Some of the themes were also downgraded or even removed in translations, some of the translations with hyperbole just don't work and the choice of words either remove the meaning behind some details in the original version and/or changes it altogher, making everything more confusing than it should be.
And it's partially Sakamoto's fault as well: for example, apart from the fact that he's not good in English, he wanted Samus's voice acting in a very particular way, and in the process, he made the story actually less interesting and less clear.
The story constantly struggles to inform the player of its themes and simple story beats, leading to a confusing and ultimately unfulfilling experience. However, where the game truly messed up was presentation - especially in the game's poor English translation. Sakamoto wanted to move away from subtle storytelling to instead try a more dramatic and cinematic experience, and he frankly screwed up. It sucked in many aspects, suffering from cliché after cliché, dropping plot threads all over, and utterly failing to clearly communicate its ideas to the audience. Understanding Samus's Character in Other M Metroid: Other M does not have a particularly well-written story. The mini-essay on this page uses the comparison work done by YouTube user Lexicon Lookout in his 50-minute video "The Other M that never was", released in 2020, as a base to re-examine what the game was attempting to accomplish, under the newfound understanding that while the English and Japanese versions of Other M share the Broad Strokes of the plot, many pertinent details were changed or Lost in Translation.
It took a decade before anyone fluent in both languages actually sat down to make a detailed comparison of both scripts after all, even if Yoshio Sakamoto wasn't fluent in English, there was no way anyone involved with the localization would fail to accurately translate the work properly. While everyone noticed how awkward the English was in the game, it was just an odd, overly literal translation of the original Japanese thanks to a non-English speaker being too hands-on in the localization process. But over the years, that would turn out to not be the full story. Any Metroid fan will tell you that Other M's script isn't very strong.
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