Metroid Zero Mission is Selectively Faithful

You guys don’t have to keep telling me that the Super Metroid Nintendo Power comic exists. I know it and Smash bros trophies both exist. Those have little to do with my point of these story elements because I’m mostly interested in just discussing the Metroid games themselves. I also discuss the 2003 Manga because it’s widely seen as the definitive origin story of the series. It is true that some version of the manga story existed back then, but that has no relevance to this video about the games themselves. Also at 16:36 I mention that the Space Pirates never do anything explicitly evil on-screen in the original 4 games. Some commenters have rightfully pointed out that Ridley does kill the scientists on Ceres Space Colony. Ridley is a Space Pirate, but his motives are vague. Killing is evil, but it could be interpreted that it’s being done to serve a noble cause. We never hear the Zebesian’s side of the story, but it does seem to me like the Federation is trying to vilify an entire race - like they did with the Metroids. Also worth mentioning that Ridley himself doing something like that doesn’t mean every Zebesian agrees with his actions. The motive of the pirates is not made clear beyond what the Federation alleges, and that mystery allows for speculation. That’s what I was trying to say in the video.

I respect that the devs of Zero understood well enough that players of previous games obsessed over sequence breaking and speed running to make some pretty good alternate pathways.

This doesn't really change your overall point about the lore, which is a totally valid take but i do want to clarify a bit about the timeline you presented. The revelation about the Chozo raising Samus on planet Zebes? Yeah that didn't come from the 2003 manga. In Fusion (2002), the japanese release had some extra ending art that we didn't get. Samus is shown as child, with the Chozo. Okay but that doesn't necessarily mean they're Zebes at least, good point. In 1994, surrounding the release of Super Metroid, issues of Nintendo Power had a Super Metroid comic in them which explicitly state that Samus was raised by Chozo, on Zebes, after the Space Pirates wiped out her colony (even named K-2L). This is explained by a Chozo (named Old Bird). If anything, the 2003 manga is just recontextualizing the Super Metroid comic as a canon prequel instead of a comic form of a game. Really enjoyed the video, and I haven't watched the fusion one yet so i apologize if you brought up the japanese endings in that video, just wanted to help clarify things for those who might not know Edit: I looked before making this comment if anyone else had mentioned it, but apparently I missed one as I just saw someome else from an hour ago. My bad for the repetition Edit 2: Sorry, i was going back through the Story section of the video while making the comment and I just noticed you edited in the JP Fusion endings, including one i totally forgot about that straight up shows Ridley killing Samus's parents? It seems like you're aware Zero Mission didn't do this?

Samus going to a bar is just so fitting

God, I will never get over these thumbail art pieces. They're just perfect.

I remember we had a conversation back on your federation force video about Metroid lore, and you did mention that you found ZM harmed the worldbulding of the series. It's good to see you elaborate more on this and I pretty much agree with you on a good number of things. The biggest thing that I frankly, will never be on board of, is Ridley killing Samus' mother however. It seems that the intent was to make the encounters with him more personal in the games, but it ends up bringing artificial stakes to them instead, and it comes off as a way to retroactively justify why Ridley is Samus' nemesis. I feel like it was in an attempt to give the Metroid series it's singular "villain character" so it can be more like other Nintendo franchises. The funniest thing about it too, is that most Metroid games pretty much fail to capitalize on this retcon anyways, so you have this backstory that Ridley made Samus an orphan, but then in the games he's just this monster that shows up far too often because he became popular in Super Metroid. Gotta give props to Dread for not having him here though! Samus being raised by the Chozo is an interesting thing to talk about however. I agree that doing this did make the world of Metroid feel far smaller, and in ZM's case it definitely made things black and white. However I do think it opened up new possibilities for interesting stories in Metroid, and I largely appreciate the MercurySteam Metroid games in this regard for giving back moral ambiguity to the Chozo. Previous Metroid games post-ZM would portray the Chozo as the uncontested good race, but Samus Returns/Dread challenged that notion with the Mawkin and Raven Beak. The revelation that Samus has DNA from Raven Beak brings a ton of implications of why Samus was even raised in the first place, maybe the Chozo did love her, or maybe she was raised to become a super weapon... I think another thing the focus on chozo does that's pretty cool is the idea that they've actually helped to cause some of the galaxies biggest threats. It sort of frames the idea that the Chozo have made grave mistakes that have almost doomed the world, and it works well especially with the new lore in Dread. In general the addition of there being multiple tribes of chozo actually help expand the world again to me, as now it feels like we've only seen the small remnants of a much larger and more mysterious race. There could be, hundreds of different chozo tribes that might be far more ancient than the ones we see in Dread. I know this is far too early but I am pretty excited for when you get to the mercury steam games, I'd love to see you talk about the game's stories, what they get right and even what they get wrong (cuz i admittedly am a little biased, Dread is my favorite Metroid game and I have a lot of love for that game's worldbuilding and story). I also want to talk about some other aspects of the video I agree with, the bosses absolutely stink I agree! They're a massive downgrade from Fusion and in general the far easier difficulty is what prevents this game from being top-tier to me. Especially Mecha Ridley, I am very much in agreement that Metroid has a too much Ridley problem, and this boss fight exhausts it so much. The point on Sequence Breaking is really valid however, I have definitely underestimated Zero Mission's sequence breaks and this video gives me a more positive outlook on that. I'll def be thinking about all this during my next ZM replay. I do apologize for the length of this comment, I just find your videos to be some of the most interesting videos I've watched on this series and even discussing Metroid with you on previous videos was very enjoyable! If you read all the way to this I just wanna say, thank you :)

I would argue in the case of the Space Pirates. There was never any intent to portray they as being anything but evil. There are the old manuals which call them evil sure, but even Prime 1 depicts them as complete monsters, with the exprriments they conduct showing a blatant disregard for life. Fusion releasing the same day as Prime then acts as a mirror showing that the Galactic Federation and the Space Pirates aren't so different. Both willing to do whatever it takes to push their agendas. The moral quandry still exists even with Samus being a more moral character because she is working for people who are morally questionable and doing things that are questionable at least in later games. Her feeling morally justified in taking this mission for the Federation leads her to the false perception that future missions from them are as morally justifiable. It is right to kill the metroids in the first game because the space pirates are evil therefore it is right to kill them in Metroid 2 to prevent any other evil from using them, except no it's not because they are a nuetral party and capable of empathy as shown by the infant metroid. There is still a character moment there. I honestly think not much changes about samus' arc with the Zero Mission Retcons. She is still blindly following orders int eh first game, confronted on the consequences in the second game, suffers loss n the third game and then has to face her sins in the fourth game. I can agree that the added lore removes ambiguity and scope from the story though. The Chozo being so universally depicted as nice or good, makes them seem less like a real civilization and more like how western films depict native americans. As these magical bush people who can do no wrong. Even with the Mawkin being introduced. It's still the good chozo versus the bad chozo. When less information was provided, more was up for interpretation. It seem like the fate of any long-running series or story. In real life no one really knows everything that has ever happened. Attempting to form a cohesive in depth narrative where everything makes sense requires you to cut out the things about life or a story that can't be neatly categorized. Hence things getting more simplistic with the more you know.

Zero Mission and Fusion are sooooo darn good. The graphics and animations are on point, and the controls are buttery smooth.

Most of the chozo lore was established in the American Super Metroid comic.

I'm interested in your worldbuilding part of the video. I really never thought about how the increased emphasis on the Chozo affected the previous game's plots like that. Still though, I think it was a net positive overall. While Ridley killing Samus's parents (or mom more specifically) is a pretty old trope, it goes make him a much more engaging character since he's more than just an alien pterodactyl working as the space pirates' lapdog, but a sentient, intelligent creature with the capacity of malice and sadism. This also ties in well with the Metroids since they were bred to be weapons by the Chozo against the X parasite, but the baby Metroid in Super shows that they can be more than just scary jellyfish that sucks the life force from you're body. They can develop genuine bonds with other species like any animal. I think Mercurysteam has done a pretty good job developing the Chozo lore since Zero Mission because now instead of them just being space bird deities who can do no wrong, they're a race who have different factions and beliefs and aren't always as righteous as Samus was most likely raised to believe.

Zero Mission actually isn't the only game that acknowledges low% runs. The Japanese version of Fusion has gallery images for 1% runs. It seems to be a recent discovery actually. Most sources I've checked either don't bring up those ending images at all, or say they can only be viewed in Zero Mission's Fusion Gallery. But i have confirmed, those ending images were obtainable in Japanese Fusion all along for 1% runs.

This dude consistently pumping out the greatest Metroid videos on the platform

I’ve tried the 1% run on Metroid Fusion and the 8% and 9% runs on normal and hard mode on Zero Mission. Never again, lol. Mother Brain and Mecha Ridley become wars of attrition having only 2 or 3 missiles to attack with each round.

Definitely interested in a discussion about the 3 different versions of metroid 2

I like the new lore it enabled a closeness to the chozo in Prime and Dread, but it did make the world feel smaller even if it was already small. I feel like they make Samus' character more complete, Samus is a mostly static protagonist like Goku (DB) once we learn her story we don't have to focus on her as much and she can be plopped into situations for adventures. She's like Link, once we know her character we can nod and just focus on the story or just ignore it.

Ah yes the goated art returns. Cant wait for my personal favorite metroid, prime 2 echos.

Literally got done rewatching all the other metroid reviews the other day. Perfect timing

Ive been eagerly awaiting each one of these. This is the best Metroid retrospective series out there and I hope more people start checking it out. Keep up the good work, man! Thanks for the great stuff!

pipi lore right at the beginning, this is gonna be good

Great video man. I don’t think I’ve watched anyone go as in depth with this amazing gba game as you have and I look forward to watching more of the Metroid videos