Support NeoGAF

[robor]

the story is by sakamoto not team ninja

^It's like we constantly need to recap on some basic info that's easily accessible to anyone regarding the game's development.

I can't wait to see what all this sexism jive is about, or if it's just a bunch of Metroid fanatics getting paid to dribble their assertive stature on what THE ideal Metroid game is.

 

[farnham]

You recharge health/missiles by holding down a button??

no you recharge health when you only got one container and are in a critical stage (less then 50) by holding the wiimote up and holding a button. you only recharge one container. also there are no health drops anymore.


missiles can be recharged every time but you dont get missile drops either and missile containers give you only 1 additional missile

overall this system reminds me of auto shield recharging in halo.

 

[robor]

Game design 101. If something is being removed, it will also be REPLACED with something else.

 

[Gattsu25]

^It's like we constantly need to recap on some basic info that's easily accessible to anyone regarding the game's development.

I can't wait to see what all this sexism jive is about, or if it's just a bunch of Metroid fanatics getting paid to dribble their assertive stature on what THE ideal Metroid game is.

That type of thing tends to happen near a game's release. Not everyone closely follows all games.

I can't comment on some of the sexism allegations in that review but the sex-object complaints come up frequently? Just ignore it if it doesn't bother you. It's a personal annoyance, on my part.

no you recharge health when you only got one container and are in a critical stage (less then 50) by holding the wiimote up and holding a button. you only recharge one container. also there are no health drops anymore.

Shields do not regen past the 1st tank? Sounds closer to a semi-manual Riddick health system, in that case.

Game design 101. If something is being removed, it will also be REPLACED with something else.

.

 

[Vilix]

Before coming to GAF I never knew Fusion was disliked. I love that game.

You will find this is true about GAF and most things.

 

[farnham]

I can't wait to see what all this sexism jive is about, or if it's just a bunch of Metroid fanatics getting paid to dribble their assertive stature on what THE ideal Metroid game is.

a G4 editor came in and explained it. it was pretty spoilerific but if you want to read their perspective you can read this post

Spoiler

personally i think they just made an idolized version of a character in their head and now we actually see what samus thinks they got dissapointed that she is not badass in the inside as well. maybe they espected a space marine girl

That type of thing tends to happen near a game's release. Not everyone closely follows all games.

I can't comment on some of the sexism allegations in that review but the sex-object complaints come up frequently? Just ignore it if it doesn't bother you. It's a personal annoyance, on my part.Shields do not regen past the 1st tank? Sounds closer to a semi-manual Riddick health system, in that case..

or metal gear solid for that matter (you regain a bit health if you crouch)

 

[SpacePirate Ridley]

Christ. Just watched the G4 review. My god is she spewing the hate. It's to the point of almost being unprofessional.

I thing that is one of the most embarrasing reviews that i have ever read, even more when she "explains" herself.
That girl has to maybe have some serious issues in real life to spout that many nonsense. I talked with a crazy chick (really crazy) with huge problems yesterday night, and she just sounded like her.
I can understand if you didnt like a character you imagined diferently now being like that, and saying it. But using those stupid things as sexims, when theres really not, talking shit about the WHOLE game using only that thing you dindt like, and supposedly doing a "professional" review....
that is just nuts.

Nah not hard. They can be a challange but I wouldn't call them needlessly hard. I just hate the design of their battles. Nettori and Yakuza are two battles in particular that I really didnt like. BOX as well.

I still love the game for its art, pacing, and feel, and I still get enjoyment out of some of boss fights. I liked Serris and Zazabi.

I played yesterday till I went to the arachnid robot boss.
Holy fucking shit, that was badly design. I remember when I was smaller I had problems with it, and yesterday I understanded why.
The hit box of it is complete and utter shit. Most of the time you are throwing missiles as "maybe" a missile will hit him and take some damage. Its like the hit box was place in a little pixel in his top part (where, if you are lucky, you will hit) isntead of the whole yellow upper part you are supossed to shot.

 

[farnham]

I thing that is one of the most embarrasing reviews that i have ever read, even more when she "explains" herself.
That girl has to maybe have some serious issues in real life to spout that many nonsense. I talked with a crazy chick (really crazy) with huge problems yesterday night, and she just sounded like her.
I can understand if you didnt like a character you imagined diferently now being like that, and saying it. But using those stupid things as sexims, when theres really not, talking shit about the WHOLE game using only that thing you dindt like, and supposedly doing a "professional" review....
that is just nuts.

i cant decide which is more embarassing

the review
the explanation vid
or the g4 crowd storming this forum to defend her review

 

[mugurumakensei]

a G4 editor came in and explained it. it was pretty spoilerific but if you want to read their perspective you can read this post

Spoiler

personally i think they just made an idolized version of a character in their head and now we actually see what samus thinks they got dissapointed that she is not badass in the inside as well. maybe they espected a space marine girl

or metal gear solid for that matter (you regain a bit health if you crouch)

My thoughts on the post linked....

Spoiler

This seems like pretty standard japanese storytelling. In almost every manga/anime I've read, the character goes through some insecurity bit till some authority figure comes in and gives them a pep talk regardless of gender. That doesn't scream sexist to me. It's just a Japanese story cliche. So, at worst, you could say the game fail into general character development trappings present in Japanese storylines.

 

[beelzebozo]

i am watching the g4 review and i am frowning.

 

[farnham]

My thoughts on the post linked....

Spoiler

This seems like pretty standard japanese storytelling. In almost every manga/anime I've read, the character goes through some insecurity bit till some authority figure comes in and gives them a pep talk regardless of gender. That doesn't scream sexist to me. It's just a Japanese story cliche. So, at worst, you could say the game fail into general character development trappings present in Japanese storylines.

maybe

Spoiler

they should have made a game in which samus goes rogue and kills every galaxy federation soldier in order to join forces with the space pirates

that would have been badass right ?

 

[MYE]

Wow. At least I know now why Nintendo never had decent presentation for its games. It's better that way.

Wtf is this shit

 

[mugurumakensei]

maybe

Spoiler

they should have made a game in which samus goes rogue and kills every galaxy federation soldier in order to join forces with the space pirates

that would have been badass right ?

maybe

Spoiler

if she started balding

 

[farnham]

maybe

Spoiler

if she started balding

Spoiler

also a penis would help. no sexist charges then. probably.

 

[ryan-ts]

Make me a sandwich, Samus.

There are two people to laugh at here:

1. The people who made the story for the game.

2. The people who took a videogame story way too seriously.

#2 is much more laughable though.

 

[Segata Sanshiro]

Kind of a weird corner for G4 to paint themselves into. Are games going to be consistently docked from here on out based on whether or not they give a good moral message in the opinion of the reviewer? Is this G4 or the PTC?

 

[Wallach]

i am watching the g4 review and i am frowning.

Yeah, shit is sad. She is like close to tears or something towards the end, what the fuck.

 

[Snaku]

Haven't seen the review so I might be muddling the context but this is a complaint that couldn't be leveled against the Metroid franchise pre-Zero suit (with the exception of 6 frames of animation and 3 jpegs) and something that has always bugged me about Zero Mission and the games that followed using that silly purpose-less suit.

Yeah, sure, she should totally wear a business suit under there. Hmm, what did she wear before the Zero Suit? Oh that's right...

 

[Krev]

Make me a sandwich, Samus.

There are two people to laugh at here:

1. The people who made the story for the game.

2. The people who took a videogame story way too seriously.

#2 is much more laughable though.

If the game wants its story to be taken seriously, it should be evaluated on its own terms.
If we're going to sit back and say 'lol video game stories' instead of making a big deal about how and why they fail, they'll take a lot longer to improve.

 

[markot]

How the hell are any of you surprised that this series is sexist >_<?

Every game ends with her in a bikini!

(Oh, what was said above >.>)

I liked Metroid Prime, when you saw Samus take off her helmet, she looked... like you would expect. Then in Corruption, she has eye lashes that look 5 inches long and is really pimped up. She was never a ripley. Its what I hated about the series to be honest, ive just loved the gameplay and series, and what they did in Prime where she seemed more 'ripley'ish...

Complaining about it now is like being disappointing that the next DOA will feature jiggle physics.

 

[Amir0x]

Ugly girl trying to get attention by stirring up shit about a new title from a popular video game franchise. Nothing surprising.

-_-

 

[robor]

Yeah, shit is sad. She is like close to tears or something towards the end, what the fuck.

I just watched the first 5 seconds and closed it. The first HALF sentence she spouted out propelled me with great force to close my window immediately.

 

[Sadist]

"It says something about women, you know"

It does? I think Abbie has this whole emancipated image of Samus in her head of her being some tomboyish type of woman who lights up a good cigarette and takes a swig of scotch after kicking Space Pirate ass. In other words, she doesn't want Samus to be vulnerable.

 

[eznark]

Hm, maybe this is one reason developers don't use female leads. If the womanp protagonist shows any weaknesses or self doubt (or heaven forbid obeys her superiors) the creators are sexist pigs and anyone who enjoys the game is evil.

Plus God help you if you try to make her attractive, you pervert!

 

[Amalthea]

"It says something about women, you know"

It does? I think Abbie has this whole emancipated image of Samus in her head of her being some tomboyish type of woman who lights up a good cigarette and takes a swig of scotch after kicking Space Pirate ass. In other words, she doesn't want Samus to be vulnerable.

Yeah, show me someone who looks still cool after his parents were killed by a giant space pterodactylus.

 

[beelzebozo]

i actually take the g4 review pretty seriously. the feminist stuff doesn't really concern me so much as the story's supposed dominance and intrusion over the game, and the awkward control choices.

i feel pretty deflated.

 

[farnham]

"It says something about women, you know"

It does? I think Abbie has this whole emancipated image of Samus in her head of her being some tomboyish type of woman who lights up a good cigarette and takes a swig of scotch after kicking Space Pirate ass. In other words, she doesn't want Samus to be vulnerable.

tychus aran

i actually take the g4 review pretty seriously. the feminist stuff doesn't really concern me so much as the story's supposed dominance and intrusion over the game, and the awkward control choices.

i feel pretty deflated.

well the controls were mentioned in like one or two sentences and only explained briefly

its clear that those were not the main beef of the reviewer

other reviews detail the controls a lot more and explain what works and what doesnt.

you should check out those reviews

 

[ryan-ts]

If the game wants its story to be taken seriously, it should be evaluated on its own terms.
If we're going to sit back and say 'lol video game stories' instead of making a big deal about how and why they fail, they'll take a lot longer to improve.

Good point. Although I'm quite content with having fun, nonsensical stories in videogames myself I can understand how people want better stories. I will admit my comment was definitely a little douchey.

The way I see it though is if Metroid: Other M really does have a bad story there should be a paragraph explaining the issues with the story and then the reviewer should move on. When a game does nothing for good for storytelling it shouldn't have 10 paragraphs dedicated solely to the story.

 

[Mafro]

Just watched that G4TV review, wasn't going to bother but I couldn't resist after reading all this :lol

Are their video reviews always done in such an immature manner?

 

[MechaX]

Kind of a weird corner for G4 to paint themselves into. Are games going to be consistently docked from here on out based on whether or not they give a good moral message in the opinion of the reviewer? Is this G4 or the PTC?

I was actually mulling over this before I went to sleep last night. For me, the issue is not so much that the reviewer didn't like the game that much, but rather the completely disproportional weight she gives in regards to the story elements. Actually, it's not even the story-elements as she concedes in her follow up; It concerns the story placed aganist her own ideal image of Samus. The simple fact that she flat out states that "the game would have gotten a higher review, even if the gameplay was lacking, if the story was better" kinda leans towards the "pretty unprofessional" part of the field. Sure, these are video games and lol vidya game stories and all, but these people are paid to do their manner in, at least I hope, a professional manner.

Outside of that, the only other things she faults the game for include the FPS mode and the harping on the missile/health recharge system (which she alludes to being "unrealistic", but personally, I don't really find the alternative of Samus vaporizing woodland creatures into missiles to be that much more realistic). Okay, the combat has some flaws, I see. But enough to bring the entire gameplay system down? Well, I wouldn't know because in both the follow up and in the actual review, they hardly talk about it. The G4 review comes off as a giant rant completely contrary to what I use any kind of reviews for; to see if I should spend or consider to spend money on a product when seeing the cons placed aganist my own personal tastes. Here, literally 2:10 out of the 3:00 minutes of the review are spent ranting on Samus not being a badass action girl and being a female Shinji Ikari. As a review, this tells me absolutely nothing about how the game plays. When I have to go to other reviews because "this review really didn't tell me anything," then we have a problem here. If I wanted to watch a rant about one specific poorly done part of a medium, I'd watch a rant by Spoony (which is interesting in of itself, since his actual reviews try to go over everything he thought the medium did well or not so well, but that's another subject).

Of course, I doubt G4 writers are, nor have the incentive to be, held accountable for anything in terms of how they review and evaluate stuff. And when considering that their primary fanbase has the tendency to be knee-jerk irritable young teenage gamers, they'll probably just keep doing their own thing regardless of whatever issue comes up. And given how many different reviewers come in and out for G4, I don't even think that Abbie's review will be held as precedent.

 

[Krev]

The way I see it though is if Metroid: Other M really does have a bad story there should be a paragraph explaining the issues with the story and then the reviewer should move on. When a game does nothing for good for storytelling it shouldn't have 10 paragraphs dedicated solely to the story.

Yeah. At the end of the day, it's a game, not a movie. It's been said that there are hours with no cut-scenes, so she really should have spoken more about the structure and gameplay.

 

[Segata Sanshiro]

I mean, don't get me wrong, I think it's pretty easy to find a sexist story in there. It's also pretty easy to find a very Japanese mentor-protege story in there too. I'm not confident enough to say which it likely is in reality.

My concern is whether or not that's really a useful metric to review a game on. Is the game a 2/5 because the gameplay is bad or is it because it's telling a disagreeable story or is it because it's telling a crappy story badly?

 

[mugurumakensei]

The way I see it though is if Metroid: Other M really does have a bad story there should be a paragraph explaining the issues with the story and then the reviewer should move on. When a game does nothing for good for storytelling it shouldn't have 10 paragraphs dedicated solely to the story.

It doesn't even appear she really dislikes the story(one of the pros is she finds the secondary plotline interesting). She just hates that the character that Sakamoto developed has human insecurities which isn't all that bad unless women suddenly have to be stoics to not be labeled as a sexist interpretation of females.

 

[MaddenNFL64]

Rarely post, but just saw the G4 review. Holy crap.

Sakamoto just killed her idol :lol

Seriously though... Just go strictly 3rd/2.5d with missiles fired in that plane, & allow classic/nunchuck support. Oh, and gut the exposition. It's damn obvious 25 years of "silent protagonist" has allowed people to create their own persona of her. Should have let it be. Have a story, have your cutscenes (not cringe-worthy ones, please!), but don't start fleshing the characters out too far. Not after 25 years anyway.

I wonder though, this being maybe the lowest reviewed game of the Metroid franchise (outside of maybe hunters & pinball, but I haven't checked), I wonder what Sakamoto must be thinking. He must know he made alot of mistakes.

He took the game in a nice direction, just build on it, and cut the crap out. I'm sure Sakamoto, and Team Ninja can do it.

Spoiler

Unless the backlash is so bad, this is the last collab between them :\

 

[farnham]

I mean, don't get me wrong, I think it's pretty easy to find a sexist story in there. It's also pretty easy to find a very Japanese mentor-protege story in there too. I'm not confident enough to say which it likely is in reality.

My concern is whether or not that's really a useful metric to review a game on. Is the game a 2/5 because the gameplay is bad or is it because it's telling a disagreeable story or is it because it's telling a crappy story badly?

you can find a sexist story in almost every game there is

It doesn't even appear she really dislikes the story(one of the pros is she finds the secondary plotline interesting). She just hates that the character that Sakamoto developed has human insecurities which isn't all that bad unless women suddenly have to be stoics to not be labeled as a sexist interpretation of females.

which makes me wonder

solid snake always rambles how the man does not live up to the legend and how he is not so great and so on.

nobody seamed to have a problem with that

 

[Sadist]

I think it's a mix of both actually.

 

[Snaku]

I was actually mulling over this before I went to sleep last night. For me, the issue is not so much that the reviewer didn't like the game that much, but rather the completely disproportional weight she gives in regards to the story elements. Actually, it's not even the story-elements as she concedes in her follow up; It concerns the story placed aganist her own ideal image of Samus. The simple fact that she flat out states that "the game would have gotten a higher review, even if the gameplay was lacking, if the story was better" kinda leans towards the "pretty unprofessional" part of the field. Sure, these are video games and lol vidya game stories and all, but these people are paid to do their manner in, at least I hope, a professional manner.

Outside of that, the only other things she faults the game for include the FPS mode and the harping on the missile/health recharge system (which she alludes to being "unrealistic", but personally, I don't really find the alternative of Samus vaporizing woodland creatures into missiles to be that much more realistic). Okay, the combat has some flaws, I see. But enough to bring the entire gameplay system down? Well, I wouldn't know because in both the follow up and in the actual review, they hardly talk about it. The G4 review comes off as a giant rant completely contrary to what I use any kind of reviews for; to see if I should spend or consider to spend money on a product when seeing the cons placed aganist my own personal tastes. Here, literally 2:10 out of the 3:00 minutes of the review are spent ranting on Samus not being a badass action girl and being a female Shinji Ikari. As a review, this tells me absolutely nothing about how the game plays. When I have to go to other reviews because "this review really didn't tell me anything," then we have a problem here. If I wanted to watch a rant about one specific poorly done part of a medium, I'd watch a rant by Spoony (which is interesting in of itself, since his actual reviews try to go over everything he thought the medium did well or not so well, but that's another subject).

Of course, I doubt G4 writers are, nor have the incentive to be, held accountable for anything in terms of how they review and evaluate stuff. And when considering that their primary fanbase has the tendency to be knee-jerk irritable young teenage gamers, they'll probably just keep doing their own thing regardless of whatever issue comes up. And given how many different reviewers come in and out for G4, I don't even think that Abbie's review will be held as precedent.

That's my problem with that review. It's no so much a review of Other M, as it is a wannabe false outrage editorial piece. It's as much a review as that early review done by that Nintendo fan site who only played the first 5 hours.

Grow up, and do your job.

 

[robor]

Okay, the combat has some flaws, I see.

I can't wait to see what this is all about next week. So far the combat system looks extremely fluid and dynamic, but of course I need to play it first.

 

[markot]

Rarely post, but just saw the G4 review. Holy crap.

Sakamoto just killed her idol :lol

Seriously though... Just go strictly 3rd/2.5d with missiles fired in that plane, & allow classic/nunchuck support. Oh, and gut the exposition. It's damn obvious 25 years of "silent protagonist" has allowed people to create their own persona of her. Should have let it be. Have a story, have your cutscenes (not cringe-worthy ones, please!), but don't start fleshing the characters out too far. Not after 25 years anyway.

I wonder though, this being maybe the lowest reviewed game of the Metroid franchise (outside of maybe hunters & pinball, but I haven't checked), I wonder what Sakamoto must be thinking. He must know he made alot of mistakes.

He took the game in a nice direction, just build on it, and cut the crap out. I'm sure Sakamoto, and Team Ninja can do it.

Spoiler

Unless the backlash is so bad, this is the last collab between them :\

Um, I dont think there will be a backlash >.<

Also, the guy (I think) that wrote the review for G4 posted in this thread earlier >.>

 

[Deleted member 30609]

I mean, don't get me wrong, I think it's pretty easy to find a sexist story in there. It's also pretty easy to find a very Japanese mentor-protege story in there too. I'm not confident enough to say which it likely is in reality.

My concern is whether or not that's really a useful metric to review a game on. Is the game a 2/5 because the gameplay is bad or is it because it's telling a disagreeable story or is it because it's telling a crappy story badly?

Kind of an iffy area. If the story is an unskippable part of the experience, it makes it a little more cut and dry in that it can detract from your enjoyment.

 

[farnham]

Kind of an iffy area. If the story is an unskippable part of the experience, it makes it a little more cut and dry in that it can detract from your enjoyment.

FF13s story was cheesy and i did not care for it at all. yet i just watched the cutscenes for the sake of it. cant say that i remember anything of that story but i know that i liked the grinding due to the combat system.

 

[farnham]

Rarely post, but just saw the G4 review. Holy crap.

Sakamoto just killed her idol :lol

Seriously though... Just go strictly 3rd/2.5d with missiles fired in that plane, & allow classic/nunchuck support. Oh, and gut the exposition. It's damn obvious 25 years of "silent protagonist" has allowed people to create their own persona of her. Should have let it be. Have a story, have your cutscenes (not cringe-worthy ones, please!), but don't start fleshing the characters out too far. Not after 25 years anyway.

I wonder though, this being maybe the lowest reviewed game of the Metroid franchise (outside of maybe hunters & pinball, but I haven't checked), I wonder what Sakamoto must be thinking. He must know he made alot of mistakes.

He took the game in a nice direction, just build on it, and cut the crap out. I'm sure Sakamoto, and Team Ninja can do it.

Spoiler

Unless the backlash is so bad, this is the last collab between them :\

the backlash is not bad

japan is all about famitsu and they gave it a good score

also even in america g4 is not as influential as gamespot or ign

if anything bad sales will kill a future collaboration. and to be honest i dont see this one doing all to well

 

[MechaX]

I wonder though, this being maybe the lowest reviewed game of the Metroid franchise (outside of maybe hunters & pinball, but I haven't checked), I wonder what Sakamoto must be thinking. He must know he made alot of mistakes.

He took the game in a nice direction, just build on it, and cut the crap out. I'm sure Sakamoto, and Team Ninja can do it.

Spoiler

Unless the backlash is so bad, this is the last collab between them :\

If Other M sells the best out of the Metroid titles, I really, really, really doubt that Sakamoto would even care. Plus, prior interviews did imply that Sakamoto was quite proud of the story, even to the point where one scene literally "brought him to tears."

With that said, I do wish that Sakamoto would have realized that making a game story in this day and age is a little bit different than making a story on systems with limited technology. If you have a budget, you can't just throw money into making extravagant scenes without how to properly tell a story in a setting where you'd need good scene direction, voice acting, script, etc, and expect it to turn out okay especially if you've never done such before.

Sure, the problem is that Nintendo isn't really used to this kind of story-telling as a whole. But I'm not saying that they shouldn't have tried. Hell, I appreciate the fact that they tried despite how disastrous it turned out. I merely wished they either used the strengths of typical Nintendo story-telling or simply got a hold of some one who was actually used to telling stories in a MGS-esque cutscene fashion before just throwing Sakamoto out there and throwing him a couple million-yen budget.

solid snake always rambles how the man does not live up to the legend and how he is not so great and so on.

nobody seamed to have a problem with that

Eh... I'm not going to get into it extensively here, but this is one of the debates concerning Snake's characterization from MGS2 to MGS4. In MGS2, Snake says this stuff merely to bring Raiden down to earth: He's not some demi-god of the battlefield, he's a killer who is better at his job than most and nothing more. With that said, MGS2 Snake fights on because he found something to believe in as an individual, independent of him being a legendary soldier.

In MGS4, however, Snake kinda flip-flops, now acting as a self-pitying, suicidal old guy in some scenes (most specifically, the beginning of Acts 3 and 5). So no, people did have a problem with that.

 

[Segata Sanshiro]

Kind of an iffy area. If the story is an unskippable part of the experience, it makes it a little more cut and dry in that it can detract from your enjoyment.

Okay, but see, here's the problem - we never really get a good vibe of how much of the problem with the game is from unskippable cutscenes, a bad story, iffy controls, or a story that just plain offended her sensibilities. If it's the first thing, I care a bit, if the second, I care not at all, if the third, I care a lot, and if the last, I really don't care at all.

 

[Tricky I Shadow]

Talk about a massive step back from the Prime trilogy....

 

[Door2Dawn]

Talk about a massive step back from the Prime trilogy....

A interesting statement to make for someone who probably hasn't played the game.

 

[kinggroin]

The game isn't related to prime. How is it a step back?

Does someone have to say, "This is the next installment in the Metroid series"?

This installment is a step back from the previous one. No reason for you to post something so grossly obtuse other than to argue semantics for arguments sake.

 

[farnham]

Eh... I'm not going to get into it extensively here, but this is one of the debates concerning Snake's characterization from MGS2 to MGS4. In MGS2, Snake says this stuff merely to bring Raiden down to earth: He's not some demi-god of the battlefield, he's a killer who is better at his job than most and nothing more. With that said, MGS2 Snake fights on because he found something to believe in as an individual, independent of him being a legendary soldier.

In MGS4, however, Snake kinda flip-flops, now acting as a self-pitying, suicidal old guy in some scenes (most specifically, the beginning of Acts 3 and 5). So no, people did have a problem with that.

i was talking about MGS1 though

Solid Snake always says to meryl that he is no match for the legends that surround him and that he is just an ordinary guy.

That reminds me. In my fanboy dreams solid snake was with meryl. And they ruined that in MGS4. Still i wouldnt give that game a 40% if i were to review that game.

 

[wsippel]

I mean, don't get me wrong, I think it's pretty easy to find a sexist story in there. It's also pretty easy to find a very Japanese mentor-protege story in there too. I'm not confident enough to say which it likely is in reality.

My concern is whether or not that's really a useful metric to review a game on. Is the game a 2/5 because the gameplay is bad or is it because it's telling a disagreeable story or is it because it's telling a crappy story badly?

Disagreement I think. The story isn't bad from what I've played. It's pretty consistent and there are some nice twists here and there. And it's actually well told. There are some plot devices that get blown out of proportion, but even the authorization stuff partially makes sense, especially if you've actually seen the intro. Samus decides to join a military operation, so she has to follow orders or leave the scene. And Adam doesn't want her to use abilities that might cause collateral damage. That makes perfect sense for large parts of her arsenal. It does not make sense for suit upgrades or harmless stuff like the grappling beam, though, so that's one of the (rare) facepalm moments in the game.

 

[VeryGooster]

Despite some reactions here and a few of the reviews I've read, curiosity is getting the better of me and I might still check it out, even though Samus' apparent reduction to having the emotional baggage of a Real World cast member is off-putting. Makes me want to play Zero Mission and Fusion again. I wish I had gotten MP Trilogy while it was still available, even though I didn't finish Echoes because I was too frustrated by it. I guess I'll settle for Corruption.