There's exactly one month left for the release of the last chapter in the Kojima helmed Metal Gear Solid series, so I decided to make a little thread where fans of the series can gosh about it in the remaining time.
As you probably know the game comes out on September 1st on all consoles (September 2nd) in Japan, and will be releasing a couple of weeks later, on September 15th on PC.
Some "rules" for discussion:
-For all inents and purposes this is A Hideo Kojima Game.
-Let's leave the Kojima-Konami drama out of here, that discussion brings the worst out of some people, so lts just focus on the games.
-Use spoiler tags, MGSV will be the first of the series for many, so let's not ruin the fun of older games for them.
-Don't be too grumpy!
THE ROAD TO THE PHANTOM PAIN
次の企画はある種のタブーに挑むことになる。間違えれば業界を去ることになるかもしれない。でも其処は避けては通りたくはない。今年で47歳になる。ゲームを創りはじめて24年にもなる。今日はそのリスクに喜んで賛同してくれる仲間を一人掴んだ。まだたったの一人だけれど。滑り出しとしてはいい。
— 小島秀夫 (@Kojima_Hideo) April 12, 2010
That tweet reads "The next project will challenge a certain type of taboo. If I mess up, I'll probably have to leave the industry. However, I don't want to pass by avoiding that. I turn 47 this year. It's been 24 years since I started making games. Today, I got an ally who would happily support me in that risk. Although it's just one person. For a start, it's good."
A very cryptic statement at the time, I spectulate that that was the very first teaser to the upcoming game, especially considering what we have learned about the game so far, however it wasn't until nearly two years later when more news emerged.
On December 2011, Kojima revealed "Project Ogre" which he described to be a very open world type game, where players can wander around and explore freely, it was also the first Konami project confirmed to be running on the Fox Engine, which was unveiled a few months later on E3 2011.
On August 2012, about 8 months later, during the Metal Gear 25th Anniversary event, Konami unveiled Metal Gear Solid: Ground Zeroes to further demonstrate the Fox Engine. Konami called the game "a beggining" and "a prologue" while also being very clear that Ground Zeroes wasn't Metal Gear Solid 5.
A few months later, on December 2012, during the Spike Video Game Awards, the mysterious Moby Dick Studios presented a trailer for their game, titled "The Phantom Pain"
Speculation started immedeatly about how the game being tied to Metal Gear and even being the 5th entry in the Solid series.
On March 2013, Mr. Mogren had an interview with Geoff Keighley in which he said that a new trailer for The Phantom Pain would be released on that years GDC and that it would "answer everyone's questions"
On that GDC to the surprise of not that many, Kojima came on stage an announced that indeed, The Phantom Pain would be Metal Gear Solid 5V, not only that but also that Ground Zeroes would serve as prologue to the game with the stories of both games making up Metal Gear Solid V
About a year later, during E3 2013, to an actual surprise, it was announced that Keifer Sutherland would be replacing long time voice actor of Snake, David Hayter, Kojima also revelaed that "race" and "revenge" would be central themes of The Phantom Pain.
While confirming that Project Ogre and MGSV: The Phatom Pain, Konami also showed this amazing trailer.
Attention shifted back to Ground Zeroes as was the game closes to release with an extended demo shown at that year's Tokyo Game Show
It was also announced that that game would be release on the following March for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 and the then newly announced PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. A PC version would ship on December of that very same year.
The Phantom Pain would return to the spotlight on E3 2014 with another extended presentation on Konami's pre E3 show, however the best part would come later on the show during Sony's press briefing with yet another amazing trailer
As well as a lenghty presentation showing the mechanics from the game.
On that year' Gamescom it was also announced that the game would be released on PC (as well as Ground Zeroes), further game features were also shown such as the multiplayer.
Later that year, at the Tokyo Game Show the game was also announced as a 2015 release, as well as, you guessed it, more game features, this time it was showed how the game would work with an AI controlled partner with a couple of new trailers.
Later that year, during The Game Awards, the first trailer for the main multiplayer mode of the game, Metal Gear Online, was shown.
The game would return again during E3 2015 with yet another amazing trailer, during the event there were also several gameplay demonstrations.
That's the road for The Phantom Pain so far with a final stop on Gamescom in a few days, it'll also be the first time the game will be playable to the public before its release.
SNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAKE!
