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Confession time.
After reading Nick Chester's review of Metroid: Other M, I seriously considered canceling my Amazon pre-order. I had been pumped for Samus' latest outing because it was billed as the natural evolution to the action-platforming style of Super Metroid. If what Nick said was true, what we got was a set of unfocused and oftentimes broken mechanics that don't reflect the quality we've come to expect out of a first-party Nintendo title.
In the end, I decided to give the game a fair shake. Save for tedious rounds of I Spy and doors that lock and unlock to limit freedom of exploration, I consider the gameplay to be... passable. However, when it comes to the narrative, my impressions are far, far less favorable. In fact, I declare that Other M's story has tainted the entire series.
I place full blame at the feet of Yoshio Sakamoto, a man who assumed that the biggest problem with Metroid was that it lacked film noir narration. I'm not against expanding a franchise's mythos, except for when it's orchestrated by someone who acts like his own biggest fan. Thanks to him, we are treated to soap opera drama, inconsistencies, and dangling plot threads, all for the sake of "cinematic flair."
Now I'm gonna break down why the story sucks into several SPOILERIFIC sections.
Deconstructing Samus and leaving her in pieces
Other M attempts to elaborate upon Samus's history with the Galactic Federation and the relationship with her former commanding officer slash father figure, Adam Malcovich. To that end, the formerly stoic and silent heroine is given a voice with which to drone on ... and on ... and on. From the moment she first flaps her lips, it's obvious that her words lacks passion. She recounts every minor event as though to remind herself of where she was and what she was supposed to do. It makes her look simple-minded and, ironically, robotic.
The only times she exhibits any inflection are during a small number of pivotal scenes when she throws the floodgates wide open. What's jarring about these moments is that there is no gradual escalation from cool and collected to whiny and weepy. She just flips a switch and jumps from one state to the other. She doesn't demonstrate any real emotional range.
Because of this, it's hard to take Samus seriously when she begins monologuing about her feelings. She delivers her lines so matter-of-factly, as if reading from a teleprompter. All this emotional baggage is force-fed to us, described in excruciating detail, under the assumption that we are too dense to do our own character analyzing. There seems to be little room for subtlety.
The flashbacks reveal just how much of a selfish brat Samus once was, pouting and giving the thumbs down during mission briefings. She left the Galactic Federation because she couldn't grasp the difficult choices Adam had to make on a regular basis. Basically, the trigger for Samus's decision to become a bounty hunter was not some altruistic higher calling but an act of defiance against "daddy." We are meant to appreciate how much Samus has matured since then, but these scenes only serve to sour our perceptions of her character, perceptions that we've held for over two decades.
By now, we've all heard about how Samus pisses herself during her reunion with Ridley. She's killed him four times at this point in the chronology, so what is the reason for her sudden shell shock? If she suffers from any prolonged trauma, logic would dictate that she wouldn't allow it to impede her career of murdering awe-inspiring hell beasts on a regular basis, each more nightmarish than the last. There are far more effective methods of expressing vulnerability than this case of character sabotage.
Sakamoto has turned Samus into Anakin Skywalker. In the original Star Wars trilogy, Darth Vader was this pillar of insurmountable might, an amalgamation of all the galaxy's darkest fears and uncertainties. It turns out he was just pompous crybaby who wasn't allowed to sit at the adult table. So much for Darth Vader, and so much for Samus.
A traitor is among us, but no one cares
Upon arriving on the Bottle Ship, Samus bumps into a Galactic Federation platoon led by Adam and agrees to aid in their investigation. Shortly thereafter, the soldiers start getting picked off one by one. Samus arrives at the conclusion that one member of the team is an assassin hired by the Federation to silence any witnesses. She dubs this rouge agent the "Deleter" and vows to prevent further sabotage.
Then the thread is dropped entirely.
At some point, the Deleter is himself murdered, but the event is treated with such disregard that I question whether the whole mess was ever relevant to begin with. The game never reveals the identity of the Deleter, and following a case of false accusation against her long-time friend Anthony Higgs, Samus never brings up the subject again. The game continues, the game ends, and that is that.
Significant attention was initially directed towards this development, implying that this character's actions would have serious repercussions later in the game. Not only does he not have any influence aside from a few dead NPCs who might as well have been wearing red shirts, but we also don't even get the satisfaction of a proper unmasking. There are clues that point to James Pierce being the Deleter, but does it really matter?
This is the kind of OCD misdirection that you'd find in an episode of Lost. The director introduces a plot device and convinces the audience that it's important, gets distracted by a flock of geese outside his window, then forgets to plan an adequate follow-up.
The solution is cloning
Samus soon discovers that the Galactic Federation was trying to cover up the Metroid cloning project. For you franchise buffs, this is identical to the scenario in Metroid Fusion. Since Other M precedes Fusion in the chronology, this results in a very glaring plot hole -- there's no reason why Samus should have expressed surprise at the Federation's activities aboard the BSL when the same stunt was pulled aboard the Bottle Ship. I'm more surprised that Samus would even want to work with the Federation again, given her firsthand experience of its shady and unethical practices.
The Metroids in Fusion were cloned from the DNA extracted from the Baby Metroid, leading me to assume that the only possible way to clone a specimen is to use live genetic data. However, the Metroids in Other M were cloned not from the Baby's living sample but from its microscopic, charred flakes that adhered to Samus's suit during the final fight with the Mother Brain.
What!?
I'm going to ignore that the Federation scientists had easy access to the Baby's living DNA yet chose to scrub Samus's armor of dead Metroid space lint for the extra challenge. If small traces of debris are enough to revive an extinct species, why hasn't the Federation devoted itself to restoring, oh, the Chozo? You know, the civilization that created the Metroids and whose technology far outclassed every other society's for decades to come?
Cloning is the reason for Ridley's repeated resurrections. It's how he can be murdered in every game and come back fit as a fiddle in the sequel. I suppose I can accept that the Space Pirates would store Ridley's memories and genetic material for such occasions, but Other M's Ridley was cloned using the same Scrubbing Bubbles method as the Metroids. Who would have guessed that the surface of Samus's suit was such a rich ecosystem!
It's ridiculous how just about everything in the Metroid universe can be solved by cloning. "How did this species come back?" Cloning. "Didn't he die?" Cloning. "Where did that...?" Cloning. "That doesn't seem...." Cloning! Arthur C. Clarke once said that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. I guarantee that even he would slap his forehead over Other M's deliberate handwaving.
Oops! This story is supposed to have an ending
During her encounter with the Deleter, Samus meets a young woman who claims to be the Bottle Ship's project director, Madeline Bergman. After beating the final boss, a Queen Metroid, Samus catches up to the real Madeline Bergman who explains that the woman from earlier is her surrogate daughter, MB. MB is an android containing Mother Brain's AI, built to control the cloned Metroids. Unfortunately, she developed emotions and went Carrie White on the entire crew, leading to Madeline's sending out the distress signal that Samus answered.
To clarify, these revelations come after the final boss. Sakamoto must have realized the game was just about done, panicked, then decided to cram as much exposition into one final cutscene as he could. It is by far the most rushed story resolution I've seen in any medium in the past few years.
The MB "confrontation," if you can call it that, is a small window during that final cutscene in which you are given limited first-person control. You have to suppress some powerful creatures that MB has summoned in order to target her body directly, but then you don't even get to shoot her. Control is immediately relinquished as Madeline incapacitates MB with an ice beam, then a fresh Federation squad shows up right on cue to deal the final blow.
Out of nowhere, Anthony, who should have died during the battle against Ridley, arrives to rescue Madeline from getting grilled by the Federation brass. He offers a weak non-explanation for his miraculous survival that does nothing to assuage concerns that his appearance is a poorly conceived deus ex machina. Maybe Sakamoto was trying to be clever, thinking, "Hey! Wouldn't it be a wild trope inversion if the token black guy is the one character to survive?"
This all could have been avoided with proper pacing throughout the game. Rather than waste time on the Deleter filler or "young and naive" flashbacks, the story should have followed a path that gradually reached a logical conclusion. Inserting the majority of relevant story content after the game is effectively over is not enlightening or rewarding, it's lazy and insulting.
Fan service is no excuse for lapses in logic
But there's more!
Following the credits, you are allowed to search for items previously inaccessible in the main game. The in-game excuse is that Samus has returned to the Bottle Ship to retrieve the helmet Adam left behind when he sacrificed himself to destroy the Metroid sector. It's an opportunity to squeeze out one last drop of sickening sentimentality.
There is a post-game boss that I had hoped would be a more satisfying final confrontation against MB, but instead it's a battle against Phantoon. Why would a mid-game villain from Super Metroid be this game's secret final boss? Considering how Sakamoto bent over backwards to (poorly) tie every minor game detail to Other M's convoluted narrative, it's odd that he didn't even hazard a reason for Phantoon's eleventh hour emergence. Did he all of sudden care about delivering fan service?
Speaking of fan service, Samus strips down to her Zero Suit once she finally locates Adam's helmet. Picking up the helmet acts as station's self-destruct trigger, natch, so she must hoof it back to her ship sans armor. Nothing is preventing her from suiting back up other than, I assume, a sudden bout of cognitive failure triggered by flashing red lights and sirens.
Another theory could be that the helmet is so wide and the range of the Power Suit's mobility is so low that Samus wouldn't be able to hold the helmet under her arm comfortably. I mean, she wouldn't willingly impair her defense and speed during arguably the most lethal and time-sensitive sequence of her mission, would she? Not unless her actions were dictated by a creator who can't stop fantasizing about her wearing a skin-tight jumpsuit. Why, that would be stupid!
No faith for the future
Some people insist that we shouldn't fault Metroid: Other M for trying something new with the franchise. Unfortunately, the simple act of being "different" shouldn't excuse a game, film, or anything else for its numerous shortcomings, so I'm not going give Other M the benefit of the doubt because of its inclusion of grade school-level scriptwriting. The only thing that Other M's story succeeds in is killing gameplay momentum and discarding the subtle nuance that launched the franchise into popularity in the first place.
If another Sakamoto Metroid ever gets made, I guarantee it'll be infused with even more ham-fisted dialogue and cinematic pap. I should have seen all this coming a mile a way -- the seeds were planted in Fusion and Zero Mission, and Other M just took things to the next level. If that's what you guys want, fine. Enjoy the canned drama and forced emotions.
Just count me out.
Contest:
4:00 PM on 09.14.2010 | 
Blame Team Ninja. It's not as if they've ever been good at storytelling to begin with.
I do hope they dont ad a crappy story in the next game and focus on what the series does best: Isolasion and atmophere building.
THE MIGHTY RIDLEY!
Is a rabbit.
Big deal. It's still fun to play, which is the primary goal of a game in the first place.
This one feels like a JRPG tale, which is bad. Very bad. And not what Metroid is about at all.
Nice write-up, though I have to say I did really enjoy Zero Mission and Fusion.
If a game bothers with a ton of cutscenes, and they suck, then there's a serious problem with the game.
Team Ninja had zero to do with the story.
I thought developers learned their lesson on the PS1 that using a control pad for movement in a 3D space is beyond painful. If they were going to insist on keeping an NES control scheme, they should have gone the full distance and made the game a side-scroller.
Seriously, though, every point is valid. I had no problem with Samus being emotive, but having her jarringly switch from "whatever" to "waaaaahhh" without any inbetween is shoddy.
Or succeeded, depending on how you view Kojima. :-P
Its almost like they decided that a bad ass character who happens to be a woman doesn't play well anymore, so they decided the only way to play up the fact that she's a woman is to prance her around in that damned zero suit, have her wig the fuck out against an adversary she's already trounced multiple times, and make her submissive to the point where she won't even use her own weapons in a life or death situation until some jack ass gives her the okay.
I liked old Samus more... she wouldn't have put up with this bullshit.
Let me make it clear that I have not played "Metroid: Other M" nor did I ever intend to simply because I have found myself completely incapable of properly controlling a character in 3-D space and I don't want to bother with the potential frustration in this game when I have other games to play and things to buy.
That being said, after reading what you wrote, I wonder if you would mind elaborating on whether or not your gripe with the game was moreso in terms of what Sakamoto was conceptually trying to do or if it was the execution of those ideas. The reason I ask this is because, mainly in your first section, I kind that you had unfairly construed the two points and I felt like you were being very ethnocentric.
In the beginning of your article, you attack the decision to give Samus a narrator role and a voice, in particular criticizing the fact that she "recounts every minor event as though to remind herself of where she was and what she was supposed to do." However, as someone who has watched a crapton of Japanese films and anime, I feel as though that the approach you described is a very common approach that the Japanese seem to like, especially with regards to science fiction. To me, thinking about the idea of a Samus narration reminded me of the "long-winded" narration and explanations that Mokoto Kusunagi gives in the well-respected and loved work "Ghost in the Shell." If we go by the history of Metroid, I would argue that there is precendence to suggest that Samus should have a narration. Consider that the opening to "Super Metroid" has a narrative log report delivering the backstory to the game that I imagine would have been voice acted in full had the SNES been capable of doing so.
When done right, I actually like narration and in terms of science fiction, I like that the Japanese are not afraid to go into details that would, in an American film, be considered above the head of the largely ignorant American audience.
HOWEVER, that being said, I also see how with a bad script, a bad translation, or a bad voice job, this entire idea could be completely ruined. From what I can see on YouTube, it appears that "Metroid: Other M" suffers from all three.
Again, I don't really have anything specific to offer in terms of proof one way or the other. I just felt that when I was reading this, my feelings were going into a sine wave where I would oscillate from being pissed off at you seemingly just blindly dismissing a storytelling idea for ethnocentric reasons only to agree with you a short paragraph latter when I realize that, to me, the bigger problem is that the game completely messed up the implementations of such ideas. Just curious as to your thoughts on this nuance.
"But Ramm! What about the god-awful story!?"
Really Bro? I guess I don't think videogames are art then, because I don't play any game expecting to be blown-away by story. Videogames are not movies. I don't want a 20-Hour non-interactive story-sink. I play videogames for the gameplay and if the story happens to be OK, that's a plus.
Get over yourselves, O People of the Internet. With your extremely unrealistic expectations and ridiculous standards for excellence.
This game sucked on so many levels.
There's only one thing I will say for now. The grandest inconsistency in Metroid Other M was what Samus said about Ridley. She called him a "mindless beast" after stating he was the one disrupting MB's control over the Zebesians and other creatures on the Bottle Ship.
The Prime Games state Space Pirates follow the lead of whomever is most powerful. On Zebes that was Mother Brain, but she was also a planetary defense system built by the Chozo, not a Space Pirate by default. She was able to wrest power from Ridley for the times he was on Zebes.
In Prime, they followed Ridley. In Prime 3, Dark Samus assumed power. So between the original trilogy, the manga and Prime there's some consistency.
But Samus goes on to imply MB was needed to control the pirates. No, that's just what the Federation intended. They didn't know "Little Birdie" would become Ridley and disrup MB's control
I'm not the biggest Metroid fanatic in the universe, but I honestly, for the most part, thoroughly enjoyed Metroid: Other M. A few minutes ago I just beat the game 100% and walked away incredibly satisfied. Was the story convoluted, contrived and cliche at times? Sure, a bit. Still, the fun gameplay was fun. It may not go down as the best Metroid game in the series, but as a video game, I enjoyed the hell out of it. Thank you, Nintendo and Team Ninja.
You need a hug.
There there.
:3
(You reminded me very much - in tone, structure, and criticism - of this thing that I wrote for Inception a month or so back. That was a strange experience for me.)
I'd imagine Team Ninja had a hell of a lot to do with it too.
Long story short don't develop games with extensive dialogue and story, which I meant to be catered towards a western fan base, IN JAPAN!!!
Ghost in the Shell bored me to tears, damn what the critics say.
I wouldn't say its an ethnocentric bias to claim that excessive narration can be a detriment to story delivery. I know that it's a popular technique in Japanese fiction, but just because its popular doesn't mean there aren't a billion ways to do it better. It's not as if Samus is pointing out details that would otherwise go unnoticed by the audience. She is making extremely obvious observations and repeating them over and over again.
The difference between Super Metroid and Other M is that, in the former, the opening narration sets up the rest of the game and then lets you go about your business, and anything else is delivered non-verbally. It's a brand of subtlety that games today no longer want to employ.
Also, look for Heart of Darkness 8mentioned in teh blog), it is a man droning for more that a hundred pages about his insecurity and fears. it is also one of the most important novels of the twentieth century. It is also about a man that revieves orders even while being independant and a man that does what he does because of his family (his aunt got him the job, even while he had interest in it). And it is a great book. Yes, Other M's sotry isn't that well written, but why can Marlow get away with it and not Samus? of course, whe is a woman, so she must not wear a dress.
In cloning, that is true in life. Yes, there is a "canon failure" with respect of Fusion (so what Marcel Proust brings back a dead character in a novel without any supernatural elements and In Search of Lost Time is one of the master pieces of literature) but just as one can take DNA from epithelial cells form a rope, so one can take DNA from pieces of the Baby Metroid that fell on Samus' suit. But that has a time limit. Depending on how the demise of the Chozo went, when someone got there, the DNA would've degraded by when the Federation was there.
The resolution felt a little rushed, but you are exagereting how rushed it was. MB was already introduced, Madelaine was already theorized to have sent the distress signal. If you think a little it is obvious that the second scientist is the real Madelaine. That makes it less rushed. Yes, it is rushed but so was FFVII: Advent Children. It isn't perfect, but still nothing is.
I talked Stoicism in my blog entry, so to the "switch part". It is very clear that Samus even while in the federation was pretty introverted. I for one have had "switch reactions" passing from showing to be calm to yelling in a second (while being an adult, yes, thank you). Real people may act that way, so that isn't bad characterization, as there are people that react that way.
Young Samus would be the next point. She was a teenager. Didn't you "pout"? Didn't you make things to annoy your parents? Just because she is an stoic hero it doesn't mean it should be that way always. Au contraire, it makes her more human. Her bigger call was already answered when she was in the Federation, she already decided to help people. The way to do it changed for a emotional reaction (probably form watching a friend die when she was sure she could do something), but that doesn't make her greater calling any less grand.
Also you seem to "confuse" presentation with the story itself. That some lines are hamfisted or badly delivered, it is part of how it is delivered, not the story itself. That the actress could do a better work, yes. But that also is part of the charm. She is someone that doesn't know how to convey her feelings, so her voice doesn't show feelings. Being impassible while having deep feelings is very hard to convey, especially with only voice since most of the time her face is covered.
Yes, the game is not perfect. More subtlety in the writing and the voice work would've helped. Yes, it tapped the same areas than Fusion (she can still work with the Federation as it is a large organization, meaning that not all are shady) and rises some questions in the continuity. Yes, some cutscenes where too long. But it isn't the great debacle some people are making it to look like. It actually makes a very human character.
The official review took care of the gameplay problems. No need for me to retread that territory.
@The Silent Protagonist
Oh, I had tons more to say about the game. I left a bunch of stuff on cutting board because otherwise this article would have been five miles long.
I actually agree with Ponce's comments about the story. It may be harsh but it is true. Sakamoto and D Rockets missed a big opportunity to properly explore the characterization of Samus and reveal the details of her past, as well as present a competent present plot based on the events that took place aboard the Bottleship. With that said, I do not agree with Chester's review of the game. Other M's story was ultimately not nearly as informative as the information revealed by the metroid manga released years ago. For what it is worth, the story parts involving Ridley were probably the most interesting of all.
Quite frankly, Other M is technically a second-party game as its development was outsourced to Team Ninja, a third-party developer.
Great write-up.
Part of the charm is how badly stuff is delivered? Are we now accepting this level of quality? I don't think we should, really.
But we're here about the story. I agree that it isn't told in the best fashion, but since I feel conditioned to shit story telling being a gamer and such, I do see the intentions behind the story, and find them generally endearing. It reminds me of a young person reluctantly reading something infront of class, it's amature but with good intentions. If that is a problem then you might want to keep away form Other M, the bosses are a blast so you'd be missing out;)
That's my thoughts, anyway. It's my first post hear (long time reader) so take it or leave it:)
Unfortunately, my main problem with the game was the inability to switch between first and third person flawlessly. I was always stuck waiting for the thing to calibrate and would take a hit before I could fire a shot. When I wasn't able to fix this issue (new batteries, changing the placement of the sensor bar, etc.), I sold it. Not much else I could do. Why they didn't allow different controller options is beyond comprehension. Super Mario Galaxy's controls would've been perfect IMO.
@Matt Welch: Dunno 'bout you, but I certainly didn't find navigating 3D areas with a D-pad fun. Stopping the game to play Where's Wally every now and then wasn't fun. Having all the fun toys and items taken away at the start of the game for some outright stupidly arbitrary reason wasn't fun. Getting savaged by a swarm of basic enemies because the Wii Remote decided it didn't want to talk to the Sensor Bar today wasn't fun.
Not letting me fucking explore this big ship full of secrets and items wasn't fun. Pointing out what rooms had items wasn't fun (Metroid Prime only did it for the major power-ups, and even then it let me turn that off. Prime 3's secret satellite thing was optional and you had to go out of your way to get it).
Metroid: Other M was not a fun game to play.
Oh, but I guess none of this matters because I'm not a JOURNALIST, nor a REAL JOURNALIST with VALID OPINIONS THAT ARE THE SAME AS YOURS, right?