Psycho Mantis

Psycho Mantis (サイコ・マンティス) was one of the renegade members of FOXHOUND who took over Shadow Moses with the Genome Army. He wears a gas-mask to help him to prevent people's thoughts from "forcing their way into his mind".

Biography
Psycho Mantis was born in a small Russian village before the collapse of the Soviet Union. His mother died giving birth to him, which made his father resent and hate him. He discovered his father's true emotions one day while accidentally reading his mind. He wondered if his father would kill him, and the shock of this revelation awoke his sub conscious. He used his telekinetic powers to burn down the village that he lived in, killing all residents. This release of psychic energy caused severe burns across his body, particularly his face.

The official cause of death for the people of the village was found to be brain hemorrhaging and he was then taken into custody by the KGB, who found his psychic powers impressive. He was taught to control his abilities in a boarding school owned by Soviet Intelligence, along with other possibly psychic children.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Mantis was drafted as a psychic investigator by the FBI. He moved to the United States and began to work immediately for the FBI. He would enter the minds of suspected killers and uncover the truth about their crimes. However, while interrogating a certain serial killer, he dove too deeply into his mind. As a result, he adopted the personality of this serial killer and became psychotic. He eventually left the FBI and became a freelance psychic, offering his services to the highest bidder, and was eventually enlisted into FOXHOUND. By this time he had taken to wearing a gas mask, partially to hide his deformed facial features, but also to prevent the thoughts of others from entering his mind.

Eventually, he and the other members of FOXHOUND, Liquid Snake, Revolver Ocelot, Sniper Wolf, Vulcan Raven, and Decoy Octopus, grew tired of their roles as puppets to the government and attacked Shadow Moses Island.

While on Shadow Moses Island, Psycho Mantis attempted to read Donald Anderson's and Kenneth Baker's minds. When Revolver Ocelot "accidentally" killed Anderson during a torture session, Mantis came up with the idea of tricking Solid Snake into getting the PAL Key from Baker and using the keys to activate Metal Gear REX while making Snake think he was de-activating REX. They made Decoy Octopus disguise himself as Anderson to talk Snake into the act.

As Snake and Meryl Silverburgh made their way through the island, Psycho Mantis managed to control Meryl's mind. He turned her against Snake and tried to make her shoot him, though Snake was able to knock her unconscious. Psycho Mantis then revealed himself and fought Snake himself. On the edge of defeat, Mantis decided to awake Meryl and try to make her shoot herself in the head. However, Snake managed to both prevent Meryl from killing herself and defeat Psycho Mantis.

Upon his defeat, Psycho Mantis reveals Snake's and Meryl's future, telling them to continue onto the communications tower and reveals a hidden doorway in the room he fought Snake in. As Psycho Mantis tells them he can read people's minds, Snake takes off his mask. He reveals that all the minds he read contained the same thought – to pass on their DNA. He also says that humans are fated to bring each other pain and reveals he killed his father and burned his village to bury his past.

Psycho Mantis goes on to say he and Snake are similar, that he never agreed with Liquid's revolution, and that he just wanted to mindlessly kill people. However, he then says that Snake is worse than Liquid himself. He reveals that he read Meryl's mind and that Snake has a large place in her heart, though he does not know if their futures lie together.

He then asks Snake to put his mask back on to prevent people's thoughts from forcing their way into his mind. He then opens the secret passageway and says that that is the first time in his life he has helped people, and that it feels nice. He then died, and Snake and Meryl continue to the communications tower.

In 2014, after Snake infiltrated Liquid Ocelot's Outer Haven he was confronted by the final member of the Beauty and The Beast Unit, Screaming Mantis. After defeating her, Mantis' suit reformed and floated in the air, with Psycho Mantis spirit appearing behind it. He possesses an important role in the creation of the Beauty and the Beast Units, it being said that Screaming Mantis was given the personality of Psycho Mantis via nanobots and hypnosis in an attempt to control the other Units so that they would actually be effective in combat. Psycho Mantis returning from the grave because of this was an unintended but much welcome side effect, him being able to partially manipulate the women into functioning as actual war machines. Psycho Mantis once again shows Snake his telekinetic powers. If the player is using a DualShock 3, he cheers about vibration being back, otherwise, he complains that his powers aren't working. Afterwards, The Sorrow intervenes and sends his ghost to the grave for good.

Behind the Scenes

 * The battle with Psycho Mantis is widely known for him "displaying" his mental powers. This include makes the controller move by activating the rumble feature, making players think the channel has changed by turning the screen to black with the green caption "HIDEO" in the top-right corner of the screen, and reading the memory card, where he comments on the number of saves so far, and comments on the saved games, first on their genre, then on specific examples. In the original, Mantis mentions Azure Dreams, Suikoden, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, and Vandal Hearts (plus Policenauts and Snatcher in the Japanese version), while in The Twin Snakes, he references Super Smash Bros. Melee, Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, Super Mario Sunshine, and The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker.


 * The fight against Screaming Mantis in MGS4 is designed to play off people's memories of fighting Psycho Mantis in MGS, right down to the music being a recreation of Mantis Hymn from the original MGS Soundtrack. After Screaming Mantis screams "Blackout!" the screen turns to black and displays a green caption saying "HIDEO2". If the player switches the PS3 controller over to Controller Port 2, Snake will call Otacon saying that he can't move, with Otacon telling him that the trick won't work this time, much to Snake's chagrin. Roy Campbell also suggests that Snake try either swapping controller ports or destroying the mask on the bust of Mantis's face, but Rosemary and Snake rebuke him, stating that neither of those strategies is applicable in the situation. After the battle, when Mantis himself appears, he attempts to read the memory card once more, but fails due to the PS3's hard-drive-based memory system. He also tries to repeat his controller-moving trick, but is unsuccessful due to the lack of rumble feature in the SIXAXIS controller. Enraged, he disappears. However, if the scene is played with a DualShock 3, Mantis will perform the trick successfully and gleefully declare that vibration is back before disappearing.


 * Psycho Mantis was previously chosen as the #3 best boss fight ever by GameSpot.


 * Psycho Mantis is also mentioned in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. When Snake fights Ness in Shadow Moses Island, if he uses his Codec taunt, Roy Campbell will feed him data on Ness, and Snake will instantly recall Psycho Mantis, to the point of even asking if Ness has telepathic powers as well. Campbell assures him that "Ness is a good kid" and would not forcibly read Snake's mind.

Trivia

 * After the fight with Psycho Mantis, he will state, regarding Snake and Meryl, that he is "unsure whether or not their futures lie together". This could be a reference to the fact that the game has two endings, one where Meryl lives and one where she dies.