For almost 2 decades, I didn't question my fandom of Metal Gear at all. Every game that came out from the MGS1, to MGS Peace Walker, I considered myself a fan of. Even Ground Zeroes...while a bit darker in tone than the previous games (specifically the implied forced rape by Chico and torture of Paz), I still loved the series. The Phanton Pain was the game that finally made me kinda regret getting this tattoo though.
I don't know if Kojima got to finish the game if I would have liked it better, because the underlying foundation of the whole thing seemed flawed to me. Open world does suit the narrative structure that I liked about MGS so much. Every narrative part was just so damn spread out, and the world itself is so damn empty that the open world aspect to it didn't add more fun, it just made more boredom. Also fuck regenerating health...that shit made all the boss battles TERRIBLE, which is so sad because that's something that has typically been great about MG games.
Peace Walker had a lot of the grinding aspect that carried over to TPP, but that game still managed to have a coherent and enjoyable plot. The plot of TPP was just bad, I hated the whole vocal parasite plot...and I'm still so pissed what the did to some characters like Dr. Strangelove.