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While some tweaks can be questionable, overall hack makes for a pretty fun, fresh and improved experience of the game. Though keep in mind, it's WIP, so expect some rough edges here or there.

It introduces tons of welcome QOL changes, but also forces harder enemies and bosses. The few changes that make enemies and bosses harder, should be optional. All the other changes are very welcome.

Doing this would ensure absolutely anyone can enjoy this potentially fantastic hack.

I hadn't played Zero Mission at all before I dived into this hack, and because the main criticism that I had always heard about the game was the hand-holding and the railroading I decided to go with the version that disabled unknown items and Chozo hints. This turned out to be a relatively good idea, but it had some pretty bad side effects which I think first-time players need to consider, and that future versions of this hack should address.

Most of the time a lack of Chozo hints don't really mean much outside of increased player agency, since the world design itself is so linear. However, sometimes the lack of waypoints absolutely destroys progression if you don't know where to go already. Having not played the normal version, I don't know what the player would be guided on or not, but here's a few examples of where I personally got stuck;

1) The damn Varia suit. I hit a wall for ages just circling around trying to find the way forward, but the only way I could see was through heated rooms I couldn't survive. I had to search for a walkthrough on how to find the Varia suit, and lo and behold it was in a secret room behind an unmarked destructible ceiling. I don't know how players could find it in the base game, but in the Chozo-less version it needs to be made much more obvious.

2) Fake lava pits. Once again I hit a wall for ages and it was only in a madness-induced stupor that I threw myself into a lava pit looking for a secret passage, only for it to be fake and the path forward finally presenting itself. If I had a general direction to go in (like what I assume vanilla players had) I might have tried it sooner, especially if I had had the Varia suit (which I couldn't have reasonably found myself, I remind you), but in this version the fake lava pits only confuse new players and should be removed.

3) Ridley. Overall the difficulty is pretty well tuned, but the very beginning of it is agony. The floor crumbles underneath you and you fall into lava, with a ridiculously long string of fireballs keeping you in the lava. New players will get shredded in seconds (especially since they wont have the Varia suit) on their first attempt, which is obviously unfair. Removing the crumbling floor and delaying the fireballs would be a good tweak.

Those are the main sticking points, which I reiterate I only have because I'm a new player playing the Chozo-less version. If one is playing the regular version or is knowledgeable about the game before playing this version, then this hack is just an objective improvement with zero drawbacks. And even when I was lost and confused, being able to make my own decisions and go through the game on my own terms is an undeniable advantage that this version has over Chozo hints and unknown items. And of course I experienced zero glitches or technical problems over the course of my playthrough (save mGBA crashing a few times). The hack has an incredible future, it just needs some more tweaking.

If at first, mantaining momentum while landing can be a bit odd, when you get used to, it makes the gameplay really fluid, wich fits perfectly with the philosophy of Zero Mission.

If this patch was compatible with the Chozo Hint Removal patch and the auto charge was optional, it would be perfect!!

Edit: Well, autocharge is out, and Unk-Enabled version has no Chozo Hints, so as an improvement of the original gameplay, it's perfects as it is.

Very solid improvement hack without affecting the core gameplay much in intrusive ways. I'm just a casual player who doesn't speedrun games but I can appreciate some positive tweaks. Here's some things I liked and didn't like.

Pros:

• Auto charge. I find it really useful and non bothersome for the most part as it allows me to use something I barely used before because I didn't want to continuously hold B the entire game. It also allows for drawing in items easier which is another cool feature. I absolutely loved it during the zero suit samus segments. Having it enabled for these parts is a must, definitely keep this feature. I never used to use the charge shot during these parts.

• Super Metroid item grab. This is much more quicker than waiting for the menu to popup to show me pointless information. The initial popup is enough.

• harder bosses. I got destroyed by Ridley on normal difficulty, but I enjoy the challenge. Kraid was also hitting me left and right, bouncing me around. Mecha ridley was damn annoying to defeat but I mastered it the second time. Im just glad they aren't pushovers anymore.

• Starting off on crateria by the ship. This makes a lot of sense since it shows how samus arrived in brinstar. It's a good choice I'd say, nothing I'm against.

Cons:

• Auto charge, again. I found some parts of the game very frustrating because of it. There was a moment I wanted to freeze an enemy and then jump on it. But I end up somersaulting into the enemy and killing it (Happened in the middle of Ridley). Another thing is it's hard to freeze enemies without killing them with a full charged shot. I had to get myself to hold B to stop the charge altogether. So the auto charge does have its annoying moments.

• Super Metroid Controls. For the most part they work great, but holy hell it made the Metroids so much more difficult! Having to swap between ice beam and missiles is way more difficult and they latch onto me before I can manage to switch. It was a terrible experience. I'll stick to the default controls.

• Faster room transitioning. As much as it speeds things up, it kinda takes away from the original feel of the game. The screen transition is iconic in this game. I understand that speedrunning is the main concern for hacks like these. The inclusion of an optional patch to restore it would be nice. Overall the more optional patches you include, the better. Just need a folder called optional patches and it won't clutter up the main patches. Then everyone wins! This is a very minor con, but I still like the original transition better.

All the other changes are fine and don't concern me, like the shinespark and physics changes. Im not a speedrunner nor do I go for 100% so they dont affect me. About the auto charge, I suggest making that into an optional patch. Really looking forward to where this project will go next in the future!

I had a great time playing through this hack thanks to its quality of life improvements.

• Maintained momentum after landing on the ground
• Improved level design. Creating a more exploratory feel while staying faithful
• No more unknown items being locked
• Skippable cutscenes

Though I did find a glitch. After you collect the power grip and enter the area where the ship is landed, if you jump out from that high ledge to your ship, you can collect an invisible power bomb container in the air. It's very easy to do. That area on the mini map looks a little glitched afterwards and you can go through the rest of the game with power bombs! It actually can break the game by, for example, allowing you to enter Mother Brain's lair the reverse way and you can also skip Mother Brain completely by just opening the Chozodia doors early and going straight to Mecha Ridley.