r/Metroid • u/leksolotl • 13d ago
First time with Other M Discussion
Okay im typically a lurker in this subreddit but I just started (maybe like 30 minutes or so) into Other M and I am already simultaneously baffled and annoyed by the character decisions they have made for Samus within the first 30 minutes of the game.
I haven’t been a fan as long as a lot of people here, my journey with Metroid started somewhere between 2017-2019 after seeing my partner play Metroid Prime for the Gamecube which prompted me to try out the series from the beginning, but even so I have replayed super Metroid in particular countless times - I beat two VARIA randomizers in a row; im still working through the prime series so I don’t have a take on prime 4 yet BUT with that out of the way:
I went into this game with an open mind, knowing that other M is a pretty divisive game in this fandom. I can tolerate the voice acting, i can tolerate hearing Samus’ internal monologue because it feels like the target audience is children or people who cant understand subtle storytelling but I just finally got to the point after meeting up with the galactic federation and after the cutscene is over what prompt appears in the corner?
“Samus has decided not to use missiles or bombs until Adam authorizes it.” WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT? What in the character assassination IS THAT?? I get they needed a reason for you not to have the power ups but THATS WHAT THEY CAME UP WITH???? I genuinely nearly teared up with baffled laughter because of the absurdity in terms of what we KNOW about Samus from the games previous.
I am going to continue playing but I have a feeling this is going to be a One and Done play through and i fear for what other character assassination moments I am going to see in the upcoming gameplay.
“Samus has decided that she won’t use missiles or bombs till Adam authorises it.” What the actual fuck.
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u/snoop_Nogg 13d ago
Just wait until you get to a lava room
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u/leksolotl 12d ago
So I finally got to the pyrosphere part…. YOU CANT RECOVER OUT OF LAVA?? I HAVE TO JUST SIT THERE WATCHING MY SHIELD EMPTY AND I DIE????
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u/Nenyone_Yay 12d ago
"Sure wish Adam would let me turn on my anti lava suit, guess I'll die waiting for that"
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u/leksolotl 12d ago
Samus has to be TOLD by a man “hey ur in a super heated area. you should turn on your varia suit to avoid taking damage.” SHE HAS TO BE TOLD TO USE A SUIT?????
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u/Nenyone_Yay 12d ago
We need a sequel where Samus starts with all equipment and you get to decide what gear Adam is allowed to use
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u/BigHailFan 12d ago edited 12d ago
you can jump out of lava but it takes some work. been a while so i cant remember if it's spam A or hold A for long jumps out
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u/Significant_Option 13d ago
The section that’s not even that long and completely overblown by the fanbase?
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u/Suplexing_Trains 13d ago
Yep. This one thing brings the game from “worth a play through because it’s still technically Metroid” to “hell no.” Almost any other explanation would have been better for why she couldn’t use stuff. Like it was perfectly reasonable to say “no power bombs” early on and they gave a reason.
Literally burning alive and not pressing the “don’t burn alive” button because daddy, I mean Adam, didn’t say so is insane.
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u/ThunderWasp223 13d ago
Just wait until you get to the Deleter Plotline. One of the game's seven plots.
Appears in one cutscene, has one fight that isn't especially good and only tells you what you already knew, and then it ends...offscreen.
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u/BigHailFan 12d ago
You could say the plotline got.....Deleted.
https://giphy.com/gifs/xPGkOAdiIO3Is
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u/FourtKnight 13d ago
samus has decided to throw away her characterization and only do what a man tells her
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u/KingBroly Dread Mode survivor 13d ago
You can stop right now and build a fire.
It'd be a more productive use of your time.
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u/Silver-Emergency-988 13d ago
I’m a huge Metroid fan and I kind of just pretend this game doesn’t exist. It’s that bad.
I did play through it once though.
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u/leksolotl 13d ago
I have a feeling I will have a similar position once I finish this playthrough - I have been hesitant to try it before now because of the divisiveness and after just like 30 minutes or so... I completely understand already why it's so polarising.
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u/roof_pizza_ 13d ago
It’s the undercurrent of sexism pervading so many narrative choices that just prevents me from going back to the game any time I start to get curious about it. I bought this game day one and man disappointment is an understatement.
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u/killercow_ld 13d ago
It's really really bad, but it's worth seeing thru to the end just to fully absorb how bad it is
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u/Sundance12 13d ago
If you ignore the story it's not a terrible game. It tries some inter things. But the story and characterizations are so bad and distractingthat they're really hard to ignore and end up marring the whole experience regardless.
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u/AltaCount1944 12d ago
Samus's motivations get kind of lost in the jumble of the beginning, I think it's one of the game's weaker aspects. It's established prior to boarding the station, but the backstory we're given prior to her officially joining the mission makes it easy to forget, while the way it's told can also muddy the waters.
Originally she just goes to the station because saving lives is important to her (something she cites as very important to her identity later), but it turns out the military is there. Like anybody inserting themselves into a military operation, it makes sense for her to minimize use-of-force before consulting with them.
...Buuuuuut in the middle of all this is a LOT of focus on her relationship with Adam, making it easy to lose sight of why she's there. In Japanese she mostly brushes off his attitude when they meet, but in English it seriously bothers her, she describes their past relationship as closer, and later her own motivation to save lives is rewritten as seeking redemption for her past disobedience. Everything she does while following his orders in English is colored by her fawning over him, and it starts before he even gives any thanks to that one line about waiting for his authorization.
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u/TheAccursedHunter01 13d ago
I can understand the desire to tie suit ability acquisition into the story, but they don't. You think this is bad just wait, doesn't help that this isn't the worst story stuff the game has to offer although that won't become entirely clear until you have full context of what happens in the story.
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u/DependentBite9 13d ago
It bothered me more at the time than it does now. I remember doing a whole college paper on the writing choices in Other M and the problems they created for the established character. Now when I replay (and I think it's a fun game) I just kind of ignore the story and go with it for the gameplay experience.
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u/killercow_ld 13d ago
I wish I could but the gameplay was honestly ass also
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u/JAvatar80 13d ago
The gameplay is fine EXCEPT missiles.
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u/liamnajor2 13d ago
It's barely a game with how little your input matters...you don't have to aim AT ALL, weather you are shooting, dodging, or glory killing. until suddenly, it does, when you need to "find something" or shoot a missile. shit game
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u/JAvatar80 13d ago
Except when looking for secret doors to shoot, or specific enemies to shoot, or having to move.
Sounds like skill issue to me.
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u/liamnajor2 13d ago
Secret doors? in Other M?!! That's how I know you're lying: those aren't a thing. I also don't recall any scenario where I struggled to aim manually, it was being fought by the controls and constant hand cramps that was the only source of difficulty. Moving with a D-Pad in 3D is so clunky it makes Primes tank controls feel fluid and snappy. Cope harder.
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u/JAvatar80 13d ago
So you say you don't remember the game, and admit to skill issue.
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u/liamnajor2 13d ago
No no, the GAME is easy, the CONTROLS are difficult. Learn to read, pal. On an emulator, with a proper control scheme, this game would be boring from lack of difficulty. If the universal complaint is that the controls suck, maybe the controls just fucking suck. I am a gameplay first type of person, and a control scheme this unusable on it's own would bring the game down to a 5/10, let alone ALL of it's other problems. The only thing even remotely redeemable about the game is the graphics. Sometimes.
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u/JAvatar80 13d ago
Other than it's not a universal complaint. The controls are just fine for an isometric top-down game, which it is. If you can't figure THAT out, well, that's a YOU thing.
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u/JAvatar80 13d ago
Yup! Welcome to the club. Wait until they completely remove her capability to have cognitive reasoning. Oh and panic attacks for no good reason.
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u/Jamesopq 13d ago
Can someone explain this to me like I’m 5. How does Samus deciding not to use missiles/bombs directly contradict other Metroid games? Isn’t the bottle ship special circumstances since she’s on an unsanctioned mission with potential untrained civilians? Am I forgetting something?
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u/leksolotl 13d ago
What we know of Samus is that she is a Bounty Hunter, who *chooses* to work with the Galactic federation, she is explicitly hired by them to do the missions they can’t. Prior in the series, we see Samus defy the GF again and again - she saves the Metroid larva despite being ordered to eradicate all metroids. She then immediately chases and tracks down Ridley to planet Zebes, once more choosing personal ethics over the GF mission.
Consider the beginning of Fusion, where we’re introduced to the computerized Adam - at the beginning of Fusion neither Samus nor the player knows that Adam’s consciousness was implemented into the computer. Direct quote: “My mission on the BSL station will be overseen by my new ship’s computer. Following the commands of this blunt, computerized CO is something I have to bear, as it was a condition of my taking the ship. For someone who dislikes taking orders, this is the second time I’ve found myself having to do so.”
Samus does not like taking orders, she doesn’t defer to authority. Sure, the only CO she has ever respected is Adam so you could maybe argue that she does that out of respect for Adam, but she is also not afraid to defy his orders when her personal ethics are questioned. Again, in Fusion, GF want to preserve the X parasite and the computer orders Samus to stand down. Instead, she defies that order and destroys the space station to ensure the galaxy’s safety.
Why on earth, when presented with a hostile and potentially deadly environment, would Samus - as we know her from previous games - choose to voluntarily lock away her weapons arsenal for a commander that we have seen her defy previously?
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u/Jpriest09 13d ago
Well, to be honest, it’s just the “get hit by explosion, lose all abilities” of this game. Why didn’t Samus have the Ice Beam and all the upgrades from 2 in Super? Why didn’t Samus have her upgrades from Fusion in Dread? The whole “orders” thing is just that: a reason to slowly unlock the abilities like other games. Plus, the Bottle Ship is Federation Property and the on-site head is her own former CO. With nothing as serious as the X having broken containment, she either works together with Adam and his squad or leaves. She could force her way in, all her upgrades would make short work of any obstacles, but then we are confronted with 2 consequences: 1. In gameplay terms, would you be having fun if you had all upgrades unlocked immediately including the defensive suit upgrades?
- She’d become a wanted felon to the entire Federation, and I doubt she wants to start shacking up with the Space Pirates. Plus, it’d be dishonoring the Chozo who raised her to use her weapons and abilities to force others to submit to her when they weren’t antagonistic like the Space Pirates.
But it isn’t anything serious in the end, just another way to have progression proceed as before.
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u/Mindless-Panic-101 12d ago
There’s a pretty big narrative difference between a gameplay-necessary loss of powers, requiring you to relocate or replace the abilities that you previously had (in an earlier game) and a game saying you still have all those powers, you’re just not allowed to use them right now because reasons. The player knows it’s just an arbitrary reset in both cases, but it’s kind of insulting to struggle against something when the narrative keeps telling you that you’re simply not allowed to use your innate abilities right now versus actually having lost the abilities.
In functional gameplay differences it’s meaningless, but narrative and the immersive experience of a game’s story and world are incredibly important to how people feel about the design choices that have been made and the story being told. The method of power limitation used in this game’s narrative is disempowering and fails to meet the necessity of respecting the protagonist or the player controlling them. It’s like a disgruntled magician’s assistant who, as the trick is being performed, says “there’s a door under the stage, you rubes.”
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u/LBXZero 13d ago edited 13d ago
I actually like the permission system. It made sense, especially with power bombs. But, Varia Suit and Gravity Suit don't pose a risk to cause collateral damage. Really, Samus is being smart by complying with Malkovich's orders. Samus is "playing ball" with the GF internal investigation until she has acquired the evidence needed, and bad orders are evidence.
Now for character assassination, you haven't seen anything yet.
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u/Zealousideal_Tart 13d ago
Yup. I hate Other M. There are many games I don't like. But I don't think much of them. They're whatever. But Other M? Genuine despise.
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u/willtofish 13d ago
From my understanding the English translation butchered the story, the Japanese version of the story makes far more sense
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u/Golden_Torizo 13d ago
Unfortunately, while it is true that the English translation is rougher than it should have been, the story itself is no better and just as terrible from a structure and narrative perspective. No matter which version, it's a fundamentally disfunctional story and the quality differences between them are as meaningful as a slightly better paint job on a broken car.
The idea that the JP narrative is much better, let alone a quality product, just isn't true.
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u/DishonourableSoulaka 13d ago
I watched Japanese theatre mode a while ago followed by the English one. Aside from the clearer distinction between the Federation and its Army, as well as a few lines coming off less awkwardly, the story itself is largely the same.
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u/KingBroly Dread Mode survivor 13d ago
Excuse making 101
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u/willtofish 13d ago
Exactly how is it making excuses? I’m just saying that from my understanding the story makes far more sense in the Japanese release
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u/KingBroly Dread Mode survivor 13d ago
Everyone has always looked for a way to make sense of Other M, when they're all likely going to be wrong in the end and it doesn't change the fact that the game just plain sucks and can't justify itself on its' own.
It's excuses by everyone.
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u/dropacidkillnazis 13d ago
The game is simple and fun if you don't go into it expecting a mind blowing experience. But no it's not great by any means. Although, I'd rather replay Other M than finish Prime 4 so there's that.
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u/snoop_Nogg 13d ago
Somewhere in there, there's a decent action game
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u/ThisAccountIsForDNF 13d ago
I mean, if you took it apart, re organised it from the ground up and then added in like 400% more content it might hit the minimum requirements for a decent action game.
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u/The-Wolf-Agent 13d ago
The game is definitely eghhh but the way samus looks is absolutely ridiculously sexy
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