Metroid Prime - Plot

Plot

Chronologically, Metroid Prime takes place second in the fictional Metroid universe. Retro Studios wrote an extensive storyline for Metroid Prime, which was considered a major difference from previous Metroid games. Short cutscenes appear before important battles, and the Scan Visor can be used to read records from the Chozo and the Space Pirates. The Prime trilogy is set between Metroid and Metroid II, but sources such as Gradiente, Brazil's former distributor of Nintendo, and the Nintendo Power comics adaptation of Metroid Prime, set the games as occurring after Super Metroid. This is further supported as some of the log entries in Metroid Prime refer to the destruction of Zebes at the hands of "a hunter clad in metal." The Brazilian publicity even states that the Phazon meteor is a piece of Zebes, destroyed after Super Metroid. However, in Prime 3 it was confirmed that the meteor was a Leviathan from the planet Phaaze.

The game begins as Samus intercepts a distress signal from the Space Pirate Frigate Orpheon, whose crew has been slaughtered by the Pirates' own genetically modified experimental subjects. Upon arriving at the ship's core, she battles the Parasite Queen, a giant version of the tiny enemies occasionally seen on the ship. After being defeated, the Parasite Queen falls into the ship's reactor core, causing the ship's imminent destruction. While Samus is escaping from the doomed frigate, an electrical surge destroys all of her Power Suit upgrades, and she encounters Ridley, now a cybernetic version of himself called Meta Ridley. She watches as her nemesis flies towards Tallon IV, the planet the frigate was orbiting, before giving chase in her gunship.

Samus initially lands at a location on the planet referred to as "the Tallon Overworld" in-game, a rainforest-like area. After a brief period of exploration she discovers the Chozo Ruins, the remains of an ancient Chozo civilization on Tallon IV. Upon further investigation, Samus determines that the Chozo civilization on this planet fell victim long ago to an extremely violent meteor impact. The meteor contaminated Tallon IV with a deadly radioactive substance identified as "Phazon" by the Space Pirates, who were studying it and as well as using it for their biological experiments. The meteor also brought with it a creature referred to by the Chozo as "The Worm". Samus locates a Chozo temple in the Tallon Overworld area, and discovers that the temple is actually an enormous containment field emitter designed to hold the "Worm" creature at bay, along with the meteor's energies and influence, within the crater where it landed. However, the Space Pirates disable the field in order to gain better access to the scientifically valuable Phazon. The containment field is controlled by twelve Chozo artifacts, which must be found in order to gain access to the crater.

As the game progresses, Samus recovers the destroyed technologies of her Power Suit as well as several upgrades and weapons she did not possess before. She learns more and more about what transpired on Tallon IV before her arrival, encountering Phazon-corrupted creatures and Pirates as well as the lost spirits of the extinct Chozo. Her journey takes her to the Magmoor Caverns, a series of magma filled underground tunnels. The Caverns are used by the Space Pirates as a source of geothermal power, and connect all of the game's other areas together. Following the tunnels, Samus then arrives at the Phendrana Drifts, a cold, mountainous region home to an ancient Chozo ruin in which the Space Pirates have constructed research labs used to contain Metroids, and ice caves and valleys home to electrical and ice-based creatures. After obtaining the Gravity Suit in Phendrana, Samus explores the interior of the crashed Orpheon, and then infiltrates the Phazon Mines, the mining and research complex which is the main hub of the Space Pirates' Tallon IV operations. Here she battles Phazon-enhanced Space Pirates and obtains the Phazon Suit after she defeats the monstrous Phazon-mutated Omega Pirate.

During her exploration of Tallon IV, Samus collects the twelve keys to the Artifact Temple along with lore recorded by the Chozo and the research done by the Space Pirates, providing some more insight about the history of the planet and the two races' colonization of it and other activities. As she puts the last of the keys in place at the Chozo containment field above the Impact Crater, Meta Ridley appears and attacks her. A battle ensues between the two old rivals, and Meta Ridley is eventually defeated with some aid from the temple's defensive artillery. The Chozo Artifacts allow Samus to enter the Impact Crater and the Phazon Suit protects her from the intense radiation permeating it. Deep inside the crater, she finds a monstrous, Phazon-mutated beast called Metroid Prime, the "Worm" the Chozo referred to and the source of all the Phazon on Tallon IV. A long final battle takes place in which Samus must use every weapon in her arsenal and every upgrade she has gained over the course of her journey in order to survive. Eventually, Samus is able to defeat the creature using the Phazon Beam, which she discovers when she immerses her suit in a pool of Phazon that Metroid Prime has created during the battle. After Samus destroys Metroid Prime, all the Phazon on Tallon IV disappears and Metroid Prime siphons the Phazon in Samus's suit in a last-ditch effort to survive, reverting the armor to the Gravity Suit. Samus then escapes the collapsing Impact Crater and contacts her ship, which saves her from the exploding Chozo temple. At this point, depending on how thoroughly the player has played the game, Samus finally removes her helmet and reveals her face, albeit only for a few seconds. She then enters the ship and leaves Tallon IV. In a post-credits scene only able to be seen if the player has collected 100 percent of the items in the game, Metroid Prime, not quite dead, uses the Phazon Suit to recreate its body and becomes the entity known as Dark Samus, the antagonist of both Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.