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Stuart Smith
Joined: 13 Jan 2013
Posts: 1298
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 Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2016 2:07 pm
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| Top Gun wrote: | | I'm not talking about whatever Samus said about herself (which would be rather silly, given how many games passed until she was given any dialogue!), but how she has been viewed by the entire gaming community over the course of three decades. It's been beaten to death by this point, but that moment in the original game when Samus removes her helmet and reveals her identity is a truly seminal one in the history of gaming: there flat-out hadn't been a female protagonist in a game like that before. Throughout every game since she's carried herself as a strong, confident warrior who was capable of meeting every challenge thrown at her, and that's what fans around the world grew to love about her. So yes, throwing that entire history away with a badly-misguided narrative choice is a big deal. |
| Quote: | | As I noted above, the manga is an ancillary work to the actual game franchise, and Samus having PTSD was absolutely NOT established anywhere in the games prior to Other M. Obviously that sort of storytelling was outside the purview of an NES-era title, but if it was intended as part of Samus's character, it could have potentially come up by Super Metroid, and it most definitely would/should have been incorporated into Zero Mission or Fusion. Except...it never was, and for good reason. Even if you were to discount the Prime games (and I'm not sure why you would), Samus has already kicked Ridley's ass twice before Other M. Why would meeting him a third time make her do anything other than roll her eyes and think, "Man, this bastard will not stay dead will he?" Most people who played the games wouldn't have had any exposure to that manga, but even if they had, I understand that the series in question sees Samus overcome her PTSD by the end of it and basically taunt Ridley to his face. So again, Other M has her act completely out-of-character even by the established extra backstory. |
You don't 'overcome' PTSD, there's no cure. You just have to deal with the episodes and move on, which she does. It makes sense she'd have an episode if she thought the killer of her home and parents was finally dead and suddenly he appears again alive and well out of nowhere. Any closure was just ripped from her.
Secondly, these two statements contradict each other. You can't dismiss official manga series, advertisements, promo videos, and commercials, because they don't happen in the game proper but laude what the gaming community thinks as important. What a small section of the community thinks is irrelevant, Nintendo themselves never treated or pushed Samus as that kind of person. As it's been pointed out, if anything Samus has been portrayed ingame as a fanservice character which each game offering a more scantily clad look at the heroine depending on your performance. The gaming community also considers Samus to be the sexiest Nintendo girl and she has way more porn than any other first-party Nintendo character, so its not like there's some consensus in the community.
If we look at her behavior in-game, the only thing she's done prior to Fusion that can be remotely called personality is sparing the baby Metroid at the end of 2. I'm not sure how you can interpret her as being some strong, confident, getting things done character based on that alone. All it really shows is she's compassionate and motherly, possibly even weak-willed. People should probably stop trying to push politics in video games, she never asked to be some poster child for female protagonists in video games. And picking a character you can't even tell is female and hides her identity has weird implications like female heroes are only acceptable as long as we don't have to see them and can imagine them as male.
I would still call her a great female game protagonist, but I know a lot of people only like to apply that to perfect, infallible, non-sexualized characters rather than flawed, multi-dimensional characters who show some skin.
| BadNewsBlues wrote: | |
And yet games like Chrono Trigger and Mother 2 which are considered among the best of that era are fondly remembered by fans for their storytelling and characters more than their gameplay mechanics. |
Back in the day Ninja Gaiden was heavily praised for its use of cutscenes and storytelling style, and pretty much every fondly remembered RPGs is thank to its story like Final Fantasy 4, 6, and 7. Metal Gear Solid was a nonRPG praised for story. Even today you got all these games bragging about being cinematic experiences to the point gameplay is purely optional. Given RPGs are my favorite video game I would definitely say story is important. Some of my favorite games back then were Lufia 2 and Phantasy Star IV, and I've always wanted to try to have more story built upon its characters and world, which is why I was so excited for Fusion since it was the first to have actual dialogue and plot in-game. I'm happy Nintendo is now more comfortable showing Samus off outside of her armor, and if we got some kind of game based on zero suit Samus like a stealth action game that would be pretty cool.
-Stuart Smith
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Lord Oink
Joined: 06 Jul 2016
Posts: 876
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Posted: Sun Aug 14, 2016 4:57 am
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| TC-man wrote: |
| bj_waters wrote: | | I kind of wish they had reached out to the AM2R guy and tried to work something out so that it could be put on official Nintendo systems instead of just rolling out the DMCA like they did. |
I totally agree on this with you. I too wish Nintendo could have talked to the creator of AM2R, then hire and ask him to port AM2R to the Wii U and/or 3DS. Perhaps even do a HD remake of a "Metroid All Stars" (a similar remake of "Super Mario All Stars") to celebrate the 30th birthday of Metroid. . |
AM2R is too shoddy. The sprite work alone looks cheap and amateurish. The original Gameboy game is more refined and has better sprite animations. There's no way it deserve to be on an actual Nintendo console endorsed by them. To think the guy spent 10 years making it is crazy. He should have spent that time making something original and building a career at the very least
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KonradW
Joined: 18 Jan 2016
Posts: 6
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Posted: Mon Aug 15, 2016 12:04 pm
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| Lord Oink wrote: | | AM2R is too shoddy. The sprite work alone looks cheap and amateurish. The original Gameboy game is more refined and has better sprite animations. |
Please give some examples, as I'm having hard time believing you have seen the game with your own eyes.
About The Other M - instead of bashing on this (imo objectively bad) game, blame the lack of general direction in the series as a whole. There are no more than three instalments in a row where most of non-gameplay matters remain consistent (or explained at all, for that matter).
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Lord Oink
Joined: 06 Jul 2016
Posts: 876
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Posted: Tue Aug 16, 2016 1:40 pm
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| KonradW wrote: | |
Please give some examples, as I'm having hard time believing you have seen the game with your own eyes. |
Queen Metroid. Sprite looks like it belongs in an entirely different game than Samus. The animation is jarring like the shoddy seeming of its arms and legs when it moves. The inhaling breath attack looks like it was made just using a gradiant shading fill tool in photoshop. When you morph ball inside it's mouth Samus clips through the Queen's lower jaw. Finally, when it dies it either poofs instantly away or the screen flashes white and it's gone. No death animation at all. None of these problems are in the original Gameboy game.
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