Yoshio Sakamoto and Mercury Steam share a historical quirk: Both infamously made the games they wanted to make, executing their goals to their own satisfaction, only for the negative fan reception to completely blindside them. Between them, they laid to rest the two series for which the Metroidvania genre is named.
Sakamoto helmed the poorly received Metroid: Other M , the infamous game that put Metroid on metaphorical rails and lead to the Metroid franchise going dormant. Yet in spite of its notably large flaws, it was clearly the game he wanted to make, going so far as to say he wouldn’t change anything about it. On the other end, Mercury Steam made Castlevania: Lords of Shadow 2, a competent game that developed smoothly and was what the team wanted to make, but lacked focus and wasn’t what fans expected. It was the last Castlevania game before the series also went dormant. Both titles also suffered from their release window being at the end of their respective platforms’ lifespans. However, Metroid Dread is a perfect confluence of events to create a new break out entry for the underappreciated legacy franchise.
