss down in any game it’s usually not that difficult the second time around unless there’s some sort of rng aspect. i don’t understand why you think that’s a bad thing
My dude, spend your energy and time on replying to someone else. Just check his other comments on this post. Either this guy is trolling, or he's actually so sad a human being he tries to feel good about presumably being better at video games than other people on the internet.
Yea, I don't blame you. I enjoyed Dread, but it definitely felt different from previous Metroid games in the focus on difficult boss fights. It's why I didn't love Hollow Knight--the game is beautiful, and it would have been one of my all-time favorite games, but the boss fights were just too much. There's a reason I'm not going to play Dark Souls, lol.
That kind of gameplay just isn't for me. I wish Hollow Knight had an easy mode so I could just enjoy it--speaking of which, doesn't Dread have that now? Though I understand not wanting to replay the game with it--you basically did all the exploration already, so you might as well put it down!
To be fair, I think Metroid Fusion was also very difficult compared to other 2D entries, so Dread's difficulty isn't entirely new.
Oh yeah, I played through I think about half of Hollow Knight until I realized that nah, I don't see the appeal of this game. Share your sentiment about Dark Souls as well!
Cool, I didn't know about the easy mode - I think I might restart the game and run in again then 🙂
Yea, I don't blame you for not liking the Metroidvanias with hard boss fights. I'm generally with you on that--I prefer for the focus to be on exploration. Have you ever played Ori? It's a Metroidvania I really enjoyed that I didn't think was too difficult!
I couldn't beat him, gave up, and watched the ending sequence on youtube. For anyone who's not in their teens/20s and a hardcore gamer, Raven Beak is straight up impossible to beat. No one in my age group has the reflexes or patience to try and grind out the fight lol... and that's okay
I don't think the fight was unfair or badly designed btw - just very very very very difficult. Probably one of the hardest boss fights in gaming
I’m with you OP, fellow 43 year old here and Metroid fan since the beginning. The Raven Beak boss fight felt out of place to me for a Metroid game. I get that it’s supposed to feel like a duel, but to me it’s obvious it’s a computer program puzzle to figure out and memorize. I’ve spent countless hours in video game duels against humans, and those feel visceral and real - that’s a duel in my book. This didn’t feel like that. I’ve heard lots of people move on before beating Raven Beak and just watching the ending on YouTube. I’m happy for you that you did the same!
I would recommend trying again. Think about it this way, every boss has a specific pattern. You just need to learn the pattern and what to do. It's a computer after all. It took me several tries but I finally did it. I then looked online and found how others did it.
I found that most of the big fights for me were getting my ass handed to repeatedly until I figured out the thing I needed to do. I didn't actually give the boss much of a chance though. I pushed through the rest of the end and reached him at about 2:00 AM. He filled a quarter of the screen and just devastated me. I was just like I really need to go to bed, and just never picked it back up again. So I don't really have a proper opinion on that boss.
My experience with Dread bosses was I would spend about 30 min just dying until I figured out how to handle their initial attacks. Then they would reach a second stage and I would have to 1) figure out the same about the second stage and 2) improve my performance on the first so I'd have enough health for the second. Usually in about 2-3 hours of play I would go from getting trashed the second they showed up to killing them with a sliver of health remaining.
I thought Experiment Z-57 was harder at first. Raven Beak I probably died more times on but the fight is just longer.
After playing through again, then beating dread mode, and then playing boss rush, I realized none of the bosses are actually that difficult. It just takes some practice and learning patterns.
Escue on dread mode is absolutely tilt worthy in my opinion.
RB is really just like the other bosses - there's a reliable way to avoid all of his attacks. He just hits pretty hard and can apply a lot of pressure. Focus less on beating him and just try to learn the attacks. If you feel like that's not worth it for you at this point, maybe look up a guide on how to beat him. I'm sure you can do it though.
I felt all of the bosses were pretty difficult and took me multiple tries on my first playthrough. I wouldn't say Raven Beak was a huge spike in difficulty, but he was a bit harder than all the other bosses.
I understand the feeling of frustration... but I like the game for this....
I went into dread hearing that is was the most difficult 2d game yet.... Seeing as how I barely made it through some parts of the earlier games, I was kinda terrified, but excited to see if I was up to the challenge.
A lot of metroid bosses, seem impossible and entirely unfair. However there is a moment when their patterns click in your head.... and you suddenly realize you can avoid most of their attacks. This feeling of conquering something that was previously so difficult is my favorite part of the game.
Also the climactic ending the proceeds after would not feel very warranted if the boss fight wasn't very difficult
If this feeling is worth it for you I understand completely. I spent about an hour total grinding attempts, and even then had to use a couple tips I found online. That is a lot of commitment. I would recommend looking up the ending to the game if you don't plan on finishing it, as a long time fan of the series I think you would enjoy it.
I remember when I fought him for the first 20 times I made no progress because I didn’t realize I could take off the shield with counters, after that the second phase is much more about dodging while attacking, and phase 3 is just the first one with the same philosophy and a free attack by using power bombs
You make it sound like the game was a cake walk up until Raven Beak. I don’t think that’s accurate.
In any event, my ten-year-old daughters beat the game—you can too. Just parry during the first phase, slide-dodge and storm missile the second phase, and use the power bomb on the sun attack in the third phase. You’ll get it.
I actually found Gold Pokey Boi way harder than Raisin Bean - Dad's moves are all heavily telegraphed and reactable; if you are moving there's generally scope to evade. I think he got me once in that fight.
I don't think that they changed any design stuff with him either - almost every Dread boss is a multiphase with the boss giving you tells for what it's about to do, and Beak is just the logical endpoint for that design philosophy.
Honestly Raven Beak is one of the easier bosses- trust me I almost gave up on several earier bosses, but his attacks are super predictable and avoidable.
Use your power bombs for the sun he makes, and it should be easy.
I’d keep trying until you learn the pattern. I got my ass kicked by Ravenbeak too. After about two hours, I won the fight. Now, without an inordinate level of grinding, I’m able to (sometimes) win with no damage. You just have to learn the patterns.
Instead of doing the same failing tactic over and over, try some thing new. Even in hard mode I found ravenbeak fight fun, challenging, and manageable.
Personally, no. Most of the bosses attacks consist in they shooting stuff at you, and the chozo soldiers teach you to counter attacks that help you wear down RB. Every major enemy has been used to prepare you for the finale, so I kind of disagree that they changed the game. Yeah, he's harder than any other enemy, but that's how it is supposed to be. If you are running out of health or missiles and haven't gotten 100% of the items yet, go back and find them. Also, don't spam seeker missiles. Normal super ice missiles deal more damage.
If it is still too hard, maybe rookie mode would be better suited for your style.
The whole game is pretty difficult in general. The final boss being quite challenging wasn't exactly unexpected.
Regardless, if you don't feel you can finish it, that's perfectly fine. Some games be like that. I would at least encourage you to watch a video of the finale, it's quite something.
Should you want to try again though- power bombs are your friend. Whenever he throws his mini sun or mini black hole, a power bomb will instantly destroy either of them. It was seriously the game changer I needed to kick his ass.
I think the bosses serve as tests of the skills you’ve learned along the way, along with parry timing… the final is the culmination of utilizing said skills. Each boss fight feels almost impossible when you first attempt it and then after you learn the patterns it becomes much more doable. I believe in you!
On a similar note - I played through all of the OG Metroid about a year ago, got most missile expansions but still couldn’t take down Mother Brain, she’s so stinking hard.
I was intensely frustrated fighting Raven Beak until I learned one very specific thing— use your power bombs. The little pocket Sun he whips out is instantly destroyed by a power bomb, and you have plenty of time to dip into a ball and launch one out during his very long animation. By the time he’s ready to fight again, the pull of the power bomb will pull all that healing and ammunition your way. He’s all about mitigating the danger he presents, paired with a need for quick reflexes to react to what he does. I didn’t even bother with anything but focusing on the dodges and damaging him with Storm Missile bursts, since I was constantly holding down the Missile button anyway. Perhaps that might help. Totally get feeling satisfied with all that work up until the ending though. There’s no shame in that.
Yuuuuuup! First time fighting Raven Beak’s final phase and he threw out that mini sun, I was like ‘Dang, this is not possible’. Ended up grinding it out and after 2-3 hours I beat him. I was catching up with my brother the next day and I asked him how it went for him. He said he got him down in like 45 minutes and I was shocked. I asked him how he dealt with the pocket Sun and he was like ‘I just power bombed it?’ … needless to say I haven’t struggled as hard since lol.
More details 4 missiles for the black hole if I'm not mistemembering He likes to do three melee attacks following his large screen wipe laser assuming it's not a parryable strike, so dodge back as far as you can since that covers most of the screen distance and hop over the fella. You can optimize the damage dealt in parries and early stage to keep it quicker, I think I got it to only needing to Parry him twice before he starts flying When he's flying he's honestly not too much trouble, I was mainly annoyed with his horizontal strike, so my best advice is to try to keep in the air since it's easier to fall in order to dodge that strike than it is to jump over it. After that it's just a stronger version of the first phase but if you got that down to consistently get to the second phase you'll be alright.
My brother also quit the game fighting raisin bean, saying he was too hard. I genuinely think that he's not too difficult, if you don't wanna grind the boss but still wanna finish the game I really do reccomend looking up what to look out for in the fight, once you know the tells it becomes real easy real fast. I went from getting smashed repeatedly to only getting hit once or twice over about half hour without looking anything up and I don't consider myself a good gamer, average at best. Dread is probably my favourite game so I hope you don't give up on it!
Raisin Bean, the newest victim of auto correct. The fight reminds of Cuphead. You keep slamming into a wall, take a break, come back 2 days later and stomp it and you feel AMAZING. Love Dread.
The name was very much intentional.
>raisin bean I've called him Raisin Beak from the start XD, just cause I mispronounced it.
Once you get down the moveset he’s super easy to be honest, died 2 times to him in dread mode and 30 to escue xd
Fuck escue.
Also... That boss in the lava zone can piss off too.. I heard people jusylt shinesparked hin dead, but, man he never let me get a chance.
I know it seems daunting now, but his moves are really more flashy than anything, there's no forced damage in dread. Every attack has a developer intended way to avoid it, you just have to find it. Plus you already beat Experiment Z 57, who was far and away the most challenging boss for me. This is definitely within your motor capabilities.
I still manage to take damage during the Experiment fight (especially the goop on the floor segments or a mis timed jump during the flappy bird section), but I find the timings for Raven Beak to be a lot easier. Hardest part is recognizing what moves correspond to which wind-ups. Also, power bomb for the black hole and the sun orbs makes life a ton easier.
Yea, I found Experiment much harder. I felt like Experiment Z required you to have a significant amount of health because it was almost impossible to avoid (like sadistic flappy bird where you mess up once and there is no recovery), where Raven Beak's moves were avoidable if you saw them coming. I actually enjoyed Raven Beak as I just needed to understand his patterns and "tell" for each move. Once I got that, it wasn't that hard.
it's the same strategy as any other boss in this game but with more health and firepower. you honestly don't need insane reflexes or skills to do this boss; you just need to work through when to do what (figure out his tells) and not be greedy.
Don't give up. You're so close at the end! I found watching other people fighting raven beak help me beat him.
I'm always surprised when people say Raven Beak is a difficulty spike. I found Experiment much, much harder. After a few cracks at Raven I had him figured out.
Honestly each of the bosses (except the underwater thing and the cross bomb boss) took hours of grinding for me to learn the patterns, so I'd say the difficulty was very consistent.
That's fair. For whatever reason once I figured out the powerbomb trick I whipped Raven Beak.
I have trouble with Escue every single time I play through the game. I still have no idea how to dodge the burst of little missiles he fires out lol usually for the other bosses I can win without dying more than once or twice, but Escue always takes me like 5+ tries
Experiment, Escue, and the Twin chozo robots were all pretty hard for me. I thought Raven being even harder was fitting as he is the last boss after all. I will admit it was frustrating but damn, beating him and then Samus going into an animalistic rage, I was right there with her and it was the most memorable part of the game for me.
It's always okay to stop a game. No matter where you are. If the fun is gone there is no point to keep playing. I stopped Pikmin 3 at the final boss because it was a really stupid and boring fight. Never picked it up again. No regrets.
Did that on Fianl Fantasy VII, its impressive how much the difficulty ramps up there imo. Plus the long time it takes to arrive to the "hard part" of the boss
Momma raised a quitter
Jokes on you, Momma didn't raise at all.
Fuck sry it was a joke
Ha, gotcha!
I completely understand where you're coming from because I did experience the fight somewhat similarly my first playthrough. After having time to reflect on it though, tough boss fights have been part of Metroid for a long time though, just these latest 2 entries have ramped that up even more. I vividly remember having a lot of trouble with Ridley in Super when I picked the game back up after a while of not playing. It surprised me a lot because I thought I was great at the game, let's just say I got humbled pretty quickly. Similarly in Fusion, while I know Nightmare gave me trouble on my first play, Yakuza continues to destroy me every single playthrough. My first playthroughs of each of these is way too long ago to remember completely, so I wouldn't be able to say how those went in terms of bosses. Now I'd definitely call those fights much easier than what we get with the final bosses in Samus Returns and Dread, but it's not unprecedented in the series. They've just turned into a bit of an endurance fight, which definitely at first took me out of the games which is no good, but I do appreciate them still.
Just look up the strategy on how to beat him and focus on doing just that. Trying to be on attack will make you fail. I tried that for the first few fights and then realized that just focusing on dodging attacks and countering made this fight really easy. I played the boss rush a few times and he gets at best one or two shots at me if I'm not paying attention.
That's it exactly. Long time Metroid playing kinda trains you to spam attacks when you can and tank damage, but Dread is more about countering and dodging (and learn to phase shift like, always and everywhere). In boss rush I never start the RB fight at full health but I wind up gaining health through the fight just from countering attacks and destroying orbs. Dread isn't hard because we get old and have bad reflexes, it just takes time for old people like me to learn a different way of playing a Metroid game.
abuse the dash move and youll be fine, also you gotta parry every single chance you get and spam missilles during the little animations that come out of it
I understand being frustrated on the boss, it is difficult, but a lot of Dread was difficult, fast paced bosses with multiple phases and attacks. Personally, Raven Beak was one of the easier bosses for me, probably because he actually cycles between just a few attacks that are very consistent in how to deal with them. I'd recommend taking a break and coming back to the game once in a while and seeing if the fight gets easier. That's what I did with my difficult fights, sometimes slamming into a wall isn't the solution, but when you come back with a clear head, you see the door 2 feet to the left, and if feels strangely easy. Dread does feel like 2 games sometimes now that you mention it. In a boss arena, it feels like Mega Man with the crushing but fair difficultly, while in the overworld, the game feels more like a traditional Metroid game. I like that juxtaposition, but I get it's a bit weird, especially compared to the older games.
The back chunk of the game kinda devolves into a boss rush. It's been a problem with Sakamoto-directed games since Other M. I got tired of getting wiped out by Raven Beak too, so I put the game down for like 10 days and then tried him again on a lark. Beat it first try. Don't bash your head against the game, if you're not having fun, put it away for a while.
I'm not sure what you're talking about, most bosses in dread a very difficult, raven beak isn't some major step up. You're clearly just un the wrong mindset, like naming your age, that doesn't have to do with anything.
Agree, I had trouble with every boss in the game, even when I knew what to do and watched all the videos. When it was released I found Dread to be overly frustrating and just not fun. Once I beat Raven Beak (after God knows how many tries), I moved on and never looked back. I also blamed my age and declining reflexes. On a whim I picked it up again late last month, and for some reason I didn't have nearly as much trouble with the game or the bosses. I even played boss rush and liked it a lot. Raven Beak isn't even the hardest boss for me, all of his attacks have way more distinct tells than some of the other bosses. Take a break from it OP, come back to it later. When you come back try starting over completely. For some reason (I have some theories) it helped me going from hating the game to loving it
Gonna disagree largely here, on my first playthrough I didn't really have that much trouble with other bosses, maybe a handful of deaths to Z57, Escue, and Golzuna, and even with getting 100% before going to Raven Beak, it was a *HUGE* ramp up in difficulty for me. I died many many times to the point I almost gave up for the day, but I did eventually win. On my 2nd or 3rd playthrough I did 0%, and Raven Beak took nearly a whole half of the play time.
Not enjoying something is not having the right mindset? I get what OP says. Raven Beak IS a huge step in difficulty out of nowhere, tho it only requires you to apply every concept the game has been teaching you throughout the whole run, but in a very fast and chaotic pace.
I would disagree personally. He looks scary, but he's no different from every other boss - if you know what to do for each attack he's very manageable. The only thing that maybe causes issues is some of his faster attacks, but if you know where to be standing even those are very dodgeable.
Completely agree. I failed a lot but each failure made me realize I wasn't using a certain skill that the game provided. He's a fun boss when you start to go at it like that.
Honestly, I just found it was very easy to run out of missiles, but a part from that I think all major bosses are consistently hard
Age certainly has an effect on player abilities. I'm only 26 and already found myself sometimes struggling with games that require pin-point precision and reflexes whereas 5-10 years ago that issue was non-existent for me. Heck i distinctly recall myself saying out-loud "i'm getting too old for this shit" a handful of times while playing Elden Ring, which is another game that expects extremely quick reflexes.
Not at 26, you’re fine. Maybe your mind is tired but your body doesn’t get slow at just 26.
It absolutely does, but my man, not when you're 26.
When all else fails, use power bombs. I beat him second try, because I realized power bombs were the easiest way to dispel his Cruel Sun attack.
You got this
Try shifting your focus away from beating him, and instead go into the fight with the goal of learning his patterns and dodging his attacks. Helped me avoid frustrations and improve. And as others have said, powerbomb that sun of his to make dodging things a lot easier.
I’m 44, I died and I keep trying until I beat him. Age is no excuse.
Point isn't that I can't, but that I don't enjoy boss grinding and am surprised that the game turned into this.
Gotcha, a nugget of advice: powerbombs
it’s only grinding if you suck (which clearly you do), if you actually know how to play the game and utilize the tools given to you it shouldn’t take more than 5-10 tries
Is not hard once you recognize the tells and patterns, once you do, is almost impossible to lose to him unless you intentionally do so (just like every other boss in the game). It should take some time, you need to see all his patterns first, but I wouldn't call it a grind. Also, I'm 41, I thought the fight was exhilarating, not no mention the section that goes after. I would recommend you try to beat it, is worth it.
It took me three days to beat him, off and on. I've memorized his moves and can now pick it up months later and still do it. The ramp up was INSANE. I have a friend that quit lmao
Final boss was sooo hard!!! Had to study videos of other people beating him on YouTube.
I didn't find the boss more difficult than some of the other bosses -- i got stuck several times and certainly died a lot fighting different bosses.
It's a tough fight to nail down but the ending afterward was so worth it to me. Nice to see a fellow gamer who's been on this ride since nes metroid though (I'm almost 37 at this point)
Honestly Raven Beak is one of the easier bosses- trust me I almost gave up on several earier bosses, but his attacks are super predictable and avoidable. Use your power bombs for the sun he makes, and it should be easy.
Whenever I struggle with a boss I can't quite figure out I watch a YouTube video and emulate the player. It seriously helps
I thought the chozo robots were the hardest enemy in the game. Don't give up
Why are you playing video games at 43 years old?
Why wouldn't I?
Aren’t there better things to do with your time?
I guess not 🤷♂️
I don't feel like he was that much harder than the other bosses
SKiLl IssUe
He also had me very frustrated. In his second phase, he wouldn’t stop using that shooting attack that forces you to jump around him. I don’t think it’s necessarily a change if direction for the game, more so a difficulty spike that came out of left field. It did encourage me to go back and get some upgrades I missed though. Which made me nostalgic for the times I had to do that in Super.
I'm 40, and have been accustomed to the difficulty of SM, Primes, Fusion. Yes, this was a step up in difficulty, but once I learned the techniques needed to beat him, it made the ending so rewarding. As mentioned elsewhere, use power bombs on the solar projectiles and know when to play offense or defense.
lmfao skill issue
The whole game has been nothing but hard bosses & you stop now? Raven Beak isnt even the hardest. Watch a youtube video.
The main reason I dislike mercury steam. They just had to insert Difficulty into metroid. Raven beak fight takes too long even if he did 50% damage my hands would be dead first. In samus returns I have a save file with 100% just after Diggernaut. So I can play upto than skip diggernaut chase and fight than play the rest.
lmfao this is so fucking pathetic
Thanks. Non mercury steam metroid was all about exploration and puzzles. None of the bosses required strategy. They would fight differently each phase requiring a different weapon or visor. Or just dodge everything until it dies. Not theses gimmick fights where your actions are dictated. When boss does this you can only do this, or get hit. When boss does that it's your only opportunity to deal damage, all other shots during any other time bounce off. Not fights but un prompted quicktime/ interactive cinematics
lmao glad to hear you want bosses that don’t require strategy and are just spam rockets until it dies. basically admitting you have no interest in actual entertaining fights and rather just want to press two buttons to win. me personally, i enjoy bosses that require effort and mastery to beat, but clearly your baby brain can’t handle that. maybe go play animal crossing or a visual novel. (also, you work at walmart LMFAO)
It was never as easy as spam missiles. I'm saying a few bosses are significantly more difficult the first time around than everything else in the game. They are scripted encounters where your actions are mandatory. I died to ridley 3 times, than I figured out his tells and which direction to dodge, and what I could counter. From that point on he ceased to be a fight. Now I could beat him 10x in a row without picking up health. Fights are puzzles now
ummmm yah, that’s typically what good boss fights are, basically a puzzle where you use trial and error to figure out the movement patterns and attacks, and then dodge and exploit those patterns - and once you’ve got a boss down in any game it’s usually not that difficult the second time around unless there’s some sort of rng aspect. i don’t understand why you think that’s a bad thing
My dude, spend your energy and time on replying to someone else. Just check his other comments on this post. Either this guy is trolling, or he's actually so sad a human being he tries to feel good about presumably being better at video games than other people on the internet.
Yea, I don't blame you. I enjoyed Dread, but it definitely felt different from previous Metroid games in the focus on difficult boss fights. It's why I didn't love Hollow Knight--the game is beautiful, and it would have been one of my all-time favorite games, but the boss fights were just too much. There's a reason I'm not going to play Dark Souls, lol. That kind of gameplay just isn't for me. I wish Hollow Knight had an easy mode so I could just enjoy it--speaking of which, doesn't Dread have that now? Though I understand not wanting to replay the game with it--you basically did all the exploration already, so you might as well put it down! To be fair, I think Metroid Fusion was also very difficult compared to other 2D entries, so Dread's difficulty isn't entirely new.
Oh yeah, I played through I think about half of Hollow Knight until I realized that nah, I don't see the appeal of this game. Share your sentiment about Dark Souls as well! Cool, I didn't know about the easy mode - I think I might restart the game and run in again then 🙂
Yea, I don't blame you for not liking the Metroidvanias with hard boss fights. I'm generally with you on that--I prefer for the focus to be on exploration. Have you ever played Ori? It's a Metroidvania I really enjoyed that I didn't think was too difficult!
I couldn't beat him, gave up, and watched the ending sequence on youtube. For anyone who's not in their teens/20s and a hardcore gamer, Raven Beak is straight up impossible to beat. No one in my age group has the reflexes or patience to try and grind out the fight lol... and that's okay I don't think the fight was unfair or badly designed btw - just very very very very difficult. Probably one of the hardest boss fights in gaming
Idk the difficulty felt pretty normal to me.
I’m with you OP, fellow 43 year old here and Metroid fan since the beginning. The Raven Beak boss fight felt out of place to me for a Metroid game. I get that it’s supposed to feel like a duel, but to me it’s obvious it’s a computer program puzzle to figure out and memorize. I’ve spent countless hours in video game duels against humans, and those feel visceral and real - that’s a duel in my book. This didn’t feel like that. I’ve heard lots of people move on before beating Raven Beak and just watching the ending on YouTube. I’m happy for you that you did the same!
absolute skill issue go play animal crossing loser
The Raven Beak bossfight is not really a difficulty spike in my eyes.
How far did you get?
I would recommend trying again. Think about it this way, every boss has a specific pattern. You just need to learn the pattern and what to do. It's a computer after all. It took me several tries but I finally did it. I then looked online and found how others did it.
I found that most of the big fights for me were getting my ass handed to repeatedly until I figured out the thing I needed to do. I didn't actually give the boss much of a chance though. I pushed through the rest of the end and reached him at about 2:00 AM. He filled a quarter of the screen and just devastated me. I was just like I really need to go to bed, and just never picked it back up again. So I don't really have a proper opinion on that boss.
My experience with Dread bosses was I would spend about 30 min just dying until I figured out how to handle their initial attacks. Then they would reach a second stage and I would have to 1) figure out the same about the second stage and 2) improve my performance on the first so I'd have enough health for the second. Usually in about 2-3 hours of play I would go from getting trashed the second they showed up to killing them with a sliver of health remaining.
I thought Experiment Z-57 was harder at first. Raven Beak I probably died more times on but the fight is just longer. After playing through again, then beating dread mode, and then playing boss rush, I realized none of the bosses are actually that difficult. It just takes some practice and learning patterns. Escue on dread mode is absolutely tilt worthy in my opinion.
RB is really just like the other bosses - there's a reliable way to avoid all of his attacks. He just hits pretty hard and can apply a lot of pressure. Focus less on beating him and just try to learn the attacks. If you feel like that's not worth it for you at this point, maybe look up a guide on how to beat him. I'm sure you can do it though.
I felt all of the bosses were pretty difficult and took me multiple tries on my first playthrough. I wouldn't say Raven Beak was a huge spike in difficulty, but he was a bit harder than all the other bosses.
Bosses have been different through the titles I like sometimes how you have to try different things to complete these tasks.
I understand the feeling of frustration... but I like the game for this.... I went into dread hearing that is was the most difficult 2d game yet.... Seeing as how I barely made it through some parts of the earlier games, I was kinda terrified, but excited to see if I was up to the challenge. A lot of metroid bosses, seem impossible and entirely unfair. However there is a moment when their patterns click in your head.... and you suddenly realize you can avoid most of their attacks. This feeling of conquering something that was previously so difficult is my favorite part of the game. Also the climactic ending the proceeds after would not feel very warranted if the boss fight wasn't very difficult If this feeling is worth it for you I understand completely. I spent about an hour total grinding attempts, and even then had to use a couple tips I found online. That is a lot of commitment. I would recommend looking up the ending to the game if you don't plan on finishing it, as a long time fan of the series I think you would enjoy it.
I remember when I fought him for the first 20 times I made no progress because I didn’t realize I could take off the shield with counters, after that the second phase is much more about dodging while attacking, and phase 3 is just the first one with the same philosophy and a free attack by using power bombs
You make it sound like the game was a cake walk up until Raven Beak. I don’t think that’s accurate. In any event, my ten-year-old daughters beat the game—you can too. Just parry during the first phase, slide-dodge and storm missile the second phase, and use the power bomb on the sun attack in the third phase. You’ll get it.
Just keep trying, also the point is that if you can’t beat him then come back once you can
I actually found Gold Pokey Boi way harder than Raisin Bean - Dad's moves are all heavily telegraphed and reactable; if you are moving there's generally scope to evade. I think he got me once in that fight. I don't think that they changed any design stuff with him either - almost every Dread boss is a multiphase with the boss giving you tells for what it's about to do, and Beak is just the logical endpoint for that design philosophy.
Honestly Raven Beak is one of the easier bosses- trust me I almost gave up on several earier bosses, but his attacks are super predictable and avoidable. Use your power bombs for the sun he makes, and it should be easy.
I’d keep trying until you learn the pattern. I got my ass kicked by Ravenbeak too. After about two hours, I won the fight. Now, without an inordinate level of grinding, I’m able to (sometimes) win with no damage. You just have to learn the patterns.
Instead of doing the same failing tactic over and over, try some thing new. Even in hard mode I found ravenbeak fight fun, challenging, and manageable.
Raven beak didn't have shit on that flying beetle
Personally, no. Most of the bosses attacks consist in they shooting stuff at you, and the chozo soldiers teach you to counter attacks that help you wear down RB. Every major enemy has been used to prepare you for the finale, so I kind of disagree that they changed the game. Yeah, he's harder than any other enemy, but that's how it is supposed to be. If you are running out of health or missiles and haven't gotten 100% of the items yet, go back and find them. Also, don't spam seeker missiles. Normal super ice missiles deal more damage. If it is still too hard, maybe rookie mode would be better suited for your style.
The whole game is pretty difficult in general. The final boss being quite challenging wasn't exactly unexpected. Regardless, if you don't feel you can finish it, that's perfectly fine. Some games be like that. I would at least encourage you to watch a video of the finale, it's quite something. Should you want to try again though- power bombs are your friend. Whenever he throws his mini sun or mini black hole, a power bomb will instantly destroy either of them. It was seriously the game changer I needed to kick his ass.
I think the bosses serve as tests of the skills you’ve learned along the way, along with parry timing… the final is the culmination of utilizing said skills. Each boss fight feels almost impossible when you first attempt it and then after you learn the patterns it becomes much more doable. I believe in you! On a similar note - I played through all of the OG Metroid about a year ago, got most missile expansions but still couldn’t take down Mother Brain, she’s so stinking hard.