MGSV thread of there's a game coming out.

[Rahxephon91]

Oh yeah what a great solution. Hopefully your geared up and grinded enough to beat these lazily designed crap. MGS5 so good!

This is such a terrible game and so bloated with crap. I'm 83 hours end and this game just needs to end, but nope there's 50% of it left just to get any sort of ending. Though this 50% is exactly like the previous 50%. So fun!

[Sho Nuff]

OK it's been fun but I think I'm done with my MGS experience after 100 hours or so. Finished up the story and the "other" endings. Pretty kool game bro, pity about the running out of money part

[Bebpo]

Finally finished this up around 70 hours (all story stuff, still have about 50% of the side ops if I wanna bother, which I don't) and man that was a terrible story.  It's just as bad as MGS4 for exactly the same reasons in that it tries to connect and fit into everything and so it all comes across and really, really dumb.  Though I don't know how to explain why Peace Walker's story was also really dumb, but maybe Kojima is just not a good story concept creator anymore on top of not being a good writer and not being a good cutscene direction outside of action cutscene direction.

But man is he a legendary game designer.  Gameplay is so freaking good.  Just too bad about all the story everything.  Graphics/music are really nice too.


Kojima was probably a lot better before he got all big and got that big creator ego going.  I think if he had a team of really good editors reigning him in on story concept, pacing and direction his last couple of games would've been far better.

[Bebpo]

Also, I haven't played it in English but in Japanese Skull Face seriously has the best voice acting in the entire MGS series outside of Snake.  I really wish he talked more.  His Japanese voice is super creepy but not in the usual old man way, more in a holy fuck I don't want to mess with this guy way.

[mormapope]

The storytelling, the methods and ways in which cutscenes play out are fine or good. That isn't the issue. The issue is there's barely any plot, and time/money was a huge issue with development. The game's entire plot was spelled out via game trailers. Like, every trailer shown makes up 80% of the story.

No other MGS game has this problem, this is a very different scenario compared to MGS4. MGS4 was loathed by Kojima during its entire development, but in the end its a fully realized story and has plenty of plot points.

How MGS4's plot points were demonstrated was the issue. Cutscenes that went on for 30 minutes could've been cut down to 5 minutes. Over explanation for the most smallest details and really botched characterizations and the bringing back of some characters.

MGS V barely has a plot. No editing in the world could salvage how little actually happens in the story.

[Bebpo]

The storytelling is not fine, as shown by you're saying there's barely any plot, when there is a bunch of plot it's just told and paced extremely poorly.  The cutscene direction is also pretty visionless most of the time without a consistent directorial style.  But at it's core the problem is that for all the plot that is there in the game through what's told on-screen and off-screen...it's a pretty dumb, silly, uninteresting story with lots and lots stupid plot points IMO.  A lot of it feels even more stupid because it just feels like Kojima is feeling forced to connect EVERYTHING.  Stuff like

spoiler (click to show/hide)

the Man on Fire being zombie volgin is dumb and doesn't need to be connected to the MGS mythos.  Kojima could have simply made a new MAN ON FIRE character without the baggage if he wanted.

[close]

  MGS4's plot suffered from the same problem of trying to shoehorn everything in so that every single plot point and character connected to somewhere else in the MGS timeline and it made it so MGS4 didn't have anything of its own to be its own personality and the story was forced, over-explained and just stupid.

And then Peace Walker's story was dumb sort for similar reasons because Kojima just could not let go of making connections to the MGS timeline, so instead of a neat fun original story, you get THE BOSS COMES BACK AS ROBO AI POD.  Hell, I think Portable Ops was the last time Kojima told a good story and that probably because Portable Ops was a "mostly" independent story of Big Boss doing a mission, meeting Campbell, and gaining respect of the soldiers around in and finding his place as a leader.  The end.  Nice and simple.  The only dumb part in that one was again the "connection" stuff with Frank Jaegar/Ninja which was totally unneeded and stupid.

[mormapope]

The storytelling is not fine, as shown by you're saying there's barely any plot, when there is a bunch of plot it's just told and paced extremely poorly

Disagree pretty heavily there.

Outline of MGS V:

Venom Snake breaks out of hospital
Kaz is rescued
Quiet is captured or killed by Venom Snake
Huey is captured
Liquid is captured
Parasite outbreak at Home base
Codetalker is rescued
Outbreak is cured
Skull Face dies, Metal Gear is captured
Random stuff
Second outbreak
Quiet's ending
Twist/ending

In the world of MGS, that's is almost nothing.

[Bebpo]

Most of the game's plot is off-screen either told in the tapes or referred to as events that happened.

[mormapope]

MGS1, a five or six hour game, by comparison:

Solid Snake is captured and is given a mission by a past Commanding Officer.
Snake meets up with fake darpa chief, who suffers from a heart attack.
Snake meets Meryl and Psycho Mantis fucks with him.
Snake fights Ocelot, Gray Fox shows up, Ocelot loses a hand.
Snake talks to Armstech president, suffers from heart attack.
Snake battles with Vulcan Raven.
Snake battles with Gray Fox.
Snake meets and chats with Otacon, who tells him what Metal Gear is.
Snake meets up with Meryl, she discusses her motivation and past.
Snake battles Psycho Mantis, who reveals his past and motivation.
Sniper Wolf wounds Meryl, Snake is forced to backtrack to save her and continue his mission.
Snake defeats Sniper Wolf and is captured.
Snake either withstands torture or gives in. Escapes.
Snake fights head to head with Liquid. Defeats him.
Snakes fights Sniper Wolf again, defeats her, her past and motivation is revealed.
Revealing of Fox Die/Naomi going rouge.
Snake reaches Metal Gear, attempts to disarm any nuclear capability.
Metal Gear is armed, Miller is revealed to be Liquid.
Gray Fox dies protecting Snake, Metal Gear is defeated.
Liquid explains his past and motivation, Snake defeats Liquid.
Snake either escapes with Meryl or Otacon, Liquid is killed by Fox Die.
Ending.

Most of the game's plot is off-screen either told in the tapes or referred to as events that happened.

Codec stuff in MGS1 and to a greater extent MGS2 influenced the story greatly, but those codec conversations were a lot more important than the tapes in MGS V, barring the tapes revolving around Zero, Strangelove, and Codetalker.

The tapes were really well done, credit is due there. MGSV has the same amount of cutscene time as MGS1, MGS V is a 40 hour game at the very least.

[Bebpo]

The tapes are different than codecs.  Codecs add to the plot, tapes are like "this scene and this event and this scene happened offscreen so I'll tell you about it when in other mgs games you would have run into these scenes and seen them happen yourself"

It feels like they were so afraid to get hit by the mgs4 criticisms of too long too many cutscenes that they went the opposite far end and put half the plot in optional tapes.

It doesn't that ground zeroes and what happens in the years between probably has more story than what happens in TPP.

[Positive Touch]

yall got a 100 hour mgs but are complaining it doesn't have enough cutscenes like the series hasn't had terrible ones for the last decade+ wtf

[mormapope]

Play the game breh, the issues are more complex than "it needs more cutscenes."

[thisismyusername]

Play the game breh, the issues are more complex than "it needs more cutscenes."

It didn't really need more cutscenes. It needed better pacing. If those leaked chapter and mission names are correct, the game was farrrrr bigger than the one we got. There's one floating out that that had nearly the same mission structure with more missions and mission 45-46 being in the 3-4th chapter.

Then there's another 2chan image that apparently shows a pre-release chapter listing that has the leaked chapter 3. So grain of salt and all that, but I'm in the camp of "the story wasn't completely finished and they rushed to try to make a game ending instead of leaving it halfway."


I mean how else do you explain the chapter 3 title, the "secret ending cutscene" and some other shit that the game doesn't explain (see: "Episode 51" for the bit about the stealing this outings Metal Gear).

[VomKriege]

What's really outrageous is that the story is trying so bad to insert past characters but ignores the ones that are supposed to have been in Africa.

[Bebpo]

What's really outrageous is that the story is trying so bad to insert past characters but ignores the ones that are supposed to have been in Africa.

What's outrageous is that the story is just crap through and through.  As a huge MGS fan, I turned in my MGS card after 4 shit on everything, Peace Walker hesitantly brought me back and after V I'm turning my fan card back in again and I'm out of this series.  Glad the series is dead.  Please don't let Kojima write his next game, but let him design the hell out of it from a gameplay perspective.

[mormapope]

Konami isn't going to touch this series in a serious sense ever again.

Worse part about that is Rising 2 could've been a thing but now it won't be. I was more hyped at the possibility of Rising 2 than any mainline MGS sequel.

[VomKriege]

What's really outrageous is that the story is trying so bad to insert past characters but ignores the ones that are supposed to have been in Africa.

What's outrageous is that the story is just crap through and through.  As a huge MGS fan, I turned in my MGS card after 4 shit on everything, Peace Walker hesitantly brought me back and after V I'm turning my fan card back in again and I'm out of this series.  Glad the series is dead.  Please don't let Kojima write his next game, but let him design the hell out of it from a gameplay perspective.

The story would probably have been as crap, but it just goes to show how bad Kojima is reaching for... whatever he thought his theme is. Even more confusing when Raiden and Gray Fox were child soldiers around the time depicted.
But I guess most of us had reached that conclusion with MGS4.

Then there's another 2chan image that apparently shows a pre-release chapter listing that has the leaked chapter 3. So grain of salt and all that, but I'm in the camp of "the story wasn't completely finished and they rushed to try to make a game ending instead of leaving it halfway."

I mean how else do you explain the chapter 3 title, the "secret ending cutscene" and some other shit that the game doesn't explain (see: "Episode 51" for the bit about the stealing this outings Metal Gear).

I'd say it's a matter of "when" instead of "how" because it's obvious the game had a dodgy production at this point. Did they just pack the game best they could when Konami handed a definitive deadline or did Kojipro realised early on that the scope (of the story & game) was out of reach ? Quite a bit of Kiefer's work seems to have been cut as well (although they're maybe for MGO ?) so making Snake silent was maybe a late decision.

[fistfulofmetal]

What sort of things can Quiet do when you increase your bond level? Because out the gate she's basically a less useful version of DD if you're intending to be stealthy.

She only spots one enemy at a time and it's temporary
She doesn't really follow you around and has frequently stopped finding new sniper spots.
Both her early weapons aren't suppressed so she will blow your cover instantly.

Why would I use her over DD in any scenario? I also don't understand what the "Quiet" command is used for. It does nothing.

[archie4208]

Use the D-pad in the iDroid to have her scout entire bases and go to sniper points.

I had to Google that since I don't think the game actually mentioned using that.

[thisismyusername]

What sort of things can Quiet do when you increase your bond level? Because out the gate she's basically a less useful version of DD if you're intending to be stealthy.

She only spots one enemy at a time and it's temporary
She doesn't really follow you around and has frequently stopped finding new sniper spots.
Both her early weapons aren't suppressed so she will blow your cover instantly.

Why would I use her over DD in any scenario? I also don't understand what the "Quiet" command is used for. It does nothing.

iDroid->Right->Buddy Commands->Quiet->Attack/Scout

Or iDroid Map->Updown on D-pad->Quiet(Scout/Attack)

Set her to scout to scout outposts ahead of you to where she'll finish up and set up before you get there unlike DD.

Quiet(Attack) to put her in a good cover fire position.

Once you get her to Max Bond or when you unlock the "COVER ME" mode:

On deployment->"Quiet has reached a sniping point"->"COVER ME"->Quiet(Attack)->Base->??->One man Army: Activated.

[toku]

[thisismyusername]

https://twitter.com/KaoticSnake/status/648017970237677568

WOW.

[Rufus]

https://twitter.com/KaoticSnake/status/648017970237677568

WOW.

[fistfulofmetal]

Thanks for the info. Just gave it a try and Quiet is totally useful now.

[thisismyusername]

Thanks for the info. Just gave it a try and Quiet is totally useful now.

She becomes even more useful once you unlock the silenced Tranq Sniper for her. Problem is, every guard starts to wear helmets because of it.

That's when you give her the Sinful Butterfly/her own Anti-Material Rifle and blow peoples heads off.

Then use her during the infamous skull fights.  2-shot their armor off for you and her to one shot them to death each.

Best Buddy. Shame you lose her unless you are on PC where you can mod her back.

[Rahxephon91]

No, the story could have used more cutscenes. If you don't like MGS cutscenes I don't even know why you play these games. The cutscenes and codecs were instrumental in developing the characters and giving them personality, purpose, and prescene. It's why the tapes don't work. They feel more like expostition feeding then cutscenes and codecs are because there is no mask of a conversation. With Codecs the characters are actually interacting and talking to you. Even if the purpose is to relay story information or whatever, in the codecs in 1-3 they always did it with a sense of character as to you getting a glimpse of what the character was about. Since they were in real time they also felt important and actually mostly urgant. The way the tapes are deilvered are the excat oppsite. None of them feel like actual character ineractions, all of them feel like characters telling you information. They aren't real time which further hurts because they feel like work to go back to listen to so that you understand something instead of a converation directly relating to something you just experinced.

The tapes were one of PW's worst ideas and to have them back in place of codecs is garbage.

But the mission strcutre also sucks. Makes everything feel so disconnected and the pacing so random. I hated it in PW. What I liked about previous MGS was being thrown into a place and prgoressing through it with awesome senerio after senerio. The episode strucutre does none of that. Instead if anything it clases with the open world strucutre. There's no point to the game being open world when I just luanch into an episode and only go where it wants me to, not caring about any of the enviorments outside of it. Classic(good MGS) structure would have been perferable. A kind of linear open world idea kind of like Xenoblade. Going from area to area would naturally feel a lot more progressive and the story would probably be better paced, more impactful, and feel less random. Felling random is a huge problem with the story. Events just seem to happen out of the blue and the game dosen't convey that it's less movie and more serial honestly. Maybe if it was many chapters foucsed on specific archs(with less copy and paste missions) that tie into a overaching plot this would have been better, but it ddid'nt. At times it feels like the game is just throwing whatever at the wall and seeing what sticks.

But yes more cutscenes would have been nice. Seeing the characters and actually have them be developed would be nice. Skullface could have been a good villian. He's not and mostly because he has no screen time. I remember pretty much all of Volgins mouments in 3, hell I remember crap from Liquid Ocelot. Because I saw them. I saw thier manrisims, thier tecnhiques, and actions. Which made them far more meorable. Memorable is why I love MGS. It's memorable because the games even the terrible 4 overflow with style and personality. 5 does not. Everything is so muted and boring. Not seeing Skullface do anything makes him shitty, instead he tells us in one scene and then the game fills in the rest. He's never developed and we never have time to understand his motivations and ideas. Then he just dies anyway and were left to wonder wtf was he even planning on doing.

The entire XOF is sutpid. What could have been another awesome FOXhound group is I guess a dude on fire and Psycho mantis who I can never tell if he's an actual character since the game just decides to have him pop up when it decides something needs to happen. No, he's not a character. Even calling him a plot deivce is insulting to that critque. He's something Kojima throws in because he can't even make a plot divice. "Oh I haven't actually enginered or introduced elements to make actual conflict in the plot. Time for psychic kid!". His entire role in this story pisses me the fuck off. He sucks so much.

But yes actual god damn boss characters would have been nice. MGS is known for always having fun boss battles and characters. The Cobra's are great and memorable even though they are on the screen for so little. So much better than these SKULL's who are nothing. They are the most un-inventive thing this series has ever thrown at us. Zombies in armor who lunge around, shoot rock, and take a lot of damage. What the fuck? I know that after PW is obvious Kojima got really lazy in the gameplay area but my god are these things terrible. Nothing inventive about them and this being an open world game should have made them really think of amazingly creative bossess. The rest are so shit they aren't even worth talking about. Oh a sniper battle! Metal gear, find barrels of water, and find this kid! So great. BTW these characters are instantly forgettable!

The story is so terrible though, it adds nothing to the plot and in the end just makes it more awkward.

Oh actually Zero aint such a bad guy! I mean the twist of him being a bad guy was stupid, but just in case you've finally settled down on that one and are willing to agree with the notion that this was just two guys getting something wrong, here's another wrench. They are still buddies and I guess Zero ain't all so bad or something. Who knows. The character doesn't appear meaning the entire MGS saga is staged as a battle between characters who's descent into villainy are never really seen.

Did you think you were going to meet a conflicted young Liquid who hates that he has to live up to the Big Boss legacy, but then chooses to carry it. Getting it wrong in the process ironically like Big Boss. Did you think we could have seen an interesting relationship like Big Boss to the boss here. Man that could have been great. NOPE! We just get a snotty annoying little kid who's already angry and hardly interacts with Big boss. Then apparently steals a MG or something.

It's just a story that really has no point. The twist is stupid and answers a "question" that did'nt need answering. Anyone who claims it did is an idiot who's vying for top MGS5 apologist. No one ever needed to know why BB survived to be in MG2. He just did because 80s action villains do and besides MG1 is hardly full formed and MG2 is really kind of a remake, enhanced revision of MG2 anyway and at this point both games are canon in regards to important events that the solid games mention only. Adhering to them makes no sense as they hardly fit into the series trajectory.

It's also just a stupid twist on a logical and MGS logical sense. Yes, this medic just happen to sound like BB, just happen to have a similar body of Big Boss, be the same race(?), and be able to the same things BB does. He also apparently doesn't have the same personality despite being hypnotized into having the same memories somehow.

That's dumb and a stretch for MGS even.

If you have to have this stupid twist that basically goes against everything anyone wanted then have him be a clone. An early prototype of the The Terrible Children project. Have him be someone Zero set up to battle the rogue Cipher which then could have played into the entire thing about Skullface and Clone Boss being pawns and foils. Could have lead to an actual story theme of which this game has none. I mean that actually sounds like something Zero as he loves the symbol and legacy of BB. Would tie into the S3 idea even better. The entire thing with Big Boss allowing this to happen makes no sense.

Also having Big Boss be so boring is so lame. Then again, all the characters in this game feel soulless. The entire game does.

As for the gameplay. Well, it's fun in the minute to minute I guess. Though it features the worst implementation of supposed open world and my worst fears of what an open world does to a game. Its a game complete with a sandbox, but hardly an actual well designed set pieces or special moments. Just the same missions that get extremely lazy feeling and boring as they go on and since the Phantom Pain likes to throw the same mission at you for the next 60+ hours. it just starts to feel like shit since the game lacks anything special or cool like the previous MGS games. Having to replay all the damn missions over and over just to unlock something called an ending is garbage.

And man that twist is so shitty. It dosen't even make sense for Big Boss to do anything or really why.

It's just a terrible game honestly.

I don't know the story in this game just angers me, not the same way MGS4 did.

Oh an everyone who said that I was wrong about the game being a grind. The entire game turns into a grind just to unlock the ending, which shouldn't count as the secret ending but the actual ending of chapter 2/the game. It's not a small grind either. It's worse then PW.

[Trent Dole]

[toku]

mans out here spending eighty hours playing games they hated in the first five then spending extra time writing research papers on why it's garbage

life is short, love yourself

[thisismyusername]

mans out here spending eighty hours playing games they hated in the first five then spending extra time writing research papers on why it's garbage

life is short, love yourself

^ Rah.

Also no, it didn't need more cutscenes. What the fuck would those added cutscenes had done with the amount of story they cut to get this out the door? OH BOY MORE CONTROL TAKEN FROM THE PLAYER SO WE CAN HAVE SNAKE "..." FOR FIVE MINUTES INSTEAD OF JUST IGNORING ALL THAT BECAUSE WE DON'T REALLY HAVE A STORY! LOL!

[Rahxephon91]

mans out here spending eighty hours playing games they hated in the first five then spending extra time writing research papers on why it's garbage

life is short, love yourself

I actually liked the game in the beginning and it was a slow burn to realize it was actually terrible on all fronts.  Plus it's MGS, so I wanted to beat it but I'm not having fun anymore. I mean the actual gameplay is kind of fun until you think about it.

[Rahxephon91]

mans out here spending eighty hours playing games they hated in the first five then spending extra time writing research papers on why it's garbage

life is short, love yourself

^ Rah.

Also no, it didn't need more cutscenes. What the fuck would those added cutscenes had done with the amount of story they cut to get this out the door? OH BOY MORE CONTROL TAKEN FROM THE PLAYER SO WE CAN HAVE
SNAKE "..." FOR FIVE MINUTES INSTEAD OF JUST IGNORING ALL THAT BECAUSE WE DON'T REALLY HAVE A STORY! LOL!

um this is a stupid post.

More cutscenes would um add more story? It wouldn't have to be more Snake stuff. Could have been stuff like Skullface and Codetalker. There tape already seems like it was a cutscene. Half the problem is the story feels underdeveloped. More crap would make it not underdeveloped. Plus this game already has tons of gameplay.

The premise of the story is not completely bad. This meta deconstruction of the Legend could work if maybe he had an actual foil in Skullface. Maybe more about how Skullface has been in the shadows and make his resentment an actual thing. Zero really should be bad. Pitting and manipulateting evryone. It's clear this plot is about dismantling a legend and communication problems. How things are influenced and perceived but it's poorly excuted. The language parasite and the twist could have worked if the story  had actual meat to it.

[Barraco Barner]

I'm having trouble getting into this game. To be fair I haven't played much (still in Afghanistan). I really don't like episodic structure.

I also thought MGS 4 was poo.

[Purrp Skirrp]

30 hours in. I'm done bruhs. Feeling burned out from the repetitiveness and I'm not even half way through with the game.

Been skipping cutscenes all along lol. Without a story, there's little incentive to keep going other than hoping for more mission variety that just isn't going to come.

The gameplay isn't going to change up much (outside of new buddies to experiment with), and I'm pretty sure my current loadout will stay the same (tranq sniper rifle & stun shotgun).

To the game's credit, I could be varying my playstyle with each mission (stealth vs. rambo), but why bother if you prefer it a certain way?

I had fun overall, but just looking at my Steam library I got so many other games to play.

[Rahxephon91]

30 hours in. I'm done bruhs. Feeling burned out from the repetitiveness and I'm not even half way through with the game.

Been skipping cutscenes all along lol. Without a story, there's little incentive to keep going other than hoping for more mission variety that just isn't going to come.

The gameplay isn't going to change up much (outside of new buddies to experiment with), and I'm pretty sure my current loadout will stay the same (tranq sniper rifle & stun shotgun).

To the game's credit, I could be varying my playstyle with each mission (stealth vs. rambo), but why bother if you prefer it a certain way?

I had fun overall, but just looking at my Steam library I got so many other games to play.

Yeah there's really no incentive to play around and use different things which really makes having all those weapons quite pointless. Just going to use the best ones right? There's so little variety and special design in this game that it really is the worst kind of open world game.  looks like I was right when I said I doubted this game would have those "special carefully designed" MGS moments.

[Bebpo]

I'm actually a little disappointed from a gameplay perspective at how few non-gun items there are to fuck around with.  After about 30 hours you basically have everything and the rest of the game is just getting higher versions of them which typically just give more ammo count.  And yeah there's a million guns, but most of them within the same category play the same with only extremely minor differences.

I would've liked about twice the number of support items/tools to give the gameplay more variety.  After a certain point you're pretty much going to keep taking the same stuff into missions and only mixing up your guns a bit.


Also for all the gameplay advancements, there's still stuff you could do in MGS3 that you can't do here like throw snakes at guards.  Although maybe that's what the bait bottle is supposed to do but I never saw it do anything to guards.

[nachobro]

Knocking out a guard with a magazine is never not going to be funny though

The decoy/mine (or sleep mine) combo is always a fun one too

[Bebpo]

Yeah those are good and rocket punch is great, sleep mines and stuff are nice too.  It's just that gameplay-wise this is a 70-120 hour progression game and that stuff stops being introduced like 30-40 hours in.  Like the bar goes down to lvl.7/8, but almost nothing has versions past level 4/5.  Even the gameplay feels unfinished.

[nachobro]

yeah it definitely just gets down to "more ammo" or "slightly more power" variations eventually. but at 80 hours in i'm still having fun, so i'll keep going until i'm not.

[Bebpo]

Yup game is really fun.  Out of the 70ish hours I put in, the only times I didn't have fun were mission 46 and the quarantine zone one.  The actual normal stealth/action gameplay is a blast.

[nachobro]

I'm up to mission 29 now. The difficulty on missions has been ramping up since 20 and I really like it

[Rahxephon91]

mans out here spending eighty hours playing games they hated in the first five then spending extra time writing research papers on why it's garbage

life is short, love yourself

Get ridiculed for talking about games seriously in other threads. Get ridiculed for talking about games in the official thread.

The Bore.com TM.

[OnlyRegret]

Eventually extract/kidnap some fucker repeat in the same place loses its luster real fast.
Could've used way more variety. That and some sort of complete narrative and plot.

[toku]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

[close]

[Positive Touch]

the credits after every mission in this game kills me. it's so useless

[Bebpo]

You can skip them and still get the post-credit scene.


Also the credits at the start spoiling the twists of the episode is fucking stupid.  I had to basically look away during the opening credits each time because I didn't want to know when a SKULLS unit would pop up or Skullface would appear, etc...

[helios]

You can skip them and still get the post-credit scene.


Also the credits at the start spoiling the twists of the episode is fucking stupid.  I had to basically look away during the opening credits each time because I didn't want to know when a SKULLS unit would pop up or Skullface would appear, etc...

Well, he only shows up like 3 times.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

And I don't think Big Boss says a single word to him

[close]

[Bebpo]

The more I think about it, the more I think two things:

1) The opening cutscene of Ground Zeroes is the highlight of the entire GZ+TPP game, and how sad that is.  It's the best directed cutscene, the most interesting cutscene and has the best music (here's to you).  It's filled with intrigue, makes skullface look interesting, conveys the tone, and just sets the game off with a bang.  Then TPP is a whisper.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Also it's the last time you actually get to play as Big Boss and Big Boss is soooooooooooooooooooooo much better and more charismatic/interesting/likeable than Punished Snake.

[close]

2) The ending dialogue in Ground Zeroes, where Skullface is playing Here's to You to Paz and is talking about the origins of the song and that it's a reminder that this (the USA) is a country that kills innocents; and then he talks about how he (Skullface) never had a choice in life, a language, a homeland, etc... and wants to know WHERE IS ZERO; probably the best "tape" in the game, so much that they give it to you in TPP as a tape.  Really makes it seem like that idea in Here's to You will play into the plot, that Skullface is interesting, his origins interesting, his motivation interesting and makes the player look forward to a game about Skullface vs Zero with Big Boss caught in the middle.

spoiler (click to show/hide)

Yet, the whole Here's to You reference amounts to jack shit in TPP.  Skullface's past...uh, the Soviets came in and took over his homeland/erasing his native language.  That's not the USA.  His whole blame of the "system" with the English language and Zero seems entirely misplaced considering it was the Soviets that fucked him over initially.  His whole motivation stuff is awful.  When he shouts WHERE IS ZERO at the end of Ground Zeroes it sounds really fucking personal, yet in TPP he's like "yeah, it's not personal at all, I just want to take out the system and Zero is the next step". 

[close]

I feel like Ground Zeroes was great.  Great well designed base, pick up weapons on the fly like the old games, lots of new stuff to play with like the helicopter, intriguing plot reveals, good introduction to Skullface, good setting up the mystery for TPP.  And then TPP doesn't come through on any of that stuff besides more new stuff to mess around with in the gameplay.  GZ seriously feels like the best MGS game out of the post-MGS3 group of MGS4, Peace Walker, GZ and TPP.  And it makes me wonder if it wasn't the original vertical slice that Kojima and crew made when they had a plan and knew what they were doing and then after GZ the rest became a development disaster along the way.

[Positive Touch]

I'm only a few hours into tpp but so far it seems exactly like gz but with a bunch of open space between bases. if it keeps up like this I'll be fine with it. yeah you miss out on the emotional/atmospheric cues that most linear single player games go for, but given how awful kojimas stories are, I'm OK with this.

what's more disappointing is hearing that there isn't much equipment to unlock after 30 hours. peace walker had some crazy high-level items to play around with and it'd be a shame if they didn't do more with those.

[thisismyusername]

spoiler (click to show/hide)

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[mormapope]

I'm only a few hours into tpp but so far it seems exactly like gz but with a bunch of open space between bases. if it keeps up like this I'll be fine with it. yeah you miss out on the emotional/atmospheric cues that most linear single player games go for, but given how awful kojimas stories are, I'm OK with this.

what's more disappointing is hearing that there isn't much equipment to unlock after 30 hours. peace walker had some crazy high-level items to play around with and it'd be a shame if they didn't do more with those.

There's some pretty rad equipment but you'll need to grind for it and then wait 30 minutes or an hour for it to develop. If you breeze through the game, chances are you won't see or use the neat shit that requires S/A+ ranked staff and such.

[thisismyusername]

Throw in if you're going for the achievements: Throw crap soldiers at the combat deployments and pray your RNG smiles on you. Along with building a nuke ASAP because of a 24-in-game-time hour timer.

Blech.

[nachobro]

Quick question about Quiet and the true ending, trying to avoid spoilers so I figured I'd ask here.

I know putting the butterfly on your emblem stops her from leaving, but also stops you from getting the true ending (or something like that). After I do all the shit I want to do with Quiet can I then remove the butterfly and get the true ending or no?

[suppadoopa]

Is Pequod the most powerful MGS character? Dude is invincible

[thisismyusername]

Quick question about Quiet and the true ending, trying to avoid spoilers so I figured I'd ask here.

I know putting the butterfly on your emblem stops her from leaving, but also stops you from getting the true ending (or something like that). After I do all the shit I want to do with Quiet can I then remove the butterfly and get the true ending or no?

Yes. Though it isn't a "true ending" it's just an end to her character arc.

Also be VERY prepared for this. Upgrade all your Battle Dress outfit and RPG's.

[nachobro]

Is Pequod the most powerful MGS character? Dude is invincible

I got it shot down once by accident. I deployed to an area that it said was safe, but a tank was there and blew it up right after I got out.

Yes. Though it isn't a "true ending" it's just an end to her character arc.

Also be VERY prepared for this. Upgrade all your Battle Dress outfit and RPG's.

thanks. i'll hold off until i'm done with her and then finish up her arc i guess.

[Bebpo]

Is Pequod the most powerful MGS character? Dude is invincible

Pretty much.  Only costs like $30,000 GMP to ressurect him each time.  Thank god for those nanomac-cough*cough*parasites.

[Bebpo]

Is Pequod the most powerful MGS character? Dude is invincible

I got it shot down once by accident. I deployed to an area that it said was safe, but a tank was there and blew it up right after I got out.

I tried deploying to a danger zone once, the helicopter got shot down while I was sitting watching the intro credits   Had to abort mission, otherwise it would keep respawning from the opening and kill me before I could get out.  Last time I ever deployed in a danger zone!

[Rahxephon91]

Well I'm almost done. Beat most of the extreme and total stealth through either cheesing them or brute force. I guess this is an open world game all about you figuring it out. This is a very conflicting game. Sometimes it works and most of the time it doesn't, but either way at 100 hours and counting I just want to be done. Have the extreme mission, Quiet's mission, and plenty of easy side ops left. Hope they go down easy.

[Bebpo]

Why are you trying to 100% a game you don't like.  I didn't even do that and I liked it sorta maybe.

[Rahxephon91]

I'm not going to leave a MGS game unfinished....I'm an actual fan of this series....

The only way to actually get the ending is to 100% it. If you did'nt have to do every mission to unlock it I wouldnt have.