History YMMV / MetalGearSolid

* CompleteMonster: [[spoiler:Jim Houseman - the secretary of defense!]]

--> '''Campbell''': "Excellent Snake! Age hasn't slowed you down one bit!

* VocalEvolution: DavidHayter seems to portray Solid Snake as being very distant and cold through his speaking. In later games, while still very gruff, Snakes voice is warmer and more comforting.

** Similarly, Psycho Mantis's line about it being the first time he ever helped someone [[spoiler:while dying]] "feeling kind of nice" was the result of the original line, "It feels so... nostalgic", originally a reference to his mom dying from childbirth, [[NoInfantileAmnesia an event he at least recalls the emotions of]]).

** Snake's explanation about how Liquid would be "chopped up faster than an onion in an infomercial" had he ejected from the Hind was not in the Japanese script.The Japanese script, as well as the rewritten English script for the GC version, was more technical in nature, simply stating that Liquid would be chopped up by the rotor blades.

*** and it was later Retconned anyway...

* RecycledScript: Several plot elements and set pieces used in ''Game/MetalGear'' and ''MetalGear2'' reappear in ''Metal Gear Solid'' with no comment from anybody.

* YouFailBiologyForever: There's no way Les Enfants Terribles can be made to resemble actual biology; certainly they'd want Big Boss' dominant traits if they were trying to copy him (since, you know, fully recessive traits in an individual are the ones not being expressed at all) but ''Big Boss would already be expressing these traits'' and so just cloning him would be enough; there'd be no point in making a double-recessive clone other than ForTheEvulz. The script seems to believe AllGenesAreCodominant, so having all dominant alleles would make you twice as awesome as if you had a set of boring recessive ones dragging you down.

* TheWoobie: [[{{Understatement}} A few]].

** Snake's explanation about how Liquid would be "chopped up faster than an onion in an infomercial" had he ejected from the Hind was not in the Japanese script.The Japanese script, as well as the rewritten English script for the GC version, was more technical in nature, simply stating that Liquid would be chopped up by the rotor blades.

* {{Woolseyism}}: A ''lot'' of the dialogue was woolseyized in the PSX version. Mei-Ling originally quoted only Chinese proverbs in the Japanese version. She would say the original proverb in phonetic Chinese and then repeat the same proverb in Japanese. This proved to be rather difficulty to localize, since she simply ended up saying the same thing twice in English, so Blaustein expanded Mei-Ling's expertise to include Western literature and proverbs as well (This is one of the few woolseyisms retained in the remake: The Twin Snakes). Similarly, Psycho Mantis's line about it being the first time he ever helped someone [[spoiler:while dying]] "feeling kind of nice" was the result of the original line, "It feels so... nostalgic", requiring some commentary not available outside Japan to explain (basically, it was a reference to his mom dying from childbirth, [[NoInfantileAmnesia an event he at least recalls the emotions of]]), and Ocelot's line about making bullets go wherever he makes them is itself a Woolseyism. Snake's explaination about how Liquid would be "chopped up faster than an onion in an infomercial" had he ejected from the Hind was also a woolseyism (The Japanese version as well as the redone script in The Twin Snakes was more technical in nature, simply stating that he'd be chopped up by the rotor blades.). In addition, Liquid's statement that Big Boss always told Liquid he was inferior was presumably the result of a woolseyism (In the Twin Snakes script and MetalGearSolid2 's ingame novel In the Darkness of Shadow Moses, Liquid Snake instead claimed that Big Boss chose him knowingly to be the inferior one.)

* {{Woolseyism}}: Mei-Ling originally quoted only Chinese proverbs in the Japanese version. She would say the original proverb in phonetic Chinese and then repeat the same proverb in Japanese. This proved to be rather difficulty to localize, since she simply ended up saying the same thing twice in English, so Blaustein expanded Mei-Ling's expertise to include Western literature and proverbs as well.

* MissedMomentOfAwesome: Nastasha Romanenko was supposed to be on the support mission so that Snake could have someone to contact with in the case of a nuclear bomb needing to be diffused. However, such a moment never came (Not even after the fistfight against Liquid on REX where Meryl was wired to a nuclear time bomb by Liquid Snake prior to the fight--though given that the bomb ''doesn't'' go off, it might have happened off-screen...or it had an off-switch), which meant her inclusion ultimately ended up pointless, and most players called Nastasha once and ''only once'' to get some clues on the Tank boss fight. Metal Gear Solid 2's [[FilmWithinAFilm In-game novel]] attempted to explain that she was forced to participate by her ex-husband to have her act as the eyes and ears of the Patriots, but it still didn't mean anything when her job was never fulfilled. The novelization rectifies this by explaining to Snake how to dismantle a bomb that Liquid wired to Meryl shortly before their fight on REX.

** Also, most of the references to Dr. Clark's gender were added into the translation. In the Japanese version, Dr. Clark's gender was implied only once, when Snake asks Naomi Hunter if she killed Dr. Clark late into the game.

* FridgeLogic: Part of Gray Fox's backstory for this installment involves him literally getting resurrected by Dr. Clark and his team. So, yeah: science figures out how to bring someone back from death...and the process is never repeated or discussed again.
** For that matter, why did Clark even need to resurrect Fox in the first place? Remember, he wasn't trying to synthesize the world's first resurrection serum or anything; all he needed was a test subject for his prototype exoskeleton and gene therapy techniques. He could have just tested those on a ''living'' person.

* CompleteMonster:[[spoiler: Jim Houseman - the secretary of defense!]]

** [[SmartGuy Otacon]]: He's really not cut out for this sort of thing to begin with. He also is the helpless pawn who's horrified to discover what Metal Gear ''really'' is for. Also, his StockholmSyndrome for [[spoiler:Sniper Wolf]]. It would be a lot more effective if he didn't {{Wangst}} so much about it tough.

* ThatOneBoss: Psycho Mantis. [[spoiler:Very memorable, not just because he completely ''obliterates'' the FourthWall but also because of the weird shit that goes down in the battle like hysterically laughing portraits, flying jars, the camera randomly switching to ''his'' perspective, his mind control of Meryl, the screen going black while displaying only "HIDEO," and, of course, the fact that you either have to shoot the head off a statue or switch your controller's port in order to beat him]].

* AdaptationDecay: The novelization. For such a cinematic game, there's really no excuse for what's done. You'd think Raymond Benson would at least have the decency to keep the dialogue consistant with either version of the game. Not so much. Here's a bit of dialogue from the game, when Snake first calls Meryl:
-->'''Meryl:''' What's your name?\\
'''Snake:''' My name's not important.\\
'''Meryl:''' Aha! Could you be Snake? Are you Solid Snake?\\
'''Snake:''' That's what some people called me.
->And here's the same scene in the book:
--> '''Meryl:''' Who is this? [...] \\
'''Snake:''' [[CharacterDerailment I'm called Solid Snake.]]
->It's also a lot more difficult to take Snake denying his enjoyment of killing in battle when the narration has Snake muse that shooting people was a lot more satisfying than target practice. And lest we forget, [[spoiler:Miller being killed and subsequently impersonated]] is spoiled to the reader before Snake gets to the Helipad. Then again, The Twin Snakes did include a brief flashback to when Snake did kill a guard when Liquid was remarking how Snake did enjoy killing (specifically when Liquid said "I saw your face when doing it: It reflected such vitality."), and Psycho Mantis (someone who can read minds and their past) did mention that Snake was a lot worse than Liquid, and Snake technically admitting it to Meryl when she was asking him those questions in the bathroom (She said after he gave her the answers "Seeing other people die makes you feel alive, huh? You love war and don't want it to stop... Is it the same with all great soldiers throughout history?"), so it would have been hard to believe either way.

And here's the same scene in the book:

It's also a lot more difficult to take Snake denying his enjoyment of killing in battle when the narration has Snake muse that shooting people was a lot more satisfying than target practice. And lest we forget, [[spoiler:Miller being killed and subsequently impersonated]] is spoiled to the reader before Snake gets to the Helipad. Then again, The Twin Snakes did include a brief flashback to when Snake did kill a guard when Liquid was remarking how Snake did enjoy killing (specifically when Liquid said "I saw your face when doing it: It reflected such vitality."), and Psycho Mantis (someone who can read minds and their past) did mention that Snake was a lot worse than Liquid, and Snake technically admitting it to Meryl when she was asking him those questions in the bathroom (She said after he gave her the answers "Seeing other people die makes you feel alive, huh? You love war and don't want it to stop... Is it the same with all great soldiers throughout history?"), so it would have been hard to believe either way.

It's also a lot more difficult to take Snake denying his enjoyment of killing in battle when the narration has Snake muse that shooting people was a lot more satisfying than target practice. And lest we forget, [[spoiler:Miller being killed and subsequently impersonated]] is spoiled to the reader before Snake gets to the Hellipad.

* AdaptationDecay: The novelization. For such a cinematic game, there's really no excuse for what's done. You'd think Raymond Benson would at least have the decency to keep the dialogue consistant with either version of the game. Not so much. Here's a bit of dialogue from the fame, when Snake first calls Meryl:

It's also a lot more difficult to take Snake denying his enjoyment of killing in battle when the narration has Snake muse that shootingpeoplewasa lot more satisfying than target practice. And lest we forget, [[spoiler:Miller being killed and subsequently impersonated]] is spoiled to the reader before Snake gets to the Hellipad.