Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is intended as both a continuation and a new start for the long dormant franchise. Though Nintendo has never quite said it overtly, it has seemed likely that this is meant to launch a new series of Prime games–possibly even a second trilogy, for the sake of dramatic rhyme. And the ending of Prime 4 accents that feeling, leaving the door wide open for more story–but in the process, diminishing the character of protagonist Samus Aran.
Spoilers for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond follow.
As many eager Metroid fans know from preview coverage and reviews, Metroid Prime 4: Beyond features a wide cast of Federation characters, who have been stranded on Viewros with Samus. As you explore the corners of Sol Valley you eventually meet five in total: engineer Myles MacKenzie, sniper Reger Tokabi, Sergeant Ezra Duke, Private Nora Armstrong, and mech unit VUE-995. Each talks with Samus and relates to her in different ways. Myles is out of his element and needs Samus’ rescue. Armstrong is a bona fide Samus superfan. Tokabi opens up to her about his religion and upbringing.
Your mileage may vary on how much you care about these characters–in my review I said they’re mostly broad military archetypes–but it’s clear that the game wants you to care about them. They’re functionally your crew. They all stay back at base camp and help you out in different ways. When the time comes to break into the Lamorn’s shielded tower, all of you go together. Your mission to reactivate the Master Teleporter is to open a way back home. The unspoken element of this is that you’re trying to save them, too. They’re all stranded far from home just like you are.
Naturally, as you start to activate the Master Teleporter, Sylux chooses that moment to attack. A major portion of the final battle involves fighting alongside all five of the Federation squad at once, providing emergency help when they’re downed, and taking down Sylux’s shields so that they can all concentrate fire on him. But just when it seems he’s beaten and you can all go home, he reemerges. The teleporter is damaged and can only hold out so long, and it can only work if Samus is the one operating it. Sylux is dead-set on attacking Samus to the exclusion of all the others, and if she gets hurt, the teleporter won’t have an operator. So in a moment of selfless heroism, they each grab onto Sylux, stalling him just long enough, as they tell Samus to escape. At the height of the dramatic tension, you have to press A to teleport, leaving your comrades behind as they cling to Sylux to protect you.
That is: The five Federation characters act selflessly and heroically, while Samus saves herself.
Now to be fair, the stakes of the moment make it clear Samus has no choice. In fact, if you abstain from activating the teleporter, you simply die and need to start one phase of the boss battle over again. So Samus is not actually being selfish, but she’s not exactly being heroic either. This is living legend Samus Aran–her reputation precedes her. All of these characters knew who she was and implicitly trusted her. Throughout this campaign and many others, we’ve seen her do the impossible. So at this moment, it’s just hard to buy the dramatic conceit that she couldn’t have figured out any other way than to leave her comrades behind.
If Prime 4’s ending is intended as the starting point for a new series, it immediately raises questions about what comes next. Sylux is still out there, albeit seemingly marooned on a dying planet without any way to escape. Sylux is still in command of the Metroids, and still presumably has the loyalty of his loose assemblage of space pirates. Your five Federation companions are there with him–he either killed them immediately after you escaped, or, more optimistically, they got away and went back to base camp. Except now the Master Teleporter has no operator and they have no viable path off-planet.
So what happens now? Will the entire series focus on this war with Sylux? Is Samus going back to Viewros to rescue her companions? Does she even know where Viewros is, or is it just one of billions of uncharted planets in the furthest reaches of space? The brief moment that we see a starmap strongly suggests the latter. But the ending as a whole leaves us with almost no clarity as to where Samus’s story might be headed after Prime 4, and gives this revival a listless quality. As a result of the lack of any propulsive force toward the next chapter, we’re left lingering with this final, unflattering impression of the great Samus Aran.
We do see a somber and genuinely affecting moment where Samus honors her comrades. But that doesn’t offer much clue as to what the future holds. For the time being, it’s a downer. The triumphant return of the Metroid Prime series left us with Samus failing to protect people who were depending on her, and with a small band of new characters getting the heroic climax. Regardless of how you feel about the characters themselves, I was left feeling like Samus had been pushed out of the spotlight in her own series.
When you’re in the final area accompanied by your companions, you can talk to them each individually before proceeding to the final battle. They all make comments aligned with their personalities. Some are funny, others are more reflective. VUE apologizes for wrecking Betsy, the massive mech that you used to punch a hole through the forcefield. Tokabi remarks that this place feels sacred. As you move your way through, the troops start to talk about finding the teleporter, and how eager they are to leave. Armstrong, the enthusiastic private who has looked up to Samus since they first met, says just one thing: “Finally, we get to go home.”
I’m sorry Armstrong, but no we don’t. Not all of us. Not yet.
