Metal Gear Solid 5 Will Contain Plot "Inconsistencies"

StewShearerOld

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Metal Gear Solid 5 Will Contain Plot "Inconsistencies"



Series-creator Hideo Kojima says that Metal Gear Solid 5's nature as a prequel makes it hard to avoid "inconsistencies" when looking at "small details."

Describing the Metal Gear Solid games on a surface level is something that honestly doesn't take much effort. It's a game series about a dude who sneaks past bad guys to save the world. That said, as any fan of the franchise can tell you, that brief description would just be the tip of one of the strangest, most convoluted icebergs that the videogame industry has ever produced. As much as it's about stealth gameplay it's also giant robots, nuclear proliferation, the costs of war, private military companies, genetic engineering, cloning, nanotechnology and, of course, finding ways to weave in fart jokes and fan service.

In short, it's a bit of an odd ride and sometimes a little hard to keep straight (La-Li-Lu-Le-what?). In fact, the series has apparently gotten so complex that even its creator, Hideo Kojima may sometimes have trouble keeping the details in line. Speaking about the story of Metal Gear Solid 5 recently, he admitted that fans could probably expect to find at least a few "small" canonical contradictions while playing.

"The most important part is writing something that is fun, something that is impressive, something that is better than it was before," he said. "So sometimes in the interest of doing this, of having a better experience, we sacrifice some consistencies in the story. I hope the fans and players understand this, but I need to write the best we can, even if there are some small discrepancies." Part of the problem, he believes, also stems for Metal Gear Solid 5's nature as a prequel. "I'm pretty sure that the guys at Star Wars had the same issues. When you try to write something that was supposed to be in the middle there will be some inconsistencies when you go into very small details."

Considering some of the tremendous "what the heck just happened" moments the series has played host to in the past, we can't really see many people getting too bent out of shape if Kojima flubs a few things here and there. After all, if fans were able to forgive the whole "I'm possessed by an evil arm" shtick, we're pretty sure they can get past just about anything.

Source: <a href=http://kotaku.com/metal-gear-solid-v-might-break-canon-but-kojima-says-t-1462498245>Kotaku

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Deshin

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They did this for MGS3 as well actually. I believe they said something akin to "we don't mind changing the canon if it will make the overall story better". Specifically in MGS3 it was... wait do I need to spoiler it? It's a 10 year old game after all... Ok better safe than sorry.

MGS3 retconned
How Big Boss/Naked Snake lost his eye

It may only be a small thing but at the time people were all over the place with ideas about the game because "It can't be set in the 60s because I remember that detail being explained in MG2:Solid Snake and he was in another part of the world at the time!" etc etc.
 

Infernai

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See, this is why i like Kojima so much. Aside from how bonkers he is at times, he's at-least honest to his audience most of the time (Not including the time's he's trolled us).

Then again, I can't blame the guy: Metal Gear's entire series plot is much like trying to keep a track of everything in Dune. Bloody hard.
 

Angelous Wang

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I lost the plot of metal gear in 2 when the entire enemy base turned into a new flying metal gear which somehow crashed into a random American city.
 

Silver Patriot

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StewShearer said:
After all, if fans were able to forgive the whole "I'm possessed by an evil arm" shtick, we're pretty sure they can get past just about anything.
Well considering that he is the son of The Sorrow it was kind of believable. Though admittedly he wasn't introduced until MGS3. Not that it matters since
he was faking it anyway. Well at least by MGS4 he was faking it. According to the MGS Encyclopedia in 2 those lapses were real. Though I guess you could believe he was faking it the whole time. It doesn't really matter.

If we want to talk about flubs lets talk about Liquid's understanding of Dominant and Recessive Genes.
 

Casual Shinji

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Like how they turned Para Medic from MGS3 into Dr. Clark, the 'guy' who tortured Gray Fox. And Sigint was conveniently the DARPA Chief.

I hope they atleast don't retcon Psycho Mantis burning down his village. I wanna see that.
 

StewShearerOld

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Silver Patriot said:
StewShearer said:
After all, if fans were able to forgive the whole "I'm possessed by an evil arm" shtick, we're pretty sure they can get past just about anything.
Well considering that he is the son of The Sorrow it was kind of believable. Though admittedly he wasn't introduced until MGS3. Not that it matters since
he was faking it anyway. Well at least by MGS4 he was faking it. According to the MGS Encyclopedia in 2 those lapses were real. Though I guess you could believe he was faking it the whole time. It doesn't really matter.

If we want to talk about flubs lets talk about Liquid's understanding of Dominant and Recessive Genes.
I actually like how the whole "arm" thing wound up paying off in Metal Gear Solid 4. Doesn't change the fact that it was kind of dumb. ;)
 

EightGaugeHippo

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This is a non-issue. Fans of MGS like myself have put up with "worse" things in the story than a few flubs.

The Metal Gear experience is hard to put your finger, it's a combination of convoluted story, plot holes, stealth, conspiracy, nuclear mechs and 4th wall breaking nonsense, which some how, mixes together to create one of my favorite game franchises ever. I'm happy 5 will be more of the same.
 

AgentLampshade

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I'm more than happy to accept some plotholes. I have huge half-hour long conversations with a friend over what we believe to be the "true" canon. It's fun.
 

The White Hunter

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Man I am so disappoint at the lack of a PC version :( I really don't wanna have to shell out for a next gen console just for MGS5...
 

Something Amyss

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So it's like every other Metal Gear Solid game?

Deshin said:
I believe they said something akin to "we don't mind changing the canon if it will make the overall story better".
a shame what they end up with is a jumbled plot even Kojima can't seem to follow.
EightGaugeHippo said:
This is a non-issue. Fans of MGS like myself have put up with "worse" things in the story than a few flubs.
They've put up with MGS, in fact.

I'd go so far to say that a good chunk of the fanbase will bend over backward to justify even the silliest of holes.

After all, we've always been at war with Eastasia.
 

Something Amyss

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Mcoffey said:
That's why you need to remake Metal Gear 1 and 2 in the FOX engine, Kojima! Take that stuff where the continuity might be an issue and just rework it from the ground up to fit with all your mad genius that followed!
Maybe you can get George Lucas in on it, since he's no longer making Star Wars remakes.
 

Marik2

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This is the only series I can tolerate small inconsistencies and dumb plot points. It is a bit of the charm of the series and it does have a bit of heart.
 

Vivi22

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Casual Shinji said:
Like how they turned Para Medic from MGS3 into Dr. Clark, the 'guy' who tortured Gray Fox.
To be fair, in the original Japanese MGS script, Dr. Clark's gender was never specified. I'll take off my nerd hat now.
 

Kungfu_Teddybear

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Why is Snake looking down the iron sight with the eye that has a patch over it?

OT: I'm not really too bothered by minor inconsistencies. I wish this could get a PC release though.
 

Revnak_v1legacy

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Kungfu_Teddybear said:
Why is Snake looking down the iron sight with the eye that has a patch over it?
Probably because the engine is coded such that everyone is right handed, including Snake, so he pulls the gun up to his right eye.

Also possible is that he uses that side because he can see so many more things with his ghost eye than his real one. Like ghosts!
 

JarinArenos

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"The most important part is writing something that is fun marketable, something that is impressive attention-grabbing, something that is better than it was before easier to make into scantily-clad figurines." - translation from marketing speech.
 

teh_Canape

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Revnak said:
Kungfu_Teddybear said:
Why is Snake looking down the iron sight with the eye that has a patch over it?
Probably because the engine is coded such that everyone is right handed, including Snake, so he pulls the gun up to his right eye.

Also possible is that he uses that side because he can see so many more things with his ghost eye than his real one. Like ghosts!
I always thought it was just muscle memory
I mean, he's been shooting from that side all his life up to that point, it's gotta be a hard habit to quit