o.o Other M's Narration isn't worse than the other games

[JediMB]

While I get the Zero suit was basically for sex appeal it made a bit of sense to dress light when you're going to be walking around in power armor all day. And it covered more than Samuses armor in Super Metroid if you recall.

Agreed.

The thing is, though, that Samus' casual outfits in the original trilogy were basically undergarments. We got a peek at them at the end of the game, if we performed well enough, but other than that they were always supposed to be concealed by the armor.

The Zero Suit, in contrast, was made specifically to let them show Samus off more outside of her armor. Personally, I'd rather she keeps the armor on for the entirety of her missions, as even Zero Mission's final chapter rather lacked in execution.

And heels or not (preferably not), the suit is really ugly.

 

[galdon2004]

http://gameoverthinker.blogspot.com/2010/09/episode-40-heavens-to-metroid.html

I really like Moviebob's take on the subject.

Before we start - have you played Other M? Because while MovieBob's mostly right, the fact is... the story doesn't do anything but suck.

I've always been confused about that video. As someone who generally reviews movies, you'd expect his opinion on Other M to be as damning as they come, due to its terrible characterisation, awful voice acting and bad writing in general, but it just isn't. Maybe he legitimately likes it. Maybe he legitimately thinks that this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TEtLJu2vN4&feature=related] is a good cutscene or plot point to spend half an hour droning on about. If that's the case, I... can't help but start to distrust his movie reviewing credentials, at least for me. But I'm of the very strong opinion that Metroid: Other M's storyline just isn't good enough to be given any form of deep analysis whatsoever.

Sure, I could link to that Elephant In The Room [http://moonbase.rydia.net/mental/blog/gaming/metroid-other-m-the-elephant/article.html] article as a counter-argument to Bob, which is definitely well-written, but what would be the point? Apart from the ties to the rest of the series, it's about as worthwhile as analysing Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus. And at least that was bad in a fun way rather than childhood-destroyingly horrible.

I like the Metroid series as much as the next guy. But this game just isn't worth the effort.

Rest of my thoughts on the matter are here [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/326.234561].

Yeah, how DARE a commander issue specific orders during battle! And what the hell is he thinking not wanting the bounty hunter to act as a loose cannon on his ship! What kind of MILITARY is he running here? Seriously, why is he bringing things like Chain of Command, Self Control, and minimization of collateral damage into things?

I think what you may be forgetting is how the military functions. I know the commercials use 'Army of one' and things like that, but in the military, being a rogue operative is typically frowned upon. As for beyond that, it seems more like the problem with this scene is bad voice acting. Sounds like monotone is definitely not the voice it should be read in.

 

[Mike Cass]

If you want to talk about military and orders, the best equation is Samus acting as a paramilitary unit. She was not serving under Adam, and he sent out a distress signal, she was under no obligation to do ANYTHING he said, much less even take his thoughts into consideration.

Except Adam never sent out a distress signal and Samus was interfering with a federal operation.

The problems with the story have NOTHING to do with delivery of lines. The problem is that Adam is straight up abusive, sadistic even, and is an absolute misogynist. Samus doesn't just seem to love it, she's absolutely obsessed with it. Go and play the game, and tell me they aren't romanticizing their relationship as being the ideal man to woman life.

Nothing he did was abusive. Canon wise Samus was never endanger because of Adam's orders and its a good thing that she didn't active powers right from the get go because of how the suit effects her mind.

HE SHOT HER IN THE BACK FOR TRYING TO DO HER JOB. The shot shut her suit down and left her gasping while a metroid just chilled out next to her, and all she did do was think about how sexy that made him look.

No, he shot her so she couldn't put herself in a position where she would have died.

 

[targren]

Don't get me wrong here; I hated the narration in Other M. The only Metroid game I had played though was Super Metroid. Recently however, I got Metroid Fusion which is considered to be a really good game.

By whom? Fusion is the horrible 2D equivalent (Directed by the same guy who made such a mess of Other M) of this one. Linear, horribly narrated with the same BS monologues (as you mentioned). It was just as much a not-a-Metroid-Metroid game as Other M was, because of the way what's-his-face is trying to force the series into shitty, poorly-written, poorly-told, poorly-characterized narrative.

Other M's portrayal of Samus is spot on. The only difference is, you can't just 'not read' a vocalized narration. So, losing the ability to just tune her out and pretend that she's the badass from the gameplay, her whiny monologues and speech is forced on you unless you mute the TV, which is a far more conscious action than passively ignoring the text that pops up on the screen during her alone time.

This is only true if the only other game you've ever played was Fusion. Consider this: The big "emotional" scene and the biggest sign that the characterization in Other M was weak, misogynistic bullshit: Ridley

That PTSD bullshit that's been used to justify that idiotic scene makes no sense when one considers that Other M takes place Post-Super-Metriod, which means that Samus has gone head-to-head with Ridley AT LEAST THREE DAMN TIMES since her Zero-Mission. Then, all of a sudden, when there's a big, strong man to give her orders, suddenly just seeing him makes her freeze up like an old Packard Bell trying to render Skyrim?

Not a chance.

 

[galdon2004]

http://gameoverthinker.blogspot.com/2010/09/episode-40-heavens-to-metroid.html

I really like Moviebob's take on the subject.

Before we start - have you played Other M? Because while MovieBob's mostly right, the fact is... the story doesn't do anything but suck.

I've always been confused about that video. As someone who generally reviews movies, you'd expect his opinion on Other M to be as damning as they come, due to its terrible characterisation, awful voice acting and bad writing in general, but it just isn't. Maybe he legitimately likes it. Maybe he legitimately thinks that this [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2TEtLJu2vN4&feature=related] is a good cutscene or plot point to spend half an hour droning on about. If that's the case, I... can't help but start to distrust his movie reviewing credentials, at least for me. But I'm of the very strong opinion that Metroid: Other M's storyline just isn't good enough to be given any form of deep analysis whatsoever.

Sure, I could link to that Elephant In The Room [http://moonbase.rydia.net/mental/blog/gaming/metroid-other-m-the-elephant/article.html] article as a counter-argument to Bob, which is definitely well-written, but what would be the point? Apart from the ties to the rest of the series, it's about as worthwhile as analysing Mega Shark vs Giant Octopus. And at least that was bad in a fun way rather than childhood-destroyingly horrible.

I like the Metroid series as much as the next guy. But this game just isn't worth the effort.

Rest of my thoughts on the matter are here [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/jump/326.234561].

Yeah, how DARE a commander issue specific orders during battle! And what the hell is he thinking not wanting the bounty hunter to act as a loose cannon on his ship! What kind of MILITARY is he running here? Seriously, why is he bringing things like Chain of Command, Self Control, and minimization of collateral damage into things?

I think what you may be forgetting is how the military functions. I know the commercials use 'Army of one' and things like that, but in the military, being a rogue operative is typically frowned upon. As for beyond that, it seems more like the problem with this scene is bad voice acting. Sounds like monotone is definitely not the voice it should be read in.

I was more referring to the inane amount of time spent talking about the incredibly deep and meaningful fact that she put her thumb up instead of down. Or was it down instead of up?

...I'm not watching that thing again to find out.

That scene did stretch a bit long; but I feel like that scene dragged on mostly because of her monotone droning. Which would be a voice acting thing. From a writing perspective, it feels a lot like it would have come across much better if that voice actress wasn't a horribly boring narrator. The only thing that stood out to me as specifically bad in the clip you linked to what the fact that she decided to say 'Understood, Adam' instead of doing something unique since she just spent 5 minutes talking about how much effort she put into being unique.

as for things not in that clip specifically; a few things didn't make sense such as her not deciding to turn on her suit's heat shielding. They kind of dropped the ball there, they had a good chance I think to have her not using heat shielding to demonstrate her strength, rather than making it appear like she is 'dependent' on someone to remind her that her suit can do that.