Metroid Dev Sakamoto Talks Samus Character Development

A big emphasis is being put on Samus’ character and storyline in the upcoming “Metroid: Other M“, with lengthy cut-scenes mixed in with the action. Developer Sakamoto spoke with Kotaku recently about what to expect from this in the Team Ninja/Nintendo collaboration.

“You are going to see a lot further development all of which is connected to this progression you see in the Samus character in the past. So you get to learn what kind of person she is and how she is connected to the events in her past and how they have made her the person she is in the present moment”.

“You saw in the original Metroid series titles and then through Prime there were different glimpses of the Samus character. But this is our best opportunity to date to present everything all together about Samus, to give the definitive character sketch and that is going to be something people can draw from as a resource as we pull them into the Metroid universe in the future as well. I didn’t have a lot of input on the Prime series, I still don’t know much about the future of the Prime series as well, I haven’t been involved in that either. As to whether our Samus is going to be used in the Prime series going forward. You really have to defer to the wishes of the creator in this regard. Maybe think of it as the same universe but a different world view. There are different emphases in the two series of games. The Samus that we present here is very much our own, but the creators of the Prime series might have different goals and different areas that they want to stress as they go forward. Of course in these two series the approach is a little bit different and that is something essentially unavoidable. Samus is a character that fights and she has a lot of deep backstory and a lot of emotional content. That is what is essential here.

I can’t say what will happen in the future with Prime but I can say there is no reboot planned as such. You just need to keep in mind that different creators, different producers have slightly different visions and the end product will differ slightly as a result.”