Liquid Wind posted...
Maybe this is going to anger you, but Samus's personality in Other M matched up surprisingly accurately with who I imagined beforehand. Though I agree that her portrayal could use some serious improvements.
which metroid games had you played beforehand? regardless of your answer to this however, fusion is the only other metroid where she has much dialogue, she wasn't a silent protagonist before but...there was a lot of room for interpretation. particularly if you've followed the series for 15 or 20 years as many people have, you're much more malleable 3 years in.
obviously my Samus is going to get into a PTSD when she sees someone who she thought was dead for good, killed her parents, and came close to relieving her of her own life on the prior encounter, among other things such as prompting the main events of Super Metroid in the first place.
ridley has come back from the dead before and she never freaked out that way. and yes there is a degree of realism for a woman to freak out when a big ugly monster that killed her parents appears, but she was never a wholly realistic character prior to this and, fantasy isn't supposed to be bound by the shackles of reality to begin with. some characters are likeable because they are larger than life heroes that likely couldn't exist in the real world, samus fit into this mold pretty nicely in previous incarnations, a realistic woman isn't infiltrating a hostile planet of aliens and eradicating all of them alone. even if you agree with the characterization, it's still goes against the series' minimalistic tradition which has never put an emphasis on samus' relationships before, with the exception of fusion which also had mixed reception.
Ridley was supposed to be dead after Super Metroid, and not in the same way as in prior titles where the space pirates resurrect him from his carcass: this could not be done as Ridley's carcass was left on Planet Zebes when it exploded (heck, this is even mentioned in Other M!). In fact, Super Metroid does mark Ridley's canonical death, and the later incarnations of Ridley are merely clones.
Also, Ridley constantly grows stronger and more bloodthirsty throughout the series: in Metroid Prime 3, Rundas saves Samus's life during their first encounter (didn't see much flak towards that...), and Samus needs phazon to defeat Ridley again later. The real reason why Samus goes into a PTSD is precisely the fact that most people are citing why it shouldn't happen: because Samus has fought Ridley six times before. To the poor woman, that's an excessively high number, and to see him rise up from the dead again makes it look like her parents' killer is effectively invincible. Sounds like good enough reason for PTSD to me. This before the fact that Ridley stealing the hatchling prompted the events of Super Metroid, which Samus constantly frets over as "all her fault" because of her stupid decision to save the hatchling. Coincidentally enough, this also explains Samus's seemingly excessive subservience: she can't trust herself because she generally follows orders (Metroid Prime 3 being the biggest example), and the one time she disobeys them, she turns out to have made a stupid decision, so she wants to go back to her roots. Yeah, it would've been nice for the game to explain that a bit better, but still.
What's ironic is that I've gotten basically everything I originally wanted from Other M over the last few months. A plot to die for and "realistic" characters? Hello, Final Fantasy VI. A plot full of mystery and intrigue? Hello, Chrono Trigger. Monster movie aesthetic? Hello, Resident Evil 4.
I will admit though, that I just finished Separate Ways, and Ada Wong does make Samus look rather weak-willed. Yeah.
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Currently Playing - Resident Evil 4
Hopefully Next Up - StarCraft, Final Fantasy VII, Resident Evil 2