What I love about Metroid Other M.

I absolutely adore Metroid Other M, in this post I will talk about many of the things I love about the game, and in doing so, I will cover majors spoilers.

STORY/CHARACTERS:

I really love the story and how it explores more of who Samus is as a person, and expands upon aspects of her introduced in Fusion. Seeing just how much the Baby Metroid affected Samus, the fact it gave its life for her caused her to go into a depression was really interesting and a great way to show how impactful the ending of Super Metroid was. It was great to see the loose ends of Fusion tied up in this game, such as how Ridley got on the B.S.L. Station or how the Federation got DNA of the Baby Metroid (and other Zebes life forms). Also, I liked that they fleshed out more of the "corrupt" Federation introduced in Fusion.

Samus Aran:

Samus is dealing with an unusually high amount of emotional hardship in Other M, whether it's the loss of the Baby, reuniting with Adam which stirred up sad memories of why she left the Federation, or seeing Ridley unexpectedly come back (unbeknownst to her as a clone) triggering her PTSD, etc. Considering she had to handle all of this in a single mission, it really shows how strong Samus is, despite still having human flaws.

I quite liked her confrontation with Ridley, I'm glad the game touches on her mental trauma involving him.

In the beginning of Other M Samus states the explosion of Zebes destroyed the remains of Ridley, leading her to believe him to be gone for good this time. This is the only game in which Samus believes Ridley to be completely eradicated, which is why him "coming back" is what triggers her PTSD.

When Samus encounters Ridley she was tracking and expecting the Mystery Creature, so when Ridley appeared instead she had a panic attack. The scene depicts her PTSD with a visualization of Samus as a child, as that's when Ridley first wrought trauma upon her. I like this, as it shows no matter how many times she faced him before, when she believes him to be truly gone, even someone as powerful as Samus is still susceptible to human "weakness" like mental trauma.

Despite dealing with something as mentally severe as PTSD Samus still actually manages to show some strength. Samus's Power Suit requires an inhuman level of mental will to operate, so when she's afflicted with PTSD it causes her suit to become weak and it's difficult for her to maintain.

When Ridley grabs her, the left arm of her suit begins to disappear, however even though she's struggling with a panic attack Samus still manages to regain the left arm of her suit.

Samus struggling to maintain her Power Suit during her panic attack.

Shortly afterwards she loses full control of the suit and it disappears completely, however when Anthony shoots at Ridley it causes him to drop Samus, and while Anthony was preparing to run over and catch Samus, it was actually Samus herself that was able to flip (in free fall) to stabilize herself as well as fully reactivate her suit.

Samus reactivates her Power Suit in mid air to protect herself from the fall.

While Samus wasn't fully stable enough to face Ridley, Anthony decided to take Ridley on himself, shortly afterwards Anthony was knocked over the edge and into the lava below (as it seemed at time), seeing this, Samus was finally able to fully recover and take on Ridley.

At this point Samus is back to her usual self and doesn't have any issue with Ridley for the rest of the game.

It's quite impressive how she was able to do all of this all while struggling with PTSD, in fact I would say it's a near impossible feat, but Samus was able to do it.

Along with her "flaws" in this game, she also shows a lot of strength, as she's constantly the one to take charge in a situation and take the initiative (despite being under a military CO most of the time):

It was Samus who first suggested to Adam to add her on as a member of his platoon,

it was her who first pressed Adam for information about the illegal bioweapon program,

she told the others to "get back" when the Cyborg Zebesians awoke and were about to attack,

she told Anthony "don't waste your plasma" when confronting the "Mystery Creature" and implied she would handle it,

Etc.

Despite being very monologue heavy you'll notice that she actually doesn't have too much dialogue, this is consistent with her previous portrayals. Instead of dialogue, for a lot of scenes Samus displays a lot of body language. Even in scenes where she does have dialogue, Samus shows her body language as well (as shown in the gifs above). I really like how she's animated in these scenes and how consistent it is with her character. Take the scenes when she's protecting Madeline and Melissa for example:

After she calls Melissa over to protect her, she moves her left arm to protect Melissa.

Similarly in this scene, after Samus catches Madeline, she moves her left arm to protect Madeline, however she also physically stops Madeline from moving forward, as Samus doesn't want her in danger.

These scenes shows how Samus will physically protect others, however she also is aware of people's mental status, and will try to protect them emotionally as well.

For example in this scene Samus needs to get Madeline's attention, Samus goes to knock on the door, however she knows Madeline is terrified, so she briefly hesitates, and instead of knocking she more gently taps the door. Samus didn't want to scare Madeline, but still needed to get her attention.

Samus's body language in this game also shows a more playful side to her. In two scenes with Anthony, Samus is shown to have a friendly banter with him which involves her "punching"/shoving his shoulder. After Anthony helped her with the Mystery Creature and asks "You OK, Princess?", she responds with a "punch" to his shoulder:

Going along with her body language, in Other M Samus is also shown to be very physically powerful. Samus is very fast and agile, able to dodge an enemy's attack at a moment's notice. Beyond her speed, her strength is awesome, able to literally kill enemies with a single hand and (with her grapple beam) swing around giant monsters the size of trucks. Combining her speed and strength, she is truly a force to be reckoned with.

Showcasing her kicks, grabs, arm-locks, leg-locks, flips, etc, here is a list of Samus's overblast, lethal strike, and counter moves that demonstrate her awesome power:

There's a specific scene at the end I absolutely love. After Samus has reflected on the mission on the Bottle Ship, and the decisions Adam made, she ties her hair up in a ponytail. The way this scene is done, the way Samus puts her hair up and walks away, just feels so powerful to me. I really love the scene a lot. As I myself have long hair, I find myself repeatedly recalling this scene when I put my own hair up, it really sticks with me.

Adam Malkovich:

I was happy to see Adam as a human before his death (as opposed to just his AI in Fusion), it was also cool that his design was relatively the same as the Metroid Manga depiction of him (Manga left, Other M right):

Adam's design shows his face as a middle aged man who is quite stoic. With his narrow eyes, the wrinkles around them, and the "cold" stares he gives, he strikes me as a man who has seen a thousand deaths. Being a military man who's seemingly served at least 20 years, this makes sense. He is a man who buries his feelings for the sake of what he feels is the best decision. This is shown when he was "forced" to let his own brother, Ian, die for the sake of others. Despite Samus emotionally pleading with Adam about how his "little brother" was going to die, he did not let this faze him (outwardly at least), he calmly gave the order to detach his ship from the one Ian was on in order save the people aboard the Lusitania and his own ship.

Going back to current times in Other M, Adam still has his stoic "cold" personality where he doesn't let anything on the mission emotionally faze him, that is except for Samus.

Throughout the whole mission Adam is losing his men one by one, things aren't going as planned, he even is confronted with a traitor amongst his group, none of this is shown to have fazed him, however when it comes to Samus it's different. The only times in the whole game when concern and compassion are able to slip through his stoic guise is when it concerns Samus.

When Samus confronted Ridley and had a PTSD induced panic attack, Adam asked Samus if she reads him, when she doesn't respond he stands up in his seat.

This shows he was anxious when Samus was freezing up at Ridley, and though he's normally calm, it showed how he was so concerned for Samus that he literally couldn't sit still. He continues, by telling Samus repeatedly to use her plasma beam, as he's doing so his voice is continually filled with more and more worry.

The second instance of concern/worry for Samus Adam shows is when he sees her talking with Melissa (who he knows isn't telling the truth), he says "No! Samus!" and grabs his gun and hurriedly runs to Samus's location.

I really like Adam and Samus's, albeit complicated, relationship. With Samus being the only female on Adam's squad (not only female, but also young, at the age of 15), he wanted to acknowledge that, and so he called her "Lady". He didn't choose something that could've been insulting like "little girl" or "girl" depending on the tone, he chose "Lady" something which is more dignified as well as what Samus states "delicate".

Adam is shown to have complete faith in Samus's abilities, and acknowledges she's far more powerful than he is. Shortly before his death, he tells Samus "Unlike you, I'm no galactic savior. I'm merely human", and trusts her with his final orders of saving a survivor he's located (Madeline) and killing Ridley.

He knew if he lost Samus in Sector Zero then he wouldn't be able to stop Ridley or save Madeline by himself, he knew only Samus could do this. Which is why he shoots her as he needed her to be physically incapacitated, and is why when he had his chance, when Samus was distracted by a baby Metroid, he took it. If he hadn't shot and weakened Samus then, he knew she'd just disobey his orders (as the situation mirrored the Ian situation), and go to Sector Zero alone, a place Adam knew Samus would die. He couldn't overpower her, so he had to catch her off guard. Despite shooting her being what was in his mind a necessity, he still apologized for this, saying:

"I'm sorry for getting a little rough with you. Good luck Samus"

showing he still cared for her until the very end. Not just that he cared, but he wanted her to know he cared before he died.

Anthony Higgs:

Absolutely fantastic addition to the Metroid series, and may even be my second favorite character in the series next to Samus. There's so much great about him, I remember so many of his lines:

"Man! You got no style! I think I gotta teach you a lesson about subtlety! Come on!"

"Fancy meeting you here princess, remember me?"

"I wanted to give you some cover earlier, but this thing takes for ever to charge, I'll save the next shot for you...not that you'll need it!"

Etc.

I love that he's a genuine friend for Samus, and they have a playful friendship, like the scenes when Samus "punches" his shoulder.

Anthony is also a very optimistic person, he's almost always smiling, and he always finds a way to inject some levity, no matter how serious a situation is, such as his suggestion for Samus to blow up the door they couldn't open (despite not getting Adam's approval) where he chuckles afterwards:

Despite his optimistic and somewhat carefree attitude, he also knows when to be serious and not push things too far, like when he asked Samus what would happen if a situation similar to the "Ian incident" happened again, and he said "Best just forget about it"

I love the thumbs up and smile he gives Samus near the end, seems like such a great friend!

James Pierce/The Deleter:

I found James to be interesting, not only because he's a traitor seemingly working for the "Ringleaders", but also because of his personality. He has a rather charismatic charm to him, and I'd imagine that's what made him right for the role of a traitor. Someone with his type of charisma can probably make others feel at ease or comfortable around him, which makes him feel more trustworthy.

An example of this is when Lyle is freaked out by a Brug and begins to needlessly shoot it to death, it was James who told him "Enough!" and reached out to touch Lyle's shoulder to make him feel at ease and to stop shooting.

When Samus encounters James at the Exam Center he can be seen doing something under the computer (likely trying to erase evidence), after Samus walks in he gets up to greet her, but before he does he snidely glances at the computer he was just at, then says "Hey, Samus." as if he hadn't just been compromising key pieces of intel, very cheeky.

A few moments later when Maurice is checking the computer James was just messing with and realized the CPU had been destroyed, the shot cuts to James, who gives a suspicious look.

I've always felt the way James murders K.G. was one of the most brutal kills in a Nintendo game. It's not particularly graphic, but it's just done with such a cold and heartless feel. The way James just so casually kicks K.G.'s body into the lava is just chilling.

I also find it interesting he was only 20 years old, which makes him younger than Samus.

Lyle Smithsonian & Maurice Favreau & K.G. Misawa:

While I don't find them as interesting as the others, I do like certain aspects of them, such as when Lyle first encounters the Brug, he says "Stay away from me!" and proceeds to kick the Brug and shoot it up, laughing while he does it. I like K.G.'s design, however, one of the things I liked most about them was their artworks, as I didn't realize Maurice was as old as he was, and once again, I like K.G.'s design in the art gallery the most, he looks like one of those "smart" anime protagonists. Overall, I would've loved to have seen more of them.

Madeline Bergman & M.B./Melissa Bergman:

I really liked the twist of Melissa being an android of Mother Brain. It's especially interesting in a meta sense, that Mother Brain was Samus's "mother" on Zebes and you could say she "failed" as a mother to Samus, now the roles are reversed. Now Mother Brain (Melissa) is the daughter, with Madeline being her "mother", in this instance Melissa is the one who felt her "mother" failed her. It's as if no matter what role she takes, mother or daughter, she's destined for evil. I really liked Madeline's role as "Mother Brain's" mother, and I find her role as one of the creators of Melissa interesting (making her a parallel to the Chozo who created the original Mother Brain). It's sadly ironic that the love Madeline showed to Melissa may have been what shut Melissa off from humanity and caused her turn to revenge, as it was the love from Madeline that turned to hate when she felt betrayed by her "mother". I would love to see Madeline appear in another Metroid game.

Story:

There is one specific aspect of the story I want to write about that I didn't already cover.

I loved importance of the S.O.S. Samus received, "Baby's Cry". When Samus says she felt the S.O.S. was "crying" specifically for her, this would be more true than she probably thought. This specifically relates to the Baby Metroid, who tragically died at the end of Super Metroid.

In Other M the Federation members who were illegally conducting bioweapon experiments were able to get DNA samples of many creatures as well as the Baby Metroid from Samus's suit. One of their major goals was to create a Metroid Warrior program, and in order to do so they used the DNA to clone the Baby Metroid. They then had that Baby Metroid grow into a Queen, where they would then take its babies and experiment on them, eventually finding a way to get rid of their weakness to cold.

In a sense the S.O.S. signal, Baby's Cry, was the Baby Metroid crying for its mother, Samus. As the Queen Metroid (clone of the Baby) is one of the final bosses in the game, it's a truly tragic "reunion" Samus must go through.

GAMEPLAY:

The sense move (dodge) and lethal strike/overblast (takedowns) really shows how physically powerful and agile Samus is, the animations have this really kinetic feel that just feels amazing when you pull them off, and no matter how many times I play through the game, I never get bored of seeing them, they impress me every time.

I love shooting enemies with beams to weaken them, switching to first person to knock them down with missiles, then running up to them to perform a lethal strike. Switching from third person to first person (and vise versa) is rather seamless. It's great that when you initiate first person, the game slows down to give you time to adjust your aim (it's also neat how you can still dodge in first person). Another thing I love doing is jumping on an enemy, doing an overblast, and as Samus is jumping off the enemy switching to first person and shooting a missile before landing, feels great.

Diffusion Beam was one of my favorite abilities created for this game, I loved just how explosive it made charge shots. I was really happy to see it return in Metroid Dread.

It was awesome seeing the return of Seeker Missile, and its first appearance in a non-Prime game. Speaking of missiles, I love how after firing one Samus has to "cock" her arm cannon like a shotgun to "reload". The Super Missiles in this game have so much power they physically push Samus back which I thought was a neat touch.

ENVIRONMENT

From jungle zones, volcanic zones, snow zones, desert zones, etc, the game has quite diverse environments (albeit artificially re-created), so there's a lot to choose from when discussing what I love.

Overall I quite liked the aesthetic and look of most areas, but I will focus on several places in particular .

I loved this part where the camera pans out of the corridor and you get to see Samus from a window view.

This red clay area has to be one of my favorite spots in the game, it just looks awesome. With that waterfall, it's just beautiful.

Not entirely sure how to describe it, but there's this one circular room in the game that is sort of a tall spiral with a dark blue/purple aesthetic. It just looks great to me. Also, I love how when you come back later with speedboost you can run infinitely around the spiral in circles and/or jump all the way to the top via shinespark.

Outside of these artificial zones, there's a lot of the actual ship that's great. The green lights in these rooms give a great aura to the place.

There's a lot of rooms in the game that add to the feeling the Bottle Ship was lived in by real humans, whether it restrooms, vending machines, residential areas, trash compactors, etc, it all helps bring the Bottle Ship to life.

MUSIC/SOUNDS:

The music in Other M stands out from most of the other scores in the series, likely due to it having no involvement from Kenji Yamamoto or Minako Hamano, the long time composing duo of the Metroid series since Super Metroid. Most of the previous previous Metroid scores had a heavy amount of electronic/techno or organic sound to them, while much of Other M's score sounds very orchestrated or metallic.

Other M also has a lot of battle music, which have a very fast past rhythm to them, I quite enjoy these "metallic rhythm" songs, as it really suits the fast paced action of the game. I also believe it is fitting to have a lot of "metallic" songs considering the game takes place in the Bottle Ship, which is comprised of many hallways, corridors, and other structures comprised of metals and only had artificially created "organic" zones. It also helps that Samus's suit is metallic, so her feet also produce a "clank" sound when running across most of the game. With all of this "metal" it could give the game a very man made feel, which is fitting to the story. Even though I say it's largely a "metallic" soundtrack, it does still have some "organic" songs as well.

The game has a lot of songs I really like, such as this one when exploring the Exam Center. It really has this air of "mystery" to it, I also like the parts that sound like a bird "hooting" (or whatever that sound is lol).

https://youtu.be/r_yuz1M6T68

This next song plays right after Samus is given a final mission from Adam, and it sounds just so epic, climatic, and triumphant.

https://youtu.be/Bxv4odiTNQg

I really love this one, perhaps the most "Kenji Yamamoto-esque" song in the game. It has that really good techno/electronic and mysterious vibe.

https://youtu.be/ypdvQQg3tyg

I love how much build up is in this one, it really feels like you are entering the finale of the game, like you are about to uncover a major plot. Really great.

https://youtu.be/DTtNrVnHdFw

This is one of my favorite Sector themes, it really has that fitting "jungle" sound, as well as that classic "Metroid" feel to it.

https://youtu.be/ZFuWLWtcDqc

I could put a lot more songs here, but I just wanted to highlight a few, so as to not make this post any longer.

IN CONCLUSION:

There is so much more I could write about what I love, however that would make this post far longer than I want it to be.

Overall, I think it's an incredible addition to the Metroid series, and I'm happy to see its legacy in games like Samus Returns and Dread where Samus is still as agile and physically powerful in these games as she was in Other M.

See you next mission!

This is not the sort of thing I would have expected to see about Other M.

Truly every game has its Fan.

I honestly think it's almost criminal how much people hate on Other M. It's not a bad Metriod game at all. But because they decided to tell a cinematic story and give Samus a voice, majority of the fandom got the torches and pitchforks. They say people hate change, this game is a very good example of that being true.

@efesell: The game actually has far more positive reviews (of both fans and critics) than it does negative. You just see more comments or posts trashing the game than ones like mine, but generally speaking it is more liked than hated (when aggregating the overall ratings I find online). Here's a list of reviews I made back in 2020 (some may be slightly outdated now)

1up B-

Destructoid 6.5/10

Edge 8/10

Eurogamer 8/10

Famitsu 35/40

G4 2/5

Game Informer (US) 6.25/10 (AUS) 8/10

GamePro 4/5

GameSpot Critic Score 8.5/10. User Score 8.1 (based on 1433 user ratings)

GameSpy 3/5

GamesRadar+ 3.5/5

GameTrailers 8.6/10

IGN 8.5/10

Nintendo World Report 7/10

ONM 91%

The Daily Telegraph 7/10

The A.V. Club B

Wired 9/10

VideoGamer 8/10

Atomicgamer 90/100

Digital Chumps 8.4/10

Cubed3 9/10

Cheatcc 4.3/5

GamePlanet 6/10

GameOverOnline 78%

GameRevolution 83/100

GameCritcs 6/10

GamingTrend 80/100

WorthPlaying 9/10

ZTGD 8.5/10

GiantBomb 4/5. User rating 3.8/5 (based on 34 user ratings)

NintendoLife 9/10. User rating 7.5/10 (based on 115 user ratings)

Metacritic Critic Score 79% (based on 71 critics. 54 positive ratings, 17 mixed ratings, and 0 negative ratings)

Metacritic User Score 6.6/10 (based on 554 user ratings. 300 positive ratings, 112 mixed ratings, and 142 negative ratings)

Vgchartz Critic Score 7.7/10 (based on 13 critics)

Vgchartz User Score 8/10 (I can't tell how many have rated it, but there are 440 owners of the game)

Google Users 75%

GameFly 6.9/10 (based on 3814 user ratings)

HLTB 71% (based on 148 user ratings)

IMDB 6.4/10 (based on 306 user ratings)

GameStop 4.0/5 (based on 167

user ratings)

Walmart 4.5/5 (based on 41 user ratings)

Best Buy 4.0/5 (based on 48 user ratings)

eBay 4.6/5 (based on 128 user ratings)

Amazon (US) 4.0/5 (based on 477 user ratings) (UK) 3.8/5 (based on 77 user ratings)

PlayAsia 4.5/5 (based on 60 user ratings)

Nintendo eShop 4/5 (based on 95 user ratings)

@av_gamer: I think the handling of Samus' character and the story of Other M is so bad that it borders on outright character assassination. I think this is the sticking point for a lot of the complaints there and not just that they gave her a voice.

@xxglitchygamesx: Yeah I wouldn't doubt that it reviewed fairly well, it's a fun game to actually play.

@av_gamer: What hurts me a lot is the lies surrounding it and Yoshio Sakamoto. There was literally a satire article written by P4RGaming that was used to attack Yoshio Sakamoto, this article was picked up by Nintendo Life who spread it around even more. Luckily, Nintendo Life has since removed it, and the information in it has been slowly dying out.

@efesell: that is it for me. The game plays fine but my god, the story.

I do respect the hustle of the Op's post though.

@xxglitchygamesx: I honestly couldn't recall it getting so many positive reviews.

I really liked Other M at the time. It was just a fun game that kept the exploration core intact. The story presentation is what it is, but it wasn't offensive or anything to me. Fond memories.

Nah, man, this game is ass.

I agree with @efesell, the actual embarrassment of a story was some nonsensical horseshit and there's nothing "borderline" about the character assassination; it was sexist and regressive.

That is a good game and a nice thread.

@nameredacted: There was nothing sexist about Other M.

@gtxforza: Thank you!

Deeply, profoundly, fundamentally disagree.

@efesell: I would like to know, what is it that was sexist about Other M?

@xxglitchygamesx: Yeah sure. Starting with the most basic on its face aspect.. take a shot every time the camera just fuckin' drinks in a Zero Suit scene.

She is meek, submissive, when she does get to emote it's usually an outburst. She does very little without the approval of her weird boyfriend/dad. Other M is late in the Metroid timeline but now, suddenly, she has panic attacks fighting her nemesis that she has killed in however many games so she needs to be saved.

I kinda feel like all of The Mother and The Baby shit explains itself.

In what way is the incredibly submissive relationship Samus has with commander boyfriend not sexist? This game was frankly pretty tough to play because of how difficult it was to handle that stuff, not just from a storytelling/character perspective but also the insane way it's meant to justify Samus dying rather than use her suit's capabilities.

It's all a stark contrast to how Samus is depicted in pretty much every other piece of Metroid media, and I don't see how it's possible to not at least be aware of and understand this criticism of Other M. Maybe you like the other aspects of the game enough to overlook it, but you can't say the issue isn't there.

@chaser324: One of my enduring memories of that game is that you have to run through the superheated area for like quite a while despite having the Varia suit the entire time but you don't have permission to use it.

Like I get It... it's really hard to justify game to game why you can't just have all of your upgrades. But that one moment combined with the character stuff really hits bad.

@efesell: YES! That exact moment is when I began to lose my patience with this game. You could maybe justify that a soldier would need permission of a commanding officer to use a weapon, but in what way does it make sense that she needs permission to just not die?

My opinion is that the game's story and characterization makes a lot more sense if you pretend it's set before zero mission, as a transition to the cool and tough bounty hunter we see in the other games. Literally all the stuff that's dumb about the writing (permission to use the varia suit, deference to Adam, ridley PTSD, etc) works if she's still a federation grunt. It's so obvious my only conclusion is that it was changed last minute to be much later in the timeline.

The game itself is fine, definitely my least favorite Metroid but not unplayable. The scores at the time reflect that, I think

@kyary: I mean I guess. If the story was instead the story of fresh faced first mission Samus then I would accuse the game of having bad writing but not sabotaging an established character.

Which... would be something? Like a jump sideways maybe?

@efesell: yeah I guess that's my point, it would be kind of a weak story but at least mostly coherent with the rest of the lore

I certainly think this game deserves a ton of flack for its inherent sexism, but I also feel like it is important to point how the game's depiction of PTSD is terrible and re-treads a lot of the same Hollywood tropes that we now know are actively harmful to getting actual progress on issues of mental health. Anything where the story culminates with the protagonist "defeating" their mental health issues by beating up a big bad guy, makes me want to puke.

We all know that's not how that works.

I was willing to put up with a lot to see where this game was going, but I think the part where the story becomes irredeemable was near the end, when Adam wants to go sacrifice himself in the Metroid wing of the ship to make it self destruct or whatever. Samus is being a 13-year-old brat about the decision making process and is like “noooo, don’t go, father-figure-I-only-knew-for-a-couple-years-and-now-go-years-at-a-time-without-seeing!” No point of clarity is reached where she accepts he has to go do it instead of her, so Adam just like shoots her in the back with a pistol. And also did we mention Samus’ suit is some kind of nanomachine cloud that disappears if Samus loses focus or something so it disappears as a result of the sheer betrayal of Adam shooting her (I guess?????) or it’s the most powerful pistol in the universe. So it’s Samus in only her Zero Suit, kinda sobbing and wobbling around as Adam walks away toward the Metroid wing and dies offscreen. Even in their final interaction, he “father knows best”s her and she acts like an immature idiot.

Honestly the whole game could work as some satire of how most militaries are a real boys’ club that often has a bad track record in treating women well or considering them equal to men, but the script writers were definitely not self-aware enough to see this possible interpretation of their dumb story.

This was a really good read xXglitchygamesxX,

For me, from what you wrote about the characters, they all are interesting in my opinion.

I really liked the characters and how they interacted with each other.

@efesell: "drinks in a Zero Suit scene" what does that mean? Previous Metroid games like Zero Mission, Prime 2, and Prime 3 all had Zero Suit scenes as well, with Prime 3 having several that "linger" on her body. I don't think you read my post then, as I show just how headstrong Samus actually is in Other M, she constantly takes charge in the game. Beyond that, Fusion had already set up that Samus was under Adam's command at that point in the timeline.

Samus has plenty of outbursts in Fusion, I don't know why you are singling out Other M for staying consistent with her character. She also has plenty of dialogue that isn't "outbursts" in Other M.

Adam is not her "boyfriend" either, he's her commanding officer for this mission, Anthony and the rest also have to follow Adam's command. How in the world could you possibly conflate PTSD with sexism? Marvel's Wolverine also deals with PTSD, many characters deal with PTSD, it is not in any way shape or form sexist. Again, I don't think you read my post, as I said earlier, Samus states in the beginning of Other M she believes Ridley to be truly gone for good, as the explosion on Zebes utterly eradicated Ridley.

You say Samus needed to be saved, but she's been saved numerous times outside of Other M:

The Baby Metroid saves her from itself as well as Mother Brain in Super Metroid.

The Federation saved Samus from the X Parasite in Fusion

The SA-X saves Samus from the Omega Metroid in Fusion.

Rundas saves Samus twice in Metroid Prime 3. The Federation saved Samus in Prime 3.

Etc

You definitely didn't read my post as you would have seen it was Samus herself who suggested to Adam to add her on as a member of his team. Samus, knowing the legal hierarchy, knows the Federation has jurisdiction here, Samus wasn't hired by them, so the only way to legitimize her status there was to be temporarily added onto his team.

No, the "mother" and "baby" stuff don't explain themselves as sexist either. If you know anything about Metroid, you'd know that motherhood (and fatherhood) are big parts of the series. Starting with the first game Mother Brain represented motherhood. Metroid II introduced the baby Metroid, which was carried into Super Metroid that states it believed Samus to be its mother. Beyond that, Metroid has other parental aspects, like Tatori and Tatori JR.

Draygon from Super Metroid also has its babies come sweep up its body after Samus kills it.

The Queen Metroid was the biological mother of The Baby.

Etc etc etc.

Also, by this logic Aliens and Terminator 2 are also sexist, as both Sarah Connor and Ellen Ripley have motherhood stories:

Sarah Connor gets impregnated with John Connor in Terminator 1, who is the future leader of mankind, this makes Sarah the "mother" to humanity. Terminator 2 is about Sarah and her relationship with John, again building upon her motherhood story.

Ellen Ripley in Aliens learns about the death of her daughter, she later becomes the "mother" to Newt. The Queen Alien is the mother to the Xenomorphs. The Nostromo's AI in Alien is called MU-TH-UR (mother).

I'd also like to point out that both Sarah and Ripley have PTSD.

I'd also like to point out that fatherhood stories don't get called sexist, such as Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, about every male character has a father/son story in that film. Beyond that, The Mandalorion is about Mando's "fatherhood" with The Child (who, btw is called "the baby" several times in the show). Other games have fatherhood stories as well:

The Last of Us is about Joel who is learning to be Ellie's "father"

Star Fox usually depicts Peppy as Fox's father figure in the absence of his real father, James.

Many Fire Emblem games have prominent fathers, such as Path of Radiance with Greil being Ike and Mist's father.

Etc etc etc.

Metroid also has fatherhood themes that don't get called sexist, such as Adam, Grey Voice, Old Bird and others to Samus.

So no, the game isn't sexist.

Samus isn't in an "incredibly submissive" relationship with Adam, she was under his command, just like Anthony and the other soldiers. It's sheerly a legal hierarchy she has to follow. Fusion already set this up as well.

It is absolutely not a "stark contrast" to how Samus had been depicted in previous media. She's very much in character in Other M, especially when compared to Fusion. In both games she's obedient to higher authority, in both games she has dramatized monologues, in both games she respects Adam (I'd like to note, in Fusion, Samus gets upset at a computer for disrespecting Adam, the computer which is an inanimate object).

In the Super Metroid comic, which was instrumental at the time for building the backstory, Samus is depicted as having dreams of her recent battles (like Other M) as well as showing her mental trauma.

The comic also showed Samus's Power Suit being weakened by her distracted mind from thinking on the Baby Metroid (like Other M).

It also showed how much Samus cared about the Baby Metroid (like Other M).

The Canon Metroid Manga depicts Samus with major PTSD regarding Ridley.

Other M shows consistency with other Metroid games in other areas as well:

Her compassion for the Baby Metroid: Metroid II and Other M.

She sometimes needs to be saved: The Baby in Super, Anthony in Other M.

Empathy for the helpless: The unfortunate marines in Prime 2, Madeline and Melissa in Other M.

Clenching her fist in anger: When Dark Samus keeps killing in Prime 3, when she learns how Ridley was brought back via cloning in Other M.

Etc etc etc.

There are a plethora of reasons why she's very consistent in Other M, the only thing that may seem different is the fact she's put in new situations we haven't seen in games.

@xxglitchygamesx: You know what it means, so don't be obtuse.

I'm not accusing Other M of pioneering the whole "Yeah Samus is a badass but don't worry fellas she's also Hot". What I will accuse Other M of doing is taking every opportunity to linger.

I don't like the Adam plot poit in Fusion either, but I will say that those monologues are at least mostly just boring.

I don't recall conflating PTSD with Sexism but as ZombiePie has already pointed out the games depiction of that issue is equally bullshit.

Honestly on the subject of Fusion though people give it a pass because it's a much more classic Metroid game and thus just kind of a fun time to play but narratively that game really did Walk so that Other M could Run and fall flat on its face.

@efesell: I don't see how Other M has any more shots of the Zero Suit in comparison to the other Metroid games (considering it has far more cinematics than other Metroid games). I don't see how Samus being "hot" makes the game sexist, and I also don't understand why it's accused of sexism, but not when it happens to male characters like Snake or Raiden.

Personally, I don't see any issue with the Zero Suit or the cinematography, and I don't see Samus in those scenes as some sex object.

I asked "how is Other M sexist" and you brought up PTSD. I don't know what else I'm to take from that than you conflating it with sexism. Beyond that, you said she needed to be saved, but again, many other Metroid games (like Super Metroid) depict Samus as being saved as well. If her being saved makes a game sexist, then Super, Fusion, Prime 3 etc are sexist too.

@xxglitchygamesx: I know you don't see it. You are actively refusing to acknowledge the potential for this criticism.

I did not bring that scene for the PTSD, I brought up that scene because the PTSD was an excuse to create the situation where Samus needs to be rescued by this guy. It's a situation she has handled in multiple games but is now, suddenly, helpless in the face of it.

I would acknowledge that there are other readings here and maybe there isn't necessarily malicious intent. I don't find that a compelling argument but the idea that you cannot even seem to consider that it may be a valid point of criticism is deeply frustrating.

@efesell: Once again, you must not have read my post, or merely don't understand the context of Other M, in the opening of the game Samus states:

"And the explosion that followed destroyed planet Zebes, along with the remains of Mother Brain, the Space Pirates, and my longstanding nemesis, Ridley"

Samus is saying that this is the first time she truly believed him to be dead for good. There is contextual reason for this, as the whole planet of Zebes blows up, leaving no trace of Ridley. Samus has canonically had PTSD regarding Ridley earlier in her life, before Zero Mission. After she "overcame" that PTSD trigger of facing Ridley, she had been able to face him time and time again, however, now Ridley comes back from something she thought truly impossible. The reason he "came back" was via cloning, as this isn't actually the real Ridley (something she didn't know at the time of facing him).

PTSD is not something you can fully control, not in real life, and not in this fictional world of Metroid. I'd suggest you read this interview with an ex-soldier who has real PTSD, he was asked about the scene and said it was realistic. The interview also had a psychiatrist who states these aren't things we can control, as who would willingly choose to have PTSD?

https://www.vgchartz.com/article/81909/ptsd-or-weakness-real-experts-on-why-samus-didnt-shoot/

I'd also like to show this quote from the writer of Metroid Prime who was asked about the scene.

Nate:

"I’ve seen the same comments you have, and while I understand where they come from, I definitely don’t agree with most of them. For me, Samus’s detached monologue speaks to the reticence of a wounded character, one scarred by the tragic events of her childhood. The glimpse of the pain and fear she carries—shown in the flashback scene when she sees Ridley—is not a sign of weakness, but of strength. People who call out that scene as anything but empowering are kind of missing the point, in my opinion—she does end up torching Ridley, after all. There is no courage without fear, in my mind, and knowing that Samus overcomes that repressed terror makes her all the more heroic than someone who plods forward without a hint of humanity."

https://shinesparkers.net/interviews/nate-bihldorff/

I'm not going to have this continued back and forth with someone who has trained their entire life for an Other M forever war. So I'll just reiterate a final time.

I don't care what other games have done, I don't care about supplemental manga or comic books, I am evaluating Other M, and my evaluation is that it is poorly written, Samus is poorly characterized, and the whole thing is sexist as hell.

It plays Okay.

@efesell: Me being "trained" just means I know my stuff.

I imagine that most of the people who disliked Other M's depiction of Samus would also dislike the comic depiction. However, those are rather obscure, especially in the English speaking world. Even on gaming forums, I rarely see those comics trotted out as a discussion point. Actually, I think the only time I've ever seen them brought up is to defend Metroid Other M, which ought to tell you something.

Full disclosure, I haven't actually played Metroid Other M. For a while, I thought I should, just to see what the supposed train wreck was all about, but I never got around to it. I saw enough cutscenes on Youtube to get what people were saying about it. In the games themselves, Samus is always depicted (not written) as a fearless warrior who heads deep into enemy territory no matter what to kill or destroy whatever is threatening the galaxy. You know, generic hero stuff, only here Samus is a woman - but no part of the plot in any of the games prior to Other M even hints at that holding her back. She fully and wholly embodies traits usually associated with strong male heroes - impossible to conquer, a powerful hero, sort of a one-woman killing machine that stalks her enemies with all the confidence of Darth Vader but as a hero, not a villain. That isn't how the character is depicted in Other M.

Most of the time that Samus has been written, she's been written very differently from her depiction. Dread largely averts this, despite bringing Adam into the picture. Zero Mission, despite showing Samus in her extremely tight zero suit, also largely averts this. Fusion and Other M do not, they write her almost as a fifteen year old teenager's fantasy girlfriend. She can kick ass and take names, but not my name! And it just comes across very icky, where this otherwise incredible woman will melt into the arms of that one special guy and be or do literally anything for him. 'Cause that's how it happens, right? Wasn't it so great when Ripley swooned into Hicks's arms for no apparent reason? Oh, no, wait, that didn't happen. There's half a movie of buildup and then she asks him how guns work and he enthusiastically explains everything. Later on, she dives into hell with or without his approval.

I'm aware that OP perceives Other M differently and, fine, OK, but it's clear that a lot of people picked up on some questionable stuff in that game. It's probably worth spending some time not defending Other M, but trying to see where they're coming from.

@justin258: "Wasn't it so great when Ripley swooned into Hicks's arms for no apparent reason? Oh, no, wait, that didn't happen."

.....that doesn't happen in Other M either?

Can I ask, have you read my post? I show very clearly how powerful Samus is in Other M, in both action and herself as a character. I go quite deep into it, I show many scenes of her being very headstrong, she's VERY strong-willed in Other M. Again, I would like to know if you actually read my whole post (or at the very least, the whole Samus portion).

So let me get this straight. Because Samus acts like a woman, by showing interest in a man to the point that she submits to him, like a lot of straight women who are smitten by a man does, or just because she looks up to and respects him, not to mention also suffering from PTSD and other mental issues like a lot of soldiers who seen some horrible stuff would, makes the story sexist and bad? This proves my point, people were pissed that Samus was given a voice. And there is nothing wrong with a woman looking up to a man and showing it, whether it's because of love, respect, or both. People expect Samus to be this emotionless robot, but if you actually follow the games, even the text that is given shows that Samus does have feelings and a personality, it's just not focused on like it was in Other M.

@av_gamer: Exactly! Even since Metroid II Samus is shown to be a very compassionate person, for not killing the Baby Metroid. Also in Super, the main goal of the game is the save the Baby from the Space Pirates, that was the initial motivator for Samus before discovering the Space Pirates had rebuilt. It's also the canon ending that Samus saves the animals in Super.

And yeah, Samus was in the police at the age of 14 (depicted in the Manga) and saw some horrible stuff, after that she joined the army from ages 15-17 (depicted in Other M), on top of all of this she has childhood trauma from Ridley. Considering ALL she's been through, I don't think it's unreasonable she'd have a panic attack for just a couple minutes, and as I show in my post, she's STILL fighting even during the panic attack, she's really strong actually.

Genuinely shocked people are willing to vehemently fight over Other M, with its objectively terrible voice acting and writing. Like, it was not a discussion I thought I'd see in 2022, but that's on me I guess.

@sethmode: I fully expected this to be a necro'd thread.

Metroid: Other M was the first Metroid game I completed and I found it so unenjoyable that I didn't bother trying to play another one until I got Metroid Dread for Christmas last year. I like Dread a lot more and am now probably gonna play through Super Metroid after to see if Other M is the outlier for me or if Dread is just that good.

Either way, this was an...interesting...read even though I don't share the same sentiment or have nearly as much knowledge of the series as others.

Browsing the forums was a mistake, I was already having a rough day and now I have to be reminded Other M exists. Bummer.