The Mutericator

Around the same time Nintendo did.

I am normally loathe to visit GameFAQs boards, but I couldn't help but notice a very nice explanation on why Other M's story sucks so hard: http://www.gamefaqs.com/boards/960554-metroid-other-m/56305892 (The only reason I was on GF was because I had to look at a guide for how to proceed in a couple of places, BOTH of which turned out to be the low lighting simply hiding the means of moving forward. I hate crappy level design.)

I agree, there's no chance we're going to be able to change each other's opinions, but I am curious as to what other Lone-Wolf Silent-Heroine types you know of. As far as I know, the lone female bounty hunter type isn't really overplayed in video games... especially in Nintendo titles.

Or, you know, because she was poorly equipped when she was on Ceres. I think Samus' previous personality - the compassion she shows the body of the GF trooper captain in Echoes, the dedication she shows to tracking down the last Metroid in Super, her stop on the way out of Prime to look over the Ruins as they crumble to the ground - were more than enough to give her a proper character. Yes, you can haggle around and try to justify the PSTD, but in the end, it was still completely unnecessary, just like most of the dialogue (and monologueing!) in the game. It still has a crappy story, it still doesn't make sense with what we've seen in the other games (no matter how many retcons Sakamoto might make, or obscure the source material people might quote), and it's still a rug pulled out from under the fans.

Too bad no one cares about the manga, huh? I realize I may not be THE BIGGEST METROID FAN EVER, but seriously, retconning her behavior of six fights with Ridley to fit some niche comic that only got fantranslated over here? That's utter bullshit. Sakamoto ignored the fans' perceptions of Samus - and no, it isn't just me - to make her more of a woman, less of an efficient bounty hunter and "strong" figure. Yes, PSTD would make sense - if she hadn't dealt with Ridley no less than six times before now. Yes, I'm still angry about having one of my favorite gaming icons retconned into a generic weak female. She didn't NEED backstory, and she certainly didn't need shitty exposition to portray it.

I haven't seen nearly as many people complaining about the auto-aim as the terrible writing. Things like the Ridley scene did NOT make sense. If she had gotten frustrated, it would have made sense, but breaking down and having a panic attack over an opponent she's killed literally five times* by that point? Hardly logical or realistic. Not activating the VARIA SUIT, of all things, until authorized? Far from realistic. I appreciate the IDEA of making Metroid a more action-based game, but if the action is only so-so, the story is pretty bad, and they sacrificed the storylessness, the exploration, and the isolation for the sake of it, I call it a failed experiment. Sakamoto: please let Retro handle the next one. Or SOME American studio that knows what good writing is. * Once in Metroid, two if you count Meta-Ridley in Zero Mission, three in Prime, four in Prime 3, five in Super Metroid. You can also count the very first fight with him in the opening scene to Prime 3 as another, if you choose.

THE BABY MUST FLOW. Screw your no all-caps, forum.

Played it earlier today, through the elevator shaft in Sector 1. If I hear, "the baby," one more fucking time, I'm taking this disc and chucking it out the window. Seriously, in Super Metroid it was all, "the last Metroid," or, "the larva," or just, "it." There was none of this maternal instinct bullshit that Sakamoto has painted her with. I made it to the elevator shaft in Sector 1 before stopping (couldn't figure out where to go). I am really wishing they had made a Metroid game with action elements rather than an action game with Metroid elements. First off, at the VERY LEAST, I should be able to skip these shitty cutscenes, because you've put an obnoxious little dot on my map to tell me where to go all the damn time. Second, take that little dot on my map off, I can figure this shit out myself. Third, remove story-activated paths. There is NO REASON I should have to walk into a room, notice a dead researcher, "feel the presence of evil," and then leave to make another door open. This is METROID, not Zelda. Fourth, fix the flashy "jump on enemies," Overcharge thing. It looks cool, yeah, but for some reason I can never get it to work properly, even when I know I've landed directly on the enemy. tl;dr I'm gonna keep playing, but I am already hating almost everything about this game.

The problem with the cutscenes is that the Americans always imagined Samus - as a bounty hunter, and nearly-silent protagonist - to be the strong, silent type who gets stuff done, doesn't ask questions, and doesn't follow orders when they're bloody stupid. If anything, Fusion proved that Samus has her own agenda, at odds with the Federation - she wants to eradicate the X and the Metroids, as the Chozo raised her to, and the Federation wants to use them as energy sources or biological weapons. And instead, in Other M we get a Samus who takes orders unquestioningly (including not activating the Varia Suit until given authorization), blathers on and on about THE BABY (whereas before she only referred to it as "the larva" or "the Metroid"), and who breaks down upon seeing an enemy she has completely wiped the floor with no less than FIVE TIMES by this point in the story (twice in Zero Mission, twice in Prime Trilogy, once in Super. That second Zero Mission fight is arguable). On the one hand, you could argue that it's our fault for projecting this persona on her when there was no indication either way, but on the other hand, Sakamoto should listen to the fans and realize we don't WANT some weak-willed girl in an emotionally-powered suit of armor. I'm exaggerating, I know, and I apologize. But the story is the main thing keeping me from playing this game at all - I'll borrow it from a friend or maybe buy it used, but I don't want a story-driven Metroid, and Samus should stay silent if this is what her true character is.

His ghost has been rather active recently, it seems...

And twice as many dungeons and items, and half as many sidequests. I quit Spirit Tracks out of boredom after unlocking the final area just because I knew it would be another hour or so going back and forth to unlock everything before I could actually get to the dungeon (i.e. the best part). Okay, here's mine: Symphony of the Night, but with multiple playable characters, each with different weapons, move speeds, jump heights, spells... you have to switch between them (on-the-fly) to finish the dungeon and find everything. Each has strengths and weaknesses, as well as attack abilities (shoulder charge, downward-thrust stab, throw fireballs, counter attacks...). And of course a castle twice as large, with a better difficulty curve. EDIT: Tales of Phantasia with the SNES art style (pre-anime-izing), the DeJap translation (yes, the joke one), and a 3D battle system (with free run). No option to make it cheesier (a la every Tales since then), just straight time-traveling antics. I'd ask for Chrono Trigger with a graphical update, but I know I can't trust Square Enix not to ruin it.

Pretty much all the reviews I've read rate the gameplay as either pretty good or only decent, and EVERYONE panned the cutscenes for being absolute shit. Which is good, we shouldn't have cutscenes and Sakamoto should be limited to three lines of dialogue in every game he makes until he proves himself. Definitely not buying. I might borrow, but hey, I'd rather see Nintendo go, "hey look, a cinematic Metroid didn't do well," with poor sales numbers to back it up than for them to go, "hey look, a cinematic Metroid got panned for its cinematics, but sold like hotcakes."

No. No no no no no no. This is the same Hollywood pitfall other games and series have fallen into, and I do not want it to happen to Metroid. Metroid's awesome BECAUSE there is minimal story, BECAUSE it's all isolated exploration. That's why I'm not buying Other M (I'll borrow it and try it out first instead). I realize I'm a bit of an extremist, but I loved Metroid, Super Metroid, and Metroid Prime because you were alone completely, no one to interfere. Sure, it feels empty, that's the point. Can you imagine the opening room of Phendrana Drifts if some idiot Galactic Federation trooper were there to welcome you? Even Prime 2 felt like it had a tad too much interaction, with having to go back to U-Mos every once in a while, but it was acceptable. Prime 3 was fun, but definitely not a Metroid game in the more strict definition (read: SERIOUS GAMERS LIKE MYSELF, WHO TAKE GAMES SERIOUSLY BECAUSE WE ARE SERIOUS GAMERS you get the point).

Just finished Hajime no Ippo last night. All I can say is... wow. Just... wow. Amazing, AMAZING show. I was never a fan of sports, or serious anime, but this was a well-balanced show of good length (76 episodes), GREAT character development, some skill-based fights (the whole COURAGE bit isn't nearly as prevalent as learning proper counters, training the right parts of the body, and hard work overall paying off), and some great reaction faces. Highly recommended, especially if you liked shows like Gurren Lagann. GL's kind of an instant-gratification thing compared to HnI's slow payoff, but those fights are so worth it.

Only if you've got about 100 hours to spare. DW7 is HUUUUUGE.

It's based on your level, dude. Play the game for a bit more.

A) Thieves are good, once you get Ranger. Give your high-level Ranger Half-Inch and all the Deftness buffs from Thief (as well as some good gloves), and watch the items come in quick. Level grind in WATER GROTTOS. Darkoniums only appear in the ruins grottos, IIRC, and Waters have Metal King Slimes that appear near the lower floors of just about any and every water grotto. C) To get all of the guest items: Talk to them, talk to them as their favored class, talk to them on your birthday, talk to them after getting the inn maxed out (30 unique IDs canvassed), and talk to them after doing one of the later extra quests. Some of their stuff is really, really nice early-game.

Tsundere Darkesword made me ;_; Taucer: I will always respect you for your work on Lover Reef and, most importantly, Scar Sealing Girl. A major kudos to you, good sir, and a tearful farewell.

No, there are as many maps as you complete - I think you can only keep like 100 of them, but you can always discard the low-level ones to keep going. I'm not actually certain the one I have is Masayuki's; I can't find a good Youtube that shows off the level name and location of the actual one, so the one I have is good enough.

Yeah, it's a completionists' game. But some of the quests - especially postgame - unlock other quests, with better and better rewards. See: Erinn's quest unlocking Patty's.

All of you Sandy haters need to lay off. Stella is the life of the party, and the sooner you realize it, the sooner you won't have a bone toothpick with her. Also, I have the Masayuki map. For anyone who doesn't know, that's the Silver Marsh of Bane level 58, with a discover date of some gibberish (the Japanese characters were taken out of the English version). The 11th floor? ALL KING METAL SLIMES. And, thanks to the experience to level... leveling off at around 88k EXP, you can get to 99 as any class really, really easily. Like, in two hours or less. THINGS I RECOMMEND AFTER PLAYING THE GAME A LOT MORE THAN LAST TIME! - Get someone with Thunder Thrust (spears), Crackerwhack (hammers), or Hatchet Man (axes). Preferably several. These will come in VERY VERY HANDY when hunting liquid and king metals, as crits go through defense and are basically a free instant-kill. King metals are basically impossible to kill by whittling off 1 HP at a time (thanks to their run rate), so these skills are an absolute necessity. - Ignore the guide that says you can find them in Tower of Nod. They very, VERY rarely show up alongside other monsters (never on the map itself), and you're much better off just looking for high level grottos to go through. If you see Slugly Betsys and the like wandering around, congratulations, that floor has metals somewhere. Good luck finding them. And make sure you bring Evac-u-bells or someone with Evac so you can work yourself nearly dead and still evacuate without killing the boss. - Unlock all the jobs. I made the mistake of leaving Ranger until way late game to unlock, even though that class is coming in really handy as far as getting the extra points I need to max out the necessary skills. And Wolf Whistle is a great boss attack. Luminary, despite its "souped-up Minstrel" style, is actually really useful, and a character's Charm can cause even legacy boss monsters to lose turns staring enthralled at them. Not only that, but their ball-juggling move (I forget the name) can be really useful against both groups and metals - it's basically a Multithrust/Multifist with a much higher attack and hit rate (and MP cost). - Log into the DQVC! Even if you can't, log in every Friday to get the hidden quests and cameo characters! Alena (DQIV) and Angelo (DQVIII) are already out, but more are on the way. They give you free stuff when you a) first talk to them, talk to them as their favored class, c) talk to them on your birthday, d) talk to them when your inn has over 30 unique guests (no, you can't delete and rescan the same person over and over), and e) after you finish a hidden story quest way postgame (it hasn't been unlocked on the DQVC yet).

New laptop comes in Monday or Tuesday! After that, TF2!

I still haven't unlocked Ranger, and I'm already about to enter the Obliette (no spoilers in that name, it isn't mentioned until you're there). I'm about 50 hours in now, after I found the Liquid Metal Slimes I spent about ten hours just leveling everyone up like crazy on all of their weak classes and then saving the points up to use on skills relevant to their professions - so now my Gladiator and Monk have shields, my Paladin automatically gains MP after every round, my Mage has a ridiculous amount of MP, and all of my attackers have huge HP and STR bonuses. Double Up + Multifist = 150 x 4 damage. Give the Gladiator the Falcon Blade and have him Falcon Slash after a Double Up? Oh, cripes. It's around 200 damage each attack, times 4 for 400. I smoked the most recent boss (he drops the Sceptre, for reference) in about four rounds. MY RECOMMENDATIONS: - Give your Paladin points in Wands, not swords or spears. - Give every caster - Paladin, Mage, Minstrel, Priest - enough Wand points to at least get Cadaceus - it's a healing skill that costs 3MP, and because it's a skill, they can use it whenever. - Monks are crazy when they have maxed-out Fisticuffs and all of the STR bonuses from Gladiator and are wearing shields. Crazy broken. - Give whoever has Falcon Slash the Goddess Ring so they can use it as often as they like. Gladiators don't have much MP, but when it regens as fast as the Goddess Ring makes it, it's easy to spam. - Neither Gigaslash is worth it. Don't bother unless you're on your way to Omnivocational Swordmaster. - Speaking of which, that makes it a LOT easier to level up as a Mage, Priest, et cetera - give a Mage the Falcon Blade and all of his STR boosts from Gladiator, and it doesn't take him long to become useful again.

Yeah, Simon on that site is a bit of an asshole. Some of the people he deals with are annoying and deserve it, yeah, but only some of them. Anyways, DJP, that really sucks. I guess I'm lucky I haven't really used them much recently...

GOD HATES SENTRIES and GOD HATES JEDI were the best parts. Totally awesome.