Why Metroid: Other M Didn't Kill Samus (Moviebob's View)

[ChromeAlchemist]

http://screwattack.com/videos/TGO-Episode-40-Heavens-to-Metroid

Personally I agree with him on pretty much all of it, but what do you all think?

 

[Random Argument Man]

I also did. The projection of Samus before Other M was way out of line.

 

[ChromeAlchemist]

I also did. The projection of Samus before Other M was way out of line.

I compare it to Zoey from L4D.

 

[Judgement101]

Any silent protaganist is instantly dead to me, if they don't talk then they are just a cardboard cut-out with a gun. Out of nowhere they gave Samus a voice and some how she became more dead to me. The point I'm trying to make is: Samus is dead to me.

 

[A random person]

Even though he made some decent points, I still believe that the Prime games had better gameplay (and avoided the problems Bob seems to have with FPS's, along with lock-on), and that it did horrible things to Samus's character (in response to his points about extreme feminism; a woman admiring a man is fine, but being that dependent, especially when you have an established record of badassary, is not). Say what you will about it giving her more traits, it was preferable when she was silent, kinda like how giving Gorden Freeman a Barney (the purple dinosaur, mind) voice would add to his character, but his silent self would still be better.

And while he's right that gameplay-wise, authorization and collection are very similar, in terms of basic in-universe sense waiting for authorization to use the Varia suit is incomprehensibly stupid, adding that much more to the assault on her character.

Of course, right now I'm more worried about the backlash to his "stop being hard on Japan" statements (remember the response to his Halo: Legends review? I don't want that again).

Edit: Since this is an issue I'm pretty big on, I'll blabber on some more:
It's my belief that Other M is an extreme incarnation of a trend that started in Prime 3, namely, a greater focus on linear story and explicit world-building (as opposed to the in-the-background style of Super and the first Prime). While Prime 3 was a good game, it felt the whole way through like it was trying to be Halo to an extent, what with the greater focus on the Federation, dialogue, combat, cutscenes, and generally more upfront story-telling at the cost of atmosphere (my favorite part was when you teleport to an ice section, as it was quieter and reminiscent of the first Prime).

Don't get me wrong, explicit story-telling has its place (MGS3 is one of my favorite games), but it doesn't work for Metroid, a series pretty much made by atmosphere and exploration, both of which were compromised in Prime 3 and done away with in Other M.

 

[internetzealot1]

Moviebob has always made the assumption that silence is indicative of shallowness. Its not. Its a character trait. And as far as character traits go, its pretty interesting, because its the actions of the character that determine how he is characterized by silence.

But I wouldn't say exploring Samus's character is a bad idea for a game. Its just that this one fucked it up. Hard.

 

[General Torg]

Rather fantastic review

 

[deth2munkies]

I disagree. He tends to gloss over it a lot more than he should. He goes straight for the feminist issue and ignores the fact that it's fucking stupid to go into the lava world and not activate your heat resistant suit because daddy wouldn't let you.

That and I find Samus annoying, and I would even if she was an original character due to her constant emo whining. I really don't give a shit about feminism or previous characterization of Samus so much as that her dialogue is extremely annoying to listen to.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

I can't think of a single area in which I disagree with his assessment. Except for his criticism of Ninja Gaiden.

 

[Eclectic Dreck]

I don't think Other M killed Samus as a character; instead, I believe that it gave Samus psychological traits that directly contradict the actions of her past. It portrayed her is incredibly dependent upon another person to the extent that she would listen to orders that are likely going to result in her getting killed when she has, historically, done all the work herself. It shows her as being emotionally broken to the point that she goes catatonic after facing down a particular recurring monster from her past when she had, by this point, waded unflinching into the depths of unfathomable horrors.

I have no problem with characterization, but when said characterization contradicts what the character actually does then you have violated one of the great tenants of writing: character consistency. Yes, a character is free to change but when said character has an established pattern of behavior, you need to give good cause for why any change occurred.

 

[Impluse_101]

He's right.

Before I saw the video, I did see people complain about the Metroid: Other M about the story. I took that as a note for the game.

When I knew Samus, that was when I first got Metroid Fusion, its my first real douseage of Samus. She had a little persona for that, and I learned that she was working under a "boyfriend" ish officer of some sort.

So after that I Generalize this

Metroid: Other M is the first, possibly final, and official, persona creation for Samus. From Robotic character thats a girl. To, a human.

Edit: This might be just a stone block for an actual persona for her actually, they might build her out of those issues and maybe include different ones as well. You had the dust from the games about her persona, Now you actually have a block on the creation of Samus as a person.

 

[BrainWalker]

Usually I agree with Bob, but I find in this video he's making a lot of assumptions about the assumptions other people are making. I don't think anyone is arguing that Samus can't have emotion, or a backstory, or have feelings for a man. It doesn't bother me that she's got Ridley-PTSD (although I think they went a little overboard with that scene) or that she has respect for the military chain of command, not to mention the commanding officer, and is willing to submit to it in order to participate in a military operation.

There's two things that bother me about Other M's narrative. One of them is Samus's inability to think for herself or make decisions on her own. It's one thing to submit to the chain-o-command. But it is entirely another to be totally dependent on your commanding officer, even if he is the closest thing you had to a father since your real one was murdered by space pirates when you were a kid. I honestly cannot respect any argument defending the sheer idiocy of the whole fire-resistant armor thing. That's just fucking asinine. Any soldier with a functioning brain would have assessed the situation and contacted command. "Adam, I'm reading extremely high temperatures in the next area. Requesting permission to activate the varia suit."

Was that so hard?

The second thing is, as many people, including Yahtzee have said, it's not a problem that they gave a traditionally silent protagonist a voice. It's that the voice they gave her is fairly terrible. Whiny angsty droning emo-bullshit, expositing endlessly and needlessly, often about things that were already blatantly obvious. What, was this game written by college freshmen?

I've always liked Samus as a character. I wanted to know about her. I wanted to like Metroid: Other M. But the more I discover about it, the lower I hang my head, and the heavier I sigh.

 

[SpaceMedarotterX]

http://screwattack.com/videos/TGO-Episode-40-Heavens-to-Metroid

Personally I agree with him on pretty much all of it, but what do you all think?

I don't. I respect lord hack and sack of the baggy pants when it comes to movies but the man is bias when it comes to video games. In complete bluntness he's a fanboy of the highest regard and the last person I would go to for an unbiased view on the nintendo side of video games given that he's pretty unashamedly sucking them off.

It would be like going to the Xbox Republic and asking them to give you a proper critique of any Xbox game. Or asking The Sony Defence Force for there opinions on PS3 games. Look the fact he disregards the prime games for being FPS games, especially when they characterized Samus before is No.1 on the stupid list.

No.2 It's simply a poor game that is terrible to play, this is from someone who does own a Wii and played the game. This is from the guy who's never really liked the Metroid games but has always said "They are good games, I'm just not that good at them" never once did I consider them poorly made. Other M I consider poorly made.

Also Saying 'Any characterization is better than being a silent protagonist' is laughable as hell, that's the same argument moronic parents use to say "Who cares if the kid is reading Twilight, so long as they are reading" No. No. No. a silent character can be projected upon and with a bonus characterized by there actions in game See: Crono and Link, both considered noble even though they never talk.

Remember that if you remain silent you can be assumed a fool, but the moment you open your stupid fat mouth you confirm it to the rest of the world.

Now my final reason for saying Bob is full of shit? he brought up Samus when he was talking about Bayonetta, and before he's brought up her personality. So he went back on his own word so he could pay lip service to Other M.

 

[sketch_zeppelin]

Okay he does have a point about projecting onto Samus but even if we accept that alot of our preconceptions of Samus were created by our own imagination, it still doesn't change that a lot of folks just didn't like Samus as a character in this game. Even if you forget everything you loved or thought you loved about Samus and come into this one with a fresh outlook, your likely going to think that she's an annoying character.

I'm all for giving Samus flaws and emotions and the like but did you have to choose these? No she doesnt have to be Ripley from Aliens but could we at least shoot for somthing else?

 

[BlackWidower]

It all makes sense to me, and that might mean something if I ever played a Metroid game.

 

[y1fella]

The problem I had was not the characterization but how poorly it was done. The script the voice actors the story and generally everything relating to character was horrible. Good concept poor execution. not as good as the previous game.

 

[Terminate421]

He's still a nintendo fanboy in my eyes.

IMO, I don't hate him, yet, but he's too damn judgemental and I've had enough with his "Dude....rightous man" persona when stating MY opinions (As a 17 year old)

I never thought Samus was dead in the first place.

 

[Irridium]

After hearing the argument in a different light, my perspective changed. I still find it silly how she has to be told to turn on her anti-fire suit in a volcano instead of her just doing it herself, but a lot of what he said I kind of agree with. Except the Ninja Gaiden comment.

We find out Samus has internal problems, phobia's, ect. Its almost like she's... whats the word... oh yeah, human.

 

[Mr. Omega]

I didn't mind the personality, and I think a lot of people wouldn't have this much hate if the game was a prequel.

What I DID mind was that the voice was terrible. I was fully in support in giving Samus a voice, but the voice they gave her was freakin' MONOTONE (IMO, one of the worst offences of voice acting unless it's 100% intended.).