Metal Gear/ Metal Gear Solid

Just to clarify, I'm not putting MGSV down as a poor game. In terms of pure gameplay it's hands down the best in the series and is highly addictive in it's own way, but storywise it's also arguably the weakest.

Unlike the other titles, Kojima really expects the player to make their own interpretations of the game's events and deliberately leaves a bunch of plot threads unanswered, all for the sake of creating a feeling of uncomfortable incompleteness. This even applies to the supposed Kingdom of the Flies mission that was cut from the final product. Where it gets confusing though is just when and how much did Konami's change of business plans affect the product, or how much was executed as intended.

Well, I will see. I can't play Guns of the Patriots anyway, so I will watch the movie. And unlike Snake Eater, the familiar cast^note this is the game that is the sequel to 2, right? means the game doesn't need to flesh characters as much. I am actually looking forward to it. If nothing else, it will be a conclusion for the characters. Portable Ops comes first on the list, though.

Btw, thanks for the spoiler tags.

edited 6th Dec '16 8:03:29 PM by Heatth

I think I'd have way less issues with MGSV if it wasn't a Metal Gear.

And the whole don't you feel the Phantom Pain garbo feels more like ex post facto justification for leaving things not done, even if it was not Kojima's fault.

To me, MGSV shares the last place with Peacewalker when it comes to my personal ranking of the series: MGSV has the advantage in the gameplay, while PW has the advantage in the story (however slight it might be).

I actually really enjoy the story of Portable Ops, even if it isn't great or anything.

edited 6th Dec '16 8:13:44 PM by RunoEddie

Well if there's a silver lining to anything I said (and I mean, I do like Guns of the Patriots, it's actually my favorite entry of the series) it's that, well, it is a conclusion.

Like Peace Walker, Rising, and Phantom Pain didn't even need to happen. Kojima did those because "lol money and creative vision." And money he received because two of those were excellently-crafted games.

I'd sacrifice ten Phantom Pains for another Rising in a heartbeat.

edited 6th Dec '16 8:17:32 PM by RunoEddie

I... actually intended for that to be a bit ambiguous and then realized that Rising wasn't technically "Kojima."

So, foke jailed.

I mean Peace Walker is the most unimpressive visually, mechanically; David Hayter's performance is arguably subpar, the lack of crawling is disgraceful, and the repetitive mission structure got churned up and recycled right back into reproduced and expanded on in The Phantom Pain. The Phantom Pain's opening sequence is painfully slow and the story just isn't there, intentional or not. Rising I have issues with because of Raiden's character development and the shift from stealth to ninja action brawler.

I have problems with all three. But while Rising is a fun spin-off, and Phantom Pain is a fun game nonetheless. Peace Walker's main redemption is the song "Heavens Divide." And I really can't justify it's existence beyond that. So of the three Peace Walker is the one I have the most beef with.

At least it's story was more poignant than Phantom Pain's?

It has the dumbest conclusion of any of the games tho*.

• I'm excluding Phantom Pain for obvious reasons.

Peace Walker also has the most braindead stealth, while also having obnoxiously long boss fights.

And grinding.

edited 6th Dec '16 8:53:29 PM by RunoEddie

I really appreciate Rising for not negating 4's relatively happy ending all in all.

Yeah, bad shit still happens, yeah, people like Raiden still need to be around, but things have improved and the world has found hope once again.

Even Otacon is getting tons of dates now! Happy endings for all!

Plus it did handle what would've plausibly happened at the end of MGS 4 (tons of PTSD-ridden mercs out of work going back into the conflict business because they don't know any other trade) fairly well. As for just how devastating would be the loss of the Patriots on an international scale, not to mention what would happen to America's reputation once that info went public, Rising either seems to downplay or outright ignore the possible ramifications.

Raiden has a conversation with Courtney where he questions her on just how much she actually knows about the Patriots - I can't say for certain, but the impression I got was that he was trying to find out just how much of the truth was actually made public, and she knew more than most of the general population. Obviously, the call was designed as an As You Know info dump for new players so they wouldn't be totally lost.

IIRC, Drebin states at the end of 4 that the U.N. would have to step their game up to fill in vacuum left by the Patriots and in many aspects fill the same roles. Ending the War Economy and putting 'the reins of History back in the hands of Man' were the most/only significant changes.

edited 7th Dec '16 1:33:01 AM by TheAirman

Raiden has had TWO happy endings and neither of them stuck because a sequel saw fit to shit all over him.

Now he's a cackling psychopath. Who saw that coming in 2001....

To be fair, Raiden is hardly the only one who suffered this just take at look at Solid Snake in the games for example.

I mean

Sort of?

He's not a straight sociopath- He's got people he cares about and is careful with who he is fighting. His big obvious character flaw seems to be mostly Pay Evil unto Evil at worst.

It's a shame we don't have a parody where Snake takes on Link's mission to unite the Triforce and vanquish Ganon again.

I don't see how "he's a cackling psychopath" isn't a happy ending for him.

Sorry if others have seen this, I just found it.◊

To be fair Rising isn't that shallow, it just does have a different style. Think of it as a as a Metal Gear fanfic created by Platinum Games. >.>

I mean, I kinda like that Rising's villains are very clearly deluded and the game doesn't pretend they have a stronger point than they do.

Rising is a Post-Metal Gear game. The days of the moral uncertainty, the destruction, the hate, is over.

Now it's a bunch of psychopaths given advanced robot bodies. And one beefy Senator.

So I installed MGS4 yesterday, and watched the first mission briefing. Started playing, but I'm unused to Metal Gear gameplay again (played through 1, 2, and 3 back to back about a year ago), so I got caught almost immediately and decided I'd come back to it when I had a little more time to figure out the mechanics instead of when I just wanted to be playing something.

There was a learning curve for me too. I finally played it all the way through a couple of months ago and once you do get used to it the game becomes a lot more enjoyable.

MGS4 kinda suffers from being a game of highs and lows, as a warning. When it's good, though, it's really good.

The game is almost a decade old. I am familiar, by now, with its highs and lows. I just haven't played it myself yet. :P

So I got my copy of the Art of Metal Gear Solid V today and had a flick through. Only one huge surprise in it: there's unused artwork of an adult Chico. There are a few designs for him but all stick with the idea that his face has been disfigured to some degree.

Beyond that nothing as shocking, some of Quiet's early sketches had her topless which should come as no surprise, there were maybe twice as many bionic arms that didn't make it past the concept stage, Snake had a full-face gasmask that looked pretty cool, the hospital sequence sketches have some real nightmarish visuals that would clearly be hallucinations (such as the scene where Venom sees his missing an arm, in the sketch he still has the bones with some strands of sinew here and there), there's one of what Skull Face would look like if his face wasn't burned and one of the third child's early concepts had him in suspenders with no shirt.