25th August 2015, 1:20 PM
With Phantom Pain about to come out, thought I'd dig up this old thread, and all the embarrassment it brings.
In hindsight, it's clear that the reason those fake accents bugged me is because, when you really get down to it, they're pretty racist. They just make me wince all the more these days.
I've also come to realize a lot of the background info behind Kojima's work on this particular remake. The guy who did the cinematics actually WANTED them to be subdued and Kojima made him do them again so they could be over the top. In retrospect, I completely misunderstood exactly what Kojima was going for with Metal Gear, as a series, and took it WAY more seriously than he had ever actually intended. As fans, we were all guilty of this. I'm pretty sure he intended the idea of a solo operative to be ridiculous from the very start, and these cinematics were INTENDED to be laughed at as over the top action. Later Metal Gear games have seen him push that particular "joke" harder and harder, to the point where Phantom Pain has abandoned ALL pretense of taking place in a 1980's with anything remotely resembling realistic technology. In retrospect, I now see the whole series is intended to be tongue-in-cheek parody of action tropes (as well as more serious commentary on the nature of war and peace). It was NEVER meant to be taken completely seriously, and all our complaints about how "ridiculous" stuff was missed that point! Yeah, I'm repeating myself now, JUST LIKE KOJIMA!
Heck, even the basic premise pokes fun at itself. In hindsight, EVERY SINGLE Kojima Metal Gear game ends with a stunning revelation that you were being used by the very enemy you were infiltrating. Basically, for all the skill and stealth you thought you were using, the ONLY reason you even had a chance to pull off the mission was because the leader (or, developers) set things up to ALLOW you to infiltrate. In essence, that final reveal is Kojima saying "yeah, actually a solo infiltration mission is absolutely impossible". Heck, even WITH that reveal you blow your cover at least a few times in EACH game by story mandate, really driving home the impossibility of this sort of scenario.
It's only in recent years that I've really gotten to understand what Kojima was really going for with these games, and with that healthy pinch of salt held firmly between my cheek and gum I'll be ready for whatever complete insanity the last one throws at us.
In hindsight, it's clear that the reason those fake accents bugged me is because, when you really get down to it, they're pretty racist. They just make me wince all the more these days.
I've also come to realize a lot of the background info behind Kojima's work on this particular remake. The guy who did the cinematics actually WANTED them to be subdued and Kojima made him do them again so they could be over the top. In retrospect, I completely misunderstood exactly what Kojima was going for with Metal Gear, as a series, and took it WAY more seriously than he had ever actually intended. As fans, we were all guilty of this. I'm pretty sure he intended the idea of a solo operative to be ridiculous from the very start, and these cinematics were INTENDED to be laughed at as over the top action. Later Metal Gear games have seen him push that particular "joke" harder and harder, to the point where Phantom Pain has abandoned ALL pretense of taking place in a 1980's with anything remotely resembling realistic technology. In retrospect, I now see the whole series is intended to be tongue-in-cheek parody of action tropes (as well as more serious commentary on the nature of war and peace). It was NEVER meant to be taken completely seriously, and all our complaints about how "ridiculous" stuff was missed that point! Yeah, I'm repeating myself now, JUST LIKE KOJIMA!
Heck, even the basic premise pokes fun at itself. In hindsight, EVERY SINGLE Kojima Metal Gear game ends with a stunning revelation that you were being used by the very enemy you were infiltrating. Basically, for all the skill and stealth you thought you were using, the ONLY reason you even had a chance to pull off the mission was because the leader (or, developers) set things up to ALLOW you to infiltrate. In essence, that final reveal is Kojima saying "yeah, actually a solo infiltration mission is absolutely impossible". Heck, even WITH that reveal you blow your cover at least a few times in EACH game by story mandate, really driving home the impossibility of this sort of scenario.
It's only in recent years that I've really gotten to understand what Kojima was really going for with these games, and with that healthy pinch of salt held firmly between my cheek and gum I'll be ready for whatever complete insanity the last one throws at us.
"On two occasions, I have been asked [by members of Parliament], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able to rightly apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question." ~ Charles Babbage (1791-1871)