Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-86.46.22.35-20130403153709/@comment-1672596-20140611192241

Jim Logan wrote: If Hideo says we will be playing through Big Boss's fall into madness...it would make zero sense to be playing as someone else. Maybe, but then again, he also said we'd be playing as Solid Snake in MGS2, even doctored the demos and trailers specifically to make it seem as though we're playing as him at the Big Shell, yet look how that turned out. Not to mention he said that we'd actually see Liquid's reason for becoming evil in Peace Walker, yet we never got any hint at Liquid at all other than that phone call (which wasn't even a direct reference to him).

Plus, Kojima had earlier implied that he was going to pull something similar to the twist in Metal Gear Solid 2 back when the game was first announced, before the Phantom Pain was officially unveiled, so we can't determine anything until the game's been released.

We've also got the problem about why Ground Zeroes' ending timeline mentioned that the Les Enfants Terribles project ended in 1976, even though not only did prior games not even mention a specific end date for the project, but Ground Zeroes itself barely even mentions the project other than in the post-credits scene between Skull Face and Paz (also shown in one of Chico's tapes), and doesn't even mention anything pointing to it being at a close other than it being a "failure" (something that was mentioned as early as Metal Gear Solid by Ocelot of all people). Normally with timelines, especially the ending timelines, they either cover real events that are alluded to in-game, or in the case of fictional events, stuff that is important to the overall chronology, such as characters fates or events of significant importance to the franchise (ie, founding of the Patriots and FOXHOUND, Outer Heaven Uprising, the birth of the Twin Snakes, etc., etc.). There's absolutely nothing that we can gather about the Les Enfants Terribles project ending on 1976 that would make sense unless it ties directly into The Phantom Pain. And the only way that's going to be important is if we are playing as a clone of Big Boss for some reason (it definitely can't be related to Liquid Snake. Even if the rumors are true and Liquid and Eli are the same character, he would be four years old by that time, and thus won't have any impact on the project ending).

Well, either way, let's wait until the game's released. It may be very likely that Big Boss will be the main character, but then again, until MGS2 was released, chances were also very high that Solid Snake would return as the main playable protagonist, and look how that turned out. I also find it deeply suspicious that Big Boss is not being identified as such in The Phantom Pain at all. Even Ground Zeroes, the prologue to this game, at least mentioned he was formerly known as Big Boss. There's nothing here that suggests he ever was called Big Boss.