Lately I've been replaying the series, looking at the writing and storytelling a lot closer. Something that I have noticed since revisiting the games with a maturer mind is that often the narrative of particular entries takes a backseat to Kojima pushing a specific message/theme.

Now this isn't a problem in itself and can absolutely be used in a standalone game or the first of a series. However, using this approach the way he would later in the series had a damaging effect on it's quality.

The most prevalent example of this was of course the Phantom Pain with it's Venom Snake twist. As soon as Kojima inserted a character to represent his audience, he sacrificed the narrative of not just one game but three. Being a prequel means MGSV not only had questions to answer but also the responsibility of not conflicting with what came before. In this, the game fails drastically.

I think Kojima severely underestimates the player's ability to empathize and connect to characters. You don't need a blank slate for them to write their name and birthday. Just a good story and meaningful character development.

Phantom Pain, as well as some other entries have some other creative choices I don't agree with but those I'll save for later. Maybe I'll make a blog or a YouTube video.

For now I'd like to open the floor for discussion. Do you think I'm being overly nitpicky or believe there's some truth to this flaw?

I know this isnt about metal gear but does anybody remember castlevania lords of shadows for the ps3/xbox 360

This game was such a good game I love gabriel belmont and his journey the final boss fight was incredible and the ending was sad and beautiful lords of shadows 2 was also good but not as good as this game

What if Eli(Liquid) its a clone of Kazuhira Miller instead of being a clone of big boss?

Due to solid snake getting the foxdie virus causing him to look old is he old when was he born idk reply for answer

Ever since the success of the phantom pain I've been wondering is there ever going to be a 6th installment of this great franchise of spys clones and robot

I've been a Metal Gear fan since 1998. The series has been near and dear to my heart. But being a big Metal Gear fan, especially a long term one. You see how often Hideo Kojima's stories revolve around a seemingly endless string of retcons, contradictions and sudden changes in plot direction. Now this isn't to say that the series is filled with nothing but bad writing. I don't believe that because the Metal Gear games have beautifully written scenes. This series never would have become what it is if the writing was truly awful.

But in retrospect, looking at the series as a whole. I really don't think Hideo Kojima himself is a "good" writer. His scripts tend to have this focus on over explaining details that aren't very relevant and even the thematic elements are really heavy handed at times. I always think back to the scenes in the first Metal Gear Solid particularly where characters will randomly go off on these big, overarching speeches about nukes, the environment, science, etc. Now this dialogue is informative and it shows that Kojima does his research which is very impressive. But it does little in building naturalistic dialogue. People just don't talk like that and it also comes off as the author shoveling so much upfront plot in your face instead of a natural conversation between two people.

And then of course you have the really ridiculous, far fetched retcons. I think one of the biggest ones being the whole Liquid Ocelot situation. First it's a ghost talking through an amputated arm (which is literally insane) and for some reason Kojima changed his mind when MGS4 came around and had Liquid Ocelot have a cybernetic arm and switch voice actors to reflect that Ocelot was pretending the whole time. The whole thing really doesn't make any sense. Regardless of which explanation you want to believe. The truth of the matter is, Kojima regretted killing off Liquid Snake and so this whole Liquid Ocelot situation came about because of that. And I also get the impression that Kojima retconned Liquid's ghost because of the backlash MGS2 received.

It's interesting because I saw an interview back when MGS4 was released and Hideo Kojima seemed to acknowledge his weakness as a writer. He said that he wished he didn't make MGS2 so needlessly complicated and that he really regretted it. I do love MGS2 the way it is now, it's a work of art. But you have to admit that MGS2 is the reason the plot in the series got way too convoluted and started hitting a critical mass of ridiculousness. MGS3 was only able to get around it because it being a prequel, the story wasn't burdened with explaining the insanity that was Sons of Liberty. MGS4 had the burden of being a sequel to MGS2 and it shows. It tries desperately to answer questions that were never intended to be answered. MGS2 was supposed to be the last one and Kojima himself has said that he never intended following up MGS2's plot with a sequel. Which is why when he decided to make another one, he made a prequel instead.

Anyways, so what do you guys think? Do you think it's valid criticism?

Is dd effective against quite

So, when the "unified-community" or whatever it's called, thing happened, it made the entire Legend of Zelda wiki on computers be "read-only" instead of allowing you to edit it in the Fandom website, pretty much forcing you to only edit on Gamepedia. I was browsing the Metal Gear wiki, and I read a banner saying that the same thing would happen to the Metal Gear wiki as well. Gamepedia is awful toook at in my opinion, and it's taking things that I like away from me, so I'm just ranting about it now. Thanks for reading.

Edit; Thanks to @Legendary Super Saiyan Fennekin for clearing stuff up!

I'm sure you people have figured this out already, but I was thinking about it, and Vocalcord Parasites are the basis for the Patriots' use of Nanomachines. The reason why I say this is that BOTH of them can restrict speech (Vocalcord parasites force some to not use a certain language. For Quiet it was English, so she subbed for Navajo. As for Nanomachines, they keep Patriot Spies from being able to say "Patriot" and forcing them to say "La-Li-Lu-Le-Lo" instead.) Not to mention that another similarity for them is how they can sometimes be used to grant strength and other powers. For Senator Armstrong in MGR, he was able to use his nanomachines to give him steel strength skin, while the skulls used their parasites to do something similar to protect their own bodies from trauma.

In a way, you can view Senator Armstrong as the last surviving Skull (Though I use this loosely as his is different, but similar... and he's dead now, so...)

This is just two that I noticed. There may be plenty more similarities, and even some differences. Leave a comment below to tell me more about these things and even which you would rather have.

Would you rather have Nanomachines or Vocalcord Parasites?

D-Horse.

D-Dog.

D-Walker.

Quiet.

Like if Snake really killed Ocelot, what's happening next

Now I realize that since I'm asking the Fandom the answer will probably be 'yes', but hear me out. I've honestly never really played a game like Metal Gear Solid besides maybe Dishonored and Assassin's Creed. Other than that, not really. For some stealth based games I've noticed that I have the tendency to go to the previous checkpoint if I was detected or set off an alarm. What draws me to a game is the concept but I stay for the story a few examples for me would be Halo, Resident Evil, Red Dead Redemption, Infamous, Mass Effect, etc. The concept of MGS intrigues me as I've always been interested in the Cold War era (which I realize the games go into present day and I'm fine with that), but what concerns me is that the names of the characters seems confusing (Revolver Ocelot/Liquid Ocelot/Major Ocelot and Solid Snake/Venom Snake/Liquid Snake/Naked Snake, etc.) and I'm worried I'd get lost as I go through the games. Am I concerned over nothing and is the story good enough to hold my attention?

Does anyone know Revolver Ocelots role/rank in diamond dogs?