I wish I could draw like him fr. I’m trying to learn how to replicate his style for my own illustrations. Would this be considered a study?

I beat it once on Normal watching every cutscene, a second time skipping some of them, and a third time going for the no-kill trophy. (I skipped the cutscenes that time lol)

Everything below is just my personal take, so its up to you

My first thought after finishing MGS4 was, "Kojima strikes to his fandom again." A lot of people are strongly divided on 4. Some call it the weakest entry in the series, others call it a terrible yet brilliant game. So which side am I on? Honestly, I don't think this game can be judged on a simple good-or-bad scale.

The first thing to understand is that Kojima is really good at confusing and messing with his own fans. (MGS3 didn't really do this, which might be why it's so popular.) MGS2 is the classic example. Everyone was hyped to play as Chad Solid Snake, and he literally ends up at the bottom of the ocean within the first hour. Then, against everyone's expectations, Virgin Raiden shows up, a pretty-boy rookie who is basically the opposite of Snake in every way, and he carries most of the game.

And what about Ground Zeroes? For someone who poured hours into Peace Walker, GZ wasn't just a curveball. It was absolutely heartbreaking. Paz turned into a human bomb, Chico captured and horribly tortured, Mother Base exploding and collapsing, and Big Boss watching it all before falling into a coma. We all know how that went.

The truth is, Metal Gear Solid starts out as a fairly normal stealth action game, but it quickly fills up with superpowers and things that defy common sense. MGS4 is the kind of thing, but it pushes this further than any other game in the series, and it left as strong an impression on me as MGS2 did.

To start, it flips the image of the veteran older protagonist we usually want. Old Snake isn't just a cool veteran who just look old. He's frail. He gets stressed more easily, his eyesight is going, his spine is in bad shape, and he throws up after rolling around for a few dozen seconds. It's sad because it reminds you of elderly people you've seen in real life. The strong, healthy Snake from MGS2 is nowhere to be found.

This peaks in Act 4. There isn't a single person on Shadow Moses. Only unmanned weapons drift around like tumbleweeds until boss fight. A blizzard is blowing, and everything keeps fading from view.

Then there's probably the most controversial part: the Beauty and the Beast Unit. A lot of people hate it, and some find the oversexualization and cringe. But I think this was intentional too. In the original concept, the Beauty forms were supposed to appear fully naked instead of in suits. If that, the player would be aiming and firing at a naked woman's body, even if it's with a non-lethal weapon. And then Drebin says, "You set her free."

If Kojima had genuinely wanted to portray the liberation of suffering female characters, he would have included several cutscenes that carefully explored their emotions, at least on the level of EVA in MGS3. Instead, he wraps up their "salvation" in a single line, delivered alongside moaning sounds, almost as if he's openly mocking the player. I can only see that as deliberate trolling, and I think that's exactly why this game is so valuable.

Old Snake gets played again in the one-on-one Metal Gear fight at the end of Act 4. The player clearly thinks they've taken down Metal Gear RAY and beaten Liquid. But when you come to, Snake is covered in blood and limping, while Liquid runs off on foot, not with any fancy device, laughing at Snake like it's a fun prank or a game of tag.

What about the gameplay? The tailing mission in Act 3 is infamous. You have to keep following the guy even when you already know where the rebel hideout is. And in Act 4, outside of boss fights, there are no stages with human enemies walking around. Overall, the game demands a kind of stealth that feels foreign compared to the earlier entries.

In the end, all this constant "friction" is released in the one-on-one boss fight with Liquid in Act 5. But you don't get to beat him down in style. Snake's whole body has been wrecked by the microwaves, he's struggling badly, and he barely manages to take Liquid down. Behind them, the sun is setting. It shows very clearly that a man once called a legend of his era is fading away. Maybe Kojima was asking the fans, "Please, let Snake go now."

So in the end, I think MGS4 made one of the riskiest moves in the gaming industry, and it really landed. That doesn't mean I simply "enjoyed" it, though. Intended or not, it was often uncomfortable and confusing. But I've seen plenty of other art forms stir up the same kind of feelings. I don't think we'll see anything like it again, and I'd call it the most provocative of all the games only Hideo Kojima could make. That's why MGS4 feels so special to me.

im not a native English speaker, so sounds a bit off, excuse with that :)

I always thought it was interesting that when they do this they're saying things in order of the japanese alphabet, but using letters that don't exist.

I always thought the closest western equivalent would be singing the last part of the alphabet song song and going "Q, r, s, t, u & v, w, x, y & z, γ, ζ, ω, ψ, & χ...."

but that really only works if you read it, and good luck making it rhyme

Maybe there's an intersting way of doing this.

Playing is even weirder.

But man, how good the PW was on PSP. Switch is great too (without the 1.3 update, of course)

If these stats show whats required for chicken I’ll get it right? My act 1 stats. 1st ever playthru, tryna knock out chicken emblem. Was paranoid so grinded all but continues.

Had a thought today as I was chucking a defender to his doom: what's the most disrespectful FOB kill?

1. Knockout + throwing from a significant height

2. Knockout + throwing off FOB into the water

3. Throat slit

4. Long-range (2+ platform) one-shot kill

5. Other

It's the rule, they always get it wrong...

After I 100% mgsv, I had to draw vemon snake

Took me almost 300 hours. I tried to make the last moment epic but I kinda failed...

Still, I am so glad I did it. This game was with me during tough times and I enjoyed it so much, definitely the best $20 I've ever spent.

I'm a huge fan of this franchise and I'm looking forward to get another platinum trophy.

Good luck to those who are getting the platinum trophy too. ✌️

Will be drawing the boss as the other part for this, I don’t have a sketch pad big enough to fit both.

Still playing the game though. Still loving this game, way better than the first one in my absolutely subjective opinion.

In addition I would like to point out that the story is slightly reminds me of The Neon Genesis Evangelion.

This was so ridiculously hard, I’m gonna have PTSD from this.

I played my first mgs game back in October of last year when delta snake eater dropped and it was the first mgs game I ever played it and it blew me away. I then went on to ground zeroes and phantom pain which was amazing as well then in January I finally played mgs1 then mgs2 then the og mgs3 which is so much better than the remake. Then when the volume 2 announcement dropped I was so hyped to be able to play peace walker and mgs4 so I replayed all the games in story order and man the series hits so hard when you play it in story order. Mgs4 was a masterpiece and imo the best mgs game the amount of cutscenes never bothered me once and the gameplay was amazing. Mgs has truly changed my life and made me look differently at things and honestly appreciate life more. Also I just started mgs rising yesterday and im having a blast so far the gameplay is so addicting. Sorry for all the yapping lmao

Made in Blender. I’m a beginner, but I think it came out well. What do y’all think?

Saw this movie last night, really crazy and good. Spoilers to follow: at the end the antagonist, a shirtless long haired blond who looks like Liquid Snake makes a speech about how he got all the dominant genes and the protagonist got all the recessive ones and reveals there are actually others like them (like Liquid explaining the genome soldiers). Subsequently they get into a brawl as the building collapses around them.
Theres also a character named Zero even. I know Kojima watches hundreds of films and pulls from them in his work constantly. Could he have possibly have seen this one? I couldn’t find anyone online comparing the film to MGS except an offhand comment or any instances of Kojima mentioning it. Just thought some ppl here might find it interesting and the movie itself is worth watching outside the context of MGS

I was always confused about the part where Solidus first encounters Raiden and Solid Sna-- I mean, Iroquois Plisken, but he says, "Don't say you've forgotten me," which implies they've interacted with each other before, but I'm wondering if it's a mistranslation somehow.

Like maybe he was originally meant to say something like, "Don't pretend you don't know who I am," or something like that, but since I don't understand Japanese, I can't actually check it myself.

Literally, what did Solidus mean by this? Don't say you've forgotten me, the former president and also your brother whom you never interacted with onscreen before this moment. And I don't remember any explanation about this either, other than Solidus orchestrated the Shadow Moses incident behind the scenes, which you only find out in the aftercredits of MGS1, but that doesn't mean that David and George Sears ever directly interacted, though.

Edit: Some people just want to be angry or condescending for literally no reason. I ask a clarification question because I admit to not understanding something, and people demonize me and accuse me of saying someone at Konami failed at their job?

Amazing for people to put words in my mouth and then sniff their own farts about it. Jesus fucking Christ.

All I can find is a web emulation page to play it in browser- which is cool n all, but I wanna have this on the go on my Retroid handheld

Without linking (obviously) can anyone point me in the direction of a where the Wii VC iso can be downloaded???

I'd play the MSX2 version but I hate those original portraits😭😭😭

I just finished my first blind playthrough of mgs4. And I'm very conflicted on what I think of this game. Often times the plot felt confusing and badly structured with some of the emotional moments unfortunately not hitting as much I wanted to. However there's still a lot that I enjoy about it regarding snakes ending and the fact that there's hope for the future generations to come. Idk if this is a common experience as I chose not to interact with the community out of fear for spoilers so I'd like to hear what you guys think