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News Metroid Prime 4: Beyond new trailer, coming to Nintendo Switch in 2025

carbvan said:
You think the one of the right is more androgynous? The one of the right, for the lack of a better word, looks way curvier to me because the waist is much smaller. So the new one looks way less feminine to me.
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Yeah, the one on the right would make it hard for me to be able to determine the gender of the wearer with just a quick glance, and I'd perhaps even assume it was a man (which again, is what the original Metroid expected of players). The waist is one facet of the design, but so are the broader shoulders, and the helmet not being as separated makes her look tankier, almost machine-like.
 
For me it's pretty simple: This was more of a teaser that is essentially saying "yes, the game still exists, it's coming along, it'll release in the next year, it'll feature all the things that make a Prime game a Prime game, and the audio and visual design will be a more modern version of what you are familiar with". It was not supposed to be the bombastic reveal to showcase the game. Except the post-logo stinger, everything else seems to be from the literal first 20 or so minutes of the game.

I'm sure by the time it'll appear in a Direct again we'll get a proper trailer that will showcase various locations, enemies, a couple of abilities, maybe a bit of story, and of course what the unique hook of the game will be. If that trailer turns out to be disappointing then by all means, complain away. Before that I think people should give Retro and Nintendo the benefit of the doubt and let them cook.

Aurc said:
I strongly prefer the Prime 2 and 3 Varia Suit to Prime 4's. Androgyny has been a core design principle of Samus's suits since the original Metroid, with it being made deliberately ambiguous as to whether you were looking at a man, woman, alien, or android. Prime 4's Samus, in contrast, looks more overtly feminine in shape, but also smaller and less imposing than she did in Prime 1-3, which I've seen some discourse about among fans. Curious to know what you folks think.

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For me it's the opposite way. The MP4 design is more androgynous thanks to the bigger visor and the bulkier waist. The MP3 design has a bit of a wasp's waist, which often gets associated with female characters.

Though, given how Echoes, Corruption, Samus Returns and Dread went about suit upgrades, I'm sure we'll see some wild and modern designs.
 
Aurc said:
I strongly prefer the Prime 2 and 3 Varia Suit to Prime 4's. Androgyny has been a core design principle of Samus's suits since the original Metroid, with it being made deliberately ambiguous as to whether you were looking at a man, woman, alien, or android. Prime 4's Samus, in contrast, looks more overtly feminine in shape, but also smaller and less imposing than she did in Prime 1-3, which I've seen some discourse about among fans. Curious to know what you folks think.

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Looks like primarily changes made for the model to animate better in cutscenes, and also align more closely to what was presented in Dread. The shoulder pads and head as presented in Prime 1-3 would not play well with a game that is probably going to show Samus animating in ways that the originals did not. I don't think either presents as particularly androgenous though, as the waistline is very defined as what people would associate with feminine curves. I'd actually say Prime 4 wins in that regard as the waist and hips are a bit less angular.

Ultimately Samus suit designs have fluctuated pretty significantly over the years, with even the older 2D games varying between more feminine and more androgenous designs. I'd argue Fusion is the only one that presents more androgenously overall. Other than Metroid 1 itself, and to some degree Metroid 2. By Super the lines around the waist, hips, etc., are much more defined.
 
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Aurc said:
I strongly prefer the Prime 2 and 3 Varia Suit to Prime 4's. Androgyny has been a core design principle of Samus's suits since the original Metroid, with it being made deliberately ambiguous as to whether you were looking at a man, woman, alien, or android. Prime 4's Samus, in contrast, looks more overtly feminine in shape, but also smaller and less imposing than she did in Prime 1-3, which I've seen some discourse about among fans. Curious to know what you folks think.

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I really like the new proportions and the new suit in general. The head/body ratio just looks more correct now and the shoulders aren't so ridiculously far apart now, but it still keeps a lot of that retro sci-fi charm that the Prime Varia suits have. And I really, really like the material work and line work on the new suit as well.

I really do have to echo these combat complaints though, still trying to get over that what they showed looked... so, so similar to Prime 1 in that respect given that combat is the worst aspect of the prime trilogy. I was so confident that they'd try to lean into more of a DOOM 2016 direction when it comes to the feel and pacing of combat. Overall I thought animations were great in the brief bits we saw but agreed that it'd be nice to see enemies react to getting hit more, something that was always lacking in the prime series also. Heavily disagree with any complaints about the art though, I think it looks gorgeous not just on a technical level but on an art level.
 
Aurc said:
Yeah, the one on the right would make it hard for me to be able to determine the gender of the wearer with just a quick glance, and I'd perhaps even assume it was a man (which again, is what the original Metroid expected of players). The waist is one facet of the design, but so are the broader shoulders, and the helmet not being as separated makes her look tankier, almost machine-like.
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Interesting. I feel the one of the right has a way more pronounced shape that is more closely associated with "video game women" (broad hips and bust, slim waist). But the shoulders plus head on it also make it more tanky. Weird!
 
Dardan Sandiego said:
Interesting. I feel the one of the right has a way more pronounced shape that is more closely associated with "video game women" (broad hips and bust, slim waist). But the shoulders plus head on it also make it more tanky. Weird!
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To be honest, this has been the case for the Varia Suit in every Metroid since Super. So the idea that it's somehow more feminine now is strange to me
 
bbymetroid said:
That's the problem: everyone's imaginations running wild in these 7 years. It's impossible to reach all those expectations.

That's why Nintendo's approach with very hyped games like BotW, TotK and now Prime4 is to set expectations from the bottom up. Show just a little and simpler things at first, then gradually ramp up and show more exciting things.

You may like it or hate it, but I do think it's better to underpromise and overdeliver than the opposite.
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The road from reveal trailer to launch for Prime 4 will be a slow burn, and that's a good thing.
 
Vaenyr said:
For me it's the opposite way. The MP4 design is more androgynous thanks to the bigger visor and the bulkier waist. The MP3 design has a bit of a wasp's waist, which often gets associated with female characters.
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Thank god, I'm not the only one.
 
Instro said:
Looks like primarily changes made for the model to animate better in cutscenes, and also align more closely to what was presented in Dread. The shoulder pads and head as presented in Prime 1-3 would not play well with a game that is probably going to show Samus animating in ways that the originals did not.
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Yeah, I think this is it exactly.
 
Aurc said:
I strongly prefer the Prime 2 and 3 Varia Suit to Prime 4's. Androgyny has been a core design principle of Samus's suits since the original Metroid, with it being made deliberately ambiguous as to whether you were looking at a man, woman, alien, or android. Prime 4's Samus, in contrast, looks more overtly feminine in shape, but also smaller and less imposing than she did in Prime 1-3, which I've seen some discourse about among fans. Curious to know what you folks think.

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I have no strong feelings one way or the other. Samus rocks both looks just fine; whether a given armor design skews feminine or androgynous never factors too strongly into my opinion of whether its good or bad. That said, I'm also of the mindset that the thinner waist of the Prime 2/3 Varia Suit makes it read as a bit more feminine than the more evenly proportioned Prime 4 design, so... 🤷‍♂️
 
Metroid said:
Oh, I'm agreeing with you to be clear, just going further, that the general exaggerated shape of the Varia suit in most of Metroid's history leans towards, as you said, "video game woman."
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Ah, gotcha. I don't feel very strongly about the suit one way or another (as long as it's not the Other M one 😵). I just meant that overall I don't feel like one or the other is more strongly "feminine" or "masculine" because both have elements that lean either way.
 
Dardan Sandiego said:
What I think is that you can really tell that Metroid Prime 4 was announced 7 years ago by the reactions to it.
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Haha, you should've seen the shit I got up to posting when they finally announced Metroid 5 after 19 years. I eventually found it in my heart to forgive MercurySteam for depicting Samus with the wrong knee raised in this scene from Fusion. Long waits result in some uh, interesting fan behavior.

k6t1git.jpg
 
Instro said:
Looks like primarily changes made for the model to animate better in cutscenes, and also align more closely to what was presented in Dread. The shoulder pads and head as presented in Prime 1-3 would not play well with a game that is probably going to show Samus animating in ways that the originals did not. I don't think either presents as particularly androgenous though, as the waistline is very defined as what people would associate with feminine curves. I'd actually say Prime 4 wins in that regard as the waist and hips are a bit less angular.

Ultimately Samus suit designs have fluctuated pretty significantly over the years, with even the older 2D games varying between more feminine and more androgenous designs. I'd argue Fusion is the only one that presents more androgenously overall. Other than Metroid 1 itself, and to some degree Metroid 2. By Super the lines around the waist, hips, etc., are much more defined.
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You're correct. We can already see how she's moving more in the trailer's Sylux cutscene so that makes a lot of sense
 
I, for one, am obsessed about her suit's shading. It looks so metallic and shiny but has that liiiiiiittle touch of plastic that makes it delicious to look at.
 
Aurc said:
Haha, you should've seen the shit I got up to posting when they finally announced Metroid 5 after 19 years. I eventually found it in my heart to forgive MercurySteam for depicting Samus with the wrong knee raised in this scene from Fusion. Long waits result in some uh, interesting fan behavior.

k6t1git.jpg
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🤣
 
Samus' re-design is OK and fine, but I would have preferred a much dirtier or organic looking suit or one with a new color scheme. This one is kind of boring.

But the suit barely matters as you'll only see it in cutscenes.
 
Aurc said:
Haha, you should've seen the shit I got up to posting when they finally announced Metroid 5 after 19 years. I eventually found it in my heart to forgive MercurySteam for depicting Samus with the wrong knee raised in this scene from Fusion. Long waits result in some uh, interesting fan behavior.

k6t1git.jpg
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Headcanon is that this was uploaded mirrored on GalacTube so it's not hit by a copyright strike.

edit: just realized that this doesn't make sense because the rest is the same. Did someone in the far future use AI to generate this scene?
 
Aurc said:
I strongly prefer the Prime 2 and 3 Varia Suit to Prime 4's. Androgyny has been a core design principle of Samus's suits since the original Metroid, with it being made deliberately ambiguous as to whether you were looking at a man, woman, alien, or android. Prime 4's Samus, in contrast, looks more overtly feminine in shape, but also smaller and less imposing than she did in Prime 1-3, which I've seen some discourse about among fans. Curious to know what you folks think.

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They definitely seem to have incorporated aspects of Other M’s design into Prime 3’s. Those are the two iconic Samus designs of the past 20 years so I guess it makes sense. I’d rather they give her the big shoulders personally but I vastly prefer it to say, Dread.
 
Aurc said:
I strongly prefer the Prime 2 and 3 Varia Suit to Prime 4's. Androgyny has been a core design principle of Samus's suits since the original Metroid, with it being made deliberately ambiguous as to whether you were looking at a man, woman, alien, or android. Prime 4's Samus, in contrast, looks more overtly feminine in shape, but also smaller and less imposing than she did in Prime 1-3, which I've seen some discourse about among fans. Curious to know what you folks think.

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Man I'm gonna be perfectly honest, I can barely see any differences. I see them but they look so small to me that I don't think it is even worth fussing about. It is still the Samus we know and love.
 
Dardan Sandiego said:
Headcanon is that this was uploaded mirrored on GalacTube so it's not hit by a copyright strike.

edit: just realized that this doesn't make sense because the rest is the same. Did someone in the far future use AI to generate this scene?
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We're doing our part as Metroid fans in crafting lore explanations as to why the wrong knee is raised. See you in the rock textures thread.
 
I for one am appalled to find that Samus somersaulted a mere 4 times in her Prime 4 arrival, while she somersaulted a superior number of 7 times in the original Prime. Talk about NO ATTENTION TO DETAIL on Retro's part.

smdh
 
Even though I agree with Aurc's post, the Dread suit and ZM's power suit are my overall favorites, so I'm not against designs with more "regular" proportions. I just think slimming down the varia suit is a bit weird when that's like, the chonky boi of suits!

PatrykPrime said:
Man I'm gonna be perfectly honest, I can barely see any differences. I see them but they look so small to me that I don't think it is even worth fussing about. It is still the Samus we know and love.
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They are minor differences, especially considering the total amount of time you're even going to be able to see the suit in the first place. Doesn't mean the differences don't hit some of us like:
 
I guess everyone of us is attached to a particular Varia suit iteration (there are tons of different designs!) so that's why we may have strong opinions :p
 
Brock Reiher said:
They definitely seem to have incorporated aspects of Other M’s design into Prime 3’s. Those are the two iconic Samus designs of the past 20 years so I guess it makes sense. I’d rather they give her the big shoulders personally but I vastly prefer it to say, Dread.
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Don't know why this post made me think about that log book entry that describes the Space Pirates trying to figure out Morph Ball technology.
 
Aurc said:
I will say, however: I know you've been largely negative on this reveal, but I still see where you're coming from with a lot of your points. My imagination for what this game's initial trailer would look like painted a substantially cooler picture. Like, it was way the fuck out there (and that's mostly my own fault, to be fair). I envisioned Samus in a brand new suit, but we saw the Varia again (and I don't like the new proportions). I expected to see her absolutely dominating enemies with exciting new combat maneuvers, but she slowly shot her basic Power Beam, and did little else. I figured we'd see Sylux getting up to some mysterious, intriguing shenanigans that would make us fans run wild with our theories, but he just stood there with a couple Metroids / Mochtroids. It's the Space Pirates again too, as you've noted. I thought we'd get a first look at a new enemy faction with strong lore implications.

It's all my own fault for having sky high expectations, and I should've accounted for the possibility that the initial trailer would consist of them holding their cards close to their chest. At least we finally saw the game, that's what matters to me.
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I will say, too, that even though I've come around on the trailer I think if this game is just another Metroid Prime that would sour it a bit even if it's "Retro's first game in 11 years" or whatever. I think that excuse is kinda bad and while I'll like the game if it's another Metroid Prime, I do think one of the problems people had with the games were they were starting to blend together even if Prime 2 is often considered the best nowadays.
 
It's weird to hear so many people expect DOOM shooting/combat mechanics. That's literally what those games are about. Shooting demons. Metroid focuses it's design on so many other aspects that DOOM does not. It's like expecting an RPG to have the combat mechanics of a Bayonetta game.
 
I still can't believe that after 15 years of people (myself included) mocking Tanabe for trying to push for Sylux to be a primary antagonist, he actually gets the most bad ass introduction in this trailer lmao. This is so fucking cool.
 
MaitreWakou said:
I still can't believe that after 15 years of people (myself included) mocking Tanabe for trying to push for Sylux to be a primary antagonist, he actually gets the most bad ass introduction in this trailer lmao. This is so fucking cool.
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The guitar.
 
Dardan Sandiego said:
Ah, gotcha. I don't feel very strongly about the suit one way or another (as long as it's not the Other M one 😵). I just meant that overall I don't feel like one or the other is more strongly "feminine" or "masculine" because both have elements that lean either way.
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This is fair, and seems to be the consensus so far (them both being a mishmash of traits considered typically "feminine" and "masculine"). In that case, I think it'd make sense to reframe my preference as one for the broader shouldered, less realistically proportioned look. I've seen some folks say that the suit now looks like an actual person could be wearing it, and that checks out (I've seen cosplays that are proportioned similarly). That said, the more exaggerated proportions of previous designs never bothered me, and I quite liked how large and imposing Samus looked.

Ultimately, the whole thing isn't a big deal, and for all we know, the model is shaped the way it is because they plan to go slimmer with the brand new suit designs this time.
 
Aurc said:
I strongly prefer the Prime 2 and 3 Varia Suit to Prime 4's. Androgyny has been a core design principle of Samus's suits since the original Metroid, with it being made deliberately ambiguous as to whether you were looking at a man, woman, alien, or android. Prime 4's Samus, in contrast, looks more overtly feminine in shape, but also smaller and less imposing than she did in Prime 1-3, which I've seen some discourse about among fans. Curious to know what you folks think.

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I don't really mind the change.

My personal assumption as to why they changed her proportions somewhat? Because Samus' varia suit -- especially in Prime -- has always been kind of funky, anatomically speaking. They most likely brought it closer in line with the 2D games so they can do more limber things with her in terms of animation.

Vaguely related:

 
I think she looks better here than she has in any of her standard suit designs, even if I wish it were more new. I'm actually surprised I'm saying that because Prime probably has my favorite design of all time, but the chest would occasionally look weird from how bulky it is so it's nice to see they took some notes from Dread.
 
BlackthornOrion said:
look I get people are gonna be picking apart anything they can now that there's finally actual footage to chew on but ...

I cannot believe a second 'they shrank his shoulders, made him look soft' has hit the video games and it's about Samus's shoulder spheres of all things
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Just as a side note, isn't Joel older in TLOU part 2 (5 years or something I believe)? That alone would make me suggest his shoulders would "shrink" because aging does shit like that.

But anyway, as far as Samus' shoulders go (I'll bite my tongue every time I say it), I couldn't give two shits what they look like. Samus looks fantastic, and can rock any look her Varia suit takes on.

Dardan Sandiego said:
Don't know why this post made me think about that log book entry that describes the Space Pirates trying to figure out Morph Ball technology.
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They're clearly trying to figure out how her shoulder pads fit into that tiny sphere.

giphy.gif
 
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TheSpaceBetween said:
It's weird to hear so many people expect DOOM shooting/combat mechanics. That's literally what those games are about. Shooting demons. Metroid focuses it's design on so many other aspects that DOOM does not. It's like expecting an RPG to have the combat mechanics of a Bayonetta game.
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I mean, Metroid Prime is a first person game where the combat revolves around shooting. DOOM is one of the best first person shooters out there currently. It's not like we're talking about just completely different genres here. I'm not asking for glory kills and hot swapping between machine guns and rocket launchers, but I wanted to see the pace and aggression of combat picked up to match something that felt more active and intense. Look at what Dread did with 2D Metroid and that's pretty much exactly what I was looking for.
 
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Brock Reiher said:
The main thing that stood out to me about Mercury Streams suit designs were the weird tiny head and long neck that makes Samus look too much like a bird. So I am glad that is gone.
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I love their Dread designs, but their Samus Returns Varia Suit is my least favorite ever, next to Other M's. The shoulders just had no business being so comically massive, and they played up the green lights quite a bit, which I was similarly not the most fond of.
 
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