Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

[Somberlain]

And there is like 50 main missions? What the fuck, I bet only a third of them will have anything to do with the story, the others are just filler. Because you know, you have to litter open world games with stupid missions, side ops, challanges and shit.

Mission 31 is basically the final "main story" mission. Then there are few story relevant "post-game" missions after that but most of the missions 32-50 are just more difficult versions of earlier ones.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

1964 Ocelot:"Meooooooooow"
2014:"BEHOLD THE GUNS OF THE PATRIOTS"
1984:"This is a wild flower, Snake"

 

[Jick Magger]

1964 Ocelot:"Meooooooooow"
2014:"BEHOLD THE GUNS OF THE PATRIOTS"
1984:"This is a wild flower, Snake"

"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."
"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."
"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."
"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."
"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."
"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."
"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."
"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."
"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."
"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."
"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."
"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."
"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."

 

[Quatlo]

Thats digitalis. Its toxic

 

[Ebonsword]

Say what you will about the overall story in MGS5, but some of the ideas in it are utterly fantastic.

I just listened the other day to the tapes which explained the history of the vocal parasites. That is some top-shelf X-Files shit right there.

The moment when you

Spoiler

stumble across the bodies in the Devil's House with earbuds sewn into their throats

was just a perfect horror moment. Not only did it have a gory and disturbing atmosphere, but it gave me this near-Lovecraftian feeling of discovering that the world did not work the way I thought it did--and that the way it *did* work was terrifyingly alien.

They should have dumped all of that stuff with Eli and Huey and Sahelanthropus and focused the plot around slowly discovering the background of the vocal parasites instead of giving it all to you in an info dump.

 

[Somberlain]

"Good. You caught it alive."

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."
"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."
"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."
"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."
"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."
"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."
"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."
"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."
"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."
"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."
"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."
"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."
"That's an enemy gunship. A single burst from its machinegun could tear a man in half. Watch out, Boss."

THIS IS MORPHO PEQUOD

 

[Jick Magger]

THIS IS MORPHO PEQUOD

[Quiet humming]

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

The first time I hear the Quiet humming I thought it was a baby crying in a neighbor's apartment. No jokes. Then, I recognized the Quiet theme in the humming.

 

[Caim]

Say what you will about the overall story in MGS5, but some of the ideas in it are utterly fantastic.

I just listened the other day to the tapes which explained the history of the vocal parasites. That is some top-shelf X-Files shit right there.

The moment when you

Spoiler

stumble across the bodies in the Devil's House with earbuds sewn into their throats

was just a perfect horror moment. Not only did it have a gory and disturbing atmosphere, but it gave me this near-Lovecraftian feeling of discovering that the world did not work the way I thought it did--and that the way it *did* work was terrifyingly alien.

They should have dumped all of that stuff with Eli and Huey and Sahelanthropus and focused the plot around slowly discovering the background of the vocal parasites instead of giving it all to you in an info dump.

When I got to that part... well, I raised my gun and tried to put an end to the suffering of those poor sods. One bullet, straight to the head.

It didn't work.

 

[Jick Magger]

The first time I hear the Quiet humming I thought it was a baby crying in a neighbor's apartment. No jokes. Then, I recognized the Quiet theme in the humming.

I just mostly found it amusing that the sound-clip of her humming would cut the instant she lost sight of her target. So if you're in an area where there's a lot of buildings, or a lot of hills/inclines, you can get into situations where you're trying to concentrate while you sneak, while

[Quiet humming]
[Quie-
[Quiet humm-
[Quiet h-
[Quiet hummi-
[Qui-

Is constantly being fed through your radio.

The sound direction of this game is really fucking awful. They only recorded one version of everything they obviously didn't consider integral to the game, so you're often stuck listening to the same one line over and over again when you're trying to do basic, mundane things.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

So this is raven territory.

Say what you will about the overall story in MGS5, but some of the ideas in it are utterly fantastic.

I just listened the other day to the tapes which explained the history of the vocal parasites. That is some top-shelf X-Files shit right there.

The moment when you

Spoiler

stumble across the bodies in the Devil's House with earbuds sewn into their throats

was just a perfect horror moment. Not only did it have a gory and disturbing atmosphere, but it gave me this near-Lovecraftian feeling of discovering that the world did not work the way I thought it did--and that the way it *did* work was terrifyingly alien.

They should have dumped all of that stuff with Eli and Huey and Sahelanthropus and focused the plot around slowly discovering the background of the vocal parasites instead of giving it all to you in an info dump.

I agree that the Devil's House was a really good moment and got me really interested about what Skull Face was planning and what on earth was going on... But it was also a major tonal shift in Metal Gear's tone, which has always focused on high technology. A bioweapon seems like something that would be in Resident Evil, particularly a bioweapon that gives recipients superpowers. I could dig the idea behind the parasites if they were simply a lethal selective bioweapon that's a less accurate precursor to FOXDIE, but the superpowers simply kill the concept to me. It's also why Quiet is my least favourite character in MGS history, and the SKULLS are just unacceptable as a boss unit. And really, none of the Cobra Unit needed an explanation for their powers, it's just a given in the universe that it's possible for people to have strange unique powers and skills, it goes with its style as a hybrid descendant of Bond/80's action movies.

Really, I think Quiet should have just been replaced with younger Sniper Wolf without a romance subplot, and we should have also seen Frank Jaeger and Naomi too (especially in order to fully retcon the whole silly Null business).

EDIT: Skull Face is also really disappointing, his appearance in Ground Zeroes really gave one an appetite for learning more about him, given how he was quickly an effectively established as a ruthless manipulator and possibly the most cruel and depraved antagonist yet. Given the emphasis on revenge at Zero and Big Boss, he really should have been a background character from Snake Eater. Say, he could have been that one security guard burned by the explosion at the start of the Shagohod chase. Heck, he could have just been a random guard, any guard, being a sort of collective ghost for all those horrible things *all* players have done for lulz to the poor guards across the franchise (and a callback to MGS1 originally calling the players out on this). All he does need to ask is if the player recognizes them among the ranks of their victims, and remark that he doubts it.

 

[Bigg Boss]

I disagree with bioweapons being a problem, but I think the rest is on point. I liked that the whole game wasn't revolving around a Metal Gear for once. Sure, it was a threat, but the VOCAL CORD PARASITES were just as much a threat, so it didn't feel like too much of a retread.

Not using Sniper Wolf is a problem, but then again due to the ending I think it might be better she was left out. Same with Grey Fox. It can be assumed that Big Boss met them right after the game ended. Basically off screen like the rest of the story in the game.

I just booted up MGS3 and Naked Snake speaks more in the first hour of that than he does the entirety of MGSV. I get why they did it, but the whole game feels hollow. The cassettes don't properly convey what the fuck is going on. Seeing Skullface interrogate Code Talker would have been great. Same with nearly all of the Truth tapes.

Kojima, you asshole. How can you make people both love and despise you so well? If only he scaled back the whole meta concept, tightened up the mission design, expanded the side ops, and maybe gave Venom Snake some fucking dialog. Or maybe he shouldn't have cut the shit he did record.

Plus how can you forgive the repeats of the tutorial? It should have been a cut scenes. Then they throw some tapes at you at the end with no context. When does this take place? When did he say this? It's overly confusing something that should be simple, easy to digest, and not so half ass.

"Here is a couple of ending cut scenes spread across 4 missions, oh and btw here is a bunch of tapes explaining the plot. Now go buy some virtual water and horse armor folks.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

Really, I think Quiet should have just been replaced with younger Sniper Wolf.

 

[Jick Magger]

Honestly, I didn't really mind that Frank Jaeger, Naomi, or Sniper Wolf didn't appear in the game. Like someone said earlier in the thread, I always kinds envisioned them as being mostly affected by Big Boss in ways that he probably didn't even notice at the time. To him, Jaeger was probably just one of the many gifted recruits he got to FOXHOUND, Naomi was just a gifted scientist with potential among the many gifted scientists with potential that he gave asylum to in the west, and Sniper Wolf was just another refugee amongst the hundreds, if not thousands of refugees that he aided while in war-torn areas. We only think they played profound roles in Big Boss' early career because to them, he was their savior, the reason why they were taken out of a life of misery and given something to actually live for, so of course they venerate him and make it seem like there was some grand story behind why they idolize him so much.

If they were gonna be referenced in MGSV, I think the absolute farthest they should've gone is having a few separate missions dedicated to extracting refugees out of war-zones, maybe even just have them in side-ops, after one or two of them there's a cutscene of Miller going to Big Boss to have him approve getting these refugees emigrated to the US, among them being mentions of a Frank Hunter, Naomi Hunter, and whatever Sniper Wolf's real name is. Sweet, simple, to the point, and avoids the gross fan-servicey feel that Eli and Psycho Mantis have with their inclusion in the game.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

And of course, them appearing would have been kind of pointless if you're actually Big Medic, so it's definately better they didn't. I still don't like Quiet tho.

Also, if they actually wanted to establish Big Boss as a bad guy who wanted eternal open warfare across the planet like he was by MG1 and MG2 in the timeline, "aided" should mean in this instance "is indirectly responsible for all the death and misery around them, and only takes them away from it so he can train them to join his war." There's really an MG2 personality shout-out missing in TPP where Big Boss interacts with the children in a seemingly kind and paternal fashion. Like, Big Boss is teaching children to read. A manual for assembling and using cluster bombs and white phosphorus munitions. It would have marked a moral event horizon for his whole infatuation with war and his concept of Outer Heaven. And then he presents Miller with a new operation he has planned for, where he intends to make the Mozambique Civil War even worse and the operation itself involves committing multiple war crimes. Obviously these wouldn't work with Big Medic either tho.

 

[Ebonsword]

I agree that the Devil's House was a really good moment and got me really interested about what Skull Face was planning and what on earth was going on... But it was also a major tonal shift in Metal Gear's tone, which has always focused on high technology. A bioweapon seems like something that would be in Resident Evil, particularly a bioweapon that gives recipients superpowers. I could dig the idea behind the parasites if they were simply a lethal selective bioweapon that's a less accurate precursor to FOXDIE, but the superpowers simply kill the concept to me.

Oh, I agree. Having the vocal parasites just be basically a WMD instead of giving people superpowers would have been much better. Well, except maybe the longevity part. That kind of gives people a creepy reason to *want* to collaborate with the parasites.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

I still don't like Quiet tho.

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In my case Quiet is the TPP character that I liked for the most. I must admitt that when the character was announced and Kojima sold the explanation of the character outfit like something super deep I thought that the thing would be different. I thought that the character would be addressed from other point, from a more psychological point of view, like Quiet walking around in revealing clothing to distract enemy soldiers who are all male, having her "deprived words" for a kind of trauma, the whole Chico theory or stuff like that. Besides this, I found the biological enough satisfactory, even considering that Quiet looks as a less natural than EVA.
Shit, I'm thinking about to start a new game only to have Quiet has a companion again. Kojimbo sent a message to us here: We give everything to a woman and suddenly she's gone.

Spoiler

But before playing again TPP I will complete Peace walker. The fact that the main missions of this game are better driven in terms of storytelling that TPP ones bother me a lot. WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!???.

 

[Jick Magger]

Also, if they actually wanted to establish Big Boss as a bad guy who wanted eternal open warfare across the planet like he was by MG1 and MG2 in the timeline, "aided" should mean in this instance "is indirectly responsible for all the death and misery around them, and only takes them away from it so he can train them to join his war." There's really an MG2 personality shout-out missing in TPP where Big Boss interacts with the children in a seemingly kind and paternal fashion. Like, Big Boss is teaching children to read. A manual for assembling and using cluster bombs and white phosphorus munitions. It would have marked a moral event horizon for his whole infatuation with war and his concept of Outer Heaven. And then he presents Miller with a new operation he has planned for, where he intends to make the Mozambique Civil War even worse and the operation itself involves committing multiple war crimes. Obviously these wouldn't work with Big Medic either tho.

Yeah, think that's one of the aspects of Big Boss' character that was never really fully developed. There's a cassette tape in Peace Walker where Paz talks about the stone spheres of Costa Rica with Big Boss, and he immediately swerves the conversation into contemplating how they could be used in combat as a trap or defensively or such. It's played for laughs, of course, but it does briefly expose a more disturbing side to his character, in that he's incapable of viewing anything as having any intrinsic value if it can't be used militarily or for warfare, and this is kinda reflected in the game itself. You can only develop weapons or equipment that help make your private military better, your facilities are only viewed in how they make your soldiers more efficient at killing people, even the currency that you get isn't represented or referred to as 'money', but 'GMP'; gross military product.

It would've been good to have seen that develop further in TPP, with even his 'good' actions being wrong on a moral level, such as saving refugees and giving them a home, but only use the opportunity to train them to use them in Diamond Dogs or Outer Heaven, because he genuinely has no other frame of reference as to how to treat them, and he believes that what he's doing is a good thing for them. Or have him disarm all the nukes from all the other FOB's in the world, only for him to develop his own nuke because he genuinely believes that only an army without national allegiance is capable of caring that responsibility. Something like that.

 

[Vaarna_Aarne]

Yea, it never really delves into the whole core thing that the final encounter in the Boss instilled in Big Boss that led him to become a really bad person when it combined with his terror of his own obsolescence in face of the end of the Cold War: A desire to create a world order exclusively for war and soldiers. Big Boss and Liquid Snake only connect in that regard, though Big Boss does have the impetus in that he doesn't want soldiers to be used and betrayed by national governments (while also never realizing until his last moments that he is not fighting for anything at all, Big Boss only belief was in simply fighting for no reason beyond fighting itself; only the mission mattered), while Liquid Snake IS war incarnate and desires nothing less than a world burning in eternal anarchy and war with everyone fighting against everyone.

That's also a thing that set Solid Snake apart from the rest, since he disavowed determinism and he realized that he needs to do something he believes in. Snake best illustrates this difference in MGS2 where he tells Raiden around the end "we do not take up our guns to kill people", and his refusal to tell Raiden what he should think. This of course ties into an overarching theme in the series, where all evil is caused by people's desire to change the world somehow, and the hero's goal is "let the world be." The only way of changing the world that's advocated is interacting with other people on a personal level, through teaching, understanding, talking, listening, friendship, and loving, things that every person can do whenever they meet another person.

 

[Drakron]

A desire to create a world order exclusively for war and soldiers.

Well that is what I think was what he thought The Boss wanted, as Cipher understood the opposite.

I think The Boss wanted for Jack to simply not became like her, someone were her entire life was the battlefield that she could not escape it and those two end up really misunderstanding what she meant in opposite meanings, Jack as a eternal battlefield to create soldiers and Zero as eliminating wars.

But I dont know anymore how 3 stands, Liquid still seems the same shithead that is unable to step out of the shadow of Big Boss because of a massive inferiority complex anyway.

 

[Jick Magger]

It's kinda wonky. I always thought that they both ultimately interpreted The Boss' legacy as a world where soldiers have a purpose, everyone has a shared goal, and nobody dies for nothing. Big Boss thought this could be done by creating a nation run by soldiers, for soldiers, with loyalty to nobody but themselves, while Zero decided it could only be done by actively controlling all information in the world, which we see come to its logical conclusion in MGS4, with a world where even the act of warfare is a strictly monitored, controlled affair that can be manipulated almost down to the individual soldier via emotion suppression.

Ultimately, all the major antagonists of the series fail primarily because they all attempt to emulate or carry out The Boss'/Big Boss' will, and in some way or another gravely misinterpret it in a way that threatens the entire world. Big Boss acknowledges Solid Snake as the better man in MGS4 because, as Vaarna said, he rejected the idea of his 'genetic legacy' and decided to fight for something he believed in. By refusing to allow himself to succumb to the idea of determination, he actually, in his own way, managed to be the only one in the entire series who arguably succeeded in continuing The Boss' legacy, probably without even knowing who she was.

 

[Surf Solar]

[Quiet humming]

Easily the worst offender

Me, I'm still enjoying the game very much. For me gameplay>story, so all is good. I play the game in bursts of 3-4 missions each day and it stays amazing everytime because I have new toys to try out and enemies get harder and harder. The moment you pull off some perfect flanks, when everything goes exactly like your prefefined plan, there is no game currently to do that even closely. Easily 10/10 for me. Cutscenes and story are just the cherry on the top for me.

 

[sexbad?]

Say what you will about the overall story in MGS5, but some of the ideas in it are utterly fantastic.

I just listened the other day to the tapes which explained the history of the vocal parasites. That is some top-shelf X-Files shit right there.

The moment when you

Spoiler

stumble across the bodies in the Devil's House with earbuds sewn into their throats

was just a perfect horror moment. Not only did it have a gory and disturbing atmosphere, but it gave me this near-Lovecraftian feeling of discovering that the world did not work the way I thought it did--and that the way it *did* work was terrifyingly alien.

They should have dumped all of that stuff with Eli and Huey and Sahelanthropus and focused the plot around slowly discovering the background of the vocal parasites instead of giving it all to you in an info dump.

That was the first cutscene that I didn't skip, because the setup was interesting. An empty yard surrounding a blood soaked warehouse? Color me intrigued. But then I actually got to the cutscene, and it was fucking retarded, honestly.

There is no reason for there to be that much blood and that many bodies. The only incisions the bad guys appeared to make were vertical cuts to access the vocal cords. Unless they're very bad at making the incisions, I guess, and they had to dispose of like 100 subjects before they managed to get the dozen or so that you see still alive. And then after Skullface discovers you, he just burns all the shit to the ground. You would figure that he would, um, be using these people for something. But nope, his test subjects (and this entire laboratory) are entirely expendable. It's cartoon villainy to the max.

 

[Makabb]

Boss, you've entered a building.