You know, I've been thinking on it, and I've decided that actually... The Ridley PTSD scene in Other M bothers me a lot, but what bothers me is not inherent to Samus having PTSD over Ridley. Because actually, in bits of evidence I can find from PTSD sufferers talking about it, that's a genuine thing that can happen with PTSD. Even if sheās faced Ridley many times before, in a moment of great stress, the culmination of a lot of issues with Mother Brain and the loss of her home planet, plus after the presumed final death of Ridley he comes back, I guess it could be feasible that her brain goesĀ āoh shit. Heroic BSOD time.ā because sometimes brains be like that.
But something about the scene still bothers me and I can't put my finger on what it is. All I've come up with so far is "it feels inhuman" and "it doesn't feel like they're considering Samus's character, it just feels like they're throwing a typical show of (dare I say feminine-delicacy) vulnerability on her without attempting to decipher what a natural-feeling PTSD reaction from Samus, specifically, might be".
But at the same time, I do not have PTSD relating to the aggressive murder of my social group and family at a young age while my own life was at risk. Nor am I a highly-trained bounty hunter, who has been given intensive therapy and combat tutelage from a young age by one of the universe's most mysterious advanced alien races. Nor am I a psychologist who knows much about how different peoplesā brains react to things, with case study examples. So I find it hard to make a decent prediction at how Samus MIGHT naturally react in the circumstances, given her life story and how that has shaped her mind and mentality. I canāt say for sure how good a portrayal Other M was attempting to be in that one scene, whether it succeeded or not (the voice acting and melodrama really didn't help). The whole thing still just feels very off, and doesn't feel like it does Samus much justice.
I donāt want to just be bashing Other M for being Other M, like yeah I hate it and itās relieving to drag it, but itās not very genuine of me to just be likeĀ āthis is bad because it came from Other Mā and make excuses for everything in that game to be bad. Itās not without its handful of good qualities. But this scene really DOES bug me and I think itās just the way it ties into Samusās overall bad, inconsistent and kinda inconsiderate (of who she is as a person) portrayal in the game.
On that note, Iād love to hear other peoplesā input, especially people who DO have personal experience with PTSD and actually know more about it.
You know, Iāve never really gotten into the fandom end of Metroid. I rarely read fanfics for the series or anything of that sort. Which always feels weird, because the Metroid series is one of my all-time favorite video game series, and itās got a plenty good setting for playing around in.
I sometimes think part of it has to do with the mood or atmosphere of the games themselves. A substantial component of fandom is the social portion of things, whereas a big part of the Metroid series is Samus going off to do her thing by herself. I can imagine that an inherent difficulty exists there, where the draw of the Metroid experience is more or less antithetical to a lot of what motivates more typical fandom. Certainly, the series has a lot less fanfic and whatnot than Iād expect for something that sells well and is a pretty big cultural phenomenon and so on, which is part of whyĀ Iāve never gotten much into the fandom: thereās just not much fandom to get into.
On the other hand, a more in-my-face component of it is the way people write Samus. Bizarrely enough, the Metroid fandom seems largely unable to write Samus except in the context of a specific continuum: at one extreme, we have Samus The Cold Professional, who kills people she believes to be innocent at the behest of people she believes to be scum and shrugs at the idea that she might have any moral culpability for this. At the other extreme, we have Maternal Feminine Samus, generally fixated on her unwillingness to kill the baby Metroid but occasionally people do things like invent a family for her to have. Either way, the end result generally feelsā¦ well, for one thing, it feels extremelyĀ removed from the person we see in the actual games.
Maternal Feminine Samus tends to be morbidly amusing to me. People taking this interpretation are generally very obviouslyĀ deriving it from the opening in Super Metroid establishing that she couldnāt bring herself to kill a newborn that had latched onto her as its motherā¦
ā¦ and completely ignoring that her follow-up response was to shove the thing in a jar and pass it off to a bunch of scientists.
Like yeah, Samus clearly has a conscience, but the idea that the baby Metroid awakened her latent maternal instincts or something like that is just hilariouslyĀ wrong.
Samus The Cold Professional was vaguely understandable as the other extreme back when Super Metroid was the last release -and to be entirely fair, it seems to me to have become less common after Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion came along- inasmuch as Samus was enough of a cipher it wasnāt completelyĀ impossible she was in that vicinity, but the baby Metroid situation once again makes it fairly questionable. If Samus is someone who can kill basically anyone without guilt, even when they have names and faces and family and all those other humanizing things, why would she hesitate to kill the last of an alien race of life-sucking monsters her paycheck is tied to killing?
Iām not sure Iāve ever seen fanfic write a happy middle ground. More importantly, Iām not sure Iāve ever seen a Metroid fanfic avoid that dichotomy in the first place.
Of course, this is a Metroid-specific manifestation of a broaderĀ fictional trend Iāve observed; that media routinely feels a need with female characters who break from traditional femininity to either assure the audience they are for sure Traditionally Feminine Beneath The Surface, or to have them out-man the men and be stone-cold monsters with not an ounce of stereotypical feminine behavior to them. (eg suggesting in complete seriousness using children as suicide bombers, even though even Stereotypical Manly Men would be unlikely to countenance such a plan without reallyĀ strong situational pressures)
And in turn this is a manifestation of the broader cultural wrestling with the transition from women being assumed to be stay-at-home-moms to participating in realms that were traditionally Manly Men Jobs, and the attendant difficulties of disentangling what expectations were rooted in what realities, and which of those realities are still true vs which ones are not. Samus just happens to be a good lens for working through these problems, since sheās doing Manly Space Dude Combat With Guns And Shit while happening to be female and with her female-ness never really emphasized. (Except in Other M, but this whole thing is part of whyĀ it was reviled, above and beyond all the ways in which its story was an incoherent mess told badly; it went out of its way to make a big deal out of Samusā femininity, not only with the in-universe story but with its goddamn camera work)
Which is actually tied pretty deeply into whyĀ it frustrates me that people donāt seem able to write Samus as who she appears to be, but rather write her in a manner thatās fundamentally reactionary to the whole A Woman In A Stereotypically Masculine Role thing. A big part of the appeal of Samus is that who and what she is isnātĀ tied up in her ~femininity~Ā just because she happens to be female. The reactionary writing, whether it falls too far toward trying to reject femininity or assert that everythingās okay because even though sheās a killer for hire she still loves her children or whatever the author believes to be an essential feminine quality, is fundamentally taking things in the wrong direction for wrestling with this particular issue.
I honestly donāt get why this particular piece is apparently so hard for so many people.
This is a good analysis. Obviously each person will have their own take on the character and enjoy their own version, but personally Iām not a fan of pushing her to either of these two aforementioned extremes. Sheās a complex, multi-faceted character with her own set of experiences to shape her. I love her as an example of a female character because (excluding games like Other M) her gender seemed to play minimal role in who she was and why she does what she does. It makes her feel more like a human being, when usually no one was trying to remind you sheās definitely still your ideal kind of woman under thereĀ until the zero suit endings, nor was anyone trying to be likeĀ hey I can write a āstrong womanā, theyāre the opposite of stereotypical women and have no personality and are just plain mean right?
Iām not sure if youāve read any of my writing or not, but I wanted to add my two cents about one side of things and Iāll use my stuff as an example since I know it best.Ā
As someone who has written extensively about Samus with a family, Iāll say in my case it had less to do with her being feminine/maternal, and more with the fact that I wanted to write a story after Zebes blew up and theĀ āwarā ended and she found herself without any purpose to her life. It was because I wanted to write about isolation and the difficulty of transition into living a civilian life at least part of the time when she was completely incapable of relating to most of it. It was less about her being a woman and more about her trying to rediscover and accept her human side.
I gave her a family because family isnāt just a female-specific thing, but rather because I wanted her to eventually discover and be able to enjoy interpersonal connections and finally have a chance to escape the constant morose loneliness that was her life up until that point. It was about accepting herself as something more than just a bioweapon and being allowed to discover intimacy and familial love and not having to be so alone all the time to the point where she barely recognized herself as a person. And about healing after major tragedies and struggling to pick up the pieces of herself and be able to let herself care about and even love other people again. I think those are things men can relate to and desire as well.Ā
So I allowed her to meet a nice woman and for the two of them to have a family while Samus continues as she always has professionally (albeit with a bit less frequency once Zebes is destroyed.) Personality-wise, I think I write her as a rather masculine woman even if she does possess a maternal side (which is generally less nurturing and more the type to shoot someās head clean off if they so much as threaten her family.) Perhaps she doesnāt resemble the Samus most people would envision, but she fits well enough for me.
I think sometimes the desire to give her a family comes more from wanting her life to feel more balanced and for her to experience some of the happiness that comes with interpersonal connections, and from wanting to see her heal emotionally after having two families be brutally murdered. I donāt think itās always a feminine thing (although Iāve certainly seen it written that way) since male characters are often allowed to meet nice women and fall in love and potentially have a family in addition to doing what they do best. Sometimes itās about the struggle of finding balance in life between who someone is atĀ āworkā and taking care of their emotional needs. I feel like thatās something everyone can relate to, particularly millennial-aged folks.Ā
You know, Iāve never really gotten into the fandom end of Metroid. I rarely read fanfics for the series or anything of that sort. Which always feels weird, because the Metroid series is one of my all-time favorite video game series, and itās got a plenty good setting for playing around in.
I sometimes think part of it has to do with the mood or atmosphere of the games themselves. A substantial component of fandom is the social portion of things, whereas a big part of the Metroid series is Samus going off to do her thing by herself. I can imagine that an inherent difficulty exists there, where the draw of the Metroid experience is more or less antithetical to a lot of what motivates more typical fandom. Certainly, the series has a lot less fanfic and whatnot than Iād expect for something that sells well and is a pretty big cultural phenomenon and so on, which is part of whyĀ Iāve never gotten much into the fandom: thereās just not much fandom to get into.
On the other hand, a more in-my-face component of it is the way people write Samus. Bizarrely enough, the Metroid fandom seems largely unable to write Samus except in the context of a specific continuum: at one extreme, we have Samus The Cold Professional, who kills people she believes to be innocent at the behest of people she believes to be scum and shrugs at the idea that she might have any moral culpability for this. At the other extreme, we have Maternal Feminine Samus, generally fixated on her unwillingness to kill the baby Metroid but occasionally people do things like invent a family for her to have. Either way, the end result generally feelsā¦ well, for one thing, it feels extremelyĀ removed from the person we see in the actual games.
Maternal Feminine Samus tends to be morbidly amusing to me. People taking this interpretation are generally very obviouslyĀ deriving it from the opening in Super Metroid establishing that she couldnāt bring herself to kill a newborn that had latched onto her as its motherā¦
ā¦ and completely ignoring that her follow-up response was to shove the thing in a jar and pass it off to a bunch of scientists.
Like yeah, Samus clearly has a conscience, but the idea that the baby Metroid awakened her latent maternal instincts or something like that is just hilariouslyĀ wrong.
Samus The Cold Professional was vaguely understandable as the other extreme back when Super Metroid was the last release -and to be entirely fair, it seems to me to have become less common after Metroid Prime and Metroid Fusion came along- inasmuch as Samus was enough of a cipher it wasnāt completelyĀ impossible she was in that vicinity, but the baby Metroid situation once again makes it fairly questionable. If Samus is someone who can kill basically anyone without guilt, even when they have names and faces and family and all those other humanizing things, why would she hesitate to kill the last of an alien race of life-sucking monsters her paycheck is tied to killing?
Iām not sure Iāve ever seen fanfic write a happy middle ground. More importantly, Iām not sure Iāve ever seen a Metroid fanfic avoid that dichotomy in the first place.
Of course, this is a Metroid-specific manifestation of a broaderĀ fictional trend Iāve observed; that media routinely feels a need with female characters who break from traditional femininity to either assure the audience they are for sure Traditionally Feminine Beneath The Surface, or to have them out-man the men and be stone-cold monsters with not an ounce of stereotypical feminine behavior to them. (eg suggesting in complete seriousness using children as suicide bombers, even though even Stereotypical Manly Men would be unlikely to countenance such a plan without reallyĀ strong situational pressures)
And in turn this is a manifestation of the broader cultural wrestling with the transition from women being assumed to be stay-at-home-moms to participating in realms that were traditionally Manly Men Jobs, and the attendant difficulties of disentangling what expectations were rooted in what realities, and which of those realities are still true vs which ones are not. Samus just happens to be a good lens for working through these problems, since sheās doing Manly Space Dude Combat With Guns And Shit while happening to be female and with her female-ness never really emphasized. (Except in Other M, but this whole thing is part of whyĀ it was reviled, above and beyond all the ways in which its story was an incoherent mess told badly; it went out of its way to make a big deal out of Samusā femininity, not only with the in-universe story but with its goddamn camera work)
Which is actually tied pretty deeply into whyĀ it frustrates me that people donāt seem able to write Samus as who she appears to be, but rather write her in a manner thatās fundamentally reactionary to the whole A Woman In A Stereotypically Masculine Role thing. A big part of the appeal of Samus is that who and what she is isnātĀ tied up in her ~femininity~Ā just because she happens to be female. The reactionary writing, whether it falls too far toward trying to reject femininity or assert that everythingās okay because even though sheās a killer for hire she still loves her children or whatever the author believes to be an essential feminine quality, is fundamentally taking things in the wrong direction for wrestling with this particular issue.
I honestly donāt get why this particular piece is apparently so hard for so many people.
This is a good analysis. Obviously each person will have their own take on the character and enjoy their own version, but personally Iām not a fan of pushing her to either of these two aforementioned extremes. Sheās a complex, multi-faceted character with her own set of experiences to shape her. I love her as an example of a female character because (excluding games like Other M) her gender seemed to play minimal role in who she was and why she does what she does. It makes her feel more like a human being, when usually no one was trying to remind you sheās definitely still your ideal kind of woman under thereĀ until the zero suit endings, nor was anyone trying to be likeĀ hey I can write a āstrong womanā, theyāre the opposite of stereotypical women and have no personality and are just plain mean right?
What if Samus had Metroid powers: design for a hypothetical game
I got this ask the other day and my answer was a bit of a ramble, but I've come back to it with a clear head. I decided to have a go at hypothetical game design, for a Metroid title set post-Fusion in which Samus Aran gains Metroid-like abilities due to her DNA changes! Some of the stuff below is rehashed from the ask reply itself.
Be warned! Bit of a long post, and I apologise in advance for mobile users for whom readmores don't always work.
Premise
I tried to stay vague with the story details because I was more interested in writing about the gameplay, but I failed at that and wrote a lot. Story has it's own section at the bottom. However, the basic idea is that Samus, now an enemy to the Federation and probably on the run, ends up on a world where the environment triggers the manifestation of strange powers. Metroids are known to adapt when introduced to new worlds, and Samus is essentially doing the same- her Metroid DNA, previously doing little more than sparing her from the X, is now active and granting her abilities.
New abilities
This isn't solid ideas so much as a brainstorm, but I tried to come up with a few ideas for what Samus might be able to do with Metroid DNA. None of it has any scientific basis but that's okay, there's dragons in this franchise.
ENERGY DRAIN: This is the first ability you learn, perhaps one you start off with. Samus starts the first area trapped, maybe after a ship crash, and is told how to shoot and jump etc. by the game. Or alternatively, maybe she doesnātĀ shoot. Let's say her weapon is down for now, hence being more trapped than usual, and she's stuck using a melee move to break through the surrounding rocks. While doing this, she comes across a biological barrier. But as she goes to use her melee attack, something unusual happens... The barrier turns to dust, and the health she lost during her crash-landing is replenished.
Henceforth, that melee thing becomes a drain attack. This power allows Samus to drain energy, killing a foe quickly and restoring some of her own health, but it isn't unlimited or easy to perform beyond the starting portion of the game. With mobile and aggressive enemies, it requires very precise timing to pull off. I would personally make it so that the game relies on this move much less than Samus Returns relied on the melee counter, but have it function in a similar way. Samus can still blast quickly through enemies like she could in Super Metroid/Zero Mission/Fusion, but if she wants to absorb health she can coax enemies into a specific position and with the right timing, perform a drain move.
If the move is a success, it will insta-kill a low-level enemy and is more rewarding than a standard kill. This might even replace normal energy drops from shooting, or at least would give much more health back than a standard drop. If she fails, she opens up to the enemy attack and risks taking more damage than usual. So if a skilled player is at low health and might die, they can take the risk of draining from an enemy. They may either stabilise themselves, or take double damage and die instantly.
If we don't replace normal energy drops altogether, this becomes less of a thing. In fact for the sake of health grinding and general convenience it's probably better to keep regular drops in- this would just become a fun extra which allows you to get past certain points in the game, like barriers, and can let you heal up quicker if you've learned how to pull it off without fail.
Regardless, this allows for OPTIONAL bullshitting past segments and sequence breaking; for example, you might be able to just get past a standard too-hot-without-Varia region by energy draining the whole way through.
Most bosses would have opportunities to use this if you position yourself right, but I'd personally cut down on flashy cutscenes when it happens. They're fun but I don't want to sacrifice the flow of the game for cinematics too much. Just a quick draining move, steal a bit of health. This move wouldn't work on mechanical enemies, because it relies on life energy specifically.
As you go along, this ability might power up, perhaps triggered either by the environments Samus moves into (since Metroids introduced to new environments will alter accordingly). Perhaps there are ways to power up every Metroid ability, or even an item that allows you to enhance one at a time by channelling your energies-something like that. An enhanced Energy Drain may steal more health and even fuel your weapon ammunition or something like that. Plus, it would make it easier to insta-kill some stronger enemies with the move.
I kinda like the idea of using an item to power up one Metroid ability at a time. To add a bit of challenge to the game, so you can't just switch to the most convenient one at any given time, maybe have it so that you can only change your powered-up ability in certain areas? Special Chozo statues? Interfacing with the other half of whatever this technology is, maybe a computer system found in a couple of rooms across the planet (with all except the first one or two being in hidden and slightly hard-to-find locations? Is that being too mean?)
(Btw just to get retro, we're giving this hypothetical game cheats- one of which is the ability to switch power at any time. Among others like immortality and fun suit colour changes.)
One thing I considered is that, similar to Aeion, Samus might have a power meter for using other Metroid abilities. This would give more function to the draining move outside of just health, and could explain some of Metroid biology too. It would imply that they specifically have to feed on life energy in order to do the things they do, and normal food wouldn't power them up the same. For that reason, Samus could power up her energy meter by draining. The amount of power she absorbs would be proportional to the enemy difficulty.
This could make certain segments trickier; for example, if there were a region similar to the end of Metroid 2 (not Samus Returns) where Metroids have killed off most of the life in the area, Samus would have to use her powers sparingly. The player might find it a bit trickier to traverse the area if they run out of power. Enemies here might be easy to kill and give a lot of power back on easier modes, but harder to kill and less rewarding on hard difficulty.
An alternative is that Samus's powers are fuelled directly by her own life energy, i.e. her health. This would essentially work like Phazon, but not in bursts; each time Samus activates a power, she sacrifices a bit of health, either continually or at once (again, same as how Aeion works, but depleting the health meter instead of a separate one). This makes it vital to locate energy tanks, which could prompt more exploration and may lead Samus to interesting locations that have hidden lore and such (see the section below for more on that). This might also be interesting from a lore perspective because it explains why Metroids are so aggressive as predators- they waste so much energy on simple things like flying, it means they have to near-constantly feed.
Which brings me to the other power-ups. I imagine Samus wouldnāt pick these up traditionally like items. There would still be items in the game, including several brand new ones not directly comparable to those in previous games in the series (obviously we can bring back some old favourites but copy-pasting the exact same items over and over again can get a bit dull even with new abilities). Most normal items would play to the normal Metroidvania game design, ofĀ ācanāt access area -> locate pickup -> move to new area. These abilities might be triggered by moving into new environments, or if Samus is under stress i.e. during a specific boss fight. So you wouldnāt necessarily be hunting for them, but they could still let you get to new areas or items.
FLOATING: Samus floats, draining power continually until she stops or runs out. This one would require significant limitations; for example, perhaps as you move further away from the ground, you drain SIGNIFICANTLY more energy. This means you are welcome to try and sequence break, or get an item that you were meant to get with grapple beam, but you're wasting a LOT of energy doing so. Maybe gravity is still trying to pull Samus down once you lift off, so you have to actively fight it, and each ascent drains energy faster the higher you go. Sort of like a built-in jetpack. With that said, this would have interesting applications in world traversal.
An enhanced float may have a significantly lower cost for ascending or just maintaining the float. Because we all love some Aesthetic(tm), maybe Float+ gives Samus a faint wing-like aura when she uses it- especially if we go with the above idea that Samus uses Chozo tech to power it up. Imagine the sick fanart that could come out of that.
SHIELD: A fairly standard one ripped off of Samus Returns' lightning sheild. By sacrificing some energy, Samus can temporarily keep up a shield that will mean she takes less damage. If we go with the function of sacrificing health for Metroid abilities (rather than a separate power bar) it would require some careful balancing as well as player learning- for example, trying to ensure that (at least for stronger enemies) it's worth turning it on at all, and that the energy loss to create the shield is less than the theoretical energy loss if you took hits from the enemy.
Maybe this would be a pulse thing rather than an ongoing one; you activate it, and it lasts maybe 10-30 seconds, taking a defined amount of energy. During that time, you get an opportunity to pummel the enemies around you while not being knocked back or stunned when they hit (though you might still take e.g. 1/2 or 1/4 damage from incoming attacks). Of course, it could also function to protect Samus from things like lava, allowing her to access subsurface items if the game never gave her a Gravity Suit or equivalent.
A powered up version would obviously be something like a stronger shield, or a less costly one, or longer lasting if it's activated in pulses. Or a mix of them all. Maybe even a lightning shield effect where things that come into contact with Samus take damage, possibly even feeding her a bit of health (in TINY amounts, not comparable to the drain ability). Visually, so it looks as pretty as the powered-up float, it could maybe have an effect similar to the traditional big-shoulder Varia suit (assuming Samus is still in some form of the Fusion suit by this point).
SENSE/METROID VISION: I'm ripping this one off Samus Returns as well, but I'd change it. This would allow Samus to detect the life energies of all creatures in the area by focusing. It would also indicate how the larval Metroids, lacking eyes, locate their prey. Sensing would either come as a pulse like in Samus Returns, or a toggle on-toggle off ongoing thing, which you can't keep up indefinitely due to energy waste. Like in Skyrim where you can use the Aura Whisper shout or Detect Life/Undead etc.
Key differences include that this ability doesnātĀ show you hidden entrances by default; it would just indicate that "something is living in this wall" and you have to make judgements based on that info. Is this an enemy that will jump out and kill you (hence, you can avoid it)? Is it a hidden room with enemies in, and an entrance nearby? Thus, it keeps in a little challenge and exploration work.
A powered up version might be able to show other things too, including nearby items, entrances, or breakable blocks- like scan pulse from Samus Returns. That would make it useful for players who don't want to spend hours bombing every wall, or 100%ers like me who are at the endgame and getting frustrated because they can't find the last two missile upgrades. Obviously it's offset by the aforementioned fact that if you choose this ability, you can't choose another without going back to one of the set locations.
TELEPORT: I'm hesitant to include this one because it was fairly signature to Phazon Metroids, but I guess it could be passed off as "a hidden Metroid ability that Phazon unlocked". This would allow Samus to do short-range teleports for an energy cost. I dunno who's played Axiom Verge here, but there's an item which (spoilers if you haven't played it) lets you teleport through walls, and once upgraded it lets you go through bigger and bigger gaps. Samus's teleport would be more instantaneous than that one, and available to use from any position, but costly to perform.
The teleport could help her dodge enemy attacks (though like energy drain, success would rely on timing, and Samus might still take damage just before she teleports assuming there's a slight delay from inputting the command to actually jumping). It would also allow Samus to get through certain walls, though there may be some which are inpenetrable due to the material they're made of. I don't know how it would work in terms of control schemes, but maybe the player could choose their jump distance, with smaller jumps needing less energy.
A powered up version might be able to take Samus further or even have her emit an energy burst when she leaves/emerges from the jump, damaging nearby enemies- though with a greater energy cost.
METROID COMMAND: I can't think of a lore reason why this one would cost energy, unless it's some weird energy psychic thing that specifically resonates with Metroids. Anyway, let's assume Metroids aren't unique to the end-game Tourian-esque area in this game, and there are several locations where you can encounter them throughout the world. This ability would allow you to communicate with them, actually stopping their attacks and saving yourself or other nearby innocent creatures.
Maybe these Metroids are communicating with a "parent" who is actually an evil enemy (i.e. intelligent species that bonded parentally to them- see lore section below) which may result in more co-ordinated attacks than you see from wild roaming individual Metroids. But Samus can use this ability to stop their coordination, or even turn them on their handlers!
An upgrade of this... Maybe Samus turning the Metroids on their allies, including each other and the enemies commanding them? Keep it up long enough and you might be left with just one Metroid standing for you to take out. That could lead to some dark stuff as well. I can imagine Samus needing to be ruthless by using this ability for survival, but feeling baaaad about it.
The upgrade may also include things like asking local Metroids to affect the environment; bringing inaccessible power-ups to Samus, such as ones on high ledges (if she doesn't want to waste energy floating up there) or opening new passageways that Samus herself couldn't get open, either via draining or using brute strength, depending on the Metroid form.
SOMETHING TO DO WITH SHAPE CHANGING: This is one that, cool as it would be, would be REALLY hard to implement because I cannot think of an idea for how it would work. Especially because Samus is in the suit, and we're presuming that the suit itself can't really change shape along with her. But the basic idea is that Metroids famously mature and change, so what if someone with Metroid DNA could undergo controlled, temporary form changes? Or just change certain body parts? I'll come back to this one in the plot section but I'm not convinced Samus could use it herself, though it would be really cool, if potentially OP. Why have a Metroid Vampire when you can have a METROID WEREWOLF kinda I guess.
Just going for bullshit here, perhaps Samus could unlock this one close to the end in a Zero Mission-esque sequence where she's parted from her suit. She seems vulnerable and really has to rely on her Metroid abilities while being extremelyĀ energy-conscious, because she's no longer got extra energy tanks to keep her alive (going by the life=power method anyway; slightly less relevant in the separate-energy-bar method except for the fact that energy refills require enemy draining, and that move is much riskier without the suit, since it already increases damage if failed.)
At the end of the segment, she starts growing claws and being able to slash through thick wires or whatever un-drainable thing is in her way. Then she grows bigger and gets more hunched, scaled, and armoured, until she's starting to look like a warped variant of an Omega Metroid. Maybe even a Queen. Luckily she gets under control of it and reverts when she finds a power suit to fit into, something most Metroids can't do but luckily she's a humanoid protagonist and can't stay monstrous forever. Also gives a reason for her to replace her Fusion suit with a cooler classic Chozo suit!
(For real, would Nintendo even do that? Use their sex-sells tiddy out game section as the scene where Samus becomes the most un-fuckable monstrous body horror dragon alien in the game? Probably not but I can dream.)
Maybe the player can't really control this one, or there's a huge cost to doing so but when you do you become SICK AWESOME POWERFUL and take up half the screen and the final boss attack that should've one-shotted you just slides off your back. Maybe. Maybe I just think monster aliens are cool.
Ideally I would like to have maybe 4-5 unique abilities in the game. With drain as one and four others, it would be fairly similar to Aeion and could act as an off-SR388 Aeion replacement. The above ideas are by no means the limits of what could be done, but I can't think of any others at the moment. To work nicely with the game lore, ideally there would be some powers that Samus hasn't seen Metroids use before. Not only does she learn to use them herself, but the Metroids on this planet start using them too, making for some new and unique Metroid battles.
I would leave as much leeway as possible- there's a lot of ideas here, and while new abilities are fun to play with, I don't want it to be over-complicated or inaccessible. This is very much just a brainstorm! If this were a real game, the most important things would be letting the player have fun, feel badass, and tackle challenges their way so they can feel a sense of achievement from finding items or beating puzzles.
Plot
Okay I wasn't originally going to go into plot, but I got carried away. Because this is a sidescroller in particular, you don't have the advantage of Prime's scan system to pile on lore. I wouldn't do too much heavy plot and dialogue, at least not more than Fusion. If anything, LESS than Fusion to decrease dialogue time. But I might adopt Prime elements, specifically stealing the idea of scan downloads from Another Metroid 2 Remake. These would activate at key times, including new boss encounters, entering new regions, or when the player stumbles upon something interesting. In that regard, I'd hide secrets around the world; little rooms which may or may not contain items, but which add an optional lore entry to your logbook as you enter.
Some plot/gameplay stuff I would include:
So this post-Fusion game would probably be where you'd pick up the thread hinted at by Samus Returns' Chozo memories- there are evil Chozo, and either they still exist, or have left a dangerous legacy of bioweapons and robots. Perhaps there's only one or two commanders left alive, and they will stop at nothing to stay that way.
Adam exists, but his dialogue with Samus is limited. This is intended to create isolation, but also hope. When all feels down, you might stumble on a way to communicate with your ship and with Adam again, getting a bit of reassurance. Adam may be able to help direct you during these moments, but I wouldn't go to the same extent as Fusion itself (or Zero Mission's Chozo statues). He might not be able to point out direct target locations, at least not later in the game. Regardless, I don't want to totally sideline him in the title where, post-reveal in Fusion, his character really ought to be emerging properly.
Metroids have new, previously unforeseen abilities locked into their DNA. The planet this game is set on is a Chozo haven with a perfect atmosphere. It has been selected by the evil Chozo for Metroid breeding in order to bring out their full potential. As Samus arrives here, the environment starts affecting her DNA as well, and she begins unlocking her own hidden abilities, one by one.
She runs into evil Chozo, most of whom are hostile to her. If we permit some dialogue at designated points (otherwise implying that Adam and Samus's communications are largely disrupted, keeping the isolated feeling in place) she might confess to Adam that she feels horrible killing what might be the last of her kin. Though I wouldn't write a plot around pushing a theme, there may be an underlying theme of identity, with Samus's human vs. Chozo vs. Metroid identities coming into conflict. The conclusion of which might be "actually, who cares, I'm just Samus. And whatever Samus is, she's an awesome galactic saviour who won't ever be truly alone in the universe."
The main boss Chozo are not initially hostile- they may coax Samus in, pretending to be her ally until it becomes apparent that they want to use her as a pawn for their greater plans. Again, I'd minimize dialogue here. Instead, Samus's communications with these Chozo may be through things such as wall scrawlings or messages left on abandoned computers (readable through the logbook). When she actually meets them, the dialogue would be vague as to whether she read those lore snippets or not, but the players that did read them will have a deeper connection to these mysterious Chozo and greater understanding (though it may be a completely false one) of their motivations.
Adding to that, there may even be a good Chozo among the ranks, one whose wall scrawlings etc. are harder to find, implying they have to hide them. Maybe even taking the Axiom Verge route of having them in an untranslatable language, until Samus picks up a required cipher and can go back to her logbook and read them. But they give Samus reason not to trust the others. You may or may not ever meet the individual(s) leaving these messages, implying they have been taken care of since you arrived but before you met them.
This could actually give the players plot advantage- maybe at some point, Samus is offered a choice of direction. Evil!Chozo says "Meet me at the pool where we will perform the ritual to revive all the dead Chozo." but Good!Chozo's scrawlings said "If he tries to take you to the pool, you're gonna die and the Metroids will be unleashed again. Sneak in via the overhead pipe and drop some bombs on his machine, destroying it before he even gets a chance to start it up." (Something you could optionally do anyway, if you the player finds the pipe entrance and decides not to trust this Chozo. It gives you a bit of free reign to interpret the characterisation of Samus and what she would do.) In the latter case, it might prevent you from taking some initial surprise damage from the boss, or let you skip sections of the boss fight.
Evil Chozo are breeding Metroids, and forging parental bonds to them. This means the Metroids will defend them to the death just as the baby Metroid did for Samus, and also they have trained them to follow commands, mostly battle-related ones. Maybe they have figured out what SR388's Chozo could not- how to remain friends with Metroids after puberty. Thus allowing them to use matured Metroids. It would be lazy to include Alpha-Gamma-etc again because this isn't SR388, so I'd design new Metroid forms, which in-lore are supposed to be upgraded and more powerful according to the design of the Chozo that bred them here. They might superficially resemble Alphas etc. at first, but their developmental pathway ends up very different and unique.
The big ending twist is that the final boss Chozo is modified like yourself- you couldn't have guessed! Lore-wise, perhaps they were one of the ones who originally created the Metroids, not starting as one of the murderous Chozo seen in the Chozo memories. They knowingly turned on the other SR388 Chozo in order to side with the bad guys, and worked their way up the ranks once that trust was earned. Their Metroid DNA could then be explained by them having, like Samus, come off SR388 with an X infection that needed curing. Or maybe they just happened to be an expert in Metroids and thought it would be awesome to use Metroid DNA to get stronger.
Gameplay-wise, this means they can use powers like yours, but also a variety of others because they're a final boss. One of these might be a refined form of the shape-changing that I'm not convinced Samus could use. Metroids mature into new, bigger forms, and perhaps our villain has figured out how to do this in a controlled manner.
Remember the Chozo tech Samus might use to power up her Metroid abilities? Our villain upgraded theirs so all their abilities are powered up. But you're Samus Aran and you're still winning. In desperation, they use it to mutate into a giant monster, like some kind of weird bird-dragon-alien with hundreds of eyes and bioluminescence. Awesome! This is their final form, but it's not as brief as the mutant SA-X's appearance; maybe you defeat their normal Chozo form in the penultimate boss fight, then have to go up against this version of them at the very end.
Of course, they're still a Metroid-based monster. They have VERY potent draining abilities, which they will use more often on , so you have to use a combination of items you've picked up on your adventure, and your Metroid abilities, to prevent them from making the fatal strike, because if they hit you with that attack you're gonna lose between 1/2 to a full energy tank and they're gonna gain a chunk of health back. It's a mean boss design, but on lower difficulty settings it would be toned down.
Sequel potential
Iāll give this one itās own section to break up the text walls a bit.
The idea behind having this SR388 traitor Chozo character in particular is that they are NOT the initial wave of evil Chozo. This means that whoever "turned them to the dark side" might STILL be out there. Thus, the plot is not over yet, and there's even more sequel opportunity to be had! It could essentially begin a new arc. I wonder how the next game's final boss could compare to "giant intelligent bird-alien-dragon-lamprey" though?
The game discussed so far might make no mention of the Federation at all, because that would overcomplicate things when the plot focus is on Samus, Chozo, and Metroids. A sequel could easily reunite Samus with the Federation, and let trust be regained on both sides as she saves them from the evil Chozo that are now trying to destroy and dominate everything for evil reasons.
Though we donāt want to sacrifice too much traditional fast-paced Metroid sidescroller gameplay time on plot stuff, maybe have a sideplot where the corrupt parts of the Federation are cut out? No doubt those who wanted to breed Metroids, no matter how pure or evil their intentions, are the most likely to accept help from a band of evil Chozo who have lots of Metroids and need help breeding and improving them. It could end up being a dialogue-heavy thing but it would be fun to see this subplot played out without any dialogue whatsoever; Samus just doing her thing behind-the-scenes to stop or expose these people, while they send threats after her.
One reason why I bring up sequel potential at all is because Samus is now part Metroid and the Federation know it- but they donāt know about her abilities. Now sheās saving their asses and theyāre gonna have to learn about it. That might lead to a whole bunch of new conflict potential, which could either be explored in-canon or by fanfic writers afterward. Fun either way. May even lead to MORE sequels where the Feds are creating superhuman bioweapons because they learned it worked with Samus.
What happens with Samus's powers between the two games? Will she go into the next game being super OP? Probably not. So how will that be resolved? Theoretically this first game in the āarcā could be the only one, and could actually end the timeline, but it would be a bit of a shame to do that.
One possibility is that Samus has to suppress or lose her powers. Maybe they start getting out of hand, beyond her control, especially if the shape-changing thing comes into play. She may use a reverse form of the power-up technology to tone down her abilities to nothing for safety reasons. She may even use the final-boss-guy's DNA modification equipment to strip herself of her Metroid DNA. Perhaps she decides that it's not something she wants to be a part of herself any more, and takes it out.
Here's a fun tangent off the last one- what if the DNA mod goes wrong and she does something else... Like damage her Chozo DNA? What implications might that have for a future game, and for Samus's own perception of herself? What if we were left on a cliffhanger, where Samus knows she has to rush off to her next battle with the evil Chozo but when she steps into her own suit, her own second skin, it rejects her?
As an alternative, maybe something off-world- or even just the act of BEING off-world- means she loses her abilities because her body "settles down" and suppresses them outside of that world's environment. While this may seem like a cheap ending, it depends on how sequels go. Because in theory, Metroids adapt to their local environments, which means Samus might be able to unlock a plethora of brand-new and previously unseen abilities in the next game owing to her arrival in another new environment.
Conclusion? I have too much time on my hands. It's been an interesting one to think about. Aside from "Chozo will return as villains" I couldn't really speculate what will happen in Metroid 5 at this point, though I'm very tempted to say it will be made eventually. Unfortunately, word-of-god says that Metroid Fusion's ending rectified Samus's DNA and took out the Metroid stuff (hence her losing cold weakness at the very end) so it's unlikely that any of this kind of thing would make it to canon, unless they're happy for to retcon what was already a fairly unclear thing in game.
I'd like to see someone other than me go off about Phazon for once.
I can do that! Iām not sure what direction you wanted me to take this, but Iām interpreting this as āPhazon is awesome and you should all try some I mean whatā
(Iām going to reblog this onto @bryyo-data for text clarity, bear with me)
SO itās been a little while since I last played the Metroid Prime Trilogy sadly, I canāt say my memories are absolutely fresh (which will make it even better next time I play through, I always love forgetting the details so I can re-learn them). But anyway, Phazon basically carries the plot all the way through the trilogy and you gradually learn more and more about this weird blue stuff.
I always liked all the Chozoās references to āThe Great Poisonā in the Chozo ruins in Prime 1, because at that point in the game you donāt realize theyāre referring to more than just the toxic water in the ruins. Only later do you realize what it is theyāre talking about in those lore entries.
Excellent point! It really adds to the mystery and your own sense of personal discovery. You know about Phazon from the Frigate Orpheon, but you only really start to put the story together through things like this as you progress along.
Metroid ramble suggestion - pros and cons of the different beam upgrade methods. The mutual exclusion of Metroid, the pure upgrade of Prime 3, the quick switch of Primes 1 and 2, or any of the in between options of the other games.
Good one! Posting this to @bryyo-data as before, and apologies if it doesnāt make a drop of sense because itās super late and Iām very tired.
I think the key here is the context of the game, BUT flexibility is always a good thing in my books. Personally, I have a slight inclination towards switching in the Primes, and I don't strongly care so much in the 2D games, so long as it's easy enough to do.
My reasoning for the Primes may be kinda silly, but reasonably so: there's just something fun and immersive about being able to switch the beams with your Wiimote. You have control of the gun literally in the palm of your hand. It helps to transport you into the fantasy land of the game where your Wiimote is actually Samus's arm cannon, and you are actively influencing it in ways other than just shooting.
I was a bit thrown off when Prime 3 didn't have beam switching, going into hypermode aside. I understand why they did it and wouldn't over-complicate things by changing it, because that would probably require more than 2 beam upgrades, and extra buttons on the Wii controls, which isn't feasible. There's other power-ups for the game to focus on anyway, and at least you have missiles to compensate for no ice beam. Just a shame to have lost that tiny detail, but that's only my personal preference. Doesn't have a huge impact on my feelings for the game.
From a gameplay perspective, the beams all have very distinct roles and switching POTENTIALLY allows for some gameplay challenges. By that, I mean, the game can throw obstacles at you and it's up to you- though a lot of them are very obvious, e.g. "here is some ice". Some more obscure ones would be fun. Maybe one that requires you to test the beams, or requires you to remember a scan from a nearby terminal that says "Alienmineralite is heat-vulnerable" in text.
It can also allow for some tactics. Perhaps enemies/certain bosses that have the option to respond differently to different beams, so you can freeze one part of it and then attack with another weapon. I don't remember if any bosses actually did this? But if I were designing a boss based around this, the key would be allowing you as many options as possible, allowing you to figure out the ice beam trick on your own while having other options with other beams, so you can go with the most fun one or mix it up. Maybe even choose depending on your placement in the battlefield and environmental features available to you.
Now for the 2D games. Up until the DS, it was basically too inconvenient because with no lower screen, there probably wasn't enough buttons for quick-switching. With that said, I do like the fact that Super Metroid allows you to turn the upgrades on and off. There's little reason to, but if you prefer Spazer to Plasma, or find ice slows down your kills too much, you have a choice there. Choice is always key in games like this.
With the entrance of the DS, Hunters- and later Samus Returns- actually played around with this idea. I appreciate what Hunters went for because- despite some dubious lore as to why the weapons would be there- you get a chance to play around with the attacks unique to your enemy Hunters. It didn't come to much creative use, aside from being able to destroy recoloured barriers and find new areas, but they tried to do something fun with it.
Transition between weapons is fairly easy, though Hunters has a persistent problem with its controls and how badly they will hurt your hands. Ammo is a bit of a nuisance, and can make you more hesitant to use the weapons, but you can see why it exists- in fact, why this whole mechanism is what it is- because Hunters was designed around its multiplayer aspect, with single-player as an afterthought.
(I actually don't mind ammo too much in Prime 2; at least you can use the beams when you run out, and it plays into the light-dark theme and adds to the challenge. I can't figure out why it bothers me more in Hunters, but I guess partly that's because creative uses of the weapons are more limited. Like how you can power crystals up in Echoes. But that's getting sidetracked.)
SR had a nice blend whereby the beams you probably wouldn't bother to un-stack were stacked, but ice was a touch-screen extra. Since ice first freezes enemies and tends to make killing slower, it can be an annoyance to have it stacked with the rest. Luckily, SR gives it a new non-fatal gameplay function and keeps it separate from the rest, with very quick transition possible between the ice beam and attacking beams. That even allows more creative use of ice beam than usual, with you having to hold it down longer for a longer freeze, and therefore having to balance time waiting for it to charge vs. time you want it frozen so you have a chance to use the new platform.
Normally this would work quite well in terms of doing damage, but SR kinda misses the point of this because your options are "insta-kill every time with the reaction attack from the very beginning of the game" or if you miss the cue for that "every enemy takes a LOT of hits even with a powerful beam equipped". So Plasma feels kinda more powerful in Super and Zero Mission than it did in SR. Regardless, it's definitely a big improvement.
On the whole though, I think even with the DS/3DS duel-screens, it's still easier to stack certain beams in these games, aside from ones like ice and grapple. A menu option to turn off beams you don't like is a good way of keeping choice available, but if you regularly need to switch between many beams using a tiny touchscreen, the buttons might end up confusing. These games work pretty differently to the Primes on the whole, and in combat you rarely have enemies like Metroid Prime which alternate between vulnerabilities.
I don't think it's impossible though- just depends on what console you're using. A 2D game on the Switch might be able to work like Axiom Verge, which has MANY weapon options and many creative uses of said weapons. Changing between them is very easy due to the button controls available. Not saying Metroid needs hundreds of weapons, but maybe a future 2D title on a console like the Switch would find it easier to use weapon switching and come up with creative situations/bosses that require it.
Then again, with the 2D games tending to be a bit faster-paced, beam stacking might just be a more convenient thing to stick with. It depends if you're willing to slow down the game pace for a few more beam-related challenges (something that works very well in the Primes but might be harder in the sidescrollers? They don't have 3D environments to explore or scans to look for.)
As it stands, it's just much quicker to blast your way through Super Metroid with a mega-powered-beam combo, so when you leave and re-enter the room and the enemies respawn, they aren't TOO inconvenient. Since, with the lack of the 3D space, you can't easily dodge these enemies and you're often forced to blast them instead. When youāre on that final item-hunt, youāll probably appreciate the quick run through more.
I'd like to see someone other than me go off about Phazon for once.
I can do that! Iām not sure what direction you wanted me to take this, but Iām interpreting this as āPhazon is awesome and you should all try some I mean whatā
(Iām going to reblog this onto @bryyo-data for text clarity, bear with me)
SO it's been a little while since I last played the Metroid Prime Trilogy sadly, I can't say my memories are absolutely fresh (which will make it even better next time I play through, I always love forgetting the details so I can re-learn them). But anyway, Phazon basically carries the plot all the way through the trilogy and you gradually learn more and more about this weird blue stuff.
What I kinda appreciate from the start is that... Phazon is just so mysterious. You learn throughout the course of Prime that it came with a meteorite, it started destroying everything on the planet, and it basically ended Chozo civilisation there. The planet is now rotting away slowly, the Pirates have decided to use the opportunity to gather resources and make money in spite of horrific environmental effects. It's just like on Earth.
One of the real strengths of Prime's story is that there are multiple stories being told, and you get the chance to discover them via your own exploration. You have the story of Tallon IV and the Chozo; the rise of their civilisation and the decline of their planet. Then you have the appearance of the Space Pirates, who have randomly come across this thing and are actively trying to profit off of it by making deadly bioweapons for conquering all. Alongside those you have the many visible effects of Phazon, which affect your journey- from toxic waters to mutated creatures and Metroids. Thankfully in the end, you get the sense of accomplishment from technically solving all of these plot threads (saving what's left of the planet, destroying the Pirates and their monsters).
Tying this all together is Phazon. Same for Metroid Prime 2- you have the war between Luminoth and Ing, which is a result of a clearly similar meteorite strike. If you played Metroid Prime beforehand, U-Mos's story and the Pirate Phazon mining facilities allow you to put the pieces together and realise "something similar happened here, it just reacted badly with stuff on Aether and caused a different set of effects".
And it all concludes in Prime 3, when you fill in the gaps in the lore and such. This is a nice time to satisfy that curiosity, because it's the final game, so you got two games out of Phazon being a mystery and now get an opportunity to play around with what Phazon is and how it works. And that's partly done by going, okay, here you go player, you are now able to DIRECTLY control this substance and feel the raw power that all those monsters were feeling.
Prime 3 is also a good game for showing the environmental effects of Phazon more blatantly. IIRC, compared to Prime and Prime 2 (which admittedly had Darklings to focus on more than Phazon itself) a lot more creatures have clear Phazon mutations, or can go into Hypermode. And there seemed to be a lot more randomly-occuring Phazon in the world. It's a good reflection of just how much Dark Samus is pushing this whole thing along. And a show of how good the Chozo were at holding Phazon back on Tallon IV, I guess.
You really see Phazon being seeded into the environments of Bryyo and Elysia, for better or for worse, and the Pirate Homeworld's unsettling vibe is furthered by the presence of Phazon there. That place just feels absolutely wrecked, by Pirates and Phazon alike. Phaaze itself is a wonderful place because it's just wacky Phazon stuff all over, making it super unsettling and alien.
I like the way Phazon is presented in the games. It's a weird, crackly substance that has "do not touch!" written all over it, which is why the Pirates immediately poured it into their own bodies for the heck of it. But I'm sure I'm not the only person who remembers, very distinctly, how CREEPY the Phazon-ridden lower levels of the Phazon Mines are. Like, actually, I don't think there's a lot of physical Phazon substance present in any area of the world other than them. Its effects seep out, but most of the Phazon you find is raw in the rocks down there. That leads you to associate it with the darkest conditions, creepiest music, and deadliest monsters.
Phazon is all over the place in Corruption, but they managed to keep the creepiness in a totally different way- by exposing you to TOO MUCH of it. You have it inside you, and you can check that at any time in your gunship. You can watch the count ominously rise after every major boss. You can physically watch yourself transform through reflections in the visor. If certain weapons hit you, you're thrown into a moment of panic where you have to rapid-fire vent your Phazon or you'll die. You are given Phazon to control, but you lose control of it very quickly, and have to be super careful about how you go into Hypermode lest you end up corrupted.
This raises a similar-but-different point, I love the progression of my own Hypermode usage in every single run of Corruption I do. Inevitably, at the start of the game, I am hesitant to use this power. I don't have many energy tanks to waste, and I never feel ready to risk it going into overdrive. Then I'll survive a few bosses, get to somewhere like the bomb in Elysia and realise how useful the power is, and it's all downhill from there. I like to imagine that's how Samus herself feels about it too; first of all reluctant to bring it up, but then getting used to it, and- as one of the older trailers for the game says- she starts to enjoy it.
Now, we need to talk about Metroid Prime and Dark Samus because I love her. Metroid Prime itself is a very scary antagonist IMO; I don't actually recall hearing much about it before the final battle, having played the Trilogy version which doesn't have the North American lore. There's a few spooky mentions of the Worm, and I'm a sucker for some prophecy fulfilment. But other than that, you don't know what to expect from the final boss in the crater, and that's kind of beneficial to it. It leaves a lot of mystery. Like, what on EARTH (or Tallon IV in this case) could be at the root of all this deadly Phazon? It must be something pretty horrible living in a very weird environment. And it is!
But heck, that design is sweet. The first form is terrifying with that weird toothy mouth and all that bulk. The second is great because they managed to make essentially a jelly octopus thing feel like a legitimate threat. I love the way it moves, how it hovers, how it shunts around, how it's always watching you. The first form might give you the impression that it's just a rabid beast, but there's something about the second that makes you think, actually, even BEFORE it becomes Dark Samus, this is something fairly calculating at least on a basic level.
Dark Samus herself? GOOD. It's fairly easy to guess what she is if you 100%ed Prime and saw the hand coming out of the goop, but the skeletal reveal at the end of Echoes with her looking very Metroid Prime-esque is fun. And really cool design too.
The whole relationship you have with her throughout Echoes is great- like, you came here to rescue troops and signed up to helping the Luminoth, plus your eternal goal as Samus is to defeat the Pirates, so she's not really anything to do with any aspect of your mission. Heck, she downright INCONVENIENCES the Pirates. She's just there to be a pest and eat Phazon, break some bridges, make elevator rides unnecessarily awkward. It's an extra influence on your environment that can force you to adapt (e.g. by finding or using new power-ups) though it doesn't feel out of place. And she triggers a lot of your development by shooting the crystal in the first place, allowing the Ing to catch you while you're stunned and steal half of your power-ups.
Anyway, she comes back in Corruption and this time she's upped her game. It's fun how in Echoes, with her laugh and chaotic behaviour, but also the way she seems to watch and study you... You get a sense that she's really crazed with hunger, she'll do anything to get Phazon and let nothing stand in your way, but she is SMART. And by Corruption, she's got some totally new tactics and isn't acting alone any longer. She's calculated an incredibly intricate scheme to become an all-worshipped Pirate leader, fulfil the wants of Phazon by seeding other planets, AND take out or corrupt her nemesis Samus along the way. Talk about character development.
In that sense, she's an incredibly fun and threatening presence both in Echoes and Corruption. In Echoes, it's because she could appear at any time, do anything and mess with your progression. When you hear the pre-battle creepy music and see those blue dots in the air, you think "oh fuck". Even at times when you know she won't engage you in battle, you still think "oh fuck" because Retro Studios made a masterpiece of the Prime Trilogy and the atmosphere is just fantastic.
In Corruption, you don't directly interact with her very often, but her impacts are very clear; she corrupts your Hunter allies and they act in her stead, leaving you feel hopeless and powerless as you fail to save them. The Pirate forces are significantly powered-up, and can use powers such as hypermode. Sometimes you're forced to watch them taking out innocents with their newfound power. There's a whole battle at the very start of the game because of all this. You don't expect to see Dark Samus in person very often, but you nonetheless have reason to fear her. In Echoes she is unexpected; in Corruption, you feel her influence at every turn.
This all links back to Phazon and makes Phazon itself a more interesting substance. What you once assumed was just radioactive sludge now becomes, in itself, a conscious force against you. Phaaze is a sentient planet. Dark Samus is a sentient entity, driven by the same desire as Phaaze and all Phazon to spread her influence, allowing Phazon to grow and consume. That's terrifying from something you assumed was just dormant- if prickly- load of goop. Phazon was scary enough BEFORE that knowledge given how it transforms creatures.
Anyway, one last good thing about Phazon is that you can make it all better. Who doesn't like to feel like they've made an impact on the world? You see how badly affected these worlds are, so it's a relief to think that you've spared them from the brink. You kinda get to experience it post-Flaahgra in Prime, when you'll notice that the water isn't toxic any more. I don't remember if the scans on the trees change? There's a few trees that were dying due to poison. Most things in the Ruins were poison-damaged beforehand, so it's nice to think that you solved that one.
I donāt know what straight women are attracted to in men. I know when I go to gay bars there are a lot of pictures of super buff dudes. So when I think of sexuakizing men, I guess I think about the way we sell sexualized men to gay men.
Although I feel like Supermanās male assets are definitely focused on quite a bit in different ways, but thatās another topic.
Fun fact, female toplessness is not illegal in NY because it was held to be discrimination based on sex to have it be illegal for women to do something men were allowed to do.
Iād say for some of us women who play Metroid there is an aspect of female fantasy to wanting to look like Samus as well. I loved smaller feminine Samus when I was a teenager because she was finally a serious superhero who looked like me in a way that wasnāt a joke. Wonder Woman was an amazon and Buffyās femininity was often used for laughs. MZM Samus wasnāt large but she kicked ass. It was easy and fun to imagine being her.
As a grown up lesbian I prefer the buff look, but thatās just preference. But Samusās appearance can also be female fantasy. Itās not just for men. Most women arenāt amazons. I think the average height in America is around five-foot-four. And most of us arenāt very muscular, even those that are very fit and well toned usually arenāt bulky.
Iām personally a natural 34G in bras so Samus doesnāt look like her breasts are that large to me. They look average. Same with her butt. She doesnāt look like a sexualized woman to me. She looks like a sort-of-well-endowed-but-still realistic woman.
The camera angles are another story. And to be fair, Iām only talking about Samus in Metroid, not the version from Smash.
That the current design for Samus can be a female fantasy too is something I've definitely learned tonight! I think a lot of my feelings stem not from what Samus CAN be, but what she was designed to be; Samus' sexualised scenes may appeal to women, but I think it leaves me sour knowing that they probably weren't made for that purpose, and the purpose for which they were put in wasn't exactly a good one for women or Samus generally. It is objectification. As I mentioned in the original post I think, it's not something inherently wrong with her size and proportions, but how the designers fixate on them for that very obvious purpose. If Samus were of the same proportions but presented differently, I'd have no issue (see: Zero Mission cutscenes like the bar one.)
Funnily enough, it was always the reverse for me- tall, buff Samus WAS the fantasy. I guess because it seemed more unattainable, the more physically powerful (whereas being small as I am, I guess I can kinda feel a bit vulnerable, and the idea of this woman who could be so physically imposing had a huge appeal) and all of that packaged into something which, in Samus' case, wasn't played for laughs but taken seriously.
(I tried to reply but Iām really tired so Iām sorry if I typo all over the place or misread anything, correct me if I do)
Fair point. Personally I'd still argue that there's a difference in the way the male and female heroes are sexualised. The really masculine, muscular look of these sexualised dudes at least gives the air of power; contrast the sexy woman look, which is smaller in height and frame, somewhat disempowered and weaker (just taking physical features into account in both cases).
And to be absolutely honest, I don't know many adult straight/bi women who genuinely like that muscle look. I remember seeing a tumblr post like that a while ago, magazines targeted at men are more likely to show off those big muscles, while women-targeted magazines will show men in more domestic, friendly, approachable ways. Equally, Bond's scenes are probably more aiming to be a āmale fantasyā than anything. If men were sexualised to pander to straight women's desires, more likely they'd have less toned bodies and more emphasis on face, expressions, emotions etc. On the other hand the ass/titty look is generally one targeted at the straight male audience by showing off the stuff they are typically expected to be attracted to- butts and boobs.
On the subject of Samus, I suppose it isn't typical that "masculine/gender-neutral" women are revealed to be sexy underneath. I guess that can be a positive thing- at the same time, I maintain my opinion that the sexualisation isn't necessarily good and doesn't necessarily work in the tone of the Metroid games. Maybe again, it comes down to the issue of sexy-vs-sexualised. Samus could be attractive, but that's a different thing to sexualisation; the way in which she is presented in something like an Other M cutscene, as a character sexualised in the typical female way, is what affects the tone. It can kinda do a disservice to Samusā portrayal at times.
Superman is more... masculinized, I guess would be a term for it? His outfit shows off his chest muscles, and I mean... masculine chests aren't regarded as quite as much of a sexual feature as boobs. They aren't illegal out here, for a start. And muscles are associated with strength, power, and whatnot. So the way we interpret the two is different for that reason.
Finish with a quote a friend said on the subject "male characters are [sexualised] but whens the last time you get a close up on their ass or their bulge bouncing".
(Also Superman's outfit sucks)
Itās interesting to hear the replies coming from people of different sexualities and genders, though.
@crazysamusfangirl @lucasparadoxaretono if it's okay with you guys, could you start up a new post or private message for your discussion? Just because it's spamming my notifications. Thanks!
Okay I'm pretty sure I swore off discourse when I started planet-bryyo but hey, it's Christmas!
With regards to the Samus-out-of-her-suit discussion, it seems to be a pretty subjective matter. I keep trying to put my opinions into words, and I think I've narrowed down the issues I have. So this is JUST my personal take on the entire thing: what I like from Samus, what I think works well and doesn't work well. Feel free to disagree and even drop a comment in the replies, I'm open to a change of opinion!
(FYI I stole all my images off Wikitroid to break up the text)
Seeing Samus outside her suit is a neat reward. In the original Metroid, it lead to the very significant reveal that Samus was a girl. A lot of games tease the woman-behind-the-suit with stuff like reflections in her visor, or a view of her eyes and expression during a cutscene, so the game culminating with her completely out of her suit can be very rewarding and awesome if done well.
While I have a bit of a preference for stuff like badass suit shots or Fusion's lore endings (which I think were Japanese exclusive so I've only ever see them via the wiki) it can be really fun to see Samus just chilling in her spare time. Zero Mission does this pretty well; she dons regular outfits, goes back to civilisation, and does normal stuff like drink at bars. It's nice to see her get some down time, and hint at what her life is like beyond her missions.
On the other hand, blatant this-scene-only-exists-to-show-off-her-boobs scenes arenāt my thing. Y'know, Iām willing to say a bit of sexiness probably doesn't do much harm. I'd argue that some of the scenes we see in the likes of Zero Mission and Fusion endings (like the above) are acceptably, as youtuber ShayMay puts it, "sexy not sexualised" and detract far less, if anything, from Samus' portrayal. Samus is pretty without it being obnoxiously sexualized. And hey, we're all human, loads of us like a bit of boob. They aren't of much interest to me but plenty of people love 'em. In Metroid, though, it just feels a bit excessive and unnecessary at times, and I think it can impact how Samus and certain scenes come across.
The zero suit segment of Metroid: Zero Mission was a really interesting part of the game, with that stealth mission being challenging and fun to play. That's just about the only thing I ever liked regarding the zero suit, because almost every other instance of its appearance (including cutscenes in Zero Mission itself) is used to scream "HEY LOOK GUYS, SEXY BUTT." Personally, I just don't think those shots mesh well with what Samus is generally portrayed like. There's better ways to go about showing her suitless, like the variety of civilian outfits she's been presented in, or even simply taking off the helmet as inĀ Prime. She can look very beautiful in these shots, without it looking blatantly sexualised and a bit ridiculous. Compare the above bar scene to this thing which always really bugged me because it's literally just butt and sideboob and the way it's posed looks really weird.
I find it a bit jarring when we go from the imposing figure of the power suit to the zero suit, which tends to be used to scream boob and not much else. For the most part, suited Samus carries this gravitas that makes her very impactful as a character. Unfortunately, that gravitas pretty much instantly evaporates when she's put in a blatantly sexy shot on screen, no matter what she's saying or doing. Note that there IS a difference between "blatantly sexy shot" and "shot where Samus is not in her suit" and the latter would be no issue. We see that in the likes of Other M's ending,Ā where she's in civilian clothing and can look nice without the camera lingering on her rear end too long and killing the impact. I have my issues with how Other M did things, but at least IIRC it didn't derail that ending moment with Anthony by making it weirdly sexy, unlike a few other parts of the game which I'll come to in a bit.
I don't think sexiness is automatically bad- see Bayonetta for what I guess is an example of sexiness done in a good, not-disempowering or disrespectful way? I guess? I haven't played those games. But sexiness in Metroid is put in places where it feels out of place. Zero Mission and Other M are bad offenders; the latter two Primes only have like one scene of it, so it's odd but can be more easily passed over if you aren't into the uncanny valley robot tiddy look from Prime 2 that haunts me to this day.
Hunters did the out-of-suit thing quite nicely too. Hunters stands as evidence that even the zero suit doesn't have to be inherently bad (though let's be real, it was designed for tiddy and it will probably be used for tiddy until the end of its days). Hunters was actually my intro to the franchise and the first time I personally saw the face of Samus Aran. If you beat Hunters before developing carpal tunnel syndrome, and if you access the hidden ending by fulfilling the Alimbic prophecy, the monster Gorea is destroyed in its final form and the Alimbic spirits telepathically contact Samus to thank her for what she has done. There's a lack of obnoxious proportions or questionable camera angles, so the scene comes across as meaningful as it's supposed to.
Prime did well in combining the thrill of "IT'S HER, IT'S THE PROTAGONISTS FACE" with the badassery of suited Samus, giving the scene quite a good impact. People remember that scene with fondness. It's a shame that so few scenes with non-suited Samus have managed to capture the same thing- like, imagine Samus standing on a hill in a long coat or some other awesome piece of apparel, gazing over a futuristic city like a watchful guardian. That would be sweet.
I personally liked the more realistic look they went for in Prime, despite technical limitations on the face model; it suited the tone of the game and the personality of Samus better than the weird anime kinda thing in Prime 3. You can get away with that look in the 2D games where everything has that art style, but all the other humans in Prime 3 were more realistic so it just looked out of place (we don't talk about Echoes...) but that's verging on a different issue entirely.
Zero Mission is one of my favourite games, possibly my favourite 2D game on par with Samus Returns at the minute. It did really well in a lot of stuff, but it also has a degree of booty with bad timing. The moment after Samus crashes and is left with nothing should be a fairly serious one- the situation is bleak, the task up ahead is daunting. The only hope you have is Samus' confidence and skill- and your skill as a player, which, if you're anything like me, you're starting to question in a moment of utterĀ oh shit. This is also one of the few moments where Samus actually has some dialogue, which is all pretty straightforward with a hint of her good humour and personality.
That entire scene is framed over a very blatant butt shot. Maybe it's just me and I ought to care less, but I find it a bit harder to take the scene seriously because of it. Sexiness isn't inherently bad, there's a time and place for it, but is this serious scene really the time and place? I'm not even gonna pull up big words like objectification and such, I don't really know enough to say about those things, I just think it looks really silly there. If it needs to be included, couldn't it stay as the under-five-hours reward as per usual?
I could just be really bitter about that one, though.
Buff Samus is another related issue. I've seen loads of people saying "Samus looks good as she is!" and there's nothing wrong with that. I just thought I'd try and justify my own reasons for being a bit let down with Samus' current out-of-suit design. It's not so much the design in itself, nor the fact that she's not what the fandom fantasizes her being like. It's more related to the design's history and trends of change.
Personally, I'm just a little bitter that they felt the need to change Samus from the design they gave her in Super, because of WHY they changed it. In Super Metroids manual- and visibly in-game- Samus is toned and tall. These days, the media is gracing us with more tall and buff lady characters (Zarya from Overwatch, Brienne of Tarth from GOT, etc.) but when I was a kid I don't think I could name a single muscular lady outside of joke cartoon characters. Maybe sportswomen, but even then I can't think of any popular ones whose names I haven't learned in just the last few years. Doesn't mean there weren't any, just that I never came across any widespread ones, and I'm inclined to believe there weren't many around in popular media. Which made a taller, buffer Samus a little bit more of a revolutionary concept, important for the sake of seeing varied body types and such. It's important for people with those body types as much as it is for everyone else SEEING people with those body types and lifestyles.
Basically, as far as I can tell, Nintendo decided that "sex sells" and their major lady protag wasn't good enough without the sex appeal that comes with being skinny and shapely. They decided buff wasn't attractive, so they had to do things like cut her height down, slim her waist, bring out her chest, and make her ass stick out half the width of Zebes. Everything she was allowed to be before was stripped away and swapped out for your standard sexy woman's frame so people could titillate over her.
This only increased over time. Going from Zero Mission to Other M and the Smash Bros franchise, you can see this increasing trend of Samus getting promoted in-game and in pre-release material as sexier, up to Smash Bros 4 where so many Zero Suit promotional screenshots had her bent around like the token sexygirl in a forgettable Hollywood movie poster, posed for good view of her assets, or even put in freaking bunny ears which have their own set of connotations. Then there's the whole heels debate, which I'm not even gonna get into.
Her boobs are orbs.
If I'll say one positive- Samus Returns didn't do badly. Actually, big kudos to Samus Returns. All of its ending poses were all nods to other stuff for fans to recognise and they took time to make three different out-of-suit Samus outfits. Samus genuinely looks pretty cool in each of them. I really dig it!
I think some people in the fandom have the misconception that me- and others who share my opinion- don't like the idea of sexy women, or feminine women, being badass heroines. And that's simply not the case. People bring up Bayonetta as an example of "you can have sexy/pretty heroines" and while I can't really say a lot about her, as far as I can tell, her game really works well with it and is designed around her having the appearance and personality she has. Metroid is designed around a different sort of protagonist, in a different sort of atmosphere, and the sexualisation is kind of jarringly different from the surrounding material.
If Samus had always been a shortish, big-breasted woman with a strong personality and whose ass and boobs were never/scarcely highlighted in a sexy way, indicating that they exist just because she is a shapely person rather than because people won't survive the game without a boner, that would be sweet. In fact, I could really get behind that because I'm short as hell myself. It's secretly every short person's dream to have a cyborg suit which makes you tall enough to reach the top shelves and fight off everyone you're otherwise too small and weak to handle.
(Had Samus always been a sexy Bayonetta-esque character, I think the franchise would be very different in general. If that was part of the design, it wouldāve worked, I guess.)
It's not Samus' size, shape, and proportions in themselves that have the effect of changing the scenes and character portrayal; it's the blatant fanservice and the way they're framing of these features to obviously have a very sexual appeal, and to me that doesn't sit well alongside the rest. When serious scenes are played over what looks like a SFW alt version of a porn pic you glance over while scrolling down the Metroid tag, itās hard to see any of the impact that Samus had one scene earlier in her power suit. (Okay, I'm exaggerating a little for effect, but the point still stands.)
This peaks in games like Other M (disclaimer: I'm not a fan, apologies to fans of the game) where tragic and meaningful scenes are played over shots of Samusā buttā¦ like, itās obvious what they were going for here. Iāve never been a straight male member of the obvious target audience for this so I canāt attest to whether the dual boner-and-tears method works at making a scene memorable, but for the most part it just looks silly from my point of view.
When Samus loses her suit in Other M- e.g. when Adam dies- and all the subsequent shots focus in on her rear end, it really doesn't feel like just about any suited shot in any Metroid game ever, and not in a good way. Like I think I said before, it strips Samus of a degree of gravitas that is integral to her character. Then it tries to play the moment off with a degree of seriousness and dignity that framing her ass like that just doesn't quite have.
(Then again, Other M Samus' lack of gravitas comes across even in the scenes where she's in her suit; this time it's nothing to do with sexualisation or anything, just that her postures and movements don't display any confidence in what she's doing, which is weirdly different from her normal presentation but persists throughout the entire game. Some people like it, I don't think it works, each to their own.)
I've sorta lost track of where I was going so I'm gonna round off here. I'll emphasise that this is all my opinion and interpretation, I don't expect everyone to agree and I completely respect that. I think it's absolutely fair to love Samus while being critical of how her designers portray her and the wider impacts of those choices- at the end of the day, she is fictional and doesn't make these choices for herself. As the audience, we are the ones who feel those choices, for better or worse depending on your own view.
I'm a bit salty about how Samus is portrayed outside of her suit and wish the Samus on the inside was allowed to carry the weight that Samus in the suit does. That doesn't mean she can't be beautiful, but the active increase in her sexy traits and highlighting of those traits over the years is a little bit infuriating, especially considering what they were willing to do with her design early on in the timeline.
Feel free to drop comments, I'm going to try and steer clear of my own salt for the rest of the holidays but I'm keen to know what other people think!
sparkylurkdragonĀ reblogged your post and added:Ā āsparkylurkdragon: @crazysamusfangirl replied to your post: ...ā
Honestly, I feel like the idea that Samus...
Time for me to have fun making up bullshit scienceĀ @sparkylurkdragonā! It's a discussion I got into not long ago, I think. There's a few ways I can try and twist it so it might work. Someone else brought up that the Fusion Suit might be selective for what X genes are incorporated into Samus, so Iām gonna run with that.
(Iām gonna add some cool pictures to break up the text wall because itās tiring on the eyes)
Metroids were designed to eat X. They do so by draining their life force. But it makes sense that there were safety measures included to prevent X from ganging up on THEM. Because the Metroids are the Chozo's last hope against the X, and if one X parasite happens to get into a Metroid and make a Metroid-X, they're all royally fucked. So, they add anti-X measures within the Metroid's cells as well.
When the X invade your body, they fuel themselves by eating you, but they also do some DNA-reshuffling and attempt to blend your DNA with theirs, so they can take on your form. (This whole process is quicker depending on how simple the animal's genome is, because there's less DNA to deal with, hence why Samus gets pretty far in before passing out, while Hornoads are gone in moments.)
An X tries to invade the Metroid body, but alas- when it tries to mix the DNA together, the Metroid cells basically say "no" and break down the X DNA instead. And then they absorb its bioenergy while they're at it because the Metroid is always hungry.
The genes Samus was given do the same thing. When an X tries to take over her system, Samus' cells break the X down instead- and then absorb their bioenergy to fuel either her energy tanks or weapon-producing systems. This is because (by my theory anyway) her suit is biologically connected to her body and reaps the benefits (according to this theory, Samus might technically be able to drain other living things outside of her body as well, like a Metroid can. Which would be freaking cool.)
Samus also has the Fusion suit, which most Metroids do not. Most Metroids except Samus, that is. The Fusion suit, pathetic Federation mods aside, is a clever piece of tech.Ā We can assume that any X absorbed by Samus is specificallyĀ absorbed into the cells in the suit, given that they are the outermost layer. Even if not, the suit is so deeply connected to her that it can probably affect the rest of her body as well.
So when an X comes along, Samus' Metroid genes want to just chop its DNA up into pieces. However, sometimes the Fusion Suit can step in and be like "pause a second- I just scanned this thing and it has a really cool gene, and I really want it." So it selectively picks out genes it wants from the X bosses, and when the DNA gets chopped up, it adds them into its own genetic material.
ByĀ āadds themā this might not be a process actively caused by the suit. The X genome (bits of other creatures included) is designed to combine with the host one, so maybe the suit is just likeĀ ādonāt cut that one upā and then that intact gene slots itself nicely into Samusā DNA, without interrupting any other genes or anything- because that wouldnāt be ideal for the X either, so itās not designed to do that. If it was gonna cause problems the suit might pick up on it and get rid.
This process could either just affect the suit's biological material, meaning these powerups are ineffective when Samus takes it off- or else Samus now has super-speedy-Serris powers and can run real real fast all the time if she wants to. The former seems sensible, but given that post-Fusion Samus is supposed to not be weak to cold any more (and it makes sense that Samus and the suit are genetically the same so that they connect with each other properly) have fun picturing the possibilities.
(Maybe they're just enablers, meaning the speedy Serris gene in Samus' body is technically always in her cells, but only works when she puts the suit on. I mean, I can't see how she can feasibly make a plasma beam without her gun so...)
Technically, I guess this means she COULD restore her original genome. It's probably how she got her cold resistance back- "hey, we just absorbed the SA-X and remember when your genome looked like this? Instead of having all these dumb Metroid bits which just make you die in cold? Let's put it back." And so her Fusion suit does one final DNA-absorb, and chucks out the unwanted Metroid bits while patching it up with what it looked like originally.
However, that seemingly contrasts my earlier point, about the Fusion suit not being able to actively put genes in and out, and that they just do it themselves by not getting chopped up. This conflicts with the notion that Samus is now resistant to cold, because she would have to actively lose a gene to do so. Iām guessing that during Fusion she still has all of her original genes, just with new ones added in after the Metroid vaccine (plus anything she gains from boss X). I donāt really know how this all works, honestly Iām a bit stuck on this bit. Maybe the Fusion Suit does have a degree of active gene-splicing ability?
The only thing I can reasonably think of with this theory is that Samus DOES still have her Metroid DNA in there. The SA-Xās messed up genome contained genes which were able to remove or silence the cold weakness genes (i.e. stop them from working even if theyāre still technically there). So the suit is like ācool, Iāll take itā and her Metroid DNA is suppressed.
This conflicts the canon set by Sakamoto because it means her genome is still not like it was originally- if anything, it has a few moreĀ added bits from the SA-X.Ā UNLESS you takeĀ āoriginal genomeā to mean original phenotype, original as in āeverything in the body works like it used toā. Like, Samus has these Metroid genes sitting in her body, but they arenāt actually doing anything significant to her physiology right now so they donāt really count for much.
Perhaps the Metroid genes are interconnected in such a way that the X resistance and/or absorbing powers canāt exist without the cold weakness. So whatever she gains from the SA-X shuts all her Metroid stuff down and makes her body work basically the same as it was before. She loses some potential abilities, but the Fusion Suit decided it would much rather she dropped the weakness, given that she managed fine without those abilities before but this thing is really harming her.
All in all, this means that Samus no longer has working Metroid genes. She probably couldn't break down any more X that entered her body. Which, in turn, means the Fusion suit can't pick-and-choose from the broken up genes and insert them into her system. But she already has all her powerups now, and there's no more X in the universe anyway, so these are redundant abilities by this point.
Tl;dr: Metroids chop up X-parasite DNA to make sure they donāt get infected, but they don't become more like X because they don't have a Fusion Suit. The Fusion Suit is clever and knows when it wants to save and steal some genes. The SA-X genes Samus absorbed didnāt get rid of her Metroid DNA, but told it to stop working, so sheās still got it in theory (AND maybe thereās ways to unlock it via further gene modification/shutting down the SA-X genes somehow) but in practice it is currently doing heck all.
Did any of this make sense? No and its probably full of holes, feel free to pick those out so I can rework this theory until it is reasonable. Don't point out biology issues, I can already see them and I don't care because bullshit science ahoy!
The GFS Valhalla is hands down the most terrifying place in MP3 for me, even more so than Phaaze. Opening that green door and heading into what feels like the gaping maw of death - the abyss the Metroid Hatcher comes out of is *red*, probably from vaporized blood - never fails to give me the jitters. The whole atmosphere is so chilling, especially with the music - everything is dead here, except for the Phazon abominations. What's your opinion on the Valhalla and Phaaze parts of MP3?
Got your message this time! Iām actually gonna hold back on answering it though because I literally just got to this point in the game in my current playthrough of Prime 3, so Iām just about to go through the Valhalla properly. Itās been a while since Iāve played through Corruption until now so my memory of it will be much better once Iāve completed the area this time around. Iāll reblog this again with much more to say about it in a day or twoās time!
It took me a while to follow up on this because of irl stuff, but hereās a bundle of my thoughts (Iāve moved to this blog for clear reading):
I think one of the things that makes the Valhalla so eerie is that you've been there before... Kinda. The layout is essentially the same as the G.F.S. Olympus, which was the first place you visited in the game. The Olympus was a pretty tranquil start to the game, with calming ambient music and lots of people around- far less threatening than the isolated places you spend most of the franchise exploring. Granted, Pirates do show up and make a mess of the place, but prior to that the Olympus strikes you as a nice, gentle intro.
When you visit Valhalla, the first thing you see are nebula clouds with a really awesome but unsettling resemblance to red blood cells. And, as anyone who's ever taken an English Lit class will know, blood and red immediately register in your brain as "danger". As you fly in, the place is an absolute wreck, and totally contrasts in every way to the Olympus. But nonetheless, as you traverse this ghost ship, you have that eerie sense of having been here before.
Despite a few Phazon monsters, the Valhalla seems pretty empty. The only people you meet here will probably disintegrate with a startling sound effect if you fire near them or open the door they're propped up against. Everything is dead, and horrifically so; the people are not just corpses, but dried husks. Several of them are posed in such a way that you can see their panicked attempts to escape just before their death. It's tragic and creepy.
At some point, it becomes clear that this place belongs to the Metroids now. One of the first significant rooms you enter is teeming with baby Miniroids, slowly wafting to-and-fro among their horde. You go down another corridor, and when you look out the window, you see hundreds of Phazon Metroids floating around in the void, just a window and a wall apart from you. You'll enter a room and see a Metroid dragging away a dead soldier, before it spots you and changes target.
Even the Space Pirates don't have a presence here now, evidenced by the amount of Pirate corpses- many of which have clearly fallen victim to their own Metroids. Phazon Metroids are some of the most infuriating and unsettling Metroids yet, in their design and their symbiotic connection with Phazon, plus things like their ability to phase out of reality. Being stuck deep in their territory, in an unpredictable ship that's falling apart at the seams, keeps you on your toes the whole time.
The music on your first visit is unsettling enough as it is- in fact, it sounds reminiscent of the Wrecked Ship from Super Metroid, which is one of the other creepiest areas in the franchise. The music that plays in the depths of Valhalla is even worse- it's eerily silent, devoid of anything, aside from spooky sound effects and vague music playing. If you weren't already freaked out, or if you've made a few trips to Valhalla beforehand and you're starting to get used to it, the atmosphere of this latter area might throw you again.
Phaaze is a different kind of unsettling. Where Valhalla seemed empty, Phaaze's bright glows and overflowing Phazon-based life almost make it overwhelming. On the whole the rooms are pretty dark, but there are bright bursts of colour and glowing sections wherever Phazon crystals or creatures have bloomed. A bit like Valhalla, there's a lot of Metroids on Phaaze, but they're more of a nuisance than anything. This doesn't feel like their world; it belongs more to Phazon itself.
Phaaze also keeps you on your toes, this time because you know you're essentially dying the whole way along and you need to focus to make sure that doesn't happen. At this point, anyone like me is probably panicking, and for the first time in the entire trilogy you don't feel excited to whip your scan visor out when it feels more like a time-waster and distraction (but you do it anyway, because you like the juicy details.)
On Phaaze, you're in constant hypermode- and there's no denying you're pretty powerful. You're the most powerful you've been all game. But you don't really feel it the whole way through. Many Metroid games let you go towards the final boss feeling awesome, having collected all the suit upgrades and a load of weapon expansions. Even if the boss itself proves to be tricky, you at least go in feeling pretty confident. But the whole build-up to Dark Samus on Phaaze is so unsettling and dangerous, it really throws you off and makes you more cautious. At the time it's a little infuriating, but when you look back on it as the emotional credits theme plays in the aftermath, it's just really impressive that you made it through there.
The main music track playing oh Phaaze is another variant of the Phazon Area/Leviathan themes, which IMO are some of the weirdest and creepiest tracks in the Prime games and franchise on the whole. It really fits the area, and creates a fantastic alien weirdness which helps to make you feel a little out of your depth. This world truly is far removed from anything you know. Even places like Tallon IV and Aether, while very alien and unique, seemed to have more familiar touches than this place.
On the whole, the latter half of Corruption is freaky. Metroid Prime has the dullness of the Phazon Mines and the weirdness of the Impact Crater, and Echoes had the key-hunting trail through Dark Aether- but somehow you didn't feel too out of your depth in these places, by the time you have the Phazon/Light suits and can safely traverse their hazards. They're still as atmospheric as they were, but you come to feel a bit more secure somehow, in a way that I never do on the Valhalla and Phaaze.
And personally, I love it. It feels like an awesome end to the trilogy, to really feel likeĀ āIām still a bit out of my depth here this time around, but Iām going forth regardlessā. It makes the endgame so satisfying.
A while ago @alexonyx64 asked me for headcanons about Chozo cultures, and I ended up blending it into a longer piece about the history of the Chozo. Itās quite long but it covers many of my headcanons about the Chozo. Read below the cut:
The oldest known Chozo colony is Zebes, which the Chozo first came to inhabit several thousand years ago. Their descendants formed the colonies on SR388, Elysia, and Tallon IV.
Culture on Zebes had a rough start. The first Chozo to arrive were fleeing a world on the brink of destruction. Finding a new homeworld proved difficult because they had limited resources, and before the days of the Galactic Federation, there was no certainty of finding allies anywhere. They built massive transports very quickly and fled, with more than a thousand Chozo on each ship.
The ship which discovered Zebes was running low on fuel, and Zebes was the first suitable planet they had come across, so they made a hasty landing. The ship's intelligent, Mother Brain-like supercomputer- which later transformed into Phantoon- caused its own vessel to crash into a lake, killing many crew members in the process. The survivors managed to contact the rest of their kin, and other ships came to Zebes. But the crash had a profound effect on them, and they became wary of their own technology.
Though their bodies were fit for living on Zebes, the harsh, barren world proved challenging to live in. Resources were scarce, and those who found them held power. Soon, there was a system of royalty in place, with Kings and Queens reigning over vast areas of Crateria and Brinstar. A culture of warriors was established, as soldiers did battle to capture more land for their leaders. At least many of these monarchs had the honour to fight alongside their armies, and were respected for their battle prowess.
Not all Chozo were content to live this life. The world they had come from before was advanced and peaceful. They also wanted to delve into science and technology again, but at this point most research efforts went into armour and weapons for the Chozo armies. Eventually, one group managed to gather the resources to leave Zebes and find a new world. They considered Tallon IV, but didn't want to risk spoiling its natural beauty with their endeavors, so they kept searching until they located SR388 in a nearby system.
---
Back on Zebes, the archaic period of aggression finally came to an end, marked by the formation of an elder council to replace the Kings and Queens of old. This democratically-elected council later played a part in the formation of the entire Galactic Federation.
Ashamed of their brutal past, the Zebesian Chozo vowed to become pacifists and set an example to the whole universe. With new allies, including their relatives on SR388, they bought the resources to create vast, technologically-advanced cities. The largest city was located on the banks of the great lake into which their first ship had plunged. As a symbolic mark of their growth, the giant temple of Chozodia was built on the cliffside above the crash site. The Chozo visualised their history across the walls of the temple, emphasising the horrors of war- that only death could result from it.
Even at this time, the culture of warriors remained. Chozo warriors were peacebringers, trained and armed only for the sake of defending the innocent. They were carefully picked by their superiors and the Elder Council to ensure only those with good intentions could reach this honoured rank.
Chozo warriors were renowned- and feared by their enemies- for their strength and skill. Norfair became the testing ground of warriors; to survive the deady heat was a sign of strength, and more importantly, strength of mind. They placed much value on a strong mind, believing it to be more important than physical capability.
Almost all of Norfair's settlements were testing grounds. Sacred statues, a feature common across all Chozo cultures, were built in the shape of armoured paladins and adorned every wall. Most of the general population lived in Brinstar, particularly in the upper caverns, leaving the natural beauty of green Brinstar relatively untouched. The cities at the surface were grand, but did not last as long as hoped; the acidic rain caused their buildings and structures to break down. Only places like Chozodia, built from rare and durable materials, remained standing.
The Zebesian Chozo worshipped their ancestors like deities, and were fairly religious people on the whole. They believed the ascended spirits of the dead watched over the mortal world, and the most powerful among them could manipulate it. Exceptional warriors and scientific geniuses- those who had great minds in life- were believed to become the most influential spirits. The Chozo ghost Samus fights in Zero Mission comes from the mural of the "God of War", a former Chozo warrior who was honoured like a deity for their service.
In temples, these spirits were painted in the colour green or blue, to distinguish them. Powerful or not, depictions of spirits were always represented with a pair of wings, a feature possessed by the Chozo ancestors and lost due to a widespread genetic mutation. Many other Chozo statues and murals across all cultures feature wings, and it was not uncommon for noteworthy Chozo to wear wing-like accessories as a status symbol.
With their society settled, the Zebesian Chozo kept in close contact with the Chozo of SR388, receiving materials from them and aiding their scientific research. The Chozo of SR388 had plentiful space and resources for such research, so had advanced a lot in the few hundred years since leaving Zebes.
Using some of their findings, the Chozo created a new biological supercomputer based on the one from the crashed ship. The Mother Brain was designed to care for them like children, and her mind was based on that of a Chozo mother. The Tourian facility was built to safeguard the Mother Brain. In the end, it prevented the Chozo from reaching her when she needed to be destroyed.
---
The Chozo of SR388 were culturally very similar to the Zebesian Chozo, albeit far more invested in science and progress. Interestingly, many Chozo from SR388 had strong psionic power. Researching these individuals lead to the study of life energy, and eventually the creation of technology which allowed the Chozo to use aeion abilities.
Most of SR388's civilisations were located underground, because of extreme weather conditions at the surface. They had a vast array of laboratories and industrial sites in the depths of the planet. Their mining robots were used not just to search for resources, but also to carve caverns into the earth, in which the Chozo could build their homes.
Like Zebesian Chozo, SR388 Chozo worshipped their ancestors and honoured their warriors. They were pacifistic, but unlike the Zebesian Chozo, they were very reclusive. Though they became a part of the Galactic Federation, they rarely interacted with other planets, prefering to do their research in quiet and only share with their allies on Zebes.
The Chozo were somehow linked to the release of the X- though it is unknown how exactly the X came to be a threat, one rumour suggests the parasites were trapped underground and unleashed accidentally by Chozo mining drones. All within the past hundred years or so, the Chozo of SR388 created bioweapons called Metroids using the DNA of many species. These Metroids almost eliminated the X, driving the remaining parasites into stasis in crystal form.
The Metroid design was based on other projects the Chozo had been working on for years. So not to risk affecting the nature of SR388, they had decided not to actually create any such creatures until the need was urgent. Since they had studied life energy in depth, the Chozo designed their Metroids to control this energy directly. It made them powerful allies, until they developed and stopped recognising the Chozo as friends.
---
At some point around 1500 years ago, a group of Chozo from SR388 decided they didn't like life underground, and they actually wanted to understand the wider cosmos. They were the ones who created and lived in Skytown. Before Skytown was built, these Chozo went to the surface of SR388 so they could learn how to live among dangerous storms.
Elysian Chozo didn't have much contact with either SR388 or Zebes, so while the other two cultures remained relatively similar, the Elysian Chozo culture diverged massively. Even the language became different very quickly, partly because it adjusted to their own technological advances.
Though they took great interest in the cosmos, the Elysian Chozo were also quite reclusive. They were so dedicated to their research that they became estranged from the outside world and the other groups of Chozo. Almost all of Skytown's inhabitants were researchers and their families, and for the 450-or-so years they were there, they bred a very research-focused culture. There were no warriors, nor temples, and though they respected significant ancestors they didn't worship them. Building busts and statues was their way of showing respect. They had no interest in spirits and higher planes, unlike most other Chozo.
The Elysians were created to maintain Skytown as well as to defend it. Most Elysians were drone commanders, like the primitive Swarmlords (such as Helios) and the more elegantly-designed Steamlords. Elysians were made distinct from other Skytown robots by their sentience, as well as an incorporation of organic brain material; in that way, the process of their creation was similar to the sacred process of creating Chozo Statues and Torizo. They were loved dearly by their creators.
The Elysian Chozo were also huge on aesthetics. Granted, most Chozo groups loved to make their dwellings aesthetically pleasing, but the Elysian Chozo loved to surround themselves with a sense of grandeur and elegance. They adorned everything with beautiful metals like brass and gold, which was mined on SR388 and which the Chozo of SR388 loved to use. There was an attitude of form-over-function among engineers in Skytown, whereas the Chozo of SR388 didn't bother to make their basic guard drones too beautiful.
Though largely estranged from their relatives, the Elysian Chozo had some contact with SR388 (partly because it was their best way to obtain all that gold). They worked together to create the modern powersuit, like the one Samus Aran uses, which was based off an older Zebesian-style armour set.
---
Eventually, the Elysian Chozo became tired of Skytown and felt like they'd estranged themselves from their roots too much. They left Elysia to visit other planets they'd discovered, including their neighbouring Bryyo. Finally, they settled on Tallon IV, wanting to live simplistic lives in tandem with nature. In doing so, they hoped they'd come to appreciate nature again in a way they'd forgotten while living in the mechanical Skytown.
They travelled to Tallon IV as recommended by the Chozo of Zebes, who lived in the same star system. Being so close together, the two planets- while culturally very different by this point- interacted quite a lot. They nurtured an interest in philosophy in each other, and spirituality was rekindled among the Talloric Chozo. They believed in higher planes, and sought ways to ascend like the powerful spirits of old, rather than just honouring and worshipping them.
Though they had a great deal of respect for their ancestors, they did not treat them like deities as the Zebesian Chozo did. Their approach was a rather more scientific attitude of trying to find out how to reach that state themselves. They wanted to be careful about how they would use that power if they gained it, so they fostered a deep respect for nature by connecting themselves closely to it. Entire buildings were build around trees, with the understanding that if the trees were damaged, the houses would be lost. Guard drones formed mutualistic bonds with war wasp nests, so that the wasps became a vital part of the defences. In this way, they valued other living things and natural balance, and learned not to be selfish or cruel with any power they might obtain.
In the early days, the Talloric Chozo travelled more than their Elysian predecessors, befriending the likes of the Luminoth, Ylla, and others. They made an effort to journey to many of the promising worlds they'd discovered in Skytown. However, as time went by, they became more private and reclusive. The Zebesian Chozo continued to make links and connect with the Galactic Federation, allowing the population on Tallon IV to keep largely to themselves.
Psychic power was common among Talloric Chozo. Such powers had concentrated over their various moves to other planets, from Zebes to SR388 to Elysia to Tallon IV. As such, many of these Chozo had very powerful abilities, like the power of prophecy. They were not sure whether this was genetic, or whether it was related to their growing understanding of science and the universe over time. It was this psionic power which made the Chozo ghosts such powerful presences after being corrupted by Phazon.
---
Tallon IV's culture met a harsh end due to the Leviathan from Phaaze. Several elders sacrificed their lives to bind their spirits to the Cipher, and it seems that many Chozo managed to ascend in some form. Others fled to an unknown location, possibly to Zebes as refugees. They did not ask for help from their Zebesian cousins, not wanting them to be corrupted and spread Phazon to the rest of the universe.
Zebesian Chozo were also declining at that point. Their population was ageing, as they had struggled to breed for many years. This displeased the Mother Brain, who decided that she could redesign Zebes as she saw fit; this lead to her inviting the Zebesian Space Pirates, a "more suitable race" to become the dominant race on planet Zebes, killing off the Chozo in the process. The few survivors fled to another planet to live out the rest of their lives in peace.
SR388 culture met its end when their own creations took over the planet, becoming far too strong to defeat. As much as it pained them to do so, they decided to leave SR388 behind until all life was destroyed and the Metroids essentially starved. They planned to put measures in place which would prevent others from reaching SR388- not wanting people stumbling into danger, or for anyone to try and use the Metroids for evil- but for some reason they simply vanished and were not heard from again.
Well, I've finished training and today they're gonna give me a beast. Also, I broke my personal records device. The one I stole off Captain Brules a cycle ago. Oh well, I'm missing it more than he ever did. Luckily I managed to get hold of a new one today- the respect you get as a rider is glorious! They'll just give you this stuff.
They've captured a new bunch of Korakk Beasts, all younglings fresh for training. I've gotta get mine into shape and then we'll be patrolling down by the jungle generator, I think. Supposedly it won't take long- they're loyal beasts, but dumb as shit. Dangerous, mind, but dumb. Kinda reminds me of Brules, now I think about it.
Log Entry 2
I met up with my beast yesterday. He's a weird looking thing. I mean, I haven't seen that many Korakks, but this one has this straggly look about him. And he just doesn't sit still. It's gonna take us the rest of the year to get the armour on him.
Wish I could say he took to me like the Velbop in that old story they used to tell us as youngsters. Nah, he threw a hissy fit when I tried to get near him and knocked my lance out of my hand. Could've been trampled. But I'll persevere. It'd be cowardly to back out now. This is my beast and I will tame him.
Log Entry 3
Beast taming is not going well. Somehow he managed to put a dent in the walls of his pen, because he was thrashing around so much and acting like an idiot. Then he sat in the corner and made whimpering noises all evening. It pisses me off because I saw Hussar 15 go off with her beast into the jungle, and she's only had it for ten days! It's not like I'm expecting instantaneous results here, but I can't even get the thing to sit still for five minutes so I can get on its stupid head.
Log Entry 4
Two week's worth of training finally paid off. I managed to get onto his head today. Then I sat myself down in what we like to call the driver's seat, and away I went! Flying through the sky because the freakish creature bucked me off. Then I was nearly trampled by it, and let me tell you, there's absolutely nothing fun about a Korakk running at you at high-speed while you're incapacitated on the floor.
Having been, ahem, rescued by a few of my colleagues, I set about putting a complaint in to command. Clearly there's something wrong with this one. With the amount of time we've spent on it, it should be as cooperative as the rest of them. I suspect Phazon madness, because you see more of that stuff growing around every day. Nearly stepped in a blob of it before- could've melted my leg off!
Log Entry 5
We had Commando 68 take a look at it, but the beast has been given the all-clear. He beat the thing pretty harshly into shape- it wasn't nice to watch. In fact, I feel a bit sorry for inflicting that on the stupid thing now. It looked awfully subdued afterward. I felt so bad that I went out and caught a Nightbarb for it- the normal ones, not those Phazon weirdo mutants. Seemed pleased enough.
Tomorrow they're going out to round up a couple more beasts, aiming to catch at least three of four of them if they can. I was gonna volunteer to help, but they want us to go mounted, and that probably ain't a good idea. Either I'll end up dead, or my beast will.
Log Entry 6
I've been sneaking rations to my beast. He's starting to look fatter, but that's okay because he was skinny to start with. Now he just looks normal.
It's fine, I can afford it. We're well paid in our position. It's a dangerous job handling Korakks, given their size and strength, so we're compensated. It takes someone like 68 to really know how to handle them- I still ain't too pleased with his methods, but he's the expert so I won't question it. But he's not handling my beast. I am, so from now on I'm handling things the way I want to.
Also, I decided on a name for him. I'm calling him Pod. It's short for "my brain is the size of a Wryl Bean Pod and I'm stupid" because he is.
Log Entry 7
Hussar 11 caught me sneaking Nightbarb wings to Pod and told me it was dangerous. Said I "wouldn't be the first to get devoured by my Korakk if I associate myself with food". I feel a bit bad stopping now because he always looks forward to them, but oh well. I prefer my head.
We rode around a bit today and he's actually taking a liking to me. Well, I hope so anyway, maybe it's just the snack thing. Maybe he's gonna toss me off and eat me. Hopefully not.
Log Entry 8
Today I'm confident enough to take Pod out on duty. We've had some worrying reports coming from the north and Command aren't risking anything. It sounds like the Federation are getting suspicious. I'm surprised they haven't turned up sooner if I'm honest, Norion's only, like, a planet away.
We're just trying to get the Phazite armour on Pod now. He's a bit hesitant, but I think if we- oh, bugger.
Log Entry 9
We got the armour on Pod. He took it off again. Commencing attempt two.
Log Entry 10
Great, Pod just inflicted a fatal wound on Hussar 18. They had to drag him off. Won't be seeing him again. Didn't like him much anyway, he was a- POD
Log Entry 11
Pod somehow got OVER the pen walls, found a few storage barrels, and is eating weapons fuel. I really don't wanna go near him because of the whole food-association thing... Man, his tongue's huge... I didn't even realise they were that big... Oh damn, those guys have weapons. They're gonna shoot Pod. I gotta do something.
Log Entry 12
So I managed to drag Pod away from the weapons fuel and somehow convinced my superiors that he's a really nice Korakk Beast and it won't happen again. He's actually an idiot and he's going to ruin my reputation, but I still feel bad about what 68 did and now we've bonded so I have to look out for him. We got out on duty within good enough time, and nothing interesting happened. Now I'm sitting on Pod's back while he paces up and down this stretch of path non-stop because he can't sit still for two minutes.
I guess his energy levels are a good thing?
We did spot a few of those reptiles who live on Bryyo, and I swear one of them was riding a Korakk too. But they vanished into thin air the moment we got up there. They like to lurk behind those giant thorn plants, waiting for the opportune moment to strike. At least I have Pod to protect me.
Log Entry 13
Pod caused a little bit more strife. He got into a fight with one of the other Korakks, and things got nasty. I mean, Korakks are nasty beasts anyway, so two of them locked in a deathmatch is brutal. Next thing you know there's Korakk blood-goo everywhere and claws waving wildly in the air. Me and the other Korakk's rider managed to get well out of the way in time, but we couldn't call the beasts off each other. Pod managed to rip the other one's tongue out and then was making jabs at its belly. That could've killed it.
Lucky a few aerotroopers showed up. They managed to distract Pod from the safety of above while we climbed away and the other terrified animal made a run for it. Luckier still, you can't reach a Korakk's stomach from above, and that's the vulnerable point. Those guys would've killed Pod for sure if they could.
Log Entry 14
Pod and I have been removed off duty due to disciplinary issues. Commando 68 isn't best pleased with my efforts. I guess he was right? And I was starting to think me and Pod were pretty tight.
There's been a couple more attacks on the jungle base by those lizards, and apparently the gel plant area is having major problems with them as well. At least our glorious Leader has sent a new Commander to help us sort them out while our technicians finish up the generator defences.
In the meantime, I dunno what I'm gonna do. I've been accused of being "too soft" which is just about the worst reputation-tarnisher a Pirate can get. Too soft means not ruthless enough for battle. Unable to battle means unable to serve the Pirate forces. If I get struck off, I'll be shipped back to Urtraghus and have my head put in a drone 'til the end of my days. I'd rather not.
Log Entry 15
Me and Pod have been sent to a quieter location down south. There's less for him to get angry at there, and so the both of us are safer, as is everyone else. We're basically just keeping the reptiles at bay from down here, but most of them are coming from the north anyway. It's not particularly entertaining.
I've been a bit stricter with Pod- haven't talked to him much, or picked bugs off the thorn bushes for him. I even jabbed him in the side at one point when he was misbehaving. He nearly threw me- won't be doing that again. I felt bad doing it, but security is paramount, and the only way he's gonna keep going is if he learns to behave himself.
Log Entry 16
Some of those Bryyonian lizards dared to get close to us today. I could tell Pod was on edge for a while, then suddenly one of the things lunged at his face. Couldn't get past his armour, but it was a shock. Needless to say, he dashed the thing to the ground and it was a pulp in seconds.
I signalled to a couple of the ground guards and they pretty much took care of the rest. A few more lizards jumped through the bushes but they were basically leaping into weapons fire. It almost feels like some sort of weird test. They can't be that intelligent, they're brutish and their planet's soaked in Phazon.
Pod wasn't too shaken by the assault, but he had taken a very small wound to his right leg. It must've been hurting him because he didn't move about too much afterward, which is uncharacteristic. He even let me clean it up afterwards. I don't know if he's forgiven me for the harsh treatment, but I'm gonna have to admit it- I'm not cut out for that. I'm too nice or whatever. From now on, it's bugs as often as I can catch them.
Log Entry 17
68 noted today that I've been working hard on Pod. I dunno what I've been doing that he's noticed, but he was pleased. Said the guards on the south end were impressed, partly because I managed to control Pod enough to prevent him from killing them too. I still think that was something to do with his leg, but oh well, I'll take the praise.
I know what I haven't been doing, and that is harsh treatment. You simply can't do that to them. They get annoyed, and you end up dead if you aren't careful. Treat 'em nice, and they love it. Today Pod followed me around while I was on foot, didn't ignore me, didn't try to eat me, just followed me around like a faithful Velbop. It was- dare I say this about my killer beast? It was adorable.
I hope nobody reads my diary.
Log Entry 18
Those lizards made a full-scale assault on us today. I was out towards the east near the generator with a couple of other Hussars, and suddenly we were surrounded by them. Some of them were huge, bulky things which turned invisible the minute you looked at them. The rest had these animals, Warp Hounds, which could teleport with them. Horrible things, they were. I saw a trio of hounds tear the limbs off someone's Korakk. The rider had a lucky quick death after that.
Pod handled it well- kept his stomach shielded, just like he was trained to do, and didn't falter once, even when one of those reptiles grabbed hold of his tongue. Korakks have sensitive tongues and it hurts to pull on 'em, but Pod managed to yank the reptile over and crush it. I also managed to coax him into spitting Phazon, which isn't something he generally likes to do because it burns his mouth on the way out. It worked well, though. Not exactly hypermode-PED levels of power, but I was impressed.
Near the end of the battle I got knocked off by one of those lizards' throwing weapons. I landed near the holobarrier, and the electric shock disabled all my limbs. Ruddy things. What amazed me was Pod stuck around and shielded me the whole time, standing over me to keep me from harm. At first I thought he was gonna trample me by accident, but I could tell he was being deliberately careful with where he put his feet.
After the battle, I was taken in for repairs, which is where I still am. Supposedly I'll be out tomorrow and back on duty. I'm a lucky one. About half the guards over there are lying dead in the mud now, plus two Korakks. Those lizards really know how to beat them.
Log Entry 19
I've come out of repairs and all my limbs are good to go. This is what happens when you don't evolve your own legs like most other species, you're transformed into a useless slug when the technology inevitably fails. Not even like I could crawl away with all the heavy metal stuck to me and pinning me down. But hey, I had Pod to look after me, and even if it did take a little coaxing for him to let the guards get to me, he did a good job.
Bad news from the north- the Hunter Samus Aran has made planetfall. And here we were thinking she was dead or something. She's never dead, she comes back faster than Lord Ridley. Well, bugger, we're dead.
Except we can't afford to be dead, because Command are insistent that we beat her this time. We have Phazon on our sides, and Phazon makes us stronger. Our Leader makes us stronger, with Phazon. Nothing's going to go wrong, okay?
Log Entry 20
Me and Pod have been reassigned again, this time to the way between the generator and the nearest viable landing site. It's a pretty vital path if the Hunter wants to get down to us, but Commando 68 is confident that we can handle it. Apparently you need a "wild, unpredictable beast" to take down something as dangerous as the Hunter. Apparently, to no surprise, a "wild, unpredictable beast" is how they're referring to Pod these days. No worries, I've got a handle on him.
I really hope the Hunter isn't gonna come down this way, if I'm honest. There's other ways to the generator, albeit longer ones- wouldn't it be ridiculous of her to place her ship so close to us? She's probably got the sense to make her way down from the cliff region instead. Maybe, maybe not.
Oh well, no good panicking about it now. I'm not a coward and I'm not disobeying orders. As much as I like Pod, his duty is the same as mine- we go in together, and if we die, we die. Whether we do or not, hopefully we'll stop the Hunter in the process.
At least it's a good spot down here, near the densest part of the jungle. There's bugs galore! I keep catching them out of the air and sneaking them to Pod. Tried a few myself, but they get stuck between my teeth. So I'll just give them to him for now. He seems pretty happy with himself.
That's a funny looking ship up there. Don't recognise that one. Maybe it's a Federation vessel, or the Hunter? I'd better investigate, I think I can see some rising smoke. Thought I heard a funny loud noise too. Didn't spook Pod, though. If I leave my records device up here, I hope nobody makes off with it, or there'll be hell to pay.
I've been replaying Metroid Prime Hunters because it's a game I have a lot of nostalgia for, even if it isn't exactly a great Metroid game. There's a lot I still like about the game, not limited to the hunter concepts, atmosphere and music, but there's also a lot left to be desired. Just for fun, I've been thinking of ways one could spruce up the game and make it more appealing to fans of the traditional Metroid formula.
I'm inclined to say the game was designed to be simple, with evident focus on making a good multiplayer (arguably the one point they really succeeded on) and no real care put into the single player campaign. My train of thought is based around improving the single player storyline- though I'm not a game developer and I'm sure a professional could do much better than me.
The Hunters
I'm going to start off with the hunters because they are such an integral part of the game, to the point that they're literally in the title. The premise is incredibly cool- six enemy hunters, of varying backgrounds and moralities, have picked up the same signal as you and are now on the path to claim the Ultimate Power for one reason or another. In Hunters, Samus has to make her way through the Alimbic Cluster, occasionally encountering a hunter in either a scripted event (first-time meeting per each Hunter) or a random miniboss fight (one of the six hunters, in one of a set of specific rooms). If the hunter kills Samus, they take one of the octoliths she has collected, and she has to track them down to get it back.
Realistically, even if the rest of the story was mediocre, the hunters should've been the shining stars and had the effort put into them. In practice, they're not that exciting. They're generally not too hard to defeat, which I might expect on a first encounter, but they're actually easier the second time around when they SHOULD be more difficult. It should feel like they're hunting you for octoliths just as hard as you'd be hunting them if they had one. Some smarter AI might do wonders for them, because with their limited difficulty you're not actually that likely to ever get killed by them and need to go on a hunt.
The hunters have cool designs, but battle tactics aside, they're incredibly generic. In Corruption you don't spend too much time getting to know your fellow hunters but you still get the measure of their personalities and grow quite fond of them, and feel sad when you have to destroy them. In Hunters, the hunters are just time-consuming obstacles as much as a Guardian or something else.
They were scarier in Breath of the Wild.
With such varied personalities, some character interactions or indications of their motives and moralities might go a long way. No speech required- they could speak through actions. Like maybe have Trace, being the sneaky-sneaky stealth hunter he is, wait for you then lock you in with a bunch of enemies while he claims the prize at the other side. Whereas Sylux or Weavel might give in to vengeance and knock a bunch of things out for the sake of getting to kill you personally.
Not only would it be interesting to see more of their interactions with Samus, but with the environment too. These hunters are presumably picking up the lore as they go along, and supposedly finding their way to the octoliths. Some might realise Samus is doing well, and wait for her to beat the bosses so they can steal octoliths from her when she's worn out post-boss. Maybe some are actually competent enough to find artifacts or even octoliths for themselves.
Imagine situations like this: you stumble upon a boss portal with no artifacts in place. You get two, have to pass by the portal again, and surprise surprise- three artifacts already? Then you get shot in the back and frozen in place by Noxus; he knew you were coming and he'll be damned if you're getting that octolith before he does.
Presumably the game wants to ensure all the Hunters are your potential foes right up until the very end, but it might be interesting to see some of them actually take sides with Samus, if only temporarily. Spire and Noxus are arguably the "good guys" and if there was more in-game indication of their personalities, it would add a layer of depth in that you, a fellow "good guy" can pity their cause but still have to do your job- even if it means defeating them in the process. Maybe in places such as the very final level, there's room for one of them or even one of the "bad guys" to choose to help Samus- like shooting someone else to spare her from trouble once they realise she's doing the right thing, or something like that.
On that note, it would be interesting if we actually learned anything at all about these six hunters, since they're such noteworthy enemies. In the Prime trilogy, arguably the most significant and omnipresent enemies are the Space Pirates, and we learn LOADS about them and their thoughts through log scans.
It would be interesting if the other Hunters left similar things- at the very least, the option to stumble across their ships and read their last recorded logs, with their thoughts and feelings and a taste of their personalities. Perhaps new logs are added after their first encounter with Samus. The ships would also be a more sensible place to get hold of their signature weapons, rather than finding them across the Alimbic Cluster with no real explanation as to why they are there.
Overall, the Hunters represent a lot of missed potential, and I probably haven't covered it all, but as the titular characters they should have posed more of a threat while being more interesting and getting the player more invested in them.
Level design
Hunters is an incredibly linear game. It's not quite on Other M's level, and at least offers times when several planets are open to you and you have to go investigate a few before finding the right way. But the quest to find artifacts and octoliths is very straightforward, especially since the hunters etc. only provide generic battles and don't really change your environment or get in your way. A few more scripted events with the hunters nudging you off-course could've done some good. But with so few branching or interconnected areas, that isn't necessarily possible on the map as it stands.
I'm pretty sure the developers have actually confirmed by now- if it wasn't obvious already- that the game's single player was an afterthought to the multiplayer, and the room designs are all based on various repurposed multiplayer stages. In all fairness, it could be worse, and offers many points where you can encounter the other hunters and have a good fight. But it does lead to a very linear path back-and-forth to the boss portals. This does little for exploration, which is one of the Metroid franchise's core aspects.
Even in Fusion, where Adam pretty much told you where to go, there was exploration to be done and hidden places and items to find. In Hunters, the items are not incredibly well hidden, nor are there many of them at all, so the item hunt that has been a significant part of almost every Metroid game is non-existent. Typically you explore until you find an item which allows you to access a few more areas you couldn't get to before, opening up the ways to new items and bosses and such, but the capacity for this is limited here. You don't pick up power-ups as you would traditionally, and if it weren't for the weapon-specific force fields you need to destroy with the new beams you pick up, there's nothing really out of access to you from beginning to end. You can reach every ledge with your jump, go into hot areas with your varia suit, boost past instant-kill pistons with your boost ball, all without having the challenge of finding the relevant pickups first.
On the subject of the weapons, they come to very little use aside from some enemies with weaknesses, some buttons that need to be laser-sniped by the imperialist, and the aforementioned force fields. Maybe this is a minor gripe, but it would be cool if their uses were a bit more varied, like having to melt stuff with the Magmaul, energize or drain things with the Shock Coil, freeze a path with the Judicator etc.
Guard nodes: harder to beat than the actual bosses.
Overall in terms of level design I'd rearrange the linear paths to interconnect different rooms and make a less easy start-to-boss route, requiring the player to actually try and fail to get past certain rooms due to available power-ups (I guess this is attempted with the force fields and coloured doors but they just block you out of rooms altogether). I'd also try to add in more pickups, hiding them in new places- some of which are more easy and obvious, others which are hidden and hard, and require newly acquired skills to reach.
I will say this, the actual visual design of the worlds isn't badly done at all. It may not be as gloriously detailed as Tallon IV or Aether due to the graphics of the DS, but it's nonetheless quite nice to look at and does quite well with what it has. There is undoubtedly a scary abandoned atmosphere (that was one of the things that drew me into the game when I was a kid). It does well with what graphics it has.
Iām writing at 3am, so this thing genuinely has more brainpower than me.
Bosses
If Hunters weren't repetitive enough as it were, the bosses are literally copied and pasted onto every planet and space station four times over. This infamous fact is an obvious relic of lazy, last-minute single player campaign design. The bosses as they are aren't particularly impressive either- it would be fine if the first Cretaphid and first Slench were kept in place, but the second and third and fourth of each of those are just underwhelming in both their repetitiveness and their continually unimpressive tactics.
First thing I'd do, tear out 6 of the bosses and replace them with something new and interesting. At the very LEAST, have four boss types total and use each boss twice, but the same two bosses four times over is a bit much. Ideally each boss room would have a new and increasingly difficult boss, offering new challenges and new ways to utilise your newfound weapons aside from "this boss has a weakness to X weapon". This would be the perfect time to show off the secondary effects of your beams, like the Judicator's freezing or the Volt Driver's disruptive effects.
What I would do is pile together all copies of each Cretaphid and each Slench. Normally, the first Cretaphid gets down to 2/3 health and its lasers go a row lower, which isn't the most challenging change. So, I'd have the Cretaphid get to 2/3 health and then start using green blobs. Gets down to 1/3, starts using blobs AND lasers. Instead of spreading these abilities across four Cretaphids desperately trying to make each one seem different and advanced from the rest, have them all be stages of the same boss, allowing that boss to get slightly more challenging during the one fight and not needing to repeat it four times over!
(It doesn't need to be super hard anyway, it's only the first major boss of the game.)
Same with the Slench- 3/4 health it detaches from the wall, 2/4 health it starts doing the charge attack, 1/4 health it rolls around on the floor (and its patterns aren't so darn predictable while it's doing so). Something like that. Then we don't need a whole four of them, and the other six bosses can be brand new mechanoids which get more challenging as time goes along.
Kinda going back to a previous section here, but maybe since they're one of the most important things in the game, have the other Hunters intrude on the boss fights. Perhaps you could have an encounter where somebody else fills out the portal before you, and when you get in there you find a Hunter- maybe even one picked randomly by the game- who is fighting the boss but just can't beat it.
There's a variety of scenarios you could get out of this, which could help to show off the personalities of the Hunters. E.g. one might team up with you but get defeated at the end. One might team up with you, only to battle you for the octolith afterwards. If its your last octolith, one might actually just say "here, you take that, I'm done" and let you have it. Maybe one chickens out once you turn up, and they may or may not hang around outside the boss portal to grab you.
One final thing I think I'd do is make the Stronghold Void a more interesting place. Each one is ever-so-slightly visually different, to reflect the planet or station you came from, but they're all basically the same short, straight path down to the boss room. Personally I'd design them more like Leviathans, with a room or two between you and the boss, and the need to use a few of your newest power-ups to get to it.
As a side note, the cutscenes before and after bosses can go- though if they had eight different bosses, having the pre-boss cutscenes wouldn't be so bad since they could be a cool way to show off each new boss. The after-boss cutscenes are usually just the boss exploding, and you get that anyway when the screen whites out once you land the final blow, so unless something more significant can happen I would personally skip those cutscenes and go straight to getting the octolith. If there's gonna be cutscenes, save them for something else, probably something involving the other hunters.
Story and Final Boss
I'm gonna go ahead and say that while the story is totally a Prime rehash, I actually kinda like it. Yeah, fundamentally it's the same eldritch-abomination-crashed-into-our-planet-and-now-we're-all-dead. But there's something I find incredibly scary about the idea of Gorea, in a way. Based on the lore scans you get in game, it's clearly meant to be a REALLY overpowered big bad, even if the actual boss fight doesn't live up to the reputation.
The sense I get from the lore scans is that the Alimbic people were not quite like the Chozo or Luminoth- they're not all peaceful or wise. They're arrogant bastards who thought they were the best at everything until something very big came and knocked them down a peg or two, and wiped out their galaxy-spanning civilisation in the process. They repeatedly go on about how much their pride cost them, and that kinda ties into the hunters as well.
The lessons learned by the Alimbic people are ones the Hunters can take from. They conquered the whole Tetra galaxy with their supposedly unstoppable military force, like the greedy Kriken Empire from which Trace hails. But their pride was their downfall. They thought they were the best, their morals superior to all else, like Noxus and the Vhozon. But for all their faith in themselves, they lost the battle against Gorea. The last Alimbics desperately sought to save their kind, just as Spire seeks the Ultimate Power to save his. And Spire, like the rest, is falling into a trap- a lie put out by Gorea to lead to them to his prison so they can free him.
I think I would still centre the story around the hunters, with less focus on the Alimbic people than, say, Prime gives to its Chozo. But it would be interesting to see those hunters pick up the lore as Samus does and react to it. Perhaps have Spire give up on getting an artifact, and you wonder "why is that?" so you scan around expecting some kind of invisible force field but instead find a lore snippet left by one of the last Alimbics, telling of how they gave up trying to save their people and sacrificed themselves so they could protect other races in other galaxies from Gorea's path of destruction (or if you don't care about lore, you never have to load up the scan visor, just snag that artifact and be on your way.)
Some hunters won't learn, but maybe it will be their downfall. Maybe it is all their downfalls, that they refuse to learn and still go in search of this ultimate power on the Oubliette ship- meanwhile Samus knows what's up and instead of seeking the Ultimate Power, by the time she reaches the endgame she's just here to wreck Gorea's shit and make sure the other idiots don't unleash hell on the entire universe.
Maybe this next bit belongs in the previous section, but I'd have Gorea be a genuinely threatening last boss. I can kinda see why they went with the one-beam-at-a-time thing because the beams are literally the only power-ups in the entire game, but it still makes for an uninteresting fight. I did like the prophecy thing though, that was neat.
The first boss of Metroid Prime is scarier than the last boss of Hunters. What happened toĀ āorgies of annihilationā Gorea?
Gorea can start out a little weak- it's fine, he's been stuck to this "seal sphere" for around two thousand years or so. But as the battle progresses, he needs to break through the walls, metaphorically and literally if needs be (think AM2R's Metroid Queen.) He needs to shape-shift, become a bit more unpredictable, get further and further away from the starting point as you desperately fight to contain him while he ploughs though the prison ship. He needs to be a boss as threatening as the Emperor Ing or worse, something that obviously wants to consume and destroy. You need to feel like you are the last line of defence between Gorea, cancerous swallower of galactic civilisations, and everything you care about protecting.
I think there needs to be an explanation for the Omega Cannon, too. It's clearly useful against Gorea, so why didn't the Alimbics use it? When you pick it up, you're told the consequences are too dire. So those consequences need to be seen. Maybe start out having it damage you when you use it, requiring skill to not kill yourself in the process (as long as it doesn't make the game unbeatable, it would have to be balanced well enough to seem powerful without being horrible to use.) Maybe the consequence is that it downright destroys the Alimbic Cluster- unfortunate for all the wildlife, but there were no Alimbic people left there anyway, and so the loss is arguably not as great as it would've been back in the day.
Alternatively, you being Samus Aran, you save the Alimbic Cluster by transporting the Oubliette ship back into the Infinity Void and then running back to your ship before the traditional endgame countdown finishes. Yay for you! You and your fellow hunters escape, possibly having gained a strange sense of camaraderie with all of them except for Sylux who you still need to hate for the purposes of Metroid Prime 4, and the universe is totally safe from Gorea because you annihilated him with a fate more brutal than even Phaaze got inflicted upon it. Also, if you have one endgame escape sequence you could cut out all the other post-boss escape sequences, which are kinda repetitive and annoying anyway.
Overall
On the whole, Hunters isn't necessarily a good game, but it's not an awfully bad one either. Everything I've covered above could make the game a lot cooler, but I'm not surprised that none of it was included in the game itself, because the game was basically designed around the multiplayer. If for some reason they ever remade Hunters, I'd hope to see at least some of the things I've brought up, or else any other good ideas that can spice the game up and bring it a little closer to the normal Metroid formula, gameplay-wise.
Personally, I still like Hunters a lot. Maybe that's nostalgia, maybe it's because I love the atmosphere and music a lot (as I've probably already said a few times) and maybe it's because I have a big imagination and can picture things as being better than they are, even if they aren't represented that way in-game. I can fully understand why many people have a neutral-to-hatred attitude towards the game. I didn't even mention the godawful hand-cramping control scheme which needs a SERIOUS revamp. But Hunters has the bare bones of a potentially fantastic concept for a Metroid game, and an improved version of it- one which treats the eponymous hunters much better for a start- could bring something brand new and brilliant to the table.
