Best review of MGS4

[A.G.]

Agree 100% percent! That’s why the series ended there, not with 5.

[Cerberus_0408]

I feel that MGS5 literally explains itself. It's called a 'phantom pain' cuz the storyline sucks. Players would literally feel a pain and though it's not actually experienced it's still a sensation they have. As seen here:

"Phantom pain sensations are described as perceptions that an individual experiences relating to a limb or an organ that is not physically part of the body. Limb loss is a result of either removal by amputation or congenital limb deficiency.[1] However, phantom limb sensations can also occur following nerve avulsion or spinal cord injury."

In this case, MGS5 is so named because 'phantom limb sensations are perceptions a person experiences relating to a disappointment of a game whose story is not part of the main canon.'

Phantom is used as a double entendre throughout the game. Even Miller says something along the lines of "we are phantoms."

[fgdj2000]

Kojima was definitely going for something like this. This is the reason why there is no climactic 1 on 1 fight with Skull Face and he just dies and is gone. Basically, in Chapter 1 you build up your whole base, new characters are added and it all grows, but with the start of Chapter 2 (Skull Face's death) you lose much of it piece by piece. First, you "lose" the main villain of the story, then the children leave, Sahelanthropus is taken by Liquid, another outbreak takes many of your comrades (and forces you to do it), Quiet leaves and finally, your identity is stripped from you and you are forced to face the fact, that everything was really a big distraction from the real Big Boss Outer Heaven origin story happening off-screen.
The game's story has a lot of issues in its execution though: bad pacing, awkward acting, poorly realised characters. For me, it's kind of like the Star Wars prequels: a good story told poorly. The gameplay nailed it for me though.

[Cerberus_0408]

Hell, even SW7 farked things up to me. Seriously don't get how the hell it was a total ripoff from A New Hope. Some flaws I saw included...

-Fully conditioned stormtrooper can somehow 'forget' his training and defect to the light side
-Empire NEVER seems to learn from its mistakes and builds a third death star
-Random Force-sensitive character appears out of nowhere for no other reason than story advancement
-The junk will do? "THE JUNK WILL f...ckING DO?!" Well, why didn't you go for 'the junk' IN THE FIRST PLACE?!
-Bane's voice ripped off in Kylo Ren


I can carry on bitching but it just makes me more frustrated.

[A.G.]

Jan 3, 2018 7:20:34 GMT -5 fgdj2000 said:

Kojima was definitely going for something like this. This is the reason why there is no climactic 1 on 1 fight with Skull Face and he just dies and is gone. Basically, in Chapter 1 you build up your whole base, new characters are added and it all grows, but with the start of Chapter 2 (Skull Face's death) you lose much of it piece by piece. First, you "lose" the main villain of the story, then the children leave, Sahelanthropus is taken by Liquid, another outbreak takes many of your comrades (and forces you to do it), Quiet leaves and finally, your identity is stripped from you and you are forced to face the fact, that everything was really a big distraction from the real Big Boss Outer Heaven origin story happening off-screen.
The game's story has a lot of issues in its execution though: bad pacing, awkward acting, poorly realised characters. For me, it's kind of like the Star Wars prequels: a good story told poorly. The gameplay nailed it for me though.

If such malice was indeed intentional then it makes me dislike Kojima that much more. That’s just a dick move.

[fgdj2000]

If such malice was indeed intentional then it makes me dislike Kojima that much more. That’s just a dick move.

I guess that's what people were saying in 2002.

[Cerberus_0408]

To be fair, I think that the 'dick move' only began when games like PO, PW and PP came out. Rather than give us the more significant stuff we get irrelevant sh*t. But hey, all power to Kojima. Still though... he should really concentrate on the IMPORTANT material. And if he really wants to do sh*t like Gene, Diamond Dogs etc...well, it could come under a new IP. I dunno.

[fgdj2000]

Jan 6, 2018 7:31:58 GMT -5 Cerberus_0408 said:

To be fair, I think that the 'dick move' only began when games like PO, PW and PP came out. Rather than give us the more significant stuff we get irrelevant sh*t. But hey, all power to Kojima. Still though... he should really concentrate on the IMPORTANT material. And if he really wants to do sh*t like Gene, Diamond Dogs etc...well, it could come under a new IP. I dunno.

Kojima should just have ended the series with MGS3.
Metal Gear Solid, Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - great trilogy.
3 protagonists, 3 adventures, 3 themes that all connect and build upon each other.
A trilogy of games set in the same universe, but that are more thematically connected than through plot.
The MSX games, Metal Gear and Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake, as the classics in the background like The Hobbit was to The Lord of the Rings.

Beyond that, with MGS3 he had proven that he still got it and that MGS2 was the way it was on purpose. 
He should have just focused on new games afterward. Like he is doing now.

[A.G.]

I would agree with that. As much as I personally love MGS4 it’s a divisive title that has a lot of issues. If the series ended on MGS3 it would have been the most ideal way to preserve the overall quality of the series. I mean really, if you think about it, as far as games go you really can’t follow a masterpiece like MGS3.

[fgdj2000]

Absolutely agree. Let Kojima make something truly new, not something that tries to be consistent with a 20-30 year old series on the one hand and to utterly innovate on the other hand.
If anything it would have been cool to give the series to big video game artist like Shinji Mikami, Kenji Kamiya or Yoko Taro (probably the best fit, since he also puts a lot of anti-violence themes into his games) and let them put their unique spin on the series. Ideally in a separate continuity.

Which is basically what they did with Metal Gear Rising, which is why I like this game, even though that game also has story and even some gameplay issues.

Kind of like the rumors that Tarantino wants to do the next Star Trek film. It might not actually fit, but at least its going to be interesting from an artistic point of view.

[Cerberus_0408]

Speaking of that, JJ Abrams directed both Force Awakens and a Star Trek movie (I forgot which one)

[fgdj2000]

Star Trek (2009) and Star Trek Into Darkness (2013). It was actually a similar situation back in 2007 when it was first announced that he would direct. He was still known as the creator of Lost and Alias, and him taking on Star Trek was a pretty interesting prospect.