Damn I'm impressed the moves zelensky does in that video
death stranding spoiler
Fuck off I actually believed that shit for a second lmao
The funny thing is Metal Geal Rising: Revengance is the only Metal Gear game that ever came close to the actual vision of Metal Gear that only exist in Kojima's and the fans' mind. It actually have coherent politics that criticizes American imperialism and how it drove war for its self interest, Senator Armstrong* is a caricature of what kind of bullshit American warhawks unironically believes, the whole plot also is about him trying to stage a false flag attack on America so he can be president (hmmm :mission-accomplished:)
like so many of Metal Gear's "politics" are largely nonsense that people extrapolates to be much deeper than it actually is because the presentation is cool. People often talks about Metal Gear failing to deliver its "war is bad" message because the cool militaria aesthetic undermines it message, but I think the answer is simpler: it was never an anti war story. Metal Gear is a fantastical espionage story (and honestly it's in the title: TACTICAL ESPIONAGE ACTION) featuring super-special agents fighting a villainous mastermind and their army of colorful goons who wanted to commit some wacky scheme with their wonder-weapon. Metal Gear have more in common with James Bond, Mission Impossible, or Venture Bros; which are not a bad thing on its own, yet some people treats it like it's the Come and See of video games.
*rewatching his cutscene again and yeah, Armstrong is straight up an objectivist/libertarian. Hell, considering the game's release date (2013) it is possible that the devs based him on the Tea Party guys who at the time were in the middle of bringing those views into the American mainstream and the world's attention.
Most of MGS politics make sense if you consider it from the perspective of an anarchist who has never read theory
MGS 1 and 3 are just spy flicks with some interesting subversions, 2 is pretty good, albeit on a meta level, not the actual story (that's just 1 again), 4 is just a big fuck you to the fans.
Peace Walker and V are honestly pretty well written to show the downfall of Big Boss from loveable MGS3 goofy spy man to villain and the fact that basically the entire internet says they don't see it is what makes it good. By V, it's not even subtle about it with the literal Big Boss is watching you poster on your rogue nuclear military junta platform made up out of brainwashed conscripts and still everybody is like "well how's he the bad guy" because he destroys a metal gear again and is likeable. I genuinely think that's the point, you see it from his or is cult follower perspective. If you were to look at the entire scenario from a distance it becomes pretty clear the guy trying to fuel a forever war for his private army ain't exactly what anybody considers good, even if he does rescue a puppy.
Even the most popular MG Rising meme video on YT is still fairly based and leans on that rhetoric a lot.
He's known for a franchise that is based on him thinking the protagonist in escape from new york is cool. Kind of a himbo with some interesting themes in his otherwise campy games. That's why we love him. I don't think anyone pretended he was a brilliant writer, lol.
This is literally just the "well even if it isn't true the fact that it could be really says something about the times" boomer cope
believing wholeheartedly he would create a character named Jew Slavman.
what if reality is one long shitpost.
In fairness he would absolutely create a character named Jew Slavman.
Kojima can’t write
I mean he has basic competency in writing. MGS 1 and 3 are just competently told spy flicks, just with a lot of Kojima tacked on. Latter is more of a style issue, and it's divisive, but it's not like he's David Cage. 2 and 4 just get way too meta to consider discussing their actual storys.
Everything I liked about a Kojima game had nothing to do with story
Death Stranding lays bare all of Kojima's writing flaws. The stuff like way too much exposition works for something like Metal Gear, because it's an espionage thriller, you're learning just how deep everything goes, as well as the general silliness, since it did take inspiration from things such as James Bond. His flaws become advantages in Metal Gear. But Death Stranding is supposed to be a more mysterious setting, the less told about it, the better.
Honestly I disagree, if only because
spoiler
The theme of connection really hits at the end when Sam decides to quit Bridges and take care of Lou, who was his only genuine connection the whole time. I'm not sure he meant it but it speaks to the fact that a worker's only genuine connection at their jobs are their fellow co-workers, and the upper management at Bridges (everyone else) constantly stress that Lou is a piece of equipment, and not a fellow human being, even though Lou is the only person to share Sam's (and your) experiences.
I finally gave Death Stranding a chance this week, and as a die hard Metal Gear fan since 1998, I can say that the writing is complete and utter shit. I had already been disappointed by the lack of dialogue in MGS5, but DS really took it down a notch further. I can't begin to describe how bad it really is, from an inconsquential and random meeting with another courier within the first minute of the game and immediate introduction to the underwhelming horror elements of the game, to boring exposition delivered by a short-lived corpse disposal worker, and another boring meeting with your mother, the president, whom you the player have ZERO emotional attachment to. The game is so poorly written that I honestly believe the rumours that the earlier MGS games were written by someone else. The game is boring, and it isn't because you play a delivery boy delivering packages, the gameplay is kind of fine, it's because the writing is totally incompetent, which is a shame because the world and some of the ideas are very interesting. Total waste of a good cast.
Death Stranding would work better if the story was told like Dark Souls. There's some kind of apocalypse there, you don't see much of what happened, but you can see bits and pieces, and you can try to put them together in your head.
I disagree with everything you said in the strongest possible terms.
Didn't Kojima have a long-time writing partner (who I believe was mostly behind the CODEC conversations, at least in MGS1 which makes a lot of sense given how much of the backstory of, say, Revolver Ocelot given in them doesn't really gel with the stuff introduced in later games) who split between MGS3 and 4?
I think Peace Walker was a vast improvement over 4 and closer to the tone and feel of MGS3, which is not to say that it was mindblowingly amazing storytelling. It was very silly and anime, even by the series' standards, it just happened to be silly in a really likeable way.
I got the feeling from MGSV that Hideo Kojima was self-conscious about the the series' overall campy reputation as well as the insane, over-the-top verbosity of MGS4 and tried to prove he could make a serious game that wasn't just a goofy meme, and Death Stranding looks to me like him going further in that direction, unaware that no matter what he does he'll always be a hack.
My own pet theory is that PW, being a smaller PSP title maybe wasn't as tightly overseen by Kojima and that the story might've been written by others who tried to emulate the series from back when it used to be good.
What would you consider amazing story telling in a game. Not trolling, genuine.
Deadly Premonition
What I was mostly getting at with Peace Walker is that it's goofy as shit. Also problematic I guess since Snake can go on a date with an underage schoolgirl and have sex in a cardboard box
lmao Big Z is actually ain't a bad actor at least from what I saw of that (now eerie) TV show where he becomes president of Ukraine. Maybe if he doesn't get executed by a far right coup he can use all his name recognition in the west to sign some sweet post-war gigs like this
