>>715877219
this is far and away the best looking set they've ever made
as for the NPC thing yeah, it's odd they never had them walking around again
even as late as ER the NPCs will still just sit there, then you have to reload the game just to get them to actually move somewhere else once their quest condition has been met

>>715396946
DeS is all I need, no need to choose

>>712873924
yeah, although DeS is a later Mega Man game in this case with stellar level design, and DaS is Metroid (NES) with worse level design
it's no coincidence that the best level design to be found in DaS, the Painted World, is also disconnected from the rest of the world in much the same way that the levels in DeS are separated. not needing to connect to a larger space is what allows the level design in DeS to be so good