You're missing the point. Tell that to Nintendo. Metroid is not where the money is for them, no matter how amazing the games are. A lot of critically acclaimed games out there don't sell very well. For the companies' purposes, if the games aren't making a lot of money for them, it's a failure. They have quotas to meet. Like it or not, it's not one of Nintendo's more successful franchises. But of course, it hasn't stopped Nintendo from making sequels for the Western market.
Irrelevant as it may be, Metroid's financial failings are almost entirely attributable to Nintendo's marketing...or lack thereof. Mario is a brand in and of itself, but Metroid went on hiatus for many years, and even in the NES days wasn't as recognizable as Mario. It also appeals to a smaller demographic, typically the hardcore gamer, than the "everyone and their grandmother" that Mario appeals to.
That said, Metroid maintains status as one of Nintendo's "Big 3" because of the exceptional quality of the games. Hardcore gamers (not your people who never played anything but Wii Sports on their Wii, who bought a console essentially to play CoD and other FPS) aren't anticipating seeing Pokemon or Kirby on the Wii U; they, by and large, want to see Mario, Zelda, and Metroid.
Canon? What, you mean the 2002 Manga, where that's the only time Samus' personality is told? The same manga that would be acceptable on its own, were it not for several inconsistencies between it and the main story of the Metroid games which hurts its standing as a canon source? This is not simply just "This is Samus, deal with it" when Other M is not consistent with things previously established in the franchise.
Other M is canon, and Other M is consistent with the manga. Therefor, the manga is canon. The only "inconsistencies" present in the manga are those of Samus' character, a character whom had not even spoke until Metroid Fusion. She is only "inconsistent" with who people though Samus was, but her character had never been revealed before Fusion and the manga.
Putting aside the fact that even if we had a little bit a backstory, the terrible scirpt would've probably doomed it all anyway, but coming off other titles, it's extremely jarring to Samus come off as an emotional wreck. Instead of maybe starting off Samus in a somewhat more conservative mindset and easing her into the more open emotional state, we're made to assume that she's always been thinking these things in all the other games. DON'T GET ME WRONG, having some secrets or information revealed about Samus that we didn't know isn't bad and could stir some drama. But suddenly showing us that the character we've experienced so much with has always been this emotionally fragile (a trait that an experienced bounty hunter who's been put in extremely claustrophobic and stressful situations shouldn't really have) as such a big part of her thought process..... well, it just starts to taint old memories.
I actually don't think that Samus is as emotionally fragile as she appears to be in Other M. Adam is the key in all of this. Adam is both Samus' CO, and the closest thing to a father that she has ever had on top of being one of the very small handful of people for whom she truly cares, and an even smaller handful (perhaps only him, even) who truly understand who she is. Had the player been more aware of their past why Samus has this view of him, perhaps it would be less jarring. I hope we get to see more of their past connection. As it stands though, it's clear how she feels about him, and we are clued into some events from their past that also affect her.
Considering that, as well as Samus' immaturity, it's entirely plausible for her to break down to some extent when she feels he may be responsible for the evens of other M, and (the game has been out long enough where I shouldn't have to tiptoe around spoilers, right?) when he is about to sacrifice himself to end it. That's not being an overly emotional wreck, it's being human. I literally just played through Other M, and outside of Adam and Ridley there are exactly zero moments where Samus is emotionally unstable, or overly emotional in any way.
Now as for the infamous Ridley scene, there is absolutely no reason for Samus to be afraid of Ridley after beating him with ease 6 times already (once in Metroid and Metroid Prime, twice in Metroid Prime 3 and Super Metroid), even if we were to go by the manga. I'm not trying to hear that this is PTSD. This is obviously not canon, especially since in the previous games, this has never been addressed. It's just glazed over. It's never shown on screen and there's no context given about this unless you already know Samus and Ridley's history. And even in the manga, the PTSD is played as nothing more than a plot device. It's never really shown as a legitimate reoccurring part of her character, and only crops up at moments which would provide the most dramatic tension. It's like in the movies when someone needs to start a car in a hurry and it never starts right away. The idea is just being taken advantage of by people with no appreciation of the disorder itself. PTS isn't that something that just crops up when it's dramatically convenient, it's something that you have to live with. And seeing the past games have shown Samus go through mission after mission just fine, the PTS comes off as a load of BS.
PTSD is not uniform among all those inflicted. There are varying degrees of severity, and more importantly, different triggers. Samus' PTSD is not severe due to the origin event happening when she was still so young. Our very early childhoom memories are intentionally difficult, if not impossible to recall. Had Samus been older when said event had taken place, I'm sure that the PTSD would manifest itself with greater severity because it would stand out more vividly in her mind.
There's also the matter of the trigger. Ridley is clearly the trigger for Samus' PTSD. We also have no way of knowing how Samus felt during her previous encounters with Ridley; she could very well have been just as terrified.
I also wouldn't draw too much about her character from Metroid Prime, particularly her encounters with Ridley, for several reasons. Firstly, they were developed out-of-house, we have no way of knowing if Retro was aware of how Nintendo intended Samus to be. She doesn't speak or do anything particularly telling in Prime, anyway.
As for Ridley, when she encounters him in Prime he's largely mechanical. I don't recall if Meta Ridley is a cybernetic clone of Ridley, or a cybernetically-enhancment (or perhaps kept alive by cybernetics) of his organic self. Either way, the fact that it's not quite the Ridley from her past might have something to do with it.
Now, you COULD argue that maybe the reason there weren't any breakdowns in the other games is because Sakamoto didn't have the technology to display such an emotional scene ... or maybe he just hadn't invented that element of the plot yet and would have put it in if he were to retcon those games. I personally think it's the latter. But hey, I'll play along! Let's assume Samus has ALWAYS been immature and suffered emotional breakdowns! Keep in mind this is the same person who's famous for:
I think it's both, honestly.
1. Eradicating the Metroid and Pirate threat on planet Zebes (Metroid)
2. Destroying the Pirate occupied areas of Tallon IV and killing the strongest Metroid in the universe. (Prime)
3. Putting to rest the beast Gorea while wading off 6 other bounty hunters. (Prime Hunters)
4. Liberating a planet from the oppression of an entire species of aliens by killing them while combating the Sapce Pirates and Dark Samus. (Prime 2)
5. Freeing three planets from the oppression of Phazon seeds and leading the Federation to war against an entire planet, blowing it up by herself, saving the entire universe in the process. (Prime 3)
6. Exterminating every Metroid in the galaxy. (Metroid II)
7. Stopping the space Pirates from acquiring the baby Metroid on planet Zebes, killing Mother Brain and destroying the planet for good. (Super Metroid)
Samus has never been depicted as lacking courage or a sense of duty, which utterly nullifies the point you're trying to make here.
.....And yet she breaks down after fighting Ridley for the SEVENTH time. Makes perfect sense!
As said before, we've no idea how Samus has reacted to Ridley in the past. Also also said (though not by me), seeing him alive likely came as quite a shock to her. Already being in a slightly unstable emotional state due to Adams presence could have played a part as well.
Hell, if she's always been like that, I'm surprised she even survived the first mission.
Again, has never lacked skill, courage, or a sense of duty.
No one saying she needs to be a ruthless killer. I have no problem with Samus having a personality. You can have a strong female character who's also emotionally fragile. But actions speak louder than words, and throughout the series, we've seen Samus do a great deal that's defined her as a character.
That's exactly it! She is a strong female character. Look at everything she's accomplished! She knows how to separate her emotions from her work, but Other M forces her to deal with both simultaneously. As you said, you can have a strong female character who doesn't have rock-solid emotional stability. It doesn't make her weaker, if anything it makes her stronger because she's able to accomplish so much despite her somewhat fractured mental state.
True, we don't know everything about her, but remember, sometimes less is more. Especially if you can't already pull off that "more" part. By making her emotionally fragile, while also giving her a bland personality with no backbone, and possibly suffering from battered-wife syndrome, you've contradicted everything that we've been shown by essentially degrading her and everything she's done up to that point, and people lose respect for her because of it.
Even in Other M, none of those things are even remotely true. I just played through it again, and she's nothing of the sort. It's a very specific situation that is clearly tailored by Nintendo with the intent of making her emotionally unstable and challenging her mentally. She's immature (though is maturing with age), but isn't typically an emotional wreck.
Fortunately, Sakamoto himself admits that he hadn’t thought deeply about Samus Aran’s characterization prior to Other M. So, in short, we can pretty much disregard this game as canon since the terrible writing and characterization of Samus was due to his inexperience with story-telling.
I think the poor structuring of the plot was due to inexperience, but he laid the groundwork for a compelling character that they aren't likely to just drop with Other M.
Samus can jump, dodge, shoot, and Morph-Ball in the Prime series just like she could in the previous games. Perhaps the first-person view changes your perception of this, but even then her agility is still highlighted in the cutscenes of those games as well.
She can barely jump and doesn't even run. First-person necessitated by design; it would have been impossible to play with Samus jumping and flipping all over. Her agility is indeed highlighted in cutscenes, but we don't see any of it in gameplay.
Not accurate to canon. I suppose I should believe the Ocarina of Time manga that showed young Link and Zelda as childhood friends that always used to play in Castle Town before he even knew she was a princess. Or that Volvagia was Link's pet dragon before Ganon corrupted it into the monstrosity you see at the Fire Temple of that game. Deal with it, my ***.
The Metroid Manga depicts evens entirely separate from any of the games. The Ocarina of Time Manga depicts the events of the game which directly conflict with the actual evens of said game. No logical parallel.
Because you get to see in 3rd person, right?
No, because a 3rd person design allows her to be more mobile.
While Metroid and Metroid 2 have not aged well at all, that doesn't mean that they're bad games, and they're no where near the level of Other M. Hunters was not a terrible Metroid game, and it's obviously not one of the better ones outside of the multiplayer. And Pinball? Really? Do we count Link's Crossbow Training when you talk about the Zelda series?
Hunters was a trainwreck. Poor world design, completely bland enemy encounters, and poor exploration elements. It's considerably lacking in the elements which define a Metroid game, other than maybe atmosphere.
I never said she doesn't need any changes. Change can be good. I just don't want it to get so carried away to the point where the character feels completely different and in the worst case scenario, becomes worse. Things like a better dodge, or bomb cancels, fine. Things like taking away floatiness, which that directly screws up her recovery and survivability and would probably change her gameplay style completely, that gets me uneasy. I know shouldn't be too worried about this seeing PMBR's work with every other Melee veteran, but you know...when you're passionate about a character to the point where you have to make blocks of text like this to get your point across, no doubt I'm going feel apprehensive, so forgive me for it.
A well-designed character would suffer from none of those downfalls, and might not even lose any of what she was capable of doing before.
Never played the Metroid Prime series, I'm guessing? Because saying that Prime is akin to turning Zelda into a hack and slash is a horrible analogy.
FPS (and hack and slashes) focus on combat first. Killing everything in sight in order to proceed. Metroid (as well as Zelda) has a combination combat, exploration, platforming and puzzle solving. Nothing is neglected. Nintendo just so happened to believe a first-person view was more favorable for combat in a 3D plane and even coined it a first person ADVENTURE GAME. Just because a game is in first person and let's you shoot something, doesn't mean it's a shooter. I guess Fallout 3 and Portal are shooters as well in your eyes.
He's right. Prime is as close to first-person space Zelda as it is Metroid. Puzzles were never a main component of Metroid until Prime. Metroid has always been combat and exploration.
The Prime games' gameplay have been more faithful to the 2D games than Other M ever will. Personally, I'd take the Prime series combat over Other M's combat any day, which literally boils down spamming the Sense-move dodge, and running around mashing the shoot button, hoping that the auto-aim hits what you want it to hit.
Prime is closer where the adventure and atmosphere elements are concerned, but Other M more closely reflects Samus' abilities and mobility. Other M's gameplay wasn't perfect (I'd want more stringent timing for sense-move, but aiming the weapon would be difficult to tackle in 3D.), but it was still fun to play and was distinctly Metroid in a number of ways.
Fusion was the most linear and story driven game in the series before Other M, and while Fusion wasn't bad, if Other M has shown us anything, that's a bad design choice for the series. Metroid games should play out their stories through the gameplay itself, rather than contorting it to fit the plot. And a poorly written one at that.
