One of the big gripes with the recently released Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is the inclusion of those Galactic Federation troopers which appear in the game changing the atmosphere somewhat. In a new interview with Famitsu, Nintendo explained the reasoning behind their decision to include them saying that that they wanted the player to feel as though they must need protection. Whether that paid off remains to be seen.
“When we design games, often we will start with deciding what kind of themes we want players to experience. Normally when players finish a game, they push the A button without any uncertainty, but with Metroid Prime 4 we wanted to make them hesitate and feel conflicted. In order to do that we also have the Galactic Federation soldiers being moved to Planet Viewros (this will make sense with the ending).
That came first, and then the next step was how the soldiers would act in the game in order for it to feel realistic. Rather than deciding the individual elements to include, we instead decided on the NPC AI and the way they act in cutscenes etc. and from that we would then have the player feel a certain way. For example, rather than thinking or deciding about including a specific escort mission, or thinking about how to pull in casual gamers, we want the player to naturally feel, ‘This character is a real coward, and can’t fight, so I must protect them.’”
Thanks to Greatsong1 for sending in the news tip!
Personally, I found the integration of these soldiers to be entirely positive and beneficial for the game; it’s one of the few changes I’ve appreciated!
I don’t always agree with you, but I definitely do this time. The initial hate that Mackenzie got was overblown (though I would have liked an option to turn off comms in the pause menu). The others were also good additions to the game universe.
The option to turn off those annoying comments would legitimately raise this game a full point for me.
Which affects your playing in no way so you’re docking a full point due to ignorance, not because of any real issues. Good to know you’d never give a legitimate review. You’re probably one of the people who hated Navi too? Disgusting
Robyn, you’re crazy and wrong. Subjectivity absolutely belongs in a review of a piece of art, and annoying elements are 100% valid complaints.
The worst part of MP4 was the soldiers, the game was overall maybe a 4/10 for me. Gigantic downgrade from prior entries, Other M was better.
Ah McKensie, I found him funny even though I admit that his comments during the Sol desert were annoying ^^’
The end of the game affected me too, though, but I won’t spoil it for those who haven’t played the game.
The npcs are ok, but the guiding comments is an absolute no no….. It’s like having a cockpit passenger in an off road rally!
I like the game, but that is just awful letdown
What makes the cutscenes look stupid and undeveloped is the characters looking like they’re talking to a store display mannequin instead of a real person. They’re self-sacrificing for Samus and there’s not even real eye contact. The characters obviously indicate Samus can communicate, but it’s directed as if she cannot. In a setup where Samus is forcefully limited until others unlock ability, it’s damaging to the character that her ability to really communicate and express is also turned off. It’s odd, and odd for Nintendo to comment like they’ve pulled off something brilliant here
“Samus talking is bad.” is the lesson Nintendo took from Other M, and it was the wrong lesson.
MacKenzie will be the first newcomer revealed in the next Smash Bros
I unfortunately gane Prime 4 a low score on metacritic but it was mostly due to the desert and green crystals. I actually really liked the inclusion of the Federation Characters a lot. Nintendo fans go on a tantrum whenever Samus isn’t completely alone and isolated and mute. I want better world building, story telling, and characters like in Prime 4. The large amount that over reacted and hated the game because if the characters are insane.
You can do tense isolation, yet have multiple characters in a smart way, see the Alien franchise. Prime 4 failed to do that.
I don’t really understand… this isn’t the first time characters talk in Metroid… there were already some in Prime 1, 2, and 3, as well as in Other M… here, it’s just Federation soldiers, and I think it’s awesome that they included them.
As for Samus, she only spoke in Metroid Dread, and honestly, for what she says, her being mute in this episode wouldn’t have changed anything!
Really, you can criticize a lot of things about Prime 4, but not the idea of including other characters in the adventure with Samus. It’s really the very first episode, and I hope they keep that for the next one.
No one has a problem with their inclusion, it’s how they are written and the dialogue they spout off, not to mention being constant tutorial spouters.
The side characters were nowhere near as distracting/ irritating as I initially anticipated. I also really liked the design of them.
As already stated here, we’ve had variations of ‘talky’ characters in previous Prime games.
I don’t really understand all the fuss.
My reaction to MacKenzie was “you can be my pet”
I’d consider it a massive failure then. The only feeling I had toward the NPCs was wanting them to die so they would finally shut up.
SPOiLER WARNING
The game fakes their deaths and it’s just annoying that they all come back. In the end, Samus ends up leaving them behind. That’s a terrible ending and it’s out of character for her. But that also makes it funny, because it’s like she was as tired of them as I was and just wanted them all to die for real. I only hesitated at the end because I thought I actually had a choice and could get a better ending. Not because I genuinely wanted to save them. But of course you just get a game over if you don’t “press A” and have to redo most of the final boss. It’s honestly so bad. But overall still a pretty good game if you can overlook the absolutely abysmal writing and annoying NPCs.
Mackenzie is nowhere near as annoying as Armstrong, he did slightly grow on me over the course of the game but the it just highlights the problem Nintendo has with characterisation. The incessant radio calls and comments makes Samus’ silence stick out like sore thumb imo.