Some Zelda Things
21st October 2025, 1:45 AM
It's funny you mention that, because the absolute most FUN I had in a Metal Gear game also happened to have the weakest storytelling, and that's Phantom Pain. The freedom to do things not just in the order you want but to explore the emergent gameplay in all kinds of unique ways kind of got kicked off with Phantom Pain, but it's storytelling definitely suffered heavily for it. It's not terrible, and there's snippets of a good plot hiding in there, but with so many typical soldiers being basically the only concern throughout MOST of the game, those story moments are few and far between. I just... didn't care that much while playing is all. The emergent gameplay was just too fun. I should mention that while Death Stranding got labelled a "walking simulator", Death Stranding 2 brings back so many of the combat mechanics from Phantom Pain, and then expands on them, that it's basically the next Metal Gear game.
"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)