”We have returned to Tallon IV, borne here against our will by a great cataclysm from the reaches of space … the meteor brought with it corruption. A Great Poison burst forth into the land, clawing at life with such violence that we were ripped from our peaceful state and find ourselves wandering as shadows of the mortal forms we left behind, searching for why we are here."
excerpted from the Meteor Strike entry in Metroid Prime’s Chozo Lore
The platform descends into darkness as it disappears beneath the lip of the crater, and then the sunlight blinks out. The metal shudders then, groaning, and slams to a stop at the bottom of the elevator shaft. The door cracks open with a pneumatic hiss. It cracks open like an old wound, and the stone corridor beyond bleeds a brilliant, blinding blue.
In Retro Studios’ Metroid Prime, there is no disembodied voice of guidance directing the player from objective to objective. Every objective met by the player character, Samus Aran (a walking arsenal, a one-woman army), is done of her own volition. Her mission begins not with a distress call originating from a wrecked frigate in orbit around the planet Tallon IV (though that investigation does comprise the game’s opening sequence), but when she arrives planetside and begins to discover the truth of why that frigate was there in the first place.
It sings, loud and static. It is the cancer responsible for driving her ancestors to an early end, for forcing them away from their transcended existence into the hands of darkness. It is responsible, too, for many a failure on the part of the unwelcome invaders who seek to harness its power without understanding how it destroys them. But she is no failure, and she understands: if she can control it, she can destroy it.
She begins by collecting the artifacts left behind for her by her ancestors, whose fragmented lore speaks of a Great Poison that corrupts their minds and threatens the planet itself. This poison, otherwise known as Phazon, is described as a “volatile ore with biomutagenic properties.” Though the substance itself cannot be scanned directly in the game, every piece of acquirable data relating to it speaks of its corrosive properties (to say nothing of how it drains the shielding of Samus’ armorsuit).
Standing in the back of an otherwise empty room is a containment module that stretches from the floor up to the catwalks. Locked inside, one more obstacle remains. They call it Omega: the last defense of the creatures who, through their ignorance, sought to control the uncontrollable. If her ancestors could not contain the poison’s blind, empty hunger, these intruders had no right to think they could – they, blasphemers walking on holy ground.
After battling her way through a region called the Phazon Mines, Samus defeats the game’s penultimate boss, the Omega Pirate (the Space Pirates, the main antagonists, are not terribly bright when it comes to names) and acquires a final upgrade to her armor suit called the Phazon Suit.
Its armor shatters in a brilliant white flash, and the creature spills ink-black blood as the pieces of its chestguard fall apart. Its burning eyes dim, and its hollowness, then, allows the poison to grow.
To take their imperfect designs – to take what wrongs they have wrought and reconstitute them into herself, and walk among them as a being cast of vengeance and molten rage, is the end they deserve.
Unlike the Phazon crystals seen throughout the game, which are blue or whitish-blue, the Phazon Suit is red and black. It is a distinct departure from other armor colorations that she has worn; her traditional Varia Suit is her signature orange-red-green ensemble, and the Gravity Suit, though it uses cooler colors, maintains a fairly bright look.
From left to right: Varia, Gravity, and Phazon Suits.
According to Samus herself, the suit gains the benefit of increased damage reduction and resistance to all but the most potent of Phazon; with it, she is able to explore the rest of the mines unharmed, which is necessary for her to gather the last of the keys that will open her path to the source of the poison on Tallon IV.Given how the difficulty curve jumps up late in the game, the Phazon Suit is an upgrade that, by the time it is acquired, is earned; as the result of Samus’ work up until this point, it’s a symbol of (if not heroism) determination. What is especially interesting to note is that the designer of the suit itself admitted that the team’s intention with the suit was to make it look cool – there was little development time left, and he implies that the pressure allowed for interesting things to happen creatively.
When it dies, their mine will crumble. The alarms have gone silent, and so too will the poison, soon. With nowhere to grow, no way to feed, it will recede out from the scars it bored deep into the planet’s surface. She knows this from studying their research, comparing it with her own lore. If she can open the seal on what her ancestors called the Cradle, if she can crack apart its shell and bleed the wound that festers inside, she can destroy what feeds it.
It will be enough.
Games like these are not strictly meant to be a medium of storytelling, because their selling point lies in the fact that they are an interactive medium. A game does not progress without input from the player, who may commit non-canonical actions (usually in the form of dying) during their playthrough. However, Metroid Prime’s particular blend of gameplay, involving an (almost) entirely optional story that primarily hinges on locating and reading scannable data, leaves enough room for the player’s imagination in the gaps that the developers chose not to fill.
Because of this (and, to a degree, the fact that Samus is a silent protagonist), what things mean what is an interesting thought exercise. Given that the Phazon Suit is the last thing left to acquire or do in the game, and given the difficulty in acquiring it, gives it its status as a symbol of any number of heroic qualities (triumph, determination, bravery, valor, take your pick).
And, of course, it looks neat too.
Sources
Interview With Mike Sneath
Chozo Lore: Meteor Strike
Phazon
Phazon Suit
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