Persephone's (Gothic) Insights

This review—which I will be keeping relatively short (under thirty pages)—is for  X-Fusion  (2025), a "total conversion" romhack [1] for  Super Metroid  (1994) and  Metroid Fusion  (2002) by  Metaquarius . It is  not  a thematic analysis of the game or its textual elements (for  that , refer to my series of essays, " X Marks the Spot ," 2025). Instead, it covers the base game; i.e., as something to play and watch, and in similar ways to the old interviews I conducted for my initial PhD research (re: " Mazes and Labyrinths ," 2021). While I  have  played the game, myself, much of this review was gleaned by watching a variety of  Metroid  speedrunners suffer on YouTube and Twitch (the three primarily featured here being  CScottyW ,  Oatsngoats  and Shiny Zeni ); i.e., because I am  not  a speedrunner but  do  research Metroidvania as games  to  speedrun. As for the game its...