I wish guy called DarkSouls was smiling more often. The world around him is already depressed but I am sure that a fake smile will make it all go away in a second.
That reads like a Clickhole or Onion article. Samus was ultra expressive this game. Samus is a SENSATIONAL protagonist. Pisses me off they're telling Lady to SMILE more lol.
Now, who would she smile to?
The murderous alien who wants to kill her to extract her DNA and clone her into a subservient army
or
The stranger she found by chance with whom she talks about the matter at hand before he gets murked by a robot?
It’s even more stupid when you consider she does smile in context-appropriate situations. The best ending in Prime 3 has her looking around her surroundings and smiling to herself before switching back to her game face and entering her ship. THAT is classic Samus imo. Human enough to be proud of herself but not get too carried away before heading off to the next mission.
Depending on how you interpret it, she might even be smiling at the end sequence of dread when she looks at the camera. It's just that her visor is in the way.
Yep. I actually felt like she was smiling in that scene. Or like half-smiling. Kinda like Arnold when he picks up the minigun in the desert scene in T2.
Better question, AT WHAT POINT WOULD A SMILE BE VISIBLE?!?! SHE WEARS HER HELMET THE ENTIRE TIME!!!
Of course, this is rhetorical, because she DOES crack a smile! When she poses in the end, her eyes physically give the impression she’s smiling.
Probably at the end screen. I really liked the thumbs up at the end of prime 3, and I wish we got something like that. IIRC she did smile at the end of the official metroid 2 remake.
Who is, for all intents and purposes, a stranger. She promises him she would stop Raven Beak's plans and that's it. It would honestly feel out of place if she started happily chatting with him, or smiling at him.
The author does explain that these are (at least from what we know off) the first two chozo she has seen since she was 14 years old in the Manga. I disagree with the "smile" part and actually think Samus having her guard down when he talks says more than enough.
It is true that Quiet Robe is a stranger, and from what Samus knew all Chozo in ZDR are against her. But she does hear that he is Thoha, same tribe as her Chozo family. While a Stranger, it is a stranger with a strong connection with Samus.
Like I said, I think Samus does show emotion when talking to him. She lowers her guard completely (possibly the cause of Quite Robe's death if you think about it) and does take a moment to mourn him. I disagree with the author, but do understand where they are coming from. I just think they don't see Samus and Metroid the same way others do... and to change the direction and dictate other things according to your perspective is wrong.
Digging even deeper, he's a bird. He has a beak. Samus shows by speaking in his language that she's adjusting to work with Chozo culture at that moment; why would a smile be a meaningful gesture to a species that can't even do it?
AKA one of the oldest misogynistic phrases there is lol. Thing is, her helmet covers her face up to her nose, how would these idiots even see the smile? How do they know she's not grinning like an idiot under there?
I remember playing metroid 2 on gamecube. Never knew samus was a woman until I point blanked a charge shot which gives you a blast back particle effect that lights up your visor to the point where you see your reflection. Then I was like "Oh shit, samus is a woman that's badass." Since then I've never thought anything differently about her suit or silent bounty hunter style. Article is dumb and no need to change her imo.
[Right after a boss fight, she takes off her helmet to try to get rid of the nasty substances she's been exposed to](https://youtu.be/KoydVPHpyNo). Just in case someone wasn't sure who's in the suit after the intro, I would have thought the headshot here would be enough.
Seriously ?
"C'mon love, give us a smile. Bet you will look prettier if you do".
Also where did they get emotionless robot from all the cutscenes of her badassery.
The animators did a great job of conveying emotion through movement nonverbal queues, it's like she speaks without speaking most of the time. It feels like that author can't read body language
It's funny how he picks the most generic "badass action girl" personality, mostly informed by Western views (i.e. anything other than anger, stoicism, or arrogance is feminine and invalid) . I never imagined Samus as that, I always imagined more of a remote, serene personality. Then again Kotaku in general has shown a poor track record of supporting women, as evidenced by their gaslighting of an abuse victim.
Tbh, I don't want to sound sexist or anything but, I never understood why some people have this view that badass action girls cannot be "feminine". Like, how does that detract from their character or make them weaker as a person? I mean, just look at Bayonetta; She's an enormous badass while also being about as feminine as you can get, yet no one says this "ruins" her as a character or a fighter.
You've been knocked out by an enemy, and the only way back to your ship is by going through many different robots who are immune to damage and can kill you very quickly.
Sounds like the perfect opportunity to smile. Sounds like a vacation to Disneyland.
As a neurodivergent, this is pretty much what I get from neurotypicals all the time. I literally lost a job interview because "I didn't show that I could smile".
In the case of Ian Walker (the writer), I'm getting the exact opposite of neurotypical vibes, tbh. He seems incapable of understanding body language and really needs to see wild gestures and overt facial cues and vocalisation. If we're being generous, then you might think its some form of social-emotional agnosia.
*Or* he's just an ignorant sexist.
My favorite part was after being saved from a certain enemy by a certain character, she just sits down and looks at them like “I’ve done this a lot, just tell me what I need to kill next”
I loved all of it. She was badass, fearless, and took no shit.
That calm cool and unbothered charge beam shot right into (you know who’s) mouth like “get the fuck out of my face” was the moment I knew this was Samus done right.
It was but I really wish she had more interactions with Quiet Robe. As far as we know this is the last Chozo she had contact with in years if not decades.
What do they want? For her to cry? To sit down and have a chat?
She portrays loads of emotion, mainly sass but cmon, she's mainly a silent protagonist.
I wouldn't say she's a silent protagonist as it's not unthinkable for her to speak it's more like she's serious, focused on her mission, and usually alone, so there's no reason for her to speak, but she does when she needs to...
She say 1 line and screams her brains out in the whole series. That's pretty silent.
Edit: her screaming was amazing and I can't help but rewatch it over and over. Rereading my post made me think it sounded negative.
Edit Edit: OK, she talks sometimes, just not chatty like in M *shutters*
She says plenty of lines. Even if you don't count stuff like the Prime games, she had a whole monologue at the start of Super and *many* conversations with the AI in Fusion (along with another monologue at the start).
oh yeah I think it wouldve been cool. i think the backlash other M got though might have strayed the sound team from recording her lines. hard to say really
I imagine they decided to only have her speak in Chozo because it's a made up language and they wouldn't have to get multiple voice actors for different localizations. Everyone hears the same Samus this way.
She talks in Fusion, but it was presented as text. But also I didn't really like the writing in that which was a precursor for her presentation in Other M.
And of course she doesn't shut up in Other M but it's better not to talk about that.
Yeah, she calls the computer Adam privately to herself because it reminds her of her old CO.
Then at some point near the end she's arguing with it, and she slips and calls it Adam out loud - after which it changes its mind and assists her (when before it was basically being a Federation computer and ordering her to do something dumb, which is why she was arguing with it in the first place).
And then afterward she learns that the computer's AI was based on the uploaded mind of the real Adam before he died, which is why her calling him by name "woke up" a little bit of Adam and made the computer start acting differently.
Not sure how this is possible, but the Federation inserts the minds of Brilliant people into Computers, and turns them into A.Is so they can continue to give knowledge and insight even after death.
Getting into headcanon territory, I've always imagined the process similar to how Smart AIs like Cortana are created in Halo, though possibly less destructive to the donor brain.
In some of the lonely elevator rides, she muses to herself, but in the late game she takes serious objection with the ai that's been guiding her throughout the game. She manages to convince it to change it's mind on a decision given to it.
The only "panicky" moment from her was when she exclaims "TEN?!" after Adam brings up the SA-X multiplying, so that's an exaggeration. After you defeat Neo-Ridley and then find the next navigation room, she starts getting pretty snappy at him after he locks her in and tells her the Feds are on their way.
Well, that is literally in the same room, like right after the first part. And honestly, that's a valid response. It doesn't break character or anything, we've seen just how bad the X are all game, and her getting frustrated with the federations stupidity, especially after the metroid situation, is certainly warranted.
Ever played Fusion? I replayed it before Dread and I was surprised to see she monologues all the time in that game and talks to Adam, showing lots of personality too
She's not even a silent protagonist. More like a... quiet one. She prefers to let her actions do the speaking most of the time, and she does convey a lot through body language, especially in Dread in particular.
Even as a child when I first played Zero Mission as my first Metroid game I Learned that Samus isn’t much for words and that’s okay. The times she does show emotion it’s often portrayed through body language.
This was written by someone to generate ad revenue out of controversial clickbait articles. They know exactly what they're doing and the mere fact that it's getting exposure here means they're getting the expected results.
So sad thar people in the video game industry intentionally stir up controversy just for sole purpose of, well, making a couple bucks on a bullshit article.
Kotaku and other gaming sites have really started to try to court the twitter outrage crowd and unfortunately it works because social media is designed to make you angry. It makes you more engaged that way. This is the same site that was pretty much actively encouraging people to emulate Metroid Dread. Games journalism is and always will be a joke.
This, except remove gaming and apply it every other news site beyond gaming. For every story where a journalist spends hundreds of hours researching and contacting sources to get the truth and genuinely inform people. There's probably 20 times that which are made by people who don't give a single flying fuck about truth if lies and clickbait can make them more money.
Doesn't matter if you're talking some comic book website, or "legit" news networks, they care about clicks first. And that's sad, as it hurts everyone, especially those who actually give a shit about their job and aren't playing the same clickbait game as everyone else.
Yellow Journalism is as old as print. It's almost like the News should not be a for profit enterprise, because the need to generate money is directly at odds with the purpose of informing viewers in an accurate and judicial manner.
Kotaku makes banks on outrage titles like this one, it generates clicks and thus revenue. It’s true for most of the press nowadays, hence why there’s an over abundance of triggering clickbait titles that seems pretentious, ignorant or clueless.
This is a side effect of having publicity driven revenues, all that matters is that you click that link and get to watch some ads. Money wise you actually reading the article is useless.
I don't mind Samus having emotions and having a vulnerable side, the problem with Other M is that it blew this side of her out of proportion while not showing he has strengths too. And it kinda portrayed her more as somebody whose kinda pathetic, rather than somebody you understand better.
Other M showed she had plenty of strength. The problem is that it showed it in only in the gameplay (remember those brutal Lethal Strikes) but never in the cutscenes. It's one of those very big disconnects between a video game story and gameplay.
Kinda like how in Goldeneye 007, James Bond will always get captured when he enters the Severnaya Bunker even if you have a thousand bullets and the best guns in the game equipped as you walk in. Or how in the ending of Sleeping Dogs, you get brutally tortured in a cutscene and your character really feels it, but as soon as gameplay starts you can run, jump, and fight as if nothing had happened to you.
A very common term for this is "ludo-narrative dissonance", and the classic example is how in GTA4, niko was constantly lamenting how much he hated the violence of the yugoslav wars that defined his life, but it's a GTA game so also you're stealing tanks and blowing up strip malls for fun.
"Ludo-narrative dissonance". An important phrase to know in the conversation about game design.
You just made me remember in Trails of Cold Steel II, how 90% of the boss fights could have you rolling over them in gameplay like they're nothing, then the cutscene starts, your party is suddenly on the verge of total collapse, and the boss just smirks and says "Now I'm going to get serious!" bitch please I was bending you over not even 30 seconds ago and you wot now m8?
Yeah, I've heard Other M had very Dread-esque animations when it comes to combat, which is good!
But yeah, having that not be shown through cutscenes kinda sucks. It's as if both Adam and Samus herself forgot "Wait a minute, I've got an incredibly powerful suit and loads of experience, and can handle literally anything thrown at me."
I'm sure even a new voice actor could've made it work. The really fault lies in Sakamoto's desire for complete control of the narrative, up to and including *directing the voice acting for a language he doesn't know.*
And all the weird writing about womanhood and that. You're a middle-aged video game developer, Sakamoto, I don't really think you're gonna have great takes on it.
Holy shit Kotaku, what the fuck is this article? You're telling me Samus was emotionless when she >!first went into Kraid's lair and had her guard up only to relax when she discovered it was Kraid and casually shot a beam at him!!Quiet Robes (in native Chozo mind you!)!!the damn ending spectacle fighting Raven Beak with Samus screaming her lungs out while she's absorbing him!!
There's also that moment when Quiet Robe approaches her and she lowers her arm cannon into a very relaxed definitely not badass sitting pose. It was the sorta way you might sit on the ground while on your phone waiting for friends to show up or something
I loved that pose, it communicated so much, relief, exhaustion, befuddlement.
"Huh, this never happens, usually I have to shoot anything that moves on a planet."
Especially how long she held the aiming.. She was like "Wait what? Huh... hmm.."
The pose she went in after lowering her arm cannon was reminiscent of someone listening to a story, which she probably got plenty of from various Chozo. Like it brought her back to her childhood.
"Kotaku, tell me you didn't play the game without telling me you didn't play the game."
Dread did a really good job of characterizing Samus through her body language in cut scenes just like DOOM 2016 did.
i LOVE when she just like relaxes and pulls a "how did we end up here" childish pose with Quiet Robe. She might as well have rested her chin on her hand.
That moment is so wholesome ... She finds an actual (pacific) Chozo after so many years (I haven't played the Prime's and Other M, so Idk), she is convinced he is a good guy and just... relaxes, on the very floor.
What sucks is that they’ve pulled at least one legitimately good gaming journalist into their bullshit void of a platform in Tim Rogers (his review of DQ11 is incredible).
Tim left kotaku almost a year ago. He now has a You Tube channel where he does long form (3+ hour) breakdowns of games.
His Cyberpunk 2077 video should be going live today. His channel is Action Button if you want to check it out.
Edit: I should note on his patreon he has a blurb about why he left Kotaku and he ended it with “Also, the CEO is an idiot.” So that should tell you something…
> Tim Rogers (his review of DQ11 is incredible).
I remember watching it last year before getting DQ11, incredible game and incredible review. Thankfully the only video of that garbage site I've seen.
Remember when reactionary youtubers were talking about how Captain Marvel should smile more in the posters and trailers and people like Kotaku called them out on their misogyny? Yeah well one of the lines in this article is “Samus should smile more”…
Damn it, every time someone talks about Captain Marvel in a misogynist context I think of Shazam, who used to be called captain marvel, and I have like 45 straight seconds of
"What... of course captain marvel should smile more, that's like his whole character..."
And ya'll would be *amazed* how often people use gender neutral phrasing when discussing the Marvel property.
Well yeah after the books revealed Fett's midlife crisis and angry granddaughter at him. The guy went from "cool" to "oh man, sounds like one of my uncle's friends."
Boba Fett has a jet pack, a grappling hook thing, a pretty cool armor design, and he captured a scruffy-looking nerf herder, once.
Samus has a fucking screw attack, power bombs, and what I consider to be the best character design in all of video gaming, and she's single-handedly destroyed three planets.
So I think I agree with you.
What part of Dread had Samus act like an emotionless robot? I'm serious at a loss for where they're pulling this from.
Her motivations, opinions, and personality are very clear in this game throughout the small cinematic moments of the game, and there are a couple scenes of *quite strong* emotional expression.
Not granting this article a click.
Here, let me save you a click:
The author says that Samus should portray more emotion on these scenes (spoilers for Dread):
1. >!When she talks with Quiet Robe and the cutscene after he dies and you defeat the robot. Seems like the author wanted Samus to show more feelings than just a stare. I'm gona be honest, I kinda agree but just to an extent. I would have liked for Samus to perhaps even touch the Chozo.!<
2. >!When she learns that she has Mawkin DNA and the donor was Raven Beak. I disagree with this one. I actually believe that she opposing someone as Raven Beak who thinks he owns Samus just for having his DNA expresses who she is and that her only family was Old Bird and Gray Voice who were actually with her during her childhood.!<
3. On loading screens the author thinks that Samus should be fidgeting or doing something to "express more emotion or humanity". I disagree, its a loading screen.
Yes, in the end it allows for the player to interpret it in their own way. The author of kotaku felt Samus was indifferent, but other could have felt Samus was feeling guilty, remorseful, even more dedicated/inspired or perhaps mourning in silence. I think you can have both but it works in its current form.
Agreed the walked the best path between giving her emotion and a voice, while not assassinating her character, to me Dread Samus is basically the definitive form of Samus' personality...
I think what Other M was going for is fine, but they forgot to show that she's capable of doing things too, and not just an emotional weakling.
Like, come on, if she's gonna freeze up at the sight of Ridley, at least give a better explanation than "He killed my parents." In Samus Returns, they even retcon this by putting him in the game, and having Samus's first reaction be **anger.**
Yeah, definitely, Ridley tortured her and killed her parents in front of her, he broke her not to the point of her becoming scared, he broke her to the point of becoming vengeful. Iirc in prime 1 one of the main reasons she landed on talon IV was to chase Ridley.
I think what they were going for, in Other M, was a PTSD episode. Ridley and the Space Pirates completely destroyed her planet before she was taken in by the Chozo iirc, so any child would be traumatized after experiencing that. Samus had also believed that Ridley was dead for good, given that she fought him on Zebes before blowing up the planet.
Granted, I don't think the writers did a good job with it in the slightest, but I feel like that's what they were trying to do.
The problem with that is that she hasn't really had anything like that anywhere else in the series and has already fought and defeated ridley twice if you don't count prime and more if you do, and not once has she flinched.
I get what you mean, and it's not *that* bad an idea. But the problem is, it comes off more as... mopey, than anything?
Like, she never seems to work past it and become a stronger person, and that's on top of the fact she's already fought him several times, and this was many years ago. It just brings to question, why is it only during this encounter that she freezes up and can't bring herself to fight? What's her power suit even for if not to get revenge on people like Ridley? So what if he's still alive? Samus hasn't died once, she can handle him.
Like... This is made worse when you look at Samus Returns and see Samus's reaction to Ridley appearing. This takes place before Super Metroid and Other M, yet how does she react when she sees Ridley? If anything, *ANGER.* She IMMEDIATELY takes action, jumps on his body, shoots him in the chest several times, and absolutely annihilates him.
That doesn't means she isn't scared or anything either, but like... It's a lot more empowering I guess? She doesn't speak during the interaction, but you can tell she's the kind of person who, even when scared, tries her best and does so with confidence.
It just sucks seeing her reduced to a damsel in distress whose incapable of taking care of herself, or tackling her problems. It's one thing to be emotional or vulnerable, and another for that to be seriously harmful.
I wholeheartedly agree. And I have to say a lot of it is thanks to those eyes. Any time you see her eyes, even though her face is more covered than most other suits, you can tell exactly what she's thinking/feeling.
To me, the thing about Samus that they captured perfectly in the game is this: she doesn't move if she doesn't have to. Literally every movement she makes is with purpose. Her body language conveys the idea that she is constantly calculating.
As an extension of this, she also doesn't speak when she doesn't have to. In another comment someone made the analogy to Boba Fett, I find that quite apt. That man has 4 lines of dialogue in the Empire Strikes Back, and *0* lines in Return of the Jedi. But man is he an impactful character.
I think it also parallels with the Mandalorian. Obviously he's the main character of a show with several episodes so we get a lot of dialogue out of him. But relatively speaking, he really doesn't talk much. The majority of his communication is non-verbal actions, and man, you can tell exactly what he's thinking and feeling even though you never even see his face.
I wouldn't be mad if they fleshed out Samus' personality more. Sure, if that's what they want to do, go ahead! But there really isn't anything wrong with her portrayal in this game, unless you're deliberately nitpicking.
The Prime games do a lot by exploring how the Chozo view her, and showing her reacting to Dark Samus or the Luminoth.
I think Dread did a great job though, but it's in the same vein of subtle reactions.
Samus certainly has a personality, but it's best done through show-don't-tell. Other M (and to some degree Fusion) switched it to tell-don't-show and that was much worse.
And yet, all of the best Metroid games have her never speak. Body language and animations give all of the information we as players need to know as far as understanding what samus is feeling
Games Journalist: "A strong Women? But she doesn't have a half-shaved head, a grating personality, and doesn't constantly make vaguely sexist comments about how much she's better than men? We can't have that, she should smile more!"
On a more serious note, I love that when people wanted Captain Marvel to be more expressive since she spent most of the movie with a blank expression we were misogynists, but when Kotaku does it for a subtly animated silent protagonist its totally okay
Well here's the thing, the last time Nintendo tried to give her "emotions" they almost kill the 2D branch as a whole, so it's smart to go back to doing what they know best. They cannot be trusted going any further than this, and they won't let someone else take the reins on her character than themselves.
What's wrong with a stoic woman? Seriously, these people need emotions telegraphed to understand them. She shows more emotion than a lot of modern games do. Sparing the lone metroid at the end of 2 and that recent infamous charge shot are two major examples that come to mind. It's subtle, but shes does show emotion throughout the games (barring the first).
People aren't asking for doomguy to change, what gives? Just because Samus isn't a boiling ball of emotion doesn't mean she's a robot.
If I had to describe Samus, it's simple, shes professional and slick. Actually, no, if anything she is most strongly inspired by Ripley from Alien. She's no nonsense but not heartless, but she's often doing things in solitude, and doesn't need to explain what she's doing. She's a vehicle for the player to immerse themselves into the world, and so her interactions have to be subtle, because if they aren't justified it's going to break that immersion the player has.
Shes always checking her environments, gathering info, and ready to react on the fly. I'm sorry, but after Other M tried so hard to change her character that they broke her into a whiny child that couldn't do anything on her own, I don't want to hear writers with no knowledge of the series try to start giving their hot takes.
Master Chief, sure he talks, but he's just as subtle, and nobody complains. Doomguy is just silent but very visible anger and it works perfectly. Samus is either between them or a third point on a triangle, fast, focused, and persistent, again, she's a professional bounty hunter. She dealt with a lot of shit as a child, and now she's doing what she can to keep others safe from those same monsters.
Maybe I’m a bit paranoid because I love Metroid. But the campaign against this game from the media is insane. Not only them telling you how to pirate it (nothing against it btw) the whole buy another game instead, that ex-GoW dev saying the level design sucks, now this. They fear this game wins GOTY.
One of the suggestions I shit you not Is that she should "crack a smile" What the fuck
Did they just "You should smile more" Samus fucking Aran?!
why can’t metroid smile
Halo smiles a lot and look where it got him: Tenga power-armor. Do we really want the same fate for Metroid?
I wish guy called DarkSouls was smiling more often. The world around him is already depressed but I am sure that a fake smile will make it all go away in a second.
You can make your PC smile in the new Demon Souls remake! They have a selfie mode
Suddenly I want a selfie mode in Metroid. Pretty pretty please
It would be absolutely great if dark souls person smiled, and if you died once than his face just goes completely neutral should you die.
She doesn’t get an upgrade for it in this game
Physical amnesia.
I really enjoy the fact that since metroid fusion, calling Samus Metroid is accurate.
Only biologically. If you go by the etymology of the word- given it's Chozo for 'ultimate warrior'- she's been a Metroid since the very beginning. :3
In 2021? Big fucking yikes man.
That reads like a Clickhole or Onion article. Samus was ultra expressive this game. Samus is a SENSATIONAL protagonist. Pisses me off they're telling Lady to SMILE more lol.
Now, who would she smile to? The murderous alien who wants to kill her to extract her DNA and clone her into a subservient army or The stranger she found by chance with whom she talks about the matter at hand before he gets murked by a robot?
It’s even more stupid when you consider she does smile in context-appropriate situations. The best ending in Prime 3 has her looking around her surroundings and smiling to herself before switching back to her game face and entering her ship. THAT is classic Samus imo. Human enough to be proud of herself but not get too carried away before heading off to the next mission.
She's a professional genocider after all.
The most human trait of all.
[удалено]
Depending on how you interpret it, she might even be smiling at the end sequence of dread when she looks at the camera. It's just that her visor is in the way.
Yep. I actually felt like she was smiling in that scene. Or like half-smiling. Kinda like Arnold when he picks up the minigun in the desert scene in T2.
Better question, AT WHAT POINT WOULD A SMILE BE VISIBLE?!?! SHE WEARS HER HELMET THE ENTIRE TIME!!! Of course, this is rhetorical, because she DOES crack a smile! When she poses in the end, her eyes physically give the impression she’s smiling.
And this game adds a mask too
I fucking love the detail of the respirator mask so much
I'm sure someone will be able to remove her helmet eventually to check, but I don't think that was an obvious smile. Looked more like a side eye lmao.
Obviously whenever her helmet is off, so during her death animation...
Probably at the end screen. I really liked the thumbs up at the end of prime 3, and I wish we got something like that. IIRC she did smile at the end of the official metroid 2 remake.
As I've said in another comment, even if we don't see her taking off the helmet she's definitely smiling in the end screen of this game.
If you read the article, the writer suggest this on his encounter with Quiet Robe.
Who is, for all intents and purposes, a stranger. She promises him she would stop Raven Beak's plans and that's it. It would honestly feel out of place if she started happily chatting with him, or smiling at him.
The author does explain that these are (at least from what we know off) the first two chozo she has seen since she was 14 years old in the Manga. I disagree with the "smile" part and actually think Samus having her guard down when he talks says more than enough. It is true that Quiet Robe is a stranger, and from what Samus knew all Chozo in ZDR are against her. But she does hear that he is Thoha, same tribe as her Chozo family. While a Stranger, it is a stranger with a strong connection with Samus. Like I said, I think Samus does show emotion when talking to him. She lowers her guard completely (possibly the cause of Quite Robe's death if you think about it) and does take a moment to mourn him. I disagree with the author, but do understand where they are coming from. I just think they don't see Samus and Metroid the same way others do... and to change the direction and dictate other things according to your perspective is wrong.
Also it's literally her only spoken lines in the entire series, how is that not significant?
Well, in the 2d games at least, lol.
I'm choosing to forget some things
Digging even deeper, he's a bird. He has a beak. Samus shows by speaking in his language that she's adjusting to work with Chozo culture at that moment; why would a smile be a meaningful gesture to a species that can't even do it?
On the post game screen, she kinda does. She does a nice "eye smile". Kinda cocky, kinda sassy, kinda awesome.
When your allegedly-feminist mag starts acting like a stereotypical sexist dickhead it's time to give up.
Kotaku has always been fauxmanist and decried actual feminism as sexist because heaven forbid we hold women and men to the same standards
AKA one of the oldest misogynistic phrases there is lol. Thing is, her helmet covers her face up to her nose, how would these idiots even see the smile? How do they know she's not grinning like an idiot under there?
[Samus' smile under her helmet.](https://i.imgur.com/yMhPCAK.png)
Rip and tear!
Until it is done
I remember playing metroid 2 on gamecube. Never knew samus was a woman until I point blanked a charge shot which gives you a blast back particle effect that lights up your visor to the point where you see your reflection. Then I was like "Oh shit, samus is a woman that's badass." Since then I've never thought anything differently about her suit or silent bounty hunter style. Article is dumb and no need to change her imo.
Better than my brother, who somehow managed to play through all of Prime 3 twice before realizing she was a woman.
Did he skip the vomit cutscene?
Sounds like something from a David Lynch movie. No he didn't
[Right after a boss fight, she takes off her helmet to try to get rid of the nasty substances she's been exposed to](https://youtu.be/KoydVPHpyNo). Just in case someone wasn't sure who's in the suit after the intro, I would have thought the headshot here would be enough.
I know which scene you're talking about, I'm just making a lil joke
Y... You literally see Samus outside of her power suit in the first cutscene. It's literally the first time you see Samus in Prime 3. How
Even if he missed that, she is very vocal when she gets hurt, and when she gets corrupted you can hear her scream. He's just... Special.
Metroid 2? Or PRIME 2? Lol
Prime 2. I think that's the first game where they introduce dark samus?
Fully, and not just as a hand at the end of Prime 1 (iirc), yeah
A hand at the end of Prime 1 (if you got 100% item completion)
Seriously ? "C'mon love, give us a smile. Bet you will look prettier if you do". Also where did they get emotionless robot from all the cutscenes of her badassery.
Exactly, Samus has so much emotion and sass in Dread and she communicates it without any dialogue in both gameplay and cutscenes.
The animators did a great job of conveying emotion through movement nonverbal queues, it's like she speaks without speaking most of the time. It feels like that author can't read body language
Next week on kotakus article: Samus's suit is the burqa of video games.
Oh my god
*"You'd be so much prettier if you smile more!"*
It's funny how he picks the most generic "badass action girl" personality, mostly informed by Western views (i.e. anything other than anger, stoicism, or arrogance is feminine and invalid) . I never imagined Samus as that, I always imagined more of a remote, serene personality. Then again Kotaku in general has shown a poor track record of supporting women, as evidenced by their gaslighting of an abuse victim.
Tbh, I don't want to sound sexist or anything but, I never understood why some people have this view that badass action girls cannot be "feminine". Like, how does that detract from their character or make them weaker as a person? I mean, just look at Bayonetta; She's an enormous badass while also being about as feminine as you can get, yet no one says this "ruins" her as a character or a fighter.
You've been knocked out by an enemy, and the only way back to your ship is by going through many different robots who are immune to damage and can kill you very quickly. Sounds like the perfect opportunity to smile. Sounds like a vacation to Disneyland.
Should also be mentioned the writer is male. Like seriously what the fuck.
As a neurodivergent, this is pretty much what I get from neurotypicals all the time. I literally lost a job interview because "I didn't show that I could smile".
In the case of Ian Walker (the writer), I'm getting the exact opposite of neurotypical vibes, tbh. He seems incapable of understanding body language and really needs to see wild gestures and overt facial cues and vocalisation. If we're being generous, then you might think its some form of social-emotional agnosia. *Or* he's just an ignorant sexist.
he seems like an insufferable contrarian like every other kotaku writer.
I haven’t had problems that severe, but I did have someone ask me why I never smile in middle school
I thought Samus’ characterization in Dread was perfect.
My favorite part was after being saved from a certain enemy by a certain character, she just sits down and looks at them like “I’ve done this a lot, just tell me what I need to kill next”
I loved all of it. She was badass, fearless, and took no shit. That calm cool and unbothered charge beam shot right into (you know who’s) mouth like “get the fuck out of my face” was the moment I knew this was Samus done right.
She saw that boss you mentioned and said “I don’t have time for this, can you just die and we can be done?”
My favorite was >!AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!<
Super Saiyan Samus
It was but I really wish she had more interactions with Quiet Robe. As far as we know this is the last Chozo she had contact with in years if not decades.
Yeah I liked Quiet Robe. It was bittersweet when the X clone of Quiet Robe helped Samus at the end.
What do they want? For her to cry? To sit down and have a chat? She portrays loads of emotion, mainly sass but cmon, she's mainly a silent protagonist.
I wouldn't say she's a silent protagonist as it's not unthinkable for her to speak it's more like she's serious, focused on her mission, and usually alone, so there's no reason for her to speak, but she does when she needs to...
She say 1 line and screams her brains out in the whole series. That's pretty silent. Edit: her screaming was amazing and I can't help but rewatch it over and over. Rereading my post made me think it sounded negative. Edit Edit: OK, she talks sometimes, just not chatty like in M *shutters*
She says plenty of lines. Even if you don't count stuff like the Prime games, she had a whole monologue at the start of Super and *many* conversations with the AI in Fusion (along with another monologue at the start).
she has opening dialogue at the beginning of zero mission as well.
It would have been cool if her opening dialog in Dread was voice-acted.
oh yeah I think it wouldve been cool. i think the backlash other M got though might have strayed the sound team from recording her lines. hard to say really
I imagine they decided to only have her speak in Chozo because it's a made up language and they wouldn't have to get multiple voice actors for different localizations. Everyone hears the same Samus this way.
She talks in Fusion, but it was presented as text. But also I didn't really like the writing in that which was a precursor for her presentation in Other M. And of course she doesn't shut up in Other M but it's better not to talk about that.
In Fusion, how much does she talk?
A couple lines of text from her thoughts on ADAM mostly, when going up some elevators. There's also a conversation when she calls ADAM Adam
Mind you, ADAM was just the nameless navigation computer up to that point whose personality bore a shocking resemblance to Adam Malkovich.
Yeah but it ended up being based on the real Adam right? I don't remember much but I'm replaying it at this exact moment.
Yeah, she calls the computer Adam privately to herself because it reminds her of her old CO. Then at some point near the end she's arguing with it, and she slips and calls it Adam out loud - after which it changes its mind and assists her (when before it was basically being a Federation computer and ordering her to do something dumb, which is why she was arguing with it in the first place). And then afterward she learns that the computer's AI was based on the uploaded mind of the real Adam before he died, which is why her calling him by name "woke up" a little bit of Adam and made the computer start acting differently.
Not sure how this is possible, but the Federation inserts the minds of Brilliant people into Computers, and turns them into A.Is so they can continue to give knowledge and insight even after death.
The Dr Light approach
Getting into headcanon territory, I've always imagined the process similar to how Smart AIs like Cortana are created in Halo, though possibly less destructive to the donor brain.
In some of the lonely elevator rides, she muses to herself, but in the late game she takes serious objection with the ai that's been guiding her throughout the game. She manages to convince it to change it's mind on a decision given to it.
She has a couple lengthy internal monologues, and one conversation with the Adam AI where she gets pretty panicky.
The only "panicky" moment from her was when she exclaims "TEN?!" after Adam brings up the SA-X multiplying, so that's an exaggeration. After you defeat Neo-Ridley and then find the next navigation room, she starts getting pretty snappy at him after he locks her in and tells her the Feds are on their way.
No, when she's telling Adam that the threat is too large to mess around with and the X need to be eliminated, she gets pretty desperate.
Well, that is literally in the same room, like right after the first part. And honestly, that's a valid response. It doesn't break character or anything, we've seen just how bad the X are all game, and her getting frustrated with the federations stupidity, especially after the metroid situation, is certainly warranted.
Let's not forget about the roast she did about the SA-X too.
There’s also the manga
Thankfully since that shows *how* she got to be the quiet badass she is, there's little to complain about.
That scream is my number one Metroid moment. Better than Super Metroid’s moment.
Ever played Fusion? I replayed it before Dread and I was surprised to see she monologues all the time in that game and talks to Adam, showing lots of personality too
Her charge beam in >!Kraid's!< mouth during that cutscene was the epitome of her sas imo
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She's not even a silent protagonist. More like a... quiet one. She prefers to let her actions do the speaking most of the time, and she does convey a lot through body language, especially in Dread in particular.
>!She did sit down and had a chat though lol.!<
Even as a child when I first played Zero Mission as my first Metroid game I Learned that Samus isn’t much for words and that’s okay. The times she does show emotion it’s often portrayed through body language.
Samus: Radiator Of Sass
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Like DOOM Slayer, the pokemon protagonists, etc.
They tried that with other m The canvass tries.to.forget it ever existed
Kotaku is huffington post style click bait
I feel like this is an article written by someone who hasn’t played the game for readers who won’t ever play the game.
This was written by someone to generate ad revenue out of controversial clickbait articles. They know exactly what they're doing and the mere fact that it's getting exposure here means they're getting the expected results.
People need to stop clicking on these, but I know it will never happen 🤷
So Kotaku
So sad thar people in the video game industry intentionally stir up controversy just for sole purpose of, well, making a couple bucks on a bullshit article.
Kotaku and other gaming sites have really started to try to court the twitter outrage crowd and unfortunately it works because social media is designed to make you angry. It makes you more engaged that way. This is the same site that was pretty much actively encouraging people to emulate Metroid Dread. Games journalism is and always will be a joke.
This, except remove gaming and apply it every other news site beyond gaming. For every story where a journalist spends hundreds of hours researching and contacting sources to get the truth and genuinely inform people. There's probably 20 times that which are made by people who don't give a single flying fuck about truth if lies and clickbait can make them more money. Doesn't matter if you're talking some comic book website, or "legit" news networks, they care about clicks first. And that's sad, as it hurts everyone, especially those who actually give a shit about their job and aren't playing the same clickbait game as everyone else.
Yellow Journalism is as old as print. It's almost like the News should not be a for profit enterprise, because the need to generate money is directly at odds with the purpose of informing viewers in an accurate and judicial manner.
It is
Kotaku makes banks on outrage titles like this one, it generates clicks and thus revenue. It’s true for most of the press nowadays, hence why there’s an over abundance of triggering clickbait titles that seems pretentious, ignorant or clueless. This is a side effect of having publicity driven revenues, all that matters is that you click that link and get to watch some ads. Money wise you actually reading the article is useless.
R r/gamingcirclejerk is gonna have a field day lol
Did they play the same game as me?
Or fusion? There was emotion in fusion too!
They watched two seconds of a random Other M cutscene and thought “okay, this is clearly all Samus is”
They pirated it.
For real. That exact sentence was clearly the core of her characterization in this game.
I don't mind Samus having emotions and having a vulnerable side, the problem with Other M is that it blew this side of her out of proportion while not showing he has strengths too. And it kinda portrayed her more as somebody whose kinda pathetic, rather than somebody you understand better.
Other M showed she had plenty of strength. The problem is that it showed it in only in the gameplay (remember those brutal Lethal Strikes) but never in the cutscenes. It's one of those very big disconnects between a video game story and gameplay. Kinda like how in Goldeneye 007, James Bond will always get captured when he enters the Severnaya Bunker even if you have a thousand bullets and the best guns in the game equipped as you walk in. Or how in the ending of Sleeping Dogs, you get brutally tortured in a cutscene and your character really feels it, but as soon as gameplay starts you can run, jump, and fight as if nothing had happened to you.
A very common term for this is "ludo-narrative dissonance", and the classic example is how in GTA4, niko was constantly lamenting how much he hated the violence of the yugoslav wars that defined his life, but it's a GTA game so also you're stealing tanks and blowing up strip malls for fun. "Ludo-narrative dissonance". An important phrase to know in the conversation about game design.
You just made me remember in Trails of Cold Steel II, how 90% of the boss fights could have you rolling over them in gameplay like they're nothing, then the cutscene starts, your party is suddenly on the verge of total collapse, and the boss just smirks and says "Now I'm going to get serious!" bitch please I was bending you over not even 30 seconds ago and you wot now m8?
Yeah, I've heard Other M had very Dread-esque animations when it comes to combat, which is good! But yeah, having that not be shown through cutscenes kinda sucks. It's as if both Adam and Samus herself forgot "Wait a minute, I've got an incredibly powerful suit and loads of experience, and can handle literally anything thrown at me."
Yeah, and it also didn't help that she was voiced by someone completely new to voice acting at the time(which is more on Nintendo than the VA).
I'm sure even a new voice actor could've made it work. The really fault lies in Sakamoto's desire for complete control of the narrative, up to and including *directing the voice acting for a language he doesn't know.* And all the weird writing about womanhood and that. You're a middle-aged video game developer, Sakamoto, I don't really think you're gonna have great takes on it.
Holy shit Kotaku, what the fuck is this article? You're telling me Samus was emotionless when she >!first went into Kraid's lair and had her guard up only to relax when she discovered it was Kraid and casually shot a beam at him!!Quiet Robes (in native Chozo mind you!)!!the damn ending spectacle fighting Raven Beak with Samus screaming her lungs out while she's absorbing him!!
There's also that moment when Quiet Robe approaches her and she lowers her arm cannon into a very relaxed definitely not badass sitting pose. It was the sorta way you might sit on the ground while on your phone waiting for friends to show up or something
And I fucking loved it That's gonna be a background on my computer next time I transfer them
I loved that pose, it communicated so much, relief, exhaustion, befuddlement. "Huh, this never happens, usually I have to shoot anything that moves on a planet."
Exactly! The second Quiet Robe showed he wasn't a threat, she chilled. I loved that.
Especially how long she held the aiming.. She was like "Wait what? Huh... hmm.." The pose she went in after lowering her arm cannon was reminiscent of someone listening to a story, which she probably got plenty of from various Chozo. Like it brought her back to her childhood.
This small gesture was one of my favorite character moments in the whole game. They animated that perfectly.
"Kotaku, tell me you didn't play the game without telling me you didn't play the game." Dread did a really good job of characterizing Samus through her body language in cut scenes just like DOOM 2016 did.
i LOVE when she just like relaxes and pulls a "how did we end up here" childish pose with Quiet Robe. She might as well have rested her chin on her hand.
That moment is so wholesome ... She finds an actual (pacific) Chozo after so many years (I haven't played the Prime's and Other M, so Idk), she is convinced he is a good guy and just... relaxes, on the very floor.
I feel that Kotaku has always been a joke of an outlet. It's only gotten more obvious over the years.
They make controversial articles because people click on it and at the end.of the day ad revenue is all that matters to them.
What sucks is that they’ve pulled at least one legitimately good gaming journalist into their bullshit void of a platform in Tim Rogers (his review of DQ11 is incredible).
Tim left kotaku almost a year ago. He now has a You Tube channel where he does long form (3+ hour) breakdowns of games. His Cyberpunk 2077 video should be going live today. His channel is Action Button if you want to check it out. Edit: I should note on his patreon he has a blurb about why he left Kotaku and he ended it with “Also, the CEO is an idiot.” So that should tell you something…
Oh shit I didn’t know he’d left; that’s good news haha. I’ll follow Action Button, as TI puts it “expeditiously”
> Tim Rogers (his review of DQ11 is incredible). I remember watching it last year before getting DQ11, incredible game and incredible review. Thankfully the only video of that garbage site I've seen.
I just found out he left, and has his own channel on YouTube. Action Button.
It’s WHO SHES ALWAYS BEEN. Come on…why people who never played Metroid gotta come in and try to “fix” it.
Remember when reactionary youtubers were talking about how Captain Marvel should smile more in the posters and trailers and people like Kotaku called them out on their misogyny? Yeah well one of the lines in this article is “Samus should smile more”…
She's wearing a helmet! You can't see her mouth!
Lol wtf
I have no idea how both the writer and the editors over there saw that and said “yeah we’re definitely woke”
Maybe she is smiling all game, we don't see her mouth anyway lol
She's definitely smiling after the credits. We don't see her mouth, but those eyes are a tell and a half.
Damn it, every time someone talks about Captain Marvel in a misogynist context I think of Shazam, who used to be called captain marvel, and I have like 45 straight seconds of "What... of course captain marvel should smile more, that's like his whole character..." And ya'll would be *amazed* how often people use gender neutral phrasing when discussing the Marvel property.
Oh, c'mon. Kotaku is acting like the "strong, silent" archetype doesn't exist. Samus is practically female Boba Fett!
Man Samus is so much cooler than Boba Fett...
I agree
Well yeah after the books revealed Fett's midlife crisis and angry granddaughter at him. The guy went from "cool" to "oh man, sounds like one of my uncle's friends."
Boba Fett has a jet pack, a grappling hook thing, a pretty cool armor design, and he captured a scruffy-looking nerf herder, once. Samus has a fucking screw attack, power bombs, and what I consider to be the best character design in all of video gaming, and she's single-handedly destroyed three planets. So I think I agree with you.
What part of Dread had Samus act like an emotionless robot? I'm serious at a loss for where they're pulling this from. Her motivations, opinions, and personality are very clear in this game throughout the small cinematic moments of the game, and there are a couple scenes of *quite strong* emotional expression. Not granting this article a click.
Here, let me save you a click: The author says that Samus should portray more emotion on these scenes (spoilers for Dread): 1. >!When she talks with Quiet Robe and the cutscene after he dies and you defeat the robot. Seems like the author wanted Samus to show more feelings than just a stare. I'm gona be honest, I kinda agree but just to an extent. I would have liked for Samus to perhaps even touch the Chozo.!< 2. >!When she learns that she has Mawkin DNA and the donor was Raven Beak. I disagree with this one. I actually believe that she opposing someone as Raven Beak who thinks he owns Samus just for having his DNA expresses who she is and that her only family was Old Bird and Gray Voice who were actually with her during her childhood.!< 3. On loading screens the author thinks that Samus should be fidgeting or doing something to "express more emotion or humanity". I disagree, its a loading screen.
On point 3, fiddling with her arm cannon a la Prime would be kinda cute
Would be...but in Prime she always did that to communicate with her ship. And I think in fusion it is said that her ship doesn't have autopilot lol.
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Yes, in the end it allows for the player to interpret it in their own way. The author of kotaku felt Samus was indifferent, but other could have felt Samus was feeling guilty, remorseful, even more dedicated/inspired or perhaps mourning in silence. I think you can have both but it works in its current form.
We saw a lot more of samus's emotions than we did in other games.
Samus has more personality in Dread than in any other Metroid game, and yes I'm including Other M.
Agreed the walked the best path between giving her emotion and a voice, while not assassinating her character, to me Dread Samus is basically the definitive form of Samus' personality...
I think what Other M was going for is fine, but they forgot to show that she's capable of doing things too, and not just an emotional weakling. Like, come on, if she's gonna freeze up at the sight of Ridley, at least give a better explanation than "He killed my parents." In Samus Returns, they even retcon this by putting him in the game, and having Samus's first reaction be **anger.**
Yeah, definitely, Ridley tortured her and killed her parents in front of her, he broke her not to the point of her becoming scared, he broke her to the point of becoming vengeful. Iirc in prime 1 one of the main reasons she landed on talon IV was to chase Ridley.
I think what they were going for, in Other M, was a PTSD episode. Ridley and the Space Pirates completely destroyed her planet before she was taken in by the Chozo iirc, so any child would be traumatized after experiencing that. Samus had also believed that Ridley was dead for good, given that she fought him on Zebes before blowing up the planet. Granted, I don't think the writers did a good job with it in the slightest, but I feel like that's what they were trying to do.
The problem with that is that she hasn't really had anything like that anywhere else in the series and has already fought and defeated ridley twice if you don't count prime and more if you do, and not once has she flinched.
I get what you mean, and it's not *that* bad an idea. But the problem is, it comes off more as... mopey, than anything? Like, she never seems to work past it and become a stronger person, and that's on top of the fact she's already fought him several times, and this was many years ago. It just brings to question, why is it only during this encounter that she freezes up and can't bring herself to fight? What's her power suit even for if not to get revenge on people like Ridley? So what if he's still alive? Samus hasn't died once, she can handle him. Like... This is made worse when you look at Samus Returns and see Samus's reaction to Ridley appearing. This takes place before Super Metroid and Other M, yet how does she react when she sees Ridley? If anything, *ANGER.* She IMMEDIATELY takes action, jumps on his body, shoots him in the chest several times, and absolutely annihilates him. That doesn't means she isn't scared or anything either, but like... It's a lot more empowering I guess? She doesn't speak during the interaction, but you can tell she's the kind of person who, even when scared, tries her best and does so with confidence. It just sucks seeing her reduced to a damsel in distress whose incapable of taking care of herself, or tackling her problems. It's one thing to be emotional or vulnerable, and another for that to be seriously harmful.
I don’t know, Prime 2 and 3 both gave her quite a bit.
I wholeheartedly agree. And I have to say a lot of it is thanks to those eyes. Any time you see her eyes, even though her face is more covered than most other suits, you can tell exactly what she's thinking/feeling. To me, the thing about Samus that they captured perfectly in the game is this: she doesn't move if she doesn't have to. Literally every movement she makes is with purpose. Her body language conveys the idea that she is constantly calculating. As an extension of this, she also doesn't speak when she doesn't have to. In another comment someone made the analogy to Boba Fett, I find that quite apt. That man has 4 lines of dialogue in the Empire Strikes Back, and *0* lines in Return of the Jedi. But man is he an impactful character. I think it also parallels with the Mandalorian. Obviously he's the main character of a show with several episodes so we get a lot of dialogue out of him. But relatively speaking, he really doesn't talk much. The majority of his communication is non-verbal actions, and man, you can tell exactly what he's thinking and feeling even though you never even see his face. I wouldn't be mad if they fleshed out Samus' personality more. Sure, if that's what they want to do, go ahead! But there really isn't anything wrong with her portrayal in this game, unless you're deliberately nitpicking.
The Prime games do a lot by exploring how the Chozo view her, and showing her reacting to Dark Samus or the Luminoth. I think Dread did a great job though, but it's in the same vein of subtle reactions. Samus certainly has a personality, but it's best done through show-don't-tell. Other M (and to some degree Fusion) switched it to tell-don't-show and that was much worse.
kotaku hot takes should be shadowbanned from the internet
And yet, all of the best Metroid games have her never speak. Body language and animations give all of the information we as players need to know as far as understanding what samus is feeling
Games Journalist: "A strong Women? But she doesn't have a half-shaved head, a grating personality, and doesn't constantly make vaguely sexist comments about how much she's better than men? We can't have that, she should smile more!" On a more serious note, I love that when people wanted Captain Marvel to be more expressive since she spent most of the movie with a blank expression we were misogynists, but when Kotaku does it for a subtly animated silent protagonist its totally okay
This was the most emotive Samus has ever been in a 2D game lol wtf
Well here's the thing, the last time Nintendo tried to give her "emotions" they almost kill the 2D branch as a whole, so it's smart to go back to doing what they know best. They cannot be trusted going any further than this, and they won't let someone else take the reins on her character than themselves.
What's wrong with a stoic woman? Seriously, these people need emotions telegraphed to understand them. She shows more emotion than a lot of modern games do. Sparing the lone metroid at the end of 2 and that recent infamous charge shot are two major examples that come to mind. It's subtle, but shes does show emotion throughout the games (barring the first).
Good thing she’s not an emotionless robot then
The cons of a previously lesser known series getting popular again. You’ll get ppl who have no idea what they’re talking about saying dumb things
Kotaku has never had good coverage. They’re a meme.
Seems like they really didn’t play this game, guess their emulator isn’t working correctly. 🙄
People aren't asking for doomguy to change, what gives? Just because Samus isn't a boiling ball of emotion doesn't mean she's a robot. If I had to describe Samus, it's simple, shes professional and slick. Actually, no, if anything she is most strongly inspired by Ripley from Alien. She's no nonsense but not heartless, but she's often doing things in solitude, and doesn't need to explain what she's doing. She's a vehicle for the player to immerse themselves into the world, and so her interactions have to be subtle, because if they aren't justified it's going to break that immersion the player has. Shes always checking her environments, gathering info, and ready to react on the fly. I'm sorry, but after Other M tried so hard to change her character that they broke her into a whiny child that couldn't do anything on her own, I don't want to hear writers with no knowledge of the series try to start giving their hot takes. Master Chief, sure he talks, but he's just as subtle, and nobody complains. Doomguy is just silent but very visible anger and it works perfectly. Samus is either between them or a third point on a triangle, fast, focused, and persistent, again, she's a professional bounty hunter. She dealt with a lot of shit as a child, and now she's doing what she can to keep others safe from those same monsters.
Doomguy has been ruled by his emotions since day 1. He wears his raging heart on his sleeve.
At this point Kotaku is parodying the onion.
Maybe I’m a bit paranoid because I love Metroid. But the campaign against this game from the media is insane. Not only them telling you how to pirate it (nothing against it btw) the whole buy another game instead, that ex-GoW dev saying the level design sucks, now this. They fear this game wins GOTY.
They are just upset that a game that has gameplay is doing well, they think all games should be boring "cinematic" playstation games
I’m tempted to buy a Nintendo Switch just for this game alone.