Why does everyone hate Subspace Emissary?

[PikaJew]

It had plot.
Decent story.
Incredible character development with Lucas.
Original enemies.
The ability to play as every character.
And glorious cut scenes.


Can't wrap my head around why it was hated and how people are happy we aren't getting one for 4.
I am disappointed.

 

[XTheElegantShadowX]

Honestly, I haven't a clue either. I loved SSE.

 

[Jumpman84]

I haven't the foggiest. I loved the Subspace Emissary myself for all those reasons you mentioned. Plus the fact that we got a more expansive look at the World of Trophies, aka the Smash universe, as well as some interesting enemies to populate it.

 

[Renji64]

Some of the levels were really bland but i did enjoy it i didn't hate but it doesn't bother me it won't be in smash 4. It was a once in a lifetime thing for the series. It was great to see some characters interact.

 

[Papa+Stone]

Weird story anime cutscenes no voices or subtitles and it was boring after one playthrough

 

[FalKoopa]

SSE was quite fun in co-op, but it was really lacking in replay value. The ending (particularly the Great Maze was simply a drag.)

Having original enemies was a weakness of the SSE, imo. I'd like it much more if we had gotten Moblins, Kremlings, Waddle Dees, Shy Guys, etc instead.

 

[KingofPhantoms]

I loved the SSE, but I can see why it wasn't recieved very well.

For one thing most of the stages had bland backrounds and design, taking almost nothing from the rich history of unique and creative locations in Nintendo's franchises. We had an average Jungle for DK's area, (the last location in DK's area at least had some huge spiked vines that try to attack) an average lab for the Subspace Bomb Factory/Research Center, overall most of the locations in the game were rather bland in design, but as I was far less familiar with a majority of Nintendo games on my first playthrough so this wasn't an issue for me. And still today I managed to overlook that issue when replaying it.

Another thing is that some plot points are quite confusing. It isn't proprely explained where the Shadow Bugs come from until their trophy is obtained for one thing. And Tabuu came out of nowhere. Snake and Sonic did too, but at least most people who actually know who they are.

And gameplay gets repetitive after a while, espescially in the Great Maze.

 

[Jumpman84]

Weird story anime cutscenes no voices or subtitles and it was boring after one playthrough

Anime cutscenes? I could have sworn they were CGI....

If there are no voices, how can there be subtitles?

Also, it was not boring after one playthrough. Because you didn't unlock all the movies unless you did a second playthrough.

SSE was quite fun in co-op, but it was really lacking in replay value. The ending (particularly the Great Maze was simply a drag.)

Having original enemies was a weakness of the SSE, imo. I'd like it much more if we had gotten Moblins, Kremlings, Waddle Dees, Shy Guys, etc instead.

Why not both original enemies and franchise enemies?

 

[Papa+Stone]

Anime cutscenes? I could have sworn they were CGI....

If there are no voices, how can there be subtitles?

Also, it was not boring after one playthrough. Because you didn't unlock all the movies unless you did a second playthrough.

Come on man all of the anime humor and anime cliches that fox did made me cry. They couldve done an animal crossing kind of thing for dialogue. Plus after one playthrough i already had enough cutscenes no need for any others

 

[Jumpman84]

Come on man all of the anime humor and anime cliches that fox did made me cry.

Well, I thought they were pretty hilarious. And what makes it "anime humor and anime cliches", if I may ask?

 

[Papa+Stone]

Well I saw they did the same thing in naruto + it was made in japan and everyone there has anime humor

 

[Papa+Stone]

The only franchise enemies we need are wire frames, hopefully more forms, and giga bowser who needs to stop being a final smash

 

[KingofPhantoms]

The same thing in Naruto? What thing?

 

[RoxburyGuy58]

Oh the problems this thing had:

1.) The plot was too complicated for what they were trying to do. It was an interesting story, but couldn't be properly told without dialog, and it was shown from too many viewpoints.
2.) That said, out of ALL the scenes, the ONE that they had to cut was the intro that explains everything. Metaknight's ship gets stolen, Dedede tries to help, etc. They couldn't have just cut one of the many stupid filler scenes? It's pretty ****ing embarrassing when the developer has to come out and apologize for the story not making sense, then posting the official interpretation.
3.) The levels boiled down to a bland beat-em-up. That gets painfully stale after about 8 hours. The levels felt the same in terms of play and there wasn't much to do but fight.
4.) Legit tho, the most complicated puzzle design they could think of was: "Durr the green key unlocks the green door!" Seriously wtf
5.) What is your reward for 100% completion? NOTHING. ****ing Sakurai came out and said "Well isn't the feeling of 'doing it' an achievement enough?". No, it isn't. What's the point to strive for completion if there's no incentive?

See, adventure mode worked because it was short, and offered enough variation in what the player actually had to do. I won't miss SSE.

 

[Papa+Stone]

Remember that tims when naruto wanted to help the old man but sasuke said it was too much work so naruto grabbed his back and pulled him over to the old man through the dirty ground and sakura raised he arms and shaked her head because it was embarrassing? It was great and original humor, but loses its touch after multiple viewings so when smash tried to replicate it it was less magical.

 

[Kapus]

Most people find SSE bland in itself because it follows mostly generic locations and settings rather than the colorful, wacky Nintendo worlds that we have come to expect. Unlike Melee's adventure mode, you don't travel to the dreamy Pop Star, the alien world of Zebes, the whimsical Mushroom Kingdom, etc. All the levels you go seem bland and uninspired, having no defining traits other than being "a swamp" or "a jungle" or "a wasteland". You also spend your time fighting original enemies instead of familiar characters from Nintendo universes. We had Goombas and Koopa Troopas in one level, but that's it. The rest are just weird original monsters.

The beat 'em up gameplay style also got a little stale after a while, and the game really dragged on near the end with the Great Maze segment. The game has little replay value for most people.

Also, most people dislike SSE because it supposedly sucked a lot of development time and resources away from the main game, leaving many other features half-baked. This is the main reason why people are happy that it isn't returning.

Incredible character development with Lucas.

The plot is there, but I wouldn't call any of the character development really "incredible" in any way.

 

[Jumpman84]

5.) What is your reward for 100% completion? NOTHING. ****ing Sakurai came out and said "Well isn't the feeling of 'doing it' an achievement enough?". No, it isn't. What's the point to strive for completion if there's no incentive?

..................WOW. Just.... I.... can't fathom this statement. I hope you're trolling. If not... I'll try to explain this to you.

100% completion IS an accomplishment. That's the FREAKING POINT!! You just went through and cleared the game 100%, making you one of the best! It's bragging rights, street cred, whatever! That's the incentive for completing the game to 100%. If there was some prize waiting at the end, that's completely and utterly missing the point.

 

[ChickenWing13]

The one thing I loved about Brawl. It was a whole different formula from its predecessors and I respect Sakurai for taking this risk.

I loved SSE as a noob in brawl and not knowing the full depth of this game. It was very unique and the Co-op was so much fun, *ahh memories*. The 3rd playthrough was even better since my skills had enhanced tremendously by then.

After playing through it the first couple of times it did get pretty boring (at least until hacking came entered my scrubbish life =p). Still play it once a year (March 9th) in celebration of its release.

Its too bad to see it have to get thrown away for Sm4sh.

 

[fogbadge]

personally i rather enjoyed it

 

[Robert of Normandy]

SSE's story sucked. It did absolutely nothing to explain what the f*** was going on or why anyone was doing anything. Why the f*** was Marth in that castle? Why was Snake on the Halberd? WHO/WHAT IS TABUU?

The levels are boring as well. There's no variety in them at all. They're all just boring 2D beat-em-ups.

All the characters being silent is stupid. Most of the characters in the game ARE able to speak in all of their games at some point, so there's no excuse for it. And it only makes the lack of explanations even worse.

Oh, and it was a huge drain on development that took time away from other, more important parts of the game.

 

[Malion]

I disliked the lack of toonlink and jigglypuff in it.

lol no really it was mostly because it just didn't feel smashy... it wasn't nintendo fanservice so much and rather a more generic side-scroller.

It had fun enough cutscenes though.

 

[Malion]

whoops! DP

 

[GodOfSocks]

I loved the SSE, and when I first played it, I was little and saw nothing wrong with it.
Now, the only thing was that there was no story behind Why they were there.
How did these characters all get here?
Is Smash a tournament?
Did Master Hand drag them out of their worlds and put them here?
Why was Yoshi sleeping on a log? Is he homeless? OH GOD D:
Having Link and Toon interact would have been kind of funny...
I wish some things were different about the SSE, but I don't hate it.

 

[DakotaBonez]

The cutscenes were F#$%$#$ incredible.
There were some things that bugged me about SSE though. Okay they RUINED SSE.

For example, The distance that you get launched increases with your damage percent.
This mechanic is what defines smash as a fighting game, but it cripples it as a platforming adventure.
In SSE your character explodes if they hit 300% damage anyway so they would have been better off making it work like Stamina mode, where your knockback doesn't increase and you can see your health tick away to 0%.


I had funner in my second playthrough of it, when the game let me use any character I wanted on any stage I wanted and I decided to actually make use of the stickers.

In the next smash, if they were to make an adventure mode, I would hope to see it be more focused on a fighting tournament, and have shops.

 

[ZeldaMaster]

I didn't like the Subspace Emissary because I thought the story was so unbelievable. I also felt like it detracted from the core Smash Bros core gameplay.

 

[PikaJew]

I didn't like the Subspace Emissary because I thought the story was so unbelievable.

So video games have to be believable now?

 

[CrossoverMan]

SSE was the first action/ story driven game I've ever played. I barely knew who any of the characters were, but this story mode helped me get to know them and become fans of their representing franchises. In fact, the story mode got me into gaming in general. Before, as I think I've mentioned previously, I didn't play many games. Plus, how could you not love those gorgeous cutscenes? And the badass team ups? And do I even need to mention the Great Invasion cutscene? EPIC! There was also an underlying awesomeness to the whole thing that suddenly made it seem more than just a bunch of cartoon characters beating each other up. The entrance to Tabuu's arena with that music just gave me the chills, and still does. True, the gameplay gets repetitive and the world designs were a bit on the unoriginal side, but in the end, the Smash Bros world is where Master Hand lives, right? I always thought that Master Hand just used his magic to bring all the characters to his world for fun.

 

[Shroob]

It took a lot of development time that could have been used on fine tuning the game and multiplayer(aka the potential forbidden 7). That, and I preferred Melee's adventure mode because it made me feel like I was actually in the character's universes, not some made up fanfic world.

 

[Capybara Gaming]

I liked SSE. It was interesting to say the least. Would not mind it returning, just add a few more series' enemies.

 

[Seraphim.]

I loved the SSE, but as everyone has said already it was only really enjoyable the first time you play it after that it's just eh and it took a lot of time to develop which could have been used to fix some of Brawl's other issues or having time to add Mewtwo and Roy.

 

[Lotusclaw8]

idk, I really didn't like sse at all still haven't finished it...

 

[CardiganBoy]

SSE Y U No have Redeads?

 

[PixelPasta]

The story was overly complicated and not very well explained. I think for something like a huge Nintendo adventure, the plot should be a straightforward but still very epic and grandiose adventure.
The gameplay was just Kirby, but annoying and tedious. Don't get me wrong, I love Kirby games - but I really don't think that for something on such a large scale should be basically like Kirby, especially considering that it is a Nintendo crossover. Another downside to this is that we got easy bosses that don't actually do most of what they do in their games.
The level design was tedious and very bland.
A lot of the characters were misrepresented in the cutscenes (ie: they were not depicted as being true to the actual characters)
The lack of locations and enemies from actual Nintendo franchise really disappointed me. It seemed like a huge misuse of potential.
It had vey little replay value, especially the final portion of the game.
The music got repetitive and boring.

Overall: the idea was great and the cutscenes could have been amazing, but I just felt like a lot of the potential went unused, not to mention it was not fun or replay-able to me whatsoever. The final product was quite lackluster, in my opinion.

 

[PikaJew]

How the **** were the cutscenes not amazing?


I'm sorry but I respect everything people have been saying about SSE but to go after the CUT SCENES is just blatant prejudice to Brawl.

 

[The Real Gamer]

Like I've said multiple times SSE was the epitome all style and no substance. If it weren't for the cutscenes I wouldn't have touched it at all.

- Plot made no sense
- Gameplay, level design, and enemies were extremely bland and/or repetitive
- No replay value

One of Sakurai's best decisions so far with the development of Smash 4 was deciding not to bring SSE back. Way too much development time went into creating such a sub-par product. The fact that it was one of Brawl's biggest selling points made it that much more disappointing.

 

[Ryan.]

I loved SSE as well (except for The Great Maze) and thought the cut scenes were fantastic. It was cool seeing the characters interact with each other and I am also disappointed it won't be returning.

 

[NintendoKnight]

I enjoyed the SSE. INCLUDING the Great Maze section, (which actually was my favorite part)

My biggest complaint however is the sheer fact that it's a BLATANT Kirby rip-off. It plays too much like Kirby. Although the Great Maze section reminded me a lot of Kirby and the Amazing Mirror (Which I thoroughly enjoyed) so I was glad about an actual adventure taking place in the Adventure Mode.

Overall, it was fun. The cutscenes were top-notch in the epic department (even though Mario looked a fool most of the time), the sticker use was actually entertaining, and it provided an easy way to unlock characters if using other methods wasn't your thing.

 

[nat pagle]

1. Plot? You mean Tabuu doing god knows what for god knows what reason when he could've just bombed everything at once? Not to mention they pull an Imperial Cruiser out of nowhere.

2. No replay value. This is Smash, everyone played multiplayer after a few weeks.

3. Importance of characters? Wario, Bowser, etc. didn't seem like they were that relevant besides just capturing random people only to get released.

 

[GreenReaperGod]

Ways to Improve Adventure Mode:
-Boss need to be lead up to rather then "oh here comes Petey for no reason, KILL HIM"
-Bosses need to be more then just "punch this guy and avoid his attacks"
-Characters need more explanation then just appearing from no where
-Possibly more character development and continuing that character. Don't just discarding them after the character joins a large group
-Final boss needs to improve A LOT. Lead up to the boss fight. The boss could have several forms.
-New enemies are introduced often to keep the game fresh
-Better finale
-Add subtiles or dialog to help us understand the story. If you are going to have a complicated plot, explain it
-like DakotaBenz said, add stamina instead of damage. The SSE was just way too easy even on intense. Stamina would add a challenge.
-story > making all characters group together

 

[liets]

it was good, i mean i enjoyed it and all, but it was... lackluster
cutscenes- epic win. loved seeing dedede slap bowser
playthrough- enjoyable, a bit too straighforward/easy at times
BUT ERMAHGERD I HATED UNLOCKING DANG NEAR EVERY CHARACTER IN IT! i liked playing a whole crudload of vs matches or doing this or that somewhat lengthy task, then after completing it see that silhouette of a character, then possibly or possibly not getting the tar mercilessly beaten out of me simply because i was marveling at the never-before-seen character that i was soon to unlock.