Well, I started playing this. So far I'm pretty bored because of all the dialogue. Wasn't expecting that from a Metroid game. I'm finding the Metroid Prime games are a lot better namely the Metroid Prime Trilogy with the Wii controls. The graphics also don't look as good as Corruption. And will someone tell Samus to shut up and shoot!!
The actual gameplay is fun and the bosses are pretty cool but I find the game is slown down by all the useless talking.
So, [SPOILER - highlight to read]: the mental breakdown Samus suffers got to me. I know people have dealt with these kind of things, and this link helped abit to understand it: http://gamrfeed.vgchartz.com/story/...us-didnt-shoot/ I just didn't like it, and I kinda want to know if the makers of Other M really wanted to portray PTSD goin' on with Samus, or if it was another stupid ass reason. Obviously, it's slightly opinionated, cuz most people who didn't like the breakdown have pinned it on Tecmo making5 Samus too goddamn Japanese, guess it's a love it or hate it event. So far, the game is touching on flat out unbearable to me. Right up there with FFXIII, the story just doesn't do anything for me.
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Last edited by Scythe on Sep 9th, 2010 at 10:24 AM
I went and found and watched the scene in question...and honestly? I rather like that they did that. People aren't perfect, not even Samus, and with everything she's seen and done, she is going to have some issues. I don't get why people have such a problem with that. It makes her more realistic as a character.
Good lord no- it was a godawful character assassination that makes her much weaker and less interesting as a character all around. The whole storyline aspect of the game was garbage, actually.
Samus should NOT be freezing when she sees Ridley. Not this far into the series when she has already met and defeated him/it many times. It's an arbitrary characterisation shunt done to try and justify their emotionally overwrought nonsense-fest of a story and it is very, very poor. A claim that it makes her more realistic is not a claim I can understand- it seems quite the opposite to me. Making her like this is inconsistent, arbitrary and lazy, and in that respect it makes her character less realistic when judged by the standards of how characterisation in stories works. It's not quite as bad as Clarance Starling in Hannibal, but it is getting there.
The only saving grace is that, Metroid really being about the action, you can pretty much just ignore it.
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"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
"You've never had any TINY bit of sex, have you?"
BtVS
Last edited by Ushgarak on Sep 9th, 2010 at 04:37 PM
I agree with Peach. And I haven't actually made it to Ridley yet, but I can understand her freezing. He's supposed to be dead and the Space Pirates exterminated, right?
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All hail Scythe, King of the Sigs.
I'm surprised at you, Ush, so willing to ignore realistic characterization for the sake of mindless action.
Ridley's confirmed kill count: 2. Once in Metroid/Zero Mission. This death is confirmed by Space Pirate logs stating that they were regrowing Ridley after his death, and upgrading him this time with cybernetics. In Prime, he is merely believed dead after falling into the Impact Crater. Thanks to Corruption, we know that this merely began his Phazon infusion, completed in Corruption when he becomes the Homeworld Leviathan's guardian. Even then, he is not seen dying (it's interesting to note that all other Guardians are seen disintegrating, Ridley is the only one who's not, and his death is not recorded with the other Guardians on Samus' gunship). Super Metroid is the only other time a kill can be confirmed.
For everyone, there will be spoilers in the rest of this post.
Other M takes place immediately after Super Metroid, a humongous turning point in Samus' life. She has grown attached to the infant Metroid she saved from SR388 after killing the Queen. Reluctantly leaving it in the care of the Ceres Space Station, Ridley almost immediately seizes it, and though Samus fights him, she cannot prevent his escape. She tracks him back to Zebes, manages to exact her revenge, and then goes on to defeat Mother Brain. There, the Metroid, now grown, sacrifices itself to protect Samus, as we all know. Realize that in this moment, Samus has essentially lost an adopted child she fought hundreds of enemies to save, all because of Ridley. She is no doubt full of anger, pain, and loss as she destroys Mother Brain, and subsequently shatters the entirety of Zebes into a cloud of dust and rock. She has lost so much, but at least Mother Brain, the creator of the plan, and Ridley, the executor, are gone, and with Zebes destroyed, there is absolutely no way they can return.
This is the very recent past with which Samus enters the Bottle Ship. Ridley is gone for good, and that is one of the few things that are certain as she sees cybernetic Pirates come to life around her. She encounters a strange little "disgusting beast" that gives her a very bad feeling, but she ignores it on multiple occasions and presses on. Then she's attacked by that Little Birdie's adolescent form, but cannot kill it or prevent its escape. When that adolescent form is revealed to be Ridley... well, what would you expect to happen? He should in no way be there before her. He was killed for good and the planet his remains were on destroyed. He, the one who took the baby Metroid from her. He, the one who killed her mother in front of her long ago. He, the one who nearly killed her as a child. He, the one who led the destruction of the remaining Chozo on Zebes.
How could any reasonable person not expect her to react with terrified horror and revulsion? This is entirely in-character for Samus, and her issues with PTSD have been shown near-identically in the past. Both times she completely shuts down, and loses her suit. In fact, compared to her initial breakdown, the one in Other M is not nearly as major.
This is a realistic Samus portraying her serious past traumas and history as a soldier. Anyone who declares it to be less interesting than a silent, emotionless routine would do better to get their characterization from Master Chief or Gordon Freeman.
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WARNING: The above post may contain sarcasm and/or sophisticated satire. Any psychological damage sustained is purely your fault.
Last edited by General Kaliero on Sep 9th, 2010 at 05:02 PM
Well, I am surprised at you, thinking that such a mess makes any form of realistic or developed plot at all. I like plots- I just don't like shit ones. In action games, you can live without it. Metroid has done very well on unobtrusive plots before now. They should have stuck with it. So ignore the crappy plotline and you can try and enjoy the actual gaming part of it.
All that tired old stuff you put in there about her being full of anger and pain etc. is something shoehorned in by this game and this game only- it has not been an indication of how she is in any other game- quite the opposite. You are engaged in circular justifcation, using this own game to justify itself. No, the point is that they have abruptly introduced this new, weaker side to her that DOES NOT EXIST IN THE OTHER GAMES, and in turn used that to justify these horrible plot contrivances throughout. The idea, in any case, that Samus magically becomes more realistic because of this being haunted by her past gibberish is equally weird. How, exactly, is that more realistic? What was unrealistic before that is changed now? Sometimes I think people just use these words without thinking about what they mean. Don't confuse complication for realism.
It is not realistic because it is not consistent. Samus might have been rather slight as a character before, but she did have a personality that was built up over the games and it was consistent from game to game. In breaking that, you introduce unrealism. Hence a claim to realism here is laughable, based as it is entirely, once more, on circular justification introduced by this game alone. Even saying she was that wound up about the baby Metroid is circular. Sure, it was an 'ahhhh' moment but it is hardly as if she'd spent more than about five minutes with it. There was never any reason to think she cared, especially as she'd given it away as soon as she could. But suddenly in this game it is made out to be a really big deal- again, just so the game can be so drawn out and maudlin about the way she acts.
Based on all the other games, then absolutely 100% what I would expect her to do... is start fighting without hesitation. He's already come back from total defeat many times in her career- this is old news. She never acted like that with him before. She never should now. If she was going to be someone who freezes, she would have done it the first time she saw him in the series- or the second, third or fourth. Not when he comes back AGAIN in this game. We have absolutely, 100% established that she is not the sort of person who freezes at... pretty much ANY threat, let alone Ridley. For her to do so is just plain wrong, no matter what bullshit reasons this game tries to introduce. The Samus that would just open fire- that is the character Samus from the other Metrod games. That's not even supposition; it is literally true, as that is precisely what happens in the other games. The Samus we see here is NOT that Samus- it is an abortion of a new version created by poor writing. Meanwhile., it might add a layer of complication to the character, but it is poor complication. Saying it makes her more interesting is hysterical- Samus as the stalwart silent female non-nonsense killer bounty hunter was actually very distinctive. Turning her into a weak, hesitant woman haunted by her past in such a way just makes her into the exact same angst-ridden nonsense you get in nearly all action genres. More interesting? Insanity talking. It is actively more boring; they have taken something quite unique and made it generic.
Samus is a professional. If this was a prequel, it at least would have made narrative sense, though it still would have messed up the character. But put here, near the end of the time line,, after everything else she has done without ever flinching... atrocious.
Saying that reasonable people should expect her to act as she does game does just one thing- it puts you in the realm of the unreasonable. The basic plotting in this game is extremely poor- it fails basic rules of storytelling (plot holes, a major storyline introduced and then forgotten about, cringe inducing script writing). The quality of the characterisation follows- i.e. appalling.
I have active contempt for the plotline and the characterisation in this game. I think you should be very wary of letting your critical faculties be swayed by your like for the franchise.
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"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
"You've never had any TINY bit of sex, have you?"
BtVS
Last edited by Ushgarak on Sep 9th, 2010 at 07:03 PM
How many people will have read the manga? .1% of those who play? If that?
The games are the primary source material and are the only reasonable standard to match to. Her being character assassinated in the manga as well is irrelevant.
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"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
Not really. Inconsistency and consistency are designated by majorities. If a character acts in manner A the majority of the time, than when they act in manner B, it's inconsistent (unless the line between majority is really freakin close). How Samus acts in the manga, which hardly represents the majority of the mythos' content, doesn't have any bearing on what is consistently shown of the character.
That would be like saying that because Mario decided to not save Princess Peach in some novel that is canon to the series, it is therefore a consistent trait of Mario if he decides to not rescue Peach in a game.
I worded that horribly.
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"The Daemon lied with every breath. It could not help itself but to deceive and dismay, to riddle and ruin. The more we conversed, the closer I drew to one singularly ineluctable fact: I would gain no wisdom here."
Indeed- you cannot take a tiny minority publication like that and say it establishes continuity of character. As I said, that can only come from the games in any practical manner.
Her character here is still inconsistent from those games. Being possibly consistent with any manga is no excuse for that, nor does it make it any better or more reasonable. Her character was established in game, and this has contradicted it. Not in itself a massive problem, but this puts the lie to the idea that this is some form of so-called realism, or other such hogwash.
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"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
"You've never had any TINY bit of sex, have you?"
BtVS
Last edited by Ushgarak on Sep 9th, 2010 at 06:40 PM
For the entire series, even. And it sucks that it didn't get a release outside of Japan, because it does establish a lot about her character. And considering (I'm judging this by the dates that are on the scans I'm reading now) that it came out about the same time as Prime and Fusion, it hence was written before a lot of the game series was made. And she had no personality in the games up until that point, so...yeah.
And yeah, Samus's (very minor) breakdown in Other M is pretty much nothing.
Also, I'm going to reach out and say there's a pretty big difference between "thought dead" and "killed and the planet he was on obliterated".
Not really- once he's already come back from being thought dead once, it's hardly a surprise if he keeps on coming back. Not that that changes the fact that she never froze at him before and so would not now either. Watching him literally die, planet blowing up, universe exploding... whatever.
A look of surprise might be reasonable, though even then it would be a "Oh come on, how many times is this now?" moment really. But freezing up is insane.
__________________
"We've got maybe seconds before Darth Rosenberg grinds everybody into Jawa burgers and not one of you buds has the midi-chlorians to stop her!"
"You've never had any TINY bit of sex, have you?"
BtVS
Last edited by Ushgarak on Sep 9th, 2010 at 06:47 PM
You say that as if the difference the first time she saw him after being dead that she didn't freeze up because she was thinking "Oh, no, this makes sense because the pirates could have regrown him (obviously), so now I don't care at all. Open fire!"
Aside from anything else, she's just seen all the cloned pirates and re-creation of Zebes all around her.
I'm unsure if that really gets to the heart of the matter. He keeps coming back- that's all there is to it.
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Sep 8th, 2010 05:09 PM
