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I think everyone is familiar with the whole "Miles Mackenzie" controversy by now, so I'm not gonna waste any time explaining it. I just wanted to say that people MAY be going a little bit too crazy over this. I've seen people go from this game being one of their most anticipated ones to literally say they don't want to play it anymore. Or, at the very least, being worried that Metroid Prime 4 will be a turd or something that doesn't feel like a Metroid game at all. Just because of the addition of NPCs and Mackenzie in particular.
As a Metroid fan myself, I can see why some people could be a little worried. After all, this is something that goes against the conventions of Metroid. Right?
Well... not really. I see people often say that Metroid is all about atmosphere and isolation. About the sense of discovery from both exploring the world itself and uncovering the plot by ourselves. But the truth is that from the entire series (I'm gonna leave the spin offs out of this)... at least half of them challenge this conventions or do a poor job at following them. And before someone says "duh, Other M was shit", I'm not even talking about Other M (although I could, because I believe it's a very good game even with its flaws). I'm talking about Metroid Fusion. I'm talking about Metroid Prime 3. I'm talking about Metroid Dread. Games that are beloved by fans, scored very well... and do things in a way that people would not consider "very Metroidy".
Metroid Fusion is incredibly linear. It constantly confines you in an area, it makes it impossible to sequence break, exploration takes a huge hit... Not to mention you have Mr. Adam Malkovich over here telling you where to go and what to do. All of this goes completely against what, in theory, makes a Metroid game... a Metroid game. It goes even further: Samus talks for the first time. And I don't mean in a "here`s a quick lifeless summary of the events of the previous games" like in Super Metroid. No, I mean Samus expresses herself for the first time. We know her thoughts. She reflects on her past. She talks about how she feels. She even expresses... fear. The unstoppable and ruthless bounty hunter, Samus Aran, was notified of an explosion in a distant space station and I quote: "[the explosion] awoke a nameless fear in my heart [...]". This is insane if you think about it.
Metroid Prime 3 takes a more direct apporach regarding the plot and narrative. We have more cinematics, more exposition, NPCs from the Galactic Federation that talk to Samus directly and fight alongside her in some moments, an AI that also tells us what to do and where to go (although it's not as constant as in Metroid Fusion), more focus on combat and action... While it still feels like a Metroid game, it's undeniable that it did some things differently. This game introduces many things that we are seeing in Prime 4, but some "fans" apparently forgot about the last entry in the series and the one from which they supposedly have been waiting a sequel for 18 years.
Metroid Dread is a funny one, because it recieved almost universal praise from Metroid fans from day one and some of them even went as far as to call it "one of the best metroidvanias in recent years"... and while I too think it's an incredible game, it very much pales as a Metroidvania in comparison to not just the most open games in the franchise, but other titles as well. For example, while it's not Fusion's level of linearity and confinement, it's pretty much a linear game most of the time. The game makes a great job at hiding this fact from the player to the point where it tricks us into thinking we are "exploring" and finding things by ourselves, but in reality it often confines the player in a very restricted area and it often only leaves you one possible path to follow (and it's often marked on the map with the symbol of your last beam upgrade). It's almost impossible to hunt for expanssions during most of the game because of this. Sure, there are a few intended out of order upgrades, but it's a far cry from Super or Zero Mission. Also, Mr. Malkovich returns to tell us what to do and what not to do from time to time. Not to mention the soundtrack of this game was definitely not up to the standard of the Metroid franchise. It was very forgettable for the most part and you could argue that music is a big part of what creates this so called "Metroid" atmosphere.
Even Metroid Prime 1 did things differently from what was common for the franchise at the time. Going from 2D to 3D is one thing, but making the game First Person? All put together makes for a very different kind of game. One could argue at the time that Metroid Prime was not a good "Metroid" game. But nowadays, such thinking would be seen as silly and dumb.
So, what's the point of all of this? Simple: Metroid's identity is not set in stone. It hasn't been for well over 23 years. There's not a "Metroid" list of things that a game has to follow to be a good Metroid game. Pretty much every game starting from Fusion and Prime does things differently. You are still in alien territory. You are still Samus. You are still shooting, jumping and exploring for upgrades that open new paths. But they have been experimenting with everything else ever since. And for the most part, Metroid games have continued to be great. Some of them had some controversial aspects among fans, but in general you don't see many people say that Fusion, Prime 3 or Dread are "bad Metroid games". On contraire. And they are believed to be great despite them going over very different directions from their previous entries.
What we are seeing with Prime 4 is, in my opinion, a tiny little aspect of a game (one nerdy character that serves as a tutorial and stays with you for about 10-20 minutes tops), a game that is not even out yet and know very little about... and people are treating it like if it completely makes the game unplayable or something. "This is not Metroid, it breaks the immersion". Holy shit, have you guys played Metroid over the last 23 years? Sure, it haven't had a nerdy and overly comical NPC tutorial character before, but almost every entry since 2002 had many, MANY things that were arguably even more impactful than this... and you guys LOVE those games and call them Metroid.
Look, maybe when the game comes out I will realize that this whole Federation companions thing has been done in a terrible way that makes Metroid Prime 4 a bad game or at least a not so good game. Maybe. But from what we know right now, going nuts over Miles Mackenzie (a single NPC in an upcoming game that otherwise looks phenomenal), specially considering the amount of changes and additions the Metroid franchise has gone through almost since its inception (like, Metroid II is incredibly different from Metroid I too, this trend didn't even start with Fusion/Prime) seems like overreacting to me. Not only that, but it makes me question if these people being devastated for this situation are actually Metroid fans at all.
The game is less than two weeks away. Let's just wait and see what happens.
