Topic: Forum Retrospective #5: Metroid Other M - Any objections Lady?

[pokepal148]

I authorize another attempt to make Forum Retrospective a thing.

[ejamer]

When are people going to start? I'm at least a week out from being able to commit to a game, but am interested.

[Khushrenada]

Yep. My objection is that it will still be awhile before I get to it.

[pokepal148]

That's fine. I need to track down a copy myself.

[pokepal148]

Yeah protip: you can get a brand new copy of this game for $10.60 on Amazon. It's also available on the Nintendo eshop on Wii U and you can find used copies pretty easily.

[Order.RSS]

Will join this too, if Adam authorises it. How about late September? It's not like there's many games out then which could distract Nintendo fans from a bona fide classic such as this one.

[ejamer]

Will join this too, if Adam authorises it. How about late September? It's not like there's many games out then which could distract Nintendo fans from a bona fide classic such as this one.

 I like that proposed timeline...

[pokepal148]

Yeah late September sounds good.

[pokepal148]

So are we all still good for late September or has the September of 2 cold 4 no Games gotten to everyone else as well?

[ejamer]

So are we all still good for late September or has the September of 2 cold 4 no Games gotten to everyone else as well?

Work has been an absolute drag for September; I haven't been playing anything.
I'm so desperate for gaming, I'd go back and play that old E.T. Atari cart we used to own and consider it a blessing.

(For the record, that old game is actually pretty cool, conceptually. It just controls really badly and has obtuse goals. Once you understand the game, it's kind of neat... although still not very much fun. It's also totally possible to win - I've phoned home lots of times.)

So yes, please let's still start Metroid at the end of Sept. It'll be awesome.

[Khushrenada]

Most likely close to mid-October before I start playing this. I'll be away for rest of September pretty much and I'm not bringing my Wii U with me. That said, no reason others can't play it but I most likely won't be making any comments on it that soon.

[Adrock]

So y’all are playing Other M at the end of the month/next month? I could get down with that. It’s hard to believe nearly a decade has passed since I last played it.

[ejamer]

Eh, let's wait for Khushrenada before doing the actual discussion then. I might start playing early because I usually don't get much time... but a mid-Oct start time to open things up would still be pretty awesome.

[Khushrenada]

So y’all are playing Other M at the end of the month/next month? I could get down with that. It’s hard to believe nearly a decade has passed since I last played it.

Looks like an October play through then since ejamer is adding on pressure of waiting for me.

[Order.RSS]

October is fine too! Hopefully it's spooky enough to double as a Halloween experience.

[ejamer]

My gaming is irregular so it can take longer than expected to finish even short games. To ensure I have enough time to get through Metroid: Other M I started playing last night and managed about 45 minutes.

Hmm....
For better or worse, there should be lots to talk about here.   

[pokepal148]

I'll probably get into this on my next day off.

[ejamer]

One thing I really appreciate about this game is that it's short. A week or so was really all it took to get the main ending, and it's been enjoyable enough that I actually started into the post-game content to see what else might be on offer.

Some things would probably bother me otherwise... but as a short action game that controls well, it overcame my disappointment at both the linear progression and weak story.

That said, don't wait too long to get started! I'd guess it takes just over 8 hours for most people to get through, although will have to compare that estimate to what my actual save file says about game time.

[pokepal148]

yeah, I reached the first save point. The controls seem a bit clunky-ish but that's probably just me.

The story is already pretty laughable so far. I like how Adam has just been giving Samus the cold shoulder so far but she's waiting for him to authorize stuff already. Like really?

[ejamer]

...
The story is already pretty laughable so far. I like how Adam has just been giving Samus the cold shoulder so far but she's waiting for him to authorize stuff already. Like really?

Be prepared: it doesn't get better as the game progresses. (At least not much better... the whole Baby complex fades slightly when you get into Samus' Daddy issues, but that's a sideways step at best.)

I went in expecting the story to be bad, and was still surprised by how lame the characterization was.
Personally, I see a lot of similarities to Metroid Fusion - but with every negative point about the story there amplified to silly degrees.

Whoever wrote the plot here shouldn't be touching the Metroid series again.

[Adrock]

Shiz, man. We started this already? I haven’t even dug out my Wii from storage.

Whoever wrote the plot here shouldn't be touching the Metroid series again.

I think Yoshio Sakamoto wrote the story. If Samus Returns is any indication, he was like, “Shut it down, everyone. Shut it the **** down. Nobody talks in this one. NOBODY!” Maybe he took the criticisms of Other M’s story and dialog to heart then went 0 to 100 in the opposite direction.

[ejamer]

You are right - it was Sakamoto who did the story here.

I haven't played Samus Returns yet, but this game has only whetted my appetite for more Metroid - and the focus on action here makes the 3DS title look great. Don't they have some similarities in the approach to combat, with close-range/hand-to-hand power moves mixed in?

Still, it's hard to know how Sakamoto interpreted the criticism about the Other M story.
Before this game released, he offered this comment in an interview:

Q: Despite being one of the most popular and beloved heroines in video games, I don't think average gamers have a good sense of Samus Aran's personality, her beliefs, or her motives. Will Metroid: Other M change that?

A: There are many different perspectives of Samus Aran between the series of classical Metroid games and the Metroid Prime titles. However, I don't find they are completely different personas. Samus in the Prime titles mainly shows her cool and professional side as a bounty hunter and represents what Samus Aran is for many of you. For Metroid: Other M, we tried to introduce another side of her and to get more insight into her inner conflict. I hope many of you will understand and empathize with her as you play and discover more about her character.

In a later interview, he made some comments about the poor reception.

“It is quite obvious why Other M did not succeed when compared to other Nintendo games; it features a female main character,” says Sakamoto, “Mario, Link, Kirby. Those are all male Nintendo characters that never fail to generate good sales.”

“It’s not just about the sales either,” adds Sakamoto, “The game as a whole was received fairly poorly compared to other hit Nintendo titles. I personally wrote the story for the game so I know it can’t be that. I mean, I created a strong, female character that people just could not accept. I apologize if gamers feel like they were emasculated playing the game, but that shouldn’t affect your judgment of everything else.”

When asked about the success of the Metroid Prime series compared to Other M, Sakamoto replied, “Most people who play that game are completely unaware that the main character is a female. This is why it avoided what hurt Other M the most. I believe that if Other M had disguised Samus’s gender like in Metroid Prime, Other M would have surpassed the entire Metroid series.”

“Perhaps for the next Metroid game, we should have Adam Malkovich become the lead character. I can’t wait to write his story,” says Sakamoto.

There is some truth here - I think that the critical reaction is probably too negative, and often ignores the many good things this game offers. But Sakamoto's views about why the story is widely considered a failure don't ring true to me.

Anyway, when does the real discussion start?  Mid-October?  I'll try to pipe down until then... just had a fun time with the game, flaws and all, so it's on my mind.

[Luigi Dude]

There is some truth here - I think that the critical reaction is probably too negative, and often ignores the many good things this game offers. But Sakamoto's views about why the story is widely considered a failure don't ring true to me.

If you play Samus Returns, you'll see he probably does have an idea what people didn't like about it.  Don't want to spoil too much since you haven't played that game but there's a certain scene that happens at the end of Samus Returns that Sakamoto could have used to try and justify why Samus acts the way she does in a certain moment in Other M.  If he was really the George Lucas of gaming which many of his haters kept calling him after Other M, this moment was the perfect place to do it and say Samus always acted like this but he didn't have the ability to show it until now.

Instead he does the opposite and Samus acts the way she did in every other Metroid that isn't Other M.  Even though this makes some of Other M's story standout even more now, Sakamoto's just like "Nope, we're not going to even step near that land-mine again, just move along folks.  Here, look at how bad-ass Samus is right now, so don't even think about that scene in Other M anymore because I sure as hell don't want you being reminded of it."

So even if Sakamoto won't admit it, I'm pretty sure he knows what parts he went too far with.  That's why I wouldn't worry about him doing the story to any future Metroids since Samus Returns shows he isn't going to make all future games like Other M to try and justify the story issues that game had.

[ejamer]

Great news.
It's worth pointing out that the quotes above were made a LONG time ago, and who knows what else was going on at that point.

[Ian Sane]

The Sakamoto quote is enlightening in that it shows how out-of-touch the guy is.  He feels the game didn't sell because the main character was a strong female but really the backlash was because he took a character that already was thought of as a strong female and made her look weak.

My main beef with Other M has always been that it doesn't really play like a Metroid game.  It kind of does but does so in a way where it comes across as trying to intentionally frustrate Metroid fans.  Case in point having power-ups get enabled for you by a commanding officer at arbitrary points exposes that Metroid gameplay is not as open-ended as it appears.  But the series typically has done a good job at giving the impression to the player that they found this secret area and they obtained this key item, even though the game is subtly leading you in that direction.

It's like Metroid deconstructed but in a way to mock the series.  Actually the story feels like that too.  It's like demonstrating what a female hero would "actually" be like in a way someone might do to **** on the concept.  But I think Sakamoto was acting in good faith, he's just oblivious to how it comes across.  Though I gotta say that if you wanted to sabotage the Metroid series Producers-style this seems like a genius way to do it.

I wonder how the game would be accepted if this was a brand new IP.  The story would trigger eyerolls but wouldn't be seen as character assassination and the gameplay would probably be accepted as its own thing.  I still don't think I would like this game but I would chalk that more to personal preference.  It probably would generally be considered okay, not great, but certainly wouldn't be so infamous.