One of the big gripes with the recently released Metroid Prime 4: Beyond is the inclusion of those Galactic Federation troopers which appear in the game changing the atmosphere somewhat. In a new interview with Famitsu, Nintendo explained the reasoning behind their decision to include them saying that that they wanted the player to feel as though they must need protection. Whether that paid off remains to be seen.
"When we design games, often we will start with deciding what kind of themes we want players to experience. Normally when players finish a game, they push the A button without any uncertainty, but with Metroid Prime 4 we wanted to make them hesitate and feel conflicted. In order to do that we also have the Galactic Federation soldiers being moved to Planet Viewros (this will make sense with the ending).
That came first, and then the next step was how the soldiers would act in the game in order for it to feel realistic. Rather than deciding the individual elements to include, we instead decided on the NPC AI and the way they act in cutscenes etc. and from that we would then have the player feel a certain way. For example, rather than thinking or deciding about including a specific escort mission, or thinking about how to pull in casual gamers, we want the player to naturally feel, 'This character is a real coward, and can't fight, so I must protect them.'"
Thanks to Greatsong1 for sending in the news tip!
