A year and a day and I finally completed The Phantom Pain 100% for the platinum. I've had my highs and lows with the game. Completed the main game proper 3 and a half weeks and have taken it to FOB4 but beyond the completion aspect and listening to the remaining tapes,. I think I can put this to bed and tackle MGS2-3 once more. One of the few reasons to keep a PS3 around for me, personally.
It's been quite the ride. I remember the hype, the reveal, slowly getting back on board with the series after sitting out the PS3 and hence, MGS4. Impulsively buying Ground Zeroes the night of release and realizing after several vanilla playthroughs how much variety there was to approaching a mission. The E3 trailers and insaaaaane theories. Locking myself in and replaying Metal Gear Solid 1, 2, 3, 4, and Peace walker leading into V.
And while everyone criticized chapter 2 and the story, (with reason) I like that the game fleshed out Miller who was just a ruse in Metal Gear Solid 1. His design and unhinged quality as the story went on added something to it, even if things just go sideways. Wasn't he hinted at as being infected? Wasn't there an entire thing where his and Venom's eye color changes? And Codetalker warns Venom about him? Bizarre.
I'm not sure if it was such a good choice to make every single cutscene a single "take". IT works really well in Ground Zeroes as a kick off to the proceedings but a lot of it feels less cinematic than functional, which is a crying shame in this series. Also the credits every mission, I'm assuming that was a way of the game loading the map. I makes the game feel less like a movie which is a staple of the series and more like a TV episode with lesser stakes like a viscount or truck filled with Uranium.
It's so sad that Kojima laid out all the ingredients to make a METAL GEAR remake where Venom's outer heaven is the virtuous mission to Zanzibar's main event. No. pachinko and a superfluous game about zombies, What was
that meeting like?
J.J. Abrams had a famous TED talk about the mystery box approach to marketing - which I never really liked - but Kojima fully has that kind of presentation down pat. Every trailer just unlocks peoples crazy impulses for theorizing and it should make the wait for DEATH STRANDING amusingly crazy. I did a huge double-take when that Mads Mikkelson popped up on my newsfeed. Like of course people would use his shirt to piece that together.
Calling it a night but I'd like to share the spotify playlist I made since it added so much to the experience over the year. There's something so satisfying about CQC-ing the skulls to Mr. Roboto.
Metal Gear Solid V: This is Morpho
https://open.spotify.com/user/darth_chocula/playlist/2qvjGTpwwBoSttVfiysifk
01. Lindsey Buckingham - Trouble
02. Van Halen - Jump - Remastered Version
03. Nick Lowe - Cruel To Be Kind
04. Rocky Burnette - Tired of Toein' the Line
05. Bruce Springsteen - Dancing In the Dark
06. Billy Idol - Eyes Without A Face - 1999 - Remaster
07. The Clash - Train in Vain - Remastered
08. Robert Palmer - Johnny And Mary
09. John Carpenter - Main Title
10. Alphaville - Big In Japan - Best Of-Version
11. Dario Russo - Face Your Fears (Face Russia!)
12. Styx - Mr. Roboto
13. The Motels - Only The Lonely - Digitally Remastered 99
14. Missing Persons - Words - 2002 Digital Remaster
15. Fleetwood Mac - Gypsy
16. Nena - Hangin' On You
17. Neil Young - Sample And Hold
18. Raf - Self Control
19. The Tourists - I Only Want to Be With You
20. Chris Spedding - Video Life
21. Earth, Wind & Fire - Let's Groove
22. Al Stewart - Year Of The Cat
23. Chris Spedding - Counterfeit - Remastered
24. The The - Soul Mining
25. Cocteau Twins - Blood Bitch
here's hoping Survive is fun (and interesting) though
