Often considered to be one of the most co🦂mplicated video game franchises of all 🤪time, Metal Gear is a saga that spans roughly🌠 thirty years with three different protagonists all while juggling two core timelines. If you pay attention, it’s actually not at all difficult to follow along with the story, but that’s only if you 𒁃truly dedicate yourself to paying attention. If you let your mind waiver for even a second, you’ll likely find yourself missing key information, feeling lost in a narrative that constantly demands your full attention. With that in mind, and given the very nature of the video game medium, it’s not hard for more casual fans to get lost in Metal Gear Solid’s story.
Time and time again, you’ll find people online mentioning how they don’t understand the overarching plot or how characters relate to one another, but this just makes it clear who’s a super fan and who’s just a casual fan. For those that do soak in every word of Hideo Kojima’s legendary franchise, they come out of each game all the more knowledgeable, picking up secret details along the ways that even a perceptive fan might miss. If you’re a super fan, chances are you already k♐now most of these. If you’re not, get ready to stand among the Metal Gear legend in terms of knowledge.
30 Big Boss Being Snake’s Father Is A Retcon
Solid Sna꧃ke and Big Bo🌌ss being father and son is basically Metal Gear Solid’s “Darth Vader is Luke’s father.” Not in the sense that it’s a life changing twist for the main character, but rather that just about♏ everybody knows it’s the casꦗe without even needing to play a single game in the series. MGS is a franchise about legacy so of course Big Boss and Solid Snake ൩are related. Surprisingly enough, though, it’s actually a r🐲etcon.
You really have to wonder how longtime fans took this "twist."
In Metal Gear Solid, Snake mentions how Big Boss revealed himself to be his father during their fight in Zanzibarland. This is clearly a referenceꩲ to Metal Gear 2, but playing MG2 will show you that no suchᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ scene exists. Solid Snake and Big Boss simply just fight. This “twist” was invented specifically for the first Solid title.
29 Metal Gear Solid Is Just A Soft Reboot Of Metal Gear 2
Not many fans of the series have actually played Metal Gear 2 which is a bit of a double edged sword. On one hand, you’re missing out on a phenomenal game made eaꦐrly in Hideo Kဣojima’s career. On the other hand, you’d basically just be playing a 2D version of Metal Gear Solid. When it comes down to it, Metal Gear Solid is really just a soft reboot of Metal Gear 2.
Although the core plots are different and there are more than a few gameplay diff𒐪erences, the two games share many story beats, 🦹set pieces, and gameplay scenarios. They play different and Metal Gear Solid has a very defined and detailed theme while Metal Gear 2 doeಌsn’t, but the siꦕmilarities are undeniable. It’s a bit like the relationship between A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time.
28 The Tanker Chapter Originally Had More Gameplay
You know how fans basically cried for years because Solid Snake was only playable for one 💫short section of Metal Gear Solid 2? Well, originally, the Tanker was going to have some more content to let fans fool with Snake just a little bit longer. At the end of the Tanker, after the whole ship starts to sink, players would have controlled Snake during his esca🔥pe. Unfortunately, play testplaytestersima’s team, found the whole ordeal to be rather boring. For the sake of pacing, and keeping the game fun all around, they removed the segment. Sure, it’s more Solid Snake, but more isn’ജt always better.
27 MGS4’s Original Ending Caused A Staff Riot
Not only was Metal Gear Solid 4 polari▨zing with fans, it was also polarizing with its staff. Instead of Solid Snake finding the will to live and deciding to enjoy his remaining months, however few they may be, after reuniting with Big Boss, Kojima intended Snake and Otacon to turn themselves in as terrorists in order to be executed in the game’s big finish. Naturally, the entire staff rejected this idea and outright refused to work unless Kojima agreed to drop the ending. If you’ve ever wondered why “Here’s to You” plays over the credits, this dark fact is why.
26 Kojima Wanted The Beauty And The Beast Unit To Be Naked
Ever the pe🍸rvert, Kojima actually wanted the Beauty and the Beast women to be completely naked after being disarmed of their suits in Metal Gear Solid 4. Snake would have to subdue them as they walked towards him in the buff, all while seducti𒁏vely beckoning him like a succubus. Obvio🌃usly, this didn’t fly as it would likely cause MGS4 to take on an AO rating,🅠 basically cannibalizing the game’s sales. According to rumors, however, the models were actuall🔯y directed naked meaning their suits were added into the game later.
25 Kojima Was Not Allowed To Talk To His Staff While Developing MGSV
To give you perspective on just how bad the last🏅 few mo💮nths of The Phantom Pain’s development were, Konami actually barred Kojima from interacting with his team in the same space. The game’s home stretch consisted of Kojima sending messages to and from his team while they desperately tried to pull together and make the game become a reality in a painfully short amount of time. Konami effectively exiled Kojima from his own stafꦜf, rewarding years of service with punishment. Sadly, it gets much, much worse…
24 Konami Banned Kojima From TGA 2015
If it wa♑sn’t enough that Konami disallowed Kojima from completing Metal Gear Solid V with his team, they outright banned him from attending The Game Awards sh🃏ow in 2015, an award show that was very much interested in celebrating Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. Not only was Kojima’s name effectively washed away from Konami’s register, they took it upon themselves to force him to keep as much distance away f✨rom the last game in a series he dedicated decades to as much as possible. If you’ve ever needed a reason to boycott Konami, let this be the one.
23 Fans Guessed The Phantom Pain’s Twist After One Trailer
Never underestimate the power of the average Metal Gear Solid ꦓfan. After years of being reused and tricked by Hideo Kojima, fans took it 🔯upon themselves to solve Metal Gear Solid V’s ke🉐y mystery the moment its trailer went up. By paying close attention to the trailer son’s lyrics (“Not Your Kind of P𝔍eople” by Garbage,) and examining Big Boss’ overall appearance, fans were able to deduce that the player character was not, in fact, the real Big Boss.
It's really kind of obvious in hindsight.
It wouldn’t be until much𝔍 lat𝔉er when some fans would accurately theorize Ground Zeroes’ medic as Venom Snake’s original persona, but it’s still rather impressive. Leading up to the medic theory’s confirmations, popular theories involved Venom being🐠 either Decoy Octopus or Gray Fox. Both actually reasonable theories, but not quite what Kojima would be going fo♉r thematically.
22 The Third Chapter That Never Was
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is notorious for only having two chapters, but data miners actually discovered a third chapter inꦡ the game’s files titled “Peace.” Accompanied with the title card comes a cutscenes where Kaz announces to Venom and the rest of Mother Base that all nuclear weapons in the world have been disarmed. It’s been theorized that this cutscene will trigger only w🍬hen all in-game nukes have been decommissioned over the game’s online servers, but this feat seems impossible considering the presence of hackers in-game and the importance of The Phantom Pain’s onlওine. Chapter 3 will never be anything but a feeble dream.
21 The Phantom Pain’s Scrapped 80s Filter
Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain is so rooted in its 80s aesthetic, that it’s only natural it would have an 80s filter to really bring out that 80s movie feel. Early in development, Kojima and his team wanted to implement and 80s filter to make gameplay resemble that of a film from the era. Just ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚimagine Venom Snake crawling through Africa and blasting A-ha on his not iPod while looking like a character straight out of Escape from New York. A man can dream, though.