Metroid Prime 4 has too much talking for Samus to still be silent - AV Club

Metroid Prime 4: When Samus Aran’s silence stops feeling stoic and starts feeling rude

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond surrounds Samus Aran with chatty allies and direct questions—yet she never answers. What once read as cool, lone-wolf stoicism now often plays as awkward, even impolite. The silence isn’t just a character choice anymore; it clashes with the game’s talkative world.

Key takeaways

• Prime 4 fills the airwaves with characters who speak to Samus directly, making her wordless responses feel bizarre rather than iconic.
• Earlier games justified Samus’ silence through isolation and environmental storytelling; when she did “speak,” it was via brief mission logs.
• Metroid Fusion gave Samus an inner voice and clear emotions; fans embraced that depth.
• Metroid: Other M added voice acting and a deferential portrayal that many fans disliked, creating lasting hesitation around letting Samus speak.
• Metroid Dread largely reverted to restraint, with a single line in Chozo.
• Prime 4 shows the limits of a silent protagonist in a modern, dialogue-heavy narrative: either let Samus respond or reduce the chatter around her.

How we got here: a brief history of Samus’ voice

• Early era (Metroid, Metroid II): No in-game dialogue. Players projected their own ideas onto Samus—a blank slate that felt mysterious and powerful.
• Super Metroid: A short, matter-of-fact mission log—easy to miss but a first step toward a voice.
• Metroid Fusion: Extensive mission logs and conversations with an AI reveal a fuller personality—headstrong, sentimental, sometimes fearful. Fans and critics largely praised this depth, even without voice acting.
• Metroid Prime trilogy: Samus stays silent, but it works. Encounters with other characters are brief; silence feels like social awkwardness at worst, never disruptive.
• Metroid: Other M: Directed and written by Yoshio Sakamoto (the creative lead behind Fusion and Super Metroid), the game gives Samus full voice acting and a more deferential dynamic with Adam Malkovich. Many fans recoil, arguing this version clashes with their long-held image of Samus. The tension between authorial intent and decades of player projection reaches a breaking point. Notably, Ridley—silent in the games—does speak in the semi-canonical manga Sakamoto consulted on, underscoring how variable the franchise’s “rules” for voice have been.
• Metroid Dread: A strategic retreat. Samus speaks only once, in Chozo—minimizing risk after Other M’s backlash.

Why Prime 4’s approach backfires
Prime 4 is filled with voiced characters who routinely address Samus over comms or face-to-face—asking “Are you okay?” or requesting mission confirmations. Samus never replies. In quick scenes, this can land as a dry gag; stretched across a full adventure, it becomes immersion-breaking. If the design rule is “Samus doesn’t talk in Prime,” the surrounding writing needs to respect that constraint. Instead, Prime 4 spotlights the silence, repeatedly setting up exchanges that have no payoff.

The design dilemma

• Silence works best when Samus is isolated or when others don’t expect replies.
• Modern cinematic storytelling thrives on reactions, even brief ones. When the world speaks at Samus, her refusal to answer starts to feel like a bug, not a feature.

What could work better

• Give Samus concise, purposeful lines: short comms acknowledgments, mission log asides, or rare but meaningful spoken moments.
• Offer opt-in voice: a setting for minimal vs. standard dialogue, satisfying both purists and players who want more character.
• Lean on nonverbal expression: body language, suit HUD pulses, camera framing—signal emotion without over-explaining.
• If she must remain silent, reduce direct questions and design scenes that don’t require verbal confirmation.

The bigger picture: a legendary heroine without a voice
Samus is one of gaming’s most iconic women—and frequently voiceless. The series’ best moments (like Super Metroid’s climax) prove the power of silence and environmental storytelling. But silence should be a deliberate tool, not a muzzle. Avoiding any emotional expression to dodge perceptions of “weakness” or “femininity” underserves the character. The ideal path isn’t endless quiet or nonstop quips—it’s intentional, character-driven choices that let Samus be human without undermining Metroid’s atmosphere.

Bottom line
Metroid Prime 4 shows the limits of the silent-protagonist tradition in a talkative, cinematic framework. Either let Samus speak—sparingly and purposefully—or write the world around her to honor the silence. There has to be a better option than having her stonewall every conversation.

Source: https://www.avclub.com/metroid-prime-4-samus-silent