Interview with Yoshio Sakamoto regarding Metroid/Samus Returns
- Thread starter TheDinoman
- Start date
Ok, your "nothing Nintendo do is going to be good" shtick got old years ago.
No you see. He made like 10 great games, including some of the best and most influential games ever, over a long career, but once he made a game I disliked, so he needs to lose his job and never do anything ever again!
Other M was a disaster of SW prequel proportions, Sakamoto made so many terrible decisions that it was questionable whether he could carry on as overseer or the series. In the end he didn't go full George Lucas and made a suitably apologetic title in Samus Returns, but the skepticism was merited. Other M sold like rancid shit and was despised by fans.
Nobody ever said that Other M should have seen him removed from WarioWare and Rhythm Heaven, only that Metroid was heading in the wrong direction at the time.
Yeah, like, everyone screws up but a failure on the proportion of Other M is grounds for speculation as to whether you should ever own a keyboard ever again.
Thankfully he took the criticism to heart.
There's no way in hell a 2D Metroid 5 on DS would have been received as poorly as Other M and Federation Force, and those are the most salient comparisons here.
It was still one game after several great ones. People never acknowledge too that Other M was made because of how there was a lot of people asking for a more "cinematic" or "story heavy" Metroid, I remember a lot how people wanted to have more backstory, Samus talking, etc -- this desire to keep the series mostly silent wasn't a thing during that time.
I also think people exaggerate a lot about the game, but fine. Still doesn't mean Sakamoto should be treated as he was, he also has good writing credits for other games (For the Frog Whom The Bell Tolls, Famicom Detective Club, other Metroid games), so maybe people could wait for the next game instead of seeing him as a Judas.
Not really.
That's a Prime character, he doesn't work on Prime games.
Sylux is rad though.
Maybe they did want a more cinematic experience for Metroid, but Other M was just that bad. It did feel like a betrayal to everything that came before it.
No idea why people hate a character we know literally nothing about yet.
You know what? I'm sick of people overcomplaining about that series too. Nerds have this huge issue where they think they are the sole keepers of games and not, you know, the directors behind them. Sure, you're free to like and dislike them (i think Episodes I-III are garbage) but to insinuate that he needs to cater to you because "you are the true fans" is such bullshit.
Oh come on! I'm glad I never went into game design. To think that you guys are so bloodthirsty and greedy and selfish to think this would destroy me as a person.
I think the thought was there wasn't enough different about Metroid Dread compared to Fusion.
Another Metroid thread that turns into Other M shitting and calling for Sakamoto to be removed from the series?
At this point, Sakamoto could make a game as great as Super Metroid and the fans will still be calling for his head. It's pathetic.
Other M isn't even a bad game. It makes some choices I didnt like and it's not what I want from Metroid, but it's still like a 7 at worst. Doubt its choices will carry on into future games either.Another Metroid thread that turns into Other M shitting and calling for Sakamoto to be removed from the series?
I really hope that we get another 2D Metroid game, the differences between that and the Prime series is large enough to warrant their co-existence.
And a great idea at that. Really improved the end of the game.
Hell, the whole game was pretty good. Shame about gating stuff behind Amiibo purchases.
OP
OP
Other M was bad but it's also been nearly eight years since it came out and Samus Returns turned out pretty good. So I don't think it's worth holding it against Sakamoto anymore.
This is also true, and it'd be true even if Samus Returns didn't feel like an extended apology for Other M. It's just a damn good game that shows Sakamoto still has the chops to make good Metroid.
Except there's plenty of us in the thread thinking that Samus Returns is a proper return to form so IDK where you're getting this from.
There's no reason to remake Super Metroid and Metroid Fusion because they are still perfectly enjoyable to this day.
I'm glad though that Samus Returns sold well enough. Here's hoping Metroid V on the Switch is a reality. It's been over 15 years since Fusion so I'm looking forward to whether they acknowledge that game's ending.
I'm glad though that Samus Returns sold well enough. Here's hoping Metroid V on the Switch is a reality. It's been over 15 years since Fusion so I'm looking forward to whether they acknowledge that game's ending.
Really happy to see that Samus Returns turn out well in their expectations. Also happy to see Sakamoto back in the series in a good way again after Other M, he made wrong decisions there and thankfully was able to recover.
Samus Returns is my favorite 2D Metroid so I can't wait to see a sequel from Sakamoto and Mercury Steam on Switch.
That don't make any sense at all. Metroid is already made outside of Nintendo with them and other Nintendo employees working with external companies for years. Being with a independent developer don't mean anything, Nintendo still would have people working on it as the publisher.
And even if this developer published as a license, Nintendo still get people to supervise.
Yeah, this never made any sense as a argument. Prime and 2D series are canon but separate stories to give more creative freedom to the producers and teams.
Samus Returns is my favorite 2D Metroid so I can't wait to see a sequel from Sakamoto and Mercury Steam on Switch.
That don't make any sense at all. Metroid is already made outside of Nintendo with them and other Nintendo employees working with external companies for years. Being with a independent developer don't mean anything, Nintendo still would have people working on it as the publisher.
And even if this developer published as a license, Nintendo still get people to supervise.
Yeah, this never made any sense as a argument. Prime and 2D series are canon but separate stories to give more creative freedom to the producers and teams.
I never said anything about listening to fans. I don't think there is ever much need to listen to fans. The fact is that Other M sold like shit, it was not a successful product. At least the Star Wars prequels made money at the box office.
If you release a game in a legendary franchise and it sells badly, you've made a mistake somewhere.
That's the funniest thing about all of this. OM is still a good game that's really fun to play lol. And the series is back on track.
I'm actually playing through Hunters right now and I'd take Other M over it in a heartbeat.
I'm fine with that as long as we can get them via GBA Virtual Console on 3DS.
Will never happen.
You do realize there is no way a remake of a game that is perfect would ever be received with anything but "it's great, but the original is better", right?
Hard to believe since they developed Metroid Hunters for that system. the real cause behind those decisions is usually linked to sales/money, and I guess they were not satisfied with Fusion/ZeroMission's performance. even 3DS didn't get one until the end of its life cycle despite the fans asking for a 2D Metroid for a long time.
people still falling for the cybersai trap smh
Ugh, I hate that line of Nintendo thinking. What's wrong with making damn good games without trying to cram in some gimmick to make it "different"?
There's nothing wrong with that. It just won't keep your IPs at the top for 30+ years.
Releasing Other M and Federation Force won't keep your IP at the top either.
Almost every deritive game pushes some kind of new gimmick in their games, from every publisher. Believe it or not making basically the same game with just better graphics dont work as well as you think
So what are you even trying to say? Do you really think Metroid 5 on DS would have been a carbon copy of Fusion?
Those were well-intentioned experiments that ended in failure, that's going to happen sometimes.
The other end of the spectrum is Metroid Prime, a complete rethink of Metroid in 3D that resulted in one of the greatest games of all time and a new golden era of Metroid.
I'm glad that Samus Returns happened. After games such as Zero Mission and Fusion, I was a fan of Sakamoto. Despite Other M, I still thought he hadn't lost his touch and with Samus Returns, I'm happy that I didn't lose faith.
There's a lot to do to improve Fusion. You could unlock the sectors to actually allow backtracking and free exploration, for instance. Some of the biggest problems with that game could be overcome with fairly straightforward changes. I also think the audio quality of the GBA Metroids is really shitty and harsh compared to Super Metroid, which has held up really well and still sounds great. The control scheme in fusion was also designed around two buttons and the game would benefit from splitting some controls up on different buttons (not a fan of holding the trigger and pressing down to angle downwards).
Every early game in this legendary franchise sold badly, even Super Metroid. Prime was the biggest commercial success for its time and it still pales in comparison to Zelda and Mario numbers. Metroid has never, ever been a big mainstream sales success. And besides that, I think Sakamoto clearly realizes he made a mistake and has obviously gotten over it.
The problem with Other M wasn't that Sakamoto forgot how to make games or lost all his talent. The problem was that he was trying a polygonal 3D game and had no experience or expertise in that format, coupled with the fact that he wanted the gameplay to conform around a big, cinematic story. He relied on Team Ninja to compensate for his weakness with 3D and ended up undercutting a lot of their suggestions (like the nunchuk) because he wanted it to feel like a 2D game, and the storytelling was usually poor and a distraction from the gameplay. The game was a bad idea from the start and that was the problem, not Sakamoto himself. Even Miyamoto has had plenty of terrible, terrible ideas. It doesn't signal that he himself is a failure.
None of this has any real bearing on his ability to do 2D sidescrolling Metroids, which he has always done a good job with. Other M's failures in no way suggest that he isn't capable of delivering more great classic style sidescrollers when that's his goal, and Samus Returns proved that beyond any doubt. I doubt Sakamoto will ever do a 3D Metroid or a story heavy Metroid ever again, those mistakes will not be repeated, so what's the problem with him leading the series?
I'm saying its going to have something that will make it distinct and depending on if you like it or not will decide if its a gimmick or a innovation
I don't have a problem with it, he regained trust with Samus Returns and clearly understands that Other M was a mistake. He did need to regain that trust though, that's how much of a disaster Other M was.
Metroid games have never been sales juggernauts but they have always maintained their value like NIntendo's other AAA games. Other M was extraordinary because it was in bargain bins a couple of months after release, I have never seen that happen with an AAA Nintendo game before. It's no surprise that the franchise took a huge hiatus after a flop like that.
I honestly think it's a pretty fun game with some great bosses. The story was the only thing I didn't like, but I didn't care too much about it anyway (felt like an action B-movie).
It didn't sell that horribly. A quick double check shows it over 1 million sales, coming reasonably close to Super, Prime 2 and 3, and Fusion, and it handily outsold the Prime Trilogy. I think I remember Reggie saying that it was at half a million not long after launch, so it's not as if all those sales came from the bargain bin. By Metroid standards, it's not a sales disaster. Federation Force is what a sales disaster looks like. It seems to be at 150,000 lifetime sales, which is just abysmal even by Metroid standards. Other M is in line with the weak sales the series typically sees, even if it's on the lower end of things.
The reason Metroid went on hiatus is that Sakamoto stepped away and Retro was done with the series. Nintendo had no dedicated team to make a new Metroid game, which led to Tanabe resurrecting a DS project and turning it into FF. We got Samus Returns, the first quality Metroid in 10 years, because Sakamoto came back. Fans should not want this guy leaving the series. It's clear that Nintendo had a hard time filling the void left without Sakamoto and Retro. Hopefully the staff they have for Prime 4 can pull it off, but I don't really want Nintendo darting around from developer to developer to try to keep the series alive forever.
I dunno. To some degree, I honestly wish that there was some timey-wimey stuff involved that could make the Prime games be spun off into their own timeline, so that they can build and expand on the lore in their own way.
It just seems to be limiting, otherwise, and it's not like Sakamoto's storyline is likely ever going to truly take the events of that series into account in any meaningful way.
Sakamoto is a great guy, whose unique perspective on games resulted not only in some of the finest single player gaming I've ever had, but also, more laughs with friends than any other game developer.
I couldn't stand Other M, but Sakamoto is the man and I can only hope for his continued success so that he can keep making those beautiful beautiful WarioWare games at the very least.
I hope by now that he understands that there's a billion better things to experiment with than intentionally constrained controls of all fuckin' things
I couldn't stand Other M, but Sakamoto is the man and I can only hope for his continued success so that he can keep making those beautiful beautiful WarioWare games at the very least.
I hope by now that he understands that there's a billion better things to experiment with than intentionally constrained controls of all fuckin' things