Sons of Liberty: A New Perspective
SONS OF LIBERTY:
A NEW PERSPECTIVE
Itās time again for all of us to ponder video gameās greatest mystery ā 2001ās Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. But this time, letās do so from a new perspective.
All of us recognize Metal Gear Solid 2 as a game with some āoddā elements in it.
Over the years, certain explanations have risen among the fan community in an attempt to explain why Metal Gear Solid 2 is the way that it is. And, eventually, over time, these explanations have been widely adopted as simple facts within the world of Metal Gear, as if they formed layer by layer in the crucible of the White House. Despite this, so much of what we say in an attempt to explain why the game is the way it is never actually appears in it.
For years, I have agreed with certain fan theories about why Metal Gear Solid 2 is the way it is. But I was never truly satisfied by these theories. And what I suspect is that you arenāt, as well. As the famous saying goes: āItās not what you donāt know that gets you. Itās what you know that just aināt so.ā I think that saying applies to so much of what we view in video game history. And it also, definitely, applies here.
Over the past several months, Iāve done some thinking about this game. And Iāve come to adopt a fundamentally new framework for viewing it. I now have a drastically different perspective of viewing how the developers thought about this game as they made it then I used to. Iād like to share how I now view Metal Gear Solid 2. And there is no better way to do so then through, of course, an extended essay.
Come one, come all, and letās view Metal Gear Solid 2 anewā¦
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Part 1: Metal Gear: Solid Snake Simulation - "Raiden is the key to all of this"
This essay will have a complex structure ā we will touch on a wide variety of topics surrounding Metal Gear before wrapping up with our major conclusion. However, I would like to start this writing at the same place I did. The thought process I came to that led me to start viewing everything differently.
Are you ready? Here goes: Raiden and Jar Jar Binks have a lot in common.
I say this only partially as a joke, but also because it is so obviously true. Sons of Liberty and The Phantom Menace came out at very nearly the same point in time. These were both highly anticipated follow-ups to popularly acclaimed pieces of media, and both characters are famous for the controversy that they attracted.
But was it ever intended to be this way? I was watching a documentary about the voice actor that plays Jar Jar Binks, where it is revealed, among many other things, that the actor attempted suicide in response to the backlash that the character received. The biggest takeaway I had from this documentary was the mindset that the creators had about Jar Jar Binks before the film was released. In short, while making the film, nobody would have thought that the character would be viewed as ācontroversialā while the film was being made. They all simply expected that the character would be liked. And that the character wasnāt was a tremendous shock to all.
Are there lessons to be learned here when talking about Raiden in Metal Gear Solid 2?
So goes the famous theory about the game: Raiden was created, for one reason or another, to be viewed as controversial by the player. But I simply no longer view this as true. We were all wrong about Raiden. He was never intended to be controversial, and there is no valid reason to ever think that he was.
What is indisputable is that Raidenās initial appearance was intended to be a major surprise to players in 2001. We all know the famous stories about this: How pre-release footage misled people by presenting Solid Snake in areas Raiden explores in game, and how Raiden gets no mention at all in the pre-release advertising. But it is not true that because Raiden was meant to be surprising, he was also meant to be controversial, or disliked. This is one of the biggest mistakes that I, and so many others made when thinking about this game.
If Raiden was not intended to be controversial by players, then how instead can he be viewed? Thatās the key question. And just like how Jar Jar Binks was supposed to be the key to all of The Phantom Menace, a proper understanding of the role Raiden plays in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty will unlock the true plot and purpose of the game. Raiden is the key to all of this. And what is his role?
Well, it may have been subtle, but the key to understanding the real plot and purpose of Sons of Liberty could have been found in the gameās pre-release advertising the whole time. According to another famous story, Sons of Liberty was not advertised as Metal Gear Solid 2 but instead as āMGS-IIIā. According to a traditional fan interpretation of this, this plays into the gameās theme of digital censorship through implying a āmissingā Metal Gear Solid 2 for this MGS-III to be a sequel to. But, surprisingly, this fan theory about āMGS-IIIā is incorrect.
āMGSIIIā has incorrectly been viewed as āMGS-IIIā: Metal Gear Solid 3. The correct way to parse this acronym, however, is instead as āMG-SIIIā. This game was advertised with the title āMetal Gear: Solid Snake Simulationā.
āSolid Snake Simulationā is a phrase brought up by a character, Solidus Snake, in the game, as a description for why the story events happen the way that they do. But Solidus is later contradicted, and we are told that S3 actually means something different by The Patriots in-game. But why are we told that Solid Snake Simulation exists, at all? The answer is simple: this is the developers sneaking their own design notes into the game. Solid Snake Simulation has been traditionally understood by fans as a commentary on sequel design: how elements in Metal Gear Solid 2 mirror what occcurs in Metal Gear Solid 1. And this theory is partially true. But it misses the big picture, and something very important.
The āSimulationā in Solid Snake Simulation is actually something of a misnomer, by Japanese developers not perfectly understanding English. What was meant was more akin to āSolid Snake Creationā, or āSolid Snake Establishmentā, And what was meant by this is āThe establishment of the new Solid Snakeā. And what was meant by this is āThe establishment of the new protagonist of the Metal Gear Solid seriesā. That is who Raiden is. And that is what Metal Gear Solid 2 is for. Sons of Liberty exists to establish Raiden as the new face of Metal Gear Solid.
Donāt you get it? Sons of Liberty was never originally intended to be followed by a Metal Gear Solid 3 starring Big Boss, and a Metal Gear Solid 4 starring Solid Snake again. Sons of Liberty was intended to be followed by a Metal Gear Solid 3 starringā¦ Raiden, and a Metal Gear Solid 4 starring Raiden, and a Metal Gear Solid 5 starring Raiden! Raiden was not meant to replace Solid Snake for the game. Raiden was meant to replace Solid Snake for the series! Raiden is now the protagonist here! At the end of Sons of Liberty, Raiden IS Metal Gear Solid!
Well, at least, he was supposed to be.
The clearest example of this being provable that has been overlooked by fans is in the older Solid Snakeās speech at the end of the game, where he speaks about the importance of passing the torch to the younger generation. While being unable to have children, this can be clearly understood as Solid Snake passing the torch to the new Metal Gear Solid protagonist, Raiden. Another scene in the game can be viewed in a similar light: earlier in the Plant chapter, Solid Snake hands off his iconic cigarettes to Raiden, the closest thing he has to a torch to pass down.
The plot of Metal Gear Solid 2 can in one phrase be described as āThe Solid Snake Simulation planā. It all revolves around Raiden. Everything, and I mean everything, in this game plays into this concept. Raiden begins this game as a nameless, Solid Snake admiring rookie and ends the game as a fully fledged character in his own right. He establishes relationships with characters, such as with Rose and Solid Snake, that make him feel like his own man. And even his own backstory feels like something that develops over the course of the game.
Throughout Metal Gear Solid 2, the trials and tribulations that Raiden encounters help to establish him as a hero, the hero that this world can be centered around. He obtains his iconic High Frequency Blade during the course of the game, enabling him to forge his own identity as a character apart from the mentor Solid Snake. And then, eventually, the world of Metal Gear Solid itself transforms fundamentally in order to fit Raiden as its protagonist better.
Everything that takes place in this game can only be properly understood as a part of Raidenās journey and as a part of the Solid Snake Simulation plan. And while I would like to immediately jump from here to talk about the gameās ending and how this principle applies to it, there are a few additional asides I would like to make in order to make some very clear points that will need to be made. Eventually, however, we will be able to draw some conclusions about Sons of Liberty that will help us understand what was really going through the minds of the developers as they were making this game.
Part 2: The Two Metal Gears: Ghost Babel and Sons of Liberty
Our first major aside leads us to talking about 2000ās Metal Gear: Ghost Babel ā also known as Metal Gear Solid for the Game Boy Color. I understand that this game is not necessarily the most well-known game in the Metal Gear franchise, and it is one that some may attempt to dismiss as an easily forgettable spin-off. However, this perspective is a bit anachronistic, and I do think that there is a bit more going on here.
2000ās Ghost Babel is the final Metal Gear game released before 2001ās Sons of Liberty. Ghost Babel references Sons of Liberty, then still in development. And Sons of Liberty references Ghost Babel. And finally, there are some elements present in Ghost Babel that shed some light on how Metal Gear was seen and could be seen by its developers, in ways that are important for us to clarify.
For example, it should be pointed out how Ghost Babel ends. Not to spoil, but Ghost Babel ends with some unresolved plot elements. The natural way to look at this is that Ghost Babel ends by pointing to its own sequel, a sequel that was never actually made.
When we consider this, we should point out that 1998ās Metal Gear Solid also ends with some unresolved plot elements. And the natural way to look at this today is by saying that Metal Gear Solid 1 ends by pointing to Metal Gear Solid 2. Some of these unresolved plot elements include: the mysterious Colonel Gurlukovich, the FOXHOUND member who escaped named Revolver Ocelot, and his conversation partner in the post-credits scene: the third clone of Big Boss, Solidus Snake, who is also the President of the United States, and who was secretly overseeing the events of the game the whole time.
We all can easily recognize these elements today as part of a sequel hook. But imagine a world where no Metal Gear games existed after 1998ās Metal Gear Solid. Is it possible that a player playing the game in this world could have misinterpreted the unresolved plot elements that they would have seen? They could, for example, think that these elements could be resolved in a bonus story mode that they had yet to unlock. Or maybe, just maybe, they could have concluded that Metal Gear Solid was attempting to be āpostmodernā. My point is that, with the benefit of hindsight and seeing the sequel that exists, it is much easier to understand why a character named āSolidusā is referenced in Metal Gear Solid 1.
I want to count how many times a Metal Gear game does this. One: 1998ās Metal Gear Solid has unresolved plot elements. Two: Metal Gear: Ghost Babel has unresolved plot elements.
And three: Metal Gear: Ghost Babel actually has two separate instances of this phenomenon, and the second example can be seen with the gameās VR Missions. Once they are all completed, the game congratulates a mysterious āJackā for their completion. No āJackā appears in Metal Gear: Ghost Babel ā but with the benefit of hindsight and playing a future game, we know that this is a reference to Metal Gear Solid 2ās true protagonist, Raiden. So ā three examples of a Metal Gear game ending with unresolved plot elements, intended to be followed up upon with a sequel.
The fourth example of this phenomenon is in 2001ās Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. This is the natural way of viewing the ending of this game. By doing so, Sons of Liberty was following what was being established up to this point as a series tradition. There is no better way of understanding the situation than this.
But we will talk more about the ending of Sons of Liberty at a later point. For now I just want to state the best way anyone could have viewed Metal Gear at the time in 2001, as two entities. Ghost Babel ended by looking forward to a sequel, and Sons of Liberty ended by looking forward to a sequel. The best way of understanding these two games are as the foundation for two Metal Gears. Metal Gear Ghost and Metal Gear Solid. Metal Gear Ghost would star Solid Snake, feature classic top-down Metal Gear gameplay on portable consoles, and feature its own story and canon following Ghost Babel. Metal Gear Solid would star new protagonist Raiden, feature novel sword-based gameplay and then top-tier production values, and follow its own story and canon following Sons of Liberty.
I can just imagine this fact being used by a developer of Sons of Liberty during its development as a justification for the game featuring the changes that it makes. āWeāre not getting rid of Solid Snake as a protagonist forever! If anyone wants to play as Solid Snake, they can play the portable series, Metal Gear Ghost!ā
With the benefit of hindsight, however, we know that Ghost Babel never actually received any sequel, however, and its unresolved plot elements remain unresolved. But why is this? A quote from a Konami executive that was made sheds light on this mystery. In a nutshell, there was a concern that a child playing a portable Metal Gear game on a kid-friendly console could eventually encounter the original Metal Gear Solid on home console hardware, complete with mature scenes of blood and violence. That would be a problem. And so, the decision was made to kill this āMetal Gear Ghostā series in its infancy. Only one game was made, Ghost Babel, now in hindsight looking like an odd spinoff as opposed to the foundation of something more substantial.
Ghost Babel eventually did get something of a spiritual successor, however. Boktai is the ghost of Ghost Babel. And letās point out just how much Boktai we actually got. Four games in just five years ā just imagine if those were Metal Gear games instead!
I just want to make one more point about Ghost Babel. Saving the best for last. There is one more unresolved plot point in Ghost Babel worth talking about, not because he appears in the game but because he is conspicuous by his absence. This character is, of course, the legendary Big Boss ā alive and well in the world of Ghost Babel, ready to be encountered by Solid Snake at any point in the future of this timeline. Why else, then, would the developers be so clear in pointing out that Ghost Babel takes place in a world where Metal Gear 1 but not Metal Gear 2 takes place? Just so Big Boss could have been previously encountered by Solid Snake but not fully defeated?
Part 3: "Why is there a Cyborg Ninja in Sons of Liberty?"
The question that we discuss in this section is āWhy is there a Cyborg Ninja in Sons of Liberty?ā. This is something that you may have thought of previously as āoddā, but have never been fully able to previously articulate why. After all, on a surface level, there is nothing odd about the appearance of a Cyborg Ninja in Sons of Liberty. The Big Shell incident of Metal Gear Solid 2 was in-storyline designed to parallel the Shadow Moses incident of Metal Gear Solid 1. Therefore, because a ninja appeared in Metal Gear Solid 1, a ninja can also appear in Metal Gear Solid 2. But, as we all may have suspected, thereās something a bit off here.
While the Big Shell parallels Shadow Moses in many respects, the parallels never perfectly overlap, nor are they supposed to. Raiden here is the stand-in for Solid Snake, but is not actually the exact same character. The Big Shell is not literally Shadow Moses Island, and Solidus Snake is not literally Liquid Snake, and Dead Cell is not literally FOXHOUND, and Metal Gear Ray is not Metal Gear Rex, and Gurlukovichās army is not literally the Genome Soldiers. And yet, in this game, a Cyborg Ninja appears ā looking the same, acting the same, and even quoting the same lines verbatim that were spoken by the Cyborg Ninja seen in the first game.
Imagine, if you could, how this ninja role could have been fulfilled in a different way for the Big Shell. Instead, Raiden would encounter Olga ā not in a costume, but simply Olga herself. Olga Gurlukovich would tell Raiden that she is sick of her fatherās shadow and wants to forge a new legacy for herself. She tells Raiden that she is not a tool of the government, or anyone else, and that fighting is the only thing that she is good at, but that she only fights for what she believes in. And then Olga gives Raiden tools and intel that would be necessary for Raiden to complete. In this theoretical version of the game, Olga would appear as a new ally for Raiden, although not a completely trustworthy one. A fresh new take on the āneither enemy nor friendā character typified by the Cyborg Ninja in the first Metal Gear Solid.
But that is not what we see, and what we see instead appears to a large extent as a Cyborg Ninja retread. So whatās going on here? I have a theory about this, and this is my usual theory when a video game has a large element in it that appears to have little or no concrete relevance. The Cyborg Ninja in Sons of Liberty is a victim of cut content.
My theory is based on the location where Raiden and the Cyborg Ninja actually first talk: this unassuming area, an outside hallway, yet underneath the helipad at the Big Shell. In storyline, Raiden is told that the conversation must take place here to keep away from the watchful eyes of the enemy. But thereās something very odd about this whole situation.
Letās think for a moment about this one hallway, in particular. Itās just fundamentally weird, isnāt it? It is a massive hallway that connects to ā¦nothing. It serves no gameplay or architectural function whatsoever, apart from being used in this one scene. Level designs in Metal Gear games are typically more practical than this. Odd, loose end hallways like this arenāt supposed to exist. But is it possible that, originally, something more was supposed to take place here? Is it possible that this hallway holds an important secret about the design of Metal Gear Solid 2, something that we have all missed for over twenty years?
The hallway where Raiden meets the Cyborg Ninja is very similar to the hallway where Raiden meets the Cyborg Ninjaās sword, in Arsenal Gear, much later in the game. And so this is my theory: in an original, planned version of Metal Gear Solid 2, Raiden was supposed to obtain his iconic High Frequency Blade, not later, but here!
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty tells the story of Raiden, the new protagonist and face of the Metal Gear Solid series. As we know, Raiden begins the game as a Solid Snake admiring rookie, or an avatar for the player. And Raiden ends the game as his own independent character. But, originally, there was supposed to be another element that illustrated this piece of storytelling in a very clear way: Raidenās High-Frequency Blade, destined to become known as Raidenās iconic weapon.
In the final release of Metal Gear Solid 2, in the scene where Raiden and the Cyborg Ninja meet, the Cyborg Ninja gives Raiden equipment and information necessary for Raiden to complete his mission. But originally, this scene would have been more extended. The Cyborg Ninja would give Raiden the famous sword and become Raidenās mentor in using it. There would be a training tutorial sequence, similar to what Raiden experiences in the Arsenal Gear hallway near the end of the game in our version. And, eventually, now equipped with the High Frequency Blade, Raidenās adventure would immediately begin to feel very different.
According to this theory, Raidenās story could be understood as being divided into two halves. A first half, where Raiden uses weapons similar to those used by Solid Snake, and travels through levels similar to those experienced by Solid Snake in the past. And a second half, where Raidenās arsenal now includes a unique sword, and the levels and journey begin to feel much different than before.
And this split is seen perfectly in the design of the Big Shell itself, split into a Shell 1 and Shell 2. However, in the final release, much of Shell 2 goes unexplored by the player. Because Raidenās sword eventually got delayed and was only obtained near the end of the game, Shell 2 would correspondingly need to be cut, no pun intended, from the game as well.
There was a decision made to delay the point at which Raiden obtains his sword. But why was this decision made? My theory is that the developers did not have confidence in the sword mechanic that exists in the game to carry any significant portion of it. And indeed, we can all recognize that the sword that exists in Metal Gear Solid 2 feels a little, well, odd. The sword swing is not bound to a face or shoulder button on the PlayStation 2 controller but instead to the right analog stick, which tracks vertical and horizontal swings, and to the R3 button. This is not how typical 3D action games that use sword combat function. Metal Gear Solid 2ās sword system, as it is, instead feels like a beta or a work in progress.
Which is what it was. Sword combat now exists in Metal Gear Solid 2 in a limited sense, not only to justify Raidenās character, and to complete the story that was already planned, but as a kind of teaser for what could be on the way for Metal Gear Solid. A future entry in the series, starring a sword-wielding Raiden. The developers could not get every detail about the system worked out in 2001, but give them time. A future entry will work out all the details and work just great. (āRight?ā)
More evidence for this shift can be seen when looking at the final encounter Raiden has in Metal Gear Solid 2: The final boss fight between him and Solidus Snake. Have you ever wondered why Solidus Snake has those mechanical, Doctor Octopus style arms? According to a developer interview, there was an original plan for Raiden to be able to cut those arms off with the sword, during the course of the battle. Due to development difficulties, this feature wasā¦ cut, which leaves Raidenās sword feeling no different to a standard melee attack in the final game. This anecdote can be seen as proof that the developers of the game were having some challenges implementing the sword in every way that they wanted to.
The change was made to delay the point at which Raiden obtains the sword. But, hey, itās no big deal, right? One small change? We can move on from talking about this, right?
Well, no. This change has massive consequences. In addition to significantly altering the gameplay of Metal Gear Solid 2, the story of the game is affected as well. And what is this effect? Well, um, this change breaks absolutely everything.
Let us count the ways. For one, in the final game, Raiden now obtains the High Frequency Blade in a very odd location. This is during the Arsenal Gear sequence, a location that looks, sounds, and feels drastically different from what the player has been experiencing for the entire rest of the game. In the room before where Raiden now obtains the sword, Raiden sneaks completely in the nude by never before seen robotic ninja-like Arsenal Tenguu soldiers, while constantly being regaled by endless and completely bizarre messages from his Commanding Officer now being revealed to be an AI creation the entire time.
And in the room after where Raiden obtains the sword, him and Solid Snake now work together and fight through a plain hallway taking out dozens of these newly-debuted robot ninja soldiers, in an extreme action set piece that looks and feels almost nothing like what the player has been doing the entire time playing the game previously.
In short, this is absolutely no time for Raiden to be having an internal character moment. And so, when Raiden obtains the sword in this circumstance, it does not feel like a meaningful moment of character growth. It feels like one small part of a massive, acid-fueled nightmare. And now, in this sequence, there is an obligation to have Raiden obtain the sword, obtain training using it, and go through a gameplay sequence with enemies to use it on. These are all elements that need to be squeezed into a very unique ending sequence that was already going to feel extremely ābusyā without them. Do you see the problem here?
With only a brief period of time using it, the sword no longer even feels like what was supposed to be seen as Raidenās signature weapon. Instead, it is just one small part of what is a big arsenal of items and equipment that Raiden uses throughout the game. I mean, Raiden spent more time with a skateboard than with his signature blade! At least on my playthroughā¦ But the lack of screen time for Raiden with his sword is far from the biggest issue here.
A second major problem from a story standpoint that this change introduces is how it changes the relationship between Raiden and Solid Snake. According to the original plan, Raiden would receive training with the sword from the Cyborg Ninja. But, now, bizarrely, Raiden receives this training from, of all people, Solid Snake. Solid Snake, who has never before been seen using a sword, instructs Raiden on how to use what would become known as his iconic weapon.
āBesides, Iām not a fan of blades. Now let me tell you everything there is to know about using it.ā
The High Frequency Blade, originally intended to be seen as how Raiden would differentiate himself as a character from Solid Snake, is now being taught to him ā by Solid Snake!
According to the original plan for Metal Gear Solid 2, the relationship between Raiden and Solid Snake would have been one that would have evolved over the course of the game. When the two first meet, Solid Snake derides Raiden as a video game playing rookie. But over the course of Raidenās adventure, he eventually earns some respect from Solid Snake, leading to Solid Snakeās eventual torch passing speech, from the old Metal Gear Solid protagonist to the new Metal Gear Solid protagonist, given shortly before the credits to the game.
These events take place in the final release. But the last minute introduction of the sword training scene from Snake breaks the feeling of growth that is implied by them. At the beginning of the Plant chapter, Solid Snake derides Raiden as a rookie. And now, at what is almost the final moment of the game, just after handing the naked Raiden his clothes and equipment, Solid Snake trains Raiden in a weapon he has never been seen using before. Solid Snake is still completely the mentor, and Raiden is still completely the student. The status quo that existed at almost the very beginning of Raidenās adventure is totally affirmed at what is almost the end of it. If anything, there is de-evolution. But it was never originally meant to be that way.
As you can see, big issues have arisen as a result of the decision to delay the introduction of the sword to the game. But one final story issue is one that I have yet to mention, and the one that I consider the most tragic: The damage that is done to Olgaās character.
In the final release of Metal Gear Solid 2, Olga Gurlukovich and Raiden form something that can be described as a meaningful connection. Late into the game, Olga tells Raiden that āIf you die, my child dies.ā But this is a connection that could have been so much stronger had Olga, in the form of the Cyborg Ninja, been properly established as the mentor of Raiden in the way of the High Frequency Blade.
The High Frequency Blade was being established as something of a tradition within Metal Gear Solid before Metal Gear Solid 2 was released. Originally used by the Gray Fox Cyborg Ninja in the original 1998 game, the blade is first used as a weapon by players in the ninja sections of 1999ās Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions (originally the third disc of Japanās Metal Gear Solid: Integral). And in Metal Gear Solid 2, the original plan was for Olga as the Cyborg Ninja to induct Raiden in the ways of the blade. Later, Olga is killed by Solidus Snake, who also wields blades. And then Raiden, in their climactic sword fight, kills Solidus Snake. This establishes Raiden as the sole wielder of the High Frequency Blade in the universe of Metal Gear Solid. In the same way that Solid Snake bestows the title of protagonist to Raiden by the end of Metal Gear Solid 2, Olga would bestow the title of āresident High Frequency Blade userā in this world to Raiden.
Just as Solid Snake can be viewed as Raidenās spiritual father, Olga can be viewed as Raidenās spiritual mother. And in a certain metaphorical way, Olgaās unseen child can be seen as a metaphor for the tradition of using the sword, which was always intended by the end of the game to become known as the iconic, signature weapon of the Metal Gear Solid series. This all plays naturally into the speech Solid Snake gives at the end of the game about the importance of passing the torch on, to the new generation.
All of the elements that make up the relationship between Olga and Raiden are still there, in the final game. However, thanks to a change, they are now much more muddled, and far less clearly presented than how they were originally supposed to be. And thatās just something I think is sad.
Part 4: The truth about Metal Gear Solid 2's ending ā Postmodern is the new normal
Weāve already made mention of certain elements that make up Metal Gear Solid 2ās ending here. But letās try to take a step back when discussing this aspect of the game further. Letās look at this from a big picture viewpoint. Our goal for this section will be to attempt to view the ending of Sons of Liberty from a new perspective.
To say that the ending of Sons of Liberty has inspired ādialogueā among fans may be the biggest understanding of this entire writing. But people tend to focus on different elements when discussing this gameās ending. Some people focus on the motives of Solidus Snake, some people focus on the social and philosophic themes presented in the Colonel AI speech. And some simply catalog every single event that takes place, arguing that this game was intentionally designed to be chaotic and nonsensical, furthering some philosophical idea or another of the developers.
We take a different approach today. Letās try to view the ending of Metal Gear Solid 2, fundamentally, in the light of the S3 plan. The Solid Snake Simulation plan, or, the plan to establish Raiden as the new protagonist of the Metal Gear Solid series. And when we do this, things start to look very different. Metal Gear Solid 2ās ending, once described as intentionally chaotic, from the correct vantage, begins to look like a specific plan by its developers.
And what is this plan? To establish a ānew normalā for the Metal Gear Solid universe. This is not only something that could have been done, it is something that needed to be done given the decision to make Raiden the new protagonist of this world. Not only was the world of Metal Gear Solid changed by the end of Metal Gear Solid 2, the world needed to change. But why is this?
1998ās Metal Gear Solid is a game that is special for many reasons. One of these reasons is in the world that it presents. There is a unique blend of two different genres going on here. At once, Metal Gear Solid is a gritty, quasi-realistic, Tom Clancy style military thriller. But at the same time, Metal Gear Solid is a fantastic, sci-fi world, filled with over the top action and over the top characters. In this world, a scene can take place where a larger than life comic book style villain can give a grandiose, idealistic speech about the higher life that soldiers lead. But this scene could be immediately followed by more down to earth, political dialog about nuclear storage or military budgets. Half Tom Clancy, half sci-fi. And this careful balance is a big part of what makes the world of 1998ās Metal Gear Solid so special.
But, it should go without saying that when you have a new protagonist that wields a magic sword that can deflect bullets as a primary weapon, you canāt really just do the Tom Clancy half of the formula as effectively anymore. And so, by the end of Metal Gear Solid 2, the world of Metal Gear Solid is changing, and intentionally so. Changes are being made to make the world of Metal Gear Solid a more uniformly Ā science fiction one, and a world more bombastic than ever before. This is all by design.
The clearest example of this can be seen with the enemies Raiden starts fighting at the end of the game, the previously mentioned Arsenal Tenguu soldiers. This element ā their abrupt introduction ā is often singled out as one of the more nonsensical things to be seen in Metal Gear Solid 2ās ending. But in reality, they are now the perfect enemy for Raiden to be fighting.
The Metal Gear Solid series has until now clearly been an M rated series, filled with scenes of violence and gore. But thereās just something extra, about slashing away at human beings with a sword as opposed to shooting them with a gun. It has been done by enemies in the series before. But as what is now supposed to be a basic gameplay mechanic, it feels a little too macabre, even for Metal Gear.
And so enters the Arsenal Tenguu. These enemies are humanoid, but a little less than human in how they appear and act. And so these enemies in particular work more than well for Raiden to now be slashing away at with his new sword without the player thinking too deeply about the ethics of killing. There may have actually been a plan for these enemies to become known as the new iconic mook bad guy of the Metal Gear Solid series, similar to Super Marioās Goomba or Dragon Questās Slime. And, of course, it kind of makes more sense to be fighting sci-fi bad guys with a sci-fi weapon, just as it makes sense to be fighting realistic bad guys with realistic weapons.
According to an old theory about how Sons of Liberty was designed, the only reason why these Tenguu ninjas are in the game at all is essentially to be a joke. They appear abruptly and shockingly at the end of the game amidst a sea of other abrupt and shocking new elements, and all of this serves a purpose of mocking or āchallengingā the player. But was this ever a reasonable suggestion?
For one, these Arsenal Tenguu soldiers sure do have a lot of effort and work put into them by the gameās developers. These enemies have unique movement animations, can hop around, and have a unique sword attack. There is a lot of development effort put in here, and it seems too much to merely be some kind of joke. Making these enemies would be a much bigger deal than, say, writing weird lines of dialogue for the colonel to say to Raiden via the codec.
But in another sense, these Arsenal Tenguu soldiers feel bizarrely unfinished, from a design perspective. They have no unique audio - whether by voice or by sound effect - specific for them, even though it appears like the situation clearly calls for some - they even scream with Russian accents! And it feels just too odd that the game supplies no real information about who these enemies are: When has a Metal Gear Solid game ever not been extremely wordy about a character or element that exists within it?
I donāt think that these bad guys were always meant to be introduced as abruptly as they were in our final product. Allow me to get back to theorizing how Metal Gear Solid 2 originally could have gone.
In an earlier, planned version of Metal Gear Solid 2, Fatman would be the final enemy for Raiden to fight in all of Shell 1. After this fight, Raiden meets the Cyborg Ninja and obtains the High Frequency Blade. After this, however, Raiden returns to the normal Shell 1 struts to now find them, bizarrely, devoid of all of Gurlukovichās soldiers, the enemies normally patrolling the area.
Raiden then receives a call via codec from his Colonel. The Colonel tells Raiden that soldiers seem to all have moved to Shell 2, and there is a lot of anxious radio chatter among the unit. Raiden is told to go to Shell 2 and investigate this. The President of the United States is there, after all, and could be in danger.
Raiden goes to the Shell 1-2 connecting bridge and does the sniper sequence and Solidus Harrier fight, just like in the final game. This fight also ends with the connecting bridge destroyed. Raiden will still need to reach Shell 2 proper in the roundabout way he does in our final game, seeing the Gurlukovich soldiers in the same limited way he ānormallyā does here. But in this planned version, when Raiden finally makes it properly to a Shell 2 area, he sees something very different, and very astounding.
A huge set piece cutscene takes place where the Tenguu soldiers suddenly appear, from aircraft or perhaps even the sea, attacking the Gurlukovich soldiers that are there and massacring them. This scene may appear similarly to the one where Gurlukovich soldiers attack the tanker crew at the very beginning of the game, or the scene where Fortune kills them seen earlier. When the dust settles, all the previous soldiers are exterminated, and only the Tenguu remain, with a goal of searching for and hunting down all remaining survivors in the Big Shell ā including Raiden.
Raiden calls his Colonel via codec, excitedly asking him what is going on. The Colonel explains that he has no idea, with some classic Metal Gear style oblique reference that he knows more than he is letting on.
And so, throughout Shell 2 and all of its struts, the stage for the second, unique half of Raidenās Big Shell adventure is set ā wielding a unique signature weapon, fighting a unique new enemy ā different than anything Solid Snake has ever done before, and different than how Metal Gear Solid has always felt. More science fiction than ever before ā on purpose. And more bombastic than ever before ā on purpose.
So much of this would have beenā¦ cut, due to development challenges and the difficulty in getting sword combat right. But so much of the programming for the Tenguu soldiers was already completed, and the plan already was for them to appear in future Metal Gear Solid games. And so, they do appear in the final product ā in the abruptly introduced and limited way that we know them as appearing today. The major tone shift and world shift that Metal Gear Solid was always intended to have ā it still takes place, just, well, differently.
In the original plan, the Tenguu soldiers would remain a storyline mystery up until the end of the game, where in his dramatic speech atop Arsenal Gear, Ocelot would proudly reveal that the Tenguu were a top secret planned military unit created by The Patriots utilizing experimental technology, sent in on their first ever mission as cleanup, to demolish the residue left over from the successful Selection for Societal Sanity project, in order to prevent any stories of the conspiracy from leaking. According to Ocelot, the Tenguu soldiers, as far as The Patriots were concerned, were a complete success all throughout the assignment. Ocelot would proudly confirm that the Tenguu soldiers were completely successful in exterminating the soldiers once led by his former friend, thus eliminating the possibility of the conspiracy being leaked to the outside world.
Which leads us to talking about The Patriots, and the questions so often asked about them. Why are The Patriots in this game? Why does this game end with them appearing to be completely successful and ascendant? As far as I am concerned, when looking at the game from the perspective of the S3 plan, thereās a very simple answer here.
In the famous Colonel AI speech, The Patriots boast that their S3 plan ā the Selection for Societal Sanity ā has been completely successful with the conclusion of the Big Shell incident. The irony here is that The Patriots themselves are a key part of the S3 plan ā the real S3 plan, created by the game developers. Metal Gear Solid 2 was created to build Raiden, the new protagonist and face of Metal Gear Solid. And no hero is complete without a villain for them to fight.
Imagine a different Metal Gear Solid 2 that ends with Raiden and Solid Snake simply defeating Solidus Snake and then riding into the sunset together. What exactly could the future of Metal Gear Solid then be? The Patriots are the perfect entity to keep the Metal Gear Solid series going in the long term. They, as villains, are the structure that Metal Gear Solid, as a continuous, ongoing story, could need. With them, all the conspiratorial plot elements that filled Metal Gear Solid 1 are given a more āsolidā, tangible form. Without an entity like The Patriots, all future Metal Gear villains would feel like nothing more than isolated terrorist cells ā been there, done that. But with them, all future enemies that Raiden fights are part of a greater story ā his greater battle against the conspiratorial group that secretly runs the United States government.
āWill our cybernetic sword-wielding young supersoldier be able to stop The Patriots from controlling the flow of digital information forever? Tune in next time!ā
So that big speech by the Colonel AI serves a greater purpose than simply echoing themes of the game, or thoughts about digital culture from the developers. It provides some very much needed characterization for what was supposed to become the grand antagonist for the series, in games and games to come. Much about The Patriots remains a mystery by the end of the game. But their existence, and what they want, and why they want it, has been established. Establishing characterization for The Patriots was just as much an important goal as establishing characterization for Raiden. We still donāt know much about who The Patriots are, but we do now know this much ā what motivates them to do the things that they are doing.
Hereās what else we know about The Patriots by the end of Sons of Liberty: we learn that there are twelve of them, but with the very last bit of dialogue in the game we learn that the twelve names associated with them have been dead for over one hundred years. Whatās going on here?
Mystery and intrigue. It is being established as a Metal Gear Solid tradition that games end with unresolved elements for sequels to follow up on. Raidenās great quest going forward will be to find out who The Patriots really are and to confront them. And this is merely the first breadcrumb of information of what had been intended to be the great mystery of the series.
This isnāt the only example of unresolved elements, of course. Letās talk about some others. Vamp, of course, appears in the background of the ending. Itās clear that the developers arenāt done with him. But letās talk about someone else for now. Revolver Ocelot, now being possessed by the ghost of Liquid Snake, through his surrogate arm.
It goes without saying: this character and this development has always been highlighted as one of the more bizarre elements of Metal Gear Solid 2ās ending. I will admit ā I donāt have the perfect answer for what is going on here. But I want to point out that there is something very interesting about this pairing of characters that you may have missed.
Revolver Ocelotās character has been best described, without words, in his battle with Solid Snake in the original Metal Gear Solid. The one where he continuously runs away from Snake in combat. In short, Ocelot is a coward. And I think a lot of Metal Gear fans have missed that. Ocelot is big on grandiose verbiage and actions. But he could never win a fair fight against any real soldier in the Metal Gear world. And I always got the sense that despite his grand speech on top of Arsenal Gear at the end of the game, he really barely knew anything more than any other character did in that situation.
To me, the iconic Revolver Ocelot moment is still with the post-credits scene in the first Metal Gear Solid game, wherein this slimy, cowardly weasel of a character reveals that he had gotten away all along and had ulterior motives regarding the situation the whole time. Itās perfect. This pathetic, opportunistic coward.
In the world of Metal Gear Solid, a world filled with idealistic soldiers speaking booming speeches about higher values, Revolver Ocelot is the perfect foil. Which is what makes him eventually growing bulging muscles and then trying to punch Solid Snake in the face, and then revealing that he too was just another Big Boss fanboy all along such a sad betrayal of the character. But I digress.
So, as for ghost Liquid Snake? I figure that with Liquid Snake dead and Solidus Snake dead, the developers may have actually wanted to keep that āevil Big Boss admirer cloneā alive in some form. And, of course, they needed a way to end that final Arsenal Gear scene without too many important characters dying. So they choose this bizarre, roundabout way of doing so.
And so āLiquid Ocelotā is now formed, the resident Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde style character of the Metal Gear Solid universe. He combines a zealous, idealistic warrior character with a cowardly, opportunist politician one, with the possibility of switching magically between these two personas at any given moment (when Solid Snake is nearby). And he represents his own interests, not being aligned with either the good guys or The Patriots. This new character, now established, will be able to intervene in or even instigate Raidenās next adventure at any given moment.
All this just an aside for one final comment, however. Ocelot had his arm cut off by Gray Fox, wielding a sci-fi High Frequency Blade. And Raiden, our new protagonist, now wields said blade. Try to imagine how the next encounter between these two would go.
Iāve now addressed most of what I could regarding Metal Gear Solid 2ās ending. But thereās one major question remaining here, and this is a question that should loom large over discussions like this.
Unresolved elements is one thing. An intended tone shift is another. But didnāt Metal Gear Solid 2ās ending feel like such a major anticlimax? Thereās just no resolution, at all. Why does the ending to this game just feel so empty?
Here, again, we answer this question by looking at things in terms of the Solid Snake Simulation plan. It really does all revolve around Raiden.
Throughout the entire game, Raidenās character has slowly been building. Raiden begins the game as a rookie and ends it as a soldier. Raiden begins the game as a Solid Snake admirer and ends it as an independent character in his own right. And Raiden starts the game as an avatar for the player and ends it by tossing away the playerās dogtag, signifying a major shift.
Letās talk a bit more about these dogtags, because I think there is a different way of understanding them from how others have in the past.
These are military dogtags. Dogtags are military iconography, and dogtags do not make sense in any other context besides a military one. When Raiden throws away military dogtags, this is a symbol of Raiden rejecting a role as a military soldier, one that he had previously occupied throughout the game. And when Raiden, who is now the face and representative of the Metal Gear Solid series, throws away military dogtags, this can be seen as a symbol of the Metal Gear Solid series as a whole tossing away its military identity.
The playerās name is seen on these military dogtags. This is a message to the player: you too will not be needing these any more in Metal Gear Solid. You will not be āplaying soldierā in future Metal Gear Solid games. You will be playing as this Raiden, a new kind of character, in a new kind of world.
Raidenās other moment of culmination as a newly formed character in his own right occurs earlier, in the final sequence of the game. It is revealed that he was a child soldier all along, marking him as dramatically different as how we saw him previously. Rose, his girlfriend, reveals herself to be pregnant, and a marriage proposal is made. And, in the final gameplay sequence, Raiden defeats Solidus Snake, the man responsible for his miserable childhood, and the man responsible for murdering his parents. Thereās a lot of character development here. But thereās a problem.
If Raiden was never a character that you truly cared about, that never āearnedā your respect, then this may all come across as āemptyā to you. And if that is the case, then it may appear to you as though Metal Gear Solid 2 never really had any ending at all.
Thereās still a lot more to unpack here regarding Raiden. It feels like we havenāt even gotten to half of it. We can answer more questions about Raiden by taking a closer look at the character that he was intended to replace.
Folks, weāre only just getting started.
Part 5: Solid Snake, the Outstanding
All throughout, weāve been talking about this plan to replace Solid Snake with Raiden as the protagonist of the Metal Gear Solid series. But one major question, neglected so far, is the question of why. Why, exactly, was there ever a plan to replace Solid Snake with Raiden as the protagonist of the Metal Gear Solid series?
Thereās a problem that exists when talking about this question of Solid Snake vs Raiden as protagonist. When we do, itās usually under the assumption that Solid Snake is a perfectly natural fit as protagonist for a video game like this, and Raiden can only be viewed as an odd aberration for this kind of a role. I want you to consider that this might not be the best way of looking at this situation.
In the meantime, thereās a few key scenes in Metal Gear Solid 2 that we need to take a closer look at. These scenes shed some light on how the developers of the game may have been viewing the character of Solid Snake at this point. They also may help us understand how Metal Gear Solid as a whole was being viewed.
Solid Snake is the protagonist at the beginning of Metal Gear Solid 2, all the way until the end of the Tanker mission. But there are some very, very interesting lines of dialogue, heard at the end of this mission, spoken by the spirit of Liquid Snake to Solid Snake. To say that these lines of dialogue are all astounding may be a major understatement.
When talking about Metal Gear Solid 2, I have seen person after person completely overlook this dialogue, even in deep dives on the game. Overlooked, despite their extreme importance. We overlook these lines no more. Here they are:
Liquid: Not so young anymore, eh, Snake? You're drowning in time. I know what it's like, brother.
Liquid: The price of physical prodigy... Few more years and you'll be another dead clone of the old man. Our raw materials are vintage, brother. Big Boss was in his late fifties when they created his copies.
Liquid: You don't have what it takes after all.
Liquid: You're going down, Snake, with this tanker!
Of all the plot developments in Metal Gear Solid 2, there is arguably Ā nothing more shocking than this. Moments before the end of the Tanker mission, Solid Snake is simply told, in really an anticlimactic fashion, that as a defective clone of Big Boss, he is a victim of accelerated aging and doesnāt have long for this world as a result. In just a few more years, Solid Snake will be dead! Why, why in the world would the developers write this plot development into the game?
Whatās going on here? I have an idea. Earlier, we spoke about how āSolid Snake Simulationā was a concept introduced into the game as an excuse for developer commentary to be written into the gameās script. I think that something similar is going on here. Can Liquid Snakeās lines be viewed better in that light?
āYou don't have what it takes after all.ā Is it possible that there was something wrong with old Solid Snake?
Quick disclaimer. This moment, right here, is kind of the turning point on which this whole writing hinges. If you thought what was said before was cynical ā buckle in. This writing is about to get very cynical, and very vicious, towards something you may love, very quickly. Iām not asking you to turn away. But you should know what is ahead beforehand.
The answer to the question āWas there something wrong with Solid Snake?ā, unfortunately, is yes. There was something wrong with Solid Snake, something very wrong ā at least according to the developers of this game. This might take a bit to explain, but hereās the first thing that needs to be understood here: This game was developed in Japan.
In America, a protagonist like Solid Snake: rugged, older, and ārealisticā, is popular in action media. But in Japan, this character is not common at all. You donāt typically see characters like Solid Snake in Japanese entertainment media.
But you know what kind of character you do see a lot of in Japanese media? Especially in Japanese video games, up to this point in time? Do you know what kind of character it is that you see a whooole lot of in Japanese video games at this point in time?
Blond kids with magic swords, thatās who.
This is the real secret behind Metal Gear Solid 2ās famous decision to switch Solid Snake with Raiden as protagonist. The developers switched a kind of protagonist that is uncommon in Japanese video games with a kind of protagonist that is common in them. And the decision to do so was really no more complicated than that.
Thereās one other way of looking at this. The Super Smash Bros. Franchise, which now contains 89 different characters from 40 different video game franchises. And yet one character above all feels as though they stand out, in an awkward way, apart from the rest, and that character is Solid Snake. If Raiden were chosen for this role instead of Solid Snake, do you think he would fit in better?
However, Raiden does not fit perfectly as a Japanese video game protagonist in 2001 in one interesting way. But weāll dive into this a bit later on. In the meantime, I want to talk about a point about Metal Gear Solid that you sometimes hear from the people who defend the writing in Metal Gear Solid 4. āAll stories have endings,ā they say, āAnd Metal Gear Solid needed to end.ā Whether consciously or unconsciously, they may have this exact dialogue in mind as they say this: the part where Liquid Snake tells Solid Snake that he is aging, rapidly.
This line of dialogue was never intended to justify the end of Metal Gear, but only the end of Solid Snake as its protagonist. And this line of dialogue was never intended to justify what happens seven years later, in a future game. It was intended to justify what happens seven minutes later, in the same game. And so enters Raiden.
Itās as if, all along, Liquid was saying, āHey, Snake! A bit too old to be a video game protagonist, arenāt we?ā
It was Solid Snakeās age, in particular, that was the sticking point for the gameās developers, I think. If you notice, Solid Snakeās age is something that is continually brought up, again and again, as an important part of Solid Snakeās character, since the original Metal Gear Solid. At the beginning of Metal Gear Solid 1, Snake is told at the very beginning of the game that āage hasnāt slowed you down one bitā. In Metal Gear Solid 2, Solid Snake is told that he is ādrowning in timeā. And in Metal Gear Solid 4, the issue is obvious.
At the start of Raidenās journey as protagonist in the Big Shell, he is told, falsely, by The Patriots, that Solid Snake is dead, even though they also say that the terrorist mastermind claims to be Solid Snake. Why is Raiden - and by extension, the player - told this? My theory is that this is another tactic by the developers to detach the playerās mindset from Solid Snake, in order to more closely identify themselves with Raiden as the new protagonist of the series as they first control him, which was the developerās goal. Shortly after this, however, Raiden encounters Solid Snake, taking on the disguise of Iroquois Pliskin. Solid Snake then proceeds to deride Raiden, calling him a rookie, trained on VR video games, and unfit for the job. This has traditionally been a scene used as proof that the developers had intended Raiden to be a character that would be disliked by the player base. But there may be a better interpretation for what is going on here.
Solid Snake was not insulting Raidenās character. Solid Snake was testing Raidenās character. And this is a part of the Solid Snake Simulation plan, too. Raiden now faces two storyline challenges: the plain one and the meta one. In this game, Raiden must defeat Solidus Snake and Dead Cell and save the day. But he is also required to prove his status as a hero to all who can see.
āReally? Youāre the new protagonist? You donāt look like a protagonist to me.ā
āNuh-uh! I can do it! Iāll show you!ā
Through his role as main character, throughout all of the quests and challenges of the Plant chapter of Metal Gear Solid 2, Raiden would prove his worthy status of video game main character to everyone by the end of the game. This is what the gameās developers hoped that the player would see. And this is what Solid Snake would see, as known by his speech at the end of the game, where he metaphorically passes the torch to the younger character.
The relationship between Solid Snake and Raiden evolves over the course of the game. And I can imagine this relationship continuing to evolve in what the game indicates as the future of Metal Gear Solid. I could imagine a scene in a future, unrealized Metal Gear Solid game, where Solid Snake truly announces to Raiden that he truly respects him, as a soldier and as an equal.
Would you like to know how I imagine that hypothetical scene could play out? Do you? I bet you would! Okay, hereās the scene:
Solid Snake could tell Raiden these thingsā¦
Moments before he and Otacon are executed by The Patriots for treason.
Part 6: Metal Gear Solid 3: Snakeās Revenge
Itās funny, isnāt it? People act as though Metal Gear Solid 2 has an ending that is, intentionally or unintentionally, un-follow-up-able. But, in my view, nothing can be further from the truth. And thereās no better way to show this than to look at how Solid Snake was portrayed, all throughout the game.
In the Tanker mission, a photo of Solid Snake is taken by a Cipher drone as he stands on the shipās deck. And when the tanker is sunk, the person blamed for the sinking, by the media, The Patriots, and society at large, is Solid Snake. Solid Snake is blamed as a terrorist, responsible for one of the worst environmental catastrophes in history.
And in the Plant mission, Raiden is initially told ā by The Patriots ā that the terrorist mastermind of the entire plot was Solid Snake. In other words, in this world, Solid Snake has already gained infamy as a notorious terrorist, and is continuously called this by The Patriots all throughout the game. All of this is known before the game ends.
During the mission, the President of the United States is assassinated. And then the mobile fortress Arsenal Gear slams into the island of Manhattan, a horrific act that kills at least thousands of people. And this is the note that the game leaves us on as the game ends.
So, knowing all of this information, how could you imagine things going next? What exactly does The Patriots say to explain the events that just unfolded? Or, to speak more specifically, who would they blame for everything that just happened?
I think youāre catching on. And there is also a new piece of evidence that The Patriots can use to make the case that Solid Snake is responsible for this act ā a body, with identical genetic code, found next to Federal Hall, directly at the scene of the crime.
The Patriots would then have their cause to hunt down Solid Snake, the closest thing they would have to a threat to themselves, and could use this terrorist act to justify a greater authoritarian system of government control of the United States ā a goal sought in their Selection for Societal Sanity plan. With the last President of the United States assassinated, the office of the Presidency would be abolished as well. A sci-fi dystopia would be established ā the world that Raiden must now do battle in, in his fight against The Patriots.
āGood news, citizens. The notorious terrorist Solid Snake has just been captured. However, our security precautions will remain in place. The terror alert remains as high as ever.ā
āRemember Manhattan. Remember April 30th.ā
A terrible world for Raiden to live in. But a perfect world for Raiden to be the hero in.
An important hint about where things could have been going can be seen in a developer interview regarding the now canceled Metal Gear Rising. According to this interview: in the same way that āGeneā was the code word for Metal Gear Solid 1, and āMemeā was the code word for Metal Gear Solid 2, āRevengeā would have been the code word for Metal Gear Rising.
āRevengeā may not be an interesting word for you. We kind of view this word as a clichĆ© word to be seen in action movie titles and so on. Heck, there even already is a Metal Gear game with ārevengeā in the title ā Snakeās Revenge, on the NES! But I would like for you to consider that if gene and meme were not chosen carelessly as codewords of previous Metal Gear games, then ārevengeā may not have been chosen carelessly as well. So what could have been going on here, for this word to be chosen for the plot of a Sons of Liberty sequel?
After the Arsenal Gear Manhattan incident, Solid Snake would become the most despised human being in the world. In this world, the Arsenal Gear Manhattan incident is the equivalent of our worldās 9/11. Which means that for this gameās world, Solid Snake is Osama bin Laden. And therefore, his capture would be seen as the number one goal for society. āRevenge!ā, the people would cry out. āRevenge!ā
This could be the first meaning of that planned keyword ārevengeā. Following the peopleās outcry, The Patriots would eventually be successful in capturing a now aged and weakened Solid Snake. Or, he would voluntarily turn himself in, in an attempt to protect either Olgaās child or Raidenās child. Either way, amidst a giant media circus, Solid Snake is now captured, with plans to execute him for all of the crimes he has been accused of.
For this new game, the protagonist Raidenās goal would be to rescue Solid Snake from The Patriots, similar to how Solid Snake sought to rescue Gray Fox in the original 1987 Metal Gear game.Ā Raiden would infiltrate some kind of advanced prison or adapted government facility, slicing away at Tenguu soldiers and Patriot-created robot enemies, all in an effort to save Solid Snake. However, in this gameās dramatic end-of-disc-one moment, or perhaps even at its very end, Raiden would fail in this goal, and The Patriots would be successful in executing Solid Snake. All to the cheers of Americaās brainwashed crowd, and also, in perhaps the eyes of the gameās developers, to the cheers of players who would never truly be happy playing a game with a character like old Solid Snake as protagonist.
āSnake!! Snaaaake!!!ā
Motivated by revenge for his fallen mentor and friend, Raiden swears to destroy The Patriots. And this would be the second meaning of the planned keyword ārevengeā.
This may be hard for some of you to buy. But I honestly, truly am convinced that the series indicates this direction by the end of Sons of Liberty. Iāll try to make the case for all this again here clearly. There are four points that this theory is based upon.
Point One: In Sons of Liberty, Solid Snake is already being written off. He was told by Liquid Snake that due to accelerated aging, he does not have long for this world. Heās done. Whatever the future of Metal Gear Solid was supposed to be after Sons of Liberty, there isnāt much room for Solid Snake in it.
Point Two: Solid Snake was being labeled as a terrorist throughout the entirety of Sons of Liberty. And the game ends with Arsenal Gear colliding into Manhattan, an event that the public would demand an explanation for. The logical step forward here, I am convinced, would be for The Patriots to blame Solid Snake for the collision.
Point Three: According to a developer interview, an ending for Solid Snake where he was executed by a government for crimes was definitely planned, at one point. This proves that this type of thinking was at least thought about, by the developers, for at least some point in the creative process.
And Point Four: That keyword ārevengeā, intended for the canceled Metal Gear Rising. In a sequel to Sons of Liberty, what could this word possibly mean? There are two explanations: the desire for revenge that the people would want against Solid Snake, and the desire for revenge that Raiden would want against The Patriots after the execution of Solid Snake.
MGS2 stood for Metal Gear: Solid Snake Simulation.
And MGS3 would then stand for Metal Gear: Solid Snake Slaughter.
Or, to put it another way: If Sons of Liberty was S3: The Solid Snake Simulation plan, then the Sons of Liberty sequel would have to be S4: SNAKE-ę».
In light of this, thereās one final thing we need to do. There is one scene in Metal Gear Solid 2 that changes quite a bit in light of the revelation of what is to come for Solid Snake. And that is the scene on Arsenal Gear, where Solid Snake and Raiden battle together against the waves of Arsenal Tenguu soldiers. Before, we could see this scene as one of triumph for Solid Snake. But now, it can only be seen as one final hurrah for Solid Snake.
One final hurrahā¦ before the end.
Part 7: Sons of Liberty and the Japanese 2001 PlayStation 2 catalogue
Switching gears - Iāll cut right to the chase with this one. Metal Gear Solid 2 may be a game surrounded by mystery. But it wasnāt released in a vacuum. This is a Japanese game released by a major Japanese publisher in the year 2001 for the PlayStation 2, the first ārealā year for major releases for that very important console at a very important time in video game history. As it turns out, what Metal Gear Solid 2 actually somewhat mirrors what some other game franchises were doing at around the same time. By paying attention to certain similarities, this may shed some light on why certain decisions were made for Metal Gear Solid 2 that may otherwise seem strange. So letās get started.
Our first choice for a game to look at is a game not on the same console or released in the same year, but is still one with some interesting similarities ā Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. Castlevania and Metal Gear have some interesting things in common: both Konami published, and both having initial releases in the 1980s. But when the developers sought to change up the Castlevania formula for Symphony of the Night, the decision was made to replace the typical protagonist, a macho Conan-esque character from the Belmont family, with Alucard, an androgynous character with long, light-colored hair, who uses a sword as a primary weapon as opposed to nontraditional video game weaponry. See anything familiar?
Symphony of the Nightās famous scene at the beginning of the game, between Richter Belmont and Count Dracula, is actually somewhat similar to the Tanker mission of Metal Gear Solid 2 ā giving a brief moment of glory to the previous protagonist of the series, establishing the torch that would be passed to a new protagonist just ahead. And just as Alucard was led to believe that Richter Belmont was to be his final enemy through much of his adventure, Raiden would be led to believe that Solid Snake would be his final enemy through much of his adventure, as well.
But an even better analog for Raiden in the world of Castlevania may be Soma Cruz, from Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow: a character that looks similar to both Raiden and Alucard, but is younger as well, thus filling the same appeal that Raiden was hoped to have have. Soma Cruz also appears to have had the torch passed to him by an older Belmont character by the end of Aria of Sorrow, as well.
Letās move on to another example from another series. Like I mentioned earlier, Raiden is a blond kid with a magic sword, and that means he actually has more in common with a lot of Japanese video game protagonists than a lot of people typically acknowledge. But there is one way that he does really stick out from the pack, and that is his personality.
In short, Raiden is something of a wimp. And that really isnāt a very common character trait for a video game protagonist to have. But, oddly, there is one other video game protagonist from this era that shares this same character trait. A character that, like Raiden, makes his debut in a major Japanese video game blockbuster, a sequel in a long-running video game series, making its debut on the PlayStation 2 in the year 2001. Can you guess who it is?
Yes, itās finally time for us to talk about just how much Raiden and Tidus from Final Fantasy X have in common.
Raiden and Tidus, two brand new protagonists in blockbuster video games, released as the flagship titles of major Japanese game publishers for the year, who both look nearly identical and are characterized nearly identically. Itās finally time for us to put the spotlight on just how strange this is.
This similarity is obscured by a myth that a lot of video game fans have about Japanese video games, a bit of received wisdom that like others needs to be challenged ā this idea that āallā Japanese video game protagonists are just like Raiden and Tidus: wimpy, androgynous, āmetrosexualā men. Therefore, Raiden and Tidus in a way really arenāt special. But hold on just a second here.
The popularity of Japanese video games is widely understood to have truly begun with the release and success of the arcade game Space Invaders, released in 1978. Final Fantasy X and Metal Gear Solid 2 were released in 2001, 23 years later. Which means there are 23 whole years of video games released in this era of Japanese video game history.
Wimpy and androgynous men are supposed to be extremely common Japanese video game protagonists, right? So, um, besides Raiden or Tidus, can you name a single one, all throughout this era? Hereās your challenge: Name a single video game protagonist that looks and acts like Raiden or Tidus, in any game released in this 23 year period. Name just one. Go ahead. Iāll wait.
Raiden and Tidus were both very odd characters, for their time. Video games are not typically sold on the backs of wimps. And, yet, in 2001, the first true year of PlayStation 2 video game releases, both Konami and Squaresoft decided to go with this kind of a character as a flagship face of the brand. When the opportunity came to create successors for Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid ā perhaps the two biggest games of all on PlayStation 1 ā successors for this brand new, widely hyped, next generation console, both of these major publishers just decided, bizarrely, to build the first major, next-gen game that they would release around this exact type of character, never before seen as a protagonist in a Japanese video game, characters that look nearly identical and act nearly identical.
And for over twenty years, this would simply be accepted by all as just a coincidence. Well, I refuse to accept this. This canāt be true. It simply cannot be true. There has to be something else going on here. If, somehow, improbably, the similarity between these two characters truly is simply a coincidence, it would have to be the single most stunning and improbable coincidence ā ever ā in the entire history of video game development.
Almost makes you want to throw your shoulders back and laugh to the sky.
But if itās not a coincidence, then whatās going on here? I have a theory.
This theory is that these two video games were influenced by market research as well as some form of āreceived wisdomā being passed around the halls of Japanese video game development studios and publishers at the time. What many at the time had to have been led to believe is that, for this period of time, a character like Raiden and Tidus was āinā. So the theory would go, in the same way that video games in the early ā90s would have to star a cartoon animal mascot, and that video games in the late 2000s would have to star a bald space marine in a military setting, for a very brief moment in time, major decision makers in the world of Japanese video games were led to believe that this kind of video game protagonist would be needed to sell well. And so the decision was made in the halls of Konami and Squaresoft to go forward with this kind of a character as a protagonist in their biggest games of 2001. And that, I do strongly believe, is the biggest reason behind why Raiden is characterized the way that he is.
There is another comparison we can make between Raiden and a character from a big budget 2001 Japanese PlayStation 2 game. And that character is Dante, from Capcomās Devil May Cry.
Now, initially, you might not see much in comparing Raiden and Dante. Sure, these two characters look kind of similar. But personality wise the two could not be further apart, so the comparison ends there, right?
Well, not quite. The comparison between these two characters becomes a whole lot more interesting when you recall that Devil May Cry was not originally intended not to be its own series, but to be a special spin-off game for Resident Evil.
Resident Evil and Metal Gear Solid are two video game series with a whole lot in common. These are both early 3D games that gained initial popularity in the PlayStation 1 era. They are video games made by Japanese game developers, but both eschew a lot of common Japanese game design tropes and feel more āAmericanā in design then they are supposed to. These are games that star Americans and are set in America. They star realistic, grounded adults, devoid of supernatural abilities, and wielding guns as their primary weapons. And while supernatural elements are obvious in both games, the environments and worlds present still feel noticeably more grounded than the average Japanese game popular at the time. Both of these are action games that eschew standard video game action for something more subdued, whether in the form of stealth or survivor horror.
But when Devil May Cry was being developed, the idea was there to shift Resident Evil in tone for this new entry, making a game just a bit more in line with what Japanese game developers would be expected to make and in line with what Japanese gamers would be expected to play. I donāt think anyone would ever call Devil May Cry āgenericā, but itās hard not to notice that some of what really made Resident Evil distinct is being jettisoned here. The player no longer has to worry about āsurvivalā or carefully preserving or hording items properly, but gameplay now functions a bit more in line with what you may expect in a standard action game.
The most interesting way to point this out is by looking at Dante directly, or more specifically, the weapons that he uses. He wields guns, like you would expect a Resident Evil character to use. And he wields a sword, like you would expect a standard Japanese video game protagonist in a supernatural setting to use. He wields both! And in that way, by using both kinds of weapons, Dante can be seen as a bridge between two kinds of video games, between the āoddā Resident Evil and Japanese video game normality. And all of that, of course, would be similarly true for Raiden and Metal Gear Solid.
But, of course, Devil May Cry was never actually officially released as a part of the Resident Evil series. But, a few years later, a new attempt to shake up the Resident Evil formula was attempted ā 2005ās Resident Evil 4. While not as dramatic as Devil May Cry, Resident Evil 4 also exists as an effort to āpushā the Resident Evil identity a bit more in line with Japanese video game normality. And there is no clearer way to see this in how Resident Evil 4 begins and ends. Resident Evil 4 begins very much like how any player would expect Resident Evil to function, with the protagonist Leon Kennedy investigating a mysterious village. But, by the end of the game, Leon Kennedy is doing all sorts of larger than life stunts like back flipping over laser beams. In short, Resident Evil 4 begins like how a player would expect Resident Evil to play, and ends like how the developers now hope a player would expect Resident Evil to play.
Which, of course, means that Resident Evil 4 has a whole lot in common with Metal Gear Solid 2 in terms of structure. Theyāre just so similar!
Part 8: Metal Gear Mania!
Thereās another way of making these kinds of comparisons, too. In 1998, Metal Gear Solid was released, followed by its sequel, released in 2001. Is there anything else going on in Japanese pop culture at the time, anything at all that feels like it should be noted?
Well, PokĆ©mon, for one. PokĆ©mon is completely ascendant at this point, as this complete pop culture juggernaut, a massive multi-media money making phenomenon. And it was followed by its own brand of imitators ā names like Digimon, Medabots, and Beyblade. Thereās another example worth considering, too ā a manga that did not start out as something chasing this trend but was eventually molded into its image. Yu-Gi-Oh!, which began as a surprisingly dark horror manga but was eventually transformed into something quite different ā a children-friendly, collectable based, multimedia multimillion entertainment juggernaut. And who owns the publishing rights to Yu-Gi-Oh? Konami, the same publisher of everything Metal Gear.
And just like how the ultra-popular Dragon Quest was followed by Dragon Quest Monsters in this period, and the long running Mega Man series had its new spinoff series Mega Man Battle Network, and just like the brand-new success Kingdom Hearts was immediately followed up by its spin-off Chain of Memories, I want to to catalog everything that feels relevant about this phenomenon for the Metal Gear series. We have a direct quote from the lead developer of Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty about the influence of PokĆ©mon on the game. This comes, incredibly surprisingly, in the form of soldier military dog tags, which can be collected just like PokĆ©mon. This is just bizarre, isnāt it? The dog tags of fallen soldiers? Inspired by PokĆ©mon? And yet we have the quote saying exactly that. It just goes to show the type of thinking that was going on here. Bizarre, alternate ways of following one massive trend.
A few years after 2001ās Sons of Liberty, Sonyās Playstation Portable launched, along with two new Metal Gear games shortly after ā 2004ās Metal Gear Acid and 2005ās Metal Gear Acid 2. These games, famously, are built around cards, cards to collect and activate in combat ā reminiscent of popular trading card games at the time like Yu-Gi-Oh and PokĆ©mon. But the existence of these games feels just as odd as the collectible military dog tags, quite frankly. A Metal Gear card game? Really?
The next Metal Gear release on the Playstation Portable is 2006ās Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops, which features the ability for the player to ācatchā weakened enemy soldiers, add them to your own team, train them, and establish a team that works together to accomplish big missions. Does this remind you of anything? Portable Ops is then followed by 2010ās Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker, which takes clear inspiration from Capcomās Monster Hunter series, the dominant commercialized force on the PSP by that point, and also a clear heir to that major PokĆ©mon/Yu-Gi-Oh style trend.
You can see some examples of this type of thinking in the big Metal Gear console releases that follow Sons of Liberty, as well. 2004ās Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater features the ability for the player to ācatchā live animals out in the wild and then spring them on enemy soldiers as makeshift allies. And Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, with āgunā in the gameās title, features a truly vast array of guns for the player to collect, purchase, and upgrade, which to me feels like an additional example of this type of thinking.
Thereās a few takeaways to make here. Number one ā wow, there were a lot of Metal Gear games released from the period between 1998 and 2010, and that number only balloons further if you consider the four Boktai games released as āhonoraryā Metal Gear games. It truly does go to show ā Konami really was interested in making Metal Gear into one of the major cash cows in this period. Thereās a lot of commitment being shown to Metal Gear here. Thatās very interesting.
Number two, the āPokĆ©monā type thinking manages to show up in just about every single Metal Gear game, but seemingly in a different form in every single game. This indicates to me that Metal Gear was going through a real genuine identity crisis all throughout. Developers here really werenāt completely sure how to handle the material here, and this is highlight-able when looking at everything that makes Metal Gear unique among popular Japanese video game franchises ā the crusty old Solid Snake as protagonist, the guns and realistic military hardware as weapons, the M-rating.
Which is easier to imagine in the toy store sandwiched in between pictures of Ash Ketchum and Yugi Moto? Raidenās youthful, smiling face, or Solid Snake? The answer, I think, is obvious.
Letās do a thought experiment. I want to push this type of thinking to its complete extreme, its logical conclusion. Letās say this thought process, where Metal Gear follows the PokĆ©mon/Yu-Gi-Oh trend, continues all the way to an absurd end. How exactly would the story of Metal Gear Solid continue after Sons of Liberty?
The Patriots, already capable of creating CIPHER drones, Metal Gears, and advanced AI, would soon be able to create vast quantities of robot creatures of all shapes and sizes, and use these robots to accomplish its world-shaping goals. But Raiden will be able to collect these robot monsters, as well, equipping and training them, and fighting alongside them as part of a team. Otacon will be there too, as Raidenās own version of Professor Oak, helping him to reprogram, build, and train these robots.
This is all unlike how Metal Gear was previously, of course, but itās worth noting that the title of the game is now more relevant than ever, now being much more about robots than these games ever were previously.
And this will all eventually culminate in a great robot battle tournament final, where Raiden, wielding not only his magic sci-fi sword but a team of cute cuddly robot allies, will defeat The Patriots team of robots, to a huge applause from a crowd, with the fate of the world on the line.
āGotta collect them all! Or else The Patriots will control your life and the flow of digital information forever!ā
Still a better ending than Metal Gear Solid 4.
Could we have ever possibly seen Metal Gear Solid truly move in a more kid-friendly direction as a franchise, at any point in time? Thatās the question that Iāve been thinking about, and my conclusion is that it wouldnāt have been impossible. Metal Gear Solid 2 was clearly a hard M-rated game. But, in some interesting ways, it lays a groundwork that could have led to the series being pushed in a lighter direction. You can only imagine ā his next great adventure, with goons that The Patriots sending to stop the cyborg sword wielding Raiden being more robotic and less human than ever before. And it wouldnāt be completely out of place as a product of Konami, with their hands in Yu-Gi-Oh and Castlevania, two other franchises that have also straddled the line between child-friendly and mature.
Part 9: The conclusions that you may not want to hear
The groundwork is finally done. Itās time to start drawing some real conclusions. Iāll start with a question: Is it possible that we have all simply been viewing Metal Gear Solid 2 too optimistically? Or, to put it another way ā Canāt we all just be cynical, for once?
It does feel like Iāve almost flatly said everything I need to say here previously. But itās still necessary to write these conclusions plainly. So, here goes. Metal Gear Solid 2 is video gameās greatest mystery. Why were certain odd decisions made? Here is the true, untold story behind it all. Are you ready?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7LVMqHFatBw
Metal Gear Solid was never supposed to happen.
Itās by now no secret that the 1998 game was made with a small, skeleton crew. But it was released at what was essentially the dawn of the 3D era of console gaming, and manages to do everything that it needed to do perfectly right. Metal Gear Solid was the perfect marriage of character, story, presentation, atmosphere and world that the world of video gaming fans did not know that it needed until they laid their hands on it. And in doing so, the humble Metal Gear Solid managed to become a massive, overnight, international sensation.
Metal Gear Solid managed to become the hottest story in all of Japanese gaming even while flaunting many expectations of what a game in this position was supposed to look and feel like. But, in the end, it was this game, Metal Gear Solid, with this protagonist, Solid Snake, that became the surprising face of the Konami brand.
All of which was undoubtedly great for the company. But, eventually, the question would inevitably have to be asked in the halls of the Konami HQ, āOK... but now what do we do?ā
There was a unique predicament here. Metal Gear Solid was undoubtedly Konamiās hottest property in console gaming, but it was inherently something that did not share qualities that a major Japanese video game publisher would have greatly liked in what would be their hottest property. The world of Metal Gear Solid just wasnāt very merchandise-able, in an era where merchandising was all that Japanese media publishers seemed to be thinking about. And its entire aesthetic, with guns, realism, and an M-rating, would have contrasted greatly with what the publisherās roster of Japanese game developers and decision makers would have been comfortable working with. And the gameās protagonist, Solid Snake, would be an extremely odd fit to be the face of a kid-seeking video game publisher due to the characterās age.
Iām sure that in the initial months following Metal Gear Solidās surprise success in 1998, decisions regarding the future of this major commodity would have been hotly debated among decision makers at Konami. But, eventually, a very fateful decision would be made.
Keep Metal Gear Solid going. But gut and alter its identity, fundamentally.
The decision was made that by the end of a Metal Gear Solid 2, the world of Metal Gear Solid will be dramatically changed. Metal Gear Solidās world, a unique mix of Tom Clancy-style action with traces of the supernatural, would be altered to be one that is more uniformly sci-fi in nature. Metal Gear Solidās guns, too, would be sidelined, and a sword used by the first gameās Cyborg Ninja now used as the primary weapon for the series. And this change, a sword, would also make Metal Gear Solid more in common with other popular Japanese video games.
And finally, the decision was made that the protagonist of the first Metal Gear Solid, Solid Snake, couldnāt stick around. A new, younger, more commercially appealing protagonist would have to be created to take the place of Solid Snake, and this new protagonist would be the face of the series, from now on.
Of course, thereās one obvious problem here. You canāt just sell a Metal Gear Solid 2 that looks and plays fundamentally different from the first one to fans of the first one that abruptly. Because of this, the decision was made that the purpose of Metal Gear Solid 2 would be to introduce these changes ā gradually, taking the time necessary to let these changes sink in.
Metal Gear Solid 2 would be a game that begins like Metal Gear Solid would be expected to begin. But by the end of the gameās story, the desired changes would be fully introduced. Over the course of the gameās story, the desired authoritarian science fiction world for Metal Gear Solid going forward would be introduced and established. And by the end of the game, Solid Snake would be officially passing the torch to the new, younger, sword-wielding protagonist of the Metal Gear Solid series. Because these changes needed to be introduced gradually over the course of the gameās story, the famous decision was made to hide Raidenās role as protagonist in all pre-release media.
And the plan to make these fundamental changes, centered around the new protagonist Raiden, were labeled by the developers in-studio as the Solid Snake Simulation plan. And this is the story behind the development of Metal Gear: Solid Snake Simulation. MGāS3.
Thatās the story, and all this may be a surprise to you if youāve spent so much time thinking and arguing that Metal Gear Solid 2 was an effort to make Metal Gear Solid more strange, rather than less strange. Say whatever you want about fan expectations, sequel design philosophy, AI, digital censorship or social media echo chambers. Say it all until you are blue in the face. And Iām not arguing that Metal Gear Solid 2 ends on a completely āgenericā note as a video game series. But none of that changes the fact that Metal Gear Solid 2 takes the world of what is perhaps the most unique success story ever in the history of Japanese video games and changes it to make it more in line with Japanese video game normality. And no amount of fan commentary about secondary lines of dialog in the game will ever change that. Look into your heart, you know it to be true.
And still, in game, the most stunning thing about the whole situation is how the game treats Solid Snake throughout it all. The most unique, most incredible video game protagonist that anyone has ever controlled with a video game controller in the entire history of video games, ends up demoted to being a side character, mocked in game for being too old and unfit to be a video game protagonist anymore, branded the worldās worst terrorist in the game world, and left on deathās door by the gameās end. All to make way for Raiden, another blond kid with a magic sword, declared now the new face of Metal Gear Solid.
The unique protagonist was never Raiden. It was always Solid Snake. And the unique game was never Metal Gear Solid 2. It was always Metal Gear Solid 1.
Solid Snake was fine enough as the protagonist of two ancient 8-bit games on an obscure Japanese computer called the MSX. And he was fine enough to lead a Game Boy spinoff series. But to continue as the lead of the Metal Gear Solid series, the potential face of the Konami brand going forward? The memo was sent out. This would be impossible. All of those vicious insults that Solid Snake receives throughout Metal Gear Solid 2 - they were 100% honest and intentional by the developers. He was absolutely getting the boot as series protagonist, and he absolutely was about to be removed entirely in storyline.
And all of this leads us next to one final conclusion. You know that hypothetical fan of Metal Gear Solid that we always talk about when telling the story of Metal Gear Solid 2? The ādude broā Metal Gear Solid fan, the one who is so outraged about being tricked into playing a game starring wimpy Raiden? Itās time for all of us to admit that maybe this ādude broā had a valid point the entire time. The purpose behind the introduction of Raiden was a whole lot greater than simply switching a protagonist, but about fundamentally altering Metal Gear. It was about changing the most unique video game success story of the time, fundamentally, into something that fit the developerās ideas of video game normality better. And when did any of us actually agree with them doing that?
But at the end of the day, none of this matters, I suppose. The battle, for a long time, has been lost. Metal Gear Solid 2 was successful in fundamentally changing Metal Gear Solid, and the old formula was, sadly, ultimately, lost forever, ever since.
Part 10: How plans got changed ā Mission Failed?!?
Well, no. We all know thatĀ isnāt actually how things go.
We know now, with the benefit of decades of hindsight, that Raiden does not actually become known as the protagonist of Metal Gear Solid after 2001. Much of what weāve been pointing out that Metal Gear Solid 2 indicates as the future of the series does not actually happen. What happened? And why?
If you are familiar with the history of Metal Gear, and have been following along with what I have to say up to this point, you may have an idea of what I am getting at here. But letās elaborate. After its release, Metal Gear Solid 2 received high praise from critics for its gameplay and game engine. But the game also received some criticism, based on the gameās surprise true protagonist and a bizarre-seeming ending. I would like to elaborate on how I think this impacted the future of Metal Gear Solid going forward. But first, I would like to comment on another event that also had an impact on Metal Gear Solid: 9/11.
Thereās been a lot of talk all throughout the culture about how certain pieces of media āpredictedā 9/11, or how certain pieces of media can be viewed as being made in response to 9/11. But, for those of us who follow Metal Gear, I can safely say with confidence that we have the real answer of what the true, definitive ā9/11 mediaā is ā Metal Gear Solid 2, a game that feels as though it predicted 9/11 and provided commentary on that moment in time perfectly. I mean, itās uncanny.
Iām not sure if there exists any series of words at all that are more eerie than āArsenal Gear hits Manhattanā. The magnitude of the event that happens in the game, when the game was released, the fact that none of us get to see it, and the fact that the visual of it was so hastily censored from the game. Itās all just a perfect storm. Still, there is room for us to wonder whether or not the event even did happen in the Metal Gear canon.
But wouldnāt it have made some sense for the developers to follow up on this after the release of Metal Gear Solid 2? Couldnāt you imagine the Manhattan incident deliberately being made a 9/11 parallel in storyline, and future Metal Gear games using this as a basis for commentary and storytelling? But this does not happen, and, in fact, no future Metal Gear game even mentions Arsenal Gear hitting Manhattan. As far as future games are concerned, this event never even happened. But why is this?
I could only imagine that the answer is that the creators of Metal Gear were becoming incredibly risk averse in the aftermath of the release of Metal Gear Solid 2, and chose not to tie the series too closely with dramatic and tragic real world events. And so, the decision was made to go in another direction. And the idea of making series icon Solid Snake a parallel with Osama bin Laden would have absolutely been something that could not happen. Despite clearly being labeled as a terrorist all throughout the story of MGS2, this designation is never one that is applied to Solid Snake ever again in the future.
I have some theories as to what led to the path that Metal Gear took in the aftermath of MGS2 in 2001, and why it diverges from the way that MGS2 appears to imply that things would go. The best way to do this is to try to examine decisions that were made game by game. But through this thereās one important thing that I feel should be kept in mind: The S3 Plan ā The plan to replace Solid Snake with Raiden as the protagonist of the Metal Gear Solid series ā does not end with MGS2. In fact, it continues to work and evolve. Letās try and look at the succeeding games in light of the S3 Plan, properly understood.
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater canāt be understood properly without looking at the development of Sons of Liberty, its release and feedback. Metal Gear Solid 2 sold well and was highly praised for its gameplay and game polish. However, the gameās development was clearly highly troubled, and you already know the story about controversy regarding story and world decisions. In short, the developers were in a unique situation that made going the direction they did in 2004 one that made a lot of sense. Raiden and his gameās ending were controversial. And his swordās combat system was not ready to headline an entire game start to finish. The best decision was to put that story on ice for a moment, and in a prequel starring villain Big Boss explore a new side of the world of Metal Gear ā with a new game that can follow the strong gameplay and game polish tradition set by Sons of Liberty while, for the moment, sidestepping all the ābaggageā that the previous game left off.
This will buy time for the developers to decide where Raiden and his story can go next in light of all the feedback, as well as buy time for the sword system to be completed. And as a story with an ending that paralleled the 9/11 catastrophe so closely, time would need to pass in order to avoid this being such a sore subject for the game series.
With Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater as a prequel, all the good of Sons of Liberty could be followed up on, and all the controversial elements could be for the moment sidelined. And I think thereās one other key thing going on here.
You see a sort of pattern in video game development where a video game that is well-regarded yet had a troubled development to immediately be followed with a sequel shares elements with it and completes cut ideas that originally needed to be cut. Examples of this include Majoraās Mask as a sequel to Ocarina of Time, and Half-Life 2ās episodes. A well-known example of cut content from Metal Gear Solid 2 emerging in Metal Gear Solid 3 is the boss The End, originally meant to be named Old Boy in Sons of Liberty. And I have a theory that the animal interactions in Metal Gear Solid 3 may have been originally borne from the cut idea for Raiden to encounter sharks underwater in Sons of Liberty.
I strongly doubt this was ever seriously planned as an idea at any point, but itās fun to imagine a world where three Metal Gear sister series could all exist together at one point: a top-down portable series following Ghost Babel starring Solid Snake, a series following the story of Metal Gear Solid 2 starring a sword-wielding Raiden, and a series following the gameplay of Metal Gear Solid 2 but the story of Metal Gear Solid 3 starring Naked Snake, as a prequel to both of the others. And all of these three series would be making cute references to each other as Metal Gear games always do. One big happy family.
All while Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater is being developed, a future is also being planned for Raiden and his story. Which leads us to talking about 2008ās Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots.
In one sense, talking about this game should be my biggest challenge. After all, this entire writing I have been making one elaborate case that Sons of Liberty was intended by the gameās developers to be a major brand reset for Metal Gear Solid. But apparently, Guns of the Patriots did not get the memo. Sons of Liberty was built around Raiden becoming the face of the series, instead of Solid Snake. But in Guns of the Patriots, Solid Snake is once again the protagonist, and Raiden is not playable at all. And Sons of Liberty was built to remove the military elements present in Metal Gear Solid. But in Guns of the Patriots, the military element is stronger than ever, and so are the guns, which is a word in the gameās title, and collecting guns is a major gameplay element. What exactly is going on here?
I donāt think it is too complicated, actually, and you can chalk this up as a hilarious example of the continued bad luck and challenges that the developers were facing all throughout the process of making these Metal Gear Solid games. Sons of Liberty ends with the series turning its back on the military element, signified by Raiden throwing away the playerās military dogtags. But in the years immediately following the release of Sons of Liberty, the military shooter proceeded to become the most popular trend in the video gaming world. Oops.
This may not have been clear to every single observer at the time, but 2001ās Metal Gear Solid 2 ends with an emphatic and deliberate rejection of the military half of the Metal Gear military/sci-fi formula, for its worldās canon, going forward. But now, just a few years later, modern military shooters have become a massive phenomenon, and every developer out there feels the desire to create their own. And so, in an interesting and bizarre backtrack, the decision to make Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots was borne.
Defenders of the story of Metal Gear Solid 4 will insist that the story of the game should be understood as ācommentaryā on the then contemporary modern military shooter trend in gaming. But itās possible to simply view the game in a less glamorous light. Metal Gear Solid 4 is Metal Gear āmeetingā the military shooter - just as Peace Walker is Metal Gear meeting Monster Hunter, and Metal Gear Solid 5 is Metal Gear meeting the Just Cause/Far Cry trend. And Iāll go even further in saying this: the military shooter trend is the only reason why another game starring Solid Snake even exists at all. And it might be a stretch to declare that āthe military shooter trend saved Metal Gear Solidā, itās very difficult to envision what the history of Metal Gear from this point on would be without it.
Two claims are often made about Metal Gear Solid 4. First, people claim that the game was intended to present a cynical take on the nature of modern warfare. And second, people claim that the game was intended to present a cynical take on then-contemporary video game industry trends. While the first claim is obviously true, the second claim is more than up for debate, and I think that a lot of commentators improperly conflate these two claims. Metal Gear Solid 4 actually shows a surprising amount of love to the then-contemporary video game industry in all of the pre-release marketing presentation, with positive references to Assassinās Creed and the First Person Shooter genre. There is no more reason to believe that Metal Gear Solid 4 is cynical commentary on Call of Duty than there is to believe that Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker is cynical commentary on Monster Hunter.
The reason why Metal Gear Solid 4 exists the way that it does is probably a whole lot more straightforward than most people have previously admitted. The years leading up to its release were years where there was a strong desire, in the game industry, to make modern military shooters. And so, in spite of all the complicated story realities in which Sons of Liberty left the Metal Gear Solid series in, a modern military shooter starring Solid Snake was greenlit. It really isnāt any more complicated than that.
āI donāt care how awkward it is! Get Solid Snake on the next plane to the Middle East, pronto!ā
Or, āMetal Gear Solid 4: āOh, No! Where Did He Throw Those Dogtags?āā
Solid Snake, seemingly being written out of the series by the end of Sons of Liberty, is now once again the protagonist, this time with his age, the characterās biggest āflawā, played up to a comic extreme. This game would also be intended as a real ālast hurrahā for the longstanding protagonist of the Metal Gear Solid series so far. This writing is not intended to be a complete analysis of the game. But one thing is clear: feedback was received and the decision was made that Metal Gear Solid 2ās ending that left unresolved elements was absolutely hated by the gameās decision makers in hindsight. And so the decision was made, for Metal Gear Solid 4, not only to rapidly resolve every single plot element left hanging in Sons of Liberty but to ensure that the story this time ends completely, 100% resolved.
Listen, I know that Iāve been hard on Metal Gear Solid 4 all throughout this writing. Please note that I donāt think the game is terrible. It does have some redeeming elements. Just, uh, none of them have anything to do with its story.
All elements in the story of Metal Gear Solid 4 are completely resolved by the end of the game. Except for one: Raiden. And this is where things get interesting. Like I said earlier, the S3 Plan did not end when Sons of Liberty did.
There continues to be a goal of establishing Raiden as the face of the Metal Gear Solid series. And Metal Gear Solid 4 makes a few interesting decisions in advancing that goal.
For one: heās even in the game at all. A few people have pointed out in the past that Raiden seems to add nothing at all to the story of the game, and seems to only be there as an advertisement for himself. And thatās true. But this gameās Raiden clearly isnāt the same Raiden that we saw back in 2001. So letās talk about the changes.
For one, his personality appears to have been completely altered. Long gone is Raiden the āwimpā viewed as so controversial. Raiden now has a new personality: the darker, troubled, āemoā Raiden. It seems obvious what this is: a response to the backlash from Western fans of Metal Gear who viewed the character negatively. The fact that this change in personality was made at all seems to prove as a falsehood the statement that Raiden was always intended to be disliked by players all along. What we see here seems easily understood as a course correct.
This isnāt the only change for Raiden. When we last see him in Metal Gear Solid 2, Raiden is a powerful, capable soldier: wielding a magic sword, but still ultimately a human being with mere human physical capabilities. But when we see him in Metal Gear Solid 4, Raiden is now much more than āhumanā - a half android cyborg capable of superhuman stunts even without use of the sword. And indeed, extended cutscene visuals in the game are dedicated to showing off these stunts, extended cutscenes that otherwise appear to have no storyline significance in the game whatsoever.
Apart from showing off the technical capabilities of the gameās developers, what exactly is the point of these scenes for Raiden? Could this be another attempt to make Raiden appear strong in response to the fan backlash? Maybe. But I have another, more plausible theory.
Raiden was intended to be a protagonist in a full sword combat action game. But itās not clear that the developers were having some real trouble completing such a game. Something interesting stands out when you look at the most popular, acclaimed Japanese sword combat 3D action games of that moment, games like Devil May Cry and Ninja Gaiden. These games have protagonists that are superhuman, capable of jumping around the battlefield with capabilities beyond mere mortals. And my theory is that in their long, troubled process of developing the Raiden sword action game, whether by intentionally ripping other games off or by coincidence, the developers for the Raiden sword action game concluded that if that game was going to work well, Raiden would need to be a superhuman as well. And so the decision was made in Metal Gear Solid 4 to present Raiden as having made a transition to becoming a cyborg, to accomplish this. And extended cutscenes were made to show off exactly what that would entail. All, ultimately, as an advertisement for the new upcoming game starring Raiden, still envisioned as the long term future main protagonist of the Metal Gear Solid series.
And the name of that work in progress game was, of course, you guessed it: Metal Gear Rising.
There is writing out there that implies that Metal Gear Rising only began development in 2008, after Metal Gear Solid 4 was completed. But quite frankly, I just donāt buy it at all. What I have laid out here just seems like a more convincing timeline of events for how the Metal Gear series progressed, and how certain decisions were made. I am asking you to consider that everything may make more sense if you envision Metal Gear Rising not having started development in 2008, but in 2001, under the original title of Metal Gear Solid 3. And this game was quietly, in the background, being worked on alongside everything else all along.
Metal Gear Rising was eventually canceled in 2010, with the idea for the project being passed off to Platinum Games, who completed Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance in 2013. And so, after more than a decade, through countless twists and turns, the S3 plan was finally completed. The S3 plan was never abandoned. It simply was adapted and altered as challenges arose and new times and trends emerged.
And now we are over two decades from the release of Metal Gear Solid 2, with the whole Metal Gear Solid series laying dormant. I wouldnāt call this likely at this point, but if a new Metal Gear game were to be announced tomorrow, I would consider it more likely to be a sequel to Revengeance than anything new starring Solid Snake at this point. And if that were to be the case, that would simply be the S3 plan, continuing to be relevant into the current day.
Part 11: Metal Gear Solid 2, The Last Metal Gear Solid
I feel like I have to introduce this section to counter an inevitable response that this writing will receive: āBut hold on. Hideo Kojima himself said that every Metal Gear game was designed to be the last game in the series. Therefore, Metal Gear Solid 2 could not have been designed with a future vision for a Metal Gear Solid series in mind. It must therefore have to have been designed as the full, complete conclusion of the Metal Gear Solid story.ā
There are a number of quotes over the years by Hideo Kojima pointing to the latest Metal Gear game as the last. Many of these quotes, when taken in context, are simply Hideo Kojima saying that the game will be the last that he himself works on, and not necessarily the end of the Metal Gear story. Although, admittedly, this is not completely clear from every quote on the subject.
The bottom line, though, is that this sentiment is so clearly contradicted by the games themselves. Unless you actually believe that the abrupt introduction of Solidus Snake, the President of the United States, in the very final moment of Metal Gear Solid 1, is the perfect ending to a complete story, as opposed to a painfully obvious sequel hook. If that was what you honestly, actually believe, then fine. Our conversation is over. As for me, though, I choose to believe my lying eyes.
This brings up an important topic, though, one more seriously worthy of discussion.
Video games that had extensive stories were rare enough back in 2001. But a video game series that was attempting to do what Metal Gear Solid was doing ā a serialized story that told a new chapter with every new entry ā was close to unheard of. Back then, when people bought a box with a story in it, they would usually expect a story with a complete beginning, middle, and end. This would be true of nearly every movie, and nearly every TV show following the formulaic āstatus quo is Godā mentality prevalent at that time. This would be less true for the Japanese consumer, where serialized manga and anime stories would of course be much more well-known. But I expect a Western audience for this writing, responding to Western fan misconceptions about what Metal Gear Solid 2 actually was.
In our Western media culture today, where anime is more well known now, in addition to things like Netflix series and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it seems a little easier to look back at this 2001 video game and conclude that, hey, the end of the video game may not have been the end of the story as planned after all. But for a 2001 Western consumer of media, this may have been legitimately, genuinely, hard to grasp. And this may have been where that major misconception about Sons of Liberty got its origin.
The problem with looking at the game from modern eyes, though, is that certain ideas that were planned for its future very clearly did not pan out. The future that Metal Gear eventually did take will color how anyone looks back at MGS2, and this will be misleading. So there never was a proper vantage point for anyone who wanted to look at the game correctly. And thatās not all.
Sons of Liberty not only had plans for a sequel baked in, but also contained its own ambitious plans to rewrite the core of the series along with it. And considering just how much went wrong or awry with the gameās development and in the years after its release, it isnāt hard to understand just how many people would come to the conclusion that the game is a āpostmodern statementā in itself as opposed to one part of a larger planned story.
I wonder how much would have been different if the game contained one small change ā the subtitle āTo Be Continuedā appearing at the end, as Raiden and Rosemary embrace amidst the Manhattan rubble. But that is, I guess, just an empty thought.
The plan for Metal Gear Solid was to be a big budget video game series, every entry using the latest technology and every entry telling a new part of a larger, planned in advance story. And you may not want to hear this, but the lesson to be learned is that this shouldnāt ever be tried anymore. It is just so easy, given the complex nature of big budget video game development, for things to go wrong. This isnāt the only time in the history of video games that this has been tried. Ask any fan of Shenmue or Half-Life or Mass Effect about how that goes. Or, alternatively, donāt. If you are a Metal Gear fan and youāve made it this far in this writing, youāve known the answer already.
Part 12: Everything you felt while playing Sons of Liberty was real
The speech that Solid Snake gives to Raiden at the end of the game was intended to be a torch-passing moment between the two characters at that moment. This speech has also been understood metaphorically as a speech given by director Hideo Kojima to the gameās staff, as part of an announcement of his retirement from Metal Gear game development. Given that neither of those things take place, it may seem now in hindsight that this speech is now meaningless. It doesnāt have to be this way, however.
In front of the wreckage of a Manhattan disaster, the player is told by Solid Snake that what we often think is real isnāt real at all, and while the things that we see may not always make complete sense in the moment, the emotions we feel in life are meaningful, personal, and can make all the difference. In light of this, I kind of feel it necessary to speak a little about what Metal Gear Solid 2 means, personally, to me.
You may have gotten the sense while going through this writing that Metal Gear Solid 2 is not a game that I am a fan of. Nothing can be further from the truth. Metal Gear Solid 2 is easily my favorite Metal Gear game, and is almost certainly in the list for my best games of all time. The reasons why are extensive, ranging from the obvious to the less so.
Itās almost difficult to explain where to start. I love the engine and the atmosphere, the way every action and all the environments in the game feel. There are the iconic characters, such as Solid Snake, Solidus Snake, Revolver Ocelot, The Patriots, and even Raiden himself, who have managed to stick with me. I do love the structure of the game: the amazing boss fights, as well as the fact that there is seemingly some well-crafted pointless secret for the player to find in seemingly every single area of the game. And finally, Iāve come to love the āmysteryā of Metal Gear Solid 2 itself, the quest that so many of us have had to attempt to figure out why so many of Metal Gear Solid 2ās bizarre elements are the way that they are.
The basic point that I am trying to make here is that, even by accident, Metal Gear Solid 2 ended up creating something greater than itself, something incredibly meaningful, for a lot of us. Letās unpack this.
I donāt hold ācut contentā against Sons of Liberty as a flaw. Every video game designer will tell you that every video game, ever, has had cut content. Some games do a better job of hiding it than others. But the reality of what was cut from Sons of Liberty, how it was cut, and how perfectly it connects with storytelling themes about truth, perspective, and censorship that were already there present in the game, is something that is just magnificent in its own right.
I wrote a bit earlier about how Metal Gear Solid 2, itself the āSolid Snake Simulation planā, was created to fundamentally transform the identity of the Metal Gear Solid series. Due to the nature of how content was cut, as well as how strangely this information was conveyed to the player, players came away from the game for over twenty years with vastly different ideas than the developers of what it is supposed to represent.
I presented earlier the identity that the game was supposed to have for the player for the series going forward by the gameās ending: the young, new cyber sword wielding cyber-soldier Raiden battling against his all-encompassing digital totalitarian AI foe The Patriots, battling for freedom in an increasingly dystopian cyberpunk future, while old series mainstay Solid Snake sneaks further and further into the background. And to be honest, all things considered, the idea does not sound completely terrible. But that is ultimately irrelevant. This was not the path that Metal Gear Solid took after 2001. And this is not the significance that any of us took away from the game.
But here is the significance that matters: We created the Metal Gear Solid 2 that we needed. It was us gamers, who were very much interested in seeing in our burgeoning art form an experience that could defy norms and truth and everything else, that managed to create one ourselves.
If the idea of a highly anticipated, big budget next generation video game being deliberately designed to āchallengeā player conceptions and end in nonsensical postmodern farce was ever an idea that was truly meaningful for you or ever truly inspired you, I would hate to have to take that meaning from you. And the truth is, I canāt. The meaning that you took away from Metal Gear Solid 2 is just as legitimate as anything that developers intended. And nothing that I have written so far has actually changed a single line of code in the game - itās all the same as it always has been. Everything you felt while playing Metal Gear Solid 2 was real. There is no better argument, ever, for the ādeath of the authorā theory than this very video game. And the truth is, the meaning that so many read into the game was so powerful, that it took over twenty years for someone to peel away that additional meaning to reveal the truth about the game that was there all along.
Iāve spent essentially decades being baffled about why the developers designed Metal Gear Solid 2 the way they did. But now, after writing this essay - things are different. Metal Gear Solid 2 is now a āclosed caseā. The answers I give in this essay are ones I consider completely satisfactory. My final takeaway is that Metal Gear Solid 2 is a profound video game experience and a profound story. Maybe not a āpostmodernā story, but very much still a story worthy of being remembered, shared, and learned from.
And as for you, I only have one final piece of advice.
Take count of your emotions. Treasure them. They are yours.
