The human world is designed in such a way that when a certain phenomenon becomes popular, it has many critics. This is an absolutely natural process: every action has its own reaction, the world needs balance, and any adoration must be regulated by a certain amount of hate, otherwise the object of love will not have a reason to become better. The more views a video has, the more likes and dislikes it has, even if we are talking about clearly good works. In cinema, a wonderful example is the films of Christopher Nolan: they are well appreciated by both critics and audiences, they rightly collect a large box office, but as soon as someone began to seriously say “Nolan is a genius,” albeit defending his position with arguments, people appeared who, with the same reasoning, spoke about overvaluation and overhyping. A similar situation occurred with Bioshock Infinite, to which I dedicated a separate article. However, the main phenomenon of controversy in the gaming industry was Hideo Kojima, and not his games, but himself, as a game designer, as a screenwriter and as a media person.
There are two stories in gaming folklore. The first tells about the legendary creator of the great game series, which became the progenitor of an entire genre, about a true visionary, an industry icon. There is another story: about an extravagant false messiah, a fetishist and mediocrity, who created his best creations only thanks to the talent of a true genius who remained forever in the shadows. The hero of both stories is Hideo Kojima. After reports on Russian-language TV, even our parents know about him. Someone played his games and truly loves him. Someone played and saw mediocrity in him. Someone just came across the meme #kojimagenius. God forgive me, when I entered my first year of university, I met two or three people who spammed Instagram* Hideo hashtag #kojimagenius and did not play any of the MGS parts.
In this article I want to try to comprehensively and objectively cover the “Kojima dilemma”. At what point did MGS go downhill (and did it go down at all)? Who is Tomokazu Fukushima and why is he considered a behind-the-scenes genius?? In search of answers, I went through almost all of Hideo’s games, surfed Russian and foreign forums, read a lot of analytical articles, and now I’m ready to present the results to you for judgment.
The tragedy of Metal Gear Solid
Ironic: I am starting to write this text on the day when news appeared on the Internet about the possible sobering up of Konami, allegedly crawling out of the hole of pachinko machines. New projects in the Silent Hill series, one of which Kojima Productions may be responsible for, the remake of Snake Eater is some kind of miracle! But for the last six years, all that I have associated with my favorite franchise is emptiness, nostalgia and the notorious “phantom pain”. Almost seven years have passed since the release of the last major part of the series – the fifth – and the franchise has not withstood such a pause since the 90s. For now, let’s briefly outline the life of Metal Gear Solid.
In 1987, the experimental game Metal Gear was released by a young game designer and his modest team. Contrary to legend, it was not the first game in the stealth-action genre, but it did for it the same thing that Resident Evil would later do for the survival-horror genre. It was an interesting adventure, entertaining the player with a variety of game situations in which it was necessary to use ingenuity or gadgets lying around in the inventory. Plus, Metal Gear had a pretty strong plot. Without revelations, of course, but a stylish nod to the then-current action classics of the 80s, to which is added an unexpected twist in the ending, still retains, if not entertaining, then charm.
In 1990, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake was released, pushing the concept of the first game as far as a two-dimensional dimension would allow. The ability to crawl, several levels of enemy alarm, even more interesting situations – and all this with better graphics and a greatly increased drama and detail in the plot.
Eight years later, the series is reborn on the first PlayStation in the form of a reboot-sequel of Metal Gear Solid, which became a hit and one of the main gaming masterpieces of the 90s. The mechanics of Metal Gear 2, transferred to the three-dimensional dimension, began to play in a completely new way, while being twice as deep. The main laurels went to the plot, this time becoming larger-scale and at the same time down-to-earth, and, of course, to the cinematic production, which made cutscenes with low-poly models without facial animation look stylish and exciting.
Already on the next generation of PlayStation MGS reaches its apogee – Sons of Liberty 2001. The frantic technological upgrade of the mechanics and pictures of the first part was accompanied by probably the most profound and complex scenario in the gaming industry. Here I will immediately slap a kind of disclaimer and draw attention to the fact that this is my favorite game and I may not be objective. One way or another, the sequel became the most powerful gaming statement of at least its time. At the same time, the visionary nature of MGS 2 alienated audiences with simpler and more obvious needs from the game. The feints with Raiden as the main character and a series of revelations at the end that turned everything inside out for some became signs of the courage and extraordinary talent of the development team, but for others they caused embarrassment and denial.
10 years later, the final dialogue of Sons of Liberty will be called "the most profound moment in gaming history".
As a result, in 2004, Snake Eater was born – the “alternative” best part of the series. Without making a technological breakthrough, it nevertheless sharpens the mechanics of MGS 2, adding entertaining survival gameplay. In addition, MGS 3 is remembered by many for its more trivial, but still interesting and in some sense touching story of the formation of the main villain of the previous parts. Something, but Kojima did a better job of showing the origin of the antagonist than Lucas (no hate for the Star Wars sequels, I’m only talking about the metamorphosis of the hero into a villain).
In 2008, the long-awaited ending to the story of Solid Snake, Big Boss, the Patriots and everyone else comes. The outcome was ambiguous. Metal Gear Solid 4, with its fiction, delighted fans with tons of fan service and mentions of almost all the heroes of the franchise who had survived by that time, but at the same time disappointed many with its plot. Too many reinventions, too many pianos in the bushes, too many nanomachines. I wouldn’t say that the game is generally considered bad, but there are questions… there are questions.
Two years later, the much ignored spin-off Peace Walker, the sequel to Snake Eater, comes out on the PSP (Portable Ops has been completely kicked out of the canon, so despite my warm feelings, let’s talk about it another time). The game does not say anything new within the franchise (which does not prevent it from being cool, in fact), however, ironically, it is in it that the foundation for the future fifth part is laid, both plot-wise and structurally.
And then the tragedy begins. The incredibly ambitious MGSV falls victim to the conflict between Kojima and his home company Konami. In 2015, the game comes out unfinished, hastily put together from what they managed to do. The result was the most controversial and alienating part of the already dying series. Kojima leaves Konami for Sony, where he begins to shock with his new opus – Death Stranding. At the same time, a real nuclear mushroom of hype for the very personality of the game designer rises on the bones of MGS. The scandalous divorce from Konami and the squabbles surrounding Phantom Pain split the community into fanatics screaming heart-rendingly about Hideo’s genius, pseudo-intellectuals criticizing Kojima’s work left and right and… and the meme got out of control, as I wrote about above. Now even my mother knows about Hideo Kojima, because she saw him at Urgant, and my grandmother, because she saw him on NTV.
Among people who did play the games themselves, a theory began to spread, originating with the release of Guns of the Patriots, that Hideo’s scripts themselves were rather mediocre, and that the author of the best parts of MGS was a screenwriter who remained in the shadows named Tomokazu Fukushima.
Tomokazu Fukushima
Who is Tomokazu Fukushima? First of all, this is a person about whom it is very difficult to find information. In the credits of the first three MGS parts, he is listed as a co-writer and the person responsible for the codec dialogue, which takes on a significant part of the narrative. If we delve deeper into the interviews and materials about the creation of games, we can conclude that Fukushima was responsible for editing and proofreading the script written by Kojima, as well as working out the setting of the game, its interaction with the real world.
And this, it seems to me, has always been a strong feature of MGS. Hideo himself defined the genre of his brainchild as political-fiction, a fantastic story, which, nevertheless, can, with some conventions, fit into the realities of our world. Remember the background that the first Metal Gear Solid gives when introducing its characters. Nastasha Romanenko was exposed to radiation in the Chernobyl disaster, which is why she became interested in nuclear energy. Liquid Snake survived the Gulf War. Revolver Ocelot was once engaged in torturing people in the basements of the Lubyanka. Hal Emmerich’s grandfather was involved in the Manhattan Project. Sniper Wolfe comes from conflict-ridden Kurdistan. Deep Throat took his pseudonym from the Watergate scandal. All this context, which added an insane level of immersion and sophistication to the game, lies on the shoulders of Fukushima.
Sometimes just one sentence of https://captaincookscasinoonline.uk/games/ codec dialogue is enough to give a character some prominence.
Sometimes just one sentence of codec dialogue is enough to give a character some prominence.
Sometimes just one sentence of codec dialogue is enough to give a character some prominence.
Sometimes just one sentence of codec dialogue is enough to give a character some prominence.
Sometimes just one sentence of codec dialogue is enough to give a character some prominence.
Sometimes just one sentence of codec dialogue is enough to give a character some prominence.
In the second part, the integration of the Metal Gear universe into the real world has reached a new level. In general, Sons of Liberty is a rather wise statement about America as a geopolitical force and a symbol of freedom. The game’s fixation on the American question is already visible at a superficial level, and I remind you that all the action takes place near New York and ends at the foot of Federal Hall on April 30, the day when George Washington was inaugurated in this building, and the game’s credits end with a demonstration of the logo against the backdrop of the Statue of Liberty. On a deeper level we have the concept of the Patriots and the GW system calling the White House its primary soup. And all these connections to real history and real issues made something more out of a simple spy action movie.
What arguments are there that Fukushima is responsible for all this “more”?? Well, firstly, with his departure, the depth of elaboration of the setting and problems began to disappear. Philosophers and the Patriots who grew up from them in the second and third parts were interpreted as a faceless, formidable force that grew up in a bureaucratic environment. The Sons of Liberty pitch document stated:
"The evil in MGS2 is the American government. However, we are not talking about Americans as a whole or about any specific individuals, but about the corruption that has progressed in a democratic state over the years. The intention of the script is not to denigrate any race, state or ethnic group, but rather to take a look at the "monster" that the country’s political structure has created. It is an intangible entity and at the same time a huge threat to the world."
That is, it was not about the evil Illuminati, as in Deus Ex, for example, but about a naturally formed system of hypocrisy, where power still trumps democracy. Such speculation may sound crazy, but such discourse took place in American society back in the 80s. Journalist Bill Moyers talked about the concept of the “Secret Government” in the context of the then conflicts in Iran.
What happened in part 4, where Fukushima was not there?? The Patriots have turned into a secret community of shadow rulers of the earth, led by the power-hungry Major Zero, who in the third part only served as a consultant and commander to Big Boss. And then he became a puppeteer with megalomaniacal habits. From a beautiful political metaphor came the next Freemasons. The point is not only in simplifying the ideological component of the game – the point is that such a substitution of concepts transforms the problems of the entire series. Outer Heaven, Big Boss’s rebel organization, was initially positioned as a challenge to American military-political values, and indeed to the whole world, be it the Western or Eastern bloc. With the release of Guns of the Patriots, everything turned into a personal vendetta.
Sometimes secrets are better left secrets..
Sometimes secrets are better left secrets..
In the context of the fourth part, I’ll draw attention to the neutered codec – during the passage, not only was it almost not needed, but also the conversations themselves became dry and purely informative. But once upon a time it was the long, theatrically staged dialogues that were remembered by the players and became a symbol of the series. Fukushima left, so did the dialogues. In the fifth part there is no codec at all, although I like the concept of audio cassettes in my own way.
Where did I get the idea that Fukushima was responsible for the above-described splendor? Since we have an example of his solo work: Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel – a spin-off of the series, written by Fukushima and received the highest ratings, not least for its deep script. There is chatter about the codec, and basing the story on the interaction of the United States with the so-called Third World. But we are talking about the game Gameboy Color!
Kojima VS Fukushima
Everything that I described above is not my speculation, these observations are already ten years old, and they are actively discussed in the fan community. Many believe that Fukushima deserves the title of the genius behind MGS, and that Kojima is worthless without him. Do I think so? Short answer: no. Long: I’ll explain now. First, about Hideo himself. I see him as an incredibly talented visionary and a person with taste. He created the cult Snatcher and Policenauts in narrower circles without the participation of Fukushima, and this is already an argument in favor of his self-sufficiency.
In these times of nostalgia for ’90s anime aesthetics, Snatcher and Policenauts deserve a full-fledged rebirth.
In these times of nostalgia for ’90s anime aesthetics, Snatcher and Policenauts deserve a full-fledged rebirth.
Firstly, Kojima directs the gameplay amazingly, creates the most interesting game situations in which he takes the player out of his comfort zone over and over again. Directing gameplay is the prerogative of linear games, but in Ground Zeroes Hideo demonstrates his potential for creating interesting situations in even the open world (we are talking about finding Paz on an audio tape). A potential he never developed in The Phantom Pain.
Secondly, Kojima has his own strong creative vision, a certain vector along which he moves, and which sets his work apart from the rest of the gaming industry. Torn between his love of cinema and video games, he constantly fuses the two media formats. Even if he is fond of cutscenes, he will definitely make sure that the player can zoom the image during this cutscene, switch to first-person view or trigger flashbacks.
In the same way during dialogues on the codec. Yes, even the start screen of the second and third parts has been turned into interactive installations that you can play with even before pressing the START button. Hideo absolutely loves movies, but at the same time his great idea is not to give the player a reason to let go of the gamepad. And I respect that.
Almost any button (except START) pressed during the Snake Eater cutscene triggers some action.
However, Kojima has one more trait, or rather, a hemisphere of the brain – let’s call it the “anime zone”. No matter how visionary Hideo is, he is still a Japanese otaku, passionate about fan service and popular culture. He laughs at it himself, but obviously he can’t help himself.
Well, that is, you can play a harsh dramatic game, but the characters will piss themselves every now and then, and in each of the parts, there are fighting robots everywhere that growl for some reason, anime superpowers and, of course, the most viabush female characters. Let’s look at a specific situation. You have just killed a woman whose soul was disfigured by the genocide she experienced, and now in a battle with you she gets rid of her trauma, after which, with her death groans, she crawls towards you on all fours like an online model, and the camera zooms in on her juicy bottom, covered in a combat suit.
And it’s not that it infuriates me, it rather amuses me, and I love beautiful female characters, but in the first two parts, deep character development was added to all this splendor. Meryl, Sniper Wolf and Fortuna were memorable not for their sexualized appearance (well, not only, at least), but for the emotional moments associated with them. Simplification of the images of female characters, by the way, is also considered a symptom of Fukushima’s departure.
The problem is that you may hate all this fetish-laced teen madness, but it’s just as much the meat of the franchise as the codec dialogue. The MGS trilogy was great not because of Fukushima’s presence, but because of his interaction with Kojima. I see here the classic duet of the creator of the insane and the creator of the rational. Balance is important in such a couple, only their cooperation creates something great. You know, it’s like the first season of Twin Peaks: there was David Lynch developing his crazy artistic vision, and there was Mark Frost taking care of the development of the universe of the series and the relationships of its characters. Together they created a masterpiece. Then there was a second season, without Lynch, and this season was boring and drawn-out. And 25 years later, the third season came out, without Frost, and I perceive it more as another attraction “a journey through the head of Grandpa Lynch”, and not as a continuation of the series. I have a suspicion that at Naughty Dog, Bruce Straley was a rational creator, holding back the Oscar-winning spasms of Neil Druckman. Straley left – the balance was upset, TLOU 2 became more of a scandal than a game. Now, I hope you understand my horror at the departure of one of the Housers from Rockstar.
I may have gone too far with the pathos on Aristotle and Plato, but they still perfectly reflect this conflict.
I may have gone too far with the pathos on Aristotle and Plato, but they still perfectly reflect this conflict.
I may have gone too far with the pathos on Aristotle and Plato, but they still perfectly reflect this conflict.
I think now my thought is simple – Kojima and Fukushima were wonderful in their duet, although the first was, after all, a guiding force, and the second was more of a course corrector. The difference in their approaches is perfectly evidenced by their quotes in the additional materials Sons of Liberty. Tomokazu utters very wise words and makes it clear what idea he is working for, and Hideo… jokes wittily.
“In a world where we are content with simple, assembly-line developments, I want to show an alternative path of development. I hope that everyone will love this game in their own way.".
With MGS 3, Kojima got a new co-author – Shuyo Murata, and Murata, it seems to me, upset the balance, because he is also with the “anime hemisphere”. Just compare: there are several articles in the MGS 2 backstory that the player can read. There is an article by Nastasha Romanenko describing the events of the first game with the introduction of new characters and connecting the events on Shadow Moses to the plot of the sequel. It was written by Fukushima. And there is a story of a journalist who decided to conduct his own investigation and swam to Shadow Moses, hiding IN THE CORPSE OF A TUNA. It was written by Murata.
Conclusion
What did I want to say to everyone with this?? As with Infinite, I encourage you to never take sides and look at any situation with common sense and objectivity. Tomokazu Fukushima is a most talented person who created at least a third of what I love about MGS. But he himself says that when working on the series, he primarily followed Hideo. He is one of the great team that once helped Kojima bring his crazy but brilliant ideas to life. And this team includes Yoji Shinkawa, Motosada Mori, Noriko Hibino, Harry Gregson Williams, Hideki Sasaki and many others. This is a close-knit dream team, inspired by a single idea. Kojima would not have been able to do anything without her, but it was he who gave them that very idea. And that’s why he must really be a genius.
In this video (article) I wanted to insert a story about Death Stranding, but this topic deserves a separate discussion. And on MGS I still have just a bunch of thoughts and notes. In conclusion, I want to say that we should appreciate people like Hideo Kojima, especially in the realities of the modern gaming industry. He is a remnant of the early 2000s, a time when games were made by strong, talented visionaries. Hideo’s game is not necessarily a masterpiece or the best in some way. You just won’t find other games like this anywhere else.
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