Samus aran being a complete mute and essentially a robot in metroid prime 4 is dumb.

Like I said in the other thread, this game is using the Jak and Daxter thing without the sidekick actually being funny. It's really annoying and off putting. Especially when she screams in the game proving she can make noise, lol.

These characters were originally mute because the technology didn't really exist to make them talk. We don't have to carry on into infinity as if they can't talk just because of 80's tech.

Movies didn't originally have sound. According to hardcore Nintendo fans, that policy should continue for Nintendo characters forever because, like silent movies, the tech didn't exist yet to have voice.

I think most people thought that the best part of the Mario Movie was Jack Black's Bowser. There's no reason that good voice acting couldn't enhance the game.

Take Uncharted, the Witcher 3, God of War, etc...would these games be enhanced if the characters never talked? The Witcher 3 in particular would not be as good without the voices.
 
Andrew Evenstar said:
really sucks that prime 4 sucks.
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It's pretty great, aside from the NPCs. I'm about 5 or 6 hours in and it's awesome.

I turned down all of the dialog, though, so that's helping.
 
So i'm going to respond to people saying 'we don't need her talking cause she's always been mute etc'. When you have a silent protagonist beside other characters talking to her and asking her things it makes no sense, especially because said silent protagonist has been shown to know how to speak in previous entries of said series 'fusion she has dialog, other m, she talked insanely briefly in dread etc'. When you establish that your protagonist can talk and does talk but then don't implement it in a game which has other characters talking to her it makes 0 sense lore wise nor cannon wise and it's lazy writing period.



It'd be the equivalent of not having master chief talk at all in the next Halo game even though they've established in previous entries that he talks. You can't open that can of worms and then put it back because it's too late and wouldn't make any sense whatsoever.
 
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El Hee-Ho said:
Lil bit offtopic, but can we think of a likeable protagonist that talks that was featured in a recent game? Someone 100% new, spawned during this generation. Someone like captain Shepard from ME, or Drake from Uncharted if you are into movies. Someone charismatic and iconic.

I can't. Well maybe Jack from Stranger of Paradise or Henry from KCD, but aside from those? None. And that's fucked up.


Hell yeah. I recently played Thief for the first time and man, it's clear that good level design and good sound design is all you need to make the player feel immersed. Add some enviroment details and "passive story telling" along the way, like finding some notes on Thief or scanning some interesting data in Metroid Prime and bam, the world is believable and the player is 100% into it.

Add some retard yappin' about Phil and his cubicule and all of that goes out the window. Subtlety is key, I believe.


Yeah me neither. Must be cool but at least back then I had the feel like they were trying to do more story telling via characters and dialogue, which isn't what I want from a Metroid game
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Yeah.. the somewhat quiet tracks like Crateria/Brinstar SM that spring to life, once you get the morph ball. The erie, but serene sounds of Meridia... where in some parts of the music, dead silence and you can hear an air bubble emit from Samus's suit from time to time. Then, you got great boss music and a memorable track from Ridley's lair; Norfair. This game was so fucking awesome... I ended up buying it from the video store. I told them I lost it and just ponied up the full 66 bucks. LOL.
 
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Sebastian1295 said:
So i'm going to respond to people saying 'we don't need her talking cause she's always been mute etc'. When you have a silent protagonist beside other characters talking to her and asking her things it makes no sense, especially because said silent protagonist has been shown to know how to speak in previous entries of said series 'fusion she has dialog, other m, she talked insanely briefly in dread etc'. When you establish that your protagonist can talk and does talk but then don't implement it in a game which has other characters talking to her it makes 0 sense lore wise nor cannon wise and it's lazy writing period.



It'd be the equivalent of not having master chief talk at all in the next Halo game even though they've established in previous entries that he talks. You can't open that can of worms and then put it back because it's too late and wouldn't make any sense whatsoever.
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It's perfectly fine to have a silent protagonist in a game where the NPC all talk to you but you have to do it right

The greatest examples of this are Half-Life and Half-Life 2
 
Enzo88 said:
Guy with code geass in the avatar talking about writing....aight..
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Quietly, the writing for Code Geass was incredibly brilliant in terms of accomplishing what it set out to do. Almost every episode somehow was able to end with either a random plot twist or a gut-wrenching cliffhanger which dragged you back kicking and screaming the next week for the next episode. I can't think of any other show off the top of my head more brilliant than that one at this particular technique
 
I'm in mourning over this game's reception.

Be gentle for you tread on my dreams.

I've never minded a silent protag.
 
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Angry_Megalodon said:
Precisely, what the OP is saying is that having a bunch of characters speaking and the MC remaining mute without a lore reason is immersion breaking. How this is so hard to understand is beyond me.
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Fallout 1/2/3, New Vegas, Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, Starfield, Dark Souls 1/2/3, Bloodborne, Elden Ring, Metroid Prime 1/2/3, Metro Trilogy, etc... had always every "others" characters speaking except yourself and it was never "immersion breaking" because it's actually ALWAYS the total opposite:
These games are true masterpieces for the most and extremely immersive because of their unmatched atmosphere thanks to this brilliant decision to mute "you" giving to the players also a very high "replayability". How can you role playing if your character is voice acted, YOU are the voice of the main character. Nobody wants random cringe and chatty useless comments from the "YOU" voice acted and, worst, the "YOU" speaking to yourself and constantly giving clues to solve in game puzzles, that's terribly immersion breaking. People recently seems to be really lazy to read anything, it's like a plague and this trend it's terrible.

How this is so hard to understand is beyond me.
 
ZoukGalaxy said:
Fallout 1/2/3, New Vegas, Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, Starfield, Dark Souls 1/2/3, Bloodborne, Elden Ring, Metroid Prime 1/2/3, Metro Trilogy, etc... had always every "others" characters speaking except yourself and it was never "immersion breaking" because it's actually ALWAYS the total opposite:
These games are true masterpieces for the most and extremely immersive because of their unmatched atmosphere thanks to this brilliant decision to mute "you" giving to the players also a very high "replayability". How can you role playing if your character is voice acted, YOU are the voice of the main character. Nobody wants random cringe and chatty useless comments from the "YOU" voice acted and, worst, the "YOU" speaking to yourself and constantly giving clues to solve in game puzzles, that's terribly immersion breaking. People recently seems to be really lazy to read anything, it's like a plague and this trend it's terrible.

How this is so hard to understand is beyond me.
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Except those games had dialog options and dialog for the character and prime 4 dosen't have that meaning the comparison isn't the same. Samus has no voice acting and no dialog.
 
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ZoukGalaxy said:
Fallout 1/2/3, New Vegas, Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, Starfield, Dark Souls 1/2/3, Bloodborne, Elden Ring, Metroid Prime 1/2/3, Metro Trilogy, etc... had always every "others" characters speaking except yourself and it was never "immersion breaking" because it's actually ALWAYS the total opposite:
These games are true masterpieces for the most and extremely immersive because of their unmatched atmosphere thanks to this brilliant decision to mute "you" giving to the players also a very high "replayability". How can you role playing if your character is voice acted, YOU are the voice of the main character. Nobody wants random cringe and chatty useless comments from the "YOU" voice acted and, worst, the "YOU" speaking to yourself and constantly giving clues to solve in game puzzles, that's terribly immersion breaking. People recently seems to be really lazy to read anything, it's like a plague and this trend it's terrible.

How this is so hard to understand is beyond me.
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Yeah I agree with this. The silent protag is not a problem at all, and is actually very effective in games because of the nature of the player relationship.

I am not that far in the game and right now my impression is really great art direction, maybe the best in the prime series, but the NPC dialogue is weird, and the game is very straightforward so far.

I actually felt relieved that Samus was not talking in the cutscenes. Almost comes across as knowing the chatty Federation guy is a clown.
 
MMaRsu said:
Gamer? You said you're just a watcher
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I play games and different genres of games. Just because I didn't play prime 4 and I've seen what it has to offer on walk-throughs on YouTube doesn't make my opinion invalid. You can watch a game and know the dialog is bad or that it's awkward that the main protagonist dosen't speak when spoken too and has no dialog at all in terms of options etc. And samus isn't a self insert character cause she's an established character with a background, not customizable in terms of hair, face etc, and has spoken and had dialog in previous entries of the series such as fusion 'she had dialog in that game'.
 
MMaRsu said:
Ahh yes the famous dialogue options in Mario Galaxy and Dark Souls
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He didn't even listen mario galaxy on his list man and that's a completely different genre with a completely different character so i don't see the relevance. And dark souls games are self insert and samus isn't which isn't the same thing at all.
 
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Sebastian1295 said:
He didn't even listen mario galaxy on his list man and that's a completely different genre with a completely different character so i don't see the relevance. And dark souls games are self insert and samus isn't which isn't the same thing at all.
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Thats alright, not every game needs a talking protag. Never bothered me in other Metroids. Who cares.
 
Indyblue said:
I agree. Nintendo refusing to give Samus and link any kind of personality is really weird at this point.
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Especially cause they have Zelda speak in legend of zelda games now and yet link says nothing. They give link essentially 0 personality. They're doing the same thing with samus where other people speak but she says nothing and has no dialog. It just dosen't make sense and limits storytelling possibilities.
 
MMaRsu said:
Thats alright, not every game needs a talking protag. Never bothered me in other Metroids. Who cares.
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Having characters speak to Samus and her not responding nor having any dialog doesn't add up lore wise because she's spoken before and had dialog before. It'd be like if microsoft released the next Halo and suddenly master chief didn't speak the entire game nor had dialog even though in previous games he did. It doesn't make alot of sense and would hurt the experience. I fail to see the harm in developing samus the character and actually putting effort into her writing, background, etc.
 
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Sebastian1295 said:
Having characters speak to Samus and her not responding nor having any dialog doesn't add up lore wise because she's spoken before and had dialog before. It'd be like if microsoft released the next Halo and suddenly master chief didn't speak the entire game nor had dialog even though in previous games he did. It doesn't make alot of sense and would hurt the experience. I fail to see the harm in developing samus the character and actually putting effort into her writing, background, etc.
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Because she doesnt need it

The story in these games is whatever you want them to make whatever dialogue too just for it to have dialogue my man you are better off without

Most dialogue in games is cringe as fuck
 
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ZoukGalaxy said:
Fallout 1/2/3, New Vegas, Morrowind, Oblivion, Skyrim, Starfield, Dark Souls 1/2/3, Bloodborne, Elden Ring, etc... had always every "others" characters speaking except yourself and it was never "immersion breaking" because it's actually ALWAYS the total opposite:
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As you say, these are RPGs, where THERE ISN'T a proper main character. The player is the character. And there are dialog options, so you are comparing two different things completely. Samus Aran is a defined person but not fully realized because reasons.

You can't be Samus Aran. You can relate to her or empathize with her, but never be her.

ZoukGalaxy said:
Nobody wants random cringe and chatty useless comments from the "YOU" voice acted and, worst, the "YOU" speaking to yourself and constantly giving clues to solve in game puzzles, that's terribly immersion breaking.

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This is a hard fallacy. You are presuming that the spoken lines will be bad becase you say so. I can give you like a thousand examples of the contrary. I already did. In a metroidvania like Hollow Knight, Hornet appears barely six times, and delivers a few lines. In those, her whole character is defined in a memorable way. You know why? because its WELL WRITTEN.

What I mean is that there are many ways to make Samus being a REAL character other than dumb quippy chat. You want immersion? Make up a full alien language and have people figure out what she is saying or what she's reading in the alien bases. Imagine Shadow of the Colossus but without any translation, for example. For Zelda that would be very cool and it could work for Metroid too. You would have the community trying to figure it out.

Suggesting that the only options for Samus are either being mute or Captain Marvel is disingenous.
 
Maybe this is just a theory, but a game theory that all these characters she interacts with are all dead... and they're all in her head...
 
The issue here imo is when you have the entire supporting cast being super chatty with Samus, she has to have some lines or expression, otherwise she comes off like a socially-awkward person and makes every encounter's cringe factor rise up on its own.
 
Unknown Soldier said:
Half-Life and Half-Life 2
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If we focused more on the characters actions (driven by you, the player) rather than how much they talk, these silly questions would not arise. That's why protagonists like Samus, Gordon Freeman or the Doom Guy are so beloved and iconic
9TZNUKxw0doxyEQy.gif
 
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I disagree. For some people, a talkative protagonist is immersion BREAKING. Especially in games that are not story heavy and have more to do with exploration. It just doesn't work in metroid. People need to stop making subjective opinions like facts. If you want a story heavy game with loudmouth protagonists, you have plenty of games to choose from. Leave the silent broody games to the rest of us. And FUCK the NPCs in this game. Remove them, rather than force Samus to interact with them.
 
Seriously OP, I just saw this thread again and it's no less frustrating the second time. John Metroid has never talked in any of the games. If one of the weird gameboy games had a few voice lines, it's not cannon or anything main entries need to worry about following up.
 
Meh, I don't have a problem with silent protagonists at all - be it Claude (gta 3), persona games etc, I'd rather be them silent then hear them in Troy's Baker voice lmao
 
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I think it is dumb that the game has to remain true to the original 8 bit side scroller. Samus can't speak. Bubble doors. Respawning enemies. Etc. Everything that Samus did in the 8-bit games fit the gameplay of the time (like turning into a ball). The game has not matured with technology and now just looks ridiculous. But that is how Nintendo is and the reason I have not run out to buy the latest Switch.
 
That one time Samus actually talked, people made memes about "the baby" for like a decade.
But yeah, I'm sure that if she talked in MP4 where the NPCs have the kind of dialogue they have, it would go down so much better this time.
 
Ah yes, Samus should stay silent because it gotta stay faithful to the original right, you gotta pay respect to your ancestors, after all, we have Super Metroid, one of the greats, we can learn a lot from this game. But hey, here are your empty open world where you can farm materials, your racing mini game to make truly feel like Metroid Kart (of course you need this in a Metroid game), your companions that talk non stop gibberish, your escort missions, your creatively bankrupt abilities and areas, your Bike that adds nothing to the mechanic depths of the game, your corridor-ish and straightforward levels that truly feel like you are just playing any generic shooter games (but here, nothing happens most of the time). Yeah, those things definitely make me feel like I am playing a true Metroid experience.
 
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ungalo said:
it would have been better if it was a lonely experience, with a few "dialogue" here and there, like the other games

wanting Samus to talk is just adding garbage on top of garbage
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Guarantee you people wouldn't complain about Samus talking if she was written to be the bad ass space pirate hunter she is while also adding depth, emotion and development. After all she is human just like we are, Mad Max Fury Road comes to mind. There's a lot of bad ass strong characters who have gone through the ringer and they all show emotion and including the protagonist (Max), Furiosa and the antagonist Immortan Joe. They are all humans trying to do what they think is best for their people.

If we had a nuanced Samus paired with a nuanced antagonist that pushes her to her limits (like the Joker did Batman in the Dark Knight) it would be one hell of a story. Instead we get Link from a link to the past for the billionth time. Now the question is do the liberal Austin Texas boys at retro studios write.. and most importantly the old guard at Nintendo approve a well written Samus? Big doubt.
 
sainraja said:
Enough with this non-sense. Those interactive movies that you are referring to, do have gameplay. If a game dev has put effort in making their characters interesting, that does not make a game more a movie.
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Linear cutscene filled games can be fun but there not ever as good as a game that puts gameplay first.
 
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