I would just add that it's kind of an interesting point that Sakamoto said he hadn't fleshed out Samus prior to Other M, and thought this was an opportunity to do so, starting from a blank slate. He seems to be fairly oblivious to the fact that storytelling comes through gameplay mechanics and events, atmosphere, visuals and player actions, too. From Other M it seems that he frames what he thinks is his story solely through expository dialogue. However, anyone who has played a metroid game prior to this knows that samus absolutely is a character, albeit one without a voice. The reason why Other M's Samus feels so iffy for me is because the dialogue just clashes so badly with how we have felt while playing as samus in previous games. You simply can't treat Samus like a blank slate when we've virtually been inside her helmet for hours before. Altogether, the way story is delivered in Other M really just speaks to me of storytelling inexperience on Sakamoto's part.

@ANDELE3025

8 жыл бұрын

TLDR: Other M is bad fanfiction in which samus isnt party cyborg part genetically engineered human chozo hybrid (mole would be impossible) and isnt 6'3 tall.

@harry426

7 жыл бұрын

The game's story actually clashes with the game's gameplay as well! The fact that she acts like a brain-dead idiot in-cutscenes but a badass mercenary in-game doesn't make much sense...

@thetruewisegamer

2 жыл бұрын

A good example if I remember is in prime 2 where she being talked to by one survivors of his species and samus point her weapon at him while he explaining stuff. That really show her as willing to listen to other but is also fully ready to throw down if the need arises. Meaning it conveys something to the player

Metroid Other M is the worst Metal Gear Solid movie that I've ever played.

@gumfireparalax1371

4 жыл бұрын

Haytor's voice acting got a lot worse.

@aboutschween

3 жыл бұрын

it was a weird direction for the directors to put in an almost romance with snake and the colonel...

You know, if there's one good thing about having PTSD, it's that I can call the "Samus has PTSD so that excuses the Ridley scene" argument out for the categorical bull$*%^ that it is. In that it's not really reflective of the condition IRL (in fact, PTSD is very hard to portray in fiction because every case is different- but they went with the absolute most insulting manner in which to portray it ("that thing that makes you freeze and become infantilized and get people nearly killed") and leaving it so ambiguous that other explanations are equally supportable) and more than that, it's actively insulting to those that suffer it if it IS meant to be PTSD (by showcasing a very hard to deal with condition as "you turn into a little child in pretentious symbolism and get one of your best friends (almost) killed"). Either portray it sympathetically and with some nuance or don't do it at all- so if I were to buy that that scene is meant to be PTSD, it's still terrible writing because it portrays those with PTSD not as sympathetic, but actively weak to the utter detriment of those around them. That's... unacceptable. So yeah, PTSD is not an excuse for that scene. At all. Really, basically anything this game does, it handles in the most magically insulting, infuriating manner physically possible, from sexism to blatant retcons and (a personal pet peeve), calling out the audience with your fiction. The moment a creator decides "the fans have the wrong idea, I have to prove them wrong directly", you know you're in for malarkey, plain and simple.

@ladyaceina

5 жыл бұрын

@@ProsecutorValentine hell ridley tried to induce a 2nd break down later in the manga it did not work and samus cruely mocked him for trying as she killed him causing HIM to break down and well tihs lines up with how he reacts to samus in every metroid game after zero mission he flies into a berserk rage when ever he sees her

@gaiusbalthasar3846

3 жыл бұрын

She had a panic attack. PTSD can include those, but the scene was trying to show a memory of powerlessness.

@ProsecutorValentine

11 ай бұрын

Sakamoto has two psychologist friends. Their names are Dunning and Kruger, and it's all in his head.

in fairness to team ninja, it is my understanding that they only covered the gameplay aspects. sakamoto handled the story himself q

@PorkpieJohnny

6 жыл бұрын

And apparently, if it weren't for them, Other M would have been an on-rails shooter

@brandonlyon730

5 жыл бұрын

Team Ninja also wanted to really badly use the nunchuck but sakamoto also insisted to not use it and to make them just use the wii remote for whatever insane reason.

@SemiJuggaloNumber2

3 жыл бұрын

@@brandonlyon730 Apparently, the reasoning behind Sakamoto's insistence on using the Wiimote only, is because he recalled the time when he had worked on the original Metroid and had to work with the hardware limitations of the Famicom. On one note, it is admirable that Sakamoto looked to the past as his inspiration, but it was also foolish of him to purposefully hamstring the development process, by limiting the gameplay to the Wiimote and nothing else.

Character Assassination: The Video Game.

I worked at Walmart as the electronics department manager for 4 years, those 4 years where from 2010 till 2014. In those 4 years Other M sat unmoved in our game case, its price (still dictated by the publisher) remained 49.96. We received 50 copies when it released, when i left the store for a new management job for a different company, there where 46 copies remaining.

@hockeater

7 жыл бұрын

Wow.... Don't you feel so sorry for those four poor people?

@DonnyKirkMusic

7 жыл бұрын

thats amazing, lol

@krustykrabemployeepatricks3709

7 жыл бұрын

Jerky .Murky I wouldn't even buy the game if I were to RECIVE more money.

@krustykrabemployeepatricks3709

6 жыл бұрын

MrMetroid1998 That's right, I don't wanna play this. It's not worth my time. You are correct. I don't care it it has okay gameplay, I might as well go play another game with BETTER gameplay. Better soundtrack and content too, while I'm at it. Why would I waste my money and storage on the worst Metroid game? 1 dollar or not. I'd rather play the CD-i games, at least they're so bad that they're good. The whole argument that someone has to play something in order to have thoughts on it is complete bullshit.

@kindoflame

6 жыл бұрын

MrMetroid1998, the whole purpose of reviewing a product is so consumers can make an informed decision about what to buy. When a game receives negative reviews across the board, it does not deserve my attention. My money has to be earned; it is not a given.

I kept hoping that there would be a turning point in the games narrative. Something like, Samus was trying her best to not cross Adam as she perhaps regretted her rebellion and disagreement with him, but after the Hell run, she would get thoroughly pissed off at Adam for not letting her use the Varia suit feature and realize that she didn't need to feel guilty for what she had done. And from that point onwards, Samus would regain her agency be more like the person that the previous games had implied she should be. But, alas. Only dissapointment.

@GameProf

8 жыл бұрын

+Vardan Gupta Yeah, just adding some tension between Samus, the lone wolf bounty hunter, and Adam, her former CO who still expected to have control over her, would have made a world of difference. Instead she's just a submissive puppy the entire time.

@mindswillbeblown

8 жыл бұрын

I can't believe that they misjudged their own character so terribly

@KironVB

8 жыл бұрын

+Vardan Gupta "I kept hoping that there would be a turning point in the games narrative." Really? I literally took the game out of my Wii and snapped the disk at "Confession time" during that terrible flashback cutscene where she's being a massive edgelord to get Adams attention or something what the hell? Samus isn't a 12 year old girl writing a livejournal.

@mindswillbeblown

8 жыл бұрын

Trust me, that's what I wanted to do but I wanted to give it a chance at least

@Mir_Teiwaz

8 жыл бұрын

+KironVB I got to the point where it said "Samus can't use missiles because Adam hasn't given her permission," threw my wiimote behind me and walked away for like 5 minutes.

Good lord Samus and Adam's relationship is inching to Fifty Shades Of Grey levels of abusive dominance relationship

@LinkMarioSamus

4 жыл бұрын

That comparison is a bit much. That's a girl meeting a guy and then immediately acting submissive. Adam is someone who Samus had a falling out with and she's mentioned on occasion throughout this game as being considered a liability to the Federation due to sparing the infant Metroid. Had these plot points been fleshed out more thoroughly we might have something, but instead we're supposed to accept someone who would typically be a hate sink (think an obstructive authority figure in an action or disaster film like the police chief in Die Hard) is someone who Samus looks up to. Oops. I also notice a number of parallels between Samus/Adam and Poe/Holdo in The Last Jedi - Poe makes a reckless move at the beginning of the movie and spends the rest of it being treated like dirt by Holdo for it, and then Holdo makes a heroic sacrifice at the end just like Adam.

@gaiusbalthasar3846

3 жыл бұрын

Its not really. It's more like what goes on in the MIlitary in the real world. Making it sexual is a you problem cause its not sexual at all.

@gaiusbalthasar3846

3 жыл бұрын

@@LinkMarioSamus Its very much a clash in ideology about how "real" problems should be handled

@LinkMarioSamus

3 жыл бұрын

@@gaiusbalthasar3846 Honestly what I really have a problem with is that you’d get the impression this game’s plot is bad because it’s sexist. It is sexist, but the plot is bad because it’s a mess. Insinuating that Samus showing stereotypically feminine weakness is a bad thing is the mentality that leads us to characters like Rey and live-action Mulan.

@kingofthegundam7974

Жыл бұрын

@@LinkMarioSamus Holdo doesn't treat him anymore like dirt than Poe was throwing from the start. Also, Rey and Holdo are fine.

I feel that Daria would have given a more lively reading of those lines

@SpankyJ

8 жыл бұрын

+Redem10 Nah. You and yours probably just are use to KZread people screaming and over acting on everything to a point of looking stupid.

@Redem10

8 жыл бұрын

+Spankyjnco I meant Samus narration here, I have nothing against Games as Lit presensation

@fuzzydunlop7928

5 жыл бұрын

+Spankyjnco - Well, that was quite embarrassing.

One way I could imagine of having a less stupid explanation for the upgrades could be that her suit is damaged early on and is separated from the rest of the soldiers. You hear Adam on the intercoms making sure that Samus is alright and seeing if the suit can repair itself. It can't but one of the soldiers say a more tech inclined one remotely interfaces with her suit and tries to start reconnecting the suits systems together. So instead of authorizing the functions at certain times each system is getting repaired on an ad hoc basis because of how extensive the damage is. You could have in the lava area Adam ready the throttle the tech guy as he tries to repair the suit before Samus fries.

Except that later in the game when you get the power bomb it doesn't do shit to the ship, implying Adam just felt a little less manly not being the one with the biggest bomb so he never told Samus she could use it.

It's weird how much this game *deconstructed*. Take the space pirates. The prime series fleshed them out wonderfully. They were so memorably and quirky! They had fears, hopes, dreams, silly ideas, stupid ideas - one even tried to keep a metroid as a pet, the idiot. In otherM, they're braindead swarm beings. Well done, otherM, well done.

@ladyaceina

5 жыл бұрын

i love the pirate lore in the prime games samus is basically the devil to them and it really gives a sense of empowerment to the player

I know this isn't super deconstructive like the rest of the video but I just wanted to say how disappointed I was with Ridley and his role in this game. Ridley is the main villain of the Metroid series, sure he's never taken the role of main villain in any of the games but he is the most reoccurring foe and the only one with a personal connection to Samus Aran. Much like Samus, Ridley never had much of a personality other than just being a bad guy and unlike Samus has never talked. That being said if Other M was going to make him such a important part of Samus' life at least give him something other than him just being a monster who roars a lot. Also actually explain her relationship with Ridley since most american fans (which according to sales numbers is the higher amount of Metroid fans) have never read the manga. Ridley has so little character in this game people still argue about whether or not this clone has the memories of the original Ridley. He also gets killed by the Queen Metroid just so his death can line up with the version of him we see in Fusion and while that is a cool continuity nod it makes it seem like he was only put into the game for fan service. Imagine if instead Ridley was the only one who remembered who he was. This would explain why he goes after Samus (since in the original game it makes no sense) and it could be reasoned MB ordered the Queen Metroid to kill him because he was upsetting the other lifeforms making them harder for her to control. I know some people are against giving Ridley a voice but in this game he really needed it. If the goal of the game was to make Samus an interesting character the least they could do was follow suit with her villain. Instead all we get is that Ridley is part Pokémon and evolves from bird bunny to giant furry lizard to space dragon.

@dracocrusher

6 жыл бұрын

I don't think they even needed to give him a voice since we've seen Ridley be smart in other games and in other ways without having him actively talk. So imagine this: Samus has her big reaction where she's afraid and we see the cut to her as a child for the sake of preserving the scene. Then, we focus on Ridley. We get a zoom in on his eye. The scene then cuts to the flashback of Samus and Ridley locked in combat from a previous game, implying that while Samus is thinking about her past as a child, Ridley is thinking about how Samus stood against him and focused on revenge. We then zoom back out from Ridley's eye as he roars louder, confirming that that was definitely his flashback. That seems like a lot, but considering how inflated this game's cutscene budget is already, a quick zoom in to a few frames of them fighting eachother into a zoom-out really isn't that much extra at all. Additionally, when the others show up to try and fight Ridley (forget his name), shooting at Ridley then have Ridley swing his tail to break his gun, showing that Ridley's smart enough to take out their weapons first to make the battle easier. I forget if he does something similar in the scene or not, but it'd still be a cool moment before fake-killing him.

Co-author of the "elephant in the room" here. I'm flattered to still be getting referenced in 2016. :) Anyway, great video; you caught some things that I didn't about what the game was TRYING to do with its parenting theme. I will be watching the rest of your vids.

@GameProf

7 жыл бұрын

Oh man, I'm flattered to hear that from someone who helped write the definitive piece on Other M. Thanks a ton!

Here is my viewpoint. Adam is the "main character" in the eyes of Sakamoto, more importantly, Adam is the self-insert for Sakamoto. The portrayal of Samus is pretty much in line with one of the most popular tropes in hentai, the strong, independent woman who is all secretly insecure and "pure" behind her shell and becomes submissive to the MC and gives him her virginity. The game is Sakamoto living out his wish fulfillment of having a the super strong Samus fall in love with him. It's Sakamoto's personal own power fantasy. So, so much of this game from the cutscenes I've watched to what I played myself etc screams Hentai-Doujinshi too me. The mannerisms, the relationship between Adam and Samus. Seen it so, so many times in Doujinshi I couldn't count.

@righteousham

7 жыл бұрын

That makes a shocking amount of sense, actually.

@user-cn4qb7nr2m

7 жыл бұрын

You probably should try the Beginner`s Guide.

@rngwrldngnr

7 жыл бұрын

Altech-Tron I made a comment on the Voice for Silent Protagonist video about how I suspected cases like this (including Other M, which I have played) were because the creators of the voiced game didn't realize that characterization already existed through gameplay (and dialog scraps from some of the later games in this case). I wonder if the big problem with Other M was that the fans and creator have always been on different pages. Maybe for Sakamoto, Samus has always been Bayonetta lite. She isn't really the bad ass bounty hunter, that's the player and the combat suit. Having Samus show up in the first game always felt like a bit of a titillating gotcha more than a social one, at least to me. And in the other games I've played, seeing zero suit Samus is either gated by getting a fair ways into the game or finishing it with a high completion percentage.

@seroccoprime2774

7 жыл бұрын

You know.... a lot... about hentai and doujinshi writing.

@evangedeon2194

7 жыл бұрын

My theory takes this a bit further: Other M is a crappy fanfiction written BY Adam.

Jesus Christ, I almost had my head in my hands at some of those cutscenes. I had heard this game's story and themes were *bad*, but... ...There are no words.

@CaptainAardvaark

8 жыл бұрын

Actually there are too many words.

@randomguy6679

8 жыл бұрын

+Old Man Jenkins There are never enough bad words for this game

@fox0205

8 жыл бұрын

It really is that bad, but the gameplay is great. Just... None of the writing, dialogue, or story is worth paying attention to.

@thegooseinator9614

6 жыл бұрын

If the game had no story and just gameplay, it'd probably still be considered a disappointment, but it'd still be worth playing and have some good attributes, a la Skyward Sword. But this game's story...there are no words. I've never seen one entry in a series completely tarnish and corrupt the reputation of that series the way Other M does.

@LinkMarioSamus

4 жыл бұрын

There's honestly not much to get mad at beyond the Captain Obvious monologues and the forced symbolism, but unfortunately those are both pretty pervasive!

Just putting this out there Bayonetta's basic story was about growing from the dependent child she was into a self assured woman and literally fought her controlling father for independence. Her independence and self assured nature is displayed as a positive throughout the game....as opposed to other M which says the opposite of Samus

@GameProf

8 жыл бұрын

+Taki118 That's true. I'm still quite torn on Bayonetta; the games exploit the hell out of her in such a pandering way, but you're right that as a character she's strong and totally owns her sexuality. But of course, it's okay for a work to have good and bad elements, and that dichotomy makes sense given the clashing values of the game's director and Bayonetta's designer, so I'm alright with acknowledging it as a complex work where its portrayal of women is concerned.

@Taki118

8 жыл бұрын

+Games As Literature Yeah and i get that there are some bad parts to Bayonetta, it's just that I love how they defined Bayonetta herself and enforced it through the game so much that I can ease up more on the series for that stuff. Unlike with other games. I really just find it kinda funny how opposite Other M is from Bayonetta regarding their main characters and patriarchy.

@grais4856

6 жыл бұрын

Wasn't Bayonetta's design made by a woman? Just curious

@shingshongshamalama

6 жыл бұрын

That's why Bayonetta is a good work of art. It's debatable. It presents something not often presented. It draws discussion and argument. That's a good thing. You could see it as empowering or you could see it as exploitative, or maybe it doesn't have to be only one or the other, but at the very least it's good enough at both to talk about.

@gaiusbalthasar3846

3 жыл бұрын

Other M is actually State Propoganda.

It sure is an amazing coincidence that the scientist Madaline Bergman just happens to have the initials "MB" for Mother Brain so that when she names the A.I. after herself she still has the same initials for Mother Brain. It sure would throw a lot of this stuff off if her name was Katherine Gwinn instead, then we'd have to actually spell out that the 'MB A.I.' is Madaline Bergman, for MB, instead of being 'KG' or something.

"before Other M, I did not think about what kind of person Samus Aran was and how she thinks and her personality" From Wikipedia: "The original game's atmosphere was influenced by Ridley Scott's film Alien. The series' co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto recalled, 'We were partway through the development process when one of the staff members said 'Hey, wouldn't that be kind of cool if it turned out that this person inside the suit was a woman?'" In short, I don't think it should be any surprise that, "The result is a confused mess that doesn't understand Samus, doesn't know how to write compelling characters, and doesn't tackle the themes of motherhood it aspires to." Apparently, asking for reasonable plot and characterization from this guy was a bit much. This knowledge kinda ruined Samus as a character for me - it implies that much of what we'd all originally read into Samus as a character was incorrect; a conceit of my ideals, enabled by the freedom given by the character's thin overall characterization. She was conceived to capitalize on the interesting part of Alien - another character originally written for a male, whose last-minute gender swap was a vast improvement - rather than as a character on her own. For the other games in the series, they showed instead of telling - plot was about Samus' role in bigger conflicts, rather than about Samus herself, and Samus' motivations were things like keeping people alive and preventing the spread of destruction across the galaxy. Then they started really talking about Samus, and I was - and I think we all were - disappointed and more than a little repulsed. BBL; gonna go play Super Metroid in a vain attempt unruin Samus, and forget the plot of this game exists. It's a damn shame, too, because I enjoyed the actual gameplay. "Screw attack this game" For a second there, I thought you said "screw and hack this game" - now there's an idea. I wonder if it'd be possible to screw with the audio and subtitles of this game to make it not horrible: Required fixes: * Adam is revealed as "the deleter," via orders he is shown to recieve over his comms. This makes more sense because: he goes dark because he's off killing people; he shoots Samus because, as an assassin, he can't really trust anyone; he witholds the Varia suit as a loyalty test (this still doesn't make any sense if Samus' participation is voluntary; the hack would also need to establish that Adam has actual authority over her on the station); his sacrifice at the end is out of guilt surrounding a direct order to kill his friend. It also enables us to keep _most_ of the surrounding video, for example, all those creepy staring contests could be Adam getting orders he doesn't like centered around Samus. * Adam must have actual authority over persons on the bottle ship. The hell run makes literally no sense without this. Just modify the audio/text of the cutscene where her voluntary submission here is established to turn it into "Look, you help out and follow orders, or you get off the ship - but I'm asking you as a friend to help". Either that, or queue in a properly in-character "fuck this" moment out of Samus 10 seconds into the hell run - it'll take the piss out of the run, but it's a shit of a lot better than what the game does, and it establishes that Samus' willingness to follow Adam's orders to the tee does not extend into her most important trait: survival. * Fix the damn "OMG it's Ridley" scene: Anthony gets killed early on, before Samus starts to freak; Samus' freak-out is a combination of the flashback, surprise the fucker's back again, _and_ Anthony's death a second ago; the freak-out ends with a "SUMBITCH, WHY WON'T YOU STAY DEAD?!" line - ideally with a short mini-boss level battle. As you said, this is the _fourth or fifth_ time she's had to kill this asshole. * Samus' view of Adam can be that of a _former_ father figure, but one that she witnessed become disillusioned (which is why he's working as an assassin now) by having to let his brother die. Her later reaction to this needs not to curse her past "childishness", but to have rationalized that he _was_ right about not getting herself killed, and to feel shitty about that. I think that with these four little script tweaks (and getting a voice actress that doesn't sound like a goddamned Stepford bot), Other M _could_ be saved. Her later respect for Adam in Fusion would be couched in his self-sacrifice, against direct orders to kill her, and against orders to preserve and deliver the bottle ship. Now, the hard question: how do you mod a Wii game?

@numbug1234

7 жыл бұрын

Ask the guys who made Project M. In all seriousness, I think there's a homebrew or something?

@sponge1234ify

6 жыл бұрын

iirc there was this team that modded Super Mario Galaxy 2, so there's still hope

Couldn't they just say that the power suit is only able to retain powerups for a limited period of time? Like somehow it overloads the system in the long run so she has to slowly revert back to the basic power suit. They could even say that more powerful abilities are drained more quickly, with some of the lower level abilities able to persist for a long period of time. This would explain why Samus has some abilities at the start of some games. It would also make Samus more badass, because she keeps charging into missions with a weakened suit, trusting that she'll be able to figure out a solution and find what she needs.

If you want a version of this done better, read the Metroid manga. It's not a masterpiece, but it manages to humanize Samus while still keeping her just as much a badass as she ever was. Plus it establishes good relations with her Galactic Federation squad mates, the Chozo, Mother Brain, Ridley and even Adam in a much more respective light. That and I just picture Jennifer Hale's voice coming out of her mouth. Seriously, she technically voiced Samus in the Prime games so why not have Femshep ACTUALLY voice the character for gods sake?

@abandonFandom

4 жыл бұрын

@MrMetroid1998 ehhhh.... That's pretty debatable.

@masterprick1

4 жыл бұрын

@MrMetroid1998 How was it worse?

This... this is so much worse than I ever imagined. I always assumed that when people talked about it they made it sound more blatant - turns out they were being more subtle than the game itself. Urgh.

@GameProf

7 жыл бұрын

That was basically my reaction when I started playing it for this analysis. Way worse than I expected.

@gaiusbalthasar3846

3 жыл бұрын

@@GameProf You definetly have to play the game in japanese if you dont want to cringe 24/7 lmao

How the hell do you have less than 10,000 subs? D:

@GameProf

7 жыл бұрын

Comments like this always make me happy. But yeah, the channel's been growing at a nice clip, but definitely still growing. Feel free to share it around if you want to change that; 10,000 is actually not that far off!

oh god the voice acting

Shoot, Rundas and Samus in Prime 3 have a better relationship with each other than she does with Adam in this game.

My head canon is that Adam is the Deelter. It just makes the story "better" in my humble, pathetic opinion

Women represented poorly in Japanese entertainment? Shocking!

@randomguy6679

8 жыл бұрын

but even in that case, this has gone too far

@matheusleal9586

8 жыл бұрын

+Moe Bius It might be a surprise for you, but women are actually represented well in many Japanese entertainment. Also good to remember this is a decades old franchise and that is the first time its main character is represented so terribly. -That- is what makes this relevant and even a surprise. This is not a random bad game out of a thousand.

@moebius435

8 жыл бұрын

Matheus Leal As a long time consumer of Japanese entertainment in the forms of manga, anime, and video games, I've never run dry of reasons to be shocked by the many ways females are devalued, demeaned, and degraded for the titillation of predominantly young male audiences. That a man who participated in the creation of this series is clueless about the horrible messages his story sends about women comes as no surprise. At least not to me.

@DarkenedArc

8 жыл бұрын

BS to the 500th degree

@fistpump64

6 жыл бұрын

but a big problem is she already done better the Japanese manga and the prime series

Ahaha how did they not catch the translation issue in "The Deleter"? It's meant to be "The Eliminator".

@GameProf

7 жыл бұрын

Heh, well that at least would just sound cheesy instead of downright stupid. :P

@DoomRater

5 жыл бұрын

Konami didn't catch the Constitutional issue of a Secretary of State placing Colonel Campbell under arrest for Treason. Literally unconstitutional- not being carried out by the right person (must be a senator or representitive or other member of Congress) and not charged during wartime. It's even less of a surprise a translation team for Nintendo failed to catch the meaning behind bounty hunter in America. Makes "The Deleter" seem silly in comparison.

LTTP, but I just saw this vid and wanted to add just two things: Sakamoto mentioned that because of the Prime games, people were getting the wrong idea of who Samus was, and this game was meant to rectify that. Every time a Metroid producer is interviewed, they will always mention that "the other guy directed those games, I had nothing to do with that". And that is one of the problems I have with Sakamoto. He very likely did not think of the events that happened in the Primes when making this game, thats why the Ridley freakout is a thing, to Sakamoto, Samus only fought Ridley twice in her life. I dont subscribe to the idea that Retro Studios made a macho killing machine with Samus, because gameplaywise she is no different than other games IMO, many times you can just pass by the creatures and not kill them. I really wonder what message did Sakamoto, a brilliant game designer, got from the Prime games. Another fun thing, during the development of the first Metroid Prime, Sakamoto and Kensuke Tanabe (Prime producer) had discussions about who Samus was, and whem Retro Studios asked Tanabe what would she do in a hostage situation, Tanabe said she would blow the bad guys head without hessitation. Other M has a hostage situation in the making, when MB is threatening both her and Madeleine with a freeze gun, she never does anything to protect either of them from MB, nor she does anything when the Federation is about to take Madeleine to obviously kill her... So either Tanabe came up with his own Samus, or Sakamoto did later on :/

There's something I see sometimes brought up but never fully explored in Other M analysis videos, and that's the Metroid manga. Other M was basically written with the manga as a kind of 'soft canon' for a lot of its backstory. You had to have read the manga to know about Samus' first meeting with Ridley, and how he was responsible for killing (and devouring) her parents right in front of her while she was something around six years old. Her entire interaction with Ridley in this game is based off knowledge of the manga, and I believe (though I admit I might be misremembering) that it was suggested reading before playing Other M. And most people (this analysis included) stop there and say that it's not right to expect an audience to be familiar with a Japan-only manga. I don't disagree with that. That said, the game itself didn't seem to read the manga, because in that series Samus also had the same reaction to Ridley; she froze up, she was terrified, she temporarily regressed to that trembling child she was all those years ago. It compromised the mission she was on, and got her captured and held for *weeks* in a semi-catatonic state that her old pals from the Galactic Police had to risk their lives to save her from. And after that chapter, when Samus is being roused from her mental collapse and they're trying to escape, they're attacked by Ridley again. Samus begins to panic-- --then, seeing him about to murder and eat her friends, Samus *gets the fuck over it and beats the shit out of Ridley*. Over the course of the manga she *completely* overcomes her fear and gains a cocky self-confidence that turns her from a somewhat childish and foolish (but very brave) member of the GPD into the cocksure but intensely capable bounty hunter we tend to think of her as in the games. This moment that Sakamoto put into Other M isn't bad just because it demands awareness of a property not sold outside of Japan (which is almost never a consideration by those who live in Japan; Other M definitely isn't the only game that's come with impossible homework), but because it doesn't even adhere to the property it's referencing and tries to ape an emotional moment for its own use and then does so far less effectively or believably.

If we take the idea that Samus radios in to ask Adam for Varia Suit authorization: Samus: "Adam? This Pyrosphere area is stupid hot, mind if I turn on Varia so I don't cook inside this tin can?" Adam: "Wait a minute. You turned it off?! When I asked for your cooperation, this isn't what I meant."

My headcanon is that Samus was just going through Phazon withdrawals during Other M

Various thoughts: I don't think it makes sense for Samus to care an awful lot about the baby Metroid. Why? Because she barely bonded with it, and more over, she has no reason to feel a lot of empathy towards Metroids. She did try to exterminate their species before and they aren't exactly cute (maybe this is just an odd phobia I have though-I find the appearance of Metroids really disturbing, partially because of their simplicity. Imagine taking a creature as simple as a jellyfish and then giving it a fairly high degree of intelligence and power-but at the end of the day is still a jellyfish. This is straight-up lovecraftian)

Regarding the Varia Suit thing - It gets worse. The Varia suit doesn't only protect against heat damage. It also halves combat damage in general. So... Samus has been taking two of every hit up to this point for no reason other than maybe it will help her gain Adam's approval. There's some sort of anecdote about failing so badly in the genre you're attempting to write that you somehow produce a viable or even wildly successful entry in a completely contrary genre. While I doubt very much that Sakamoto intended to write a story about a Battered Wife/Daughter Syndromed Samus' disfunctional relationship with her father-figure damn if that's not what he ended up with. And damn if that's a thing I ever wanted to be able to write about a childhood heroine.

This is the only Metroid game I've played (I think I got it either for free or at a significant bargain), and I never finished it...for many of the reasons you state. I didn't react as strongly to it as you did, though, probably because I didn't have any expectations of the characters. They just seemed bland, forced and yes, overtly sexist.

@mag1011

8 жыл бұрын

+Robin Allen I'm terribly sorry this had to be your first Metroid experience.

@robinallen7950

8 жыл бұрын

+mag1011 Thanks, I will probably try another one, since this seemed to be the worst of series.

As a sidenote, Samus goes back to the Bottle Ship in order to retrieve something that is irreplaceable... turns out it was Adam's helmet. How did she know it was there? Oh well... The point is... It's ADAM's helmet. Yet Anthony had the same one. Talk about a sickening relationship. And this Adam is the same one than in Fusion... And most plotpoints in Fusion are reused in Other M including areas. Much like Fifty Shades, Other M is nothing but fanfiction. The best thing that we can say about Yoshio Sakamoto is that he redeemed himself with Samus Returns and how Nintendo is really trying to avoid talking about this game. How do we fix Other M? Remove Adam, simple as that... This game retcons the end of Metroid II and III by simply giving useless explanations and decided to remove the Prime from the continuity. Almost every shot of Samus in the Prime series make Samus look strong, confident but also fearsome in some ways because she has the tools and it's bound to the player. Her decisions are the player's decisions and this is why, when the game is over, Samus is strong. But now that you need to read the most obscure piece of lore to understand a scene that doesn't work (Ridley) is just bad writing. I will always hate any studio who does that and yes, I would include Blizzard and Bungie/343. And that's why I care little for the stories in these games besides what's presented in the actual interactive medium.

Honestly, Adam should have died at the Ridley fight. Here me out: Adam is set up as a surrogate father figure for Samus, and his own "heroic" sacrifice in this is incredibly... patronizing at best. However, getting killed by Ridley COULD be used as a dramatic mirror, yet another of Samus's collection of parents (her own, the Chozo) who were taken from her. THAT is something that could bring the breakdown we see in this, as it scratches raw childhood trauma AND rejects Samus's own promise to redeem herself for the death of Ian. Then her turn around could have been genuinely heroic, rather then Anthony snapping her out of her breakdown and then surviving at the end. But ultimately, Other M suffers, storywise, because it acts so melodramatic when the stakes are so low. Every Metroid game features, either in game or in backstory, a squad of Feddie marines getting pasted in front of Samus, giving them names doesn't help it. There's no Lovecraftian threat like the sapient planet Phaaze, Gorea in a bottle, or John Carpenter's The Parasite X to loom over the galaxy. The Bottleship is already dead, and had Samus used her gunship to blow the whole place rather then setting foot in there the end result would have been identical. The setting itself is a less interesting retread of Fusion. The characters are at the level of a power rangers cartoon, and the game is so uninterested in it's own mysteries that it resolves them incredibly anti-climatically. And I'm not even getting into the gameplay.

@gaiusbalthasar3846

3 жыл бұрын

Adam is set up as a Father Figure because this game is literally about the conflict in parenting. Its actually not about anything but Samus learning what it means to be a good parent. The conflict comes from depicting good vs bad examples of being a parent. The problem is that they glorify the Military in doing so which is an inherently shitty institution no matter where you are lol.

I spent 20 minutes playing this POS until I put it down forever. I've spent more than 2 hours watching scathing reviews.. I'm livid.

Hey, the link to the article is dead.

@timothymclean

7 жыл бұрын

1. I'm not the only one who noticed the 404 error. Though it has been archived (e.g, web.archive.org/web/20160303213449/moonbase.rydia.net/mental/blog/gaming/metroid-other-m-the-elephant/article.html ) 2. I'm not the only one watching and commenting on this video today (and within an hour or two, to).

@GameProf

7 жыл бұрын

VLRgospel09 Oh man, that must have happened sometime since I posted this. I'll fix it when I get home.

Also.... No. Tomb Raider 2013 is fine on it's own- great, even- but as part of the Tomb Raider series, it could not possibly be more disrespectful to the legacy of Lara Croft. She does not use a bow like Katniss Everdeen, she uses twin pistols, and that firmly establishes her as her own character, not a knockoff of any existing popular character. And then there's the game's damsel in distress plot... What the literal fuck, Squeenix? Did you really convince all of mainstream feminism to overlook that, in a story-heavy game in the 2010's, by giving Lara a smaller bust? Because that's what it looks like to me. There's a lot more to say, but I don't have the fucks to give right now.

@gaiusbalthasar3846

3 жыл бұрын

yes lol

The saddest thing about this game to me is that, when I played Metroid Fusion, I was super excited by the reveal of Adam at the end, and Samus reflecting on him and why she does what she does. It made me think how cool it was that there was some back story that they might flesh out one day, and this is what we got. It makes replaying fusion kind of lame when you realize what came about from it later.

Dude, you can not have just glossed over that Fusion WAS Other M until Sakamoto declared it non-canon because he was angry about how they conveyed Samus' relationship with Adam. The bosses are basically taken right from Fusion. Ridley had been bested in 3 Metroid games previously, Fusion and Prime are "non-canon" according to Sakamoto. The point still stands, but it has long since been established that Ridley is nbd for Samus.

@garlandstrife

5 жыл бұрын

what are your sources on Fusion being non-canon. The Prime series is seen as gaiden to Sakamoto, side stories with no importance to the canon.

Metroid is my favorite video game series of all time. I own all of the games in one form or another and have beaten them all at least once (except Prime Pinball, not a big pinball guy). I've beaten Other M multiple times, once on Hard Mode even (don't ask...). There's lots I could say about this game. The story's terrible, there's not much you can do to defend it outside of the first 20 minutes or so. As an overall package, I like the game, but it's easily the worst Metroid game. The overblasts and lethal strikes are pretty cool, and Samus throwing around the Vorash Lava Whale during its Lethal Strike (Yes it has one. Look it up from Varia31 on KZread, it's pretty sweet) like a rag doll is awesome. Overall, the game seems like another case of missed potential because it sort of seems like there are plenty of ideas in Other M that conflict with each other, or are just stuff that's underdeveloped or clunky like the controls. I never thought of Other M making young Samus similar to what we would picture Samus would be like in the games and then make the independent Samus seem bad... so... thanks? The hell run is what you described, a conflict of gameplay and story, that's about it. Remember in Fusion when computer Adam says to Samus, "Would he sit in a safe Command Room and order you to die?" YES!!! Apparently he would! The Ridley freakout isn't as bad to me as people make it out to be. PTSD isn't something that you can get rid of, and if Samus believes that Ridley is truly gone for good, seeing him alive again would definitely do something. To Samus' credit though, she recovered from a PTSD breakdown in about 30 seconds, and then gave Ridley the beating of his life. Samus would probably go berserk instead of clam up in this situation, seeing him alive again after killing him several times, but that's just me. Despite the whole scene being fairly cheap in terms of having drama, it isn't completely unquestionable, although I definitely see the points of criticism toward the scene. If you don't know Ridley and Samus' history, you'd have no idea why Samus is scared because the game never tells you. "This dragon's about like all the other giant monsters I've been fighting the whole game, what's the big deal?!" Samus says in the beginning of the game, "The explosion destroyed Zebes, Mother Brain, and my long standing Nemesis, Ridley." That's all anyone gets, nothing else. If you DO know Ridley and Samus' history, it's like you said in the video. "Samus has killed Ridley 5 times by now, what's the big deal?!" The worst scene to me, hands down, is when Adam shoots Samus in the back. The fact that the person Samus supposedly trusts more than anyone shoots her in the back. That should be bad enough. Combined with what you said about the scene, based off of what happens in Metroid Fusion, Adam's sacrifice is completely and utterly pointless. Adam destroyed Metroids that may or may not be unfreezable (which sounds physically impossible to be unable to be frozen by anything no matter what). We aren't sure if the Metroids in Sector Zero can't be frozen at all, because Adam froze the baby Metroid before Samus entered Sector Zero that was supposedly unfreezable, but even Adam doesn't know for sure if the Metroids are unfreezable, and we don't see inside Sector Zero, so who knows what happened. First, if the Feds can create Metroids like they do in Fusion, what's stopping them from making unfreezable Metroids in another location? The galaxy is an unfathomably large place, so there's plenty of places the Feds could do it in hiding. That and computer Adam said in Fusion that the Metroid breeding research had been finished, so I don't see what's stopping the Feds from propagating Metroids again, again. Second, the fact that Samus has killed Metroids before that can't be frozen in the Prime series, Metroids have always been able to die via Power Bombs, ever since Super Metroid. That would tie into Samus' Power Bombs being nuclear weapons (they might as well be), so we can't have her using those. So yeah, Adam's sacrifice was completely pointless, ruining the whole atmosphere of the scene, you know, in case you forgot that Adam SHOT SAMUS IN THE BACK!!! The only thing I can think of to sort of justify this scene form Sakamoto's perspective, is that this situation is one where a super powerful character (Samus) is about to do something a weaker/mentor (etcetera) character (Adam) doesn't want the powerful character to do, but the weaker character has to stop the powerful character by any means necessary. So Adam shooting Samus in the back falls into this idea of a powerful character is about to do something, and the only way the weaker character can do anything to stop the powerful character is by doing something super drastic. I hope my explanation made sense. That's the only thing I can think of what Sakamoto might have been going for with this scene. I say this because if Adam was some domineering asshole and Samus just accepts it, why would he sacrifice himself like this? The bad writing train just keeps going... Also, I believe Adam's Freeze Gun isn't what shorted out Samus' suit, it's that Samus somehow instantly knew that Adam was the one who shot her. That doesn't make much sense to me, but still. I REALLY loved this video. It summed up pretty much everything there is to be said about this game, as well as bringing up a few points I had never thought of before. It can be good to get someone else's opinion on the matter, as long as they know what they're talking about. You've made a loyal watcher out of me, keep doing what you're doing. Also, you forgot to show how when Anthony got ambushed by that Rhedogian, right before Samus got the Grapple Beam, if you do nothing, Adam won't do anything either, letting Anthony get dropped into the lava and die.

@GameProf

8 жыл бұрын

+The Accursed Hunter01 Oh man, I'll admit I didn't realize that Adam would just do nothing if you failed to save Anthony. Yeesh, this game. I'm glad you enjoyed the video, and I hope you enjoy the others too. ^_^

@mag1011

8 жыл бұрын

+The Accursed Hunter01 Beautiful.

@HannahBanina

8 жыл бұрын

+The Accursed Hunter01 I think Adam himself said it best: "Then again, none of this makes sense." It's probably worth noting that, when Adam shot Samus in the back, it certainly looks like Samus is straight-up about to shoot that Metroid anyway with the way her visor goes opaque again and she swings her gun around. So apparently Adam wanted her to not get too used to killing any Metroids in this game or something. You nailed my exact problems with the Ridley scene there. Normally I would welcome an attempt to take a closer look at Samus's and Ridley's relationship, but this was just a mess. But what really pisses me off about it is the fact that supposedly they actually _were_ originally going to include flashbacks to the raid on K-2L - that actually _would explain_ why this big purple dragon scares Samus so much - and I cannot for the life of me figure out why in the world those flashbacks were cut. Apparently explaining what a _thumbs-down_ meant was somehow more important than the reason Samus ever became who she is, grumble grumble.... On a tangentially related note, if not for this game, how and when would you have figured Adam met his end? Personally I feel like he would have died before _Super Metroid_ if we're dismissing Other M as non-canon. Don't know why, but that's just me.

I am still One Hundred Percent Certain that Adam is the Deleter. I know some other guy is, but it makes far too much sense to be let go.

We never talk about other M. It never happened.

As a kid I grew up with the Nintendo comics by Valiant, and Samus appeared in the Captain N books. In those, she was not only a badass fighter, but a rogue as well. She sold out the good guys to Mother Brain, then double-crossed M.B. and saved them. Samus got away with the stuff the good guys had come to take back, plus *two* paychecks! She was also openly interested in Captain N, and pursued him romantically unlike the designated love interest. For me personally, that makes _Other M_ so much worse.

While I am not a fan of the game I do believe that some of the criticisms and comparisons that I have seen of it are not entirely fair. As an example, I have seen Samus as depicted in this story compared to the protagonist of the Twilight series. That is completely off-the-mark, as the two characters are entirely different. One is an emotionally stunted, immature character who suffers from a crippling codependence and an outright suicidal obsession with appeasing a boring male character yet who is still supposed to be believed by the audience to be a strong and independent woman. The other is in love with a sparkly vampire.

Sakamoto is a no talent hack that got where he was by taking credit for the work of others (primarily Gunpei Yokoi). He was NOT a creator or even a co-creator of the franchise. For the original Metroid he was one of several character artists brought in near the end of development to finish up the game. He exaggerates his role in almost every project. He had virtually nothing to do with Fusion despite taking credit for it. You can compare him somewhat to Inafune who took credit for "creating Mega Man" despite...not doing that. Other M is the ONLY project where he had full creative control. And yeah, that shows how little actual talent he had.

5 minutes in and the dialogue of the game gave me pain.

In the beginning, I feel need to apologize for my English. I make big mistakes in may own language, let alone one that I have learned. So, if something does not seem clear, or requires more thought to literally translate to proper English, I'm sorry. Why is a character being sexualized wrong? As much as I know, girls do enjoy being praised for their looks. An attractive, sexy protagonist is nothing wrong. It is almost as if being sexy was taking away character depth. It is not, just like making male protagonist a huge and strong guy, and having him wield a gigantic sword and initiate hundreds of explosions with a flick of a switch does not take away from his character. It's not about being sexy itself what may, or may not be wrong. It's the use itself. If the sexiness is just a fanservice, or a designer choice, that doesn't take away anything from character development and presentation (like in FF's, where females are just amazing, and for the most part take the cake as best characters). It almost is as if females looking hot, wearing sexy clothes and wanting to be attractive, presenting themselfs as attractive was a bad thing - not the best message for woman, indeed. The problem exists, when a character is acting in a way that is supposed to make her sexy, with it being badly written. Quiet in MGSV is a good example of sexy female going wrong, as there are scenes in game that literally make her act like a sick person, to make her look "sexy". Literally sacrificing character growth, creating plot holes and making a specific female act badly to make her look sexy - that is wrong. However slave Leia, and Tifa's boobs are nothing wrong, as those females are just as competent, powerfull, and well-written, as they would be otherwise. Now, the idea of making Samus follow commands of a guy is just a bad writing. I would not call it sexist, it's just a bad writing. As you said, Samus was previously presented as a strong-willed and independent warrior. It would be better if she had her powersuit damaged, replaced, or anything along those lines. Something, that playes nicely into the plot, allows for a character growth, and makes Samus look stronger, as she doesn't really change despite her current weakness, showing her strength. However, sending Samus against enemies alone itself... kinda makes sense. if you think about it, if we had Dante, or Cloud, or Solid Snake in this position, sending them alone would make perfect sense - they are far more powerfull and skilled than any usual grunt and they have experience to deal with enemies alone. Samus is used to working alone against far more difficult enemies, than just few monsters, so having her keep soldiers out of the fight makes her look as someone, who realises her full potentiall - which is confidence - and who wants to keep others safe - empathy. Two traits that are definiately positive and make sense for Samus character, presenting her as a confident, independend, yet still sensitive individual. Granted, the presentation itself is what buggs me, as it is presenting her in this situation as grunt, which makes no sense whatsoever. The whole idea, that questioning authority is wrong is just stupid. It's not just Samus being treated as a child. It should go the other way, with her feeling bad for not crossing the line and not rebelling, only to find herself in situations, where she actually should follow authority throughout the majority of the game - only for it to be revealed, that to save "the world", she needs to cross the line yet again. This way, we would have genuine debate, whether questioning orders and not following them is a good thing, or a bad thing and if so, then why. The way we have this motive presented here is just bad writing, but also bad theme, one noone should really agree with. I understand and actually enjoy idea of "ends justifies the means" in any story, but here it's just done so, soooo bad. That's not sexist, hell no, that something far worse - it's critisism of freedom of speech, of initiative, of any sign of intelligence. A male in Samus's role would be just as big of misrepresentation as she is - gender has nothing to it. The relationship between Samus and Adam is indeed just horrible and abusive - it's one way attraction, that is not only unhealthy, but actually harmful. Samus doesn't take anything out of this relationship, which is actually crucial. Now, about you thinking that motherhood is about caring and fatherhood is about dominance being "outdated"... Oh boy. Feminine traits are literally more connected to being caring, delicate and emotional person, whereas being strong, aggresive and dominant are traits more represented by males. None of those are inherently better, or worse than the other. I know that I my be a bit nitpicky in this, but... I'm sorry, mother being caring individual and father being dominant is basicly typical, fairly normal idea. Males are inherently more focused on confrontation and dominance, so Adam being a dominant person, who has a significant, dominant authority, whereas any given mother being a more delicate, caring and soft individual makes a lot of sense. Game presenting those two traditional - "outdated" is really out of place here as a describtion - parent models is actually really refreshing, and in itself it is actually an interesting, really cool idea. The problem lies in presentation. Adam is not a good father figure. Father should be dominant, yes, should be hard, yes - but, father should also exhibit care for his child, just in a different, "male" way. And just as we have a bad mother figure presented, we should have Samus realise both good and bad aspects of fatherhood. An abusive relationship that disgraces and actually harmes child should be presented as a bad parenthood, whereas good fatherhood should be presented as being one, that encourages growth, ambition, self-reliance and strength. This way, we would have presented a parenthood model for each gender, with none being presented as inherently better than the other - also creating a message, that feminine and male character traits are inherently equally important, which is a very important message. Here, we just have a blend of bad writing, some good ideas, but ultimately a horrible final product, one that not only failes to deliver it's theme to fullest extent, but actually present's it's opposite, presenting an unhealthy relationships as healthy. And what's worst, it everything in it's power to make main protagonist look weak as a female, presenting situation in which she definiately needs a male person for her own survival and desision making, which is presenting her feminine character traits as somehow less competent, that male ones. That sucks.

@Grimmlocked

7 жыл бұрын

Darth Likaon yeah, their response was to stop making metroid games....

It'd make a lot more sense if this was a prequel where we learned how she got to be so independent but no, this is AFTER that

1. I intend to play this game myself at some point, just for the historical perspective of it. Based on everything I've seen/heard, it looks like it will be hard. 2. It would be really useful to have a documentary of the development of this game. It probably wouldn't happen because it would shame the developers, but I think it would add some needed perspective to how bad the game is, and WHY. 3. I don't want to believe that the developers / Sakamoto were sexist somehow, but the drop in empowerment from being a lonely hunter who destroys species, organizations, and planets to getting one-shot, drifting into flashbacks and monologues and letting external forces do all of the work (AND THINKING) for her seems like too much of a disaster to be an accident. This is why a documentary would be helpful. It's just painful seeing one of my heroes not just dragged through the mud, but pressed down headfirst into it to the point of suffocation. Here's hoping that a future game can portray her in a good light that is consistent with her past triumphs.

16:10 what they could've easily done for the pyrosphere situation is have Samus go in, start taking really fast damage, then Adam prompts her to activate the varia suit. Except that the pyrosphere's heat is so hot that even the varia suit doesn't help 100% and it just now does damage at the same rate it does now, Adam mentions that his team will go do something to help, and at the point where other M currently gives you varia, Adam calls in to tell samus that they lowered the pyroshpere temperature or something, and varia can now block all damage. there, problem solved.

Instead of freaking out when seeing Ridley, maybe they could still have the childhood trauma but have it that Samus is reassuring her younger self that this is nothing anymore, and she’s taken care of this nightmare before.

it's 2021 and I keep coming back to this game, dying to actually like it.... It's interesting the ways that abuse of power, gender, and military imperialism have aged in context of the story, particularly considering the amount of women I've talked to that actually understood or sympathized with some of Samus's moments of self-doubt and desire to please an authority figure in the wake of her experiences. and then there's the actual game itself lol

@25:12 That still happens to me when I'm reminded of this game...

So does the game ever address why after saying the new metroids were immune to ice Adam was able to freeze one?

@GameProf

8 жыл бұрын

Doesn't explicitly, but Adam did say that the Metroids in Sector Zero had been experimented on, so it's implied that the metroid he freezes (as well as the queen Samus defeats a little later) is one of the originals rather than the ones experimented on in Sector Zero.

I am honestly very sorry you were made to review Metroid Other M. That sounds like the worst thing I've ever seen in my life and it has made me lose all hope for the human condition. ...Oh well, time to get it back by playing Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion.Good job on the review but that game has given me nightmares.

@gaiusbalthasar3846

3 жыл бұрын

it aint that bad tbh lol

Data Selection... I used to just sit at the menu screen of Metroid Prime listening to that. Sorry you had to play Other M. I haven't and won't.

Sometimes I find myself craving people critically analyzing Other M, and what do I find this time but a phenomenal take-down put up just a month ago? Very lovely, and I hadn't really noticed the nearly-competent motherhood themes re:the Bergmens vs. Samus and the larva. The general badness and the sudden introduction of the Real Villain twenty minutes before the end of the game had numbed me by that point. All the rest of it was, for me, stuff I've heard and agreed with before, but it's always kind of gratifying to hear someone new say it, and you presented it in a way that I think even non-Metroid fans would be able to follow, which is even better! Me, I think the only way for Other M to be canon and me to still have any faith at all in the Metroid series would be if it was all a precognitive fever dream Samus was having during the Metroid Fusion intro. I'm (more or less) serious: sparkylurkdragon.tumblr.com/post/19133543752/dissecting-other-m-a-dream-interpretation

Simple answer to the Adam delaying authorization for the Varia functions: Bathroom. Hey, sometimes, a man's gotta poop. And that can take you a little while. Why wasn't there a liutenant or something assigned to keep watch on Samus while Adam answered nature's call? ... Uhhhhh...... SHUT UP!

15:59 I'm sure you've heard this before, but after countless years of enduring bad jokes regarding the matter I'm honor-bound to point out Phoenix Downs revive people from being KO'd, not killed. That out of the way, I only recently discovered your channel and have gone ahead and binge-watched most of your videos (the improvement in mic quality over the years is staggering). As an aspiring game designer they've been an incredibly valuable resource, and I look forward to whatever new content you have in store!

@sinisteroglop

7 жыл бұрын

Oh but, the dissonance of "swords kill in cutscenes" and "an actual supernova at worst knocks you unconscious in gameplay" is totally legit.

Yo Game Professor, have you considered analyzing the other Metroid games? I know the story usually takes a backseat to the gameplay and exploration, but Fusion has a pretty robust narrative regarding Samus' loss of agency through the loss of her power ups, taking orders from a computer, running away from the SA-X, etc. I just don't want Other M to sour your opinion on Metroid and prevent another analysis video on a good Metroid game. The series has a pretty extensive lore, it's just a shame Other M happened.

I’m not defending the writing, which I think was utterly lousy, but I don’t think the premise itself was necessarily doomed from the start. It’s conceivable for somebody (regardless of gender) to outwardly come across as confident, aloof, independent, and strong (a “badass” you could say), while internally being vulnerable, insecure, or even “weak”. Their way of coping is to conceal those inner weaknesses from themselves and others, and it’s often only when a person like that finds themselves in circumstances that place them face-to-face with multiple triggering/stressing factors (e.g. the source of past trauma, the cause of a major complex or insecurity, or a stimulus that evokes any of those) at the same time, often alongside immediate stress (either acute, like a fight/flight reaction, or chronic, such as an unmanageable workload), that those aspects emerge and signs of it begin to show externally. AFAIK it’s seen quite often in borderline/narcissistic/histrionic personality disorders and several CPTSD/dissociative subtypes. I think this could have been a competent story ark for Samus, in the hands of competent writers.

Giving you a shout out for acknowledging the fact that this game has major spoilers for Super Metroid. My biggest complaint about the beginning cut scene is that it both ruins the surprise of Super Metroid's ending for a newer generation that probably hasn't played it and more damning is that it changes what actually happens in the ending to fit in to the fan fiction that is Other M.

I stopped the video when you pronounced it "Zeebes" and immediately subscribed. I was already on board with your presentation style and focus, but when you said Zebes that way (aka CORRECTLY) it pushed me over the edge. Thank you. Also, if you haven't already, I would love to see a video on Bastion, discussing the gameplay-as-narrative that is everywhere in the game.

@GameProf

7 жыл бұрын

I have! It was just my second analysis, so don't expect the same level of quality, but it's there. ^_^ Glad you enjoy the show!

In the timeline, the game that follows Other M is Fusion, so the Baby Metroid saves her once again, and is now part of her

I agree with you on the sexism thing. I am by no means a feminist, if anything I am quite the opposite. I fully admit that there are general differences between the sexes and I don't think that all gender roles are inherently as bad as people think they are (especially when adopted by choice). That being said, I also fully understand that the differences between men and women are smaller than the differences between individual men or individual women. It's one thing for a character to be a gender stereotype, I don't actually think there is anything inherently wrong with that, but it's another thing entirely to turn an established character into one in order to fit into some preconceived notion. I grew up playing the Metroid games and Samus exemplified many of the traits I still value today. That she was a woman meant little to me and, despite being a fictional character, she was still hero to me. I would have liked for a game to realistically explore the person behind the visor in more depth. I'd even be ok with seeing her feminine side as I don't think having one is any kind of weakness. That's not what they did here.. they took away any and all of her positive traits, whether feminine or not, in order to give her a whole shitload of the negative traits associated with femininity while completely ignoring any of its strengths. The whole thing just pisses me off.

You should do a video on Layers of Fear. I personally really loved it and appreciated the developers' integration of art history, music, and literature.

@GameProf

8 жыл бұрын

I've heard of the game, but I've not played it; I'll have to check it out. Thanks for the recommendation!

26:23 so the whole PTSD theme is complete BS in this game

@gaiusbalthasar3846

3 жыл бұрын

she had a panic attack

Yeah, back when GamerGate was still a thing, even the most hardline pro-GG'ers would agree that Other M is sexist.

I know this is an older video, but with the announcement of Metroid Dread, I've been consuming a ton of Metroid-related videos on YT. Specifically, I have been watching/rewatching reviews of the infamous Metroid: Other M, in order to remind myself of where we once were, and to be thankful that there's a much brighter future ahead. First of all, I just wanted to say that you did an amazing job of dissecting the horrid story of Other M. My only complaint, is that you didn't go deep enough into the story's biggest betrayal of the Metroid franchise: The derailment of Samus and Adam's relationship depiction in Metroid Fusion! I never understood why none of the reviews I've watched, talks about how Fusion painted a far better picture of Adam Malkovich, and the relationship he had with Samus. In that game, when Samus recalls Adam's signature catchphrase--which is "Any objections, Lady?"--she specifically noted how she dislikes being called "lady" because it usually comes off as insulting. However, Adam used it in a way that was respectful and dignified, denoting the level of trust and respect between the two of them. How did Other M portray this powerful bond? Well, according to Samus, Adam knew full well how much she hated being called "lady" so he intentionally did it to get under her skin! I know there are some very devout fans of Other M, who have defended the many controversial decisions made with the game, but this is inexcusable! Hell, there's been many debates about the status of Metroid Prime in the official canon, due to Sakamoto not acknowledging the events of Prime in Other M, and yet, I can barely see even a MENTION of the "lady" screw-up!

subscribed! you deserve more views with how well done your vids are, I hope you return to the metroid series at some future point c:

So you taught game lit in high school? How did you make that happen? I wanna be a music teacher and I’d definitely love to start some unorthodox music classes.

With establishing Samus's personality based off previous games, it would really help your case if you mentioned specific examples. Like, for demonstrating her endless courage, point ot Zero Mission. When Samus gets shot down by space pirates and is left iwth only an emergency stun pistol, what does Samus do? Does she A) try to call the Federation for help? B) Attempt to repair her ship or C) Decide to infiltrate the space pirate mothership with absolutely zero hesitation given her incredibly weakned state? The answer is C, and, oh boy, does that action say a lot about her character. 19:30 I think you just reiterated your point on why Adam's authorization is a stupid idea, a very good point might I say, twice. 37:00 Hey, look! It's the only decent writing moment in this entire game! MB is wearing a hairpin in the shame of metroid guts/eyes/whatever they are. Either way, it's actually competent foreshadowing. 42:50 I think you just spent the past three minutes saying the same thing over and over again. That's... odd. Either I missed something or a few paragraphs should have been deleted. 46:23 Wow. I swear that's the third time you've said that Adam and Samus's relationship was abusive despite the game trying to portary it positively. Overall, pretty good video. I liked it enough to ruin it's 666 likes. Your points were very similar, and distinctly seperate, to an analysis of Metroid: Other M I really like written by a TV Tropes user. It's a very good read, as it goes even more in-depth into the game's story, and makes many different points on the matter. tvtropes.org/pmwiki/lb_i.php?lb_id=13373815860B43920100&i_id=13373815860I43921400&p=1

@JohnDoe-lm1gv

5 жыл бұрын

The thing is, a controlling relationship IS an abusive one. The power imbalance is not a good basis for a healthy one. Then there's the varia feature thing and the small detail of shooting Samus in the back - incapacitating her in the middle of hostile territory and while in contract with a deadly foe. The game is trying to TELL the relationship is good while SHOWING it as an abusive one.

After playing through the game, I was actually convinced that Samus was a crazy ass stalker and Adam just wanted her dead. When that didn't work, he locked himself in the Metroid area to die. Samus is a masochistic as hell Yandere.

@GameProf

8 жыл бұрын

+goober2049 I'm really annoyed at the game for how much sense your theory makes...

@emilemchew

8 жыл бұрын

+Games As Literature you should do the Hotline miami duology

@Mir_Teiwaz

8 жыл бұрын

+Games As Literature It's more entertaining this way.

@gaiusbalthasar3846

3 жыл бұрын

I mean you have to be if you join the military lmao

Great video! I wanted to make fun of how you said Zeebs, but I have been calling Zebes Zeebees, so I have no room to talk lol. I really wish the English version was translated properly. Apparently Samus didn't activate the Varia suit on her own accord because she wanted to be tough, but Adam yelled at her to activate it so she wouldn't kill herself.

Turns out the "other M" stands for Mansplaining!

@ProsecutorValentine

11 ай бұрын

Japanese Mansplaining no less! The worst kind.

Zebes is not the metroid homeworld. It's actually SR388, the setting for metroid 2/am2r/return of samus and metroid 4/fusion. Zebes was the space pirate homeworld and the setting for zero mission/metroid 1 and metroid 3 (super).

See I'm not opposed to the idea of samus having PTSD. but they reason they attach to it is so tremendously stupid. and furthermore, to fix the contradictions in the game Nintendo took my favorite Metroid games (metroid prime trilogy) out if the Canon.

@metumortis6323

7 жыл бұрын

Also when you said the title other m was nonsensical, I disagree. I believe it refers to the mother brain clone as in other mother brain.

i'd heard it was bad, but i had no idea it was THIS bad. jesus...

@GameProf

6 жыл бұрын

Exactly my reaction while playing it.

that voice acting

Even in Beauty and the Beast, as abusive as that relationship is, Belle and the Beast find some common ground and sense of kinship in their respective feelings of isolation from the rest of society.

@gaiusbalthasar3846

3 жыл бұрын

A lot of whats wrong with this game is actually probably do to how Japanese society is actually conservative. If you question your ideal figures, you're going to deal with a lot of pain.

You know what's funny? in Super Metroid it took Mother Brain's rainbow deathray several full powered blasts to bring Samus to her knees (and every shot was so strong, it pinned Samus to the wall). In this game Adam's inky-dinky freezegun does the same with one shot and it even completely disables the powersuit. Ah, must be the power of Adam's big manly pensi.

Ironically a retelling of whatever cocaine-and-barbituate-fueled bender that Sakamoto went on before coming to the storyboard meeting the following day would make a much better story.

@gaiusbalthasar3846

3 жыл бұрын

probably wasnt much cocaine to be honest, he probably just watched Evangelion and said " Imma do that"

Iv cracked the code, Samus was brainwashed between the last game and this one, BY Adam (the douchbag), completly brainwashed. And Other M isnt (It cant be) cannon at all.

Since I can't find any other comments that have mentioned this, I feel obligated to myself. I remember reading somewhere that military discipline is a BIG deal in Japan. I mean to the point where it'd make the hardest of the hardcore in the Marines in the US look tame. Like, if you're in the Japanese military, you ABSOLUTELY follow orders NO MATTER WHAT, and if you don't, you're dishonored forever. If your CO tells you to shoot an innocent civilian, you do it and ask for more. ...Although this would probably in the long run dishonor the CO, but that's his problem, not yours. You follow that order, and if there's blowback, the CO gets it, not you. Seeing as how Samus somewhat reintroduces herself into that lifestyle, it's possible the seemingly abusive relationship between her and Adam is just Japanese military protocol kicking in. And then the game later shows that Samus disrespected him while in the military and went AWOL. So there's that. Another point I feel worth mentioning, and this is clarified if you play the game past the credits, Adam was actually dealing with other conflicts as well, he didn't just sit there on his butt the whole time giving Samus orders. At one point, the Deleter finds him and they get into a fight, and then later he finds out about Area Zero and decides to do it. Samus actually recovers his visor and finds movie files of this inside it. There's even a scene of him showing actual concern for her! This is probably part of the reason why he was sometimes inattentive, and didn't immediately order Samus to use the Varia suit, not to mention why he went noticeably radio silent for a while. And... as much as I hate to defend the scene, there's a perfectly valid reason for Adam shooting Samus in the back: she's frickin' Samus. He'd be no match for her in a straight fight if she didn't agree with him, even without her armor. And she's shown defiance in the past. He wants to be absolutely certain that HE is the one to sacrifice himself, not her. And in fact, given everything that happens in the game, it might even be hinted that he realizes he's a jerk, and this is the only way he can regain his honor (self-sacrifice and suicide are also kind of a big thing in Japan). OK, so, now that all that is out of the way, lemme be absolutely clear. I DO NOT think this is a well written story in the slightest. It's still pretty bad in the plot department. There's plotholes and inconsistencies all over the place, and a truly ridiculous amount of wasted potential, and the whole game feels like anti-climax after anti-climax. Sakamoto and co. clearly had no experience with storytelling, and frankly, I don't think Nintendo has had the slightest clue WTF to do with the Metroid series since Gunpei Yokoi passed away. But I do wanna give credit where it's due, as I feel like the overall game really isn't that bad once you take aspects other than the story into consideration, like gameplay, graphics, music, etc. That, and it's not even my least favorite Metroid game, though it's still pretty low; Metroid Prime Hunters, MP3, MP Pinball, and Federation Force all score lower for various reasons (mostly motion/stylus controls; for me that crap offsets any complaints I have about story; and while Other M has some of that, it's not the whole game like with MP3 or Hunters), and while it's probably better than Other M, I've not had a chance to play Samus Returns yet, but that's it, rest of the series is much better for sure.

Technically Team Ninja had pretty much nothing to do with the writing and story, they were more hired for their skill ingame cinematics....

I feel like this whole story would have worked better if this was played as young samus (the one we see on the cutscenes) as it would justify some of the story (like her having a panic attack when facing Ridley as this would be the first time) and the gameplay mechanics (being authorized by Adam to use your weapons since at the time she was under his command).

@TaurusOxford

5 жыл бұрын

THAT would actually work. The Geek Critique also suggested the same idea.

This stupid game! It even ruins Adam Malkovich's character, since previously he was only mentioned in Fusion and shown in the manga. His appearance here isn't even necessary, since in his manga role he already fulfilled everything mentioned about him in Fusion. (If I remember correctly.) Other M had a chance to be something really pretty interesting, too, and instead is so totally, totally botched! Wasted opportunities like this are so frustrating!

The gameplay it self is pretty solid if you cut out all the cutscenes and monologues It feels like a solid 2.5d game. My favorite things is to cut out the terrible bits and make up my own story "Like huh what happened here? A dead soldier, there has clearly been some sort of illegal experimentation"

The writing reminds me of something George Lucas would have a hand in.

@gaiusbalthasar3846

3 жыл бұрын

You mean Rian Johnson

I played it years ago and loved it but watching your review makes me reconsider. Great video with great points!!

Fantastic analysis, that's a +sub from me. Keep up the good work!

Actually, as much as I hate to defend anything about Other M, the subtitle "Other M" could be referring to another "M"other Brain.

@GameProf

8 жыл бұрын

+McPurge Yourself I suppose that is possible. Though considering the closest thing to that the game ever actually uses to refer to Mother Brain is "MB," it would still be a pretty stupid subtitle.

Which is worse Metroid other m or Star Wars battlefront 2 ea at launch?

While I realize this video ins months old at this point, I find it worth mentioning, in case nobody else has, that in all my experience, the idea of a hell run in a Metroid game is unique to Prime 2 & Prime 3 (albeit I haven't played Prime 3 myself, I've read about this). In Prime 2, Dark Aether having a toxic atmosphere that drains you in integral to the world you're in, and even then, Samus gets the Dark Suit to weaken the erosion early on, plus there's light beacons to recharge your health. Not only that, but the run in Dark Aether basically boils down to taking your time in a light zone to look around for the next light zone then going there. In the meantime, the current light zone recharges your health. Other M does not have this. The best it has are save points to recharge your health or rooms that just don't have heat. Prime 3 has this giant object immune to the insanely acidic rain of the pirate homeworld that you can hide under to keep yourself dry and unharmed. Prime Hunters never gives Samus a suit upgrade and simply has her in the Varia Suit that protects from any adverse temperature if she doesn't go walking on lava. None of the 2D Metroid actually require that you run through a super-heated environment without the Varia Suit. Metroid 1 doesn't do it and in Zero Mission, the expanded remake, if you follow the paths given by the Chozo statues, you don't enter a super-heated room until you get the Varia Suit. The same goes for Norfair of Super Metroid and both the Super-Heated and Super-Cold environments of Metroid: Fusion. In either of those if you walk into an area where the atmosphere itself kills you, you're expected to walk right back out. In Super Metroid you go to Norfair to get the High Jump Boots to go fight Kraid to get the Varia Suit to actually explore Norfair. In Metroid Fusion you go to Sector 6 specifically to get the Varia Suit, and until then the adverse temperature is something you're explicitly told you both can and should avoid because you don't need to be in those to progress the game. Ergo, that Metroid: Other M would have you do this without giving you any real protection until a boss fight several minutes in isn't calling back to a Metroid trope.

@eiriseven

7 жыл бұрын

JSlayerXero While this is true, Fusion does feature some kind of hell-run though, where Samus has to go through the Nocturnal area while avoiding the Freezing X, she cant kill them, and if she tries to absorb them it hurts her; the Varia suit changes this inmediately. We could make a case for SA-X as well. The Hell Run is a way to point out how harsh the environment is and how more manageable it becomes upon the acquisition of a powerup, at its core its the same idea of having a ledge too tall to reach, or enemies to tough to beat.

@rmsgrey

2 жыл бұрын

The pattern extends into Metroid Dread: in principle, you could complete the game without ever taking any damage. There's a sort of Hell Run leading to the Varia Suit when you're trapped in an area that starts heating up (from the bottom, in a way that allows you to stay ahead of the damaging zones if you're fast and capable enough) where you're likely to take damage on your first time through (due to not realising the area's becoming damaging, nor figuring out the route quickly enough), and there's a point shortly afterwards where the route forward appears to involve brief immersion in (still damaging) lava, but there's a concealed bypass for that.

One thing you didn't mention that I think is "interesting" (or revolting, in this case) is that the post-ending adventure exploring the station to find all the items is justified by Samus going back into the station to find Adam's helmet. Yup. After all the abuse, she still wants to find something of him to drool over. And it's stupid, like the entire game.

@GameProf

8 жыл бұрын

+José Renato Fernandes Yeah, I considered mentioning it, but ultimately it was just one more drop of "why does Samus care about this douchebag so much" in the huge ocean of that sentiment that is Other M. I do shout out to it briefly in the credits, but yeah, just didn't bother mentioning it in the video proper. Thing's long enough as it is. :P

@gaiusbalthasar3846

3 жыл бұрын

Its not intended to be seen as abuse by the author lol

@gaiusbalthasar3846

3 жыл бұрын

@@GameProf Cause daddy bro. He's the ideal Parent!

Wow, this was amazing! Perhaps you can do an analysis on Sonic Adventure 2 or Fate/Stay Night in the future?

Unfortunately, the article you linked to no longer exists there.