Hello friends, today I continue my look back over the last ten years and choose my top games of the decade. Yesterday I talked about The Last Guardian and the wonderful creature Trico. Today I go back further still, first to march 2014 for the release of Ground Zeroes, and then September of the following year for The Phantom Pain. Two parts of a fantastic whole named Metal Gear Solid 5.
Metal Gear Solid 5
There is so much to say about Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain I could write a whole series on it. Which I will next year if enough people are interested. The games are filled with references to Moby Dick and David Bowie that go beyond just name dropping. But that's only the start...
Phantom Pain
The game takes the idea of Phantom Pain and uses it in many different and interesting ways through out it's length. But what no one saw coming was the the game itself became the biggest phantom pain of them all.
With Hideo Kojima losing his position at Konami before work was complete on the project, the game itself became a Phantom Pain. An incomplete, flawed masterpiece. With one episode left unfinished (which came to be known as the phantom episode) and at least one other that we know of never to see the light of day. Even Kojima's own name was removed from the packaging when it was finally released.
But Kojima had the last laugh, not only is his name shown after every mission but he cameos in both games too. Kojima even went one step further and added a secret mission to Ground Zeroes that seemed to hint of his fate at the company, long before anything went public.
Ground Zeroes
Ground zeroes is probably the darkest Kojima has ever gone in storytelling. Not only within the cutscenes of the game, but the audio dramas as well. The tape that Chico gives to Snake can be listened to in it's entirety, and some sections are hard to get through.
Although I haven't included it here, if I do a series next year I will put up all the relevant audio files to go with this. They really add depth to the story.
Below is the complete Ground Zeroes episode of Metal Gear Solid 5, it's a self contained story but leaves you at it's end wanting to jump straight into the Phantom Pain:
The part of the Metal Gear Solid 5 I was most drawn to was the idea of language, of it being used as a weapon to wipe peoples identity. When the English empire forced their language and ways on to others, they were wiping out the people's original identity and replacing it with their own. The game takes the idea of using language as a weapon and moves it into really interesting and frightening ways.
If Kojima got to to finish MGS5 as intended I'm in no doubt it would have been the greatest Metal Gear Solid he ever made. In it's current state, for me anyway, it's still not far off.
To finish off here is a music video I made for one of my favourite characters from the story: Quiet, the song, Quiet's theme is sung by Stefanie Joosten, the actress who plays Quiet in the game.
Thank you for joining me again.
Until next time my friends, be seeing you x x
There is so much to say about Ground Zeroes and The Phantom Pain I could write a whole series on it. Which I will next year if enough people are interested. The games are filled with references to Moby Dick and David Bowie that go beyond just name dropping. But that's only the start...
Phantom Pain
The game takes the idea of Phantom Pain and uses it in many different and interesting ways through out it's length. But what no one saw coming was the the game itself became the biggest phantom pain of them all.
With Hideo Kojima losing his position at Konami before work was complete on the project, the game itself became a Phantom Pain. An incomplete, flawed masterpiece. With one episode left unfinished (which came to be known as the phantom episode) and at least one other that we know of never to see the light of day. Even Kojima's own name was removed from the packaging when it was finally released.
But Kojima had the last laugh, not only is his name shown after every mission but he cameos in both games too. Kojima even went one step further and added a secret mission to Ground Zeroes that seemed to hint of his fate at the company, long before anything went public.
Ground zeroes is probably the darkest Kojima has ever gone in storytelling. Not only within the cutscenes of the game, but the audio dramas as well. The tape that Chico gives to Snake can be listened to in it's entirety, and some sections are hard to get through.
Although I haven't included it here, if I do a series next year I will put up all the relevant audio files to go with this. They really add depth to the story.
Below is the complete Ground Zeroes episode of Metal Gear Solid 5, it's a self contained story but leaves you at it's end wanting to jump straight into the Phantom Pain:
If Kojima got to to finish MGS5 as intended I'm in no doubt it would have been the greatest Metal Gear Solid he ever made. In it's current state, for me anyway, it's still not far off.
To finish off here is a music video I made for one of my favourite characters from the story: Quiet, the song, Quiet's theme is sung by Stefanie Joosten, the actress who plays Quiet in the game.
Thank you for joining me again.
Until next time my friends, be seeing you x x
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