I feel bad for my AP English teacher from back in the day, because I loved the discussions we had in class about older books and such (though Moby Dick wasn’t one we were ever assigned or discussed) but be damned if I was willing to actually read those outdated English scriptures. I bet the discussions would have been even better then.
@Comrade Kabo aside from the Patrick Stewart Moby Dick movie, check out the more recent In the Heart of the Sea- its the story that apparently inspired Melville to actually write Moby Dick. Cool movie i enjoyed it.
@@that_invisible_man3460 When? I've played the game a ton over the last few weeks & never saw anything to that effect. He's knocked out by an explosion & wakes up in a coma 9 years later. I don't recall seeing him conscious for anytime in between. He only seems to know about the boss' plan years later after listening to a tape. At least that is what the cut scene at the end of 'The Truth' seems to imply.
@@Onimusashi85 Maybe I just misunderstood Ocelot's line of "Don't forget that this is what he wanted" While he was explaining to Big Boss about what happened. In my mind I had listened to that and thought that there was a possible agreement set up as a precaution.
@@that_invisible_man3460 Well, it wouldn't be the first Metal Gear game to have some plot issues. Even Big Boss being Snake's father in the the 1st Metal Gear Solid was a retcon. There is nothing in the 8 bit games that even hints at such.
Wasn't Venom proud of "becoming" his mentor, like Big Boss didn't want that to happen but Zero ordered for the medic to pass trough the surgerys and etc ?, And when Boss reveals the truth to Venom, he acepts instead of getting angry for his identity stolen, the question for me is: was big Boss really a bad person at this point ? Because, from where I understand It wasn't his fault what happened to Venom
I'd say it'd take the script leaking to shut down the "MGSV is unfinished" myth once and for all, but that actually happened so I don't think anything will change what people believe.
It’s what is already told in this video. What’s the more interesting story? A: Phantom Pain was disappointing because it’s unfinished and Konami didn’t let Kojima finish it. *insert joke about Pachinkos* B: Phantom Pain was disappointing because you were expecting a more traditional Metal Gear game. And while we can argue that it’s not a perfect game, just because it conveys information and context in tapes or doesn’t conclude one of its weakest subplots, doesn’t mean it’s bad. Saying it’s Konami’s faults means you believe Kojima could not make a bad game. And yet he is human, and not all videogame creators have made astonishing masterpieces. Controversies sell and are easier to explain to people who aren’t into the main discussion. It’s up to people whether they want to go deeper and find the truth or be fine with whatever a RU-vidr tells you.
If Kojima is correct about what he says about himself and his art, that means I as a Gamer can't complain about the "woke part" that every Metal Gear game has but can be waved away by the action and weirdness!!
@@oip6837 It was a joke, my dear friend. For many, the stance of "war is bad, actually" is considered "woke bullshit" and is not very popular among gaming communities, and in fact one of the most brushed aside points of the Metal Gear series. MGSV pretty much forces this into the player face non-stop without the constant codec/cutscene jesting the games are famous for, and this fact props up too much in criticism surrounding the game. But answering your question, none, Metal Gear has no "woke" parts, as woke is a made up word that means nothing.
I think my two most favorite quotes from Metal Gear are: - A strong man doesn’t need to read the future, he makes his own - Listen, don’t obsess over words too much, find the meaning behind the words, then decide
"do you feel for the men you send out?" yes, actually. Thats why i only select deployments with 100% success and low casualty rates. Also why i run laps around MB to increase morale, and why i genuinely cried during the quarantine platform outbreak.
I felt so horrible during the outbreak, and I unfortunately restarted the mission in case I accidentally shot someone that wasn’t infected. It sucked even more
@@SilentSnake1998 idk mustve been a glitch or sumthing because i watched this video and was like "yea thats true" and then I watched it again and the last time i saw the comment was before "1 month"
The mission where you have to purge the quarantine platform hit me hard. Really hard. Until that point, I'd played through the entire game non-lethally, for an additional layer of challenge. I'd been as careful as possible to never kill anyone. The first lives I took in that game were my own men, people I had recruited and chosen myself, who didn't beg, didn't condemn, but stood and saluted, trembling in fear, as I cut them down one by one. It was like a knife in the gut.
Same here. Thats why I love this game and love Venom. He is what you made him. Mine and prolly yours, never became that warmonger lunatic, that many other saw in him (those players who prefered to shoot arround an use the easy route...its still a game, dont take that to srsly). The way he couldnt cope losing his souldiers, Quiet and couldnt get over Paz´s death...he is very humane. This game is about interpretation and my Venom didnt lost to Solid-Snake because he wasnt to strong enough, he lost because he was tired. The demon that was inside Boss, that thing that consumed him at the end of MGS3 (and was purged in MGS4), that thing was in Venom as well as every human beeing. And dont forget, Venom is a medic. He is there to save lives. He lost many of his closest friends and wasnt able to move on anymore...he was glad he could finally leave.
Some of the moments in Metal Gear solid V are some of Kojima Productions best work. In my opinion the narrative suffered because of what seemed to be a lot of information being hidden behind tapes. Would highly suggest for anyone to fill in the gaps with the tapes. Also listen to the truth tapes, helps the gravity of the cutscenes, and gameplay beats will hit harder because more of the game makes sense.
I feel the same way at the beginning i tried not to kill but after an hr i was like who cares there the bad guys but when i got to that mission killing the persons that i recruit people who admire boss they all were willing to give there life i felt brutal doing that killing them i recently played metal gear 3 and there the original boss that today's good could be tomorrows evil all this games have great story
Best video essay about MGSV. So in short: MGS1: Break free from your genes MGS2: Break free from the memes (culture) MGS3: Break free from the scene (patriotism) MGS4: Break free from sense (misguided ideologies) MGS5: Break free from your past MGS is at its core a thesis about freedom of the individual.
"...did you even feel a tinge of guilt about how carelessly you're treating the lives of your soldiers?" Me, who wouldn't send any group on a mission with less than a 95% projected success rating or projected losses of more than 8% and actually cried during the mission on the quarantine platform: _sweating profusely_
That part of the game was the most disappointing for me. If those soldiers had been programmed in a way that would allow them to actually feel real pain and have individual consciousness it would've been a hoot! It's so much easier to be immersed when your decisions inflict actual suffering! It's just one of those normal, relatable things everyone thinks about.
I been saying that Phantom Pain is one of the most underrated titles of the last decade. People write it off because of cut content and forget to look at the content that made it into the game.
@@GIGAdad7. I'm a fan of Metal Gear, I've played every main title, even Portable Ops / Portable Ops Plus / AC!D and AC!D 2. Heck I even 'played' the Documents of Metal Gear Solid 2 and the non-canon MGS2 Substance missions on Snake Tales so I feel like I can consider myself a fan. MGSV didn't feel satisfying to play like MGS 3 or 4 did. At first I was having fun when I began playing The Phantom Pain. I was amazed at an open world MGS with a new engine, smoother and better controls/mechanics, and even better graphics that outshined 4. I started wondering why every other fan hated MGSV but the longer I played the game it started becoming clear. The open world as wide and big as it is was pointless, it was mostly empty with guard posts in between areas. You can do side missions all over the map and capture rare animals in Africa, but even when you're shooting guard posts, killing everything you see the map still feels isolated and empty. You take down a guard post, and clear it. Nothing else happens to you, there aren't incoming waves of reinforcements, or even a helicopter go come in as air support. That sucks. Because of the open world design even the mission/level design suffers because of it, everything becomes smoothed within each other and there aren't that many unique areas anymore. I can tell you almost every level in MGS 1/2/3. There's the warhead storage room, the library where you fight Psycho Mantis in, the hangar, the elevator you fight the stealth camo soldiers in MGS1. In MGS2 there's the starboard, the lounge room, the engine room, the conference room where the marine commander makes his speech, the bottom area of the shell in the Raiden level where you have to escort emma across thin floating bridges while using a sniper, arsenal gear, the place where the hostages are held, etc,. In MGS3 you have Tselinoyarsk, the caves, Grozynj Grad, the mountains with the only vultures in the game, The End's sniping grounds, the sewers you use to escape Grozynj Grad, The Sorrow's river, and the flower fields at the end. What does MGSV have? Camp OKB Zero, That Russian lab Huey was in, Quiet's sniping area, that broken boat that Eli was in, and maybe that one place where Sahelanthropus was stored in. The atmosphere of the game is gone. It's all jumbled together to make things open world. The music stopped being less memorable for the sake of realism. As for the gameplay, codec calls were completely removed, replaced with intel briefings before and during the mission, nothing funny or interesting like with Sigint/Paramedic. They even removed the part where you can attack the enemy's walkie-talkie to break it. It was removed in MGS4 because everyone uses nanomachines but what's the excuse for not adding them back for TPP? Another thing that really annoyed me is the fact that I always have to bring my primary and secondary weapon with me, you can't unequip them to play missions OSP style for the truly hardcore fans. You just have to pretend you don't have an assault rifle and a handgun when doing a mission. You can do it maybe once or twice in subsistence missions, so why not give me an option to do it for every level where I have to find my own guns and equipment out in the field. Also boss fights, where were they? Yeah Quiet's counts but fighting the Man on Fire? Fighting Eli? That boring Sahelanthropus "battle" where you just spam rockets and grenades on the weak spots over and over without a strategy? The Skulls fights were disappointing too, none of them were challenging. Especially that one Metallic Archaea mission where you have to kill the Skulls. Let me tell you, using the tranquilizer gun on every skull member was the most boring part of the game. No more iconic rations, no stamina/psyche bar. No eating food in the wilderness either. No survival techniques, nothing. Camouflage was shrugged over. No more survival viewer and fixing your own wounds, the list goes on. They also cheaped out on Metal Gear Online 3 servers, making things P2P gives players laggy experiences and more exploiters. There are even glitched maps where you can go under the ground, it will never be patched. If you've never played any previous Metal Gear games you might not notice anything bad, but for the rest of us. We see the missed potential of this game. Honestly, I'd rather play Hitman Absolution or Splinter Cell Conviction than MGSV TPP.
as much as i think mgs v tpp is the weakest in story, and lack some little answers like what happened to eli after he got away with sahelantropus, i thinks its a nice game
@@teamyordle23 i kinda do agree with you there, its kinda pointless to have a dead open world, like the missions are cool and the smooth mechanics, the game's good but i gotta acknowledge this game is not near as good as the other MGS games, stay safe now pal, carefull with the people that can't respect opinions
@@beerjam1147 yeah really lol. like All Quiet on the Western Front they put emphasis on things, definitely but in the end they were showing war. war just is the best anti war message
Watching this video after Shinzo Abe’s assassination where a news outlet ran how Kojima was somehow his assassin REALLY makes Chapter 3 hit harder than it already does
@@AgentAlfie "Orwellian" isn't just about control. It's more about skewing the words and "truths" in the forms of of doublethink and doublespeak that hide the facts and information. Orwellian is more about propaganda and thought control that in the end leads to total control. It's not just about the sheer authoritarian state, just because something is controlling and authoritarian doesn't mean it's orwellian. (Last sentance sums up the whole comment)
@@mr.kenway4554 the joke is that the head bashing is as subtle as the game gets, not that it's actually subtle. Kojima isn't known for subtly when referencing his inspirations.
I like how the enemy NPC has human dialogue, like the Soviets talking about how they want to go home and see their families. Too many games depicts enemies as thoughtless emotionless faceless monsters to be destroyed and demonized when in reality in war you will have to face other human beings not some faceless npc. After hearing their human side, it makes you want to take the non-lethal approach.
That's why I ALWAYS take the non-lethal approach whenever possible. Think there are only a handful of enemies you have to actually kill, most notably in the prolog. It went so far that I refused to kill enemies in vehicles of a convoy so I just captured them in their entirety xD Sadly you can't capture the attack Helicopters....
I like to remain the merciless killer, but whenever I feel bad about fighting an enemy, I usually leave him alive so he would spread the word of Big Boss and probably get send back home to his family due to trauma
I think the game emphasises this as well with the fact that, if you do go loud and just murder everyone, there is genuine panic and fear from the enemies coming through the radio chatter, desperately trying to stop the monster slaughtering batallions of enemy soldiers. It's pretty good actually, I really like that part about MGSV.
Even if you take the non lethal approach, youll end up recruiting that soldier, but then arent you condemning him into a worse life? A life of "proxy wars without end"? In the end all of them just wanna go home...
I feel like that's why Hideo picked the Midge Ure version of "The Man Who Sold the World" and not the David Bowie version, He wanted a reflection of the original song, a different mutated version of reality.
I think the game's themes are deep enough, Big Boss fall was already shown in Peace Walker, which can be considered as an actual MGS 5. The main issue with MGS V is just it's famous unfinished development, which affects not only story. For example, how can you even explain collecting an invisible zoo with invisible animals, thou the game engine can allow to have tiny animals like rats.
this video is 2 years old. i have watched it probably 13 times. nothing makes me think about the world we live in like this video. i really think you've created something timeless, and i stand in awe.
It all comes back to one of my favorite quotes of the whole series: "We will forsake our countries. We will leave our motherlands behind us and become one with this earth. We have no nation, no philosophy, no ideology. We go where we're needed, fighting, not for government, but for ourselves. We need no reason to fight. We fight because we are needed. We will be the deterrent for those with no other recourse. We are soldiers without borders, our purpose defined by the era we live in. We will sometimes have to sell ourselves and services. If the times demand it, we'll be revolutionaries, criminals, terrorists. And yes, we may all be headed straight to hell. But what better place for us than this? It's our only home. Our heaven and our hell. This is Outer Heaven." --- Big Boss
Pssh big boss is a selfish chump who can't handle the outcome of his own actions. All his philosophical quotes don't mean shit if your not willing to live by your words. A strong man doesn't need to read the future, he makes his own. -solid A man who actually Says what he means And means what he says. Tldr- I don't like big boss's character after mgs3 because he just makes bad calls, wreckless decisions and can't let go of the past. I guess that's the point of the story but still... Why people idolize him is something I just don't understand.
@@TheBestRoddy he's a legendary warrior, who wouldn't praise him. Exactly why characters in game and other soldiers praise him too. But how he slowly changes to a massive asshole is beyond me
@Joe Al I am considering doing the very same thing. Did you enjoy the book? Did you need to use sources like the internet to digest certain parts? What'd you say to a person like md who plans on reading the book?
Legit almost made me cry to hear how you grew up with this franchise. I only started this series about a year ago with V being my first game, and I'm just in love with the story and morals it tells
@@LargeInCharge77 both 4 and 5 are great. 4 was a great sequel to 2 and had to wrap up a very convoluted story. I felt it accomplished that and had a very engaging story. 5 felt like a response to everyone complaining about 4 having too many cut scenes. "here ya go. 50 hours of gameplay and optional lore if you want it" I do wish they wrapped up the Eli story though.
@@RugsterClapseh 4 and 5 both have great things about them but very fundamentally are worse than the original trio story wise by a large margin. On top that I wouldn’t even say 4 had particularly good gameplay so it feels like even more of a mess. Even peacewalker shows how terrible the tapes are in 5 by doing them so much better that by contrast it really makes them feel lacking in the phantom pain
@plugshirt1762 I've heard a lot of people share that opinion, too. It's funny because tons of people love mgo2 to this day and claim it's because of the game play. I personally loved the freedom of movement in 4 and 5. I also like 2 the least, which is probably a wildly unpopular opinion. It's still amazing, too, though. I appreciate this series changed things up just enough to have so many different takes.
Fun fact: When venom realizes his a phantom and broked the mirror the logo of diamond dogs turns into The Outer Heaven logo followed by minor sounds of gunshots that means that it took place in MGS NES where you are solid snake.
You are right, and the player can see the MSX2 computer in the same room (the original platform for Metal Gear 1). Even with the cut content the franchise came full circle with Metal Gear Solid V.
I did 100% Phantom Pain years ago. Few days ago went to finish Ground Zeroes because I had one achievement left. After years of not playing this game I was surprised how the game still looks great and feels very polished. Try to think about Phantom Pain. You have couple maps that have a decent size but you can say it's empty as there is nothing to find except marked tasks. There are barely any areas with buildings or action that takes place indoors. On the surface the game doesn't look like anything special. Once you start playing you notice the things that make this game fun and you can simply call it freedom. Naturally best approach is the sneaky one but you still have your massive arsenal of tools and weapons. It never gets old to call in your helicopter while it plays "spin me right round". Then you have massive amount of detail in the game that allow you to do neat stuff that adds to that feeling of freedom. Like using wormhole on containers then climbing up and getting free ticket to mother base. Then you have stuff like evolving difficulty. If you are too good at neutralizing enemies in specific spots you will see them carrying stuff like helmets. Etc etc. It's just a such polished game with a lot of freedom. Story is interesting and if you are MG fan then you have a huge library of audio tapes to listen to. Game is fun, interesting and clearly worth the money. Still I wish that they expanded in game maps a little more or added another big area. The game clearly didn't have enough time to cook as we can find videos of unfinished missions. More indoor missions. MGS V is really good. Even if Konami fucked up their potential to create another game like that but improved in every way it doesn't mean Kojima started creating trash on his own. We got Death Stranding baby and soon Death Stranding 2. After so many MG games maybe it's time to put it to sleep.
It would have been great if we got a few more maps even just a couple. That was my only issue personally with the game it was my 2 least favorite game settings desert and jungle lol. It’s still an amazing game and holds up today just fine. It’s funny I rmember having a convo with a friend about mgsv closer to when it came out and we were talking about how even just running and moving around in the game felt satisfying and wouldn’t be surprised if Kojima made a game based off that and he kind of did with death stranding. Just a very well polished satisfying game even if it seems sparse in some ways.
I love death stranding. I love TPP, too. I don’t really understand all the criticism. The thing that bothers me most is actually Fulton recovery. It always makes me think “dammit, can I really fly in and wreck this place for fun? There might be an A++ dude in there.” It gives me FOMO, and ironically it causes me to miss out. I’m not saying there’s a better way to do it, just my personality doesn’t mesh well with compromising optimisation for fun.
Holy shit this made me see MGSV in a COMPLETELY different light. The Japanese militarization angle, the way the game makes the player take part in the exploitation of human lives, the tons of warnings this game has. It's crazy I hadn't seen some of this before. This was an incredible video.
It's also complete if you listen to the truth tapes, and realize that the man that sold the world is Zero. The entire events of Metal Gear solid 5 was zero getting his revenge on Skullface. Not BB and MSF The reason why the game seems incomplete is because the last parts are basically the Patriots pulling out of your operation and are meant to throw you off the dual narrative. The game completes when you kill skull. Episodes 2 and 3 are a peak behind the vale. Revealing that all the events that took place in Metal Gear solid 5, including the ground wars, where controlled by the opposing sides of the Patriots. And analog MGS4 of sorts where the players are real instead of AI. As you slowly unlock the tapes to learn this cipher. Would highly suggest this as well for fans that feel like diving into the lore. Listen to all the tapes to learn about what you didn't quite understand during the first go of the story. Then listen to the truth tapes with the intent of getting context of what each player and motivations roles are in Metal Gear solid V's events. replay the story with cutscenes and be blown away at how this changes the entire game from a story standpoint. And not only is it complete it is up to the normal Koji Pro standards.
In all honesty: I'm on the same page here. Back then I picked it up, played the game, thought it was ok and left it at that. Makes me feel shameful I couldn't see the bigger picture back then.
I've heard about people's favorite chapters of Moby Dick I find it so interesting how the book is really written like it's from someone out at sea. No thoughts, just whale.
@@LargeInCharge77 No, this was a an intentional narrative design choice. The video quotes Kojima's 2015 tweet that sheds light on this decision: "V liberates Snake from the bonds of fate, and by passing the baton to the player - who was previously bound to Snake - they can bring the legend full circle. This parting of ways should not become some phantom pain, but an empty space that, by remaining unfilled, serves as motivation for the player to move forward." The mandatory codecs, narratively, were the bonds of fate, making Snake beholden to the fate others had chosen for him, and by extension, making players bound to Snake. The absence of the codecs, which leaves an empty space, "liberates" Snake and the player, so that it is the player who can bring his legend full circle, making him into the one who makes the calls, not the one for whom the calls are made. While he receives no mandatory codecs, a young soldier who does receive codecs hunts for Venom Snake in the Outer Heaven he helped found; MGSV, in true full circle fashion, shows us that the "Big Boss" Solid Snake kills in the original Metal Gear for the MSX was in fact Venom Snake. The serpent eats its tail. ;)
@@LargeInCharge77I don’t miss them. Was like trying to get sucked into a story in a 16 bit game when they couldn’t do cutscenes and instead just to pics talking text to each other. Then MGSV improved it with voiced text, then we moved onto basically interactive films and you expect the most cinematic series ever to still look and feel like and old game?
In MGS2 Solid Snake encouraged Raiden and by extension the audience to look beyond the narrative and become his own person. In MGSV Big Boss strips away the Medic's personhood and identity for his own gain and encourages the medic to carry on the title Big Boss to further that obfuscating narrative.
even so, Venom stayed loyal to Big Boss til the very end even went so far as to activate the self destruct sequence of Outer Heaven and determined to take Solid Snake down with him Venom truly is the most loyal soldier
@@Codex_0613 its not because of loyalty but because he *is* Big Boss. After the Medic's coming to term who he really was there really was no way to go but to hell.
@@DOT107 Venom could have bore hatred toward Big Boss and use his army and resources to hunt down and kill him. But he didn't, instead he even worked with Boss again. If that's not blind loyalty then idk what is.
Codex - Does not have to be blind. If you looked up to and always wanted to be cool like the boss - and you where literally made into the boss, even with all the pain and suffering... you may just be happy. A happy fool, but happy.
Damn, Turns Out That Kaz Was Right When He Said: "Big Boss Can Go To Hell" And "why are we Still Here To Suffer" He Knew What Boss Did and Boss' Choices Ruined Everything the Two Had Together
To be fair, Kaz went behind the Boss's back with Cypher as revealed at the end of Peace Walker. Snake probably felt betrayed enough by Kaz that he considered him out of his inner circle. Perhaps it was a case of each other burning the other, except Kaz thought the Boss would overlook what he did?
@@savage_aly8752 Which Kaz bears no small amount of blame. He misled the Boss to work with Cypher and he didn't care that it furthered Cypher's plan, contributing to the situation we see in Ground Zeroes where XOF attacks because of MSF's importance to Cypher's plan.
@@re9498 true, but BB was a really shitty person in the end. why couldn't the finish the job? the world wanted his head and venom was the body double and he never died until 1995, so why did boss leave? he could've created outer heaven again with boss
Before playing MGS V, I had read that the story wasn't that good and it was incomplete and when I reached Chapter 2 and started repeating the older missions on Extreme and all that, I started to go through that emotional wringer and disappointment they had mentioned, lost everything and became obsessed with that extra content that was lost. I had completed all the missions and gotten the ending of the game but I felt hollow, incomplete .... until I finished the Paz side-quest and showed her all the photos. That cutscene where Venom realizes he's hallucinating her and let's go of that butterfly was beyond impactful to me. To me, that was Venom's story and his story was complete. I finished the game that day and could move on with my life. To this day I haven't played it again and I still consider it a masterpiece. An amazing experience.
The closure with paz and the dissarmament scene were, for me at least, the ending of this story, and it felt so beautiful. But I still feel this phantom pain, that we lack something. It's a masterpiece, I agree, but I don't feel completed. Maybe I should move on from it
Well it's true and false. As someone who played all the metal gears when they launched not some band wagoner who came later I think mgs5 is a good game but agree it's the worst out the main series still. I also agree its unfinished but it was like 90 percent finished. People over exaggerate when they say it was 50 percent done. They just needed to keep the deleted parts in and add a little to it. They also needed to remove that dumb zombie mission. The mission belongs in the trash with metal gear survive. I'm not talking about the skulls I'm talking about that ship mission.
@@rodrigokuszek the worst part of the game is they didnt have good boss fights and too many filler missions. Get this guy no one care about and save him or kill this guy that has no real story. It's a good game but things like this were the problem. They built up skullface all the way from ground zeroes and then dont even give us a boss fight with him. I like the game but still all this is bs.
@@WM-mu8ep I definitely agree that people over-exaggerate the amount of content that was cut from the game. And if you are thinking I am some band wagoner then you are laughably wrong, been playing since the PSX days (though I admit I didn't play MG and MG2 until much later). But to each to their own, if you think MGS5 is the worst out of the main series then that's fine.
I guess the main issue I had with MGSV's story and structure is that it felt like I was waiting for the other shoe to drop the entire game and it never quite felt like it did. Promo material promised this slow descent into darkness and the deterioration of Kaz's mental state reinforced the idea that this was going to be a darker, harsher story where we weren't playing the good guy. But then, in the main game, it's possible to play the whole thing without killing anyone. Mission briefs seem to go out of their way to show how you're helping out the underdogs in those proxy-warzones, more than a few times saying how you're working pro-bono despite how Diamond Dogs is branded as an organization that will work for the highest bidder and do whatever it takes to find and kill Skullface and XOF. In that same vein, Skullface is shown to be a pretty hollow and delusional villain, someone willing to burn the whole world just to settle a vendetta, so you don't really feel bad when you kill him or other members of XOF. Even through the second chapter of the game, it feels like the devs are patting you on the shoulder, telling you all your actions are justified, and not exactly in a way where it feels like you're being fed propaganda. "No, see, it's not a baseless police state, Huey was a bad guy after all, there WAS a spy, Kaz isn't crazy! No no, you HAVE to kill the people in the quarantine because there is no cure." Similarly, as affecting as the whole quarantine zone massacre sequence was, to me it didn't feel equivalent to the scene from the start of the game; XOF is sent in to kill every person there on the chance that any of them could be tied to Big Boss, whereas just about every person you gun down is revealed to be infected, with no real ambiguity behind it and the suggestion that the parasite hosts will be compelled to try to leave thanks to parasitic interference, so there is literally no option. To cap it all off, when we get only the start of Big Boss's villain arc with him creating Venom, but then he just kinda...goes off and does undisclosed things. We're told that Big Boss became a monster, but we're not really shown it, and it feels like they missed several opportunities to demonstrate that throughout the game. For example, the point you made about the resource management subgame; it would have been an amazing twist to have you eventually reckon with sacrificing Diamond Dog members for resources or see how going out into the world and plundering supplies might affect the areas you're pulling them from. But, again, the game seems to go out of it's way to remove you from bad consequences. Mission descriptions still tend to default towards sending your men off to help rebels or assist in humanitarian efforts. If a soldier dies, you're never forced to see how that affects his comrades, you just see a number go down and move on. There could have been a moment at the end where the game showed you the cost by having gravestones for every one of the people you sent to die, or maybe you get to see the full effect of the police state that's sprung up around Mother Base through crew interaction instead of just a few signs here and there. I do agree that MGSV is much better and deeper than it's often given credit for, but I still can't help but feel that it dropped the ball in making the player feel like they were slowly becoming the villain and how Big Boss went from an idealistic warrior poet to the antagonist we see in the first two Metal Gear games.
I think you waiting for the other shoe to drop was the point brother. I felt the same way. But that's the whole point. The whole time something feels off. That's the literal PHANTOM PAIN. something you feel or expect that isn't there, like pain from a lost limb
I think that not showing everything going wrong honestly makes it more effective, at least in retrospect. Skullface isn't really meant to be sympathetic or make you ponder your actions (at least for my reading). He's moreso the catalyst to start the perpetual reaction of mercenary warfare that is Diamond Dogs. Huey being a bad guy and there actually being a spy doesn't lessen the impact of the pseudo police state. That's actually how a lot of police states start, or justify their own existence. And there's also the fact a lot of the base hated him from the moment he arrived. If you suspected him as well, you'll find the police state was perfectly justified. If you were kind of ignoring everyone's misgivings about him because he was doing useful things and seemed like a decent person, then you might have your beliefs shaken a bit, and be a bit more paranoid in the future. For your soldiers in quarantine, if you don't care about them then you've already started falling down the slope. If you do care about them, it's utterly gutting to have to gun down your own people, still loyal even in death, saluting you as you put them down. And it leaves the perpetual what-if lingering after that point. Because what if there was a cure that just hadn't been found, what if they were sent to some of the best research hospitals in the world to try to find one, possibly save more people from suffering the parasite. But instead you go in to a platform on fire to make sure no one but you walks out alive, because the infection can't risk spreading or it jeopardizes the mission. And a similar message for your soldiers sent on missions. Either you care about them and every loss hurts, or you don't and you're looking at them like numbers on a spreadsheet like the countries that didn't care about them in the first place. Either every loss wears down on you more and more, or you've already slid into the role that Big Boss reaches. And one more thing. All the missions saying you're helping the rebels or setting up humanitarian efforts and trying to keep the underdogs going? That's all prolonging the conflict in the region. And sure you might be doing it for minimal to no pay, but you're also looting as you do so, still making yourself a bit of profit while keeping future income streams open. To me it feels important that the game doesn't pull a Spec Ops: The Line and forcibly confront you with every single thing you did. It just gradually wears on you, either working away at your idealism and want to do good, or pushing you into embracing the exact same attitudes that the future antagonists did. One other note, leaving the specifics of the fall vague is probably better than trying to get a complete bridging of the gap, it's hard to land when you've got points plotted out on either side of that period.
Yeah I think Kojima satisfied with the state of the game doesn't mean there are no improvements to be made. Especially when Liquid and Psycho Mantis hijacked the Sahelantropus we expected an epic boss fight between Venom and Eli, but this is never realized. Without the episode 51 video we would've never know what happen to Liquid and Psycho Mantis between MGSV and MGS1. I do however think that the Eli boss fight, the island map and some extra missions on there are the only missing pieces of content we have, as Kojima put The Man Who Sold the World ending to the game, mainly completed the plot Metal Gear saga, so I can see why he say the game is in a completed state.
My main issue is while this video is great it missed the deeper issue that mgs5 succeeds to an extent with its major story beats but really falls flat with everything in between. The pacing is really terrible with it being the longest in the series yet giving the least story so after hours of doing main quests that feel like side quests you’d top caring about a lot of things to the point my rage toward skull face had practically faded as he makes so few appearances that he barely feels like a character until the very end but by then it’s too little too late. The tapes are especially horrendous due to the contrast of how well peacewalker utilized them to make you feel very attached to each character and make you understand them while in 5 they’re nearly all plot relevant exposition that just feels like a more lifeless version of a codec call. It’s a shame because ground zeroes is near perfect in its execution but the phantom pain really feel like it fails in most aspects of its story especially with some of the more poorly handled things like eli and mantis. Even on a gameplay level it’s heavily flawed in glaring ways that make it so that’s not even safe. The whole game just feels really odd where it’s so close to greatness but misses the mark entirely
@@catzor4795 I can't tell if that's sarcasm? The golden age of games were always violent to some degree of understanding. But I do appreciate an incredibly maticulous walking simulator that makes you feel sad that that is what you will do the most. This game about connecting bridges sure doesn't have many options for dialogue.
I'm going to tell everyone saying "Venom is a pacifist that is seeking to lay down his gun and bring towards world peace, he is the absolute opposite of Big Boss who wants to create war and is a warmonger!" to pay attention to the nuclear disarmament ending for a SECOND time. Yes, yes, I acknowledge that Venom believes in world peace, but... If you get past the goodhearted points that the ending is trying to convey (war and nukes are bad, bright futures good), you begin to notice some hypocritical subtleties on Venom's part: Venom actively agrees with Kaz to increase the power and strength of his PMC at will if it means he can secure his nuclear disarmament achievement. Just a few seconds afterwards, the camera straight up cuts to a bunch of combat vehicles. Tanks, Walker Gears, etc. The script leak even shows that Battle Gear was supposed to be there, actively stationed by Chico (it was likely removed because both Battle Gear and Chico were cut). Let me repeat, the camera outright cuts to fearsome weapons of WAR after Kaz talks about planning to secure Diamond Dogs's world peace achievement. Use your head, there is an implication here. Speaking figuratively, Venom is planning to "lay down his gun" through waging guns. Not saying "waging guns" as in literal guns, but rather, once again figuratively, waging mass forces of armies. Especially those of private military companies, who rely on warmongering for profit as their strategy and purpose of existing. What he wants is unknowingly downright warmongering to him, the curse of Skullface. (A clever foreshadowing of the Truth ending, where he's still tangled in a war without end because of not just Big Boss's actions but also HIS own.) Now contrast this to Solid Snake, who, unlike Venom, didn't want to make Philanthropy a PMC, nor did he want to use PMCs to reach world peace. He instead kept Philanthropy as a non-governmental organization/NGO with 5-6 or so members. Compare that to Diamond Dogs, which is like any other PMC, a "for profit" murder venture with a crew full of a thousand of men recruited and *kidnapped* from Soviet territory. Truly, it is not Venom but rather Solid who carried on The Boss's will, as it always was in the past. TL;DR: Venom and Solid had the same goal, but Venom had the wrong methodology and mindset of getting there. p.s. I'm not trying to downplay Big Boss's role in Venom becoming evil by any means, he definitely did have influence in Venom's way of thinking that led him to this point.
Also, my interpretation of Venom lines very well with this quote repeated throughout the game: "The road to hell is paved with good intentions." As in that Venom's detour/"road" to warmongering is paved with his "good intention" of peace.
The point of that could simply be a reminder that war never ends, only the methods at which it's waged. Disarming every nuke was never going to bring peace, it's merely a step in that direction. Either way Venom is still trying to eliminate the most dangerous evil that is currently present. It's also not war mongering in the same way that Skull Face wants, it's truly what Venom believes to be the best means to a peaceful end.
"Si vis pacem, para bellum" in order to achieve peace through the guise of Big Boss's phantom, Venom Snake's only real choice after ridding the world of nukes is continued deterrence. Not through nuclear arms, but through the stealing and dismantling of those arms. If Diamond Dogs stop, eventually some other terrorist group or PMC will spring up, which is exactly what Liquid does in MGS1. Miller and the crew understand waging war- it's all they know and their entire purpose for being. Venom understands it as well, and knows even if he destroys nuclear weapons, steals Sehilanthropus, and stops Skull Face, there will still be wars to fight. Human nature involves conflict. Conflict has a price. No matter how "peaceful" the world may be without nukes, you must still be prepared for war.
@@czarkowskipawelyt In the book 1984 the logo for a group that’s similar to mgs’s patriots is a V with a robot arm shaking the hand of a human. The robot arm is reminiscent of venom snakes prosthetic and their in the shape of a V.
whenever I watch the part where He talks about shinzo abe in a video about Metal Gear I always remember that time when France news said that Hideo Kojima was Abe's assasin
It’s funny when people include The Boss when they talk about villains. She wasn’t a villain. She was a sacrificial lamb that had to give her life for the mission. She didn’t think about good or bad when it came to the mission. She was simply loyal. She was the truest patriot in the series. And the one with the most integrity. Pretty much every event after her death was a result of her heroism being misunderstood.
They are idiots who dont know the story. She died and wanted big boss to kill her. She wanted that instead of nuclear war. Dont try explaining the story to idiots who didnt come into the series until phantom pain. They are most likely fortnite players
Skullface created the chain of retaliation. A war without end. He planted the seeds for the Patriots. Venom Snake became Skullface’s Phantom and made that very chain of retaliation grow. Big Boss tried to make a place free of that but ultimately just became a part of it and this may possibly be the reason he sees The Boss’s true will when he wakes up in MGS4 and why his speech is so similar to Boss from MGS3.
"live on your own terms and not on anyone else's orders pick up the torch so we can read our messy and sad history by its light learn to live by your own definitions of morality and to see the humanity in your enemies and to find a new lease on life, even when you think you're trapped by the system do not chase Moby Dick, do not become consumed by your phantoms and regrets do not linger in the past" greatest life advice ever
Kept you waiting, huh? UPDATE 2: In light of yet another ongoing, illegitimate copyright claim on my work, I've decided to trim out the "WHOOOOO Are You" gag to save everyone the headache. Please enjoy the ad-free viewing experience. UPDATE: Sorry about the ads. There was a copyright claim as soon as I uploaded (for a 15-second instrumental from the game [that I remixed myself]). It's being contested.
0:00 to 06:13 is exactly why I think literature review is arguably the most important part in a good literature analysis essay especially when one is trying compare and contrast. Once you know about whale oil, the fact the the 30-man crew of Pequod was multi-cultural, and that Ishmael lived to tell the tale, you know where the essay is going.
Metal Gear has always been a touchy thing for me, I was only around 10 years old when I got my hands on MGS 4, about 3 years after it’d come out. I got it at GameStop for $9. I’m not sure what made me reach out and buy it, but I remember wanting to get into the series SOOO bad. I loved that game so much, then I went back and played Peacewalker, although I never got my hands MGS1 or 2, I had watched so many walkthroughs and videos, I practically did play through it myself, however, when Ground Zeroes was announced, I bought it immediately, and grinded through it and even 100% the demo, then MGSV came, and it took me about two years for me to finally beat. Just because of lack of interest at times, but I still loved it. Watching this video has made me realized why I was so in love with this franchise... now, I think I’ll go back and play it again, lol. I doubt anyone has read this, but as a young graduate with no job, and not in school, I don’t have much to do lol!!
@@OKLAMA- You can use a ps1 emulator to play MGS1. I’m doing it right now. Only issue is that old cutscenes freeze over new ones, but I was able to fix that after checking a forum for instructions.
I can't even imagine how meticulously this video was researched. This honestly makes me think of the game in an entirely different way and it's genuinely impressive that these connections could be made to a video game. This game is truly an art piece
What I always find intriguing is how the Solid Snake games show a man who succeeds to break free of the themes of the game but, all the Big Boss games heavily rely on Big Boss losing the with regards to the main theme of the narrative.
Is it possible, that masterpieces are rarely "created" by the creators and instead are more likely to be "discovered" by art critics, essayists and the public, instead? When you look into the black mirror, what side are you on?
You have to do the self reflection to unpack a games themes ( which is the point. To enrich the individuals life and transform them. This is the point of art. Its for metaphysical evolution of your personal being and to engender you towards the next step in your souls metamorphosis. Philosophy and art exists for this purpose.
48:06 Venom is bitten by a *venom* snake* "According to biologists, the term venomous is applied to organisms that bite (or sting) to inject their toxins, whereas the term poisonous applies to organisms that unload toxins when you eat them. " Venom Snake vs venom snake
I fucking love this game so much. I love how grand it is in scope and scale, how grounded the little conflicts of each mission are with the context of the briefing and intel files. Sure its different than every other mgs, especially in pacing, but I love how this game made me feel how it would be to be Big Boss, to live the day to day as someone who sold their soul to the battlefield
When I heard about plans of remilitarization of Japan and how "it would help to solve social-economic problems of Japan", immediatly 2 things came to my mind: 1) Same bullshit is showed down our throats now in Russia. 2) Senator Armstrong from Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance: "A little war can work wonders". Kojima probably understands about politics more than our goverments do. And that is concerning.
Yeah. As an american, the part of a company understanding politics is honestly why i think that politics needs to be run by smart people, not the people in it now. So i funny agree with how deeply concerning it is when you think about how areas of normal people in society can understand things more then the heads of state currently in office. Sadly it'll take more war and apocalypse in order for the status quo to be damaged/destroyed just enough for systems to change as the masses who feel the pain of future conflicts of the system, would want an actual person to run things right and properly. The banning of weapon companies, the need for no war (though that'll take someone with the wisdom of endless millennia's to be in charge of, effectively someone who is immoral, like a physical god), among with many other things that this species that we live as suffers from.
1. "Remilitarization" didn't happen in Russia, they were already militarized when they attacked Ukraine. Stop with this non-sense. 2. Senator Armstrong isn't wrong, but you are missing the point of a "defensive force" in Japan and the japanese being afraid that, say someone like China who have the biggest population on this planet, could invade them. I mean I'm sure if someone attacked you with a knife you'd just let it happen, you are the biggest pacifist of them all here I'm sure, but some people don't like that and think it's bad. Question is though: Shouldn't all countries, like Japan was, be forced to drop their armaments then? Why this unequal picking of who gets to have a military and who doesn't? Who will ENFORCE demilitarization, when all are disarmed? Do you, by any chance, understand less about politics than the average midwit politician?
@@revisit8480 If you would be wise enought to bother checking date of the comment, you would know, first, that the comment was made before invasion into the Ukraine. Second, if you would be wise enough to actually read the comment, you would understand, that the point of comparison was about "wars working wonders for the economy of a country". There are, and were, in russian social networks and federal TV, people who would openly and blatantly said so and among those lines.
"War is simply the continuation of politics by other means." As long as people are willing to give the state the right to declare war, for whatever reason, there will always be war, and those who profit from it.
Read "A History of Warfare" By John Keegan for what I'd regard as a successful counter-argument to the notion that war is simply a continuation of politics.
@@emulation2369 honestly i think most people with 12 functioning brain cells just want to be left the fuck alone to run their life. Good luck getting the government to do THAT though
You know, I started the metal gear franchise with this game. I had never played other MG before this one, so it never occurred to me, as I played it, that I was essentially playing a bad guy, an antagonist. The whole game made it seem that I, the player, was in the right while my enemies were in the wrong. I guess, just like with the metal gear series, it is never that simple.
Tbf most of the games Big Boss is in, he isn't an antagonist. Though I guess you can say the same isn't true of Venom Snake. Either way this series tends to be very muddy with who the good and bad guys are. Ocelot is an antagonist in almost every game but it turns out he was actually the "good" guy for the most part.
There was a lot here that I really needed to hear. The idea of a Phantom Pain leaving you onto an endless and fruitless revenge quest when there's nothing left has been the story of my life. Maybe after hearing this I can take it and move on finally. This is the first time I've cried at an actual video, video games have made me but never this. Sir you are truly something special.
Me yesterday: Nah why would I watch a 50 minute essay on MSGV, a game I didn't even finish Me now: WHAT DOES IT ALL MEAN WHAT IS THIS HOLE YOU'VE LEFT IN MY HEART
I think something to consider about the GZ/PP split is that many people (myself included) only played phantom pain, so they never experienced the crime they're supposed to be avenging. With this in mind, the constant invocations of revenge over the course of the game seem even more hypnotic, you nod along "uh huh yeah revenge" and keep going. Revenge is just another context
That's a good point, and I strongly agree. If there is a case to be made that the game is unfinished or damaged by Konami's meddling, it's down to the mandate that GZ and TPP were split into two releases. Thank you for watching, and for leaving a thoughtful comment.
This revenge aspect is also, in my opinion, way more impactful if you play Peace Walker before the other two. I spent a lot of time on it, in the same way that i played MGSV : getting Mother Base to the top, unlocking all the weapons, and so on. Watching it burn to the bottom of the sea in GZ was heart breaking. It way be interesting to say that, while playing PP, i never felt the same gaming pleasure when building the new Mother Base as I did in PW. I was quite young at the time, and first games are always more impactful, but it could show that, aside from the pure revenge theme, building a new mother base is just not the same as the first time. Yes, PP may have more upgrades, teams options, etc, but it feels a bit empty, barely alive, even when you take a walk around. Like revenge, you will never be fully satisfied. Maybe it is also a way to tell us to move on.
@@MichaelSaba That could be (re: unfinished), but I want to be clear that I wasn't trying to point that out. The question for me while playing PP standalone was not, "how far will I go to have revenge" but rather "how willing am I to take on the pain of another?" How much do I accept that a crime happened and take the game at its word? So instead of experiencing a phantom pain in a limb you lost, you experience phantom pain in a limb you never had. It's Phantom phantom pain, and this was confirmed to me in the medic reveal at the end
No so sure. I played MGS:GZ for hours goin through the different scenarios as TPP neared. The tapes in GZ are amazing, but knowing everything there is to know in GZ doesn't help with the final revile in V. I think the ending tapes in TPP are a cipher. And the game lies to your face constantly with different tactics. I was very confused at the end of TPP with my 1st play though. My second play through after understanding everyone's motivations from the "truth" tapes, was amazing. A lot of what seems like nonsense has a very MGS under pinning. A dual narrative. The story also completes when this dual narrative.
Someone told me GZ and PP are two separate games but I was sure that GZ was a pre-prologue to set up the coma Awakening. Just Konami wanted to recoup some of the high development cost therefore released it as a separate game. Demo of sorts.
I'm gonna be honest; I just like crawling through grass and beating the shit out of guards with flying rocket arms. I won't say MGSV isn't narratively intriguing or complex but if it was, it all flew over my head because of how damn fun the actual gameplay is.
A lot of the "complex" meta narrative in this seems cherry picked and just an interpretation. I don't think this was the true intention or meaning behind the whole thing. I also think the ultimate "meaning" he gathers from MGSV is a bit corny and has already been done a million times before. I could interpret a deeper meaning to any story and try to argue that it's misunderstood.
Cooler yet though is the knowledge of who that line’s coming from: an AI wishing to impose an arbitrary will on the masses. In Metal Gear, even the power-hungry AI project is a critic of the digital age lol. That specific line and cutscene about “Junk data, useless information, slowing down social progress, preventing the next stage in human evolution” is a real problem we face today. The scene and line are ironic though, in that they’re being delivered to us by one of several answers to that problem: the *wrong* answer (or *a* wrong one at least). Therefore, these scenes and the climax of MGS2 ask the player, since we are pitted against the manifestation of the wrong answer to the digital crisis-arbitrary narrative and information control-then “what *is* the answer?” And over a decade later, we still cannot even offer a single better answer: we’re in over our heads in the thick of the very crisis MGS2 proposed, with no way forward yet found. Truly a masterpiece ahead of its time.
I haven't been able to stop thinking about this game since 2015. It is easily one of the most profound and thought-provoking experiences this medium can offer. And this video is probably the best review of the game I've seen. I've watched and rewatched this video multiple times, and it deserves to be seen by many more people, so they can appreciate what a work of genius MGSV truly is.
This video was much better than actually playing the game. The cut scenes were so few and far between that it really hurt the experience for me. I guess I’ll play through it again
@@Chrisrobba Poor you having to play in a sandbox of near perfect action stealth gameplay with an endless array of options, weapons and gadgets at your disposal to reach to your coveted cut scenes ;)
@@SatanicBoomBoomHead lol I love all the metal gears and this one is a masterpiece but still was wishing for more. Watching RU-vid videos about the lore has honestly been more enjoyable than the game itself though. I’m not in it for the gameplay as much as the story, on the other hand I felt the opposite about mgs4 with too much cutscenes and not enough gameplay but I think that’s how most fans felt
@@SatanicBoomBoomHead yet you neglect the fact that missions, gameplay are horribly repetitive and copy paste, and mostly mean nothing. Less is more....
Dude about the mirror thing there is a cameo of kojima on cyberpunk where his character talks about it something like "Why cant romance movies be about sorrow and why dont movies show the hate that exists in love or the happiness in the sorrow"
This video left me speechless. I was kinda avoiding the RU-vid recommendation because I thought it was gonna be a glowing praise of a game I have conflicting feelings about but I couldn't have been more wrong. It made me look at stuff I didn't notice in all the times I've finished not only this game, but all the other games in the series and think about lots of things and messages that Kojima put in here that sailed way over my head. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for this, as a Metal Gear fan, this was amazing to experience.
As a literature and philosophy graduate, I can only say this is pure genius. Thank you. I'm heading right to the patreon, can't wait to see more amazing content like this.
Calling Raiden a loser is just insane. Raiden himself has a dark legacy in his background. He was a ruthless child soldier who embraced his life as a death-bringer. He left that life behind him because he realized what happened. Calling somebody like that a loser... just no.
God I LOVE The Phantom Pain! I know the story gets a bad rap, but I loved it and the twist! The game has a certain msytic to it. Where you the player don't know what's real and what's a hallucination due to Venoms shrapnel in his head. And that they used MSF's best soldier to become Big Bosses phantom. That mirror scene in mission 46 will always have a special place in me. Just like Paz with Venom hallucinating that she's alive, but it's more like Venoms subconscious talking for Paz. "I am the dreamer, but you are having my dream." That whole Paz section was a gut punch. Especially the last scene with her. And the cassettes just made the pain hurt more. Venoms scream NO as Paz falls backwards and blows up just like in ground zeroes. I think the cassette ended on a good note though. "I will always be your angel of peace.I will always live within you. Not a phantom limb, or a phantom anything. As part of your heart. I will always be your angel of peace. So I know exactly how to finish. Say "peace"! " - Paz 😢
Then you have one of the best twists in all of gaming imo. Now do you remember? Who you are? What you were meant to do? I cheated death, thanks to you. And thanks to you I've left my mark. You have too - you've written your own history. You're your own man. I'm Big Boss, and you are too... No... He's the two of us. Together. Where we are today? We built it. This story - this "legend" - it's ours. We can change the world - and with it, the future. I am you, and you are me. Carry that with you, wherever you go. Thank you... my friend. From here on out, you're Big Boss.
I always thought MGSV was thematically complete, from the moment it came out. However, i can't help but feel like a need a little more narrative closure. Liquid stealing a Metal Gear capable of launching nukes and it never being mentioned again in universe sounds like something too important to ignore. The cut mission would have solved that plot thread. Oh well, guess it is a phantom pain
@@hopterque Still a problem in MGSV, and in MGS2 it was intentional by Kojima to make things super misterious (there is even a theory that says that everything we see in the game after the tanker was a VR simulation with Raiden being am unknown brainwashed guy, but this idea was scraped after people demanded a sequel and then Kojima had no other choice but to pretend that the plant chapter really happened.) And at least they tried to solve it in MGS4, the sequel of MGS2, but we will never see a sequel to MGSV trying to explain anything. It's a big ass hole in the middle of the cronology (and MGSV was supposed to be the "missing link").
@@kingnro1 Still a problem in MGSV, and in MGS2 it was intentional by Kojima to make things super misterious (there is even a theory that says that everything we see in the game after the tanker was a VR simulation with Raiden being am unknown brainwashed guy, but this idea was scraped after people demanded a sequel and then Kojima had no other choice but to pretend that the plant chapter really happened.) And at least they tried to solve it in MGS4, the sequel of MGS2, but we will never see a sequel to MGSV trying to explain anything. It's a big ass hole in the middle of the cronology (and MGSV was supposed to be the "missing link").
That's the point of Raiden, from what I gathered, he's distressingly both human and wish-fulfillment in a world of action movies. He's a mirror to the player.
I actually teared up a bit at the ending of this video. My experience with MGSV was almost the exact same as yours. I still play it often and used to play it every day looking for hidden meanings, taking my findings to NBGO trying to figure out a truth that just straight-up never existed. I did this to a probably unhealthy extent (mentally) and I'm over it now. The appreciation for what we got in the end, was really all that stuck with me and this video just now made me realise that. So thanks for that 🤙🏾
Damn Saba, I can call you that right? You're one of my favorite "small" channels because your videos are high quality and thoughtful. And I always learn something new with your videos. But I'm like, one of the biggest MGS nerds. And honestly was expecting the same kind of commentary/hot takes I would see on other channels. Expecting the same old trivial facts and history. Because, like, what hasn't been said about the series, y'know. But I'm only 11 minutes in and I learned to two new things about the series. I'm hyped. I'm going to pause the video and get something to eat. So I can enjoy this video proper. PS I have youtube premium because it's cost effective than patronizing all my favorite youtubers. Please be honest, is it paying out more than pennies and nickles? If not, I will patronize your channel because your content deserves it.
@Michael Saba So~ you gonna answer that question ot what? I've been using Patreon to support creators, but now I'm wondering if Premium would be at least as noticable to y'all.
Questioning Especialy directly through patreon is always the most effective way to support a RU-vidr in terms of money, next to buying merch (if that's something they do) Vague comments from Linus from LTT on his podcast imply that viewers with premium do have a certain level of elevation and worth to them, I think he specifically mentioned that in relation to helping videos getting pushed more frequently to other viewers in the recommended videos tab or something like that So there's definitely worth to being a premium user, but it doesn't carry as much direct monetary value as a patreon member- especially when you consider that videos get demonitised more often than not and music copyright stripping all the money from monetisation away from the uploader and to corporations
Kojima figured out what would happen in the future TWICE! The man is either a genius or a time traveler. I am scared for what would happen if he predicted what would happen if Death Stranding predicted the future... oh god no I want to have a family when I grow up. Please don’t happen
The secret is that he was just writing about the present, and the future follows the present. This is the same for all speculative fiction that "predicts the future".
Kojima understands history, he knows what it is, he knows what has happened, and he knows where that past will take us in the present and to an extent the future. He doesn't predict per se, more like he sees the writings on the wall and what they tell him if nothing is done. It's kinda like following the premises to it's logical conclusion, just very complicated due to the human element.
You can do the same just by spending time studying and understanding history, most of the information needed is widely available but it’s either not talked about or shunned from the public eye. It’s also unfortunate that many school curriculums and public platforms encourage loyalty and mob rule over critical thinking and objective truth. There’s a term known as “cakes and circuses” which is what the Romans used to ensure the public was too occupied by personal comfort to wake up and recognize the kind of trouble they were in. The US began because colonists recognized taxation without representation was worth starting a war over, and now we live in a time in the US where multibillion dollar companies own practically everything about our lives and a $7/gallon price on gas gets grumbled and joked about at most, but we don’t care because at least our wifi works. Cakes and circuses. In the same way the video describes we’re facing what will likely be another nuclear arms race, and Kojima likely recognized this would happen due to how it began in the first place or perhaps simply wanted to produce a game that shows how the past and future tend to rhyme. This is why understanding history and learning to think critically about said history is so important. Although that being said, it’s hard to tell when Kojima actually believes certain things he’s put into his games. Peace Walker has Big Boss idolized like Che Guevara except Big Boss was a critical agent in actually preventing a nuclear catastrophe while Che Guevara was a selfish coward and only heroic in his idolization. I can’t tell if he was a fan of Che or just wanted to accurately represent what Amanda and her people would have believed. Although I think one of Big Boss’s quotes, “real heroes are never as polished as the legends that surround them,” tells a bit there.
In all seriousness this is one of the most well put together and compelling video game analysis on the internet. Every once in a while, I come back here to watch it all over again. And get goosebumps every time...
It's actually about a soldier being manipulated into carrying someone else's burden. MGSV becomes much more grim when you realize the implications of it's true ending.
This is such a fantastic analysis of a game I’ve never played. This is why I love RU-vid - you can find gems like this from independent creators you’ve never heard of. Brilliant work.
"Oceania was at war with Eurasia: therefore Oceania had always been at war with Eurasia. The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil, and it followed that any past or future agreement with him was impossible."
The funny thing is that for all the talk of this game being "unfinished", for all the claims that "something" vital is "missing", the game itself is deliberately designed to engineer these feelings. Most of your missions come from "cut-outs", from anonymous clients that are all interconnected and part of the system "Big Boss" is fighting for revenge. And the player, desperate for a win, desperate for some cutscene to explain everything in the traditional Metal Gear fashion, misses or outright ignores all of these details. You enter missions with faulty intel. Most of your secondary objectives are either difficult if not impossible to achieve in your first run, and many are hidden until you beat a mission once or accidentally stumble upon them for yourself. Dialogue from nameless mooks do all the heavy lifting in explaining or at least hinting at what is happening behind the scenes before, during, and after a mission. And unless the player actually seeks out every optional guard conversation, all they believe is part of the plot is relegated to tapes. There is an entire series of missions in Africa where Diamond Dogs is accused of both spreading some sort of unknown plague and also of proliferating nuclear weapons. But it's not told through some well directed cutscene, or mandatory codec call. Even the tapes don't go into detail about all this. It's told in conversations between nameless soldiers in the field, rumors of some heavy duty mercs that have suddenly shown up on the scene, mysteriously at the same time as viral outbreaks wipe out a village, as bodies are burned en masse. There are three rival PFs operating in Africa, and soldiers in all three are talking about this unknown fourth party. They aren't talking about Cipher, even though we know Cipher's forces are operating in the region, and that they have done terrible things. They're talking about Diamond Dogs. This is a great video, Michael Saba. Thank you for all your hard work, stay safe and stay healthy.
Well isn’t that just fucking convenient. “We’ll have huge chunks of the game lack ANY sort of interesting plot development, but get this guys, this is genius. We’ll just say it ties into the phantom pain theme!!! Right, because since phantom pain is feeling something that isn’t there, we’ll actually have no story! Let’s sniff more of our own farts now!”
@@ballo3595 Yeah, those videos are pretty amazing. I'm not going to say the way MGSV is laid out makes it the BEST GAME EVER, much less the best STORY ever, but it is deliberately designed to be this way. It's not "genius" or anything, plenty of writers have created stories driven by unreliable narrators and characters before. But it is a pretty wild twist on a series that typically goes out of its way to explain EVERYTHING in sometimes needlessly excessive detail.
It took five years but I’m glad this game is getting its proper dues. Seems like every time a new mgs comes out the immediate reaction is disappointment by hardcore fans followed by eventual re-evaluation. I always held that this game was brilliant. Best game of 2015 by far. Even better than Witcher iii imo.
37:18 ...Wow. No words for how deep those words hit. This entire video is a masterpiece, but this section in particular stuck with me the most. You did an absolutely incredible job, kudos 👍
@@HZLTS he just needs to play the game instead of watching the cutscenes and forcing in his delusional “us bad police bad” agenda in to a game with entirely different messaging and theming
I have watched this video twice now and as a political science student all I can think is how awesome this video would have been for a research paper. The in-depth analysis delivered from the theory behind the game's story with the tying to tangible real world events was amazing. Makes me jealous that I could not write with such a stroke theoritical confidence and genius. Overall, just want to applaud you for the video as someone who grew up playing MGS I never knew anything more than some of the challenges faced in development let alone the political theory baked into the games.
It took the guy 5 years to piece all of this together, if you had 5 years I'm sure you'd have made all these connections too if digging deep enough. Either way still a good video.
Don't feel sorry for them. There are other great series that will arise. And honestly, the stories are still good. Just try and be wise when it comes to certain plot points like Raiden and they'll get most if not all the impact intended. Maybe if I played MGS2 when it first came out I would have been upset, since by the time I played it I had MGS3 waiting for me as well. But even so MGS2 is my second fave game ever. Maybe it's for the best I never hated it.
Most kids playing MGS didn't get much from the story anyways. It was just a cool movie like stealth action game to them. That there are outliers like Michael Saba that understood more doesn't change that. Starting with Playstation's marketing towards older kids/young adults you got games geared towards a more mature audience. Which means that yes I would get much more out of MGS if I played it now than way back then (though to be honest not much), but I think the gameplay is tedious considering that it is a vehicle for a very complex plot and teachings of Hideo Kojima. For me it is better to watch a let's play by someone that has mastered the gameplay that I don't find enjoying.
@@NicolaiSyvertsen I was 14. Nothing was lost on me. It's only boring if you don't engage with certain elements. The replay value is there, but if you don't really even want to get the story, you won't find anything different. The games aren't boring. You bore yourself by not wanting to engage with anything about it. It doesn't make the game bad. The game as a whole was just never going to be something to you.
I've seen more appreciation for Phantom Pain over the years and that makes me very, very happy. Theres a lot to love in MGSV. Way more to love than hate imo.
I loved how mysterious it felt. Of course I had questions after the other Metal Gear games but something about V was different. It felt sort of creepy and strange
Even now I still wonder about Kojima’s true thought about that. I mean, even back at the time I played the first metal gear when I was like 15 I had thouht to myself «the guy who made this game is a real military fanatic» because of the amount and depth of technical details and military-related subjects. It’s just hard to imagine someone truly anti-war being include so much detail about military weaponry, strategy, procedures, vocabulary...
@@eruno_ It's an effective combination and part of our nature, we are wildly creative in times of war and a lot of technological and infrastructural development comes from that. Which is sadly also why we have nukes and hydrogen bombs, the latest in the endless effort to make the weapon that will end all wars.
Your debriefing (at 43:01) was one of the most chillingly genuine personal accounts of why this series matters, and the effect it's had on a generation of people curious enough to play it. It's a different beast, feeling Kojima's beating heart while learning through this virtual stealth combat series how such violent interference reigns hell on everyone in its wake. Thanks for taking the time to distill the true purpose of MGS V, and why it is gaming's magnum opus.
It literally took me 15 minutes of debating and thinking of ways I could possibly save the soldiers in quarantine and finally feeling horrid once I shot them
I am so appreciative of this video you've made. I've always thought back on MGSV and how it never sat right with me. Whenever I thought about it I would tell friends that I always felt that the game was this "incomplete" masterpiece, and yet I was ready to say that MGSV was also one of my most, if not THE most, favorite game I've played. I always thought how this "incomplete" masterpiece was my favorite game, but I never really asked "Why" it subconsciously sat as my favorite. I never realized that the game actually conveyed this feeling of "phantom pain" to the players as well as it did until I watched this video. MGSV has made such an impact on me, especially during a time where I felt like things went wrong at every corner I turned. I related to Venom Snake and his plight against the situation he was unwillingly tossed in, and I would always play the song "The Man Who Sold the World" thinking to myself about my own troubles and Venom's. Is there any good to come out if I were to be bitter and take out my hatred on a self-created illusory world that has wronged me? While the game made me look at this story of a badass mercenary spy taking down soldiers and the mechanical giant Sahelanthropus (single-handedly!), it shifted into the "black mirror" and how these "accomplishments" were actually meaningless in the long run, only short-term satisfactions that lead you into an even bigger, worse plight: "Just another day in a war without end." It definitely is hard to break from the past when things went wrong, but it's a lot better to do so than to become a Venom persona in an endless war. One topic from MGSV that is ripe for analysis videos/essays are the talks about languages, parasites that steals one's native tongue by damning them to never speak it, the cultural genocide that occurs when the language stops being spoken, and, one of the game's most memorable lines, "Words can kill." I was fascinated by all of this so much that I even decided to pursue my college studies in Linguistics learning about it. It's definitely an integral part of the story, and maybe that could be an idea for a future video? Regardless, an amazing analysis on MGSV. If I could like this video multiple times I would do it like Cookie Clicker.
People need to see this video and understand the greatness of MGSV's story. Even after all these years people still dismiss like it's nothing, all because it's different.
