Metroid: Other M

[Shoeberto]

Does anyone else have it yet?

I'm enjoying it a lot. A review I read said that it's ahead of its time in how it blends elements, and I agree. It's hard to say it's a worthy successor to Super Metroid, but it's certainly a huge advancement for the series.

Also, the introduction is amazing. They managed to take what was already one of the most amazing segments in gaming and make it feel even grander and more dramatic than it already was. It gave me chills.

[ljkkjlcm9]

certainly a gorgeous game. Not sure how I feel about the auto lock on though... I need to give it more time though. I have barely played it considering I started the FFXIV Beta and played some Monster Hunter Tri. Plus I still need to beat Arc Rise Fantasia!

THE JACKEL

[NeoCracker]

It is pretty rad, but this game does have it's share of bull:bou::bou::bou::bou: and demons.

The first one was the changing of enviroments with their wierd VR tech. What bothered me is that by covering the area in the illusion, there is a hole in it that reveals a crack in the real wall you couldn't see before...

How the hell does that even work?

And the parts you are forced to slow down, or where you have to scan the area for a specific thing, a couple of them are just annoying as sin. Like the bugs that both move and blend in with the ground.

Other then that, outside of an occasional hiccup in switching between first and third person, it's quite awesome.

[Wolf Kanno]

Its on my list of games to pick up. I'm pretty excited for it actually. ;)

[Skyblade]

It definitely has its problems, almost entirely due to the control scheme. Unsurprising for the Wiimote.

The auto-lock on makes most battles way, way too easy. You just run around, pulling the trigger, and things die. That's pretty much half the combat in the game, and it gets boring fast.

The other half of the combat is gimmicky and annoying. To use missiles, you need to be in first person mode, which not only severely cuts your vision (as turning while in first person mode is rather annoyingly slow), but also prevents you from moving. And, yeah, that just gets frustrating.

Trying to destroy a hive churning out bugs constantly with missiles while simultaneously trying to evade and destroy the bugs necessitates constant POV changes, and gets frustrating when you can't get enough time to lock on (which is required for a missile shot), or a bug steps in front of your missile.

Then there are the flashy moves. Jump on top of an enemy, and shoot a charge shot into its head for an insta-kill, or run up to a downed enemy with your charged shot for a similar deathblow. Unfortunately, the platforming is rather annoying for jumping on enemies, especially when they are all moving around. But, more than that, these just feel unnecessary. They're tacked on just to prevent you from being bored with the constant power beam spam (not that it prevents that), but are too annoying to activate, and nearly impossible to do without.

And, my final gripe, enemies don't drop health or missiles anymore. And this is just a WTF moment. With controls as unwieldly and gimmicky as this, you really, really need a constant supply of health. You have basically unlimited missiles, which is nice, but when an enemy can take out 30 energy in one hit, and you can't replenish except at a save station, you do not have kind feelings towards this game.


This game felt a little out of place to me. It doesn't feel like Metroid, which is a big disappointment after all the games that came before it. It lacks the simple elegance that Metroid's combat has always had in exchange for gimmicks and flashiness.

[Shoeberto]

And, my final gripe, enemies don't drop health or missiles anymore. And this is just a WTF moment. With controls as unwieldly and gimmicky as this, you really, really need a constant supply of health. You have basically unlimited missiles, which is nice, but when an enemy can take out 30 energy in one hit, and you can't replenish except at a save station, you do not have kind feelings towards this game.
That's what concentration mode is for. I mean, I agree with you to some extent that it's silly to not have them drop assist items, but if your health is in the red, there is an opportunity to heal. You just have to be strategic about your timing on it.

[NeoCracker]

Just beat the game, and I staying up until 7am in the morning to do it. And I must say, what the ever loving fuck was this?

I mean for the love of god, they actually had a good premise for some storytelling and they shot everything to hell. Samus's character remains terrible beginning to end, everything is predictable as fuck, and that was a completely horrid ending.

For christs sake, I'm just stopping now before I start foaming at the mouth and end up in need of someone chucking raw meat at me.

[ljkkjlcm9]

Just beat the game, and I staying up until 7am in the morning to do it. And I must say, what the ever loving smurf was this?

I mean for the love of god, they actually had a good premise for some storytelling and they shot everything to hell. Samus's character remains terrible beginning to end, everything is predictable as smurf, and that was a completely horrid ending.

For christs sake, I'm just stopping now before I start foaming at the mouth and end up in need of someone chucking raw meat at me.

FYI, there's more to do after you beat the game, including a 2nd final boss so I hear. Plus it's more like the traditional Metroid where you can go anywhere and use your abilities freely and stuff to explore.

THE JACKAL

[Dreddz]

Other M looks awesome. Makes me wish I had a Wii. Altough I don't understand why they have focused on developing Samus as a character. The appeal of the character was that she was the silent bounty hunter. Seems a bit off having her moping around like she has PMS.

Also giving Team Ninja the responsibility of creating a story sounds like a disaster.

[Depression Moon]

Love the commercial. watched reviews, need this game.

[NeoCracker]

Just beat the game, and I staying up until 7am in the morning to do it. And I must say, what the ever loving smurf was this?

I mean for the love of god, they actually had a good premise for some storytelling and they shot everything to hell. Samus's character remains terrible beginning to end, everything is predictable as smurf, and that was a completely horrid ending.

For christs sake, I'm just stopping now before I start foaming at the mouth and end up in need of someone chucking raw meat at me.

FYI, there's more to do after you beat the game, including a 2nd final boss so I hear. Plus it's more like the traditional Metroid where you can go anywhere and use your abilities freely and stuff to explore.

THE JACKAL

Yeah, after that BS, I have no desire to waste more time on it. I'll just youtube the second ending. :p

[ljkkjlcm9]

Other M looks awesome. Makes me wish I had a Wii. Altough I don't understand why they have focused on developing Samus as a character. The appeal of the character was that she was the silent bounty hunter. Seems a bit off having her moping around like she has PMS.

Also giving Team Ninja the responsibility of creating a story sounds like a disaster.

Team Ninja did not create the story, it was done by Yoshi Sakomoto, who IS Metroid

Following the original Metroid, Sakamoto has directed all Metroid games produced internally by Nintendo except Metroid II: Return of Samus. These are Super Metroid, Metroid Fusion, and Metroid: Zero Mission. He also supervised the production of Retro Studios's Metroid Prime series. Sakamoto also directed Metroid: Other M which was co-developed with Team Ninja.
Essentially, the character is what Sakomoto had envisioned, and many fans of the series had different ideas and are complaining and blaming Team Ninja and etc, when it's really been the idea the whole time. Metroid Fusion definitely was similar in character to Other M.

Fun side fact. Yoshi Sakomoto is who Yoshi(the Dino) is named after in Mario.

THE JACKAL

[Shoeberto]

Yeah, the gameplay is great, but the story is the worst fucking thing ever. Samus is not a damsel-in-distress ever. That may be what he wanted, but she went in a totally different direction. She wasn't even that bad in Fusion - introspective, but never flat-out a wuss. The part with Ridley just made me lose all faith in the storytelling. Inner conflict and introspection is fine, I mean, Samus kinda has always had that. But they just made her so fucking weak. She's a badass bounty hunter! It's just wrong.

That said, I like a lot of the gameplay, aside from dropping the pick-up support items. It's a genuinely fun game. The story is just atrocious.

[DMKA]

From what I've heard...

- Samus is portrayed as a subservient to some dude, is sexualized, and can't stop droning on in monologue about emotional crap. She's suddenly be turned from a mute protagonist who gets the job done to an overly emotional SOOOO DEEEEEEEEPPP character
- The only way you can choose what to shoot is in first person mode, during which time you cannot move
- To refill your health and missiles all you have to do is hold down a button, to "focus" (dear god is there any challenge at all?)

I don't know, it doesn't sound very promising, but if I ever get a Wii I'll probably still play it.

[Shoeberto]

From what I've heard...

- Samus is portrayed as a subservient to some dude, is sexualized, and can't stop droning on in monologue about emotional crap. She's suddenly be turned from a mute protagonist who gets the job done to an overly emotional SOOOO DEEEEEEEEPPP character
- The only way you can choose what to shoot is in first person mode, during which time you cannot move
- To refill your health and missiles all you have to do is hold down a button, to "focus" (dear god is there any challenge at all?)

I don't know, it doesn't sound very promising, but if I ever get a Wii I'll probably still play it.
1. Yes. It sucks.
2. Yes, but it's not quite as bad as you might think. I'd still like to be able to shoot missiles without first person, and maybe put back a reliance on scanning things (it's really under-utilized).
3. Yes, but you can only refill your health when it's glowing red (I think it's <50% on your last tank) and it takes time to refill, and it only fills your first tank at first (you can get upgrades to refill more but they're very sparse, I'm almost at the end and only can get up to 2). You have to basically stand still for about 20 seconds, totally defenseless, to get your health and missiles. It can make battles fairly intense, but admittedly I still prefer pickups.

[Roogle]

Did this game recently come out? I was under the impression that it had been out for awhile.

I do not play the Metroid series, but I watch a friend of mine (http://forums.eyesonff.com/members/31904.html) play older games in the series like Super Metroid.

All I have heard about Metroid: Other M is that the game is heavy on the storyline and has some gameplay quirks that other games in the series lack. I am not sure if I would enjoy this type of game, as I liked the fact that Samus was a mysterious bounty hunter whose gender was left ambiguous for the most part unless you completed a secret requirement.

[RedPouch]

From what I've heard...

- Samus is portrayed as a subservient to some dude, is sexualized, and can't stop droning on in monologue about emotional crap. She's suddenly be turned from a mute protagonist who gets the job done to an overly emotional SOOOO DEEEEEEEEPPP character
I think the only people who whine about this are people that are opposed to protagonists that show any personality of any kind. The description you gave sounds so exaggerated that it's almost sickening. People hate on things way too much, and they will exaggerate things to no end to try and get their point across [almost the form of a straw-man argument].


Other M looks awesome. Makes me wish I had a Wii. Altough I don't understand why they have focused on developing Samus as a character. The appeal of the character was that she was the silent bounty hunter. Seems a bit off having her moping around like she has PMS.

Also giving Team Ninja the responsibility of creating a story sounds like a disaster.
Team Ninja didn't create the story [what gave you that idea?]. The story was very nice.


Yeah, the gameplay is great, but the story is the worst smurfing thing ever. Samus is not a damsel-in-distress ever.
You're right, she isn't a damsel-in-distress, which is why she was able to deal with her traumatic experience after a mere minute or so and readily own Ridley. She also single-handedly conquered the Metroids along with the you-know-what. How does that make her seem like the damsel-in-distress??? Besides, for those that have read the manga, she has a pretty grizzly past with Ridley, so it makes sense that she would have some unresolved issues with him.


The other half of the combat is gimmicky and annoying. To use missiles, you need to be in first person mode, which not only severely cuts your vision (as turning while in first person mode is rather annoyingly slow), but also prevents you from moving. And, yeah, that just gets frustrating.
You were saying in one paragraph how easy it is, and now you're saying how frustrating it is. I personally love using the Wii remote as a controller for this game, and the manner in which they had you use it was very nice.


Then there are the flashy moves. Jump on top of an enemy, and shoot a charge shot into its head for an insta-kill, or run up to a downed enemy with your charged shot for a similar deathblow. Unfortunately, the platforming is rather annoying for jumping on enemies, especially when they are all moving around. But, more than that, these just feel unnecessary. They're tacked on just to prevent you from being bored with the constant power beam spam (not that it prevents that), but are too annoying to activate, and nearly impossible to do without.
Actually I found it pretty easy to activate and use. I felt the platforming made that especially easy for this game. It made combat pretty fun.


And, my final gripe, enemies don't drop health or missiles anymore. And this is just a WTF moment. With controls as unwieldly and gimmicky as this, you really, really need a constant supply of health. You have basically unlimited missiles, which is nice, but when an enemy can take out 30 energy in one hit, and you can't replenish except at a save station, you do not have kind feelings towards this game.
I personally think the entire combat scene as a whole in this game was easy. Switching to first-person mode to shoot missiles was fine [I personally found it fun]. The fact that you might drop a lot of health if you aren't careful with what you're doing sounds like... they did a good job at making the game. I honestly think that too many games nowadays are easy with watered-down battle mechanics geared too much towards the modern gamer who has a problem with any type of challenge. I actually applaud Nintendo and Team Ninja for making a Metroid game that gives more challenge to the player than most would expect from a Metroid game [the Prime games were too easy, and Super Metroid was very very fun but still easy].


This game felt a little out of place to me. It doesn't feel like Metroid, which is a big disappointment after all the games that came before it. It lacks the simple elegance that Metroid's combat has always had in exchange for gimmicks and flashiness.
I think there's a difference between a gimmick and an innovation. I thought that all of the combat moves [including the sense movement, finishing moves and all that] made the combat in the game very fun. The game was still simple enough to where it was easy to play through.



My actual complaint is that I'm a bit disappointed with hard mode not allowing you to do the post-game sequence. It's a shame, because I would've liked to have fought [monster that I won't say the name of because it's a spoiler] with only 99 Energy and 10 missiles. Barring that, going through the game on hard mode was hella fun. I've played through Other M 3 times already and counting. The story for this game was also very well-developed and nicely executed. The voice acting was also great! I was impressed.

Team Ninja and Nintendo created a true work of art with this game, and I hope they do another together. I give this game 8/10.

[Skyblade]

FYI, just because something is easy, doesn't mean it isn't frustrating. There is little challenge to much of the combat, but the controls are still clunky and unrefined.

[RedPouch]

FYI, just because something is easy, doesn't mean it isn't frustrating. There is little challenge to much of the combat, but the controls are still clunky and unrefined.
It just seems contradictory to claim "oh lol easy" yet it seems to really frustrate you to no end because apparently it's giving you difficulty of some kind. If it's truly that easy to breeze through, then I don't see any cause for frustration. Either way, I strongly disagree with your complaint about the controls. They're very easy to use to me and quite well organized, as well as very intuitive to pick up on. The platforming style of the game makes your available options easy to use and very accessible. However, it's not like there are a ton of different controls anyways, so I don't see how one can screw it up.

[Shoeberto]

Normally I don't really like Yahtzee's reviews very much (he's funny but hardly impartial), but his review of Other M really voiced how I feel about the game.

In short, the story is absurdly bad, the world feels too small, and some of the gameplay mechanics are questionable. I started off full of enthusiasm about the game but it disappointed me really fast. I finally got around to beating it today (I was at the last boss for about two weeks and just had no motivation to finish) and was just bothered by how it finished.

I miss Retro :'(

[DMKA]

From what I've heard...

- Samus is portrayed as a subservient to some dude, is sexualized, and can't stop droning on in monologue about emotional crap. She's suddenly be turned from a mute protagonist who gets the job done to an overly emotional SOOOO DEEEEEEEEPPP character
I think the only people who whine about this are people that are opposed to protagonists that show any personality of any kind. The description you gave sounds so exaggerated that it's almost sickening. People hate on things way too much, and they will exaggerate things to no end to try and get their point across [almost the form of a straw-man argument].
On the contrary; people jump to conclusions that people are exaggerating/lying/trolling and give derogatory labels when someone states dislike or disagreement with something they like or think to be contrary and jump on the defensive way too much!

You're missing the point. It's not about having a protagonist with a fleshed out personality, it's about completely taking a character out of their context that fans have developed a love for and turning it into something it never was. This is why I hate Devil May Cry 2.

I will remind you that I've read that, it's not something I'm stating, nor do I personally have anything against a protagonist with a worthy back story and strong persona; in fact, it's what I prefer and want when I play a game.

But if it's true, and Samus is walking around in cutscenes showing off her ass and showing subservience to some dude (on noes, I have all my weapons at my disposal, but I'm not going to use them until he tells me it's okay!)...well, that just smurfing sucks.

:)

[ljkkjlcm9]

I don't see her as being sub-servient. She is a Bounty Hunter, responding to a distress beacon where they were already on board taking care of the issue. She either had the choice to leave, or stay and work for him. If your boss tells you not to do something, or use something, you don't use it. In essence, she has a "contract" with him, and he is her "employer" at the time. It's like if you have a school project and your teacher says, build X something, but don't use glue or tape. Then after an hour of people struggling, she says, ok now tape, then an hour later, ok glue. It makes sense to me, and I think people are reading way too far into it. If it was a guy under contract with another guy, they probably wouldn't be complaining about it in nearly the same manner, if at all.

THE JACKEL

[Elly]

i have to agree with The Jackel, the way i took it from the start was that the marines were there first therefore Samus was under their jurisdiction... you see this all the time in the entertainment media, like in cop shows, where a P.I. walks into a crime scene and the local cops tell them you have to play by our rules, it's a common plot device and i don't see why people are getting worked up about it...

i've been playing the Metroid series since it first came out on NES, i have every installment (except Metroid2 for GameBoy since i didn't have one as a kid, but i played it on my cousins GB), and i have to say i'm very pleased with the direction the series is taking in showing more of Samus' character as it was portrayed in the manga, honestly i feel it fleshes the character more...

[RedPouch]

On the contrary; people jump to conclusions that people are exaggerating/lying/trolling and give derogatory labels when someone states dislike or disagreement with something they like or think to be contrary and jump on the defensive way too much!
Is this supposed to refer to me? It's false for the reason that I never accused anybody of lying or trolling. I just said they're exaggerating far too much. I said so because after having played the game myself , I find these comments to be ridiculous. I also find complaints about the combat of the game being "frustrating" to be highly questionable [I still don't see how anybody can have that much trouble playing through this game... even playing through Hard Mode was pretty cake for me]. You need to understand that the reason why I defend the game is because I find these comments to be quite exaggerated, close to sounding untrue. I actually can see the basis for these complaints, however in my opinion they've been taken so far out of proportion for the purpose of trying to bash the game that I find it to be nonsense. If I saw these comments to be close to the truth, I wouldn't bother defending the game. That's the entire point of me posting.


You're missing the point. It's not about having a protagonist with a fleshed out personality, it's about completely taking a character out of their context that fans have developed a love for and turning it into something it never was.
Actually I'm not missing the point at all. Having played all the past Metroid games and reading the Metroid manga, I don't find her personality in this game to be contrary to what's been previously established [in fact it's closer to Metroid Fusion and especially the manga if anybody has played that/read it respectively]. That's why I have an issue with this complaint.


I will remind you that I've [I]read that, it's not something I'm stating, nor do I personally have anything against a protagonist with a worthy back story and strong persona; in fact, it's what I prefer and want when I play a game.
Me too. But you seem awfully eager to justify opinions of something that you know little about [you explained that you hadn't even played it yet].


But if it's true, and Samus is walking around in cutscenes showing off her ass ...
Lol?


... and showing subservience to some dude (on noes, I have all my weapons at my disposal, but I'm not going to use them until he tells me it's okay!)...well, that just smurfing sucks.
This is basically a straw-man fallacy when attempting to void a lot of the context of this game. The "some dude" is a father-type figure to Samus that was mentioned in Metroid Fusion [I can't remember if it was elaborated on in the manga or not at all, I'll have to go back and re-read it], but more importantly he was her former commanding officer prior to her taking leave of the Galactic Federation Army [I think that's what it was called]. The problem is that in this game, she goes to a station that's under Federation jurisdiction to begin with, when a unit of Federation soldiers is already present. She accepts the law and follows procedure, which gives her former commanding officer [Adam] the final say-so since he is the leader of the unit and is in charge with investigating what happened at the station and rescuing survivors.

Another thing I want to add - this has less to do with the context of the game itself, but the fact is that we've already seen Samus start out with no powerups, and collect her power suit upgrades on planet Zebes in the first game. In the second game, she goes to SR388 but has [somehow] lost all of those upgrades and has to regain them. In the third game, she seems to have somehow lost all of these upgrades [yet again] and must regain them back on planet Zebes. Metroid Fusion [4] was the first game to give a good explanation as to why she had to regain her abilities again [and I thought it was their best work for this actually]. During the Metroid Prime series, her equipment gets damaged in a blast during one game, and stolen by Ing in another. My point is that the writers need to create yet another reason as to why she doesn't just start out with all her original powerups from the beginning. I thought that in this case, their explanation and context were acceptable, but barring that, it doesn't matter what the explanation is - you're going to have to "gain" the powerups in one way or another as you progress through the game. This IS a Metroid game you know.


I don't see her as being sub-servient. She is a Bounty Hunter, responding to a distress beacon where they were already on board taking care of the issue. She either had the choice to leave, or stay and work for him. If your boss tells you not to do something, or use something, you don't use it. In essence, she has a "contract" with him, and he is her "employer" at the time. It's like if you have a school project and your teacher says, build X something, but don't use glue or tape. Then after an hour of people struggling, she says, ok now tape, then an hour later, ok glue. It makes sense to me, and I think people are reading way too far into it. If it was a guy under contract with another guy, they probably wouldn't be complaining about it in nearly the same manner, if at all.

THE JACKEL
I bolded the parts that seem most important in your post for extra emphasis, and I agree completely.


I'm actually most intrigued for Wolf Kanno to play this game and give his input since I value his opinions a lot. I'd also be very interested in hearing Roogle's opinion on the game as well, though I'm not sure if he'll play it.