So, after finishing the entire saga(except mgs4, rpcs3 doesn't run very well on my pc), I have got to say that metal gear solid 1 is probably the best one of them all. I played the gog port and with a few mods, it works like a charm with mouse and keyboard.
I started my playthrough with mgsv about two years ago. The reason it took me so long to finish everything is because I very rarely played the mgs games because I frequently lost track of time while playing them, which I can't afford to since I am a student. Playing through mgsv, I couldn't care less about the story. Its not really that impressive when compared to the gameplay, which is about hundred times better than the story. Only voice I recognized was troy baker as ocelot, so I was a bit surprised seeing that keifer suntherland voiced venom snake as it was not very memorable. With an actor of his calibre, you would expect a bit more(maybe his paycheck was too high and konami could only afford him saying a few lines). The best bit in the story was when venom had to kill his own soldiers because they were infected, and one of them replying,"we live and die by your orders boss" was heartbreaking. It showed how much venom suffered because of big boss.
So, after finishing mgsv. I played mgs1. The best part about it has to be the the voice acting and the cutscenes. David hayter killed it. I also liked jennifer hale's voice acting too. naomi sounded like she was an anglo south african and it fit her character well. But david hayter was the star. His voice sounded so good coming out of solid snake's mouth. The only downside I had playing the gog port was that the psycho mantis boss fight was pretty easy as he couldn't read my memory card. But it didn't kill the experience for me. Its about 20+ years old and it is still the most cinematic game I have ever played. mgs2 was pretty good too, especially the twist, but mgs1 is by far my favorite one. mgs3's boss fights and jungle setting was amazing. And in all of those 3 games, david hayter excelled.
So after(almost) finishing solid snake's and big boss's saga, I played mgsv a couple of weeks later because its really fun to goof around in that game. And I noticed just how mediocre the voice acting and story in mgsv was compared to the other titles. It feels like kojima got so obsessed with making the entire game like a film that he forgot to add an actual in depth story. Most of the missions are pretty similar in mgsv(its still fun tho). Hearing keifer suntherland as snake just didn't feel right after playing the other games. David hayter was snake. Kojima changed what snake was just to get a hollywood actor play snake? I didn't believe it at first. Seeing how detailed everything was in mgs1, mgs2 and mgs3 I was sure that kojima himself must've cast david to play snake. I thought kojima had absolute control over everything in that game because his name was on the game. So why would he fire the guy who he worked with for almost 20 years? Sure he loved movies, but he was a game designer at heart. Would he really recast a beloved character just so he could have hollywood actors as his friends? I really did not believe all this at all.
So after digging deep and seeing a few interviews of david hayter, I found out how he was booted off mgsv like nothing. Kojima didn't even meet the guy and I don't think he ever posted a single photo with him(the guy who was hugely responsible for mgs's popularity) like he does with his hollywood buddies. I am from a third world country and the only reason I got into metal gear was because I saw videos of david goofing around as snake. Kojima may have been the one who held the boat together, but it was because of david that mgs was, and still is, so popular. It just felt like kojima desperately tried to ignore what got him to where he is, just so he could be friends with high profile actors and directors. And before people say how venom snake is a different person so it made sense to have someone else voice him, the japanese va was the same. The one who voiced solid snake and big boss, voiced venom snake. Something similar happened with death stranding. The gameplay and concept is awesome but there are just too many actors. When you have too many a-list actors, you stop seeing the characters and start seeing them. When you look at norman reedus, daryl dixon is guaranteed to pop up in your mind. The plot in that game isn't coherent and the dialogues are awful. Its like they were just straight up translated from japanese instead of being localized.
Coming back to what I was talking about, it just feels like kojima's ego is a little too high. Now, I have no problem with him putting his name on the game but I do have a problem with him hogging all the praise. There are lots of other talented game designers and writers like ken levine. He wrote and directed bioshock 1, which is one of the most well written pieces of media I have come across. Every line from every single character adds something to the world of rapture. But he didn't hog all the praise. When playing bioshock, people think "irrational games did a great job" when playing a mgs title however, you have in-game characters themselves proclaiming how kojima is a god, plus you think "kojima did everything".
Now even after saying all this, I have played almost all of kojima's games that are playable on modern systems. That man is a genius, no doubt. But it feels like he is more obsessed with building his image among hollywood stars instead of building his relations with people who actually know and care about the stuff he has done. I recently watched his documentary on disney+, and it mainly consists of actors who just keep praising kojima instead of giving an insight of how he is. Instead of the actors, maybe it would've made more sense if more game developers and people who have previously worked with kojima gave interviews. There is a great documentary about when the beatles came to usa in 1964, which consists mostly of people who were there to see them play and were actual fans of them. The team found out fans from photos and interviewed them which gave an insight on how big of a deal beatles was back in the 60s. They didn't just bring actors who knew the beatles to give interviews. They brought actual people who cared.
Now, I am just a smooth brain from a third world country, but these are my thoughts. Thank you if you read through my entire post. I hope you have a nice day.
tldr; kojima should not have treated david hayter with so little respect. That man at least deserved a thank you note or some kind of tribute instead of just being kicked out of mgsv. This is what, i believe, pissed people off and became one of the main reasons of their hatred towards mgsv.
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