SPOILER: Spoiler Metal Gear Solid V (TPS) Spoiler Thread (Contains Spoilers, Thanos).

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I feel like there is something that changed with Kojima's writing post-3.

I don't want to be all "Oh, it's all because there was this other writer," because those sorts of fan theories trying to simplify years of writing down into discrete little variables is always more mythology than reality.

But... there is something odd. 1-3 had lots of dumb, poorly handled stuff, lots of goofy sexy fanservice, lots of muddled narrative that just distracted from what Kojima was trying to say. Just getting that out there now. But it also felt like they handled their themes more... naturally. Characters and plot threads always followed along the given theme of each game, sometimes in your face, sometimes indirectly. Plot twists almost always had a connection to the themes or to some kind of message to the player. There was fanservice, but the characters always felt like adults.

Then, something changed. The supposed themes either became irrelevant (what does MGS4 really have to do with "sense," other than the sense ring and soldiers having emotional states?) or even more in your face (get it? OLD snake is OLD and things have to END! PAZ, PACIFICA, PEACE WALKER, DETERRENCE, PEACE PEACE PEACE PEACE!!!! REVEEEEEEEEEENGE!). Take how nearly everybody in MGS1 happens to have a backstory related to their family, ethnicity, or blood but doesn't feel the need to say "DNA" or "genes" every other word, and compare that to "characters in Peace Walker spend 30 minutes talking about their views on nuclear deterrence or literally have 'peace' or 'hot/cold' for a name."

Plot twists seemed to be less about the themes and messages and more about taking the series lore at face value by adding more WHAT A TWIST!s to it (The Patriots were the MGS3 people! Big Boss is alive! There was a Boss AI! Paz was a double agent! It was a fake Big Boss at Outer Heaven!). EVA betraying Snake and The Boss choosing to die not only matched the theme about "the times," it also was Kojima subtly subverting the idea of playing as the legendary Big Boss by showing you that the mission that made him a legend was built on a massive lie, involved him being fooled right up til the very end, and emotionally destroyed him, all of which is important to his character development. Now he subverts that idea by, uh, having it literally be a fake Big Boss who just happened to be available and was conveniently brainwashed and modified to look, sound, and act like the real one.

Fanservice took an oddly... fetishistic turn. Meryl being 18 to Snake's 33 and all is weird, and there were tons of things like pinup posters or EVA flirting with BB by showing off her body... but that all seems light years ahead of what came after. Naomi(!?) showing off her cleavage, jiggling Rose's boobs with Sixaxis, B&Bs writhing around while you take photos (bonus: they're all mentally unstable!!!), staring at Paz's underwear and her tapes about Strangelove molesting her and unlocking underwear and bikini outfits for the girls at MSF, the camera work with Quiet. Actually, speaking of that, it's really weird that there's this constant thing of strong women falling in love with awkward nerds (Meryl x Johnny, Naomi x Otacon, Strangelove x Huey), and superpowerful supermodels who suddenly have child-like mental states (B&Bs, Quiet).


I dunno. There's elements of this stuff in the first three games, and it's not like the post-3 games have totally abandoned each of those things... they still show up to a certain extent. But it's just something I've noticed.

This does mention the Fukushima connection, but it makes for an interesting read on (some) this topic.

I just put it down to Kojima having more and more creative control, and less people around him whose influence would negate that.
 
Tomokazu Fukushima is the reason the writing changed. Who knows how the dynamic went. I always suspected that MGS3 was mostly written by Fukishima and maybe Murata, not so much Kojima.

MGS 1: Kojima and Fukushima
MGS 2: Kojima and Fukushima
MGS 3: Kojima, Fukushima, and Shuyo Murata
MPO: Gakuto Mikumo
MGS 4: Kojima, Murata
MGS Peace walker: Kojima
MGSV: Kojima?

Fukushima also wrote Ghost Babel, which was quite in line with the other MG titles.

One thing I think people overlook is MPO, but it was the last well written MG game that actually was totally in line with the previous ones and it gave you a clear idea of how the story would unfold next. I suspect Kojima had nothing to do with the story as a whole.

The big theme of MGS3 is, if you're going to live your life on the battlefield, what should you fight for? Big Boss pretty much quits at the end of MGS3, he has no more ideology, so he's just "another guy with a gun", as The Boss warned him. In MPO, he meets people who feel like their lives belong on the battlefield, and realizes that if no one leads them, someone else will. In MPO's case, it's Gene AKA Viper (oh, Venom connection?), and Viper's goal is basically to use the soldiers as pawns. Big Boss now believes that those soldiers do need some sort of place where they can belong to, but not under someone like Viper. He outright says "The place they're looking for is outside your heaven!", hence "Outer Heaven". At the end of MPO, he accepts going back to lead the new Foxhound unit (since Viper and co. were the FOX unit, and that unit rebelled and had to be taken down, FOXHOUND is created).

Big Boss basically thinks "Ok, I'll fight for those soldiers, I'll give them a reason to live".

It's clear that post MPO, eventually, Big Boss would have a falling out, realizing he's being used, or maybe even being unable to live on the battlefield without going "evil".

But then, MPO became somewhat non-canon, even though it made perfect sense for what could follow. There was no need to have the Mother Base stuff, otherwise Big Boss would have to somehow return to Foxhound again later. Just have him realize that he hasn't escaped those who manipulate him and his men which makes him create Outer Heaven secretly, putting the pieces together through connections he makes on the battlefield. Heck, you can have him be brain damaged like in MGSV, hallucinating, falling ever more towards radicalism and evil, especially as a result of what he sees on the battlefield. It would have even been possible to show him interacting with Liquid, Solid, etc., when they were younger. Saving Gray Fox and Naomi, everything could work out.

Everything was fine really, there was no need to reinvent the whole story, everything was on track and there was enough of a lack of information to tell great new stories.
 
Edit: Sorry, forgot to ask. Eli is definitely Liquid right? He fails the DNA test 'cause it's not the real BB and during your small fight with him in Africa he says "It's not over yet, Snake!"

Ofcourse he is.

Eli, as in Eli and David.
White Mamba
And the removed ending pretty much confirms it.

I actually think Eli was the best character in this game.
 
Given the timeline we have post MGSV when does Big Boss run Foxhound? When does he train Solid?

We have no idea. We can only assume that he is now handling FOXHOUND while the events of MGSV take place, I think. Because otherwise we are left with no explanation of just what the fuck is the real BB doing the whole time.
 
We have no idea. We can only assume that he is now handling FOXHOUND while the events of MGSV take place, I think. Because otherwise we are left with no explanation of just what the fuck is the real BB doing the whole time.

Building his own "Nation" so yeah, I guess FOXHOUND is a part of that.


So, err, unless I'm missing something in my lore knowledge... What the fuck happens to Sahelanthropos, Eli and the child soldiers in the end?
 
I don't believe Huey was really supposed to be the traitor. It sounds more like Miller would have been the one. It's really weird, it feels like the game is setting up Miller to eventually become a villain, which would make sense if eventually he becomes Solid's "master" and supports him against Big Boss in MG2. Like Miller is using Solid Snake to eventually have Big Boss killed. Also, Miller would want Huey dead so he doesn't go and create some MG.

But like everything else in this game, it leads nowhere.

edit: Is Hal a clone of Huey? Wouldn't surprise me that Kojima was planning to make that some plot twist, that for some reason Huey preferred to clone himself than have a child. He's identical.

edit2: Quiet is probably supposed to be almost naked to look vulnerable to Big Boss or that he falls in love with her, so he doesn't kill her, since she has the virus strain. I don't know. Something related to Paz I bet. Something along the lines of "they were the perfect trojan horse", made to look innocent, but carrying a deadly virus/weapon.

edit: Another sign stuff was cut is how when V listens to the final tape, BB tells him something like "So you finally remember who you really are?" as if something was supposed to happen previous to this that would cause V to know the truth.
 
Quiet spoiler from Burns review

So far the explanation for Quiet's lack of clothes is laughable (it involves, of course, photosynthesis – she can't 'breathe' with clothes on) and cheapens the story, as do the frequent butt shots of her and other women, including a member of a Borg-like undead sniper team. Then there's the mystical tribal leader with magical powers...it's crap, and barring some stunning late-game about-face should have been excised or changed long before it got into the final game.

#teamnotashamed

The game is available. Those of you who've played it, is this confirmed to be the reason for Quiet's "erotic" design? Because I wasn't able to find any confirmation on Wikia yet.

If so, is it that she has to have exposed skin, or is it that she has to wear erotically designed clothes? Because Kojima didn't say "design her so that lots of skin is exposed", he said "design her erotically". Aha, semantics. He would've had a case had he only said "expose her skin."
 
The game is available. Those of you who've played it, is this confirmed to be the reason for Quiet's "erotic" design? Because I wasn't able to find any confirmation on Wikia yet.

If so, is it that she has to have exposed skin, or is it that she has to wear erotically designed clothes? Because Kojima didn't say "design her so that lots of skin is exposed", he said "design her erotically". Aha, semantics. He would've had a case had he only said "expose her skin."

"And also make her b00bs gigantic."
 
edit2: Quiet is probably supposed to be almost naked to look vulnerable to Big Boss or that he falls in love with her, so he doesn't kill her, since she has the virus strain. I don't know. Something related to Paz I bet. Something along the lines of "they were the perfect trojan horse", made to look innocent, but carrying a deadly virus/weapon.

But so far it's just a theory? Nnnn... my jimmies...

Quiet's design alone ordinarily wouldn't get at me. But... but he said "erotic!" I was hoping he had solid intentions that would be solidly explained to me and I would be all "Oh! My words and deeds!" I thought I would be proven wrong! But alas, he's still Kojima. Not that he isn't a genius, but to quote someone else who spoke on this topic, he can be daft sometimes.
 
I feel like there is something that changed with Kojima's writing post-3.

I don't want to be all "Oh, it's all because there was this other writer," because those sorts of fan theories trying to simplify years of writing down into discrete little variables is always more mythology than reality.

But... there is something odd. 1-3 had lots of dumb, poorly handled stuff, lots of goofy sexy fanservice, lots of muddled narrative that just distracted from what Kojima was trying to say. Just getting that out there now. But it also felt like they handled their themes more... naturally. Characters and plot threads always followed along the given theme of each game, sometimes in your face, sometimes indirectly. Plot twists almost always had a connection to the themes or to some kind of message to the player. There was fanservice, but the characters always felt like adults.

Then, something changed. The supposed themes either became irrelevant (what does MGS4 really have to do with "sense," other than the sense ring and soldiers having emotional states?) or even more in your face (get it? OLD snake is OLD and things have to END! PAZ, PACIFICA, PEACE WALKER, DETERRENCE, PEACE PEACE PEACE PEACE!!!! REVEEEEEEEEEENGE!). Take how nearly everybody in MGS1 happens to have a backstory related to their family, ethnicity, or blood but doesn't feel the need to say "DNA" or "genes" every other word, and compare that to "characters in Peace Walker spend 30 minutes talking about their views on nuclear deterrence or literally have 'peace' or 'hot/cold' for a name."

Plot twists seemed to be less about the themes and messages and more about taking the series lore at face value by adding more WHAT A TWIST!s to it (The Patriots were the MGS3 people! Big Boss is alive! There was a Boss AI! Paz was a double agent! It was a fake Big Boss at Outer Heaven!). EVA betraying Snake and The Boss choosing to die not only matched the theme about "the times," it also was Kojima subtly subverting the idea of playing as the legendary Big Boss by showing you that the mission that made him a legend was built on a massive lie, involved him being fooled right up til the very end, and emotionally destroyed him, all of which is important to his character development. Now he subverts that idea by, uh, having it literally be a fake Big Boss who just happened to be available and was conveniently brainwashed and modified to look, sound, and act like the real one.

Fanservice took an oddly... fetishistic turn. Meryl being 18 to Snake's 33 and all is weird, and there were tons of things like pinup posters or EVA flirting with BB by showing off her body... but that all seems light years ahead of what came after. Naomi(!?) showing off her cleavage, jiggling Rose's boobs with Sixaxis, B&Bs writhing around while you take photos (bonus: they're all mentally unstable!!!), staring at Paz's underwear and her tapes about Strangelove molesting her and unlocking underwear and bikini outfits for the girls at MSF, the camera work with Quiet. Actually, speaking of that, it's really weird that there's this constant thing of strong women falling in love with awkward nerds (Meryl x Johnny, Naomi x Otacon, Strangelove x Huey), and superpowerful supermodels who suddenly have child-like mental states (B&Bs, Quiet).


I dunno. There's elements of this stuff in the first three games, and it's not like the post-3 games have totally abandoned each of those things... they still show up to a certain extent. But it's just something I've noticed.

I don't want to attempt to generalize it into one thing either, but a part of me feels like the answer boils down to:

Kojima's run out of stuff to say.

I like Kojima as a writer well enough - batshit crazy stuff and all - but I think he has a limited pool of knowledge and interests to draw from. And, eventually, it started showing after MGS3.

His recycling of certain tropes, character traits, and themes - though praised by part of the community - demonstrates this, particularly in the way some of them degraded over time as he tried to figure out new ways to say the same thing, but less effectively. Some have defended the recycling with "that's part of the point!" but I also think that sort of thinking is a reflexive attempt at bulletproofing the actual shortcomings in Kojima's writing.
 
I feel like there is something that changed with Kojima's writing post-3.

I don't want to be all "Oh, it's all because there was this other writer," because those sorts of fan theories trying to simplify years of writing down into discrete little variables is always more mythology than reality.

But... there is something odd. 1-3 had lots of dumb, poorly handled stuff, lots of goofy sexy fanservice, lots of muddled narrative that just distracted from what Kojima was trying to say. Just getting that out there now. But it also felt like they handled their themes more... naturally. Characters and plot threads always followed along the given theme of each game, sometimes in your face, sometimes indirectly. Plot twists almost always had a connection to the themes or to some kind of message to the player. There was fanservice, but the characters always felt like adults.

Then, something changed. The supposed themes either became irrelevant (what does MGS4 really have to do with "sense," other than the sense ring and soldiers having emotional states?) or even more in your face (get it? OLD snake is OLD and things have to END! PAZ, PACIFICA, PEACE WALKER, DETERRENCE, PEACE PEACE PEACE PEACE!!!! REVEEEEEEEEEENGE!). Take how nearly everybody in MGS1 happens to have a backstory related to their family, ethnicity, or blood but doesn't feel the need to say "DNA" or "genes" every other word, and compare that to "characters in Peace Walker spend 30 minutes talking about their views on nuclear deterrence or literally have 'peace' or 'hot/cold' for a name."

Plot twists seemed to be less about the themes and messages and more about taking the series lore at face value by adding more WHAT A TWIST!s to it (The Patriots were the MGS3 people! Big Boss is alive! There was a Boss AI! Paz was a double agent! It was a fake Big Boss at Outer Heaven!). EVA betraying Snake and The Boss choosing to die not only matched the theme about "the times," it also was Kojima subtly subverting the idea of playing as the legendary Big Boss by showing you that the mission that made him a legend was built on a massive lie, involved him being fooled right up til the very end, and emotionally destroyed him, all of which is important to his character development. Now he subverts that idea by, uh, having it literally be a fake Big Boss who just happened to be available and was conveniently brainwashed and modified to look, sound, and act like the real one.

Fanservice took an oddly... fetishistic turn. Meryl being 18 to Snake's 33 and all is weird, and there were tons of things like pinup posters or EVA flirting with BB by showing off her body... but that all seems light years ahead of what came after. Naomi(!?) showing off her cleavage, jiggling Rose's boobs with Sixaxis, B&Bs writhing around while you take photos (bonus: they're all mentally unstable!!!), staring at Paz's underwear and her tapes about Strangelove molesting her and unlocking underwear and bikini outfits for the girls at MSF, the camera work with Quiet. Actually, speaking of that, it's really weird that there's this constant thing of strong women falling in love with awkward nerds (Meryl x Johnny, Naomi x Otacon, Strangelove x Huey), and superpowerful supermodels who suddenly have child-like mental states (B&Bs, Quiet).


I dunno. There's elements of this stuff in the first three games, and it's not like the post-3 games have totally abandoned each of those things... they still show up to a certain extent. But it's just something I've noticed.

Maybe it's just me, but I felt like this tone was well in effect before Phantom Pain, starting with Peace Walker. Peace Walker and on, basically.
 
I was thinking again about MPO. It even works well with MGSV if you change only little details.

1- Gene/Viper was part of the "Successor Project" which was set on finding a replacement for The Boss, the Ultimate Commander, someone with unmatched charisma who could control troops. In the game, this is shown as Gene having a voice that hypnotizes soldiers, he can even force them to kill one another. Eventually he is defeated by Big Boss, who criticizes Gene for misusing the soldiers for his own end, and Gene realizes and admits his error and that Big Boss is the true successor to The Boss. He gives him his funds/etc., hoping that Big Boss will be able to create some sort of haven for the soldiers. Plus, Gene/Viper tells him "you will inherit my genes, my meme", hence Venom Snake; he has been "infected", figuratively, by Viper's idea, but in a good way.

2- When I saw the trailers for MGSV, I thought there was some sort of SOP precursor in place that controlled people. You see BB force a soldier to stab him by grabbing his hand and pushing the knife on himself, as if he is trying to force soldiers to attack him and realizes they can't, soldiers fight each other, there are zombie-like enemies (the skulls) and a villain that looks like a zombie. Zombies are traditionally in voodoo lore dead/mind-controlled people, so it did fit that the main baddie would look like one, including his elite troops. Mantis was also known to be in the game, and even what looked like Volgin. So the dead being back to life, and even the living being under mind control seemed to be part of the plot. I thought this SOP-like system would be used to justify how you can punch/shoot your own soldiers without them shooting back.

3- Well we have the parasite(s) that is carried through words. Which sounds almost like a biologically synthesized version of Gene's power to control his troops with his voice (or maybe that's what Gene really had, whatever). So one could theoretically use this power to control troops like Gene did, in this case Skull Face, and this is how he would have managed to take over Cipher's troops/XOF.
"Since ancient times, every civilization's ruler has had the same idea. When people unite under one will, they become stronger than the sum of their parts. And what do rulers use to bring people together? Language."
―Code Talker"

That's not what the parasites do in the game, but it's in line with MPO and the MG lore as a whole regarding Big Boss/The Boss. It's like the purpose of the parasite was changed during development. The guide says Quiet doesn't speak out of loyalty to Big Boss. Was she supposed to carry that same power, and hence didn't want to use it because she was loyal to him?

4- What do you do with that story? Have anyone who is loyal to Big Boss be immune to being mind-controlled, simply because Big Boss "really is the true successor", or rather, he has that same quality The Boss had. So you have a nice setup here where over the course of the game Big Boss realizes the figurative power he has, how important he is to those who belong on the battlefield. It's a bit of a rehearse of what MPO already did, but it's strange how close it actually is to what is happening in MGSV.

5- On the other hand, Eli, never becomes loyal to Big Boss, because, well he's Liquid, he would never become loyal to anyone else but himself, and you could even explain it through his genetic makeup. Solidus on the other hand is the opposite, he's loyal to Big Boss all the way, he's a perfect copy. Solid is his own thing, he chooses his own path.
 
*QUIET SPOILERS*

So, like an idiot, I saw Quiet's ending because I heard she dies. It was sad (because she's my favorite character!), but I heard that there's a way to keep her. I'm not close to that mission yet, but do I have to complete it? lol! Can she be a permanent partner?
 
Edit: Sorry, forgot to ask. Eli is definitely Liquid right? He fails the DNA test 'cause it's not the real BB and during your small fight with him in Africa he says "It's not over yet, Snake!"

Yeah the Endgame scrolling dialogue confirms that Eli is Liquid .
 
If only Kojima didn't try to do an M. Night twist.

Doing the concept, but not trying to be coy about it until the end, would have been better. Have that mystery revealed to the character partway through the game, perhaps at the beginning of Chapter 2, then you have a lot of story potential to explore.

The way it's handled just screams "Look how clever I am" when, in actuality, people who assumed Kojima would go for something ridiculous predicted the twist years ago. The thing stopping people from believing it wasn't it being cleverly hidden, but thinking there's no way Kojima would do something that silly.

It's like a parody of MGS2's hidden protagonist. It's badly conceived of, and has no thematic relevance.

That's Big Boss done. His arc ruined. Why? "See how Big Boss goes from soldier to villain ... nope". Heck, Phantom Ganon is probably a better Big Boss. He's placid, fair, forgiving, he's a good leader. He didn't fuck off to play Wolverine while his best friend was in need of immediate rescue.

KOJIMA!

*QUIET SPOILERS*

So, like an idiot, I saw Quiet's ending because I heard she dies. It was sad (because she's my favorite character!), but I heard that there's a way to keep her. I'm not close to that mission yet, but do I have to complete it? lol! Can she be a permanent partner?

Just avoid doing her final mission. There are some conditions to keeping her, like having a Butterfly symbol in your emblem, but the details aren't clear. So when you see Quiet's final mission doing do it, at least until details on how to keep her clear up.
 
If only Kojima didn't try to do an M. Night twist.

Doing the whole Medic thing, but not trying to be coy about it until the end, would have been better. Have that mystery revealed to the character partway through the game, perhaps at the beginning of Chapter 2, then you have a lot of story potential to explore.

The way it's handled just screams "Look how clever I am" when, in actuality, people who assumed Kojima would go for something ridiculous predicted the twist years ago. The thing stopping people from believing it wasn't it being cleverly hidden, but thinking there's no way Kojima would do something that silly.

It's like a parody of MGS2's hidden protagonist. It's badly conceived of, and has no thematic relevance.

That's Big Boss done. His arc ruined. Why? "See how Big Boss goes from soldier to villain ... nope". Heck, Phantom Ganon is probably a better Big Boss. He's placid, fair, forgiving, he's a good leader. He didn't fuck off to play Wolverine while his best friend was in need of immediate rescue.

KOJIMA!

I would be able to deal with this twist a lot better if we actually saw more of the real Big Boss in the game. Have the twist be revealed early on, maybe by the halfway point, and see Big Boss' manipulations/descent into evil like that. Kind of like how not playing as Snake was disappointing at first in 2, but his character development as the older wise soldier to Raiden was still really good. (I think I like Snake's characterization in 2 the best despite not playing as him)
 
I would be able to deal with this twist a lot better if we actually saw more of the real Big Boss in the game. Have the twist be revealed early on, maybe by the halfway point, and see Big Boss' manipulations/descent into evil like that. Kind of like how not playing as Snake was disappointing at first in 2, but his character development as the older wise soldier to Raiden was still really good. (I think I like Snake's characterization in 2 the best despite not playing as him)

Right.

A much better way of revealing that would be stumbling across Big Boss. Meeting him, face to face. Seeing how your character has to deal with that.

It was just badly done.
 
Remember in MGS3, Big Boss has lost his eye, he's in a cave, a butterfly flies around him, he tries to grab it but fails, because he is not yet accustomed to having only one eye? Later on when he makes some C4, he shapes it into a butterfly, throws it in the air and catches it "Gotcha this time!", to tell us that he has now gotten used to being one-eyed.

In MGSV, when Paz explodes again/disappears, there's a butterfly flying around him. He catches it, like in MGS3, and succeeds. But when he opens his hand, there is no butterfly.

Deep.

edit: There's no evil Big Boss, we never saw a hint of a bad Big Boss, not even in MGSV. Only in MG1/2.
 
Has anyone found this scene yet?

01_Metal_Gear_Solid_V_The_Phantom_Pain_E3_2014_trailer_nuclear_mike_oldfield.jpg

Maybe it ties into the demon points system? Curios because of the horn.
 
Remember in MGS3, Big Boss has lost his eye, he's in a cave, a butterfly flies around him, he tries to grab it but fails, because he is not yet accustomed to having only one eye? Later on when he makes some C4, he shapes it into a butterfly, throws it in the air and catches it "Gotcha this time!", to tell us that he has now gotten used to being one-eyed.

In MGSV, when Paz explodes again/disappears, there's a butterfly flying around him. He catches it, like in MGS3, and succeeds. But when he opens his hand, there is no butterfly.

Deep.

edit: There's no evil Big Boss, we never saw a hint of a bad Big Boss, not even in MGSV. Only in MG1/2.

Liquid spoke about how Big Boss would tell him he was the inferior one in MGS1, and in PW I did start feel a shift in his personality being a bit more cold. GZ even more so.

I wouldn't say we only saw the good in him.
 
If only Kojima didn't try to do an M. Night twist.

Doing the concept, but not trying to be coy about it until the end, would have been better. Have that mystery revealed to the character partway through the game, perhaps at the beginning of Chapter 2, then you have a lot of story potential to explore.

The way it's handled just screams "Look how clever I am" when, in actuality, people who assumed Kojima would go for something ridiculous predicted the twist years ago. The thing stopping people from believing it wasn't it being cleverly hidden, but thinking there's no way Kojima would do something that silly.

It's like a parody of MGS2's hidden protagonist. It's badly conceived of, and has no thematic relevance.

That's Big Boss done. His arc ruined. Why? "See how Big Boss goes from soldier to villain ... nope". Heck, Phantom Ganon is probably a better Big Boss. He's placid, fair, forgiving, he's a good leader. He didn't fuck off to play Wolverine while his best friend was in need of immediate rescue.

KOJIMA!



Just avoid doing her final mission. There are some conditions to keeping her, like having a Butterfly symbol in your emblem, but the details aren't clear. So when you see Quiet's final mission doing do it, at least until details on how to keep her clear up.

Got it! Thank you.
 
Liquid spoke about how Big Boss would tell him he was the inferior one in MGS1, and in PW I did start feel a shift in his personality being a bit more cold. GZ even more so.

I wouldn't say we only saw the good in him.

Never saw a hint of it in PW. As for Liquid, that's what Liquid said, but since we actually saw BB in MGS he has always been a good guy. Miller is more evil. BB won't kill Quiet, won't kill Huey, won't even kill Skullface.

And if anyone says "well it's not Big Boss", it's still him who goes to make OH. So either way, there really is no sign of him being evil at all even after MGSV, except if you consider him having blood on his face in some cutscenes, mostly not even in the game.

I remember how MPO's promotional material said "find out why Big Boss wanted to fight Solid Snake!" and "the truth about Operation N313!", but in the end there was nothing at all about it, unless you consider that Elisa told him his sons would ruin (and save) the world, in which case BB wanted to kill SS to save the world?

In each game we're supposed to find out why BB creates OH, we never do, plus now it's not even BB and it doesn't even matter either way since he's still a good guy.

Edit: even people in this thread say "oh the real BB is so evil he used medic all the way and tells him he's gonna die!" But that's bull. The ending is the same as MGS2, he calls him friend, how he is as much BB as the real one so he can carry on even if his memories are not his original ones. It's the MGS2 Snake speech to Raiden. There is nothing evil about it.

On that topic, it really felt like we went through MGS2 again. Even Liquid escapes with Metal Gear at the end. And like MGS2, we don't know what is real. Why does an MSX turn on when V puts the tape in? We even have all those weird glitches as if it's possibly all VR. In MGS2, we never know at the end what is real either; infinite ammo bandana, etc.

Arsenal Gear was like being inside a whale. Moby Dick, Ishmael. It's all connected in a way to the Patriots tricks in MGS2.
 
It's like a parody of MGS2's hidden protagonist. It's badly conceived of, and has no thematic relevance.

The thematic relevance in MGSV has to do with Legends. It's a recurring point in the series to point out how legends aren't all they are cracked up to be. Solid Snake talks about this plainly in MGS1 and MGS2 and its shown firsthand in MGS3 with Big Boss. Here we find out Big Boss' exploits weren't all that, as Eva points out in MGS4.

The problem is that it disregards aspects of storyline consistency to shoehorn that theme in and it also makes things a little too obvious. Not to imply MGS1, 2, and 3 were subtle. Naomi plainly states genes should not chain your fate. Solid Snake and Solidus plainly tell Raiden you pass on more than just DNA. In her very first radio convo, the Boss tells Naked Snake that today's friends may be tomorrow's enemies. For all the easter eggs, references, and double meanings, these are not exactly 'read between the line' games. But otherwise they were carried with a certain finesse and totality that V lacks, not to mention V's main themes are supposedly Race and Revenge, not legends.

I think MGSV has artistic merit but agree with most criticisms about how it tried to tell its messages.
 
I beat every single mission in the game and nothing.
So cut content includes
-bloody face scream
bpdkc1i8l1lp0ds5sfdz.gif


-eli ending

-torture scene at Camp Omega


-kids on the tank
2601002-mgs.jpg


anyone seen the scene with the child soldiers kids being trained?
child-soldiers.png


or this?
tumblr_n6waykX7351tc57f5o6_250.gif


If those were made for trailers only than that's a huge waste of money, but I get the feeling that they were cut because Konami wanted the game to be shipped so unfinished things had to get cut.
 
If only Kojima didn't try to do an M. Night twist.

Doing the concept, but not trying to be coy about it until the end, would have been better. Have that mystery revealed to the character partway through the game, perhaps at the beginning of Chapter 2, then you have a lot of story potential to explore.

The way it's handled just screams "Look how clever I am" when, in actuality, people who assumed Kojima would go for something ridiculous predicted the twist years ago. The thing stopping people from believing it wasn't it being cleverly hidden, but thinking there's no way Kojima would do something that silly.

It's like a parody of MGS2's hidden protagonist. It's badly conceived of, and has no thematic relevance.

Absolutely this. The twist could have worked quite well if Kojima explored both the story and character repercussions of the revelation (like MGS1/MGS2 did). Instead, it's just 'hey, what a shocking twist!' right at the end. I feel like it works even less, because Kojima's purposefully made Venom such a detached character from the player as it is (as he's seemingly just a player avatar). I want to see the fallout of Venom's revelation outside of a brief cutscene. There's so much potential there! It's such a shame, too, as Venom showed the most character in the removed Episode 51 cutscenes with Eli.
 
So cut content includes


If those were made for trailers only than that's a huge waste of money, but I get the feeling that they were cut because Konami wanted the game to be shipped so unfinished things had to get cut.

Did the other MGS games have this much stuff from the trailers not ending up in the game?

And I still don't know what happened with the taboo thing what could've led to Kojima quitting the industry.

Really looking like Kojima couldn't fully realize everything with Konami putting their foot down on the game's release date/budget.
 
I'm guessing that those cut scenes might be why Kojima fell out with Konami. Maybe they were trying to rush him, started telling him to cut content, he disagreed and got usurped, lost PT, and now we have a game that's missing a fair amount of possible cut content?
 
Did the other MGS games have this much stuff from the trailers not ending up in the game?

And I still don't know what happened with the taboo thing what could've led to Kojima quitting the industry.

Really looking like Kojima couldn't fully realize everything with Konami putting their foot down on the game's release date/budget.

MGS2 had altered scenes, but that was for the story.

I'm guessing that those cut scenes might be why Kojima fell out with Konami. Maybe they were trying to rush him, started telling him to cut content, he disagreed and got usurped, lost PT, and now we have a game that's missing a fair amount of possible cut content?

It's possible Konami stamped out any additional content last year, and forced Kojima to polish the game up? It's been a while since the falling out. Who knows at this point...
 
MGS should've went the FF or Elders Scroll route. Disparate characters and even universes.

Creating a huge interconnected narrative across 9 games was bound to have problems.

It really comes down to a writer's skill and care for making a cohesive, consistent narrative.

For example, although the game didn't have as many installments, the Front Mission franchise does have a pretty complex storyline across all of the games when you get down to it. Hell, there was shit that was literally foreshadowed in games that were made a decade apart.

However, there are no retcons, dropped plot threads, or inconsistencies; the entire overarching narrative and backstory for an entire political world makes sense and was written with great care.

For better or for worse, Kojima went for the meta twists at the expense of the overarching narrative that players became invested in over this multi-decade long franchise.
 
Thank god mission 31 wasn't the ending. That would have been the most unsatisfying ending in recent memory.

The pacing of this game is all over the place. 31 spoilers
Does anything happen if you don't kill Skullface?
 
Did the other MGS games have this much stuff from the trailers not ending up in the game?

And I still don't know what happened with the taboo thing what could've led to Kojima quitting the industry.

Really looking like Kojima couldn't fully realize everything with Konami putting their foot down on the game's release date/budget.
I'm guessing that those cut scenes might be why Kojima fell out with Konami. Maybe they were trying to rush him, started telling him to cut content, he disagreed and got usurped, lost PT, and now we have a game that's missing a fair amount of possible cut content?
#FuckKonami if true.
 
I think it's pretty obvious that child soldiers were what Kojima was referring to. All of the "cut" content revolves around them.
 
one of the biggest problems with this game is literally the nothing, fetch quest, etc, missions, before we actually get into some sparse story cutscene, and relegating most of the story to a codec replacement as the cassete tapes is the most jarring of all, especially in a series thats had such a heavy focus on story
 
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