New plans for how the Mirogox will work (caution: arguably contains spoilers!)

So for Mirogox: Mission Crash, with the game being an attempt at a spiritual successor of sorts to Metroid 2, well, it wouldn't be a successor to Metroid 2 without some bosses to face, would it?

Previously I discussed the idea of the Mirogox battles randomly replacing other rooms, but I don't think that's really the best approach for it, so I have some new ideas I'd like to bring up and discuss.

The current thought is that there would be creatures called "Mirogox", of multiple variants, which you need to beat enough of to get to the final area. Not necessarily all of them, just enough of them. I think there will be three types of Mirogox (well, there'd be four, but I don't wanna say too much about the fourth type for now):

The first type is Patrols, which there would be three of in any given area and which each have dedicated rooms they would consistently show up in. These would be the easiest to kill, and since you only need so many Mirogox essences to beat the game (Mirogox drop essences which you would use to get to the final area), you mostly just need to kill these ones, the others are optional. They only take 5 flares to kill, though later ones take 10 or even 15.

The thought here is to provide the player with an easier type to go after as their main objective, with the other types providing the player a few extra ones they can go after depending on what ends up being convenient for their particular approach on how they want to progress through the game, since, depending on how much the player explores side paths, they might not have enough flares to take on the other two types particularly easily when they encounter them.

Anyways, moving on to the second type:

Hunters, which actively would be trying to find you. They would also be attracted to flares, and could, themselves, use flares. If you see one of these, it would be best to run. They would take 80 flares to kill, but progress is maintained between attempts and even after leaving the area. Shooting these with flares, like any Mirogox, will push it back, but it's a bit more considerable with this type

The thought here is to have a constant threat that the player needs to be aware of in every area that affects their decision-making process on when to use flares to fight stuff and when to not. Sure, flares are an instant kill on regular enemies and the only way to hurt a Mirogox, but that might not always be worth it depending on whether they have enough fuel to at least push a Hunter back long enough with flares to flee, or to use fuel to Drill Dash away from it fast enough, or if they otherwise don't have any good escape plan for if things go wrong.

Now, onto the third type:

Guardians, which are near items and are slower like a Patrol but can shoot stuff at you, albeit weaker stuff, like a Hunter. Mostly though, they're decently tanky, taking 40 flares to kill (notably this is your cap to start out with), except the Guardian for the Flare itself, which only takes 10.

The idea here is to make it so, right after or right before getting a new upgrade, you have a new threat to deal with before or after it. Basically these would serve as more conventional bosses, and it's possible I'd make it so each one has a unique gimmick or ability to keep things interesting.  Though honestly, I'm anticipating that players will mostly try to run past them and just get on with things.

Also worth a note: If a Mirogox is in a room with you and actively fighting you (e.g. it needs to spot you first before this is a concern), I might make it so the "teleport back to your crashed ship" ability you'll otherwise be able to use at all times is non-functional until the Mirogox is dead or you've at least left the room.

No, I don't have any concept sprites for any of these yet, I'm still not 100% sure if I'm going with this approach anyways after all.

I'll try to remember to share this with y'all if I do go with this plan.

If you're curious, me making these kinds of posts is basically the train of thought of the design process of these things. It's almost like a look into a sort of design document for the game, except the document is ideas I'm mostly otherwise keeping in my head, which I'm writing down publicly so I can not only refer back to them like a non-public design document, but also so people can see what kinds of ideas I have in mind for the game.

(I also write down similar things not as publicly admittedly but the actual like, reasoning behind the design choices often doesn't end up in those, so these are actually in many ways more detailed and helpful to refer back to.)

...hopefully that makes sense, I'm not always great at phrasing stuff.