I assume I don't need to point out there will be spoilers but I'd rather err on the side of caution - there will be minor spoilers. Looked for recent similar threads, didn't find anything, but please feel free to fulton me if this has been done to death
I recently went back to MGS V and am pretty eager to see what Era thinks of this game since I wasn't a part of the community back in 2015 when this came out. I've read a few topics here that either directly or indirectly discussed it, but not many and never in depth. I know the game is divisive, with a lot of hard core fans hating it and it lots of hardcore fans, like me, loving it. I actually think the divisive nature of the game works in its favor and strengthens the argument that it's one of the best games in the franchise.
One of the best things about the MGS franchise, in my opinion, is how unwilling Kojima was to rest on his laurels. Unlike other huge franchises, Kojima changed the core gameplay in at least one fundamental way with each installment, be it first person shooting in MGS2, survival and camouflage in Snake Eater, or Octo-Camo in Guns of the Patriots. He was also willing to tell stories in radically different ways each time, rather than just sticking with one long-arcing narrative that stayed familiar in tone or theme throughout; I loved the cyber-esque nature of Sons of Liberty as much as the retro-Bond homage that was Snake Eater. In both ways, Kojima seemed at least intent on staying with the times in terms of degisn, even if he didn't always succeed.
So it's no surprise to me that, after 7 years without a major console release, Kojima went with both open world structure and immersive, rather than visual, passive storytelling (especially given the stepping stone that was Peace Walker, which I think many people unfortunately skipped due to its initial release only on PSP). It's also not surprising that those also seem to be the two main sticking points for people.
However, I think they both work to make Phantom Pain a better, not worse, experience, simply because of how fully Kojima committed to those changes and how well he executed them. I think MGS V has the best open world gameplay ever on display; I've never played a game with such freedom of gameplay, where your path to success was limited mostly by your imagination, and not the underlying mechanics. I love the open worlds of games like GTA V or Elder Scolls, but it almost seems like those games have a problem where, the bigger the world gets, the more linear the actual gameplay becomes. GTA V is one of the biggest game worlds ever, but it holds your hand through every aspect of every mission, telling you exactly what to do and how to do it. The world is open but the gameplay is anything but.
Phantom Pain's two massive open-world maps, on the other hand, do little more than plunk you down, give you a mission and a million and one ways to do it, and then leave you to your devices. Playing through it for the third time now, I'm finding myself completing missions using a third unique solution to each, most of the time. Blow up a tank or fulton it, or maybe lure the occupants out before you tranq and fulton them. Or have your dog cause a distraction so you can slip by or have Quiet start firing to draw their attention or ride right by the enemy while hanging off the side of D-Horse or use the parasite suit to wreak havoc or you get my point already.
I love that freedom, and that how you make use of it can change so drastically depending on a number of factors like buddy choice and loadout. But I don't think this change would have played so well if Kojima had stuck to the same heavy-handed narrative that he's known for. The ability to enjoy the open world really depends on your ability to actually interact with it, and constantly taking control away from the player to shove cutscenes in our faces would really detract from the game world Kojima created. It worked, and worked very well, in previous installments. Some of my favorite game stories of all time are MGS 2 and 3, but that kind of direction just wouldn't have worked here.
So I really appreciated that Kojima decided to let players experience the bulk of the story through audio tapes that could be played in almost any order, solely at your leisure, almost as if they were real briefings that were there to assist your decision making. It gave us as much freedom over the story as the mechanics gave us over the world we played in. That's about as like Kojima as anything he's ever done.
I know not everyone feels the same way, and I get why some people didn't respond well to it, especially when it comes to unresolved questions about Mantis and Volgin, etc.. I love how passionate the fans of this series are; part of the reason why it's my favorite franchise is the fun I have talking about it with other fans. I just think this game deserves better than it gets for some people. LIke most MGS games, Kojima's reach sometimes exceeded his grasp with Phantom Pain, but he reached farther with this game than almost any other, and still came away with a lot of success.
Also, it's just amazing to me that at, at some point, Kojima had to pitch to somebody the idea of a whale made entirely of conjured fire swallowing a Hind helicopter before an American-Russian triple agent cowboy rides in on a white horse to save the day, and nobody at Konami bothered to have Kojima committed. God bless this crazy fuckin' genius and the amazingly batshit insane ways he finds to entertain us these last 30 years.
I recently went back to MGS V and am pretty eager to see what Era thinks of this game since I wasn't a part of the community back in 2015 when this came out. I've read a few topics here that either directly or indirectly discussed it, but not many and never in depth. I know the game is divisive, with a lot of hard core fans hating it and it lots of hardcore fans, like me, loving it. I actually think the divisive nature of the game works in its favor and strengthens the argument that it's one of the best games in the franchise.
One of the best things about the MGS franchise, in my opinion, is how unwilling Kojima was to rest on his laurels. Unlike other huge franchises, Kojima changed the core gameplay in at least one fundamental way with each installment, be it first person shooting in MGS2, survival and camouflage in Snake Eater, or Octo-Camo in Guns of the Patriots. He was also willing to tell stories in radically different ways each time, rather than just sticking with one long-arcing narrative that stayed familiar in tone or theme throughout; I loved the cyber-esque nature of Sons of Liberty as much as the retro-Bond homage that was Snake Eater. In both ways, Kojima seemed at least intent on staying with the times in terms of degisn, even if he didn't always succeed.
So it's no surprise to me that, after 7 years without a major console release, Kojima went with both open world structure and immersive, rather than visual, passive storytelling (especially given the stepping stone that was Peace Walker, which I think many people unfortunately skipped due to its initial release only on PSP). It's also not surprising that those also seem to be the two main sticking points for people.
However, I think they both work to make Phantom Pain a better, not worse, experience, simply because of how fully Kojima committed to those changes and how well he executed them. I think MGS V has the best open world gameplay ever on display; I've never played a game with such freedom of gameplay, where your path to success was limited mostly by your imagination, and not the underlying mechanics. I love the open worlds of games like GTA V or Elder Scolls, but it almost seems like those games have a problem where, the bigger the world gets, the more linear the actual gameplay becomes. GTA V is one of the biggest game worlds ever, but it holds your hand through every aspect of every mission, telling you exactly what to do and how to do it. The world is open but the gameplay is anything but.
Phantom Pain's two massive open-world maps, on the other hand, do little more than plunk you down, give you a mission and a million and one ways to do it, and then leave you to your devices. Playing through it for the third time now, I'm finding myself completing missions using a third unique solution to each, most of the time. Blow up a tank or fulton it, or maybe lure the occupants out before you tranq and fulton them. Or have your dog cause a distraction so you can slip by or have Quiet start firing to draw their attention or ride right by the enemy while hanging off the side of D-Horse or use the parasite suit to wreak havoc or you get my point already.
I love that freedom, and that how you make use of it can change so drastically depending on a number of factors like buddy choice and loadout. But I don't think this change would have played so well if Kojima had stuck to the same heavy-handed narrative that he's known for. The ability to enjoy the open world really depends on your ability to actually interact with it, and constantly taking control away from the player to shove cutscenes in our faces would really detract from the game world Kojima created. It worked, and worked very well, in previous installments. Some of my favorite game stories of all time are MGS 2 and 3, but that kind of direction just wouldn't have worked here.
So I really appreciated that Kojima decided to let players experience the bulk of the story through audio tapes that could be played in almost any order, solely at your leisure, almost as if they were real briefings that were there to assist your decision making. It gave us as much freedom over the story as the mechanics gave us over the world we played in. That's about as like Kojima as anything he's ever done.
I know not everyone feels the same way, and I get why some people didn't respond well to it, especially when it comes to unresolved questions about Mantis and Volgin, etc.. I love how passionate the fans of this series are; part of the reason why it's my favorite franchise is the fun I have talking about it with other fans. I just think this game deserves better than it gets for some people. LIke most MGS games, Kojima's reach sometimes exceeded his grasp with Phantom Pain, but he reached farther with this game than almost any other, and still came away with a lot of success.
Also, it's just amazing to me that at, at some point, Kojima had to pitch to somebody the idea of a whale made entirely of conjured fire swallowing a Hind helicopter before an American-Russian triple agent cowboy rides in on a white horse to save the day, and nobody at Konami bothered to have Kojima committed. God bless this crazy fuckin' genius and the amazingly batshit insane ways he finds to entertain us these last 30 years.
