Metroid other M story plot discussion

[HYRUL3]

Why don't the Prime Ridleys count? The Primes are canon...

[DarkPhazonElite]

I'm saying that because I don't think that Meta Ridley and Omega Ridley are the same Ridley from the mainlines. If he was, somehow, I'd find that very confusing. Am I incorrect in this assumption?

[rondus18]

I got the impression from Prime's scan data that Meta Ridley was a reconstructed Ridley.

*searches internet*

Yup, found it:

The reconstruction of geoform 187, code-named Ridley, was recently completed. After his defeat on Zebes, Command ordered a number of metagenetic improvements for him. Though aggressive, we were able to implement these changes in a cycle. The metamorphosis was painful, but quite successful in the end. Early tests indicate a drastic increase in strength, mobility, and offensive capability. Cybernetic modules and armor plating have been added as well. We believe our creation, now called Meta Ridley, will become the mainstay of our security force, a job he will certainly relish.

[DarkPhazonElite]

Ah. I see, thanks. Guess I coulda searched for myself, but oh well!

[Electro]

I thought first that the suit-breaking ice beam scene was quite clear to me.
Mostly I have the same idea as CapCom

What makes the most sense to me is that her concentration was already weakened by the sight of the baby Metroid, which probably would have been very shocking. My guess is they felt a sudden and violent attack at that moment would have done it.

Being shot from the back just when she sets her mind straight and face one of her traumas.
I bet that was enough to damage her mental-power or whatever is maintaining the power suit.
Also the sudden fatal attack from behind sounds much the same as what happened to her on Zero Mission, which also caused her unable to get the power suit back.

Still made me wonder afterwards why Adam said "you will recover soon".
Or something like that. Sorry, haven't played the game on english voices.
Sounds more like recovering from physical damage.

[DarkPhazonElite]

Also the sudden fatal attack from behind sounds much the same as what happened to her on Zero Mission, which also caused her unable to get the power suit back.

If I remember correctly, Samus deactivated her suit on her own after beating Mother Brain, right before she was shot down. As to why she had to go find it instead of just reactivating it, I don't know (or remember).

[LesserChozo]

The bit in Zero Mission kind of gave me the impression that the ship had somthing to do with it; like she had uploaded the suit data into the ship's memory banks. Perhaps, for whatever reason, this was necessary, and the new suit she acquired didn't have this limitation. I think I've speculated before that her original suit was merely adapted to her specifications from chozo data, so it was limited, whereas the new suit was specifically created for her.


Anyway, that's off topic.

[Lucid Flower]

This is sort of on topic, I have been wanting to practice paneling out comic type images, for a project I am working on because I am not used to it. I have been thinking of starting by sort of taking liberties with the Metroid manga, but doing it all the way through fusion as a sort of fan/labor of love project. Not sure when I could get around to it though?

[Electro]

About the power suit deactivation on Zero Mission, it was explained on the official site FAQ.
Seems to be translated in here so you might want to check it. It's the 25th question.

So it says something about Samus requiring great amounts of mental energy to keep the power suit on, and under such pressure she couldn't maintain that mental energy.
Might be the same reason for the sector zero scene, and that, well, you know

[ultraviolet]

You know, I've had some thoughts of this game that I have explained (in far too much detail already) but over the past month or so I've been talking a friend through it over texts and he mentioned that he thought it was very Metal Gear and seemed to just keep that view, to which I replied "There are Alien(s) references too, but with regards to the whole Deleter/Espionage thing, does that concept squarely belong to Metal Gear? Or can other games/films do it too?" To be honest, I thought the espionage plot seemed more Wayland-Yutani than anything else - not just the Ferrocrusher part, but the constant echo of the threat within the Federation.

That's just another view, but how about this? I had a hard time coming to terms with some of the things I was not sure of and then it occured to me that maybe this is the part of the game where we use our imaginations (in a different way to us finding our own way though the old ones), the answer is anything we can imagine it to be and that's why it's not actually said who the Deleter was (for example, there are other areas of the game where the same could apply) but we had circumstantial evidence and we used our heads to work out who it was. I think that some of the 'holes' in the plot are 'holes' we are supposed to fill - I think if everything were explained in a nice neat way, it would not be as realistic and we wouldn't give it a second thought after switching it off. As it is, some parts still hang in the air with a question mark. The odd part is knowing when the game is 'holding our hand'.

But when you think about it, the writers did something very daring. I can't quite accept that these things were 'forgotten' on purpose because of the way we were made to think playing the others. Giving Samus her own traits rather than her being 'us' in the others, like in Prime is also quite daring. Our personal views of Samus can differ greatly to the reality - I was very pleased with her as a character and to me at least, she makes sense.

I would love to see an 'Other M 2', I've got this paranoia (maybe from watching Scream too much) that there may be more than one Deleter and with everything being so open, there may have been more going on than we know of.

A last thought: communications on the Bottle Ship did not work, but only for Federation Freq's - was this deliberate or a happy coincidence? Samus' suit was completely unnafected proving it does work, just not for the team... MB (trying to promote chaos)? Deleter (trying to cover his/their tracks)? An as yet, unseen saboteur (who would have had the time to do it before they arrived in the first place)? All of the above? Something else entirely? Not important? That's what I love: the mystery, so many different possibilities

I could go on tl;dr so I'll stop now. Fascinating.

[Dark Samus Aran]

Well, actually, I loved this game. Loved the controls and all the such. Great gaming atmosphere to me, just one damn fantastic game.

The only thing that got me was the story line, I couldnt follow it (to me it was a little to fast paced, but thats just me) And I thought everything else was good.

I dont understand why people hate it! Its a Metroid game, deal with it.

[Emperor Ing]

No, you're right, having a twenty minute cutscene, introducing not one, not two, but three new characters (and a new subplot!) in lieu of a final boss was a stroke of genius by that Perfect Military Mind (ltd).

I'm no hard-core hater, and I've beaten the game several times; I suppose you'd have to be a bit older to see how frustrating that type of crap is when you're playing a game and the game basically plays itself for you.

I'll give you the atmosphere and gameplay though. Even with the valid criticisms of those overly long analyses videos popping up on youtube, it's still a fun game to play. But when you start not-playing, that's when the problems begin to rear their ugly heads.

It almost makes me wish the plot was instead that the GFEDs were dealing space-heroin, and Samus and Anthony had to team up, Riggs and Murtaugh-style to take out the Bottle Ship, the biggest interstellar drug production facility in the galaxy. Now there would have been a game to play.

[Thunderchin]

No, you're right, having a twenty minute cutscene, introducing not one, not two, but three new characters (and a new subplot!) in lieu of a final boss was a stroke of genius by that Perfect Military Mind (ltd).

You call that a cutscene? What passes as a cutscene is merely Samus reading Twilight aloud!

It almost makes me wish the plot was instead that the GFEDs were dealing space-heroin, and Samus and Anthony had to team up, Riggs and Murtaugh-style to take out the Bottle Ship, the biggest interstellar drug production facility in the galaxy. Now there would have been a game to play.

That would be fuqing HILARIOUS. Maybe "Other M" means the drug...the drug that Sakamoto was on when he made Other M.

[Emperor Ing]

-explosion-


Dammit Samus the chief is gunna chew out our asses over this one.


I thought by now he liked the taste of ass Higgs!

-shoots a behind -


GOTTDAMN gurl you gunna drive me to an early grave


Considering how slow you move Higgs it's best I stick to the driving.


LATER:


You two blew up five space warehouses, at least 40 million galactic credits worth of construction equipment, and an entire eco-lab! And you two don't even have any proof of this Other M bullshit! No witnesses, no evidence, NUTTIN'! Are you two off your rockers!?


Listen chief we know Dane's game. We set back his operation big-time, an-


LISTEN I DON'T CARE IF YOU SAW DANE LOAD THE DAMN TRANSPORTS YERSELF. WITHOUT EVIDENCE YOU GOT SHIT. I WANT YOU TWO OFF DIS CASE.


But chief!


ENOUGH! GET DA HELL OUTTA MY OFFICE BEFORE I HAVE YER BADGES!

---


Samus it looks like you've been chewed out again.


Cut your shit Houston. I know what I saw.


If we don't find some way to pin those Other M shipments on Dane we're going to be as well-received as a Team-Ninja/Nintendo crossover, Samus.

[Zeroº]

Yay, more "Other M is flawed, 'mkay?" talk!
But not really.
No.
Instead, I want to talk more about its similarities with Fusion. And you can't deny them, because the plots of both games are unmistakably similar: Samus boards an "empty" ship, finds secret Metroid breeding program, talks a lot, and has to overcome herself. That last point takes a slightly different meaning between the games, with Fusion taking the more literal route. Literally.
Now is pondering time: If Nintendo (or , if you so desire) had only released Prime at the time, and waited on releasing Fusion, would it have resulted in a game more in-between Fusion and Other M? Imagine (fan-fic time) if you will, a melding of the plots from both games. It makes perfect sense, and actually fixes Other M's story a bit.

-Samus works with the Federation to capture creatures from SR388 and gets infected with the X. (Fusion)
~This could be transposed to Other M's story, in which the scientists are messing with creatures from Zebes. Just swap Zebes with SR388.
-No one is left alive on the ship, and the modified creatures are running amok.
~This applies to both games. Fusion had X parasite copy creatures, while Other M had genetically and cybernetically modified creatures. Well, they both had weaponized creatures... But the point is that the altered creatures theme is still present. (Also Nightmare.)
-Metroids are being tampered with. Same in both games, and possibly the same tamperings. An Omega was just replaced with a Queen to avoid redundancy and to increase epicness.
~But imagine a game in which Samus had to fight an Omega and Queen at the end. Not at the same time, silly; but in quick succession.
-Elevators are for long inner monologues and shutting down unexpectedly.
~That point just speaks for itself, 'cause it plagued both games equally.
-Both have an AI that rebels. They both rebel against the Federation, and for slightly similar (but ultimately different) reasons.
~More on this point in a moment, but the AI would likely not be Adam.
-Someone else is roaming the ship, causing all sorts of problems. This was present in both games quite dominantly, but was sort of abandoned in Other M.
~OK, here's the crux of it. The Feds would send a recovering, Fusion Suit Samus to the Bottle Ship. Maybe they send her there with some GFeds, or maybe they send the GFeds there while she's still unconscious. Probably the latter. And Adam would be with them. The whole Deleter plot line would be about the GFeds on the ship getting killed off by their own weapons. Some would be killed by X imitating them, and everybody would have to discern who was X and who wasn't. Think a mix of The Thing and the chestbursters from Alien. Then there would be the matter of SA-X roaming the ship and killing everybody. Despite it harboring Samus' classic appearance, the uninformed troopers would mistake SA-X for her and die miserably. Mistrust would be everywhere. That would clear up the whole Deleter thing, unless there also happens to be a traitor among the group. But that would be a dick move.

The placement of the evilmisunderstood android is still a bit sketchy, but it could remain similar for the most part. The one major exception might be to replace the roaming X-infected security drone with an X-infected android that could command the Metroid. I say could, because the X-infecting might negate the connection. I don't know.

Now, I personally think that this mixture of both games could have been truly amazing, and could have managed without walls of text or endless elevators of exposition. But I also think that this sort of helps to prove that Other M, while a fine game, is something of a fractured game that's missing its better half.
One must then wonder: What kind of game would Other M have been if Fusion was never made?
Or did simply hit a brick wall while writing Other M and dip back into the well for a retread?
Maybe Other M was supposed to be an addendum to Fusion, in order to give a feeling that the bad guys just don't grasp that "no means no."

Oh well, those are my most current thoughts on this game's plot; hack away at it, now...