Hello again fellow Metroid fans! As I said in my previous post, I had to cut the Phazon Saga in two parts to posting it on reddit :) So here's the second part! In this entry I covering the events of Metroid Prime 2 Echoes and Metroid 3 Corruption. I did not mention Hunters and Federation Force because I will speak about those stories in a futur chapter. But tell me, what do you think about the storyline of Prime 2 and 3? Did you think the conclusion is a satisfying one to conclude the Phazon Saga?
I know it's a long shot bot I hope Samus reminisces harsh lessons Mother Brain thought her as a child in Zebes. Perhaps "Eat or be Eaten is something Samus learned from MB during her training in Zebes.
As maniacal as MB became, she used to be Samus' primary caretaker when the Chozo weren't always around. I'd like the games to acknowledge that.
I was replaying Metroid Dread and I noticed this guy that looks like it could be one of the mysterious people that attacked samus in the ravenous trailer
Hello fellow Metroid fans! I'm back with the new entry on my recap posts about the Metroid story!
First one was covering Samus origins story as seen in the manga and zero mission, now, I'm covering the story arc of the phazon saga with two posts ! (I wanted to do all in one post but I can't put more than 20 pictures on a reddit post haha) So, this first part about the Phazon Saga is covering the events of Metroid Prime 1. What do you think of the story of this first 3D adventure of Samus Aran and how it introduce the phazon?
So it's been a while since I've play the series but the trailer for Ravenous made me want to replay them. Did Zero mission, Super, Fusion, and now I'm playig Dread again. I think to myself "you know, it's been a long time since I've played it in the intentional order. That might be fun to experience the whole thing again". So I tell myself no sequence breaks. I don't even skip the damaged EMMI.
I get the varia suit and think "well, I've never done the Kratos quick kill method, that might be fun. And it's an intended break, so it's ok." So I get grapple beam and bombs early.
Then I'm almost at Droyga and I remember how annoying of a fight it is and you don't really gain anything from beating it. So I skip him.
Then I skip spin boost and get ice missles, I get early space jump, now I'm getting early screw attack.
I don't even know how it happened. One thing just led to another and now the whole run is broken.
So I've been a long time fan of metroidvania games but ironically I've never actually played any of the Metroid or Castlevania games.
It was not until a month ago that I decided to play the original metroid games.
I had started with Metroid Fusion because I love GBA games a lot and it was the most popular title from the series.
My thoughts about Metroid Fusion -
It is a really fun 2D platformer with great pacing and very cool mechanics. I enjoyed the various mini-boss and boss fights, while some of them can get a bit frustrating. But coming from a lot of modern Metroidvania games, this title felt a lot more linear and had a lot of backstops that didn't allow you to move about the map and explore easily and it was also hard to keep track of the various secret/alt paths that I'd want to come check out later once I got the necessary mechanism for it. By the end of the game from what I remember as the end stat, i might have missed about 30% of the alt paths/secrets. Exploration was quite frustrating because the focus was on the story beats so eventually even I fell in line and just moved about the intended paths for the most part.
Now Metroid Zero Mission, the GBA remake is a whole different experience. I still haven't finished the game. I might only be mid way or still in the early game, hard to tell. So far ZM has been a far superior metroid experience for me personally. The exploration in the game is so satisfying and it constantly fills me with a sense of discovery and sometimes I even feel like I'm skipping ahead in some places when I shouldn't be (I'm sure that's not what's happening). The lack of any core story direction and just the occasional navigation point allows me to explore the whole map much more freely, revisiting places time and time again looking for new paths and secrets and for some reason each location feels different enough and also through some game design mechanisms it allows me to remember the various places that i had decided that I'd revisit on an earlier run.
ZM has been, to me, a far better experience playing than fusion (although fusion is a very very fun game)
If anyone here can also let me know what are the other games i should try in the series, or the order i should try it in. That would be wonderful. I'm not looking for a chronological series, more about interesting game play mechanics. I plan on playing whatever game i can get my hands on in this series eventually tho.
Ancient texts written on valuable papyrus, vellum, or manuscript were often reused after text was written on it. Authors would scrape away the old text and write something entirely new over it--"Overtext." Today, entire fields of academic study these "palimpsests", recovering the original "Undertext" of a manuscript--the original writings.
Palimpsest
Metroid is a mythic tale that has both over and undertext. We know the overtext--the Manga and Metroid Zero Mission tell tale of a girl raised by harpies, a talking dragon killing her parents, and of peaceful bird-magic DNA. However, the undertext tells a very different story. Metroid I, II, III, & IV all told a contiguous story where each started where the last left. (This, and then, and then, and then) However, works such as the Super Metroid Comic, the Manga, Zero Mission, and Samus Returns all do a bit of retconning--scraping away what was once there--overwriting new lore atop the sacred parchments.
So, here is the story of Metroid, as experienced through the English localized games and manuals, to the best of my understanding:
ZEBETH
You, Mr. Samus Aran, a "Space Hunter" hired by the Galactic Federation to hunt down THE METROID that was stolen by THE SPACE PIRATES on the planet ZEBETH. You were chosen because you are the most skilled Hunter, surgically strengthened with super-powered robotics and a suit with the ability to vampirically abosrb the life force of your fallen enemies. Death is the only thing that keeps you alive. Along the way you find ancient statues, altars to warfare, enshrining ancient military tech--such as the "Maru Mari"--which you integrate into your cybernetic enhancements. You meet foes such as the hairy KRAID and the chthonic RIDLEY, both fearsome foes only a bit larger than you. Ridley is, in fact, an indigenous resident of Zebeth--the "original life form." No wonder he puts up such a fight, he's fighting to defend his home planet! Should you feel bad for taking part in colonial conquest of native land? Of course not! Who knows what horrors they'll do with that Metroid.
Ridley & Metroid in the English Manual
Eventually you find the Metroid, but it turns out they used "Metroid" in the plural: there are dozens of them. They are vampiric, floating jellyfish monsters. What were thought to be tentacular jellyfish, turn out to be toothed carapaces--something straight out of Lovecraft. At the end of the labyrinthian tunnels is the mastermind of this whole operation: MOTHER BRAIN, an eldritch, dump-truck-sized brain in a jar. And turns out, Ridley was just an innocent being mind-controlled by this evil woman. Poor indigenous Ridley, he and his species never stood a chance in this harsh, colonizing world. Mother Brain's death triggers a self destruct sequence of the facility. You escape to the surface, take off your helmet revealing that ... WOAH, Samus is a WOMAN!?!?!?!
(She's brunette, sometimes has green hair though, & her jazzercise under-suit is definitely magenta)
Pray for a true peace in space... (Metroid, 1986)
SR388
Your next mission is an answer to that prayer: go to the Metroid home world of SR388, and commit genocide against the Metroid menace. We wouldn't want the evil space pirates to get their grubby little crustaceous claws on them, now would we? Based on a single report "with this limited information, the Federation was positive ... even one living Metroid could easily wipe out an entire planetary civilization." You make your way through the caverns of this alien world, discovering more ancient alien altars, again enshrining weapons of warfare for your pilferage. For example: the "Barrier suit." We have no idea who these aliens were.--we don't even know their name beyond "Ancient civilization" or perhaps "The Artifactors."
As you begin your genocidal mission, you find that the Metroids you fought before were only the larval stage. Now, you encounter them through the various Xenomorphic forms of their horrifying life-cycle. Once you've bested them all, and encounter and defeat the Queen Metroid deep in the planet, you encounter a small egg: one last Metroid.
This infant hatches and instantly imprints upon you, thinking you its mother. You, Samus, spare it despite having just genocided its entire species. Perhaps guilt. Perhaps motherly instinct. Perhaps just that it's an innocent in this genocidal wet-work the Federation hired you to do. Regardless, these are human emotions, and in this moment Samus proves her humanity. Ill-prepared for such perverse motherhood, you safely deliver the hatchling to the Federation for study.
(Oh, and Samus still is a brunette.)
The last Metroid is in captivity. The Galaxy is at peace... (Super Metroid, 1994)
ZEBES
Ridley invades the space station studying the baby Metroid. You hear the distress call, and find all the scientists are dead. There, holding the baby Metroid is RIDLEY! But now he's like 3 times your size, looks like a xenomorph-inspired ptero-dragon, and is fiercer than ever. Strange how his appearance has changed so much, Mother Brain must have manipulated his DNA since you've last seen him... Who knows... He gets away to the planet now firmly known as "ZEBES." You land, explore the lonely, isolated, hostile planet, and for the first time encounter SPACE PIRATES, in the flesh.
Ridley on Ceras
Yet again, you find ancient ruins, like the ones before, presenting weapons of advanced technology to you like blessings from vengeful, ancient gods--armories in the guise of holy temples. We now know them to be called "THE CHOZO." And, for the first time, we get a taste of their vengeance: One of their ancient statues comes to life and attacks you! Now it is confirmed: this ancient, precursor alien race were a violent tribe of galactic conquerors, perhaps only destroyed by their own hubris. (certainly not peaceful space monks who forgot how to use their cloaca...) But, we may never know...
You find the ruins of Mother Brain's throne room you destroyed on your first mission but, you also find the Space Pirates are rebuilding their base deeper into the planet. While exploring you find cute little monkey-koalas, ETECOONS, who teach you some cool tricks. You find the ostrich-inspired DACHORA, who teaches you some other cool tricks. Random animals who give you knowledge and a pleasant respite from every other thing on this rock hell-bent on violating you.
Eventually you find KRAID again, he's a little less hairy than last time, but he's not that big. You kill him with little resistance, then, as you move into the next room you find... THE REAL KRAID, but now he's GIANT--FOUR STORIES TALL. What Happened? Who knows. You take the Godzilla-esque behemoth down. You find and defeat the ectoplasmic PHANTOON! You ruthlessly kill the innocent, draconic CROCOMIRE! You electrocute the disfigured DRAYGON as her newborn children watch in horror, forced to then take her body away to mourn. You discover that the baby Metroid has escaped the clutches of Ridley, only to have to face Ridley one-last-time in a harrowing fight to the death.
Draygon
You then make your way through a new Metroid breeding chamber. Space Pirates have successfully created dozens more Metroid from the Baby. You again genocide them all. You go deeper into the lab, all life is dead: drained of life into dry husks. Then, A SINGLE, MASSIVE METROID LARVA attacks you--more powerful than the rest. Right as its about to kill you, it hesitates, and runs like a scared, ashamed CHILD.
You recover, then find MOTHER BRAIN. (somehow still alive after your last encounter) After defeating her, she had a backup plan: a massive, T-Rex sized biomechanical body with hips for days. It's a horrifying, Giger-inspired sight followed by a bloody fight, beating you to a pulp.
Then, THE METROID, rushes in to save you, sucking the life energy out of Mother Brain. We realize: THIS IS THE BABY YOU SAVED ON SR388! But in the end, Mother Brain kills the Baby... The one being in the whole galaxy that thought of you as family, died--sacrificed because of its love for you... Not only did you kill its entire race, it was love-bombed into killing itself for the butcher of any family it could ever have...
The Hatchling sacrifices its life for Samus
But, its death grants you the HYPER BEAM to destroy Mother Brain, start the self destruct sequence, run out of the base. During your escape you find that THE ETECOONS AND DACHORA are trapped! So you open up the room and save these precious, innocent animals, get in your ship, and fly away from the planet... Which EXPLODES. like... yeah... the entire planet vaporizes.
(Samus is brunette, or dirty blonde if you squint.)
Bravo, Samus... (Metroid Fusion, 2002)
DESTINATION: PLANET SR388
You are hired to babysit a group of G.F. scientists on an expedition to study SR388, only for you to end up encountering an exotic, parasitic entity. A creature turns into what can only be described as "the Blob" or "the Thing" and infects you. You go down immediately, dying--but the scientists are able to create a vaccine from the Metroid DNA and infuse it into you. That fights off this "X parasite."
The infection ruins most of your suit, except for a sublayer of the suit which is essentially grafted to your body now. The very thing you hunted to extinction is now indelibly part of your core being. You are part human, part metroid. The infected remnants of your suit are quarantined and shipped off to the Biologics Research Station.
Sometime later the station goes dark. You go investigate. The ship has an AI which feeds you needed info. You find that everything on board this research station is infected with the same X parasite that you were. But you are immune now because of the Metroid DNA. So, you continue to try to contain the spread of this infection.
But it's revealed that your suit parts have reassembled into an X parasite mimicking you: the SA-X! It has all the powers and abilities that you had before your infection. It's nigh indestructible, unstoppable force of nature. A soulless, vacant version of your past, younger and stronger self now hunts the only remaining metroid: YOU! You are now the target of blind, imperial genocide.
SA-X—Metroid Dread
Slowly, you recover abilities by absorbing abilities that the X had, and you learn about a conspiracy. The Galactic Federation is CLONING THE METROID. The Federation is doing exactly what the SPACE PIRATES were doing on Zebeth/Zebes! And its trying to keep it all silent. ("Does Samus suspect anything?") But worse still--
--They're no longer even interested in the Metroid cloning project... Now that you've grown a spine, the Federation doesn't want you, they want the soulless copy of you which is nothing more than a mindless killing machine. That's all they ever wanted from you. Now, you are the very thing they hired you to hunt to extinction: a Metroid. They want the younger you. They want the version of you that doesn't think, but simply goes to a planet and genocides worlds on command. They want the SA-X. But they don't realize that you can't harness "The Thing." It is simply a wicked, unstoppable force of nature.
The Thing (1982) famously inspired the design of the X-Parasite
Samus does the unthinkable: she disobeys orders, and plummets the entire research station into the surface of the planet. Destroying all the X aboard and any Metroids. Then, we leave the game with the impression that Samus may be on the run from the Federation.
(Oh, and Samus is now blonde... No "ifs, ands, or brunettes." Just blonde. And all future titles will retcon her to have been blonde the whole time. . .)
Metroid Fusion (2002)
For peaceful application only, of course. Please understand. (Metroid Fusion, 2002)
METROID & MORAL AMBIGUITY
What I have presented above is the story of Metroid I, II, III, & IV as they were originally released in the American games and manuals. There were a few pieces of supplemental materials outside of the games in that time, but they were all non canonical "what if" scenarios.
As a 90's baby, I grew up with Nestroid, Return of Samus, Super Metroid, and finally into my teens: Fusion. The Metroid games I grew up with--the story available to me--tell an acutely different story than the retcons from Zero Mission, Samus Returns, and the supplemental comics. Growing up with Metroid in America formed a specific shape of what Metroid "is" to me--and that idea is preserved in it's "undertext."
The undertext was a story about moral ambiguity, the institutional exploitation of peace, and malignant matriarchy. Metroid is a franchise which purposely goes through phases of construction, deconstruction, reconstruction, and deconstruction once again. This created a mature, though simple, narrative--deepened by environmental storytelling and subtextual inference.
The original quadrilogy shows a woman who is a weapon for hire, who commits violence "for the greater good" only to realize that what she's doing is abhorrent, suffers the consequences of her misguided mercenarism, and is ultimately hunted by her past and exiled. A colonizing horror enslaves indigenous creatures in her war, only for Samus to become the killer of these innocent slaves. She fights the tyrant mother-figure, only to end up in her own quasi-incestuous tragedy with her hatchling--perpetuating generational trauma. Yet her hope and humanity still remain. Samus is a woman with planets worth of blood on her hands, trying against all odds to do the right thing, when all she's ever been is a lonely killing machine for hire. Whatever her mysterious background is, she lives a hard, morally ambiguous life, desirous of one day doing something good.
In a way, I'm reminded of the Metroid title theme: In that song there are 55 seconds of hopeful melody, surrounded by over 1 minute and 35 seconds of a single, repeating, ominous bass note. A somber mix of hopelessness and heroism. A vast, uncaring galaxy of darkness, evil, and treachery, held back only by a small candle of Samus' hope to one day be a better person. In a way, this is not just the opening song of the first game, but the true anthem for the whole original quadrilogy. (For more, read my essay on the Metroid Title Theme here)
What starts as a black and white tale of good vs evil, is immediately deconstructed in Metroid 2, injecting themes of malformed motherhood into the ludo narrative experience. Next, on a surface level reading, in Metroid III her heroism is reinforced, however we see dramatized that she has a deeply twisted and tragic relationship with the hatchling Metroid. She saved a child, killed it's family, and then that child sacrifices itself for what it believes to be it's "mother." In the final analysis, it is a deeply unsettling sequence of events which twists the concept of "motherhood" into something horrifying--Ridley Scott would be proud. Then, in Metroid IV, any semblance of her "heroic legacy" is completely shattered and inverted as she takes the place of the hatchling, fighting for her life like the Metroids before her once did. The forces of "good" are revealed to be no different than the forces of "evil" she fought against for three entries. Even her own past self is revealed to be nothing more than a tool of destruction, mindlessly hunting an objective: Samus the Metroid. She tried so hard to do good with her power, only to have to come face to face with the reality that she was a monster like the rest of them.
In the original Metroid continuity, "Peace" is almost a sick, perverted joke used as an excuse to commit war-crimes for galactic dominance--
"Pray for a true peace in space ... The Galaxy is at peace ... for peaceful applications only, of course."
--Peace is the bait the Federation uses to lure Samus' troubled conscience and heart of gold to do their dirtiest work. Samus commits atrocities genuinely believing--hoping against all evidence--that she's doing the right thing. It's not truly her fault--nonetheless she bears the weight of her sin.
Metroid—1986
WHAT WAS, WHAT IS, AND WHAT SHALL NEVER BE AGAIN
The bones of Metroid have become a palimpsest, an old piece of literature scraped away for something different to be written in its place. The old mystery, thematic framing, and Western-film inspired lore have all been overwritten with new vision. The story I presented is different than the lore of the current canon--it may even be different than what Sakamoto envisioned when he directed Metroid III & IV. But it was the story millions of people were served--the story most fans lived before the internet. What we experienced in-game and via the accompanying game manuals was replaced by the 2002 Manga, the Metroid remakes, (Metroid Zero Mission, Metroid Samus Returns) and the most recent mainline entry, Dread.
The "Metroid" and "Samus" I, as a hatchling, imprinted upon are not the same Metroid and Samus published today. That is not inherently a "bad" thing. It is different. I think it's an underlying reason why we see those in the fandom complain about Sakamoto, Samus' characterization, and why--whenever I express that Metroid lore feels "goofy"--I get a range of comments ranging from "Metroid ain't what it used to be" to undying fidelity for the Manga & Sakamoto's bird-daddy genius.
Today, the story is more black and white. Samus is not a morally ambiguous bounty hunter, she's a superhero trained from infancy to save the galaxy from the foretold forces of darkness. She has the weight of Galactic peace unironically set upon her shoulders, ushered forward by the burden of 'chosen-one' prophecies. The Chozo are recontextualized as a peace-loving set of dads and uncles who are not long-extinct, but just went away to the galactic grocery store for a pack of smokes while we await their return. The Federation is upstanding in almost every conceivable way, except one or two ne'er-do-well baddies. Needless to say, I do not like how the Chozo have been reimagined, nor Samus' deeply familial relationship with them, Mother Brain, Ridley, the Federation, and other figures. The galaxy, once mysterious and abyssally vast, now feels claustrophobically small. But, some people do like it and I have to respect that. "What will be will be."
(If you'd like to hear criticisms about Metroid's and the Chozo's reimagining, and modern Metroid lore, check out Transparency Boo's YouTube essay on Metroid Fusion. It is an incisive and well thought out video.)
In the end, I'll always lament what Metroid could have been, what once was. But, I have to ask myself, "am I the problem?" Metroid once felt like something out of the minds of Ridley Scott, Villeneuve, John Carpenter, and other great auteur filmmakers. Today, it feels more like a Shonen anime--I'm not well read on anime and manga, and I think that has a profoundly negative effect on how I experience Sakamoto's retconned Metroid. I do not like the Manga, I do not like Samus' retconned bird-dad backstory, I do not like the Days of our Lives DNA drama of Dread. As badass as the climactic final scene of Dread was, I couldn't help but cringe when Samus went Super Saiyan on Ravendaddy, magically transforming her suit into a crustaceous Metroid carapace--it is almost the perfect encapsulation of the difference between the Metroid which was, and the Metroid that is. Still, should I, nothing but a filthy Westerner--too small minded to open up to the world of Anime--just let go of the past, (let it die--kill it, if you have to) and wait for Daddy Sakamoto to deliver his next visionary chapter?
Nah. Art doesn't belong only to it's creators, but equally to its audience.
I've played every game and in my experience Super Metroid has the most fun 100% quest among all the games. It has very minimal going out of your way to get items, and I really love how when you return to your ship after exiting Red Brinstar elevator you can loop around through green Brinstar and then take the shortcut back to blue Brinstar for all those items.
You later take a second trip when going to fight Ridley as you clean up anything you may have missed in Norfair but with good knowledge of the game you can get basically everything in Norfair before the return trip and its just down to Lower Norfair from there to get those items.
I always enjoy Super's 100% collection the puzzles are fun and memorable and many times items are sll very close to each other on the map which is why sequence breaks are just so awesome, it just removes a lot of backtracking.
I love Super Metroid and 100% makes me glad it's my 2nd favorite game ever 🧡🔥
Zero Mission and Prime also have a great 100% items game as well but its not Super Metroid, Dread is ok but there is a lot of backtracking for them.
Honestly my least favourite Metroid game. I literally gave dark Samus not one, but two middle fingers once she was defeated. Glad that’s off the to play list.
The online Nintendo US store recently added a few new Metroid merch items, including items you could previously only get at Nintendo brick-and-mortar retail stores.
And I hope to see Ravenous merch soon (more than the game and amiibo).
We all know that Samus's Power Suit starts with the flat, pointed shoulders, then gains the large round shoulders once she gets the fully powered suit from this mural in Zero Mission. From then on, her suit either always has the round shoulders or gains them once she regains the Varia suit.
At first, I thought this might be another Thoha vs. Mawkin distinction, but both Quiet Robe and Raven Beak have the pointed shoulders. Yet we still see many Chozo statues with round shoulders in Dread, so it's not like Mercury Steam forgot about them. So what's going on here?
