The Making of Metroid Other M: Death by Ambition
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 28 ก.ย. 2024
- Metroid: Other M has been vilified by fans and critics alike for its baffling story and design decisions for years, hailed as the game that killed the Metroid franchise. And those fans are right - thanks to Other M's poor critical and sales performance, the Metroid series went dormant for years, and hasn't come close to recovering. However, Other M is more than just "the worst Metroid game," more than a character assassination of gaming's first female protagonist. Other M's development tells tale of one man's obsessive aspirations; of a director who was dragged into a franchise he never wished to work on, for which he later became an adoptive father; of a team that wished to push the boundaries as a cinematic experience. This Metroid: Other M retrospective will tell the tale of the failed game's development, through the eyes of those behind it, thanks to in-depth developer interviews from both before and since Other M's ill-fated release. This is Metroid: Other M, a game killed by its ambition.
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FEATURING THE VOICES OF:
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PrimeHylian as Taiyo Aramaki - / primehylian
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SOURCES/FURTHER READING:
Iwata Asks: Metroid: Other M (Part 1 - Nintendo): iwataasks.ninte...
Iwata Asks: Metroid: Other M (Part 2 - Team NINJA): iwataasks.ninte...
Super Metroid Developer Interview: www.nintendo.c...
Metroid Developer Interview: www.nintendo.c...
Metroid: Other M - Yoshio Sakamoto Interview (GameSpot): • Metroid: Other M - Yos...
"Nintendo Trying to Figure Out What Went Wrong With Newest Metroid" (Kotaku): kotaku.com/nin...
"Nintendo's Reggie Talks Metroid, Amiibo, And (Of Course) Mother 3: (Kotaku): kotaku.com/nin...
"Interview: Metroid Co-Creator Details Fusion Remake Pitch, Skipping Switch and Series' Future" (GameRant): gamerant.com/m...
Metroid: Other M - The Challenge of Project M (Part 1): • [NC US] Metroid Other ...
Metroid: Other M - The Challenge of Project M (Part 2): • [NC US] Metroid Other ...
Yoshio Sakamoto Interview (NintendoWorldReport): www.nintendowo...
"Grab Metroid Other M for $6.99 at GameStop" (My Nintendo News): mynintendonews...
"Metroid Other M Finally Sells Over One Million" (My Nintendo News): mynintendonews...
"The Golden Bolt Theme" composed by AllHailBuckets. Show him some love on Spotify or your music service of choice! open.spotify.c...
This video is not intended for viewers under 13 years of age, and may contain content inappropriate for such viewers. Parental guidance suggested. Copyright © The Golden Bolt 2021. All rights reserved.
#Metroid #OtherM #Documentary
Update: I have finished Metroid Dread, it's *incredible,* AND Sakamoto got that redemption I mentioned I was hoping for in the video. For once, everybody wins. Original comment below:
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Ironically, Nintendo's desire to add in the actual canon feelings of Samus to a game and making it a linear story was what turned so many people off. At least, that's what I thought, anyway. Metroid has a mange, and the fact that Samus is far more vulnerable in canon than we've ever seen in any game up till Other M was a massive shock to people who ONLY knew Samus from the games. In every game, Samus is a potentially unstoppable killing machine with seemingly no weaknesses (aside from losing all her powers in the beginning of each game). Contrast with her actual canon lore, and you begin to see why Other M was so different. It tried to show us WHO Samus actually is, WHAT motivates her, what FRIGHTENS her. She went from being a cold, emotionless force of nature to being... well... Human.
People don't particularly like it when their big, unstoppable superman has personal issues and faults, especially when they are an icon of Female Power and Badassery at the same time.
Metroid Dread sounds pretty cool glad to see one of the best games on Nintendo didn't just die off good video man still watching it
@@IansMentalOmega You read way too much into it. People dont like a shitty story that contradicts what came before and assassinates an important character. Its as simple as that.
@@StormsparkPegasus Agree. Sakamoto was not redeemed. It is necessary to do more than just step aside and let someone better qualified to do the work, to get redemtion.
This is the one game I tried to forget doesn't exist
46:11 "Long cancelled Metroid Dread" Man that aged poorly, but in a good way
I couldn't be happier to be incorrect, that's for sure!
This hits different right about now. Dread is back baby
Why is it always a distress call... Answering a distress call in space gets everybody killed every time!
It's like opening a locked door in a horror movie, you're not supposed to do it but someone always does it.
@@GoldStorm07 except this time, the token black guy and the hot girl are the only ones who survived :P
Isn't that like asking why not answering a home invasion call? 911 call?
I mean that’s pretty much what Samus’s job is
The one thing I will say that Other M did right was it didn't fracture any sort of relationship between Nintendo and Koei Tecmo (Team Ninja's publisher): years later, it's Team Ninja (and Omega Force) who proposes to make another Dynasty Warriors spin-off, this time using a Nintendo property. The resulting Hyrule Warriors was a far better collaboration between both publishers and us fans embraced it because it worked. Now, just a few days ago, Nintendo unveiled Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity as the prequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, again working with Koei Tecmo (though this time, it's Nintendo who approached Koei with the idea).
Ultimately, while I do agree Other M has killed the ambition for the Metroid franchise, it's opened Nintendo's eyes on how to better collaborate with third-party publishers on something they know how to do, rather than have someone from Nintendo do it.
[Edit] Obviously, this hits differently now that Metroid Dread is real. Still, I stand by the notion that it might be more feasible, perhaps even better, to ask a third-party to make a new installment out of a Nintendo first-party property rather than Nintendo's in-house studios do it, especially when MercurySteam has proven themselves capable with Samus Returns so much that they are now the ones developing Dread.
This was something that over time I'd wished I'd touched on just a bit more than I did in the script, especially with that reveal of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity! It says so much to me that even despite the game's complete failure, Nintendo and Koei Tecmo were so happy with one another and their similarities that they continued praising one another (and then worked together) for years after. I'd argue that Other M's most positive legacy is that it's the first modern collaboration between Nintendo and smaller outside teams, which warmed Nintendo back up to that concept. Even ignoring Koei Tecmo's continued collaborations, in the years since Other M paved that road, we've seen Bayonetta 2, Wonderful 101, Star Fox Zero, and Astral Chain from Platinum (with Bayonetta 3 on the way!), a western studio getting their hands on a Mario game in Ubisoft (who also gave us a sort-of Star Fox too!), even Samus Returns with MercurySteam benefited from Other M in some twisted way!
I'd like to add that Team Ninja also developed Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3, which Nintendo published as a first-party title. Not sure about the rest of y'all, but I really love that game.
One of the most upsetting things about this game is how many of the issues with the story were SO CLOSE to working and had devastating results. As mentioned in the video, if the reason for Adam's distrust and them splitting was because Samus got someone hurt or killed and felt guilty for it, the authorization thing would feel much more reasonable. Another thing that would have helped significantly was change the focus of the PTSD for the Ridley scene. Instead of having her PTSD triggered by Ridley, have it be the fact that the federation cloned Ridley after spending her life finally getting rid of him. Ridley wasn't an experiment, he wasn't a creation gone rouge, he wasn't weapon, he was just an irredeemable monster who killed millions and somehow the Federation STILL thinks he is more useful alive. They are basically telling her "Everything you do is meaningless and there is nothing you can do that we cannot undo."
I truly think that if you cut the whole "Samus imagines herself as a child" part out of the Ridley freeze-up, and do NOTHING else, the scene would almost work. Add a tiny bit of flavor, showing Samus is shocked he's alive because she killed him, or make it so that it's not some twist, but something Samus actually expects is coming? Huh, just like that it starts to work!
The whole dynamic between Poe and Holdo in The Last Jedi, while still pretty aggravating, is basically Samus and Adam done right. Which says a lot about this game’s storytelling failures. Makes Captain Marvel look like a masterpiece of plotting.
The Golden Bolt I figured Samus was just freaked out about the way Ridley revealed himself, sort of out of the inferno. Still very jarring but not completely inexplicable. I would describe Samus’s entire portrayal in this game that way, too. Also the whole deal about Samus being “a little girl playing dress up”, while belittling towards her, doesn’t sound so dissimilar from Cloud Strife.
I honestly think the backlash towards Samus’s characterisation in this game, combined with massive hate for stuff like Twilight and Fifty Shades, might have made writers afraid to give heroines flaws because of how bad it tends to look when done wrong - leading in turn to the recent crop of “Mary Sue” type characters unfortunately.
@@TheGoldenBolt The entire point of that scene IS that Samus is terrified that Ridley has seemingly resurrected himself after struggling to successfully killed him throughout the Prime games and is essentially bewilderment and confusion at a seemingly immortal being, particularly because she literally tore him apart across her helmet in a splash of gore in Super (the scripted death in Super for Ridley is canon); the English localization just... doesn’t really convey this as well. I blame a lot of this game’s story faults on the absolutely piss poor localization and dub, honestly.
I don’t think M killed Metroid just because it had a god awful story. But because it was such a different experience from past games.
The devs wanted to make Samus more vulnerable, so they decided to make this a personal narrative. A little too personal in my opinion. I don’t think many players were interested in knowing Samus’s feelings about women hood.
Point is, we still could’ve got a more vulnerable Samus. But it should’ve been as a consequence of the plot. Not the goal. Most of the game is essentially Samus rambling about personal issues most players wouldn’t even understand. It’s such a disconnect from the gameplay. Witch was also very meh.
I hope Yoshio Sakamoto knows how much the fanbase loves Metroid Dread. I'm playing through it now and it's absolutely incredible. Not a fan of Other M, but Dread in my opinion is an amazing entry with quality that rivals Super and Fusion for the top spot in the series.
I mean the sales alone should be proof enough. Even in Japan its looking like it will be the best-selling game in the franchise by far.
Yeah watching this now actually makes me pretty emotional. Imagine how worthless and pathetic Sakamoto was feeling after leading Other M off of a cliff, convinced he had nothing left to offer and Metroid was better off without him... only for a dev team to come up that could take his unrealized ambitions that he lacked the technology to realize 15 years ago, assemble it into a new game, and prove definitively that his ideas from that era WEREN'T all garbage after all and that his vision CAN be successful with the right tempering, more than the series ever has been.
Just goes to show that maybe the people who made Dead or Alive weren't the best source to bounce narrative ideas off of for writing compelling female characters.
@@NotAGoodUsername360 Team Ninja had nothing to do with the story. Its not even the kind of story they would've tried telling with a female protagonist.
This is such a weird spin trying to make him more relatable and misunderstood when this was almost entirely him forcing through his vision and his dream to be like a film director. Details getting lost in translation isn't his fault entirely of course, but he cared enough about that aspect to insist on personally directing the voiceovers.
And its not like the return to form Metroid games do anything in relation to whatever other M was supposed to do. We do get more depth to Samus, but in a way that is more inspired by DOOM (and a bit of Prime 3) than even the internal monologues in Fusion.
@@Nirual86 samus is very different from doom guy your given the pieces of her life and construct a very unique personality especially with her childhood trauma and being raised by aliens
Why though? Why do you guys like samus to be mute and not speak or express herself just be stoic? Did you play other m? It gave samus character and growth. Why do people hate it the story is great as well
I would like to add one thing regarding the Ridley scene - at no point in the game does the story indicate Ridley is anything more than a space dragon to Samus. She says "my long standing nemesis - Ridley" during the narration and that's it. There's no mention of Colony 2-KL, Samus' parents being killed by Ridley's forces (and her mother being eaten alive in front of her at the age of 3 - that would have given enough reason for the PTSD), nor any mention that Ridley invaded her adoptive home, Zebes, enslaved her adoptive parents and turned Mother Brain against its creators, which led to the death of Grey Voice, the Chozo that gave his DNA to be infused with Samus so she could survive living in Zebes.
Instead of giving all of this pretty much character establishing information, the narrative is more focused on forcing the player sympathize and love Adam by making Samus tell us how she feels about in a vain attempt to convince us to feel the same.
Funnily enough, what I wrote about Samus' backstory is all in the 2003 manga, which is referenced at the very beginning of the game (Samus as a child having her DNA tampered with, and later on the Ridley scene). The game is referencing the manga but refuses to give the important information!
I remember reading that manga back then too. It was trash. The fact that Other M appears to be using this obscure manga as part of its DNA in story-telling is mind-boggling.
@@Metroid4ever And ironically enough, the manga establishes heavily the relationship between Samus and the Chozo, especially her being the adopted daughter and having received the DNA of Grey Voice. Yet one more source material for Other M to completely contradict by making Adam her father figure!
Yeah, even using that obscure material as basis for the plot, Sakamoto still felt the need to ignore its most important part!
@@isauldron4337 Your statement is correct, but you are wrong if you think Other M doesn't ignore that.
Other M, a story that was supposed to be an entryway for newcomers into the series at the same time it links Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion, doesn't make a single mention of the Chozo, who are the reason Samus even exists as a bounty hunter in the first place, but hammer down Adam's relationship to Samus that only exists in this one game.
The reason Other M doesn't do this is because it wants to pretend Adam is the father figure Samus never had so its "plot" can work. If there were any mention of the Chozo whatsoever, who raised her from age 3 till she was old enough to leave and work for the GF, the entire narrative would crumble down.
Not mentioning something doesn't necessarily equal ignoring, but Other M doesn't mention the Chozo precisely because it wants to ignore their existence!
What Bothers me even more then the chozo not being mentioned is that the game Does not even fully clarify that ridely and the space pirates are sentient, and not being controlled by mother Brain.
@@Majinhero Other M completely shits on the Metroid lore. It's like a soft reboot of the series, only using the iconic elements but ignoring all the lore behind them.
The saddest part is that behind all of its problems, I believe there is an amazing game hiding within, held back not only by Sakamoto's stubbornness but also by plenty of other constraints, such as the hardware he had to work on and honestly also time.
I hope one day we get another go at this style of gameplay for Metroid.
I'd say a lot of that game hidden within ended up materializing at least a little bit in Samus Returns! It's obviously not nearly the same, but the parry felt both like a natural fit for Samus and the natural progression from SenseMove in a 2D game.
@@TheGoldenBolt Maybe! But when I first played Other M it felt like the actual natural conversion from 2D Metroid into 3D (Which I felt with Super Mario 3D Land/World in regards to 2D Mario games) and it's a shame we are probably never getting another game like that.
I don't think the hardware was the issue, but rather how he handled it. Why did he limit the controls to the Wii Remote sideways when the Wii had the Nunchuck, Classic Controller and even Gamecube Controller? Why did he focus so much on saving space in the disk by leaving terrible monologue that doesn't add anything to the narrative and only serves to tell the audience what just happened?
The biggest problem with Other M is that no one managed to put brakes on the Sakamoto train.
@@TwilightWolf032 I definitely think that if Other M was released on any other Nintendo platform it wouldn't have had a controller issue, they tried to not only adapt to the Wii's power but also the Wii's vision (Which was being a console anyone could play on).
@@Galespark234 Which also doesn't maek sense - every Wii came with a set of Wii Remote + Nunchuck, so Sakamoto had no reason to limit the developers to the Wii Remote only. Everyone could play with the combo (and this thanks to Retro Studios, since they're the ones who convinced Nintendo to pack the accessory with every Wii sold).
I have a theory that Sakamoto did Other M the way he did because he doesn't like the fact Retro made Prime into a success. Other M's plot contradicts Prime by making this the first mission Samus ever did with the Federation after becoming a bounty hunter, despite her fighting alongside the GF in Corruption, she has no visors other than a small zoom, her beams stack once again, no spider ball, and then he comes out in interviews and vaguely states Prime games happen in a different universe, etc.
To me, one of the reasons Sakamoto forced Team Ninja to limit themselves to the Wii Remote alone was because Retro was involved in having the Nunchuck packed with the console and how well they used it in Corruption for the Grapple upgrades. Once I analyzed what Retro had done for the series and what Sakamoto ended up doing with Other M, it seems to me that he really doesn't like Prime (the trailers for Other M listed all 2D games but no Prime games were mentioned).
Honestly, after Samus Returns and especially with Dread(here's hoping I don't choke on my foot later) Sakamoto has earned his redemption.
One thing I noticed after Metroid Dread was announced was seeing Sakamoto's spark in the franchise was back and he was genuinely happy to finally work on the long anticipated Metroid 5. Other M being the flop it was important, as it led to Nintendo resetting Prime 4 and giving both Retro and itself all the time it to make sure it great at launch and both Samus Returns and Dread now being those games that learned from Other M's mistake.
This video really does hit different after the new direct. I know it will be a uphill battle, but we believe in you, Sakamoto.
If Dread turns out as well as we'd all like to hope, you'll be hard-pressed to find a better redemption story in game development!
This game had so much potential, I wouldn't mind another metroid game in a similar style, but obviously without the awful story and characters.
I completely agree, a more fleshed out, more sure of itself Other M with an actual control stick could be so much fun mechanically, especially if they can nail down the exploration more than this game did!
I commend you for getting all the way through this without mentioning "the baby".
Y'know, for how often that one is played up, I really did expect it to be worse or more prevalent than it is! With how often everybody has driven the baby and the "you're not authorized to..." jokes, they felt a bit too easy to go after for the thousandth time.
@@TheGoldenBolt I have a theory about that.
The baby is mentioned a lot in the opening moments of the game, but tones down after a while. I think a lot of people got burned after the opening hours and left, only remembering "the baby".
Metroid definitely isn’t dead. But this put it in a coma for a long time.
The characterization, the overuse of the soldiers, the weird Ridley life cycle, the PTSD from her childhood, the Mother Brain proxy... so much of the narrative would have worked so much better as a prequel game.
It's part of what makes it even more (morbidly) fascinating that this was, from the jump, always meant to fill the gap between Super and Fusion. Just...how?
A lot of the Narrative beats would have worked far better as a prequel. Have it be set before she becomes a bounty hunter, as another soldier in Adam's squad. Maybe have it so that she doesn't use her Chozo tech unless she has to.
So during a mission gone wrong, Samus activates the suit and Adam forbids most of it because he has command of her at this time, and he doesn't know what the suit is capable of. In this hypothetical game, the authorization mechanic has a much stronger narrative purpose as it would mirror Samus' frustrations with authority, culminating with her leaving the Federation at the end of the game.
Samus as a weaker character would make more sense (not complete sense, I still wouldn't want the Ridley scene as is) because she's unproven and hasn't done any of the metriod game stuff yet. Though with a bit more Sakimoto level stubbornness in there.
Really, you could fix a lot of things about the game by moving it up to near the start of Samus' career. Her lack of confidence because this is her first big mission since leaving the regular armed forces, her fear of Ridley because this is the first time she's seen him since she was a child (or if we absolutely must have metroids and mother brain around at least the first time she's seen him come back from the dead), Adam's mistrust because she's still a rookie and hasn't made a name for herself yet...
Here's something that might make the PTSD work with Other M staying a midquel:
What if it's just a side effect of not being allowed to use her full arsenal reminded her of the time she met ridley with none of her arsenal at her disposal?
Sakamoto is a good reminder to have a good ambition but being open to ideas, the stubbornness just sounded like such a hassle to deal with. I can imagine it feeling like it was only Sakamoto’s work and not the team.
To me, the biggest lasting impact I feel Other M had that I just feel so sad about
Is that now they'll never try to give Samus a voice again. I love the idea of a Metroid game that is a bit more cinematic and tries to give Samus character, but now Other M will forever be the catalyst for Nintendo to say "Well we tried it once, didn't work out, let's never try again." instead of trying to acknowledge what was bad and trying to improve on it.
Maybe I'm being a bit optimistic here, but I think that Nintendo wouldn't necessarily be against a story-based Samus. If this were still that same Wii-era company, absolutely, but I think they've adapted to the times a bit in recent years. I think they'd just be a bit more hands-on to make sure the writing holds to a certain standard, and that they don't have the director working with actors through a language barrier!
@@TheGoldenBolt I can only hope, but it'll be a while before we would actually a more cinematic Metroid. I'd love for Prime 4 to be, but I think they're going to stick as close to Prime 1's structure as they can. At least a lack of moving forward seems to be a common thing with franchises that have gone on hiatus like Star Fox Zero. And who knows how long it'll be before Prime 4 comes out, let alone something else afterwards.
I guess I'm not as good at being optimistic ._.
It'll definitely be a while, that's for sure - but at least when it comes to Metroid, a game like Prime 4 struggling behind the scenes puts it in _great_ company with other Metroid titles, so I'm oddly hopeful thanks to the development issues. Like I said in the video, it wouldn't be a Metroid game without a little struggling, as Other M showed us!
Play metroid dread. Can confirm she at least gets a line where she speaks that bird talk (chozo). It was cool. I'm not sure if she speaks again just yet think I'm 80% done with the game
Have you played Dread?
Metroid Other M is such a missed opportunity. Sure the cutscenes and looks are pretty, gameplay is fine....outside of the power up restrictions.
But MAN the story and dialogue is downright awful.
It's an absolutely baffling project, one of the only examples of a game - that I can think of at least - where nothing went wrong after the flawed core concept. But that alone was enough to sink the entire series for the better part of a decade.
I respectfully disagree that the gameplay was “fine”. It wasn’t. Forcing you to use a sideways Wiimote and having to switch to first person by changing how you hold the remote (and this not being able to move while first person aiming) was game breaking for me. I was already cursing that I had to move in a 3D space with a goddamn Dpad, but this was beyond the pale.
I watched ProtonJon play through the whole game on stream and my god is the story a mess. The whole dynamic between Samus and Adam is basically Poe and Holdo from The Last Jedi done a million times worse. Let that sink in.
@@StormsparkPegasus you can't be serious and you aren't being serious. This is like 3d land or 3d world, not like mario 64s equivalent prime
@@StormsparkPegasus unplayable? How come everyone I know, me included, that played the game when it came out had 0 problems with it? It felt more like a 2d game yeah, but that was why we liked it. Fusion and zero mission on gba were the rage where I live and we played prime and this. You have to differentiate and not call unplayable an scheme you could figure out
I find it so fascinating that they messed up the incentives and mechanics of close quarter combat, considering it's Team Ninja.
Ninja Gaidon (from memory) did a great job of encouraging you to go in for the kill to get more health or to absorb essences to finish enemies off quickly. And it's so weird that the same team forgot that pretty important design trope.
Eitherway, thanks for having me on Kevin!
I would absolutely love to hear a more complete history of this game's development, just to see how they tripped at every turn and still happily pushed on none the wiser. It's probably the only game I can think of that's quite this out of tune with itself, and that's what makes it so fascinating.
Also, thank you once again for taking part!
See, the thing is that they did not, 99.9% of the blame lies with Sakamoto who was and is a Prima Donna. The game is what he wanted, how he wanted and got released when he wanted it. Team ninja _argued_ to get better controls, to use nunchuck or classic, Sakamoto shot them down time and time again. Its on the interviews. What the studio should've done is honestly resign from the project in protest rather than work with a man who would disregard their knowledge and experience in favor of a rather damning vision.
Wasnt Team Ninjas decision for the lack of pick ups or incentives to engage in fights. That all laid on sakamoto. Team Ninja, despite any protests they did, from the strange control scheme, to being denied even the use of the nunchuk, that all fell on sakamotos decisions.
He kept telling them no, regardless TN's experience with this kind of genre. So any issue you had with the game, a lot of the decisions came from sakamoto himself. TN simply followee orders in the end
This seems like a similar case to the prequels where one man's ambition caused him to have too many ideas that did not translate well when bringing it to a unified whole. Also, it seems like Sakamoto needed someone to tell him no or to tell him why something was too far or just did not work but no one could or would say anything that criticized him and, much like the Star Wars prequels, the game suffered because of this.
Okay after playing Metroid Dread I’ve realized a few things. I loved the scene where Mercury Steam remembered that Samus was raised by the Chozo. And that she spoke in the Chozo language. Now they need to go back to “Other M” and change it to fit in the timeline. They need to remember that Adam was a Commander that Samus had so much respect for, that if he asked her not to use power up do to the safety of others, that she wouldn’t. And not that he’s “like her father”. No. She had a father in Old Bird.
Other M has such great gameplay, and on Nintendo’s new consoles it would feel and play even more amazing, and they would be able to tweak out all the bugs. Movement would be so smooth with today’s controls, and you can have a 1st person view for looking/shooting if needed, but it doesn’t need to be required, it would just be a button press.
Then they need to go and bring in their best sound designers and orchestra, they need to bring the music back to Metroid, just like they did with the prime series, and Samus Returns. But with all new themes.
Music in Metroid let’s you know how Samus feels, it makes the mood.
They need to bring back the “purple” Gravity Suit, and not just a feature.
Missiles have to be useable in 3rd person, and not just first person view.
The counter needs to be updated to the new counter strike that’s in Samus returns/Dread, it would make the gameplay so much smoother then trying to manually dodge, or trying to jump on the enemy’s head.
Now let’s focus on the story.
First off we need a title that makes sense, and not a code for Mother. This is a game where everyone aboard a space ship dies, and so we need a strong name. Also
Samus never called the Metroid a baby in Samus Returns or Super Metroid, she called it “the Infant Metroid”, so let’s completely ditch her saying “the baby”. That got old pretty quick.
Now… Let’s address the PTSD when she sees Ridley, up to that point Samus has faced Ridley 5 times, and not once did she go PTSD. She can have a panic attack because yes she completely destroyed him in Super, and she’s completely shocked that the creature that killed her whole family in front of her is alive, but give the lady some dignity, and not make her out to be crazy.
And finally…
Adam didn’t shoot Samus in the back to stop her, instead the cloned infant Metroid attacked Samus, as she thought it just hatched and that she might develop a bond like before, and he shot the Metroid killing it, and saving her. That’s why she was so exhausted, because it had drained her life energy to feed.
Now the Voice acting/translation needs to be updated to our culture style, and not Japans culture style. People in other countries don’t always understand others cultures, and it makes things feel weird/awkward or dry. Instead let the actors and translation teams do what they do best. “Act”.
I think people really feel that Other M is a bad game because of a few missteps along the way, and because they forgot some of her real past. But at its core it’s a good game, and it has so much potential. Let’s make it be the game it deserves.
I really like the combat of Other M. In this game the missiles are more powerful than the charge since it take longer to activate. The loop of staggering enemies with a charge shot, toppling with a missile and then finishing the with a lethal shot feels fantastic once you get the hang of it.
I'm glad Sakamoto kept this concept and tried to carry it over to Samus returns. I'm also willing to give Sakamoto another chance. A metroid 5 would give him the chance to applied what he's learned from Other M and Samus returns. He just needs a duel director to properly interpret his vision, similar to how Kojima had people helping him express his vision without going too overboard with the Metal Gear series.
@@StormsparkPegasus So you honestly believe he had nothing to do with the amazing Super Metroid, Fusion, Zero Mission, and Samus Returns but he is solely responsible for Other M? Do you see how dumb and biased that sounds?
He's the one that hired Mercury Steam. I guarantee he's the one who came up with the additions to the story. I'm not saying he came up with everything, but he was definently part of the process. He's the one that did most of the developer interviews, which means he had to have some hand in its creation.
And you can't take away the fact that Other M is the game that introduced the melee takedowns that are used in Samus Returns. Mercury Steam are fans of Metroid, so there is no doubt that they played Other M and enjoyed all the lethal strikes and wanted to keep a similar feature in the next metroid game.
Basically, give the man some credit and stop trying to through him under the bus like he's the sole problem with Metroid.
@@StormsparkPegasus He was the sole Director of Super Metroid and Zero Mission, while Other M had 3. Plus Sakamoto has always had the final word when it comes to the stories of these games. It's not like Sakamoto got all this control for no reason, he earned it by writing the stories of the previous 3 games. I'm not saying he's a flawless writer, but he is pretty much the only writer for the series. If he leaves and never works on Metroid, who will write the stories? Who will resolve the cliffhangers of Fusion and Samus Returns? Takehiko probably, but I guarantee he would ask Sakamoto for direction because he's earned that respect from his team. I'm not saying Sakamoto should stay the only writer, I think he should have people helping and questioning his decisions. But I definitely dont think you should throw out the main guy because of one poorly recieved story and expect everything to be perfect.
@@KiddKyle67 Sakamoto is not very good at fully 3d games. Alot of Japanese developers have a hard time adapting to the times.
32:00
".....in Sakamoto's eyes, Samus has never been a strong character. She's been a little girl playing dress up."
I was just about to make some joke about Japanese sexism but I restrained myself.
of course the own creators don't understand what made their games sucessful,
just like fucking star wars with the prequels...
@SNES Nes Because Sakamoto changed who was (and still is) a strong badass bounty Hunter who in the eyes of great horrors and fearsome enemies never cowered or even surrendered to a frightened weak woman only following the order of the man “above” her, even becoming his damsel in distress. If that’s not sexist I don’t know what is.
@SNES Nes sexism: relating to discrimination or devaluation based on a person's sex or gender. And I’m pretty sure most agree Samus’ character was devalued immensely in this game.
@SNES Nes ''the big boys will now leave the chat'' and that's how you revealed that you're actually an edgy 14 years-old in need of attention.
Excellent video! You got yourself a new subscriber :D
Thank you very much, I'm glad to have you on board, my friend!
Glad I finally got around to watching this video especially now after just finishing Dread. It feels like Sakamoto really learned a lot from Other M and it atleast deserves credit in showing him and other developers what direction to not take the series in, and how that has lead Dread, atleast in my opinion to becoming a modern classic.
After just recently replaying Samus Returns it has become much clearer to me, that they had already learned some lessons from Other M: The way Samus behaves in the face of adversity. The cutscene at the end of the Digger fight has her calmly blast him again to finish him off, not even looking at him. Compare this to Dreads depiction, especially the Kraid fight, and it becomes clear that they heard the fans' opinions on the Ridley encounter. Reminds me alot of Samus in Prime 2, where each encounter with Dark Samus has her calm and in control, even dismissive in parts.
"Floting through the vacume of space, with the leftover debrie of the 40th planet samus had blown up this week"
The Golden Bolt 2022
'll say it over and over. This game would have been way better storywise if it was written as the last mission Samus did for the federation before becoming an independent bounty hunter and before Zero mission.
By having a Samus that never unlocked any function of her suit yet, by having her still under federation and Adam orders. By having her very first confrontation with Ridley, which would explain the PTSD. By having this mission being the reason she decided to quit the federation after the death of her friends/comrades in a mission that was provoked by federation actions and Space pirates.
The story could have been about MB creation by the federation, using biological engineering and sample from multiples monster aliens, before being stolen by the space pirates (or going rogue). Madeline would be just the interface of the brain.
For the armor upgrade, there is many ideas that could be used. For example, having the tutorial being about the federation analyzing the suit for active duty (indicating that Samus was using federation equipment until then) and have the upgrades locked in the suit. Have Madeline(MB) being the one to unlock them as the story advance, under the guise that the suit function was also studied there, only to reveal later that MB also contain Chozo sample, and using that, she at the end, deactivate the suit in the final confrontation with her.
Imagine how the final sequence would have been so much better in a fight of Samus zero armor. Heck, you could have made a whole theme about Samus over-relying on her equipment and suit function, and her overcoming her PTSD by learning personal inner strength, which came into climax when she face down MB with nothing else than the zero suit and the blaster.
No one would have made to much jazz about Samus being over-emotional, she was still young and not yet the badass hunter we know. Its not about waiting for authorization, it would be about learning of how to use the suit. Adam would need of course some rewriting, and each member of the federation team would need personality, at least enough so we are sad each time one of them die.
I just hope the metroid series gets the recognition it deserves after all its been through whilst never growing beyond a reasonably sized dedicated fanbase
SomecallmeJohnny as Sakamoto? I'd watch that movie.
The biggest problem with Sense Move super shots is it incentivizes standing still and *waiting* to be attacked. Samus Returns has this problem too.
Personally, I don't mind the incentive to wait, since to some extent it fits Samus's character (better than the rest of the game, too!) - but it'd be so much better of a fit if tied to a button as opposed to _forcing_ the player to stand still like you said. Or if there was a stronger incentive to be aggressive with the jump attacks, like say a slight health regen upon successful CQC attacks or something!
This was very well put together, awesome job! You've got yourself a new subscriber. I was surprised the first time I heard SomeCallMeJohnny's voice in the video.
I know there was an article around the time Samus Returns was announced, I believe from Kotaku, where Sakamoto said he still stands by what he did in Other M but I can't find it anywhere.
I get the feeling that the Ridley Freakout and Adam shooting Samus in the back are there to make Samus weak for the exact amount of time the plot requires since the plot couldn't progress as intended otherwise. For example, for the Ridley boss fight, if Samus walked into the arena and the first thing she sees was Anthony getting knocked off a ledge into lava prompting Samus and Ridley to fight, would the story progress any differently? No, since the freakout doesn't add anything. There's no character growth from Samus, there's no consequences since Anthony lives in the end, it seems to serve the purpose of forcing Samus in a weakened state for as long as the plot needs and that's it.
I feel like the only character assassination moment for Samus is when she complied with the bad guy's request and just let the villains win. Remember at the end where this suspicious Colonel shows up and is like "I know Adam and his platoon got wiped out so now you're an outsider. I can't let you talk to the witness (Madeline Bergman) so you need to leave empty handed." At this point I expect Samus to say or do something, at least show she has a backbone and then Anthony can show up to verify her story. It's not like she's helpless in this situation, she knows that there was a Deleter placed into Adam's unit at the very least. However, Samus doesn't do anything. She closes her eyes, clenches her fist and bows her head as if she's been completely defeated and outplayed. I'm not saying Samus would threaten violence, but there's no way she would stand by and let someone suspicious do what they want, especially when Samus knows the Federation has been up to no good and when Adam's last order, one of the last things Adam said to Samus, was to find the survivor (Madeline) and bring that person to safety.
One last thing, you know when Anthony is being attacked by a monster and you need to look at a Grapple Point for Adam to authorize the Grapple Beam? If you don't look at the Grapple Point Anthony gets thrown into lava and dies. I suspect that's just a gameplay mechanic or something but I find this fact funny.
Thank you very much, I appreciate the kind words! I know I've heard of that Sakamoto interview, and while I couldn't find it easily either, I felt his quote regarding a Metroid show more telling. Just to use my channel as an example, I've made some very, _very_ poorly videos when I look back at my first year - to the point that I remade one of them! - but I'd stand by them even today now that I know better. And those videos were just me, I'm not throwing a few hundred people under the bus when I call them bad. Sakamoto standing by his attempts with Other M doesn't also mean that he can't have taken from that experience and learned.
Of course, his deferral on the Metroid show can just be taken as a sort of "I'm not responsible for television shows," too! I think it's a bit of both, and I think both that comment and the one you noted can be equally true coming from the same man, even on the same day!
There are so many moments in this game that make me want another game in the same style. Just one that does it the right way. Many moments of fleeting brilliance in this game. The speed booster especially is so much fun to use, and feels like I always imagined Metroid to be in 3D.
Finally watching this masterpiece after the Dread announcement! Really hope you make a retrospective series for the Prime Trilogy.
It's a shame that despite how much hard work was behind the scenes no one noticed that the game concepts were flawed from the get-go:
From a narrative point of view it makes no sense making an origin story when the game in the timeline was the send to last game in the series (at that time). By that point Samus should have been a celebrity not being treated like a random grunt that gets second guessed by foot-soldiers. It's like playing Metal Gear Solid 4 and the story instead of focusing on Snake's late life suddenly deciding he's a newbie and patronizing him for no apparent reason.
Gameplay wise the modern NES idea sounds terrible on paper, I even recall an interview where Sakamoto stated that he chose the NES-like layout because it _was a throwback to the glory days of the series_ which confused me a lot. Sure the NES Metroid was a groundbreaking title back in the 80's but let's be honest: it aged like milk (Even back in 2010) and everyone knows Metroid real breakthrough was Super Metroid. Now to be fair the control scheme is not that bad IMO and you can actually get used to it but it is definitely an acquired taste.
Also the _simple controls will appeal the most players_ was an incredibly blindfolded statement. Back in the mid 2000 all the rage was Halo, Gears of War and Uncharted all of them shooters but *action* games that required more than a d-pad and two buttons to play and had massive audiences, casuals among them and "complex" controls were never an issue.
9:40 another issue with the wiimote only control is that they were trying to make the game accessible to new players yet the game is rated T.
That's one I'll admit I hadn't even thought of! Obviously my view is skewed as a "core" player but I didn't think of the rating messing with its intended outreach. Even back in 2010 that certainly would've had at least some effect!
Insanely good video. Hope we will these kinds off "analysis" kinds of vids more often. They take a long time and a lot of time to makeN but the results are always very impressive.
Thank you very much, my friend! I definitely want to keep pushing out stuff in this style, although Other M is obviously a unique beast so things wouldn't be _quite_ like this. Something in the vein of this crossed with the Legend of Dragoon video is what I'd like to do relatively frequently going forward, with smaller "regular" videos sprinkled in. If September goes well, I'm hoping to have another big one in October, maybe even two!
40:58
ooooooooooooh man oh man oh man oh man oh man. That aged......VERY badly!!!
*Cries in Metroid Prime 4*
Sakamoto sounds like an absolute nightmare to work with
This is the same guy who made Samus Returns and Dread.
45:40 - Thank you for leaving in Johnny's laughing fit, that was amazing! 🤣🤣🤣
Samus: BUT WILL STILL DON'T KNOW WHO THE TRAITOR IS YET!
Ironically, the Walmart in my town still has a couple copies of Other M left, and they're still selling it for its original retail price xD
Hopefully whenever the heck Metroid Prime 4 it can make up for how this game turned out .
I'd like to think it will - it's struggling enough as it is to get off the ground, which for some reason is a great sign with Metroid games!
Samus is my favorite video game character.
_Especially_ Other M Samus, right? 😏
@@TheGoldenBolt other M samus is sexy as hell. She also has a few avatars on the switch profile pictures. Hopefully that means they're bringing a definitive edition version of other M to the switch in HD.
Other M was my first & is so far my only Metroid game & the way Samus used sense move, lethal strike, & over blast, especially her lethal strike on Ridley, made me love Samus as much as I do today & Samus Returns made me love her so much more because of the way she used melee counter, especially the ones she used on Ridley. I also like Samus talking in Other M.
35:11 This is exactly what the Space Pirates were doing in Prime to help them adapt to the Phendrana Drifts and was done to cement the idea to the player that the SP were not thinking things through, since the result of this was that they weren't able to contain the Metroids. Either this is intentional and the point is that the SP and Federation aren't so different, or Sakamoto just didn't realize what he'd done.
This was a pretty good analysis! I especially think the ending bit about whether or not the director should take the reins again was well spoken, and the ratchet/clank comparison was pretty apt as well.
I personally had a lot of gripes talked about in the vid, but 15 bucks isnt a bad price for what i got. At points, the atmosphere was worth it.
What you said at the end is _exactly_ it - on sale? It's not nearly as sour a taste in your mouth! If I paid $50, I'd justifiably be a lot more miffed, but the majority of players got it at $30 or less - I'm actually a bit surprised the reception hasn't warmed up over time as those players started sharing their experiences more!
36:46 I can't tell if the timing was intentional, but with that prompt appearing right as Samus does the Thumbs-Down ..... should I- should I dislike the video?
I'm glad somebody caught it, that idea just tickled me and I knew I had to put it somewhere!
One thing that's interesting about the authorization thing is that a part of it was a bad localization effort. The varia suit for example: Samus doesn't activate the Varia not because she's obeying Adam but out of spite for him trying to restrain her abilities. Basically like "Oh yeah? You don't wanna let me use my abilities? Ok then, just gonna go to this super hot place lmao fuck you" and the part where Adam authorizes the use of the suit is originally him confused as to why the fuck Samus didn't activate the suit. Less of "I allow you to not die" and more like "Lady what the fuck are you doing?". Also, the scene where she begs Adam to allow her to help is originally her DEMANDING that Adam gives the order she wants. Even though it's not *perfect*, it fits her character MUCH more than the way she acts in the localized version. There's a lot of differences like that in the game, I suggest you watch a video called "The other M that never was" (if you haven't already) because that covers a bunch of these issues. It doesn't fix the Ridley PTSD tho
Oof. I'm not sure I really like that, either.
This gives so much insight into why Other M is the way it is. I never hated this game, I think it was good before, now I think it's just ok. I do believe that Sakamoto really did ruin this game with his ambition.
You know what this reminds me of, George Lucas with Star Wars. He's another director that had full control when he worked on the prequel series, surrounded by only yes people and audiences generally hating those movies.
But unlike Sakamoto who did get his redemption with Metroid Droid, Lucas never really got that, he sold his work and never had a role with the next movies. Just something to think about.
I guess my point is that I'm happy that we got Metroid Dread, this was pulled from the depths of development hell and was abandoned, and it turned into the game to revive the whole series for a new generation, being the best selling Metroid game of all time, and Sakamoto did get his vision of this game to life, a fear based Metroid game with those E.M.M.I. robots. Just makes me happy that there is a happy ending with Sakamoto, well, I guess not ending, a happy new beginning.
Cheers to one of my favorite game series of all time, to Sakamoto and the rest of MercurySteam for being a fantastic development team, and to one of my favorite characters Samus Aran, welcome back Samus, we've missed you dearly.
So, now we're getting Metroid Prime 4, AND a Metroid 5!
A 3D Metroid with NES controls, miles of gaudy exposition and story told through endless cut scenes and fuck all exploration. This wasn't a tribute, it was a betrayal.
@MrMetroid1998 nah the controls, the intermittent cutscene interruption, the flow, the atmosphere, it was just not good. The graphics were great, but the rest was just bad.
Thanks for the video! I've always loved the idea of Other M. The concept of expanding Samus as a character is really exciting to me, and the gameplay while not perfect was really cool. I'm in love with the potential this game had and hope one day we get something like Other M that lives up to that potential. I unfortunately think things are going to be played safe for a long long time though.
Other M is one of those games I don't necessarily hate in spite of all its horrific flaws, just one of those games that you smirk and sigh at in fascination.
In other words, yeah, baffling.
Absolutely, I don't hold any hatred towards the game, partly because that's just not that healthy to begin with. It's amazing looking at the slice of development we've heard about, seeing that _nobody_ raised any questions, and seeing that despite the game's performance, Nintendo happily worked with Koei Tecmo so frequently in the years since and began branching out to other developers too!
Excellent Analysis on the gameplay front. I suggest looking up "The Other M that never was" by Lexicon Lookout here on YT if you're interested about the differences in the story between the Japanese and English version. It delves into how much of Other M's connections with Fusion were lost in translation such as the reasons why you even encounter the Nightmare chronologically a second time in the BSL or what Samus actually even accomplished in Other M - the old army, the ringleaders, being disbanded due to her securing a witness. Even Authoritarian Prick Adam, Samus' stance on him and some other plotholes are a result of the translation being unfaithful.
It's crazy how deep the rabbit hole on missed potential goes.
That's a video I definitely have to give a watch when I get the time, I didn't realize _just_ how different the story beats were between the localization and the original!
17:40 the not fitting Samus' character joke slays. Well done.
I'm so glad this video hasn't aged well. It's outdated for all the right reasons, with the "long-cancelled Dread", Prime 4 being stuck in dev hell, and even Sakamoto being so obsessive over getting Metroid right. From what I've heard, Sakamoto reserved himself to have the final say on Dread and in my opinion that game handled its story super well.
Ripley who Samus is based off in her most cinematic and action orienated movie Aliens compared to a group of military trained US colonial marines. Marines who just about an hour earlier proclaimed themselves as the "ultimate badasses the state of the badass art." Within an hour and first contact with the Aliens. "It's game over man it's game over, what the hell are we going to do now." Ripley "I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit... It's the only way to be sure."
Samus "I cannot authorise the use of that until my sensei tells me to." If Ripley was like this in Aliens. "I cannot use the flamethrower to stop the Alien Queen unless Hicks tells me to. I cannot save Newt with the mech suit unless Hicks authorises me to work the machinery. "Get away from her you bitch! Hicks was that language acceptable for a lady?"
Look how they massacred my girl!
i think the whole "samus panic attack at ridley" could have been pulled off well had this been the first game in the timeline, before even metroid 1/zero mission. like if its the first time she faced ridley since her parents died, a panic attack could have been more warranted but at this point it just feels out of character almost.
I been a Metroid fan since 2004, Fusion was my first game and I loved it back then still play it over the years and i have played all the other games even the one on Nes and honestly the Prime series i never really loved kinda liked the 2D ones more. But recently started playing Other M on a Odin handheld with upscale graphics. It feels just like it's on a switch I really love the 3rd person aspect of this one really wish they make another one like this It's amazing to me to see Samus 360
Game play feels so good regardless of the story potholes it's good I recommend 💯
We need another one like this or a port to the switch.
I beat Super Metroid, Recently beat Metroid Prime (1) and I just bought Fusion. I’ve never played Other M, but this video really explained why this game is so disappointing. But I believe Metroid is not dead just yet. Metroid prime 4 will be here and I feel like it will be the resurrection the series needed. Though if Nintendo treats Metroid how they did on Wii U. Then sadly, metroid might truly be dead. Also really awesome vid man!
The things this game get right would make it a 9/10, but the things it gets wrong would make it a 2/10. Probably the strangest way to get a 'meh' result in gaming history.
And that plot is thirteen year old shadow the hedgehog fanfic levels of bad. Its a big shame.
I would forgive weird missile controls, forgive lessened exploration and a load of crap from this game if the story just wasn't so stupid
The only way this game gets a pass from me is if you view it as a breaking point to Samus’s trauma from every adventure prior to Other M. Almost like she never processed anything and just constantly reacted to things that happened around her not the things that happened to her.
That's an interesting way to look at it. So your saying she basically snapped?
@@Nigel222 Yeah like its the only way that would fit her character. Think of it as a solider with ptsd that didn't kick in until after coming home from the war they fought in or years later etc.
I feel like the intention was for Other M to be a game where Samus isn't sure what to do with herself.
When you think about it, Super Metroid is basically the big climax. It's where she fought all of her long time enemies, and not only where they all defeated but she also lost the infant Metroid she bonded with as well as her adopted home, Zebes. I feel that makes sense for someone, after going through such an emotional event, to feel a little lost with where in life they're really supposed to go next.
Even the opening to Other M states that some time does pass after Super Metroid, and the galaxy is entering an era of peace with the Space Pirates and Mother Brain gone for good, leaving Samus to kind of just wander the galaxy aimlessly. I feel like, in that sense, and also meeting up with people she hasn't seen in a long time, made her a little more vulnerable until the end of the game where she found her footing again.
There was more tension in created in the Fusion appearance of Ridley than the entirety of Other M, and that was done with no words or cutscenes. I still remember the dread I felt discovering the frozen Ridley and realising i'd have to fight it again, all of which was built off the difficulty when facing Ridley in Super Metroid. That's the narrative strength of this series, building emotion into environmental (including sound) design, and the gradual development of confidence and strength in being able to discover techniques and master the environment.
By the way, have you seen Lexicon’s video on “The Other M That Never Was”? It was very eye opening.
I was such a fan of Metroid that I completed this entire game 100% the week it came out. I honestly liked it but when the reviews came out I realized how bad of a Metroid game it really was
Ah Other M. Loved the commercial for this game, and it was one of the first Metroid game I finished, but too many aspects of it don't hold up. This game needs a fan remake that get's taken down the day it's finished with Nintendo revealing their own remake. We'll call it Metroid: Another M.
This was very well done. The only thing you missed that was kind of important was that there was a game-breaking bug late in the game. If I remember right it corrupted your save data and they never patched it (to the best of my knowledge) but only offered a convoluted workaround.
I really hope Dread will sell well. It would definetly send the right signal, plus the game is awesome and deserves it.
Dread was a huge success
I never considered Other M a good game, but I have a soft spot for it. It's nice to hear someone paying attention to its good points but not going soft on it either.
Who’s watching after SomecallmeJohnny plugged in his last video
i am
@@TheGoldenBolt At least you’ve watched it. Ahaha Love your ratchet and Clank retrospectives as well. :)
ive always maintained this games 2 biggest flaws are timeline placement and voice direction
had this game taken place early in samuss career, either right before metroid 1 (to play up the brash disrespectful young girl growing into her stoic bounty hunter persona and make her ptsd of ridley make more sense) or actually take the parts of young samus and make it THE prologue to cut down on the constant need for monologueing/cutscenes about young samus and keep the ptsd moments in the past with young samus
btw you can still have that ptsd moment with ridley and anthony either way, itd just play slightly different between the "no! i killed you! youre supposed to be dead!" moment thats in the game but fails because bad voice direction, and the "no! i cant beat him! hes too strong!" scenario youd get with the young samus timeline placement
the later timeline approach would require samus to take more charge in how she interacts with adam and the team, but the prologue section would give a better sense of why samus would trust this team enough to work alongside adam and agree with his assessment and suggestions for limited armament use and efficient search tactics, but still make the decision herself when a particular scenario needed x (in the young samus example, this could be more traditional powerup collection with adam having more authority over samuss movements due to her still being part of the unit)
the second issue with voice direction is very simple, samus talks like a typical japanese "detached cool guy" hero and to an american audience she comes across like a robot, and the amount of talking does NOT help that, had they hired someone well versed in english voice direction they couldve kept the spirit of the acting but made the voices sound better to english audiences
tldr, a little narrative shuffle to cut down on redundant dialogue and cutscenes, a more focused timeline placement during develpoment, and having a voice director that can give better english direction couldve easily turned what is actually a pretty fun game (even considering the stupid wii controls) into a masterpiece
Other M really is the Star Wars prequels trilogy of Metroid.
Sakamoto is (or at least was) a good writer though. He did Famicom Detective Club
The thing is, I recently found a mod for metroid other called Maxxximum edition. It basically re-arranges and cuts certain scenes, adn removes some of the voice acting and scenes that destroy pacing. It also adds the grav suit, which is always a plus for me.
OMG! My fav long-silent protagonist Samus Aran just wouldn't shut up in this space opera melodrama! Lol Great video 👍 Subscribed. The Metroid franchise and our blonde Bounty Huntress are in good hands @ Retro.
"because it makes Fusion a bit weaker looking at that game, I preferred seeing Samus interact with Fusion's AI version of Adam not knowing that he was a complete prick his entire life up until the final moments before he died."
Objection! Adam stunned Samus right in front of a supposedly ice-immune metroid. As it so happens it was freezable (bullshit) but did he have a plan B for what he'd do if it wasn't and just went after the now paralyzed Samus? Adam was a prick all the way to the end.
Purely aside, I really hate the way Samus' suit looks in this game. It's especially egregious when she's standing next to someone like say 34:02 - she looks like a giant, plastic action figure... and don't even get me started on her Magical-Girl'ing the thing into existence...
Not to defend Adam, but I believe Adam says something to the tune of "they don't develop their immunity until shortly after birth," which is a horribly contrived plot point, in its own right! That's supposed to be why Samus can take down the babies spawned by the Queen Metroid - y'know, the Queen Metroid that we find out exists just after Adam kills himself to kill the last of the clone Metroids, so his death was pretty much for nothing. Whoops.
Watching this video in 2024, love the video by the way. It's fun to look back sometimes, your educated guess back then as Metroid Prime 4 could be released in 2022, turns out that game still need another 3 years in the oven, crazy how things turn out. Reggie unintentionally ding Nintendo in the end with the "Nintendo wouldn't announce the game 5-6 years away from development" comment, while Metroid Prime 4 which was announced in 2017, and set to release in 2025, that's like 8 years apart between announcement and release.
Sorry what was that part about Metroid 5 never happening again?
Stories aren't about content. But execution. One could take Other M ideas and make a better game (some even say Fusion is said game). Even if I tried to put myself in the shoes of an apologist of this game, is very hard finding what it was trying to tell since the focus jumps around so much. The conflict of Samus losing the baby Metroid isn't even related or explored to her past both in K2L and in Zebes. The conspiracy story with the Deleter and the Federation was more well told in Fusion, since at least in that game the authorization system served as a way to slow her progress while they got data on the X parasite. Even the (what I'm assuming) were the strongest beats, Adam sacrificing, Ridley confronting Ridley and Madeline Bergman losing MB didn't felt satisfying.
As a game I think it's strongest achievement may be the framing of the camera to emulate both the 2D games and add more depth. Since some rooms (not all of them) felt like good recreations. The control decision was a mistake. Nintendo even in the Mario Galaxy games quarrels with the notion that new players have a hard time using an analogue stick. But I think that should be carried more by the level design than the control scheme. I think both new and old players were frustrated by using a single wiimote to both move and aim the missiles. If the issue felt that hard to deal, they should have made it entirely 2D, I mean a lot of Nintendo IPs went back to that style so it would have been more casual friendly.
In short the thing I learn from Other M is that you have to be focused, experiment but also keep things simple and iterate on the stuff that feels solid enough. In a videogame story, more often than not, less is more. Is not about showing, rather it is doing. IMO narrative driven games should be tested both with cutscenes and gameplay and also by the gameplay skipping all cutscenes, and in both styles be fun to play.
I love Metroid, especially Super and Zero Mission, but I still haven't brought myself to play this one. I really appreciate the research you put into this, getting all the developer quotes and stuff. Really adds some context to the game.
Thank you for making a video that makes me simultaneously want to avoid it more and also experience it for myself at the same time. Maybe I'll try it on Dolphin soon.
Bruh i just didn't like Samus being such a baby and being told what to do. Once adam died the chain of command died and then samus puts on gravity suit and i was happy from that point on the most
as a metroid nut...this game still makes me gag. but im so glad mercury steam is doing its damnedest to repair samus's image!
I know we're not talking about Samus Returns here... But her response to Ridley in THAT game seemed almost like an apology to how she was depicted in this game. 🤷♂️
Great video by the way. Thoroughly enjoyed the deep dive. I actually really feel for Sakamoto-san. He did his best, and he made the chickens he felt were the right ones. Which, of course, most of us disagreed with. I don't envy his position. I have my own ideas of what could have made the game narratively better and more in line with what I feel is truer to Samus.... But my ideas could be seen just as insane and obtuse as Sakamoto-san's. I do love his humbled response to making a TV show. It stings a little, imagining what it would have been like to show the world your proud creation only to have it wholesale rejected. But if that isn't a lesson learned in where your strengths lie, then I don't know what is.
If Samus is over 1.9 metres tall... Adam must be 2.4 metres tall.
One thing I noticed, Adam is basically gray voice from the Metroid Manga, but Gray voice had a Reason to act the way he did, Adam only had one Reason... and is not even a character reason, is just because the game wanted so hard to make us belive he is the deleter... and it did a good job, perhaps too good
Dude this is the best critique/essay on other m on TH-cam 😅 love it
I don't even consider Metroid: Other M canon. At best, it's a standalone soft reboot created by another gaming company. It's the CDi Zelda of Metroid.
45:43 Johnny goes in hard
Other M is a guilty pleasure of mine, for better or worse, but I can most certainly say that all of the flaws people say it has is most definitely there. Samus’s reaction to Ridley did pissed me off more than anything in the game, though; I would have zero issues with her reaction had this game taken place before the original Metroid/Zero Mission, because then it’d make sense for her very first encounter with Ridley since the slaughter of K-2L to trigger something like that. It’s as if Sakamoto forgot she even had encounters with Ridley prior to this game.
At 18 minutes, regarding the free and open design of the dev team, this is probably the reason why Prime 4 wasn't working out with Namco. I hope the next Metroid is well worth the wait and the devs watch videos like this.
Sakamoto sounds like he could be Autistic... I can relate to not being able to express myself verbally
Haha, I was gonna say, it feels like you put effort into these videos, maybe not frame by frame, but your style is good
Ok I'm a big fan of metroid
Other M is my favorite game, it was scary, I loved the gameplay, and if you ignore the cutscenes, the story isn't the worst thing ever. And Samus' less clunky suit design? 10/10.
It's an awesome design that is used to this day, which is amazing
Thing i remember from this game the most is the disappearing mole on samus face
Samus Aran had parents and were murdered infront of her as a 3 year old child. She barely survived and was picked up by an alien race known as the chozo. She is supposed to he a cold hearted, bounty hunter, that doesn't take orders, and doesn't understand basic human emotions as she discovers said emotions. These emotions shouldn't be received as fear from her raising of the chozo, we see this in super metroid because of the baby metroid being captured by the monster who murdered her parents, not to mention the baby metroid thinks samus is its mother even after samus eradicates every single one on sr388. Super Metroid was the first game to have samus emotionally respond by not following a bounty and instead going after the monster who killed your parents and save the baby that thinks you are it's mother. All while samus never showing the emotions because she doesn't understand or know how to ....that's why metroid other m is trash and tried to turn samus into a scared little girl with a love interest. Fusion makes sense and I loved it but if I'm being honest I didn't care too much for the Adam love interest, but it did make better sense in fusion instead of other m. Her tone is completely somber, curious, and standoffish due to her still figuring out this whole human emotion thing while completing the bounty and reminiscing about her past. I prefer that tone, than her being human and a scared, horny, young woman who wants to screw attack her captain.
Retrospectively if this killed the franchise, Dread definitely revived it 🤙
What about Metroid Samus Returns? While it may not be as good as AM2R which I've never played because I'm interested in fanmade so I can't judge, last I check Samus Returns was still pretty well recieved.
@@robertkenny1201 I mean, Federation Force came out the year before Samus Returns, but I get that no one wants to give it the reviving the franchise credit, I don't either lol. But yeah, Metroid has definitely been revived by now.
I played Other M recently, and like, if we're gonna make fun of it for being linear, we should be slapping that label onto Fusion twice as hard, Fusion is way more linear
Fusion didn't suck, though.
@@ElvenRaptor I mean, agreed, but we can still criticize Fusion for its linearity. Other M wasn't the first overly linear Metroid game
No nunchuk? but we are Team Ninja, Ninjas use Nunchuks
As a hardcore Metroid fan myself, I don’t really mind Other M anymore. Am I upset of what it did to the franchise? Of course I am, but to me the game itself is not downright horrible. I actually wouldn’t mind seeing that style return one day, I did enjoy the 3rd person view & combat. If it was used in a more traditional Metroid game I think it could’ve really worked.
...but that story, that damn story really overshadowed the good aspects of Other M. I’ve heard the original Japanese script better portrayed Samus plus the overall story and I do think the game suffered from a bad English translation but who knows.
Besides all of that, this was such a great and very informative video. Keep it up!
I couldn't agree more, and in fact that's definitely something I want to keep driving home, to get ahead of the comments that will wonder why I or others hates this game: I don't! I really do _like_ parts of it, which is what makes it disappointing even playing it in full for the first time ten years later. Like you said, the gameplay really could work in a more "proper" Metroid game, especially with a stick and without the insistence to not use too many buttons. More than anything, I just find the story _behind_ the game so fascinating as I peeled back each layer, to the point that what started as a totally different topic turned into a massive Other M-focused video!
I AGREE, METROID OTHER M NEEDS A SEQUEL. THERE IS SO MUCH TO EXPLORE WITH THIS GAMEPLAY.
@@RyzenZegend Maybe not a direct sequel but rather a spiritual one. this story line need to die
When I played this game for the first time I was a kid and I really loved it because it looked quite spectacular. It was my first Metroid game, so the plot problems didn't bother me that much, and the little experience I had with videogames didn't allow me to feel frustrated about the gameplay technical problems. I loved it so much that I started playing previous Metroid games, and I loved them even more (especially the 2D ones). I played Other M a second time 3/4 years ago, and, although some things bothered me a bit more (especially Samus's emotional moments and her being a bit too sexualized), I still think many of the ideas that were put into it are very interesting and worth developing. Prime games are very good, but tbh I am more interested in seeing a new game inspired by Other M.
RIP Metroid. Just like Megaman and Metal Gear, you shall live on in Super Smash Bros.
Also, awesome vid, had no idea about Sakamoto's crazy passion for this game. Just shows that loving a series and having great enthusiasm for it, dosen't make you a good fit for it.
The R&C Future video is the top rec thumbnail for this one. The Cost of Ambition indeed.
Sometimes, these videos end up showcasing a running theme!