It ruins the immersion for me. It clashes with the rest of her character, particularly when she gives the thumbs up to the player or similar, like, oh, you big boy, you did such a good job, here, now you can look at my butt as a reward.

And an apology all the not-all-nerdboys out there; these rants are inherently somewhat generalised by nature.

@JordiGH I wonder how much of this is rooted in Japanese cultural differences. I know they have very different overtones windows

@JordiGH bah *overton windows

@stevelord It seems to me like sexism is a bit worse in Japan, but maybe it's only different, not worse.

@JordiGH you've rediscovered something important here.

@DialMforMara Oh? What did I stumble into?

@JordiGH Everything you've said in this rant has been absolutely correct, and known to women who play video games for years if not decades. Female disempowerment for the player's entertainment is A Thing in the male-dominated space of video gaming, and Metroid occupies a similar (but afaik less intense) sort of controversy space to Bayonetta, another powerful woman who dresses to draw the eye.

@DialMforMara
@JordiGH
I played enough Metroid Prime to see the attraction in the game series, but not see any undressing. Until reading this rant I never knew "Undressing Samus" was even a thing, I assumed she wore the badass armour the whole time.
And, I'm affronted and disappointed. :(

@cathal @JordiGH This was the reward for finishing the original game quickly. And there was a cheat code to put her in a leotard for the whole game.

@DialMforMara
@JordiGH
God fucking damn it

@cathal @DialMforMara She's not in the Metroid Prime! She just takes off her helmet at the end to take a last look at the planet as she takes off from her ship! I'm actually looking forward to that scene, which is why I'm going for a 100% playthrough right now.

@JordiGH
@DialMforMara
Haha yesss I accidentally voted with my wallet, the best sort of vote

@cathal @DialMforMara I reallllly love the immersion in Metroid Prime. I don't play new games, so I don't know a lot of what new ones are like, but all the details like seeing your reflection in the helmet when there's a bright explosion or seeing your own hands in x-ray... it really does make me feel like a space hunter and explorer.

It reminds me a little of when I got to be in the body of a Star Trek captain via #VR, although with less immersive technology.

@cathal @DialMforMara Not to be cynical or anything, but I do think that the more reasonable treatment that Samus got in Metroid Prime is partly due to the fact that it was a completely different US-based dev team.

... and then they gave the series to the makers of Dead or Alive for Other M and it all went to shit again.

@DialMforMara Yeah, this isn't exactly new to me. It's bothered me for a long time. It's just that I was recently trying to convey to some guy why this bothers me and he just thought I had some Christian (lol) sexual hangups or that I was a prude or something.

So, instead, I come to Masto to try to explain myself better, haha.

@wrobertson Yeah! It would be, like, if Michelle Bachelet would promise to undress if she won the next election or something. It's like, wtf?

@JordiGH
Exactly. Not-so-coincidentally, I haven't played a Metroid game in awhile...ㄟ(ツ)ㄏ