Metroid: Other M is sexist, inspires even more horribly sexist comments.

TheHermit wrote:

That said? Psy-4, you are giving the writers way too much credit on this one. Within five minutes of starting the game I already despised Samus' voice-over narration. The script is awful and shows nowhere near the depth and sophistication you seem to be reading into it.

Thhhrrrpppt, yeah. Now that I'm petered out and no longer interested in throwing bile around for its own sake, yeah, you're right. It's hard to explain my interpretation when the dialogue is filled with cheese, the writing is pretty bad and the voice actor is not interested in showing emotion.

The thumbs up as a salute is stupid and referring to the metroid kid constantly as The Baby gets awkward through the sheer force of repetition. Also, while I dig the beauty mark, really, platform heels? And yes, whatever subtleties could be taken from Samus' behavior are drowned out by the motherhood symbolism: the suit has the largest hips out of any of them, constant going on about the Baby, Bottle ship, Baby's Cry, M Other.

Giving Samus a personality, especially one of a self-doubting and vulnerable woman, pining for motherhood, was the equivalent of a quadruple bypass; there is no reason it couldn't work, wanting kids isn't wrong, and Samus has all the excuse she needs to behave however she wants; but this delicate procedure was carried out with a drinking straw.

Mafiosa wrote:

It's a bad game.

That's just the thing; it's actually a pretty good game once you get past the shit writing. The whole "authorization" thing doesn't bother me in the slightest; it's functionally identical to just picking up your power-ups in the level, except it allows for dramatic situations of when and in what circumstances you get your abilities ("Hm, he's gonna die and you're way too far to assist. Samus, authorizing Grapple Beam, get up there!"). It's fun, combat is exciting and flows well without feeling same-y, third person view is ALWAYS preferable to first person in a game so focused on exploration. I just wish I wasn't punished for doing well by having to endure more of the plot.

As far as the actual "controversy" goes, this video sums up my thoughts on the matter.

TheHermit wrote:

As far as the actual "controversy" goes, this video sums up my thoughts on the matter.

That dude lost me the moment he described Raiden as "vaguely effeminate."

EDIT: However, to be fair, I'm going through the gameplay to give it a fair shake. Aside from his comment about Raiden, he makes understandable points. However, he forgot something when he points out that Other M basically uses narrative to make the old powerup concept a little different from "I found armor lolz":

It works in the case of things like Power Bombs, which is readily explained: The collateral damage from using them will result in blue-on-blue casualties. However, when Samus doesn't use equipment or abilities simply because they haven't been specifically authorized yet (e.g. grappler beams) this becomes significantly weaker.

Not to mention, narrative is inherently more complex than the mechanics of gameplay. It can influence it and be woven into it, but it requires a bit more effort than "pressing this button makes a person fire a weapon where you're looking."

For example, in real life, we've got rules of engagement. These exist for a specific purpose. Even though a JTAC on the ground might have the ability to call down a 2,000-pound GPS-guided bomb on a group of insurgents, he might not be allowed to because they're too close to a school. It might be in the middle of the night when nobody is in that school, but damaging or destroying the school means that the next day, it cannot be used, the locals are left without an education resource, and resentment is built. So a more damage-limiting form of support is employed, like a strafing run. Later, when fighting in the open mountains, the big bombs will be available.

This is a believable set of circumstances for limiting the use of force. If this were applied to a game, we'd buy it and move on. But if it was because Commanding Officer So-And-So, who we're told (not shown, or previously interacted with) is an important father figure to our character, hasn't specifically given his almighty say-so yet, it feels completely arbitrary and dumb.

Especially in Other M, where Samus goes out of her way to mention that she used to like rebelling against Adam's will.

EDITx2: And a lot of narrative value is lost through WORDSWORDSWORDS as we're not shown anything so much as told it. Samus, in a monotone, delivers an endless soliloquy about her relationship with Adam and her history with him and the events in the game. It's incredibly hamfisted.

Ex3: I suppose the gravest sin of this game is not so much the way characters behave, it's the fact that it's Samus' LJ. We're never shown anything, just told. In a monotone.

Penguin wrote:

This is a believable set of circumstances for limiting the use of force. If this were applied to a game, we'd buy it and move on. But if it was because Commanding Officer So-And-So, who we're told (not shown, or previously interacted with) is an important father figure to our character, hasn't specifically given his almighty say-so yet, it feels completely arbitrary and dumb.

Well, from what I recall he did authorize better equipment any time shit has gotten serious. And his mission is reconnaissance, with little(debatable) intel on what to expect. Unless I critically missed something about rules of engagement, bringing and firing Javelins and Carl Gustavs without discretion in a location you were tasked to just check out seems kind of weird; unless there is armor there, in that case, go nuts.

Edit: watched video. It's like someone who overthought the series even more and is more eloquent and less inflammatory than me just switched on Maximum Told.

Bag of Spilling with a poorly-written excuse that doesn't even attempt to disguise the fact that it's an excuse is worse than plain Bag of Spilling with no excuse whatsoever.

Psy-4 wrote:

Well, from what I recall he did authorize better equipment any time shit has gotten serious.

After the obligatory waiting period when it would already have been useful. He waited until after shit got serious, not when it did.

Quote :

And his mission is reconnaissance, with little(debatable) intel on what to expect. Unless I critically missed something about rules of engagement, bringing and firing Javelins and Carl Gustavs without discretion in a location you were tasked to just check out seems kind of weird; unless there is armor there, in that case, go nuts.

You did. You see, just because an ambush or firefight isn't necessarily anticipated, it is prepared for. As for Javelins and Carl Gustavs (so you like to play Bad Company 2 eh? Put your controller down on the ground...), they are extremely effective at taking out enemy personnel at long range, in cover. They also do it with a lot less potential for collateral damage than artillery, air strikes or mortars. A recon team without a SMAW or similar weapon would be a lot stranger than one with one. The main reason you wouldn't see a Javelin is because it's really cumbersome and expensive. The do see limited use, though.

And, again, this is missing the fact that Adam fails to authorize your equipment for no reason other than the fact that it happens to be your equipment. Not letting Samus activate the Varia mod until she's already inside an active volcano is like not authorizing soldiers to don armor until they're already in the middle of a firefight, or banning seat belt use unless a head-on collision is imminent. It's frigging PPE. It's completely passive and only works when on.

Penny wrote:

For example, in real life, we've got rules of engagement. These exist for a specific purpose. Even though a JTAC on the ground might have the ability to call down a 2,000-pound GPS-guided bomb on a group of insurgents, he might not be allowed to because they're too close to a school. It might be in the middle of the night when nobody is in that school, but damaging or destroying the school means that the next day, it cannot be used, the locals are left without an education resource, and resentment is built. So a more damage-limiting form of support is employed, like a strafing run. Later, when fighting in the open mountains, the big bombs will be available.

Yes, but you aren't told stupid shit like you can't use a radio ever, unless you get permission from some fool no where near the situation. Or rather, I hope you're never told that. Which is the same thing with the grapple beam.

Somehow, I think the Metroid universe is a bit detached from reality, in the sense that in reality, one woman can't win a war, destroy a planet, genocide an entire race, and whatever else Samus has done, entirely on her own. Telling Samus exactly what she can and can't use to solve a problem is like telling Jesus how to walk on water. You're pointlessly hamstringing your best asset. If she has to wait for permission to use the only weapon that can kill whatever is trying to kill her, she could end up dead before the authorization comes in.

If you don't want Samus to destroy the school, tell her she's to do nothing to harm the school. As far above anything else the military has in terms of competence and ability, you'd have to believe she'd get the job done without leveling the school.

Another point, she's no longer in the military. What are they going to do if she doesn't want to cooperate with their asinine restrictions? Shoot her? Best of luck. The best they could do is tell her to scram and then take care of it themselves. Even then, Samus could just as well tell them to fuck off, do it how she wants, and Particle Beam any fool stupid enough to tell her she can't.

I always figured THAT sort of violent, Renegade-Sherpard badassness was more in line with the character of Samus.

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

I always figured THAT sort of violent, Renegade-Sherpard badassness was more in line with the character of Samus.

Now see, if you'd bothered watching the video I linked to before you posted this line you could have avoided a self-owning. As it is, I have to ask (with barely-concealed glee) how you decided on this interpretation of her character. Probably something along the lines of "Well, she isn't a vapid, bubbly, childish girl so she must be a brooding, serious as cancer, man-hating ice queen since these are the only two personalities female video game characters are allowed to have." Which doesn't surprise me, given who I'm talking to here. If the characterization of Samus given in Other M is way out of left field, and your interpretation is correct, explain the ending of Metroid II. Samus is given the mission to genocide the entire Metroid species. She deliberately disobeys this order, sparing one baby metroid and in doing so putting the entire galaxy at enormous risk, and the only justification provided is that she can't bring herself to kill it because it thought she was its mother. If she was as "Renegade-Shepard" as you think she is, that makes no sense whatsoever. There is no possible way to justify that behavior with your characterization. Ergo, your characterization is canonically wrong. Quod Erat Demonstrandum (that's Latin for "I win"*).

Continued playing it, my opinion remains unchanged: great game, a story idea worth pursuing, but god-damn are the writing geniuses behind the DOA games not up to the task.

ETA: Also, Ridley is a bag of dicks (Fuck you and your stupid grab move that comes out of nowhere and doesn't let me concentrate my health back).


*=Don't hit reply, I know that's not what it means.

TheHermit wrote:

Continued playing it, my opinion remains unchanged: great game, a story idea worth pursuing, but god-damn are the writing geniuses behind the DOA games not up to the task.

> writing geniuses
> DOA

lol

Mikey Go WOOGA wrote:

Yes, but you aren't told stupid shit like you can't use a radio ever, unless you get permission from some fool no where near the situation. Or rather, I hope you're never told that. Which is the same thing with the grapple beam.

Yeah, I addressed this in my last post where Adam's restricting the use of (or Samus is simply waiting on his say-so to use) passive items like PPE for no apparent reason.

I mean, some seemingly random items can be restricted, but it's always for a reason. E.g., no personal tools on the flight line, because there's no way of accounting for them and making sure they don't get sucked down an intake.

Telling someone going into a volcano that they can't use their volcano-proof suit just errr because? Well, there's a rule of leadership that goes something along the lines of, "Never give an order you know won't be obeyed."