Gaming Forums > Nintendo Gaming
Forum Retrospective #5: Metroid Other M - Any objections Lady?
Adrock:
Shiz, man. We started this already? I haven’t even dug out my Wii from storage.
--- Quote from: ejamer on October 04, 2019, 08:14:23 AM ---Whoever wrote the plot here shouldn't be touching the Metroid series again.
--- End quote ---
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:
--- Quote ---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.
--- End quote ---
In a later interview, he made some comments about the poor reception.
--- Quote ---“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.
--- End quote ---
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:
--- Quote from: ejamer on October 04, 2019, 11:59:58 AM ---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.
--- End quote ---
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.