Should we be worried about Sakamoto?

[Jagos]

Metroid Other M (http://moonbase.rydia.net/mental/blog/gaming/metroid-other-m-the-elephant/article.html)

Really good read and really good article looking at Sakamoto's dementia...

Damn, Noncon, you were right on about this game. The problem is, it seems this may be the direction that Samus is going based on what he's said about her characterization.

Granted, some fanboys (http://screwattack.com/videos/TGO-Episode-40-Heavens-to-Metroid) might gloss over this but... It got me thinking...

Did the story really hit us over the head?
Did the fanboys get it wrong by ignoring the story?
Is the game actually good?

Could it have been better when Sakamoto was director, writer *coughhackcough*, and producer?

[bluestarultor]

Hopefully, they'll take the opportunity to explore how she got to be the strong, independent woman fans always thought her to be?

Or, this being Japan, they might try to explain how she was constantly crying in her suit throughout all the games and we just couldn't hear it. :ohdear:

[synkr0nized]

I wish no slight on NonCon's review, but it's pretty much the same as many other reviews out there (at least on the major point -- the writing is awful and the character of Samus has been harmed with Other M's story).


I'm not sure what gives you the idea that the game could actually be good, particularly with respect to its storytelling and characterization. I mean he has been with Metroid since the beginning [right?], but maybe, like George Lucas, he shouldn't go near the writing.

[Bells]

Hey you guys remember that other franchise Nintendo Rebooted it's story? No? Yeah... this is Samus from now on. Forever... this is who she is...

This is the bounty huntress who laid low the Mother Brain and destroyed Zebes. This is the woman who ventured alone into the caverns of SR-388 and exterminated the feral metroid bioweapons. This is one of the the first and most enduring heroines of gaming, an icon for female gamers. After all these years, it turns out that Samus Aran is a battered housewife who takes it and likes it. This is the way in which Yoshio Sakamoto chose to “correct” the popular conception of Samus Aran.

Have you checked Sakamoto's Curriculum? Other M is his First (only?) Story driven game... ever. Maybe if we had other works of his to compare to we could see if this is a pattern or a fluke.

Here is one thing about Other M.... i honestly would like to know what the Japanese Game Press and Audience thinks of it. I truly do. I would really like to know how they relate to the story of this game...

It's not so much that it paints Samus as a Submissive Psychological Masochist, but the fact that in Other M... stabilishing that is the whole point of the game. The traitor, the Enemy invasion, the battles... they are all backdrop. Affirming who Samus is as a Person is the actual drive of the entire plot. So much that the game ends when that goal is achieved.

So much in fact that once you beat the game, your reward is a Theater mode... a 2 hours Magnum Opus about this very specific point

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-9avJI3SpU

[Roland]

Hey you guys remember that other franchise Nintendo Rebooted it's story? No? Yeah... this is Samus from now on. Forever... this is who she is...

Well, there's Starfox, but when that happened there was only one game in the series anyways.

[synkr0nized]

Bells -- I'd guess it doesn't seem as dumb to them, Japan still struggling with gender equality and all.

[Bells]

Yeah Other M's story seems on par with what some Animes show as a Desireable relationship between Man and Woman... but... to this extent? Other M is quite perverse in that regard if you ask me. I know Japanese culture has this thing about women being submissive, but Other M borderlines at Fetish Fanfic stuff...

[Jagos]

It's kind of ironic that Metroid games are celebrated in the US for this independent woman/bounty hunter that takes no shit and kicks all kinds of ass only to have her image destroyed to appease a writer that really. ISN'T. a writer...

[Bells]

i will say this though, the Theater version of Other M downplays it quite well... every criticism of it is there though, but the montage of Cutscenes put a different picture that makes me think this is all a case of really, really poorly done game design...

Like, so bad it turns a "just lame space drama" Story into a Sexist Misogynist tale of a Phsycologically Submissive woman ... it's that bad.

I mean, have you noticed how poorly written all these characters are? The traitor, the Military man, the Black Guy... all of them. This is just really lousy Game Design that honestly hurts a decent franchise.

[ZAKtheGeek]

Worried? Do you think he might get Gunpeied over this?

[greed]

That wouldn't be a worry, it would be a good thing (hopefully anyway, they could always get someone worse). The worry is he keeps on making the Metroid series in this vein.