Tomokazu Fukushima’s role in Metal Gear Solid 1 & 2
Tomokazu Fukushima/福島智和 was the co-writer for the original Metal Gear Solid, as well as Metal Gear Solid 2:Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, helping Hideo Kojima write the scenarios for each title. He also wrote the script for Metal Gear: Ghost Babel (as covered in previously translated interviews posted in this blog) and the Snake Tales that were added in Metal Gear Solid 2: Substance, as well as assisted in the writing for the Metal Gear Acid series. He would leave Konami during the development of Metal Gear Solid 4 (being last credited in the TGS 2005 trailer) before being employed by SIE Japan Studio, where his name can be seen in titles such as rain, Soul Sacrifice, Everybody’s Golf, Freedom Wars and The Tomorrow Children.
There has been a bit of speculation and misinformation over Fukushima’s exact role in the writing of the first three numbered MGS titles. Because of this I took the liberty of translating content from two MGS related books with material written by Tomokazu Fukushima himself that shed some light on how Fukushima was involved in at least the first two MGS games. The first is Fukushima’s profile from World of the Metal Gear Solid, published by Sony Magazines in 1998, which covers his involvement in MGS1, when he joined the team and Kojima’s thoughts on the man himself. The second translation is a two-page interview from the 2002 book Metal Gear Solid 2: The Making, also published by Sony Magazines, naturally covering his involvement with MGS2. Both of these books feature extensive information on the development of each title, which I will someday post on my blog, but for now I wanted to focus solely on Fukushima.
World of the Metal Gear Solid
Tomokazu Fukushima (writer, script unit)
“While the system employed by cinema and literature is closed to spectators, video games as a medium employ an open system that assumes interaction from the user. There seems to be a misunderstanding that the two systems can be fused when faced with the illusion of “the realization of narrative”, but since essential differences exists between them, their possible expressions differ and on top of that, their effective crafts are also different. In Metal Gear Solid, we tried to express things that are not only suitable for a video game, but can only be expressed in a video game. For example, when talking to Master Miller or Nastasha Romanenko, it seems that their vast amount of knowledge of survival techniques and nukes respectively don’t contribute much to the game at a first glance. But in reality each element behaves in an emergent manner as they are calculated and created in a matter that contributes to Metal Gear Solid as a whole work.”
Joined the Kojima Group on May 1997
Became part of the Metal Gear Solid team on July 1997
Joined at the last minute to write the [Japanese] voiceover script.
Kojima on Fukushima: “After the plot was decided, I had Fukushima helped me out on writing the script for the voiceovers. The harsher terms in the script, such as 父殺し/chichikoroshi (patricide) and 怯懦と蛮勇/kyōda to ban’yū (bravery and cowardice) were his contributions.
Metal Gear Solid 2: The Making
How was the procedure of writing a script with Mr. Kojima?
“I actually took part in Metal Gear Solid 2 after Ghost Babel ended development, which I wrote the script for. By that point Mr. Kojima had already written a rough draft of the scriptment [Note:A term coined by James Cameron as a portmanteau of “script” and “treatment”. In Kojima’s case, a scriptment is an overly detailed game design document that covers all sorts of aspects such as plot outline, game features, level designs, specifications, ect. Every game directed by Kojima since MGS1 has had a scriptment written for it.]. From there on we started transferring files to a PC based on that scriptment. We would correct each other by writing amendments directly into the scriptment using differently colored texts and writing down the reason for the change. We made around 20 or so revisions.”
How was the work divided between you two?
“While there were some parts that were edited by the both of us, but if I’ll be bold to say it, all the real-time cutscenes were written primarily by Mr. Kojima, as well as all the mandatory CODEC calls. I was assigned to writing all the optional CODEC. We ended up creating around 2,500 files.”
Were there any scenes that were particularly troublesome?
“The CODEC call with the Colonel and Rosemary at the end. We only had around two months to finish the script for the Plant chapter. There were many important scenes in the Plant chapter ,especially during the latter half, so we didn’t have enough time to work on the CODEC calls. We even wrote the CODEC calls when the Colonel starts glitching out in a single draft, wondering whether our work was good. Perhaps there were lines of dialogue that didn’t exactly convince Mr. Kojima.” (laughs)
Rosemary’s lines were quite peculiar.
“We imagined her as something of an independent American office lady in her 20’s, so we tried using movies and such for reference… It was pretty difficult… (laughs)”
What were you careful of when incorporating the theme of Metal Gear Solid 2 into the screenplay?
“There isn’t just one theme, but we intended to have the problems that individuals and groups face in today’s information society manifest themselves in various ways. However, a script is just one part of the game during the planning phase. While the dialogue is expressed in a direct matter, we thought about effectively arranging the presence or absence of interactivity in certain parts while calculating its effects.”
Which parts were you particularly fixated on when writing the script?
“It could be the modernity and the excess. For example I believe Metal Gear Solid 2 has both, real excess and imagined excess. Real excess would be things that are quantifiable like long CODEC conversations or long cutscenes involving each characters. Imagined excess would be excess of information of things such as anything involving the Patriots. If you pay attention closely, you will know that Metal Gear Solid 2 has an extreme balance between the acquisition and lost of excessive information. Naturally we were aiming for such results.”
“The character have an excessive expression, as well as a narrative aspect where they all betray each other. We put it there while calculating the effects it has on the player, although an interpretation is needed there. It is something that is difficulty to portray, but we wanted to show the possibility that it could be achieved on a major title.”
Do you have any favorite lines in the parts that you in particular (Fukushima) worked on?
"I like Otacon’s proverbs. They provided a relief during tension… They’re so ridiculous, but fun… (laughs) Since he’s an independent character, I was free to write him like I want.”
World of the Metal Gear Solid/メタルギア ソリッド シナリオ・ 設定完全資料集 (ISBN 978-4789791854)
Metal Gear Solid 2: The Making/メタルギア ソリッド2 ザ・メイキング (ISBN 978-4789718431)
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