A portion of a USGamer interview with Nintendo's Kensuke Tanabe...

USG: You say "stages." Does that mean the game does not have the traditional structure of a Metroid game where it’s a large interconnected world?

KT: So there will be a huge universe, but there will be little missions that you will be assigned to. There’s a starting point and an end, which can be kind of long, depending on the kind of mission that you choose. The whole story takes place in this universe in which there are three planets; each having a different environment. One is covered in ice, one is made of gas and one is in a desert area. If you look at it as far as having different sorts of environments that you experience depending on the type of mission that you have to tackle, you will still be able to get that different atmosphere just like in the previous Prime games.

USG: Is this mission-based structure why it’s not a game about Samus? Because it does seem like Metroid is always a story about Samus’ growth and development as a warrior in each game.

KT: As far as the reason why the focus is not on Samus this time, it’s mostly because the whole idea was to have a game that focused on the Federation Forces, the battle with them against the Space Pirates. Since there was no title along that line, I wanted to be able to bring that out this time.

USG: What happens if I’m playing on the New 3DS and I take my Samus Amiibo and tap into the 3DS?

KT: So while I do have a few ideas, I can’t quite tell you at this time since they’re not all finalized, but there are some ideas coming. If possible at all, it would be nice to have an Amiibo of the mech.

USG: Have you been surprised by the backlash against this game and how negatively people have responded to it?

KT: I was quite surprised by the backlash, because as far as from a development perspective, I’ve been putting a lot of emphasis into game play and the way the game feels when you play it — as well as the creation of the universe to be within the Prime series, but at the same time I get the feeling that people are talking a little too much about the visuals they have seen through videos they have seen so far. Again, it will be different once you have the hands-on experience.

While there is a lot of backlash as you pointed out, this a perfect chance for me to turn the table around and get people to start liking it. If people are already paying attention to it, there’s always room to get that to work in a positive way – to get interested in a nice way about the game.

USG: So where in the Prime timeline does it take place, then?

KT: There isn’t a very specific place within the Metroid Prime timeline, but somewhere in the Prime 1, 2, 3, Hunters, and Federation Force, it’s somewhere within that.

USG: You mentioned the story leading up to the future. Is that the "future" as defined in Metroid Prime 3, or are you thinking ahead to future games in the Prime Series?

KT: The whole story around Dark Samus and Phazon are complete stories. But for the future, what I have in mind is something involving Silux and Samus with the Federation Force, so to put a focus on that. While I still don’t have a concrete idea on how many games that could be involving between these two, there’s something relating to Silux that has made Silux hate Samus. So in that way, it might be backtracking a bit in the timeline to explain that a little bit, to clarify what is going to happen between the two of them.

USG: So in a way, you envision this game as a Prologue to future chapters in the Prime Series?

KT: You can say it that way, but obviously, you will be able to learn something about the Prime Universe with this game. I am definitely creating this game with it in mind that players can enjoy it as much as they did previous Prime titles. With that in mind, I would love players to experience this as well.