I'm about 60% into the game and still have about 7 forms still locked. I wasn't really paying much attention to the forms, they really only seem useful for things that ANY of the forms can do, like hitting buttons to move obstacles, help with attacking when there are lots of enemies on screen, attacking the monster that puts stuff in the bottom screen, setting off special weapons, etc. So I wasn't really concerning myself with the varying forms since they all did essentially the same thing. Just use the one that reacts the quickest and smacks the hardest and you're good....that was my strategy. Otherwise, I just let the forms tend to themselves. I'm more into fully exploring the maps and have only been paying the most rudimentary attention to the forms. I imagine that by doing that, it affects your percentage at the end of the game. I'm probably pretty close to finishing the story. If I don't work on trying to get all the forms, my endgame will probably only be in the 70-80 percentile range.
Still, I've been spending some real quality time with my DS the last day or two and having lots of fun. I never was a "completest" who had to get 100% of everything. Once the credits roll, I'm done. This game is so incredibly easy that I won't need all the forms to beat it. Phooey on the percentage rating I say. I got my fun out of the game and that's all that matters to me.
Makes me want to boot up the old GBA Metroid games after beating this. While I've beaten Fusion, I have never completed Zero Mission.....I've tried a few times and have always gotten stuck at a certain point. I actually own the original GBA carts of those games too, though I just play them through my M3 Perfect.
I'm at 9h 42m at this point, but despite the 56.6% into the game that the game says I've played, I feel I am very close to the end of the story. There's not much unexplored map left, so I know I'm almost done. Lots of backtracking and exploring maps adds a lot of time, but my negligence of the forms reduces my percentage.
How much time/percentage have you guys racked-up playing this game so far? Or if you already beat it, how long did it take and what was your percentage?