Let's Talk About Zero Suit Samus

I generally don't think I should attach definitions every time I say something, people tend to get offended by that

Neither extreme is true, it's just that the ultimate cliches stem from the 80s (or early 90s)
With an old game, you had to get more out of a setting, since that was one of few tools you had. A lot of devs solved this by being weird about it, with bizarre enemies and powerups. With a modern game you have far more options available to you. Okami has green fields, but they're lended a unique aesthetic, and it's part of a world, it ultimately exists to connect other areas, none wholly unrelated, it builds a world that way. Fallout 3 is a desert, but it's really a sandbox, full of little things to find, the setting also serves the narrative.
Like I said earlier, how you use a cliche is what's key here. Other M isn't DOING anything with its cliches (and honestly, the space ship theme kinda limited what they COULD do with it.. though Fusion still did more with it than Other M). They look pretty, which I can appreciate, but it doesn't really serve a purpose that justifies it.
I give Mario a hard time for its lack of originality, but ultimately, Mario games are obstacle courses, so using settings to generate obstacles is ultimately to be expected, and the actual location is really second t that.
I'd still love to see more variety in a Mario game, rather than the grassland desert ice forest mountain sky lava rap they feel the need to rely on, but I digress

 

Yes but there's still no variety, Hatok. You can't just sub in that word to mean fresh, or original, or different.

Variety means various options. If I serve you Chocolate, Strawberry, Vanilla, and Cookiedough ice cream I have served you a variety. No matter how often they've been served to other people or to you in your life. You can't just a product by how often it was done before. And again, Other M made them feel cramped and unnatural. You've yet to dispute. It seems your claim isn't that the levels are terrible, rather that they don't tickle your fancy.

 

Variety most certainly implies you feel it's VARIED though. When a person says they want some variety in a game, they PROBABLY aren't thinking "Man, you know what would be cool? A fire level. No wait! A forest level!"
If a person told me they had a variety of ice cream flavours, and it turned out they had chocolate, strawberry and vanilla, I'd be disappointed, because NOBODY considers that a variety.
Other M felt cramped and unnatural? Okay? And? Never mind I recall plenty of perfectly open areas in the game. Just because the levels are a bit awkward, and sometimes it turns into a space ship doesn't miraculous mean that the rest of the level isn't just a fire level
I guess it's a good thing you didn't actually quote me with this post (seriously, why is this even a separate post, never mind one where you don't quote me or tag me) because then the argument that I'm claiming that something being done before makes it bad wouldn't really hold up, since I've said multiple times now that it's about the execution, not the mere existence of the trope. It's not bad by the mere fact that it's a fire level, but rather that that's ALL it is, and this is furtehr compounded by the fact that the previous games had so much MORE going for them.
If you want to like your weird box levels and where's Waldo pre-boss sequences... great. I'm not trying to argue that you can't, I'm arguing MY side, and in fact have hardly disagreed with you about ANYTHING so far

 

I didn' t really mind having fire/wood/ice levels. Metroid games are as much obstacle games as Mario, they just added exploration and keybearer ingredients to the mix (much like Zelda). I did however mind Other M' s linearity. Not that it' s the only offender in the franchise in that area. Nor the worst, that' d be Fusion.

Metroid 1&2&Super left us perfectly free to explore their areas in any order we saw fit, which couldn' t screw our save file. Replay value right there. Super even encouraged it, showing us the bomb trick in its intro and all, so I can' t fathom why they suddenly locked everything up in a connect the dots fashion. It' s not as if Metroid needed an elaborate plot.

The Primes also locked their areas, but they did it the modern Zelda way (through power-locks rather than outright locks). No bomb trick bypass anymore, but at least by exploring anyway what they want to remain dead ends for now we might find a few expansions.

 

If you don't understand it now, you never will

 

Considering how long it took for Adam to authorize the use of the Varia Suit, I highly doubt that is the case. In fact, I don't think Adam give one sh*t about Samus beyond her use as a military asset. Samus is a submissive who is anxious enough for Adam’s approval for her to charge into a volcano without heat shields, and Adam really is cold and domineering enough to watch her do it. And remember, Adam has a direct audiovisual feed from her helmet the whole time. Something that was established early on. There are many more examples I could point out besides the Hell Run.

I literally have no problem with woman looking attractive while doing cool stuff in fiction and this non-existent problem was never a part of my argument about the heels.

Why can't I let it go? Well, maybe it is because I have this idea of who Samus is as a character that the idea of her wearing something as impractical as heels in a combat scenario just baffles me. Plus some of those characters that I let slide are already over the top either in abilities or appearance that the heels become rather moot (example, Ivy from Soulcalibur).

 

Oh, well NOW you've convinced me
You're so clever and mysterious

 

Glad you think so

 

I'm glad you're glad

 

I'm glad we're mutually glad

 

Mutual gladness is a reason to feel glad

 

Finally! Some thing I can put all these copies of Other M in!

 

Here's a scary story
Other M is still 59.99 at most stores

 

Adding that to the list.

 

Well that's strange, because it launched for $49.99. It's also $12 on Amazon so who gives a crap about people spending their money badly.

Adam also has direct video and audio feed to this entire squad and he's trying to find a killer. That section only lasts less than a minute- it's believable a person could miss that. Anyway I've read that article too and it just constantly misses context- especially cultural context. Sakamoto is very much Japanese and in no way a Westaboo like Kojima so he didn't convey things right. The way these characters act is very samurai movie.

I'm not defending it- I'm saying understand it first then complain about the real issues.

 

Not in Canadaland

 

Another problem with the hell run/authorization of the Varia Suit is that Samus should have recognized the danger of having the suit off during that time and just turned on, authorization be damned. Now one could argue "Well Samus didn't turn it on out of respect for Adam's command" (which is the positive interpretation, the negative one I already mentioned) but the problem with that is that even soldiers in real life are allow some autonomy so if Samus were aware of the danger she didn't have to wait for Adam to give her the okay, she could have just turned it on because her own safety was at risk or ask Adam for authorization right then and there but instead she runs unprotected from the heat until she gets to the boss.

Still the romanticized abusive relationship between Adam and Samus is the only way I could possibly explain this logical fallacy on the game's part even if I wish I didn't have too.

And I don't give two shits about cultural context, bad writing is still bad writing.

 

Why doesn't Samus just have her best suit on? There's no downside to wearing the Varia suit, and it can't potentially hurt anybody

 

I mean, a lot of it wasn't bad writing in Japan. It was bad American scripting. I've already said that Japan's script didn't once say the Baby.

I've also given another positive point to why Samus didn't use the Varia suit, which you ignore for a more.... dumb one? I never said she did it out of respect- she wanted to show him up under his own rules.

The only real point I give people for bad writing is Ridley. Otherwise, with an understanding of Japan culture, the writing isn't bad. They just didn't bother at all to adapt it for Americans. Samus's voice actress being the best example of this.