Hideo Kojima Isn't Trying to Tell a Story

[Truly-A-Lie]

That bit about Snake being unable to live with Meryl after Shadow Moses due to excessive drinking and general not-goodness. He didn't really get his life "on track" again until he joined Philanthropy.

Assuming I'm remembering that from the essay correctly, and assuming it's true, there seems to be only one logical conclusion: Snake and peace don't mix.

There's definitely going to be shit going down after Metal Gear Solid 4's ending, and considering Snake may not take to the quiet life very well (unless he decides to raise huskies again and stay away from civilization), he could very well go back to war.

And considering the technology, they may go so far as to give him a new body. Or a clone. Or something. It's Metal Gear, so it's not out of the question for them to pull something like that out their asses.

Oh of course. While I do hope they have the guts to legitimately kill him off, I know that Metal Gear characters staying dead is about as likely as Kojima actually managing to leave the series alone for good. At least Snake returning to the battlefield makes sense though I suppose.

 

[CrazyBlaze]

Drop the player into a cutscene and you have free reign to tell a tight story, at the cost of completely sacrificing gameplay

I have to call BS here. Yes many games give up gameplay for story but thats not always true. What about a game like Jak 2? Cutscence heavy but its game play mechanics help it tell the story. Or at least the missions do. I mean you are in a resistance fighting an overwhelmingly strong army. So missions like destroying [spoilers] the walking bombs or the upgraged Helicats [/spoilers] were you are facing down tough foes are adding to the core game. And then there is one on rails section that everyone who has played Jax 2 knows and knows how tough that can be. That sure makes you feel like a lone resistance fighter against an army. Its a game where the story and the gameplay combine to make a great combined experience. At least IMHO.

 

[BBboy20]

Peace Walker wrapped everything up nicely.

4 wrapped everything up, Peace Walker only showed more layers of what went went down in the past that would transpire to the later games.

Big Boss' story though isn't over yet.

In regards of what's next for Metal Gear after Solid 4 (chronologically...unless they reboot it), I think fans don't mind a new direction of narrative...well, do they?

 

[Shocksplicer]

Considering that Hideo Kojima is one of the worst storytellers I have ever encountered I'd greatly appreciate if he'd stop trying to tell a story. Because it's pretty excruciating when he does...

 

[Truly-A-Lie]

Peace Walker wrapped everything up nicely.

4 wrapped everything up, Peace Walker only showed more layers of what went went down in the past that would transpire to the later games.

Big Boss' story though isn't over yet.

In regards of what's next for Metal Gear after Solid 4 (chronologically...unless they reboot it), I think fans don't mind a new direction of narrative...well, do they?

Yeah I meant 4 and Peace Walker together wrapped everything up. 4 closed off all the characters stories, while Peace Walker showed the transformation of Naked Snake into Big Boss, leader of Outer Heaven. I don't think there's anything else that needs to be told. The only other thing that hasn't been done on screen is Big Boss returning to America to resume command of Foxhound, and that's pretty much just backstory, it doesn't need a game to itself. The entire cast of characters has finished their arcs, which leaves two options. First, you could add a new story on the end for some of those characters, which undoes the closure they had at the end of MGS4, or you could make a whole new cast of characters, in which case it would make more sense to just make a new series.

 

[Lord Beautiful]

Oh of course. While I do hope they have the guts to legitimately kill him off, I know that Metal Gear characters staying dead is about as likely as Kojima actually managing to leave the series alone for good. At least Snake returning to the battlefield makes sense though I suppose.

Also, if Kojima continues the pattern set by previous even and odd-numbered MGSs, 5 might drop the player hatred and just focus on being awesome.

 

[Cognimancer]

Drop the player into a cutscene and you have free reign to tell a tight story, at the cost of completely sacrificing gameplay

I have to call BS here. Yes many games give up gameplay for story but thats not always true. What about a game like Jak 2? Cutscence heavy but its game play mechanics help it tell the story. Or at least the missions do. I mean you are in a resistance fighting an overwhelmingly strong army. So missions like destroying [spoilers] the walking bombs or the upgraged Helicats [/spoilers] were you are facing down tough foes are adding to the core game. And then there is one on rails section that everyone who has played Jax 2 knows and knows how tough that can be. That sure makes you feel like a lone resistance fighter against an army. Its a game where the story and the gameplay combine to make a great combined experience. At least IMHO.

I agree completely there, the Jak games had good cutscenes but didn't rely on them completely; the gameplay and setting reinforced the story. What I meant was that while the player is in a cutscene, they're watching a movie, not playing a game. Of course cutscenes, if done well, can greatly enrich a game's story in a way that the player might not appreciate if they were still in control of the character (in a cutscene you know they won't be looking the wrong way and miss something, or do something silly that undermines the drama), but leaning on them too heavily makes them more of a crutch.