Was Metroid Other M the right direction? (NO FLAME WARS PLEASE)

Yes and yes. part of Metroid's fun is how lonely you are, it's very disarming. Even without any real NP Cs the series has been able to craft fantastic stories in a way only a video game can. Other M removes that aspect of the series and replaces it with babies.

This game supposedly 'explains' how Ridley got on the BSL but who cares really? Furthermore the explanation makes no sense. Yeah, frozen Ridley crumbles to dust in Fusion but does so in a manner completely inconsistent with Metroid victims. You know what it looked like? Like the gooing human corpses of the X victim, only solidified because of the subzero environment, you can tell Metroids were not intended in the original script...or maybe not considering Fusion could not remember Omega's do not care about the Ice beam...

One of the praises given to Fusion was despite its narrative focus and increased railroading it was much less reliant on cut scenes than similar titles. The bosses, the eating of Ridley, the human victims, the SA-X sequences, the Ki-hunter metamorphosis, the power outage, none of that needed any fancy cinematic to explain itself, just the events and if really pressed, a little text. The level design was also appreciated in that as sore as people were about being railroaded, they had to admit it was a dynamic railroad, changing as you went back and forth on it, adding to the atmosphere.

In this approach, the plotting mistakes were kept minimal since plot rarely strayed beyond what the player did and saw while playing and were not highlighted (you think a lot less about why "such and such happened this way" or "why would this work" when you are just trying to get it done). Furthermore the internment was more interesting to play through because well, the game was focused on things the player would be doing or seeing while playing, not what they would be seeing while sitting on their thumbs waiting for auto pilot to turn off. Not creeping around slowly or standing around doing nothing because your character arbitrarily decided to stop moving around how they used to till you get where you are railroaded. If Fusion was going to hold you up there was usually some reason for it beyond controls are like this now or will be taken away for awhile so there.

That is about they only way I can equate the story telling of this game to not being gratified quickly enough. Otherwise, I think the complaint is that it was just badly plotted then proudly drew attention to the fact it was badly plotted while not giving the player as much to do or see on their own. To give the player a sense of immersion.

Umm... Ridley's corpse didn't crumble to dust, it crumbled like broken ice sculpture It was kinda frozen so even if it was a mummy it didn't crumble like one

You are right, I was hesitant when I typed it up to be honest, but the point is it did not behave like something a Metroid had fed on.

Well, to be honest, you can't move anything metroid has fed upon since they crumble to dust on touch while Ridley's body in other m looks like a mummy. So I guess its either inconsistent in relation to old games or its because Ridley is much bigger than space pirates and other small creatures which corpses' crumble on touch?

edited 17th Nov '13 6:16:30 AM by SpookyMask

We've seen some pretty big creatures in Tourian crumble to dust after being eaten by a metroid.

I guess... Well, only thing I could figure out at this point anymore is that Ridley's regeneration ability is canon and if he wouldn't have crumbled as ice statue he'd have come back to life when his eyes where glowing

Anyway, when you want to see if a terminal still has information you should just scan it, rather than watching a cutscene where some guy you do not care about types on a keyboard to a jitter camRecorded in Log (J-74: Payment, Press start to read)We went against protocol when we retried the alien material and brought it into the city limits but times were tough and the Esison freight exec [[Gold:Hill]] was offering so much it seemed foolish not to take him up on his offer. The truth is that we were paid exactly what we deserved! Look upon our ruin and know our folly! Our time here would have stayed tough had we not been seduced by his promises, but now our time is up!J-74 logs->Jafrac data->Esison logs->UMS 9583 part two

The potential payloads this system is capable of delivering, both in the physical transmissive sense, are astounding for their size. Disappointingly, it is far from its full potential. Several of its components seem to be completely non functional, incompatible with whatever fuels the rest of its operations. These have been easiest to remove, almost as if they were rejected by the rest of the body. Further study on them has yielded nothing.

Another function of the arrow beam's charged shot would be to stick into the Jafrac barricades of the type encountered where you first started the game and then twisting them as makeshift keys, as a call back to all that stuff you did in Prime 3. The arrow beam would upgrade the super missile beam combo into the Lagrangian Javelin which turns intangible enemies tangible again when it passes through them.

In fact going back to the start will immediately put it all to use as beyond the seal pathway you will come into the lair of (Morphology:Meta Ridley, temporal distortion detected, press start for further viewing) The fight would be pretty much the same as it was in Metroid Prime, the only changes being less room to move and your different equipment(you take more damage than the Phazon suit but a charged arrow beam beats the crap out of his chest plate) up until you get to the phase where his wings burn off, at which point a purple cloud will form above the dragon and descend upon him, also the area will warp into a local vaguely resembling Quadraxis's Lair, complete with the damaging atmosphere (you do get a safe zone this time though).

Initially Dark Meta Rildey will fly around blowing out a gas similar to an Ing Claw's followed a puff of fire that ignites it in a big explosion, which he avoids by using the Hunter Ing ability to turn intangible. You just have to avoid getting hit by everything else enough for the safe zone to recover your health enough (or you could venture far enough into the room to avoid it if you think you will take less damage from the atmosphere, your call) at hit Ridley with the Javelin so he will get caught in his own trick. Seeing how that does not work out for him he will then start turning invisible (in reality, warping around a super fast speed the way the Chozo Ghosts do, charging the clock stopper can halt that silliness if you have enough ammo) trying to hit you with fire balls from behind, coating himself in energy and flying at you the way warrior Ing somethings do and flying in erratic patterns while whipping his tail.

After enough hits to the chest Dark Ridley will slump over dead then fade away to reveal Albon raider, this time wielding two staffs which it spins together to reflect all you beam weaponry (If you are out of missiles and clock stoppers use the grapple lasso to hold his rod still then shoot him until he breaks free). After he dies the dark aether-like atmosphere disappears and the screw attack comes back online. For now though, it is a dead end ahead so go back and see where the screw attack will be more useful.

edited 18th Nov '13 1:22:47 PM by Cider

The canon explanation is that Samus controls it with her mind and emotions. If I recall right, this was the given explanation back when Prim and Fusion came out as well so Retro really didn't have a reason for doing that.

edited 2nd Dec '13 6:42:23 AM by Ether101Prime

The scene where Adam inexplicably shoots Samus in the back for no reason and goes on to be the big hero guy (in a suicide mission that is ultimately all for nothing as there are still metroids left after he blows the sector up) is where the writing shits itself for me.

Cowering in fear before her nemesis was kind of iffy when Samus is meant to be a stoic badass, but considering that she thought she had already killed Ridley, it could have caught her off guard and triggered the flashback to her family being killed.

The cut-scenes about Samus' history under Adam's command are frankly just weird and confusing (the thumbs down and "Any objections, LADY?" scenes spring to mind). As Pat from Two Best Friends Play put it, "That was Japanese as Fuck". I get that they were trying to appeal to a Japanese audience, but those cutscenes were perhaps 'too Japanese' for a western audience. I don't see where they thought America would be as receptive to it. I seriously doubt the average Otaku's love of Japanese culture would extend into knowing how one is supposed to properly/traditionally retire from the Defense Force. My thoughts during that scene were "I can quit a shitty job after a bad experience if I want to, fuck you Adam".

Having Team Ninja (the people responsible for creepy bullshit like Dead or Alive) render Samus in tight spandex and high heels just so they could constantly show off her ass and tits during those "deeply emotional" scenes was just the sexist icing on the bad writing/characterization cake.

But hey that's just my 2 Cents on this ancient thread.

Fun fact: Japanese gamers liked this game about as much as everyone else did.

On the one hand, thread necro.

On the other hand, necro was done to kickstart actual discussion of the topic and not just responding to something that someone else said years ago, as is distressingly often the case. I think that's okay.

With a weapon so powerful it can one-shot Samus Aran, the ultimate badass of the galaxy, no less. The implications of power from Adam's sidearm boggles the mind. That is a gun that can destroy civilizations. A gun that can bring down the greatest terrors of the universe.

Adam says that Samus is needed to combat Ridley and that's why he has to go, but he takes with him a gun that could have reduced Ridley to a bloody smear in a single shot. A gun that could have exploded the Queen Metroid in a couple hits. A gun that could probably wipe out the entire station from orbit.

But no. Adam's ultimate super-weapon leaves with him as he departs the plot, taking the final level with him and leaving the player on clean-up duty. Legend has it that his gun is still out there and that it may yet return one day when the galaxy faces its time of greatest need.

edited 21st Dec '15 9:52:45 AM by TobiasDrake

Give this man a medal. That post was full of win. Samus should have gone back to the bottle ship not for his damn helmet but for that gun! That thing was invaluable!

Clearly Adam knew the gun would only corrupt him and anybody else who knew it's power.

That's the real reason he an hero'D.