huh figured there'd be more posts in here since last time lol
almost exactly one year later and I'm playing again, beat blade wolf on my 3rd or 4th try and then beat mistral in my first and calling it a night, just a few questions
is there a way to cycle through secondary weapons/sub weapons etc. without having to hold down one of the side dpad buttons?
Unfortunately no.
I hate hate hate the mash left stick rotate to break the stun that like all action games do, any way to rebind that at least?
No, unfortunately. This is a common complaint.
I've never played any other MGS games before, should I bother listening to the optional codecs on my first run? I figured it'll just bore me and mess up the pacing
If you're interested in the story at all of MGR, then listen to them. If not, you can skip them. MGR is mostly a self contained story, so whether you played any other MGS or not should have no bearing on your decision.
also yeah got all the basic skill upgrades and upgraded the blade strength, bought the big french arm weapon thingy and some other upgrades and now i'm in the sewers