Spoiler alert
Metroid: Other M is infamous for its portrayal of the main character, Samus Aran. The portrayal is criticized for being "lifeless and boring", "nonsensical", or "sexist”. Others complain that it makes it seem like she, "cannot possibly wield the amount of power she possesses unless directed to by a man" or seem like she is, "an unsure, insecure woman who desperately wants the approval of her former (male) commanding officer". Many people seem to agree with these thoughts and some try to justify what happened, but what if it there was just a large misunderstanding. What if everyone, people that support it and oppose it alike, conveniently forgot parts of the story that would make them see the events otherwise. After some thinking I came to the following conclusion:
Other M’s story failed to get across because it was a video game.
This may strike you as strange but please let me explain in a couple of sections.
#1. Players put themselves in a character’s shoes
Although this fact is something that usually helps storytelling, in Other M’s case it worked against it. Players empathize with game characters but another thing they do is see themselves as the playable character. For example, whenever you would defeat a boss you would say, “I defeated the boss” or whenever you figured out a puzzle you would say, “I figured out a puzzle”. People do not think “The character defeated the boss” or “The character figured out a puzzle”. However, this sort of thing ends during parts like cut-scenes. This causes a parallel between gameplay and cut-scenes.
This fact worked against Other M. The reason being that the game handed Samus’s best moments to the player. Players attributed everything that Samus did while playable as something they did and attributed everything Samus did in a cutscene as something Samus did. If you list it out it goes something like this:
Samus arrived, I blew the door down, Samus took orders from Adam, I killed a monster made of bugs, Samus thought about Adam, I restored power, Samus meets a little birdy, I defeated a giant hive, Samus meets a little birdy again, I kill a group of cyborg space pirates, Samus is squashed by a lizard, I kill a giant magma boss, Samus finds dead things, I defeat a robot, Samus talks to a girl, I save Anthony, Samus talks to Anthony about Adam, I defeat another Magma boss, Samus panics in front of Ridley, I beat Ridley to a pulp, Samus thinks about Adam again, I follow someone that may be a traitor, and so on.
When thinking about what Samus did in the story they would leave out what they did and think that Samus arrived, Samus took orders from Adam, Samus thought about Adam, Samus meets a little birdy, Samus meets a little birdy again, Samus is squashed by a lizard, Samus finds dead things, Samus talks to a girl, Samus talks to Anthony about Adam, Samus panics in front of Ridley, Samus thinks about Adam again. When you see it like this, no one can blame them for why they thought Samus was portrayed badly. They however forgot that Samus blew the door down, Samus killed a monster made of bugs, Samus restored power, Samus defeated a giant hive, Samus killed a group of cyborg space pirates, Samus killed a giant magma boss, Samus defeated a robot, Samus saved Anthony, Samus defeated another Magma boss, Samus beat Ridley to a pulp, Samus followed someone that may be a traitor. If you look at it this way it seems that Samus is a total bad-ass.
Going back to the Ridley scene, while I do agree that it is strange for Samus to panic, it seems like people forget on important fact. She got over it and beat the crap out of Ridley.
#2. Players get the story piece by piece over a period of time
Unlike a movie, a game not continuously played in one setting. Most of the time the players would forget part of the story that didn’t make an impression on them. They might miss details that explain things they thought were contradictory. They might have missed parts the explained who the “Deleter” was. They might have missed Samus’s small jab at the whole authorization thing.
In conclusion, Other M’s story just does not work all that well for a game. If only there was something showed the story in one setting and added in parts of gameplay, you know, like a movie or something.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_cToWXwcaQ
Oh yeah, there is. The story just flows better as a movie. The added gameplay allows you to see it as Samus doing everything which makes Samus seem like a total bad-ass. If you really want to give Other M a chance, watch it as a movie. When watching I find the story to be about a bounty hunter who responds to a distress call, supports a platoon because the mission is too dangerous for them, experiences a childhood fear but overcomes it, experiences the loss of a friend and a father figure but is more determined because of it, and beats the crap out of a lot of monsters.
By the way: Samus’s emotionless English voice < Samus’s calm Japanese voice
