Samus reactivates her Power Suit in mid air to protect herself from the fall.
Shortly afterwards she loses full control of the suit and it disappears completely, however when Anthony shoots at Ridley it causes him to drop Samus, and while Anthony was preparing to run over and catch Samus, it was actually Samus herself that was able to flip (in free fall) to stabilize herself as well as fully reactivate her suit. Samus struggling to maintain her Power Suit during her panic attack. When Ridley grabs her, the left arm of her suit begins to disappear, however even though she's struggling with a panic attack Samus still manages to regain the left arm of her suit. Samus's Power Suit requires an inhuman level of mental will to operate, so when she's afflicted with PTSD it causes her suit to become weak and it's difficult for her to maintain. I like this, as it shows no matter how many times she faced him before, when she believes him to be truly gone, even someone as powerful as Samus is still susceptible to human "weakness" like mental trauma.ĭespite dealing with something as mentally severe as PTSD Samus still actually manages to show some strength. The scene depicts her PTSD with a visualization of Samus as a child, as that's when Ridley first wrought trauma upon her. When Samus encounters Ridley she was tracking and expecting the Mystery Creature, so when Ridley appeared instead she had a panic attack. This is the only game in which Samus believes Ridley to be completely eradicated, which is why him "coming back" is what triggers her PTSD. In the beginning of Other M Samus states the explosion of Zebes destroyed the remains of Ridley, leading her to believe him to be gone for good this time. I quite liked her confrontation with Ridley, I'm glad the game touches on her mental trauma involving him. Considering she had to handle all of this in a single mission, it really shows how strong Samus is, despite still having human flaws. Samus is dealing with an unusually high amount of emotional hardship in Other M, whether it's the loss of the Baby, reuniting with Adam which stirred up sad memories of why she left the Federation, or seeing Ridley unexpectedly come back (unbeknownst to her as a clone) triggering her PTSD, etc. Also, I liked that they fleshed out more of the "corrupt" Federation introduced in Fusion. Station or how the Federation got DNA of the Baby Metroid (and other Zebes life forms). It was great to see the loose ends of Fusion tied up in this game, such as how Ridley got on the B.S.L.
Seeing just how much the Baby Metroid affected Samus, the fact it gave its life for her caused her to go into a depression was really interesting and a great way to show how impactful the ending of Super Metroid was. I really love the story and how it explores more of who Samus is as a person, and expands upon aspects of her introduced in Fusion. I absolutely adore Metroid Other M, in this post I will talk about many of the things I love about the game, and in doing so, I will cover majors spoilers.