Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-86.46.22.35-20130403153709/@comment-64.33.250.214-20150630062311

TheGentlemanGhost wrote:

Unless you believe Ishmael is not real (which previewers have also seemed to debunk, stating he is a real person) pretty much everyone believes his name isn't actually Ishmael anyway since the other half of people on this forum still seem to believe he's a known character, right? So what makes it any different if he's calling himself "Ishmael" if he's a custom character? I think most people know he's giving a fake name when introducing himself to Snake, so we would likely re-introduce ourselves to Snake with our real name later.

The idea that at some point we are in our main characters army but not the key player, yet has an impact on a very significant storyline may be overselling a bit (which I'm expecting when I hear things like "never done before") and a bit specific, it COULD be just that. Even if this isn't that very thing, too many clues are unraveling that could make "Ishmael" us. If he a custom character, there's not really much need to use brand new VAs and motion actors, I don't see how that debunks anything. I don't play the Japan version, I play the US version, and they have yet to use the same VA for clones but that's not really refuting that "Ishmael" could be a custom character either way. But players playing along side of an iconic character in gaming isn't really something I've seen done too often, so it's new to me and something I'd see kept as a secret. I don't exactly doubt any other ideas on Ishmael, I just noticed it hasn't really been mentioned here. But I guess it's frown upon on this forum for whatever reason lol. If Ishmael is a returning character, it would fit the Moby Dick theme. Ishmael was important to the story of Moby Dick, and that is why people suspect Ishmael to be more than a random character. How would Kojima make a custom character important to the story without messing up continuity? Suddenly there'd be this character with a code name and everything, who plays this vital role in Metal Gear history, helping Big Boss and who knows what else, but no one could agree what he looked like because everyone gave him a different head. That would certainly complicate things for people who edit his Wiki page.

Why allow us to customize the head, and not the rest of the body? Imagine being a female fan of the franchise. You find out you can make your own character, but you can only make it male. That's just false advertising. It'd likely confuse people who are familiar with customization in other games, causing them to think this game might do something similar. Then they'd wonder why Kojima didn't just implement a full character creation mode. Limiting the customization to only a face is somewhat of a step back from what other franchises have done before.

Again I have to ask, why give a name and dialogue to a character in a trailer, if the player can just change him anyway? Kojima could have left him nameless if he isn't integral to the plot. If he is an integral character, it may create potential problems for the franchise's lore. One has to question why Kojima would hire Keifer for the role of Ishmael, when he could hire someone cheaper who doesn't sound like a clone of Big Boss. Some might also ask why Keifer was cast as The Medic in Ground Zoroes, but at least there the character had required little acting.

The US version used the same actor for the clones. David Hayter voiced both Solid Snake and Big Boss. Solid Snake is a clone. The customization theory has a strike against it when you realize Keifer is voicing Ishmael, when Ishmael's voice sounds similar to Big Boss.

Phantom Pain is only 2 months away from release, so it's not like rival companies have enough time to steal Kojima's customization for their own games. Game demos help inform gamers of what they can expect from a product, so it would have been counterintuitive not to show off the customization option during e3.