

In this essay I plan to cover a lot of ground, touching on Kojima, Konami, and the rift between them, as well as Metal Gear Solid V and the future of the series, Metal Gear Survive, and Death Stranding. I would like give credit where it’s due and thank PythonSelkanHD for the hard work and dedication that they put into the videos on their youtube channel, which I will be referencing in this essay, and I would also like to thank KefkaProduction for the hard work and dedication they put into making “movie versions,” of every Metal Gear game, which allowed me watch through the games with my hands free to take notes. By the end of this essay I hope you will have a new perspective on Kojima and his work, and a new appreciation for the Phantom Pain and its place in the Metal Gear canon.



Let’s begin with a theory: Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain all takes place within a coma dream, a virtual reality, or some other sort of dream state.



The ACC (or Aerial Command Center - a helicopter in the game from which the player gives their commands) literally IS the ACC (or Anterior Cingulate Cortex), which is a part of the brain that controls various autonomic functions, like monitoring your heart rate, blood pressure, etc. However, the Anterior Cingulate also operates at higher levels, having a part in decision making, reward anticipation, and emotion as a whole. It is even believed to be responsible for free will, which has always been a major theme of the Metal Gear series. Just as the ACC operates as the control center of your brain, the ACC operates as the control center of the game.



The similarities are astounding, and - assuming the entire game takes place in Venom Snake’s mind during his coma - they make perfect sense.



REGULATING HEART RATE AND BLOOD PRESSURE

Venom Snake rests in the Aerial Command Center between missions, and - depending on the level of damage taken in the previous mission - can often be seen with an IV and drip bag, even sometimes receiving blood. This is a visual representation of the Anterior Cingulate Cortex regulating the heart rate and blood pressure of a comatose Venom Snake after an emotional or taxing episode.



DECISION MAKING

This one is obvious, as the Aerial Command Center is where you make basically every decision in the game.



REWARD ANTICIPATION

The Aerial Command Center is also where you launch R&D projects, commission the construction of Mother Base expansions, and send your loyal subjects on away missions, all of which create reward anticipation for the player. It is also where you can listen to any cassettes you may have unlocked in the previous mission, which is a reward that you anticipated.



EMOTION

To me Venom Snake is very obviously brooding as he sits there alone in his helicopter, presumably just hovering over Mother Base and it’s occupants for much of the time you spend there, making decisions for everyone else, literally lording over them. But that’s a part of it. Big Boss has always felt alone, and Venom Snake - believing himself to be Big Boss - also feels that crushing loneliness. Or perhaps Venom Snake has always felt that loneliness on his own, as a byproduct of his own life (which we know almost nothing about), and that’s part of what makes him such a good stand-in for the real Big Boss. The ACC even has pictures of your allies and friends on the walls, which accumulate over the course of the game. The self-seclusion, the loneliness, the fond memories of friends - all fit snugly under the emotion umbrella.



FREE WILL

This one is really quite obvious, and goes back to the decision making bit, as the Aerial Command Center is a function of the game that allows players to essentially choose their experience, and customize it in a number of ways. What’s more - the decisions the players make can have drastic effects on the outcome of missions, even altering the story, which is a first in the history of the Metal Gear series, as every other installment has had an entirely linear story. This actually supports the theory that the entire game takes place in a dream state, as it ultimately doesn’t matter what decisions you make, or how you change the timeline, because if it’s all a dream, then it doesn’t affect the overall continuity of the series, which could in itself be a metaphor for the overwhelming hopelessness one might feel when truly contemplating the vast complexity of our world, and the systems of oppression that are so hard to fight as they are forever evolving, changing with the times. Whoa…

But for real, though. This is also something that has been a major theme of the series, particularly this arc of the series, beginning in Snake Eater when the Boss says “politics determine who you face on the battlefield, and politics are a living thing: They change with the times.” Later on in the game, before the final showdown with the Boss, she elaborates on this concept, more-or-less revealing herself and essentially all other soldiers who follow orders blindly - who are loyal to the end - to be victims of the changing times. She was forced to murder the Sorrow - her lover and the father of her child - because the countries they served had gone from allies to enemies as a result of the changing times. Two years later Big Boss was forced to murder the Boss - his beloved mentor and possibly the only person he ever felt connected to - as a part of a government ploy to save face on the global stage, because of the changing times. It’s because of this that Big Boss declares in Peace Walker that the enemy He and Kaz and the soldiers of MSF will fight IS the times, as his vision of Outer Heaven is a world where soldiers choose their own battles, not governed by politicians and the times. Big Boss thought this was the Boss’ will. He was wrong, but that’s a talk for another time. Getting back on track, the overwhelming helplessness Big Boss feels from endlessly fighting this war with Zero and his vision of global oppression through the use of the Patriots - where Zero always seems to be two steps ahead, and nothing Big Boss does seems to matter - that feeling could be mirrored in the fact that the player’s decisions don’t affect the overall plotline of the series.

But that’s okay, because at first it may seem like a downer that your decisions don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things, but truthfully it is a blessing. This gives every Metal Gear fan their own version of the game, or their own version of “the Metal Gear Solid V experience,” as Konami puts it. If there is more Metal Gear Solid V to come - which I strongly believe there will be - then each player will have a Metal Gear series that represents them personally. The Phantom Pain has a plot twist that literally turns the player into Big Boss. The following games in the series will allow the players to shape the world of Metal Gear Solid as if they were Big Boss. Depending on how far they take this arc of the series, it could be a reboot in it’s own right; A re-imagining of the world of Metal Gear Solid in which each player’s experience is unique, as the gameplay and story is crafted by their decisions.



Something I have thought since the game was first announced is that it isn’t actually Metal Gear Solid V as in the roman numeral for 5, but actually Metal Gear Solid V as in the letter V, which presumably stands for “Venom,” but could have multiple meanings, which is a writing tool that Kojima is quite fond of. For example, Snake Eater has multiple meanings in that 1.) you literally have to eat snakes to survive in the game, 2.) You play as Naked Snake, who is single-handedly eliminating the Cobra unit, and 3.) it brings to mind the Ouroboros, which is an image of a snake lying in a circle with its tail in its mouth, devouring itself. In this case the Ouroboros symbolizes the endless cycle of war and conflict that is a main theme of the game, and the series overall.



Anyway, if this is the case, then it would seem to suggest that Metal Gear Solid V is not as much a part of the Metal Gear Solid series as it is the start of a new series altogether. Kojima has said that he and/or his team will be responsible for every “numbered,” Metal Gear Solid title. If I am correct that the V is literally the letter V, then Metal Gear Solid V is not a “numbered,” title in the series. It’s quite possible that Kojima created the Phantom Pain (and the Fox engine) as a launch point for a new Metal Gear series to be handed over to a new creative team. The coma/dream state plot device means that the new series can be canon in that it does all actually happen, but without affecting the overall canon of the series, since it isn’t happening in the physical world. He can step away from the series without actually giving it away or compromising all the work he has put into it over the course of his life, and can come back to the series whenever he decides to do the actual Metal Gear Solid 5 (not V).



Though, it could be that the V series as a whole will constitute as MGS5, in which case Kojima and his team will be responsible for the final chapter which Brings Venom/Big Boss back to the real world and ties everything together. Or it could be that the team Kojima made the MGS games with will continue to work on the V series, possibly with Kojima doing the writing, but without directing or otherwise being involved in the actual development of the game.



To summarize, Metal Gear Solid V is a series of it’s own in which the gameplay and story are shaped by the player’s decisions, which is set in a dream state and runs parallel to the actual/real-world events of the MGS canon, and marks Kojima’s first real departure from the series, until he decides to make the next “numbered,” title in the series - which might be Death Stranding? There could potentially be 2 separate Metal Gear series being released simultaneously in our future. Why not? Metal Gear IS Kojima and Konami’s most lucrative series. More on that in pt. 2 of this essay.

In conclusion, the removal of Kojima’s name from the Phantom Pain box art, the fact that Venom Snake is not the real Big Boss but actually the player, the use of a roman numeral for the first time in the series - these are all meant to be symbolic of Kojima (in a sense) handing the series over to a new director, and essentially to the fans.



Coming in pt. 2: Death Stranding, Metal Gear Survive, and a critical look at the Kojima/Konami feud.