Elements of Game Design part 3- Character (alternative title- Another Rant about Other M)

When tasked to write about character, I suddenly thought of a pretty recent bit of conflict about a certain new installment to a popular series, in which part of the problem was the portrayal of the main character.

The issue I refer to is of course Metroid-Other M.

Like all Metroid games, it stars Samus Aran, the orphan turned intergalactic bounty hunter, raised by bird aliens and with a history in the galactic federation. As her, you experience discovering alien worlds and fighting various enemies along the way such as your arch nemesis Ridley.

Now I won’t touch upon whether Other M handled the gameplay well or not because that’s not what this entry is about, but the new way to gain power-ups did directly reflect on Samus as a character in it’s execution. However I’ll return to that later. First things first- character appearance.

Samus does her job wearing her iconic power armour, which has had several versions and redesigns over the years. The bulky Varia Suit with its huge arm cannon combined with Samus’ body language makes her give off a powerful and confident impression despite rarely showing her face. Other M gave the suit a redesign. Prime’s version is covered with little details that make it interesting to look at and give her an imposing silhouette. The new version is much less detailed, instead going for a sleek, modern look. It has no weathering whatsoever, the colours being very bright and glossy looking. On its own it looks quite nice, but it just doesn’t give off the same strong impression. In my opinion, the removal of the fins on her shoulder pads changed her silhouette too much- that was my main gripe upon seeing the suit the first time. Plus, the way she moves in it doesn’t suggest it having much weight, and her stances when in cutscenes do not make her seem confident at all.

Samus in Prime 3

Samus in Other M

Samus Aran’s backstory involves having her parents killed in front of her by the Space Pirate commander Ridley, being raised and trained by the highly mysterious Chozo, and after leaving the Galactic Federation, becoming the most infamous bounty hunter probably ever. In previous games she has blown up space colonies and planets, and you can be sure that throughout the Galactic Federation she is well known for her achievements.

When you meet the GFed team on the space station in Other M, however, nobody really seems to care who she is. In fact, her former commander seems adamant that she will be a hindrance until she busts a door open for them. It just makes no sense, and just makes all the things that you as a player did in the previous titles seem unimportant.

Then there’s Samus’ voice. If you don’t know why this is getting its own section- this is the very first game in which Samus has a speaking role. The Prime games had her mute even when other characters spoke to her, allowing everything she did, and every decision she made, to be done by the player. Peoples’ main gripe with her new voice from what I have seen seems to be how monotonous it sounds. Personally I would somewhat disagree- I think it makes sense as it makes her seem quite serious in a way, though it does drone on a bit sometimes. She really doesn’t sound like one would have thought- I can excuse her younger appearance (to a point) due to seeing her in the later prime games, but I expected a more mature sounding voice. Her grunts from damage etc. in the Prime series were voiced by Jennifer Hale, and that will always be the best voice for her in my mind. There’s also the fact that the scriptwriters deemed it necessary to make her talk far too often, to the point that she’s constantly pointing out the obvious. She sounds more like some young, unsure GFed newbie, and it really doesn’t help that she seems to need to be told what to do the entire game.

As I briefly alluded to at the beginning of this post, in Other M, Samus receives power-ups not by finding them scattered around the world like in previous games, but by being authorized to use them. I approve of the developers trying to break the mold and make the game work differently for once, but the execution of this mechanic was handled very poorly. Samus never asks for permission to use things. She will wait, even with the smallest things like self-defense related functions in her suit that couldn’t possibly pose a threat to anyone and therefore shouldn’t have been de-activated in the first place. I’m referring to, of course, that one level where you run through a huge, intensely hot area (causing you to take constant damage) and aren’t authorized to activate your heat defenses until the boss at the end of the level. It makes Samus just seem stupid.

This was a pretty brief overview of how they made the character hard to relate to, but I think it sums it up enough. Characters are easiest to empathize with when their behaviour and mannerisms stay consistent and true to their backgrounds. The way they act affects your opinion of them, and usually you want to go for the kind of main character you’d respect. I am particularly fond of the kind of character Samus was portrayed as before Other M, kind of like Motoko Kusanagi in Ghost in the Shell in fitting the frame of “strong, independent female character”. If Samus’ ramblings in Other M had been of more substance then maybe I would’ve liked her more. Have her say things to make you think, rather than think things so you don’t have to.