Is Hideo Kojima the most overrated video game storyteller out there?

[Dante9]

JuliusHackebeil said:

Kyuu said:

I think he's a great and innovative designer and a good director. But his writing is inconsistent and for the most part convoluted (a common problem with Japanese writers) and pretentious. I adored MGS1 as a young teenager and I still do, but honestly it's the only MGS that feels authentic, cringe-free, and cinematically revolutionary in my opinion.

My first game that involved Kojima is Penguin Adventure on MSX, which remains my favorite game of its era. He's also responsible for Zone of the Enders (the 2nd Runner was one hell of a game), so I very much appreciate his contributions even outside Metal Gear.

You mentioned that it is a common problem with japanese writers to come up with convoluted stories. There must be some truth to this at least in video games. I tend to enjoy stories from japan way less. Does not mean that there are no japanese games with good stories. But there are hardly any with good and simple stories. Everything is always a bit of a mess. I wonder it this has something to do with translation, or with some cultural difference in perception and taste. (Again, not saying that is the case with literaly every japanese game. The storys of ICO and Shadow of the Colossus are just great. But they are also not the rule in how japanese games even tell stories.)

Very much this. Japanese stories in games tend to be so high concept that they are hard to relate to on any meaningful level. Metaphysics to quantum physics to legends and myths and obscure philosophical and psychological takes on things, all things come together in a perfect storm of what the fuck. Kojima also drifts toward this. They just don't know how to tell a simple story.