Dark Samus/Development notes

Development notes pertaining to Dark Samus in Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and Metroid Prime 3: Corruption.
==Metroid Prime 2: Echoes==
Some files refer to Dark Samus simply by her initials DS (as seen in Prime World Editor).
Dark Samus's name is translated literally in other languages, such as Samus Oscura (Spanish and Italian), Dunkle Samus (German), and Samus Sombre (French).
According to Clark Wen, Dark Samus's sound clips were taken from unused recordings of Samus's grunts and screams of pain, and heavily processed."Interview: Clark Wen". Shinesparkers. 2018-06-02 Retrieved 2018-06-02. He did not specify whether Jennifer Hale, Vanessa Marshall, or another actress had originally recorded these clips.
According to storyboards unlockable in the Concept Gallery:File:DSII sb2.png, the scene where Dark Samus points her Arm Cannon and fires Phazon at Samus in their first encounter is based on the climax of Aliens: "D.S. points a gun at Samus. When camera is fixed, Samus slightly twists her neck. *Refer to the scene in "Alien 2" climax when Ripley points flame gun at Mother Alien."
Dark Samus was partly inspired by the Ruins Test in Metroid: Zero Mission, during which Samus fights a mirror version of herself.Mark Pacini: "One of the coolest parts in Zero Mission was when you were fighting yourself. We were like, "That is so cool! What would it be like if we did something like that that utilized our technology and utilized the game mechanics of Metroid Prime." That's kind of where that came from. The dramatic feel of dark and light made it a natural choice. It just seemed to fit." "Retro Studios' Game Director Mark Pacini and President Michael Kelbaugh On Metroid Prime 2 Echoes", 1UP.com
Prior to the release of Echoes, Nintendo kept Dark Samus's origins a secret to gaming press. Official Nintendo Magazine speculated in their 142nd issue that she was the result of Space Pirate efforts to copy Samus's Power Suit, as seen in Prime with the Trooper Pirates. Additionally, there was much speculation over whether Dark Samus would be playable in the game. Mark Pacini confirmed she was not in an interview with Electronic Gaming Monthly, albeit one that was published after the game's release.:File:EGM_187_interview_page_2.jpg
Vince Joly animated the cutscene of Dark Samus's second defeat in the Aerie.
Andrew Jones did a 1,000 self-portrait series of himself and later claimed that "my portraits are quite a departure from my metroid concept work, but I think you would be surprised that there are a few of the portraits that were the inspiration behind the final bosses in prime 1 and two."1000 Self-Portrait Poster - Page 5
Kensuke Tanabe had not considered making a sequel to Metroid Prime until having seen the game's final scene.
Some of the files for Dark Samus's voice clips and sound effects possess interesting file names such as "BlueBits", "ChanceMeeting", and "Phaze". The first and third names are files containing Dark Samus's accompanying Phazon sound effects, with the third name appearing very similar to Phaaze.
Animation clips from Alejandro Roura:
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==Metroid Prime 3: Corruption==
The final battle with Dark Samus in Corruption underwent two iterations before settling on the final version. Mike Wikan designed the first version, on which Paul Tozour worked for five weeks. However, Mark Pacini disliked the concept and it was completely rewritten. The second version of the battle took four weeks to finish, but Tanabe rejected it as well. The third version took six more weeks to finalize, and represents the battle in the released game. Tanabe wanted a battle against Dark Samus and dozens of Dark Echoes all at once, but as this would have been too hard on the game's performance, the maximum number of copies on-screen was reduced to three. The first battle with her in Echoes was Retro Studios's attempt to create a boss with Western-style shooter influences.Kiwi Talkz. "#138 - Paul Tozour Interview (Metroid Prime 2 & 3, Boss Design, A.I., Leadership, Four Swords etc.)". YouTube. June 25, 2022. Retrieved July 6, 2022. (starts at 2:37 and 1:07:37)
==Paul Tozour design notes==
Paul Tozour programmed Dark Samus's artificial intelligence in both Echoes and Corruption. His notes are below.:
==Unused Bonus Disc Logbook entries==
Three unused Logbook entries for Dark Samus have been discovered through hacking of the Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Bonus Disc. All three entries use a T-Posed Dark Samus half stemming from a slightly older design (the Phazon spots on the round shoulder pads are more larger and slightly more turquoise). Curiously, Dark Samus is placed in the Data Network as a Guardian, most likely referring to her Boss status. It is possible that Dark Samus 4 was added much later into development.
Certain differences in the final versions of these entries are noted below, a majority of which appear to be grammar errors:
*The first scan of Dark Samus 1 has all but the first use of the word "Phazon" spelled with a lowercase p. An additional sentence at the end was removed from the final version, likely because Samus normally lacks most of her upgrades during the first encounter. "Variant" was changed to "Version" in the final, and "an" was properly fixed as "a" in the final entry as well.
*Dark Samus 2's entry mentions having Wave, Ice, and Plasma settings on her Arm Cannon. In the final game, Dark Samus does not use any of these beams, and they do not appear in Echoes (although some of their properties carry over to other weapons used by Samus).
*The sentence that mentions Dark Samus 3 becoming invisible to the Dark Visor was included in the final, and an "s" was removed from "places".
In a similar fashion, an altered entry from the Space Pirate Logs mentions an encounter with Dark Samus, in which she attacks Samus's Gunship. It is unknown if this would have been related to the atmospheric lightning strike seen during Samus's landing on Aether. It is possible that a different first encounter with both Samus and Dark Samus may have been originally planned.
==References==
Category:Real-world
Category:Metroid Prime/Dark Samus