Konami has released the first video in what it calls the Metal Gear Solid Legacy series, companion videos to Metal Gear Solid: The Master Collection that offer a brief history lesson on the games' extensive history. The opening video is six minutes long and is presented by David Hayter, the voice actor for Solid Snake and Big Boss in Metal Gear Solids 1-4. Hideo Kojima is not mentioned once in the script.
We'll get into why that is in a moment, but even for Konami it's absurd. Hideo Kojima took over an existing Konami project for the MSX2 in 1987 and, realizing that the machine's capabilities limited what could be shown on screen, came up with the idea of a game that was (largely) about that to avoid conflicts. While the first two top-down games aren't nearly as polished as what was to come, they feature a wealth of ideas (the cardboard box, smoking, guided missiles, various patrol routes, codecs) that have remained at the heart of the series .
To be clear, ultimately these games were developed by teams of hundreds of people, and Kojima doesn't deserve sole credit. But he is undeniably the guiding spirit and main creative force behind Metal Gear. Kojima created the series and then co-wrote, designed and directed every other major installment until his decisive departure from Konami following the release of Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain.
The truth about what exactly happened between the Japanese publisher and its leading man has yet to be fully revealed (and may never be), although Kojima orchestrated his exit in a way that would cause many to feel enormous disgrace towards Konami He believed he was treated poorly toward the end of his time there. Whatever happened, the result was that Konami lost its greatest talent, its reputation was severely damaged, and it has behaved as if Kojima didn't exist ever since.
Hayter also had his difficulties with Kojima and made it clear that he didn't appreciate being summarily excluded from Kojima's last two games (Kiefer Sutherland took on the role of Big Boss in MGS: Ground Zeroes and MGS V: TPP). But I doubt that has anything to do with him: Hayter is both a writer and an actor, but the video's script is uncredited, and knowing how Konami tends to operate, I'd guess it's endless approvals and underwent revisions from Tokyo.
Elephant in the room aside, the video is a good quick overview of the Metal Gear series. There's nothing in it that the fans don't already know, but it's not really for us, but rather for the Snake-curious people who haven't tried the series yet (although I'm not sure what Snake is, what the Is away). to attract new players).
“The game found millions of fans around the world,” says Hayter of the release of Metal Gear Solid in 1997. “The sequels received equally critical acclaim and ultimately grew into a franchise that reshaped the gaming world and remained relevant for decades .”
However, whenever the game's development gets closer, the script simply deviates from mentioning all the names involved in the creation of the series. “It's one of the funniest, most complex and most brilliantly written video game series of all time,” says Hayter, later adding: “The developers knew that even serious games had to be fun. And they delivered.”
It feels a bit strange to say the least, and you can't really attribute it to Hayter. In fact, for existing fans, he's the best part of the video because he occasionally goes from his normal voice to the gruff Snake voice, and you know, I'm a fan of those things.
Kojima has gone from Metal Gear to massive success and his studio has several games in development. As for Konami… I do think it did pretty poorly from Kojima, but things like this just highlight that the series has had trouble moving forward since his departure. Incredibly, Metal Gear remains Konami's best-selling series, but the future seems to lie in re-releases and the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake. If the publisher can't make peace with the past, it's hard to imagine how it will ever move boldly into the future.
