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Very cool improvement hack. I like that you put effort into making empty Chozo rooms feel more natural like removing the ominous theme in them. I would opt to play this over vanilla ZM, however I think there are some areas where a new player would get lost.

The high jump boots in Norfair requires the speed booster to break apart the ground. It's obvious for Metroid fans to bomb that area but newcomers could completely miss that area the first time they pass by there. Then when they have the speed booster, they may not think to return to that location. This one isn't too bad though because even lost players could eventually break that ground by accident.

Also the Varia suit seems completely hidden to players new to Zero Mission. There's nothing out of the ordinary to make players shoot up in that tunnel.

One way to make both those locations more obvious is to have enemies visible on the other side (or inside the tube's lining). Another would be to have the map show a location nearby in hopes that the player would search around. One other thing that could be done is put one of the invulnerable plants on the right side of the tunnel once high jump boots and power grip have been obtained, locking the player in 2 small rooms until they figure it out. Then make sure there's enough tiny bugs in that area once Varia has been obtained.

Lastly, the absence of the top right Chozo statue in Brinstar removes the little puzzle players had to do to lower it. The one where you bring tiny bugs with you to destroy the plant below so you get another route around. Granted you can sequence break to that statue as well. I don't know if it's possible to keep that statue without triggering the "here's your next location" cutscene though.

This is all I really noticed from playing this patch. Regardless of those things I noticed, this would be a solid romhack to give to players who haven't played Zero Mission yet.

This hack combined with Trunaur68's Item Toggle/Menu Hack is amazing! Never play original Zero Mission! Play this hack instead. This is canon version or Metroid 1 for me. Thank you for creating this!

I enjoyed the game much more exploring at my own pace and finding things on my own, the removal of the statues certainly helped! But I feel like the one in Norfair that reveals the location of the Varia Suit probably should have stayed. I spent a good hour or so trying to find places I could reach with the new high jump boots before finally giving up and checking a walkthrough to progress. There are zero markings or any other indicators showing the breakable ceiling that leads to the Varia suit, making that Chozo statue the only possible way to discover it legit, other than shooting every surface in every room constantly throughout the game.

Any chance you could make a version with just that statue remaining?

Without those hits the exploration became much more funnier and interesting. The only bad thing about this is that it doesn't removes the functionality of the Map rooms, that sometimes are impossible to avoid, if you include that the game would be 100% better!

This patch removes the annoying hand holding and the game is all the better for it. Thank you!

Now if there was a patch that removes the stealth mission after Mother Brain, the game would be perfect!

Great work on this!